We played the 15th session of our AD&D 2e campaign last night. The play report for Session 14 is here.
To recap briefly, the party had just sanctified and looted the shrine dedicated to the evil god of lies. Returning to the surface, they encountered Magicheart, an invisible forest entity which had been monitoring their activities. Magicheart had discerned that the party was (mostly) good, and beseeched them to travel to an ancient elf burial ground to rid it of some ghouls which had moved in.
The party returned to Grimerun first to restock. On the way, they encounter the First River Children, a band of tribesmen who were on the lookout for treasure-seekers who might plunder the forest's riches. The party managed to convince them that they hadn't taken anything of value. The following night, the party was attacked by giant spiders, managing to kill one and chase the others off. They harvested the dead spider's remains, hoping to get some deadly venom out of it.
In Grimerun, the party resupplied, and Karven Stone paid an alchemist to provide him with a dose of Type F poison from the spider they killed. They set out again for the elf burial ground. After two days of travel, they arrived without incident.
The party found the ghouls resting in a large mausoleum, and launched their attack. Corym Vadercast entered into melee with the strongest of the ghouls and was paralyzed by its claws. Before the rest of the ghouls could descend on him and devour his flesh, Bernhardt Dalton managed to use his divine powers to turn them. The ghouls fled in terror from Bernhardt as the rest of the party pursued them and eventually slayed them.
Missing Sessions
Our last session was two weeks ago. We normally play every week, and had every intention of playing last week. One of the players let me know shortly before game time that they weren't feeling well. I typically will still run the session if a majority of the players are able to play (three out of four, in this case), but when I proposed that, a second player suggested we take the week off. I was a bit behind in prep anyway, and wasn't feeling super enthusiastic about running the game that night, so I agreed, and we cancelled the session.
I took the week off to review the quests I had already prepared and refine them a bit, and figure out the next round of quest hooks now that the party is mostly 4th-level.
Returning to Magicheart
The session began immediately after the party's fight with the ghouls. There was a sizeable chunk of silver and some platinum in the main sarcophagus in the mausoleum. The majority of the party was hesitant to steal grave goods, but Karven was intent on getting some of the loot. The rest of the players attempted to convince Karven's player not to take anything, but Karven's player wouldn't budge.
I let the discussion eat up some time, but stepped in when it seemed like the issue wouldn't be resolved. I asked "Is this something you all are willing to resort to physically fighting each other over?" They concluded that it was not. The rest of the party denounced Karven's actions, but agreed to look the other way. In the end, Karven took just a handful of silver.
It was the end of the day by the time the party had reached the burial ground, so they decided to take the opportunity to rest there, taking advantage of the shelter provided by the mausoleum. Corym heard some wolves howling in the distance that night, but the night otherwise passed without incident.
The following day, the party traveled back through the forest to meet Magicheart at her tree. Magicheart revealed herself to be a pseudodragon, and offered to join the party. Bernhardt flattered her with some obsequious words, and she flew over and perched herself on his shoulders (I had already decided that Bernhardt's sanctification of the evil altar a couple sessions ago had made him Magicheart's preferred companion, so his words of flattery sealed the deal - she had chosen him as a her companion).
Magicheart coughed up a pile of small rodent bones and valuable gemstones as further reward for the party's efforts. I let the players know what Magicheart's abilities were: She can become 80% invisible in forest settings, has 60 feet of infravision, can see invisible creatures and objects, has a poisonous stinger which can make enemies comatose or outright kill them, and she grants 35% magic resistance to whomever she's in physical contact with. The players recognized her value for what it is and were excited to have such a useful companion.
Karven the Giant-Killer
It had taken another day to return to Magicheart's tree, so the party made camp there for the night. As they were setting up camp, they heard something very large plodding through the forest, about 90 feet away. They scattered around the area, doing their best to hide. I rolled a d100 and got 54, so I decided that they would have a 50% chance of being undetected - Karven and his thief henchwoman, Sheyla, would have a better chance due to their class skills.
A moment later, about 60 feet away, a 16-foot-tall hill giant came crashing into their camp.
I rolled a modified reaction roll of 1, indicating that the giant was hostile. The party had encountered a hill giant once before, in our very first session, but the giant had been indifferent to them, and very far away. This one was in striking distance, and looking for a fight. I described the giant as ornery, ripping up trees as if it expected people to scurry out from underneath of them like bugs.
I had the non-thieves in the party roll d100 to see if they could remain hidden from the giant (again, with a 50% chance of success). No one succeeded. The giant, towering 16 feet above them, could easily see them in their hiding spots. We rolled initiative.
Derrell, the party's druid henchman, cast entangle, creating a 40-foot square of magical overgrowth directly in front of the giant. Bernhardt cast obscurement, creating a 40-foot square of magical fog centered on himself, limiting visibility to six feet, meaning the giant could no longer see them. The giant charged through the overgrowth, succeeding on its saving throw versus the entangle spell.
The entangle spell stipulates that a creature passing its saving throw can move through the affected area at a rate of ten feet per round, but mentions that sufficiently large creatures may be less affected or unaffected. I ruled that the overgrowth would force the giant to move at half speed. Under normal conditions, the giant could easily cover the 60 feet between it and the party and attack, but with 40 feet of overgrowth, it would need to spend its full turn moving into melee. It did so, closing in to melee with Derrell.
Karven and Sheyla, who were hidden, began climbing the surrounding trees so that they could get high enough in the air to stab the giant in its back. Since they are both thieves, they can climb at a rate equal to their regular movement rate, but because they were attempting to move silently, they could only move at one-third their usual rate. Karven climbed 20 feet up a tree. Sheyla climbed 40 feet. Karven managed to do so while remaining hidden - Sheyla was spotted.
Yinvalur, the elf henchman, managed to hit the giant with a couple of arrows. Haymond rushed in and stabbed the giant in the foot with his trident. The remaining attacks from Corym and the other henchmen missed.
The following round, before the giant could act, Karven launched his attack. Leaping from above the giant, Karven successfully stabbed it in the back with his longsword, then scored a critical hit with the dagger in his offhand. He fell to the forest floor, but because of his tumbling proficiency, took only half damage (on 2d6, I rolled 3, so he took just 1 damage!).
The giant was bloodied already. I made a morale check, which was heavily penalized because the giant was badly wounded (-4), outnumbered (-4), fighting magic-using enemies (-2), and hadn't slain any of its opponents (-2). Since it had a -12 penalty, a morale score of 14, and because morale checks are made on 2d10, the giant would need to roll a 2 to succeed (a 1% chance). It failed.
The giant turned and fled, granting opportunity attacks to the many opponents in melee with it. Karven, fittingly, dealt the final blow, slicing the giant's heel so that it collapsed, allowing the rest of the party to swarm its fallen body and slay it.
The party looted the giant's sack of rocks and junk. Hill giants have a Strength of 19, so I ruled that the party needed a combined Strength of 19 to move the heavy rocks, which was easily attainable, given their numbers. Among the junk they found 3,000 gold coins, but nothing else of value. I think this is the biggest payoff they've had yet, and it just wandered into their laps.
Again, this has me reflecting on the party's luck to this point. This was another encounter that really could have gone sideways for them, but spells, numbers, and luck with initiative, attack and damage rolls, and morale allowed them to walk away unscathed and richer. Good for them.
Next Item of Business
The party returned to Grimerun over the next two days without further incident. There, they debated where to head next. They knew of a few quests. The closest was the City of Oni, where hobgoblin raiders had emerged to carry villagers off for some unknown purpose. The party wasn't sure how many hobgoblins to expect, so they turned their gaze towards Grasshold, where a band of ogres had been snatching farmers.
The party wants to travel back to Southreach, the city, where they hope to find an armorer who can turn their ankheg shells into ankheg plate armor. Along the way, they want to stop in Mythshire, where their fallen companion, Ash, was from, to notify any family he might have had about his demise. Before that, they resolved to stop in Grasshold, at least to find out more about the ogre job.
The Church of Light and Life
The party spent a few days traveling to Grasshold, stopping in towns along the way. Once there, they asked around and were told to seek out Lady Rosamunde Chauntea, the town's mayor. Lady Chauntea is a devotee of the dominant local religion, which at this point I decided to finally describe to the players.
When I first created this sandbox, I didn't give much specificity to the region's culture. It was only once the party first traveled to the city, and I had nothing really of interest to share about it, that I started to seriously consider the need to flesh out the details. After that session, I used Worlds Without Number, and my own imagination, to come up with some more concrete information.
I decided that the people in this region were very religious. Specifically, they had a myth that long ago, the city had been threatened by some great evil. A phoenix had showed up (presumably, it had been summoned by a devout priest - now a saint of sorts) to do battle with the evil. In the ensuing fight, the phoenix and the evil were both slain. The phoenix erupted in a great conflagration which burned the city to the ground, but the people were free. They rebuilt the city on the old one's ashes (symbolic!).
Now, the city holds a great temple dedicated to the phoenix, and the region is more or less ruled by the religious leaders of the Church of Light and Life. The church is mainly concerned with healing, rejuvenation, and reincarnation, symbolized by fire. The people believe that the city's grand temple protects a young phoenix, which must be nurtured by the priesthood so that it may one day defend the city again.
There's an order of paladins who defend the church and its clergy, druids who worship primordial fire, wizards who specialize in evocation and fire magic, and thieves who want to plunder the temple's riches for themselves. Hopefully, this will someday result in some intrigue and faction play, but that will be for another time.
All this is to say that the ruler of Grasshold is a devotee of this religion. I did a little info dump for the players' benefit, and hopefully this makes the setting feel more real to them.
The party spoke to Lady Chauntea, but didn't get much more information. A band of ogres had come down from the mountains, taken up residence in a nearby cave, and were snatching people. Haymond Baler managed to convince her to give the party some healing potions to help them in their quest, which she did.
Giant-Killer No More
The ogre den was just a half-day's journey from Grasshold, so the party set out the next day. The party stayed back at the entrance to the cave while Karven snuck inside. At the back of the cave, he saw an ogre with its back turned, fiddling with something in front of a crude stone altar. In the adjoining cavern, four more ogres lounged about - one tending a large fire, another resting on a bed of grass and plants, a third cleaning up a pile of bones, and a fourth sitting by an underground stream, fishing. They seemed to be joking and arguing in ogrish.
Karven beckoned the rest of the party closer, then sneakily made his way towards the lone ogre with its back turned. The ogre has what appeared to be a deal animal's pelt draped across its shoulders. As Karven approached, the "pelt" moved and turned. It was actually a live giant weasel, and it turned its head to snarl at Karven now. He missed his backstab. The ogre - a female clutching a scrollcase, cried out in ogrish, alerting the others to the presence of intruders.
We were about to roll initiative when I realized we were approaching the end of the session. We called it there. The party earned some experience for the fight with the giant, but no one leveled up.
Next time, I imagine a chunk of the session will be spent on the fight with the ogres. Then, if the party survives, they will return to Grasshold and continue their journey south.
No comments:
Post a Comment