session 1 (how they screwed me) in 1D4+1

Was told: You walk into town after a long walk and are tired and hungry. You seek an inn or a tavern. As you walk the streets of Pearlmere you realize that most of the businesses are closed. You see signs on doors that say thing like “Out of business”, “Be back when the taxes drop”, and “Only open on Saturday”. You come across something finally open. A 24hr tavern with a sign that says “The Owl’s Perch” above it is a beautifully carved wooden owl perched on the metal rod holding the sign. You go in. The tavern seems as if it must have just been super busy. There are 8 tables and but one have left over food and dirty glasses on them. There’s one missing a leg on the table. Where the leg should be someone has balanced 2 small crates to hold it up. There are a few broken chairs too and a couple over turned short barrels pulled up to tables that people have obviously been using as seats. Looking around you see the barkeep dozing at the bar, 2 small groups of people who appear to have been working in a mine, and a guard getting wasted in the corner.

*William said on a short break that I shouldn’t have forced them to the inn but I wanted them to have a look at the town because honestly they were supposed to talk to people to find out why things were so shitty. *

Three adventurer’s walk into the tavern. A rather large (6ft tall 300lbs) dragonborn with golden scales, A portly dwarf (4‘5 and 225 lbs) in scale mail, and a Elf soldier (Rocky has absolutely no description on his paper nor did he talk much). Immediately the dragonborn casts Prestidigitation and cleaned the place up. They sat down and the barkeep offered them free food for the fast cleanup. They did not eat however and took unexpected immediate interest in the drunk guard. Davin the guard told them that he’d fallen asleep on his post and his ward was taken in the night. He has 24 hours to get his affairs in order and he will be hung in the morning. (They did not ask why he didn’t run) They asked Davin about payment if they find her but he said he has no real money but the Lord of the town would surely reward them. They asked how they could find out information on her whereabouts. Davin was asked to describe the princess. He became shifty eyed and said “she’s the most beautiful princess in the world”. Right but what does she look like? “she has a large beauty make on her nose, is a half-orc with light green skin, and a birth mark on the back of her neck shaped like a heart” The asked Davin “How can we get into the castle to investigate?” “Just tell them you are there on my behalf and you should get to talk to The Lord” So, they went straight to the castle.

Seriously she cleaned the bar with a spell, totally not expected and seriously a stupid waste of a spell which she later regretted. Davin was the only person they wanted to talk to? that kinda screwed things up. So from this point on out I had to just make stuff up on the fly. They also did not seem to have an interest in her being beautiful and assumed she was dog ugly

Upon walking up the the guards at the front gate they told them that they were there to investigate the missing princess. The gaurd asked them not to say that to loud because the world did not need to know the princess was missing. The adventurers were lead to a waiting chamber and then to The Lord. Lord Surg a fat old half-orc sat on a throne in front of them. He offered them 300 gold and had a ransom note saying to bring 10,000 gold to the edge of Whispering Wilds.

*The didn’t ask for the 10,000 gold at all. Later they realized they could have just done that and left town lol. *

The adventurer’s went back to the Owl’s Perch and bought a bag of grain. Then went straight to the woods. All around the woods for as far as they could see were bushes about 5ft apart and a clearing of 30 ft before the woods began. As they came upon the bushes they were attacked. Apparently, the bushes had been enchanted and three that they were going to hide behind attacked them. Once the bushes were dispatched they thought better of their plan and went back to The Owl’s Perch to further question the guard. Davin told them that there was a rumor that a band of men lived in those woods and that they took money from the tax collector. So they decided to go see tax collector Yemmin.

By the time they had gotten into the fight with the bushes Nicole Dragonborn had used all it’s spells for the day. I had expected then to rush head first into the woods and realizing Williams intent to try to fool the thieves with grain I was going to have Robin shoot an arrow into the bag or some such. However, they abandoned their current mode and went back to Davin. Tax collector Yemmin wasn’t really a thing until they decided to go there.

The dwarf intimidated the tax collector into telling them that he skimmed about half the taxes off the top and gave it to Robin. Robin came in late at night and was scheduled for a pick up at midnight that very night. Usually he just left the bag of money on the table and Robin would just come in and leave. So the dwarf paid the tax collector to go down to the tavern and get a room for the night. The dwarf then laid traps. There were 3 ways into the 3 room abode so the dwarf set up a trip line at the door, set a fire in the fireplace using the bag of grain he’d bought and using soap and water soaped up the counters and floor.

*At first I said that the bag of gold Yemmin left for pick up was 500 gold. William got super excited and tried to tell the others “lets just take the 500 and skip town” so I asked to modify it and said it was 50 gold.... obviously these players have no morals and I’ll have to keep that in mind lol money over all lol great. Also, at midnight in the tax collectors house they didn’t seem to care that Davin would be killed in a few hours lol

About midnight Robin climbed through the window and slipped falling pretty much so helplessly. She was then suddenly attacked by a dwarf and she was overpowered in confusion. She was then tied up and threatened. She told them about how she gave time money back to the people. That she had stolen the princess to get more money for the slowly starving citizens. They talked about possibly taking her to Surg but debating because that’s not what they were going to be paid for. Robin offered 300 gold, the same amount they would get for the princess to let her go. Driving a hard bargin they wanted the princess too. They lead Robin at knife point back to her camp in the woods.

*Robin should not have been so easily captured but I had no stats for her I did not at all expect it to go this way. I did not expect them to attack her at all. I expected them to head long into the woods and run into goblins Robin and her men would swoop in and rescue them or something and that would have been the end of session 1 but NOOOOO they decided “oh we should have asked about stuff”..... DUH lol

Once in the forest they received 300 gold and discussed the demise of Surg. Robin sent 2 men to retrieve Davin who was passed out at a table at the Inn. They were invited to sleep in the camp with promise to plan in the morning.

*This is way out there. I now have to create a castle with guards inside out outside and stats for the guards (who knows how many) the 3 men, Robin, and a mage that Robin had enchant the bushes. I’ll need a map of the castle so they can navigate it and stats for Lord Surg so they can kill him. They intend on cutting taxes and letting the town flourish or some such so I need a actual town too. William said just use a pre-made town and town map then replace the inn with The Owl’s Perch. Rocky’s already talking about trapping all the guards in one room and having Nicole use her dragon breath .... she can use it once per short rest so they would open the door burn the people in the room and close the door. Nicole would take a break and they’d do it again in 30 mins. Which sounds just .... stupid… like that doesn’t sound fun at all. So.... to prevent that kind of situation each room will have a secret passage. They were kinda talking plans in front of me so kinda sucks for them.... *