Climbing down the other side of the fence, the party realizes that it was a trap. The kid is nowhere to be seen, but six armed men are waiting for them. It was a blood bath. The group took some damage, but in the end they killed every single attacker, even those who were trying to escape.
These guys are mean.
One of the guys had been clearly headed for a door. They went inside. They were expected. The kid must have ran through and told everyone to be prepared. 10 guys, armed to the teeth; greeted them at the door.
Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.
They let the last one live on the condition that he tells them everything he knows about the Crimson Boar. Confused, the rogue (Belthor) tells them that he doesn't know much about them at all. He's a part of an underground clan of rogues who have a system set up where kids pick pockets and run, and if anyone tries to stop them they have to deal with a huge pack of armed men. They do other thief stuff too, but that's the operation that brought the group to them today.
"Oh you don't work with the Crimson Boar?"
"No, why would you think that?"
"Nevermind, I'm getting things confused." LOL.
So anyway, the other condition in which Belthor lives is if he joins Torbit and Aust and Kon. He agrees, mentioning that he has nothing left in this town anyway.
"So where is our money?"
Belthor shrugs, "They run through the building and out into the streets on the other side. They're expected to deposit their scores at a building in town."
Whatever. It wasn't much money, it isn't worth the time. Especially when they already have a night of travel to make up for. Aust buys one of the falcon's that Rechonn is known for and they head for the exit once more.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Monday, September 8, 2014
Whoops.
A forcefield ripples across the space between each of the three pillars. The demon lashes out but is blocked by the field.
"What is your name?" Torbit asked boldly.
"Filthy, puny, mortal!" it screamed. It slammed a fist into the nearest pillar; the pillar shook, a few bits of mortar crumbling from the side.
"We need to leave," Aust said.
The three of them ducked out of the room, back into the lower water logged level watchtower. They took the spiral staircase up until they found themselves back where Jynxie had been waiting for them.
"What happened?" she asked. She took a step forward and slipped, falling directly into the water. Her armor dragged her down to the depths below where she is presumed to still be.
With a demon on their trail; Torbit, Aust, Kon, and Yorik didn't wait around to find out if she was going to be okay and definitely didn't have the time to dive in and rescue her. (At the start of this session when I told the player of Jynxie that she wouldn't have a chance at surviving the water escape with all of that armor on, and should consider removing some of it; the player said "Whatever, I don't even care. You can just kill me off if you want." So that's what I did. Fuck her.)
They got out, running past the man and his son without a word of warning; just jetted out of the watchtower and back onto the trail. With the fire along the watchtowers, the yeti were cowed and remained hidden.
The road only ran in one direction, so Aust didn't need to use his tracking skills to figure out where the wagons had gone. They rode that day and arrived in the city of Rechonn late in the afternoon. They asked the city guard about any wagon arrivals and the city guard told them of three such arrivals; mentioning as an aside that they don't receive too many travelers this time of year.
Before investigating the wagons, they first investigate what anyone knows of the Bloody Boar. Most people shy from the topic, but a knight (at the Broken Shield, an inn and tavern that caters to city guardsmen) tells them a little about the Bloody Boar. "First," he tells them; "Bloody Boars is an insult. They are the Fraternal Order of the Crimson Boar. Secondly, they are great contributers to society; helping the poor and the farmers of the land. Thirdly, they have a chapter in town; up in the residential district." Of course he doesn't just blurt it all out like that, they probed him for this information.
So where do they go? The Fraternal Order of the Crimson Boar HQ in the residential area. What they find is a mansion. They investigate the mansion, even take a tour of the place. They learn jack-squat about who they are following, only learn some info about the organization. The Crimson Boar appear to be on the up-and-up despite the rape party in the last city.
Dead end. They talk to the governor, Baron Someshit Orother. Dead end. Finally, I remind them of the wagons and they check that shit out. Dead end. All of the wagons in town are merchants, none of which were the ones they were following.
"They never stopped in town," Aust says.
"Or they're hiding," Torbit suggests. Aust raises an eyebrow. Rather than have them chase a bunch more dead ends I just tell them that Aust is right, they never stopped in Rechonn.
It is late at night by now and they decide to rest up and start out in the morning. When morning comes Yorik announces that he's decided to retire "in light of recent events." He also vows never to celebrate the harvest again. He wishes them well, they shake hands and part company.
As Torbit, Aust, and Kon are making their way out of town, Kon notices a tug at his side and a child runs ahead with one of his coin purses. "Hey!" he screams, running after the kid. Aust and Torbit check their purses and find them similarly missing, they give chase as well.
The kids bob and weave through the crowd, ducking and diving nimbly along while the mercenaries find themselves bumping into everyone in their path. At last though, when they thought that they had at last lost the kids; Aust happened to notice one of them sitting atop a fence that stretches between two buildings. The kid smirked and hopped down on the other side.
Aust, Torbit, and Kon decided to climb the fence in pursuit. Seriously, you can get these guys to chase anything.
Stay tuned for what happens on the other side of the fence...
dun dun DUNNNNNN
"What is your name?" Torbit asked boldly.
"Filthy, puny, mortal!" it screamed. It slammed a fist into the nearest pillar; the pillar shook, a few bits of mortar crumbling from the side.
"We need to leave," Aust said.
The three of them ducked out of the room, back into the lower water logged level watchtower. They took the spiral staircase up until they found themselves back where Jynxie had been waiting for them.
"What happened?" she asked. She took a step forward and slipped, falling directly into the water. Her armor dragged her down to the depths below where she is presumed to still be.
With a demon on their trail; Torbit, Aust, Kon, and Yorik didn't wait around to find out if she was going to be okay and definitely didn't have the time to dive in and rescue her. (At the start of this session when I told the player of Jynxie that she wouldn't have a chance at surviving the water escape with all of that armor on, and should consider removing some of it; the player said "Whatever, I don't even care. You can just kill me off if you want." So that's what I did. Fuck her.)
They got out, running past the man and his son without a word of warning; just jetted out of the watchtower and back onto the trail. With the fire along the watchtowers, the yeti were cowed and remained hidden.
The road only ran in one direction, so Aust didn't need to use his tracking skills to figure out where the wagons had gone. They rode that day and arrived in the city of Rechonn late in the afternoon. They asked the city guard about any wagon arrivals and the city guard told them of three such arrivals; mentioning as an aside that they don't receive too many travelers this time of year.
Before investigating the wagons, they first investigate what anyone knows of the Bloody Boar. Most people shy from the topic, but a knight (at the Broken Shield, an inn and tavern that caters to city guardsmen) tells them a little about the Bloody Boar. "First," he tells them; "Bloody Boars is an insult. They are the Fraternal Order of the Crimson Boar. Secondly, they are great contributers to society; helping the poor and the farmers of the land. Thirdly, they have a chapter in town; up in the residential district." Of course he doesn't just blurt it all out like that, they probed him for this information.
So where do they go? The Fraternal Order of the Crimson Boar HQ in the residential area. What they find is a mansion. They investigate the mansion, even take a tour of the place. They learn jack-squat about who they are following, only learn some info about the organization. The Crimson Boar appear to be on the up-and-up despite the rape party in the last city.
Dead end. They talk to the governor, Baron Someshit Orother. Dead end. Finally, I remind them of the wagons and they check that shit out. Dead end. All of the wagons in town are merchants, none of which were the ones they were following.
"They never stopped in town," Aust says.
"Or they're hiding," Torbit suggests. Aust raises an eyebrow. Rather than have them chase a bunch more dead ends I just tell them that Aust is right, they never stopped in Rechonn.
It is late at night by now and they decide to rest up and start out in the morning. When morning comes Yorik announces that he's decided to retire "in light of recent events." He also vows never to celebrate the harvest again. He wishes them well, they shake hands and part company.
As Torbit, Aust, and Kon are making their way out of town, Kon notices a tug at his side and a child runs ahead with one of his coin purses. "Hey!" he screams, running after the kid. Aust and Torbit check their purses and find them similarly missing, they give chase as well.
The kids bob and weave through the crowd, ducking and diving nimbly along while the mercenaries find themselves bumping into everyone in their path. At last though, when they thought that they had at last lost the kids; Aust happened to notice one of them sitting atop a fence that stretches between two buildings. The kid smirked and hopped down on the other side.
Aust, Torbit, and Kon decided to climb the fence in pursuit. Seriously, you can get these guys to chase anything.
Stay tuned for what happens on the other side of the fence...
dun dun DUNNNNNN
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Down the spiral... stairs.
That was a Nine Inch Nails reference.
They head down the stairs into another spherical chamber below. There is a door on the wall. They opened the door (barely notable lock/puzzle combo) and opened the door to reveal a long tunnel. Following the length of the tunnel they soon found themselves inside of a large cave-like chamber that stretches farther than the lights of their torches can reach.
The light does illuminate a few things, however. First, there is a boat suspended by a chain from the ceiling. Second, that the chain leads to a locked wheel. Third, that the place is filled with water, stretching farther than what they can see.
They can hear something moving around on the other side.
They picked the lock like it was a breeze and lowered the boat the ground. They got in the boat, rowed across the little lake, and as they approached the shore they found out what was making that noise; two large lizards (she size of labradors) with fan-blades on their backs. One of them called out, the other made a noise and some sparks of light could be seen flickering from inside its nostrils.
"Where are the boy and the man?" one of them asked at this point.
"What?" I said. "Oh, they uh... they stayed back in the safety of the watch tower up near the fire."
"Oh."
So they land on the shore and their torches pick up the glimmer of some coins against a far wall beside yet another fucking door. The lizards rush them as soon as they get off the boat, and these things were tough. They hit with claws and bites and whipped with their tails. They had three attacks each turn and every other turn they could trade in two attacks for a fire-breathing attack (save vs dex to take 1/2 damage). The breath did 3d6+2 points of damage. They got very burned.
Eventually, however; the party emerged victorious and attacked the pile of silver and copper and the pair of gems inside. They refilled their purses not even considering why a pile of money was sitting on the ground by fire-lizard-things. Had the ranger rangered up the place they would have determined that this was someone's stash... Someone who will likely find out about what happened. Someone who will one day show up and be like "You killed my fire lizards and stole my moneys!!!"
But Aust didn't ranger the place up. Instead he waited, along with everyone else, for Tobin to unlock the door. The door lead to another tunnel that lead to another watchtower's spherical interior. Stairs lead up and down, up lead to nothing noteworthy; a caved in ground level chamber and another fire chamber that is already lit. This tower, however; had a set of stairs that descended into a water filled chamber center.
The alchemist made a stone glow like a light or some shit and dropped it into the depths. The stone was soon lost to the dark cloudiness below, but not before highlighting what appeared to be a room about ten feet down. "Let's go down, let's go down!"
Yorik follows Aust, Tobin, Kon, and Jynxie into the water. Jynxie, being decked out in head to toe armor, sunk like a rock; darting downward past the others leaving a flood of bubbles in her wake. As she navigated toward the steps and began walking back toward the surface, the others reach the chamber. Peaking inside, they find an air pocket.
They go inside (except for Jynxie, who is going up for air) and stand up; the water is waist high. At the center of the room there is a circular altar that comes up to about their chests, three equidistant blocks of stone stand at the edges of the alter. On each stone is a symbol; a tree, a sunburst, and a skull. Aust and Tobin remember that they have one ring each, a sunburst and a tree... They realize that they are missing the third ring.
Rather than make a whole side-adventure for them to find the third ring (which, in retrospect, I should have done); I just had Yorik be all like "you mean a ring like one of these?" and pull out a skull ring. He was there when they found theirs, so it wasn't illogical for him to have one.
They put the rings in, but nothing happened. They tried again. Nothing. They deduced that they would need to put the rings into their stones in a specific order to activate whatever the alter was. I wondered briefly why they thought activating an altar would be a good idea, but never voiced this opinion.
Eventually they got it right; Sun, Tree, Skull. A whirl of smoke started to rise from the alter, catching into a tornado-like vortex as the crackle of electricity ran along the stones wherein their rings were pressed. A large shadow-black hand rose from the alter and pulled up the form of a black-skinned four-armed demon with the body of a serpent. His eyes glowed red like embers and there was something hungry in his look.
The demon let out a loud scream that shook the walls and sent several stones to fall from the ceiling.
"I think we should be going," Yorik says with an awed whisper.
... And that is where we left off for the session. I hope, for their sake, that they just run away. This is not an enemy they are ready to face yet.
They head down the stairs into another spherical chamber below. There is a door on the wall. They opened the door (barely notable lock/puzzle combo) and opened the door to reveal a long tunnel. Following the length of the tunnel they soon found themselves inside of a large cave-like chamber that stretches farther than the lights of their torches can reach.
The light does illuminate a few things, however. First, there is a boat suspended by a chain from the ceiling. Second, that the chain leads to a locked wheel. Third, that the place is filled with water, stretching farther than what they can see.
They can hear something moving around on the other side.
They picked the lock like it was a breeze and lowered the boat the ground. They got in the boat, rowed across the little lake, and as they approached the shore they found out what was making that noise; two large lizards (she size of labradors) with fan-blades on their backs. One of them called out, the other made a noise and some sparks of light could be seen flickering from inside its nostrils.
"Where are the boy and the man?" one of them asked at this point.
"What?" I said. "Oh, they uh... they stayed back in the safety of the watch tower up near the fire."
"Oh."
So they land on the shore and their torches pick up the glimmer of some coins against a far wall beside yet another fucking door. The lizards rush them as soon as they get off the boat, and these things were tough. They hit with claws and bites and whipped with their tails. They had three attacks each turn and every other turn they could trade in two attacks for a fire-breathing attack (save vs dex to take 1/2 damage). The breath did 3d6+2 points of damage. They got very burned.
Eventually, however; the party emerged victorious and attacked the pile of silver and copper and the pair of gems inside. They refilled their purses not even considering why a pile of money was sitting on the ground by fire-lizard-things. Had the ranger rangered up the place they would have determined that this was someone's stash... Someone who will likely find out about what happened. Someone who will one day show up and be like "You killed my fire lizards and stole my moneys!!!"
But Aust didn't ranger the place up. Instead he waited, along with everyone else, for Tobin to unlock the door. The door lead to another tunnel that lead to another watchtower's spherical interior. Stairs lead up and down, up lead to nothing noteworthy; a caved in ground level chamber and another fire chamber that is already lit. This tower, however; had a set of stairs that descended into a water filled chamber center.
The alchemist made a stone glow like a light or some shit and dropped it into the depths. The stone was soon lost to the dark cloudiness below, but not before highlighting what appeared to be a room about ten feet down. "Let's go down, let's go down!"
Yorik follows Aust, Tobin, Kon, and Jynxie into the water. Jynxie, being decked out in head to toe armor, sunk like a rock; darting downward past the others leaving a flood of bubbles in her wake. As she navigated toward the steps and began walking back toward the surface, the others reach the chamber. Peaking inside, they find an air pocket.
They go inside (except for Jynxie, who is going up for air) and stand up; the water is waist high. At the center of the room there is a circular altar that comes up to about their chests, three equidistant blocks of stone stand at the edges of the alter. On each stone is a symbol; a tree, a sunburst, and a skull. Aust and Tobin remember that they have one ring each, a sunburst and a tree... They realize that they are missing the third ring.
Rather than make a whole side-adventure for them to find the third ring (which, in retrospect, I should have done); I just had Yorik be all like "you mean a ring like one of these?" and pull out a skull ring. He was there when they found theirs, so it wasn't illogical for him to have one.
They put the rings in, but nothing happened. They tried again. Nothing. They deduced that they would need to put the rings into their stones in a specific order to activate whatever the alter was. I wondered briefly why they thought activating an altar would be a good idea, but never voiced this opinion.
Eventually they got it right; Sun, Tree, Skull. A whirl of smoke started to rise from the alter, catching into a tornado-like vortex as the crackle of electricity ran along the stones wherein their rings were pressed. A large shadow-black hand rose from the alter and pulled up the form of a black-skinned four-armed demon with the body of a serpent. His eyes glowed red like embers and there was something hungry in his look.
The demon let out a loud scream that shook the walls and sent several stones to fall from the ceiling.
"I think we should be going," Yorik says with an awed whisper.
... And that is where we left off for the session. I hope, for their sake, that they just run away. This is not an enemy they are ready to face yet.
Monday, August 25, 2014
All along the watch tower.
(Jimi reference or Dylan reference? You decide...)
Inside are a middle aged man and a boy of about twelve. Between them is a small bag with lumps inside (allegedly vegetables). The man ushers them inside, welcomes them to his fire. They explain that they are returning from the harvest festival. He complains that they held it too late in the season this year, counting moons is a poor method of determining festivals.
They sit by the fire, warming up, perhaps drying a bit. They start to hear some noises from outside. A pounding at the ground, a rustle of movement. A howling call sounds from somewhere distant. They see shadows darting between trees. The pounding and galloping sounds start to come more often and from different places.
Aust looks hard using his ranger eyes to get a rough estimate of how many are out there and what the hell they are. He counts more than 20, mentions that it sounds like there are more. A moment of 'oh shit' sweeps over the group.
Large ape-like creatures with thick white hair covering their bodies. They are Yeti and they are pissed off about something. They start throwing large rocks and branches, the rocks hit the fire and spread embers on everyone. Dex checks. Aust's cloak somehow darted around to stop the embers from hitting him. Ooooo. Magic.
Aust, Tobin, Yorik, and Jynxie step outside to deal with the yeti menace while the boy and the man stayed inside. Kon stayed inside with them, throwing bottles/vials of his shit at them. The alchemist works kind of like a mage, but with elixirs, powders, and bombs. Plus it's pseudo-science rather than pure magic.
Anyway, the battle rages on. They defeat one yeti just for another to take its place. My yeti aren't rolling very well to be honest, but the sheer number of them makes them a threat. A very boring threat, in my opinion. Sometimes long combat can be dull. Most times, actually. So I made the yeti start to surround the people who stepped outside of the watchtower. The yeti couldn't get behind them, but there were three on each of the players outside.
Then the boy from inside the tower yells. "I found a door!"
Yorik politely excuses himself, "I'll go check that out." The rest fight on. Yorik soon calls back his discovery. "It's locked! Anyone know how to pick a lock?!"
Yep. Tobin. So Tobin keeps a couple yeti at bay and then ducks into the tower ruins behind the fire, oblivious to the fact that the yeti did not follow him inside. Actually no one picked up on that. I even pointed it out and they didn't get it. Fucking stoners.
Anyway, Tobin attempts to unlock the doors but fails while the yeti continue to attack the group. After each unsuccessful attempt on the lock, the others battled their yeti. They were starting to take a beating. At last Tobin succeeds and announces it to the group, who waste no time following them inside. They close the door behind them. It is dark inside.
Tobin says he wants to hide in shadows. He rolls for it. I don't know why, no one has lit a torch; it is impossible at this point to not hide in the shadows. But he rolled successful so... I don't know what that means.
Anyway, despite me mentioning that it was DARK, none of them thought to light a torch until they started to get curious as to why I'm not describing the place. Shhiiiiiittttttt.
They light a torch and find themselves in a cylindrical tower, a set of steps curls around the side of the room, one set goes up, the other goes down. They go up and find themselves in a small room with a shallow trench cuts the room in half. A large shallow bowl shape is dug into the floor at the very center of the room, taking up most of the floor. There remains some ancient dry kindling at the center.
Kon splashes a little pure alcohol onto the kindling and lights it up. The fire spreads, staying within the confines of the trenches but following them out of the room to light a series of fires at the other watch towers. The apes below scream in fright and then go very quiet.
They figure out, finally; that the yeti were afraid to approach the camp because of the fire. That the fire was what kept them at bay. Fire. I should be less vague next time.
But they still wanted to go down stairs.
So I let them. I had something kind of nasty planned for them and was hoping they'd bite at it.
Inside are a middle aged man and a boy of about twelve. Between them is a small bag with lumps inside (allegedly vegetables). The man ushers them inside, welcomes them to his fire. They explain that they are returning from the harvest festival. He complains that they held it too late in the season this year, counting moons is a poor method of determining festivals.
They sit by the fire, warming up, perhaps drying a bit. They start to hear some noises from outside. A pounding at the ground, a rustle of movement. A howling call sounds from somewhere distant. They see shadows darting between trees. The pounding and galloping sounds start to come more often and from different places.
Aust looks hard using his ranger eyes to get a rough estimate of how many are out there and what the hell they are. He counts more than 20, mentions that it sounds like there are more. A moment of 'oh shit' sweeps over the group.
Large ape-like creatures with thick white hair covering their bodies. They are Yeti and they are pissed off about something. They start throwing large rocks and branches, the rocks hit the fire and spread embers on everyone. Dex checks. Aust's cloak somehow darted around to stop the embers from hitting him. Ooooo. Magic.
Aust, Tobin, Yorik, and Jynxie step outside to deal with the yeti menace while the boy and the man stayed inside. Kon stayed inside with them, throwing bottles/vials of his shit at them. The alchemist works kind of like a mage, but with elixirs, powders, and bombs. Plus it's pseudo-science rather than pure magic.
Anyway, the battle rages on. They defeat one yeti just for another to take its place. My yeti aren't rolling very well to be honest, but the sheer number of them makes them a threat. A very boring threat, in my opinion. Sometimes long combat can be dull. Most times, actually. So I made the yeti start to surround the people who stepped outside of the watchtower. The yeti couldn't get behind them, but there were three on each of the players outside.
Then the boy from inside the tower yells. "I found a door!"
Yorik politely excuses himself, "I'll go check that out." The rest fight on. Yorik soon calls back his discovery. "It's locked! Anyone know how to pick a lock?!"
Yep. Tobin. So Tobin keeps a couple yeti at bay and then ducks into the tower ruins behind the fire, oblivious to the fact that the yeti did not follow him inside. Actually no one picked up on that. I even pointed it out and they didn't get it. Fucking stoners.
Anyway, Tobin attempts to unlock the doors but fails while the yeti continue to attack the group. After each unsuccessful attempt on the lock, the others battled their yeti. They were starting to take a beating. At last Tobin succeeds and announces it to the group, who waste no time following them inside. They close the door behind them. It is dark inside.
Tobin says he wants to hide in shadows. He rolls for it. I don't know why, no one has lit a torch; it is impossible at this point to not hide in the shadows. But he rolled successful so... I don't know what that means.
Anyway, despite me mentioning that it was DARK, none of them thought to light a torch until they started to get curious as to why I'm not describing the place. Shhiiiiiittttttt.
They light a torch and find themselves in a cylindrical tower, a set of steps curls around the side of the room, one set goes up, the other goes down. They go up and find themselves in a small room with a shallow trench cuts the room in half. A large shallow bowl shape is dug into the floor at the very center of the room, taking up most of the floor. There remains some ancient dry kindling at the center.
Kon splashes a little pure alcohol onto the kindling and lights it up. The fire spreads, staying within the confines of the trenches but following them out of the room to light a series of fires at the other watch towers. The apes below scream in fright and then go very quiet.
They figure out, finally; that the yeti were afraid to approach the camp because of the fire. That the fire was what kept them at bay. Fire. I should be less vague next time.
But they still wanted to go down stairs.
So I let them. I had something kind of nasty planned for them and was hoping they'd bite at it.
No comment from Aust
So they got their treasure, looted the cave entirely, sent the boy back on a horse and continued on their way.
I may have failed to mention it last time, but one of the reasons why murdering the knight was such a viable option was how it was set up. The whole thing caught me by surprise, but the knight was never meant to be a major character and it all made sense. They were alone with the knight, so there were no witnesses; and they had just crossed the border into a neighboring kingdom in order to get to the cave. The knight had commented that they were no longer in King Aldaire's territory while they were on the road.
Still though. There will be an investigation. Eventually bounty hunters will come looking for them.
As for our most recent session, things became quickly awkward. I'm afraid it's all my fault.
A new character joined the group; they found him walking on the side of the road with a large jingling backpack. As they passed him on the road Yorik said, "Hey, I know him." Looking closely, the party realized that they also recognized him. He was Kon, the alchemist from the last shop they had visited. Turns out he's an alcoholic whose been late on his rent and owes everyone in town some money. They kicked him out of town. Yorik mentions that they have use for an alchemist, and offers to hire him. He accepted.
When they rolled into town near sunset, the townspeople were setting up stands in the streets for tomorrow's Harvest Festival. They checked into their respective rooms and met downstairs for dinner. Over the course of their meal they discuss their plans for the treasure.
Yorik suggests keeping a few items each and then taking it to the king of this nation, mention that the king from the neighboring kingdom hired them to get it; but that they came to this king out of loyalty. With war looming to the south and the potential with the neighboring kingdom to the east, Yorik explained; "Well, war is good for business."
Tobin was of mind to just head south and sell of relics piece by piece as they go, not too much in any one location so as to avoid being noticed. The rest of the party seemed to get behind this idea and it was this that the group agreed on.
Next day was the festival, plenty of food and drink available at no charge. Meat on the spit, a huge array of vegetables, and copious amounts of wine and ale. The city was drunk in the merriment of their celebration, our new alcoholic alchemist friend was in 'free beer' heaven... The music from around town grew louder and more frantic and the flow of the crowd swept them to the edge of town where they soon found themselves inside of a seedy looking tavern.
In the tavern were a large number of people, crowded and drinking. Musicians played a frantic dance, drummers keeping a tribal beat, flutists and lutists caught up in a maddening rhythm... Smoke in the tavern grew thicker until they could barely see.
And yet, even after I'd mentioned that it didn't look like there were any people left inside, and that the only people left were wearing masks; it wasn't until I asked them to make constitution checks that the players caught on that something was amiss. When they missed the check, they started coughing; and the checks became increasingly more difficult. If they were already coughing and missed again, they fell unconscious. Tobin and Aust were the last still breathing. While trying to escape, having chopped a small hole into the door, they took turns breathing in fresh air then tried to fight the people around them. Tobin almost got one of the masks, but he was shoved to the side and fell unconscious before he could fasten the mask into place.
They all passed out.
They all woke up naked, their clothes spread on the floor around them. They woke up individually, rolling gradually less-penalized constitution checks; success resulted in them waking up. They woke up not far apart, when the first player to awaken had started putting his clothes on the last was starting to sit up. Yorik got to his feet and said "My asshole hurts."
Then I said; "Roll a d20 to see if yours does too." I gave them a decent chance, all they had to do was roll 12 or more to be safe. The rolls came back: Tobin - 16, Jynxie - 14, Kon - 12, Aust - 11.
Aust.
Silence at the table. Not at first though. At first it was riotous laughter and multiple declarations that I am a dick. Hahaha. After that though, silence. I made sure the silence made it a little more uncomfortable before moving on.
Looking behind the bar, Kon discovered the armor. In the kitchen, Tobin discovered the weapons. The doors to the place are no longer locked. Other than a blood-red boar's head painted on the back wall of the place, there's no indication of who is behind it.
Back at the inn, their rooms are trashed. All of their items (save for 2 each) are stolen. Completely gone. But who is responsible? That's a dumb question, it's obvious who is responsible. Whoever the hell ran that bar where the bloody boars head was painted on the wall.
They ask around town, find out that there is a gang in this area of the country called the Bloody Boars who make hell for travelers. Aust works at tracking them through town and (due to some amazing rolls for once) picks up their trail. They left town sometime in the night, heading northwest.
Aust stops now and then to make sure they are on the right trail. The air is becoming increasingly cold as they travel. A storm starts to pick up, large flakes of heavy snow fall from the sky and accumulate on the ground. The snow storm turns violent, a blizzard that soaks and freezes them all.
They are forced to abandon the road and find shelter. They huddle under some trees but to no avail. Someone suggests one of the watchtowers in the distance, old crumbling relics of the old empire. Jynxie spots a fire inside and the party heads cautiously but hastily in that direction.
I may have failed to mention it last time, but one of the reasons why murdering the knight was such a viable option was how it was set up. The whole thing caught me by surprise, but the knight was never meant to be a major character and it all made sense. They were alone with the knight, so there were no witnesses; and they had just crossed the border into a neighboring kingdom in order to get to the cave. The knight had commented that they were no longer in King Aldaire's territory while they were on the road.
Still though. There will be an investigation. Eventually bounty hunters will come looking for them.
As for our most recent session, things became quickly awkward. I'm afraid it's all my fault.
A new character joined the group; they found him walking on the side of the road with a large jingling backpack. As they passed him on the road Yorik said, "Hey, I know him." Looking closely, the party realized that they also recognized him. He was Kon, the alchemist from the last shop they had visited. Turns out he's an alcoholic whose been late on his rent and owes everyone in town some money. They kicked him out of town. Yorik mentions that they have use for an alchemist, and offers to hire him. He accepted.
When they rolled into town near sunset, the townspeople were setting up stands in the streets for tomorrow's Harvest Festival. They checked into their respective rooms and met downstairs for dinner. Over the course of their meal they discuss their plans for the treasure.
Yorik suggests keeping a few items each and then taking it to the king of this nation, mention that the king from the neighboring kingdom hired them to get it; but that they came to this king out of loyalty. With war looming to the south and the potential with the neighboring kingdom to the east, Yorik explained; "Well, war is good for business."
Tobin was of mind to just head south and sell of relics piece by piece as they go, not too much in any one location so as to avoid being noticed. The rest of the party seemed to get behind this idea and it was this that the group agreed on.
Next day was the festival, plenty of food and drink available at no charge. Meat on the spit, a huge array of vegetables, and copious amounts of wine and ale. The city was drunk in the merriment of their celebration, our new alcoholic alchemist friend was in 'free beer' heaven... The music from around town grew louder and more frantic and the flow of the crowd swept them to the edge of town where they soon found themselves inside of a seedy looking tavern.
In the tavern were a large number of people, crowded and drinking. Musicians played a frantic dance, drummers keeping a tribal beat, flutists and lutists caught up in a maddening rhythm... Smoke in the tavern grew thicker until they could barely see.
And yet, even after I'd mentioned that it didn't look like there were any people left inside, and that the only people left were wearing masks; it wasn't until I asked them to make constitution checks that the players caught on that something was amiss. When they missed the check, they started coughing; and the checks became increasingly more difficult. If they were already coughing and missed again, they fell unconscious. Tobin and Aust were the last still breathing. While trying to escape, having chopped a small hole into the door, they took turns breathing in fresh air then tried to fight the people around them. Tobin almost got one of the masks, but he was shoved to the side and fell unconscious before he could fasten the mask into place.
They all passed out.
They all woke up naked, their clothes spread on the floor around them. They woke up individually, rolling gradually less-penalized constitution checks; success resulted in them waking up. They woke up not far apart, when the first player to awaken had started putting his clothes on the last was starting to sit up. Yorik got to his feet and said "My asshole hurts."
Then I said; "Roll a d20 to see if yours does too." I gave them a decent chance, all they had to do was roll 12 or more to be safe. The rolls came back: Tobin - 16, Jynxie - 14, Kon - 12, Aust - 11.
Aust.
Silence at the table. Not at first though. At first it was riotous laughter and multiple declarations that I am a dick. Hahaha. After that though, silence. I made sure the silence made it a little more uncomfortable before moving on.
Looking behind the bar, Kon discovered the armor. In the kitchen, Tobin discovered the weapons. The doors to the place are no longer locked. Other than a blood-red boar's head painted on the back wall of the place, there's no indication of who is behind it.
Back at the inn, their rooms are trashed. All of their items (save for 2 each) are stolen. Completely gone. But who is responsible? That's a dumb question, it's obvious who is responsible. Whoever the hell ran that bar where the bloody boars head was painted on the wall.
They ask around town, find out that there is a gang in this area of the country called the Bloody Boars who make hell for travelers. Aust works at tracking them through town and (due to some amazing rolls for once) picks up their trail. They left town sometime in the night, heading northwest.
Aust stops now and then to make sure they are on the right trail. The air is becoming increasingly cold as they travel. A storm starts to pick up, large flakes of heavy snow fall from the sky and accumulate on the ground. The snow storm turns violent, a blizzard that soaks and freezes them all.
They are forced to abandon the road and find shelter. They huddle under some trees but to no avail. Someone suggests one of the watchtowers in the distance, old crumbling relics of the old empire. Jynxie spots a fire inside and the party heads cautiously but hastily in that direction.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Onward to the cave!
The next day they wake up and continue on their journey to the cave. They reach it late in the afternoon. The boy and the dog stay outside, the dog whining the whole damn time.
The cave is dark. Torches are lit. Fucking skeletons. Full armored, well armed skeletal guardians. It's kind of scary. They're rather formidable. Say goodbye to the remaining guards.
In the end, all of the skeletons are defeated and the glow of treasure can be seen somewhere in the distance. A shit load of treasure just dumped in the cave. I fucked up. I was supposed to make a dungeon but totally didn't. I should have made a dungeon. Now I have to come up with a reason that it was just laying in the back of a skeleton-patrolled cave. Maybe they'll go back one day and I'll make it more interesting.
Anyway, so the monsters are defeated and all of the guards are dead. It's just Sir Helut Mobley and a band of mercenaries.
It was Tobin who acted first. "It's just us and the knight left?" he asked. It sounded like an innocent question at the time.
"Yes," I said.
"I'm going to attack the knight." It was one hell of a fight, Aust nearly died (he's quite good at that, actually), and everyone took quite a bit of damage. But in the end the knight fell dead at the hands of this villainous crew. The treasure is theirs.
They put the boy on a horse and send him on his way back to the King. I have a feeling this will come back to bite them.
Here's the hook.
Sword cuts through the marble like butter. The King's Advisor states the obvious, offers a reward. "We need the three of you to go to this cave, get the treasure and bring it back to the King. As a reward, you will each be permitted to select one item of your choice to keep. Not the butter knife though. The king likes the butter knife."
It would be foolish to trust them to go it alone with boy though, wouldn't it? It would. They will be joined with six members of the city guard, and a knight of King Aldair's court; Sir Helut Mobley. (the guards are meh, but the knight is about two levels higher than the group.)
So yeah. Obviously they roll with it, the boy leads them on their journey to the cave. The boy is a quiet kid, kind of stares a lot and only speaks if he's answering a question or making an ominous statement.
Along the way they reach a small hamlet that has been nearly destroyed. Big footprints are everywhere and it wouldn't even take the skills of our party tracker (Aust) to figure out the direction that the bodies were dragged. He rolls a successful check anyway, but he didn't need to. Not really.
The PC's don't give a shit but Sir Helut explains that he is honor bound to address the situation, and with all of them being in his care, they'll be joining him. So they follow the trail to a small cave on the hillside wherein a small clan of ogres live. There are four ogres inside, the bones of a wide variety of animals (human included) litter the floor. In the far back corner of the cave is a crude but effective cage which houses about two dozen women and children.
Here's how the PC's approached the situation. Tobin snuck inside and struck first. With all the attention on him, Yorik and Jynxie and Aust came in. Aust fired arrows at them while Yorik and Jynxie just ran in screaming and slashing. The knight and guards were a bit more rational about the whole ordeal. The kid stayed outside with the dog.
In the end four of the guards and all of the ogres were killed. Yorik lost his eye. The prisoners were freed. All was right in the world. They camp in the tattered remains of the village for the night.
It would be foolish to trust them to go it alone with boy though, wouldn't it? It would. They will be joined with six members of the city guard, and a knight of King Aldair's court; Sir Helut Mobley. (the guards are meh, but the knight is about two levels higher than the group.)
So yeah. Obviously they roll with it, the boy leads them on their journey to the cave. The boy is a quiet kid, kind of stares a lot and only speaks if he's answering a question or making an ominous statement.
Along the way they reach a small hamlet that has been nearly destroyed. Big footprints are everywhere and it wouldn't even take the skills of our party tracker (Aust) to figure out the direction that the bodies were dragged. He rolls a successful check anyway, but he didn't need to. Not really.
The PC's don't give a shit but Sir Helut explains that he is honor bound to address the situation, and with all of them being in his care, they'll be joining him. So they follow the trail to a small cave on the hillside wherein a small clan of ogres live. There are four ogres inside, the bones of a wide variety of animals (human included) litter the floor. In the far back corner of the cave is a crude but effective cage which houses about two dozen women and children.
Here's how the PC's approached the situation. Tobin snuck inside and struck first. With all the attention on him, Yorik and Jynxie and Aust came in. Aust fired arrows at them while Yorik and Jynxie just ran in screaming and slashing. The knight and guards were a bit more rational about the whole ordeal. The kid stayed outside with the dog.
In the end four of the guards and all of the ogres were killed. Yorik lost his eye. The prisoners were freed. All was right in the world. They camp in the tattered remains of the village for the night.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
The Setup
I decided to start their characters out like they already knew each other. No need for the awkward "oh hi, nice to meet you... so... you like killing things? me too! what a coincidence. we should hang out." bullshit.
They know each other because they are both presently employed by Yorik Talman; an alcoholic old sell sword. Yorik hires them to help escort a pair of wealthy merchant brothers; Tomax and Xamot (with a scar) to the capital with a ton of valuables. They are joined by four other men who are also under the employ of Yorik.
Along the way they bond over beating the shit out of highwaymen and losing every single mercenary save for Yorik and PC's. The merchant brothers were kept safe and soon they reach their destination; the capital city of Blegan. The merchant brothers pay well and Yorik was more than fair with their earnings, passing along the shares of the fallen mercenaries to the lone survivors (Tobin and Aust).
Drinks are on Yorik's tab and the ale flows freely. At some point one of the patrons and Yorik get into an argument, when Yorik turns away the other guy hits him with a sucker punch. The two get into it, grappling and rolling on the floor. A bar fight erupts. Just as it is starting to break up, Yorik accidentally stabs the guy fifteen times.
This lands them all in a cell in the dungeons of Blegan. The next day they meet with Aaron, the king's most trusted advisor. Aaron explains that because the king had used the services of Yorik's company in the past, and had owed some small debt, he would forgive the lawless actions of the group (murder and inciting a riot) if they would do something for him in return. (Who saw that coming? Anyone? Anyone? Oh, that's right... I'm writing this for no one but myself. This is lonely.)
A small boy found a cave near his home. He took his brother to it and his brother never came back. He took s father to it and his father never came back. He told his neighbor about it and his neighbor said "Get the hell away from me kid, you're bad luck or something. I don't want to go disappear in your godsdamned cave. Go tell the king about it or someone else, shit I don't care who; just get the fuck away from me!!"
This was not the actual dialogue, but sends the same message.
So the advisor says, "this is what the boy brought to us."
Two servants wheel out a big slab of marble. "That's fine marble," Yorik says agreeably. The advisor ignores him. The servants set the marble before him and a third one comes back with a sword lain carefully across a thick cloth. The advisor, a weak looking man, takes the sword in hand and with a flick of his wrist cuts through the marble like a hot kitchen knife through warm butter that's been sitting out on the counter for like all day on a hot day with sunlight beating right onto it but not to the point where it would melt.
BAM. That just happened. The players seem interested.
They know each other because they are both presently employed by Yorik Talman; an alcoholic old sell sword. Yorik hires them to help escort a pair of wealthy merchant brothers; Tomax and Xamot (with a scar) to the capital with a ton of valuables. They are joined by four other men who are also under the employ of Yorik.
Along the way they bond over beating the shit out of highwaymen and losing every single mercenary save for Yorik and PC's. The merchant brothers were kept safe and soon they reach their destination; the capital city of Blegan. The merchant brothers pay well and Yorik was more than fair with their earnings, passing along the shares of the fallen mercenaries to the lone survivors (Tobin and Aust).
Drinks are on Yorik's tab and the ale flows freely. At some point one of the patrons and Yorik get into an argument, when Yorik turns away the other guy hits him with a sucker punch. The two get into it, grappling and rolling on the floor. A bar fight erupts. Just as it is starting to break up, Yorik accidentally stabs the guy fifteen times.
This lands them all in a cell in the dungeons of Blegan. The next day they meet with Aaron, the king's most trusted advisor. Aaron explains that because the king had used the services of Yorik's company in the past, and had owed some small debt, he would forgive the lawless actions of the group (murder and inciting a riot) if they would do something for him in return. (Who saw that coming? Anyone? Anyone? Oh, that's right... I'm writing this for no one but myself. This is lonely.)
A small boy found a cave near his home. He took his brother to it and his brother never came back. He took s father to it and his father never came back. He told his neighbor about it and his neighbor said "Get the hell away from me kid, you're bad luck or something. I don't want to go disappear in your godsdamned cave. Go tell the king about it or someone else, shit I don't care who; just get the fuck away from me!!"
This was not the actual dialogue, but sends the same message.
So the advisor says, "this is what the boy brought to us."
Two servants wheel out a big slab of marble. "That's fine marble," Yorik says agreeably. The advisor ignores him. The servants set the marble before him and a third one comes back with a sword lain carefully across a thick cloth. The advisor, a weak looking man, takes the sword in hand and with a flick of his wrist cuts through the marble like a hot kitchen knife through warm butter that's been sitting out on the counter for like all day on a hot day with sunlight beating right onto it but not to the point where it would melt.
BAM. That just happened. The players seem interested.
What do you mean there's no magic?!
"No magic? Are you serious right now?!"
This was the reaction I was expecting, but not the one I got. They pretty much just nodded along; one of them (Tobin) thinking I was setting them up and the other (Aust) comparing it to Game of Thrones. I assured Tobin that I was not just setting them up and said "Yeah, kind of like GOT" to Aust.
About 500 years ago, while the empire still stood, the mage wars wreaked havoc on the lands. Since that time magic has been declared illegal, punishable by death. Today, magic is considered little more than lore; and the supposed evidence of their destruction on the lands are explained away by science.
When the empire fell some 300 years later, the land was fractured into five kingdoms. These kingdoms have been at peace for most of that time, save for a few minor skirmishes over borders. Recently, however, there has been some unrest. One of the kingdoms, Faylen; has been preparing for combat. Rumor has it they are aimed at conquest and aren't afraid to use lost forgotten dark arts...
But whatever.
We set up characters using a few of my own charts. The system is very loosely based on Ad&d 2e. Very loosely. Here's how I did stat rolls; 4d6 x 7. For those unfamiliar (or for myself, really since I'm the only one whose going to read this shit... which makes explaining this odd, I suppose.) 4 = the number of die being used, d6 = a normal six-sided die, and "x 7" references doing this seven times.
They ignored the lowest die in each roll when totaling and ignored the lowest 4d6 roll. Then they dropped the lowest of those seven totals and assigned the six remaining totals to their stats.
Strength - How strong they are
Dexterity - How agile they are
Constitution - Their health and endurance
Intelligence - Their intelligence
Wisdom - How 'street wise' they are
Charisma - Likeableness (made that word up)
Aust is a ranger, outdoorsy kind of guy. He has tracking abilities, move silently, hide in shadows, an affinity with certain animals, and that sort of shit.
Tobin is a swords craftsman who is also a bit of a mercenary. He has precision-strike, move silently, open locks, and that sort of shit.
Jynxie is a former guardswoman who left her guard. It is unclear whether she left of her on volition or was forced to leave. She is a big beast of a woman. Just insanely strong. A tank.
That's the basis of what we're doing here. I'll try to update this regularly-ish. It is a bi-weekly game.
This was the reaction I was expecting, but not the one I got. They pretty much just nodded along; one of them (Tobin) thinking I was setting them up and the other (Aust) comparing it to Game of Thrones. I assured Tobin that I was not just setting them up and said "Yeah, kind of like GOT" to Aust.
About 500 years ago, while the empire still stood, the mage wars wreaked havoc on the lands. Since that time magic has been declared illegal, punishable by death. Today, magic is considered little more than lore; and the supposed evidence of their destruction on the lands are explained away by science.
When the empire fell some 300 years later, the land was fractured into five kingdoms. These kingdoms have been at peace for most of that time, save for a few minor skirmishes over borders. Recently, however, there has been some unrest. One of the kingdoms, Faylen; has been preparing for combat. Rumor has it they are aimed at conquest and aren't afraid to use lost forgotten dark arts...
But whatever.
We set up characters using a few of my own charts. The system is very loosely based on Ad&d 2e. Very loosely. Here's how I did stat rolls; 4d6 x 7. For those unfamiliar (or for myself, really since I'm the only one whose going to read this shit... which makes explaining this odd, I suppose.) 4 = the number of die being used, d6 = a normal six-sided die, and "x 7" references doing this seven times.
They ignored the lowest die in each roll when totaling and ignored the lowest 4d6 roll. Then they dropped the lowest of those seven totals and assigned the six remaining totals to their stats.
Strength - How strong they are
Dexterity - How agile they are
Constitution - Their health and endurance
Intelligence - Their intelligence
Wisdom - How 'street wise' they are
Charisma - Likeableness (made that word up)
Aust is a ranger, outdoorsy kind of guy. He has tracking abilities, move silently, hide in shadows, an affinity with certain animals, and that sort of shit.
Tobin is a swords craftsman who is also a bit of a mercenary. He has precision-strike, move silently, open locks, and that sort of shit.
Jynxie is a former guardswoman who left her guard. It is unclear whether she left of her on volition or was forced to leave. She is a big beast of a woman. Just insanely strong. A tank.
That's the basis of what we're doing here. I'll try to update this regularly-ish. It is a bi-weekly game.
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