The second session, and I am already forgetting to prepare ahead of time. Well, no surprise there. Turns out that one of the players that actually made it to the first session was out of town and neglected to tell me, but I eventually talked to him on the phone and he said he didn't care if someone else used his character. The two players that missed the first session had another birthday party to go to, so they were gone as well. Down to two players (Kami and Ky). After watching back to the future part two (and getting a phone call saying we could use his character) we decide to play a quick encounter before it gets too late. When we left our heroes there were making plans to visit a boy who had claimed he had seen the kobold cave. I quickly doodled a map on some graph paper I had handy, and have them place themselves on the map
Our heroes leave the town, passing many farms on their way to the home of the child that they heard had made claims that he had seen the kobold's cave. While passing through the farmland, Rameus enlists Nieen's help to distract Aiur, so that he can swipe a few ears of corn for later. As they neared their destination, they noticed a pillar of smoke by the farm and hurried to see what had caused it.
Don't worry, the farmers are fine, I just wanted to get the players to get into the game a bit more. I don't think it worked, but it was worth a shot. Also, when you miss a session (and your character has been introduced) the other players get to make suggestions as to what you do, like stealing corn.
As they get to the farm, they realize that the smoke was from a bonfire that a woman and her two children were cooking dinner over. The two children notice them first, the girl hides behind her mother and the boy watches them curiously. The mother walks up to the adventurers and asks them if she can help them, Nieen tells her that they have heard rumors that the boy had seen the kobold cave. She tells them that he had just made up the story to impress the older kids, but his story had some inconsistencies and the other kids exposed that he had made it up. Aiur introduces the group and politely asks that he can speak with the boy. The woman introduces herself as Caitlyn Greywalls, and her children as Abby, and Eddy. She calls Eddy over to talk to them and he excitedly greets them.
Actually, I have very little recollection of the names I used, I didn't even give the daughter a name, but I am fairly sure the boy's was Eddy... or Edward... or something like that. so these name are the ones I made up, but they are now cannon! Since this place was not actually in the pre-made adventure, I had to make it all up myself. Oh, and it worries me how well I can play the character of a little boy.
Eddy's over excitement made it difficult for Aiur to get any information from him, so he promised that if he would answer Aiur's questions truthfully that he would answer Eddy's questions afterward. Eddy agreed to this and told Aiur about telling the older kids that he had seen the kobold cave and how they had caught him. Thinking that maybe Eddy would talk more freely without his mother there Nieen pulled her aside while Aiur continued his conversation. Aiur ask him about where the kobold camp was supposed to be and how Eddy would take care of the problem. Eddy tells about the rumors that just about everyone has heard and then goes into explaining how he would gather several adventurers and take the kobolds out. Nieen Asks Caitlyn about the kobold camp, and if there is anyone who would know how to find it, Caitlyn tells her that nobody knows exactly where it is, but she has heard of a dwarf who may have been there. A dwarf sorcerer named Firebeard. During this whole time, Rameus has been entertaining Abby, and himself, by making shapes in the bonfire smoke with his magic.
As this is going on, in between acting like a little kid and trying to get my players to STOP MAKING TOWERS THEIR DICE, I occasionally roll my D20. Not for any specific reason. I just feel like rolling it as if it will tell me how soon the next event happens. To be honest though, I just got tired of acting as the Greywalls. The Firebeard character is someone I plan to introduce later... sort of as a GMPC. Oh, and the best line ever: Caitlyn: "They say he is a sorcerer..." Nieen: "Why do they say that?" Caitlyn: *slight pause* "Because he is a sorcerer."
Suddenly, several kobolds jump out of the corn field, but stop because they did not expect to see any adventurers, except for a black scaled kobold who came out of the corn field a little further down and did not notice them. Caitlyn yells at her children to go inside, and follows them in as our heroes ready their weapons. Aiur wastes no time in using his acid breath attack on two kobolds who manage to dodge out of the way, leaving them vulnerable to Rameus's fire magic. Nieen attacks while doing her best to stay close to Aiur, having learned her lesson from the last battle. The black scaled kobold has yet to notice the battle and is actively chasing a chicken as his group tries to attack the adventurers, with not much luck.
You may notice that the account of this battle is not as detailed as the previous one, I took longer to get around to writing it down and the session was started later which may have kept me from remembering it as well. It went well though, felt to me that it was too easy, so I threw in a second wave. Heh heh heh...
The kobolds were quickly falling, and when only the black scaled kobold and the strongest of the group remained, the strongest called out to the black scaled kobold for help, calling him Dak Ness. Dak finally noticed the battle and joined it as another group of kobolds jumped out of the corn field. The heroes fought on, finishing off the leader from the first group and the weaker kobolds from the second group. Rameus hits Dak with a magic missile with enough force to cause him to go flying into the distance. As their numbers dwindle the leader of the second group flees into the corn field, followed by Aiur. Nieen finishes off the last of the weaker kobolds and moves towards the corn field to help Aiur, but the kobold runs back out of the corn field, expecting to surprise Aiur. What he doesn't expect is Nieen's staff hitting him on the head, finishing him off.
It's kinda shortened, but that is at least the highlights of the battle. when Dak Ness gets hit by the magic missile Aiur's player, Kami, makes a comment about how the kobold's name must be darkness, referencing the Dead Alewives skit "dungeons and dragons." I could not resist telling them that the kobold had black scales and was named Dak Ness (so I kinda retconed that information in), but I like having my players feel like they are adding to the world somehow. That and I realized that he would help develop another character I was planning on introducing.
After the battle, the heroes gathered the weapons from the kobolds, throwing the spears into the bonfire, and giving the two short swords to Caitlyn. She thanks them and tells them that she has no way of repaying them for defending their farm, but our heroes would not have accepted a reward. They walk back to town to plan their attack on the kobold cave and try to find some information on the mysterious dwarf, Firebeard.
And so it was getting late, we called it a night.
Little known fact (AKA, I just thought of it), but the Greywalls are actually the descendants of the original builders of the walls around Winterhaven, and part of the family works to keep the wall in good shape. When they need extra help, they call the extended family to come in, which is where Caitlyn's husband was at the time of the attack.
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