Murder at the Drink

A vampire Elf, hunting for the one who turned him, and his two companions, a gargoyle wizard and a thuggish gargoyle who cannot speak the common tongue, stayed at Gudeliva's Tavern outside of Edge City. While enjoying some stone soup and pretending to drink some wine, a few boisterous Dwarves showed up. Getting some of her fine ale in their bellies, they start a bit of a ruckus which ends up in a bit of a tussle. After our gargoyles helped clean up the Dwarves, Gudeliva tells her tale: her father died last year and Derig Goldensunder has been wanting to expand his taverns to include hers. She is now thinking her father's sudden death under a horse cart may not have been quite the accident she thought as additional hardships and minor calamites have happened and Derig has been making more offers with hints that it was dangerous for a woman to own a tavern outside the safety of the city walls. She says that Derig keeps his treasure in a cellar at the Drink, Derig Goldensunder's Tavern in Edge City (at the corner of Quarry and the Hole and Corner streets). There is a trap door in the kitchen leading down. She would be obliged if they could find something to implicate Derig in her father's death, but perhaps just taking some of his gold may strike him better.

The next night finds our trio at the tavern at closing time. There are a couple city guards after their shift imbibing as the evening wears on. Then they leave and the tavern master, Derig, tries to get the remaining customers to leave so he can close up. A fight quickly ensues, and death of course happens (and here I was trying to avoid the murder hobo trope!). Our vampire is almost killed but drinks from Derig himself. Interestingly in The Fantasy Trip vampires heal a point every other turn. Makes them a bad enemy and perhaps an overpowered player character. The cook meanwhile, seeing the damage unfolding, escapes out the kitchen door. 

Once in the kitchen, they find the trap door and head down. A small room with a couple chests is at the bottom of the stone stairs. One chest is open and they scoop up some gold. They also hear above that the town guard has arrived at the Drink. Ignoring the second closed chest, they move into the connecting corridor. Of course, there are giant snakes down here (and no, despite appearances, Noodles is not dead, though perhaps his twin is!), and not sure what else (I really need to get better at notes!). And that is where we left things.

the start of a random dungeon 

The two NPCs are from Philip Reed's Fantasy City Sites & Scenes (link in previous post). Though I did make up the secret cellar, and after that, I actually used the big box top to do a random dungeon via dropping a die in there. Of course, now I need to make up more of the dungeon as we play again Sunday morning!

As noted before, Edge city is built on older cities, so we have complete archologies here! and yes, they probably all interlink somehow. In fact, the scene from Gudeliva's Tavern actually has a dungeon behind her tavern in the well! Missed that when reading things.

As part of my living city, there will be wanted posters in the next few days for the gargoyles and the robed man as the cook did see them. And I have started a post about Edge City so will have something on that at some point. Just a severe lack of time coinciding with the desire to write that up. As much as I do like writing!

Maybe the other players will see this wanted poster and we have a party hunting down another player party! Of course, to a non-gargoyle all gargoyles probably look pretty much the same. Or not - we've not really established how the gargoyles look. And Edge City has its share of well-covered people in town. In fact, the other group I am running has this half-Orc/half-Elf who is also tall and well wrapped up. The next wanted poster may look similar to her, and she gets pulled in. But that is a few days away in game time.

And in using the Ank-Morpork book, it is quite overwhelming in its detail. I do have as things near the Drink:

• The Baths in Brown Stairs
• Twilight Caverns which is a rest home for Trolls and Dwarves (this is Discworld)
• One Happy Man on Fat Street
• The Crab And Stars
• The Crown and Hippo
• The Hole and Corner
• The Klatchian's Head
• The Mason's Arms

Of course, it has been a few years since I've read any of these books so it is all very vague.