Fiction | Game | Medium Adventurers League ⚔️
To Join The Bastion’s Finest!
In search of a new base — Hearthstone Hideout
This is part of a story that works as an interactive game. You’ll need to have a notepad and dice at the ready! Click here for the beginning of the Medium Adventurers League, and find a reminder of the rules here. Head back to the previous chapter here.
By late afternoon, you make it to The Bastion. There was surprisingly little trouble on the way. Well, it should be that way, you reflect — this is the biggest city on the whole island, with the best roads running to and from it. Safe(ish) for travellers and traders.
You’re sure that trouble won’t be far away, however.
The city itself is vast and spectacular, with huge halls, Gothic round-towers, broad cobbled streets, and people of all kinds and species, from beast-folk to half-orcs to fish-folk. There’s even the occasional goblin! You’re aware that the land’s great temples are based here, not to mention Perion’s Pit, the famous combat school.
Further on, there are tall ships in the distance to the east, and mountains can be seen to the west, with the sun sinking over them.
However, the city really stinks. Its packed streets are covered with dung and compacted refuse. Further on, you see a murky-looking lake, with three hanged bodies visible on gallows at the far side.
Mist rises.
As you pause to take in the grim sight, holding your nose, a crazed-looking elven woman approaches you. “The lake’s like an open sewer, isn’t it?” she rants. “It’s full of filth and scum. Sometimes I can hardly take it. The Baron should just — really clean it up, know what I mean?”
“I hear you,” you reply.
“Sometimes I go out and I smell it. I gets headaches, it’s so bad, you know…” Still jabbering, the elf drifts off, and you hurry on down the main street.
After double-checking the directions that Yorrick provided, you knock at the door of a smart stone building. The structure is tall and round, with several further strangely-shaped buildings attached, and a flag atop the tallest point. The entire complex is made from golden sandstone, and has a peculiar beauty.
A minute goes past until the door opens with a creak. You glance down; the person there is very short, muscular, and bearded. A gnome, you wonder for a moment…? No — surely he’s is a bearded halfling, and a fierce warrior by the looks of him.
“Business?” demands the halfling.
“Well, I mean… I’m an adventurer,” you say, sounding a lot less confident than you would like.
The halfling holds out a hand. “Pass.”
You hesitate again for a moment, then pull out your Guild Membership Pass. He turns it over in his hands, holds it up to the light, shrugs, then hands it back. Turning and nodding his head for you to follow, he leads you inside.
The door closes by itself.
You find yourself in a semi-circular room. It has a vast flaming hearth at the far side, and on either side there are a tables, with adventurers of all kinds. You see grim-looking warriors, wizards in robes, and others who could easily be assassins to hire.
“Welcome to Hearthstone Hideout — a headquarters for heroes,” he says.
“Are you in charge here?”
He chuckles darkly. “Nobody’s in charge. Find your own way around. And good luck.” Without a backwards glance, the halfling moves away and sits down with another pair of scarred warriors.