Oathday. 31 Desnus, 4724 AR
Absalom has always drawn travelers from around the world. This summer the city is hosting the Radiant Festival, a celebration to commemorate the failed Radiant Siege of Absalom in 1619 AR. The festival is held every one hundred years and delegations from most of the nations of the world are in attendance to demonstrate the finest they have to offer. The city has come alive with art and music. The people gaze in awe at feats of magical might. They wonder at engineering marvels that boggle the mind.
While planning for the festival, a brilliant plan was enacted that would prepare the city for the epic celebration while also cleansing it of a blight that has tainted the city for over twenty years. An earthquake shook the Isle of Kortos and forever altered the landscape of Absalom. The neighborhood known as Beldrin’s Bluff was a quaint, quiet one filled with tea shops, minor government buildings, and a few pleasure houses. When the earthquake struck, a large portion of the bluff was sheered off and fell into the Inner Sea.
What remained of the district was mostly abandoned. It quickly became the city’s poorest and most derelict neighborhood. Much of the ruins were haunted and full of undead, the lost souls of those killed by the earthquake. When Acting Primarch Wynsal Starborn came to power, he launched an extensive revitalization effort in tandem with the preparations for the festival.
Thousands of mercenaries, work crews, and spellcasters were hired to clear a wide swath of the quarter. It was transformed into a suitable fairground though rumors of cost-cutting, budget limitations, and unscrupulous contractors plagued the effort. To police the renovated neighborhood, the Grand Council established Edgewatch. Edgewatch would serve as a specialized city watch focusing on the needs of the Radiant Festival and the Precipice Quarter.
Our heroes are volunteers of Edgewatch who have been organized into a unit within the organization.
Bogwynne is a grippli investigator from a clan of hunter-gatherers. He is quite intelligent and dedicated to education in all its forms. Since coming to Absalom, he feels he has learned all he can learn from the various educational institutions and now he wishes to learn about life on the “streets.” He volunteered to join Edgewatch to get to know the people of Absalom on a personal level and maybe to do some good with his prodigious wealth of knowledge.
Grimathar the Bulwark is a minotaur fighter and a famous gladiator of the Irrorium in Absalom. He is a minor celebrity in the city and has earned his bronze award for winning five deathmatches. During his time as a gladiator, he was introduced to Irori and developed a strong faith in the god of enlightenment, self-perfection, knowledge, healing, and inner strength. He also took a vow to no longer take another life in honorable combat. He adapted his fighting style to dual-wield shields to protect his allies and to pummel his foes into submission. He joined the Sleepless Suns of the Foreign District and served honorably until he was sent to serve in the Edgewatch.
Houx Bon is an elven sorcerer and has a bit of a silver tongue. The others aren’t sure what to make of him yet. He says he was a member of the Lotus Guard. He says he was a smuggler. He says he was once one of the most influential criminals in Absalom. He says his real name isn’t even Houx Bon. He says a lot of things. Only time will tell what is the truth and what isn’t.
Noriux Ozae is a devout wyvaran cleric of Uvoko, the draconic god of change and fertility, mostly worshipped in the Mwangi Expanse. How Noriux came to leave his home in Garund and arrive in the city of Absalom is a story in itself. He was serving as a member of the Harbor Guard and for various reasons was slipping in his duties, mostly the time he spent helping to hunt monsters in the Precipice District. His captain saw potential in him, so he sent him to the Edgewatch. The wyvaran was spending most of his time there anyway. Might as well make him a member of the watch watching over the district.
Talos Valcoran is an android psychic detective. He was created by Elena Kane to be an android enforcer capable of harnessing both mechanical prowess and psychic magic. Talos distinguished himself thwarting a bold heist of the Grand Vault of Norgorber and later Wynsal Starborn when the acting primarch was kidnapped by the Order of the Poison Fang. Unfortunately, he was heavily damaged during the rescue. Elena did her best to put him back together but he doesn’t remember much from his early experiences. Many in Absalom know and respect him, even if he doesn’t remember why or how.
Torzild Zuhn is a heavily tattooed orc barbarian. He’s not the brightest in the bunch, but that isn’t his fault. He’s been hit in the head too many times. He worked for Houx once and that is how he got pulled into volunteering for Edgewatch.
Zahan Who-Defies-Nature was abandoned as a pup. He learned to survive in the wild although he did come into contact with others from time to time. From them, he heard tales of the city of Absalom and eventually made his way there. Poor and with no name in the city, he ended up in the Puddles District and joined the Muckruckers. He proved himself a capable watch member and was invited to join Edgewatch.
This motley group of recruits met with Sergeant Moldun Ollo who fit them for uniforms and provided them with quarters and equipment. The old sergeant was a beloved member of the city watch and had served in various quarters throughout his storied career. He pinned the bronze badge of the Edgewatch on each of them and sent them to meet with Lieutenant Grospek Lavarus.
Lt Lavarus was not so kind and immediately put them to work. He briefed them on an urgent report of trouble in a tavern called the Tipsy Tavern which also happened to be his favorite drinking establishment. He wanted them to head over to the tavern, settle things down, and then report back when the job was done. He did not seem overly impressed with the recruits, but he needed someone to lead them. Several of them had already made names for themselves, but Talos was the most famous of the group (even if the android could not remember well the events that had made him famous). The group had their first assignment.
The Tipsy Tavern was not far from Edgewatch headquarters. It was a modest establishment owned by a pleasant halfling woman named Belberry Breckenridge. Belberry had a reputation for taking care of the agents of Edgewatch. When the unit arrived, they found the crowd sparse and the place in shambles. They were greeted by Hendrid Pratchett and his associate, Ralso. Hendrid was a regular and owner of the Dreaming Palace. He thanked the Edgewatch for coming and before he could say more, a flying tankard caught him in the face and broke his nose.
Ralso helped Hendrid out the front door and our heroes went to work. Six drunken adventurers had taken over the bar and were making a mess of things. The dwarf, Bolar of Stonemoor, kept throwing tankards about and nearly set the tavern on fire. The others (Antaro Boldblade, Miriel Grayleaf, Skebs, and a pair of human rogues) were not quite so destructive but were still a problem. It seemed the group had found a small dungeon in the siegelands outside Absalom and had made a tidy profit from the venture. Unfortunately, they had let their ale get the better of them.
The agents approached the adventurers, announced who they were, and politely asked the troublemakers to knock off the nonsense. At first, the adventurers were belligerent and ignored the polite requests of the agents. However, the agents had the advantage in numbers, size, and soberness. Antaro was a cleric of Cayden Cailean and although he loved having a good time, he realized they had crossed the line. He urged Bolar to back down. The adventurers finally decided to take their party somewhere else. Houx suggested the Slithering Wyvern in the Puddles district and the adventurers departed.
It was only a short while after the adventurers left, that the agents realized they had forgotten to fine the troublemakers. No profits this evening, it seemed. All was not lost though. Belberry thanked the agents for their good work and offered them free drinks whenever they wanted them. Houx and Torzild were thrilled to hear it, but the others stopped them from partaking while they were still on duty. She also gave each of them 2 gold pieces for their efforts.
The group returned to Lieutenant Lavarus. He was grateful to hear his favorite tavern was still in one piece and dismissed them for the night with orders to come back first thing in the morning.
Fireday, 1 Sarenith, 4724 AR
Sergeant Ollo greeted them the next morning with a patrol map for the Precipice District. The route marked was a long one that would take them all over the neighborhood and probably the better part of the day. He also said two reports had come in and he needed to check them out while on patrol. The first was a report of a fight in the market between two goblin food stand owners. The second was about a domestic dispute in a wizard’s shop. He recommended they check out the goblin food stands first. The gods only know the kinds of problems warring goblins can cause. It was the first day of the Radiant Festival. Ollo didn’t want the quarter burning down at the onset of the celebration.
In the market, the agents stumbled into a battle of flying flaming oil pots between the Everything Fried, owned by a goblin named Grunka, and Pelmo’s Pickle Hut, owned by a goblin named Pelmo. They were quarrelling over the right to sell goblin-cuisine in the market and Pelmo accused Grunka of stealing his pickles.
While the agents spoke with goblins, they noticed the fires from the oil pots spreading across the Everything Fried stall. Half of them rushed to put out the flames which they did, by dismantling the stall to separate the flamables from the flames.
The agents convinced the goblins they should probably just be working together. How many people wanted goblin cuisine in a place like Absalom? Pelmo agreed and Grunka did as well when he realized his stall had been completely dismantled. The agents fined the goblins for the trouble (15 gold pieces from each) and then left them to argue over the name for their new jointly owned goblin cuisine stall.
The agents continued their patrol. The quarter was packed but all was peaceful until mid-afternoon went they reached a small park by the harbor. A large, elliptical track had been constructed in the park and an enormous moving castle was slowly moving around it. The castle stood on hundreds of mechanical legs of Keleshite design. A large crowd had gathered and was admiring the Keleshite wonder when the peace was broken. A human woman ran from the crowd with a dagger and a coin purse in hand. Her victim, a young man of some wealth, screamed at her and yelled for someone to catch the thief.
The agents quickly intercepted the solo rogue and Torzild grabbed her. She fought like a lioness but surrendered when she realized she was in serious trouble. Houx tried to get her to talk, but she didn’t cooperate. The agents returned the stolen coins to the victim and confiscated the rest of the rogue’s haul. She had been having a good day until she was spotted. They took her back to Edgewatch headquarters and tossed her in a cell. Ollo spoke with the rogue and coerced her into sharing her name at least, Larigold Rell. The job done, the agents returned to their patrol.
The rest of the afternoon went by quickly and just before sunset they heard screams coming from an excavation site not far from the wizard’s shop where their patrol would end. They rushed to investigate and found a swarm of skeletons chasing workers from the site. The agents jumped into action.
The skeletons were weak but still dangerous. One of the undead creatures tried to tell the agents why they were attacking the living but Zahan crushed him before he could finish his tale. No monologuing for you! Grimathar took several critical hits from one of the skeletons that was a skilled archer in life, but Bogwynne and Houx used their medicine and magic to keep the minotaur in the fight as long as possible. The rest pummeled the skeletal monsters until they were dust and all was safe.
END OF SESSION
The Zen Game Master 
Leave a comment