| Post/Author/DateTime | Post |
|---|---|
| #1DreamstryderAug 15, 2010 23:06:21 | Foreword A game of 5 high-schoolers in 4 sessions: they met until final exams and were too relaxed after them to meet again before leaving for college. So, for what it's worth... DM notes in brackets. Edition: homebrew (4e without the overcomplication of Feats, Powers, and too many HP); I thought that was the easiest for new players to pick up, sit down, and play the very first session. As I recall, only Sigurd's player had played D&D before. The DM had 4 days to prepare for the first session (the future players decided to meet before informing the future DM). The session took 7 hours, 2 of which was character creation and the DM being handed the phone twice. Dramatis Personnae
Chapter 1 - Tambrook [The DM decided to use OD&Dities issue 1 adventure Message with some changes, the fort map from Keep on the Borderlands, and a wilderness map of own devising.] All were traveling down the King's Road (because there wasn't any better name known for it), when they come across a body in the road, armored, 3 arrows sticking from leg and back. While deciding whether to ignore it or loot it, the victim calls out to the group. "I bear an important message from the Earl. If you honor the king, you'll deliver it to Tambrook Fort up this road." He thrusts a personalized message case into Hvingar's hands. "Who IS the king?" interjects Akihana. Hvingar says that the most important thing is to deliver the message; after all, there could be a reward. "Hey, IS there a reward?" presses José, but the man appears to have passed out. José and Kylar contemplate opening the case and viewing the message, and Hvingar decides that to deliver the message honestly, he should be the sole bearer of it and keep the case closed. Kylar avails himself of the chance to search the body, only proffering the 3 arrows (which he may have pocketed). Regardless of whether the man was dead or not, they cover him with stones to keep away the beasts and continue down the road. After an hour, they thirst and go left off the road to a nearby stream. While the party is drinking and filling their water skins, Kylar gathers some Kullen grass from the banks, which, when brewed into a teas, relieves various ailments. From the stream, the party sees that a path runs along it, straight through the woodland ahead, which the road proper avoids, bending around it. At first they debate splitting up, but since there is only one message and they do not know if the path and road meet at the other end, they elect to follow the forest path. They come across a hut, a voice speaks within. Kylar footpads over to **** an ear at the door. The voice inside abruptly stops, and footsteps approach the door. Kylar dives into a bush near the entry. The door opens; and old man stands in the doorway, looks about, and re-enters. (Kylar is disappointed the old man didn't leave the doorway, hoping he'd be able to sneak into the house behind him.) José debates throwing an ax at the man's head, but is encouraged not to by the party members standing with him. Akihana departs the shade of the forest and knocks upon the old man's door. In a child's voice, fidgeting and curtsying probably, she asks directions and distances to the forest edge/Tambrook Fort. The old man cautions about hunting traps he's laid that goblins are now using to trap people, but they can exit the forest within daylight if they continue now, anxious to return to potions brewing inside - "and would you like to buy a potion of healing? 10 drachmas!" The others emerge from the forest, and Akihana assures the man they're friends (otherwise it would appear she's decoy for an ambush). José and someone else (I thought) buy healing potions and head deeper into the woods, avoiding the pit trap [XP] of which they were warned and come across a mix of goblin and wolf corpses around an ember camp pit. A wolf limps into the clearing and bristles at the party. Akihana [here her background changes from Criminal to Animal Tamer] tears a clothe off a hem and appraoches slowly and softly; the wolf cautiously backs away. Akihana takes some of her rations and leaves them, backing away. Hvingar wonders aloud if it's wise to expend rations. [XP] Akihana wants to stay behind to tend the wolf with one other member while the message is delivered ahead. Kylar volunteers to stay, and the others continue down the path. As Akihana wraps the wolf's wound, a man cuts through the clearing, apparently ignoring them. Kylar ignores him right back. An interstice later, they spy the same man approaching with a dagger in his hand. Kylar hides in a tree and Akihana calls out to him, "What do you want?" "Your purse, little lady." Kylar falls atop him with his katar, and the man lies still. Akihana turns him over, a daggers whizzes by, but neither can catch it, and it is lost in the trees. Having thrown the dagger, the man expires; Akihana checks his pulse, finding 4 drachmas and a vial of green liquid, which is given to Kylar. [XP] The wolf sniffs the bandit, feigns disinterest, and departs into the forest. The blue of the sky darkens, and both the party and the King's Road and path are reunited just outside the wood. Akihana is still lamenting the lost company of the wolf. [The other players comfort her player that the wolf could return to help a la a certain video game; "I shot the wolf at the beginning, Akihana's player cries, "I didn't know if it would hurt me or not; it was my first time playing alone and I was freaking out!"] They approach the fort and find campfires dotting the dark night along one side of the road. Kylar and Sigurd sneak in to spy on the inhabitants while the others wait. Kylar hears Sigurd trip over a rock behind him, but nothing a happens. They spy a goblin, armored, standing guard at one of the fires. [DM begins improvising.] Shortly, an armored human approaches and they speak. Kylar hears them mention a change of guard, and the human takes the goblin's place. Kylar and Sigurd move to another fire. No one trips. The second fire has 3 human guards around it, and a goblin guard approaches and speaks to them about, to Kylar's ear, "Any news of the goblins inside the fort?" "No," they say. [By now, all players are most intrigued by the discoveries of goblin-human cooperation, but those not spying are obliged to play as if they don't yet know.] Kylar and Sigurd scout for tents, trying to find the leader of the camp, and approach the one of the three that is lighted from within. Meanwhile, the group hears a clanking noise approaching. All 3 are still debating whether to run, attack, or hide when the armored human guard arrives upon everyone out in the open. He opens his visor. "Who goes there?" "We're continuing down this road bearing a message; what's befallen the fort?" [DM continues from earlier improvisation.] "A group of goblins have occupied the fort and made demands; we, the personnel of the fort, watch from without." José begins to shout "Look behind you!" but gets two syllables in before Akihana bats him upside the head. José revises his statement: "We have a message for the head of the fort." (Hvingar is silently distraught that José may have told too much.) "Where is the leader of the camp?" "I'm the Vice Commander Aethis; the Castellan Aldin Rudric is in the fort with the goblin leader negotiating. This area is too dangerous for civilians." Akihana, trying to see a face in the visor hole, speaks fondly, waxing on how long they've traveled to deliver the message. [She's very handy with a d20.] "...I suppose you can stay at the edge of camp, but don't go further in; we don't know if a situation will erupt." He leads them to the nearest light circle and vanishes. Akihana tries her best at a warbling, birdcall to summon the other two back. Kylar and Sigurd are about to try a tent when they hear a warbling bird call, and Kylar, knowing most birds don't call at night (and remarking at the shoddiness of it), looks back toward the group to see them resting in the light at the edge of camp, and they head back. "Vice Commander!" José yells. "Don't yell that unless there's a fire!" he suddenly appears. Looking around, "there are more of you than before." "We were out gathering herbs." José and Hvingar cut to the chase, "We want to be a neutral party to aid the negotiation." "That's up to those in the fort." Aethis leads them to the gates. "Who goes there?" a voice called out from above. He relays the message, and a little slot in the door opens [Wizard of Oz reference here], and a goblin pokes his face out. "Bring 'em in." A troop of gobins guide the party through the first courtyard to the middle gatehouse (they have them leave their weapons before entering; Kylar manages to quickly shove a katar into hiding). Inside are 24 soldiers, the castellan, and the goblin elder Booderback. The situation as explained is that the goblins of the village of Daybreak have occupied the fort, demanding Tambrook protect Daybreak, especially from the raiding of nearby human settlements. The fort has not yet done anything about this, despite Daybreak being located within its jurisdiction. Castellan explains that the fort hasn't policed any settlements on the edges of its territory (Daybreak included) because its personnel were occupied defending the fort area from raids by the Witch clan, who come down from the mountains. Troops were also sent to the mountains to search for their stronghold, with no success. The soldiers were stretched thin (we have about a hundred soldiers). "Why don't people from Daybreak fill in the ranks in return for protection?" "We already have some from Daybreak in the ranks." "We can do what you were unable to do yourselves, but our main reason for coming is to deliver this message." Rudric opens the personalized case, draws out the parchment, breaks the wax emblem seal, and reads the note. "Where did you get this message?" "An injured soldier on the road gave this to us." "Have you read it?" Hvingar answers truthfully,"No." "This message reads: Earl of Thelsbi to the Castellan Aldin Rudric of Tambrook Fort: the Vice Commander Aethis is a traitor. Also the one who holds this message." The party stands to be cleared of charge by the personalized nature of the case and the injured soldier, should he send out a runner to find him later (not now because of the weakened nature of the fort). The party is allowed to stay within the fort, but not to leave it in the meantime. They pick up their weapons outside and are assigned to guest rooms in the fort. [XP and money reward] Akihana leaves her room to check the common stables with Hvingar, and Kylar follows because they're going somewhere. Akihana finds a riding house she adores and tries working her d20 skills on the stablehand to lessen the 75 drachma price tag. The hand refers her to the horse trader but lets drop a hint about a thorn in the hoof. She extrapolates to the trader that the horse is in lesser condition. The older woman behind the counter sighs, admitting that the horse had been injured and lowers the price to 60. Akihana empties her coins, falling short. She looks at Hvingar standing nearby. "I'll pay if you...Nevermind." He hands her the coins. She hugs him, and, squealing, heads back to the stables. Kylar manages to slip 20 coins from the counter into his sleeve after the counting. In the night, they wake in their rooms to some shout in the courtyard about the fort being breached. The ceiling of the row of guesthouses creaks and groans, sinking downward. rafters have fallen as bars over the windows, and they find the door is blocked by a fallen beam braced against it just out of reach of the Hvingar's hand stretched out the window. Akhana goes into a rage and breaks through he wreckage of her front door. Outside it is eerily quiet and empty, the only noise a sort of huffing in the direction of the stables, and she starts toward them. The boys in their room see a large black shape outside the window, perhaps human, chuckling darkly to itself in a deep, almost sweet sound as it waggles something long, straight, and glimmering in the silver light. It runs this along the rafters barring their window, back and forth, playfully. José approaches the window, but the thing outside jabs the long weapon at through the rafters at him. Some gather to the sides of the window, while another acts as a decoy for the jabbing rod again. One of them grabs the rod, and they pull the creature outside into the rafters, wresting the polarm from his grasp. Akihana is stopped before the stables by the sight of something very large hulking and huffing in front of both the stable and the fort entrance gate. It doesn't change its actions, so she sneaks back around the corner to see the manlike creature bounce off the rafters at the boys' window, curse, and draw a blade. Hvingar manages to knock the creature down [XP], then uses the polearm at the window to push the beam away from the door. They all meet there in the courtyard, José lights a lamp to better see their assailant: something somewhat human with tusks. ["I knew it! Walrus man!" Sigurd's player gloats.] They tie him up and Akihana goes about waking him by kicking, still riding the wake of her rage. Kylar and Hvingar loot the trader's building, pour over the weapons, armor, and barrels, crates, and sacks at the back (apparently the trader collected furs; Kylar coils 2 into his pack). Outside, José notices Akihana's trembling. "Can I comfort you?" "No." "Can I give you something to relax you?" "No. THANK you." "Can I..." Akihana socks him [for 6 damage]. "Akh! You gave me a bloody nose!" "I can do worse if you keep bugging me." By now, Akihana's kicking has roused the creature. It speaks in a language she doesn't know. [José's player: "Does it sound like Spanish? Yo comprendre tu." The DM humors him.] Akihana points her scimitar at him. "Make much noise and I will kill you. Who are you? Where did you come from?" she has José relay to the captor. 'Your fort was weak for the culling, so we descend from the mountains.' "What is the beast at the entrance?" The captor chuckles darkly and calls loudly, 'The hill that moves!' Akihana spears his throat. The huffing sound stops, and a dark shape occupies the Eastern sky. They call back the rest of the party to rush out pints of oil, and the party scatters it over the 20 feet of ground between them and the approaching shadow. José lights it. As the flames rise, they are able to see what has stopped at the wall of fire: vaguely human, but gray, rough, somewhat wrinkled, and about 20 feet wide, like a human made out of elephant. José throws a hand ax that falls short of a clean hit, bouncing off the creature's hide. "He's got thick hide!" The party realizes now that few of them have ranged weapons to reach their attacker, and Hvingar rushes back to the shop. Akihana, "A ranged weapon!" Hvingar, "They have crossbows!" Akihana, "Give me a light crossbow!" Sigurd chooses a heavy crossbow he loads by stepping on a petal. Kylar picks the lock of one of the nearby wall towers and scales the stairs, searching for anything to use. He finds a ballista on the roof, turned toward the hills outside and calls for someone to help him turn it. Hvingar pierces the beast with his polearm, and it falls to the side. The ballista shot pins it to the ground. [XP] The party takes the catwalk from the tower around the fire and rush to the stables, Akihana hoping her horse is all right. Someone jokes that the huffing noise was the monster eating the horse. Inside the stables, the hands are frantic and on-edge, yet Akihana is able to claim her horse, whom she names Shia. "The Witch tribe is attacking," the stable boys say. The party notes someone has left an incompleted map of the mountain on the wall. The party takes it. They do need a second horse, and Hvingar uses his muscle to chuck hay bails everywhere as distraction so José can steal a second horse. Kylar's attempt at a third is unsuccessful. With the fort gate raised, the party pairs up on the two horses, Hvingar casts Floating Disc and rides on it, and they vanish into the night. On the map, they notice a NE and SW sections filled in and debate where to approach. "Where's your sense of adventure? Let's start here!" Hvingar points to the large stretch of nothing in the middle, joking. They approach from the SW, and stop at the lake there in the woods to bathe and rest. In the morning, they prepare to move NE through the trees, when they notice they are surrounded on all sides by shadows beyond the trees. Realizing their riding (not cavalry) horses would spook if brought into combat, they tie them to a tree and form a ring about them. Ten of the chuckling creatures seen at the fort attack them, Hvingar and José taking the brunt of their attacks. 5 attackers are cleared away the first round. [Hvingar's player asks if he can use his scythe's sweeping motion to hit multiple per round; the DM tells him he'll need to roll 5 more than needed to hit and can roll damage for a second target.] Hvingar cuts through one into another, who does not fall. Akihana or Sigurd defeats the last of them. [XP] [The DM was told beforehand José's player wouldn't be present for the next session, so it is arranged as a story point that José will go missing at the end of the first chapter. José doesn't return the third session, and the DM learns the fourth session the other players thought he or his player was obnoxious and decided not to invite him back. It seems they are agreed, so the DM stops asking where he is. "We don't need a cleric!" the group says.]
Chapter 2 - Beetles and Dwarves [The start of this session, the DM experiments narratively by having the players role-play a peasant family in a village bordering the plains. Akihana's player role-played the captain of a troop of soldiers of a rival lord's lands. Their job is to burn fields, houses, and peasants to put a dent in the village's resource-production (and possibly steal some for their own lord).] The peasants gather up what they can carry and leave the house. Kylar's peasant tries to macho his performance as the father by carrying a goat straddled over his neck; he runs outside and is side-swiped by a horse in the road. The family gives up on the overburdened river ferry and attempts to ford it themselves [insert Oregon Trail joke here]. A few are almost carried away by the current, and Akihana's soldier attempts to run them down in the water. [After they cross the river, the DM asks them what their plans are.] They decide to follow the river into the hills and meet up with other refugees. [In hindsight, the DM suspects the full tragedy/injustice of the scene wasn't realized. The players should have been able to customize their peasants or have some small peasant-task to work toward (fostering new plants to sprout, caring for livestock or a child), the careful work of which would be dashed by the soldiers' raid. The soldiers would then be NPCs (though Akihana's player really enjoying her role wasn't a bad thing, really). Play, learn, improve. The experiment ends with an uncharacteristic narration: "Such is the fate of many a village on the Bezdin Plains."] ~ In the dusk of their 4th day in the wilderness, they exit the forest into a swampy land covered in cat tails and tall grasses. All the crickets and night birds by quick turns all fall silent. The night is still. A sliding susurrus is in the grass before the party. The group debates Kylar's need to roll to hide such tall grass. Hvingar and Sigurd venture out and are tripped and coiled about by a long, thick thing. Hvingar is wounded greatly by its jaws and puzzled by the existence of claws (Thinking it's a serpent). Kylar remains in hiding in a tree, reporting on what he sees. Someone wrests free and chops the beast in half, whereupon they march along the body, trying to ascertain the manner of the beast. They find a stinger, like a scorpion's, upon its tail (which Kylar then excises and stores). They find a only one pair of clawed appendages on short arms in the very middle of its length (which unsettles Akihana, who deals with less "unnatural" animals), and Hvingar finds its head, resembling a rhinoceros's, but scaled like a snake's, and jaws rowed with sharp, curved teeth. Later in the night the regular sounds return to the marsh, and Kylar ventures away from camp in search of marshmallows. A little ways out he hears a bell rattle and finds a goat on a knoll. It charges, but Kylar grabs its horns and flips it on its side; then tying its feet, he drags it back to camp, beaming. Akihana sees the goat before Kylar and takes it in her arms, and Kylar, pulled after it on the end of its rope, fusses about his comparative size being twice dishonored that night. Akihana insists on not cooking the creature. Before the 5th night The party encounters lights that wink on and off i the grass and sparse trees before them. They come from fire beetles. Kylar kills one and fills a flask with glowing fluid. Hvingar wrestles with one. Kylar offers to throw a dagger, but Hvingar says, "No! Trust me." IN an attempt to soothe it, Kylar feeds the beetle half the green liquid from the vial found on the bandit [it is a potion of strength and the fire beetle now has a +5 strength bonus]. It struggles all the more. Hvingar ties the beetle, to the bottom of a floating disc, legs dangling from the underside, scuttling air. It stops glowing. The party, now in the woods, realizes they have no rations for today, and Akihana and Kylar go foraging while Hvingar and Sigurd go hunting. The latter pair finds 6 boars. Sigurd steps on his heavy crossbow pedal to draw the string into place and fells one with a single bolt. Hvingar, having no bow, charges the herd, misses, and causes a stampede. The two hunters are overrun and climb a tree. [Hvingar is now at 3 hp.] They are able to bring 13 days of meat rations back, Hvingar shares one with the fire beetle, who starts blinking light again. The party travels a bit into marsh, settling down for the night while sounds all stop. Hvingar and Kylar hide in the grass, finding no high trees nearby. They see two shapes silhouetted on a knoll in the distance, close enough to estimate one is a boar and the other long. They laqter see only one shape, as if the two combined, and then the knoll is empty. The party decides to move camp. After an hour sounds return. On the 6th day, they see a village in the distance on the river, and coming up the hill toward them is a stout man with an ample beard hefting a great blade behind him. Kylar (or maybe everybody) becomes very excited at the possibility of dwarves and eagerly hail him. Sure enough, he's 4-foot-tall, but on a schedule. He introduces himself as Angan Durik (clan name first), but insists on make haste toward the Northern mountains. "I must find the wizard Ing, who's captured my daughter Eliwé." The party offers to join him in aid, but they must first stop at the village in the distance. Durik is very insistent on going on quickly and alone, and the party presses him to at least explain his events in case they come across Ing themselves. Kylar attempts to discuss Eliwé's looks instead, but Durik ignores him. "I am among the last of the Angan clan, charged with keeping sheathed the ancient Dúnbane, named for being the only weapon terrible enough to slay the ogre Dún. In recent time, our kind have been waning in these mountains, the signal fires of our neighboring kin have gone dark, and strangers with weapons and wounds now spill too frequently into our lands. My brother Ing left for the outside to investigate and no word came. Determined that Dúnbane not fall into the storm should even all the Angan disappear, I sent my daughter Eliwé and my son-in-law to deliver Dúnbane to the Riven, the Eater of Blades. "It was around that time that Ing did return, seeking power, and no clan oath or metal forged could dissuade him from taking ancient ill, Dúnbane. He set after my children, and I fear they are taken or dead. I blame myself, and so must go myself. Do not stay me." "So...If your son-in-law's dead, then if we rescue your daughter..." Kylar is silenced by a smoldering glare. "We will seek you to bring word if ever we come across any of them," the party bids him farewell. [About here, the DM is popularly requested for the third or so time to say "And MY ax."] Just as they are a swift trot away, a large shadow appears in the sky, a bird, and grows bigger, and bigger, and bigger, shoots into the hillside atop Durik, and the party's vision erupts in a cloud of dust. They rush to Durik, finding a giant bird chopped in half, and Durik cleaning his blade. "Excuse me! Why did you just kill that bird?" Akihana points to the avian the size of a cottage, "It could have been hurt!" "Actually, that was kind of bad-ass," admires Hvingar or his player. Durik is unfazed, "It was trying to kill me! Ing sent it. Such beasts are not from here, and why would one journey this far to mind a small mouse alone on the hilltop? Ing is a wizard, and no wizardry should be taken for granted!" Durik departs, and the party examines the bird. Kylar is about to pluck a horse-long pinion when the entire beast crumbles to ash. The party enters the village of Cora-by-the-Water beside the river Linsi. Hvingar finds the inn rooms swarmed by Tambrook soldiers positioned on the mountain pass area.He's pointed toward the water mill shed by the river. Seeing the size of the crowd in the drinking hall (many of them those soldiers), Hvingar auctions off the lindorm head, receiving decent drachma. The party informs them that Fort Tambrook was attacked about 6 days ago by the Witch tribe; they came from there. Puzzled they were not informed sooner, the captain of the troop believes them as they ride horses from the fort. The troop immediately loads soldiers and horses onto raft-boats and heads down the river. In seeking the local smithy, they approach a hut with clanging sounds behind. They go around and find a stone shed and chimney. A girl with straight black hair tied back works at an anvil. With some doubts, they hail her. She's pale, but her face is all black from the soot. "Are you the smith?" "Aye. My hubby brings the material from the mines." The party learns they lack the funds to temper their weapons to better quality, but they sell some excess equipment and Akihana borrows money again to purchase a double sword. The smith tells them most people won't take drachmas currently due to counterfeit gold circulating. She takes Hvingar's gold and bites it, leaving an imprint. "Aye, it's good," she says. The counterfeits are alloyed with harder metals. They visit the apothecary's, wherein Kylar sells the poison tail of the lindorm and Akihana tries to seduce the old man into a better price on healing potions and learns he's more afraid of his wife. They visit the goatherds on the hills, where Kylar returns the goat for small reward and Hvingar gets advice on taming fire beetles: they like tree sap.
Chapter 3 - Four Days in the Mountains A village girl was passing by the mountain path on her way from something when she heard a voice coming from the ground . She followed it to a side path by a huge rock and at the base of the rock was a hole. The voice called to her from within. "I've broken my leg and fallen in," said the voice, "but now the rock has fallen over and I doubt even you could fit through to carry me out, but could you throw down some food and a bowl with which to catch the rain?" The little girl borrowed some bread and a canteen which she fixed to a rope to fill, lower, and raise again the next day, and the next, as she began frequenting the hole until she heard the voice no more. Her house burned during a raid and she came running up the path. A dark shape saved her and quickly ate the soldiers. She heard their bones break. She did not scream; she couldn't, but the dark shape was now a small, gnarled man, and he thanked her for nursing him as he became strong enough to climb from the hole. The girl mouthed voicelessly and he realized she was mute. Her family was gone, and the adopted woman had no time for her. The man on his travels up the mountain found someone following him: a girl who did not call out to him; she couldn't. He realized he could not ask her name and receive an answer, so he said, "I will name you after a bird with a call so rare that few ever hear it, and most think it is silent its whole life. I will name thee Coquerin, and," he added, "my name is Ing." ~ After stocking up on lantern oil and rations, the party cuts due north into the mountains on the heels of "that dwarf who's seeking his evil brother Ing." Hvingar gradually succeeds in buying the trust of his fire beetle by feeding it tree sap as recommended. He decides to name it Mjellnor. Sigurd goes off to relieve himself in the night and is attacked by a boar. Akihana, on watch, only hears very strange noises and Sigurd returns with tusks, meat, and hide. They meet 3 dwarven traders and purchase a few tinctures (said to be a cure-nigh-all in which Kylar is especially interested) and some adamant powder for improving weapons. They climb higher, where a lake shimmers in the setting sun, and camp there. Light snowfall. Kylar is disappointed it is not a hot spring. They cross over the white ridge to the north, snow drifts like ash from a gray, churning sky. A second lake glimmers in the shadow of the mountain, and they, on Kylar's demands, approach. The waters are frigid. A mountain goat across the water stops drinking and dances up the face of rock. The party sees a white light just over the surface of the water in the middle of the lake. As they get closer, it appears to be a person. Hvingar throws a snowball at it; the ball flies through the light, which winks out, and plunks into the water. Hvingar decides to investigate, and rides a floating disc out, taking Mjellnor with him. A dark cloud moves over the ridge and snow falls softly. His party see only Mjellnor's blinking light, growing distant each light, blink, blink, ...blink...and then disappear. Hvingar finds himself in a room. The first thing he sees is a wan, white light, not warm, not cold. The walls are gray stone carved in many small curling leaves, vines, and monsters. Also in the room are four maidens in the room, each with long, pale hair, silver circlets, and white gowns. They stand softly around a stone table with another person laid out upon it. The women regard him gently, without surprise, without making a sound, as Hvingar approaches the table. Hvingar can see that upon the stone table is a man in a long, white tabard, both hands upon the hilt of a sword pointing to his feet. Beneath his tabard he is fully armored, and a silver diadem adorns his brow. The man looks aged and white, his eyes closed. He doesn't move. All sounds seem muffled by the silence. Hvingar realizes Mjellnor is with him here. Suddenly darkness pours into the room like a flashflood as if ink were spilled over parchment, and the white shapes of the women flee frantically and dark shape that bounds into the room, only seen in the glimmer of Mjellnor's light, which is as a gold drachma glimmering at the bottom of a well. The sight of the white man upon the stone table is undimmed and clear. The dark shape encircles the stone table, and the face of the man grimaces as if in pain. Hvingar, unsure, holds his halberd ready. He calls out. The beast ignores him. The light from the white man glints off the blade of the halberd, and the monster jerks its massive, horned head toward Hvingar as if first noticing his presence, it approaches. Hvingar is knocked and knicked by horns and hooves as the long, four-legged beast attacks, spreading its tooth-rimmed mouth in something of a grin. Hvingar strikes it with his halberd, unsure of any effect [in truth he weakened it from 28 to 4 hp]. Flames flicker on the edge of the beast's grin, and Hvingar is soon engulfed in flames [14 dmg; Hvingar is at -4 hp]. As he falls, Hvingar notices Mjellnor shoot by him, charging the beast [deals 4 dmg with his mandibles]. Hvingar sees a face before him: a young man with a central-horned, silver diadem, pale hair cut in a bob. A wizard once held captive an elfin kingdom beneath the lake, and cursed me, its prince, to walk as an insect in the world above. You have helped me defeat him. Hvingar's vision clears; behind the prince, the white man, looking not quite as old, sits upon a throne, four maidens stand about him. He has antlers. "We are in your debt," the prince and maidens kneel, and the king nods. The prince hands Hvingar a glimmering vial. "When in need of our aid, cast the contents of this vial onto the water's surface." The king holds in one hand Hvingar's halberd, but it gleams more than before. Hvingar appraoches, and the king hands it to him. [Halberd +1] Hvingar awakes on the shore of the icy lake; a floating disc slides up to him, the ropes empty. ["He took away my beetle!" the player will later lament. He would rather have a pet beetle than a one-time elfish host; the DM notes this.] The hills down to the plain are shadowed by sunset. As the party makes to descend, the party is alerted by a voice: "Hide me! Hide me!" It sounds like a woman's voice. They follow the call into the hills, hearing a chortling noise, then the voice again,which repeats exactly as before. Over the crest of a hill they spy an animal in the crimson and purple light galloping closer, like a long-legged cattle with the head of a badger. "Hide me! Hide me!" they hear again, getting closer, followed by another chortling, then a "Hold there!" in a booming man's voice. Unsettled yet undecided, they let it approach, and it flashes its gummy mouth ridges it has in place of teeth and bucks and kicks at them with its hooves in passing. "What's that?" one asks. "What's that?" they hear themselves again. Akihana and Hvingar debate whether it is ugly or cute and whether or not they should tame it [and their players want to see a picture; I show them the Leucrotta and make the mistake of allowing Akihana's player to read a little from the entry]. They debate more and decide to fight it. [The DM rolls their Perceptions in finding by accident the creature's cave, but they do not.] They see a light on the plain upon their descent. They approach to see a horse and a man by campfire. His face is familiar, they saw him before in uniform. [The DM has them guess.] "Aren't you Vice Commander Aethis?" "I was Vice Commander Aethis." "We've heard you betrayed Fort Tambrook; is this true?" Questions Akihana. "...Yes. I make no lie about it." "Why did you betray your comrades, and why are you here?" They ask. "I returned to say good-bye again to my old hometown." replies Aethis. "This area on the Bezdin Plain is very fertile, and much desired and fought over by two forts, who, to prevent the other from benefitting in an eminent capture, burn the fields and route or destroy peasants and their facilities. I joined the militia at Fort Tambrook in the hopes it would protect my family; alas, the battles were fought in the wheat fields of my hometown and the foot soldiers faces from my childhood. Knights fought on both sides, but the villagers were in the middle." They ask again why he betrayed Fort Tambrook. "'Twas but a den of wolves, Fort Tambrook." Kylar wants to kill him or leave him; he's a traitor. Hvingar disagrees, Aethis having given good reason to be. They decide to travel together for a while. By the firelight, Akihana moves closer, trying to see more of his face. "You seem a very different person than others make you out to be."
Chapter 4 - Upset The party wakes to the sound of a sword swinging repeatedly through the air. Aethis is out in the grass swinging his sword in the air. Akihana approaches carefully. "What are you doing?" "Practicing...so the blade dulls not." Akihana wants to spar. The conditions are to the first touch. She handily wins the first round, and they both touch the second, but Aethis's is in a more advantageous spot (rolls more damage), so he takes the second. The rest of the party debates on hunting or fishing but desire most to press on toward a strange mark on the map they'd taken from Fort Tambrook; it lies 6 hexes north-northeast across a river from them on the Bezdin. Akihana wants to know what Aethis looks like. His countenance has something of a rugged handsomeness with stubble [I say weakly, and summarize by saying he looks like Aragorn from the movie. Kylar's and Sigurd's players contribute their own observations: he's 300 pounds and wears a diaper.] They ride until they are approached by 5 armored men on horseback. They let them approach, Kylar with his hand on his katar, Akihana tries to hide her double-sword behind her back. They ride up and stop. "What business are you about here, in the wilderness of the plains? The countryside is haunted by bandits." They eye Kylar's hand on his katar especially. Hvingar answers. "We are adventurers. We are on a quest!" [someone adds, "We seek the Holy Grail!"] The men are skeptical [adventurers might be considered glorified bandits], but Aethis catches one's eye. "You there." Aethis does not face them and instead gazes off at the hills. "Show me your face." Aethis stares intently at the forest, eliciting titters from the party, who think Kylar slipped something into his breakfast. "You're ex-Vice Commander Aethis of Fort Tambrook, aren't you?" The party hears swords drawing. "You're under arrest." Kylar throws up his hands. "Take him; he's not with us," he says. Hvingar throws up his hands but considers saving him. Akihana argues the virtues of this with the group. Sigurd thinks it would be more exciting to break him out of jail; Kylar refuses to save him now but is all in favor of a jailbreak. Hvingar says that would be more trouble later. Sigurd just wants to cook stew. As the party looks up from arguing, they see the wake of Aethis's horse over the plain, Aethis aboard, headed for the hills [northwest]. Five men in armor follow him. Akihana seems disenchanted that he'd run, and the party decides not to follow and continue northeast to what Hvingar has dubbed "the point of intrigue." They travel for a few hours. As they close on the river (or what should be), they hear the sounds of splashing, shouting, and weapons clashing over the hill. Kylar volunteers to scout since the grass of the marsh hid him so well. He sees men in mail fighting with swords in the shallows of the river. [The DM tells him 5 of them are fighting a 300-pound man in a diaper. "No! Yokozuna!" his player cries. Akihana's player spits up her apple.] He hears Aethis's voice: "Did not you have family on the Bezdin?" "Our families need gold, Sir Aethis, not sympathy." The party calls Kylar back. "What are those noises?" "A waterfall." "There were shouts and swords ringing." protests Akihana. "Tell us the truth," Hvingar says, or I'll throw you over this hill." "It's not pretty...there's a gazelle- Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...!" Kylar plunges into the river among tromping boots, and swims downward. [His player assures the group there's a reason. "Sam makes the sudden decision to die," suggests Sigurd's player.] "Oooo watercress!" chirps Kylar. The rest of the party come over the hill and decide to help Aethis resist arrest. [Aethis starts this encounter with 15 hp, and the men start by attacking him until the party becomes their enemy.] Kylar grabs a soldier's feet and pulls him under, and the party down 2 men and injure more. The three remaining soldiers see the battle goes against them and hop on their horses in flight. Then the party realizes that if those men return to the fort, the party will be wanted in every town they enter. Akihana and Sigurd hop on their horses. Kylar sends his falcon to unhorse one rider and tells Hvingar to chuck him and brandishes his katars. Hvinagar throws him and he lands on the back of another soldier. Sigurd topples a rider, and Akihana rides alongside Kylar and his now riderless horse. She calls to him to jump. He insists he can manage by himself, but [with Hvingar's player expressing doubt a hobbit could control such a large creature by himself] he jumps from the horse onto Akihana's horse, Shia. They loot a total of 100 drachmas from the fallen soldiers and, satisfied, ride back to the others. [Kylar becomes Lv 2, being the first to level-up.] Aethis climbs from the river, holding his middle. Kylar sees his blood, and asks, "Any last requests? Last rewards for saving you?" "'Tis only a flesh wound," Aethis replies [at 6 hp]. Kylar frowns and leaps from Shia. Akihana sees how he holds his katar and, dismounting, tries to grab him, but he slips from her and stabs Aethis [4 damage] and slips away from his grasp as well. Akihana stands between them [the DM has her roll AC; she rolls a 23. If either Aethis or Kylar want to attack the other, they need to overcome 23 AC.] "We just saved him!" Hvingar and Akihana say. "We saved him," states Kylar coldly, "but we have no business with him, and we don't need him getting in the way of our quest." Akihana asks Aethis what he thinks. "If you would not have me, I will leave." He sheathes his sword. "Fine," She says, and Aethis [at 2 hp] and the party part ways. |
| #2lokustAug 16, 2010 7:05:23 | I enjoyed reading it. Also: It's nice to see that players form emotional bonds to things in the game, such as the fire beetle. |