[April 26-28 – Mail Intercept]
[This game uses the Hero System Fifth Revised Edition (FREd) roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened August 28, 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 26, 56 I.C. (Imperial Calendar)
9:00 AM
The adventurers, finished purchasing travel supplies at the company store, left the logging camp. They followed the Ladon River south, up into the valley that held the Tsepi Forest. Sorvia and Islo used their ranger skills to hunt game as the party traveled through the heavy undergrowth of the forest.
3:00 PM
The adventurers neared the head of the valley and found a convenient place to cross the Ladon River. The river was smaller here and Sorvia found a good ford to use. The entire group refilled their water skins before leaving the river. Once on the other side of the river they started walking up into the Onomastike Hills. This area was drier and rougher than the valley that held the forest, with noticeably fewer trees. [They moved from a forested hex on the map to a hills hex.]
5:00 PM
As the sun started to near the horizon, Sorvia located a good place for the group to camp. A campfire was put together and lit, protected from the wind [and from generally being seen] by some rock outcroppings. The group used the same watches from the night before (See Session 02) and settled in for the night.
April 27, 56 I.C.
The adventurers broke camp as the sun came up on a chilly morning. The adventurers continued making their way across the hills. Once past the highest point [around Noon], they descended into an area of wooded hills, part of the Ygro Dasos [the much larger forest on other side of the Onomastike Hills]. This slowed their movement further and by late afternoon it was time to find a campsite again while still in the forested hills.
Once again Sorvia found a good, somewhat hidden campsite, for the group to use. Camp was set up and the same watches kept. [I keep mentioning the hiddenness of their camp site as there were people searching the woods for travelers, but I kept rolling terrible on the Perception rolls to notice the camp.]
April 28, 56 I.C.
A Little After 9:00 AM
Islo, who was the group’s navigator, realized he was lost an hour after the group broke camp. He asked Sorvia and Anomin for some help plotting a corrected path [he just missed the Navigation roll for the day]. Anomin turned into a crow and flew up above the trees to get a look around and spotted the edge of the forest and Nomi in the distance. She flew back down and relayed what she saw to Islo and Sorvia and they platted a path to the edge of the forest.
11:00 AM [or so]
The adventurers reached the edge of the forest, near where the Cephissus River, 30 to 40 meters across with noticeable flow, exited the forest. This put them a couple miles west of where they were expecting to exit the forest.
As they were getting their bearings and Sorvia was making notations for her eventual map of the expedition, all but Tharduk heard the sound of riders approaching. Anomin, still in crow form, alit on Islo’s shoulder and called out a warning about the riders. Sorvia put away her mapping tools while Tharduk set down the mail package and pulled out his merchant credentials and the job poster from Mouzaki for the mail delivery job.
Approaching the group at speed were ten riders on horseback. Anomin could see that most of the group were not expert horsemen but all were wearing leather armor with no insignia at all. This suggested they might not be any kind of officials at all. Anomin told the other adventurers this just before the riders could hear her.
The riders came to a stop before the adventurers, not right on them but closer than the adventurers were comfortable with, not knowing who the riders were. Sorvia noticed that the riders had bedrolls and other gear for being in the wilderness but was unable to share that information without the riders hearing her. One of the riders, apparently their leader, hailed the adventurers. He stated that he and his team noticed that the group was carrying a postal crate and was wondering if they could open it up so he could get a piece of mail he was expecting. He and his people had urgent business elsewhere and wanted to save time retrieving the message.
The adventurers were doubtful about his sincerity.
Inserrant suggested that it would take them less time to wait and get the letter from the post office in Nomi than get raised from the dead. [The PCs were a little belligerent here, but not entirely without good cause.] Tharduk stalled, asking what name might be on the letter. The leader said “Michelakis” and stated he would be mighty thankful if the group let him retrieve that letter. Tharduk verbally went back and forth with the leader, learning that the riders were all employed by another who wanted the letter and had been roughing it for a while, waiting for someone to show up delivering mail [Tharduk used his Conversation skill to elicit information the other would not normally have given up]. Several of the riders started openly loading their crossbows at this point. [Anomin said something here, which alerted the riders that the crow was not just a crow but the notes do not mention what she said.]
Anomin attempted to hop off Islo’s shoulder behind Islo and then stay low while flying around behind the riders. Her tactic mostly worked as all but one of the riders were either loading their weapons or staring hard at Tharduk. Unfortunately, one of the likely lieutenants to the leader spotted her attempt, stating “Oh no you don’t!” and threw a net at Anomin. This triggered Kadruth casting a Wall of Force right in front of the right half of the riders [from the PC’s perspective], specifically in front of the net thrower. The net thrower was faster [made the timing check by more than Kadruth] and threw her net before the wall formed. Luckily for Anomin, the net just missed [due to a range modifier]. Anomin changed her plan and called out to the riders to surrender or face their doom. She got their attention [as a crow pronouncing one's doom will tend to do] but did not cause them to flee as they felt they had the upper hand. Tharduk, realizing how this was going to go, put away his merchant credentials and readied his shield. Islo held his action to see what the riders did while Inserrant started playing her zill and singing, but hit a false note [actually attempted to cast her mind control spell but failed the roll]. The riders finished loading their weapons and started pointing them at the adventurers in general.
Islo stopped waiting and fired a Tripping Arrow [ranged trip attack martial arts maneuver] at the horse of the biggest and burliest of the riders [oddly, not the guy doing the talking]. This caused the horse to rear and the rider failed to hold on, falling to the ground.
Islo then repeated the trick at the talker, who also dropped off his horse.
The female lieutenant goaded her horse to close with the talking crow while pulling out another net to throw at Anomin. Tharduk waited for the riders to approach. Sorvia shot and hit one of the mooks in the chest, wounding but not killing him. The big burly guy attempted to kippup and failed, then just climbed to his feet and advanced on Islo, calling out insults and threats at the elf. Anomin closed with the horses and transformed back to human form [which dropped her Dexterity, so she had to wait to complete her action]. The leader successfully kipped up, stating “we wanted to do this the easy way, but you chose the hard way,” and ran at Tharduk, performing a leg sweep once within range, dropping Tharduk to the ground. Anomin cast her shapeshift spell and turned into cougar, making a piercing and shrill vocalization while clawing a horse. This scared the two horses closest to her and they turned and fled, dropping their riders in front of Anomin. Tharduk attempted to kippup and failed, then climbed to his feet and readied his hand axe. Four of the crossbowmen all decided that the obvious mage was a danger and they shot at Kadruth with their crossbows. Two hit [thigh and stomach], which triggered Kadruth’s prepared teleportation spell [think "minor Word of Recall"], teleporting the stunned priest back into the forest, luckily missing any trees. Kadruth gathered his wits [recovered from being stunned]. The two mooks in front of Anomin got up and readied their swords.
Islo fired a Quick Shot [another martial arts maneuver] at the burly rider and hit him in the chest. This seemed to make the human angrier. Inserrant Finally got her voice under control and sang a song of surrender to the crossbowmen. They did not react. [Inserrant’s Mind Control is very low power but has cumulative with a high cap, so eventually it will work. She also rolled low on effect.]
The female rider decided that the shapeshifter was a familiar of some sort and Islo her master, so she rode her horse at Islo, attempting to run him over. Islo dodged the attempt, but the rider then slowed the horse and whipped it around to try again. Tharduk did a Take Down maneuver on the leader, dropping the man to the ground and yelling at the mooks to surrender. They paused and seriously considered this action. Sorvia shot at the female rider, hitting the rider’s arm. The burly rider ran all the way to Islo, arms wide and bellowing along the way. The leader failed to quick-stand, climbed to his feet and did a Take Away to take Tharduk’s hand axe. Anomin attacked the next mook in line, clawing the rider despite his best efforts to avoid the attack and putting fear into his heart. The crossbowmen, after taking a pause to consider Tharduk's demand they surrender, started reloading their weapons. Kadruth cast Wall of Force to protect Sorvia and Tharduk from the crossbowmen.
Islo stepped over to a better vantage point and tripped the female rider’s horse, but the rider lands on her feet. That worthy ran over to Sorvia and attempted to Disarm Sorvia, but failed. Tharduk disarmed the leader, sending his stolen axe flying somewhere into the tall grass. The leader legswept Tharduk again, dropping the dwarf to the ground. The burly guy pushed his move to close with Islo and grabbed the elf, pinning the elf’s arms. Anomin clawed the mook she was fighting, hitting the mook in the vitals and knocking him out. Sorvia attempted a High Shot at the female rider and just missed. The mook closest to Anomin had his will break and he fled the battle. The remaining crossbowmen pause again [due to Presence attacks]. Kadruth cast a ranged attack spell at the female rider and missed her. Inserrant continued to sing and play her zills [but rolled terribly low again so no apparent effect yet].
[We paused the fight here as it was very late by this point and the end of the Combat Turn.]
End of session
Commentary
[This session ran late as we are getting back up to speed on the combat system. I stopped it at the end of the first Combat Turn, before Post-Segment 12 Recoveries happen so we can pick up there at the beginning of next session.]
[I took advantage of the holiday and no gaming plans to get this session written up, so I'm no longer lagging so far behind. Due to events happening later this week, I don't know exactly when Session 5 will get posted. Might be on time, might be late in the week - I won't know until later. I'll explain why then.]
Sudden Sea Adventures
Sudden Sea Landing Page - Links to all the write-ups for this campaign
Last session: Session 3
Next session: Session 5 [Not yet typed up]
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