The Medford Adventure by Rodger Thorm ===== ===== ===== The following is just an outline for an adventure, and requires much work on the part of the GM to flesh it out into a useful adventure. Several campaign-specific elements have been rendered more generic. This is basically a city adventure, where the characters are in an unfamiliar city and where they must carefully gather information. There are a lot of opportunities for character/NPC interaction and a bit of detective work. The general outline and premises laid out below can probably be adapted by a number of GMs to their campaigns. OUTLINE A. Contact B. Arrival C. Sources D. NPCs E. Other leads F. Background G. Escape H. Conclusion I. Map (bad ASCII map) A. A member of the party is contacted in a dream by someone using the Ritual of Sending (Q-7, Rune Magics). The mage identifies herself as Irene Woorents, a friend of Henry Merckx (someone the party member is acquainted with), and asks the party member for help on behalf of Henry. Someone named Bennett Oldryx (not known to anyone in the party), who was working with Henry in Medford (a city about two weeks travel to the north), has been injured and needs help. It is quite likely that the Medford town watch is looking for him, and he may be in prison. It is also possible that he could even be dead. Henry (and Irene) live in Constable, a large city that is a week and a half travel to the southeast. Since the party are closer to Medford, they can get there faster and can more readily help find Bennett and get him to safety. A full and complete briefing is difficult, since the communication in the Ritual of Sending is rather one way. Only the mage can speak or ask questions; the target of the spell is limited to yes/no answers. The PC who recieves this communication will be told that they can include up to a party of 6 adventurers who will be paid twenty-five pounds of gold total (4800 SP) if they can successfully reach Bennett in time and rescue him from whatever has befallen him in Medford. If he has been killed, and they can recover his body, they will be paid five pounds of gold (960 SP). In either case, their reasonable travel expenses will also be paid as well. [Notes: Henry should be someone who is well known to at least one of the party members as someone who is trustworthy and someone for whom the PC who was contacted would be willing to do a favor.] B. The city of Medford sits at the confluence of two rivers, the River Fair and the River Strongflow, which continue to the north as the River Swift. Much of the city lies behind strong stone walls which span from the banks of the Fair to the Strongflow. The castle is at the headland, where the two rivers come together. Guards are plentiful, and persons entering the city will be questioned as well as appropriate city levies and tolls collected. Anyone who is from Constable will be taken into custody for further questioning. The characters presumably make it into the city without too much difficulty, but with a sense that something is going on in town. A character who is familiar with the city will recognize (4 x PC) that the guards activity level is unusually high. C. Sources for leads are the core of the adventure. Once they have arrived and found a place to stay, the PCs will need to carefully seek out information about Bennett Oldryx without tipping their hand too much. As Irene indicted, the town watch and others are looking for Bennett as well. Too many questions in the wrong place could lead to the characters coming into the spotlight and being brought in for questioning about Bennett's whereabouts themselves. D. As is often the case in an adventure of this sort, each GM will need to come up with specific NPCs for their particular group of adventurers. The following are some of the NPCs my group ran into. I did not pregenerate any of these, and when combat became necessary (in some cases) I generated the stats I needed on the fly. Tivler and Branmand Branmand is an agent for the Crown in Medford. He is shorter than average, with long, dark hair, and wearing better than average clothing. He is traveling through the bars and taverns in town, asking if people have heard of someone named "Bennett." Tivler is Branmand's partner. He is a large, thuggish looking man with a closely shaved head and partial leather armor. He is not obviously traveling with Branmand (arriving a few minutes before or after his partner). A perceptive individual might notice that they do trade meaningful glances once or twice, indicating that they may, in fact be working together. Tivler is Branmand's backup muscle, and will not break his cover unless necessary. Both are searching for clues about Bennett. They may be encountered on the street, or they may be observed in a tavern. (They were overheard by two of the PCs (who were out scouting for information themselves) asking some of their contacts in a tavern about someone named 'Bennett'. The PCs ended up following *them* to find out more about what they knew. Adrienne and Bettina Two "working girls" originally from Constable. They are favorites among merchants and mercenaries from Constable. They may also come under observation or interrogation by the Medford watch. They don't know Bennett by name, but there are other Constable sympathizers who are regular customers of the two girls who do know about Bennett and where he is being kept hidden. Rano Pantillet A healer with close connections in the town watch. He already knows that the town guards are looking for Bennett, and when some party members come looking for information about a wounded person named Bennett, he figures the best thing to do is to hold them and get the town guards. Only two PCs were visiting him, so he offered them tea (a sleeping draught) and then used his soothe pain ability to render one of the PCs numb and unable to move. Her partner caught on too quickly though, and he was beaten in a quick fight. E. In addition to the matter the adventurers are investigating, other things are going on in town. These could be red herrings, or they could be important information. Executing the Wolf A wolf was caught outside the town a few days ago. It had been attacking farms and stealing chickens. The guard captured it, and two farmers claimed that it was a shape-changer. The wolf was brought into town, kept in jail, tried and convicted of being a shape-changer and of stealing chickens, and sentenced to burn at the stake. This was just a throwaway red herring, but my players hit on it (thinking that perhaps Bennett was a shape changer who had gotten stuck and that the wolf should be rescued). They ended up starting a riot in which several townspeople were killed. The wolf was just a wolf. F. This background information is provided for GM benefit. If the characters are listening to Troubadors and getting a sense of what is going on in the city, they may be able to gather some of this information: Constable and Medford have had a longstanding dispute over lands lying between the two of them. The city of Brabant, which used to lie in between them, was destroyed in a war that engulfed the whole region 50 years ago, and since that time, both cities have vied for control over the lands that had been under Brabantine control. For the last 12 years, or so, a relatively constant line of division between Medford and Constable has been observed. However, the mining town of Augar is on the Constable side of the line, although there are historical connections that tie Augar and its mines to Medford. Medford's king has increasingly felt a need to reassert control in the area and to challenge Constable's hold on the Brabantine lands. His metalworking guilds have been suffering since they lost the close and plentiful source of Augarite ores, and they too have been pressuring the king to change things. Constable's king has been sending spies to Medford to keep an eye on the situation there, and to (hopefully) learn of any trouble before it arises. Henry and Bennett are spies for Constable. Henry is of general service to the king of Constable, and Bennett is a specialist for Medford, who has infiltrated many parts of the city and has many contacts there. They were outside the city walls, in a field, preparing to leave using a Ritual of Cometary Travel (Celestial Magics ritual developed for traveling over large distances), which Henry was preparing, when they were set upon by Medford guards. Bennett left the circle of the ritual in order to delay them. Henry was able to complete the ritual (although he was shot by Medford bowmen), but Bennett did not get back and was left behind. Although he was badly injured, Bennett escaped back into the city and was helped into hiding by some of his contacts. However, his injuries were so severe that he slid into a coma. His friends did what they could for him, but were unable to treat his most serious wounds adequately. After he arrived back in Constable, Henry realized that he needed someone who could get to Medford to aid Bennett more quickly than he could. He had his friend Irene (the Rune Mage) contact his friends in Gafton (which is a week closer overland) and ask for their help. G. Once the party finds Bennett, they have to get him out of town without the town guards discovering him. The GM can play this as easy or as hard as needed. Note, however, that Medford is a walled city, and that it is on a heightened state of alert because its army is preparing to go to war with Constable. H. When the party successfully returns to Gafton, Henry and Irene will be there and will render full payment as promised. (Since the figure who is contacted in the dream cannot ask questions, and can only answer yes or no to the caster, there was some question among the PCs as to whether or not they would actually be paid. Henry is an honorable man, and will pay, especially if the PCs have successfully rescued his lost friend. I. Map (bad ascii map) Medford | / / / / (Brabant) / / Gafton l l l_________ l l l l Constable Copyright (c) 2002 by Rodger Thorm. This adventure is made available for distribution to the DragonQuest Newsletter list. Any other form of distribution must be approved by the author. If you USE this adventure, please drop me a line (dqn@earthlink.net) and let me know about it. I'd love to khear about how it works out for other campaigns. ### end ###