JohnB's Games

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====== Roth Family History ======


===== Ironridge =====


Our story, perhaps, starts when our grandparents (the DuFeu’s) came to Ironridge
to settle.  Grandfather had been a mercenary officer, Grandma  one of their supporting
sorcerers, and when their family started to get old enough, they settled down.

Grandfather was ‘Captain of the Guard’ in Ironridge, when a visiting Elven Bard made
free with his daughter’s honour – she (our mother) was clearly with child and was
married off, quickly, to a junior officer (Lieutenant Roth, red hair, from a nco
level military family).  Soon afterwards, Wyn was born).  Then Berta (a true child
of the marriage) came along -  followed by Gedd  (who had none of his father’s
features and was born 9 months after a party that father didn’t attend).

Wyn was a Mummy’s Boy.  Berta was the apple of her father’s eye and Gedd was an
outcast, brought up by the servants.  By now, the grandparents had moved to Haverton
(a large market town 30 miles away) to take a  more responsible position and Father
had been promoted to Captain of the Guard in Ironridge.  Relations between Mother
and Father soured,  Mother became introverted, Father became a drunken bully.  We
children became close to each other.  Our grandparents passed away.

Eventually Mother retired to a convent, where she became victim of a plot to frame
her for theft.  We siblings didn’t believe this, investigated and discovered our
Father was involved with the plot.  Eventually we lost both parents – Mother died
of the stress, Father was sacked, imprisoned and not seen again.

By this time, Orc raids on the town intensified, as they were pushed out of their
ranges by the raiders moving south, and all three of us helped in the fight to
protect the town.  But it was a losing battle and before too long people started to
leave.  The iron wasn’t worth that many lives.

With nothing to hold us in the area, we signed up as caravan guards, initially
protecting the people leaving Ironridge and then continuing on to Valarez.



===== Valerez =====


First Job:  Find Elsin

We met Kezra Callie (our patron & one of the City Councillors)  in O’Malleys, and she offered us a job to find her brother Elsin (A ranger lost in the Shadow Rock Mountains) –  it a personal task, rather than a city council task.  She had selected a halfling called Wilric to come with us.  We took a short factfinding tip to the White Dragon, her father’s inn, to collect more information, before setting off.  There we met Flessel  (Kezra’s father, Blind), Winnie and a barman,  but we didn’t gain much from the encounter.

Eventually Kezra sent us to The Shadow Rock Mountains ,  using a pair of ponds as teleport gates.   We camped overnight, then discovered what Shadow Rock is.  It messes with people’s minds, making them hallucinate in a negative way.  A little bit ‘Bad Drugs Trip’ -  but not too extreme.  We get to a Dwarf Mining Camp, party with some dwarves – and discover that Shadow Ale can give even a hardy dwarf some severe hallucinations.  One of the dwarves leads us to the end of their mines,  and we head off into some underground cavers, following a set of tracks, that we found.  Then we run into a pennaguanna (penguin)!  (Although it has a conjuration aura)  Which manages to lead us to a Pit -  with Claire at the bottom  (Claire is childlike (as always) and singing a silly song)

Claire accompanies us, and we finish up meeting a White Wolf and some shadowy men at a crossroad.  Thre is some combat, the wolf turns out to be an Illusion/spell -  The gunslinger shoots Wyn -  but somehow we make a peace between us.

As the Wolf is destroyed, the tunnel begins to melt.  And we are left in a tense stand-off with another adventuring group from O’Malleys.  After some hassle, we make ‘friends’ (almost) and    discover they were to find Claire -  but rescued Elsin (our quarry) instead – and head to the surface together.  We find Elsin in a Dwarf Camp – and he uses a spell-scroll to take us all back to Valerez, and into O’Malley’s for a roundup and debrief.

At some time during that adventure, we agreed to adopt Wilric into the family.

O’Malley’s Festival A whole series of street events and party -  It sawWyn’s first date with Winnie and a chat with the two (irritating) ‘Vun’ kitsunes.  Mud & Kezra execute a traitor – literally wrenching her apart by magic.  Berta was ‘chatted up’ by Karon the Hobgoblin.  During the events Wyn learns he is not very good at solving riddles however, Gedd and Cousin Willric are good at throwing darts.

Finding Elsin had been a test -  to find out whether we could meet the standards that Kezra and Hearth set.  And apparently we could -  because we were taken on to help out with helping to get their old adventuring party back together again.  We never really did find out why -  but the hired help rarely does.   However, Claire (The Woman-Child) was dispatched alongside us to help out with our quest.  We needed to find Balen (a halfling rogue), Jackson, a half-elf [or possibly Centaur] fighter who considered himself to be a dragon hunter and Maeve, an elven sorceress.  She took up the mantle of a swan maiden to help protect the forests near the border of Senectus.

Then there was research, Library, Guards, Thieves Guilds , Kezrea and Flessel.  It gave us a couple of starting points – and we decided to go after Jackson, the dragon hunter first.   But we needed still more information -  a Tiefling called Velkarah, traded us knowledge of a young green dragon, and its possible location -  BUT we had to go and catch an auromvorax kit – before she would share the information with us.

Velkarah’s map took us back into Amber Woods, and eventually led to a series of camp sites that Jackson had been using.  We followed him around for a bit, found evidence of his fights with some Orcs, and finally caught up with him, just as the dragon  (a green dragon called Drix) swooped into view.  It grabbed the orc that was preparing to attack Jackson, and Wilric (our adopted brother / cousin) and flew off with them.  We gave chase …  Eventually, we caught up with them in the tunnels under Valerez.  By this time Jackson had Kezra, Claire and Hearth as a party, and were taking on Drix (out of our sight)  we spoke with the young dragon, made friends with him.   There was a complication with a dead gnome (the young one’s  previous friend)  and a magically trapped ball the gnome had brought as a present.  It nearly got nasty, but we talked our way out of it.  When Young One tried to play with the ball -  and an ethereal explosion nearly killed   him.  Drix, amd Kezra (in the form of a white dragon burst into the chamber)  Kezra was knocked unconscious -  and we faced Drix the mother...  Gedd healed young one and negotiated a peace with Drix.

We got Wilric back, managed to heal/save Kezra and the Dragons left the region.  But not before Young One decided to take the name Roth in our  (or perhaps Gedd’s)  honour.  We decided that we were dragon friends and went and got green dragon tattoos -  with red highlights/details (Roth means red).  However after his strange dragon ride, Wilric decided that he wasn't cut out for adventuring.  (mainly because his player had left the game) -  the Roth's continue alone ...

Then we went to buy an Inn – The White Dragon.  It had been discussed (briefly previously)  But after Wilric’s dragon flight it became more important.  However, one comment from the game proved prophetic - When we get rich, I am sure  we will all have big town houses somewhere, as well as own a string of inns, a brewery and a vineyard ... But we aren't quite ready for that yet – Indeed, that would have to wait until we got to Tusk.  Actually, we didn’t buy the whole inn -  just a share of it, but enough to give us a  base and a start in life.

Separately, Wyn had partially financed a small temple dedicated to Takri.  It was more of a Chantry than  anything else, where the name of the dead were recorded and remembered.  We were in business with a council woman’s family and Wyn was dating her cousin.  By this point we were becoming solid citizens of Valerez.

Our next job was to find Maeve, another of Herth’s friends - a Swan-Maiden who lived in Amber Wood.  On the way through the woods, we came across a strange insect, that sucked the juices out of its prey, while burning it alive.  Worse, it was about the size of a horse and could climb trees!   We can across its tracks, and Berta and Gedd built a trap for it - which worked perfectly.  Then we met up with some Mocking Fey who, when they discovered we wanted to speak with Maeve, led us to a quite pool  where we met up with another group who had been in the woods.  Borack, Marceline and Tolbrand had been harassing the evil Orc Shaman/Druid (Malveese).  We buried their friend Strix who had died during their expedition.  Then we met Maeve, who agreed to come when Kezra called IF  Marceline covered for her – after a while Marceline agreed to the deal.  Then we had a long chat, before making our way back to Valerez.

The others brought some journals that they said belonged to Malveese, which we helped pass over to Kezra.

We spent a very short time looking for a criminal overlord, called Gri, who we hoped might give us a lead on Balen, our third target, however, the game ended before we really got started.

===== Tusk =====

At this point we decided that The Roths would move to Tusk and sit as NPCs until we were ready to go somewhere else.  We were never quite sure why -  But we felt it probably had something to do with Councilman Mud, and perhaps Gri the underworld boss -  although there is also the possibility that the Journals of Malveese  (the Shaman from  the Amber Woods) were involved -  or the mysterious Veronica.  Anyway, we left at short notice, with what valuables and cash we could scrape together -  Wyn, Berta, Gedd, Winnie, Old Pete and Folfast – and we took Marceline with us.

We had enough money to make the long journey to the newly built city of Tusk -  and had just enough gold (and magic) to bribe the city administration to let us build an inn -   where we settled down to make our fortunes.  Along the way, Beta gained the title of ‘Dame Berta’ -  through the skilful application of a suitable cash payment.

By the time we left Tusk we owned a small chain of inns/taverns  and made ale, wine & spirits -  from crops grown in our own fields.  We also owned a small mansion and stagecoach business connecting the main settlements.    We were wealthy and medium influential and, by this time, Wyn and Winnie had a daughter (Marayne Roth) of three years old -  named after our mother.  And again, Dame Berta was recognised as a Member of the Southern Chapter of Knights.

But something happened, again  Mud had found us -  and we fled again, leaving our business empire behind.  Travel this time, took us toanother plane -  although with a  three-year-old in tow, it was almost like having Claire back with us. It was a very different type of journey and involved a spell jammer and interplanar travel.

===== Kresk - Current =====

We arrived with just enough money to buy a country inn at a place called Kresk -  and not long afterwards we were called by Gaard, the Mage of Neverwinter, to make a delivery of strange pale blue stones to Silverymoon and were to be accompained by an elf called Seraphiel.  There was a lot of preparation, as the delivery was supposed to be carried out quietly, so we brought a wagon, loaded up and set off with the stones concealed in a coffin under the guise of an Elven body being returned home for burial. We travelled, initially with a Dwarf caravan, until we were attacked by Orcs and the caravan turned back.  We couldn't go with them, because Berta had been kidnapped during the raid.  So we buried the stones and set off for the rescue.

Gedd tracked the Orcs back to their camp, deep in the forest, where we snuck in, freed Berta, and took revenge on the Orc Leader, called Xred, as we retrieved her gear.  By this time the camp was aroused, partly because of the fires we had set as a diversion, and we were in a tricky spot.  Fortunately, the Orcs had upset a local Banshee, known as Agatha, whose arrival coincided with an attack on the camp by a barbarian war band, visited the camp and provided the diversion we needed to help make our escape.  As we did so, we noticed Soggrin, a barbarian princess who was another of Xred's prisoners (and her small entourage) make her escape as well.

Once we had found the horses and dug up the stones, we set off again.  This time alone on the trail and in mid-winter.  Bad weather forced us to go the long way around, and eventually we would have to cross the Troll Moors.  Although before we got there, we were stopped, and arrested, by a strange family of wild mages, caller The Harpells, accused of the murder of Mage Gaard!  It turned out that the Mage Gaard we met was an imposter, although the Harpell's magic showed us to be innocent of the crime.  After a few days in their strange house, to recover and rebuild our strength, we set off again.

We met Soggrin on the road, alone and without her entourage who, had apparently been kidnapped from her tribe by a mage called Manshoon, and then kidnapped from him by Xred -  and she was trying to avoid all of them.  We offered her a lift in the wagon.  First, we were found by a band of her  barbarian horseman tribe -  we were just about to go into battle, when huge Harpells appeared in the sky and destroyed the whole band -  apart from one lad who was sent back to the tribe as a warning. Then Manshoon appeared, riding a black dragon to reclaim his bride.  Apparently, Manshoon is the leader of an evil group intent on taking over the world - and a very powerful mage.   However, he is now on our list of 'People we don't like and would like a reckoning with'.  One day ...  probably just after we have visited Mud, mage and the councillor in Valerez.

By the previous standards, the next part of our journey was fairly quiet.  Just an encounter wth dragon cultists, some sort of dragon-trolls and an encounter with some goblins, where we picked up a new magic user called Lysande, before we made the next town Nesme.  After talking to the leaders of Nesme, we hitched ride on a Gnomish paddle steamer!  It was a strange journey, where we got into a battle with dragon turtle that seemed to think it owned thr river.  After a massive fight, the dragon turtle was defeated, Lysande was dead and Seraphiel had gone into some sort of funk, where he couldn't do anything.  That left us with our horses, a few gnomes, and the stones to transport on wards.

We got caught between bands of trolls and barbarians, and were forced off of our intended course before we took refuge in a cave to try and hide or fend off attacks.  Just after we arrived, a young sorceror, called Terresina, rode in (chased by more of the barbarians)  so we hitched up with our third caster of the journey.  It turned out that the cave was a secret entrance to an old Dwarf minehold, and we managed to find the trigger words that opened the door.  It must have left the barbariians very confused, when we just disappeared.  Some fairly uneventful travle through the passages and caverns, led us to a different exit that was closer to Silverymoon, and we managed to complete  the rest of the journey fairly uneventfully.

However, when we went to make our delivery and collect our reward, we were in for a surprise.  Apparently the 'magic stones' that we had carried all the way from Neverwinter were completely worthless and that we were something like the eighth delivery of the worthless stones to arrive.  It was all for nothing!  Disappointed, we agreed to take a message back to neverwinter, and  went to spend the night at an inn.

However, when we awoke we were in a strange inn, miles from Silverymoon, in aplace called VTilverton - with strange magical tattoes on our arms.  A couple  of consultations later, we discover that the tattos contain runes associated with The Fire Knives, Moander, Manshoon's Zhentarim, the Red Wizards of Thay and Tyranthraxus - as nasty a set of evil groups, deities and monsters as you could ever wish to see, and we are advised to seek advice from Elmister the Mage.    However, as we set off, The King arrives, starts to give a public speech - and the Tattoo runes activate -  compelling us to make an assassination attempt on the king.  We still aren't sure  whether the king is dead -  but we managed to get out of town before the gates were barred, and are currently on our way to see the great mage, himself.  Let's just hope that Terresina lasts longer than our other casters.