Sunday Game Recap, for those of you who are following along at home. We had three Repeat Offenders, and two new folks. One of the new was brewery staff who'd been told by her manager that she needed to spend part of her shift trying out the game. If we all had bosses like that...
Repeats:
- Bonk – Fighter: the strongest man in his (very small) village
- Jax – The Conflicted Barbarian (and her majestic war-dog Goober)
- Frederick – “Antiquities collector”
New:
- Staive – Cleric to a randomly rolled "god of truth"
- Denna - The Brewery halfling.
As is my habit, I had the two new players roll for Random Headgear. Staive found himself wearing a dark grey Bedouin-style wrap, and Denna wears a fabulous top-hat. Because of course.
The party started in Neuförde, their current base of operations.
Bonk used some of his gold to upgrade from leather to plate (I rolled that a suit was available at the trading post). Due to the shady background of the local halfling merchants, it must have fallen off a wagon...
Hanging in town, the party decide to go find the hired engineer who was to direct the reconstruction of the washed-out bridge. The bridge (a feature on the original town map) has been a running issue, and said engineer was tardy on arriving to town.
(I'd outlined this session mentally, so was prepped, at least in a skeletal fashion)
The party elected to make the two day trip downriver on an available trader's flatboat. This was the biggest river Bonk has seen -
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| Skagit River, Washington |
On the first day, the wandering monster roll came up positive (from the OSE reference booklet random monster table): ankheg. I didn't feel it was appropriate to physically encounter the critter, so treated the “encounter” as spoor. The party noted the burrows along the shore and assumed it to be very large nutria.
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| Obviously a Dire Nutria |
Nighttime was different... During Fred's watch, the boat was set upon by a pair of poisonous frogs. They surprised and attacked the hapless thief, taking him to 3 hp + poisoned (potentially fatal). Fred can't roll a poison save to save his life... The other four beat down the frogs. Jax detoxed Frederick using her herbal antidote skill. Being good adventurers, they gutted the frogs, and the Donjon pickpocket loot generator gave them a nice agate and some loose change. The party, continuing with their culinary efforts against defeated critters, shared in halfling-prepared giant frog legs. Fred laid low the following day attempting to recover some strength. Jax went ashore to collect some supplemental medicinal herbs.
The party made it to Scaldwater and talked to the local harbormaster. According to the locals, ships may have been blown off-course by a recent storm, most likely to the south. The next settlement south is a barely-there town named Dawold.
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| Expertly drawn map |
The party was able to secure some horses, and overlanded to Dawold along the coast "road," a wagon track that skirts the local headlands.
Bonk was riding in front, resplendent in his surplus armor, when an arrow thunked into the road in front of his horse. The party found themselves surrounded by the local “road improvement committee” (this was a set-piece encounter I had in my outline). Staive dismounted and attempted to negotiate (i.e. mostly preach) to rather neutral reactions. Note: all of the party has average charisma, so no 'faces' in the group. The halfling disappeared into the woods, as halflings are wont to do. The bandits noticed this, but failed to locate her after multiple attempts, even considering that she was wearing a tasseled top hat...
As the party continued to negotiate, Frederick attempted to slide off his horse and emulate Denna. He fell and twisted his ankle. Damn dice. The bandit looking down on Fred recognized him from from Banshee Tower, as part of the group that saved their leader, Magnus. By now, Magnus steps from the woods, corroborating this. He has a side conversation with Frederick, basically stating that he needs some cred with his new men. Fred commiserated and throws him a pouch of small coin and a gem to buy passage. With a handshake, they called Denna from her hiding spot, and she dropped out of her tree.
I rolled a second encounter (pixies). Nobody noticed, except the halfling hearing their wings. Assuming the pests to be invisible, I randomly rolled and they pickpocketed a crappy lock from Frederick's inventory sheet. (I rolled and counted down his list. The old lock was one off on the list from a valuable black pearl... Good dice). The party recognized the nuisances and boogied onward.
They made it to Dawold, meeting the local priest at the “city” limits. She directed them to a few other locals (headman and dock). They found the damaged galley, and found the dwarf engineer inspecting the local unfinished tower. The group purchased another horse for the engineer and took the road back to Scaldwater with no encounters.
Spending the night in Scaldwater, the party split up to their own pastimes. Staive made three converts and a few coin. Bonk got blackout drunk, losing his prized snakeskin fanny pack. Denna and Jax took baths (There's no bath house in my original writeup, but I mentioned that the town had a hot spring and the players assumed bath. So yes, now there is). Frederick crept around and got a rumor (A caravan carrying rare metals had gone missing – provided by the Scaldwater description rumor table).
The party decided to ride back to Neuförde. And yes, I rolled a frog on the random encounters again... Jax attacked it but missed, and Goober one-shot it (with a nat 20, of course). This one had no gut-treasure.
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| Like this, but big. |
The party returned to back to town, engineer in tow, and there was much celebration...
Notes:
- The party now has good relations with the bandits along the coast road.
- Ankhegs may become a local nuisance.
- There is a missing caravan out there...
- Frog infestations can be nasty.
- No matter what, when I RP a dwarf, they end up sounding like a discount Sean Connery.
More notes:
I talked with 'Bonk' after the session. Outside of fighting and managing hirelings, he's not sure of what fighter's real value is, in that they are not 'special' in the low-complexity OSE rules (5e player). He's also not sure what of actions to take outside of combat. He's cautious of stepping on others' roles/lines, which is always appreciated.
I mentioned that most actions were a group effort (searching, etc.) and that it's certainly fine to make suggestions and join in as well as take on any role-play opportunities. I also offered him to create a bit of background development (The “Good-at” idea), or the possibility of a minor feat (I'm currently reading/reviewing Eric Diaz's “Old SchoolFeats” - so that may make an appearance). Perhaps something to toy with for other PCs, as well... Nothing major, just ad some color and discovery to the PCs.
Overall, everyone got to take some actions tonight, so shared the spotlight in the scenario.
And the bridge may finally get fixed.
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