The Sudden Sea –Session 21

[Night of May 23 – Clouds gather over Mouzaki]

[This game uses the Hero System Fifth Revised Edition (FREd) roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened February 12, 2024.]

[This adventure takes place on the continent of Terik, two years after the appearance of the Sudden Sea.  The PCs are refugees seeking a better life through adventuring.]

 

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

Moonday, May 23, 56 I.C.

Noon

Anomin flew out of Mouzaki in crow form to find Inserrant and verify she was OK. After searching for a while, Anomin located Inserrant at the adventurers favorite drinking place in the refugee camps.  Inserrant explained she spent the night keeping the thousands of refugees from outright rioting.  Anomin told Inserrant that the prisoners were in the hands of the Count and the adventurers were waiting on payment before leaving the town.  She advised Inserrant to lay low and be ready to leave.

After updating Inserrant, Anomin flew back to the rest of the adventurers at the Blue Pig inside Mouzaki.  By the time she arrived, Tharduk was done writing up his report.  It was factual and covered most of what the adventurers had learned about the bandits, but left out some details.  [My notes are not specific as to what he left out, but I believe it was the existence of the bandit town.  Unfortunately, I have no player notes on this session so I am forced to embroider my skimpy notes with my memory.]

1:00 PM

The adventurers left the Blue Pig.  Islo, Sorvia, and Tharduk headed to the sheriff's office while Anomin and Kadruth went to the Post Office to look for delivery contracts to Nomi and Galanti.

When Islo, Sorvia, and Tharduk arrived at the Sheriff’s Office they found it very busy.  Sergeant Greenpike was busy-gruff and waved them through to Sheriff Raptis’ office, stating he was waiting on them.

Sitting with Sheriff Raptis was another man, modestly dressed, but Tharduk could tell the material his clothes were made of was the highest quality.  Sheriff Raptis introduced the other man as Lord Loukas, who “advises the Count on security”.  They were both interested in the additional information the adventurers had about the bandits.

The adventurers loosely described what information they had, which led to negotiating the reward for the information.  Once that was settled, Tharduk presented the report he had written up, which included names and descriptions of Green Hand operatives in Pedino and the farms north of the crossroads, the location of a fort in the hills north of the County Road, and the likely occupants of the fort.  Then Tharduk brought up that the adventurers had a coded message book from Pedino and the heliograph used there.

In the end the adventurers were paid 200 gc of the intelligence on how the bandits operated and their locations and an additional 50gc for the message books and heliograph, all of this on top of the 200 gc bounty for Paraskevi and the 2 gc for the other bandit.  Payment was in the form of 9 tradebars worth 50gc each and 2 loose gold coins.  [Tradebars are sort of like bearer bonds in that they can be taken to most merchant guild locations and be converted into coins or goods of equal value.  They are much more portable than the equivalent value in coins, making them ideal for merchants and adventurers.]

After the meeting, Sorvia and Tharduk headed over to the Merchant’s Guild while Islo made his way back to the Blue Pig.

At the Post Office, Kadruth and Anomin spoke with the Bounty Clerk and asked if there were any jobs delivering mail to Nomi or Galanti.  The clerk told them there were contracts for both.  The delivery to Nomi pays 2gc and is due June 7 and the delivery to Galanti pays 8gc and is due June 21.  Both pay 10% up front with chits to be redeemed upon delivery.  Kadruth accepted both contracts and signed for the group, listing out the names of the rest of the adventurers.  With contracts fresh in hand, the two made their way back to the Blue Pig.

Sorvia and Tharduk arrived at the Merchant’s Guild.  The guild guards would not allow Sorvia entrance past the public room as she was not a guild member.  Sorvia accepted this and told Tharduk she would head over to the Blue Pig and wait there.

Tharduk met with a guild representative.  He explained that he and his traveling companions were leaving town for a month or so and he needed someone to receive some commissioned equipment and hold it until they returned.  This was a standard service the guild performed for its members and so Tharduk and the guild representative filled out the paperwork necessary for the guild to receive the armor and daggers the adventurers had commissioned out of the Nemean Lion pelt and claws.

Tharduk left the Merchant’s Guild and headed over to the armorer and weaponsmith to explain to each that the Merchant’s Guild would accept delivery for the finished works and make final payments when the items were complete.  He then returned to the Blue Pig, feeling the effects of being awake since the previous morning.

When Sorvia arrived at the Blue Pig, she found her two apprentices there.  They should have been keeping low at the Ranger Camp nearly 10 miles away but instead were having a conspiratorial conversation with a horse tied up in front of the Blue Pig.  When Sorvia asked what they were doing, they claimed to be bringing Anomin up to date on things.  Sorvia pointed to Anomin inside the Blue Pig and said “Anomin’s over there.  That’s just a horse.”  She then escorted the two embarrassed apprentices into the Blue Pig to wait.

2:00 PM

Once all the adventurers in town were back at the Blue Pig, they discussed options.  There were angry mobs at the town gates who would probably recognize and attack the adventurers if they tried to walk through the gates.  Something more subtle was needed.  They left the Blue Pig as a group and started walking the inside of the town walls until they reached a point equidistant from the two gates.  The guards there were spread thin and spent most of their time looking towards the town gates in case the mobs broke in.  [I rolled a terrible Perception roll for the guards.]  The adventurers took advantage of this and a couple castings of Kadruth’s Force Wall spell shaped into stairs to sneak over the town wall and into the enormous refugee camp surrounding the town.

The adventurers took a round-about way to get to their preferred drinking place and picked up Inserrant.  They then quietly left the Mouzaki area, heading south.  Once out of sight of Mouzaki, they turned east and made their way to the Ranger Camp.

4:00 PM

The adventurers arrived at the ranger camp.  There they quickly explained the situation back in Mouzaki to the retired rangers before finally getting to sleep.

End of session

Commentary

[I had to pause the campaign here.  The players unknowingly set in motion things that will lead to some form of civil war in County Modon and I need to map that out before I can have the PCs interact with it.  In my mind, the situation in the County was always unstable and in precarious balance.  The Count had basically usurped one of his own barons and with a passel of de-landed barons in tow, each one seeking compensation for their losses to the Sudden Sea.  The barons whose lands are still above water know that the Count is being pressured to divvy up (or take entirely) their lands to share out to court favorites.  They’ve spent the last year thinking hard about this and some have “made plans”.  On top of this, the Grand Duchy of Mercia, the County’s neighbor to the southwest, is interested in adding the remains of the County to its possessions and is pursuing its own machinations.  I now need to figure out what the next month or two of political maneuvering and rebellion looks like before resuming play.]

[In the meantime, we have been playing through Book 4 of The Shattered Star Adventure Path.  I’m not certain how much of it I’m going to write about here.  The writing for this one seems a bit weak, especially on the PC motivation front.  We might be saving the world or maybe we just stumbled into a divine grudge match fueled by the next shard’s curse.  We’ll see.]

Sudden Sea Adventures

Sudden Sea Landing Page - Links to all the write-ups for this campaign 

Last session: Session 20

Next session: Session 22 [Not Yet Scheduled]

The Sudden Sea –Session 20

[Night of May 22 and 23 – Expected Ambush - Part 2 and Return to Mouzaki]

[This game uses the Hero System Fifth Revised Edition (FREd) roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened February 5, 2024.]

[This adventure takes place on the continent of Terik, two years after the appearance of the Sudden Sea.  The PCs are refugees seeking a better life through adventuring.]

 

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

Sunday, May 22, 56 I.C.

Morning, continued

[Fight resumes in Turn 2, Segment 9]

Islo took a shot at the archer leader fighting with Anomin and hit her shield.  Inserrant, seeing that Kadruth was awake again and recovering, ordered the wagon driver to take the dwarf to town before she hopped out of the wagon.

The archer leader warned the other archer of the elf behind her [meaning Islo] and attacked Anomin, who blocked the attack [after spending a Hero Point].  Tharduk remained in place on Wagon 7 to protect Kadruth.  Islo took another shot and hit the archer leader in the stomach, stunning and knocking her unconscious.  The second archer took cover from Islo and shot at Anomin who blocked the attack.  Sorvia crept to the second blind entrance.  Kadruth continued to catch his breath [he took another Recovery].

[Post-12 Recovery phase]

Islo climbed on top of the blind and used the extra elevation to look for the archers who fled, but could not spot them in the deep grass.  Inserrant ran closer to the fight.

Anomin entered the blind and attacked the second archer, scratching the archers thigh armor.  The archer leader, barely awake, recovered from being stunned.  Tharduk, satisfied that Kadruth was not going to die and was no longer under threat from archers, hopped off Wagon 7 and moved south towards the fighting at the blind.  Sorvia, now in the blind, shot the archer leader in the shoulder, knocking her unconscious again.  The second archer stubbornly decided to stay and fight, took another shot at Anomin but missed.  Kadruth, stubborn and not wanting to leave the rest of the adventurers without healing, climbed out of Wagon 7.  The caravan continued heading west as fast as it could, the wagon guards saluting Kadruth for his determination.

Islo hopped down off the blind, blocking the exit from the blind and cutting off all means of escape for the two bandit archers.  Seeing this, the second archer threw down her bow and surrendered, ending the combat.

Anomin, heavily injured as a cougar, shifted back into her equally-injured human form and placed manacles on the captured archer and her unconscious leader.

Sorvia put away her bow and started bandaging Anomin’s wounds.  Kadruth used several healing spells to heal his own wounds and then did the same for Anomin.  Kadruth then healed the archer leader’s multiple wounds and discovered that the archer leader was Paraskevi the Green herself, leader of all the bandits!

Sorvia and Islo (assisted by Anomin) trapped the blind and concealed the trap.  [Or so they think - the Concealment roll was successful but the trap roll failed so it doesn’t work.]  Anomin and Tharduk talked a little about whether or not the bandits might attack again.  During this conversation, Anomin shapeshifted back into her crow form [which has Deduction] but is also easily distracted and the conversation petered out with no conclusion.

The prisoners were relieved of their weapons and other possessions but kept in their armor.  Items confiscated were: 2 heavy long bows. 2 quivers of Arrows (40 minus those used in the fight), and a couple bits of personal effects, including an amulet from the leader that Anomin palmed. The prisoners were also searched for lockpicks and other things before being stood up to leave.

The adventurers got back on the road, heading back to Mouzaki with their prisoners.  Anomin shifted into her horse form and the prisoners were tied onto her back.  As the party progressed, Sorvia did her best to conceal the group's tracks until they passed Pedino.

Sundown

The group reached the campsite from the previous night.  After a quick discussion, they decided staying would be dangerous and so they kept walking.  Anomin warned that people in Pedino might attack the group. The group decided that if things went wrong, Anomin would run off with the prisoners and everyone would eventually meet back up at the Ranger camp.

Moonday, May 23, 56 I.C.

Dawn

Fatigued from marching through the night, the adventurers arrived at Mouzaki.

As the adventurers passed through the vast refugee camp surrounding the town, a sullen and angry crowd started forming around them, following the adventurers through the camp.  The adventurers prepared to defend themselves if attacked, but continued to walk to the gates of Mouzaki.  Inserrant lagged behind and started using her mind control powers to keep a riot from happening.

When the party reached the walls of Mouzaki, hundreds of people were following them, hostile but not yet violent, thanks to Inserrant’s influence.

There were some people waiting in line at the gate to enter the town. Some of the guards looked up and noticed the mob following the adventurers.  The guards moved the line off to one side and called for backup. They then pushed one of the two gate doors closed and waited for the adventurers to reach them, visibly concerned.

The crowd started chanting “Free the Hand” over and over.  Tharduk explained to the guards that they believed they had Paraskevi the Green as a prisoner for the reward.  Suddenly understanding the situation, the guards hurried the adventurers in through the gate.  Realizing what was going on, the mob let out a great roar and rushed the gates.  Kadruth put up a Force Wall outside the gate to give the guards time to secure the gate and start reinforcing it.  The shouts and chanting of the mob could be heard to spread and get louder.

A group of guards escorted the adventurers through the slowly awakening town to the palace.  The palace was a fancy house, possibly the fanciest house in Mouzaki, but not really a palace.  When the escorted adventurers arrived, the palace guards demanded an explanation.  The gate guards explain the situation at the gate and who the adventurers had.  The palace guards called up more palace guards and took possession of the adventurers, freeing up the gate guards to return to defend the gates.

The palace guards escorted the adventurers around to the stable and asked that the prisoners be presented.  The two prisoners were let down off Anomin’s back and stood up.  One of the palace guards held up the head of the leader and said, “yup, this is her.”

At this point Sheriff Raptis arrived.  “I heard you have taken Paraskevi. Well.  This will be a busy day,” he said sardonically.  He had also heard about the mob at the main gates and others forming at the lesser gates.  “I’m going to take the prisoners as I'm sure the Count will talk to them. You should hang out near my office to get paid.”

Tharduk offered that the adventurers also had information on how the bandits were organized.  Sheriff Raptis thought on that and said, “I can get that from you back at my office.  Don’t go to far in case the Count wants to speak with you sooner.”  Sheriff Raptis then took the prisoners into the palace with most of the guards.  One of the palace guards went with the adventurers.

The adventurers went over to the one bar near the sheriff’s office.  There the palace guard announced to the bar that the adventurers were allowed to be at the bar by order of Sheriff Raptis.  He also announced that these were the adventurers who brought in Paraskevi the Green.  The occupants of the bar, mostly lawmen and guards having their breakfasts were excited to hear that and bought breakfast and several drinks for the adventurers while asking for the story.

Tharduk took this time to sit at a separate table and started writing up an official report for the Count.

End of session

Commentary

[Anomin was heavily injured in the bandit fight as she has very little armor in her cougar form.  If the last attack against her by the second archer had hit, she would have been forced back into her human form for the first time ever.  This would have put her at a disadvantage as her human form is not as good at combat as her cougar form.  It would have also blown her cover as some sort of familiar to one of the spell casters in the group to those outside the adventuring group.]

[The players were surprised that the Green Hand had a large following in the refugee camp but they had never heard of them.  I explained that the Green Hand was keeping a low profile in the camp because they cannot feed everyone.  To avoid becoming targets themselves, they were slowly expanding their network amongst those who could not feed themselves otherwise.  The PCs, being able to feed themselves, had never been approached.]

[There is one more session after this to write up.  After that I needed to take a break as the GM while I worked out the results of this session.  The capture of the Paraskevi the Green will make the Green Hand desperate to rescue her.  They have been providing food to parts of the refugee camp and have hundreds of loyal followers among the thousands of refugees surrounding Mouzaki.  Worse, the Green Hand have backers who do not want to be exposed.  This event is likely to trigger a premature civil war in the County and I need to work through the stages of that so I can describe what the PCs see/encounter along the way.]

Sudden Sea Adventures

Sudden Sea Landing Page - Links to all the write-ups for this campaign

Last session: Session 19

Next session: Session 21

The Sudden Sea –Session 19

[Night of May 22 – Expected Ambush - Part 1]

[This game uses the Hero System Fifth Revised Edition (FREd) roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened January 29, 2024.]

[This adventure takes place on the continent of Terik, two years after the appearance of the Sudden Sea.  The PCs are refugees seeking a better life through adventuring.]

 

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

Sunday, May 22, 56 I.C.

Dawn

After an eventful night, the caravan mounted up to leave the campsite and make the second half of the trip to Grizano.  The adventurers spread themselves among the nine wagons that made up the caravan.

• Sorvia was on Wagon 1.
• Anomin (in crow form)  and Kadruth were on Wagon 5.
• Tharduk and Inserrant were on Wagon 7.
• Islo was on Wagon 9.

Space was made on Wagon 5 for the three captured bandits.  Kadruth cast his Force Wall spell over the prisoners to keep them alive.  He then sat on top of the crates in the back of the wagon so he would have a good field of view.  The pace of the caravan was noticeably faster than the previous day.

Late Morning

The caravan passed the fork in the road that heads south into the Ygro Dasos Barony.  The hired caravan guards became particularly vigilant at this point as the caravan entered the area where the bandit attacks happened.  Sorvia regularly watched the signaling hill that the bandit prisoners talked about, hoping to catch sight of a heliograph in use.

While the adventurers and the guards were all alert to the possibility of attack, when the bandit surprise attack happened, it was in an unexpected way.  Rather than step out of the tall grasses on either side of the County Road and demand surrender like attacks in the past, four archers attacked from hiding on the south side of the road, all targeting Kadruth on top of the crates in Wagon 5.

Kadruth saw the arrows and attempted to avoid the shots [he aborted his action to perform a Dodge maneuver] but was hit anyway in the left arm, the shoulders, and twice in the chest, triggering his teleport spell, which dropped him onto the Wagon 7 driver’s lap, much to the driver’s surprise.  These shots also knocked Kadruth unconscious, dropping his Force Wall spell, but just failed to kill him.  Sorvia caught sight of where the attacks came from and shot an arrow back, hitting her target based on the cry of pain that resulted [solid hit in the chest for 9 BODY and 27 STUN].

Islo could not see any of the attackers to the south and held his fire, hoping they would show themselves.  He and Inserrant also noticed movement in the grasses north of the road that were not caused by the wind.  Inserrant called out a warning about attackers to the north while climbing to the front of the wagon to render Kadruth some first aid.

Tharduk exhorted the wagoneers to go faster while also warning of bandits to the north.  Not actually seeing the bandits, he held at the ready for the bandits to show.  Sorvia hopped off Wagon 1, looked for a target and shot at a bandit to the south, hitting them in the shoulder.  Anomin, in crow form, flew south, trying to find the concealed bandits to no avail [the bandits were very well concealed].  Suddenly 20 archers volley-fired from the grasses to the north, all targeting the prisoners in the back of Wagon 5.  The entire back of the wagon was pin-cushioned by arrows, killing all of the prisoners.  The wagon drivers sped their wagons up as fast as the horses could pull the heavily laden wagons.  No shots came from the south.

Islo held for counter fire while Inserrant continued aiding Kadruth.

Tharduk moved to the front of Wagon 7 and prepared to block any incoming attacks against Inserrant or Kadruth.  Sorvia moved into the tall grass and hid herself to avoid becoming a target for the archers to the north.  Anomin finally located the blind the camouflaged southern archers were hiding in.  She could see one of them doing first aid on another and decided to land behind the blind.  Once there she shifted back to human form and then changed into her Cougar form.  Luckily for her, all the bandits were either watching the first aid being applied or keeping an eye on the caravan attack.  [Anomin made her Stealth check exactly but the archers all missed their Perception rolls entirely.]  The north archers fired again on Wagon 5 and Islo counterfired at them to little effect [hit his target in the ankle, a reduced damage location, and rolled minimal damage on top of that].  The southern archers started to flee south and ran into Anomin in cougar form instead.  They loaded their bows.  The wagons continued to move through the ambush area.

Islo shot again at the northern archers but missed.  Inserrant continued aiding Kadruth.

Tharduk held his position over Inserrant and Kadruth, ready to block any attacks against them.  Anomin attacked the fleeing southern archers, hitting the lead archer in the vitals, stunning the archer.  Islo held his action.  The obvious leader of the southern archers, an arrow in her chest, demanded her shield and gave orders to the other archers to flee back the other way.  Inserrant continued to aid Kadruth, who appeared to be slowly regaining consciousness.  Sorvia advanced towards the blind holding the southern archers.  The northern archers retreated, heading north, away from the ambush.  Islo, seeing this, attempted another shot, hitting one of the archers in the hand.  One of the southern archers, clearly ignoring the order to leave, shot Anomin in a forelimb for low damage.  The Wagons continued fleeing the ambush site.  [The wagon train was 80 hexes in length and only moved 5 hexes at a time, so it was taking them time for it to clear the area.]

Islo held to see what the northern archers were up to.  Inserrant aided Kadruth, who was regaining consciousness.  Tharduk continued defending Inserrant and Kadruth.  Anomin attacked the archer who shot her and raked their legs.  The leader advanced with sword and shield, attacking Anomin but failing to connect.  Sorvia, hearing the sounds of fighting ahead, advanced on the blind.  [She started far away and was moving at half rate to stay hidden, so it was taking time to close in.]  The first southern archer recovered from being stunned while gasping for breath.  The second shot Anomin in a back leg as retaliation for the rake across her legs.  The carts continued forward.  Kadruth opened his eyes, consciousness fully returned.

Islo, satisfied no further attacks would happen from the north and hearing the sounds of fighting to the south, hopped off the last wagon and moved through the tall grasses to the south.

Tharduk held to protect Inserrant and the reawakened Kadruth.  Anomin switched to attack the archer leader and hit her in the chest, discovering the leader had better armor.  The archer leader slashed at Anomin, hitting the shapeshifter in the foreleg.  Sorvia finally reached the blind and observed three camouflaged archers fleeing south through an alternate exit from the blind and the fight between Anomin and the other two archers.  The second archer fighting Anomin shot the bloody cougar in the foreleg again with her bow.  The Wagons continued fleeing while Kadruth took some time to catch his breath [took a Recovery action].

[Combat Paused]

End of session

Commentary

[We did not want to stop the session mid-combat, but it was well past our normal stop time and the combat was not resolved, so we paused here.]

[This took longer than anticipated to get typed up.  To be honest, I’ve been prioritizing work on my new novel over writing here.  I’ll do my best to wrap up the last two session notes this month and then start talking about the science fiction novel I’m outlining.]

Sudden Sea Adventures

Sudden Sea Landing Page - Links to all the write-ups for this campaign

Last session: Session 18

Next session: Session 20