Noah's Game: January 24th

Featuring

* John as Rathnor, a half-orc paladin. Grumbles a lot.
* Tanya as Gadfly, a (male) human wizard. Fashionable, yet assumes all creatures have golden hearts.
* Triften as Arden, a human paladin of law. Only one who has no way of seeing in the dark.
* Jake as Böbō, a dwarven barbarian. Takes care of his pony.

Also With

* Lt. Horowitz, the as-yet undescribed Unfortunates dispatcher. Thoroughly bored.
* Mak-Tak, aka Mak. A kobold trader from Rothgab. A little bossy and callous, with a weird scratchy voice.
* Chief Biren, a kobold chieften. Has a history with Mak.

Summary

Pregame: The party were all recruited into the Unfortunates, and arrived in the city less than a week ago. The date is Throgsday, Grune 14th, Year of the Evil, Evil Monkey.

The party is summoned to see Lt. Horowitz. He tells them they'll be escorting Mak. They meet Mak, and head out of the city, exiting into a mountainous area. The gate vanishes behind them into rock. They escort Mak (& his 20 or so ponies) down to the valley floor, where Mak points out the entrance to the mine they'll be going into. He leads them away from the entrance, saying it's not safe, and into the mines through a crack in the mountain a little ways away. He blindfolds his ponies first, so they don't panic. Böbō is forced to leave his pony outside.

Once inside, everyone can see fine, except for Arden, who can't see anything. Gadfly uses his familiar, a bat, to see for him. At one point, they are attacked by a dire bat, which the party quickly kills. One of the ponies is injured, but is able to continue.

Eventually, Mak leads them to the more developed part of the mine, where there are chambers. He yells at a door in Draconic (which only Gadfly understands, of the PCs), and argues for a while with a voice on the other side. After ~15 minutes, the party is let in, and escorts Mak & his ponies through a crowd of ~50 kobolds to a large chamber, where Chief Biren is waiting for them.

Biren and Mak bicker about the price of the coal Mak has come to buy, and the crowd clears out. After they agree on a price, the chief and his guard clear out, and the party is left alone in the room with the coal and the ponies. Arden helps Mak (actually, Arden does all the work) load the ponies panniers with coal, while the rest of the party waits for the chief's betrayal. Mak tells them that the chief tries to kill him every year. Suddenly, Böbō and Gadfly hear something moving near the sacks, and rush to attack it. It's a grick, which the two of them quickly finish off. The rest of the coal is quickly loaded and the party heads out. After a few rooms, they hear cries of sorrow behind them, presumably for the grick.

The kobolds are nowhere to be found, but the passage that the party took in has been blocked. Mak leads the party out through the front entrance to the mine, where Rathnor is ambushed by an ogre. The ogre manages to knock Arden out, and shrugs off Gadfly's attempts to beat it with his staff. Rathnor manages to kill it, and then revives Arden. The ogre seemed to have nothing of value, so Böbō retrieves his pony, and the party escorts Mak back up to the hidden gate and into the city. Mak parts ways with them, and does not tip. Horowitz gives them each a 1gp bonus for combat duty. Arden goes to a temple for healing.

One-Shot Game Description

I'm going to start my one-shot oriented campaign .
One of the goals of this campaign is to have a game that we can play when not everyone can make it.
I'll be making an effort to tie up each "mission" in a single session, and to design the story so it makes sense
if a slightly different group of characters takes on each mission week-to-week.

If you can't make it Wednesday, that's fine, that's how this campaign is supposed to work.
Whenever you can show up for this game, here's the details so you can be prepared. So, Katie, if there ever is a week where you're feeling up to it, swing on by, it shouldn't interrupt normal game flow.

Character Creation
It's going to be D&D 3.5. You should have two 3rd level characters ready, a primary, and a backup.
Character death will be a reality in this game. Don't take it personally. If your primary character dies, or is otherwise
incapacitated, your backup will become your new primary, and you'll need to roll up a new backup.

NOTE: Triften, John, & Jake - You guys can use your old characters from my Half-Sea game as either
your primary or secondary, if you wish. Tell me if you think I have your character sheets, and I'll look for them.

Stats: You can use one of two methods to generate your character stats. You can use different
methods for different characters.
1) 28-point buy - From pg. 169 of the DMG
Each of your stats costs a certain number of points.

STAT COST
5    -3
6    -2
7    -1
8    FREE
9    1
10   2
11   3
12   4
13   5
14   6
15   8
16   10
17   13
18   16

2) Best 6 of 7
Roll 4d6 and sum the best 3
Do this 7 times, and use the best 6 rolls for your stats, in any order you wish.
I'm trusting you to be honest. :)

Concepts:
Any race/class/alignment combination is legal. (Yes, that includes chaos monks & evil paladins).
I am going to limit the classes for new characters to the ones in the PHB, though.

Character Knowledge:
The characters have all been recruited to be part of the mercenary guard of the merchant city of Rothgab, the city of gates.
Voluntarily. No, they were not drugged, drunk, or charmed into it. The pay is one gold per day, with combat bonuses, and such.
(For a frame of reference - a tradesman can earn 1sp/day on a good day).

None of you are from Rothgab. None of you have been there before. It's merchants are known for going and trading everywhere.
The city itself is in the middle of the desert, though its gates open onto places far away.

The citizens refer to the guard as "The Unfortunates".

All the other residents have been "peace-branded". They can do no harm to others. The Unfortunates have not been peace-branded, but are not citizens.
The most severe penalty for citizens is exile.
The most severe penalty for Unfortunates is peace-branding and exile.

Unfortunates may choose to leave service on their anniversary. Instead of leaving Rothgab, they may apply for citizenry.

The Unfortunates are used as the city's all-purpose guard. (They're not just fighters). They are the hand of the merchant council, the city's ruling body,
and are used defensively and offensively. Common day-to-day purposes include guarding merchants outside of the city, and internal policing and investigation. Special puposes abound.

Equipment:
Shop w/ 300gp.
You may have one +1 weapon or equivalent magical item to start (free, not included in 300gp budget).
Each character is issued a small brass badge as your mark of office. It is a minor magical item, granting +1 to saving throws, allowing you to see the peace-brand, and can be used to issue a summons.

A cheap apartment in the city is 1gp / month.