1st Session:
Justin, and Andy were in attendance.

Justin’s character is Captain Arkadia, a heroic human paladin who lists no god as his savior. Rather, he worships the Arkadian government itself. It’s an obvious analogy to Marvel comics’ Captain America, made even more apparent by the fact that both are primarily shield users.

Andy’s character is Tiberis Bitterleaf, a chaotic-neutral rogue who embodies the essence of old-school D&D thief. Seemingly focused on personal pleasure first, Tiberius the halfling sees personal wealth increase as the means to this end.

With this personality conflict in place, I made plans to assemble the duo for their first adventure in what I hoped was going to be a full-blown campaign in this part homebrew, part module driven setting.

The first adventure began in Minerva, a mid-size port city known for its bustling harbor and placement on one of Arkadia’s major, paved highways. Both of our characters are newly arrived in the city; Arkadia hails from inland (likely the capital of the Empire), while Tiberius comes from another major city several leagues down the coastline to the east. Their time in Olenos at this point has been short, likely only a day. Pre-session, Tiberius managed to secure/steal a mule that was standing unwatched outside a local watering hole.

It is near the docks that the character first meet up in a scene that really couldn’t have been planned better in terms of displaying their ideological differences in attitude. A young pickpocket was being chased by a legionnaire, causing the Captain to stop the crook and begin offering words of wisdom to the troubled youth. His attempts to direct the boy down the path of righteousness were hampered by the arrival of Tiberius on the scene.

Tiberius’ advice to the kid consisted of informing him that the trick to escaping punishment was simply to avoid being caught. This statement was not taken well by the soldier nor Capt. Arkadia, who both heartily disagreed with the halfling’s words. The pickpocket reluctantly returned the legionnaire his money and quickly scuttled off into the crowds of the docks.

It is this debate that draws the attention of a white haired, elderly man sitting outside a nearby café. He calls the two over and introduces himself as Theoden, a representative of the Federation of Science, a branch of the Arkadian bureaucracy. He explained how his current assignment consisted of mapping out various ruins / graveyards / barrows on the western edge of the empire, past the zones currently shown on major trade route maps. Theoden had been hiring adventurers to do this mapping for him and return with detailed sketches and/or lost artifacts of bygone eras. He claimed that Capt. Arkadia and Bitterleaf would be ideal for such a series of missions.

The paladin and halfling were doubtful, considering how argumentative their intitial meeting had become. Theoden claimed, however, that this inherent difference in their mindsets would be an ideal experiment; it could potentially prove his theories regarding "odd couples" ultimately working better together than like-minded individuals. This off-kilter hypothesis was made even more unsettling by Theoden's bizarre speech patterns and constant adjustment of a multi-lensed monacle he wore over his right eye.

Any doubts the two had were soon dispelled when Theoden started stroking their respective egos. Arkadia was willing to do it purely for its supposed beneficial aspects for the Arkadian Empire. Bitterleaf was content to be paid in shiny gold, although he kept haggling in an attempt to garner a riding dog out of the eccentric, old man. The halfling had to be content himself with the promise of a decent portion of gold split up into pre-mission and post-mission segments.

With the official storyline hook in place, our daring duo sauntered off, intent on reaching the empire's edge in a few days and getting to know each other in the meantime. Approximately a day and a half into their coastal sojour, Bitterleaf and Arkadia spotted a humble looking inn just off the highway. Since the evening had fallen, they decided to make their way there and spend the night in its warm confines.

A nervous, harried stableboy by the name of Peden greeted them outside The Salty Dog and quickly set about hitching their animals in the nearby stable. Inside, they were greeted by the boy's uncle: a burly, agreeable man who called himself Gregor. An eyepatch wearing drunk was the only other occupant, keeping mostly to himself at a distant table, staring out at the distant sea.

"BEER!" Bitterleaf bellowed. He tossed a pile of his recently acquired coins onto the table to drive home his point. "And food!" The halfling was intent on making a glutton of himself. Captain Arkadia politely ordered a glass of wine.

"Of course, my good sirs. I'll get right on that." Gregor said pleasantly. He walked over to the door and leaned out to yell at Peden. "Boy! Get in here and start making these guests some food!"

He turned and smiled apologetically at the player characters. "I'm sorry, sirs. My nephew's dilly-dallying outside. Lazy nephew of mine just can't seem to keep up with his chores sometimes."

Hmmm, that innkeeper sure seems to dump a lot of work on his nepehw, Tiberius thought. "BEER!" The halfling bellowed. Meanwhile, Capt. Arkadia tried to talk to the mysterious stranger at the other end of the common room, only to find his odd stories of sahuagin attacks and thousand-yard stare to be disconcerting.

As Captain Arkadia sat drinking his wine, he began to suffer intermittent bizarre, realistic hallucinations revolving around people he had never seen before: an elvish woman looked at him with love in her eyes and he felt the same; a young boy was seen reaching his hand through a plank of wood with a mysterious glyph carved into it; and a younger version of Gregor yelled in his face about the unfairness of the situation and then stormed out of the inn’s common room.

Captain Arkadia staggered to his feet, knocked his glass to the floor, and started yelling at Bitterleaf. “What did you do?” He fell against the wall, coming down off another round of vivid imagery. “The antidote - give me the antidote!” The paladin screamed while the Halfling laughed mockingly.

Eventually the visions ceased and Gregor stood dumbstruck, nervously glancing at the spilled wine glass. Peden was frightened as well, unsure of what was occurring. A short conversation regarding the incident with the innkeeper lead Captain Arkadia to conclude that the man was lying about his lack of knowledge regarding the nature of the visions. Peden chimed in when the Captain described the other man in the waking dream. The boy claimed that it sounded like his deadbeat father who ran away when he was a small boy, leaving him to be raised by uncle Gregor. Gregor agreed then, arguing that “the elven bitch used her unholy magic to bewitch my brother and spirit him away, leaving me to raise Peden.”

A series of investigative actions by Tiberius lead to him discovering evidence of digging in the wine cellar of the Salty Dog’s basement. Meanwhile, upstairs, Capt. Arkadia was grilling Gregor about discrepancies in his story and his desire to call in city watch officials to uncover the true nature of this poisoning. Mention of government security types caused the mysterious sailor by the window to rush outside and cry, “I don’t want part in any city watch business!”

Peden continued to stand perplexed, watching the adventurer debate with his increasingly anxious looking uncle. Little did any of them know that Tiberius had snuck back upstairs and was readying his dagger from the shadows behind the bar.

“Look. I’m sorry about what happened but it’s not my fault. It’s elven trickery. You’ve surely heard the stories of what they’re capable of, those borderlands dwelling monsters. They’re the ones you should be seeking out! Not me! I’m just a humble innkeeper trying to make some coin. I’ll give you your money back but I’d like you both to leave at this point,” Gregor proclaimed shortly before Tiberius rushed out from behind the bar and delivered a half-hearted stab to his back.

The heavyset man screamed at the surprise of the attack and quickly went for the dagger at his hip. His gesture was futile as the halfling’s next attack sliced home. Gregor tumbled to the ground, unconscious from blood loss. Before Bitterleaf could deliver a coup-de-grace, Captain Arkadia rushed over and knocked the rogue off the prone innkeeper.

A brief argument ensued regarding the reasoning behind Bitterleaf’s actions. Captain Arkadia, being a paladin, was none too pleased at this course of events. Bitterleaf contended that Gregor the innkeeper was guilty of murder; murder most foul. The rogue told Captain Arkadia about the evidence of graves in the dirt of the wine cellar and how they had both suspected Gregor was lying to them. The noble Captain agreed, but heartily chastised Bitterleaf for his rash actions and began to explain the necessity of maintaining law and order. While all of this was going on, Peden had quickly run out of the door, fearing for his life.

Captain Arkadia had Bitterleaf tie Gregor securely to a post in the common room and ordered the rogue to follow him outside to search for Peden. The paladin was unwilling to leave the Halfling alone in the inn with the now stable, but still unconscious suspect. After a half hour of searching, the duo managed to find Peden and, amazingly enough, convince the boy that they meant him no harm.

Captain Arkadia discussed the nature of his visions with the boy and quickly discovered that Peden’s memories of his father and mother had been tarnished by years of influence from Gregor. Bitterleaf was more blunt, simply stating to Peden that his uncle had killed his parents and buried them in the basement, probably in an attempt to secure the inn for himself. The kid grew upset, unsurprisingly.

Upon return, Peden took his frustrations out on his “lying uncle” and began pummeling Gregor’s unconscious form. Capt. Arkadia let him get it out of his system and then told Peden to stop. The laws of Arkadia would see that Gregor would face justice. Ironically, Bitterleaf began looting all the upstairs rooms.

Eventually, the Capt. and Peden made their way upstairs as well, only to find Bitterleaf with a bag of loot stacked next to the door and a crowbar in hand, tearing up the floorboards in the boy’s room. The paladin was about to deliver another stern condemnation when he noticed that on of the planks of wood has the same glyph from his vision carved into its surface. Through trial-and-error, the group learned that the symbol allowed magical access to a pocket dimension – a storage space only Peden’s hand could reach into. Within, he found his parent’s legacy: a magic sword and two potions, gifts to their son from their own adventuring days. Peden decides to working at the inn and vows to become a hero like his parents.

Although unaware of exactly how these visions had come to be, the Captain and Bitterleaf were content by the end of the incident, although for completely different reasons. The heroic paladin was glad he had turned a young man’s life around and that they were bringing a murderer back to Minerva for trial. Bitterleaf was glad he had snagged coinage and valuables that wouldn’t be missed, as the Salty Dog’s only two employees were now leaving the place. To be continued...