the Shattered Empire: Session 1

At long last, me and my friends have finally gotten together again to play D&D! The first hour or so was devoted to making characters, definitely a disadvantage of using something derived from 3rd Edition (we're using Pathfinder). Then we got the adventure underway.

The game began with the PCs meeting on the road to Delphens, a corrupt town filled with bandits and thieves. Soon after that they were attacked by some of the bandits. However they were no threat to the players. After the PCs killed one, and knocked out the leader, the others surrendered. The PCs decided (at my suggestion) to recruit them.

Then the PCs finished heading to Delphens where they looked for an adventure to undergo. Theron, the warrior revealed that he had heard of a ruined palace on just the other side of the river. The underground sections of this palace had been expanded into a maze, which where filled with both treasure and traps. They also heard a (false) rumor of an invading army of goblins. Theron was unsympathetic and said the people in the tavern should be out getting ready for the war.

They decided to explore the ruined palace. They hired a fisherman to ferry them to the other side of the river and to return when they finished they're expedition. Theron taught the northern barbarian (currently nameless) about haggling.

When they arrived at the palace they began exploring the place. Some players wanted to barge right through, but Theron's player advised caution, and so they began methodically mapping out the palace. Most of it was empty, however they did encounter some stirges, a couple of dire bats and some dire rats. They didn't find any treasure, except for a masterwork longsword, because they didn't look in the right places (i.e. under a pile of rubble). When the session ended they were getting ready to head down to the under ground level.

All in all, it was fun. It could have gone better in some parts, but I enjoyed myself immensely. I'm looking forward to playing again in a couple weeks. I find it interesting that Theron, a neutral evil character is becoming so prominent.