The Gift: Session One Adventure Log

My players have "suggested" I use blog posts as an Adventure Log to capture key points from The Gift gaming sessions. As always I'm happy to accommodate my players requests but this doesn't mean they shouldn't record important information themselves!

Background information (and going forward these Adventure Logs) can be found using The Gift Label on the right of the blog, but in a nutshell it's a Sandbox Campaign where The Keep on the Borderlands meets The Temple of Elemental Evil with more than a dash of Glorantha's Dorastor thrown in for good measure.

It is spring, and having received their Land Grant writs, the characters join a merchant caravan travelling east through the Shield Lands mountain pass into The Gift before turning north towards their final destination of Hearthsholme. These settlers include:

• Sloane, a seemingly out of place city girl.
• Cade, a rather likable half elf who seems to get on with everyone except his argumentative travelling companion, an older human called Albert.
• Nannie Og, a human wizardess seeking solitude for study.
• Goro, a dwarven warrior looking for a life of new opportunities and excitement.
• Juan the Juggler, a cleric of Pelor.
• Hind, a human locksmith.
• Misty, a human sorcerer.

Their early travels take them through the south westerly region of The Gift.

The characters learn of some interesting locations:

• The First and Last Inn which sits Gift side of the mountain pass, claiming to be the furthermost pub of the Shield Lands (although some of the inns within the villages of The Gift would say different).
• The Village of Hommlett (map point B). One of the larger communities in the Borderlands.
• The Keep on the Borderlands (the black square to the west of Gift). 

The merchant caravan spends a brief period visiting the Keep. The land's centre of military strength, there are patrols sent from the Keep which cover both the settled areas and forays in wilder Dead Lands.

Back on the trail the caravan heads towards the Northern Claims (the oval to the NE of the The Gift, bordering the Dead Lands).

It is said that a man can make his fortune in these lands; that is certainly true of Leoric, a reportedly hard nosed businessman.  Leoric has made his money running a forestry business cutting highly valued hardwood trees from the edges of the Dead Land forests.  Leoric lives in fortified manor house surrounded by a palisade, and as well as payrolling the guards on the permanent bridge across the river also runs the two ferries.

The caravan eventually arrives in Hearthsholme where the characters register the Land Grants at the Town Hall (1) before congregating for drinks in The Boar and Hare Inn (2):

(Map produced by Dyson Logos, and made available under public licence. Go checkout his site for a load of amazing maps.)

There are a number of locations either observed or visited:

• A collection of Warehouses (4) and the Factor's office (12).
• Raene's General Store (5).
• The Smithy (9).
• The Watermill (6).
• Gilde's Orchard and Cider Press (H, SW by the Orchard).
• The Standing Stone (14); it is noted that there are a number of such Standing Stones present in this region.

The characters meet a number of locals of note:

• Will Pyley: Inn Keep and Owner of the Boar and Hare.
• Joycie; the bubbly barmaid at the Inn
• Old Man Gage; the town's herbalist and healer (13)
• Bord; a young warehouse man who helps Sloane try and find her bearings in the town. He also tells the  the dark tale of the previous owners of their Land Grants (known locally as the Dead Men's Grants). Their plots of land are in the shadow of an ancient watch tower known as the Dark Eye and two years ago, late one night, strange lights clearly visible from Hearthsholme emanated from the tower. When villagers left to investigate the following day they found all the settlers on the nearby claims dead or missing. No clue as to their demise was found. 
• Sheriff Reder: a very brusk, no-nonsense law man he chastises Bord for slacking from work, cutting his tale short and sending him back to the warehouse. He suggests the characters will be wanting to leave town and see to their claims *very soon*.
• Deputy Sigen: the Sheriff's right hand man; a bulldog of a warrior and a man of few words, he seems to follow the Reder like a shadow.

Having heard this tale of woe the characters pool a few coins to hire a villager with a mule to help carry supplies to their new homes. Of some luck is that a number of these claims have structures or worked land (although it now lies fallow) upon them.

The characters find the some surprises as they start to look over their plots: 

• Sloane and Nannie Og's land both contain Standing Stones
• Sloane finds a strange stone like egg hidden within the shack built by her claim's previous residents.
• As Cade and Albert approach their dwelling near night fall a flock of strange bat like creatures are seen leaving; they must be roosting there during the day. How will the pair deal with this infestation?