Vigilante Game One: Plagued Village? Cultists!? Are we in Stratholme?!

After a long dull voyage crammed into a tiny boat with little to do, we finally arrived in the new, slightly run-down city of Bastion. As you would expect the first thing that we wanted was a good drink after that uncomfortable experience. We headed to the nearest Inn and ordered a round. Soon after sitting down we were approached by a half elven man with an interesting accent. After making quick introductions, the party being: Quinn the dagger throwing Human Ranger, Martin the Glaive wielding fighter, The Moth (He introduced himself by flexing for the table), June Shin the slightly out of it probably just a hippy Monk, and we had a Cleric, Warlock, and another fighter… the names eluded me for most of the game.

The Half-Elf introduced himself as Reagar. He was one of the Questmasters for the Adventures League, sworn to protect the town of Bastion and help whenever needed. Seeing that we were the adventuring sort he had a proposition for us. “A plague has run rampant within the Copper Quarter of the city, it is the poorest area and isn’t receiving the help it needs.” We were tasked to investigate this plague and see what could be causing it. We were told the guards and the nobles of the city were ignoring the issue for the most part and were more concerned with the further reconstruction of Bastion after the large battle that just took place.

We arrived outside the Copper Quarter to see a small crowd being turned away by some scary looking Drow town guards who seemed to have gems for eyes. We attempted to go through the main entrance but were turned away. The party split up, deciding on different methods on how to get into the area. Martin saw a dwarven merchant that was stuck in the mud. I raced over to help and soon lifted the cart out. The Dwarf introduced himself as Amberforge and was very grateful for the help and insisted that he had to repay us for our kindness. We explained that we needed to get into the Copper Quarter and investigate the ongoing sickness. Amberforge, luckily being a merchant, had exactly what we needed to pass the gates. He handed us his merchant documentation, which enabled him to move freely through any part of the city. (This seemed odd since the Copper Quarter had been quarantined… but we rolled with it). As this was happening the other part of the group led by Quinn and The Moth scaled the houses near by and simply hopped over the wall. We accomplished the same thing, in the end, one just came with reputation bonuses.

Now that we were inside we wandered around for a bit asking questions of passers by, the Cleric examined some of the sick and determined the sickness was not contagious through human touch. Relieved we walked on with less worry about being sick. From a distance we heard the noise of a crowd yelling, upon further investigation we found a large crowd gathered around a stand where guards bearing the crest of the noble house of Blackwood. Bread was being thrown into the crowd, this conflicted with what we were told about nobles helping the poor out. We questioned the guards and learned that while Matron Blackwood was too busy to be concerned by the rabble of the streets her children had put the effort into helping the poor as much as they were able.

From the crowd, we heard someone yell “Thief! Thief!” A small figure burst from the crowd and I (Martin) stormed after her, quickly pinning her to the ground. She offered to bribe me to let her go, she seemed innocent enough but my devotion to what is right held me off from releasing her. I surrendered her to the guards telling them she didn’t seem like a threat and should only be held for as long as necessary. While this happened, the Cleric inspected the bread that was being passed out to the peasants of the Copper Quarter. He was unable to determine anything wrong with it, but we stayed suspicious.

We went around gathering information, when did this sickness start? Where was the first victim located? Who was it? Had anything unusual happened before the sickness began to spread? These questions eventually led us to a further quarantined area. The gate was blocked by two guards, these, however, did not look nearly as frightening as the Drow outside the district. We approached and saw the Crest of Blackwood on their uniforms. Our fighter approached them and attempted to convince them of his noble bloodline and that he was here to further inquire about the plague in this area on orders of Bran Blackwood. After several failed bluff checks and persuasions, we even attempted to diagnose them telling them that they were showing signs of sickness. I got tired of the idiotic banter that these guards presented and told them one sign of the sickness was sudden blackouts, and I knocked them out. The party seemed less than pleased about this “crude” behavior but I seemed to accomplish our goal of moving forward. Quinn (The Ranger) scouted ahead using the rooftops, he found a granary located directly in the center of the quarantined area.

As a group, we thought “Of course! The granary! It’s always a plagued granary!” We approached stealthily not wanted to draw attention to ourselves. From the rooftops, Quinn spotted some unidentified robed figures carrying in a large odd flask into the granary. He signaled us to move forward as he scaled the Granary wall. I rushed in and yelled “Halt! Explain yourself!” The robed figures had been in the process of pouring the contents of the flask into the Grain storages. The lead figure turned towards us pulling his hood down, he was an Orc, a large orc who grunted and told us to leave before things got unpleasant. Being adventurers we, of course, are all too familiar with the unpleasant and rushed into battle! After exchanging blows with the leader, Martin and the Orc looked like they had seen better days, but before the Orc could land his final blow on Martin, Quinn flew down from the rafters, swinging down on his handy whip, landing perfectly on top of the Orc from 50 feet up! Crushing the Orc and breaking his own legs! “Man, you stuck that landing!” We searched the bodies and found a note, “Arrive in Bastion, seek alliance” Signed with an “S.”

Right after the conflict came to a close, some guards who were supposed to be watching the granary arrived and in their horror attempted to arrest us for being there. We quickly explained the situation and after some convincing and pleading they believed us and escorted us out of the quarter. The guards told us they would notify the Blackwood children about the situation and the grain would be disposed of and the bread would stop being passed out.

We headed back to the Inn to let Reagar know what had happened. He was glad we managed to figure it out so quickly and that we made it back in one piece. He rewarded us with a stunning 50g each! Wow! So much gold! Reagar let us know we would be needed again soon.

End of game one.  

Thoughts on the game: Clearly something larger is going on than simply plagued grain. It’s unclear what these cultists intentions were other than poisoning the populace. Further investigation will be needed into who “S” is and what the note could mean.

The idea behind Vigilante’s games are that several D&D groups are all active in the same world and are all influencing the happenings and goings on of the Town of Bastion and surrounding area. This has been going on for several months now and I have just joined the fun about two weeks ago. While I’m not sure where this will lead I think it is an interesting idea to have Seven+ groups all playing in the same world. This allows groups to exchange items with each other and also allow players to switch parties to pursue different quests. Overall I think it will work out great and I’ll keep posting updates of my weekly games.