Snake Cults, River Barges and Giant Voles

The family D&D game has now gone into it's fourth session and coming up on the fifth and so far it's been great fun. We are playing just a couple of hours each Sunday nights, with the occasional bonus session as the mood strikes us. The girls are doing great in the game and I've already handed out some role-playing X.P. to reward their good character play and creative thinking.

The first adventure centers around the trio of characters trying to locate a merchant's daughter kidnapped by a local snake cult (a classic staple of fantasy). So far the players have located the lair of the local cult - a low level temple in a cave. They got a feel for the place but felt ill-prepared and out-numbered so they decided to seek the merchant and ask him for assistance. 

In our campaign setting, one of the primary modes of transit is via river barges and ferries. The party opted to utilize this method of travel and had an interesting encounter with some of the local NPCs. I used this transit time to establish some of the character of the setting by introducing the players to colorful NPCs and describing the local scenery.

While they were in transit down the river, they were set upon by a trio of snake cult assassins that had secreted themselves among the commoner passengers on the barge. The party managed to fight them off, though Halfa (dwarf fighter) found herself close to death thanks to an assassin's blade in her back. The encounter ended with the helps of some of the more capable NPCs, a grizzled fighter named and roving magistrate. After this encounter, the party related their tale to the magistrate and he offered to see them to their destination.

Once the party arrived in the coastal trade city of Fordenharn, they parted ways with the magistrate (known as a Warden) and were met by the merchant, Bald, and his men. They were taken to his manse in the city and the players marveled at a detailed description of the sprawling city that crawling up from the bay to a rocker peak overlooking the sea.

When we had to end our last session, the players had discussed a plan of action that set us up for tonight's session. their intent is to seek help in making the final raid on the snake cult's lair. They have already wasted so many days and there is a frantic concern that they may be too late and that the girl might be either sacrificed or even brainwashed into another follower of the snake god. They want to locate and enlist the aid of the Warden and are hoping to take some of Bald's men with them. We'll see how things go tonight.

More soon,

-Eli

P.S. The giant vole in the titles is a reference to a re-skinned bear that the party encountered. this "new" creature was called a Vole Bear and was essentially a black bear-sized water rat with burrowing claws and gnashing incisors.