The Tanius Campaign Journal – Chapter 2: The Endgar Riots

Kroul stopped speaking mid-sentence, and a wave of panic swept over me. This was already shaping up to be one of the best stories I had ever heard, and the prospect of losing an opportunity to get a first-hand account of the tale was daunting. However, the issue quickly became apparent when I stared into Kroul’s mug of ale; I quickly swapped his mug with mine, and after a swig of ale and a deafening dwarven belch, the lights in his eyes turned back on and the barely coherent rambling continued.

A Night On The Town

Campaign Log Day 1 – Part 2
14th day of Kythorn – Evening
Year of The Rebuked Storm – 1574 Dale Reckoning
Endgar Entertainment District – Minor Triumph

The tavern across the street, known as Minor Triumph, seemed to have a similar issue to The Hasty Loft. Ungoldor snuck up to the window and peered in, this time seeing three smaller-looking elves with blades harassing the good people of Endgar. Kiddo and Rkard decided the best course of action would be to barge in and scare the daylights out of the elves inside. So the party entered the tavern aggressively, with the two brutes in front and the other three in tow.

The combination of a large, angry, and well-equipped dragonborn lady alongside an equally loud and terrifying orc was more than enough to scare these elves into submission. They lay down their swords, and the tavernfolk restrained the would-be bandits.

Once the party was sure Minor Triumph was secured, they moved on to the next bar down the road: The Amiable Lion. Ungoldor’s reconnaissance revealed three dwarves with short swords harassing the crowd inside. Kroul saw this as his moment to shine, and belligerently waltzed through the front door.

This surprised the bandits, but no attacks were made; Kroul told me his mighty presence left them awestruck, but other witnesses agree the whole tavern was simply impressed that a dwarf so drunk could even walk across the room.

Regardless of Kroul’s intent, he succeeded in diverting their attention as he sat down next to one of the bandits and asked the frightened bartender for a drink. While the bandits were distracted, Ungoldor quietly opened a window and put his sword to one’s throat.

Before the remaining bandits realized the setup, our party barged in and snuffed them without incident. After the dust had settled, the extremely gracious bartender  (rendered even more gracious by some smooth talking from Bellamy) rewarded them with a small bounty of gold for their trouble.

The final bar on victory row was The Blacksmith’s Boast. The party repeated their previously successful strategy of Ungoldor scouting and Kroul “impressing” those within. This time, our brazen dwarf managed to bait a large thuggish human, who told his compatriots to watch the people inside while he “dealt with” Kroul. Once the thug rounded the corner, a salvo of arrows and firebolts coupled with an aggressive smashing from Rkard’s maul resulted in a quick and uneventful death.

With the party’s confidence sky-high, they decided to bait the bandit inside by throwing the thug’s corpse through the window. This technique, though unconventional, proved effective. The bandit ran outside, where our waiting party quickly pulverized him. Rummaging through their foes’ pockets, the party found an intact minor healing potion on the thug, fortunate given his rough dispatch.

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

The party left the Blacksmith’s boast, stealthily following the path south of Victory Row to the courtyard. Slowing at the sight of three city watch members, they hear one of the guards growling at the other two to just “do their job” and not interfere with the operation.

The party decides to butt in on the conversation, and Bellamy the silver-tongued sorcerer uses his penchant for persuasion to turn the guards against each other. Through these guards, our party learns of a criminal organization known as “The Flock”, who was responsible for the shake-downs in the Entertainment District. The Flock has been bribing and strong-arming members of the city watch for months, forcing them to turn a blind eye to crime and come up short in criminal investigations.

Bellamy eventually convinces this same guard to join the party in the fight against The Flock, sparking a very brief fight with his more aggressive colleague. With the corrupt watchman lying dead on the floor, the third guard left the courtyard with the party’s leave, and our heroes, along with “Josh” of the city watch moved in on their next target.

Although Josh’s knowledge of The Flock was limited, he had a hunch for who was leading their efforts. Whenever there was persuasion or intimidation to be done, The Flock typically senteither Marco Maran or Gurash. Josh was almost certain they would both be present, and recommended eliminating them before the party tried to head south. With rumors of Gurash sent to “handle the nobles in the banquet hall at the jousting lists”, the party had their next destination.

Spoiled Appetites

The party slowly crept up to the banquet hall, with Ungoldor out ahead hopingto spot Gurash. Peeking through a window, he saw the bodies of dead nobles strewn through the hall with an orc and two other bandits casually enjoying the leftover food. Confident that this was their target, Ungoldor regrouped with his comrades who decided that Josh would go in and attempt to convince Gurash to follow him into an ambush outside. Josh accepted his role, and boldly marched into the tavern with the party lying in wait.

Unfortunately, Gurash did not take the bait, and within moments attacked Josh, forcing the party to come to his aid. They quickly dispatched the bandits, but not before an arrow struck Ungoldor. Josh held his own against Gurash long enough for the party to come in and take the orc down.

Designing encounters for level 1 characters can be very streaky, which I attempted to mitigate by creating open-ended encounters where the party could engage on their terms. The group almost always used these advantages in ways I didn’t expect, which frustrated the “evil DM” part of me but also left me excited to see what they came up with next.

After searching Gurash’s equipment and finding some moonstone in his satchel, they noticed his shield was magical in nature.

While searching the hall for survivors, they found an elven woman unconscious but alive. Kroul’s Healing Touch brought the woman back from the brink of death.

Kroul described the fortunate survivor as “strangely calm” when she first awoke. She remembered everything that had happened before she passed out from blood loss, but despite the trauma of a near-death experience she didn’t seem shaken up. Once she was able to stand, her most pressing concern was to get revenge on those responsible for ruining her evening plans. The woman never revealed her name, telling the party to simply refer to her as Elle.

Elle managed to scrounge together equipment from the fallen bandits and nobles, and before long appeared completely battle-ready. Kroul, however, decided it would be best for him to stay behind and tend to the dead. After Kroul restored everyone  to full health, the party moved on while he settled in to pray for the dead.

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