The Sudden Sea –Session 3

[April 25 and 26 – Against the Wendigo]

[This game uses the Hero System Fifth Revised Edition (FREd) roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened August 21, 2023.]

[This adventure takes place on the continent of Terik, two years after the appearance of the Sudden Sea due to the sinking and flooding of ~374,385 square miles of the Plains of Syrak.]

Player Characters

Sorvia of Stavros – female human ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Tharduk Lavabreath – male dwarf glassmaker from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom, had a glass shop in County Modon that is now underwater, literally

Kadruth Worldbender – male dwarf priest, serving He Who Protects, from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom

Anomin – female human shapeshifter, from lots of places, most recently County Modon

Islo Redgrass – male elf ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Via Roll20

Inserrant – female human musician, player of zills (finger cymbals) and singer

Spring

April 25, 56 I.C. (Imperial Calendar)

Early Afternoon

With Islo’s arrow in its chest, the creature struck out at the first foe it saw, Tharduk.  It stepped to the dwarf to attack, moving bushes as it passed, which allowed Tharduk to know he was under attack.  Tharduk attempted to block the attack and gain the upper hand, but failed due to the creature being invisible to him [he did a Block maneuver but suffered a -1 penalty to OCV as the creature was invisible, which is how much he failed by].  The failed block did get Tharduk’s shield in play and the creature’s attack just missed, deflected by the shield [and DCV bonus from the Block maneuver].  Islo took a second shot at the [visible to him] creature but missed widely.

Sorvia spent her full phase attempting to acquire the creature as a target and finally worked it out [took her two tries at making a Perception roll to succeed and work out where the creature was].  Anomin did the same, but Kadrith was able work it out quicker and cast his Wall of Force spell, placing the wall between the creature and Tharduk.  [Kadruth knew where the invisible creature was but had not worked out its height yet.  This will be important shortly.]

The creature, not pleased with the appearance of the wall went after its source, Kadruth.  Thinking he was safe 4 meters off the ground in a blind created with another Wall of Force, Kadruth was not prepared for the attack to come from above and was clawed on the arms.  Islo attempted to trip the creature up with an arrow and succeeded.  As the 8-meter-tall creature fell backwards, Islo warned Anomin it was falling at her.  She dove out of the way and was just  missed by the creature as it landed on the forest floor.  The area of crushed plants suddenly gave the adventurers perspective on the size of the creature they were fighting and it gave them pause [I drew a stick figure to scale to show where it landed on the map].  Inserrant, knowing where the creature was, attempted to start up her mind control song, but was not able to hit the correct notes [failed her skill check on the spell].

Tharduk stepped around the Wall of Force between him and the creature and hacked at it with his axe, striking it in the vitals, killing it.  [He did near max damage and the creature had low armor.]  The creature gradually turned visible as it bled out.  Inserrant stepped out of “hiding” and said, “Well that wasn’t so hard.”

Tharduk and Anomin set to beheading the creature as the creature was too large for the group to carry back in one piece.  Kadruth used a prayer of healing to heal up the damage to his arms while Sorvia built a litter to carry the head back to the logging camp.  Islo and Sorvia wanted claws from the creature and eight were harvested.  Iso and Sorvia each claimed two of the claws, the rest going into a pouch in case they were useful as spell reagents.

Once the head was severed and moved onto the litter, Anomin transformed into her horse form.  The adventurers wanted to do something to scare away any other creatures that might show up, but none of them know what to do as they really don’t know what the creature is.  Sorvia attached the litter to Anomin and the group made their way back to the logging camp.  Moving was slower due to the litter and giant head.

Later Afternoon

Along the way back to the camp, the group occasionally passed or were passed by loggers going about their business.  They yelled conversation back and forth that the adventurers had killed the creature and were taking it back to the camp.  The loggers were pleased to hear this.

As the adventurers neared the logging camp, they saw a small crowd gathered at the gate.  Nik Papadimitriou was among them to see what the adventurers were bringing back.  When the head was displayed, Nik identified the creature as a wendigo.  He was surprised to see it as there not supposed to be any in the Tsepi Forest.

Nik paid Tharduk the promised reward, minus 1 silver for the breakfast the dwarves ate.  He also declared there would be a celebration that night in recognition that the threat was gone.  The loggers were excited at that and preparations got under way immediately.  Sorvia suggested to Nik that the camp needed more than one set of guards but he countered that with the creature dead, the camp shouldn’t need guards anymore.

Tharduk split the reward evenly amongst the 6 adventurers [81 copper each with 4 left over], giving each a split in coin and logging company script.  Inserrant took her share and went to the camp company store to purchase a good throwing knife and a whetstone she convinced the agent to add in for free.

Evening

For the celebration dinner, the adventurers sat at the high table with Nik and the other company officers.  The food was good and there was plenty of ale.  Inserrant helped with the music for dancing and a good time was had by all.

April 26, 56 I.C.

Morning

Some of the loggers stopped by Sorvia for hangover cures after drinking too much the night before.

The adventurers each purchase three days of good quality food from the company store using up much of their reward money [making a point to spend all the company script].  Islo also purchased an extra quiver of 24 arrows and three loose arrows to replace those lost in the fight with the wendigo.  Kadruth purchased armored leather sleeves to protect his arms [14 silver in cost] using some of his own money [left over from character creation] and some of the reward [all the script he received].

Sorvia then planned the groups route south to Nomi.  After some discussion, they settled on a path following the Ladon River upstream to the head of the valley and then cutting southeast across the Onomastike Hills to the Ygro Dasos, coming out of the forest near Nomi.  They expected to arrive in Nomi about mid-day on the 28th.

End of session

Commentary

[So the wendigo write-up I was using was from the Hero System Bestiary for 4th edition and was built a little more for fighting superheroes rather than fantasy adventurers.  It had good defenses in general, just not versus killing attacks, which is all fantasy characters carry.  I wish there had been a 5th Edition version and was surprised at the table there wasn’t one.  As a note, the wendigo’s invisibility did not work “versus forest creatures” and I decided that as Islo was from a group of elves that preferred to live in harmony with nature, he qualified, so he was the only one who could see the wendigo in the fight.]

[I should mention that part of the campaign rules require all magic spells to have Gestures and Requires a Skill Roll as limitations.  This keeps the spells from feeling too much like super powers and maintains the flavor of Fantasy.]

Sudden Sea Adventures

Last session: Session 2

Next session: Session 4 [Not yet typed up]