Scene Notes – C01.S03.04
Cycle 01 Shield 03 – Scene 04 – Notes
What happens in this scene?
Fireshear
Up next – fireshear. Now we know that The Knout has some secret location along the coast somewhere north of Fireshear. I think The Knout needs one more mentioning of some sort while in Fireshear. Perhaps then we open the next cycle back in Fireshear with some goal to location and destroy The Knout. Perhaps someone whom Dawndra meets in the next scene has, by the next cycle, gone missing. There are reports of her being kidnapped… maybe even Kleyt is somehow identified (If I do that… I probably need to back write something more distinctive about Kleyt besides his smell… a scar? An eyepatch? A missing hand? Maybe also… I give him a tremble and red eyes – make him a junkie of the dust. In fact… the drow punks report back that Kleyt met with a dealer of dust before sneaking into the sewers to travel the red road) Once back in Fireshear next cycle… Dawndra sees Kleyt and then finds her friend missing and puts 2 and 2 together. I could also close out this cycle with that scene… Routing the Knout… Kildar will be with her and Shent as well I expect. Closing out that story line in this cycle makes more sense than opening the next one with it… I think…
So then.. Who is the new friend?
I wonder if I should bring Saarvin into the fray games? It sounds like his kind of thing. Perhaps he and Shent have history… (Good? Bad? Hey Dice… do they have Good history? 4 = 4 even = Yes)
If so… Shent should probably encouner Saarvin in Fireshear.
Maybe… Saarvin took a prize the last few Fray games… including the year Riandyl was in competition. Since they have Good history, the dragonborn is not the reason Riandyl did not win the competition.
IN fact… Saarvin has returned to Fireshear from Waterdeep with his daughter Arva (Roller). After the games, Shent invites Saarvin (or the other way) to journey back to Fireshear together. (its about 50 miles of slow and dangerous travel – just over 3 days) Saarvin discovers his daughter has been kidnapped… Dawndra sees Kleyt in Fireshear and assumes the worst – Roller has been kidnapped like she had been.
The four (Dawndra, Kildar, Shent and Saarvin) Stage an attack on The Knout and Rout them out. They discover an entrance to the Underdark within the cavern base. But all that is 10 or more scenes away…
The question is… do I want scene four to be spent entirely in Fireshear? I need some time with Saarvin and Roller… I need the PC to invest some time with Roller so that the rescue feels dire.
Do I open in Fireshear? Or does something happen along the way? And how long is the way? About 50 miles – a days travel by sea. They arrive in Fireshear at night… is it a quiet night or is something happening? A dragon attack? Maybe I could borrow this encounter and combat mephits (although the other party just did…). Maybe there is another giant attack on Fireshear? We did not have any combat the last scene, so we need one either getting to Fireshear, in the town itself, or on the 3 day trek between Fireshear and Tentowns. Certainly there are encounters on the trek… so then… Fireshear is only social encounters? I do not want to Fireshear to be much more than a passerthru… with the exception of Saarvin and his daughter Roller… so then instead of “do I add a random encounter?” the question is … “how does Shent and Dawndra encounter Saarvin?” This is where there is combat. Saarvin does not need rescuing… that would diminish the character… but both parties are engaged in combat… and Shent recognizes Saarvin.
Who or what is attacking Saarvin? Or attacking Fireshear? Hey Dice… is something attacking Fireshear town? 3 No. So then someone or something is attacking only Saarvin, or a group Saarvin is in. A bar brawl? Nah… My mind keeps going back to the dragon. I like the idea of floating into the docks and seeing a dragon attacking the town… but even a Young dragon can wipe out a level 3 character with a single successful attack. What else?
Under Dwarves…
The Grackletack Clan (?) are Deurgar from Grackelstugh who were either slaves or outcasts from that society. They managed, with only 250 warriors, to invade and take over Hundelstone a few months ago and ever since they have been growing in power and wealth. They send raiding parties out to the surrounding towns and villages. Mostly their reasons are just to terrorize, but they also destroy any forges or blacksmith they can find. The blacksmiths themselves often go missing. Others are sometimes take as well. This is all now common knowledge among most of the towns and villages of the Frozenfar. If the Gracklebacks are planning invasions of other towns, it is not apparent. Only Ironmaster has reason to fear – or so say some locals. It’s the only logical target of Duergar they say. Ironmaster is way ahead of them however… it is impossible to even get close to the Dwarfhold and all mining crews now has armed guard units watching over their activity.
Many, if not all of the Tentowns have seen minor incursions of the “Gracks” (or “gak-sacks” as some have begun to refer to them). There has also been a rise in accounts of things going missing – especially metal-made weapons so everyone sleeps with their swords these days.
So the whole region is in turmoil… but what is new about that. How big would a raiding party be? 10? 15? Or maybe less since stealth and surprise is their objective