The Next Campaign, pt 1

So, I wrapped up my first DnD run, The Ciaren Campaign a few weeks ago. According to feedback, it went really well (note to self: make RPG feedback forms). As it often does, the end of one campaign leads to the beginning of another campaign. “What’s next?”

I’ve got three to four players right now. After talking it over with them, I cut the options down to a Shadowrun series, a Star Wars series, or the realization of a Star Trek series.

Now, Derek wants to run Shadowrun. When I asked what elements of Shadowrun he liked, so as to either narrow down what elements of Shadowrun I had to learn about or what elements of Star Trek or Star Wars I wanted to accentuate, he described Shadowrun to me. It was surprisingly helpful.

Tales of Lucio Pavlec: In Which Lucio Pavlec Makes an Appearance pt 6 of 6

“Eye of Thr’r’r’rn. No doubt about it.,” Lucio tossed it carelessly to Lanay, “I wouldn’t be seen in any respectable circles with this thing.”

She gave it a disdainful once-over, “I used to have one of these when I first started out,” she passed it, in turn, to Dire Fox, “Mine was smaller though.”

The Halfing continued rubbing the back of his head with one hand while balancing The Eye with the other, “Wow,” his tone was almost reverent, “This thing is almost valuable because of how uniquely worthless it is. This is the sort of thing you mug someone to make them take.”

He put it back on the pedestal without thinking, dodging a poison dart as he did so, “So did we find anything that might tell us about this “Ghost’? Or did we just waste a week?”

Lanay sighed wearily, “Ugh, waste. Let’s split up the equipment we found, give those villagers their stupid money back, and never speak to one another again.”

Tales of Lucio Pavlec: In Which Lucio Pavlec Makes an Appearance pt 5 of 6

“Well, technically, it’s fire resistant. It would’ve protected you from anything a mere warlock could conjure. That was the point, right?”

“No! It wasn’t the point!” She paused the gulp down the potion the wizard offered, and immediately regretted it whenever it almost made her feel too good to be angry, “The point was to keep you from burning me!”

Lucio Pavlec seemed genuinely confused, “I don’t think they make rings that strong. I actually took that one off of a guy I burned to death.”

“I am never,” she stepped over the charred remains of the leviathan snake-thing that U’rn Daali had called “The Most Ultimate Serpent King” and took long, angry steps towards the dais, ”working with you again!”

“Oh,” Lucio was suddenly unconcerned, as if realizing their conversation was just a long joke, “Everyone says that.”

By the pedestal behind the altar, Dire Fox skeptically examined the warped black shape that the inhabitants had so revered, “I think is that eye they were talking about.”

“Is it rigged?”

The Halfling nodded, “Yeah, but not too well. It’s actually taking me longer to decide if it’s worth the time to deactivate the traps.”

He looked up to notice her unsympathetic expression.

“I’m serious! It would almost be worth it to just grab this thing and just count on my ability to dodge the darts,” he sniffed the air, “I think they’re drakesblood.”

“That’s pretty deadly,” she didn’t know much about poisons, but drakes were just behind dragons and just above lizards in the hierarchy of reptilian threats (all of which were above Yuan-Ti), and it was hierarchy which had served her well so far.

“Yeah,” he ran his fingers around the seam where the black thing met the pedestal’s stone, “but I’m mostly immune.”

“Then why not just take it then?”

“Well, technically,” he smiled, “I’m only resistant.”

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Tales of Lucio Pavlec: In Which Lucio Pavlec Makes an Appearance pt 4 of 6

She glanced at Dire Fox, he gave an innocent shrug with a deliberate blink. Good. That meant he had about two minutes until he could free himself of his own restraints. She nodded to an archway on the right. She could fae step there and run while he slipped away from the guard. The antechamber would be the best place to meet back up so he could remove her chains and they could escape.

If negotiations didn’t work. She continued addressing their reptilian host, “We’ve seen your antechamber, your spires, your streets; we know you’ve encountered The Ghost before and he’s what we’re looking for.”

U’rn Daali slithered down the steps below the altar, “We do not trust surface. Send many down. Many Yuan-Ti die.”

“The Ghost was leading them.” She explained calmly. She didn’t know much about these guys, but if they were anything like the tree lizards back home, they respected confidence and strength, not timidity, “And you cannot have him; he is ours to punish.”

The serpent-man slid up into her face, spreading his jaws wide to show his fangs. For her part Lanay remained as impassive as she could. After a few seconds of becoming intimately acquainted with the inside of a Yuan-Ti’s mouth, she was grateful he withdrew.

He looked thoughtful now, “Maybe…” he looked at her closely, “…maybe…”

“Thank Sehanine,” she thought, “This is going to work.”

Then she saw a shadow in the empty rows of the gallery above the altar and thought of the worst thing that could happen right now; if Lucio Pavlec had somehow tracked them down to rescue them.

“Excuse me,” his voice burst from the darkness above, “I’m looking for a primitive culture that can set me up for an easy joke about hide armor.”

With a regretful glance at Dire Fox, she closed her eyes and began shifting into the Feywild to escape what was to come. Sadly, Lucio was quicker on the draw than she anticipated. Her last thought before vanishing completely into another realm was just how little this burning sensation felt like ‘fire immunity.’

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Tales of Lucio Pavlec: In Which Lucio Pavlec Makes an Appearance pt 3 of 6

“It was the strangest thing.”

“It does sound weird. Not ‘remember your name’ weird, but you’re almost describing regret. From Lucio.”

“I know. So, then, as if he’d just remembered something, he asked if I was the one he burned with that gout of flame when ‘we were fighting those grimlocks’.”

Dire Fox winced.

“I’d like to think that woman survived--”

“You mean you’d like to think he’d remember it if someone he was traveling with had died.”

“Yes,” she nodded, “However,” she looked at the new ring on her hand, “I figured she’d probably never work with him again…”

The Halfling smiled, “…and you certainly are.”

“So I don’t see why I wouldn’t want immunity to fire.”

“Oh certainly. How many times has he almost burnt you?”

“Only three, but if one thing improves your reflexes, it’s dodging sheets of fire. You?”

“Twice, well, two and a half.”

She laughed, a few short yelps as Elves did, “Is that a short joke? From you?”

He chuckled and shook his head, “No. We were fighting this warlock—“

This time, the sounds of her mirth were loud enough to bounce off the darkening trees. She covered her mouth, but not her smile as he continued, “and he just lays down this roiling wall of flame,” he motioned forward, his hands crawling out to simulate tongues of flame, “I dodge it—barely—but then the warlock just…” he turned his hand inward to show the flame turning around, “right back at me,” he shook his head, “never saw it coming. Figure it’s worth half.”

“Yeah, half.”

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Tales of Lucio Pavlec: In Which Lucio Pavlec Makes an Appearance pt 2 of 6

“You didn’t have to kill him, you know.”

“Well, I didn’t have to not-kill him, Val. You heard the judge; their muddy little grub hole doesn’t even consider Galeb Duhrs ‘murderable.’”

Dire Fox had known Lanay for a while now. The first few times they’d met, he couldn’t figure out why Lucio called her “Lanay.” It wasn’t until he and Lucio had done a few jobs with another duo that he realized the wizard called every Elf he met the same name. He didn’t know if it was an Elvin nickname or simply the name of the first Elf he ever worked with. None of them had ever seemed to mind, well, any more than anyone else bothered about what Lucio called them, so he supposed it couldn’t have been that derogatory.

“That doesn’t make it right,” Lanay countered, “Your lack of empathy is appalling.”

“Huh. My empathy is fine,” he crossed his arms almost petulantly and they rode in silence for a moment.

Finally, Dire Fox spoke up, “Look, Lanay, what else did you learn about this guy?”

She shrugged. While they’d once passed a night with a glass of strawberry wine and discussion of a commonly despised wizard, their subsequent attempts at personal conversation had been awkward and sometimes confrontational. They could talk about Lucio behind his back, but he didn't feel like he needed to tempt a childish, violent, and powerful mage to stand behind them and cast the wrong spells on purpose.

Still, superficial conversation was better than none, “They said that they initially just took his actions at face value; he’d meet some adventurers, get a fat advance, then come back a few days later with the advance ready to spend.”

“No doubt with the addition of whatever his ‘unfortunate friends’ were carrying.”

She nodded, “Probably. The town was fine with that; most adventurers buy some expedition equipment then blow out of town and are never seen again,” she shook her head, "he paid them handsomely to live like a king, and they didn't give it a thought until the well dried up."

“Ghoulish,” Dire Fox looked past Lanay and saw Lucio’s horse veering off the path towards some flowers. Arms crossed as they were, he was trying to twist his torso to pull the reins and direct it back on track, but to no avail. The Halfling looked back to better enjoy the Human’s inner conflict between continuing with his brooding and not losing time in the pursuit of a rogue warlock.

He turned forward, satisfied that shortly, Lucio wouldn’t have any excuse to continue his posing. Maybe then he’d get over this spell and become some other, more tolerable form of terrible company.

From behind him, they heard a shout, “My horse is hungry and he’s going to eat for a while now!”

He and Lanay glanced back simultaneously to see Lucio, arms still crossed and looking back the way they came, away from them, with his horse grazing peacefully on some flowers by the side of the road, “Oh, don’t worry about me, I’ll catch up!”

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Tales of Lucio Pavlec: In Which Lucio Pavlec Makes an Appearance pt 1 of 6

“Aw man, these idiots!” Lucio Pavlec angrily jerked a chair away from the table, turning it backwards to he could straddle it as he joined his cohorts, “I’ve reasonably explained to everyone in the local magical community--even the slack-jawed Globs who are part of that rolling, trinket-peddling sideshow that passes for a trade caravan outside,” he took a minute to wave with faux friendliness at a pair of the aforementioned Galeb Duhrs, who took his ethnic slur in classic, stoic stride,“ and no one is interested in talking about this ‘Ghost.’ This is a massive waste of time.”

The Elven woman and the Halfing shared a knowing glance before the Halfing spoke up with a cheerful unflappability that had seen most tests Lucio could pose, “Everyone I talked to seemed straightforward enough; he was here for four months, escorted adventurers to the ruins for a steep fee. Almost never returned with any of them.”

Lucio looked away sullenly, “They probably thought you were him,” he then turned to regard his companion suspiciously, “where have you been since we last crossed paths, Dire Fox?”

The Halfing suppressed a sigh. He’d repeated his name to Lucio until the point of exhaustion, but the wizard was simply too self-absorbed or intentionally offensive to have remembered it. Probably both. When they had first met, five years and three sojourns ago, his appellation had been “Little Guy,” but Lucio hadn’t even bothered to remember that. At least this was a step up.

“I’ve been amongst civilized people, Lucio. The kind with manners.”

“Funny, I don’t remember seeing you there.”

“I learned that he actually was a Halfling,” the Elven woman offered, heading off another round of sniping. The information put a smirk on Lucio’s face while it earned her a pointed glare from Dire Fox.

“But,” she added, “He was a mage,” the news reversed her companions’ expressions, while she passed a secret grin to Dire Fox before capping it off, “probably a Warlock.”

Dire Fox returned the smile. Very little could derail Lucio’s lifelong mission to annoy, harass, and bring trouble to those who chose to align themselves with him, and warlocks were one of those things. Despite every irritating facet of his personality, nay, his existence, Lucio Pavlec did have a work ethic and had apparently never looked highly upon those who’d simply borrowed power through an oath. Maybe this time, things wouldn’t go quite so poorly.

The floors of the bar rumbled slightly as a third Galeb Duhrs entered. The two who had been waiting began a slow, but direct trip towards the table of the three adventurers. Their friend noticed and turned his stocky, rocky body for the same destination.

Maybe not.

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Tales of Lucio Pavlec: Shale Sunblade 3 of 3

"Shale Sunblade,” the dart flew straight into the weathered board, landing just above the bullseye, “Archaeologist fair.” The crowd booed this time, and he again paid out his competitor before escorting his newest visitors to a table. An Elven male and a human female this time, “and yes, I have been to the ruins, on many occasions.”

"But you’ve never-“

“Retrieved The Eye of Thr'r'r'rn? No one has gotten deep enough yet."

"How close have they gotten?" He saw the grin. The grin that each one of them had, confident that they had the wisdom, the wits, or the courage to do what others hadn’t.

But there was no use telling them. Adventurers laughed in the face of danger. Well, the dead ones did. No use letting them die with their cairns. Besides, he looked wistfully away for second, betraying himself to the Elf--however unknowingly--maybe he was right, "Too close. My fee is sixty-five of those shiny local things...ah..."

"Cairns," the wiry human on the right offered before shooting her companion an amorous look.

"Right. Sixty-five cairns. Forty up front, just for looking at the place again,” what would it matter if it were twenty or twenty-five Cairns he never collected?

“The only shares I want are of anything of strictly academic value that might be left down there."

The Elven man crossed his arms, revealing bracers with dark-gold edging and typically Elven wards, "but how do we know there's still anything of value down there that's worth your hefty fee?"

Shale took a sip of his ale, "You don't, but you want The Eye. Don't worry though, there are things down there,” he gestured at the Elf’s bracers, “for you to turn a tidy profit selling everything you don't need. You'll make that forty back on useless artifacts."

His customer wanted to haggle, Shale could see it, but quite simply no one had the experience he did in the ruins. Besides, anyone who looked at the two could tell they had the remainder of their afternoon pretty well scheduled. He could’ve gotten another five out of them for that alone, but he couldn’t. He hoped they enjoyed it.

"Here's your forty. Williamson's Tavern. Dawn tomorrow," then the two made a hasty exit, hand-in-hand.

Shale put the forty in his purse and sighed.

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Tales of Lucio Pavlec: Shale Sunblade 2 of 3

He stumbled into the light of day from the entrance to L'ruines Arecht. Behind him, he thought he heard something still slithering, hard scales on old stone, but he knew he was imagining things.

He checked himself over in the light, just to be sure. His dagger was still hot and it warmed him through the sheath on his hip. He found a shady pile of rubble to recollect himself under. He'd tempted fate enough just enough trying to buy Kelder a few extra seconds at the end there, no use heading through the woods until he caught his breath.

His gloves were still caked with the remains of that Elf. He had really thought she was different; that she'd have the good sense to turn tail and bolt after the first party they found. But no, like the rest, when he'd said there were others up ahead, she'd only heard promise of spoils instead of warning.

He checked his purse. Forty Cairns, still there. At least it hadn't been a total waste. He breathed deeply, took a drink from the flask from his pack, then got back up.

Their horses were still there. He untied his miniature, then looked at the other three finally shooting a glance back at the entrance, "Still a waste though."

He set the other horses free, then started riding back to the town.

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Tales of Lucio Pavlec: Shale Sunblade 1 of 3

The warrior pushed off of his stool as Kelder entered, her eyes bright. That was a good sign. He’d had no luck finding a guide for the ruins, he’d hoped she’d had better trying to locate a freelance mage. Since they’d left home for the surface world together, they’d had little fortune to speak of.

Well, besides being together. Now, things were turning up. Kelder had already “found” the Elven girl who happened to be good with a lock...and a purse. If the girl hadn’t had so many powerful enemies, the two dwarves would have had found her, much less convinced her to join their expedition.

Kelder approached, flushed with her trademark excitement, "According to the baker's daughter, there's a young, but talented, mage who's been in town for a few months. That is, between" she paused for effect, as she loved to do before she finished with excited glee, "trips to the ruins!"

He nodded, "His name?"

* * *

"Shale Sunblade," he took a moment to aim, then hurled piece of metal at the board a few feet away, it struck just to the left of center as the crowd cheered, and he turned to the pair, "Archaeologist fair."

The Halfling stepped from the play line as he opened his purse and withdrew several rectangular stones, each bisected by a thin band of metal with inscriptions, counting them out deliberately before handing them to his burly human competitor with a hearty pat on the arm and a healthy grin, “Five sir. Good game.”

He returned his attention to the dwarves, "And yes, I have been to the ruins. On many occasions." He shot a familiar glance at a nearby maid and led his guests to a quieter portion of the bar.

"But have ye-"

"Retrieved The Eye of Thr'r'r'rn? No. No one has even gotten deep enough into the ruins to see it." Shale took a seat at one of the bar’s lower tables, close to the traffic flow, and motioned for the dwarves to join him.

"They quit then?" The warrior was cheered by this; no doubt he and Kelder were braver than whatever dabbling adventurers had come before and left empty-handed.

The Halfing’s glance to the side was hard to read, but of no real consequence; it were words that mattered, "Close. My fee is sixty of the local tender...ah..."

"Cairns," Kelder offered helpfully, "Funny name for a thing," she added chuckling a little bit at the human world's strange ways.

"Right. Sixty cairns. Forty up front, just for looking at the place again. The only shares I want are of anything of strictly academic value that might be down there." He didn’t seem too interested in going back. The warrior guessed he'd recovered everything of value on earlier trips.

"Maybe I should just pay you forty total and give you a share of whatever's left," his voice was a mixture of wary and amused, feeling out the Halfling's intentions.

The young mage leaned forward, eying the dwarves' gear pointedly, "There are plenty of axes, and plates, and books, and staves, and archaeological...things left in the ruins for you to turn a tidy profit selling everything you don't need. You'll make that forty back on useless artifacts,” he then leaned back again, "Besides, you're only really interested in The Eye." He thanked the maid as she delivered a drink for each of them.

The three continued talking, mostly about the finer points of the ruins. Some of what Shale said didn’t match the texts that he and Kelder had been raised on, but the Halfling spoke with confidence and detail befitting someone who’d seen and touched the remains of the once-mighty city. Kelder was more knowledgeable about these things, and when she inquired about the inner sanctum or the lower levels, the mage honestly confessed his lack of information.

While the two continued speaking, the warrior thought about it. Forty was tight. Not unreasonable, but tight. He was friendly enough, and he had been to the ruins, and back, several times. He may not have ever gotten far enough to see The Eye of Thr'r'r'rn, but he was smart enough to make it through the perils of the now-subterranean spires to the Blackrock Streets and back again, alive.

He felt Kelder's hand tighten around his wrist and looked down into her smiling hopeful face, "We'll get you your forty."

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