Remember: D&D isn't a video game!

During the last game (session two) something exceedingly unfortunate occurred.

It has nothing to do with the caravan being robbed (don't worry there are a thousand contingencies and options to fix/work around that loss).  In fact, it doesn't really deal with any ingame events.

The unfortunate occurrence centers around the fact that the following phrase was said (paraphrased):

"God damn it, the crafting skill was removed in 4e, how the hell am I supposed to fix this broken wagon?!"


I'm almost positive that I gave everyone the following pieces of information: 

• You have spare wheels in the caravan
• They won't immediately fit on the woman's wagon and it will take some time/work to make them fit
• They won't fit because the holes in the "hubs" of your wheels (spot where the wheel connects to the axle of the wagon) are larger than the woman's.

Admittedly I did a shitty job of delivering that last piece of information, and looking back on it, I think I could have been more clear by saying "The axles on your caravan wagons are bigger than the axles on the woman's wagon, so you'll need to spend some time to account for that."  I would have accepted many solutions (e.g., stuff the hole with cloth, trim some quick shim stock in the woods and use it to fill the gap, etc.).
 
In other words: In my opinion, skill checks are almost never needed.  So please avoid going to them immediately.  Don't worry, I'll tell you if you need to pick up the dice.  ^_^

To belabor this point a bit further let's talk about "lockboxes".

WoW and other video games, being programmed, rely on specific instructions to accomplish specific tasks.  The easiest way to do this tends to be "if your character has THIS skill it can successfully perform THAT task," but D&D isn't (and shouldn't) be like that.

If you find a lockbox in D&D you can do all kinds of thing with it!  You can try and pick the lock. You can try and find the key.  You can get a pry bar and try and pry the lid off.  You can drop it.  You can run it over with a wagon.  You can set it on fire.  You can crush it underneath the ass of a stone giant.  You can take it to a sage and have him perform some sort of divination to tell you what's in the box.  You can throw it off a cliff.
 
All you need to do, as the player, is tell the DM what you want to try.  Then it's my job to tell you how plausible your idea is, and warn you of any potential consequences so you can make an informed decision.

If you EVER feel like I'm not giving you enough information to make an informed decision, ASK ME FOR MORE DETAILS! 
 
Be creative.  It's D&D.  Don't forget that.

And I swear, if you guys find a lockbox and the first thing someone says is a variation of "Hey guys, who's got the highest Thievery skill?" I'll punch you in the dick.

Session Two

Session Two occurred on October 16th at ~9:00pm CDT.

Session two began right were session one left off with burning trees, 7 dead bandits, and the knowledge that two of the bastards had escaped.

First order of business:  Loot the bodies and acquire

6 units of arms and equipment

4 units of finished goods

150 gp

Second order of business:  Pile the bodies on a fire and let them burn

Third order of business:  Paint a sign warning of AMBUSHES and plant it at the location of this ambush

Upon finishing these tasks, the players readied the caravan and continued east.  

Encounter III - The Two Women [Roleplay?]

Three hours past the Bandit Ambush, the sound of a woman weeping and crying out "Haedrig!  Haedrig!" could be heard on the wind.  Having just been through an ambush the company was wary for another so Nestor walked on the North side of the road to watch for the tell-tale signs of more bandits, but he saw nothing.

Shortly after first hearing the cries, the party came upon two women with a small wagon and a dead horse.  The wagon and horse were facing west, and an older woman was collapsed on the side of the horse, weeping and cursing as a younger woman attempted to console her.

Someone asked the women what had happened, and their story went something like this:

• They were a mother and daughter from the town of Aevora to the East.  Their husband/father had died some time ago, and they had decided to leave Aevora several weeks ago and head to Reywish to start a new life.
• The back wheel on their wagon had broken and they had made camp here to try and repair it, but late last night bandits killed their horse and ransacked their wagon, taking everything of value.
• Now, less than a day of travel from Reywish they found themselves utterly destitute and forlorn

The company stopped and began discussing what to do.  They investigated the wagon to see if everything had really been stolen (it had).  They discussed who should speak to the women more in depth.  They discussed some other things.  Then they discussed some other things.  Someone had an idea.  It was shot down.  An argument happened.  Was it a trap?  Were they telling the truth?  WHO WOULD FIND OUT?!

Erry, the cleric, was finally chosen to speak to the women, in more detail.  Everything the woman said or showed to Erry was plausible.  Being so close to Reywish and Stoll the women did not want to back track and go East with the players.  From their current location they were about 6 hours West of the Grey Gander, an inn at the crossroads in the middle of nowhere.  It just wasn't likely that they'd be able to get help or a new horse there because there was no telling if anyone was currently staying there with spare horses, and "even if there was a horse there we don't have any money to pay for it *sob*".

The women then asked Erry if they could just have one of the companies horses.  Erry said yes as their story of woe had moved him so.  He went back to the wagons to tell everyone what had been said.

New, heated, discussions broke out.  Shazz, Baron and Luci were called in to discuss giving them a horse.  For this disucssion *the entire party* stood in front of the front wagon in a circle facing inward looking at each other.   Ultimately the decision was made to offer a horse in exchange for the wagon, give the women 10gp and some of the bandit's crossbows for protection.  The women could then continue West, and the party could continue East with an additional wagon (once they fixed the wheel).

Bad phrasing from the DM then led to some unfortunate meta-gaming, but in the end, the women escaped with 10gp on one of the companies horses, right as/just after the players discovered that three of their chests of goods had been stolen from the back wagon.

As the session ended, Nestor, Mac and Calen headed South towards the bluffs following the trail left by the thieves that had stolen from the back wagon while the others worked on fixing the women's broken wagon, and shifted around their three remaining horses to each wagon.

Here ends the second session of play.

Session One

Session One occurred on October 8th, 2011 at ~8:00pm CDT

The players met with Baron, Shazz and Luci at The Red Grove Inn in Reywish where they swapped stories and made last minute preparations for their journey to Banuvo. Each player contributed 1500gp worth of goods to the caravan and shared the story of how they acquired those goods.

Dice Rolls, the DM, and the other players determined how much gold each player will receive after the Midsummer Festival in Banuvo, assuming that the caravan sells as much as the Siblings expect it to.


Breakdown as follows:

Calen - 3690gp
Barney - 3690gp
Nestor - 3915gp
Swarley - 3240gp
Howl - 3585gp
Mac - 3000gp
Erry - 3930gp
Farwyn - 3450gp
Jace - ????
Brandle - ????


Stoll - Encounter I [Economics][10 rounds]
The next morning the caravan left Reywish and began the trek east to Banuvo.  Travel was easy, the weather was fair, and the road was well traveled.  After about six hours the company reached the tiny community of Stoll.  Stoll was founded as a logging camp ten years ago, and while it's still too small to be called a hamlet it is growing to be too large to just be called a lumber camp.

The players and siblings set up the caravan at a small crossroads in the "center" of Stoll and attempted to entice the locals to buy their wares.  Barney Flax began performing feats of music and acrobatics to attract attention to their wagons, and the rest of the party worked to sell to the townsfolk.


Units of goods sold in Stoll:
Food - 9 units
Drink - 6 units
Raw Materials - 8 units
Finished Goods - 16 units
Arms and Equipment - 2 units
Magic - 1 unit
Luxuries - 0 units


Notable events include:

• Howl opened an Arcane Gate in the center of the square allowing for instant travel to and from the cart
• A number of customers inquired if raw materials being sold had originated in the "Mines of the Dutchman" 

A Bandit Attack - Encounter II [Fight][7 rounds] 
The party stayed the night in Stoll and left the following morning.  East of Stoll the road begins to rise in elevation as it enters a limestone upthrust known as "The Mandibles".  Two hours outside of Stoll the ground on the north side of the road begins to drop off steeply, and 30'-50' bluffs begin to hug the south side making the flat/navigable areas as little as 75' wide in some places.

To complicate the matter further, the areas to the sides of the roads are brushy with copses of mountain juniper and laurel.  It quickly became apparent that this area would be perfect for an ambush, and sure enough, after rounding a corner the road ahead was blocked by a fallen tree.

Due to the exceptionally stereo-typical nature of the event, no members of the caravan were surprised, or even remotely impressed when three identical (and identically dressed) men jumped out of the bushes and demanded their goods or their lives.  As the skirmish unfolded six more of the bandit's cronies appeared and began firing crossbow bolts and hurling javelins at the party.  Several days prior, the bandits had coated many of the larger trees and bushes with flammable oils to help their "shock and awe" value along that stretch of road, but as the battle began to go poorly they set them on fire as an offensive tactic.  Unfortunately, instead of helping them, the only real contribution from the fire was to severely burn one of the triplets.  

Two of the bandits (one of the javelin throwers, and the burned triplet) managed to escape with their lives, but headed in opposite directions, complicating some players ideas of pursuit.


Here ends the first session of play.  

Player List

The following is a list of each character currently in the campaign as well as a brief recap of the story they told about acquiring goods for the caravan. (Some recaps are missing with plans to be added later)
 
Farwyn Ohlms - Ranger
Traveled to the South to acquire Elvish goods for the caravan with Howl. After reaching a southern elvish town, Farwyn split from Howl and was accosted by gnolls and an owlbear in the jungles.
 

Howl - Wizard
Traveled to the South with Farwyn.
 

Calen - Warlord
Traveled West to the Kingdoms by the Sea with Mac in an effort to renew old connections made during their glory days in the arena pits, and bring back booze.
 

Mac - Barbarian
Traveled West with Calen.

Barney Flax - Bard
Traveled South West with Swarley.

Swarley - Assassin
Traveled South West with Barney.


Eredan - Cleric
Traveled North, alone, to visit family. Discovered and cleansed an abandoned moonstone mine haunted by the undead.
 

Nestor - Warden
Traveled North with companions in search of furs. Epic battle with an ancient cave bear. Clawed across the face. Companion killed.

Brandle - Warden

Jace Beleren - Psion

Intro

In October 2011, the "Reywish" campaigns began.

Background:

• Players grew up together in the close-knit town of Reywish (population ~750)
• Players should all be human unless they provide a compelling reason not to be
• They adventured together in their "younger days" before heading separate ways, and they have now reached level 10
• In the early days their group also included three red-haired siblings: The twin brothers Baron and Shazz, and their sister Luci (NPCs)
• After the group split up (amicably) the siblings stayed in Reywish, saved their money, and now want to start a caravan trading company
• Over the past 6-8 months they have contacted each of the PCs and asked them to be not just guards of the caravan, but partners/investors in it
• The plan is to reach the city of Banuvo, far to the east, in time for the Midsummer Festival (a huge moneymaking opportunity) 

The full introductory document can be found here describing the world and story hook in more detail.