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Sunday Night: Shadows of the Last War

I officially started a new campaign tonight in Ebberon.  The party consists of a female tiefling fighter/warlock, a dwarven fighter, a warforged wizard, and my character, who will introduce himself in a bit.  The campaign started out in Ebberon and follows the Forgotten Forge as an introduction but quickly got off track into the new sandbox campaign.  Our GM did a wonderful job dealing with out shenanigans.  I'll let Merek tell the rest.

I am Merek Gower, an average purveyor or music but an excellent purveryor of stories.  You used to find me most nights in the Broken Anvil, an old tavern buried in the Mason's Tower of House Ghallanda.  I earn enough coin here to pay my way, though I am always looking for other opportunities.  It's in my nature -- I grew up on these streets in Sharn and had to learn them myself.  My mother was a refugee from Cyre and she didn't know this place.  She died here when I was very young.  My father, well, he was never in the picture, though I have an idea or two which noble he was.  I have an old signet ring that reminds me when I need to get angry.

In any case, I have met a few new friends looking for opportunities like me.  Breeses is an odd one, keeping under her cloak most of the time.  I dare say she would be attractive if she ever let her hair down.  Her mood always a bit gruff.  Though wise, she lacks the memory for good negotiation.  I think she prefers agreesive negotiations with her scimitars anyway.  Dain is an incompetent dwarf at everything except smashing faces in with a blunt weapon.  He doesn't hold back and it is downright frightening to see him work his specialty.  I feel safer with him nearby though.  Ink slinger is a warforged, and before you say anything bad about him, he wasn't involved in the war.  He was trained in the magical arts and really seems more timid than most warforged.  I like that he is a thinking machine, not jumping out and chopping down people.  He gives me someone like me, as much as there can be someone like me.

Oh, yes, and then there is me.  How do I fit in to this ragtag band?  I do the talking when there is diplomacy yet to be salvaged.  I can lie and steal and cheat as much as I need to.  I can break into things and see my way clear of deception and treachery.  In the end, I hope all this leads to a life less ordinary with bags of money and those in my service and those that love me.  But this adventure is just starting, so the tale is yet to be written...

The day ended like any other with my oration at the Broken Anvil earning me more laughs from my own group than silver from the drinking crowd.  It was a spring rain, the kind that comes down so hard and so fast that it seems to be coming up from the ground.  Walking the bridges in this weather is difficult and we almost didn't see the dead body, slashed from knickers to nose.  We searched and there wasn't much to find and surprisingly much for being killed on the streets of Sharn.  His attacker was still nearby and we found ourselves in an ambush by a very large warforge.

The party jumped to action and we quickly dispatched the beastly thug.  It was unfortunate that we were just tossing the bodies over the bridge when the Captain of the Guard wandered in.  So we ended up in the Hoosegow, but I talked our way free with the old Captain.  He knows me from my less than honorable childhood with the Artisan's and Entertainer's Guild.

Just out the door we ran into someone looking for items from the old man that had been killed.  There was an opportunity, so we met with the blue lady from the House Cannith.

She took the blank magical journal and generated a map from up.  For 100 upfront and 1000 end haul, we had to trudge into the sewers and retrieve something from an old vault, 57 levels down.  Not a bad wage.  Breeses, an old smuggler, found us a map down, and away we went.

Not two levels in we got jumped by a warforged and two changlings looking for the journal, which we had sold back to the House Cannith Lady in blue.  Breeses tried to do the talking, so we ended up in a fighter.  I nearly got my head knocked off by a changling, but was able to switch over to my new hand crossbow to help out.  The rest of the journey was without incident, except for a trapped, sealed door that Breeses got hit by.

The vault itself was in a cavernous collection of old buildings.  The doors in were delapidated, so it was quick inside.  We had to defeat some minor warforged guard dogs.  The seven-pointed start item was inside along with a map and some other goods.  The healing potion felt good going down but didn't help the wounds much.

Upon leaving, an elvan ambush was layed for us, and it was another house looking for what we had gotten.  I talked our way out of it and into an exchange for gold for the item that would put 5000 gp in each of our pockets.

The exchange was to happen the next day, a simple exchange of bag for bag.  We hired some extra crossbowmen to keep watch and Dain did the exchange.  It was legit, much to my own surprise, and we were ecstatic.

There was still the map left, so we would sell it to the Lady in blue.  But not the real one, so Breeses lined up a forger and we had a new one made.  It was time to get out of town as many deals that had been made, so we also booked seats on the rail.  We were going to see the orcs and Mournland where this map lead us.

THe Lady in Blue never showed but her lesser came to the tavern asking questions.  We sold her the info for $500 gp and the fake map for another $1500 gp.  A disguise later we were on the train and off to new lands.

Of course, the train ride didn't go as well, and we got jumped by 5 assasins hidden among the normal people on the train.  It was a bloody mess when we bested them.  Now we have to figure out how to get away from the bloody scene without getting caught, while on a train.  Yikes.

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