Campaign Journal: More Forest Sight-Seeing. Now with Wildlife!

Whew, that was a session....

The miscreants:

• Frederick
• Fulvus
• Rondel
• Slick
• Mareth
• Hench-cleric
• Hench-thief
• Four Redshirts

The party awoke after an uneventful night at Ashryn Spire, guarded by Brutus the Bear and numerous watchful eyes of forest creatures. Thefri the Hermit greeted them in the morning, and committed to keep an eye out for nefarious forces. He gifted the party a wooden amulet that would allow a messenger-creature to locate them, and wished them good luck in their quest.

After brief discussion, and review of the "Snake Map," the party decided that locating one more node would be helpful to confirm their place on the map, as well as to hopefully find intact components to reverse-engineer or duplicate. With confidence in their plan, they trekked northward toward the Lion's Tail River. Mareth counted their rations, figuring the party had about two days left.

A long day of uneventful travel brought them to the river. A bit of scouting and they found a reasonable ford for horses and men on foot.

Just for funsies I had everyone roll a d6 to see if they slipped while crossing. Only Rondel fell, and I asked him to roll a random item to lose. He lost his rations... Oops.

As night fell, the party set up camp. First watch, and the Random Dice struck. Frederick was taken aback as the ground burst forth in front of him with a pair of massive mantis-like insects.

Oops, indeed.

12 More Found Deeds

After I discovered that I had passed 500 posts on ye olde blog, I was randomly poking around my old posts and looking at some of my creative endeavors. 

One early post was "12 Found Deeds" obviously inspired by the "Deed to a ruined tower" that one can occasionally lift from within the "Random pickpocket loot" generator.

Now, there are bloggers who can regularly post up d100 lists for such things. For now, I can provide twelve more.

"Forest House" by JJcanvas

You have acquired a deed...

1. ...to a coastal lighthouse, its light continually surrounded by a magical storm. Currently occupied by a trio of sirens who have been serenading ships onto the rocks.
2. ..to a tower surrounded by grasslands. Co-opted by a swarm of giant bees and now filled with continuous comb. The queen is obstinate about moving, but may be willing to negotiate a co-habitation agreement, dependent on the consensus of the hive-mind, of course. Will be a sticky restoration project.
3. ...to a floating orb with no apparent entrance/egress. Has a commanding view of the scintillating, psychedelic Piridian Crystal Reefs. The entrance to the chamber is a teleport gate in the 7th level of the Undercrypt of Mighty Chaos. 
4. ...to just a shack in the woods. Filled with reams of paranoid screeds and rants against the Ostuithen Dynasty and shelves of tottering bottles of unstable reagents. Nice mountain views.
5. ...to an abandoned caravanserai along an unused trade road. Filled with a band of hard-partying kobolds who won't leave until you chug a bottle of their mushroom wine and recite the Ballad of The Wakasing Canyon.
6. ...to an ambulatory carapace-domicile. Scuttles along on hundreds of necro-mechanical legs. Not sure where it is at any given moment. It tends to wander according to its own whims. You'll likely wake up miles from where you went to sleep.
7. ...to a cozy soddy on the frozen tundra. Risk waking up to herds of musk oxen using it as a scratching post.
8. The deed itself folds via intricate origami. Upon completion, the piece expands into an immaculate pagoda. Very flammable.
9. ...to a grounded galleon, halfway up the side of a mountain, and one thousand miles from the closest ocean. Haunted by sailors' ghosts. But at least they keep the decks pristine.
10. ...to an orbital platform, accessible only by dead technology. Currently occupied by an increasingly eccentric maint-bot. Has petty arguments with the station AI and builds art installations from collected space-junk and spare spacesuits. 
11. ...to one of a never-ending collection of identical manor houses with immaculate lawns. Truly a hellscape.
12. ...to an abandoned dwarven wrestling arena and goat-racing ring. On humid days, the air is still redolent of acrid unguents and goat musk.

"Houses by a Creek" by Erik Taberman

Campaign Journal: Forest Sight-Seeing

Doh, just realized that my last entry was #500 for the blog. Nine years ago, I wandered into the blogosphere, for better or worse. It's been a good outlet for creativity, and even a bit of community.  I hope to keep my mind flexible enough to continue on with scribblings and crack-pot ideas for a while longer.... 

And now, on to our adventure:

Full table:

• Frederick
• Slick
• Jax
• Mareth
• Rondel
• Fulvus
• Bonk
• Henry Cee (NPC cleric)

Picking up where we left off last time, the party scouted the camp of the Chaos patrol from the woods. The camp was well-arranged, with several tents and brush cleared and pushed to the margins to form a rough abatis. A pair of guards watched the front. The party could see that they were mal-formed humanoids, similar to those they had encountered before. A pair of apparent leader-types conferred in the center of camp.

The party discussed options, deciding on two of the sneaky bastards (Slick and Fulvus) taking out the guards, and allowing for a surprise rush into the camp. Things went well until Fulvus stepped on a stick, betraying his approach. Slick took advantage of the distraction to shank his target. 

Battle closed, with the party squaring off against the mooks. Things went well, with Bonk even shrugging off a spell cast by one of the leaders, for a change. Minor damage was taken, with Bonk, as frontliner, taking the brunt of it between the foes' heavily-armored knight, and one weird naked dude who was running around... Fortunately everyone else avoided said naked dude and his acidic skin, with Jax putting him down without harm. The Chaos foes were fanatical to the end, with their shaman enlarging and attempting to wade into the fray. Tough to do when one of the thieves hamstrung him. 

Finally, the knight fell with a well-placed arrow through his visor, and the camp was empty.

The party dutifully went through everyone's pockets (except the naked dude) and recovered some loot, communiques from the gang's handler, notes regarding their intelligence-gathering, and a couple of fired clay balls that turned out to be one-time communication devices. The group did not take the bait and fire one off...

As they were finishing up, a second mutant patrol arrived, but were easily smoked.

The party commandeered the base camp for the night, fending off a few wayward zombies. They decamped in the morning, leaving heads on sharpened sticks, as one does.

Using their 'snake map' as a guide, the gang moved northwest, making good time. Around noon, the random dice had them set upon by a band of ne'er-do-wells, who rapidly realized that they were outmatched. A fortuitous '12' reaction roll, and the party now has a bunch of henches. The pot was sweetened by Bonk offering one bandit the scavenged armor of the Chaos knight, and Mareth subtly charming another... Goober got belly rubs.

Campaign Journal: Which Way is Up on the Snake?

Back to the game, and further explorations along an abandoned road within the western forests.

Last night's heroes:

• Frederick
• Slick
• Jax
• Mareth
• Rondel
• Henry See (NPC cleric)

The party, exhausted from their battle with the gnolls, crashed out at the ruined manor, securing themselves within the secret crypt that formerly held the undead knight. Noises were heard in the night, and the indomitable Goober growled at the door, but as none of the intruders appeared to be investigating the party's hidey-hole, they laid low. In the morning, a few of the gnoll corpses were found to have been dragged away. 

In the morning, the rescued merchants and their guards bid the party adieu, hoping to return to the trade road and better fortunes.

As the party made breakfast, they heard conversation outside the building and met a pair of fellows who introduced themselves as Divos and Albus - hunters and foresters patrolling this part of the forest. The pair had been tracking the gnolls, and were aware that the miscreants had been waylaying travelers for some purpose. Relieved that the party had intercepted the gnolls, the foresters noted that a larger camp was in the area, and that they had also found a few deformed or mutated animals in the region. 

Returning to the Campaign

Back at the table, and as I mentioned before- the pick-up game is now a 'real' campaign. Scary.

Who made it tonight?

• Frederick - Thief
• Waegstan, née Bonk - Fighter
• Jax - Barbarian (and Goober)
• Fulvus - Halfling
• Mareth - Elf

Since we'd been away from the table for about four weeks, I took a page from Gary G. and declared that four weeks had past in game-time as well. What have our heroes been up to in the meantime?

• Frederick - continuing to look for "unsecured loads" along the trade road with his halfling compatriots, as well as getting coastal traffic updates from the "Road Safety Committee" along the coast.
• Waegstan - Fishing, hanging out with the river boatmen, and advocating for a new sport of fish-tossing.
• Jax - Plant-hunting and studying from a sketchy herbal remedies book that she bought off a traveling bookseller.
• Fulvus - Negotiating with the town leadership to purchase a plot for the construction of a brewery.
• Mareth - Supervising the charmed ogre (Ogre #2 made his saving throw and wandered off) in ditch/palisade construction and making awkward attempts at negotiation when the ditch cut through someone's field.

Hugo, the gnome apothecary, had to leave town under urgent conditions, but left a "recently-developed" potion for the party to try out, along with a substantial list of possible side-effects.

The party also checked in with their compatriot Victor Matui, who is rebuilding his family keep outside of town. Victor's advisor Firmin had sent missives east to a colleague regarding information on the "Barrier," and had received some minor information in return, pending further discreet inquiries. Likewise, the chip of glass from the cracked hemisphere found in the watchtower appeared to be either ruby or some ruby-like alloy. If so, it would have required both an exceptional furnace and skill to create.

Sometime during this, a patrol representing the Hougon Duchy arrived in town. The captain noted the town growth and beginnings of fortifications. As a representative of the duchy, he offered the duchy's support and protection. For reasonable accommodations and financial support, of course. The town mayor conferred with the party, and they agreed to consider the offer, sending the patrol on their way. Which led to discussions on the with of becoming a vassal, whether this power was a viable ally, and a potential third way of developing their own power center or allegiances.

With that, the party set off to see if they could locate another 'node' of the Barrier.

The party re-located the overgrown road and returned to the watchtower location. While there, they were set upon by a band of goblins. Slaying half their number, and taking some minor damage, the remainder of the goblins fled, and the party continued south. 

Spotting some more ruins in the woods, the party investigated. The structure appeared to be a fortified manor or caravanserai. As per usual, Fulvus, Frederick, and Mareth crept about. Fulvus took advantage of the halfling ability to hide in the woods, but the dice rolled 00, and for once, he stumbled.

Source

Waegstan just walked up to the front door.