The very beginning
This game was begun with only 1 very experienced player in a group of 4 PC's. By happenstance, the individual members had each described wanting to play rogues, thieves or other sneaky characters, so pre-rolled thief characters were laid out face-down on the table, and each chose at random. IT was today's task to give a rough introduction to the game, and make sure everyone had fun.
- Kathryn chose first, and landed the fighter/thief character. She named him "Guido."
- Skip chose a half-elf thief, built to be a burglar, and named him Horace.
- Jon grabbed a well-rounded generalist thief and named him Phil.
- Alejandro picked a halfling swindler, and has named him Oliver.
The Characters Awaken
In classic starter-campaign style, the characters awoke in an alleyway with no equipment (it could have only been more cliche had they begin in a tavern). The history of the Mürmaids is that they had some small success as road-bandits south of the city, and when they arrived in Meis Osley (the wretched hive of scum and villainy) to spend their hard-earned cash, they were set upon by another band of thieves who wanted the Mürmaids out of their territory.
The PC's woke up, all of their belongings robbed from them, and tried to look around for any useful items that might help them get back on their feet. Phil critically failed his check, and found some vomit in the back of the alley. Eventually Guido and Ollie armed themselves with a few cobblestones, and the party decided to head back to the shanty they had been staying in, and found it ransacked and virtually destroyed.
Guido looked for any usable things left from their inventory, and failed her check, and fell over into a shabby wall of the shanty. Horace tried to climb up on the roof of the shanty to take a look around, and the entire building collapsed (after failing his dexterity check).
Ollie attempted to get information out of the neighbors of the shanty about who was looting their shanty the night before, but critically failed his check, so got nothing from the neighbors.
To the Docks
The group decided to head to the docks, as the southern portion of the docks also marks the beginnings of the wealthier part of town, where Phil thought would be a great place to try picking some pockets to get some quick cash for supplies. While Horace looked around for some goods to pilfer, Ollie identified the harbormaster and went to try to secure the geoup some work. After some close calls with bad rolls, the harbormaster agreed to write up a contract to hire Ollie's crew to unload a ship that had recently arrived at port, the River Maven. Ollie led Phil and Guido there, and met the Maven's captain.
A Legitimate Career?
While our intrepid heroes began their careers in day labor at the loading docks, Horace lowered himself into the river, and swam around to the back of the boat, hidden for most of the journey beneath the pier itself. With only the second successful roll of the evening, Horace climbed quietly up the hull of the boat and through the window into the captains' quarters.
At first he found little of value, and contented himself with trying to identify if this barge was shipping anything valuable upriver. He did note that a southern merchant was moving a few pounds of black pepper on this boat, which he knew would be worth at least a few gold pieces, would be easy to carry and simple to sell off as a stolen good. Most importantly, though, he found the a decanter of wine and a few goblets that made a matching set of serving ware, which he grabbed and jumped out of the window with a splash. Seriosulsy. All stealthiness out the window, he might as well have shouted "yippee!" as he did it. The Maven's captain immediately understood that there was a thief aboard, and shouted for his guards and those of the harbor master.
OH NO THE MERMAIDS
As the Maven's captain drew his saber and shouted for guards to come running, Phil grabbed a light wooden box, hoped it would be of value and shouted "oh god no, its the mermaids!" He ran, feigning terror as he escaped with the goods. Guido waited until the barge's deck hands drew hand axes, decided not to attack them, and as soon as their backs were turned, lifted a fairly heavy barrel, and ran in pretend terror from the boat as well.
Ollie tried to play it cool, and tried to calm down the ship's captain and his two deck hands, attempting to keep the appearances that he was an officer of the harbor master. The captain cooled down, and ordered his deckhands to search around the boat, while Ollie accompanied the captain into his cabin to see what was stolen. They glanced back towards the boardwalk and pier, and saw that the harbormaster's two dwarven guards were coming to see what the commotion was about. While brushing past one of the boat's guards (aka deck hands, sorry for mixing terms), he successfully pilfered a dagger out of the man's belt.
Horace wasn't playing it so cool. Now with his hands full of serving ware, he floundered in the water a bit, and was quickly spotted by one of the two deckhands. When the deck hand raised the alarm, Ollie decided to stab the captain, to minimize the threat on the boat. He hit the man before he could draw his saber, but did not kill him.
Well, we're in it now
Horace attempted to climb back onto the boat and attack the closest deckhand with the steak knife he had stolen from the captains' quarters of the River Maven. He missed, and his only steak knife skittered across the deck. The human guard fought back, and also missed. Some craziness with picking up the decanter, jumping onto the pier, climbing back on the boat, dropping the decanter, dodging another attack and then jumping back on the pier happened, with the deckhand following him through most of the turns, all while Ollie argued with the Captain, and the dwarven harbormaster's guards closed off the exit from the pier to the boardwalk. They contented themselves with sitting pretty blocking the exit, until it became apparent that the boat's guards were bumbling idiots, and Horace started knocking them into the water while jumping back and forth from the boat to the pier in an effort to cut free the shoring ropes and secure the boat itself as the getaway vehicle from the scene of the crime - you know - the boat.
Meanwhile, Guido and Phil had found each other, and busted into another of the rickety shanties in the ghetto of Meis Osley. They acquired a short metal rod, and attempted to use it to see what was in the crates they had stolen. Phil demolished his crate, and found a few spools of fleece yarn. Guido shook his barrel, and determined that it was full of some sort of powder, perhaps salt, flour or grain (the PC's didn't ask, but it is much too heavy to be the 6lbs of pepper marked in the River Maven's log). Rather than risk destroying the container without a more proper prybar, the two decided to walk back to the pier to see how their companions fared.
The fight inside the captain's cabin was sloppy. The captain had scored one hit on the small halfling, but was bleeding heavily from the wound in his gut. Ollie lost his dagger in the melee, and launched himself out a window and down onto the deck of the barge. The captain exited out the front door, and rounded the corner on the small man.
Guido saw that the two dwarves were closing on Horace, though he couldn't spot where Ollie was. Knowing that were he captured, the dwarves would take him back to the harbormaster's office just north of the River Maven, he ported his barrel over there, and convinced the harbormaster that he had stopped one of the thieves from fleeing with these goods. The harbormaster opened his door, and was met with a club to the face, killing him instantly. He and Phil looted the office, taking what tribute he had collected in two canvas bags, each grabbing a dagger for a weapon, and Guido spotting an old harpoon, fallen to rust and pitting from lack of use, standing in the corner. Phil also grabbed a pack, and a coil of hemp rope. They decided from here to run down the boardwalk to the pier
Ollie, weaponless, was in a dire place, now wounded himself, and facing down an opponent almost double his size with a saber almost as long as he was tall. Horace, at this point, had shoved both of the incompetent boat guards into the water, and acquired one of their hand axes. He had also successfully cut one of the two shoring lines. In response, while rolling their eyes, the two dwarves inched closer to take him captive.
Phil helped Guido set down his barrel, and they used it as cover as Guido hurled his harpoon at the closest dwarf. The bearded harbormaster's guard was skewered, knocked forward from the force, but the spear jutting out of his belly kept him from falling over completely. At the sound of his death-rattle, and the sight of Guido and Phil coming aboard, the second dwarf dropped his club and surrendered. The two boat guards, cowards at best, couldn't spot their master, so they jumped off the other side of the pier to escape.
Ollie, at this point, had shown his moral side. He had landed a punch in the captain's already wounded gut, but refused to kill the man when he fell. Instead, he tied him up, and left him secured to the railing of the boat. Horace, with his background as a ship's mate, jumped up to the tiller to take control of the ship as Phil ran to cut loose the final shoring rope.
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