Session IV- Time for a Side Quest

So all of us DM sorts have been there. What do you do when;

A. You aren't quite sure how to bridge from Plot Point A to Plot Point B
B. Even if you get the players to Plot Point B they'd be chewed up like a drunk rabbit by a John Deere

Do I hear "side quest?"

Side quests can, if you ask me, make or break a campaign. They aren't necessary- that's why they're "side" quests. Now there are some DMs who'll tell you that side quests are pointless. I disagree. Think of what your favorite RPG video games would be without side quests. Sure, in Baldur's Gate II you don't have to go, say, root out the slavers in the slums, or take on the Unseeing Eye, or fight either the Shadow Dragon or the Red Dragon. But what fun is the game if you don't?

Now, a pen and paper game is no video game. However, as I said, they can make or break a campaign. I don't think everything the players do has to relate heavily to the over-arcing plot. Sometimes you just need to let them kill monsters. Sometimes you come up with an interesting little wrinkle and you can't jam it into the overall plot. But if you come at the players with nothing but side quests, they'll get bored, they'll get punchy, and I postulate they'll just stop showing up to the table.

Unless, of course, you're playing an episodic game- which could work very well for, say, a group of private investigators located in Sharn, which would be a great campaign- but that's a whole other post.

Back to the main point; too many side quests, bad. No side quests, bad. No side quests means the players are slogging through plot every week, and that can get a little heavy. Not to mention it makes it a little tough on the DM; with no side quests, you need heavy main-plot relevant content every week and fill up a whole session with it. That's lots of work. And unless you're B.A. Felton and have 8 hours a week to devote to prep, you don't want to be doing that. Now, from what I hear about Burning Empires from Soul Kerfuffle , side quests don't seem to be a part of the B.E. experience; it just doesn't seem like the game is built for that, and that's fine. D&D definitely is.

So, tonight I clearly needed a side quest. Some bait had been dangled, some plot points introduced, some villains revealed, etc. Now, there was no way the party would make it all the way to Sharn tonight; that just wouldn't be possible, as they're still hundreds of miles away. So, I started thinking, what can I do, what interesting obstacles can I toss in front of them and drag them into a side quest that would be interesting but not take them too far off the beaten path.

So, the summation of the session:

Milaya d'Orien, the acting caravan master, made it clear she would no longer tolerate their presence once the caravan reached Passage. She also made it clear that they would not be allowed anywhere near the wagon carrying the one remaining statue from Master Sculptor Haradeen.

So, naturally, they had to try and get a good look. Kaloei employed her Least Dragonmark's ability and tried to wheedle her way into the wagon while looking like an Orien guard, but the 2 remaining Tharashk mercs were having none of that tomfoolery. Sol, meanwhile, tried to track Milaya on her circuits around the caravan- a difficult task when you're tracking someone with serious "Dimension Jump" ability. Sol also quickly learns he has a shadow, albeit one not very good at skulking.

Ultimately, not terribly much was accomplished, except for Derrin Leyn d'Sivis trying to drop a not-very-well-regarded warning to them that he expected to be sending detailed descriptions of three people ahead to Passage via his speaking stone before they got there.

Eventually, the caravan does reach Passage. And every passenger is asked to present their identification papers. And Sol, Kal, and Cyria are all asked to "please go wait in the gatehouse for a moments. Thank you. No I don't know why, sir/lady. Please just go wait in the gatehouse. Please. Yes. Thank you. Yes, now."

And they go wait in the gatehouse...until a detachment of armed, armored men show up, all clearly bearing the signs of House Deneith. One of them introduces himself as Velden d'Deneith, Sentinel Marshal. And you guessed it; Sol, Kal, and Cyria are all placed under arrest under charges of aiding and abetting banditry, banditry, attempted theft, granting aid and succor to bandits(which sounds an awful lot like the first, but isn't quite the same). There is some sputtering, but there were 6 heavily armed members of House Deneith out to discharge their duty, and several other witnesses, in the form of Passage City Guardsmen, to add the charges of assault, resisting arrest, and murder to the charges that would be levied against Kal, Sol, and Cyria, or, rather, against their corpses, since they wouldn't be terribly likely to survive against 6 Sentinel Marshals.

They were asked to surrender their arms and goods, for 3 small elfish folk, quite an impressive pile of steel appeared- a longbow, a longspear, a rapier, four throwing axes, about 8 daggers, some darts, a longsword...it was a little surprising.

They were manacled together and tossed in the back of a covered, windowless, locked wagon and carted around the city for 15 or 20 minutes. Eventually they were delivered to a nondescript little jailhouse, run by a local Constable known as Constable Corleth. A big fellow, a bit older, a bastard sword strapped to his back, etc. They get tossed in a jail cell with a fellow named Gen, and are warned by the Constable not to get too close or they'll find their pockets are missing anything they've got left in them.

Sol responded with a great line; "All Gen will find in my pockets are broken fingers." The Constable chuckled.

It was around then that Sol noticed an insignia on the hilt of the Constable's sword, a Cyran one. Sort of similar to those the erstwhile bandits were wearing. They bring this up, to which he tersely responds that he is not, in fact, Cyran. They also start dropping all the names and hints attached to what landed them in jail; Iyerke d'Tharashk, the Queen's Blades, Ilgar ir'Tarnis , that Joreth d'Orien vanished with the purported petrified, etc etc.

The Constable was intrigued. Mildly. He started questioning them systematically. What did Iyerke d'Tharashk look like? How did he act? Anyone claiming to be Ilgar ir'Tarnis was lying. The ir'Tarnis line was extinguished.

Side note; to anyone from the old Eberron games reading this blog, I'm just re-using the name ir'Tarnis. Not the character. Nobody is looking askance at anyone's silver arm.

Ahem; we now return from the in-joke back to your regularly scheduled blog update.

He asks question after question about their story, reconstructing it. They reiterate their belief that the statue of the Cyran officer was, in fact, really a person, and that the "Queen's Blades" claimed it truly was Ilgar ir'Tarnis. He questioned them closely on the tactics and behavior of the bandits, although Kaloei's insistence that they must be Cyran because they used the battlecry "For Cyre." He sneered and wondered why anyone would bother fighting for a statue. Besides, he said, the captain's dead.

Eventually someone realized that he just said "the captain." Not "their captain." The captain. Has to mean something, right? He stubbornly insists he isn't Cyran.

Meanwhile, when they get a quiet moment, Gen starts working on them. Get the Constable in there; he'll lift the keys, or a knife, and they can get out. He's looking at a death sentence and that just isn't fair. Just a sad coincidence he's in there, they're just trying to pin something on him, he didn't do anything. Did he mention they're going to hang him? Just get the Constable in here and we'll figure it out from there, c'mon, we can get out together. And so on.

The Constable informs them that dinner will be along eventually. Along with, hopefully, a death order for Gen.

Gen kept explaining to Kal, Sol, and Cyria how it was all a misunderstanding. A visibly angered Constable stormed back towards the cell. Turns out Gen is a grave-robber.

Grave-robbing, they say? Ugly, but hardly a capital crime.

The Constable explained; "He was robbing a veteran's graveyard. Looking to sell bits of uniform and weapons and buttons as souvenirs. And when a hobbled old veteran out there early one morning saw him with a shovel in one hand and a sack in the other, he got his throat cut. Didn't he, Gen?"

That shut Gen up, and made Sol offer to hang him himself. Thus ensued a discussion between the Constable and Sol about the war, what Sol did and where, and what was an Aerenal elf doing in Cyre, anyway? He seemed a bit impressed. Sat down and smoked his pipe and asked more questions about their story. When his shift ended, he said he'd be back in the morning. And, he added, pointing at Gen, hopefully I get to hang you.

The night passed uneventfully. Gen wailed and blubbered. Begged for them to help him get out. They were unsympathetic.

Comes morning. Also comes their barrister, and who should it be, but Derryn Leyn d'Sivis. He notes that he probably won't be the barrister if it goes to trail, but is serving temporarily till a more permanent one can be found. He will take messages, bring them parchment and writing implements (they're entitled) and leave a small coin purse with the Constable to pay for messengers.

He'll bill them.

As he's speaking to them, the Constable shows up to fetch Gen, warrant in hand, smile on his face. He manacles his hands through the bars, one at a time. Gen sobs. Gen pleads, Gen goes limp with fear. The Constable drags him off, unmoved. The party thought they saw an opening when the Constable came in the cell- without help- to fetch Gen. Thankfully, Derrin saw their eyes go wide and gave them a frantic wave-off, pointing to the sword. He spoke to them some more while they tried not to listen to the crowd outside cheering raucously for the hanging.

What did he have to tell them? The Constable was, regrettably, impossible to bribe. He had a good reputation. He was Cyran born, but claimed Aundairian citizenship through marriage. House Deneith and House Orien, despite the latter's basically owning the city of Passage, were reluctant to deal with the case- that's why they were in a local Constable's prison, and not the cells in the Deneith enclave. Their best bet was to lay low, send messages to whomever they could and try to stay on the Constable's good side. He'd be back before lunch.

He took away some messages and off he went. The Constable came in and thumbed his pipe full. Noted that the Haradeen sculptures were on display up in the Orien enclave for a 5 silver piece fee. He took a walk last night and had a look. Said the statue did indeed look an awful lot like the Captain. (You could just hear the capital C). Still, could just be a statue- he'd disappeared over a year and a half ago, and all his family was considered dead in the Mourning. He asked some more questions about the tactics of the "Queen's Blades" and speculated about why they'd try to steal a statue. Maybe that's all some people have left to fight for. Odd.

They was some more sitting around in cells till there was some commotion in the front room. They caught the words "Ashbound" and "massacre" and "village" and "making for the border" and "need help." The Ashbound, of course, are crazy farkin' druids who believe civilization should be utterly destroyed, that the natural state of existence is as small hunter-gatherer groups. They don't use metal, they abhor arcane magic, and they occasionally burn villages and slaughter people.

And the Ashbound have found many a recruit from Cyran refugees. In fact, Constable Corleth has reason to believe that many of this particular group are Cyran.

The Constable, then, had a challenge on his hands. Here comes the speech.

"The smart thing to do...the smart thing would be to turn this over to the Deneith Marshals. There are more of them, and they're professionals. And if they decided to take an interest, they'd be very professional, gather a superior force, track them down and capture as many as possible alive. They'd bring them back to the city, parade them through the streets in chains, put them on trail, and hang them. Now, understand- these people are Ashbound. Once a person's gone that route, taken the Ritual of Ash, there's no more use capturing them then there is capturing a rabid dog. You can't heal them, you can't bring them back. They're gone.

But these people, some of them...they're Cyrans. Now I've shed all the tears I plan to on account of that country, and done all the fighting for it I can stomach. But that doesn't mean I didn't love it once. And when it's your own dog gone rabid, it's your responsibility to put it down."

Pause.

"I can call on 10 men. Of those 10, 2 have shot arrows at something not made of straw."

Pause.

"I'm going to go draw up some prisoner transfer paperwork. If the story you told me was false, well...you'll all just try to kill me the instant you get out of the city."

Paperwork was drawn. Derrin visited, cheerfully told them he hoped never to see any of them again, and disappeared. They were manacled and loaded into the wagon. Driven far. Much farther than before. They were let out at the side of the road, unchained, where they saw Constable Corleth and 2 other men mounted, with 3 spare mounts, loaded with the party's weapons and gear. The young lance-constable driving the wagon was given his story, and a heavy clout on the head to make it believable. They went on a hunt. A long hunt. Found the village; salted earth, a heap of dead bodies and burned houses. A longer ride, where they pretended not to see the border stones that showed they'd crossed into the Eldeen Reaches. Eventually the trail grew warm, and a small clearing was found with the temporary earthen huts and large firepit the Ashbound had created for themselves.

Blogger just stopped me from typing more, and it's late. I'll finish this post in the morning.