Jon's 3E D&D Campaign

Key to Entries

Butt Kicking for Goodness

This is the original party, which is going through the "Adventure Path" series of modules.

W.A.A.N.G.

(We Ain't Afraid of No Goats -- formerly Takin' Care of Business.) This is the second party, which is going through a collection of adventures from Dungeon and other places.

Temple

This is the party which is going through Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil in the Forgotten Realms setting.

Chaos Brothers

This is a party which involves Ben and George (or Ben and Steve) each playing two brothers. It takes place in the Forgotten Realms.

Who's Who

Entries

Friday, June 28, 2002

Magnus' Background

As I came to manhood I was faced with a difficult decision. I found myself being pursued by warlords in the area who wanted me to join their army. They knew that I had been blessed by the gods with great strength and reflexes, but they didn't realize I had educated myself to a point far superior to other people in the village.

In my learning's I found out what happened to most of the men who join the army. Sure we knew that there were great and glorious battles between the warlords, but over time the soldiers were never heard from again. Here and there men would come home from the battles to tell their stories, but over time these men would just disappear.

Most of us in the village just forgot about them. There never had time to get married. They might have had children, but being illegitimate the children were sold into slavery and the tainted mothers became some of the most ill-used women in the region.

So, as I was saying, I was faced with a difficult decision. Some would say that it was easy, and the correct thing would be to refuse to join the army. The problem is that if you don't join when you have been asked someone will be assigned to kill you. My decision was to take to the road.

One night I slipped out of the village and kept moving for 3 days straight. I didn't stop for the night, I ate and drank while walking, and I only stopped walking when I needed to take my ease. My plan had been to walk all the way to Waterdeep. I didn't make it quite that far and stopped moving when I came to Baldur's Gate.

I had a small amount of money so I took up lodging in an inn. For the next few days I searched the city looking for a job. Had I made it to Waterdeep I would have gone to sea with a sea captain, but for some odd reason I stopped at an in-land city.

The only jobs available here also happened to be the best paying jobs for laborers. The problem with these jobs was the danger involved. So instead of just taking the sure thing job I looked around for other work for a few days. After exhausting my options I went back and signed on.

The job I accepted was as guard for a trading caravan. Because of my strength it was assumed that I knew how to work a sword. I was handed some leather to wear and a scimitar to wield. The next morning I was off with the caravan. Most of the time I just rode on the wagons studying the land, but I also learned how to track and navigate over-land. There were minor attempts by bandits to take the caravan but each time the defenders by and large won, but from time to time some of the cargo was pillaged.

The crew leader didn't like to put us up in the nicer inns when we arrived at towns. In one of the lower class inns some of the locals were talking it up about going adventuring. This really peaked my interest. My boss had been paying me well, but he had also trained me to be a better than average adventurer. After a few minutes with these men I agreed to join them the next day. We agreed on where to meet, and then I went off to prepare my escape.

Again I had to sneak away in the middle of the night. Had I been caught leaving they couldn't have stopped me, but they might have tried to reason with me which might have worked. So I slipped out of the inn and moved off out of the city until it was time to meet up with my new friends.

My new friends were great fun to be around. We wandered from town to town taking search and rescue jobs and earning a great amount of wealth. Unfortunately though, our last job was a complete mistake. We were hired by a filthy rich man. I never learned what his business was, but I can be sure it paid well. Anyway, he wanted us to rescue his daughter from an evil wizard. I don't want to go into details, but believe me when I say that we surely bit off more then we could chew. There were 5 of us, but the wizard just destroyed us before we could do much to him. In the end it was my great speed that saved me.

That night I came back to look for the bodies of my friends. I found all but one and buried them in a common grave at the side of a road. I have no idea where the 4th one is, but I'm sure the wizard is using some very weird magic on him. One of these days I hope to be able to kill that wizard and put my friends body to rest.
posted by Jon Grantham 6:20 PM