Game Report: The One

The boat suddenly stops when the party catches sight of Alreta on the horizon. The Halfling refuses to go any further, and when the party attempts to convince him that he lied to them, that Alreta is clearly not on fire and that is should be safe to approach, he merely says, “Well, it’s clear some people are delusional.” With a response of “yeah, some people are,” they get off the ship and start walking towards the city.

They come across a platform a few miles from the city. The warlock wants to walk around, sensing a pattern whenever they get close to something like this. She was correct, they caught sight of a salamander lounging underneath the platform, and tried to walk around. The plan failed, however, when some banshrae came charging out of a small hut and started shooting darts at them.

The party maintained their distance, only closing once they’d dealt a good deal of damage to the salamander. The banshrae had some effects that stopped actions, but otherwise the party managed to soundly defeat the creatures with some sound abilities and strategy.

They looted the room that the banshrae came from and found a small haul, and then continued into the city on the horizon. They arrived at midday, to find that the sky was clear, the grass was green, the buildings were made of brick and wood, and everything seemed disturbingly normal. The one thing that wasn’t normal was that there was no one in the streets. They walked tentatively through the streets, in what appears to be the docking district, which is unusually clean and graffiti-free.

They find themselves on a street facing a large building that appears to be labeled “Leroy’s.” They walked towards it, but as they approach an eladrin comes flying off a roof and attempts to stab the swordmage. It’s an ambush, but the players aren’t flustered. Another eladrin and a couple of human wizards appear to fight the party.

The party is much stronger than this threat, however. They manage to pin the eladrin and use multiple area effect attacks on them, and they eventually collapse under the party’s hammer, helped by good attacks by the PCs and poor rolls on the enemies’ part. While the wizards hit them with fireballs and such, they eventually broke and one tried to run, only to be trapped in an alley. The PCs decided to show him mercy, and demanded to know why they were attacked.

The wizard said that they had been jumping newcomers that were coming into the city, just to take their stuff. Apparently the city itself was divided into a number of gangs, and the wizard represented the Outsiders. The party tells him to tell his people that they aren’t to be disturbed while in town, and the wizard runs off scared. They learn that Leroy is a bit of an outlier among the gangs in town, and they step into the bar.

They are greeted with the most charming and nice brand of brigands possible. Everyone looks like a common thug, but are warm and receiving. They meet the bartender and owner, Repentant Leroy. He offers them his place and asks what they are there for. They mention the blade that they’ve been carrying around, and how they want it repaired. He takes them downstairs to an underground market, but come across a surprise when there are multiple devils just walking around. One imp sees them and immediately freaks out and flies off to another room.

The hubbub attracts the attention of what appears to be Leroy’s secret patron, a pit fiend whose alignment was shifted by the End; Il-Selk, leader of the One. He allows the party an audience and replied that he knows where the sword came from and that he wants to see it repaired, but the only artisan of skill his group has was cut off from communication a week ago. He is willing to provide what resources he has to restore connection and get the sword into one piece. The party prepares for the journey.

Lesson Learned: It looks like my tendency for random encounters are coming to an end. The party is starting to catch wise of the obvious traps and are unwilling to actively approach them, and the cleric has some kind of device that makes it impossible to be surprised. It looks like dungeons are going to be the way to go for a while.

The long-distance is working well, and I’m looking for more ways to improve the method. Also, my improvisation skills for names needs to be looked at again; while every single NPC isn’t named Jerry, I flubbed by calling the gang the Outsiders. I need to flesh out the city of Havmarch more before I hit the table again.