The Order of the Shooting Star

This will be the first of a series of Dungeons and Dragons recaps. I have taken story liberties in order to tell the tale in an engaging way. In actuality there was far more laughter and pop-culture references that wouldn't make sense in the context of a fantasy role-playing game.

Night was falling.

Richard, a Marshall, had gotten lost and his companion was annoyed. He called her Ets because he felt it was better than what everyone else called her: Experimental Test Subject 9-7, or E.T.S. 9-7 as the reports had been written.

Not much was known about her except that she was the product of magical experimentation. A hybrid cat/humanoid was the result and she was found by the Order when all was done. She was paired with Richard because he could speak to Catfolk.

Richard was a member of the Order of the Shooting Star, an Order dedicated to the proper uses of magic, and he could get lost in a barren hallway. He could never navigate and relied heavily on others to guide him. Richard and Ets were lost because he was leading the way and she vowed not to let that happen again.

The duo arrived in Bryn well after nightfall and longing for beds they proceeded to the town's inn. Their mission from the Order to meet with a mage contact and investigate rumors of magical disturbances. Searching the town proper could wait until morning, for now the inn called and maybe the innkeeper knew something.

Procuring a room was easy and the innkeeper let on that he might know some details, but he wasn't willing to talk about that yet. The duo decided that they could question him later. Instead they began talking to another patron at the inn; a man calling himself Connor.

Connor was a local resident who knew some facts. The current innkeeper was an apprentice to the previous owner. That owner had left town a week prior in a hurry. Talking had made Ets bored and she sought her rest in the comfort of her room.

A Sun Elf soon entered the inn. After greeting the innkeeper he decided to talk to the individuals sitting at a table to discern if they knew anything about the Order. Richard revealed himself as a member of the Order of the Shooting Star and the elf, introducing himself as Sahhel, revealed himself as his contact. Sahhel was a member of the Order's mage guild. They exchanged what little information they had gathered and began planning out their next steps.

Suddenly a wood elf enters the inn and begins negotiating with the innkeeper about a business deal. Listening in the party discovers that the elf is a businessman who wants to buy the inn and he is willing to pay exorbitantly for it. The innkeeper makes excuses that the inn cannot be sold. He settles on claiming the inn is infested with vermin; to which the elf offers to pay for the extermination fees.

Thinking this odd Richard calls the elf over to talk. He discovers that the elf is hiding something but is unwilling to talk about it just yet. The elf drops a bag filled with gold coins on the table and offers a second identical bag if the party can take care of the inn's vermin problem. With that he tells the party to find him in Trade Winds before revealing his name to be John.

Richard sends a message to wake Ets and join the rest of the group.

The party then confronts the innkeeper about the job. He claims it to be nothing more than a ruse to get the elf out of there. Unfortunately for him, a rat decided to make its presence known by running across the bar at that moment; the innkeeper seemed annoyed as he beheaded the rat with a cleaver.

The innkeeper then tells the truth. The previous owner was doing some magical experiments and did something to the current innkeeper; something which caused the rats to come to him. They were drawn to him and only him. He claims that he can take care of the rats and demonstrates this by slaying another rat. He offers the party a related job to find how the rats are getting in so that he can plug the hole. The group agrees and heads into the cellar.

The cellar first appears to be smaller than originally anticipated and several rats scurry out of sight behind a set of shelving. Intrigued by the odd behavior the party moves the shelves to notice that the wall behind appears to be newer than the surrounding surfaces. Closer inspection reveals a small hole next to the floor. The next logical step taken by Connor was to push the wall. The wall moved a little against his weight so Connor and Richard pushed against the wall with their combined body weight to make it open.

The wall fell into a hidden room filled with rats. The rats began to swarm...

Thus concludes the first session.