Lesserton Pub Crawl

AngieR6P10
Originally uploaded by ntcrwler

Lesserton's much seedier than is represented in the picture at right, but that's kind of the idea.

Strothbogie and Brigitta have lost their spell books. They were stolen. Strothbogie has a couple contacts with some possible leads. First, another young magician, an associate at the Platonic Order says he heard that someone, an elf, had come by trying to sell two books to the order, and had sold one for 300 gold pieces. And his friend Rusty at the Vanhalla, who had helped him in the past, promised to be on the lookout for the books. Come to think of it, he didn’t really have much information, but just questions. How much would a book like that be worth? Those things aren’t like cursed are they?

I don’t know if Strothbogie will find his books, but he enjoyed having money to spend looking for them.

look again

Although the term “role-playing game” works well enough, players’ contributions in a good D&D game are not limited to playing the role of a particular character. They shape the plot, and, to varying degrees create the plot, choosing which objectives to pursue, or at least how. Relative to the referee, players’ contribution to setting is small, but it shouldn’t be non-existent.
For example, in the more recent Lesserton & Mor game, the party met a new PC named Isden. Because we met each other inside the ruins of Mor, it was a little awkward at first, with Isdn trying to hide in the shadows and Strothbogie poking him with a stick to see if he was real. So when the rats attacked, the rest of the party took refuge in the illusionary fire, and Isden fended for himself.
According to the referee, Isden was in a “ruined building.” Isden looked more closely and suggested that : (1) the roof might be intact (2) that there were holes in the roof that would allow access to someone inside and (3) that there would be some wooden support beams that he could use to climb up. I don’t know whether the referee rolled some dice or had to think about how these three ideas meshed with his own impressions of the setting. But it worked out ok for Isden and he got away from the rats. His player didn’t really create or change the setting, he just suggested details that seemed to fit with what he already knew.

Overgrown fountain
Originally uploaded by JMSphoto

Later, we returned to the task of cleaning the sacred fountain. The problem wasn’t stirges anymore; it was the plants growing in it that tried to strangle people. And again, we looked more closely at those ruined buildings. Was there a beam that could be removed safely, set on fire, and be thrust into the tangle of weeds? Yes. It didn’t work exactly according to our plan, but again players and referee collaborated over details that wouldn’t have seemed important to the referee while working alone.

Stirges and a Rust Monster

We made our way across the weed- and rubble-choked moat into Mor, and followed the remnants of the old wall to a ruined tower. From there, we headed south, following the traces of what was once a great avenue leading to the palace. The fountain that I (Strothbogie) had promised to cleanse was overgrown with so many pointy- and twisty- vines and weedes and with them those pointy- and twisty- birds that feast on the blood of men called STIRGES.

stirge
Originally uploaded by RoVaHeiSm

Three of them hunted us and we killed them. But not wanting to confront the entire flock, we withdrew, hoping to make the acquaintance of other good folk eager to join us in combat against a common enemy or, failing, that, a fat goat for the STIRGES to drain in our stead.

We encounter neither goat nor human friend, but a specimem of those creatures seemingly born in the minds of lunatics and those cunning merchants eager to supply such lunatics with a parade of implausible realities, this one shaped like a tortoise but with legs like a hairless dog, horrible long-toed feet, a forked tail, two equisitely feathry and tickly antennae, and a constant appetite for metal-- to whit-- a RUST MONSTER.

Rust Monster
Originally uploaded by Jack of Nothing

Realizing that despite its fearsome appearence, the beast bore no significant threat to those who do not encapsulate themselves in steel, we negotiated-- in the crude way the beast could understand-- to whit-- the clanking of coins and daggers-- that should the RUST MONSTER follow us to the nest of the STIRGES, it might enjoy those same coins and daggers that so enticed it with their clanking.

The RUST MONSTER drew off a number of the STIRGES, and we-- to whit Strothbogie, Thakko, Briggitta, and Robo-- killed the remainder.

And this is how, I, Strothbogie, was able to taste for the first time the sacred water of that holy fountain.

Less, More, and versatility of D&D

Not only did we find a buyer in the town of Lesserton for the honey, but we earned a nice sum of money and invested all of it a little barrel of lamp oil, which the Orkin tribes of Mor call “firestarter.” And pay very well for. We returned to the beekeepers in the ruins of Mor and traded the barrel for a couple fat wineskins, plus a few doses for Strothbogie to consume. The keepers gave us a word, “snickers” and insinuated that they were most used to dealing with a different, larger, meaner group of honey-traders.

bee
Originally uploaded by Brayo

And so, when we returned to Mor, we had to be cautious about how we sold it. With all of our wealth more viscous than liquid, we slept a couple nights in a barn and ate trail rations before Strothbogie’s friend Rusty could find us a wholesale buyer. Strothbogie’s hankering for the stuff further complicated our efforts—he continued to take the odd dose once a day or so, even relying on magic to deceive his associates. And he bungled the sale, selling off the entire stock, rather than saving a portion to use in brewing or baking.

But this mistake might have saved his life. When he went into withdrawal, there was no honey left for him to consume, and so Brigitta took him to the Temple of the Divine Purpose. His friends worked out a deal with the Priests—heal our friend and we’ll perform a quest for you. Strothbogie rather enjoyed the ritual of purification and is eager to return to Mor in search of the fountain of holy water, hoping to repeat the experience.

Playing in this campaign confirms my opinions about D&D’s versatility. The atmosphere is rather different from that of the standard D&D setting. But these differences are supported by only the slightest tweaks to the rules. The same classes are there and they work in the same familiar way. One of the members of the party, Thakko, is an Orkin, which explains his long pointed ears and low charisma, but his special abilities are of the sort normally granted to demi-humans. Starting the game with very little money is a great innovation—one that I’ve experimented with a little in the past and now embrace whole-heartedly. It makes finding, for instance, a cache of normal weapons really exciting. What I like best is how this might develop in the future. If the players/characters get tired of their current post-apocalyptic setting, there’s no need to switch to a different game or even a different campaign. There’s a road leading south that I can only guess leads to somewhere like Greyhawke or the Grand Duchy of Karmeikos. The fact that we’d be arriving in those places with “baggage” from Lesserton and Mor only adds to the interest.

Lesserton & Mor

that bee on a flower
Originally uploaded by Brayo

Joined another new campaign as player, this time with a magic-user named Strothbogie. The character-creation process was fun as we all had very limited starting gold; we contributed to the seediness of an already pretty despicable little town in order to get more. Maybe just to be able to buy a few flasks of oil, that’s how poor we were. But these turned out to be very useful.
Soon after arriving in the ruins of a long-destroyed city of former importance, we met one of its residents, who with the help of some magic, welcomed Strothbogie and guided him to the clan of the bee-keepers. The honey of these bees has unusual effects on those who ingest it. Strothbogie hoped to sample these effects, while his companions hoped to profit by taking some honey and selling it to others back in town. We traded some oil and other goods for a few doses of honey and Strothbogie succeeded in accomplishing his plan. The others have taken several important steps; we successfully brought honey back to town, and are now trying to figure out how to sell it. (It’s illegal.)