Archiv für den Monat: April 2018

[Actual Play] Adventuria Open Table Chat Game, 2018-04-20

This week was rather slow, as neither I nor the players had a clear goal established and rather spontaneous ideas dragged the game along. Nonetheless, the whole group made it to second level!

It was the same players as last week:

  • La Fleur (lvl 2), human wizard, 349 XP
  • Roderick Clearwater (lvl 2), human rogue, 369 XP
  • Tapio of Gareth, human fighter (lvl 2), 349 XP
  • Dargoth the Daring, human fighter (lvl 2), 423 XP

We started in Ansvell. The group decided to contact the local outpost of the Societas Hesindiarum Intelligentiae, to learn a little more about the strange occurances and mutations in and around Ansvell.

This took me completely by surprise. I knew that there was a sages guild based in Lesserton, but I had not prepared it. So I basically made everything up as we went, and the little inconsistencies made the players extremely suspicious. This changed the guild somewhat, and I have not yet decided how exactly.

They were greeted by Hesindion Binfane, an archeologist who was studying stones. La Fleur and Dargoth quickly figured out that he was studying Achaz reliefs, and seemed to inquire about a certain idol the Achaz worshipped. He was interested in Achaz relics, mostly mosaics and stone reliefs.

He told some background information about the ruins: It used to be an important Achaz city, which was destroyed during the last war between Achaz and Elves. Wild magic devastated both empires, and orcs used the opening to pour in and sack the area. A couple orcs remained in the ruins and changed greatly, turning into the lizorcs that today live there. When asked whether the mutations of the burghers of Ansvell had the same cause, he reacted denyingly, pretending the group must have falled to optical illusions.

The players assume that he might have caused the mutations, but are unsure whether he is an Asfaloth cultist who caused this change deliberately or whether it was an accidental side-effect of his studies.

With this in mind and two honey addicts in tow, the group went on their way to Lowangen. The addicts greatly suffered from withdrawal symptoms, which slowed them down. When the group woke on the fourth day, one of the addicts did not rouse. He died in his sleep. Ilmbold, the second addict and Black Jandora’s agent, was in a horrible conditon, and the group raced him to the famous Jhaell Sternenschweif, who is said to be one of the best healers in Adventuria. But despite their hard work, Ilmbold died from the withdrawal.

While the rest fought for Ilmbold’s life, Tapio brought the honey to Black Jandora to ensure that she would not send a squad of assassins against the group for crossing her. When hearing about her agent’s state, she vowed to pay the healer in full and handed 350 gold pieces as reward for the honey. When she learnt about Ilmbold’s demise, she also paid for a funeral.

The next day, they went on a shopping spree and bought all kind of adventuring gear, including potions and belts. Afterwards, the group visited the Hall of Miracles, where they learnt that the sword they found was probably made from an alloy of copper and asthenil, which is easily blunted (and thus not very useful against armoured opponents), but also extremely resistant against heat (and thus very useful against fire elementals or dragons). The smith guildswomen offered 75 gold pieces for the sword, but the group kept it.

Last, they went to the barracks and spoke to Erbert Domian, captain of the guard. He invited them jovially, told them that the rescued officers had been sent by the Middle Realm to ask for help in the civil war, but that he could not comply as the orcs prevented all military actions south of the city due to a spy tower. So far, all attempts even to spy at it failed, and he would offer an orcish healing potion (with slight side-effects) for anyone who was willing just to investigate. The group declined, and decided rather to search for the missing Agdan Dragenfeldt, which will happen during the next session.

[Actual Play] Adventuria Open Table Chat Game, 2018-04-13

The same crew as last week continued their search for addictive honey. This time, having finally found a likely source for the honey, they became more daring and attacked recklessly. With luck on their side, they prevailed and started their journey home ladden with honey.

The following characters risked life and limb for honey:

  • La Fleur (lvl 1), human wizard, 272 XP
  • Roderick Clearwater (lvl 1), human rogue, 292 XP
  • Tapio of Gareth, human fighter (lvl 1), 272 XP
  • Dargoth the Daring, human fighter (lvl 2), 335 XP

Last time, the group had attempted to assassinate the lizorc bandit’s sentry, which failed. The bandits sent a scouting party, which the group decided to ambush. Dargoth was to attract their attention, and then lure them towards the others.

This was not difficult, as the group was looking for attackers. Seeing the lone fighter, they immediately gave chase. I asked for an Athletics check DC 8 for their plan to succeed: If the check was made, the group would have a surprise round, if the check failed, they would only win initative. Dargoth’s player failed the roll with a 1.

Dargoth accidently steps into a rabbit hole and wastes time, the lizorcs are right behind him as the trap is sprung. The combat goes well, and only Dargoth takes a few scratches while three lizorcs are killed and one is captured.

The group questions the captured lizorc, who introduces himself as Narhbub. He tells them that their band is lead by Vrogak, a very tall and strong lizorc, and ten further bandits and two slaves were still in the hideout.  The group verified this information with the help of Jules, and then came up with a plan: Dargoth would distract the sentry, while Tapio and Roderick were climbing the wall and then assassinate him. Afterwards, they would take care of two guards that were hidden on the roof. Meanwhile, Dargoth would open the door and storm in.

Up to the point where Dargoth was to open the door, the plan worked flawlessly. The sentry was shot down from the pillar, and Tapio and Roderick were waiting in cover. Dargoth found the door to be rather massive though and held by a strong bar, it was not possible to open it from the outside! Narhbub pleas to open the door do not do anything, either.

I have no idea why the group assumed the door could be opened from the outside, probably because I used the word latch instead of bar.

As Dargoth powerlessly rattled at the door, Tapio dashes over and attempts to lift the bar, which proves to be rather heavy and would probably require two persons to lift.

Two person can lift the bar easily, but a single person attempting it needs to succeed in a DC 15 athletics check. Tapio’s player rolls incredibly well and beats the check.

He somehow finds the correct spot where he could apply leverage and pull the bar off, but just as he opens the door two guards stand up on the roof and shower him with buckets filled with sharp stones! Luck is on his side though, and no stones penetrated his armour. With all the ruckus, the remaining bandits storm onto the yard, and the group now faces seven bandits in the yard, their very lizardy looking captain and two guards on the roof.

Roderick acts first and shoots on of the guards from the roof, before joining his friends at the door in the hope of creating a bottle neck.

At this point, the group jokes that their enemies would be in perfect position for an area of effect spell, which was true. They failed to notice that they themselves were just as densely packed as their enemies though.

The bandit’s captain acts next, steps forwards and exhales a stream of acid on the group! Narhbub dies outright, Roderick falls down unconciously with his left arm badly burnt by the acid. Everyone else was in bad shape too and things looked grim. Then, La Fleur stepped in to retaliate: Her Burning Hands burnt all bandits in the yard to a crisp, except for the bandit captain!

After the horrible rolls last week, the dice were extremely hot for the group at this moment. Not only did La Fleur roll extremely high damage, all the bandits failed their saving throws too.

Amidst the flaming inferno, Vrogak looks around, sees his band perish in the flames and Dargoth approach him menacingly, and decides it is time to run away. Tapio and Dargoth attempt to catch him, but despite some wounds, he manages to jump into a hole in the cellar and run off through an underground tunnel. Tapio hears him running away.

Meanwhile, La Fleur managed to stabilize Roderick with a Healing Kit and to enthrall the remaining lizorc guard with a sugar cake. Blissfully, he told the group about where the slaves are and that the boss hid the treasure in the cellar, that the boss warned them that anyone who tried to take his treasure would choke to death, and did not allow any of the other bandits near.

First, the group looked for the slaves, which turned out to be on a trip. Neither of them was Agdan Dragenfeld, but one turned out to be Ilmbold, the missing agent of Black Jandora.

Afterwards, they searched the bosses chamber and found a treasure chest and some valuable furs, and then continued to search the cellar where they first blocked the hole with an old grate and some furniture. Dargoth found a stone looking strangely placed and pulled it out, finding a bag behind it. When he poured it out, a moulded bread falls out, and its yellow spores spread throughout the room!

Yellow mould on a piece of bread to choke the dear life out of any potential thief, a very nasty trap. Both Dargoth and Tapio, the only characters in the room at that time, made their save, so nothing bad happened.

Behind the bag, Tapio found an amphora filled with honey. After all, they found what they had been looking for! A discussion started among the group whether it was wise to bring this horrible drug to Black Jandora. Tapio worried about crossing her and assumed the enormous risks the drug carried would discourage her from selling it. Roderick wanted to destroy the honey outright. Dargoth and La Fleur did not have any opinion whatsoever. In the end, they decided to take the honey with them.

There was a rather long moral dispute about the honey, which was a much more potent drug than the players had suspected in the beginning.

They barricaded the mansion and rested for one night, to let Roderick recover form his wounds. The next day, they started their way home to Lowangen. They see a couple giant bees collecting honey from the Morgendornsträucher, and pass a giant centipede which Dargoth smashed. They pay the bridge lizorcs with two bottles of wine and arrive in Ansvell around midday and decided to rest in the ‘Explorers Inn’, at which point we stopped this session.

[Actual Play] Adventuria Open Table Chat Game, 2018-04-06

This week, we had four player who sent their characters to search for honey in the ruins of Ansvell. Despite facing several horrible creatures and even several fights, everyone survived!

This week, the following characters took part:

  • La Fleur, human wizard, 75 XP
  • Roderick Clearwater, human rogue, 95 XP
  • Tapio of Gareth, human fighter, 75 XP
  • Dargoth the Daring, human fighter, 138 XP

Last week, we stopped when the group met some lizorc gathering herbs and roots, and continued at exactly this moment. The lizorcs offered information for food, and gave the party more detailed information about the area:

  1. Honey makes you crazy, the Beekeepers produce it.
  2. All the lizorc tribes are somewhat crazy, that is why this group remains for itself.
  3. A group of lizorc bandits raid people who try to barter with the Beekeepers. They have a fortified mansion beneath a huge pillar, which they use as lookout.
  4. There are plenty rats in the area, which the lizorc’s hunt.
  5. The lizorcs used to have a nice building, but fire beetles had dug into it recently and drove the lizorcs off.

The group offered to reconquer the lizorc shelter instead of paying with food, to which the lizorcs happily agreed. After quizzing the lizorcs about the shelter’s layout, the group came up with the plan to send Jules, La Fleur’s squirrel familiar, into the shelter to lure the beetle out. This worked rather well, and two beetles were lured into the trap and slain easily. Jules complaint about the beetles shooting something at him that made the walls bubble.

Tapio snuck down and took a look. He found four more beetles sitting at the far end of the cellar, eating something. The group hatched a plan: Everybody would sneak down, shoot at the eating beetles and hopefully kill them before they could react. This almost worked, but two beetles (one of them almost frozen) survived and retaliated by shooting acid at the party! Luckily, only one hit and caused only minor damage. Before the beetles could do anything else, the group killed them.

One player calculated the possible damage afterward and found that a better hit could have annihilated the whole group. The lizorcs had good reasons why they did not attempt to reconquer their shelter.

Afterwards, the group took some time to clean themselves and take a closer look at the strange sabre (kopesh, in rule terms: a scimitar) they found (in rules terms: they took a short rest). Nobody knew anything about the strange alloy, except that it was very similar to bronze. It was not magical either, but had an affinity to fire and was once exposed to strong magic. Meanwhile, the lizorcs cleaned their shelter and prepared some rats on a stick.

The group had really bad luck with their rolls this time.

The group decided to investigate the tunnel through which the beetles had come. Jules found a break in the tunnel which was blocked by some piece of wood. He also could follow the tunnel further, but that would lead him out of telepathy range. Tapio, Roderick and La Fleur decided to crawl into the tunnel themselves instead.

The piece of wood turned out to be a chest or something similar that could be moved (with a DC 8 athletics check). They decided not to, as they heard high pitched, grumbling voices behind. La Fleur cast ‘Comprehend Languages’ and understood that the voices were arguing about the rules for a game (the lizorcs would later identify these creatures as Ratiers, a race of rat-man).

If a certain company was not as strict with their trademarks as it is, these rat-man would have listened to Ska in a Van.

Tapio decided to crawl even further down the tunnel, as he had smelled something odd earlier. Finally, he reached a grid set into the stone atop and below the tunnel and saw a strange, scaled creature below of brownish-grey colour beneath which emited a horrible stench. He heard some noise from further afield, heard a human voice pleading, and then saw an elder, scrawny man tossed from the left into the cage. The stinking lizard quickly devoured the poor victim.

Tapio retreated and informed the rest of the group. They decided to leave these strange underground tunnels for now, and instead concentrate on the bandits, as they hope those might have some of the honey the group was looking for.

They walk along, passed a pile of rubbels in which they heard loud ‘ribbit’, and continued to reach a wide, open area. In the middle of that wide area they saw a pillar, which they (correctly) assumed to be the pillar the lizorc’s had described. They decided to use a combination of dusk and the sparse cover on the open field to sneak close to the pillar, which worked. Their attempt to sniper the watchout failed, though, and they retreated again when an alarm was shout.

We ended this game with a small scouting group leaving the mansion and circling it in search for the snipers.