They Met at a Tavern 12: Back into the Sewers

A late Meetup posting for a Monday game at the end of the three day weekend. Players:

• Peter: Quorl (Pronounced Carl), Elf Fighter
• Mike: Otzi (I didn't write down his name), Goblin Ras Godai
• Seana: Halibarn, Human Fighter

With three players, the Sheaf O' Adventures(tm) revealed Macceum Sewers as a good option. The setup: The PCs were new in town and short on coin. Unfortunately, the only guild hiring bravos of no reputation was the local Sewer Militia. They were given tarnished brass badges, a couple of healing potions, and a rough map of the area where they were supposed to perform "maintenance." 

Welcome to work

The party had an uneventful morning, poking at clogs, getting their boots mucky, and finding a couple of corpses. However, some recently cleared brickwork revealed a unknown passage, and explorers need to explore.

The three entered the passage. Unfortunately, Otzi stepped on a pressure plate. Fortunately, Otzi is short and the crossbow trap missed.

Next room, and Halibarn splinters the door. A massive bat swoops at the three. Quorl and Halibarn see it as an illusion. Otzi, already paranoid, is shaken. Among the debris, they collect a coin purse and puzzle over the gouges in the floor and broken stone foot.

Through the next door and down passageways. Taking a left, they were set upon by a trapdoor spider as they assessed the next door. Stabbing happened, and Halibarn shook off a venomous bite. 

Further exploration, and they discovered a chamber with flowing metal passing through pipes and a basin. Unfortunately, the mercury vapors gave a couple of the PCs the shakes.

Back to the main passage, and Otzi, stumbling along under the influence of the vapors, brushed against a secret door. They pried it open, then failed to breach the next doorway. No worries, the blind wererat and his rat minions opened the door and attacked. More stabbing and biting occurred. The party whomped on a couple of the rats, causing the others to flee, and leaving the wererat at disadvantage. They slew it and picked through the trash. Halibarn upgraded their armor and doffed a healing potion.

Halibarn pokes at a forgotten alter and swipes the pewter offering bowl. Quorl, not to be outdone, taps along the wall, finding a second secret door. More prying, and into another side passage. 

Another failed door kick causes the medusa within to reveal herself, commanding the explorers to leave or die. 

PCs, always.

Fortunately, the PCs were able to beat the medusa's initiative and scored a couple of hits. She drew a sword and struck back, then began to pull back her hood. Second round, and the Ras Godai pulled one of his tricks out of his sleeve, striking at her with a paralyzing blow. Halibarn pulled out a "Clash of the Titans" move and beheaded the incapacitated medusa. Fine, kill my monsters.

The party blocked the door, recovering over the night. They cleared out the medusa's loot pile and found her stash of petrified victims. The head was bundled up among the takings.

They emerged from the sewers and were no longer counted among the dead Sewer Militia. Loot was distributed. Quorl banked his away in hopes of returning to a noble lifestyle. Halibarn placed bets on herself in the local arena, gaining some more coin. Otzi carried the severed head to his Ras Godai contacts, selling it to someone in need of a powerful item to solve a problem...

DM Notes:

Fun, quick session, about two hours for this one. Good use of the Ras Godai in this session. It is one of the supplement classes that has grown on me. The "Sewers" has some fun exploration, and I'm considering some minor edits after several sessions of running it. Currently scribbling up another Tim Shorts map for future explorations, as well.

The Flesh-Harvester Skeleton

On the prowl for skin and bone to tear
I'm a skeleton looking for meat to wear

                                               KMFDM - "Hyena"

Those animated bones, they remember once being clothed in flesh and muscle, with blood in hearts and vessels, breath in their lungs. And some hunger to feel that again, even if only for only frail moments.  

Draped with flesh and offal from their flayed victims, groups of flesh-harvester skeletons swarm their prey to strip them of their mortal cover to momentarily enhance their own being.

get that meat back!

AC: 6/13
HD: 2*
Atk (BAB+1): 2 x claw (2x1d4)
Movement: 60’ (20’)
Saving Throws: D12 W13 P14 B15 S16
Morale: 12
No. appearing: 1d6+3

Upon first contact, the skeletons will be seen to be "wearing" rotting flesh. Each will have 1d6 extra hp garnered from prior victims. On a to-hit of 18+, the skeleton strips flesh from its target, gaining temporary hit points equal to the damage (up to 2x max hp). They will tend to target unarmored individuals en masse. All that armor gets in the way of collecting that sweet, sweet meat...

The "swarm" and flesh compulsion inhibits turning attempts, granting -1 against undead turning per four skeletons present (round up). Otherwise, they exhibit normal undead qualities and immunities (Make no noise until they attack. Immune to effects that affect living creatures (e.g. poison). Immune to mind-affecting or mind-reading spells.)

DragonFlight 2025: Games and More Games

Ok, this will be a long one, so either grab some coffee or come back when I'm less vociferous. I ran five sessions through the three day weekend, three of Shadowdark and two of OSE-B/X. Had full tables for all, and a lot of good play. Met a few folks, saw a few old friends, and generally enjoyed the scene. 

With five sessions, I'll just be hitting the highlights, and some impressions.

Friday Afternoon: Shadowdark; Adventure: The Howler.

After my recent test-run of the adventure using Shadowdark, I posted it up as my first session. This is the only session for which I pre-selected the adventure. I had a full table, plus a few folks on standby. My intent is to get as many people to the table as I can since picking and choosing games at a con can be a fraught affair. So I ran a table of nine for this game. Which meant that foes were bulked up and hazards slightly inflated to keep up with the crew.  

Cast summary:

• 1 Ras-Godai
• 2 Fighters
• 2 Priests
• 2 Wizards
• 2 Thieves

The party found Gundrin's corpse, and was set upon by the vultures. After emptying pockets, they advanced to the tomb, where the goblins ganged up on them. Shooing them away, they entered the tomb to investigate. One thief scouted into the dark. The purification room had LOTS of spiders, and there was much whiffing. The thief aced his find traps roll and everyone made it down the trapped corridor with no harm. Rains was stabilized and ranted before pointing out the Howler. Light died during the battle, and the Howler absorbed a spell and magic sword to heal (And the players had thought the GM was being generous with those magic items...). The Howler was distracted with other thrown magic items, and set on fire. It fled, leaving the PCs to explore. They dodged a gas explosion from a brazier, and identified mystery mushrooms by taste test. They then found the mummy sarcophagi, and in contrast to the last party, did NOT read the inscription out loud. After discussion, they chose not to risk potential powerful undead. The PCs gathered up scattered loot and carried the two doomed explorers back to town to reveal their fates.

DM Notes: 

It wasn't too bad running a large table. Everyone was a "grownup" and worked and played well together. Of course, there were a couple of players who took a bit more initiative at the table, but not to the session's detriment. I did a rough initiative houserule, with the highest scoring player going 1st, then rotating turns either clockwise or counterclockwise around the table. The enemies went at a selected turn within the combat round, usually at "that water bottle."  I stuck with this system for Shadowdark throughout the weekend. The adventure ran better with familiarity, and I was able to use the Howler to better effect, particularly during the light loss. Accordingly, the players took advantage of its compulsion to lure it towards the strongest fighter before immolating it.

Campaign Journal: Keepin' up at the Keep of Madrual

Who's stormin' the castle?

• Slick-thief
• Fulvus-halfling
• Jax-barbarian
• Rondel-elf
• Plus Various Hangers-On

Some quick retcon to describe the interactions and reactivation of lens at Vansho Reliquary. A significant observation was that two undead knights in residence who were bound to their funerary chamber now had free movement around the place.

Back to the present: The party assessed Toronin as Librarian Grancet repaired and etched the lens with the help of his bound demon. Benedikt noted that they would need reinforcements to hold the hardpoint if the Barrier was to remain intact. Gerhard was dispatched to see if he could rustle up some troops.

In the meantime, Cleric Henry Cee was reminded that he had a Potentially Useful Relic in Sister Sowena's Gauntlet. Donning it and casting about, he located a small mass grave of slain soldiers from the original fall of the Barrier. A handy platoon of skeletal warriors was summoned, arising from the turf, reattaching limbs, digging up rusted weapons. And soon enough, Gerhard returned with a similar platoon of (living) soldiers and Roderick, Fulvus' archer hench. Reunion made, and Roderick was put in charge of the station's defense. The party and others departed as the soldiers and undead set to digging trenches and sharpening stakes.

The group moved north along the West Trade Road. Several towns they passed through were completely depopulated, either by apparent Chaos raids or fleeing refugees. Coming to the small town of Lany, they found that the Beguines led by Sister Isabel were still entrenched with the locals. They were aware of the predations and turmoil along the road, but were staying put for now, as their oath was to aid and heal. The party encouraged them to decamp for one of the recently liberated fortresses, where there were troops and fresh fortifications. 

source

Bella Hoekstra, former second in command at St. Vivinna's Home for the Wayward, caught up with the party (while also conveniently disguised as a beguine). Acroria was in turmoil, with the merchants and clergy overriding the military on the city council. Conflicting commands were going out, and large numbers of incarcerations were occurring for a variety of trumped-up charges. Most of the “wayward children" had either been arrested or fled. It seemed that little aid would come from Acroria, if at all.

With this in mind, the party considered heading straight to Gaerborin Keep, known to be held by Acroria troops, in an effort to sway them to their cause. But securing Madrual, the next node to the north was a priority. The party had never visited the location, and its occupants were unknown. Off we go.

D66 Times Three... A Collection of Hexcrawl Curiosities

Got on a writing bender on Sunday. Bit of a heat wave here, plus trying to get some house stuff taken care of, so made some focused writing time between other tasks. Started with one table, but knew that I'd eventually drag a couple more out of the brain. So why not now? It's something I need to do. Just sit, focus, and drag some creativity out of myself. 

So have three... count 'em, THREE D66 lists of random, perhaps interesting things, to find during one's hexcrawling of the edge of the map.

Meteorite, or frozen fireball? Your call.

Download me here

Download me here 2

Download me here 3

That's 108 random things to stumble upon, for those keeping track at home.