Green Pass Campaign II, Session 2: Looking For Trouble

Still a full group of 11 players. This one ended in one of the largest battles I've ever tried to run. Bonus props to Peter for bringing his flute in order to play a bardic wake-up call, and to Andrew for a typing out horrible-pun backstory ("Finkle Bagnozzle the Winceworthy", indeed).

May 25-26, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP
The party woke the next day, made breakfast, and sent a group back up through the spooky forest to inspect the southeastern barrows. The brush placed over the entrances was undisturbed, but the message written in dust outside had been altered... in two ways. First, it had been swept and rearranged to form the name "Renata". More disturbingly, some kind of red ichor had seeped up from below to spell the name "Varghoulis".

The party members present petitioned Helga Omega the wonderworker to use the gift of prophecy to divine the nature of these answers. Meditating deeply on three questions selected by group consensus, Helga entered a hypnagogic state halfway between the world of dreams and reality. The first question, "What will come of opening the tomb?", was answered by a vision of the possible future: The barrows viewed from far above, as a vast legion swarmed forth like ants from a damaged hill. The second question, "Who is buried in this tomb?", produced a vision of the past, in the era of its construction: There were six names of the dead interred in the tomb, and the final name was that of Lord Varghoulis. The final question, "Who is in the tomb right now?", produced a sensation of passing directly into the dark confines and experiencing the frustration and rage of a captive mind longing for release, fueled by centuries of hatred that flowed forth into the ground like a tainted flood of pollution.

The party elected to leave the barrow sealed.

After returning to camp, the party resolved to split into three teams, with the third guarding the base camp. The first (Helga and Piper) returned to Balewood Keep in order to confer with the castellan. The castellan knew nothing of the two names reported, but exhorted them to visit the chapel before leaving and speak to its supervising priest. In the chapel, they discovered a state of moderate alarm and intense discussion. The curate felt sufficiently reassured by the silver-tongued bard to entrust both of them with his secrets. As caravan traffic had declined, the various bandit gangs appeared to be diversifying their activities and trying a little tomb-raiding on the side. The cause of immediate concern is that they would open a tomb with something too deadly for them to handle, maybe even enough to threaten the keep, or the strategic mountain gate at Footman's Notch. The curate volunteered to join them as they returned to the moor to inspect additional barrow mounds.

A cloaked figure (Art:Tritonic)

The second group (both barbarians, the mage Malcom Hawk, one of the nightblades, and Reed Stormcliff in lion form) tracked the path of an apparent warband leading away from the tomb, seeking the probable cause of the less sinister name written in dust. After about half an hour they stumbled onto some sentries, who sent out an alarm. Malcolm was elected spokesperson by virtue of everyone else immediately running or hiding. A cloaked figure emerged in front of him and beckoned him over. She revealed herself as the leader of a force of brigands, and demanded immediate surrender. At the convergence of multiple crossbow bolt trajectories, Malcolm had little choice but to comply. Everyone else hurried back to camp to report on his abduction.

The barrow opened (Art: Zhu)

With daylight dwindling, the group elected to leave Malcolm to his fate while they ascended again to inspect the barrows. The first mound was full of soft, squirming centipedes, discovered when one of Finkle's mechanical toys was released down the passage and unceremoniously devoured in an orgy of scuttling and chittering. The saurian gladiator Zegzinu volunteered to go down first, and initially found it empty... until a half-dozen centipedes dropped from the ceiling. The first four were dispatched with swift blows, but the fifth buried its poisonous jaws deep beneath his scales before the rest of the party could arrive to provide assistance. The curate regrettably had insufficient piety to completely neutralize the poison, but volunteered to suppress its effects long enough for one battle. The treasures of the mound were minor, and offered few clues. A nearby standing obelisk, however, showed a powerful figure being illuminated by fiery light from beneath the earth.

The next mound had an enormous mural of mosaic glass and stones, large and fragile. Extracting it into the light, the scene was found to depict a village observing the procession of an armed company of grim knights under the banner of the ancient death god Nergal.

The final barrow had been thoroughly looted. Inside, the party found a gaping chasm into the earth flanked by massive pillars, with a tripod supporting a block-and-tackle above it. Dozens of footprints led to and from the chasm. A rope dangled down into the darkness. Using a helmet illuminated by a continual light spell, the party could discern a much larger chamber below-- part of the ancient catacombs, the curate suggested. No one seemed interested in descending that evening, but they did remove the rope, in the interest of making it as difficult as possible for anything in the catacombs to utilize this particular exit.

After sending the saurian gladiator back with the curate to recuperate from lingering poison, everyone else laid plans for the rescue of Malcolm from the bandits. Finkle, riding on the back of Helga's familiar (a baby roc!), located the camp and elected to practice his illusions and ventriloquism to distract the sentries while he ruined their campfires and provisions with an invisible servant. [Note: I decided it was good for a -2 morale check penalty.] Meanwhile the rest of the company enjoyed a good night's sleep, and departed the next day.

The final confrontation was furious and violent. The guards went down quickly, but when Finkle rode the lion-shaped Reed (with the wardog Mort on their heels), a dozen bandits all converged of them and began hacking them apart. Reed tore apart several of them before he was seriously wounded by the blades of Renata, and the party had to rush to relieve them. Despite the best efforts of Mort and Helga's pet roc, the fleeing Renata managed to dash off into the undergrowth... but not before Finkle had stolen her broadsword with his whip.

Meanwhile, the nightblades pushed into camp and cleared a path to recover Malcolm, who emerged from a barrel to find a major battle just winding down. The captain of the guards, being clad in plate mail, was less able to flee than Renata and ended up a prisoner. A full sweep of the camp recovered a massive stockpile of accumulated treasures, presumably from multiple raids on caravans and tombs. Several items suspected of bearing enchantments were set aside for further study.

Casualties
Reed Stormcliff, blinded in one eye (-2 ranged attacks, pirate-esque eyepatch)

Treasure and Experience
Coins: 4000 electrum pieces (2000 gp)
Gems/Jewelry: 5 jewelry (24, 130, 200, 180), barrow trinkets (40, 30, 40, 25, 25, 30, 15) = 659 total
Artworks: vial of perfume (25), large tile mosaic (35) = 60 total
Trade Goods: 6 centipede venom glands (300)
Items of special interest: Renata's sword, an antique censer with 3 sticks of incense, a staff, a potion, a scroll, and... a treasure map

Mysterious ancient censer

Total nonmagical treasure value: 3019 gp, with -132 gp (20% fee) to appraise jewelry
Gold per share: 262 gp

Explored: 3 barrow mounds, a bandit camp

Kills: 17 bandits (170 xp), 6 centipedes (36 xp), 1 skeleton (13 xp)
Captives: 1 bandit captain (20 xp)
Put to flight: Renata (320 xp), 2 bandits (20 xp)

Total experience from treasure: 3019 xp
Total experience from kills: 579 xp
Total experience from exploration: 400 xp
Total experience from feeding a wind-up monkey to centipedes: 100 xp
Total experience: 4098
Total experience per member: 356 xp

(Note: Mort the Wardog is taking an  experience half-share but not a treasure share.)

Twenty System Questions

This "twenty questions" list from Necropraxis is pretty good, and worth reproducing here. Most of the answers are just "we're using ACKS and follow its rules. But since not everyone is familiar with them, a summary is potentially helpful.

1) Ability scores generation method?

3d6 in order -- hardcore! You can generate up to five characters, and pick your favorite.

2) How are death and dying handled?

At 0 hp you take a mortal wound and fall unconscious. After battle you roll to figure out if you were killed or just horribly maimed.

3) What about raising the dead?

Quite possible. Expensive. Possible side effects.

4) How are replacement PCs handled?

Start at same experience as your original PC, unless you've banked gold for an heir.

5) Initiative: individual, group, or something else?

Individual, but identical monsters roll as group.

6) Are there critical hits and fumbles? How do they work?

No fumbles. Crits only if you take Weapon Focus proficiency, they do double base damage.

7) Do I get any benefits for wearing a helmet?

Not unless it's magical.

8) Can I hurt my friends if I fire into melee or do something similarly silly?

Totally not allowed, unless you have Precise Shooting, which makes it perfectly safe (but hard).

9) Will we need to run from some encounters, or will we be able to kill everything?

If you wander off the beaten path, you'll need to run from stuff. I'll try to drop hints.

10) Level-draining monsters: yes or no?

Yes. Permanent effect is aging, though, not experience loss. Temporary effect is negative levels.

11) Are there going to be cases where a failed save results in PC death?

Pretty much no, unless your hit points are really low. Some monsters (spiders, scorpions) have deadly poisons. There are suicidal choices that don't involve dice rolling.

12) How strictly are encumbrance & resources tracked?

Encumbrance calculated at start of sessions, and any time you pick up a lot of stuff. Resources tracked only if your heading far into the wilderness.

13) What’s required when my PC gains a level? Training? Do I get new spells automatically? Can it happen in the middle of an adventure, or do I have to wait for down time?

Happens automatically. Not in the middle of a session, but any time between sessions is fine. You can get a free low-level spell each level from your guild.

14) What do I get experience for?

Looting gold/gems/jewels (primary source), ideally from large hoards in lairs. Also a little from kills and exploration

15) How are traps located? Description, dice rolling, or some combination?

Either will work. I'm not out to kill you.

16) Are retainers encouraged and how does morale work?

If the group is undersized, sure. Morale checks if asked to do something stupid, or if other retainers start dying.

17) How do I identify magic items?

Use detect magic to know if it's magical. A Magical Engineering or Loremastery check, and you'll know what kind of magic. Basic items (+1 swords, potions, etc) you can experiment with ("spar with it a bit", or "take a small sip") to learn, although that risks malign effects. A sage (NPC you can hire) or 9th level mage can identify anything safely, given time and money.

18) Can I buy magic items? Oh, come on: how about just potions?

Yes, but it's absurdly expensive. Much better to find them. There are better uses for gold.

19) Can I create magic items? When and how?

Basic stuff like scrolls at 5th level, fancy stuff at 9th. Again, super-expensive, and requires collecting monster parts as reagents. I have a list of them somewhere.

20) What about splitting the party?

Go for it.

Green Pass Campaign II, Session 1: Better Part of Valor

After a long haitus, I'm continuing the Green Pass campaign. A surprisingly large contingent of players assembled on Saturday night to generate fresh characters and pick up with the previous year had left off.

Nothing much happened on the first night, but at least most of the administrative preliminaries are out of the way now.

Another four players arrived late, and we had to scramble for space.

May 23, Caudex Annales 70 AUP

After a months of combing the Elysian countryside for heroes, recruiting agents of the Durnovaric Expeditionary Force had little to show for their efforts. The keep remained as undermanned as before, and the sort of mercenaries who did express interest were self-interested freelancers and opportunists of a sort scarcely more elevated in intention than the infiltrators that threatened it. Nevertheless, the guard extended full courtesy when a contingent of aspiring heroes arrived from Centerpoint along with the morning caravan after overnighting in the Notch.

The castellan's scribe duly noted their company in the register of dignitaries, though none of them were landed or titled (or if so, they concealed it in both word and dress) save the gnome, and he only peculiarly. Among the fellowship of 11 were:

• Zegzinu Yeggtatt, a hulking saurian from foreign lands
• Helga Omega, wonderworker
• Terra Daystar, amiable elven nightblade and lover of novelty
• Dunflow Darcin, taciturn barbarian
• Malcom Hawk, mage and chief spokesman
• Bar Helm, another barbarian
• Meros Tale, elven nightblade of a less gentle spirit
• Finkle Bagnozzle ("not to be confused with the Bognozzles") the Winceworthy, a gnome
• Orym Elandril of the elven court
• Reed Stormcliff, shaman-druid and veteran of the previous foray, with the war dog Mort,
• and the Piper, a bard of questionable etiquette.

A few of the company, including Reed in precautionary lion form.

The castellan bid them to seek the cause of such a great convocation of rival minions of a more typically uncooperative nature, including the observed warrens of goblins, orcs, and hobgoblins as well as the recovered scraps rumoring of sinister sects. He awarded them full rights of reclamation for any treasure recovered, regardless of its point of origin as plunder from caravans supporting the forward armies of Durnovar. And he humbly bade them to take care not to arouse the attention of any great evils sleeping beneath the haunted forest uplands north of the road.

With predictable ardor for the road and task, the heroes stopped only long enough to purchase a single 10' pole, then pressed onward into the nearest swamp. Finding a lone barrow, they encircled and assaulted it with terrible bardic music, perhaps expecting this to function as an alternative mode of exorcism in lieu of a priest. Instead, a company of vexed lizardfolk demanded silence and departure -- speaking tersely with their near kin, the saurian Zegzinu, in a language coarse on the ears of all the rest of the companions. The lizardkins' exchange yielded the information that nothing lay to the south but spiders, and that rough strangers were trespassing onto the swamp from the east.

A night in the swamp proved uneventful, whereupon the company rose to continue toward the chaos-infested forest valley. Just shy of destination, portions of the company trained in climbing (the barbarians and nightblades, mainly) elected to penetrate into the woods to scout above the valley. The woods made every effort to merit its reputation as a haunt of spirits, grasping unnaturally at anyone who passed, but no trees awoke and the effect proved to be little more than a trick of the mind. Nevertheless, Meros and the other scouts emerged from the dense wood to discover a midshrouded clearing on the moor, dotted with dozens of barrows in a crumbling state of disrepair.

The nearest barrow bore the sigil of a skull over a rose upon a menhir placed at its pinnacle, and its door was sealed with bronze bands from the outside as if to bar passage from within. A similar mound nearby was entirely overground. The entire field was deathly quiet, but bore traces of many abandoned camps that had been vacated in sudden haste. When the remainder of the adventuring party emerged from the forest, they pondered the wisdom of shattering the bands of the barrow to see what lay within. Upon reflection, and perhaps remembering the apprehensions of the castellan, they elected to lay debris outside the chamber to detect the passage of night walkers. The bard sprinkled dust to form the contours of letters spelling out an impertinent question: "WHO ARE YOU?"

They descended to form a fresh camp on the road, caring little to pass the night in a place of such desolation and ill report.

Casualties

None

Treasure and Experience

Coin: none

Kills: none

Exploration: 3 mounds discovered, none explored (300 xp)

Parley: 7 lizardmen (245 xp), 3 lizardwomen (60 xp)

Total experience from treasure: 0 xp

Total experience from kills: 0 xp

Total experience from exploration: 300 xp

Total experience from parley: 305 xp

Total experience per member: 605/11 = 55 xp