Chapter 1plugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigChapter 1: Meet Joe Wood

Not long ago, one of my players said she wanted to have a break from playing heroes all the time and do something completely different. She wanted to have a go at playing an 'ordinary person' for a while. Her suggestion chimed with a corner of my contrary streak that has wanted to prove that commoners really can survive in D&D land (and you can even have fun with them). So we started, and before masses of time had passed, her character was becoming a power in his own town. Here's how it happened…

Chapter 2plugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigChapter 2: A Good Day's Work

Episode 10: Horsing around.

Posted on 2007/02/14

Joe heads into town even earlier than usual and finds his way to the stables the cart owner described. He hovers in the entrance while muck piles higher in the yard and horses stamp and murmur. Finally, a small man scuttles over.

Chapter 3plugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigChapter 3: Rats and Rogues

Episode 17: A Knife in the Hand...

Posted on 2007/04/07

Next day, after the final clear up, Joe tries giving Nipper the combat style commands rather than the working commands and is pleasantly surprised at Nipper's obedience to them. So this is the reason that none of the usual ways work with him!

Chapter 4plugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigChapter 4: Demon Horse

Episode 27: Reward?

Posted on 2007/06/17

Joe manages to keep the stables going for another two days, until Alun emerges, still a bit pale and shaky, but otherwise recovered.

“I hear you’re something of a hero,” he tells Joe.

Joe tries to protest that he’s nothing of the sort, but the other stablehands are right there, grinning and contradicting him at every turn. Eventually, he stammers to a halt and glares at them.

Chapter 5plugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigChapter 5: Elves

Episode 38: Move along, no adventurer here.

Posted on 2007/09/12

Joe carries on working at the stables, trying to fit back into the old routine and almost managing. He works with the worst horses, copes with Nipper, and begins to train Bramble to come when called.

Chapter 6plugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigChapter 6: Hafumin

Episode 51: Hafumin

Posted on 2007/12/13

Joe stays off the road for most of the day, using the spear alternately as a walking staff and as a probe. He slips through the bushes to check the road every few hours and strains his ears the rest of the time, but nothing seems to be happening. If the hunters' bodies have been found, no-one is making any fuss about it and no more hunters have turned up looking for Snow and Ice. Still, he continues to push the pace as much as possible.

Chapter 7plugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigChapter 7: Hayketh

Episode 65: You want WHAT?

Posted on 2008/03/26

Joe, with Bramble trotting politely at his heels, follows the guard right across town to the guardhouse and is waved briskly inside. He swallows hard as he steps through the door, trying not to remember the scare stories he was brought up on.

Chapter 8plugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigChapter 8: Carted Off

Episode 79: Carted off

Posted on 2008/07/02

Joe wanders the horse lines for quite some time before he finally settles on an elderly, but still sound, grey mule and begins the long haggle to buy it. He eventually manages to find a compromise price between what he wants to pay and what the mule's owner will take and counts over the coins. He also manages to buy a slightly rickety cart and harness and get both cart and mule back to his new home. He stows the cart in one of the open stable bays …

Chapter 9plugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigChapter 9: Spiders

Episode 91: A sticky situation

Posted on 2008/10/18

Since he is trying to trap, Joe leaves Nipper in the stall - as he usually does - but takes Bramble with him to improve her new trick of spotting animals. He shoulders his pack and sighs as he fingers his still damp cloak. He doesn't look forward to yet another day of having it clammily round his shoulders. The trophy cloak catches his eye and he fingers that - dry and warm, if a bit fancy - but no-one will see him in the forest or mistake …

Chapter 10plugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigChapter 10: The Goblin

Episode 98: Filling in.

Posted on 2008/12/14

Joe manages to get home without too many problems and checks his snares alone while Bramble's paw heals, eating the rabbit meat and selling the skins until the rain finally, after another week or more, stops and the roads begin to dry to something more useful than knee-deep mud. Joe takes to spending the early mornings in the hiring queue again, in case he has a chance of hiring.

Chapter 11plugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigChapter 11: The Adventurers

Episode 108: Stand or deliver

Posted on 2009/03/22

Over the next few weeks, Joe finds himself carting goods all over town - but almost always staying within the town walls apart from a brief trip just outside the walls to take raw cow hides to the tannery. He carts grain to the mill and barrels of dried meat and fish to the provisioners, rolled rugs and tapestries to a new merchant's house, wooden furniture to a pair of newly-wed crafters, bales of cloth and sacks of herbs from one warehous…

Chapter 12plugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigChapter 12: Tidemouth

Episode 131: Midwinter

Posted on 2010/01/31

As Midwinter draws close, Joe decides to take the holiday off - apart from looking after the animals of course. He wanders the market between local hires, looking for reasonable deals on food and ends up with a holiday meal of chicken, onions, carrots and potatoes, ale and apple pie. Bramble gets some of the chicken. Merry and Nipper get carrot instead. A trip to the crowded temple and a libation of ale takes care of the gods too, just to make s…

Chapter 13plugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigChapter 13: Wolf Lady

Episode 149: A right pickle

Posted on 2011/04/18

Alek nods as Joe comes up and opens the gate, and takes a seat on the stairs as Joe untacks and brushes down Nipper and Merry. “That was a right pickle of a problem you dropped on our guardhouse,

Chapter 14plugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigChapter 14: In Progress...

Episode 157: Re-stocking

Posted on 2011/10/16

The market is fuller than Joe expected and he guesses that everyone else is taking advantage of the break in the weather to both buy and sell their goods in the market. He buys flour, cheese and a small pat of butter, a bag of dried beans and another of dried peas, bread and a don't ask pie, an end of cheap hard sausage, cabbage and onions and swede, a packet of hazelnuts, another of currents and a third of cheap herbs to make a hot tea with. He …