Session 0: Franchise Foundations
Send to: The University of Ghal Pelor, Department of Engineering, Professor Gamameana Cromokal
General Summary
Dear Gama,
It’s been a few years; I hope everything’s ok. I know I haven’t checked in in a long time, but I know the last time we spoke it wasn’t the greatest; hell, I’ll admit what you’ve already known for pretty much forever, I’m a lousy big brother and you shouldn’t have to deal with me and my bullshit. You’re too important for that now.
But I thought I’d write to let you know that something kind of crazy has happened, and I think I can muster up the courage to really let you know what’s been going on. For once, it won’t end with me asking for a loan, or having done something stupid that you gotta bail me out of. I think it’s gonna be good for me for a change.
I recently took up a plum job with the Ackley Ales outfit. Or so I thought. Turns out it’s some relative of theirs by the name of Daghilla Ghuldran, looking to setup another franchise that was awarded to her and her family. Well, these old legs ain’t what they used to be, and it still looked to be easy enough work, so I hired on. They had a small caravan traveling to the Ackley compound to pick up some supplies and march back to Ghal Pelor proper to setup shop. Don’t need to tell you, I have no problem helping them get that up and running fast as they can; their booze has helped me get through some tough times.
My...enthusiasm for the gig went south when I met my partner on this roundtrip, a birdbrain kicked out of Tengu Town named Fizzle. I could see why after spending a couple minutes with him. I’ve met a few of those weirdoes in my time, but this guy takes the wheel pie. Just a constant stream of nonsense, could barely handle his spear right. I know I’m no spring chicken anymore either, but I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t trust Fizzle to guard an outhouse.
There were a bunch of porters and other employees of Daghilla, all decent enough folk, hard working, so definitely the opposite of the two of us. We were the only guards on this detail, which goes to show you how confidant they were of the safety of this first errand. Road’s generally been safe to and from the Ackley’s and Ghal Pelor of late. But in addition to all of Daghilla’s boys, were four oddballs on their own little errand for some guy named Dayne Reed in the city, picking up a keg of Ackley’s finest for him and carting it back.
The four of them were an interesting bunch, made the trip not a complete bore (which is a thought I would soon regret). All of them were better armed than Fizzle and me; there was Horick Hamfist, a barrel-chested rager of a dwarf that hefted around a great axe bigger than me, an old clanker from the before days go by the name of Cojitron that was handy with a spell, a friendly elf looking type that looked more suited to city life than slumming it out here with us called Bayour Sunslake, and about the most reasonable Tengu I’ve ever met, Tea Kettle, carrying about all manner of odds and ends and generally making sense unlike Kettle. Got to talking with them and swapping stories, since they were always on the lookout for trouble; even though they were just errand boys, they had a weird habit of looking both ways as we traveled the road.
We get to Ackley, pick up all the stuff we were due, and head back on the road to the city, expecting to be back in just a couple days. We stop the third night of the trip to setup camp, with Daghilla’s guys cooking up some road rations. Nothin fancy, but I’m just glad for the free grub. Daghilla seems green in general, but she’s about one of the nicest bosses I’ve ever had.
Three of the Dayne fellows strike up conversations with me and Fizzle, though I’ve been spending much of the trip trying to avoid the birdbrain. He’s a messy eater and always squawking about something or other. Horick has spent the last few nights, this one included, trying to cozy up, respectfully I guess, to Daghilla. Can’t say that she isn’t’ totally against it, but I’m no expert on dwarf courtship. He certainly isn’t all too subtle about making eyes at her.
Later that evening, while the caravan broke to sleep for the night, Fizzle and I are alerted by Bayour firing an arrow near us, waving to us in the direction of some wolves that were creeping towards our little caravan. We approach, and I spot a warning shot from the half elf at one of the wolves. It didn’t take, and the four of them find their courage and charge in, looking to tear those guys to shreds. Big mistake. By the time we make it over to them from the spot we were patrolling, the four of them had put the animals down without much trouble. Horick waved his bloody axe about, yelling something about wanting to be called “Wolftooth”. I seen Bayour examine the mouths of one of the wolves, and he comes by, remarking that they all had some kind of powder about their snouts; this was some kinda drug used to rile them up, as only if they were starving would wolves ever dare to come close to a buncha people armed to the teeth like us. They were made mad and thrown at us, but by who?
The four of them said they would report to Daghilla on what they found, and Fizzle and me said we’d scout about some to make sure there weren’t any more of the beasties about. We separate, and we don’t get ten minutes beyond the perimeter of the camp when we hear an awful, horrible noise. Fizzle gets jumped by some dark shapes, and I hear him squawk as he’s dragged away in the tall grass. I race after him, momentarily forgetting that I kind of hate him, driven on by adrenaline. Suddenly, something big gets me, I yelp out, feel my chest as a something big and pointy has stabbed into it, and I fall over, last thing I remember is my own scream echo back at me somehow. Actually, the last thing I thought of was you, Gama, as I figure my gears been turned for the last time and I would go down leaving you disappointed in me.
Next thing I know, I’m woken up and look to see Tea Kettle over me, healing my wounds to stop the bleeding enough I could wake up. Horick is out fighting a couple huge, nightmarish hornets mocking and yelling in mine and Fizzle’s voices, on their backs a couple crazed goblins armed with some sharp daggers. The rager with that big axe of his and Cojitron, flinging streams of freezing air at it with its phalanges, are fending them off, getting some bad wounds in the process. From the tree line beyond, I see Fizzle being helped out by Bayour. He stops and fires a couple arrows at the backs of the hornets, and caught off guard, Horick finishes them off. I can’t help but notice Wolftooth had a couple wolf pelts freshly skinned off wrapped around his shoulders.
I cuss as Fizzle approaches and rambles some nonsense, but deep down I’m a little glad he’s’ not dead. No one deserves to be set upon by these horrors. The others fill us in; they tracked our paths after Daghilla asked that they find us after we went missing, and found my body unmoving in the clearing, and heard my voice call out. Apparently these things can mimic the sounds of their victims. I shiver and hold back some bile that I feel at the back of my throat. Bayour snuck off around the clearing while the others ran in, and find three more of the filthy gobbos that had cut Fizzles throat earlier and had him on the ground near them, making ready to ambush us from the treetops. He puts all three to paid with his own sharp shooting while the other three race out to help me and get jumped by the hornet riding gobbos. I guess he had some ointment that mends Fizzles knife wounds because he no worse for wear.
His boys dead, we manage to capture their leader, an uppity little beastie named Mizzixs. He’s throwing out insults and threats that something called “The Swarm” would get us, but a little show by Horick Wolftooth with his bloody axe while they’re busy carving the head off his dead hornet ride gets him talking, and he claims that this small group is part of a pack of nine gobbos what recently joined this so called “Swarm” that’s led by some boss, and with many many more of these hideous creatures out there somewhere. Alarmed, the four of them decide to report back to Daghilla with the details and this hornet head as proof of the problem brewing near the roads to and from Ackley.
We get back and report on everything, dragging Mizzixs with. I wonder aloud the wisdom of keeping a dirty gobbo alive, but they said something about turning him into the constabulary to question him on any further dangers from this “Swarm”. I got to hand it to them, they’re way more responsible than they look. Daghilla seems relieved that we made it out OK and are grateful her little caravan was saved by these things before they could get the drop on us. I feel more than a little useless that we were nearly killed if not for Dayne’s boys come to the rescue; Fizzle is hardly a fighter and I’m way beyond my prime. I figure it’s the boot for me for almost failing to protect Daghilla’s property.
Instead, she calls me and birdbrain to her wagon and offers Fizzle and me a job as security detail for her new place that she’s opening in the city, saying it’ll be safer and we need only plan stuff out and do the occasional legwork to shore up the safety of the place. I’m dumbfounded, and Daghilla has a smile on her lips as she keeps mum to my question as to why we’re being considered when all we did was almost get killed; She just says she sees that our hearts were in the right place but we were not suited to running around the woods hunting monsters. Well, I get the feeling my new pals that saved our lives were to thank. Horick in particular. I seen him talk to her plenty and he’s definitely sweet on her.
That’s all she wrote, Gama; I had a long think and I’m gonna take this job, even if it means having to see Fizzle daily, and settle down and make something of myself. I’m not too old to turn over a new wrench and I thought of you; I want to make you proud. Maybe you can come by Daghilla’s joint when it’s open, and I’ll treat you to some of her good stuff.
Hope to hear from you soon, Gama.
Your brother,
Wilkas
It’s been a few years; I hope everything’s ok. I know I haven’t checked in in a long time, but I know the last time we spoke it wasn’t the greatest; hell, I’ll admit what you’ve already known for pretty much forever, I’m a lousy big brother and you shouldn’t have to deal with me and my bullshit. You’re too important for that now.
But I thought I’d write to let you know that something kind of crazy has happened, and I think I can muster up the courage to really let you know what’s been going on. For once, it won’t end with me asking for a loan, or having done something stupid that you gotta bail me out of. I think it’s gonna be good for me for a change.
I recently took up a plum job with the Ackley Ales outfit. Or so I thought. Turns out it’s some relative of theirs by the name of Daghilla Ghuldran, looking to setup another franchise that was awarded to her and her family. Well, these old legs ain’t what they used to be, and it still looked to be easy enough work, so I hired on. They had a small caravan traveling to the Ackley compound to pick up some supplies and march back to Ghal Pelor proper to setup shop. Don’t need to tell you, I have no problem helping them get that up and running fast as they can; their booze has helped me get through some tough times.
My...enthusiasm for the gig went south when I met my partner on this roundtrip, a birdbrain kicked out of Tengu Town named Fizzle. I could see why after spending a couple minutes with him. I’ve met a few of those weirdoes in my time, but this guy takes the wheel pie. Just a constant stream of nonsense, could barely handle his spear right. I know I’m no spring chicken anymore either, but I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t trust Fizzle to guard an outhouse.
There were a bunch of porters and other employees of Daghilla, all decent enough folk, hard working, so definitely the opposite of the two of us. We were the only guards on this detail, which goes to show you how confidant they were of the safety of this first errand. Road’s generally been safe to and from the Ackley’s and Ghal Pelor of late. But in addition to all of Daghilla’s boys, were four oddballs on their own little errand for some guy named Dayne Reed in the city, picking up a keg of Ackley’s finest for him and carting it back.
The four of them were an interesting bunch, made the trip not a complete bore (which is a thought I would soon regret). All of them were better armed than Fizzle and me; there was Horick Hamfist, a barrel-chested rager of a dwarf that hefted around a great axe bigger than me, an old clanker from the before days go by the name of Cojitron that was handy with a spell, a friendly elf looking type that looked more suited to city life than slumming it out here with us called Bayour Sunslake, and about the most reasonable Tengu I’ve ever met, Tea Kettle, carrying about all manner of odds and ends and generally making sense unlike Kettle. Got to talking with them and swapping stories, since they were always on the lookout for trouble; even though they were just errand boys, they had a weird habit of looking both ways as we traveled the road.
We get to Ackley, pick up all the stuff we were due, and head back on the road to the city, expecting to be back in just a couple days. We stop the third night of the trip to setup camp, with Daghilla’s guys cooking up some road rations. Nothin fancy, but I’m just glad for the free grub. Daghilla seems green in general, but she’s about one of the nicest bosses I’ve ever had.
Three of the Dayne fellows strike up conversations with me and Fizzle, though I’ve been spending much of the trip trying to avoid the birdbrain. He’s a messy eater and always squawking about something or other. Horick has spent the last few nights, this one included, trying to cozy up, respectfully I guess, to Daghilla. Can’t say that she isn’t’ totally against it, but I’m no expert on dwarf courtship. He certainly isn’t all too subtle about making eyes at her.
Later that evening, while the caravan broke to sleep for the night, Fizzle and I are alerted by Bayour firing an arrow near us, waving to us in the direction of some wolves that were creeping towards our little caravan. We approach, and I spot a warning shot from the half elf at one of the wolves. It didn’t take, and the four of them find their courage and charge in, looking to tear those guys to shreds. Big mistake. By the time we make it over to them from the spot we were patrolling, the four of them had put the animals down without much trouble. Horick waved his bloody axe about, yelling something about wanting to be called “Wolftooth”. I seen Bayour examine the mouths of one of the wolves, and he comes by, remarking that they all had some kind of powder about their snouts; this was some kinda drug used to rile them up, as only if they were starving would wolves ever dare to come close to a buncha people armed to the teeth like us. They were made mad and thrown at us, but by who?
The four of them said they would report to Daghilla on what they found, and Fizzle and me said we’d scout about some to make sure there weren’t any more of the beasties about. We separate, and we don’t get ten minutes beyond the perimeter of the camp when we hear an awful, horrible noise. Fizzle gets jumped by some dark shapes, and I hear him squawk as he’s dragged away in the tall grass. I race after him, momentarily forgetting that I kind of hate him, driven on by adrenaline. Suddenly, something big gets me, I yelp out, feel my chest as a something big and pointy has stabbed into it, and I fall over, last thing I remember is my own scream echo back at me somehow. Actually, the last thing I thought of was you, Gama, as I figure my gears been turned for the last time and I would go down leaving you disappointed in me.
Next thing I know, I’m woken up and look to see Tea Kettle over me, healing my wounds to stop the bleeding enough I could wake up. Horick is out fighting a couple huge, nightmarish hornets mocking and yelling in mine and Fizzle’s voices, on their backs a couple crazed goblins armed with some sharp daggers. The rager with that big axe of his and Cojitron, flinging streams of freezing air at it with its phalanges, are fending them off, getting some bad wounds in the process. From the tree line beyond, I see Fizzle being helped out by Bayour. He stops and fires a couple arrows at the backs of the hornets, and caught off guard, Horick finishes them off. I can’t help but notice Wolftooth had a couple wolf pelts freshly skinned off wrapped around his shoulders.
I cuss as Fizzle approaches and rambles some nonsense, but deep down I’m a little glad he’s’ not dead. No one deserves to be set upon by these horrors. The others fill us in; they tracked our paths after Daghilla asked that they find us after we went missing, and found my body unmoving in the clearing, and heard my voice call out. Apparently these things can mimic the sounds of their victims. I shiver and hold back some bile that I feel at the back of my throat. Bayour snuck off around the clearing while the others ran in, and find three more of the filthy gobbos that had cut Fizzles throat earlier and had him on the ground near them, making ready to ambush us from the treetops. He puts all three to paid with his own sharp shooting while the other three race out to help me and get jumped by the hornet riding gobbos. I guess he had some ointment that mends Fizzles knife wounds because he no worse for wear.
His boys dead, we manage to capture their leader, an uppity little beastie named Mizzixs. He’s throwing out insults and threats that something called “The Swarm” would get us, but a little show by Horick Wolftooth with his bloody axe while they’re busy carving the head off his dead hornet ride gets him talking, and he claims that this small group is part of a pack of nine gobbos what recently joined this so called “Swarm” that’s led by some boss, and with many many more of these hideous creatures out there somewhere. Alarmed, the four of them decide to report back to Daghilla with the details and this hornet head as proof of the problem brewing near the roads to and from Ackley.
We get back and report on everything, dragging Mizzixs with. I wonder aloud the wisdom of keeping a dirty gobbo alive, but they said something about turning him into the constabulary to question him on any further dangers from this “Swarm”. I got to hand it to them, they’re way more responsible than they look. Daghilla seems relieved that we made it out OK and are grateful her little caravan was saved by these things before they could get the drop on us. I feel more than a little useless that we were nearly killed if not for Dayne’s boys come to the rescue; Fizzle is hardly a fighter and I’m way beyond my prime. I figure it’s the boot for me for almost failing to protect Daghilla’s property.
Instead, she calls me and birdbrain to her wagon and offers Fizzle and me a job as security detail for her new place that she’s opening in the city, saying it’ll be safer and we need only plan stuff out and do the occasional legwork to shore up the safety of the place. I’m dumbfounded, and Daghilla has a smile on her lips as she keeps mum to my question as to why we’re being considered when all we did was almost get killed; She just says she sees that our hearts were in the right place but we were not suited to running around the woods hunting monsters. Well, I get the feeling my new pals that saved our lives were to thank. Horick in particular. I seen him talk to her plenty and he’s definitely sweet on her.
That’s all she wrote, Gama; I had a long think and I’m gonna take this job, even if it means having to see Fizzle daily, and settle down and make something of myself. I’m not too old to turn over a new wrench and I thought of you; I want to make you proud. Maybe you can come by Daghilla’s joint when it’s open, and I’ll treat you to some of her good stuff.
Hope to hear from you soon, Gama.
Your brother,
Wilkas
Rewards Granted
- 25 gp to the adventurers from Dayne Reed for bringing him the booze
- Connections with Daghilla and her new franchise
Missions/Quests Completed
- Daghilla's caravan survives and her franchise begins setting up in Ghal Pelor
- Wilkas and Fizzle gain safer employment as security at said franchise location
- Mizzixs is taken alive and turned over to the constabulary
- Dayne Reed gets his Ackley Ale barrels
Character(s) interacted with
Report Date
25 Nov 2023
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