March 23-24, T.A. 1355
The PCs are making their way through the streets of the Citystate of Redmark when they hear a crash and screams. Pushing their way past fleeing bystanders, the heroes find an overturned carriage. Bandits used a rival carriage to bust into and overturn the princess’s carriage. Now, the six royal guards lay dead (taking nine thieves with them to their grave). Four more thieves remain and are trying to break into the carriage.
The heroes dispatch the remaining bandits, discovering inside the carriage the Princess Anastasia and an older handmaid.
City guards arrive with reinforcements. Ser Vandro, head of the queen’s guard, takes the princess, and assigns his lieutenant Ser Kelderak to reward the PCs. He does so with a commission ‘to serve the Queen’, the scrap of paper listing the phrase ‘MMM’ at the bottom. “See the palace clerk in the morning,” says Ser Kelderak, “and they will give you the details; I must attend to Ser Vandro.”
The next day, arriving at the palace, the heroes meet with a old female clerk who send them into a building. At first they pass a station with a sign saying “The Queen's Guard” but they direct the companions to keep walking. Next they find the “Mercenaries,” and they likewise direct the heroes to keep walking. Finally the companions end down a couple of flights of stairs in a dungeon area, and see the sign reading ‘MMM’.
An old hag named Gilda runs the introduces the PCs to the Ministry of Moribund Malefactions, and then gives them the mission to the Archmage’s tower. Their wages each: 10 gp monthly plus pay for a modest lifestyle (1 gp per day).
The heroes arrive at the Archmage’s tower. The archmage is away on business but his apprentice Margyle tells them their mission. He shrinks the heroes to a mere 1″ in size and sends them down into the plumbing of his laboratory sink to retrieve a precious lost ring.
