This is my first D&D campaign i've played and I'm enjoying writing it out! Let me know what you think and anything i could improve! Hope you enjoy!
"Damn it." Finn Dawnguard shouted as he dropped a box onto the ground. It shattered on the floor and powder flew everywhere. The ship shook weirdly, but Finn did his best to ignore it as he grabbed another crate of spice to carry up the ship. He would have to ask someone to clean it up as he continued working. The sun was only up for so long and they had to work fast. The goliath they hired had yet to come back down which was odd, but Finn thought nothing of it.
Finn was a paladin that had been hired as protection for traders. He had flowing black hair and brown eyes. He wore standard white paladin armor with gold accents and a flowing cape. He had been hired to protect the Porpoise from pirates. Each step he took gave a thunk as he walked up to the top of the ship.
As reached the top of the ship the sounds of screaming and smell of smoke became obvious. Once Finn got to the top deck he could see why, there was a fire in the town of Port Zoon and a group was surrounding people and they looked like they were fighting.
"What's going on?" Finn asked Jebediah Lynch. He was a large goliath with tribal tattoos covering his body. He had a bald head but a noticeable horseshoe mustache. The goliath didn't answer but Finn started to notice more details. Two Zhelezo were being attacked by some group of bandits. They didn't look familiar, but if they were attacking Zhelezo then it didn't matter who they were. "We have to go help them."
Finn ran off of the ship hearing the thundering footsteps of Jebediah following him. Each step from the 7'5 goliath caused the dock to shake but Finn didn't take his eyes off the action. He noticed six bandits surrounding the two Zhelezo with a larger creature standing behind it all. One of the Zhelezo was quickly knocked unconscious before getting back up in a few seconds and back into the fight.
When the duo got to land Finn noticed one of the bandits on the ground before one of them charged towards Finn. Jebediah was about two steps behind so Finn pulled out his great sword and swung to block the oncoming attack. Things quickly went awry as the bandit let go of his scimitar and it went flying past Finn's head. Because of that Finn's swing went straight into the ground looking like an idiot.
Jebediah took roughly two seconds to pull out his great axe and slice the bandit in half. "Thanks." Finn mentioned pulling his sword out of the dirt noticing a bird-person holding a musket standing alongside the buildings. As soon as Finn got his sword out of the ground a firebolt struck one of the bandits in the side. It had come from a ship, but Finn didn't look away to find a source.
The younger Zhelezo was knocked unconscious as the older one kicked a bandit into the water. The older Zhelezo quickly sliced another into two before being knocked unconscious from behind.
As Finn and Jebediah closed in on the fight Finn watched one of the bandits reach into the older Zhelezo's pocket and pull out a parchment. The thief looked at Finn before running away. He would have to wait as Finn focused on the closest bandit. He began to swing his sword not realizing Jebediah was doing the same and the clashed against each other.
The clash made Finn stumble back a foot as Jebediah yelled, "what the hell?" The bandit took a swing at Jebediah, but his attack was pushed off like a gust of wind. Jebediah quickly raised his great axe and cut the bandit down from his right shoulder to his left hip. Finn recoiled at the sight of his top half sliding down but did his best to shrug it off.
With the action calming down Finn looked back towards the criminal that robbed the Zhelezo and noticed a pack of them running away. Another had climbed the wall and began to ran away but Jebediah started the chase. Finn heard coughing and noticed the young Zhelezo looked in a bad shape.
He was a smaller size and looked younger than Finn himself. His face and hair were littered with spots of dirt and blood. The kid was shaking and looked like he was on death's doorstep, so Finn jumped to help. He laid a hand on the young Zhelezo's shoulder and summoned the healing spell he had learned growing up.
The Zhelezo immediately looked better, and his body calmed down. A gunshot rang through the air making Finn look to the left noticing a pack of Zhelezo charging towards him. The bird creature quickly put the firearm on his back and put his hands up as the Zhelezo aimed their weapons at Finn.
Finn started to put his hands up before the Zhelezo he healed slowly stood up and weakly yelled, "stop! Stop shooting! They're allies!" The Zhelezo leaned on Finn to help him stand up but the group approaching got the message.
"Let go of me!" Someone shouted making Finn look over spotting Jebediah bear hugging one of the bandits.
"You ok?" Finn asked and the young Zhelezo nodded and stood on his own allowing Finn to move over to Jebediah. The bandit was trying to fight back but Jebediah had him grappled with one arm. The goliath pulled out a thing of rope with his other hand and looked at Finn.
"Help me out." He demanded so Finn moved in and together the two tied him up. The bandit complained but as soon as a Zhelezo neared he went silent.
"I have to apologize," the Zhelezo said, "you have to understand that I saw a man standing over my soldiers and I had to take a shot." Finn quickly realized the gunshot that rang was aimed at him. A brief feeling of fear shot through his body, but the paladin did his best to ignore it.
"I'm glad you missed then, but I understand." Finn replied.
The Zhelezo captain gave Finn a brief nod before looking at the captured bandit, "we'll take him off your hands." Two other Zhelezo came and took the struggling bandit. "Though I hope you all understand that we need to take you in."
"I understand." Finn replied before the captain walked away and the young blonde man he had healed approached him.
"Hi, I'm Jamie Deshi and I just wanted to thank you for saving my life." The young man said. "There was an explosion and…then they attacked and," he paused, "I don't know if I would've made it if you didn't help."
"I'm glad we could help." Finn replied looking back at Jebediah who simply stared at Jamie. "Just a part of the job."
Jamie nodded and gestured the two towards the rest of the crowd, "I hope you understand. It shouldn't take too long." Jamie turned and started making his way towards the rest of the Zhelezo.
As they neared Finn noticed other people standing alongside the Zhelezo group. There was the bird person he had seen before still holding his firearm. He had white feathers and a bird face, but his body stood human like. He wasn't very tall compared to the Zhelezo. Walking birds were certainly new.
Beside him was a tall dwarf with dark leather clothes on. He wore a western hat and looked to be struggling to stand up straight. He had Dwarvish features but was taller and thinner than a normal dwarf
Finally, he noticed the gnome. He was a little shorter than the bird and had more gray skin with blueish hues throughout his skin. Unlike the others, he looked the most normal.
Everything was eerily silent as the group walked away towards the town. No one talked besides mumbling between the Zhelezo causing Finn to trail off in thought. The attack had been so random and such an innocent town.
For a town that dealt with a lot of gunpowder explosions never happened, so this one had to be intentional. Finn had dealt with plenty of pirates while riding along The Porpoise but bandits being in the town was a new fight he hadn't expected.
Finn looked around him while thinking and his eyes landed on the bird. It walked on two legs like a person with claws that resembled hands. His wings were a dark orange on the bottom and got lighter as they rose, but the right wing was noticeably bent with dark red feathers streaking down it.
As experienced as Finn considered himself he still knew nothing about the world and the many creatures in it. The silence became too much, and Finn couldn't help but ask the group, "so…anyone else curious about the bird?" All heads turned towards him, but no one answered.
"What?" The bird in question asked. He didn't seem to take offense but simply stared at him confused. "You've never seen a bird before?"
"Young man," the dwarf with the hat started with a thick drawl, "there are many creatures out in this beautiful world. You learn to accept all creatures and find the beauty within all of them." Finn slightly recoiled at the answer. He hadn't considered himself as asking an ignorant question, but the Dwarf was right.
As Finn went to speak one of the Zhelezo spoke up, "I must say." Finn looked over at the older Zhelezo that they had saved. "Thank you for the assistance back there, I'm Torek Hargman." The older Zhelezo seemed beaten and tired. His armor was missing chunks throughout it, a sign of experience compared to the rest of the squadron.
As the Zhelezo spoke Finn thought back to the fight. Everything had happened so fast, but one thing stuck with him. The bandit had taken that parchment from Torek and the Zhelezo hadn't seemed to notice yet.
"Torek, did you happen to lose something during that fight?" Finn asked causing the older man to pat himself down. He smacked his right pocket where the parchment had been, and he moved on then shook his head.
"No. I still have everything on me."
Did he just lie? To a Paladin's face? Finn frowned and opened his mouth to speak before hearing Jamie cut him off.
"Here we are!" Finn looked up at what Jamie was referring to and he noticed the new part of town. It was mostly stone buildings, but strings connected through the rooftops holding lanterns. Jamie led them into a large building and put all of them into a stone room. "Wait here for questioning."
The gnome trotted over to a bench on the far side of the room and sat down and mumbled to himself. The dwarf made his way to a corner and sat down crossing his arms. The bird sat on the bench in front of the door and Jebediah sat in another corner of the room. Finn simply stood next to the door and looked at the ensemble of races.
"Guys," Finn started causing everyone to look at him once again, "something is wrong here."
"How so young friend?" The mysterious dwarf asked.
"That Zhelezo, Torek Hargman. The bandits took parchment from his pocket and when I asked about it he lied." Finn explained and everyone seemed to shrug it off. "Why would he lie…" the door opened so Finn shut his mouth.
"Alright," the Zhelezo entering the room said, "I need everyone's names and ship they came upon." He looked at everyone in the room. "Just checking alibis. We'll start around the room." He pointed at the gnome.
"I'm Pellet." The gnome introduced himself as the guard wrote down the information. "I came to town on the Destiny of Arcadia." The gnome's voice was throaty and sounded like he was endlessly choking on spit as he talked. Though Finn couldn't help but think about how cool the name of the ship was. The guard nodded and gestured towards the dwarf.
"I'm Jason." The dwarf introduced himself, his drawl soothing through every word. He gave a tip of his hat. He crossed a leg over the other and fell silent. The guard stared at him and accepted that nothing else would come from the estranged dwarf. Everyone's eyes trailed to the bird.
"I'm Errk." He said, his voice was high pitched and scratchy, and he clicked with his tongue as he spoke. It's exactly what Finn had expected a bird to sound like. "I live in the town, and I work for the Blackforge Guild." The guard wrote it all down and looked at Jebediah.
"I'm Jebediah Lynch, how do you do?" His deep voice still sounded odd with his twang accent, but he didn't say anything else. The guard shook his head as he wrote Jebediah's name down. No one was wanting to work with him for some reason. Finally, the guard looked at Finn.
"Finn Dawnguard. Jebediah and I came here on the Porpoise." The guard nodded writing down the information, and he quickly left the room.
"Snitch." Jebediah muttered.
A few minutes passed in silence before the door opened and Jamie Deshi walked through. He looked a lot better than he had been. His hair was brushed through and cleaned, his face wasn't covered in dirt and blood, and he stood taller than he had before.
"The Marquis would like to meet you all. Follow me." He said before turning and leaving the room. Finn looked around the room and gestured at the door before following the Zhelezo. The group followed in suit, and they walked through the hallways until approaching two large oak doors. Jamie opened the doors and gestured everyone through.
Finn led the way into a large room noticing the tan dwarf sitting at a desk at the end of the room. He had a skinny beard and a tall ponytail. He must've been the Marquis, whatever that was.
"So, you must be our lucky band of heroes," he spoke with a very thick dwarven accent, "what the hell happened on my docks?" The group approached the desk slowly and Jason stepped forward.
"A group of bandits attacked your soldiers…" Jason started in Dwarvish but stopped when the Marquis raised a hand to cut him off.
"Speak fucking common, everyone here speaks it."
"Right," Jason adjusted his hat as he spoke, "we all came in on ships and found bandits trying to kill your boys." Jason fell silent and the Marquis simply nodded. Nobody spoke so Finn stepped forward.
"That's simplified but I don't think any of us saw every detail, but there was an explosion and a group of bandits tried to kill your Zhelezo. We stepped in and saved them and then the rest showed up. It all happened rather fast."
The Marquis brushed his beard lightly while nodding. He kept direct eye contact with Finn as if he were trying to get the paladin to break. After a couple seconds he finally spoke up, "alright then. Your story checks out with our interrogation." He paused looking around the group. "Everyone is free to go back to your lives, but," he opened a drawer and pulled out a small bag, "I think this is good compensation for your assistance." He threw the bag on the desk, and it landed with a thud.
"That's what I'm talking about." Jebediah said stepping forward, but Finn put a hand up gesturing to stop. He only trusted himself to actually give everyone a fair share.
Finn stepped forward and grabbed the bag and slowly opened it and started counting. The Marquis interrupted his efforts saying, "son. There's a time and place for everything."
Finn tried not to let the blush hit his face from the embarrassment. "Right." He replied closing the bag and putting it on his belt. "Obviously."
The doors opened again behind them, so everyone turned seeing another dwarf walking into the room. He wore dark leather and had grey hair with splashes of auburn hair. Unlike the Marquis he was clean shaven and had a large grin on his face.
"Almades, I hope you aren't being too hard on these young heroes." The new dwarf had just as thick of an accent. His eyes landed on Errk. "Errk, good to see you boy." His eyes trailed to Finn and the coin bag on his hip. "Almades, don't you think these gentlemen deserve a little more pay for their efforts?"
Finn couldn't help but notice Jebediah's face light up as he turned to look at Almades. Pellet muttered something Finn couldn't understand but they all watched as Almades pulled out another bag and set it on the table.
"Ordrog you bastard." Almades muttered as Finn picked up the second bag of coin. He set it on his hip looking back at Ordrog.
"And don't you think this group deserves a place to rest? It's been a long day after all." Ordrog asked making them look back at Almades who rolled his eyes.
"I suppose so." Almades looked past everyone. "Jamie!" His voice echoed through the room causing the young Zhelezo to run into the room. "Make sure they get a place to stay in town."
"Yes sir." Jamie replied standing in the doorway.
"Three nights only!"
Ordrog belted out a deep laugh before gesturing towards the door, "I'll see to it then. Let's get going." Ordrog and Jamie led the group out of the building, and they started walking through the town. As they walked Ordrog and Errk pulled off to the side and had their own discussion, but Finn focused on following Jamie. He could feel everyone's eyes on him knowing that they were all desperate for the gold, but they would have to wait.
They neared a stone building with a glass mosaic wall. It also had a sign near the front door reading: NIMBLE LEG INN.
"This is where you'll be staying. You'll want to talk to Regmund and let him know Almades sent you. He'll understand." Jamie said and Finn nodded taking it all in. "Don't forget three nights only."
Jamie gave the group a brief nod before he walked away going back to his barracks. Errk and Ordrog as Ordrog said, "if you guys need anything just let Errk here know, and we'll get ya set up."
Pellet stepped up and asked the dwarf, "are there any stores where I can purchase scrolls?"
Ordrog gave Errk a pat on the back while answering, "of course. Errk here can show ya." The dwarf looked at Errk. "I'll let the boy know you're coming." Errk gave him a quick nod in response but didn't speak.
"I have a question for you, new friend," Jason's words dripped with his dwarven drawl, "where can I find a forest?" Everyone in the group looked at him confused.
"A forest?" Jebediah asked, judgement in his voice.
Ordrog looked puzzled at the question. His face switching between three different emotions before turning and gesturing towards the west. "I don't know what you want, but out of town that way. You can't miss it."
"Thank you kindly good sir." Jason replied before Ordrog made his leave. Jason looked over at the rest of the group offering no answer. Instead, he tipped his hat and said, "I'll be back don't y'all worry." Jason turned and began his journey leaving the four others alone.
"So, when do we get our gold?" Pellet asked with Jebediah and Errk agreeing.
Finn looked at the other three replying, "let's go get a table then." The four walked into the Inn and found a table. "I'll go find Regmund then we can discuss gold."
"Then move fast." Pellet mumbled but Finn turned and made his way to the bar. An older couple stood behind it and the man's eyes locked on him immediately.
"Hi there," Finn said leaning on the counter, "I'm looking for Regmund."
"Well, who's asking?" The man asked. That made it obvious that he was Regmund, but Finn went with it.
"Almades sent us to stay here for a couple of nights."
"Ah," the man nodded, "well I'm Regmund. How many rooms are you needing?"
"Uhh…" Finn paused counting the party in his head. "Five I think." The fact that Errk clearly lived in town went right over Finn's head.
"It's your lucky day," Regmund said, "we got just five rooms. We'll get you ready for three nights. For now, take a seat and Ellen will get you some drinks."
"Thank you sir." Finn replied before turning and going back to the group. He took the seat next to Jebediah. "Alright now for the gold." The other three all agreed, and Finn set both bags on the table.
"Alright boys," the lady from the bar came up to their table, assumably Ellen, "what can we get for you?"
"What's on the menu?" Jebediah asked. Of course, the big man wanted to know about the food.
"We usually have boar stew, but our hunter has been having trouble and hasn't been around in a couple of days." She explained. Finn frowned but didn't question it. "Otherwise, we got beet soup and millet. To drink we got some goat milk and ale."
"I'll do beet soup." Errk said so Jebediah and Finn also agreed. Pellet on the other hand…
"I'd like some millet." Ellen paused and stared at the gnome for a moment. She wrote it down as Pellet continued, "Almades also said that he'll cover all of our drinks. So, a round of ale!"
"Yeah right," Ellen laughed at the persuasion attempt, "we'll put one round on his tab. Otherwise your meals will be right out." Everyone thanked her before looking at the bags of gold on the table.
"Yeah yeah I'm on it." Finn said before pouring out the gold. Everyone in the Inn looked over at the mound of gold on the table in shock. The group ignored it and focused on sharing the amount of money.
Each bag contained 350 gold coins in it totaling 700 gold coins. Finn started dividing out the total coins as the others tried to persuade him.
"Ya know," Pellet said staring at the gold, "Jason isn't here. He would never know that we have the gold."
"I say we keep it!" Jebediah agreed making Finn pause. He looked at the two with a frown.
"You guys do know that he saw us get the bags of gold right?" Errk asked making Pellet's shoulders noticeably drop.
"We could give him a little less." The gnome looked up at Finn giving his best charming look. Did he really think that would work on a holy man?
"Jason might be weird, but he'll be back. He gets a fair share of the gold." Finn passed everyone their 140 gold and threw Jason's gold in another bag. He would give it to the dwarf when he came back.
"Fine…" Pellet crossed his arms and just stared. "Stupid dwarf."
The table went silent as Ellen gave them their food and everyone ate. Finn couldn't help but watch as Pellet demolished his millet. It was a brown mush and it looked disgusting, but Pellet was barely chewing as ate it. It was as if Pellet hadn't eaten in a year.
"Wow." Jebediah commented as Pellet looked up after destroying his bowl. His mouth was covered in millet, but he wore a large grin. The others did their best to focus on their food and let the gnome clean himself.
When everyone was done Ellen came and grabbed the dishes and walked away. Everyone simply looked at each other yet no one spoke. These were all strangers, and no one knew anything about each other. Luckily the silence was broken by Pellet.
"So…Errk." Everyone looked at the gnome. "Where's this store where I can find my parchment?"
"Right." Errk said standing up. "I can take you guys there."
"We're going?" Jebediah asked looking over at Finn who shrugged. It wasn't like they had anything better to do.
"Let's go." Pellet said following Errk out of the front door, so Jebediah and Finn followed suit. The four walked through the town as the sun started getting close to setting. They walked nearly 40 minutes to another stone building with a sign: BLACKFORGE.
They walked inside and it was an unusual store. It was a small room with a long counter that crossed the entire room. There wasn't anything in the front, but instead it was just benches and tables. It was a lot like a waiting room.
"Errk!" A younger dwarf exclaimed as the group walked inside. "Dad mentioned you'd be swinging by sometime tonight." The dwarf must've been Ordrog's son and had the same auburn hair, but he had a horseshoe moustache unlike his clean-shaven father.
"Hey Dardek." Errk replied awkwardly. "These guys are looking for some resources and I figured we could help out."
"Of course, what're ya looking for?" Dardek asked so Pellet stepped up to the counter.
"Do you guys have any scrolls?" Pellet asked straight to the point.
"What kind of scrolls are you looking for?"
"Magic scrolls."
The two stared at each for a minute before Dardek finally spoke. "We don't really do magic items here. You can find those over at the Wyrm Guild though." Dardek gestured at Errk. "Errk can show you there."
"Oh…ok." Pellet looked back at Errk before looking at Dardek again. "Well do you have parchment?" He paused as Dardek looked back at their back room. Pellet awkwardly continued speaking, "ya know like the ones you write on. For spells and such."
Dardek stifled a grin and looked back at Pellet. "We'll see what we got." Another dwarf came into the front room and Dardek told him to grab parchment. The dwarf came up after a minute with a package of parchment. "Alright well we got some for ya. It'll be 50 gold."
"50 gold for that?" Jebediah asked from the back of the room. Finn just shrugged unknowingly and stood up from the bench. "That's expensive." Finn held in his laugh as he approached the counter where Pellet was trying to persuade Dardek.
"It would be awfully nice if I could get this a little cheaper." Pellet said causing Dardek to stroke his moustache. He seemed to consider it for a minute before shrugging.
"Best I can do is 45 gold. Nothing lower than that." Pellet rolled his eyes before paying up and he walked away carrying his new parchment. Dardek looked over at Finn, "how can I help ya?"
"I was wondering if you had any weapons." Finn said so Dardek sent the other dwarf to the back room. "Just anything really."
Dardek seemed to contemplate the request in his head before replying, "we don't usually do weapons. We manufacture firearms but this is mostly a trading outpost." The other dwarf came to the front showing Finn a bent sword. "This is just about it."
Finn shook his head, "yeah that won't work." He paused. "Any books?" The dwarf went into the back before coming back up. He set a book that read: Moradin: The Allhammer. "What's this?"
"That would be our god around here." Dardek answered. "Just the book about him. 10 gold." Finn took a second to think about it. He was always curious about the other gods, especially the lesser gods.
"Can you do anything lower?" He asked but Dardek shook his head.
"No, 10 is the bare minimum. Otherwise, no profit." Finn just nodded and handed over the gold. "Thanks for coming. Good to see you Errk." Errk just gave the dwarf a wave before everyone made their way outside.
"Well, that was useless." Jebediah said but nobody replied.
"Where do we find the Wyrm Guild?" Pellet asked looking at Errk.
"Oh…uhh it's this way. I'll take you there." Errk replied as they started walking towards the other shop. Finn and Jebediah didn't move but instead both looked towards the direction of the Inn.
"Hey!" Finn called to the two others walking away. "We're gonna head back to the Inn." The other two just waved so Finn and Jebediah made their way back to the Nimble Leg Inn. The two made their way to the table they had sat at before and Jebediah ordered a round of ale.
"So why do you think it's called the Nimble Leg?" Jebediah asked so Finn shrugged.
"Not sure big man. Maybe we can ask later." Finn replied before opening his book and he started to read. As time passed on the others started coming back in. Pellet and Errk made it first and Pellet was focused on his scroll before Jason finally made it back.
"About time." Finn said as he sat down. "What'd you go do?"
Jason stared at him. The dwarf's eyes matched Finn's and he remained silent. It was as if Jason was waiting to see if Finn would back down. Finally, he answered, "I was getting supplies."
"For what?"
"Supplies."
"Figured that would be my answer." Finn said sliding the bag of gold over to Jason. After doing that Pellet said something that Finn couldn't understand. It must've been another language, but Pellet looked embarrassed right after. He stood up from the table and walked away muttering something in another language.
"What the hell was that?" Finn asked watching Pellet go into his room.
"Stupid gnome." Jason said in Dwarvish not realizing Finn could understand him. What was happening? Suddenly Errk started speaking in a throaty language that didn't sound natural coming out of his mouth.
"What the hell is happening?" Finn asked shaking his head. The group fell silent after a couple of minutes and eventually Jason leaned forward on the table.
"Paladin," Finn looked up at Jason, "being a holy man like yourself I'm sure you can fill me in on the religion of this land." Finally, something Finn could talk about.
"Well, currently we're in the Menagerie Coast and there aren't any main gods of the land." Finn grabbed his amulet hanging on his neck, a necklace showing a gauntlet facing forward. "Personally, I follow Torm. Though if you ever venture into the Dwendalian Empire they follow only prime deities. So, if I were to ever enter I would have to hide my religion due to the outlawing of lesser gods."
Jason simply nodded but didn't comment. Clearly he wasn't as willing to share information like Finn was. Instead, he simply gave a tip of his hat and stood up, "well that is rather useful young paladin. Though I do believe it is time to go to sleep. I'll see y'all gentlemen in the morning."
"Yeah…" Errk said standing up. "I think I'm gonna head home as well. See ya." Errk quickly hurried out the building making Finn realize that he wasted a room of the Inn. He didn't care enough to correct it though.
Jebediah and Finn both went to their respective rooms and Finn gave a quick prayer to his god Torm before laying down and going to sleep.