#HILLSFAR

[art-of-bee]

the hills do be far

ko-fi + commissions 🌃 twitch 🌃 more pixel art 🌃 do not repost

[oldschoolfrp]

"The Vanishing City," Clyde Caldwell cover art for TSR's AD&D Adventure Book #15 by Allen Varney, 1988. That book was an adaptation of Varney's 1987 D&D Mystara module M4: Five Coins for a Kingdom. The same art was reused in 1989 for the AD&D Forgotten Realms computer game Hillsfar by SSI.

[retrocgads]

USA 1997

[dndhistory]

Let's Play: Hillsfar (1989) - Part 2 (Cleric Quest 2)

We continue the Cleric quest line of Hillsfar by going to way too much trouble to find some stolen incense sticks. We visit pubs, ruins, haunted mansions and sewers when we could have just gone to the corner shop to get it. 

The musical score in this episode was gently provided by Old Moth Dreams, taken with their permission from the album "The God Who Walks".

Support independent artists and get it at Bandcamp: 

Opening Music "Life" by MORSCHT, taken with their permission from the album "a sacrifice of myself unto myself".

 Support independent artists and get it at Bandcamp:

https://morscht.bandcamp.com

Hillsfar is the first Action/RPG game based on the Forgotten Realms. It used the rules of first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Find out more about the history of Dungeons and Dragons at The History of DnD Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky, Tumblr and Website! 

https://www.instagram.com/thehistoryofdnd

https://twitter.com/thehistoryofdnd

https://bsky.app/profile/dndhistory.bsky.social

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/dndhistory

https://dndhistory.org/

Title Card created by Raquel studio: 

https://www.instagram.com/raquelg_studio/

[hellman55]

Hillsfar (NES) Playthrough

[stochastique-blog]

You can be someone else

https://davventura.altervista.org/hillsfar-il-primo-videogioco-di-dd-che-fu-solo-un-videogioco/ Con questo #articolo si fa un passo avanti nella storia dei #Videogame di #DnD. Secondo le fonti, durante questa stagione – anche se poi serviranno sempre dei mesi – tocca al #videogioco #Hillsfar. Così siamo al quinto, e per una volta ancora andiamo avanti e indietro tra un’#Ambientazione e l’altra, da #Dragonlance ai #ForgottenRealms. C’è però una sorta di novità dietro alcuni elementi di continuità (non ultimo quello dell’anno: siamo ancora nel 1989). Una novità è quella per la quale il videogioco in questione ruppe lo schema che fino ad allora aveva accompagnato, e in certi casi anche appassionato gli amanti di D&D. https://www.instagram.com/p/CnpWOjWIfpC/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[unforgettable-realms]

Playing a mini-campaign in a notoriously racist city of Hillsfar can be tricky for non-human characters but Acylos has a way of hiding his horns and of course he's got his papers in order

[survivors-of-barovia]

Hey guys! Thank you so much for following our Strahd blog. It's an honor having you here! Although our campaign has successfully ended, we're not done playing DnD. Our group has other ongoing campaigns - our current big campaign is in the Feywild and we're also playing a mini-campaign in Hillsfar (aaaand we'll be diving into Dark Domains after Hillsfar) - and sometimes also oneshots that we love to illustrate! So if you're interested in campaign blogs, we welcome you here:

[jeffgerstmann]

You are going to play every nes game except the rpgs and then you're gonna look at the list of rpgs you have to slog through and give up

Once the baby starts sleeping through the night again I'll hopefully be able to get back to doing some nighttime bonus episodes like I did for Dragon Warrior and Nobunaga's Ambition. I might be missing a few but here's what I have for games that are probably long/slow enough to need their own bonus episode:

Crystalis

Final Fantasy

Dragon Warrior 2

Hillsfar

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: DragonStrike

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance

Ultima Exodus

Bandit Kings of Ancient China

Gemfire

Genghis Khan

L’Empereur

Nobunaga’s Ambition II

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Romance of the Three Kingdoms II

Startropics

Startropics II

Faxanadu?

Dragon Warrior 3

Dragon Warrior 4

Wizardry

Wizardry II

[shadow-djinni]

so excited to hear more about your campaign! i love the realms and i especially love to hear how people use and incorporate the varied canon into it. i’m curious - how do you deal with the hundred+ years between material from 2e/3e and 5e? (i’m assuming you’re setting yours in the 15th century from that poll you made.) i’ve always just played in the earlier era using more contemporary rules, but im curious how you’ve adapted things. :]

oh god, where to start with that. you're correct, my campaign is set in the Moonsea (and general Heartlands; we started in the Dales and moved north) in the early 1490s DR, and I've had to make a lot of inferences about the way things might have progressed in the 120 years between our last detailed look at the region (early 1370s DR), the brief glimpse of things in the 1470s from 4e, and 5e.

so I started with a deep dive on the Moonsea region during our most detailed period, the 1350s-1370s, with my primary reference materials being The Moonsea for 2e, Mysteries of the Moonsea for 3.5, Ruins of Zhentil Keep for 2e, and the 2e boxed set and 3e setting book. I've also referred to the run of Polyhedron articles (Issues #77-86), though much of that information was composited in The Moonsea for 2e. That I followed up with what little was updated for 4e (the two-page spread on pages 150-151 of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide for 4e, plus the subsets on the Church of Bane on p. 238, the Zhentarim on p. 282, and the article Monument of the Ancients in Dungeon #170, which includes an update on the town of Phlan), and after a brief and unproductive look at the Adventurer's League modules set (badly) in the region I went "I can do this better myself", actually.

as things stand in my campaign at the moment:

Zhentil Keep had their dust-up with the Shadovar in 1383 DR, resulting in the final fall of Zhentil Keep and the Citadel of the Raven in that same year. as per the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, the Zhentarim are interested in possibly recovering them (one of my campaign's PCs is a Zhentarim agent sent to survey the ruins)

the 3e Campaign Setting suggests that Yûlash was on the road to reconstruction as of the 1370s; I've decided they've rebuilt, largely under the influence of the Church of Bane

speaking of: Fzoul's schism is finalized. the western Banite temples follow Fzoul's doctrine, that the appropriate worship of Bane involves supporting a mortal tyrant. the church in Mulmaster reverted to orthodox form basically the second Fzoul was dead

Mulmaster is back on their bullshit and considering making a bid for control of the River Lis again, and they might actually pull it off without Zhentil Keep opposing them

Hillsfar and Melvaunt have largely been going on business as usual (Hillsfar's racist, Melvaunt is grimy and industrial)

[lordfentongaming]

Here is a preview for Friday's video set. In NWN EE Tyrants of the Moonsea we are going back to Hillsfar. In Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake video we are going into Cantlin. See what happens after 12pm EST:

[vaalaketh]

Vaal is a dragonborn, which are classified as a “rare” race in Faerûn, so in most cases he does come off as looking strange/unusual. He’s pretty often the only dragonborn around in a lot of the places we visit as a party, and that’s been the case for most of his life since he didn’t grow up in a big city (any along the sword coast for example) where populations are very diverse.

Travel/work/living wise this hasn’t really impacted him too badly, as most people in Faerûn are used to seeing all sorts of people of different species/races. Racism does exist but he really hasn’t experienced much of it (the only person to person incident to occur so far was more directed at his drow party member Vienna, and the only systematic incident was experienced by the entire party (non-humans not being allowed into the city of Hillsfar)), though this could simply be due to the fact that he’s both very large and very intimidating, so maybe people who might take issue with him choose to keep it to themselves.

The most major effect is just the fact that he grew up disconnected from his culture and never really had anyone around, other than his own siblings, who looked like him or spoke his native language. People in his life often have trouble reading his facial expressions and body language if he doesn’t compensate by emoting differently or more dramatically (he does use this to his advantage often when it comes to deception and intimidation, but it’s still a pain to deal with otherwise). And he rarely has opportunities to talk to people in draconic despite it being his favored language as well as the one he’s most proficient and literate in, which he does struggle with as he’s not particularly literate or well spoken in common.

These things, combined with other factors, have lead to him feeling frustrated and isolated pretty often when it comes to socializing.

If your OC looks strange or unusual for their setting, what is it that sets them apart? How does this different appearance impact them?

[vaalaketh]

Moonsea Campaign Session 4

Date: 2/25/24

Location: The Moonsea Ride, Cormanthor forest, Hillsfar

IG Date: The 17th, 18th, and 19th of Tarsakh

Relevant map below:

17th of Tarsahk - Halfway point along the Moonsea Ride, Cormanthor Forest

The rest of the afternoon after the fight with the vines and zombies is quiet, The party stops to camp in the evening.

Malachai asks Rosadin about the possibility of purchasing some of the alcohol she's made/if there is an open barrel, as he's interested in trying local brews, but she says there's none open at the moment. He's very awkward about it and she's very shocked. Vaalaketh laughs at it and has an "I told you so" moment about Malachai and other members of the team being awkward.

Vienna helps recover the situation by sharing a bit about Hillsfar, specifically about its breweries/other local places to get drinks, which the main location ends up being the temple to Lliira, the Goddess of Joy, but it's inside the city walls in Hillsfar proper, which doesn't allow non-humans, meaning only Julian would be able to access, meaning it's out of the question.

Vienna offers to sneak into the city for it.

Watch schedule for the night and outcomes is as follows:

Watch 1: Hella and Vienna - Uneventful. Hella is very chatty and excited.

Watch 2: Julian and Vienna - Uneventful.

Watch 3: Vaalaketh and Vienna - Uneventful other than a spat between Julian and Vaalaketh after she kicks him to wake him up.

Watch 4: Malachai and Vienna - Uneventful. The two watch the sunrise together.

~~ Long Rest ~~

18th of Tarsakh - The Moonsea Ride, Cormanthor Forest

Malachai goes fishing in a nearby stream in the early morning and catches 3 crayfish. Cooks them up for breakfast.

Vaalaketh gets back at Julian for kicking him and dumps cold stream water on her to wake her up. She chases him, but fails to catch him and retaliate.

A bit after getting back underway, Vaalaketh spots an area with a half dozen footprints that look humanoid. He determines they were likely bandits that headed off into the woods because they were outnumbered by the approaching caravan (9 caravan members and 6 of them). He wakes Vienna up because she asked to be if something happened, and also so in the off chance the party is ambushed, she wouldn't be caught off guard in her trance. The caravan proceeds quickly and with caution through the area he determined to be most likely to be used for an ambush.

The caravan makes it through the area as well as the rest of the day without incident, and since there was no fighting and no one was injured the party decides to repeat the activities of the night before last, look for rocks, and play cards again.

Julian wins the first round, and Vienna wins the second. A few more games are played before watches begin and everyone goes to sleep.

Watch schedule for the night and outcomes is as follows:

Watch 1: Vaalaketh and Vienna - Uneventful, they hang out and play cards that Vienna secretly takes out of Malachai's bag, and then sneaks back in at the end of the watch.

Watch 2: Hella and Vienna - There was a fox sniffing around that Vienna recognizes as being a druid in wild-shape. She tells it to leave somewhat rudely and out of spite it screams in the woods and wakes everyone up.

Watch 3: Julian and Vienna - Uneventful, though some humidity from the Moonsea rolls in, signifying how close the caravan is.

Watch 4: Malachai and Vienna - Uneventful, Malachai does not notice that anything was taken from his bag despite having been very watchful.

~~ Long Rest ~~

19th of Tarsahk - The Moonsea Ride, Cormanthor Forest, approaching Hillsfar

Morning is uneventful, and by midday the party breaks the treeline, leaving the Cormanthor Forest and transitions to traveling through fields.

A bit after midday, the caravan approaches a grouping of trees, and from the air, Malachai spots bandits hiding in an attempt to ambush us. He alerts Vaalaketh telepathically and Vaalaketh alerts the rest of the caravan out loud. The bandits hear this and realize the party has spotted them and instead of the ambush, they resort to firing at the caravan with arrows from where they're hiding.

Vaalaketh immediately responds, stopping the caravan, moving to the very front, and firing back with his heavy crossbow. He nails the shot (natural 20) despite the targeted bandit being partially hidden by the trees and kills him outright. He then uses this kill combined with a very deep and loud growl to attempt to intimidate the rest of the group, and succeeds easily (22), terrifying the rest of the bandits and destroying group moral. Despite their good position, they decide that it's not worth it and make a run for it, disappearing back into the trees and out the other side of the grouping into the surrounding fields.

No further fighting is required, and none of the party give chase. After a quick investigation of the area they had been hiding to make sure they were gone (and after Malachai finds the body of the bandit Vaalaketh killed and takes off of him a scimitar, a light crossbow with 20 bolts, and 12gp, much to the horror of the caravan members) the caravan gets back underway.

The rest of the trip passes without further incident and the caravan arrives at Hillsfar in the late afternoon.

On Hillsfar The city is divided into two parts, the dock ward, and the city proper. The dock ward allows non human people inside to live work and trade, but the city proper (ruled by one Lord Torin Normenthal, the first lord of the city, who was well liked initially but ended up being extremely racist and enacting very racist policies during his lordship), is walled off and heavily guarded, only allowing humans inside. The city proper has multiple towers visible from the outside, and docked at the top of one of them is a flying ship, its hull covered in luminescent blue plating and having extra sails both at the top, and on the sides, the ones on the sides strongly resembling wings.

The party parts ways with the caravanners at the gates of the dock area after being paid 60gp each (240gp total) for guarding the caravan. They are told that the caravan will be in Hillsfar for about a tenday if they finish with their business out west and decide they'd like to go back to Ashabenford with them for the increased 20gp rate, and that they (the caravanners) will be staying at the Rusty Nail Inn if/when the party need to find them and let them know.

Vaalaketh wishes the caravanners well and good profits, and the caravanners return the sentiment.

Afterwards, the party part ways, going to do their own thing in the dock area.

Having seen and been extremely interested in the flying ship at the top of one of the towers within Hillsfar proper, Vaalaketh decides to go around looking for/asking people about it. He learns that despite the dock area being full of artificers from Melvant, the ship has nothing to do with any of them, and they're only responsible for the icebreaking ships that come out in early spring and sail pretty late into winter until the ice is too thick. He heads into a dive bar called the Mermaids Bossom and has a few drinks (-10c) with them, and during the ensuing conversations learns that the ship is "wizard shit" and they belong to some group that the artificers don't really know the name of beyond "The Son's of 'Somebody'", which Vaalaketh tries to learn more about but ends up being too broad of a name, thus, unhelpful.

Unable to learn anymore without finding a way into the city proper and up to the ship itself, Vaalaketh ends up just continuing to drink and socialize at the bar. Only pausing to locate someone who will sell him some weed for a half baked plan he's slowly generating in his mind for later that night.

Meanwhile, Julian goes with Vienna to look into making contact with the local thieves guild about the possibility of getting into the city, though the only reason Vienna wants to get inside in the first place is to go to the temple of joy to buy Malachai some local alcohol like she said she would. Julian doesn't care about doing this at all, and doesn't even care to go into the city proper at all despite being allowed as a human, and is only going to make sure Vienna is okay.

They make contact with a low level member of the local thieves guild, and she tells them that there are ways in, but she would have to speak with her higher-ups before any decisions are made, which will take about three days.

They also learn that a group of drow were at some point sentenced to death in an arena in Hillsfar. Information to think about and chew on.

? - Malachai doesn't do much, just walks around looking for places to get piercings and tattoos if any exist.

The party regroups at the Mermaid's Bossom (agreed upon before splitting up), and upon gathering/realizing the following information

The thieves guild will take three days to hear back from

It being only a days walk east to Elventree

That since Elventree is east and Zhentil Keep is west, the party will need to backtrack through Hillsfar anyway

They decide to not wait around for the three days. That they will leave early in the morning for Elventree, get the books translated if possible and gather any information that's available on them there, and then head back to Hillsfar to hear the verdict from the thieves guild and do whatever Vienna wants with that information before heading west towards Zhentil Keep.

Vaalaketh shares what he learned about the ship, and briefly considers bullying Malachai into flying up to look at it once he remembers that flying is an option, but as the party head to the Rusty Nail Inn to get rooms, they see it flying away, ruining his plans.

Each of the party gets a single room for 1sp at the Rusty Nail Inn for the night.

Final Loot/Items Acquired:

60gp each (240gp total)

12gp from dead bandit

Scimitar

light crossbow

20 crossbow bolts

[retrocgads]

USA 1997

[dndhistory]

Let's Play: Hillsfar (1989) - Part 7 (Rogue Quest 1)

We get to the Rogue quests in this instalment and we are tasked with first finding a poisonous Fungus… ok… and then retrieving vials of white liquid from an old Hermit’s Hut… gross.

The musical score in this episode was gently provided by Hodslate taken with their permission from the album "Realms Far Beyond".

Support independent artists and get it at Bandcamp: 

Opening Music "Life" by MORSCHT, taken with their permission from the album "a sacrifice of myself unto myself".

 Support independent artists and get it at Bandcamp:

Hillsfar is the first Action/RPG game based on the Forgotten Realms. It used the rules of first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Find out more about the history of Dungeons and Dragons at The History of DnD Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky, Tumblr and Website! 

https://www.instagram.com/thehistoryofdnd

Title Card created by Raquel studio: 

https://www.instagram.com/raquelg_studio/

[laxdnd]

D&D Session #03

Episode III: “I think you should do the courageous thing and sacrifice yourself” - JJ (as Jip Dip)

Each member of the party was given separate accommodations. When they woke up from a long slumber, they found a letter, thanking them for protecting the cleric and delivering the townspeople, as well as a gemstone shaped like a bar, worth around 1,000 gold pieces.

As discussed the day before, each member of the party gathered together, and met with the children that became Warlocks, as well as Bervok’s crew, and went to the mage's guild. Once there, the party was separated from everyone else. Presumably, they were questioned separately. The party was brought to meet with the goblin named Bert, who introduced himself as a senator. He told the party that he was given a budget, and that they were to equip themselves from his wares. The party were not given a set number, but were told that Bert would figure out what was too much. This led to a significant amount of discussion about which party members needed the most new equipment, as well as discussions around some of Bert’s more unique wares.

The party decided to purchase Guyeater a new suit of armor, one that Burt specifically said would make them live longer, as well as give Omar an enhancement to his armor. Several members of the party also used some of their reward money to buy less expensive items. Ped bought a Level 3 spell scroll, and a Potion of Rockets. Omar bought a Potion of Elemental Weapon and a Potion of Recognition. Piercing Jay bought a Potion of Greater Healing, two Potions of Healing, and a Potion of Reloading. Lastly Adam bought a Potion of Unseeing, and two of Bert’s special Potions of Healing.

The mage guild seemed to confirm the likelihood that alchemical wines and beers, including the one that Bervok had made, might be able to run some interference on whatever the sickness was / is. That being said, they admitted that they still don't know much about it, and want to learn more. Because of that, and because of other things going on, they decided to send us to investigate the Zhentil Keep to learn more information, and state that we had already accepted supplies for the mission (from Bert), so we didn't have much choice in the matter.

The members of the mage guild went over what they were hoping to learn from this mission. Specifically, they wanted us to find the agents that were attempting to kidnap the children. They stated that it had been difficult to send in reinforcements there in the past, which is why that they were asking us to do so. Part of the reason that it is/was hard to send in reinforcements is due to the layers of undead that surround the city, as well as the hag infested woods that lie between Hillsfar and the Zhentil Keep. They estimated that it would be a 15 day journey to get there and back, and thus gave us 20 days of rations. Ped, however, buys some nicer rations, as he did not want to eat the original rations.

The next morning, Omar woke up, and found a new cloak in his room, which had the properties of both a cloak of billowing, and a cloak of protection (+1 to AC and saving throws!) Guteater found an intricate, black splint adamantine armor set. They also both received three biscuits, and a magic box that could hold them. The biscuits specifically had the property that they will taste/smell like the sweet treat the person consuming it most wants. As such, Guteater immediately suggests using it to poison enemies.

The mage guild gave the party a sending stone, and instructed them to send updates every day when relevant, with up to 25 words.

Adam cast Pass without Trace on the party, and they head off. They traveled through the forest for a few days - the forest was very inhospitable, and it was incredibly cold, icky, and rainy. Eventually, they came across an old wooden bridge, that didn't seem incredibly well maintained. Next to the bridge was a small hut, and outside the hut, were three young human women. The party assumed that these are the hags that we were warned about.

The party discussed how to move forward, with Piercing Jay arguing that we should ignore them, and Omar suggesting we go talk to them, with other members of the party being ambivalent, with only slight leanings. Eventually, the propensity for chaos of a few of the party members pushed them towards the hut - Omar takes the lead, and Adam subtly enhanced his wisdom.

After some discussion with the hags, they told us that we should not worry about the bridge. Omar realized with absolute certainty that they were not being deceptive, but they were not telling the full story. He presses on, and asks if they had things to sell, as well as their relationship with the Zhentarim. The Hags told Omar that they had a tiny bit of falling out, and that they had “acquired some of their people.” They then went over that they expect the party to pay 25 gold per person to cross the bridge. Several members of the party are skeptical, but Omar immediately paid the 25 gold, and Adam paid 100 for the rest of the party. Upon entering the bridge, the mirage disappeared, and they saw an old stone bridge, complete with the skeletons of many people who had failed to pay the toll.

After 7 more days of traveling, the party arrived at the other side of the forest. Given the length of time that the party had already been traveling, they realized their rations would be wholly inadequate, and that it was very likely that they will have to subsist on goodberries, and food they could hunt and forage, on the way back. The party saw the Zhentil Keep was about a day's walk away, but also saw several groups of undead creatures that would likely make that a longer trek.

The party saw two different paths they could take, one of which contained undead ogres to fight, the other containing undead beholders. The party decided that they would prefer not to deal with either, and tried to track closer to the ogres, seeing them as less dangerous, but also wanted to act like zombies so that the zombies might not attack them. Unfortunately, this does not last very long, and they are shortly engaged in battle.

Pad worked to trap several zombies in a time field, Piercing Jay heroically shot a zombie ogre in the eye from a distance, while Guteater madr his way into the thick of things. The party soon discovered that the normal zombies, except for the ogres, were not hard to hit, but unfortunately hit back equally as hard, and Omar and Guteater took several injuries. Slowly but surely, the party was able to take out a number of zombies. The battle seemed to be on pretty equal footing, but then Ped was able to cast a large spell on one of the ogres, causing it to be completely enfeebled. After that, the scales were tipped, and the party was able to finish off the rest of the attacking undead.

Given the injuries the party had sustained, they decided to spend their efforts looking for a place that they would be able to rest for the night. Guteater asked Jip Dip to scout a route, and try to find some lodging. He returned later, with talk of an abandoned farmhouse. The party sneaked over to the house, looked in the door, and realized that the farmhouse was infested with zombies. Ped and Adam fired off ranged spells from the door and immediately ran away a distance, and Jay followed suit, firing her bow into the house. A few came out, and attacked Omar, who striked back, killing one of them and knocking off it's head. Adam killed the other one attacking Omar. From there, Guteater and Omar entered the house, and took care of the remaining zombies. The house was small, and solely contained a pantry, a storage room, and a few bedrooms.

The party agreed to split up the night into four separate watches, most of which were uneventful. During the third watch however, Piercing Jay noticed a few zombies and an undead ogre heading in the direction of the house. While she considered fighting them on her own, she eventually settled to wake up Guteater, and try to have Jippity Dippity lead them astray, using a torch. Jippity Dippity was not a fan of this plan, and insisted that Piercing Jay should go by herself to fight them, and discusses the risk that would be involved with him not being able to come back for a while if he were to perish. However, he was eventually overruled, and went to distract the zombies. While there were a few close calls, he was ultimately successful.

The next morning, the party continued trekking towards the city. They ran into a cleric of Kelemvor, and two fighters attacking zombies. They did not seem to be having many issues. Nevertheless, the party went to go and help them. The Cleric introduced himself as Ruben, and asked us what brought us to the area. They explained that they were stationed out of Zhentil Keep, and were paid to help keep the zombies at bay, as there are an infinite number of them. The party was honest, but does not tell the full story, telling Ruben that there is somebody in the Zhentil Keep that they need to find, as well as about the child kidnapping.

Ruben was surprised to hear about the kidnapping, and one of the fighters specifically asked if the party had seen a child with long white hair, like his own. None of the party was familiar with someone like that. Piercing Jay explained this had happened in Yulash, and seemingly also happening elsewhere. Ruben said that he would send a message to inform the clerics in his temple, and offered to give us a discount on his services as a guide to enter the city. The party paid 20 gold a piece, and then followed him. Ruben had a map that, despite Adam's frequent attempts, he didn't let us see. The tunnels were incredibly confusing, and no one would be able to figure out what was the right path alone.

When the party arrived in the city, they saw that it was incredibly poorly kept, and there were several people clearly in pain in the streets, as well as bodies hanging from buildings. There was also a very prominent central tower that was several levels tall.

Ruben brought the party to a general store, known as The Jagged Rock, which was run by clerics of Umberlee. There, he gave us some general information about the city. Apparently, there were very few places to rent rooms, and even fewer places where you could do so legally. There was one in that is sanctioned by the Zhentarim, as well as the Battle Hall of Tempus. However, it seemed even most adventurers would use the sanctioned Inn.

Beyond that, he discussed the fact that clerics are allowed to use their magic, but other forms of magic were frowned upon, and from looking around, it was fairly simple to verify that even the other adventurers in the area weren't exactly brandishing their magic openly. Ruben then directed us to a money exchange, where the party could exchange their money for more coins like the one Omar had. Shortly after, Ruben left, and the party used the sending stone to let the Mage's Guild know they had made it into the keep. They did not receive a response.

The party also saw several people looking for jobs, and very few people who traded in Zhentil Keep currency, as well as most merchants exchanging in normal currency, and only having basic necessities for sale. Clerics seemed to be the ones upholding any sort of law that exists.

At the exchange, the party learned that there was only one place where they could exchange normal currency for zhentocoins, and that zhentocoins enforced a verbal contract on the exchange of information for that currency, once that contract is stated. Those contracts are then backed up by the state, and if you do not live up to one, Zhentarim agents would be sent to kill you. Omar and Ped both bought 1 silver zhentocoin, Piercing Jay buys 2 silver and 2 copper zhentocoin, and Adam bought one gold zhentocoin. Adam learned there are two people allowed to sell maps of the area, specifically one named Nimbaud the Magnificent, and another, Tesh the Innkeeper.

Tesh’s Inn, the party realized, was the Central Tower that they saw before. They took a closer look at it, and realized that it goes up four levels, with finer buildings on the upper levels. They learned from talking to some people that they would be able to get onto the second level, which is known as the merchants district, once they had spent a hundred gold in the area, and that they would need to earn a favor from Zhentarim nobles to get any higher.

From here, the party discussed next actions, and decided that since Adam and Piercing Jay had means of disguising themselves, they would venture into the Inn, and the others will investigate more of the Keep.

Piercing Jay disguised herself as a human, and Adam wild-shaped into a rat. They go to the bar in the Inn, and learned that it costs 30 gold per night to stay there. While there were several lavish accommodations, including drinks and fancy meals, the reason for the high price was that people staying at the Inn had full amnesty, and even Zhentarim assassins would not be allowed to kill you while you reside at the inn. They also learned about the locks on the rooms, which seemed to be magical, and incredibly hard to pick.

Piercing Jay looked around the bar, and saw a strange cat with a mask shaped like a bat. She went over to the cat, exchanged pleasantries, and wanted to know if the cat knew anything about kidnapped children. The cat, who later introduced himself as Batcat, did not want to exchange information without payment in the form of zhentocoin. Eventually, they settled, and Piercing Jay paid the cat 2 silver zhentocoin.

The cat went on to explain that Rak, a gnome that lived in the district, was complaining about noises from children, but that they had been dismissed, as many people viewed him as insane. The cat also said that Rak lived in the Apothecary, and frequently made explosions. Batcat then also mentioned that if Piercing Jay was able to find any undead mice, to let him know, and that he would pay one silver zhentocoin per undead mice hideout, and would pay her one gold zhentocoin if we were able to find an undead mouse with clown makeup and a purple suit. What a joker!

Piercing Jay went back up to the bar, and bought a room under the false alias, JP. She also bought a map at Adam's request, using Adam's gold zhentocoin to do so. Piercing Jay attempted to talk to Tesh about the missing children, and fish for information, but unfortunately got no bites. When Piercing Jay asked for her silence regarding her questions, Tesh requested a Zhentarim gold piece, which neither Adam or Piercing Jay could afford to consider.

Upon purchasing a room, they learned about how the lock mechanism for the rooms work. They received a set of codes. The first code was random, and changed every 10 days. The second code was Tesh's code, and that changed randomly. The third code is a code that Piercing Jay could set and change at her discretion.

Piercing Jay and Adam scuttered around the bar, Adam quite literally as he was a rat, trying to find more information. It became very clear very quickly that they would not be able to find any information from Zhentarim agents, as they were speaking in code. However, they did learn that no one at the inn came from the north, and the majority of the tenants arrived from the South of the Zhentil Keep.

Outside of the Inn, Omar tried to peddle information regarding the recent events of the towns that had been turned to undead, but no one particularly cared, given their frequent exposure to undead presences. Guteater paid a local to give them a tour, and information about the town, and its history.

Guteater, Ped, and Omar learned a lot. Firstly, they learned that the Zhentil Keep was not always like it is today. Apparently, the rulers of the city pissed off some extra planar shadow creatures, who killed about 90% of the population, and turned them into undead creatures. However, the Zhentarim decided to continue holding their center of operations there, due to the familiarity they had with the city, and the intricate tunnel system that lay beneath it. They also learned that thr Zhentarim had recently pissed off a group of Hags, and thus were now unable to utilize a bridge in the forest. Guteater, Omar, and Ped recognized this as the bridge they had crossed 4 days prior.

They also learned that there were two laws to the city: no one is allowed to be caught doing harm to merchants, and no one is allowed to harm Black Lords, the name for Zhentarim Nobles. Basically, if you commit a crime against someone who isn't a noble, and are able to get away with it, people will just let you be. Beyond that, there was an unofficial “Law of the Ladies,” which is important to the town, specifically that only two businesses are able to deal in prostitution, specifically the Lily Pad, and the Crimson Rose. Women who worked there would wear light green and blue, and pink and red, respectively. Notably, this was the only business not controlled by the Zhentarim in the entirety of the Zhentil Keep.

They also learned more of Nimbaud the Magnificent, who was one of the people who was able to sell maps. It was said in the town that he spies on people, but people weren't aware of how. It is later speculated by the party that he may be scrying, and hiding the fact that he is doing so. They also learned that worshiping Mystra would lead to your hands being cut off, and that this was enforced by Clerics of Loviator, who acted as the police force in the area. Further, they learned that clerics at the temple of Kelemvor were paid to help reduce the zombie population in the surrounding area. They learned that they could also receive payments for killing undead, if they were to bring in the heads of the undead that they would kill. Lastly, while they have all learned that non-divine magic is frowned upon, they learned that the Jagged Rock does sell illicit goods, and then that likely includes magic items, as the Zhentarim and Zhentil Keep brings in much strange business.

Memorable Quotes

“Hags bad, Devils good. Also, you're going to die” - Jippity Dippity

“You punch a crying kid's head off” - Carmen

New/Important Characters

Bert, Senator and Shopkeep Unnamed Hags Ruben, Cleric of Kelemvor Unnamed Fighter Unnamed Silver Haired Fighter Tesh, Zhentarim Innkeeper (na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na) BATCAT (na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na) Zhentarim Money Exchanger (unnamed) Nimbaud the Magnificent

New Locations

Hag Infested Forest (Unnamed, between Zhentil Keep and Hillsfar) Zhentil Keep (current location) The Jagged Rock, Zhentarim Store Battle Hall of Tempus Tesh’s Inn Various Levels of the Keep/Inn Apothecary (mentioned)