Difference between revisions of "Nightmare Quarter (game)"

Revision as of 23:13, 20 December 2023

The Game

The Nightmare Quarter game started February 2022. Here you can find the latest posts in this game.

Current Events

• What's Your Poison - New to Plateau City, the adventurers answer an advertisement posted at the Catacombs by Berem of the Black Cathedral to investigate the recent poisoning and robberies of citizens of the Nightmare Quarter. Following some basic sleuth work, the team uncovers a group of alchemists and thieves who are developing and using a drow poison to incapacitate and rob wealthy citizens. A local alchemy professor at a necromancy school is discovered to be leading the efforts in Plateau City with a group known as Sharas Tel or friends of the drow. Once accused, they try to trap the adventurers but are outmatched and choose to fight to their deaths, leaving unanswered the questions of whether they are working with the drow, who is the mysterious ring leader 'The Beholder', and what if any larger schemes are afoot to employ the poison elsewhere in New Elenna?

• Mystery of the Scar - Following a summons from Berem of the Black Cathedral the adventurers are sent on a quest to find a mysterious blue glowing cave some two days towards Isen and retrieve an important scroll protected by a 'guardian. The scroll was revealed to Clarisse in a vision and she believes it is vital to the recovery of the Scar and that it is in danger of falling into the wrong hands. Following preliminary information gathering from the Mapmaking and Mining Guilds, the party set off towards Isen. After an adventuresome trip down the cliffs of the three plateaus via magical lifts, the party encounters a deranged dwarf who claims previous experience with the cave and its scroll. He begrudgingly provides the name of another dwarf named Emmet who is mining in the area near the cave and gives the party a coin to verify that he sent them. Emmet agrees after some negotiation to lead the adventures to the cave where they must first oust a band of kobolds who have taken up residence. A magical fountain that once fortified and healed those who drank from it was freed from corruption and the cave's final chamber opened to reveal the scroll in a magical case and an angel named 'Evanthe' left behind countless years ago to guard it. Once the guardian is convinced of their good intent the burden of the scroll is passed to the adventures along with a warning of the heartache accompanying possession of the scroll. The scroll in its case is returned to the Black Cathedral, but only after a fatal encounter with a deranged cleric of Ga'al who also knows of the scroll, desires its power and also warns of heartache. Alas, the scroll when opened by Berem is revealed to be undecipherable and is locked away in the vaults. The adventurers return to the Patch frustrated by this turn of events and yet more unanswered questions including what role Clarisse plays in all of this beyond just her vision, who else knows of the scroll, and what of this heartache?

• The Summoning - No sooner than they had returned to the Patch from their mission to recover the scroll than the adventures were interrupted by a commotion near the orphanage at Puccinni's. A shadowy figure lured the party into a dimly lit alley with a series of unnerving screams. A desperate fight along with the intervention of a new ally saw to the creature's demise. However, the Cloaker was but a 'herald' to a much more serious problem for the presence of similar creatures prior to the destruction of the scar was often a precursor to the summoning of demons by followers of Marteus. Some sleuthing around the Hollow Pit interrupted a group of cultists intent on recruiting students from the necromancy school. A map to an outlying farmhouse and a key were secured following a pitched battle and the murder of a cultist by one of their own. Aware of the urgency of the situation, the adventures set off for the farmhouse with little advanced preparation to disrupt the summoning ritual. A hidden basement served as the cultists' lair and the summoning was already underway, aided by the blood sacrifice of three captured children. The cultists were defeated and the ritual stopped just as the demon was about to enter the mortal realm. As it retreated back from the portal it fixed its gaze on the adventurers in an ominous portent of future retribution. With their victory secured and the children liberated, the adventurers from the Patch are left to collect their bounty and wonder what any of this has to do with the curse that continues to afflict the Scar.

Characters

These are the characters, past and present, that have been featured in this game.

Current Roster

Past PCs

NPCs

• Berem - (Human Male Cleric) A large balding man, Berem is the head of the Bureau of Administrative Affairs for the Black Cathedral. He is charged with maintaining good relationships between the Black Cathedral and the denizens of the Nightmare Quarter and with seeing to the rehabilitation and recovery of the cursed ground of the ‘Scar’.
• Bersei - (Human Male) A member of the town guard, Bersei arrested Musetta and then released her into the custody of the adventurers, warning that he would be checking in on them.
• Clarisse - (Human Female Cleric) A lean blonde woman often cloaked, Clarisse works for Berem of the Bureau of Administrative Affairs and acts as his eyes and ears on the ground. Clarisse is often the first point of contact for the adventurers when they are working for the Black Cathedral.
• Mavros - (Gnome Male Necromancer) A middle-aged gnome with a long gray moustache, Mavros leads the school of necromancy at The Hollow Pit. He claims that necromancy is not always evil and studies ways it can be put to good use.
• Musetta - (Elf Female) A small insolent elven child rescued from the town guard and an eventual prison sentence. Musetta stays at Puccinni's Coffee Shop, an orphanage in the Nightmare Quarter. She and her fellow orphans have a network every bit as extensive as any of the thieves' guilds and have fallen under the protection and favour of the adventurers.
• Tobrel - (Half-Elf Male) Master Tobrel is a lean half-elf with a small amount of gray in his hair. He has been (a? the?) Master Martial Artist (Monk) at the Temple of Pantheon in Plateau City for some time, and became Kwarsk's (see above) teacher of Pantheon's Justice not long after Kwarsk arrived in Plateau City with some of the adventurers who would become the Patchers. Master Tobrel recently agreed to take in Musetta as a resident student at the Temple after the Patchers rescued her from being a sacrifice in a demon-summoning ritual of the cult of Marteus. (Pantheon's Law is comprised of attorney-clerics, and Pantheon's Justice is comprised of protector-monks)
• Walid - (Human Male) an older man with a gentlemanly disposition and manner, Walid runs the orphanage in the Nightmare Quarter. Formerly a low-level thief and pickpocket, he has taught some of these same skills to the orphans out of necessity.

Geography

• The Nightmare Quarter

• The Patch - This two-story warehouse formerly known as 'The Pumpkin Patch' is situated in an alley running northeast from Nightmare Street towards the Scar and previously served as the headquarters and hideout for the Poisoners Guild, a band of alchemists and thieves who poisoned and robbed the citizens of Plateau City. When the adventurers dispatched the Poisoners Guild under the authority of the Black Cathedral, the title to the building was granted to the adventurers. Renamed 'The Patch', the building now serves as their headquarters and a source of assistance to the poor and downtrodden of the Nightmare quarter.

• The Blue Cave - This cave was carved into a hillside near Isen in a long-forgotten time by dwarves and elves. An antechamber glows with blue light caused by sunlight reflecting off the blue crystals that line the walls. The antechamber houses a fountain with a female statue that seems to watch those that enter. Any who drink from the fountain gain sustenance and improved health. Other chambers lie deeper within the cave including a library, sleeping chambers, etc.

• The Hollow Pit - A large multi-story building with a central tower situated in the Nightmare Quarter near the Black Gate. This building houses a school of necromancy unaffiliated with the Star Mages Guild.

• Puccinni's Coffee Shop - Once a pub and then a coffee shop, the expansion of the Scar drove away business and forced its closure. The building now serves as an orphanage for the Nightmare Quarter but has kept the name Puccinni's.

Standard Marching Order

Inside:

Kwarsk

Fingers

Burton

Paige

Zarsellet

Rhys

2x2:

Kwarsk - Rhys

Fingers - Burton

Zarsellet - Paige

Standard Nightly Watch

20:00 - 22:00 : Paige, Fingers

22:00 - 01:00 : Kwarsk, TBD

01:00 - 04:00 : Rhys, TBD

04:00 - 07:00 : Burton, Zarsellet