With the players being new to D&D and RPG overall, I wanted to coach them into the setting:
15th day of Kythorn (new moon of spring)
As you make your way to the pavilion, the gentle easterly breeze brings with it the aroma of the bustling food court along with the ever increasing buzz of conversation and children’s chatter. You wind your way around and through the crowd to find a comfortable seat alone while you take in the celebration of this springs festivities and methodically try to decide on which fine fare to partake of first.
You take notice of a jovial older man standing in front of a makeshift meat pit, his silhouette framed with wispy puffs of smoke swirling from the roasting fire giving the impression of an ogre guarding a treasure chest. The top of his balding head shimmers with sweat that flows like small streams down from the crown of a hill and through the circlet of grayish hair above his ears and around the back of his head, matted and disarrayed giving some hint as to how little sleep he had last night. He lifts the heavy lid with his left hand giving escape to the sharp sizzling as though it were singing to its freedom. You see his nails are brown and stubbly with no hair on his hands or arms, no doubt a consequence of a craft that he most certainly enjoys despite the occasional pain it may bring. From the back you can tell he wears what appears to be a long dark leather apron over a sweat-stained, tattered sleeveless shirt exposing the hair on the back of his upper arms and shoulders. He also wears stained breeches with a dark kerchief wadded and dangling from his back left pocket with mid-high boots folded over at the top. As he turns quarterly to his right you can see he has a scruffy gray beard with brown streaks about the mouth and jowls which you soon realize with a chuckling smile that the staining must come from some yet-to-be-sampled wild game basting in sauce which indeed must be very good as he passes a chunk over to the man next to him who takes is with a greedy, hearty smile.
Who is the man?
What is he cooking?
What time of day/year is it?
What direction are you walking?
How old are you?
This exercise brought the group into the action and helped open their theater of the mind for game play. I slipped from this straight into the scene where Breunor Jr. was shoved by some ruffian teens which was followed immediately by a "roll initiative" moment.
Simple combat - without weapons - resulted in some really good role playing with grappling, punching, maneuvering, etc. The fight was soon broken up by the local constable, T'jer Gilthanis, a half-elven ranger of renown - and also uncle to Brynwyyn....
The group was interrogated individually with T'jer knowing all of them and their families although some in more detail than others. With the potential for my players to read this, I will just say that each character has within their background an adventure hook should any opportunity arise to tie that in with the current - or future - adventure.
Needless to say, the kids (yes, they are all young adult characters) had to be punished so T'jer gave them clean up duty along the merchants row. This is where the out of town merchants line up their carts to sell their goods like semi-permanent street vendors.
Nearing the end of the third day of cleaning the streets, the group heard some gentle sobbing from the last cart on the row....
As you make your way down the sides of the dusty road, meandering behind the remaining merchants wagons as they make preparations to depart and go back to their respective homes, you can’t help but mumble to each other about how this unfair punishment should befall you on such a beautiful afternoon since you didn’t start the fight to begin with. As you briefly pause to take a break from the finger pointing, you faintly hear a low whimpering sob from somewhere up ahead.
On your approach to the last wagon on the merchants’ road, you see that it is an ornately covered wagon made of aged hardwood. It sits caddy to the edge of the road with the overhead covering still in place, the tasseled ends tickled by the ocean breeze. You see many wares, mostly trinkets, hanging from the sides of the wagon and scattered among the cubbies on the countertop of the open front store – varied and colorful hats, many small musical instruments, fishing nets, worn shoes, tattered books and pretty boxes.
Everything about the merchandise seems ordinary and could be found at any thrift store or neighbor-sales but the boxes catch your eye for they are of extraordinary craftsmanship. They have a marbled wood grain, light in color with dark streaks flowing through it as though it were alive when the box was carved from it. Round on the top with smooth edges and no trace of a seam in the lid, also there are no hinges or places for keys to fit. There are two sizes on the counter, one is small about the size of the pommel of a dagger and the other is larger, about the size of an ordinary book.
As you get closer still, you can clearly tell the sobbing sound is coming from the inside of the merchant’s wagon. Peering in you see a round man with blonde hair sitting on a stool holding his head in his hands, shoulders drooped and lightly bouncing in cadence with his cries.
If you have not guessed yet, the man has been robbed. He is Tipper and he is selling the normal types of wares except for these boxes. These are special, magical boxes. They have a spell cast on them along with a coin such that the box becomes completely sealed and airtight when activated. The coin is the key. Place the coin on top of the lid and the lid lifts off without any trouble. Place the lid and coin back on the box, remove the coin and viola, the box is locked tight.
The biggest of his boxes - which is also his money box - was stolen sometime during the afternoon and Tipper is terribly upset. He offers a reward in gold pieces in return for the party's help in retrieving his box. The party made several investigation checks and talked to Tipper in hopes of uncovering clues. They did discover that seemingly someone had climbed a tree that had an overhead branch on it and used it to snatch the box from above. Once they found the trail, they followed it back through the neighborhood, between houses and building and out the northern gate. They tracked the trail into the local forest for about an hour....
You can feel the excitement in your chest; you’ve never done anything this bold in your young lives. Going off after what could be a dangerous thief is more than a scuffle or some rebellion leaving home – it’s real danger.
The afternoon is getting late and you should be back to T’jer but you found clues, hints as to the direction the thief went and along with him, the merchants’ money box.
A good deed on top of the community service will surely bring you once again into the good graces of T’jer and your families, not to mention the reward Tipper has offered! It’s been so long since you held a real gold coin. You could do so much with it! Your mind wanders, slightly imagining what you could do with it, when you are abruptly brought back to reality at the glimpse of a campfire about 100 feet ahead of you …. and the soft voices of men talking.
This was a great combat round as the group was able to best the bandits and take some weapons from them. I even had to bring in more bandits because of the great rolls the party was getting!
They were able to retrieve the box and return it to Tipper who proceeded to elaborate on his endeavor to open a business based solely on these magic boxes. He is going to call it "Tipper Wares".
Just as the party was groaning about my pun, T'jer approached and with a very stern look, issued another round of punishment to the party for leaving their station without permission. This time, they will be taking a wagon of provisions to Phandelver for a dwarven business man named Gundren Rockseeker.....
DM Dave
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