Chapter 5 - New Adventures with new Friends
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 10:19 am
One adventuring band rescued the stricken Nandar Keep (and its palisaded village) from goblins, orcs and half-ogres only to realise that its fututre was also threatened by sylvan elves who in turn perceived the town's woodcutters to threaten their home. The brave adventurers negotiated an agreement between the two parties that lumber would only he taken east of the Ardeep River. The Nandars can supply thier road and bridge construction business once more. The rumour that the Red Wizards of Thay were influential in unsettling the goblins, orcs and their larger kin remains inconclusive.The removal of a large black rock from the middle of the town square by giants that descended from 'a castle that floated on a cloud' after they'd pounded the town with rocks remains a weird mystery. WIth the village mostly repaired the triumphant adventurers are invited to Waterdeep, the City of Speldours, Jewel of the North for their recognition and reward.
Another group were investigating complaints of nighttime vandalism to farms vineyards outside Waterdeeps East's city wall. The group have failed to report in.
A further small company of adventurers were clandestinely recruited to investigate the death of a senior gang-lander just before he could turn Lord's Evidence in return for a pardon and new identity. After a confusing myriad of adventures both across the wdith of Waterdeep and beneth it, a picture began to emerge. Previously competing gangs were being coerced and cajoled into cooperatively smuggling product across and beneath the City of Splendours: pirated items through the docks, magic and coin northwards, freshly dead to Skullport, humanoid trafficking to the south and weapons to orckin in the east. The Black Network, Manshoon's unsavoury branch of the Zhemtarim, were the organising force behind the street gangs and were opposed by the Shadow Guild, run by the near-invisible Xanathar. Guided by Davil Starsong, a Zhent opposed to Manshoon, the adventurers, by dint of ambushes and hijackings, reignited deep inter-gang resentments, elevating to direct conflict between the Black Network and Shadow Guild. Bypassing contact with Asmodeus's worshippers and weird near-incomprehensible spectral predictors of doom, the brave band of adventurers have carved out a niche of recognition, reward by the City authorities and sentences of death from the Black Network and Shadow Guild's assassins. After a number of weeks in hiding while the SELUM guild frantically complete research on their behalf, the adventurers are advised of a security leak and that they should leave the City for their own well being.
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OOC: To mark the 6th anniversary of this campaign all active members gain 600xp per character level
Another group were investigating complaints of nighttime vandalism to farms vineyards outside Waterdeeps East's city wall. The group have failed to report in.
A further small company of adventurers were clandestinely recruited to investigate the death of a senior gang-lander just before he could turn Lord's Evidence in return for a pardon and new identity. After a confusing myriad of adventures both across the wdith of Waterdeep and beneth it, a picture began to emerge. Previously competing gangs were being coerced and cajoled into cooperatively smuggling product across and beneath the City of Splendours: pirated items through the docks, magic and coin northwards, freshly dead to Skullport, humanoid trafficking to the south and weapons to orckin in the east. The Black Network, Manshoon's unsavoury branch of the Zhemtarim, were the organising force behind the street gangs and were opposed by the Shadow Guild, run by the near-invisible Xanathar. Guided by Davil Starsong, a Zhent opposed to Manshoon, the adventurers, by dint of ambushes and hijackings, reignited deep inter-gang resentments, elevating to direct conflict between the Black Network and Shadow Guild. Bypassing contact with Asmodeus's worshippers and weird near-incomprehensible spectral predictors of doom, the brave band of adventurers have carved out a niche of recognition, reward by the City authorities and sentences of death from the Black Network and Shadow Guild's assassins. After a number of weeks in hiding while the SELUM guild frantically complete research on their behalf, the adventurers are advised of a security leak and that they should leave the City for their own well being.
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OOC: To mark the 6th anniversary of this campaign all active members gain 600xp per character level