# Adventurers in Babysitting



## Wolfspirit (May 15, 2002)

First off, some general notes.  This campaign is taking place entirely online, using IRC for chat and netmeeting for maps.  This can be both good and bad at times (allthough the random number generator getting stuck on 1s sometimes is bad )

Also, here's some campaign info that might make things easier to understand.  The game begins in Fairfield, a small town in the south west of Toren.  Toren isn't in the best shape it's ever been, for over 50 years it and its neighbor and ally fought against the advance of Claw's Legion, a highly skilled and organized army of hobgoblins. An uneasy peace was established after the hobgoblins were eventually brought to a hault, who then persued the profitable venture of hiring out companies of mercenaries.

        After the Legion was stalled, Toren found itself in less than admirable straits. Over half it's land was occupied, and a Mithral mine that had been worked by a colony of dwarfs had been abandoned (no point in being a nice big target if the hobgoblins ever got through). Some attempts to restore the mine were made, but it was impossable to find in the maze of tunnels without a dwarf there to navigate.

        17 years ago, the country suffered a terrible blow when their King Roland and Queen Katerine were assasinated along with their son Galen, just after the country rejoiced at the bright blonde haired and blue eyed boy's first birthday. No one was ever found to be responsible for the assasinations, but there was implications against an ambasador from Blagden that had been staying in the capital, made more damning by the fact that he was never seen again after that night.

        Roland's brother Cassius was crowned king after the deaths, and allthough he wasn't a story book monarch, things went well for a while. However, it seems that things have been slipping, and there are heavy rumours about Toren and Blagden going to war with each other. With the decline in the country's interest in domestic affairs, there has been an increase in bandit activities.

For physical geography, Toren is fairly isolated. To the North is a fluid border with the Hobgoblins, East a river that separates Toren from The Quiet Woods (Reputed to be inhabited by undead) and flows to the ocean, allthough the river itself is also a border for the hobgoblins. To the South, there is the Godspine Mountains, largely impassable. The Godspines also make up Western border, allthough there is a heavily guarded pass that allows travel to the West. Also, it was rumored that the Dwarves in the Mithral Mines had a back door, but noone has been able to confirm this. 

So without further ado, the story...


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## Wolfspirit (May 15, 2002)

*A baby WHAT?*

Month of the Sword, 29-30, 1139

As these things quite often do, it all started in a tavern.

In the town of Fairfield on an evening of brisk buisness , two friends, Josephina the ranger and Marduke the Cleric of Halidon (god of freedom and liberation) met to down a few and discuss curent events. They were soon joined by a Seijitsu, cleric of Lady Law, who was very interested in their talk of bandit activities. (He made it clear that he was assigned by the Knights of Law to restore the lawfull order of the roads.) Soon, the bard Urison sat down at their table, chatted a bit, and actually performed a balad of the hero Jon Seen, to rousing applause. It suited Zietan the vagabond to just listen and wait an exceedingly long time for a drink. 

As they talked, Marduke suddenly stood up, and greeted the Mayor, a balding man with a bushy mustache who was approaching them. The mayor cleared his throat and informed Marduke that he had just recieved word from the Toren Guard. Appearantly they were too busy to be bothered with petty domestic issues like keeping the roads safe (too busy playing tin soldiers and having pissing contests, if you asked him), and wondered if Marduke and his friends could help the town out. Urison raised the point of whether there'd be a reward for the endeavor, and the mayor assured them that he could get 40 gold a person from the treasury if they got it so that trade could make it to town.

Meanwhile, at long last Zietan got his wine, and sighed. At that the mayor spun towards the bar and asked Zietan if he'd like to join the "good crusade for pay". Zietan responded that for an extra ten gold, the mayor had an extra conscript. The mayor chuckled ("conscript, are you a diviner, son?") and said that would work. After shaking Zietan's hand (and making a show of checking to see if he still had all of his possesions), the mayor then left the group to their devices. They decided to meet up in the morning, after purchasing horses for those that didn't have them allready.

And so the collection of like minded invidividuals and some guy who was paid just a bit more left the next day, traveling the road north. After about an hour and a half ride, Zietan spotted a reflection of something off to the side of the road, near the tree line. A brief search revealed a gold coin stamped in the image of the goddes of luck (heh) and some tracks leading of into the woods. The party decided to follow these, and eventually came to a large bush, which concealed a hole and some steps descending underground.

Carefully they proceeded, a pebble with Light cast on it thrown ahead and illuminating the dark tunnel. They came to a halt when Zietan spotted a suspicious looking stone which was unlevel with the rest of the floor. The rest of the party backed up as he pushed it down, to no effect. The group then walked a bit forward to have the ground fall out from the first three in line. Zietan fell into the pit while Jo and Urison managed to spring onto solid ground

(Zi really didn't have any where to go. Zi: "Can't I... I dunno, kick my arms and legs out and brace myself?" Me: "With a 14 reflex save?" Zi: "No, probably not." Jo: "pwned.")

A few seconds later, a man in leather armor came around a tunnel bend and announced that if the group wasn't there looking for recruitment, there was going to be a problem. Jo tried to buy some time and flirt to no avail ("Umm, we were lost?" *pretty smile*), and by this time both of the clerics joined Zietan to try to help him out (Zi had made an impressive 5 failures at trying to jump out of the pit). The man sighed and commented that "your friend is going to hurt himself there" before he pressed something on the wall, and the lid of the pit started closing. A few frantic (unsuccessful) lunges left 3/5 the party trapped in the pit.

After threatening the bandit a bit to open the pit, Jo and Urison began to attack the man, who then fled into a room down the passage. Jo pursued him, as Urison searched the wall for a switch to activate the pit. Unfortunatly, Jo ran right into a trap, and two more bandits opened fire on her. Back at the pit, Urison finnaly finds the button, and begins to help the rest of the group out of the pit (Zietan was thrilled, I'm sure).

Despite being outnumbered, Jo faired exceedingly well, scoring a NASTY blow to one of her ambushers, sending him reeling to the ground and bleeding in one blow. Those freed from the pit began to join her fighting the last two, and the original bandit fled into another room, and slammed the door shut. Soon the last bandit still visible surrendered, and was bound while his friend was stabilized.

The door that the first bandit ran into was locked, which Zietan solved easily, though he set a bell ringing inside. They found a small room that appeared to be a living quarter, with a secret crawlway under a desk. In the crawlway, they found some broken glass near a rough broken part of the wall. The crawlway then led to a storage room that looked recently ransacked, with coins lying on the ground. Urison and Zietan, the two that were investigating this way, solemnly decided that they didn't need to tell anyone about a few extra coins they pocketed for themselves. Along with the coins, they found some minor trade goods, a black leather glove, an oddly shaped rock, and a couple of scrolls. A quick detect magic showed that the glove, rock, and scrolls were magical.

The rest of the party searched the remainder of the lair, finding a small cooking area and another set of living quarters, allthough sadly there was no storage room filled with coin attached to that one. With all hiding places checked, they conclude that the missing bandit must have used a potion to escape in the crawlway (explaining the broken glass there).

Zietan took that time to identify the stone and glove, which turned out to be a Stone of Dwarven Sense (basically, it allows the user to use Find the Path underground after an Intuit Direction check) and a Glove of Storing. Not knowing the command to use the Glove, he then attempted to activate it blindly, and figured that he couldn't use it because there was allready something stored in the Glove. Thinking maybe he was going to get an extra potion or maybe a sword, he snapped his fingers...

To find that he was holding a small baby, which cut off mid-cry to look around wide eyed.

(It was great. I got surround sound "What the" and very articulate "A baby WHAT?" I love my job)

While Zietan waved a lock pick in front of the unexpected guest's face, a couple people noticed that the blanket that the baby was wrapped in was stiched with the crest of the royal family... well, the royal family before the king, queen, and newly born crown prince were assasinated 17 years ago. After a few "Oh, *edited*" moments, the group concludes that SOMEHOW, the crown prince might have been kept in stasis for 17 years, to be held now. Zietan tries to put the baby back into the glove, but fails after several attempts. 

The party then used a blanket stripped from a cot to cover the baby, and Zeitan headed off for town alone with the baby and disguised as a gray haired man. The others knocked out the bandit that surrended (Urison: "Hey, moral people, it's a vision of your god! *thunk*") and headed back to town as well.

We ended there.


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## Rybaer (May 15, 2002)

Hehe.  I like the starting premise you have going here with the infant prince from the past showing up unexpectedly in their arms.  I foresee a lot of potential plot threads developing out of that.

Look forward to more.


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