Champions Pre-Campaign Data 1 – Superhero Timeline

I will be running a Champions campaign soon, starting in September of this year.  Rather than start from scratch, I am dusting off my previous campaign, The Bold and The Determined, and doing a re-tread as that campaign barely touched my notes.

In this world, metahumans only became public knowledge in 1995 when the news captured video of a superhero/supervillain fight for the first time.  There had been people with powers before this point, but few in number and kept hidden by government forces “to keep the Public from panicking.”

For the campaign, here are certain significant events the PCs should know about:
1995 - March
The Guardian Incident happens in California. The public learns people with powers exist, including supervillain Lord Synthetic and the superhero Guardian.  Both clash periodically over the next 20 years.

2004 - February
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources founds Special Unit One – the first government-sponsored team of superheroes.  While little was expected of them, the team does well and earns the respect of police in Maryland.

2005 - January-March
The “Cape-KRAKEN War” happens.  A series of events led to escalating violent conflicts between the superheroes in Baltimore and a previously unknown organization named KRAKEN.  Eventually deaths occurred on both sides.  Superheroes across the Mid-Atlantic Region worked with police to eliminate KRAKEN.  After the “war’s” conclusion, Special Unit One was moved to from Capitol City to Baltimore to re-establish the public's trust in superheroes.

2005 - April
PRIMUS was dragged into the light by a concerted effort by the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, and the DIA [because they were tired of being blamed for everything PRIMUS was doing].  PRIMUS agents were identified as the “men in black” keeping the existence of metahumans secret since the late 1950’s.  Public outrage at PRIMUS, their activities, and their methods ensued.

2005 - May
First televised VIPER attack.  PRIMUS releases data showing VIPER has been active in the United States for nearly 10 years.

2009 - March
The superhero group SABRE is founded by Max Powers*,  the owner and CEO of Futuretech Systems.  The group is established in the Futuretech Systems Tower in Capitol City, which is renamed SABRE Tower.  Max Powers also established the SABRE Response Teams (SRTs), whose jobs are to minimize collateral damage (by getting bystanders safely out of the way) and get repairs to the city under way.  [This later part was required by the City Council before they would make the zoning changes to allow SABRE to operate in the city.]

Campaign Starts

*This was a PC in the previous campaign, whom I am keeping as an NPC.  I mention this to avoid being blamed for the name.

VIPER is a mainstay of Champions campaigns as THE villain agency.  I played with the idea of reskinning VIPER to be KRAKEN, but hero universes thrive on multiple villainous agencies, so I decided to keep them separate entities and get VIPER out in front of the other agencies in play by having them show up in the timeline.  There are other groups out there, some deep in the shadows...

BG&L - Saturday Group - Session 5

Attendees
Marcus of the Shield – Human priest of Shallya, Goddess of Healing, Mercy, and Childbirth
Felix Lutsk – Human “acquisitioner”
Zoglug Ironhide – “civilized” Orc warrior
Quetzal – Lizardfolk scout
Belladonna "Frongle" Leagallow – Halfling of many talents and follower of Manann
Jacien Ghel-Aurum –Human wizard, member of the Gold Fellowship
 
 
The group decided to make the Sea Cave their forward base.  To this end, they spent two days gathering supplies to store there and they commissioned the construction of an iron bound door with a frame to hold it.  Jacien requested a large number of eyebolts be embedded in the frame on both sides and across the top.  Felix strongly advocated a good lock be included and this was incorporated into the plan.  The local craftsmen had a door already made that met the necessary specifications, so they only needed to craft the stout frame and embed the eyebolts.  In two days, all the necessary supplies were gathered and stored in Jacien’s shop and on Zoglug’s cart.
 
The group then boarded the Spider Walker and headed west, walking on the waters just off shore.  The rode for six hours before putting in to shore find shelter for the night.  As they arrived on shore, they spotted a ship moving along the coast, heading east towards Lucan’s Clock.  As it passed, they identified it as the Hellborn Strumpet, flying a Sartosan flag.  As the crew of the ship chose not to engage the adventurers, the adventurers chose to not engage the ship.  Frongol was unable to find a good cave for their camp, but she was able to find a good cliff overhang that was low enough to provide cover from the elements.  Watches were set and the group settled in for the night.
 
On the final watch, Zoglug and Marcus should have been alert, but fell asleep.  The other members of the group were awakened to the sounds of large animals rummaging through the stores on the back of the Spider Walker.  Two large beasts with heavy armor and a tail like a mace are eating the foodstuffs the group brought with them.  Quetzal talks to them in a lizard tongue and convinces the two beasts that there is better food a bit further on.  The beasts (not being too bright) agree to move on.

Once the beasts leave, Marcus and Zoglug were woken up and an explanation was demanded.  Zoglug just rolled back over, said it was Marcus’s watch, and went back to sleep.  Marcus claimed he had fallen into a meditative state communing with Shallya and had not noticed the beasts as they posed no threat to the group [that was his story and he was sticking to it].
 
The next day, the group continued heading east on the Spider Walker, out on the waters following the coast.  Two hours in, sharks were spotted circling something further out and the adventurers decided to go investigate.  Jacien directed the Walker further out to sea, slightly disturbing the sharks circling pattern (which changed to now include the Spider Walker).
 
Deep down in the water some of the adventurers could just make out the top mast of a ship.  They suspected that the Hellborn Strumpet had attacked and sank the ship.  Wanting to see what might be down there Quetzal was willing to swim down, but not with a bunch of sharks circling, so the adventurers decided to clear out the sharks by shooting them from the safe confines of the Spider Walker.  This started out OK, but eventually the sharks got riled and one made a leap out of the water and bit Frongol (who was leaning over the edge to get a better shot).  Frongol was yanked off her feet and fell into the water, bleeding from a serious shoulder wound.
 
The sharks started circling closer.
 
Quetzal dropped a rope end into the water and then dove in to help Frongol escape.  Unfortunately, three of the sharks decided Quetzal looked more like food than Frongol did and attacked her.  Quetzal lost an arm to the initial attack and then lost a part of her torso and one of her legs from the thigh down.  She immediately fell unconscious and started bleeding out.
 
With lots of blood in the water, the sharks started frenzying.
 
Frongol was able to grab Quetzal’s unconscious form and drag her over to the dangling rope while the other adventurers concentrated attacks to kill sharks faster.  Felix hauled up Frongol and Quetzal once Frongol wrapped the rope around the two of them.  When another shark approached to attack, Zoglug jumped onto the shark and attacked it!  [Yes, that’s right – Zoglug jumped the shark.]  Other sharks attacked the Spider Walker, doing serious damage to it, threatening to pull it under the waves.

In the end, the adventurers killed six of the eight great whites attacking them, driving off the other two.  Four of the dead sharks were harpooned with ropes attached and were dragged to shore with the Spider Walker as it limped back to shore, the two others sank into the gloom of the bottom.  Marcus was able to keep Quetzal from bleeding out and dying during the fight and a regeneration spell cast once back on shore regrew Quetzal’s lost limbs.  A sheltered spot was quickly located and secured.  Jacien spent the rest of the day doing repairs on the Spider Walker while Quetzal skinned and butchered the sharks with great gusto.
 
That night, everyone had shark steak for dinner.
 
That night, Zoglug and Jacien saw some klakkers (pterodactyls) fly by high overhead.  A little later, after Jacien’s watch finished and Marcus had joined Zoglug on watch, three more of the mace-tailed beasts started wandering towards the camp.  Zoglug woke up Quetzal so she could talk the beasts into leaving peacefully (everyone had had enough fighting for a while with the sharks).  After a fairly short conversation with the beasts, Quetzal redirected them away from the camp.
 
In the morning, the group reviewed their map of the area and discussed possible routes they could take to the Sea Cave.  To speed things up, they decided to cut through a nearby part of the Valley of the Landsharks (where they could make better time with the damaged Spider walker) so they could reach the Sea Cave by sunset.  Along the way they found some wild plants Quetzal recognized as edible, watched some more klakkers fly by (except Frongol, who stayed out of sight), and spotted a cow-herd skeleton partially buried in the ground – obviously a victim of a landshark attack.
 
The adventurers arrived at the Sea Cave just in time for one of the rare rain storms to come by and drench the area.  Quetzal checked the cave for tracks and found signs a Lizardfolk patrol had camped in the cave since the group had last been here (so, sometime in the last week).  The caves were quickly verified to be empty and dry.  After some discussion, the adventurers decided to claim only part of the caves, leaving a few off to one side for others to use (meaning the Lizardfolk patrols).  The group then camped.
 
After breakfast, Jacien went about the business of opening a temporary warp gate to his laboratory back in Lucan’s Clock.  This magic is still experimental for him and there was some concern about the consequences of failure.  Once everyone was ready, he completed the ritual and the gate opened successfully.  The plan was followed and folks rushed through and pushed Zoglug’s cart full of supplies through the gate from the lab to the cave.  The time necessary to do this was under the minute the gate lasted and all the supplies made it safely.
 
While the others unloaded the cart, Jacien had Zoglug haul the door from the Spider to the cave entrance the adventurers wanted to be their front door.  Once the door was in place, Jacien made multiple spell castings, filling the gaps on the sides and top with steel chains summoned from the warp.  The chains linked into the eyebolts along the sides of the doors and drove into the stone walls, anchoring the door firmly in place.
 
With Sea Cave Base established, the adventurers started going about the business of making it comfortable.
 
End of Session

BG&L – Saturday Group – Session 4

Attendees
Felix Lutsk – Human “acquisitioner”
Marcus of the Shield – Human priest of Shallya, Goddess of Healing, Mercy, and Childbirth
Zoglug Ironhide – “civilized” Orc warrior
Quetzal – Lizardfolk scout
Belladonna "Frongle" Leagallow – Halfling 
Jacien Ghel-Aurum –Human wizard, member of the Gold Fellowship


Jacien had been busy since the last outing.  He finalized the shape and form of the Spider Walker, turning it from a prototype into the thing itself.  He also worked out a formula for turning troll’s blood into something useful: potions of Troll Hide*.  His initial batch was a great success, but something went wrong with the second batch and it completely fouled up his apparatus.  Worse yet, even after a thorough cleaning, some residue remained and it spoiled the third and last batch of potions.  This used up all the troll’s blood and left Jacien with 6 potions of Troll Hide and a smelly mess (which he dumped into the bay).

Once the group of adventurers re-assembled, it was decided to give all six of the potions to Marcus, the person most in need of protection in a fight.

The group then discussed their goal for this outing.  Quetzal was firm that she wanted to make it to the end of the Valley of the Landsharks in order to find the ruins rumored to be there.  The others agreed, pausing only to discuss whether or not to thoroughly explore the areas they traveled through or not.  They decided to do so.

Once everyone was loaded into the Spider Walker, Jacien drove it across the surface of the bay, taking the direct route to the Old Colony site.  From there they headed up the Valley of the Landsharks.  They paused to explore the first part of the Valley and then headed up into the hills to the west of the Valley.  While searching that area, several people noticed a landshark attacking a herd of large lizard-beasts in the Valley (suspiciously near where they last parked the Spider Walker).  While he missed seeing the landshark attack, Jacien found a seam of tin ore that should be minable.

The group headed south to Good Cave, a safe and dry cave they discovered previously.  Last time they were here the cave was empty, but this afternoon it had occupants – Felix spotted some local Lizardfolk guarding the entrance to the cave.  Having made peaceful contact previously, Jacien parked the Spider Walker a bit away from the cave but in view of the Lizardfolk (who couldn’t help but notice the noisy contraption).  Quetzal then made her way to the cave on foot and parleyed with the Lizardfolk.  This was another patrol of Lizardfolk from much further south, but their leader had heard of Quetzal from the other patrol.  She learned from the patrol leader that the Lizardfolk to the south had decided there was good reason to start paying attention to the goings on here in the north.  Quetzal then negotiated a sharing of the cave for safe camping that night.

After a quiet night, the Lizardfolk left, continuing their patrol towards the east.  The adventurers head west, moving down into the Valley to look around some.  While exploring the area, Frongol is grabbed and nearly carried off by a Clakker, a flying reptile with a large beak and huge leathery wings [pteradon].  Several of the adventurers reacted at the same time to stop this, but Zoglug was able to cut the beast’s head off with a thrown axe, definitively stopping it.  The group then spent some time cutting off the edible meat while Jacien created a framework over the top of the Spider Walker to stretch the leathery wings, providing relief from the sun.

The group then decided to make better time and traveled along the Valley floor for several hours, scaring a few herds of what they now called Cow-herds [pronounced just like “coward”].  Late in the afternoon, they moved out of the Valley and located a camp site in the hills.  While setting up camp, several notice three landsharks circling around in the valley below.  That night, Zoglug hears a Cow-herd stampede down in the valley, suggesting a landshark attack had happened.

The next morning (after some discussion), the group headed further up the Valley.  They got far enough along that they could see the end of the Valley ahead and the beginnings of a mountain chain far in the distance.  Felix, using the spyglass, was able to spot some ruins at the end of the Valley, including one that reflected light.  He also spotted a landshark approaching from behind.  Jacien immediately drove the Spider Walker into the rocky hills again, but only to the edge this time – the adventurers wanted to get a better look at what was chasing them.

The landshark followed the Spider Walker to the edge of the stony area and then circled a little, not surfacing but its fin was visible plowing through the ground.  Felix decided to try and get it to surface by throwing rocks at a patch of ground off to one side.  Frongol moved closer to watch and see what surfaced.  Felix had little luck until he threw a stone directly at the landshark’s fin.  This provoked it into attacking and it surfaced and charged at Felix.  The adventurers responded quickly, attacking back.  Frongol was able to throw one of her shrunken swords directly into its eye, nearly killing it in one blow and stunning it.  After that, the fight ended quickly.  Felix was raked by the beasts claws, but the rest were not damaged at all.  Then the adventurers made landshark steaks and landshark jerky while Jacien and Quetzal harvested many useful bits from the carcass, including claws, teeth, armored plates, and quite a bit of the creatures blood.

Once that was done, they spent the afternoon on the Spider Walker searching the hills that formed the southern end of the Valley.  They found a set of caves, the last of which was full of salt crystals of immense size.  They made camp there for the night.  During the night, the sounds of animal life was heard often in the area, but nothing bothered them in the cave.  [I rolled three night encounters, but chose not to run them as we were starting to run short on time for the session.]

In the morning, the group took a closer look at the ruins in the valley head.  One structure was a step pyramid with six tiers; it appeared to be completely covered in dark glass.  An adjacent structure was a hill of stone rubble, that might once have been a step pyramid as well.  To the side of the Glass Pyramid was an L-shaped stone platform, 100 ft a side and five feet thick.  Adjacent to these structures was a field of metallic statues set out in a grid 200 ft in diameter.  The adventurers were intrigued, to say the least.

The rode up to the complex on the Spider Walker, which they parked on the stone platform (after having Quetzal verify that it was not likely to be sacred space).  Much closer now, they could see that the statues were the heads of an amphibian creature or creatures.  To Quetzal, they looked exactly like what the gods were supposed to look like; to everyone else they were frog heads of some sort.  They could also now see that in amongst the statues were large egg shells and nesting debris.

Felix, Quetzal, Marcus, and Jacien walked over to get better looks at the statues.  There was a path between the platform and the rubble hill outlined by metallic pillars 20 ft tall.  Closer inspection indicated that the pillars extended down into the ground as well.  The same thing appeared to be true of the statues when they got over to them.  Closer inspection also revealed that all of the hundreds of statues appeared to be of the same being.  Jacien was able to determine that the statues were of zinc or heavily clad in zinc.  The adventurers deduced that the egg shells were probably those of the Cow-herds.  The area was also devoid of landshark furrows, sparking the suggestion that maybe landsharks avoid zinc.

Meanwhile, Zoglug and Frongol investigated the Glass Pyramid – Zoglug had circled it on foot and noticed a worn patch on the fifth tier.  The first thing they noticed was that all the edges were sharp.  Then Zoglug noticed that the glass did not crack or scratch when he walked on it in his hob-nailed boots.  There were steep, shallow steps up one side of the pyramid, which Zoglug found awkward to climb, but Frongol found easy (with her smaller feet and such).  Zoglug stopped at the fifth tier to work his way around to the side with the worn area while Frongol continued to the top.

The top was 30 ft square, with a 10 ft diameter circle inscribed and decorated with gold in the center.  It appeared to be a sunburst of some sort.  Zoglug found a lightly trail leading around to the side, where he found a worn patch on the wall.  He suspected there was a door, but could not find it, so he called Frongol over.

By this point, the rest of the adventurers were done looking at the statues and had moved over to the Glass Pyramid.  Most went up to the top to see what was there before joining Zoglug and Frongol on the side of the pyramid.  Jacien was able to determine that the gold-lined inscribed circle was linked to teleportation magic, probably teleporting into the pyramid.

Around this time, Frongol was able to work out how to open the (very) concealed door on the side of the pyramid.  Beyond it was a short passage (both in height and length) that led to a 5x5 ft shaft descending into the pyramid.  After having Marcus create a light, the group entered the pyramid and started climbing down the side of the shaft, using the metal rungs built into the walls.  At the bottom was another short passage and a door.  Zoglug opened it.

Beyond was a large open chamber, about 30 ft square, but with rounded corners and filled with purple light.  Jacien confirmed the purple light was magical, but was not certain what it did, as it was outside his area of study.  He did know that purple magic followed the lore of Death, but was not necromancy.  Zoglug entered the chamber and said it was fine, but the purple light was “a bit itchy”.

The walls and tall ceiling of the chamber were covered a deep blue, almost black, and constellations were picked out in gems.  [None of the adventurers knew anything about astronomy, so that’s all they got.]  On the floor in the center was an exact duplicate of the sun burst on the roof.  Above it was a depiction of the greater moon done in curved metal pieces, showing the current phase of the moon.

The group searched the room thoroughly for an exit and had trouble finding any until Frongol noticed three gems in a diamond-shaped constellation on one wall were worn and no longer as reflective of the light.  She pushed them in clockwise order and another concealed door opened up.  It was also low and led to the left and then around the corner of the chamber to stairs leading down.  The group descended.

The stairs ended at the backside of a concealed door, which opened into a mostly empty storage room, full of shelves.  The group searched around and was able to find an odd assortment of small figurines, probably game pieces of some sort, but not a game any of them knew about.  They were pocketed for later review.

The door exiting the store room was much larger and wider than the concealed doors and opened on a hallway with an open lounge across the hall from the storeroom.  In the lounge were three very wide but low chairs.  They reminded Quetzal of the chairs the gods were supposed to favor – however the stories she had heard never mentioned the comfy cushions.  The hallway went left and right about 30 ft and was painted in abstract patterns of soothing greens.  There were two doors across from one another at each end.

Following the Left Hand Rule, the adventurers turned left and walked to the doors on the left.  One door was of the over-large size, the other much smaller.  They tried the larger door and found a room with rounded corners almost completely filled with a large round pool, nearly four feet deep.  The water was pure and clear.  They looked around and found little other than the pool.  There was some discussion about the room and its possible use, but they could not come to any conclusions.

Moving across the hall to the smaller door, they opened it and found a kitchen and food preparation area.  Seated at a table were three motionless skinks that looked partially decayed.  Jacien looked at the skinks with his Alchemechikal Eye and found the skinks to all be heavily infused with purple magic.  Zoglug went up and poked one of them to see if they were squishy or leathery – it swatted his hand and told Zoglug not to poke it in the tongue of the skinks.

This surprised everyone.

Quetzal stepped forward and had a conversation with the skink in the skink tongue.  Afterwards, she said the skinks were servitors of “The Masters,” who seemed to have been gone for a while, she was not certain how long as the skink described the amount of time in a way she did not understand.  She also said that the skinks suggested there might be interesting things in the Antiquities Building adjacent to this pyramid.  The adventurers believe they mean the ruined pile next to this pyramid, which suggests the skinks have not been outside in some time.

Not seeing any profit in attacking the skinks (and suspecting there might be significant danger in doing so), the adventurers left the kitchen and closed the doors.  They then went and investigated the doors at the far end of the hall.  The doors there were of the very large style and both led to rooms almost identical to the first room with the pool.  This led to speculation that “The Masters” needed the water for either rejuvenation or rest, based on the frog-like appearance of the statues outside.

Unable to find any further means down, the group retreated back up and out of the pyramid.  With many questions and few answers, the adventurers decide to head back to Lucan’s Clock.  [Also, it was starting to get late.]  They chose to head due west, deducing from their partial map of the coast that the coast may be nearby to the west.  After two hours of riding in the Spider Walker, they find the coast was in deed where they thought it might be.  They searched that area and found an excellent gave with a good view of the sea.  They set up camp in it.

The next morning, they use the Spider Walker to follow the coast on the water.  After riding for most of the day, they turned towards shore again to search out a good place to camp.  They found a mostly hidden inlet adjacent to a large cave full of bats.  There was a primitive mooring post in the inlet near shore and they found some guano mining tools near the entrance to the cave.  They looked relatively recently used, suggesting someone was using this cave surreptitiously.  Jacien was very excited to find this cave, as there are many things he can alchemically make with bat guano.

Two days later, the group finally arrived back at Lucan’s Clock.  They found precious little in the way of wealth this trip, but a good deal of knowledge and many useful locations.

End of Session

* Potion of Troll Hide:
6 PD / 4 ED Armour     19 Active Points

OAF: Potion Bottle, Fragile (Easily Spilled) -1 1/4
1 Hours Extra Time, Startup (Brewing) -1 1/2
1/2 DCV Concentrate Throughout -1/2
Gestures -1/4
Incantation -1/4
6 x 1 Minute Charges -0
Charges Never Recover -2
Independent -2
RSR: Alchemist Skill (-1/2)

2 REAL

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)

Blood, Gold, and Lizards - Saturday Group - Session 2

Attendees

Marcus of the Shield – male Human priest of Shallya, Goddess of Healing, Mercy, and Childbirth
Zoglug Ironhide – “civilized” male orc warrior
Jacien Ghel-Aurum – male human wizard, member of the Gold Fellowship
Belladonna "Frongle" Leagallow


With Quetzal off following a clue to the man who killed her teacher (player was out of town), the rest of the group decided to hold off on exploring the temple ruins at the end of the Valley of the Landsharks. Instead, they decided to explore areas closer to Lucan’s Clock. Additionally, rather than walking, Jacien brought out his recently unpacked “spider-walker” – a contraption shaped like an open-topped wagon, but with eight legs instead of four wheels. It can carry eight people (or a driver and seven people-worth of cargo) and move across any surface, but it is amazingly noisy in operation. After fueling it up with an alchemical cake of reagents, Jacien convinced the others to climb aboard and strap in. He then fired up the contraption by concentrating gold magic into it and drove it up the side of the cliff Lucan’s Clock is built along. After clearing the rocky escarpment edge, Jacien drove the spider-walker among the farmlands that follow the river above Lucan’s Clock.

[A geographical aside: Lucan’s Clock is built on a cluster of ledges on a 100 ft tall cliff that wraps around the bay, right at a point where a single river passes through a short tunnel/chute at the top of the cliff and into the bay, creating a waterfall that forms the edge of town. The inhabitants refer to the river simply as “the river” as Lucan’s Clock was not founded by explorers or colonists but by pirates looking for a natural port with access to fresh water.]

After an hour’s drive, the group got out and explored the farmlands area a bit. They found that the majority of the “farms” were actually vineyards or orchards and all were walled to some extent or another. A few even had watch towers with people in them. Additionally, the “farms” were generally speaking small and spaced apart from each other, many making use of the gently rolling terrain for defensive purposes. This went a long way towards explaining why the town was perpetually short on food, but not why the walls were necessary. The group speculated that perhaps pirates from town would periodically come out to the farms for “discounted resupply” and the walls were so the farmers could keep ahold of their crops.

Remounting the spider-walker, the group attempted to head further east. However, Jacien found that controlling the spider-walker consumed so much of his attention that he could not operate it and use his navigation equipment effectively. (They got lost.) After passing the same farm a third time (Frongle had marked it with chalk the second time past it), they stopped to get their bearings. While Jacien was using his sextant, a group of farmers casually holding staves and shillelaghs came up to the spider-walker and asked what the group was up to. The adventurers talked with the farmers, who were cautious, but not hostile. After getting some directions (and Zoglug a heavy-lifting job offer), the adventurers moved on.

Working their way back to the river, Jacien piloted the spider-walker along a dirt track that followed the river. Along the way, a broken wagon wheel was spotted by the roadside. Jacien claimed the metal parts and the wood was broken up for use as firewood later.

After leaving the farmland areas, the group stopped again to explore the area. While doing so, Jacien and Marcus independently noticed armed groups of men moving to encircle the adventurers. They headed back towards the spider-walker, gathering Zoglug and Frongle along the way. Just as they reached the spider-walker, the bandits attacked!

The 15 bandits were split between men with swords (9) and those with bows (6). Marcus was able to get of his ward vs. harm* spell at the start, which turned out to be very helpful during the fight. The adventurers learned the hard way that the archers were very skilled. Early in the fight, Jacien missed one group of archers with a fireball. “Luckily” for him, all the archers targeted Marcus with their first volley. Marcus was not killed, but he was knocked unconscious by the volley. Frongle brained one of the three bandits charging her with a rock, taking the bandit out of the fight, but she spent the rest of the fight tangling with the other two.

Jacien led three other bandits over to where Zoglug had gone frenzied and was chopping bandits in half. This slowed the bandits down a bit as they each waited for the others to attack the frenzied orc first. The archers started targeting Jacien at this point, whittling him down. Nearly unconscious after a second volley of arrows, Jacien tried to even the odds by dropping another explosion on half the archers. He failed his spellcheck and the backlash from the spell knocked him unconscious.

This turned out to be a minor blessing as the archers assumed Jacien was dead or unconscious due to the arrows sticking out of him and switched targets to the orc, closing in slightly for better range. This was a mistake as it put them just within charge range of the orc, who did so (after the last of the swordsmen broke morale and fled). After unexpectedly killing one of the archers in a single blow (unexpectedly to the archers at least), the archers scattered and fled. Zoglug, gripped in his frenzy, chased after one of them, eventually catching him and killing him. A lot.

In the meantime, Frongle had nearly killed both of the two swordsmen attacking her, using well-aimed rocks to the head. Noticing the rout of their companions, the two battle-drunk swordsmen retreated; shouting threats back at Frongle as they left. Jacien, recently recovered, finally dropped an accurate explosion on the two bandits, killing them. End of threats.

Comparing notes after the fight while Marcus healed folks up (and Zoglug took his fury out on some innocent trees before finally calming down), the adventures noted that the archers were noticeably skilled. Checking the bodies of the two dead archers turned up amulets bearing the symbol of a bow and arrow, with the arrow head being the sunburst symbol of Dazh, the Kislev God of Sun and Fire. This seemed significant, but they could not work out how.

Gathering the salvageable gear from the bandits, the adventurers moved off a bit to a more defensible spot and made camp. They set up a false camp 100 ft away with a large fire surrounded by some of the damaged bandit armor stuffed with grass, posed to appear sleeping. The adventurer’s own fire was made in a pit and kept low so it would not be easily seen. The night was quiet, but in the morning they found the bandit armor in the false camp missing. With no immediate danger, the group rested in camp for another hour to make up for some of the lost sleep due to their watch schedule (they slept only 6 hours each so no one person was on watch alone).

After packing up camp, Jacien fired up the spider-walker and continued following the river upstream. They reach the fork in the valley. The trail they have been following continued to parallel the river up the left-hand branch, but they decided to follow the right-hand branch towards the Dry Plateau. They noticed that there were no signs of travel nor habitation this way.

The Dry Plateau is demarked by a tall escarpment (cliff), which Jacien walked the spider-walker up. The Dry Plateau itself is miles across, surrounded by tall hills, and covered with grasslands. Riding in the spider-walker, most of the group was able to see over the tall grasses, but not Frongle most of the time. They followed the southern (right-hand) side of the plateau and eventually found a tall (7-8 feet in height) but flat stone with a man standing atop it, apparently giving a speech or sermon. They could not see who might be in the grass receiving the speech/sermon, so they decided to approach cautiously…riding the incredibly noisy spider-walker. They got much closer than they expected before the man on the stone noticed them.

Once the man on the stone noticed the group approaching (and they shut down the spider-walker), they realized that what the man was doing was raving, with no audience in the grass. They eventually learned that the man was Ivar of the Stone (as he called himself) and he warned them he had walked the Stone Road and seen the impending doom of mankind – although he was not forthcoming about the specifics. He was also wearing a hat formed out of very thin sheets of what appeared to be tin on his head. He ranted about the Lightning Heart and the Great Bird a bit, but completely freaked when the adventurers mentioned the stone egg they had found. When Jacien pulled out the egg itself and set it on the enormous stone Ivar was standing on, Ivar retreated immediately, running back to a previously unnoticed small yurt behind the stone, convincingly slamming the flap of the yurt behind him.

Curious, the adventurers approached the yurt and continued talking to Ivar through the leather walls of the yurt. Zoglug looked around the big stone and found poorly-carved little figurines stashed on and around the big stone. Marcus decided to pull back the flap of the yurt and nearly got hit by a heavily inscribed “crossbow bolt” from a homemade (and completely ineffectual) crossbow in Ivar’s hands. Ivar dropped the crossbow and continued ranting at the adventurers.

While the group continued to talk at Ivar, he started gathering pieces of junk from around his yurt and assembling it on the floor. He laid out some long bent strips of metal into a rough circle. He placed a large quartz crystal at one of the junctures of the metal strips and a carved stone statue with weird glyphs on it at another. He then set a large ruby on the stone statue and sat himself down in the circle. At this point Frongle brought up in conversation the metal circle the group had (from the wagon wheel) and went to go get it (conveniently moving herself away from the yurt – “just in case”). With a final “Ha! I’ll show you!”, Ivar turned the quartz crystal to “face” the stone statue. The quartz lit up with a blinding light (and suddenly registered as magic to Jacien’s alchemechanical eye) and then the yurt and everything inside it disappeared. Being cagey, none of the adventurers had actually entered the yurt, so they were still present.

Jacien started analyzing the magical residues (with his alchemechanical monocle) and found a thin (but fading) line of magic connecting where the yurt had been to the big stone. The magic appeared to be High Magic. Thinking the yurt was somehow inside the big stone (it was large enough), Jacien analyzed the big stone. He discovered three thin lines of magical force emanating from the stone, each heading towards a different point on the horizon.

Not certain what just happened, the group decided to instead return to Lucan’s Clock, riding on the spider-walker at top speed. This took the rest of the afternoon, but the group made it back to town just as the sun was starting to set.

End of Session

* Ward vs. Harm – provides +1 DEF, +1 Mental Defense, +1 Power Defense, and +3 DCV

Blood, Gold, and Lizards: Saturday Group

Here are the Saturday Group characters for my new campaign:

Belladonna "Frongol" Leagallow – a Halfling professional adventurer and cleric of Mannan, God of the Seas. Officially at Lucan’s Clock to support the Temple of Mannan. she may also be there to see that the Temple “has access to any resources discovered.”

Jacien Ghel-Aurum – a transmuter and alchemist of the Gold Fellowship. He’s in Lustria to establish a presence for his college (read: beachhead) and locate “usable local resources”.

Quetzal – a Lizardfolk shaman-in-training sent on a quest by the murder of her teacher. She seeks a stolen artifact of her tribe and a “9-fingered human male”.

Marcus of the Shield – a priest of Shallya, Goddess of Healing and Mercy. He is one of the few male priests and was sent to Lustria mostly to get him someplace where he “wouldn’t cause any trouble”.

Zoglug – an Orc mercenary on the lookout for food, loot, and a good fight, not necessarily in that order.


This particular group of “intrepid adventurers” will be starting in Lucan’s Clock, the official colony of the Sarcosan Republic. I have no idea of what they will get up to or where they will want to explore on the mainland, but I have many (weird) things ready for them. Starting date for this group is May 18th.


I find it interesting that the Friday group turned out wizard-heavy while the Saturday group is almost cleric-heavy (a priest, a religious rep, and a shaman-in-training). There was some discussion amongst players about what they were playing, but not enough to account for this. I’m really interested in how this plays out on both sides.