Adventure 1: Thieves in the Night
Session 1
The campaign begins with the party of adventurers sat in their post-training party at one of the many taverns in Eversham. There is a downcast tone to proceedings, the former students are in their small cliques, not really socialising with each other outside of their groups, all wanting to leave, but none being comfortable enough to be the first.
Eventually the 'celebration' breaks up, the groups leave one by one. When the party finally pluck up enough courage, they head off towards their own hotel (The Man and a Half, just on the north side of the Calund Bridge), they are distracted by the sounds of a scuffle in a side street. Looking, they see a man slumping to the ground, and a couple of men running off. Filled with good intentions, they go to help, they cannot save the man, but he manages to tell the party that there is to be a theft tonight from the Church of Pendaroch in the City.
Taking the bait, the party head directly to the church; the lure of a job with paid work is too much for them. When they arrive, they find the main entrance door is ajar, so they go inside to investigate further. They see someone at the back of the church disappearing in to the vestry, and so they give chase.
By the time they get to the back of the long hall, the thieves have made off through a window at the back of the vestry, the party leave by the same window and attempt to give chase. Randy Oderway, the party's gnomish Sorcerer uses his magic to speed up Formil Ironnut, the tough-guy dwarf, who gets through the window, and is followed by Jim, the party's Rogue. These two can see the robbers ahead; the enemy has already got over the iron railing fence and is off up the street. Some cussing and huffing later, and the Rogue and Warrior get over the fence too, they are now after the thieves as quickly as they can go.
Randy, being so short (as gnomes are), struggles to get through the vestry window; eventually he pulls over a chair and uses it to reach better. He is through it just in time to see the party's Cleric of Danethrae, Pastor Insorce, slip while making another attempt to climb the railings; the cleric falls and lands on the floor with his foot between the bars. He struggles to get free, before two members of the Kings Guard arrive to find out what all the commotion is.
Back with the chase, Formil and Jim are closing on the thieves, but not quickly enough. The robbers climb a rope hanging from the city wall and get up just as Formil reaches the bottom. They pull the rope up, and Formil leaps to try and grab the end. He misses, and the thieves get away. The heroes then head back to the church.
Session 2
The Guard manages to free the hapless cleric before beginning to question everyone about why they are there in the middle of the night with an open church behind them. The other Guard goes to raise the Pendaroch church's vicar to assist with problems. This is a tight spot for Insorce and Randy to deal with, and are subjected to stiff questioning by the guard before the vicar finally turns up. He is looking sleepy but is very concerned about the church. Unlike the Kings Guard, he accepts the party's explanation about what has gone on. The Guard continue their questioning.
Formil and Jim arrive back at the church empty handed, and are questioned in the same way that the other have been. Eventually, the guard have satisfied themselves that the party were indeed trying to prevent a robbery, and leave with the promise that the theft will be investigated. The vicar is dubious about the Guard's ability to get to the bottom of the problem, but the party are clearly prepared to get their hands dirty for the cause of good. He asks them to go recover his stolen orb and offers them a 150gp reward for its safe return. He shows them the broken glass case in side the church building where the orb was stood, and some pictures of the orb, so that they know what they are looking for. The party accepts the mission eagerly, before returning to their own hotel grabbing a little rest.
The party decide that to track the robbers, they need to pick up their footprints outside the city wall before any peasants start their day and walk over them, so they get up very early. They start by climbing the wall at the point where the thieves did, all are fine at climbing except the poor dwarf cleric (again), who managed to fall despite holding on the rope. He had a bit of a soft landing, but it was still enough to put him out cold for a while. The tracks outside the wall were fresh and easily followed so Jim and Formil followed the tracks while they could, and Randy stayed to care for Insorce. The tracks led to a low cliff face and a hidden lair entrance about an hours walk out of town. Formil and Jim headed back to town to get their friends.
The four friends headed back to the church of Pendaroch to ask for help for their own sick cleric. The vicar was concerned, and healed as much as he could (but clerics healing clerics of another cult are not so effective).
Next, the party made their way out to the caves. They sneaked inside, and caught the robbers unprepared. The fighters were all asleep, and while the party made some noise coming into the caves, they did not have much time to prepare for a fight, and were armed but not armoured. The thieves lair was cleansed with little fuss.
They grabbed all the kit they could find, and took it back to town to weigh in. The orb was found in a back room on a table, and they took this back to the church to claim their reward. The party also found a treasure map, which may come in useful later on.
There were a number of options available for new missions, but their favoured choice was to journey to eastern Nuneith where a mine operator was having trouble with a goblin infestation which had spilled over into the mines. The dwarves were extremely keen to reduce the goblin population count by a few.