Adventure or session summaries for the official Known Lands campaign setting are provided below.
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The group of characters that will eventually become the adventuring party are assigned a standard patrol along the River Road between the village of Northmarket and Brookhaven. Having spent a little too much time after the noon meal in Northmarket, the patrol is just over an hour outside of Brookhaven as dusk begins to fall.
Coming around a bend in the road, the party's patrol finds the scene of recent raider activity: an overturned merchant's cart, several dead guards and a number of kobold corpses. While Caleb Martason stops the merchant, Kenneth Redgold, from bleeding out, others discover very obvious signs that indicate the kobold raiders have only recently left the area and the direction of their travel.
Following the tracks to a game trail, and then taking the trail towards the Old Druid's River, the patrol comes across a patrol of nine kobolds. The leader of the kobold tribesmen, a psion named Sematius, attacks the patrol's scout, Brendaris, with a mind thrust as the two sides enter into combat. As both Rippuku Tora and Robert the Smith engage the enemy in melee combat, both Dalmar Voss and Caleb Martason take to ranged combat, with Caleb's songs to inspire the party. Meanwhile, Brendaris slips silently through the woods along the trail, to put himself in a position to strike an unsuspecting enemy.
In the end, the patrol kill seven kobolds, including the psion (felled at the end by Dalmar's bolt and the use of a True Strike spell), as two kobolds route in fear and flee to the Old Druid's River. Not being talented trackers, the patrol return to the road, where they right Redgold's cart, harness the merchant's stolen horse back to the cart, load the bodies and goods, and then travel to Brookhaven.
DM's Note: This adventure was essentially a single encounter designed to give the players a chance to test out their characters in combat, and begin trying out the variant rules used in this campaign. It seemed to go quite well.
A month has passed since the kobold raid, and it is the last night of the full moon. The adventuring party, having finished their patrol for the day, takes some time to relax in the company of other militiamen and the town guard at the Blue Griffin Tavern. Brendaris, the patrol's scout, retires early for the evening, leaving the other four to enjoy the delights of the Blue Griffin. Caleb Martason does a good job of entertaining the rest of the troops with a rousing military song, but his ovations are interrupted when Old Man Rosewood stumbles into the bar covered in blood and announces "The farms..." before he collapses.
As the guard and militia leave the Tavern in response to the immenent threat, Dalmar Voss, leader of the party's patrol, takes control of the situation within the Blue Griffin. Robert the Smith and Rippuku Tora step outside, to keep an watchful eye on the streets in case trouble finds them. Within minutes, the two begin to hear the clamor of distant battle, as well as sounds much closer: a whirring drone and the sound of frying bacon growing louder. After another round or two, a swarm of spiders pours off the roof of the Blue Griffin, and a winged monstrous spider the size of a dog flies into view from above.
The party quickly springs into action, attempting to defeat the spider swarm while fending off the winged spider, as the patrons of the bar flee upstairs, away from the encrouching vermin. When the party bars the main door, the flying spider breaks a window, allowing the swarm to enter the establishment. Caleb, thinking quickly, throws a lit lantern onto the swarm, doing some damage with a small fire. As torches are broken out to deal with the remainder of the swarming spiders, one of the patrons reveals herself as someone capable of communicating with and directing the actions of the vermin. This draws some of the party's attentions, and their attacks on her draws the wrath of the flying spider. Sadly, the spider, reacting instinctively, unwittingly opened itself to an attack of opportunity from the four-armed tarthani warrior, who smashed it into pieces as it flies by. The mysterious woman, having taken some damage from the party's ranged attacks, dissolves into a swarm of spiders before their very eyes, and flees out an open window. When the last of the original swarm was dispersed, the party puts out the small fire that the lamp had started, and minister to the hurt and wounded. Caleb's bardic lore identifies the woman as a spider vermin host, a creature cursed to serve as the living host of a verminous swarm.
Once the Blue Griffin is secure, and Farmer Rosewood in good condition, the party heads out to assist the other defenders of Brookhaven. A good half hour later, the invading spiders have been evicted from the village, and the wounded are transported to the Hearth Mother Shrine located in the northern fields of Brookhaven. Although magical assistance is not available by the time the party arrives, they are treated by the skilled herbalist talents of Sister Meghan, the high priestess of the small shrine.
As the party's patrol is one of two that are still relatively intact, they are sent to investigate what has happened in the northern farms, particularly those around Rosewood's place. Despite their exhausted condition, they undertake the task. Many of the nearby farms escaped damage, although the farmers report that they've witnessed swarms and such along the roads shortly after dusk, heading from the north towards Brookhaven. The patrol heads north, seeking the origin of this plague.
The characters, exhausted and fatigued by the long day, stop at Old Man Rosewood's place, finding it empty, and rest there for the night. The next morning, they awake, finding themselves still intact and unmolested during the night. Continuing to travel north, they soon observe webbing amidst the trees of the Applegate Orchard. Dalmar's raven familiar, Heckle, flies ahead to investigate, and returns quickly, reporting spiders feeding on the corpses of a family (two adult, three children) outside the Applegate farmhouse. The patrol rushes forward and slays the three small monstrous spiders, although Tora suffers from their somewhat virulent poison. Robert the Smith, in searching for clues as to their identity, finds the Applegate family nest egg in a small sack, which he turns over to the patrol leader.
Creeping up further, the patrol discover the Applegate farmhouse with doors open, their livestock and barnyard fowl devoured by the spider swarms. Through the use of a light spell and a well-place crossbow bolt, the party spy a large egg mass inside the barn, as well as several swarms and a shadowy figure that resembles a monstrous spider the size of a cow. Deciding to burn the barn down, they make the decision to rush forward and bar the door as the fire begins to take hold, trapping the vermin inside. The characters struggle to hold the barn doors shut long enough to bar the doors as the burning Mother Spider and lesser vermin attempt to flee the burning building...
DM's Note: This session is the first half of a full adventure designed to introduce some of the new milieu's background elements. One of the players missed the game, but they seemed to have no problem with the encounters. So far, this adventure has introduced a number of interesting monsters, including a templated creature (the winged spiders), a rarely encountered monster from Creature Collection 2 (the spider vermin host), and a CR1 spider swarm. More details will be revealed in the big finale in next week's session.
As the four-armed tarthani Tora and the blacksmith Robert struggle to hold the barn doors shut, the burning Mother Spider and other vermin attempt to flee the burning building. At that moment, Brendaris, the party's scout, most fortuitously arrived on the scene, drawn by the smoke and the sounds of combat. As he arrives, the Mother Spider pushes the doors open a little bit more, allowing a swarm of spiders to leave the burning barn. Tora attempts a parting shot to the Mother Spider and flees the embrace of the spider swarm, but it was a crossbow bolt from the patrol's leader Dalmar that brought death to the large arachnid.
Meanwhile, two flying spiders erupt through the now-open barn doors, and throw themselves upon the party. The first falls easily to Robert's threshing flail, but the second takes some time to dispatch, as the spider swarm harried the militiamen, leaving some nauseated and unable to attack. Tora is the first to fall to the spider swarm's vicious onslaught, followed quickly by Brendaris and Caleb, ending the bard's song which had proven so helpful to the party's efforts to dispatch these dextrous opponents. Seeing that the others are about to fall, a staggered Robert the Smith calls upon the blessings of the Hearth Mother to defend his peers and burns away the last remnants of the spider swarm, then collapses from his exertions.
The only one left standing, Dalmar quickly begins to check his comrades' wounds, attempting to stop the blood loss. Fortunately for the untalented battle sorcerer, the characters stop bleeding out on their own. He then pulls them away from the raging inferno that the barn has become, and tries to keep them safe until help arrives.
Attracted by the smoke, villagers, farmers and militia arrive within a few turns to help put out the fire and keep it from spreading too far throughout the Applegate Orchards. Given the bad droughts of this last year, every bit of food is precious. Others take the wounded patrol back to the Shrine of the Hearth Mother for healing. When the fires are put out, Dalmar searches the wreckage of the barn for clues. He finds the remains of several corpses that had been bound in webs as food for the future swarms. Although most were local villagers captured the night before, one apparently was a rather well-to-do traveller, wearing fancy leather armor and bearing an exquisite longsword, apparently carrying a bag filled with a large amount of coin and two small potion vials. Taking his bounty, Dalmar leaves to join the others as they prepare to head back to Brookhaven.
En route back to Brookhaven, Dalmar's familiar, the raven Heckle, spied a woman in the orchards watching them pass. As the attentions of the warriors and villagers on the road turn towards her, she melts away into a spider swarm and disappears. Although no further action is taken against the village, word of the "Spider Woman" prompts a growing concern that she will return. Even the members of Dalmar's patrol fear that Brookhaven has not seen the last of the vermin host.
DM's Note: This session is the second half of a full adventure designed to introduce some of the new milieu's background elements. The burning barn encounter was particularly devastating, not because of the severely wounded large spider or the small flying spiders, but because of the spider swarm. We saw the use of a lot of action points in this particular encounter (along with the expression of hopes that they advance soon, and so can refresh their action points), which added a lot to the cinematic nature of the encounter. Thus, action points look like they'll provide what I'm looking for out of them. Had the party been up, I would have let them have a final encounter with the "Spider Woman", but everyone seems happy with letting her be a recurring villain, so I'm not going to complain too loudly about that. But also because of that, I didn't have the chance to reveal certain background elements, so I'll have to provide those in a future session.
In the Month of the Viper, almost a month after the events of the Vermin Host Invasion (above), the party begin their week of service together as a patrol in the militia once more. On the second day of their duty, a small band of eight tribesmen, members of the Merokee tribe of human nomads from the Plains of Taladine to the north, ride into the outlying farm areas northwest of Brookhaven. Their mounts, like their bodies, painted in bright colors, the plainsmen stop their horses when the patrol approaches. Their leader, Flowing Waters, enters into a peaceful discourse with the bard Caleb, the only person in the party to know the Merokee language.
The Merokee bring tales of riders in black metal armor and strange spear-like weapons (later determined to be swordstaves). These "Black Riders" speak in a non-tribal tongue, and have captured members of their tribe, as well as some kobold and lizardfolk tribesmen and a few Steadlanders from outlying thorps and shires. The enslaved prisoners are being made to carry gold from some hills on the edge of the Plains out to the cursed land known to the tribesman as the Walls That Scream. These warriors have come to speak with the local forester, the elven ranger Anand Truehart, who has aided their people before, for they need his aid again.
The party escorts the warriors to Brookhaven, where they meet with the town's lord, Warden Morgan Redbeard, as well as Anand Truehart. In the end, the Warden decides to send the party back with the tribesman to investigate and return with a report on the need for additional military assistance, and as Caleb is the only militiaman that speaks Merokee, the party is volunteered. The ragtag groups travel northwest and, after camping for the night, skirt the Greenfell Outpost. The party learn that the tribesman consider the dendradi ruins cursed enough to deform a man's children. After passing the Outpost, the warband turns north.
They avoid a few wilderness encounters, and set up camp their second night, only to be attacked by a dangerous pack of quillwolves. Only Robert the Smith is awake and on patrol when the pack attacks, but most find themselves awake and into conflict against the spiny canines within the first round of engagement. Although the two warriors, Tora and Robert, take most of the damage from the quillwolves, the patrol leader Dalmar is fortunate and slays three of the six beasts himself, succeeding in most cases solely due to Caleb's inspirational songs. Brendaris, taking advantage of his specialized training, aids the others tacticly by flanking the animals, helping to bring a rapid end to another. The most impressive death goes to Caleb, however, who took out a quillwolf with a single critical hit from his crossbow. The quillwolf encounter leaves Tora severely wounded, and the party rushes to his aid, as one quillwolf runs away, alone of his pack to survive.
Once their conflict was over, the characters turn to their tribesmen companions, who are driving off the last of their attackers. After some time, everyone settles back down, and resume their rest...
DM's Note: This session is the first part of a full adventure designed to introduce elements of the tribal cultures, as well as a treasure trove and possible future enemy for the characters. The quillwolf encounter was very tough, and taxed their resources, but no one died. The characters made dramatic use of their action points. In an interesting twist of fate, the great warrior Tora didn't do as well as he should have statistically, due to a bad dice night, but the first level characters shined in the conflict. This game also allowed me to introduce some wildlife as description, and the quillwolf from Creature Collection 3.
The morning after the quillwolf attack, Robert the Smith harvests the quills and hides of the quillwolves while Caleb negotiates for a day's rest for the patrol to recuperate. In the end, the Merokee warrior Flowing Waters elects to keep his two wounded with the party, as well as two healthy guides to care for the Merokee and lead them to the band of warriors watching over the enemy's stronghold, the Cave of Bones, so named for the large reptilian skeleton found within.
Over the course of the day, the smell of the dead drew the attentions of a small flock of vrail. Finally, during the late afternoon, the vrail began a series of diving attacks on the party. They were eventually driven off, with only a minor scratch to show for the vrail's efforts.
Late into the night, on Tora's watch, a patrol of Black Riders rode up on the encampment and demanded with sheer arrogance that the campers surrender. The Riders spoke a language that Caleb could not identify, but the demand was repeated in Trade after Caleb revealed that he knew that language. Being their usual tactful selves, the party woke one another and began springing into combat. One of the two healthy warriors fell to a well-placed crossbow bolt, and several others received their share of quarrels. Caleb sang to inspire his comrades, as Brendaris slipped into the shadows in an effort to sneak up on one of the mounted warriors. Patrol Leader Dalmar Voss, heavily wounded, dropped to the ground, feigning death. Tora charged the leader, hurting him deeply and forcing him to drink a potion to heal his wounds. Meanwhile, Robert the Smith, filled with the fury of his ancestors, charged one of the riders and began working his way along the line of horsemen. As Tora cleaved through a rider adjacent to the leader and into the leader himself, he focused the attentions of the leader, who ordered his warriors to attack him. The leader himself barely missed with his swordstaff and then directed his heavy warhorse to attack the tarthani. Alas, the warhorse did not miss, with either hoof, and the damage dealt was massive. Tora fell, his head and chest bearing unnaturally deep hoofmarks. In a berserking rage, Robert tore through another rider, leaving the Black Rider patrol with only two members still living. The leader, realizing they faced a superior enemy that would not be cowed by his mere presence, gave the orders to retreat, and they rode hard away from the camp, ending the encounter.
Quickly, Robert and Brendaris rushed to Tora's side, only to find their companion slain by the warhorse's ferocious onslaught. Caleb found Dalmar to be alive and well, though staggered by the damage he'd taken. As Brendaris stripped the bodies, he told the others that he had understood the language spoken by the Black Riders. In addition, the Riders' equipment bore a heraldic symbol that Brendaris wore as a signet ring. He told the others that his father had taught him this language while he was growing up, calling it Farlander. When he came of age, his father had told him that others were hunting him, and he must always flee and stay in hiding. Robert, being somewhat stricken with grief, confronted Brendaris about the scout's possible connections with the forces that slew his friend, and then stormed off to prepare Tora's body to be returned to his parents.
The next morning was a solemn procession from the temporary encampment to the warriors' band. By high sun, the Brookhaven party had joined with Flowing Waters' larger forces. There, the party learned of the status of the Black Riders: their more powerful riders had ridden out with the tribe's totem, as well as the last set of slaves and gold. The Black Riders had left only about twenty-five men and thirty slaves behind a wooden palisade. The remnants of the Black Rider patrol that the party had decimated returned in the early hours of the morning, but the other patrol had yet to return (though it was expected to do so by the early evening hours that day.) Quickly, the party came up with a plan, of capturing the patrol, and using their horses and equipment to get inside the palisade under the guise of being chased by Merokee warriors. Once the gate was open, the party would hold the doors and the tribesmen would rush in behind them. It would be a massacre; it would be vengeance. The Merokee agreed. Eagerly, everyone mounted up and prepared to leave...
DM's Note: This session is the second part of a full adventure that started last week. The vrail, from Creature Collection I, was a nice change of pace from the usual buzzards and vultures in previous campaigns, and added a bit of flavor to that particular encounter. The Black Rider encounter was particularly effective, despite its relatively low EL, again due to bad die rolls. One of the warriors made a critical hit on Dalmar, staggering him. Later on in the combat, the heavy warhorse hit with both hooves, doing max damage with each, and brought Tora down to exactly -10, killing the character. The player has elected to create another character, a human cleric this time, rather than have the party seek out the means to bring the tarthani fighter back. This encounter also gave me a chance to introduce an element of Brendaris's "mystery" background, in that he knows he's fleeing someone that's hunting him down, but he doesn't know who or why. The Black Riders are the first clue to resolving that mystery.
As the patrol mounted up to leave, a young cleric, Climeth Irongirth, emerged from a nearby teepee. Having grown up in Brookhaven, he recognized a few of the party members and was quickly integrated into the group. When the tribesmen split up to search different areas for the wayward Black Rider patrol, the Steadlanders were put together in one group.
Within a few hours, Climeth's tracking abilities allowed the party to locate the Black Rider patrol. Attacking from higher ground, they set about to lay waste to the Riders. Sadly, the morale of the group had apparently been shaken by the loss of Tora, and one by one, the brave Steadlanders fell to the Black Rider swordstaves.
The group awoke later on that night, after being ministered by some enslaved midwives and healers. The party improvised a lockpick for Brendaris, who set about to slowly free the slaves under cover of darkness. Many were too weak from captivity to move, but there were enough warriors ready for action to give the party hope of some slim chance of success. Their gear gone, they had to rely on Dalmar's familiar, the raven Heckle, to coordinate an assault with the tribesmen outside the gates, waiting in the darkness beyond the walls.
As the others provided a slight distraction by throwing stones at the horses penned to one side of the encampment, Brendaris slipped through the shadows and into the simple shelter where half the Black Rider forces slept. Using a hidden dagger, he stealthily slaughtered a full dozen men, until he only had left the loudly snoring warrior Old Nath, and two Westlander knights. Leaving the old warrior snoring away so as not to alert the guards outside, Bren attempted to coup de grace one of the knights, but did not successfully kill him. Waking, the knight raised the alarm, and brought Bren low with one fell strike. The knight's cry of outrage was the signal for the slaves to rise up and they did just that, not knowing the fate of their friend and scout within the barracks...
DM's Note: This session is the third part of a full adventure that started two weeks ago. I have never seen so many natural ones and fumbles in combat before. There were easily ten different instances in the original combat sequence. It was a statistical anomaly that bordered on the freakish. At the end of the initial encounter, all of the PCs had fallen but had stabilized. After a quick vote on whether they wanted to continue or not (which appeared unanimous that the party wanted to continue), the game moved on, turning this low point into a new plan for engaging the enemy. Next session, the party will attempt to free the slaves and destroy the Black Rider encampment with the aid of the tribesmen outside the gates, thus wrapping up the adventure.
The knight's cry of outrage spurred the camp into a flurry of action. Formerly enslaved tribesmen began to charge ahead, driving the two guards to the ground as others took the long chains that once bound them and charged across the ground, knocking over two of the other guards before arrows from above began to rain on the tribal warriors. Although still weak, the band worked their way into the fray. One by one, however, the Black Riders dropped the members of the party. In a last ditch effort, Robert the Smith charged forward to the gates of the palisade and removed one of the logs holding a gate closed. Even as it swung open, arrows pin-cushioned the broad-shouldered man, and he joined his comrades in the dust.
However, the goal wasn't to kill every last Black Rider, but rather open the gates for the tribesmen waiting outside. In this, the party met their goals, and were saved by the twenty-odd warriors that charged through the now-open gate. They recovered from their wounds somewhat near dawn, and were offered a significant share of the recovered gold (2000gp each) for their brave actions that allowed the tribesmen to enter the compound and fight only have the forces they were otherwise expecting.
Instead of staying behind, the party elected to travel back with the tribesmen for a time, healing and recovering, before the tribal guide Two Suns Rising led the party back to Greenfell and the borders of Amberstead expansion. Their significant Survival skills allowed the party to return to civilization without further antagonizing the local wildlife.
The militia patrol was welcomed back to Brookhaven with some level of fanfare, as well as a certain somber attitude for the death of the young Tarthani, Tora. The patrol was debriefed by the Lord Warden himself, who noticed the large amounts of gold treasure they brought back with them. Lord Warden Redbeard asked them for the Lord's Tax, as should be expected, and the party stumbled through a lie regarding having paid it back in Greenfell. The Lord Warden accepted them at their word, acknowledging that the funds would then be sent in the next two weeks to Brookhaven, to be forwarded on to the Lord Dominar in Amberstead.
The next day, the family opened their home to feast to the dead, preparing Tora's spirit on to its final resting place, and that evening, set the funeral pyre aflame to send the spirit on.
Upon the next morning, the party decided to leave town early, despite the influx of people to celebrate Sunfest, the summer solstice celebration only two days away. As they gathered up their things and finished their business about town, Climeth noticed that one of the flame-haired Daughters of the Rose had come to town. After engaging her in a relatively one-sided conversation, he did learn that the warrior-knight was looking for a man with a specific birthmark, one that Climeth had spied on one of his companions. The portly cleric left quickly, found the man to be Dalmar and brought him before Dame Klarissa of the Rose. The knight led Dalmar to a private location, where she revealed that she had come to prepare him for the coming assault of the Cult of the Ebon Star, and for his role in a prophecy. Dalmar freaked and ran away. Dame Klarissa eventually found him, confronting him, and her aid was rejected. She did not take kindly to Dalmar's choice, but left, claiming that the Second Sign would soon be upon him...
DM's Note: This session allowed us to end the "Tribal Rescue" adventure line, and move into the next episodic module, a brief adventure named "Of Stars And Petals." In the final combat in the Black Rider compound, we once again saw a flurry of natural ones and poor dierolls, although it appears the curse is finally starting to lift somewhat. The biggest problem was that the PCs didn't have a lot of healing, and many were dropped or staggered with one blow. They accomplished their end goal, however, and that was worthy of reward.
During the interlude between adventures, I was somewhat surprised when the player-characters decided not to pay the Lord's Tax and lie about it, though I'm cool with their decision to do so. Tax evasion will have repercussions later, but that just adds spice to the game, right? :)
The new adventure builds upon a scene from Dalmar's background story, bringing into play elements of the Cult of the Ebon Star as well as the Daughters of the Rose, staunch defenders of the Star Maiden. It looks to offer more opportunities for role-playing, as well as revealing a few secrets from the campaign setting, and creating a few more questions in the process. I'm looking forward to unveiling a little more to the players and their characters over the remainder of this short adventure.
Dalmar Voss resolved his issues with Dame Klarissa the next morning, turning down her offer for special training to deal with the Cult of the Ebon Star, and expressing a desire to see the world for a while. Meanwhile, in an effort to address their upcoming tax plight, the party decided to invest in an Adventuring Company charter, appointing Robert the Smith as the de facto captain of the group by virtue of the fact that the leader is legally responsible for the group's actions, should something go awry. (That, and he wasn't there to say "No.")
With the charter in hand, the adventurers decided to remain in Brookhaven and train for the few days before Sunfest, the celebration of the summer solstice. Many tourneys and activities filled the course of the day, and various members of the party participated. Brendaris, in particular, drew a lot of attention for his victories in the archery and swordsmanship competitions.
On the first day of the Month of the Horse, the brave adventurers took to the Walker's Road towards Oxward, stopping in the village of Medianville at noon for a brief bite to eat. There, they broke bread with a small group of Sea Warden pilgrims, travelling this road up towards Brookhaven, en route to Lake Halcyon to establish a small temple to the Sea Warden on the shores of that large lake. The party found that the pilgrims were very concerned about possible actions taken on the part of the Star Maiden's church to stop the pilgrims from succeeding. (While the Patrons have no issues with one another, people are fallible, and their alignments are diametrically opposed...) The pilgrims particularly feared the martial prowess of a near-legendary Captain Dalmar Voss, whom they suspected would be used by the Church of the Star Maiden against the pilgrims because of his military skills and experience. The party managed to keep a straight face before such statements, and concealed the identity of both Dalmar and Brendaris from the pilgrims. Toward the end of the meal, Father Emmanuel reminded Captain Robert the Smith that only the priests of the Star Maiden are forbidden to lie, so be wary of what one hears from followers that use Her name for legitimacy. Having set the minds of the pilgrims at ease, the adventuring band road further southeast along the Walker's Road, stopping for the night at the Walker's Inn.
DM's Notes: For those curious as to what a Walker is within the campaign setting, they are described elsewhere in this sourcebook as followers of the Healing Path.
The game was fun, light-hearted and a good change of pace from the previous military mission to save the tribesmen from the Black Riders. Dice rolled better this evening than in weeks past. There wasn't a combat, but sometimes you just need sessions like this. In addition, a number of background flavor items were introduced, such as the festivities of a Village celebration of Sunfest, the concept of Adventuring Company charters, details of the Star Maiden dogma and the relation of mortal churches supporting differing patrons.
That evening, the adventurers arrived in the small hamlet of Walker's Inn and settled down for the night. Locals that had attended the festivities in Brookhaven recognized Brendaris as the champion of the Sunfest games, which led to a boisterous display of singing (Caleb), magical juggling (Dalmar) and outstanding tumbling (Brendaris), turning the little inn into an impromptu theater. While Brendaris spent the rest of the night turning away the attentions of a local maiden, Climeth successfully wooed the lass's sister back at the family barn for a little roll in the hay.
The next morning, Climeth's luck continued to run true, for the daughter's father discovered the couple slumbering on the hay and proceeded to chase Climeth back to the Inn, where the cleric, backed by his companions, refused to honor the girl and marry her as per the farmer's demands. In time, however, the daughter, with the help of her mother, managed to calm the irate farmer's nerves. The stalwart band of adventurers bravely rode away quickly thereafter, lest the father decide to perforate Climeth with his pitchfork just because...
On the road towards Oxward, the party was ambushed by a bunch of small rat-men, but in the end succeeded in taking down their foes. Recovering quickly, they decide to follow the raiders' trail back to their home base. Much was made about keeping the area safe, but it was certain that at least one member of the party recognized that where there were successful raiders, there would be wealth from those raids. Also, brands found upon the bodies of the rat-men marked them as belonging to the Order of the Shifting Skin, a small and reclusive order based out of Enhaven.
An hour's walking into the hills revealed a small tower surrounded by ill-kept fields and a number of cages, some of which once held a variety of animals (such as dire rats, badgers and even a large snake). One, even, still held a beast locally known as the tigrilla, perportedly the results of a magical cross-breeding experiment between tigers and gorillas that somehow made it into the wild and has been growing slowly in population ever since.
As Robert the Smith marvelled at the creature, the rest of the party went to the tower itself and boldly knocked on the door. A squeaky voice on the other side kept them busy while two more rat-men snuck up on them in ambush. Brendaris slaughtered one of the two, initiating a combat between the party and the ambushers, including another rat-man and a badger-man. The party did rather well against them, but in the end, they were brought low by the surviving badger-man. The unconscious adventurers were locked in a cage, where they awakened some time later...
DM Notes: Role-playing marked the first half of this session, giving the more non-combat-oriented characters an opportunity to enjoy some interaction with the locals. However, the tide turned when the characters encountered the rat-men, actually dire rat manimals constructed using the Advanced Bestiary's manimal template. The two combat encounters were a little tough. In the end, it was simply the luck of the die rolls that felled the PCs before the last creature, the badger-man (actually, a dire badger manimal), could be dropped. All characters either stopped bleeding out or elected to spend an action point to stabilize themselves, and so the characters were saved by the manimals for foul purposes. One of the players, he who plays the character Robert the Smith, was absent from the evening's games, and the loss of his character's abilities in combat perhaps tilted the scenarios towards the borderline conflict that emerged. (I did ask them if they wanted to wait to do the second fight until next week's session, but the party elected to go forward without their barbarian friend.)
Upon waking up the next morning, the party recovered due to the aid of the Hearth Mother laymen, Robert the Smith. As various members of the party prepared their daily spell slots, a light rain began to fall, which quickly grew into a raging rainstorm. When the party was ready, Brendaris, using tools hidden about his person, used his extensive skills to free the adventurers from their imprisonment. (Brendaris had learned from his previous experience with the Merokee, and had some lockpicks sewn into his vest, in case something like that happened again.)
Stumbling through the raging rainstorm, the party worked their way into the Tower through a low-lying window. Once inside, the party located their lost goods, which had been piled in the main room of the first floor and left relatively untouched. Brendaris braved the rain once again to retrieve the party's mounts, bringing them back to the Tower's front door. Meanwhile, the rest of the party had become aware that the manimals were engaging in a transformation ritual in a downstairs chamber that would create a tigrilla manimal once completed.
The party's hearts turned toward revenge, greed and perhaps even succor in the name of the greater good. Rather than ride out into the storm, they elected to remain and slay these beasts. A single dire rat manimal, followed by a larger patrol consisting of a badger-man and two other ratlings, fell before the party's onslaught.
Thus, the party became emboldened by the taste of success. They sought to draw a few more manimals from the ritual chamber, and thus take them out within the narrow confines of the stairwell. While the band successfully brought a larger group out to deal with the party, the manimals as a whole were warned of their presence in the Tower. (Honorable mention should be made at this point to the single ratling warrior that survived for almost seven rounds against the five members of the Band That Has No Name...Yet.)
Finally, with the rite nearing its completion, the party rushed forward into the ritual room, with the intent of interrupting the transformation ceremony....
DM Notes: Last night's session went very well, and the party was hugely successful in dealing with their captivity and bringing about a sense of retribution against their captors. I was greatly pleased at how well the party did in last night's game. The dice rolled better, and the group worked together a lot more to make themselves more efficient in combat. There were some great intraparty RP moments, and the mood was light and fun.
In addition, the party got the chance to see the marble snake manimal that leads the ritual, allowing me the opportunity to introduce another monster to the players from the Tome of Horrors.
The action resumed as the adventuring band engaged in their final confrontational battle against their self-appointed enemies, the manimals of Master Tritius's tower. Climeth Irongirth initiated combat by throwing in a flask of burning oil, although it failed to light. However, within seconds, Brendaris successfully interrupted the ritual of manimal transformation taking place on the tigrilla by hurling a dagger into the marble snake mage, gaining additional sneak attack damage against his flat-footed target.
Once engaged, the fighting was furious! Robert the Smith raged himself against the onslaught of a wounded and raging badger-man, as others in the party fell victim to the marble snake-man's entrancing whistle. The charming effects of the ability effectively separated the party during the initial rounds of combat, making it easier for the ratlings and badger-men to slowly wear down the characters. Both Robert and Brendaris engaged in some excellent teamwork, helping one another with healing potions and flanking opponents. Climeth held his own, waiting the opportunity to aid his comrades as he battled against the ratling warriors. Once free of his entrancement, Dalmar completed the job that Brendaris had started, and slew the marble snake-man, as Caleb defended himself against the onslaught of a second badger-man.
As the first badger-man fell, the tigrilla broke free of its bonds and roared out of the room. Seeing an opening, Robert charged across the room to attack the second badger-man, who by this point had dropped Caleb and turned on Dalmar, the slayer of his master. Giving a brief respite, Dalmar retreated from his flanking position into a nearby room filled with the aroma of death, and Robert bore the brunt of the second badger-man's attacks, now wounded and thus enraged. Alas, given Robert's own wounded state upon entering the conflict, the barbarian was driven unconscious and, as the rage left him, passed on from this world.
Dalmar quickly drank a potion, then returned to the main chamber, leaving behind the rotting corpse smell of the dark room into which he'd retreated. By then, he had found that Climeth, Caleb and Robert had fallen, and only Brendaris remained in the fight against a handful of ratlings and a heavily wounded badger-man. The ratlings began to flee as the two remaining party members began moving to the stairs and perhaps to what safety might lie beyond. Unfortunately, Dalmar attracted the attentions of the wounded badger-man, and fell to the raging beastman's onslaught. The badger-man then continued to pursue Dalmar's familiar up the stairs and out of the combat.
Brendaris let the last of the ratlings flee, then searched the room for danger before coming to the aid of his fallen comrades. The rogue managed to stabilize his friends (save for Robert the Smith, who had already passed on), and they made their way fragilely out of the tower and back to Walker's Inn. Recieving some healing from the Walker that dwelled there, they vowed to rush to Amberstead to raise their fallen comrade and then return to loot the tower under the pretense of removing the last of the manimals and take down the tigrilla that now roamed the lands.
DM's Note: As always, I was saddened by the loss of a character, but I must admit that I appreciate the manner in which the players handled themselves. The group knew this fight was a harsh one, as I had warned them about it beforehand, both IC and OOC. They made the choice to engage in it, knowing the risks, and I think that made a difference here.
From a DMing perspective, this combat allowed a large fight scene with multiple foes with different abilities. The use of the marble snake from Necromancer Games's Tome Of Horrors, coupled with the manimal template from Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary created an unusual foe, and the presence of the tigrilla (also from Tome Of Horrors) as it sought to escape added a level of tension to the scene. When it broke free, the characters moved away from it, in case the beast decided to attack the closest person. For the first half of the combat, it dominated the center of the ritual room, adding more flavor to the environment of the combat.
Burdened with Robert's corpse, the adventurers slowly made its way to Amberstead, taking in the sights of the City-State as they moved closer to the capitol city. Along the way, the party heard of skeletal creatures with long sword-like claws attacking travellers, yet the band only witnessed the aftermath of these creatures' attacks, and fortunately did not confront any themselves.
The party passed through the large and smelly township of Oxward, the center of the area's livestock industry, followed by the two day journey to the largest city many of them had ever seen, the walled city of Amberstead. En route, Brendaris succumbed to the temptation of a cursed magical gem and placed it upon his forehead, whereupon it magically became affixed and could not be removed.
At the Sanctuary of the Sacred Hearth, the largest temple to the Hearth Mother in the city-state, clergy received Robert's body and prepared it for the ceremony required to raise the dead. The remainder of the group then travelled into Amberstead proper to find room, board and a magic shoppe. Emile's Emporium of Magic and the Arts fit the bill on the latter, and the party sold treasure to reimburse the expense of raising Robert from the dead. In addition, they identified the powers of the mystic gem attached to Brendaris's brow; the gem bound souls of the recently deceased, such that they would not travel on to their Patrons after the prerequisite three days. Indeed, the Soulbinder allowed souls trapped within to be easily brought forth for raising and resurrection purposes. Brendaris's dreams that night led him to believe that other souls still inhabited the gem.
The next morning, Mother Tara Heartsworn, High Priestess of the Sanctuary of the Sacred Hearth, restored life to Robert the Smith before a great congregation. After such a joyous event, the Hearth Mother's followers feasted and celebrated. The church laid a quest upon the group for this service, however. The clergy of the Hearth Mother sought a lost artifact, that it may be returned to the Sanctuary. Robert was charged with retrieving the Hearthstone, a crystal egg with the power to heal and cure disease. The church arranged for Robert and his band to travel the two days at sea to the island of Arlisle, where the Oracle of Arlisle, Harponia, Queen-Mother of the Harpies, resided. There, the brave adventurers would learn where the Hearthstone resided, and could then undertake their mission to retrieve it.
The two days at sea were rough, particularly on Brendaris and Dalmar, whose meals fed the sharks for a time. Once the vessel arrived on the shore of the rocky, craggy island, the crew bid the party farewell, with a warning that they would wait one day before returning, in the event the party survived the trials of the Oracle. It was said that the Oracle tested those that sought answers, and she and her children fed upon those deemed unworthy due to their failure.
The band quickly took to a rough passage into the rocky hills, where they found bones of those that had failed previously in their quest for the Oracle's knowledge. Meanwhile, the beautiful harpies gathered on the cliffs and ridges above, sizing up the party in terms of the choicer bits of flesh, expressing their desire to feast tonight on the bodies of those that failed their mother's test.
At last, the party entered into the cave of the Oracle of Arlisle, where they came face-to-face with the black-winged Mother of Harpies, the accursed Harponia herself. She asked her riddle, and then waited as the party contemplated its meaning. In the end, it was the wisdom of Climeth Irongirth that brought forth the answer the harpy sought. Resigned to uphold her end of the bargain, Harponia entered into a deep trance, and told Robert of what he sought: the Hearthstone lay in an abandoned temple to the Hearth Mother in the Vale of the Womox, a race of large humanoids with the facial features of bulls. Harponia also revealed that a stone portal could be used to reach the Vale, and thus, the Hearthstone.
DM's Note: This particular session was heavy on roleplaying, as the party experienced the significance of bringing someone back from the On a personal note, the game was entertaining. Although no combat took place, I felt good about the descriptions of the events unfolding, and about creating a more detailed picture of the world with this quest.
The Arlisle scenes allowed me to introduce a number of elements for the Known Lands setting. The Oracle adds an element of epic high fantasy, inspired by the Oracle of Delphi in Greek mythology. My depiction of the harpies as beautiful Mediterranean women with raven-black wings and slightly feathered hair of jet comes from the artwork of Boris Vallejo for the cover of the first WOrld of Tiers novel by Phillip Jose Farmer. It's supported mechanically by the fact that harpies have a Charisma of 17, but seemed an unusual and interesting interpretation for some of the more hardcore D&D-philes.
The next step in the adventure will take the PCs to the Vale of the Womox, and give me a chance to introduce another race and other challenges that lie ahead in this quest.
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