Attendees
Felix Lutsk – male Human “acquisitioner”
Hugo Underwood – male Wood Elf shaman
Albrecht Artyom – male Human Grey Wizard
Fritz Schmidt – male Human scout
Alset Alokin – male High Elf mage
Hirelings:
Penrith the Steeplejack (Sergeant)
Lukyan the Fat
Fredek the Hare
Felix, recently returned from his sojourn to Lucan’s Clock (having received word that the heat had died down), told many stories about how different things are over in the Sartosan colony. He now has a healthy respect for orcs and the lizardfolk, having seen examples of them in action.
The group of adventurers that comprised F&A Holdings decided they wanted some more information about the areas outside of New Zwicke. To secure this information, they individually scouted the town for rumors. The most intriguing rumors they heard suggested that there was something up in the area known as the Dark of the Woods, that the lizardfolk avoided, but no one knew what. The group decided that that was not a strong enough lead to investigate and instead decided to finish their investigations of the Wedge Wood.
Before heading out of New Zwicke, the group tracked down and hired Penrith the Steeplejack and his two companions-in-arms, Fredek the Hare and Lukyan the Fat. The three had just about blown through their share of the last outing and were very willing to sign on for the same rate as before: 5s a day or a full share if there was any fighting.
Starting in the morning, the group road the Estini road north(-ish) out of town for two hours and then cut east towards Wedge Wood. An hour later they were in the Wedge Wood, looking for the tower they had previously discovered. Felix’s map was not as accurate as he had hoped it would be, but after wandering for nearly an hour Fritz took a look at the map and was able to get them to the correct place.
The tower was still buried under trees and other plant growth. The path they had hacked to the entrance to the tower was covered again with heavy new growth, despite it having been less than a month since their last visit. They started hacking through the plant growth again, clearing a path to the entrance to the tower. Fritz took this time to set out surveying markers around the tower as the first step towards claiming ownership of it. Hugo noticed the horses were nervous and used his Beast Speak power to ask them why they were nervous. The horses only said “something big is here” and asked for some oats. By this time the entrance to the tower was clear and the group moved in. The interior was exactly as they had left it: dry with a slight coating of dust. Despite there being no door covering the entrance, there was no plant growth intruding from the outside. The adventurers also checked the dust for footprints and found there were no extra footprints in the dust beyond the ones they had left before.
They made their way back up to the third floor and found that the moss once again covered all surfaces except the statue. Alset cast a new spell he had learned, one that allowed him to see the winds of magic and analyze them. He found the room was awash in green magic, emanating from the statue and flowing out through the missing wall section (see the previous expedition for details of the room). [http://bugbearsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2013/06/bg-friday-group-session-1.html] Comparing to their map of the areas around New Zwicke, the adventurers are able to determine that the flow of energies follow the centerline of the Wedge Wood in a roughly northeasterly direction.
Albrecht realized that his newly developed Mage Sight had been indicating that while the third floor was awash in green magical energies, the first and second floor were a different magic. The group retreated back down to the second floor and Alset was able to determine that the energies on the lower two floors were High Magic (suggesting High Elves) and maintaining the environment and keeping the green out. Alset and Albrecht investigated the summoning circle found in the hidden chamber last time. It was not active but could still be used. That room also contained residues on the walls and floors that could only be described as “magical splatter” and reminiscent of Dark Magic (which suggested Dark Elves). Somewhat mystified, the group returned to the entry rooms on the first floor to camp and give some thought to their next actions.
During the night, an assassin vine moved through the area. Hugo and Fredek notice it, but decide to let it pass as it just seems to be moving through the area. Hugo does mention it to Fritz and Penrith when he wakes them for the last watch.
In the morning, the group decamps, having decided to explore the Wedge Wood more before tampering with the statue in the tower. Over the next several hours the group finds evidence of boars (or something very like boars) living in the forest and an abandoned (and extremely well hidden) elven camp. By the end of the day they had finished searching about a third of the Wedge Wood and made camp. During the night, a large shambling mass of plant-life with a vaguely humanoid shape attacked the campsite. Hugo noticed its approach early and awoke the group prior to its attack. Even so, the fight was tense if short. Felix was the first to approach the creature and was nearly felled by its held attack. This prompted Penrith and his men to step up and physically haul Felix out of danger, forming an impromptu bucket line as they passed the barely conscious man to the back of the group. After that, Fritz got a good shot in on the creature, stunning it. This allowed Penrith and his men to quickly and safely chop the creature down to a pile of mulch. Fritz took the time afterwards to cut out the fibrous heart of the creature, believing that it might be worth something back in town.
The next morning, the group resumed their exploration of the woods. About mid-morning they come across an elf hanging from his neck on the southern edge of the woods. Hugo recognized him as Pepin, another Wood Elf who lived here in the Wedge Wood. Pepin had been clearly killed by violence elsewhere and hung here after his death. There were some bloody writing on his body, but the handwriting was so bad it was illegible. Fritz and Hugo searched the ground around the area and found signs indicating that orcs had been in the area and were likely responsible. This was slightly unusual as there were no orcs tribes known to be in the area. Later in the day, after losing an hour to heavy rains, the group found a dead orc on the northern border of the woods with three elven arrows sticking out of its back. It was unclear as to whether or not the orc had been killed before or after Pepin died. They rolled the body and found a pouch of Old World coins attached to its belt. After another couple of hours exploring, the group camped again. The night passed quietly.
The next day they reach the eastern edge of the Wedge Wood. While exploring the corner of the wood, Albrecht spots a tower on a single hill out on the plains to the southeast. After some discussion, the adventures decide to finish exploring the Wedge Wood first, then look into the tower. Exploring the length of the eastern edge of the woods, they determine that the edge is a straight line. Reaching the northeastern corner of the woods, they spot another tower on a hill out on the plains. The line formed by the edge of the Wedge Woods runs perfectly between the two towers.
The adventurers begin to suspect that there is more to the Wedge Wood than they originally suspected. They speculate much as to its shape and form the opinion that there may be another tower near the “point” of the woods that forms the northern boundary to the forest. They head north onto the plains to get closer to the second tower they have discovered. They spot some unusual, lizard-like herd beasts grazing on the plains, but have no idea what they are. Not wanting any trouble or to get too close to the tower while they are tired, the group sets up camp on the plains for the night.
The next morning the group carefully approaches the tower on the lone hill. It appears to be three stories tall, but has a smooth stone surface with no windows. Once they get up on the hill, they see two things: there is no door to the tower, but there is an orc camp about 3-4 miles west of them. Using the company spyglass, they scope out the orc camp. They can see three large square tents set up and (what they assume are) some orcs walking around the camp. Initially they were not certain if it was orcs, but Alset spots a banner flying from one of the tents that clearly has orc glyphs on it. The number of tents suggests 10 or more orcs, which out numbers the adventuring party, so the adventurers decide to avoid the orcs and not pick a fight.
Albrecht teleports to the top of the tower and nearly falls in, all the way to the bottom – the tower is hollow. Alset casts his magic seeing spell and determines that the magic in the area is sourced from under the hill, not in the tower. Additionally, he can now see two lines of magical power emanating from the hill. One line runs roughly SE, but the other line is a surprise. Instead of running WSW and forming the northern barrier of the Wedge Wood, it goes NE! [RETCON: There is a third line running due east.] Alset also notices that there is a cave entrance concealed by magic nearby, leading down into the hill.
After some discussion and checking their rations, the group decides that they do not have enough supplies with them to pursue their investigation of the tower right now. Now is the time to return back to town (especially as they do not know what the orcs are up to. They mount up and ride along the northern edge of the Wedge Wood, doing their best to not be noticed by the orcs. Once they make it to the Estini Road, they ride hard and arrive at New Zwicke at dusk, just before the town gates are being closed for the night.
End of Session
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Troll Treasure
I'm trying out a set of treasure generating tables developed by someone else, partially because I'm lazy, partially because I do my best when I have an idea kernel to build off of.
The set of tables uses a mixture of d6's and d% with some modifiers based on the location the treasure was found and the treasure proclivities of the encounter in question. The first use generated:
I also added two pieces of jewelry (a jade armband with a star rose quartz stone set in it and a gold belly ring with 5 red stones set in it), as that was part of my treasure description during the game. This part could have used some additional guidance, but I eventually figured out which tables to roll on. Compared to the D&D equivalents, the gems and jewelry is pretty much small change with values below 50g the most common, but the variety of settings and stones is really cool, so I may just jack with the values to fix this.
The random coin values tend to develop the fantasy equivalent of pocket change as the designer assumed the GM would assign actual coinage commensurate with the monster. As we are using the Hero System, this means I essentially have to make it up or use another system's treasure awards as a basis (and by another system, I mean a version of D&D, like Pathfinder).
The herbs came off a commodity listing, which I like, but the amounts here too are low. This is becoming a running theme, so if I keep using these, I'll need to make some adjustments to values or (more likely) quantities. I don't want the treasure hauls to be "stuff you found in the back of a couch" plus "Incredibly Expensive Magic Items". Plus I need to see about automating the rolling so I can get a loot bundle of whatever size I want quickly. That may take some work as my laptop is locking up due to either a DLL mis-match from a failed update or a pain-in-the-arse virus from somewhere. NOT happy about that as I've only had the laptop a year and a half or less.
The upshot: I'm going to keep experimenting with these tables and then probably start re-writing parts of them.
Later!
The set of tables uses a mixture of d6's and d% with some modifiers based on the location the treasure was found and the treasure proclivities of the encounter in question. The first use generated:
- 2 doses of a herb that protects versus magical poisons for 5 hours
- coins totaling 7 gold, 7 silver, and 34 copper
- a set of 5 crossbow bolts with unusual materials making up the fletching and head (the shaft was normal)
- 4 gallons of ale of unknown provenance
- a magic item: a felt cloak with the image below on it with obsidian beads (the players have not identified it yet, so no spoilers here)
(The image part was all me, based on the actual table result. It fits in with the campaign theme and I can't wait to see what the PCs think it does.)
I also added two pieces of jewelry (a jade armband with a star rose quartz stone set in it and a gold belly ring with 5 red stones set in it), as that was part of my treasure description during the game. This part could have used some additional guidance, but I eventually figured out which tables to roll on. Compared to the D&D equivalents, the gems and jewelry is pretty much small change with values below 50g the most common, but the variety of settings and stones is really cool, so I may just jack with the values to fix this.
The random coin values tend to develop the fantasy equivalent of pocket change as the designer assumed the GM would assign actual coinage commensurate with the monster. As we are using the Hero System, this means I essentially have to make it up or use another system's treasure awards as a basis (and by another system, I mean a version of D&D, like Pathfinder).
The herbs came off a commodity listing, which I like, but the amounts here too are low. This is becoming a running theme, so if I keep using these, I'll need to make some adjustments to values or (more likely) quantities. I don't want the treasure hauls to be "stuff you found in the back of a couch" plus "Incredibly Expensive Magic Items". Plus I need to see about automating the rolling so I can get a loot bundle of whatever size I want quickly. That may take some work as my laptop is locking up due to either a DLL mis-match from a failed update or a pain-in-the-arse virus from somewhere. NOT happy about that as I've only had the laptop a year and a half or less.
The upshot: I'm going to keep experimenting with these tables and then probably start re-writing parts of them.
Later!
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Blood, Gold, and Lizards - Saturday Group - Session 3
Attendees:
Felix Lutsk – male human “acquisitioner”
Marcus of the Shield – male Human priest of Shallya, Goddess of Healing, Mercy, and Childbirth
Zoglug Ironhide – “civilized” male orc warrior
Quetzal – female lizardperson scout
Belladonna "Frongol" Leagallow – female halfling lay priest of Manann…probably
Jacien Ghel-Aurum – male human wizard, member of the Gold Fellowship
On the ship back over from New Zwicke, Quetzal observed a mammal named Felix, who was travelling to Lucan’s Clock somewhat suddenly and with newly dyed hair. She was not entirely surprised when he showed up at the Savage Arms Resthouse (a tavern the adventurers tended to gravitate to when in town), looking for “the adventurers”. After some chatting to feel the guy out, the Lucan’s Clock group accepted him and told him to report to the Wizard’s Ledge (Jacien’s home) in the morning.
In the morning Felix found the other adventurers of Lucan’s Clock securing their gear and themselves to a contraption that looked like nothing more than a giant mechanical spider. He climbed aboard and stashed his gear and strapped in to the seat he was given. Jacien handed out one amulet to each person, telling them to keep it on their person at all times. When asked what it did, he said “it protects you from my spells.” This was not the most comforting thing Felix had ever heard. Then Jacien fired up the walker and it lurched to attention – Felix quickly tightened the belt on his seat further. Jacien then started working the controls and the spider walker climbed up the vertical face of the cliff the town was built on to the top of the cliff. Once at the top, Jacien opened up the very noisy motor and started driving the spider walker across the rough terrain at galloping horse speeds. Felix held on tightly.
[Jacien added “headlights” to the spider walker. They are sculptures of human-shaped heads with their eyes and mouths open, light emanating from them.]
A couple hours out from town, heading west towards the Valley of the Landsharks, the group stumbled across a clearing with dead bodies in it. They stopped and investigated. The dead bodies were pirates from town and Quetzal was able to determine they had fought (and lost to) trolls. The bodies were heavily damaged, but Marcus was able to determine that they died a couple or three days earlier, ripped apart by trolls. Marcus insisted the bodies be given last rites and burned. While they let Marcus do that, Zoglug, Frongol, and Felix split up and spread out to search the area.
Felix found little, but Zoglug found an area recently dug up and reburied. He dug and found a buried chest with a padlock. He hauled it back to where the spider walker was parked. By this point Marcus was done with his rituals and folks were ready to leave the area when they realized Frongol had never returned. Quetzal quickly tracked Frogol down and found her partially buried under an avalanche at the base of a short cliff (only about 30 ft high). Frongol was quickly rescued and healed. [She completely blew her search Perception roll with an 18 and this is what happened.]
Noticing that Zoglug was carrying around a locked chest he did not have earlier, Felix offered to remove the lock. Zoglug set the chest down and let Felix work. Felix checked the lock for any traps and found none so he started picking the lock. The good news was the lock was easy to pick, the bad news was Felix missed the poison needle trap on it and was jabbed by it. He felt the coral poison* course through his veins, locking up his muscles as it went. Luckily his health was more robust than the poison’s effects and he was merely paralyzed.
Marcus investigated the poisoning and quickly determined what herbs would counteract the paralysis. He described them to Quetzal, who recognized them and quickly found some in the area. With the herbs, Marcus was able to counteract the paralysis. Felix was muscle-sore for another hour, but able to move.
Inside the chest were two bags, each containing 250 silver coins, all minted at the New Zwicke mint over the last 2-3 years. The coins were returned to the chest after counting and everyone piled back onto the spider walker.
After some discussion, the group decided to go pay the trolls a little payback. They headed west to the campsite where the trolls attacked the adventurers previously, parking the spider walker there. Using ropes, Jacien, Frongol, and Felix climbed down the cliff face to the entrance to the troll cave. Zoglug stayed at the top of the cliff, holding onto the ropes in case someone needed to be quickly pulled up. Marcus searched the immediate area for large but throwable rocks to drop on any trolls and Quetzal searched the larger area for anything interesting, like a back entrance to the troll cave.
It was very late in the day by this time, and the mouth of the troll cave was slowly being covered by the shadows of the valley rim to the west. Jacien was able to inscribe one rune on the cave entrance before a very large stone came zipping out of the cave and clipped him on the shoulder, stunning him. Frogol dragged Jacien over to one side and started calling on Zoglug to pull up Jacien. Zoglug didn’t hear what she said clearly (or so he claimed later) and pulled on all three ropes by running away from the cliff edge, pulling the ropes behind him. Due to his great strength and long stride, all three adventurers were promptly at the top of the cliff edge. Down below, the troll who had thrown the stone investigated the cave mouth and was immediately attacked by the rune Jacien had inscribed. The troll decided to stay inside the cave.
The adventurers rode the spider walker an hour east, away from the cliff and the troll cave. They then set up camp (Jacien setting out six attack runes around the site) and set watches for the night. Most of the night passed quietly, but shortly into the third watch, Frongol and Marcus (they were on watch) heard the one of Jaciens runes go off and a troll cry out in surprise. Quetzal quickly awoke the rest of the group, while Marcus cast a light spell where the rune had gone off, illuminating four cave trolls! He then moved to the center of camp and called out for the adventurers to move to him.
The trolls moved around the light that was hurting their eyes, which slowed their approach enough for the adventurers to move to Marcus. He then cast a protective charm on all but Quetzal (who wasn’t able to get to him in time). Then the fight started.
As opposed to the previous fight, where the trolls quickly got the upper hand, the adventurers completely dominated this combat. They quickly killed two of the trolls, causing one to start fleeing while his (remaining) companion tried to avenge his friends. He failed quickly and was cut down by an enraged Zoglug. The fleeing troll was pursued by Felix and Quetzal, but managed to escape them by sheer force of terror (and a significantly higher Endurance).
Jacien determined that the troll blood was a potent alchemical reagent. He convinced (a now calm) Zoglug to empty the chest. Jacien then used his magic to transform about 20 silver coins into an unbroken silver lining for the chest. Then the adventurers filled the chest with troll blood from the three dead trolls. This was somewhat gruesome work. Felix cut off the heads of the three dead trolls and put them in a different bag, thinking there might be a bounty or reward for them back in Lucan’s Clock.
By dawn the group was cleaned up and ready to travel again. They decided to return to the troll cave once again, thinking that all or most of the trolls were now dead or gone and they want to clear it out. The troll cave was relatively small, consisting of a curved passage leading down to a descending gallery. At the back of the gallery was another short passage with a steep decline down to a medium-sized cavern with a deep pool of water covering the back third of the cavern. There were signs of troll habitation in the gallery and the cavern, but no trolls at all.
The group looked around more and more closely, now they were certain there were no trolls. Frongol found an alcove over the passage connecting the gallery and the deeper cavern. After being lifted up to it, she found signs that the trolls probably stationed someone up here as a guard for the cavern. There was a large rusty blade stored up there that weighed about as much as she did. She handed it down to Jacien (who could remove the rust and had uses for metals) and searched a bit more. She noticed that part of the back wall on one side was a separate stone about five feet tall and three feet wide. She called Zoglug up to come move the stone.
At about the same time, Quetzal noticed another passage entrance down in the water in the back of the cave. She waited until Frongol finished her investigations, not wanting to split the group’s efforts.
Zoglug muscled the stone out of the way with his crowbar and brute strength. Behind it was a small cave with three humans cowering in the back of it. After some talking, Zoglug learned the three humans were the last of the patrol the trolls had ambushed and promised a reward if the orc would take them back to Lucan’s Clock. Zoglug agreed after some haggling and brought the three refugees down to the cavern. Marcus fed them and provided what healing they needed.
With the troll’s larder found and liberated, the adventurers turned their attention to the passage under the water. Quetzal and Marcus initially investigated the passage with Quetzal pulling Marcus along while he held his breath and maintained his light spell (it only worked as long as it was in his line of sight). The passage was 10 meters in length and came up in an unlit cavern. Carefully surfacing, Quetzal determined there were no threats in the cave and pulled Marcus up to the surface, where he gasped a bit, drawing in much needed air. Quetzal though disparaging thoughts about the small lung capacity of mamals, but kept the thoughts to herself.
The new cave was where the trolls kept the things they took from their victims. Some of it was shiny trash, but some was coin and some was items of interest. One such item was a black stone egg identical to the one the adventurers had found previously. Felix was confused by the reactions to the black egg and was told it was the focus item for a clairsentience spell. Not terribly enlightened (he’s not a spellcaster of any sort), Felix just nodded his head and made note that the others felt the egg was dangerous. He was then surprised when they pulled out a blob of lead Jacien claimed contained a second egg. The group decided to leave both eggs here as a relatively safe place to store them. They all agreed to not tell the refugees about the eggs or what exactly they were retrieving from the cave, keeping it all in large sacks.
The adventurers then returned to the surface with the refugees. Jacien then set up a portal back to his workshop. He sent the refugees, Felix, and Zoglug through, telling them to wait in front of his workshop until the rest arrived in the spider walker. Once they went through the gate, Jacien shut it down and disassembled it. He and the remaining adventurers (and the loot) returned to Lucan’s Clock aboard the spider walker by taking a shortcut walking it across the waters of the bay.
In town, the group took the refugees to town hall to claim the reward promised. The refugees were part of a patrol made up of crew from the Foul Wolf of the West, the ship who’s captain was currently mayor of Lucan’s Clock. As part of the process of claiming the reward, the adventurers had to explain where they found the patrol. When told about the troll cave and killing the trolls, the bureaucrats said “Prove it.” Felix promptly pulled out the three troll heads and set them on the desk, asking if there was a reward for killing the trolls. The bureaucrat said he would check. He came back shortly with a big bounty of 300 gold coins for killing an obvious threat to the town, enriching the group pleasantly.
End of Session
* Coral Poison: Drain BODY 6d6 (60 Active Points); 2 Charges which Never Recover (-3 1/2), Limited Power: Make a CON check and the Drain does not happen; (-1), Side Effects, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (3 DEF, 3d6 Entangle based on CON; -1), No Range (-1/2)
Felix Lutsk – male human “acquisitioner”
Marcus of the Shield – male Human priest of Shallya, Goddess of Healing, Mercy, and Childbirth
Zoglug Ironhide – “civilized” male orc warrior
Quetzal – female lizardperson scout
Belladonna "Frongol" Leagallow – female halfling lay priest of Manann…probably
Jacien Ghel-Aurum – male human wizard, member of the Gold Fellowship
On the ship back over from New Zwicke, Quetzal observed a mammal named Felix, who was travelling to Lucan’s Clock somewhat suddenly and with newly dyed hair. She was not entirely surprised when he showed up at the Savage Arms Resthouse (a tavern the adventurers tended to gravitate to when in town), looking for “the adventurers”. After some chatting to feel the guy out, the Lucan’s Clock group accepted him and told him to report to the Wizard’s Ledge (Jacien’s home) in the morning.
In the morning Felix found the other adventurers of Lucan’s Clock securing their gear and themselves to a contraption that looked like nothing more than a giant mechanical spider. He climbed aboard and stashed his gear and strapped in to the seat he was given. Jacien handed out one amulet to each person, telling them to keep it on their person at all times. When asked what it did, he said “it protects you from my spells.” This was not the most comforting thing Felix had ever heard. Then Jacien fired up the walker and it lurched to attention – Felix quickly tightened the belt on his seat further. Jacien then started working the controls and the spider walker climbed up the vertical face of the cliff the town was built on to the top of the cliff. Once at the top, Jacien opened up the very noisy motor and started driving the spider walker across the rough terrain at galloping horse speeds. Felix held on tightly.
[Jacien added “headlights” to the spider walker. They are sculptures of human-shaped heads with their eyes and mouths open, light emanating from them.]
A couple hours out from town, heading west towards the Valley of the Landsharks, the group stumbled across a clearing with dead bodies in it. They stopped and investigated. The dead bodies were pirates from town and Quetzal was able to determine they had fought (and lost to) trolls. The bodies were heavily damaged, but Marcus was able to determine that they died a couple or three days earlier, ripped apart by trolls. Marcus insisted the bodies be given last rites and burned. While they let Marcus do that, Zoglug, Frongol, and Felix split up and spread out to search the area.
Felix found little, but Zoglug found an area recently dug up and reburied. He dug and found a buried chest with a padlock. He hauled it back to where the spider walker was parked. By this point Marcus was done with his rituals and folks were ready to leave the area when they realized Frongol had never returned. Quetzal quickly tracked Frogol down and found her partially buried under an avalanche at the base of a short cliff (only about 30 ft high). Frongol was quickly rescued and healed. [She completely blew her search Perception roll with an 18 and this is what happened.]
Noticing that Zoglug was carrying around a locked chest he did not have earlier, Felix offered to remove the lock. Zoglug set the chest down and let Felix work. Felix checked the lock for any traps and found none so he started picking the lock. The good news was the lock was easy to pick, the bad news was Felix missed the poison needle trap on it and was jabbed by it. He felt the coral poison* course through his veins, locking up his muscles as it went. Luckily his health was more robust than the poison’s effects and he was merely paralyzed.
Marcus investigated the poisoning and quickly determined what herbs would counteract the paralysis. He described them to Quetzal, who recognized them and quickly found some in the area. With the herbs, Marcus was able to counteract the paralysis. Felix was muscle-sore for another hour, but able to move.
Inside the chest were two bags, each containing 250 silver coins, all minted at the New Zwicke mint over the last 2-3 years. The coins were returned to the chest after counting and everyone piled back onto the spider walker.
After some discussion, the group decided to go pay the trolls a little payback. They headed west to the campsite where the trolls attacked the adventurers previously, parking the spider walker there. Using ropes, Jacien, Frongol, and Felix climbed down the cliff face to the entrance to the troll cave. Zoglug stayed at the top of the cliff, holding onto the ropes in case someone needed to be quickly pulled up. Marcus searched the immediate area for large but throwable rocks to drop on any trolls and Quetzal searched the larger area for anything interesting, like a back entrance to the troll cave.
It was very late in the day by this time, and the mouth of the troll cave was slowly being covered by the shadows of the valley rim to the west. Jacien was able to inscribe one rune on the cave entrance before a very large stone came zipping out of the cave and clipped him on the shoulder, stunning him. Frogol dragged Jacien over to one side and started calling on Zoglug to pull up Jacien. Zoglug didn’t hear what she said clearly (or so he claimed later) and pulled on all three ropes by running away from the cliff edge, pulling the ropes behind him. Due to his great strength and long stride, all three adventurers were promptly at the top of the cliff edge. Down below, the troll who had thrown the stone investigated the cave mouth and was immediately attacked by the rune Jacien had inscribed. The troll decided to stay inside the cave.
The adventurers rode the spider walker an hour east, away from the cliff and the troll cave. They then set up camp (Jacien setting out six attack runes around the site) and set watches for the night. Most of the night passed quietly, but shortly into the third watch, Frongol and Marcus (they were on watch) heard the one of Jaciens runes go off and a troll cry out in surprise. Quetzal quickly awoke the rest of the group, while Marcus cast a light spell where the rune had gone off, illuminating four cave trolls! He then moved to the center of camp and called out for the adventurers to move to him.
The trolls moved around the light that was hurting their eyes, which slowed their approach enough for the adventurers to move to Marcus. He then cast a protective charm on all but Quetzal (who wasn’t able to get to him in time). Then the fight started.
As opposed to the previous fight, where the trolls quickly got the upper hand, the adventurers completely dominated this combat. They quickly killed two of the trolls, causing one to start fleeing while his (remaining) companion tried to avenge his friends. He failed quickly and was cut down by an enraged Zoglug. The fleeing troll was pursued by Felix and Quetzal, but managed to escape them by sheer force of terror (and a significantly higher Endurance).
Jacien determined that the troll blood was a potent alchemical reagent. He convinced (a now calm) Zoglug to empty the chest. Jacien then used his magic to transform about 20 silver coins into an unbroken silver lining for the chest. Then the adventurers filled the chest with troll blood from the three dead trolls. This was somewhat gruesome work. Felix cut off the heads of the three dead trolls and put them in a different bag, thinking there might be a bounty or reward for them back in Lucan’s Clock.
By dawn the group was cleaned up and ready to travel again. They decided to return to the troll cave once again, thinking that all or most of the trolls were now dead or gone and they want to clear it out. The troll cave was relatively small, consisting of a curved passage leading down to a descending gallery. At the back of the gallery was another short passage with a steep decline down to a medium-sized cavern with a deep pool of water covering the back third of the cavern. There were signs of troll habitation in the gallery and the cavern, but no trolls at all.
The group looked around more and more closely, now they were certain there were no trolls. Frongol found an alcove over the passage connecting the gallery and the deeper cavern. After being lifted up to it, she found signs that the trolls probably stationed someone up here as a guard for the cavern. There was a large rusty blade stored up there that weighed about as much as she did. She handed it down to Jacien (who could remove the rust and had uses for metals) and searched a bit more. She noticed that part of the back wall on one side was a separate stone about five feet tall and three feet wide. She called Zoglug up to come move the stone.
At about the same time, Quetzal noticed another passage entrance down in the water in the back of the cave. She waited until Frongol finished her investigations, not wanting to split the group’s efforts.
Zoglug muscled the stone out of the way with his crowbar and brute strength. Behind it was a small cave with three humans cowering in the back of it. After some talking, Zoglug learned the three humans were the last of the patrol the trolls had ambushed and promised a reward if the orc would take them back to Lucan’s Clock. Zoglug agreed after some haggling and brought the three refugees down to the cavern. Marcus fed them and provided what healing they needed.
With the troll’s larder found and liberated, the adventurers turned their attention to the passage under the water. Quetzal and Marcus initially investigated the passage with Quetzal pulling Marcus along while he held his breath and maintained his light spell (it only worked as long as it was in his line of sight). The passage was 10 meters in length and came up in an unlit cavern. Carefully surfacing, Quetzal determined there were no threats in the cave and pulled Marcus up to the surface, where he gasped a bit, drawing in much needed air. Quetzal though disparaging thoughts about the small lung capacity of mamals, but kept the thoughts to herself.
The new cave was where the trolls kept the things they took from their victims. Some of it was shiny trash, but some was coin and some was items of interest. One such item was a black stone egg identical to the one the adventurers had found previously. Felix was confused by the reactions to the black egg and was told it was the focus item for a clairsentience spell. Not terribly enlightened (he’s not a spellcaster of any sort), Felix just nodded his head and made note that the others felt the egg was dangerous. He was then surprised when they pulled out a blob of lead Jacien claimed contained a second egg. The group decided to leave both eggs here as a relatively safe place to store them. They all agreed to not tell the refugees about the eggs or what exactly they were retrieving from the cave, keeping it all in large sacks.
The adventurers then returned to the surface with the refugees. Jacien then set up a portal back to his workshop. He sent the refugees, Felix, and Zoglug through, telling them to wait in front of his workshop until the rest arrived in the spider walker. Once they went through the gate, Jacien shut it down and disassembled it. He and the remaining adventurers (and the loot) returned to Lucan’s Clock aboard the spider walker by taking a shortcut walking it across the waters of the bay.
In town, the group took the refugees to town hall to claim the reward promised. The refugees were part of a patrol made up of crew from the Foul Wolf of the West, the ship who’s captain was currently mayor of Lucan’s Clock. As part of the process of claiming the reward, the adventurers had to explain where they found the patrol. When told about the troll cave and killing the trolls, the bureaucrats said “Prove it.” Felix promptly pulled out the three troll heads and set them on the desk, asking if there was a reward for killing the trolls. The bureaucrat said he would check. He came back shortly with a big bounty of 300 gold coins for killing an obvious threat to the town, enriching the group pleasantly.
End of Session
* Coral Poison: Drain BODY 6d6 (60 Active Points); 2 Charges which Never Recover (-3 1/2), Limited Power: Make a CON check and the Drain does not happen; (-1), Side Effects, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (3 DEF, 3d6 Entangle based on CON; -1), No Range (-1/2)
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Placeholder Post and a Promise
So life has been six kinds of dog-piling on me for the last two weeks. Long story short, I was not able to get a real posting ready in time for this week and I won't be able to for the rest of the week due to in-laws in town again (and I like seeing them when they are in town), I'm running a game Saturday and I'm not 100% ready for it yet, and I need to reload Windows 7 on my primary laptop to fix whatever is causing it to lock up at random times. Plus, Date Night with my wife and I got two free tickets to a concert during my normal "game prep time" (these are two events, not one). Oh, and did I mention one of my water pipes sprund a leak this evening, when I was going to go writing? It's fixed now, but I'm not really in the mindset I was planning and lost most of my writing time.
So.
NEXT week I promise two postings. One will be the adventure log for the Saturday Group in my Blood, Gold, and Lizards campaign. I don't know exactly what the other one will be yet. Depending on how far they get, I may post the adventure location as a PDF. Or part of it, depending upon how far they get. We'll see.
Later!
So.
NEXT week I promise two postings. One will be the adventure log for the Saturday Group in my Blood, Gold, and Lizards campaign. I don't know exactly what the other one will be yet. Depending on how far they get, I may post the adventure location as a PDF. Or part of it, depending upon how far they get. We'll see.
Later!
Monday, July 8, 2013
Dyson Logos Makes Good Maps
Dyson Logos of the blog Dyson's Dodecahedron is running a contest for an original of a map he's drawn. The contest page is here. I'd like to get an original of his as his maps have helped me greatly.
My weekly gaming group broke in a new-to-D&D DM on Dyson's Delve (follow the Dysons_Delve label at the bottom of this post to find the session reports for an example of how awesome this was) and his compilation book (Dyson's Delves) is my secret weapon when I cannot come up with a good map for my campaign. (I won't tell you how often that is as several of my players read this blog and they might get...ideas.)
Dyson's maps are well drawn with clean lines and his distinctive hatching around the edges for the dungeons he draws. He has tons of creativity that he freely shares, so go take a look. Place an order for Dyson's Delves. Dig deep in his archives and share the love for his site - it is totally worth the time and effort.
Thanks!
My weekly gaming group broke in a new-to-D&D DM on Dyson's Delve (follow the Dysons_Delve label at the bottom of this post to find the session reports for an example of how awesome this was) and his compilation book (Dyson's Delves) is my secret weapon when I cannot come up with a good map for my campaign. (I won't tell you how often that is as several of my players read this blog and they might get...ideas.)
Dyson's maps are well drawn with clean lines and his distinctive hatching around the edges for the dungeons he draws. He has tons of creativity that he freely shares, so go take a look. Place an order for Dyson's Delves. Dig deep in his archives and share the love for his site - it is totally worth the time and effort.
Thanks!
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Blood, Gold, and Lizards - Friday Group - Session 2
Attendees
Hugo Underwood – Wood Elf shaman
Felix Lutsk – Human “acquisitioner”
Alset Alokin – High Elf magus
Hirelings:
Penrith the Steeplejack (Sergeant)
Lukyan the Fat
Fredek the Hare
The group started with some housekeeping. Hugo officially joined F&A Holdings. This tied down Fritz and Albrecht with getting the necessary paperwork through the New Zwicke bureaucracy [the players were unavailable]. Felix, Hugo, and Alset deposited their earnings from the previous expedition into the New Zwicke Bank for safe keeping. The group then used money from F&A Holdings to purchase healing potions at the Temple of Shallya, hire a trio of guards for camp security, and then food and extra horses for the entire group.
Originally the guards were simply going to be paid a flat salary for camp guarding. However, after some discussion the guards were offered a full share as a group if they also fought alongside the adventurers. Penrith negotiated a clause for payment of the flat rate if no treasure was recovered, but otherwise accepted the offer on behalf of his men.
The group headed north on the Estini Road, planning to return to the tower in the Wedge Wood and explore further from there. This plan fell by the wayside just outside of the farmlands surrounding New Zwicke when a pack of bandits attempted to rob the adventurers. During the ensuing fight, Hugo was shot off his horse by arrows [for being scary and dangerous with his Murder of Crows spell], Alset’s spells fizzled early on, but the hirelings proved their worth, keeping the bulk of the bandits away from the spellcasters and cutting many of them down. The fight ended with the bandit archers fleeing once the sword-weilding bandits were all dead or unconscious.
While the elves stripped the dead bandits of their gear, Felix interrogated the four bandits that were captured alive, killing one of them to make his point to the others. The remaining three bandits were very eager after that to share everything they knew, including that there was a raft hidden upstream where the archers were likely to run to and that the bandits had a camp in a small forest across the Arrow River from the ambush site. After Felix collected the heads of the dead bandits, the adventurers made their way to the location of the bandit raft [bringing along the manacles captives], discovering the archers just pushing off from the shore!
This battle was more of a slaughter as the bandit archers had no cover. One of the dead archers was recovered, as were all four long bows, but the other three bodies sunk (weighted down by their armor) and were washed away by the river current.
Alset used a series of teleports to move everyone across the river, except the draft horses the hirelings were riding. As the draft horses each massed more than Alset could teleport, Hugo had to swim them across. This took a couple tries as the horses were nervous, but eventually everyone and their mounts were on the western side of the river.
Hugo went ahead into the small forest to scout out the bandit camp but was immediately discovered. [He completely blew his stealth roll.] However, as he knew the password (“Applecake” – learned from the captives), Hugo was able to bluff his way in as a new recruit. [He aced his Acting roll.] The bandits took him in and the senior bandit gave him the tour and explained that this was a raiding camp, their winter camp was elsewhere. Hugo noticed that there were only five bandits guarding the camp and the front gate and the back gate were not within sight of each other. He started formulating plans…
When Hugo had not returned from scouting after an hour, Felix led the rest of the group straight up to the front of the bandit camp. As the bandits drew their bows, Hugo cast Cloud of Moths, obscuring the sight of the bandits (and himself) with mass numbers of glowing blue moths. This allowed Felix and the hirelings to charge the gate and get in without getting shot. It was all over for the bandits at the front gate after that. The rear gate bandits heard the fighting and their friends dying and fled out the back with their lives and little else.
The adventurers spent the next hour thoroughly looting the bandit camp. The take was mostly foodstuffs and the meager loot gathered by the bandits so far this season. Felix beheaded the dead bandits and freed the three captives, telling them to run and never come to his attention again. They ran.
With loot to sell back in town (and the majority of that being perishable foodstuffs), the group returned to New Zwicke. They turned over the bandit heads to the Guard, receiving a small bounty (5s) per head after filling out a report. [This was due to Hugo being a member of a registered adventuring company. Otherwise the adventurers would have been treated as vigilantes and forced to pay a fine.] After selling off the loot, shares were paid out: one to each adventurer, one to the group of hirelings, and one to F&A Holdings. Penrith and his men were very pleased with the payment and stated they would be happy to work with the adventurers again.
End of Session
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