1st Session is a Success!

A big thank you to those who attended our first session of RGB.  I think it went swimmingly and ended at a good resting point for the next session.  I had fun, I think everyone else had fun, too.

So here's the synopsis of the First Session:  

A couple of hobgoblin pirates of the Silver Sea (Astral Plane) disembarked off the Edge of Infinity, a flying pirate vessel, after completing their thirteen year indentured servitude onboard.  One of them, Moldrum, is a melee fighter while the other is an archer.  They are dropped off in Valence to seek their fortune on this strange world.  They met up eventually with Gogen, a half-orc inquisitor of the Temples of Heli with a strange destiny, and Phiraxis Wolfstan, a human universalist wizard with a penchant for casting spells in the Dark Speech and whose tabard was emblazoned with the sign of the wolf.  He and Gogen were 'tail-hunting butties', while Gogen knew Moldrum from a previous encounter where they became fast friends.

It was a wintry and rainy week, and the party was looking for ways to further their goals in Valence, and one of those goals was money.  Mason Edriloth of the Church of Vyncan was offering 250 gold coins for every ghoul head they could produce from the Memento Mori, a cemetery just outside of the city.  So they get embroiled in a couple of daytime fights with these undead creatures in the maze of monuments and cenotaphs covering the northern half of the grounds.  It was a close call as they were inexperienced in this sort of thing, but with luck and divine guidance, they managed to acquire three ghoul heads.  En route back to the Vyncan temple, they ran into three adventurers also trying to make a name for themselves gathering ghoul bounties.  They already had three heads of their own, and they wanted the party's.  A fight ensued which initially looked bleak but their leader ran and tried to lose them in The Maze.  First, Wolfstan or simply Wolf, caught up to him doing a spectacular leap over a high pile of rubble to close with the miscreant and splash him with an acid spell, but he retaliated by plunging his gladius into the poor wizard's gut and taking him out of the fray.  Not a moment later, the inquisitor Gogen ran into The Maze and found the leader hovering over Wolf's body.  The half-orc let loose with a well-placed arrow and felled him.  Meanwhile, Moldrum was contending with an elf crossbowman who had laid down his arms in surrender, but when the wily pirate then tried to finish him off with his rapier and missed (?) the elf seized the opportunity to grab his dropped sword and retaliate.  The two squared off for about fifteen seconds before Moldrum finally dispatched him.  They went to Mason and cashed in their six ghoul heads then went to the Bell, Book and Candle Inn and rested. 

The next day, they went back to the cemetery, only to discover that they were sick with ghoul fever. They went to Mason for some cure disease spells then rested to recover the damage.  Then they went back to the Memento Mori to hunt more ghouls.  Meeting another group of mercenaries who reported that the pickings were getting quite slim out there, the party decided to search out the southern half of the cemetery.  There, they found a conical depression in the earth leading to a five-foot wide hole leading down into the dark.  Inside this hole, chanting could be heard.  This was right on the edge of the Forbidden Shore.  The hobgoblin went back to the city to buy twenty or so pints of lamp oil then returned (being followed by a halfling with a black hoodie) and saturated the ground with lamp oil around the hole in the ground.  They then ignited the hole, stood back, and attacked the ghouls as they came up to investigate.  Soon, enough ghouls emerged that the party turned tail and went back to the city.  There they rested again.  The next day, the Celebration of Crowns had begun.  Moldrum won a masterwork composite shortbow for first place in the archery tourney; Gogen tried to be a dancing fool at Valence Has Talent! but didn't make the second heat, while Wolf won the Apex Tournament against the three-time champion, Horace Grumbletome.  He won 5 gp worth of Promethium, a rare esoteric component.  An hour or so later, the sky lit up and a huge smoke trail was persistent in the sky.  An enormous shockwave hit the city, shattering windows, damaging buildings and causing animals to whinny, bark and bolt.  It was the talk of the town.  What was this strange thing?  The party surmised that it was a falling star that landed somewhere in the south.  Wolf dreamed of finding starmetal.  During the fallout, Moldrum and Wolf (who thought a ghoul apocalypse was imminent) stayed vigilant for any ghoul activity.  While so doing, they spotted a river drake nearly capsizing a river barge and eating one of the crew.  They wanted to do something, but it was too far away.  They eventually met up with Gogen at a block party in town and they went to the east wall to await the coming ghoul apocalypse.  It was there that they learned via the guards that Mason called off the bounties and declared the cemetery clear after a couple bands of Archon Guards went in and cleared out the hole the party discovered.  (This was after the party told two guards, Mason Edriloth, the Prophetess of Heli and a couple tavern patrons about finding the hole).  

Later, they inspected the hole and went down into it, discovering the catacombs within.  They found magically sealed ossuaries and around ten acephalous ghouls and a shattered, bone chair.  Moldrum found a secret door under one of the ossuaries.  Traveling into it and below the catacombs, they fought off a giant amoeba and finally came to a dead end which was chained and padlocked with a magic sigil.  Moldrum could hear a creature within telling him to 'let me out', 'you will be rewarded with power.  Power to destroy."  But, after some consideration, they turned around and left.  "I will get out of here eventually, and when I do, I shall remember thee!"

The End