Garham to Greyhawk Campaign: Session Seven - pt. 1

Garham to Greyhawk Campaign: Session Seven
Cast:
Kevlamin Serpenthelm, Suloise warrior – deceased (Kevin)
Clair, Hobbit warrior (Megan)
Gladys, half-elf acolyte of Heironous (Joyce)
Flex, mixed human shield-bearer (Ruben)
Sanji, mixed human medium (Pablo)
Sein, half-orc shield-bearer/rogue (Tyler)
Jack Stafford, half-elf shield-bearer/medium/rogue (Ronny)
Centaur Shepherd, half-elf shield-bearer
Ninja, mixed human rogue
Previously…
It was summer now in the City of Greyhawk. For the company of adventurers called The Crazy Adventurers, this was their 13th day in the city. The Challenge of Champions was going fairly well for them. After seven challenges, their company had a score of 200 and there was still one more challenge left for them to take. Actually, the tournament would have been all over two days ago, but the last challenge was postponed to investigate some companies that had tried to bribe the challenges' proctors for details in advance. A perfect score in this challenge would give them 240 out of 400 points, which they were told was a respectable score for a fledgling company.

Meanwhile, Kevlamin, Clair, Mina, Flex, and Rex4 had kept busy in their off time with two pursuits. One was trying to keep their expenses low. The money their sponsor, Lilyana Ortiz, had given them had proven most helpful, for life in the Foreign Quarter of the city was costing them a bare minimum of 5 sp a day, and that required forsaking the many luxuries and comforts the city had to offer. The other pursuit was trying to regain entry into Odd Alley. The difficulty with this surprised everyone at first, since Flex had spent good money to buy a map showing the location of the alley. The first difficulty was that the location on the map kept moving. Sometimes, finding the alley again required some running. The second difficulty was that there was now a gate over the entrance that would not allow them to enter. After asking around at some local taverns and bribing some people, they learned that Odd Alley was locked most of the time and required a special type of coin to get in. The one time they had come and found the gate unlocked was a most unusual occurrence that most people who had heard of Odd Alley – and most people hadn’t – were themselves surprised to hear. No one admitted to having the necessary coin to get back in, nor knowing where to get one.

There was much to like about the City of Greyhawk. Kevlamin, who secretly longed to be a knight someday, learned quite a few knights called Greyhawk home. One made his home right near the Adventurer’s Guildhall, Sir Lelio Stern. After almost pleading for an audience, Sir Stern took Kevlamin into his home and told him some stories about knighthood. Kevlamin had yet to ask, though, how he could become one himself.

Clair had discovered that hundreds of halflings and gnomes called Greyhawk home, in a neighborhood of the Foreign Quarter called the Shire. It was comforting being in a whole community scaled down her size, but it was also nice visiting the Shire because of a handsome, charming Hobbit named Andwise Greenhand who seemed to take an interest in her at once.

Mina had become increasingly interested in being involved in the hierarchy of the Great Common Church of Greyhawk and said she would only return to The Crazy Adventurers in emergencies. Flex4 had simply disappeared, going off to look for trouble in the city one day and never coming back.

The last-place team in the Challenge of Champions was Skender's Minions. Skender was an egotistical wizard who, every year, loudly announced that he needed no more than randomly chosen fledgling adventurers to win the challenge. Losing every year never seemed to weaken his resolve, until this year when he was caught cheating. After the lengthy investigation that delayed the end of the tournament, it was decided that Skender's Minions had no idea of his plans and would be allowed to compete without him. His minions, this year, consisted of Gladys, Sanji, Sein, Centaur Shepherd, and Ninja. In an unprecedented move, the guildmasters decided to allow the Minions to participate with five team members instead of four.
((This write-up includes spoilers for “Challenge of Champions” from Dungeon #58 and “The Matchmakers” from Dungeon #7))
Now…
When word came that the last round of the Challenge of Champions was resuming, Kevlamin, Clair, and Flex had to find a last-minute recruit to round out their team. Luckily, self-proclaimed vagabond prince, Jack Stafford was idle at a nearby table in the Adventurers Guildhall and agreed to participate.

The last scenario in the last round for The Crazy Adventurers involved getting from one end of the tunnel to the other in 15 minutes, with a chained bear in the middle. The team had two rocks and a Portable Hole. After a quick discussion, everyone but Jack climbed into the hole while Jack climbed the wall and scaled it over the bear’s reach (though just barely). The team scored a perfect score.

The last scenario in the last round for the Minions involved Gladys looking down from a balcony, over a pool of acid, while the rest of the team was chained on the other side. Gladys had a spool of thread, a set of keys, a live mouse, a spell scroll with a Messenger spell on it, and 15 minutes to get everyone onto the balcony. Gladys used the Messenger spell on the mouse to make it deliver the keys to her teammates, then swung it on the thread until Centaur Shepherd grabbed it and unlocked everyone’s shackles.