The Hit (Part 2)

Well, I am almost there. This session carries on from the last and I have only got one other session to blog in order to be up to date. From then on it will only become a fortnightly task.

As mentioned in the last post, Pete was removed from the group and a new member added. Pete understood my reasoning and, though not happy about it (neither was I), relinquished his coveted position as being a member of my gaming group.

The new member to the group has been around since I started GMing in 1992, namely, my wife. I have tried and tried to get her involved over the years but she has never acquiesced. In all that time her interests have subtly changed and she has become an avid computer-based RPG player instead of only reading fantasy/sci-fi novels. And so a few months ago I asked her to sit in on one gaming session and take charge of Pete's character. This was a different campaign, a sci-fi game of Space Master: Privateers, a campaign that had been running for a few years (also made by the makers of RolemasterFRP, Iron Crown Enterprises, or ICE for short).

Anyway, my wife agreed to try it out. I must thank the makers of the inspirational CRPG game The Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion, Bethesda Softworks, for their hand in converting my wife into an RPGer. Now I am doubly blessed since I have two female gamers in my group!

Moving on ...



The PCs have been invited to the Mayor's residence as honoured guests and to receive an award for their efforts in saving his life. Little do the PCs realise that their very lives will be in jeopardy.

It all started out sinisterly when the PCs were originally invited. The guard who brought the invitation to the PCs at The Limping Dog said that no weapons are permitted inside the Mayor's residence and so they should not bring any along. I liked this point in the game because I got to see the worried reactions of the PCs - LOL. Cavell was suspicious and I do believe, if my memory serves me right, that there was mention amongst the PCs of another plot of assassination either on the Mayor or directed at them. I had to laugh as that was exactly what I was planning. Not only that, but this premonition of the group to foretell future events is uncannily accurate, say 30% - 40% accurate, which is pretty damn good! But then, I like to have the PCs guessing and I do enjoy it when they realise their worst fears are coming true.

So the PCs rock up at the Mayor's residence, Cavell cannot help but bring his weapon, however, he does hand it over at the door. Shashari leaves her weapon behind as does Asmodeus and Aelerine. I can't remember what Rikku and Kodos did, that's the failing memory of an aging GM!

Once in the banquet hall, the PCs find they are seated at a table that is the most distant from that of the Mayor's - another reason for them to worry, hehe. It all starts out innocently with the PCs sitting alongside other people as the meal is brought out. One of the players mentions the food is poisoned, but they dig in anyway - another accurate guess, but it is not as they think. Some of the guests seated around them are in fact assassins poisoning their food when they are not looking. I ask all players to make a D100 roll without telling them what it is for. Actually only one player is in any danger at this point, Aelerine.


I ask PCs to make an Alertness skill roll. Then all hell breaks loose. A woman shouts out "poisoner" from across the room and she gets up and runs across the room to the PC's table, pointing at a man sitting right beside Kodos. The man does nothing until the woman is getting close to the table, then he gets up and draws a dagger. Kodos and Rikku notice what's going on and so get up out of their seats to surround the man.

"I knew we needed weapons", says Cavell.

Cavell also notices the commotion and makes a move towards the end of the table where all the action is taking place.

Meanwhile, I ask Asmodeus and Shashari to make another Alertness skill roll. The players think this is about noticing the woman crossing the room and so, when they fail a second time, think they can't do anything at this point in the game. This in fact was an error on my part as GM (maybe). I thought it was obvious that Asmodeus and Shashari could see that something was going on at the other end of the table because I was describing the events out loud, but the players did not interpret it that way.

Anyway, everyone is busy watching the woman move across the room and/or dealing with the assassin, too busy to notice the green colour appearing in Aelerine's face.

A guard confronts the assassin who waves his dagger menacingly. The guard attacks the assassin and within a couple of rounds the assassin is bleeding badly and on death's doorstep. The assassin tries to make a desperate lunge for the nearby window and lands flat on his face at the edge of the curtains, dead.

It is at this time that Shashari and Asmodeus finally notice the gurgling sounds coming from behind them as Aelerine sprays vomit all over the table and falls backwards onto the floor, dead from poison. A man sitting beside her is right there lending "assistance" but it is too late. Cavell appears and examines Aelerine, but it is definitely too late. The man who initially assisted Aelerine disappears, Shashari cannot find him.

The PCs find the assassination was planned as there was a cart below the window filled with straw, an obvious escape route for the assassin. Rikku identifies a triangle tattooed on the assassin's left hand in the webbing between thumb and first finger. This can't be a coincidence.

Wanting the night to be over and the PCs out of his house, the Mayor and all his guests retire to another large room where he presents the PCs with a medallion and a small pouch of coins as thanks for saving his life.

The PCs leave behind the body of Aelerine for the guard to deal with and, as Shashari identified with the others agreeing, they knew very little of Aelerine who had been with them for only two days. Aelerine didn't really support them as a group so why should they worry about her now?

While at the reception, Cavell had a chance to speak with the woman who spotted the assassin from across the room; her name, he found out, is Xera. She appears quite pompous and arrogant and a little disgruntled about her overprotective father. She expresses her longing for adventure and asks Cavell about his group. After a small bit of discussion, Xera willingly tags along with the group back to The Limping Dog and decides she is leaving her rich family here in Sel-kai in search of adventure.

And so now a new member has arrived in the PC group:

• Lady Xera Azkatar - a female Laan Lay Healer