The Aldelle Group – Session 16 – Joining the Guild

This session happened Tuesday, March 1, 2011.  This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training.
As we are no longer exploring Dyson’s Delve and we are now using a different group name as a result of joining the Adventurer’s Guild, I am changing the reference name for the campaign as well.  Additionally, I will be changing the format for this set of adventure logs to a personal journal format from the perspective of my character, Harkaitz.  Journal dates will be in-game and the GM is using the real world calendar for ease of communication.  It will take me an entry or three to find Harkaitz’s voice, so please bear with me.

Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)


 
March 30, Year of the Earth Rabbit
After two days of praying, Ra’s blessings have finally rid me of the accursed mummy rot I acquired in the city museum.  I am exhausted from the ravages of the disease and being forced to sleep in the barn to avoid frightening the other clients of the Murdered Manticore.  Considering the disreputable clients the place attracts, I am still not convinced that that would have been a bad thing.

Tomorrow I and my companions will seek something to do here in the capital [Tyrannor] that actually pays coin so we can improve our living standards.

March 31, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Today we tracked down the Adventurer’s Guild and joined it.  The local guild house is located outside the city walls in a building that resembles a hunting lodge more than anything else.  Inside there were a few other adventuring types whiling the day away with some friendly gambling.  Wednesday went to observe their game while Sahar and I went to talk with the local guild leader.  After some discussion, we paid the entry fee to join the guild and were issued guild badges.  I picked up an extra one for Luna, who apparently found someplace entertaining to sleep last night and sent a message she would join us later in the day.  Elves.

I was somewhat surprised at how easy it was to join the guild.  There was no testing of ability or swearing of oaths.  I suspect that the members of this guild have a high mortality rate due to the hazards we face and anyone willingly identifying themselves as an “adventurer” is good enough.  I think this says something, but I am not willing to dwell upon it at this time.  The only potentially awkward point was when we were asked what our group name was.  As tempting as it was to give Super Rat as our name, I could feel Tre-ba staring daggers into my back.  Instead I went with the simple name of “The Aldelle Group”.  It seemed safe and very unlikely anyone else had would have taken it.

One of the reasons we joined the guild is that they had a job that needed doing.  A cave about a half day’s walk from the city needed to be cleared of what sounded like a vrock and its minions and the guild had accepted the work.  A small group of adventurers calling themselves The Comet of Katin had been sent a couple of days ago, but had not been heard from since and there was a guild reward for rescuing them if they needed it.  As the reward was 500 gold kroner per rescued guild member, this would be worthwhile just for that.  Plus, it was good to know that the guild paid to rescue its members.  The Comet of Katin had three members: a human named Michael, and elf named Lilss, and a halfing using the nickname of “Stunty”.  This did not speak well of the halflings stability.  Before leaving, we picked up some holy water and some tanglefoot bags from the guild supply.  The supply was one of the things our guild dues went to pay for, which was very nice.

We gathered up “Short” John, our cook, and some supplies and left a message for Luna as to where to find us and then headed out to the cave.  It occurs to me that, as our halfling cook goes by “Short” John Copper, the halfling we were to rescue using “Stunty” as a nickname is not as strange as it might seem.  We made the trip in about half a day and spent an hour locating the cave itself before making camp in a defensible spot nearby, where we left Short John and the food supplies.  I wonder if there is any advantage of hiring some camp guards in the future?

At the entrance to the cave, Tre-ba brewed up and passed out some extracts, mostly barkskin and bear’s endurance.  They looked odd and smelled worse, but turned out to be very useful.  Inside the cave entrance was a largish chamber showing signs of a battle, particularly claw marks on the walls and some blood spilled on the floor.  The tunnel at the back sloped down noticeably.  Frankie took the lead, using his darkvision to scout ahead.  I activated a sunrod and slotted it into my shield to provide light for the rest of us.  Elixirs were quaffed at this point.

About twenty feet down the tunnel, Frankie found some side caves, out of which came three barghests, a kind of demonic goblin werewolf.  We eventually defeated them, but it was a tough fight and the lack of our sorceress [Luna] was telling.  Checking out their lairs, Wednesday and Frankie were able to find a mixed collection of golden trinkets.  Individually they are not worth a lot, but as a whole Tre-ba appraised them as worth about 2000 gold kroner – a nice haul.  We then fell back to our camp to finish healing and wait for Luna to catch up with us.

It is time for my turn on watch.  More tomorrow.

*End of Session*

[Much of this session was devoted to joining the guild and prepping for the trip to the cave, so after the barghest fight, we were pretty much out of time.  The next session will be played at a local restaurant, Beck’s Prime, a high end hamburger place.  Normally we eat separately and then get together for the game, but we are trying out eating together once a month and then playing.  Last month we did a pizza order from Pizza Zone, one of the highest rated places in Houston.  Beck’s is slow on a week night and we’ve gamed there before when my A/C went out during the summer just before one of my monthly games.]