Arriving at the Keep | Session 1 - The Keep on the Borderlands

Introducing the Keep on the Borderlands

Arriving at the Keep

Today, a new party began play of the classic adventure module, B2; The Keep on the Borderlands. The party consists of three fighters, who will each get their own description before too long, who all arrived here at the keep after escorting their employer, a grouchy wizard named Terry Darrington. Terry has told them that he would be happy to hire them again for an excursion in the area he has planned, but it will take at least 10 days to 2 weeks for him to prepare for such an adventure.

In the mean time, some light world-building occurred, in which the players learned that the citizens and plebeians of the empire in which the keep exists are not too friendly to their kind, as they are all members of a nomadic race of barbarians, who are seen much like travelling vagrants to the citizenry; not to be hated, but also not to be trusted, and certainly not loyal to the empire.

Meeting the Residents of the Outer Bailey

The wizard Terry Darrington thanked the party of three barbarians, and ventured on into the inner bailey, but as they are not friends of the empire, the player characters remained in the outer bailey, where other travelers, tradesmen, farmers, slaves are allowed to stay. They met the Corporal of the Watch of the outer bailey, who was not friendly to them at all (showing a distinct prejudice against their barbarian ancestry), and were given directions to head on through to the tavern where travelers may find more information. After some debate, the party, practically impoverished, decided where to stay, and some decided to stay in the common room among other visitors, and others decided to stay in the stables among the donkeys and horses. Uh-Gah, the barbarian berzerker, woke up with fleas and roundworm, and would suffer a penalty against dexterity and constitution checks until he could heal by getting a proper night's sleep under better conditions.

Meeting the Sergeant at Watch

While at the Travelers Tavern, the party met a few folks from outer bailey, including the Sergeant of the Watch, who was on leave for a week or so, with his soldiers who are also on their off-shift from guarding the farmers and the fields around the keep. He was a friendly fellow, and offered up some information about different rumors in and around the keep. First, there have apparently been raids on the road to the south, and in one particularly violent episode, the ferryman who gets merchants and other groups across the river from the swamp road to the south of the main road was killed, and his ferry destroyed.

Finding Adventure Outside the Keep on the Borderlands

Knowing that they needed to earn cash in order to survive the remaining 10 days until Terry Darrington could afford to supply them with more employment, the party attempted to discuss different opportunities in and around the keep itself. Of course, the Sergeant of Arms offered them the opportunity to enlist in the Empress' army, but the party wisely declined.

The party also met with a pair of different adventuring parties. Neither of which would give up information about their own prospects, but one of the groups offered a small reward of food and shelter if the party would go out looking for their companion, who was one of the victims of the swamp in recent history.

The party also learned of a merchant who was captured by the bandits in the south, and then sold for ransom to the residents of some cave in the north. I should also point out that none of the players tried to play the two new adventuring parties against each other to learn more details about their current adventures.

Journey to the River, and Back to the Keep

Hraf, the barbarian who prefers to be the better prepared out of the trio, had to pay to have their donkey sheltered while they ventured down to the river and the swamp (as they decided to look for the elf adventurer who had gone missing in the past week on the swamp road). They reached the river before dark, but decided to camp at the ruins of the ferryman's shack, near the dock where a small rowboat of questionable seaworthiness still sits.

As they set up camp for the night, the second shift got the unlucky roll on the random encounter generator (I really like how b2 - the Keep on the Borderlands sets up the random encounters; for a dungeon master in training, this would be an excellent little plus one to recommend this module). Luckily, the player passed her perception check, and heard something splash a little as it meandered out of the river. At which point, the fight was on, when Hraf woke up his companions, and Uh-Gah became enraged and charged the giant crab. Bimmy, the third barbarian, fell in line and helped smash at the beast, while Hraf began with his bow, lodging an arrow deep in its plated hide, then switched to his mace, which critically missed and wound up in the river.

After a significant amount of smashing, pinching and snapping, the crab fell to our heroes, and Uh-Ga went unconcious, having taken significant amounts of damage in his rage. His arm was all but broken, and not functional, and he was bleeding out quickly. They pried the grasping claw of the crab off of their berzerker friend, and broke off some bits of giant crab legs to roast over the fire. Hraf had the idea to take the beast back to the keep, since Uh-Gah needed to rest anyways, where he could attempt to make a deal selling off the crab meat to be able to afford more equipment for their adventures.

To Cheese, or Not to Cheese; the Party Makes an Ally in the Keep

While Uh-Ga regained his strength, they did some mundane things in the keep. First, they took the crab's body to the merchant who owned a small storefront for residents and visitors to the keep. In possibly the most amazing turn of luck, the merchant critically failed his charisma check, while Hraf passed, and both Bimmy and Uh-Gah (who has a charisma of 3....) critically succeeded. Thereby, they had made a significant ally in the keep, who is, from this point forward, likely to treat them fairly.

Meanwhile, Bimmy went to the guild hall in the Keep on the Borderlands, and likewise passed another charisma check, where he convinced a man from the dairy guild (blind luck of a roll to even have one exist...what is a cheesemaker's guild even called?). The Cheesemaker said that he might consider allowing him to join their ranks in the guild hall, and gave Bimmy a small cask of cream, from which Bimmy must make cheese, and bring it back for testing. Of course, Bimmy's luck finally ran out, and he made the most foul, poisonous cheese you could imagine (I take that back, Bimmy is seriously considering making goblin cheese....since they are, technically, mammals).

In a stroke of brilliance, though, Bimmy spoke to their friend, the merchant, and bought a wheel of good cheese at cost, which he will carve up and make a forgery of his cask of sour milk, so that he can turn in the merchant's cheese into the cheesemaker so he can be allowed into the guild hall.

Back to the River; and Into the Marshes

Once their party had healed, and basked in the fame they gained from bringing back the monstrous crab, and feeding so many people with a delicious crab stew made at the Traveler's Tavern, they decided to go back to the river, and prepare to cross again, into the marshes, to search for the missing elf adventurer.

Until next time, be excellent to one another, and party on, dudes.