There were bells on the hill, but I never heard them ringing…
Okay, to be fair, Nevan was in the valley town of Hull’s Basin, not a hill. But there were bells. Lots and lots of very small magnetic bells.
As it turns out, the bard named Nevan is a little paranoid. Being that he’s on the run and doing his best to remain a free man, this is not entirely unreasonable.
The session begins with Nevan attempting to get a good night of rest in his room on the second floor of the Lowland Inn. The room itself was nothing of note until Nevan got his hands on it. With his training as a spy and a healthy bag of tricks, Nevan quickly and quietly turned the small room into a secure vault. Boobytraps, tripwires, and lots of bells on strings were used to make sure that no one could get in. And, if anyone tried, he’d be one step ahead.
Sure enough, it is only a matter of time before Nevan hears the telltale clicks of someone trying to unlock the door. With stealth and speed he pulls the would-be-intruder through the door. The two spar for a moment and, even though the invader attempted to jump out the window, Nevan manages to subdue and interrogate his late night visitor.
Meet Mora.
Mora is shorter than most wood elves, but perfect dimensions for someone making a living off of breaking and entering. Dressed from head to toe in grey and black she could nearly be mistaken for a shadow herself if it weren’t for the shock of crimson hair creeping out from underneath her hood. Despite being captured and bound, Mora seems mostly unconcerned with her current situation. With little coaxing from Nevan, Mora tells him everything she knows. But she doesn’t know much.
Yes, she was sent to spy on Nevan. Her mission was primarily one of reconnaissance. No, she did not know much about her employers. She had only spoken with a one-handed half-orc, and she had no way of contacting them. Clearly Mora was being used as a tool and those who had enlisted her help were keeping her at an arms distance to make sure she wouldn’t be a liability.
Realizing that she only poses a minimal threat and may ultimately lead him to his pursuers, Nevan leaves her bound in his room and departs the Inn to search for somewhere less exposed and get some rest.
It doesn’t take Nevan long to find a good hiding spot in the Former Leatherworks on the west side of town. He sleeps though the night without incident.
The following morning Nevan decides to make his way through town. He hasn’t ventured far down Lowland Market Way before noticing a bit of familiar red hair duck into an alleyway. He manages to follow Mora without being noticed. She makes her way into the back of the Blacksmith & Leatherworks. It is here where Nevan decides to confront Mora again.
Although it was not her intention, Mora had accidentally lead Nevan right into the hands of the very people he’d been trying so hard to evade. Moments later the two are joined by a formidable looking half-orc (with one hand) and what seems to be her minion, a hideous beast named Rolf. “Lefty” happily pays off Mora, and proceeds to engage with Nevan. Quickly Nevan is able to subdue Rolf, but only to have his massive body slump against the door, trapping all of them inside. Seeing that Nevan has nowhere to go, Lefty quickly conjures a swirling blue smoke that envelopes Nevan.
His body restrained and his vision dimming, Nevan falls to the floor. Unconscious.
Behind the Scenes
Well. I finally did it. It was just a quick little one-on-one session, but I can officially say I’m a DM.
And I’m pretty happy with how things turned out.
As I’ve heard a zillion times before, you can’t prepare for everything and you shouldn’t even try. I really had no idea what Nevan’s style was going to be like, and it quickly became evident that he was WAY more paranoid than I had anticipated. It was going to be hard to pull a fast one on him, and it might be tricky to get him where I wanted him.
Things I hadn’t expected:
- So much effort put into securing his room. I had assumed he might push the bed against the door, but not to arm the entire room with traps.
- Actually catching Mora. Her stats make her good at sneaking around, but I had underestimated the power of Nevan’s Sleep spell.
- It didn’t surprise me too much, but going to hide in the Former Leatherworks put a kink in my plans to give Nevan another encounter at the Lowland Inn. Not a big deal, but I’ll have to sneak it in later.
- The Sleep spell caught be off guard again when Nevan knocked out Rolf right away. That’s what I get for letting him have a nice long rest the night before.
- How fast time goes by while DM-ing
- How much fun it would be.
Some tools that I used:
- Monsters of the Guild: Yes, there are tons of free resources online if you want to get ideas for new foes, but I like to support other creative folks when I can. This particular book is very similar to most official D&D material, but it has that great homebrew feel. Rolf’s character is loosely based off of the Great Ghul.
- Inkarnate: Honestly, I have a love-hate relationship with Inkarnate. The product itself is amazing, and I’d highly recommend testing out the Pro version. However, it IS still in beta and there’s a very good chance that it might crash on you. My advise is to not count on saves, don’t close the tab you’re working in, and export frequently. I used Inkarnate for this map of Hull’s Basin. I chose to use Photoshop for some additional edits, but you could technically do it all within their application.
- Zencastr: We like to record our D&D sessions, and audio quality can sometimes be an issue. Zencastr supports high-quality audio, has a great interface, and offers some other (literal) bells-and-whistles. We did have a little bit of trouble with the end recording, but it looks like the problem was on our end. I’ll likely post a more formal review once I figure out what went wrong.