Mizraith rode forth from Gurdock west along the well-traveled roads of central Terros.
After several days of travel, he finally reached the mountains. There, the road wound its way up and up, over the narrow range of jagged peaks, and finally down into Torryn Province, the northeasternmost part of the Midrythian Empire.
But before the pass lay one last obstacle on the Terrosian side of the mountains: the village of Veldath.
The city of Gurdock, crossroads of the east, filthy, soiled jewel of the Terrosian Empire, churned away on its foundations, a blight on the otherwise beautiful coast of a breathtaking land.
In a back room of a seaside tavern, a grizzled old man, dressed in expensive but worn raiment, spoke in hushed tones over glasses of brandy with a young man who looked far too serious for his years.
“Mizraith,”, the old man said, “my people tell me that something has gone wrong with the two we sent west to Torryn.”
Enris and Thuron trained for a week with the Jagged Blade thieves guild in Haeleth. Upon finishing their training, they were shown several secret entrances and exits to the guild tunnels under the city, and they got to meet most of the main guild members, including another Brotherhood of the Nine Field Agent, a man named “Andiron” (or “Andy”, as Enris and Thuron began calling him).
Also while at the guild, they were informed that while the heat had in fact died down quite a bit, they were still wanted men and that many members of the Haeleth City Guard were on Maeran Dun‘s payroll and were corrupt, and on the lookout for them.
They decided that since they had just spent a week’s time laying low, they should send a message to Nendorin (the steward of Castle Torryn and right-hand-man of Duke Sorsho) informing him that they were ready to start “phase 2″ of their mission, and that they needed their horses back (which they had left at the castle).
We left off with Thuron standing on the roof of a big warehouse, a dead sentry on the street, and Enris down in an alleyway. Enris dragged the sentry’s body off into an alley and hid it, and then ran across the street to untie the tightrope. He then used the rope to climb up the wall of the warehouse and join Thuron on the roof, where they picked the lock to the stairwell doors.
They listened for a while, didn’t hear anything, and Enris decided to move silently down the open steps and into the fourth story of the warehouse.
He got halfway down and tripped.
Enris and Thuron, having totally lost their memories in some mysterious way on their way over the mountains into Torryn province, had no idea what this “Brotherhood of the Nine” was for whom they supposedly worked as field agents.
Indeed, on Duke Sorsho’s castle steward Nendorin’s advice, they had played along as if they did not have complete amnesia, so the Duke made no effort in explaining to them what exactly the nature of their organization might be.
Prior to embarking on their surveillance on Maeran Dun’s Haeleth warehouse, however, Nendorin tried filling them in so as to attempt to help keep them out of trouble.
Trav’s character met up with Chad’s character while still on that remote mountain road.
Chad’s character too, Trav discovered, had no memories, just a horse, some miscellaneous equipment and traveling gear, and was sharing the road with him. He discovered him after turning a corner and there was some other person up ahead of him who was apparently spying on someone himself.
Trav approached, and whispered “what are we looking at?”, startling the man in front of him.
They introduced each other, discovered that neither of them knew what their own names were, and noted immediately that they were both missing the same finger on their right hands.
Back in 2003 I started a concept Hackmaster 4.0 campaign I called The Brotherhood Of The Nine.
I got the idea from a number of discussions I had with several other GMs over at the Kenzer & Co. forums about various oddball creative “concept” campaigns.
The way I began this one was a bit unconventional, but it was a fun idea.
I’m an old-school gamer and a published author. I run primarily Hackmaster (4th Edition HM only). I have a homebrew campaign world that I started in 1987 or so, and I get a thrill out of the world-building side of gaming probably more than anything. My main campaigns are all 100% original, from the world, to the history and culture, to the adventures themselves.
A map of Torryn province
