Tears at the Orphanage - R5

This is an adventure for 1st-level PCs. They are paid a small sum to collect children's presents, but lose them when they get mugged. They have to trace their assailants, and bring back the presents for the orphans, before the feast and ceremonies of Pelor's Day.

Involving the PCs

The PCs should be in the position of needing money (e.g., starting characters). Have them see a poster wherever they are in the Free City, reading as follows:

WANTED

Trustworthy persons to assist in the collection of items for Pelor's Day celebrations. Only persons of sound morality and ethics need apply.

Apply to: Sergeant Erkennis, Guild of Nightwatchmen, Guild Station, Blue Boar Street, River Quarter

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If the PCs need persuasion to undertake the mission, you can have a couple of NPCs come up as they are reading the notice. One will say to the other: "Oh, them! They pay quite well. Let's go over and check it out-right after we put down a couple." Then they cross the road to a tavern. That's the cue for the PCs to hurry up and head for the Nightwatchmen's headquarters.

When the PCs arrive at the guild station, Sergeant Erkennis greets them politely and then sadly informs them that all the important work of guarding and escorting the transport of sacred icons of Pelor and the like has been commissioned. Make the work the PCs have missed out on sound (a) important, and (b) probably very lucrative.

Then one of Erkennis's men coughs to clear his throat, and starts, "Well, sir, there is the matter of the artisans' gifts. Old Matlock is down with consumption and being treated at the Temple, and we need people to collect them." Erkennis is then reminded that he has work for the PCs after all. They will be paid 6 gp each (not much, but they are poor) to spend one day collecting Pelor's Day gifts from artisans, to be donated to poor and sick children and orphans of the Free City. The PCs are given a long list of some 60 addresses, plus three large sacks, and told to visit the addresses in the order listed (more or less) and collect the artisans' gifts. They are to return when they have collected all the gifts (or visited all the places at least twice trying to collect them). The PCs are given a letter of authority to collect the presents, with the wax seal of the Guild of Nightwatchmen and the signature of Erkennis.

The PCs can then trot off around the River Quarter visiting the listed homes of the artisans collecting the crafted gifts and toys for the children-wooden puzzles; glass globes which, when turned up side down, produce miniature ice storms; an abacus; a decorated wooden horse's head on a pole; and other items of similar sort.

During this time around town, you can role-play minor encounters and have the PCs see several of the major sights and NPCs around River Quarter, as you wish. This can be a good way of introducing the PCs to later adventure possibilities. The general public will be well-disposed toward the PCs, given the nature of their work. Since the PCs need to rest for meals. it is easy to have them see one or two NPC notables here.

Have the PCs delayed late in the day by tiresome old artisans who get home late, offer them tea, are deaf as a post and twice as irritable, and so on. The result of all this is that they finish their work late, and it is dark (this is only two days before Midsummer, so it is late indeed). On the way home, along one of the smaller and darker streets, they get mugged. Their assailants are well concealed in the shadows, doorways, and the like, and gain automatic surprise. Profiles for the NPCs are at the end of this adventure.

Marina Torassen, the NPC mage, will cast a sleep spell, and this should take out a majority of the PCs. Hubert Mazian, the leader of the thieves, will also use his poisoned-dart blowpipe on this round, trying to paralyze a PC. The NPCs don't want to kill anyone, and attack using clubs after this first foray. When a PC reaches zero hit points, he or she is unconscious. The NPCs should win this fight, and the PCs will be left unconscious. Their assailants take all the sacks of toys and there is a 50% chance for each PC that any easily removable item of value (ring, pouch or purse, etc., but not weapons other than a silver dagger-this will be taken if any PC has one) will have been stolen.

The PCs come around as a group of Nightwatchmen arrive on the scene a few minutes later, and they are taken to the guild station. There, Erkennis is furious, both at the wickedness of anyone who would steal poor orphans' toys and at the incompetence of the PCs. Make the PCs feel like real heels; pile on the sob story about the orphans having no toys to look forward to, the tears and sobbing which will ensue, etc. Erkennis will ask the PCs to do what they can to retrieve the stolen goods, as a matter of honor. Given the lateness of the hour, this means on the following day- Erkennis's own men are searching the area and checking for any witnesses right now.

Next Day Search

Erkennis 's men find someone helpful: a witness! A small, undernourished, snotty-nosed boy in rags answering to the name Timmy is brought in, and he says he was scrounging for scraps when he saw the PCs waylaid. He can give a fair description of Mazian (see his profile at the end of the adventure) and correctly repeats such details as the blowpipe, the NPCs having clubs. etc. He did not see where they went, since he was frightened and laid low after the fight. He didn't get close enough to clearly see any others of the attacking group, but thinks he might recognize one or two if he saw them again.

Erkennis tells the PCs to take Timmy with them, since he may recognize one of their assailants. Use Timmy to give the PCs a bad time-the Little lad is always hungry, sniffles a lot and wipes his nose on his shirt sleeve, is at the awful stage where he asks "Why?" about almost anything, follows the strongest male PC and asks if he is anyone's daddy, and so on. The PCs also have to protect him, although no adult NPC will attack the child (who is AC 10 and has 2 hp, for reference).

The PCs need to check around the area in which they were attacked (if they don't think of this, then Timmy will point it out as being obvious). Of course, the PCs might do almost anything. There are, however, two ways in which they can find a lead through talking to people.

The first possibility is one of the beggars around (have beggars pester the PCs before the important encounter suggested here also). The PCs can find a beggar who will answer their query with a reply of "Tall feller running off with a blowpipe and a sack, eh?" (or whatever is appropriate from the description given him). The beggar puts the word about, and will have information for the PCs a few hours later-for a price (as you decide, but at least 10 gp will be asked).

The second possibility is, surprisingly. the Rhennee. A young Rhennee bull, Ygor Lavane, did see Mazian's group fleeing down a back alley last night, and might give the PCs a better description of them and where they were headed-if the PCs agree to help him. In order to get to this situation, of course, the PCs will need to extend their inquiries to those taverns frequented by Rhennee (notably the River Rat and the Green Dragon, (locations R7 and R2). They will have to role-play encounters with these distrustful river folk diplomatically and carefully to meet Ygor.

What Ygor demands is help from the PCs in repulsing a raid from hoodlums which he expects on his father's barge this night. The PCs have to retrieve the presents before then, of course, so this should not be a problem. If they agree, then the attack on the barge will come af ter the adventure of retrieving the presents is over, and you can script a raid on the barge (with more NPCs for the PCs to fight!) as you see fit. A suitable skirmish would involve Ygor with 2 guards and 10 normal folk plus the PCs against 10 1st level fighters, 6 1st level thieves, and 3 2nd level fighters in the NPC raiding group.

If the PCs are too dumb to think of asking either Rhennee or beggars in the River Quarter, Timmy can suggest the beggars to them as people who see everything that comes and goes. One way or another, the PCs should get a lead to the abandoned, run-down warehouse where the NPCs are hiding out. This building has a large ground-level inside space with much rotting sacking, wood, boxes and the like, but nothing of any interest (although you can include a monster such as a giant spider or some giant rats for PCs who waste time searching through the mess here).

The NPCs are hiding out upstairs, in an office which is reached by a rickety wooden staircase which ascends some 20 feet along the side of the building. There is always a lookout at the top of the stairs and outside the building (one of the junior thieves with Mazian), so it is unlikely that the PCs can gain surprise (unless they use a sleep spell or manage to surprise the guard and kill him with missile fire in a single round, etc.).

Past the door at the top of the stairs is a small antechamber with one junior thief who will scream an alarm as soon as the PCs enter and then run to join his fellows in the room beyond. In that larger chamber. Mazian, Marina Torassen, and Griffen Arblaster the fighter are seated arguing. Marina and Griffen thought they were stealing things for their money value, and think that some of the toys must have gems or some such hidden inside them. They therefore want to start smashing them up to find the hidden treasure. Mazian, however, simply wanted the toys. He has arranged them in a circle around him on the floor and has been playing with each one in tum.

This group will have to be fought. Marina will not hesitate from using her sleep spell, and so you should rule that PCs can only enter both the antechamber and the main office at the rate of one character per round, or else she would be able to take out almost all the PCs with this spell alone. After casting it, she tries to evade melee and will surrender rather than fight if she is cornered. Mazian's henchmen here try to fight their way out, but they will surrender after Mazian has done so, or when he is killed (unless they are obviously in better shape than the PCs). Mazian himself will not surrender to the PCs unless reduced to 1 hit point.

The PCs can interrogate any prisoners they may take and ascertain what was happening-Mazian hired the others (common thugs and mercenaries) to help with mugging the PCs, and the other thieves are not Greyhawkers or guild members (which will save the PCs from the enmity of the Greyhawk Thieves' Guild). Mazian had paid his helpers 15 gp each, with the promise of more, but while the others had thought that the sacks contained valuables, Mazian just wanted the toys to play with. Coming from a tragic and deprived childhood himself, Mazian 's theft was an attempt to make up for the loss of affection he experienced in childhood. At least, this is the story the PCs will get from a follower of Pelor, although Sergeant Erkennis will say this is soft-hearted nonsense and Mazian was simply a thief and a criminal.

Erkennis will commend the PCs on recovering the presents (which he gets them to wrap up all over again), and ask them to deliver them to the orphanage in person. There, teeming hordes of bright eyed children throng the gates waiting for the PCs, and cheer them when they arrive. The PCs are thanked by the governess (an ardent Pelor reverer) and given herbal tea and cakes. Little Timmy says a tearful farewell to his newfound friends. Pile this on thick. The children sniffle and cry as the PCs wave a last goodbye, and walk down the street for some well earned dinner. It is when they attempt to pay for it that they find that their purses have disappeared ....