Jason Bittner

DM

THE HOLLOW

W I D E O P E N W O R L D

RECAP
When last we left our heroes...

The party found themselves in the sweet, sweet throws of rest and relaxation as they prepared for
a ceremony that would be held in their honor.

Debates were held.  Goblin ethics and city management were (spicily) argued and eventually the
party came up with a plan to free the goblins and help integrate them into Hillsink.

They spoke with Emelia Tydir, gave her insight into their deliberations, while she briefed them on
the night to come.

Behind the curtains of a stage constructed near the entrance of the city, the party watched as the
Fancy Works Tm Ceremony Extravaganza began to unfold.

Bombs were dropped.  Not the literal ones of our world, but the story ones in their’s.  Emelia
announced she would be the first Tydir in history to step down as head of the merchants guild.  In
the coming weeks she will make a trek to the city of Rumadir and face a council of the old dwarves
(who believe her and the Tydir family to be race traitors).

Before the crowd could react to the news of their leader’s sudden departure, Poe broke into song
and dance and used an odd smoke to relax their growing panic.

It was here our party was thrust into the spotlight (except for kolma who disguised herself as a
stage hand) and thus began the main event.

It was announced that our party would be known as The Night’s Jewel (please change this oh my
god) and in typical Dnd fantasy their celebration was cut short by a group of knights from the
lumen church who loudly exclaimed they were there for the arrest of Dankey.

A fight broke out in the crowd.  The party danced in combat w a knight and his squire (Yorgus and
Porgus).  The pair used weird barrier spells to keep the party confined in their duel.  Porgus was
stunned for 28 days and Yorgus was brought down after a wild chase.

But as the dust settled from the fight and the chanting of the surrounding crowd died down a
feeling of dread began to creep over the entire city.
Our leader has left us...

So what happens next?

THE NEXT DAY

Porgus’ body laid motionless and bloodied on the stone street.

Panicked the party regrouped and snuck into the alley ways, away from the mess of the crowd.  
They quietly made their way back to the fancy works warehouse and made preparations for sleep.

Their heads were full of uncertainty.  How would Emelias departure change the city?  Why was the
Lumen Church after Dankey? And now that even Kolma had revealed herself was there any chance
of getting back from this?

The party realized that maybe their slow crawl towards fame would reap actual repercussions.  If
the entire world was reading the papers, surely they had seen them.

As the party talked and began to fall asleep, Poe appeared in the room (literally poofed inside) and
informed the party that Emelia was safe and working from an undisclosed location.

Poe mentioned that shortly after the party’s departure, the ceremony crowd devolved into a wild
mob.  People began to remember Emelias speech and out of frustration, and probably more so
fear, began to act out.

Poe suggests that the party rest for a full day until the city quiets down and to be gravely careful
with their next move.  The party MUST exit the city in two days time.  

He reminds everyone that no matter what happens that they can contact him on threeflowers
stone of farspeech.  He will rendezvous with everyone the morning they’re supposed to head out.

The following day is very low key.  The party mulls about the fancy works warehouse reflecting on
everything that’s happened till this point.

The only concrete leads they have are that there are other people like Gats in the Hollow.  Three
of them.

One of them is deep in the high elven forests...

One of them is in the mountains...

And another in a giant stone tower...

Of course it was always an option for the party to ignore all of this...to seek out their own
adventures...but they would all be impossible to do alone.  And whether they’re aware of it or
not...the Hollow is changing dramatically and much faster than anyone could have anticipated.

As silence fell heavy on their room day gave way to night.  They planned to wake early and solidify
their plans.

No one talked about it, but as they petered off into sleep everyone felt a strange sense of unease.

Would they ever see this room again?  Or the warehouse?  What the hell was poe going to do in
all of this confusion?  Did they leave Hillsink in a better or worse place than when they first arrived?

Everything went black and no one dreamed of anything...

THE MORNING OF

You are all awoken to the sound of a feverish knock at the door. 

Dankey gets up slowly and turns the handle.  

Gunkle now appears in doorway holding a large stack of papers.  

“Sowwy if I woke yas,” he says as he scurries over to one of the beds and plops himself on to it.  

He takes the stack of papers and places them all over the
sheets.

“Yous guys are gonna want to see dis.”

For the third time this week it seems that there is another World’s Paper in front of you (You all
recall that usually one paper shows up every other week).  And you are all stunned as the main
headline reads...

“NIGHT’S JEWEL (?) REVEALED WHILE OUR LEADER DISSAPEARS”

The bi line reads “Fifth member of Hillsink’s saviors is revealed during a stunning clash with the
Lumen Church!  But with Emelia gone is it all for naught?”

The article talks about the night of the ceremony and the many twists and turns that took place.  
Highlighted is Emelia’s speech, the revealing of the party and subsequent fight, and the aftermath of
that event.

The end of the article shifts into a segment called WHATS NEXT and in this passage are some
pretty stunning announcements.

In four months time an election will be held within the city.

And it will decide who will be taking Emelia’s seat.

In her absence the guilds have unanimously signed an agreement to keep peace and protect the
city together, as they always have, while the change takes place.  All major decisions regarding the
city will default to the guilds.

In their “parliamentary” meeting yesterday five names have appeared as possible candidates for the
position...

1) Uyrn Bölte 
~A famous (old blood) dwarf warrior who slew the ice dragon Uyrn, taking its name for
himself...he’s a hero of the realm and has the nickname “Smølvgaas” a dwarvish word that translates
to “small man, big sword”

2) Poe
~Leader of Fancy Works...our favorite fabulous wizard who has untold power

3) Bartholomew Lightbellow
~A high inquisitor of the Lumen Church

4) Tetri Dom
~A female gnome who is a higher up in the Tinker’s Union

5) Trey Flowers “Threeflower”

~Savior of Hillsink 

BOOM 

A couple more pages in appears an article that reads “EMELIA’S SWAN SONG.”  Which details
out Emelia’s plans for the integration of goblins into the city (if you want more info on this ask).  
There is a side article attached to this one, an opinion piece by “an anonymous citizen of Hillsink”
basically saying that goblins are bad and so is Emelia.

Going through the rest of the pages there’s one more article that immediately jumps out.

In large, bold letters it reads “FROM KANKI TO KOLMA” and features a picture of the thieves guild
symbol (if someone could help me w this that would be tight).

This article is actually an open letter to Kolma...it reads as follows: 

“Since you have decided to reveal yourself to the world stage I figured I too would perform my
own master stroke.

It has come to my attention that you have slain one of my looming eight.  Rumors have come out
that he tried to leave, but no one can ever leave me.
You and I both know that.

And now I know so much about you.  You honestly feel like a friend.  Who knew you once had
involvement with us?  How peculiar.

You are young, but show so much promise.  

You even remind me of myself.

It only felt right to ask you this in such a grand fashion.  I want everyone to see that you’re worth
paying attention to.  If I was you, I’d be honored.

So per guild custom, I have no choice but to extend my hand to you.

Young Kolma...

As leader of the thieves guild I am asking that you grasp back and join my looming eight.

Sometime soon I will find you and you will give me your answer face to face.

You can try to hide, but I will kill your friends.

I wish you luck in this trying time.  And I look forward to finally meeting you.

Kanki”

Next to his signature is a black seal, depicting a skull with a dagger through its tongue.

“Sowwyz to wake you alls up!  But it looks like yous guys should get outta heres!”

ALRIGHT YA’LL

So just like last time we have a huge decision that we need to make.  At the start of next session
you guys gotta figure out where the party heads next.  This is going to be separate from Alki’s
experience, but whatever he decides to do is going to ultimately touch you guys too.

When we get to our desired location things are going to be a little different.  That will come as we
get there and it will make story sense why we can have other people join when someone’s absent.

I’m sort of taking the training wheels off a bit here and am opening up the experience.  I have no
idea what you guys are going to choose to do but the content is there and whatever is decided, I
will make sure to work around seamlessly.

That being said, I talked a bit about rewarding folks who have shown up.  Much like our one off
Halloween adventure MURDER HOTEL, I am now keeping track of some other stats and rating
everyone accordingly.  These I will not be announcing to the group.  
This “rating” system is not something you have to worry about but it will reward players in the
game through story and other opportunities that I can’t go into just yet.

Also next session I will spend some more time balancing stuff.  As some of the items I’ve given you
guys might need a tiny bit of tweaking, we just need to clean house moving forward.

The other big change is here is that if you don’t show up you will miss out on experience points.  
Don’t be too alarmed by this.  If you only miss one or two sessions you won’t be that far off from
the main party’s experience pool, but I’m now going to have to individually track your guys’
experience points.

My goal is for the level gap to never be over two levels and I doubt that someone won’t show up
enough times for it to be worse than that, but this is a direct way to keep people involved and an
incentive to not ever miss sessions.  

It would suck to fall behind and then die to something, but the reality is that these next arcs are
only going to ramp up in difficulty.

Everyone has been really great about making creative choices with their characters actions.  And I
ask that you keep doing this.  Don’t just say you’re going to attack something.  Describe what you
do, use the environment around you, keep thinking of creative ways to engage w the game.  It’s
amazing how far everyone’s come and how intricate and interesting the sessions have become.

If you have any questions about content or the papers, or anything really please feel free to ask.

This is a lot to ask but we have a good amount of time and can use the beginning of next session
to discuss what’s next!

I love you all and thanks :D