RQ Pavis Campaign Log
This is the campaign log of our current RQ Pavis campaign. The campaign is played on a weekly basis and involves three PCs – Karim Temris, a Zebra Rider from the Old Pavic Temris Family; Shan Agar, a Bison Riding Ancestor Worshipping shaman from a Pavic nomad family and Flargle, a Rhino Riding Storm Bull from a dispossessed rhino rider family newly arrived in Pavis.
The Chronicles are still rough and ready. I have written a lot of it from memory, as I haven’t always kept detailed notes of what happened week by week, but I have managed to catch up to where we are. They are very rough and unpolished and will probably stay that way. I haven’t put in game weeks or campaign dates as yet but hope to put in some dates later on. This isn’t a retelling of the campaign as a story or some great work of literary art. It is simply a quick chronicle to help the players remember events in the campaign, to give me a feel of where the campaign is going and has gone and to give other people an idea of what has happened in the campaign.
I have kept most of the scenarios and will be writing them up properly at some point so they can appear on the RQ Pavis website. I won’t be doing this at the moment as it is still a live campaign and some of the scenarios are still unresolved and it would spoil player’s enjoyment if they could read the scenarios online. As I use more and more published scenarios, this will become less of a problem.
The First Pavis Chronicles
Seaseason
Flargle and Karim were watching the arrival of an important Lunar nobleman from far away in the Lunar Empire. Everyone was talking about him, “He tried to kill the Red Emperor and was banished to Prax”, “He stole something important from the Red Emperor and had to flee in disgrace” and “He lost a fortune in the Lunar Empire and has come to Prax to make a new fortune”.
Suddenly there was a shout and a merchant came running up to them. “Boy,” he said to Karim, “some thieves have stolen the zebras that you sometimes mind for me. I’ll pay you well if you get them back for me.” After a bit of discussion, Karim and Flargle chased the thieves, running in the direction they had fled. They chased them through the crowds and back streets of Pavis when a young tough barged into Flargle. “Watch where you’re going, idiot” he said. But Flargle recognised him as a fellow Rhino Rider and started talking to him, asking him where he could buy a rhino. “Well, I happen to be selling my rhino soon as I want to join the Sun Dome mercenaries as part of their new Light Brigade, so I need to buy a set of armour.” he replied. Chatting away, he led them to some nearby stables where he showed them a fine example of a rhino, in good condition, not many miles on the hoof. After a bit of haggling, they agreed on a price of 2000L, as Flargle was a good bargainer, and he made a 100L down payment immediately.
They set off again, trying to find the thieves and realised they were heading towards the Rubble. Although they had been to the Rubble before, they had never been without an escort, but this didn’t stop them. They bribed a guard to let them through without the proper paperwork and tried to follow the tracks left by the thieves, but there were so many zebra tracks around, it was too confusing. They headed towards the Zebra Pens, as that was the probable destination. As they neared the Zebra Pens, a group of young men surrounded them and the leader approached with a sneer on his face. “A bit far from home, lads” he said. “I couldn’t tell your stench from the rest of the zebra smell”. They had seen him before and knew that these were the Fine Fellows, a rival street gang from Pavis. As the Fine Fellows pulled out their rapiers and daggers, Flargle and Karim turned and ran straight for the zebra pens. When they reached the gate, they explained that they were being chased by the Fine Fellows and asked for help. The guard knew Karim’s family and told them to wait a minute, disappearing inside. Just as the Fine Fellows reached them, the gate opened and they all ran inside. “Hah, we’ve got you now” said their leader, and then he looked around and saw twenty or so zebra warriors surrounding them and the gates being locked behind them. “Don’t you dare lay a finger on us,” he said, “or I’ll tell my Dad on you.” The zebra riders laughed and told Karim to take their weapons. They let the Fine Fellows go after covering them in zebra dung.
Karim asked the guards whether they had seen any zebras come in within the last half an hour or so. When told no, they were a little confused and looked around. They saw the zebras tied to a fence outside the zebra pens, with three young men sharing a meal beside them. The young men each had a blue star embroidered on their backs and were laughing and joking. Karim sneaked up behind the zebras as Flargle engaged the men in conversation, asking who they were and had they been in Pavis long. He wove an extremely clever story to keep them occupied as Karim untied the zebras. With a “whoop”, Karim leapt onto a zebra and rode off. As he passed Flargle, he slowed down for Flargle to jump on a zebra, but Flargle was not used to riding zebras and had a lot of difficulty controlling his mount. Karim rode off and Flargle rode around and around until the Lone Stars, as they called themselves, almost caught up to him, then he kicked the zebra in the sides and was off. Laughing, they reached the gates and were allowed through by their friendly guard, but Flargle found a throwing star stuck in his side as he suddenly felt very ill and almost passed out. Karim took him to the merchant who asked a healer to cure the poison on the throwing star.
The merchant was very grateful and rewarded them handsomely for their service. “I have need of a few good men, I’ll bring some work your way as caravan guards, bodyguards and what not.” he said, letting him know he was known as Starchaser. Flargle paid off another 500L of his rhino and spent some time feeding and taking care of it.
Flargle and Karim were joined by Shan Agar, a childhood friend and fellow Firemaker, as Starchaser offered them some work. “All I need you to do is to take a wagon and some bison to Sun Dome, give them to a merchant there and bring back the wagon and merchandise that he will load on to the wagon. Pay is 10L per day, each, and the trip will probably take two days there, two days back and a day in Sun Dome.”
They set off and met some High Llama Riders on the road. “Halt! Whoever passes through our territory must pay a toll of one herd beast per traveller”, said the leader. “Preposterous!” they replied and haggled him down to one herd beast for the whole caravan. “But only if you can beat me in a joust”, said Flargle, and as he was a rhino rider without a rhino, the High Llama leader agreed. Flargle mounted a bison and sped towards his opponent, having cast Bladesharp on his lance and Mobility on his bison. The High Llama rider’s lance glanced across Flargle’s shield, but Flargle pierced his chest with his lance and dashed him to the ground, coughing up blood. His fellow braves picked him up and they rode off in search of a healer.
Come nightfall, they were too far from Garhound to make it comfortably, so they set up camp. Shan Agar was on watch, mounted on her bison, when the bison started bellowing. She looked over and saw some figures within the small herd and the herd start moving. She cast a fiery Disruption that hit one of the thieves square in the chest and took him down. Karim and Flargle woke up and rushed to Shan Agar’s aid. Karim fired an arrow at one of the figures and leapt upon his zebra. Some more trollkin, for that is what they were, rushed towards them, letting loose a flurry of sling bolts, injuring Karim’s zebra and making him jump off. Shan agar charged the trollkin and trampled them underfoot, charging again and again until she had killed three of them. Karim fought off his single trollkin, being fairly evenly matched. The mother troll attacked Flargle and fought him for a while, almost crippling his arm and leg, until Shan Agar charged her down with her bison. “Stop, I have a ransom” the troll said, but Flargle killed her outright. The trollkin fighting Karim escaped and ran into the darkness, even with the arrow that Karim fired after it.
They tried to perform First aid on each other and the zebra, with limited success, so Flargle was stuck riding the wagon.
They set off again, heading towards the healers at Garhound, when they came upon a caravan that had been attacked by Sable Riders. They saw two Sable Riders dragging a woman to their sables, so Shan Agar charged them down as Karim fired off two arrows, missing everyone. Shan Agar trampled one sable rider, but the other let the woman go, leapt upon his sable and raced away. The woman thanked them for helping her and started to check her guards to see how they were. She tried to heal a rhino rider and his rhino, but the others were already dead. She then healed Flargle and Karim’s zebra.
She thanked them profusely and told them she had been travelling to Sun Dome when these Sable Riders attacked them. She, Srana Goldheart, was visiting some friends in Sun County and they would reward them well for escorting her safely to Sun Dome. After a while, it emerged that she was the daughter of the leading Light Son of Pavis and was 16 years old.
The party then checked the Sable Riders and found that 4 of them were still alive, so they strapped them to their sables and took them as prisoners. As they reached Garhound, they met some Morocanth and they sold the sables and their riders at a substantial mark down, as the sable riders were from a clan camped within a day’s ride. In Garhound, they had their wounds healed and settled down to rest. Karim had a pleasant surprise when Srana visited him at night and they spent a few hours together. Srana’s rhino rider said that his mount wouldn’t make it to Sun Dome and needed to rest, so he would be staying behind.
In the morning, they went to Sun Dome and met Flargle’s rhino-rider friend who was heading to Sun Dome to join the mercenaries. Flargle agreed to pay him the remainder of his money at Sun Dome and would take the rhino when he returned to Pavis.
They made it to Sun Dome, where they met a strange-looking baboon, painted yellow, who offered to guard their beasts for them while they were in the Temple. They contacted Srana’s friends and returned her to them, gaining a handsome reward in the process. Finally, they finished their business, made all the necessary trades and started to leave. Then, Honest John, the rhino-trader, came along, pursued by a Templar official, dressed in gold, berating him for being slow and not having his armour yet. He asked Flargle for the rest of his money and left, joining a group of Rhino Riders, which left soon afterwards.
The party then stayed overnight in the town around the Temple and returned to Pavis in the morning. They met a group of Rhino Riders on the way, led by someone riding Flargle’s rhino. When challenged, he said it was his rhino and it had been kept in Pavis while he was there on business. It turned out that Honest John was a conman who sold other people’s rhinos. They reached Pavis, went to the authorities and made a complaint. The authorities said that there were 10 others who had made the same complaint and that there was a warrant out for Honest John, Dead or Alive, for 1000L.
The party found Starchaser and returned his goods to him, for which they were again rewarded.
Flargle was most upset and led the party on a chase along the River of Cradles, across Prax, through the Eiritha Hills and towards Tourney Altar. They managed to catch up with them on the approach to Tourney Altar, where they concocted a cunning plan – to reach the Altar before them, challenge Honest John to a duel and regain their goods. With great haste, they overtook the rhino riders and rode into Tourney Altar half a day ahead of them.
When the rhino riders approached, Flargle challenged Honest John to a duel, calling him a cheat and a thief. Fortunately, Honest John was looking for someone to fight and readily took up the challenge, even though Flargle insisted they fought on foot and not rhino to rhino. They met in the Tourney Arena and Honest John immediately took Flargle down with a vicious strike to the stomach. As he saluted the crowd, Flargle healed himself up and took to his feet, attacking Honest John. To the sound of boos, Flargle circled around honest John until his spells wore off, waiting to attack him, so Honest John started to wind his crossbow, at which Flargle attacked him, dealing him several blows and finally chopping off his head.
They took Honest John’s head to the Lunar soldiers and claimed the reward, only to be told to return to Pavis. They joined a group of Storm Bulls, went to the Block, stayed a week for training and the Storm Bull Holy Day, then they joined a caravan heading to Pavis. On the way, they found a slaughtered Lunar patrol, so Shan Agar summoned their spirits and found out they had been attacked by the same rhino riders. They found a warrant for Honest John’s arrest and continued on their way.
In Pavis, they went to the Lunar HQ and surrendered the warrant, picking up the reward. On their way back, Sparky Jack met them and set things alight around them as he berated them for abandoning the Firemakers. He explained that the Rowdy Boys had killed three Firemakers in an ambush and had taken a lot of their territory. He wanted to burn down some of their houses, but was persuaded to wait until the Yelmalio High Holy Day, so as to not make things seem suspicious.
Srana asked the party to escort her to Yelmalio Hill, for which she was prepared to pay them 1000L each. She said her family was opposed to her going and that she needed an independent escort. They set off the next day, made it to Yelmalio Hill without incident, and Srana found a grave marked with a yellow headstone. She sat and wept at the grave for a couple of hours, explaining that this was her first love who had been killed on an expedition with her brother and their friends.