Garham to Greyhawk Campaign: Session One (pt. 1)

Session One – April 10, 2010 (Planting 3, 610)
Cast
Kevlamin Serpenthelm human (Suloise) shield-bearer (1st level fighter)(Kevin)
Clair, halfling shield-bearer (1st level fighter)(Megan)
Daphne, half-elf acolyte of Ehlonna (1st-level cleric)(Joyce)
Ruben Soot, human (mixed race) shield-bearer (1st level fighter)(Ruben)
Manga, human (mixed race) medium (1st-level magic-user)(Pablo)

Ruben was at the standing stones on the outskirts of town, having heard rumors of a Bronzewood Lodge, but finding nothing like one at the old menhirs. Kevlamin was at the nearby cemetery, having heard mysterious chanting there before. Manga was at the old observatory, wishing he had the money to buy the old, deserted place – even though it might be haunted. Daphne was outside the boarded-up Deepspike Mine, having heard a rumor that the owner was hiding treasure in the old mine.

While everyone else was just thinking about things to do, Clair was at the smelting factory asking for guard work. The captain of the factory's private guard company, Torquil, subdued Clair in about 30 seconds with the flat of his blade and sent her on her way.

It was then that the knight descended out of the sky, riding a Pegasus, and landed in Castle Garham. Everyone rushed to the castle, wishing to see the Pegasus up close. Ruben, Kevlamin, and Clair were all ex-members of the town militia, but were no longer allowed in the castle. Furious at being rebuffed, Kevlamin and Clair tried to fight their way in through the gatehouse while Ruben dodged around the distracted guards and made it into courtyard. Manga fled, found Daphne, and convinced her to come help.

In the courtyard, Ruben encountered Garrison Commander Tolliver Garham and the mysterious stranger. The stranger, who revealed herself to be Lilyana Ortiz, Paladin of the Adventurers Guild of Greyhawk, was impressed that Ruben and his friends had an “adventurous spirit” that she accused Tolliver of having lost. Kevlamin and Clair were being led inside, clapped in irons and being led to the stockade. Lilyana asked Tolliver to place them in Ruben's supervision and then gave them all an unexpected offer – if they would undertake an adventure to impress her with when she returned in two months, she would sponsor them for membership in the Adventurers Guild.

The five friends had several leads for adventure. Daphne favored breaking into the Deepspike Mine. Kevlamin favored confronting the mysterious chanters in the cemetery. When Manga went to the governor's office to buy the old observatory, he found it would cost him 400 gp – but he also found there was a 50 gp bounty on “Old Whiskers”.

Daphne and Ruben went to Isumbras' Flophouse to question some out-of-work miners about the Deepspike Mine. For 4 sp, they learned from a miner named Gomer that all other entrances to the mine would have been collapsed when it was closed – but that a secret entrance probably still existed under the manor of the owner, Baladeva Smets.

Kevlamin and Manga went to the Diamond Lake Boneyard to investigate the chanting. They found two men and two women in the cemetery tending to gravestones and chanting. The men realized they were being observed and drew daggers. Kevlamin was stabbed and seriously injured, but when he drew his hand-and-a-half sword, the men ended their hostility and explained about the Cult of the Green Lady to which they all belonged. Kevlamin in particular was impressed with them and their mission and apologized for having started the altercation.

Claire went alone to the “Lakehouse”, the Fishmongers' Guildhall. There she learned that “Old Whiskers” was a giant catfish, possibly up to 12' long (until then everyone had assumed Old Whiskers was a person), and that it had grown so malicious that it had killed four fishermen already this year. Erico, of the Fishmongers' Council, sent her to Hook's Tackle & Bait Shop for supplies. There, Claire spent 15 sp on fishing supplies without specifying what she was fishing for. The shopkeeper, Will “Hook” Grey, sent her back to the Piers to look for a boat to rent. There, she was laughed at for going after Old Whiskers with less than a harpoon. Grey happened to sell harpoons, but asked an exorbitant amount for them Claire could not afford on her own.

The friends reunited again, they agreed to rent a room to share (tightly-packed, though for 9 cp a night; Daphne paid 5 sp up front) at Fester's Hostel. Though Daphne could not cast clerical spells quickly [as per OD&D clerics], she could perform a lengthy, 17-hour ceremony to cast Cure Light Wounds [house rule]. Claire went to the Feral Dog Alehouse to pick up cheap food for the others while Daphne prayed and Kevlamin rested.

On the 4th, Daphne magically restored Kevlamin to full health. Both of them came with Claire this time to Hook's to haggle for the harpoons, but when they mentioned, this time, that they were after Old Whiskers, Grey suggested they use catnip as bait and told them they could find catnip growing wild at the Menhirs. Everyone knew this sounded nutty, but Grey sounded so sincere that Clair and Daphne went.

At the Menhirs, they met Archippos, a hunter who found them the catnip, but he said it would not work. Instead, he suggested finding where the giant catfish slept and hunt it there. Kevlamin liked this idea when he heard it. He had been at the Piers, asking a fisherman about renting a boat. He also asked about Mound Island, out in Diamond Fish Lake, out of curiosity and heard it was haunted. When Claire and Daphne joined him, the fisherman referred them to Sammy, a young pearl diver, at the Lakehouse, who had seen Old Whiskers underwater and lived. Sammy told them of a cave in Mound Island, 15' underwater, that he had seen Old Whiskers go into last summer. Daphne doubted this was where Old Whiskers slept, since Sammy had observed this in the morning, but the others were more confident that Mound Island was where they would find adventure.

On the morning of the 5th, Kevlamin, Claire, and Daphne met Durward the Mariner and learned he would take them all to Mound Island in his dinghy, the Autumn Runner, for 16 cp each. He did not believe the island was haunted, but he knew some suspicious people took their boat back and forth to the island every week on their sailboat, the Harkness. The sky was clouding over and, even though Durward assured them that it would not storm, Daphne became certain that it would. Out of nowhere, Kevlamin decided to ask around town about something entirely different – whether or not there was any chance of adventure in the nearby Greenridge.

Kevlamin found an ex-woodsmen at lunch from the Long Forest that ran across the Greenridge and he complained that goblins and orcs used to raid the homes of woodsmen every so often. Everyone immediately liked the idea of hunting goblins and orcs much better. Concerned about the small size of their party (as Rubin and Manga were temporarily unavailable until their players came back), they spent the afternoon about town recruiting. Almost right away, they found a fighter named Garnet who offered to bring his equally-skilled girlfriend Tirzah along. Kevlamin went to the Garham Chapel and talked to Hamid of Cuthbert about recruiting another cleric.