Nobody asked for more money this time. Character growth!
Previously...
Aldren, Mara, Lucian, and Merrick barely survived their first trip into the Slums. They fought orcs, kobolds, and goblins, discovered that Merrick will apparently search everything in Phlan if nobody stops him, and accepted a simple errand from an old man named Ohlo. The errand ended with the entire party getting murdered after they tried to get more money out of him. Then, somehow, they woke up before it happened with every horrible memory intact. This time they handed over the potion, kept their mouths shut, and waited for their reward.
Ohlo tore open the package, downed the potion, threw a broadsword and a bag of coins at our intrepid adventurers, and immediately kicked their sorry asses out the door. Aldren, being the only one even capable of handling such a weapon, kept the sword while the four of them divided up the cash.
Merrick began counting his share. “So what now?” he asked between coin clinks.
“I guess we go back and clear the Rope Guild?” Aldren said, only half listening as he felt the weight of the broadsword in his hand. Lucian watched him, his eyes fixed on the blade.
“Tell me, Aldren. What of the sword? Are you going to wield it?”
Aldren shook his head. “I don't think so. I know a magical blade when I see one. I’m not using this thing in combat until I know exactly what it is. It could be cursed!”
“Pussy,” Merrick said. Mara laughed. Aldren ignored them both.
Lucian slid his hands into two hidden pockets within his hooded robe and nodded thoughtfully. “It is magical. That much is certain.”
Six giant monsters tossing sacks around. Naturally, we interrupted them.
Before long, the four of them found themselves back at the Old Rope Guild, attempting to map the last few sections of it. That’s when they ran into a group of six ogres and trolls tossing sacks of grain back and forth. Needless to say, a battle began.
“Do not worry, my friends. I have this!” Lucian announced. He raised his hands and began tracing strange symbols through the air as magical words echoed down the stone corridor. Despite all the theatrics, he managed to put exactly one of them to sleep.
Merrick stared at the five enormous creatures still very much awake. “Great job there, mage. Now tell me, what exactly are we supposed to do about the other five nine-foot-tall monstrosities that are, no doubt, about to pound us into paste?”
As it turned out, not much. It took mere seconds before all four of them were ripped apart and made dead.
In Lucian's defense, one of them was definitely asleep when everybody died.
Moments later...
“Fuck, this sucks!” Merrick groaned, clutching the side of his head. A few seconds later, he turned and vomited something that probably wasn't supposed to be inside a human being.
Mara and Lucian exchanged worried glances while Aldren slumped against the wall. After a moment, he looked up at Lucian, as if he had the world's greatest idea. “Lucian... you’re a mage?”
Lucian stared at Aldren. Mara and Merrick stared at Aldren. Several seconds passed.
“Yes, Aldren,” Lucian finally said. “I am indeed a mage.”
Mara shook her head. “God, you really are an idiot, aren’t you?”
“No! I mean, since you’re a mage, maybe you know why we keep... you know...”
“What?” Mara asked. “Dying?”
“Well... yeah.”
Lucian folded his arms. “I do not know what sort of foul magic is at play here—whether we are merely seeing potential outcomes before they happen, or somehow escaping our own deaths while completely disowning the concept of time itself.”
Merrick wiped vomit from the side of his mouth. “Whatever it is, it sucks.”
Lucian frowned. “Look, thief. Would you rather be dead?”
“Okay... no. Fair point, I guess.”
“We can talk about all this later,” Mara said, pointing straight ahead into the darkened hallway, “but one thing is for certain—I’m not going in there again.”
Nope. Fuck that hallway.
With the Old Rope Guild completely mapped—sans the ogre-and-troll kill room, of course—the party continued exploring the remainder of the Slums of New Phlan. And, naturally, I kept mapping it all as well.
By the time they stumbled into what appeared to be an old hemp market, darkness had settled over the slums. A gong resounded through the area. In retrospect, that was probably a bad omen.
Aldren bashed through one of the locked doors leading away from the market and immediately alerted a whole mess of on-duty monster guards to their presence. Mara was almost instantly killed by one very angry orc, but Lucian quickly cast Sleep, creating a glorious confuckery of unconscious orc bodies that effectively blocked most of the enemy force from charging forward.
Turns out unconscious orcs make excellent tactical furniture.
“I’ll try to pick off the ones across from us!” Aldren shouted to Merrick and Lucian. Then the new broadsword in his hand began to glow. Aldren looked down at it and, quite possibly for the first time in his life, used profanity.
“Fuck it.”
And with that, he brought the unidentified broadsword down and cleaved straight through the nearest orc.
“Hell yeah!” Merrick yelled. “They won’t take us without a fight!”
With the sleeping pile of orcs blocking most of the room, the immediate danger had been reduced to two longbow-wielding fuckers on the other side. Merrick pulled out his sling and fired a stone. He missed. Aldren switched to his longbow and fired as well. He also missed.
Lucian hid behind a wall.
And that’s when a wayward arrow went straight through Aldren’s brain stem. Aldren dropped. Aldren died.
Lucian looked at Merrick. “We’re not going to survive this, you know.”
Merrick loaded another stone into his sling. “I’d like to say it was nice knowing you, but...”
This time Merrick actually scored a hit. Then he was immediately killed. Lucian was all that remained.
And then he died too.
Moments later...
Aldren paused in front of the locked door. Mara stared at it. “I don’t think we should go in there either.”
Some doors are best left closed. We learned this through extensive research.
Aldren nodded slowly. “I do believe you’re right.”
He also did something nobody expected. Aldren put away his long sword and drew the unidentified broadsword Ohlo had given him.
Merrick raised an eyebrow. “Living life to the fullest, eh?”
“I have a hunch it's not cursed after all.”
And so the party left that particular door the hell alone and tried another. This door was also locked.
Aldren stepped forward to bash it in, hesitated, and glanced back at the others. Mara grinned. “Go for it, big man.”
And so Aldren went for it.
And Aldren failed. The door held fast.
“Hah!” Mara laughed.
“That’s not funny, Mara!”
“The hell it isn’t,” Merrick said. “Here, let an expert show you how it’s done.” He knelt beside the lock, and a few seconds later it clicked open.
And once again, the guards were alerted to their presence.
The lock never stood a chance. Oh and everyone died again.
Mara closed her eyes. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
The party was once again wiped out, this time by a generous number of goblins.
Moments later...
Lucian sighed. “This is getting to be a bit tiresome.”
“Agreed,” Aldren said. “We need better equipment.” Nobody argued.
The party left that door alone too and tried a different one. This one was also locked tight. Thankfully, there were no guards waiting on the other side to decimate them. Instead, they stumbled into a stable that apparently had not seen a shovel in decades.
Merrick looked around, then pointed toward a particularly offensive pile in the corner. “I’m gonna search that pile of horse shit over there.”
Mara sighed. “Knock yourself out. Not like you’d listen to any sort of reason anyway.”
The entire party watched in complete amazement as Merrick dug into the filth and pulled out a shit-covered old leather bag buried beneath a pile of crusty hay.
“Ha! See! I found something!”
The worst possible thing happened: Merrick was right.
Lucian, who had been busy examining the party’s growing collection of mysterious crap, immediately perked up. “Open it. I am sensing something magical inside.”
Merrick opened the bag and pulled out a shortbow along with a handful of coins. “Magic bow?”
Lucian leaned forward for a better look. “It appears so.”
Moments later, after leaving the stable, the party found itself being attacked by a horde of kobolds. They tore through everyone except Aldren, leaving Mara, Lucian, and Merrick unconscious on the ground.
For once, though, Aldren did not die. Far from it, actually. With his broadsword in hand, he tore through the remaining kobolds one after another.
Apparently Aldren just needed everyone else to get the fuck out of his way.
When it was finally over, Aldren stood among the bodies, covered in blood and trembling, his new broadsword dripping red like a broken faucet.
Aldren made camp and tended to everyone’s wounds. After some rest—and once Mara was capable of casting Cure Light Wounds again—the party was finally back on its feet.
“We should go back to town and get this stuff identified,” Aldren said. Everyone was in favor. For once.
The trip back to New Phlan turned out to be worth it. Aldren’s mysterious reward from Ohlo was, in fact, a Broadsword +1. Mara had picked up a set of Bracers AC 6 and a gem worth a measly 50 gold.
She turned the bracers over in her hands. “These do me no good.”
“I’ll take them,” Merrick said immediately.
Mara looked at him. “The fuck you will! You’ll just end up selling them.”
Lucian stepped forward. “Hmm. I could be considerably less squishy if I had those.”
“Fine,” Mara said, handing him the bracers. “But you owe me some sort of magical favor later.”
Lucian smiled. That probably wasn’t a good sign.
Merrick’s shit-covered treasure, meanwhile, turned out to be a Shortbow +1. Aldren’s eyes lit up.
“You know, I could actually use a bow like that and—”
Merrick sold the Shortbow +1.
“Um... never mind.”
The party ended the day with a quick trip to the training hall, where Aldren, Mara, and Merrick all advanced to level 2. Lucian still had some experience to gain before he would be eligible for a level increase.
Mara looked at Aldren. “Well, what now?”
Aldren shrugged. “Back to the Slums.”
Party Status
After three more horrifying lessons in why opening random doors is a terrible idea, here’s where everybody stands at the end of Episode 3:
Aldren Kestyr
XP: 3,641 • HP: 16 • AC: 1
Weapon: Broadsword +1 • Armor: Banded Mail
Mara Threl
XP: 1,723 • HP: 10 • AC: 5
Weapon: Mace • Armor: Scale Mail
Lucian Eldwyck
XP: 1,395 • HP: 5 • AC: 3
Weapon: Silver Dagger • Defense: Bracers AC 6
Merrick Sorne
XP: 1,731 • HP: 6 • AC: 4
Weapon: Silver Dagger • Armor: Leather Armor +1
Next Time On...
Three of our four heroes are stronger, everyone's carrying better equipment, and repeated death has apparently taught them absolutely nothing. The Slums aren't finished yet.
Back through the gates they go.