Liverbirds Journal - Challenge of Champions I

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7/1/3518 - The 1st of Greenwake, Jest Day

Cast of Characters

Daar Na Tosh - Human Berserker

Kaz - Troll Swashbuckler

Aletta Poquette - Dwarf Sneak

Suzie Walnuts - Human Paladin of Isanna

Tahd Thurstenhill - Human Armsman

Verilyn Vickery- Elf Magician

Summary

The Edifice.png

This is the 10th Annual Challenge of Champions hosted by the Freelancer's Guild. The challenge is a way to promote the guild and to recruit new talent. This year fourteen teams will take turns running through the challenge inside the newly renovated "Edifice" building, a large, two-story stone structure built on the greenspace near the guild hall. Each team has 30 minutes to overcome 7 challenges, with points deducted for each minute over, and points added for each minute under. The team with the most points wins the challenge, and each team member has their annual guild dues waived (valued at 100 crowns).

Additionally, several of the teams are placing their own side-bets to earn actual money. 

Augustus Moore, Guildmaster of Freelancer's Guild, a square jawed man with short, cropped hair and a booming voice gives the opening speech for the day.

NPC's Introduced

Jayme, a red-bearded warrior.

Kuthbar, a fussy little wizard who checks the party for magic items.

Mussfinch, a blue-robed magician with glasses who acts as their proctor for the challenge.

The Team Lineup

  • The Liverbirds
  • Danger's Daughters
  • Dragonfighters
  • Grim Hearts
  • Immortal Wolves
  • Knightmares
  • League of Strength
  • Silver Hawks
  • Skragga's Minions
  • Squad of the Skull
  • The Band of Four
  • The Scorpions
  • The Shadowmen
  • Wicked Blades

The Squad of the Skull are the most highly rated group and seem to hold the other contestants in disdain. Dressed all in black, their leader a dwarf named Mallow organizes a betting pool with a buy in of 100 crowns, winner take all.

Locations Introduced

The Liverbird

Freelancer Hall

The Edifice

Session Notes

The party overcomes the first six challenges in excellent time. Challenge 7 is supposed to be a mock combat, where a guild illusionist creates a group of orcs that the team must "fight". On the party's run through the challenge, ACTUAL orcs snuck in through the sewers and killed the illusionist. Somehow, they had heard of the event and were there to demonstrate that orcs are not so easily killed. The party has their first fight for their lives, kill the orcs, and then once the guild realizes what has happened ushers them off to a private tent on the grounds for debriefing. They are asked not to discuss the orc incursion and end up being awarded the winners. Even though they DID have the best score, some of the other teams suspected foul play, particularly the Squad of the Skull. The party got the money pool (1000 crowns) and their annual membership, along with their first enemies. 

Reputation

Kinsgbridge: 1

DM Notes

Instead of the classic 'you all meet in a tavern', we started this campaign off with them owning a tavern. I wanted to kick things off with an adventure that they could practice the new system with, and I had already decided that I was going to run serial adventures, heavily leveraging my collection of Dungeon Magazines. That led me to The Challenge of Champions. The first Challenge of Champions was published in Dungeon Magazine #58 in 1996. I'm pretty sure I ran it for my group at the time, along with the ones that came after it. Of course, I never run things just as presented. This was my opportunity to introduce the Freelancer Guild and some of the members of the guild to start setting up allies and rivals. I also didn't want to just have an open field with challenges like they are in the magazine. As a fan of escape rooms, I created "The Edifice", a huge two story building that the guild uses as a training ground. They can rearrange the interior, and it can act as anything it needs to be from escape room to funhouse, and in this case a series of dangerous puzzles to be solved. I kept quite a few of the NPC's as presented in #58, but the challenges were a mix of the ones from that episode, combined with a few others, and of course twisted to fit my needs. All in all, I think it played well. I already have ideas for "next year's" challenge!

References

Challenge of Champions by Jonathan M. Richards; Dungeon Magazine #58, 1996.

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