A little bit of background - about 10 minutes before midnight on Dec. 31, 2014, a friend of mine sent me a text reading "Do you have any interest in Dungeons and Dragons? Thought I'd try to get the nerdiest question of the year in right under the line." I told her I'd never played, but I was interested. So she introduced me to her group, I created my first character (a bard named Duncan) and they've been patiently teaching my how to play. Being a bard, I thought it was only natural that I start keeping the weekly log for our adventures!
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Dungeons and Dragons Week 1
Shavalant Comes Under Attack
Taken from the local Shavalant newspaper
It was a bad news for the town of Shavalant when the monthly
fair day was interrupted by a well-coordinated bandit attack, ending in looting
and several deaths.
The day started out normally enough – the fair was in full
swing outside the city gates. Wandering performers Snap and Duncan wowed
audiences with their performance, taking in three gold for the day, though
Duncan soon found the people of Shavalant are slightly unwilling to open up to
outsiders. Despite trying to strike up conversations, all he could find out
was the basics of the city – it’s a fishing village whose primary import is
salt and export is, amazingly, fish. A quarter of the population work at the
fish house, and there is no large scale agriculture. The town has a problem
with knolls.
The most intriguing piece of news Duncan got was that there
is a new resident in Shavalant – Q, a living tin-man who opened a new smithy.
It was around mid-day when the attack began, with archers
hidden in the forest began shooting at civilians, hitting one of the archers
protecting the wall of the city. Ten bandits then revealed themselves and began
threatening the townsfolk and merchants at the fair. A group of six brave
individuals - Steve, Henrietta, Dag, Jesepi, Snap and Duncan – helped stop the
attack.
Steve, Henrietta and Dag were the most successful in helping
quell the initial threat. Dag alone killed three bandits and saved Duncan in
the process. Duncan had been inefficiently fighting with a bandit using a
rapier. He might have been more effective with a letter opener, because he
certainly couldn't have done worse.
The elderly Snap may have killed a civilian by accident
while shooting at one of the bandits (details are a bit fuzzy and the old man
denies ever being there), but it is known for sure that he cast a web spell in
the middle of the fair, snaring a number of carts and one bandit, just missing
a second and Duncan.
Once the initial threat was stopped, the adventurers and two
guards began making their way to the archers in the trees, five in all. Duncan
cast a spell to send a ghostly-copy of Dag in ahead of everyone else, drawing
some enemy fire before everyone else charged in.
An enemy warblade then joined the fray and proved to be a
challenge, nearly killing Jesepi, who took him on singlehandedly at first.
Steve took on the archers, going down the line of trees and
taking them out one at a time. Henrietta did her fair share, helping to
ultimately defeat the warblade and taking out a couple of the archers herself.
Dag was slightly less successful in taking on the archers –
he jumped into a tree twice to take an archer on face-to-face and was kicked
out of the tree twice. Showing signs of frustration, he began attacking the
tree directly with his battle-axe. Luckily for the tree, which would not have
stood long against Dag’s might, was Steve soon dispatched the archer.
Snap was missing during the early part of the battle with
the archers. Reports say he was liberating the corpses of the bandits of their
ill-gotten loot, obtaining five scrolls in the process. He returned his
attention to the battle long enough to save Jesepi from the warblade by using
Baleful Transportation to switch the warblade and a guard. Through the combined
efforts of Henrietta, Duncan and two brave guards (one of whom was killed, the
other was injured but is still alive), the warblade was knocked unconscious.
Following the battle, Jesepi relieved the still-unconscious
warblade of his weapon. Snap took his purse, which held six gold. Snap chose to
keep the purse but took no gold. Duncan and Jesepi each got two gold and Steve,
Dag and Henrietta all got one gold. Duncan also acquired a crossbow from a
fallen enemy archer, 10 bolts and a boot knife.
The adventurers handed the warblade over to the sheriff and
Jesepi persuaded her that they deserve a reward for their efforts. The sheriff
agreed, and took the group to talk to the mayor, who was in his usual spot
drinking at the inn. He told them that the town has little money, but sent them
to a local shaman, who healed them of their injuries and send them on their
way.
These brave individuals were last seen heading back into the
woods to track down the main bandit camp.
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