Recap
The morning of the 15th of Trivor, 1329:

Sammeth Knar was a tall, wiry kind of man that made his living as a plunderer and a mercenary, guiding nobles to obscure ruins or spelunking in abandoned dwarven mines. He was a veteran of the War of the Undead, and pushing thirty in age, with an air of experience -- and lightning reflexes.

The war in Rakore was nearly a month old. Two weeks into the war, one of the king's highest advisors, Duke Herod Notimeh, was exposed as a traitor to the king and to all of Rakore. 'The Traitor' and his lead henchman, Doom Rex, as well as the mercenary band known as the Marksmen, were all wanted men throughout Rakore. There was no bounty; whomever caught them would receive rewards for which there were no gold values.

Sammeth had just returned from a failed expedition into the western Rakoran forests, and spent just one night in Rilan, when he was approached with an intrigueing offer. Gyven Furlong, the owner of the Broken Bow tavern, let Sammeth know that a minstrel at the Blue Tyven inn was looking for Sammeth by name, and had a job proposition for him. Sammeth checked out the lead after flipping a coin Gyven's way.

The minstrel's name was Tram, and Sammeth had seen him perform now and again at the Blue Tyven. The minstrel quickly jotted down a rough map and some notes for Sammeth, and indicated that the assignment would have to be very hush-hush. Tram indicated that the job would pay 500 in gold, and let Sammeth have the rest of the day to think things over.

Sammeth spent the afternoon with his hawk, up on the second story of the Broken Bow, overlooking the main floor and listening to those around him, slowly nursing an ale as he thought deeply. Sammeth had served in the War of the Undead as a conscript, but he still had a patriotic bent to him, despite his hatred of orders and people telling him what to do. Sammeth had no oaths of fealty, making him subject to the whims of any of the nobility, and so he often avoided them at all costs, save to act as a guide or a mercenary for them.

As Sammeth passed the afternoon, two characters closer to his table got more and more sauced with ale. One of their contacts had been captured by the Lord Reeve of Rilan, a massive desert elf, and without their contact, the two characters had no way to make their contact to steal several suits of plate mail from Lok Giran, scheduled to ship out the next day.

The two mentioned a name, Gotboldus, as the man that had hired them.

'The Falconer' as Sammeth was sometimes known, opted not to get involved. Each suit of plate from Lok Giran was worth thousands of gold, and the suits were also going to the front lines of the war, where they were sorely needed. The falconer figured that the stakes were too high at that table, and kept his nose out of that trouble -- especially because the Lord Reeve had become involved in it, already.

Later in the evening, as the first rounds of Siege began to warm up, Sammeth prepared to leave. It was only as he walked away that he realized he was being measured by a stranger who was also leaving. The two characters at the nearby table were dead -- Sammeth would swear on it -- and he got a glimpse of the stranger seeing if Sammeth had any relations with the two. The falconer figured on poison as he passed by the table, and only got a glimpse of the assassin, before hurrying out.

The assassin wore a hood and no visible weapons, but had bright blue eyes and a golden goatee, and then he was gone -- leaving behind two dead men, both heavily armed, in a busy tavern.

Sammeth returned to the Blue Tyven -- a classier joint run entirely by dark elves -- to find Tram in full swing. The minstrel played a number of guitars, while his wife -- a strong woman -- kept beat with a tamborine. On the stage, Tram's pet -- a tiny, golden tamarin monkey named 'Goliath' -- went ape gathering up the coins tossed on the stage.

After Tram's performance, he was followed by two dwarves, one of whom began singing powerful dwarven operettas that helped mask any voices from Tram's table near the stage.

Tram asked if Sammeth was still interested, and the Falconer indicated he was -- but at twice the price: 1,000 in gold. Tram thought for a bit, and then agreed, but would need that evening to gather up the other half. With a better feel for one another, Tram outlined the rest of the job, and answered any questions Sammeth had.

Tymarell was a city state that had existed hundreds of years ago -- long before the Inquisition and the Storm Wars. The city had been a local stronghold, ruled over by a wizard, a dragon, and several nobles. The city was destroyed in a volcanic disaster which covered the city in ash and rock -- but left its sewers intact. The disaster had been so fast that none had escaped, and the treasury of Tymarell had been left intact -- until Tram and his wife, and some friends, had found it again.

There had been a guardian of elemental stone that had prevented their entrance into the treasury, and so they had retreated, especially after the troll Grythe had nearly killed them. The bodies of two of their friends still lay in the sewers, Tram said. When they returned to the ruins after recovering, they found the guardian bypassed -- and the treasury emptied.

Tram said that the Marksmen had done it; had taken the treasure, and used it to help pay for supply caches, and help Duke Herod finance his undermining of Rakore. Tram and Rain and their friends had searched some of the rest of the ruins (even finding scales of the silver dragon), and found a strange map on one of the floors of a room within the ruins.

The minstrel wasn't sure, but he thought that the Marksmen might have found that map, as well. It was obvious, in retrospect, that Duke Herod had some moles within Gideon Enterprises -- the people that had hired Tram in the first place. Herod passed the information along to his minion Doom Rex, whose Marksmen gutted the treasury, and possibly whatever other treasure was indicated by the map in the ruins of Tymarell.

Tram wanted the Falconer to revisit the ruins, and determine their state -- to see if the Marksmen might have returned, or possibly taken refuge within the ruins -- and also to see if the ruins might serve as a hideaway for the population of Takanal. Takanal was a town of some 1,500 farmers and stonemasons only six hours south of the ruins of Tymarell.

Near Tymarell lay the ruins of Grunden -- a town that had once supplied Tymarell with salt from its mines. The salt mines, too, might serve as a hideaway for the population of Takanal if need be.

Tram's contacts in Takanal were named 'Zap' and Ethos, and they knew about the mission. Tram wrote a letter of introduction for Sammeth, and let him know that a ship named the Grievous would leave for Takanal on the morrow. Tram would meet Sammeth there at the gangplank with the rest of the monies.

Sammeth agreed to the mission, partly for the gold, and partly as a way of helping the war effort without having to be on the front lines. Though ruthless and self-centered, there was a streak of patriotism in the Falconer a roc-hawke wide.

The next day, news reached Rilan that the Stonehelm Clan of dwarves had been overrun. Loregard still held, but it was the only stronghold in Rakore that had not yet fallen to the ograns. The Stonehelms were arguably the strongest, most warlike clan of dwarves in all Rakore; for them to fall indicated that all was lost.

Sammeth boarded the Grievous and proceeded up river. The captain, a professional courrier for Rakore, made good time with his crew to the docks of Takanal. Along the way, they were overflown by a trio of roc-hawkes carrying bulettes in cages beneath them. The scuttle-butt among the crew was that the Grand Maul Pass north of Takanal was already fortified by the ograns, whom had flown in a small army to guard the pass; the roc-hawkes were likely reinforcements for that army. With the Stonehelms over-run, there was nothing in Rakore save its mages to prevent the giant birds from flying overhead. Stonehelm heavy ballistae had been the only thing holding them back.

In Takanal, the Falconer made contact with Zacchary 'Zap' Kantor, a big warrior with a big heart that you couldn't help but like, despite his country attitudes and background. The town already had refugees from its outlying areas, making themselves comfortable in the Temple of the Trees -- a temple dedicated to Whalin, the God of Healing, and Barith, the God of the Harvest. The temple was run by a large priest named Father Thomalis, and his wife, Mother Tia.

Also at the temple was an elven priest to Whalin, named Ethos. Ethos seemed Zap's less energetic companion, and the two together formed a well-knit team.

That evening, as Sammeth was resting with the accolytes in the back of the temple, a fellow was brought in who was beat up and hurt. The locals had thought him a Marksman, and beat the stuffing out of the fellow. He would be healed at the temple, before standing trial, though Father Thomalis seemed to feel the refugees and the high-strung town had simply over-reacted. Takanal was only a day's march from the Grand Maul Pass.

In the morning, Zap and Ethos finished outfitting Sammeth; they supplied him with a decent riding horse, saddle, bit, blanket, and more -- and some bricks wrapped in paper. The bricks were dried peppermint leaves from Mother Tia's special garden, grown with water from the holy fountain that was the heart of the Temple of the Trees. Each brick was filled with dried leaves, and Ethos explained that one had only to eat a few to ease almost any malady or injury. More could be taken for more grievous wounds.

The Falconer set out with the dawn's light still breaking through the trees on the outskirts of town, and dark clouds gathering in the morning's wind off the mountains to the north.

Sammeth made good time to the quarry to the north of the town, and then from there, towards the ravine that marked the entrance to the sewers of Tymarell. Tram's map had been augmented with information from Zap and Ethos, whom had both been to Grunden, but not Tymarell.

The entrance to the sewers wasn't difficult to find with the proper landmarks, and Sammeth left his horse just inside the vine-overgrown sewer main. The main was wide enough for five men abreast, and carved of perfectly joined stones. To keep his horse feeling safe, he activated a sunrod, and left it near the horse, whose reins he wedged under a nearby stone.

The Falconer kept his large namesake on his shoulder. The bird, named Silverwing for the silvery wingtips on the peregrine, stayed on its special pad without much trouble.

From his pack, Sammeth pulled one of the dwarven torches, and proceeded deeper into the sewers of Tymarell. Since no one had occupied the city in centuries, the sewers smelled only of dank earth, despite their stone. The small stream of water that flowed through the middle of the main was stagnant but clear. The dwarven torch cast an eerie green light, but thanks to its runed construction, would never go out.

Sammeth took the first major right he came to. Tram's directions in the sewers were generalized, but he had indicated landmarks that would help Sammeth orient himself. Not long after proceeding down the first right, however, Sammeth began to run into thick cobwebs, and he developed a sinking feeling in his gut. Sure enough, a set of eight eyes reflected his dwarven torch-light -- eight eyes on a spider whose body was a big as his chest.

Silverwing flew away down the sewer line, as the monstrous spider was joined by two more of its kin. Sammeth quickly downed a vial of antitoxin from his belt, even before drawing his elven rapier, Phantom. The veteran treasure hunter had tangled with the kind of monstrous spider Rakore bred several times before.

The battle was fierce and ugly, and Sammeth prevailed -- though his brand new boots had several punctures in them. One of the spiders had attacked his feet, while another had crawled up under his cape, and bitten him there. He kicked aside the spider corpses, and the empty vial of antitoxin -- and beat a hasty retreat as a swarm of rats descended on the remains of the dead spiders.

Sammeth called Silverwing to him as he took another turn, keeping his bearing.

At the next intersection, well away from the mass of rats, Sammeth found a place where water had washed the remains of a number of creatures to the corner. The leg bones of a panther were mixed with rat bones, rabbit bones, and even the skull of a kobold. The skull had a bit of flesh on it, and it was difficult to estimate its age, but the Falconer figured it to be somewhere between a few days and a few months old.

There in the intersection, he waved his torch in every direction, searching for landmarks or clues. He had the general directions from Tram's map, and it would have to do.

XP Awarded
1,500.   (total XP awarded for the campaign is 1,500)

DM's Notes
I met with Todd on Saturday afternoon at his place, and we took some time to get going, refamiliarizing ourselves both with being at the gaming table. We'd played a bit of D&D recently, but the roles had been reverse. That old Star Wars line about, "Once you were the master," kept rolling through my mind.

We had to cut things a bit short that evening, as it was Veteran's Day, and my father and I wanted to spend some dinner together reminiscing about our service records. (chuckle) We wound up avoiding discussing it like the plague, though I did loan Todd Volume I of my personal logs, covering the year I was in Kuwait.

Of gaming note: Todd misrolled a spot check for Sammeth, and missed a kobold scout that was overwatching the area. The kobolds are spread out to watch for spies from Takanal, and may have had no idea the ruins of Tymarell are there. The kobold left its perch over the ravine soon after spying Sammeth. When the Falconer comes out of the sewers, he may have an ambush waiting for him. Lives are hanging in the balance, Sammeth's included.

I've given Todd the option of playing more than one character, and he may go for it. He may need it, too. (chuckle)