Arvan: Land of Dragons Game Pt. I

Both characters emerged from the treeline, Bers (played by Jen) wearing a chain-mail coif on her head, a chain-shirt with a battle ax and plain, unpainted wooden shield. Dead-Eye (played by Cris) leading the way wearing dirty soft-leather and cowl & cape carrying his bow, a sword and Bowie knife on his belt and a tomahawk slipped under it. He also had a few fat rabbits hooked to his belt as his initial hunting check was very lucky. Both possibly fleeing a life of fur-trapping and wood-cutting had they remained at home. The tiny village of Dreyton lay sitting at the base of a small hill a short distance away, the walls of the Fertum Dreyhawk nothing but a speck several miles off further to the North West. As soon as they were within the village they made a bee-line to the beer-hall only stopping to sell off the rabbit pelts for a couple of Fliks (1 Flik is worth a quarter of a Copper Piece). The banners on the front of the beer-hall bore the standard of a Black Hawk with 1 outstretched wing on a blue field (would be obvious to the characters that it is the heraldry of the lord of the Fertum), the heraldry of the village being a black sword through a gold coin on a blue field.

Inside the beer-hall the characters use the last of their coin, about 3 cp (copper pieces) between the two, for drink. The tiny log structure was mostly empty, two warriors with the villages arms painted on their shields sit finishing their meals and ale. Two hunters, one a human the other a faun clad in dirty furs sat chatting in quiet tones. The barkeep was a pudgy unfriendly man. After observing the room for a drink or two and after slapping down the rabbits on the bar to be cooked for him Dead-Eye decided to approach the two hunters while Bers remained at the table in the corner near the door, her back to the wall.

Needless to say the hunters were overtly hostile with very strong almost unintelligible accents (their reaction roll was somewhere around 6 but since Dead-Eye has a pretty lousy Charisma …) after being asked, “How’s the hunting?” As the two fighters walk out of the building.

Dead-Eye beat them to the draw and punched the Faun in the face. The Faun pulled out his short sword and the dirty human his club. Both missed when they swung on him, Bers grabbed her ax and ran around to the human and killed him with a single stroke cutting him in tow and getting covered in gore. Dead-Eye stabbed the faun in the chest killing him almost instantly. As soon as the body splattered into the blood on the floor a crossbow bolt thudded into the wall just next to Dead-Eye’s head. The Barkeep had shot a crossbow bolt at him and had nearly hit (within 1 pt. of making the head-shot), Dead-Eye exclaimed, “He SHOT at my HEAD!” and tosses his tomahawk at him missing him by just about as much burying it into an ale barrel. Just then the Sheriff marches in with four village warriors each baring a shortspear. Accusations fly and of course the two rowdies are arrested and forced to follow the Sheriff; Dead-Eye recovered his tomahawk stealing a quick drink from the leak. As the two are warrior caste and the hunters were already known as troublemakers in the village (unbeknownst to the players) they are escorted to a small encampment at the village edge.

There they are told they are to be sentenced to what is equivalent to Community Service and introduced to a strange old man, in full chain-mail and smoking an intricately carved ivory pipe named Tyvan. They are introduced to the camp, where a collection of 8 of Tyvan’s “deputies” lounge awaiting for the day they depart for their mission, to track down and if possible slay whatever is killing and partially eating some of the livestock of the local ranchers. They have many conversations around the fire drinking ale and eating meals at cost to the village over the next week or so. Over this time Tyvan has somewhat won over our adventurers though his men have yet to bond with them or each other, he’s also been trying to seduce Bers, unsuccessfully though she’s intrigued because she knows she’s ugly. They find out Tyvan is a Druidic Marshal appointed by and called in by the local druid Siamnecca as the few men who’ve gone to hunt down whatever it is have not returned. Near the end of this time Tyvan is approached by an irate short, balding man in clean somewhat fancy clothes and the Sheriff, though the intrepid two cannot hear what is being said they can guess they’re gonna have to depart fairly soon.

The very next morning they find themselves marching with the other poorly armed and dirty crew while Tyvan leads on his riding goat along the Easterly road named the East Bend walking into the treeline of the Light Wood. They were on their way to follow a lead, according to Tyvan, to a farm owned by a farmer named Mull whose livestock has been the most decimated, the most recent attack only two nights previous.

-To Be Continued…

The Arvan Game (Intro)

It has been awhile since I have had anything worthwhile to post. I have been working hard on the current project for Dice & Glory, a setting manual: “Arvan: The Land of Dragons”. To help polish the book I have been Game-Mastering a sort of final test game which will help me to knock off the rough edges and perhaps organically fill in a few details during play. The first half of the game has concluded, though I pretty much use a sandbox approach to my games a structure usually emerges especially when introducing ideas, NPC-plottings and general cause-and-effect scenarios. So I figured why not blog the polishing game as some may find it an entertaining read. I will try to make it as coherent as possible and be as brief as possible while not eliminating the necessary details but don’t expect a well-written and compelling fantasy novel.

First off, I have only two players (this is my normal gaming group which has shrunk over the years from around 5 to now 2), Cris and Jennifer. Cris plays a character named “Dead Eye” an anti-social Ranger with a chip on his shoulder for Dragons. Jen plays a female fighter who is neither pretty or charismatic but very strong and wields a battle ax.

The Game is set in a region called the Cleft-Rills which is at the Northern end of the Central Mountains at the edge of the Granfor forest, one of the oldest and largest forests (actually a cold rain-forest) in the world. The Cleft-Rills is 1,000 miles inland from the coast well within the larger Westlands region and its cultural sphere. Both characters are Westlanders but are non-ethnic.

Well, this concludes the introduction. My next post will begin with the first session (and a tavern fight; as you do of course).