A mysterious elf spoke to Dion and Ciarda the next day. Azrael the wizard rounds out the party, adds some area-of-effect and burst damage, and allows me to feed information to the kids without breaking immersion.
Adventure came calling as they all sat there discussing the mutual benefit of exploring together. It came calling in the form of a letter from Lady Greenslade at Dire Keep telling a tale of woe, goblin infestation and captured family.
Of course, I couldn't resist the lure of some physical props, so I printed out the letter and a map of the keep, folded them up, and handed them over. The kids seem to love this sort of interaction with the game world.
The promise of a rich reward wasn't the main lure (although it helped); the thought of a family ripped apart tugged on the kids' heartstrings and they were marching within minutes. Another goblin ambush sharpened their sense of impending danger, and this one was dispatched just as easily as the previous one. They were developing a swagger after these early encounters!
They both role-played admirably in the meeting with Lady Greenslade - Ciarda seems to have a natural ability to be in character, and Dion is full of ideas. They were joined by another NPC for the first part of this adventure as I wasn't sure how difficult they'd find it. I needn't have worried - the NPC hardly got a look-in!
The children quickly realised that the map they had matched with the rooms that they were exploring, and after a couple of minor skirmishes with wandering goblins in the Keep's cellars, they pushed into goblin territory. The map they had talked of a character called Bargulg, and they rightly assumed that he was the leader in these parts and would know where the prisoners were. These ideas were cemented when they decided (with no prompting from me) to capture rather than kill a lone goblin and question him. Luckily Ciarda could speak the goblin tongue. It took a wee reminder about their 'good' alignment to stop torture taking place, but they eventually put away the thumbscrews. Even better, they jailed the goblin in a locked room rather than killing it!
They pushed onwards, and met one of the hobgoblin overseers in a guard room. This was a trickier fight and it required some healing afterwards. Ciarda had discovered her command spell and had a little fun with it towards the end of the fight.
This evening's fun ended in what could have been an epic battle in the barracks, but a combination of sleeping enemies and another critical hit meant it was actually quite a minor fight. The tension of the exploration meant that two tired kids put away their character sheets that night.
They both role-played admirably in the meeting with Lady Greenslade - Ciarda seems to have a natural ability to be in character, and Dion is full of ideas. They were joined by another NPC for the first part of this adventure as I wasn't sure how difficult they'd find it. I needn't have worried - the NPC hardly got a look-in!
The children quickly realised that the map they had matched with the rooms that they were exploring, and after a couple of minor skirmishes with wandering goblins in the Keep's cellars, they pushed into goblin territory. The map they had talked of a character called Bargulg, and they rightly assumed that he was the leader in these parts and would know where the prisoners were. These ideas were cemented when they decided (with no prompting from me) to capture rather than kill a lone goblin and question him. Luckily Ciarda could speak the goblin tongue. It took a wee reminder about their 'good' alignment to stop torture taking place, but they eventually put away the thumbscrews. Even better, they jailed the goblin in a locked room rather than killing it!
They pushed onwards, and met one of the hobgoblin overseers in a guard room. This was a trickier fight and it required some healing afterwards. Ciarda had discovered her command spell and had a little fun with it towards the end of the fight.
This evening's fun ended in what could have been an epic battle in the barracks, but a combination of sleeping enemies and another critical hit meant it was actually quite a minor fight. The tension of the exploration meant that two tired kids put away their character sheets that night.
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