User blog:SatyreyesDM/That One Ring

Seth got his first plot arc after defending Zaradene from a hobgoblin attack with the help of his friend Gage from Goodbay and Zaradene's town militia. On one of the bodies, the militia discovered a magical ring that could polymorph its wearer into the form of a sparrow. Seth and a forgotten militiaman both laid claim to the ring and agreed to settle the dispute with an arm-wrestling contest. Seth astonished all onlookers by defeating the burly fighter and claimed the ring for himself, flying home on sparrow wings.

His jubilation was short-lived, however, for that very night a wizard called Mestari engineered the theft of Seth's ring. An outraged Seth pursued Mestari to his tower near North Keep, where he befriended local wizard Praxis. Unfortunately, in trying to enter Mestari's tower Seth was taken captive and forced to undergo a set of lethal challenges to escape. Escape he did, but not in time to stop Mestari from defeating and killing Praxis and absconding with the ring. Bad DMing decisions abounded during this arc, but give me a break, it's the first time I'd tried to run a plot.

Seth returned empty-handed to Zaradene, only to be sent away again by the ruler of the town, Lord Hristol. Hristol shipped Seth to Despair, a town in southwest Blode, saying that Despair had offered reinforcements to secure Zaradene's borders. Seth arrived, however, to find that Despair's mayor knew nothing of the agreement and the entire bellicose town wanted him and his party dead. Without a ship, they had to hoof it back to Zaradene. (Seth stopped to see an old friend from mage school, Argoa sith Jainad, at the City of Morning Dew.) Upon their return they found the city overrun with ogres! The corrupt Lord Hristol had struck a deal, accepting their treasures in exchange for selling out the town, and sending Seth's party away so they could not interfere. Seth would have none of this and invaded Hristol's mansion, driving Hristol out and breaking the ogre occupation. For this act of righteousness in the face of authority his alignment changed to neutral good.

Not long after installing Chance Aldym as the town's new leader, Seth was approached by a fighter named Biff to help him solve a mystery. Biff's magical _ring of the ram_ had disappeared the night after he'd shown it off to a few friends from the militia. Seth gathered clues pointing to Mestari as the culprit and found a mysterious note from his nemesis that sent him back to North Keep. Mestari wasn't there, but Seth did find a secret dungeon beneath Praxis's home that contained treasure willed to its discoverers. Mestari had been there first and lifted a magical ring from the booty, but he left the rest untouched. Why did he lead Seth to this place? And why did he leave Biff's ring in plain sight there for Seth to retrieve?

Perhaps someday these mysteries will be resolved. But it wasn't long after that that Seth was sent off to Solamnia under the brand new 3.5e rules, and the modern era had really begun!