In which our heroes run into difficulties.

The five performers sat on the stage talking in low tones an hour after all but the drunkest of patrons had left the inn. The barmaids cleaned up the tables as the lamps burned low.
"I don't believe it...any of you got an idea who made that illusion in the middle of the production?" asked Tin.
"You mean it wasnt me who set that table on fire?" Nessa responded.
"Only if you were casting illusions, Nessa." commented Onala.
"No, silly, it was magic, foul play! A plot was afoot, and it's cutting into our profit margins!" Tin stood up and scowled.
"Illusion? It looked pretty real to me." replied Nessa.
"I saw some magic on the rich people. There was one gnome in the cheap seats that had some magic on 'em, but all I could see was disguise self." said Berenwick in an effort to diffuse the situation.
"Hah, yet another illusion! It was probably him..." Tin redirected her anger.
"Did he already leave?" asked Onala.
"He left with the group of gnomish drunks from the cheap seats." answered Berenwick.
"Terribly unsporting way to do business, I should think. If another troupe has to resort to petty tricks to keep out competition, they obviously need better talent." Prosepon commented. Tin clenched her fists while plotting revenge on the gnome. Their conversation came to a natural pause and they noticed that the barmaids were glancing over at them and whispering in hushed tones.
"Oh dear . . . that doesn't sound like positive advertising they're whispering." said Prosepon in a worried tone of voice. Tin turned her attention to the barmaids for a moment to shoot them a withering glare.
"Any reason I shouldn't go over there and give them a piece of my mind?"
"Yes. We need to keep a good impression. We sell our acts on our reputations, after all." noted Prosepon.
"It would APPEAR those are already RUINED..."
"Hopefully we can salvage something - we held the crowd, after all, and no amount of fire-juggling can set an illusory fire."
"I think we did rather well, seeing as we convinced most of the audience to come back to their seats." added Onala.
"Hopefully we can salvage something - we held the crowd, after all, and no amount of fire-juggling can set an illusory fire." commented Prosepon.
"What does the bottom line say?" asked Tin.
"We've collected a reasonable amount for having a near stampede." Berenwick looked up from counting the money he had gathered from the front of the stage.
"This probably doesn't match our patronage's overall stature, but I do believe it's enough to keep me from...dealing with the help around here." said Tin.
"I'm still unhappy it was fire that disrupted our act." said Nessa. "Since I work exclusively with fire." Nessa's melancholy. Her self pity was interrupted by the bartender and owner of the Sky Serpent Inn, Sevn Haggerstad, walking over to the stage.
"Greetings." He addressed the entire group of performers. Sevn was a well dressed fellow for a bartender. His frame was large and his girth matched.
"Good evening, sir. We apologize for the waterworks, but as performers we take theaters fires - or at least what appear to be theater fires- seriously." Prosepon said. Tin blushed slightly at the mention of waterworks.
"I understand your concern about the fire. I wouldn't have blamed you if you took off running like everyone else."
"We do not scare easily." stated Tin forcefully.
"It's not a pretty sight to see people running and screaming when a little fire goes out of control." mentioned Nessa.
"I must apologize for my barmaids indiscretions. They have a bad habit of spreading unsavory rumors." Sevn clasped his hands in front of him.
"That...is quite alright." said Tin through clenched teeth.
"Sadly, one can no more stop the rumor mill than one can stop the tide. We quite understand." Prosepon said with a smooth voice.
"I gather you had a reasonable first performance aside from the fire." Sevn half asked.
"I think we did well, given the circumstances." Onala smiled. Tin stared at their pile of money while Nessa shifted her feet nervously.
"Then I shall assume you are not considering engagements at other inns or taverns?" Sevn quirked an eyebrow at the performers.
"Yes, I think an extended engagement here is an excellent opportunity." Prosepon smiled at Sevn.
"I hope there are no drunken illusionists next time." Tin scrunched her face up into a frown.
"Perhaps we can catch this person Berenwick saw, as well, since he was chasing away both ours and your patrons." commented Onala
"We can't get to the bottom of what happened here if we hit the road." said Berenwick. Sevn pulled a key out of his pocket.
"In return for your commitment you may stay here at the inn free of charge." Tin smiled warmly in response and the others verbalized their thanks. "Your room is up on the third floor. There should be room for all of you there." Sevn nodded at all of them and walked back to the bar to finish cleaning up for the night.
"Why don't we turn in for the night, and start searching for this gnome when there's plenty of light." suggested Onala.
"It's likely he'll turn up again, if he really has something against our group. I'm well in favor of getting some rest." Prosepon stepped off the stage. Tin sulked.
"I want to find him before his trail goes cold. Oh, I suppose rest is the wiser option. Bah!"
"I'm tired, I'm in no mood to go sleuthing." Nessa's eyes were nearly closed.
"I'm thinking I'd have a cooler head after some rest." Berenwick put a hand to his head. The performers slowly dragged themselves up the two flights of stairs to the third floor. Around them the shadows closed in on the five figures until they could barely see the noses in front of their faces. The corridor was dark and the floorboards creaked loudly as they walked over them. They found their room at the end of the hallway on the third floor. The five performers stumbled into the dark room and made their way to beds. Except for Tin who stood in the corner to sleep standing up. Onala and Prosepon sank into the bed on the furthest wall. Nessa collapsed on the nearest bed and Berenwick took the middle bed.
All was well for about two minutes. Then Onala felt something wet drip on her. She ran her fingers through it. Then she felt on the wall and felt more wet liquid. Prosepon rolled out of bed.
"We need a light, please?"
"Morning, already?" Tin looked around with a start.
"UGH! What IS that?!" Onala grimaced as she sniffed the liquid on her fingers. It had a coppery smell to it.
"I've got a lantern somewhere." said Prosepon. Prosepon pulled a lantern out of her gear and lit it. Prosepon shined her lantern at the wall and illuminated the words "Get Out" scrawled in what appeared to be blood.
"Hell . . . the walls are bleeding?" asked Tin.
"Someone was here before we came in, I don't think walls usually spell out words like that..." said Onala. Nessa just snored.
"Well, that's just delightful. Do you think the gnome from earlier might be involved in this, as well?" asked Prosepon.
"Perhaps magic is responsible?" suggested Tin. Tin stared at the wall and mumbled a short prayer. Tin's eyes glowed briefly and in her view the room was silhouetted with magical auras. None of the auras surrounded the writing.
"OH MY GODS!" Berenwick sat upright like something pricked his bum.
"Which ones?" inquired Prosepon. Nessa blinked and squinted as she woke up.
"Arg! What's with the screaming?"
"All of them, and then some" commented Berenwick.
"Olidammara, if you want me to actually find anything! Shush!" Tin glared at Berenwick.
"Sorry."
Nessa looked at the wall. "Has that always been there?"
"That was already there when we came in, I'm sure of it." insisted Tin.
"But was it dripping on the bed when we got in? I only noticed when it started dripping on me." asked Onala.
"It was probably too dark to tell." replied Tin. "Either way, they're piss poor at scaring people. Let's investigate further in the morning."
"And much better at pissing them off. I think we can rule out the 'stupid drunk' hypothesis." added Prosepon. Onala peeked under the bed looking for bodies but didn't find any.
"Wonder where the body that donated the blood to the wall art got off to."
"I don't know. Poor sucker." Prosepon stood at the edge of the bed.
"Anyone have an empty vial on them?" asked Tin. Onala produced an empty container from her gear, gathered a sampling of the blood, and gave it to Tin. Tin pocketed it and returned to the corner to sleep. Onala crawled into bed with Nessa, leaving Prosepon to share a bed with Berenwick. Prosepon doused her lantern and the five performers drifted off to sleep. Little did they know their troubles were just beginning.

In which the characters are introduced.

The five members of Professor Calamity's Strolling Quintet took the stage with nary a soul noticing their presence. This was about to change, but first we must have introductions. First on stage is the lanky Onala. Her short blonde hair sits atop her head like a miniature haystack that sways back and forth as she walks around the stage setting up her juggling equipment. Next is the dark, alluring, and soot covered Nessa. She glides around the stage setting up small vials of sulphuric smelling liquids. Following Nessa is Tin. Not her real name of course, but she becomes very cross if we mention her real name. Tin is the sort of blond woman that people refer to as statuesque. Much to the disappointment of the male audience she sings instead of dancing. Tin quietly runs through her vocal warm ups while the Onala and Nessa work around her. Then comes the mysterious Prosepon. She slips on stage, her tatoo covered body adorned with a tumbler's outfit bestudded with costume jewelry. The audience is always surprised when she starts reciting poetry instead of dancing. Lastly, and leastly as well is Berenwick. I say leastly because he's a gnome you see. What a dark haired gnome with twinkling blue eyes is doing in a troupe of four human ladies I leave up to your imagination.

A gout of fire erupted from Nessa's mouth spreading over the crowd towards the ceiling in bright red tendrils. A rippling murmur spread through the crowd as they all stopped what they were doing and gave the performers their full attention. Nessa grabbed the fire right out of her mouth and trailed it in a lazy arc behind her fingers. Onala stepped from behind her and lit a pair of torches on the arc as it passed near her. Onala produced a pair of juggling balls and sent the torches and balls in dizzying trajectories between her hands. Mid juggling she dropped a ball down to her foot and kicked it back into the rotation. The crowd gasped with awe at the startling display of nature's most fickle element.

Onala and Nessa took a few steps back to the corners of the stage as Prosepon and Tin appeared from backstage. Their voices sprang forth from their lips and carried to the back of the room with rhythmic clarity. Prosepon recited a poem of epic grandeur while Tin sang a chanting melody that matched the pattern of the poem. Between them Berenwick walked out on stage carrying a full wine glass.
"So what's this I hear about it raining wine in this town?" A few people at the front tables chuckled. "That can't possibly be true." He continued walking until he ran out of stage. As the gnome fell off the stage he upended the entire glass of wine onto himself. The crowd erupted in laughter. He crawled back onstage as Onala and Nessa swapped places with Prosepon and Tin. He intentional stood up right as Nessa brought a spinning ball of flame near his head. Smoke curled upwards from a barely smoldering fire on the top of his head. The crowd laughed harder as he fake panicked over his burning hair. He patted it out as the laughter subsided.

Their performance was so spectacular that no one even noticed that one of the round tables in the middle of the room was on fire. At least not immediately. Slowly the people sitting at the other round tables began to notice the spreading fire. They began to hurriedly stand and gather their lavish robes as quickly as they could. Towards the back the two long rectangular tables that seated the poorer attendees were quickly clearing out. Upturned stools were left in the wake of the near stampeding patrons.

Nessa was the first to react to the fire. She doused her own flames with a quick gesture.
"Someone put out that fire!" The barmaids looked over at Nessa then over at the table and ran for the water bucket. A patron or two tried to brush it out but most were intent on heading for the exit.
Onala's face was the perfect picture of concentration as she juggled. "Fire? Where?"
"The middle table!" Nessa bounded off the stage headed for the fire.
"Oh, I see."
"Um, ladies and gentlemen, the fire in the center is not part of the act. If anyone wants to help put it out, it'd be much appreciated." Berenwick announced to the crowd. The barmaids returned with water but the press of the crowd was too close for them to reach the table. Tin approached the edge of the stage whispering a prayer under her breath and holding a symbol of her deity before her. The air above the flaming table was suddenly occupied by a large volume of water that came splashing down on the fire with an audible sploosh. The fire blazed as brightly as ever without so much as a flicker, but the poor souls standing too close to the table were soaked.
"Bah! It's illusionary!" Tin sat down on the edge of the stage and pounded the wooden boards with her fists in frustration.
"Not real? How is that fire not real?" Shouted Nessa from among the crowd. "Arg! Get out of the way!" She tried to move closer but the crowd pushed her towards the door.
"How rude... someone took most of our audience away." commented Onala.
"Now now, ladies and gentlemen, it appears the danger is past and in fact, never existed!" Prosepon's voice carried all the way to the back of the inn.
"Please calm down!" Tin's voice could be heard over all the talking people.
"Could everyone please calm down. The fire isn't real." Onala added her voice to the plea for people to not panic.
Prosepon continued ""It appears some unkind soul has tried to ruin all of our evening with a silly prank." Berenwick tumbled off the stage towards the fire in attempt to show the crowd the truth. He wasn't able to make it through the crowd and he disappeared from sight.
"Damn you all!" His voice floated up from somewhere in front of the stage. The burning table extinguished itself with a sniffle. Due to the exhortions of Prosepon, Onala, and Tin the mass of people ceased moving and turned to listen to the performers on the stage. Nessa pulled herself out of the crowd and onto the stage.
"What's happening?" she asked of no one in particular.
"Sorry about the weather in here, we thought it would be a little nicer tonight." Onala apologized.
"There, all better. And though such tricks are frustrating indeed, long experience has taught us that it is better not to let it ruin your night. So, shall we continue with the show?" asked Prosepon. The crowd did not answer her rhetorical question. Onala started into a enthusiastic juggling routine while Prosepon gave a stunning rendition of Herenon's 4th sonnet. Nessa and Tin appeared a bit rattled by the ordeal with the fire. Tin stuttered through the first verse of Sylantos's Dark Night before trailing off weakly. Nessa attempted to restart her routine but she stumbled over her feet and narrowly avoided setting the stage on fire.
"I think I'll take a break." Nessa walked down the stairs at the back of the stage and slipped behind the upright boards that served as the makeshift dividers between on stage and off stage. Tin followed her shortly afterwards. Back stage they conversed in low tones about their annoyance at the disruption of the performance.
Meanwhile out front Berenwick passed his hands over his eyes. The glowed briefly green before they returned to normal. However his sight was anything but normal. He scanned the room's inhabitants for magical auras. A sizable helping of the richer patrons seated at the round tables closer to the stage were emanating magic. He dismissed this as the usual glamor magics that the wealthy employed to stay looking their best. His eyes turned to the two long rectangular tables at the back of the Inn.
A singular gnome at the furthest table glowed with the aura of one under a magical effect. He sat with a group of other gnomes who were engrossed in their imbibing of alcoholic beverages. Berenwick regarded him closer and noted that the other gnome was disguising his appearance with magic. He considered this for a moment before deciding to leave well enough alone. He rejoined the performance to close out the evening. This was not to be the last of the adventures for the night...

Introducing the background and the narrator

"So you want a story? I have a story for you. This story is set in the wild party town of Douxfield. Now you might think that a wild party town would have a lax ruler who let things get out of hand. In fact it's quite the opposite. Baron Wryfore was a strong believer in the power of law and the right of the nobility to uphold the law. However he was not the most foresighted of men. Upon his initial arrival in Douxfield he found his wife and children bored to tears by the then sleepy farming town. He decided to leverage his control over wine production of the region to bring more noble families to Douxfield. He succeeded. Three noble houses, Aleath an ancient nobility of elves dating back into the far reaches of history, Ganut Raum a relatively new house formed as a reward for a well know human military commander, and Fiera a house of bards and poets, set up permanent residence in the city with a good handful of titled nobles. Gaston Fiera, Duke of Fiera, even moved his entire household to a specially built house in the city."

"It was the rest of the people that were attracted to the city that Baron Wryfore did not anticipate. The retinues of the nobles he expected. The myriad swarm of commoners that followed in the wake of such large movement of wealth and nobility completely took him by surprise. At first the city was as lawless as one would expect from a town where legend has it that it rains wine when the heavens open. Then the Baron came to his senses and ordered Chertar, the captain of the city guard, to recruit guardsmen from the very influx that caused the uncontrolled revelry in the first place.

"This brought the wild partying under control. While you can always find someone drinking or partying at all times of the day or night in Douxfield, the serious partying mostly stays indoors as the guardsmen are quick to pick drunks off the street. Coupled with the steady stream of visiting foreign nobles arriving daily to partake in the lavish parties put on by the houses of Aleath, Ganut Raum, and Fiera a culture of moderate and high class partying arouse. The parties put on by the nobles were incredibly formal and their example lead the inns and taverns of Douxfield to emulate their styles so that even the lowliest peasant could experience a taste of the noble lifestyle. Thus the lowbrow extreme drunkenness went out of style in Douxfield."

"Other problems arose besides public drunkenness after public drunkenness lost its vouge. The three houses competed for foreign dignitaries with various forms of entertainment and the inns and taverns compete with each other for the largest share of the population's gold. You can almost smell the tension as you walk down the streets of Douxfield and see the colorful ribbons and fliers advertising the newest balls, galas, and parties."

"Now that we've finished the exposition of this amusing tale, we drop into the city proper. There on this delightful starlit night we find the Sky Serpent inn where the stars of our tale, Professor Calamity's Strolling Quintet, are about to stage their first performance."

In the beginning...

I'm starting up this campaign blog in conjunction with my Douxfield campaign. While I was initially coming up for ideas for the campaign it was merely titled "city campaign" in my head. Now that the city has a name I'll be referring to it as the Douxfield campaign. I intend for this blog to keep a steady purpose through out the whole campaign. I'm going to use it to write up what happened in our game for tracking purposes and to keep me writing week to week. However I'm not simply going to write in: "This week they fought a couple of assassins. They won".

I intend to give the write up a more storyish feel. I will elaborate on actions taken by the players and will flesh out details of encounters more than I can while I'm DMing. I hope that this weekly practice improves my descriptions while I'm DMing and the speed of my writing. Right now I write very slowly even though the words go through my head quickly. It should also flesh out the backstories NPCs that I'm running so they have more depth when they interact with the players. I won't be putting words into the PCs mouths or describing their thoughts unless the players give me express permission to do so.

I'm going to use cuts to describe the actual mechanics behind the situation when I feel it is necessary or notes on what is going on. So if you see a cut and don't want to ruin your immersion in the story part of the blog post just skip over them. I will put some initial notes before the story part of the blog post if I feel it is necessary.

---Vortling