Session 7 – Wherein the Healer proves that she has a not so gentle touch...

This session was... interesting, and on reflection I have one major regret. However, more on that in a moment.

When we last met, the party was just about to charge through a double door, beyond which they believed were bandits that needed righteous smackdown.

So, they threw open the doors and... got confused.

The room beyond the doors was a theatre, complete with tiered seating, stairs down the sides and a stage at the far end. On the stage was a play in mid-scene. A number of bodies were lying amid pools of blood, and a pair at centre stage were enacting a bloody execution. One had his head on a block and the other was raising a headsmans axe.

As the party scrambled to prevent the execution, they were set upon by zombies hidden in the aisles. A melee ensued in which zombies proved to be tough customers, one dropping Narmak (one of the hirelings) and then dropping Bomani himself the next round before being dispatched by a thrown spear!

After the fight was over, Quill hurriedly examined the wounded. Narmak was in shock and had suffered a severe back injury whilst Bomani had, unfortunately, suffered grievous genital damage. Oh dear.

The actors on the stage had disappeared during the fight, and Paige discovered an area backstage which appeared to be safe. They made the decision to use this room as a safe spot, and leaving Bomani, Narmak and 2 of the other hirelings here the others opted to continue exploring.

Whereupon they discovered a large chamber that was completely overgrown with strange molds and fungus. Believing that the room was potentially dangerous, Yannick proved braver than most and ventured carefully across the room and Paige followed even more carefully. Quill went back and told Bomani what they’d found. Between them, Paige and Yannick discovered a number of skeletal remains beneath a stand of giant mushrooms, and a haul of silver coins (and 3 gems), which they duly looted.

Then things went horribly awry. The rest of the party turned up and started to walk across to Paige and Yannick, kicking up a cloud of spores. Unfortunately, this included poisonous spores from the myriad of species in the room, and 4 (I think) of the characters (all hirelings as luck would have it) breathed in the deadly air. 3 of these failed their Saving Throw and began to choke to death.

Here’s where I feel I made a mistake.

I had the affected hirelings choke to death within a few minutes, and although it led to an extremely surprising event, I feel it could have been handled much better if they’d had a long lingering death, where it wasn’t at first clear what had happened. Everyone had breathed in spores, so it would have produced more tension if everyone was coughing those that had been poisoned had started to show more symptoms. Hey ho. Lessons for the future I guess.

As it was, Bomani and his hirelings escaped the chamber as quickly as they could (but not quick enough to save Narmak from a horrible suffocating death a few minutes later).

Quill meanwhile, realising that nothing could be done to save her men (A natural 20 on a healing check), opted to spare them from the suffering she knew was sure to come and under the guise of trying to help them, got them down on their hands and knees to vomit out the poison. Then she stabbed them in the back of the neck as quick as you like, slaying them both, instantly. (This took me by total surprise and was absolutely hilarious.. Remember kids, clerics are good guys!)

The third of these hirelings (the 3 spearmen the party had recruited in the village some sessions before) completely freaked out and attempt to kill Quill, who eventually disarmed and calmed him down.

Unfortunately we ran out of time to explore what happens next so we’ll have to wait until the future for repercussions. Suffice to say I’ll be making some rolls on the Hireling Loyalty tables...

Paige 5

Adventure and exploration is great, don't get me wrong - I wouldn't swap any of what we've seen here for any part of what I had back in Thembria, even back in the tunnels when we were outnumbered and on the back foot when Narmak went down clutching her neck. This whole thing, searching an underground lair for hidden treasure, is everything I wanted. It's awful, though, when all of what I wanted to find ends up with other people being killed. But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

The village was deserted. It's funny how the ruined buildings looked more like ruins without the chatter that we found when we arrived here last time. I tracked the villagers to the caves at the back of the town square, where we found some bodies of two villagers and one bandit. The village headman had been killed as well. No sign of the other bandits, who seemed to have withdrawn when they met much resistance. 

Most of the others were hidden inside the caves, and gradually made their way out after I called for them. There's no way that I'd head into those caves with a dozen nervy people inside - I don't much fancy an accidental death on the end of a woodsman's axe - but in their place I think I'd have taken a while to believe that the bandits had gone, just as they did. 

They were predictably terrified. Unlike us, they didn't sign up for this. While my friends made themselves useful or recovered from their injuries I looked after the kids,  who understood even less than their parents about how all of this happened to them. All I could think of was how clever we felt when we persuaded the three spearmen to come with us rather than stay at the village. I'm not convinced they'd have fought them off, but better that they died than any of these farmers. 

Anyway. Enough. We stayed overnight and Bomani tried to get them into some sort of shape for next time, then made our way back to the tunnels. I don't know about the rest of them, but I want to add another notch on my bow. I want to do to each one of these murderers what they did to the villagers. I want them to feel utter terror and realise that they can't defend against us, knowing that they won't live to see another dawn. Big words, I know, when really it'll be Bomani, Quill and Yannick who lead us in. Still, if I find one alive, I'll be quietly putting daddy's lessons to use.

Session 6 - The after effects of a bandit attack.

It’s been a couple of weeks and we’ve had 2 sessions since, one a fortnight ago and one last night.

Here’s the lowdown on what happened.

The party started the session gazing down at the smoking village and quickly reached the conclusion that it was the bandits they’d previously fought in the dungeon. Advancing cautiously and expecting attack they made it to the village unimpeded and saw that several of the newly repaired buildings had been put to the torch.

They also found the severed head of Drimbur, the village headsman (pardon the pun) stuck on a spear in the centre of the village.

Paige did some tracking, whilst someone (I forget who) noticed some movement further up in the hills to the East. Paige discovered that around half the villagers had fled North, towards some caves, pursued by bandits.

A little further North they came across 3 bodies – one of the bandits had been slain, and axe in his chest, and two of the stout men of the village had been killed. At this point the bandit tracks turn around and head back in the general direction of the dungeon.

What happens next is that the villagers reappear (from the caves, and from the hills) and explain to the party what happened (the bandits attacked them, most people fled, the two dead villagers giving the others more time to get away). One thing of import was that a couple of the bandits were wearing the same military uniforms as the 3 caravan guards that the party has acquired. The group now believes that it was an inside job!

Over the next day or so the adventurers rest and heal, and help the villagers bury their dead and clear up the mess whilst keeping watch for another bandit assault.

The only other thing of note is that Yannick, whilst ‘on watch’ saw a very large shape flying high and distant in the North West, a shape that caused him to feel an unspeakable dread. He neglected to mention this to anyone... 

One rested, the group headed back to the dungeon where they found the mules and cart had gone. Stepping warily into the darkness once more they went left instead of ahead and followed a corridor to a set of double doors, beyond which they heard indistinct voices.

Assuming it was bandits, they prepared to charge through the door and lay waste to their foes. 

And that’s where the session ended.

What happened this session was borne out of a discussion with a friend of mine about what the bandits would do next. Broadly speaking I’m happy with the turn of events (though poor Drimbur) and the ‘random encounter’ was something of an interesting development. I decided to use it to build a little tension for the future rather than it being closer...

Paige 4 - ACKs Session 5

Well, that could have gone horribly wrong (and in some ways, it did).

I said earlier that everything was a blur when I covered our retreat from the tunnels when we first found them, and I didn't think about it much afterwards.  It was instinct, I suppose - my friend was hurt, we were chased by people who wanted to kill us, so I left one of them dead.  I got to see someone else's way of doing things this time, when Bomani rattled out instructions and orders right when everything was close to collapse.  I can't think that fast at the best of times, and part of me doesn't want to know how many fights he's been through to let him react as if he'd planned it all along.

I couldn't do much this time, since people quickly charged the dogfolk to avoid being stoned to death along with Yannick. I'm fine with that; I'm best with my bow when I can ignore everything and just get on with making someone bleed.  When the target's half blocked by one of your friends, and you're as like to shoot them as you are the one you actually want to kill, it stops being easy.  This time I concentrated on making myself useful behind the lines, and helped Narmak recover from a wound which looked terrifying at first.  Happily barely any of the blood was hers, and she was back on her feet without me needing to staunch anything or amputate - I'd have no clue about doing either.

Judging by the mess, my friends must have been fairly terrifying themselves.  It looks like they went through dozens of the dogfolk before it turned into a rout, and even though we took some wounds on the way out after the dogfolk got clever and started to shoot out of the shadows, this all felt like we'd won ourselves a fairly big victory.

Of course, those high spirits disappeared when we saw the smoke coming from the village after we'd decided to rest there for the night.  We've gone from a conquering band of warriors to a group of walking wounded looking for shelter, which leaves us in a pretty desperate state if any of the village's attackers are still around.  I'm unwounded, which is great, but it looks like the dogfolk tore chunks out of Yannick, Bomani and some of our newer friends.  Time to make myself useful again, since it looks like most of our group won't be forming a battle line again today.

 

Stuck in the middle with... you?

ACKs session 5, and a big fight. Judges perspective:

At the end of last session the party were caught, potentially, between a rock and a hard place. They’d realised they were potentially overstretched and backed up to a ‘safer spot’, but it put them right next to the door from which they were pursued by bandits in Session 3.

If the bandits had come out, the party could have found themselves caught between two groups of foes and in deep trouble. As it was, the bandits did not appear, and the reasons why became obvious later.

However that still left a lot of very angry kobolds to deal with. Having seen their fallen kin I made a few rolls. A max-morale roll for the Chief, and a very low smarts roll led to a screaming horde of angry little beasts charging at the party down the corridor (who by this time had retreated further, to the entrance room).

It could all have gone so horribly wrong. The party were outnumbered (by at least 2 to 1 as far as they could see) but the kobolds were unfortunately more stupid than they really ought to have been and they paid a heavy price. I shan’t go into the details, but by the end of 8 rounds of combat the chief lay dead surrounded by his kin and the survivors had wised up and slunk back into the shadows – sending sling stones at the party which succeeded in doing much more (both physically and psychologically) than the melee managed to do.

The end of the session saw the party retreat from the dungeon and slingstones and trek back to the nearby village, with everyone bloodied bar the sole torchbearer (a 10yr old alcoholic called Landersluth) and one of their 3 convict soldiers. 3 of the party had rolled on the mortal wounds table to boot (and gotten very good rolls...).

As they crested the hill to the village they saw smoke rising, and at least one of them realised where the bandits had gone.

It was a pleasing session in many respects. The party got to have a good old throw down and proved themselves a bit tasty in a fight. They were definitely lucky, and I didn’t play the kobolds too smart to begin with. Cleave is devastating but HP are low. Still, there are a few areas for improvement. I need to read and learn the combat rules for one thing – though Yanniks player had obviously done so and was a marvelous Beta ref for me during the fight. Onwards and upwards!

Crouching Bandit, Hidden Party, Redux!

Counter to my previous post, I've decided that if anyone actually makes the effort to come to the blog to read it, it's cruel and unusual to make you click through to another place to read the only things of any worth here anyway (at the moment...).

So, whilst I'm still going to use the Google Site as my central repository, and a place for the players to keep an eye on the campaign, I'll continue to post play reports here as well.

So here they are for last weeks session. Tonight, we shall see what they make of their situation...

From the perspective of the Judge:

A reasonably successful session I think. The party regrouped, found out a little more information and even recruited (I was generous) some additional help. Then they plumbed the dungeon once more. This time, the dungeon was waiting for them and once again Yannik was took rocks to the head; this time from the slings in the darkness (which turned out to be Kobolds).

I'm not sure whether they've been very brave or very foolish at this point, as the session ended with them having slain 5 kobolds but roused others - an as yet unknown number. And they may have forgotten something else too. We shall see what happens next week!

In any event, assuming they survive to make it back to civilisation they've earned themselves 25xp, but no loot as of yet.

Biggest regret this week - forgetting the Reaction Roll for the kobolds (but assumed that they were hostile, for.. reasons)
Biggest pleasure this week - the continuing roleplay interaction of the party. They are a delight.

Yannik, the Ox

It was glorious, yes it was.  A charge into history the likes of which my ancestors and the Saints would be proud.  The less said about Sol the better.  I wasn't entirely sure that my charge would be followed, but my comrades came

through and my meager sacrifice was truly magnificent. 

Rocks still hurt, however and am a little hazy.  My brother said I would get used to it... alas, it does not seem like I have done so yet.

I will provide Context!

I am told we spent the rest of day 2 stumbling away from the ruin and camped beside the road.  As a man concussed, I concentrated my efforts on waking up again while others took watch... both our efforts were successful and after

someone spent an excessive amount of time babbling about Sol, we moved off in the direction of the village.

Day 3
Upon this day we found the village!  Three sheepish-looking soldiers and a nervous-looking villager soon revealed that the fighting men had fled the wagon when it was attacked in the night.  They were easily impressed when the magical light of Sol healed my brain from the head wound I was suffering from.
This is why I am now able to record insights.

Quill used their awe to recruit them to her cause, spear-men in service to avenge their fallen comrades and regain their honour for when they have to go back to the Town.
Bomani used the time to find out if the village could survive without the supplies.  It could, but without ale... so no.  We must return to the deeps.
Paige used the time to assess Quill's new recruit: she has suggested that they might be roguish in nature, as they ended up in convict force.
I used the time to assess how well protected this village is, the answer being barely at all.  Five good men of my people could put it to the torch with ease. Put it to the torch again, that is, for it is being rebuilt out of ruin.

Day 4
A welcome day of rest, the throbbing in my head subsides with the help of

nurturing from Quill.  Whatever I think of Sol, I am growing fond of Quill.

Day 5
We return... the announcement booms again, but only when our new troops step over.  We hear growling from behind the barricades, as we prepare around the corner.

We hear them and are ready.  They hear us and are ready.

I am to lead, torch thrown in to the darkness to show us our foe.  I stand forth, my arm raised... their petty rocks strike me but I am not moved.  The torch soars and illuminates the twisted forms of little beastmen.

Blood rises in my veins, I roar as I charge... a God of War, as my ancestors before me.  One falls, I swat another with a backhand swipe that cleaves its face in twain.
The remainder cower before me and scramble over themselves to retreat and reload their sl...

---

I am rapidly becoming displeased with rocks.

As my vision clears I see into the bright light: a vision of my father, my brother and Paige.  They wear the wounds of battle, scarred as they fell in turn... each reaches down to me, but the hand I take is Paige's.  I think it is a sign, we share ancestry and my kin reached out to show me.

My head hurts and I hear the rush of combat and the yapping of the dog-men dies in a gurgle.  My comrades gather around us as the sounds of battle die... and the sounds of the dungeon awaken around us.

They are coming.

Paige

I didn’t promise answers, did I? Or at least, I hope I didn’t promise to provide them straight away, because this whole place is as much of a mystery as ever. I hope one of my new friends can make sense of it all and eventually explain it – in the meantime I’ll stick to scouting, tracking and otherwise make myself useful without being hit by quite as many rocks as Yannick.

We headed back to the village to rest and let Yannick heal – I hadn’t mentioned that I was hurt and tried not to let on, but Quill had noticed so I spent a day catching up on rest in yet another ruined Thylian house. Yannick seemed to spend more time peering out of the gaps in the walls and counting out the ways in which he and his friends back in Thembria could burn everything to cinders, which seemed to help him pass the time. It certainly didn’t help me to sleep any more easily.

We found the three caravan guards who’d ran away when the wagon was attacked, and played them into coming with us to restore their honour (though Quill’s offer of gold must have helped). Honour. Hah. They’re all criminals of the worst kind – the kind who are easy to spot and who got caught – but having them between me and what’s down here with us is fine with me. After the day spent recovering we made our way back down into the tunnels (I don’t want to call it a lair) and once again tripped the sound trap.

This time the barricade was… manned?... by a lot of small aggressive creatures with slings – Yannick charged in and, judging by the mess on the end of his spear, managed to clear the barricade before he was taken down by more rocks to the head. Everyone else followed his lead and chased them off behind the barricade. Bomani’s plan worked.

I was towards the back of the group so I didn’t see everything – maybe I should mention that giving the torch to the child who gets the shakes when he’s not full of wine and is unsteady on his feet when he’s had a drink doesn’t really help the archer see her targets – but by the time I’d helped Yannick to his feet most of the fighting was over. There’s more noise out there in the tunnels, and it sounds like more of the dog things are on their way. The barricade is behind us along with the door which led to the human bandits last time we were here.

Let's stay positive, shall we?

I’m glad we brought the three spearmen along, regardless of what they once did.
I’m glad Yannick is back on his feet, though I wish he wasn’t so woozy and that he’d stop squinting at me like that.
I’m glad Quill has amazing healing magic and seems surprisingly good with those swords, though I have no idea how Sol would find us down here.
I’m glad that Bomani seems very good at leading the fight, since being trapped between angry dog things and a door which might hide bandits wanting revenge for their dead friend doesn’t seem like a place we’d want to stay for long.

Session 4 - Crouching Bandits, Hidden Party

So last week the party ventured into the dungeon and managed little other than a near fatally wounded barbarian and an incapacitated bandit.

This week they regrouped and ventured into the dungeon once again. I've started putting the session reports on the google site I created so there's a centralised archive of them. Instead of copying them here I'll just link to the relevant bit of the site: https://sites.google.com/site/dontcatchtheblue/home/journal/session-4

 I'm starting to enjoy it :)