The Story So Far
This adventuring group is based in the City of Greyhawk. Originally, they were exploring Castle Greyhawk and its surrounds, but their interest has broadened with the introduction of their current sponsor: Lord Raelthayer. He’s the grandfather of one of the character’s love interests, and although nobility doesn’t count for all that much in the Free City, he’s still a person of influence.

Two sessions ago, the group returned to Greyhawk after being trapped in a demiplane by Archibald. However, due to Nathaniel's absence from this session (and his importance to the overall plot), last session I ran an intervening one-off session set "sometime in the future". This session took us back to "current events".

The Adventurers
Gillaine (played by Martin), a female dwarven druid
Maximilian (played by Adam), a human bard
Drakult (played by Rich), a human paladin
Will (played by Nathaniel), a half-elf ranger

New Friends
Meliander, Teresa's father, greeted the group as they returned to Greyhawk, a month after they were trapped in the demi-plane. He was pleased to see that Will and Teresa were alive, and they'd managed to rescue themselves, but rather less pleased at the events that had led up to their imprisonment.

The involvement of the Priests of Chaos and the death of L'suj were quite worrying to Meliander, but he didn't lecture the group overlong, but let them get back to their regular lives, staying in Greyhawk "just in case" they needed him. (His wife, Caitlin, has remained in the County of Ulek to see the County's magical needs).

Probably of more import to the group was the masque being held by Lady Starkweather, a friend of Teresa's grandfather. Teresa had been invited, and as she could bring friends, Will was definitely going - as was Gillaine.

Why a party? As a DM, I really felt that it was time that the PCs met some NPCs that they could regularly interact with, especially in noble set as they reached the Paragon levels. Then too, there was Adam's new character - a bard. I made sure that his background clicked into the ongoing story as well.

Will talked a bit with Lady Starkweather, whilst Gillaine and Drakult met her daughter - a bookish individual who wasn't otherwise mingling. Soon enough Maximilian arrived; a member of a noble house down on his luck, and he wasted no time in introducing himself to Gillaine and Lady Starkweather's daughter, Rose. The inspiration for the character comes from both Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy and Barbara Hambly's Stranger at the Wedding/Sorcerer's Ward.

Rose was somewhat dismissive of Max, although she likes him, but the three got talking. Max's family were in quite some trouble at the moment thanks to some unwise investments, and he didn't trust his elder brother's advisor at all, who he thought was causing a lot of the trouble. They were also joined by another young noble/merchant, Myka Traveller, who was bemoaning bandit activity. When his brother, Horatio Somerset, made his later arrival, along with the advisor, Gillaine and Will got to see exactly why Max was so troubled: it was Archibald!

This one is really fun: Adam's first character in this campaign was Archibald, who later betrayed the character. Will gets on well with Archibald, but Drakult really doesn't. With Max actively hating Archibald, it gives Adam a lot to work with for his roleplaying!

Will went to greet Archibald whilst the others looked on, making reference to their recent problems in Farika (which were caused by Archibald, as you might recall). Archibald shrugged it off, and otherwise Will and Archibald engaged in a friendly, if edged, manner.

The masque continued. All too soon, it was interrupted - by an attack of bandits, human with a half-elven leader, who swiftly demanded the jewelry of everyone there!

At this point, a few of the players wondered what the guards were doing. I was tired enough to murmur something that didn't make sense. In actual fact, most of the guards had been disabled by a magical dust the bandits had with them. Due to their non-standard method of entry, they'd managed to avoid most of the guards anyway!

Heroes to the rescue? Well, yes. I'd had a thought that perhaps the group wouldn't want any of the party-goers to be endangered, but I forgot who I had playing the game. Soon enough, the bandits were fleeing under persistent attack from the group; although Will had to first duck into the cloakroom to get his bow and Drakult's axe. I was very disappointed to see them not making the obvious LotR film joke, so I made it for them.

Some of the group tended to the wounds Lady Starkweather had sustained during the attack whilst Will went in pursuit; after completing the tending, they rest went in pursuit. The bandits had fled down a magically created hole in the ground into the sewers, and kept up a running battle with the group until, one by one, they all fell. The bandits attempted an ambush with some success, but when the entire group finally came together, it was just too much for the bandits and they fell.

A couple of the bandits were captured, and they spoke of being hired by someone deeper in the sewers - and the bandit leader had a map. Next session, they'll meet this mysterious individual!

And no, it isn't Archibald. I thought of that originally, but it was too obvious - and I want to make the idea of different NPC threats and groups clear in the players' minds. There are a few plot threads going on at present, and this is part of one of them.