The beginning part 2

Jim and I (DM Eric) had talked some time about starting to play DnD. At some point, I suggested that we try the much-acclaimed 'story-path' adventure "The Shackled City." My brother, the notorious J.O.D., had a copy of the bound edition, and graciously loaned it to me for the duration. We decided that I would DM, and Jim would play, and recruit. Thru many ups and down, twists and turns (ok, I exaggerate a little), we assembled 8 (!) players: Jim, Daniel, Emily, Birch, Ann, Cramer, Tom, and Amber.

We had a couple of mini-meetings for different players to meet, make characters, etc., and decided that Wednesday nights would be our meeting time. My only requirements for characters were that they could not be evil (in alignment or behavior!), and all characters had to take the 'local heroes' option; all characters were from the home city of Cauldron. Each character then had to take a special background trait, relating to their ancestry or connection to Cauldron.

At our first, official meeting, I had everyone introduce their characters, and some of the 'backstories' that they had created. Some characters already had a connection, but we decided that the characters would just meet up for the first time, somewhat randomly, as events took over.

So, everybody, let's post those backstories first, then I'll give a brief over-view of the events of the first session.