Session 0000 - The Dark Oak Trading Company

General Summary

Player Characters:

Cathlynn Strongbow (Half-elf Druid/Ranger: Female)

Matteu Ravenwing (Wood Elf Rogue: Male)

Verbena Feathertoes (Halfling Bard: Female)

Significant NPCs:

Lord Pranax (Human and Self-proclaimed archaeologist: Male)

Keesha Knight (High-elf Rogue: Female)

Melek (Dragon Chosen Dwarf of the Mror Hold Fighter : Female)

Pries (Dragon Blessed Wood-elf Sorcerer : Female)

Jack of Karja Tal (Son of owner of Teamsters in Karja Tal)

Klegg (Jack's Uncle and owner of the Cheese Shoppe in Karja Tal)

Sken (Male Kobald Sorcerer, met in an underground prison room)

Ikiri Kcarm (Female Blood Huntress, met in an underground prison room)

Benneth Atrellion (Male Human Wizard, met in an underground prison room)

Game Session 0

God-Mod DM Rolled for outcomes. Emailed results.

Party traveled from Lankhmar to Karja Trading Post located on the Southwesternmost bank of the Sea of Monsters. Karja Tal Trading Post is an unincorporated community consisting of a harbor, a community trading & auction block, and numerous permanent and transient merchants. It is one of the last surviving remnants of the now-extinct Kingdom of Karja Tal.

The Party was hired by The Dark Oak Trading Company as security to ensure their merchant wagons made it safely from Lankhmar to the Karja Trading Post. The following narrative was emailed before and in between gaming sessions in order to create the setting and mood:

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Six Days In (18 Ernte 3022)

You squirm uncomfortably in your saddles as your horses trot steadily along-side the merchant's wagons. Six days ago, you were hired by the "Dark Oak Trading Company" as security to ensure their wagons made it safely from Lankhmar (#40 on map) to the Karja Tal Trading Post (red dot on map), located near the Southwestern banks of the "Sea of Monsters".

As the sun hangs low in the west at your back, you notice the lead wagon slowing to a halt. Marja, the head merchant, hops from the driver's seat of the wagon landing solidly onto the sandy soil along the roadside. Barely more than wagon wheel ruts, the road continues eastward. As you track its path, you can see that the meadows that you have been traveling through since Ilthmar (#33 on the map) are giving way to hard-pan desert terrain.

Marja claps his hands together and announces, "all right everyone! That's it for tonight! Let's make camp here, we have only 3 more days to go, if the Deities see fit!".

You pull your map out to trace your path if only to confirm what Marja said. You've marked a yellow dot with dandelion ink for each night you've camped, with a red mark placed on the map for your destination. In your estimation, he's about right in his estimation.... gods willing, you think to yourself.

The horses seem more nervous tonight as you set your bedroll underneath a wagon. Looking at the horizon, the weather seems clear with only distant clouds in The North. Gently, you pat your horse's muzzle to soothe him. He responds to your touch, calming down almost immediately.

You eat a somewhat scarce meal consisting of rabbit and a few small chunks of potato. The rabbit is very grisly but the broth is very delicious. Thankfully some of the merchants in the caravan you are protecting trade in spice. You make a mental note that you should protect the Spice Merchant's wagon the most if only to soothe your flavor-starved palette to make this journey easier.

After dinner, you nestle down into your bed roll, drifting into sleep almost immediately. Visions of the desert flood your mind, and then your dreams, as you sink into unconsciousness. This is the first time you've ever been to the desert after all. Your final conscious thought before falling completely asleep, "hopefully the scorpions are nowhere near as big as they say......

Progress of caravan on 6th day of journey

7 Days In (19 Ernte 3022)

Early the next morning, before the sun rises, Marja walks around the camp clapping his hands loudly. "Wake up, everyone! Let's roll out! Only a few days left before we get to Karja Tal!"

You awaken groggily but feel very well-rested, despite the hard ground that you slept upon. A young Human girl skips merrily past you as you roll up your bedrolls. You recognize the girl to be Marja's daughter. You've only seen her a few times on this trip as Marja insists that she remain inside his covered wagon and out of the elements. By the looks of her pale skin, Marja likely keeps her from going outside into the sun as well. The girl jumps to a stop in front of Marja suddenly and looks up at him quizzically.

"Daddy? Is it hot in the desert?", she asks. "No Tara. This isn't that kind of desert. You'll be fine, now get into the cart". He motions his head towards the covered wagon. Tara's shoulders slump slightly as she walks toward it. "Yes, papa".

Throughout the day, Tara sits idly on the back step of the wagon, mindlessly braiding her hair for much of it.

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Cathlynn: You catch Tara watching Matteu Ravenwing closely throughout the day. Whenever Matteu Ravenwing looks back in Tara's direction, Tara quickly turns her head, pretending to be preoccupied with her fingernails or with an invisible thread on her clothing. Judging by how you know humans to age, you'd guess Tara to be about 12 to 13 years old, or maybe a younger-looking 14-year-old. While you're unsure why she seems so fascinated with Matteu Ravenwing, you do recognize the look of admiration in her expression.

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By 10 am, you notice that your party is completely in the desert. The vegetation consists primarily of low shrubs, white sage, junipers, small cedar trees, and various yellow flowers. The temperature has risen slightly since you left the hilly area you were in yesterday but only by a few degrees.

Desert Highlands

Near sunset, a few of the tradesmen wander out into the wilderness and within thirty minutes come back with a few antelope carcasses draped over the rear of their horses. Marja smiles widely as they rejoin the caravan. He stops his wagon slowly and then hops up on its top.

"Ok, everyone! Dinner is here, let's set up camp and celebrate another successful day!". Marja glances toward the sun and watches it for a few minutes until it dips below the horizon. He loudly taps his foot on the roof of the wagon. "Come on out Tara, time to make supper!"

Tara climbs carefully down and walks towards the campfire that's already been lit by one of the hunters and begins to peel potatoes.

As your party dines on this more substantial meal, you quickly become drowsy. You mark your map once again and drift off to sleep peacefully.

Progress of caravan on 7th day of journey by Overlay by Chad Watson on base map by TSR

8 Days In (20 Ernte 3022)

"Wake up you guys! We gotta go!", Tara says in a stressed whisper as she shakes each of you awake.

You awaken with a start and instinctively grab the hilts of your weapons. By the angle of the Moon, you can tell it's about 2-3 AM. You can see the nearly invisible cloud of your breath as it escapes your mouth, which tells you the temperatures have plummeted during the evening.

Tara has moved down to the next trade wagon, shaking the others awake in a similar way.

"What is it,girlie?", you hear someone ask. "SHHHHHHH!!", Tara replies in a harsh whisper. "Get up get up get up! "

As you roll out from underneath your wagon, your eyes instinctively scan the horizon, looking for what must be an enemy of some sort. Your ears pick up the sounds of skirmish towards the rear-most wagon. You hear the panicked cackling of chickens and what must be the death-cry from one of them. A few merchants with torches run toward the skirmish and that's when you see it... a large, grey wolf with faint black stripes. It stands nearly as high as the horses, which have also just now begun to panick.

"A Dire wolf!", exclaims Matteu! "I haven't seen one of those..... why would it be this far into the desert? " The beast's eyes reflect the light of the torches, making it appears as though its eyes were aflame from within. The merchants nearest to it jump back from it suddenly.

Dire Wolf

To your surprise, the Dire Wolf drops the dead or dying chicken, shifting it's gaze quickly to its left (the north). Cathlynn and Matteu look at each other, somehow knowing that he's locked onto a person as its next target. At the same time, without hesitation.

1st Round:

Verbena fluidly pulls her loaded sling back tightly and launches its bullets. At the same time, Matteu unsheaths her daggers and runs quickly forward towards the beast followed closely behind by Cathlynn, raising her Quarterstaff high in the air above her head.

(the X's are the merchants with the torches: DW = Dire Wolf. V,C,M are your characters. the Oval shapes are the wagons. The arrows indicate direction of motion. Note that Verbena does not have a direction of motion as she is standing still to shoot the bullets towards the Dire Wolf. Cathlynn and Matteu are running towards the Dire Wolf and spend their round just getting near enough to him to engage in combat)

Caravan position in Dire Wolf by Chad Watson, hand-drawn

Verbena's sling bullets hit the Dire Wolf's rib cage area solidly. He yelps slightly but seemingly more in surprise that he's been hit than he's been hurt. The Dire Wolf leaps suddenly to his left (North) taking him out of your LoS (Line of Sight). A cold chill runs down your spine as you hear the Dire Wolf crunch into something. It sounds like a bundle of twigs breaking. A split second later you hear the blood-curdling scream of a small child.

2nd Round

Two of the merchants run towards the Dire Wolf just as Cathlynn and Matteu arrive at the back-most wagon. The third merchant runs away in fear, southward. Verbena runs forward to meet Cathlynn and Matteu but won't get to the same spot until next round.

Dire Wolf position 2 by Chad Watson, Hand Drawn

3rd Round

Marja appears from around the rear-most wagon's north side with his left hand out to you. "Stay here and protect the wagons! We're onto him!"

Just as he says that, five merchants on horseback are riding hard towards the Dire Wolf and the child. Your stomachs turn sour as you can hear the child's screams turn liquid.

All of you start to ignore Marja and run towards the child instead. Insistent, Marja steps in front of you and yells "No! Please stay here and protect the camp! This could be a trick to lure us away from our unguarded wares and besides, we have other children here to protect! They got this!"

Dire Wolf Position 3 by Chad Watson, Hand Drawn

Verbena and Matteu see the wisdom in Marja's words but look onwards towards the racing horses, worried.

Cathlynn looks at Marja for a moment with a bewildered look, blinks theatrically, then says "Screw that! " and starts running towards the child. Marja attempts to block her path but Cathylnn pushes him in the chest with her right hand and (with Marja rolling a 1, lol) he falls backwards so hard and so quickly he's stunned for 1 round.

Afterward

Cathlynn runs at full pace for 30 seconds, at which point, she throws her Quarterstaff to the side and runs with a sudden and surprising burst of speed. Narrowing her eyes, she mutters the word "Ferspena". In the blink of an eye, her body snaps and contorts into the shape of a Giant Condor. She quickly disappears into the horizon as her speed accelerates to 55 mph. About a minute later, she locks in on the Dire Wolf....

Cathlynne Wildshaped as a Giant Condor and fighting a Dire Wolf by Chad Watson via Midjourney

(( Scoring 17 points in damage vs. Dire Wolf))

The Dire Wolf screams in pain and drops the now unconscious (or possibly dead) child from its maw.

Due to the very unexpected arial attack, Cathlynn gains initiative and gets an extra attack, however misses the Dire Wolf completely, her talons slashing the mosaic of caliche soil instead.

The Dire Wolf turns suddenly and snaps at Cathlynn but falls short of snapping her right wing, as blood is obscuring the Dire Wolf's eyes.

Cathlynn snaps forward with her very sharp beak but misses the Dire Wolf as he reflexively backs away from her.

The Dire Wolf, now on its recoiled haunches launches forward with shocking speed however falls horribly short of connecting his teeth with Cathlynn.

Seeing the opportunity of the Dire Wolf's exposed neck (and with a natural roll of 20), Cathlynn jumps squarely on the back of the Dire Wolf, sinking her talons deep into its rib cage and at the same time tearing out the back of its neck with her razor-sharp beak. The Dire Wolf yelps loudly once, then falls to the ground dead.

Without a moment's hesitation, Cathlynn leaps off of the Dire Wolf's carcass and turns towards the child. She picks him up gently in her talons and flies back towards the camp, arriving within 90 seconds.

The entire camp rushes forward upon sight of the child being lain next to the campfires.

In another blink of the eye, Cathlynn resumes her half-elven form and begins to quickly administer medical care to the child. A few moments later, she realizes that there is no use. The child has died. HIs mother wails and takes his body back to her wagon, lashing out at everyone offering comfort.

The sun begins to rise on the horizon. With sleep being well banished, and probably will be for the next few nights, the caravan uproots its stakes and heads further east towards Karja Tal Trading post.