DF Novices, Session 1 - Report by Eleanor

    What follows is a report from the player of Eleanor Bayley, a somewhat-suspicious (as in, actually paranoid) human thief. Having said that, her behaviour is probably the other meaning of "suspicious" too :)  I am giving a bonus point of Beginner's Luck* to any player who writes a cool summary for me to post.

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A first job on my own. If you don't count the couple of times I had to risk a snatch to buy some food. The city of Abdurna was not to my tastes. Too many people. Too many eyes. I am glad I found a way out but traveling in a caravan wasn't my first choice. Big brother Baris seems reliable enough but I'm sure he's got something up his sleeves. Why else would he hire complete strangers, and a half-ogre at that? An Elf. A Dwarf. Some guy with a staff. And me. I believe I gave a nice impression at the start but I feel he would take just about anyone willing to risk their neck. And maybe that's what he wants. Bodies to take an arrow for the caravan. Even I understand that a guard is meant to keep everyone safe but there's no way this isn't shady. Traveling during these troubled times with attacks and a guard force primarily made of strangers? Weird. And of course we found trouble. At least we were able to fight them away from the caravan. I half expected someone to come running out from behind. In fact I was rather surprised that we managed to defeat these bandits so cleanly. It seems that the guy with a staff knows how to swing it, at least. Or he just got lucky. The half-ogre spent most of his time tangled up in a tree swinging wildly. The Dwarf seems to be a fool but at least with the Elf at his side the two of them managed to stave off most of these brigands and eventually we won the fight. If the staff man hadn't beaten down a bandit or two I would have imagined he was covering for them as he got in my way. Who runs in front of someone with a crossbow anyways. And then they want to bring back hostages? I don't feel comfortable with this at all. At least these fools seemed to carry something worth selling. If we make it through.  

- Eleanor Bayley. 

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    * Beginner's Luck is what I am calling a one-use point of "Buying Success" (p.B347). The intended purpose is to help keep their rookies alive, e.g. converting a missed defence roll into a possibly life-saving parry. Does not normally include crit successes or fails, so it's not all-powerful. I gave everyone 1 point of this at the start of the adventure to get them all through the first session alive. This offer of earning further uses is blatant bribery on my part to encourage player write-ups in order to get more.