This week there was some downtime, and the group took full advantage. Well, half the group, but the other half will get to join the exploration next week. They went shopping all over town and even stopped by the casino for a while. They also went to a shop I hadn’t created yet, and mentioned wanting to go to other shops I hadn’t created, yet. It’s a metropolis, so I have some more work to do, but they certainly enjoyed themselves.
Several of the shops are in module: Sunfire Forge, Bone Garden, and Mystic Pursuits. For these, I just added flavor, and by flavor, I mean magic items. I pulled things from a couple independent books (Caitlus’ Tome of Curious Creations and Mrukrag’s Compendium of Curios, from the DMG with a bit of added flavor, and things from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons’ Encyclopedia Magica that one of the guys recently acquired physical copies of. My group, other than weapons, hasn’t been asking for the usual magic items, so it’s fun to make up random silly things.
I had added in a leather-works shop and a scroll/enchanter for hire shop, though these currently have a smaller variety of magic items. I might want to pump up their holdings, too. Maybe the Crystal Chateau is having graduation soon and there will be an influx of final projects being put up for sale on consignment. The group asked for a place to buy amulets, so I made a quick little necklaces and amulets cart. We then rolled in the Encyclopedia Magica to see what random magic amulets were available. Funny enough, one of those was a simple Amulet of Protection. I have a couple other ideas of places to add, and I might ask my players for more ideas (before game this time).
I was talking with one of my players today about his desire for bracers (he’s a fighter/monk) and he reminded me about attunement slots. The Encyclopedia Magica doesn’t mention that. AD&D, if you’re unfamiliar, used body slots instead of limiting it to three attunements. I’m going to need to take a look at what kinds of things ought to be attunement and which not for when they actually start buying things next week.
Story-wise, they did pick up the two items right off the bat that had to do with character stuff. A bottle of Fuse that the gnome tinker has been craving was quickly snatched up, even though she wasn’t there. A Mirror Book (think Tom Riddle’s diary) was also quickly bought. They don’t yet know why that’s important, but they did write in it. Everything else they decided to come back for later, once they’d seen everything available.
Last stop of fun was the Luck’s Run Casino. The module included three games that Matt had used in Campaign One. I had already turned Rollies from Campaign Three into low stakes games (my version of slots). Then, I turned Black Jack and Roulette into much simpler versions to round out the offerings. My group had a blast.
They started with Quon a Drensal or “Run of Luck” from the book – the lizard races. Only one person put down money, but I involved the entire group in rolling for the race, and the PC won his bet! Feeling good about himself, he moved on to Gambit of Ord, also from the book, an almost poker game. I involved the group in this one, too. Having them roll for NPCs around the table to keep the bidding interesting. The PC won again. Finally, another PC wanted to get in on the fun and joined the next hand. The next two hands, an NPC controlled by another player won big. So the PCs moved on. The one who had been playing all the games took one turn at Roulette, or as I was calling it, The Raven’s Wheel. He bet on black, and won again. The player who had lost at the Gambit decided to try a hand of Blackjack (Kord’s Draw) to get some of his money back, but the House won that time.
Everyone had a great time, even if the PC who lost all his money was fairly grumpy, the player still thought it was fun. The PC who won actually shared his winnings, as well, to try and soften the blow. I’m looking forward to next week. I’m pretty sure they’ll be making a few stops in to the casino while they remain in town.