Schlagwort-Archive: spielbericht

[Actual Play] Adventuria Open Table Chat Game, 2018-09-07

New week, new adventures and two new characters!

  • Noggin (lvl 3), Thorwalian War-Cleric of Swafnir 1012 XP
  • La Fleur (lvl 3), human wizard, 2101 XP
  • Jalosch (lvl 1), dwarf ranger, 0 XP
  • Jang-Chi (lvl 1), human monk, 233 XP

A few things happened in Lowangen while the group was gone:

  1. There are rumours about a very important looking person flying the crest of a blue raven was seen confering with the city adminstration
  2. The city has put out a bounty on reports for the road to the south, which is plagued by bandits and orcs. Even more bounty for removing any of those bandits or orcs.
  3. There was an attempt by the army to seize the orcish watchtower, but the tower was to well fortified and the strike force returned home after only exchanging a couple insults with the orcs.
  4. La Fleur found a black wooden plate with the letters ‘RSVP’ engraved when she returned.
  5. One of the brewers and his family has been found drowned and robbed.

Both La Fleur and especially Noggin were keen on slaying enemies, and thus decided to go after the goblin cave where the group was defeated during the first session of this campaign.

They gathered a little information, and went to ambush the goblins that were themselves ambushing travellers. They easily found them, and Jalosch snuck on them, while Jang-Chi (unwillingly) distracted them as lonely traveller.

The goblins were surprised, went away screaming, but the group ran them down merciless. With a fury born from desperation, the goblins defended themselves and wounded Jang-Chi (badly) and Noggin (slightly) before they were killed.

The group followed the tracks, which Jalosch could easily read, and found the clearing which lead to the cave. Different than last time, the clearing was adorned with rotten goblin heads on pikes.

Those were the goblins which helped the group against the hobgoblin in session one, and were punished for their mutiny.

Jalosch snuck next to the cave wall behind the cover of some shrubs, to get a view of the cave itself. He was so careful not to be noticed that he failed to find the cleverly laid traps and first fell into a hole before being swung up by a snare.

The goblins left the shrubs there on purpose: Only enemies would attempt to sneak up to the cave, allies would simply follow the well trodden path over the clearing. The shrubs invited enemies to sneak among them, basically funneling them into the trap, which would then expose them for target practice.

Jalosch dangled in the air, losing his dagger in an attempt to free himself. All the while, one goblin took shots at him while another frantically hit a gong to sound an alarm.

Jang-Chi and La Fleur ran to help Jalosch, while Noggin stroud into the middle of the clearing, purposefully drawing the attention of the goblin archers.

I had the player roll a deception check against the goblin’s passive perception (9), which he passed critically. Thus, both archers ignored their orders and concentrated on Noggin instead.

The group returned fire and sought cover, except for Noggin who simply rushed forward. After a little while, a hobgoblin, three wolves and five more goblins came out of the cave, attacking the group at once!

The wolfs tore into La Fleur and Jalosch, who both went down (Jalosch permanently). Jang-Chi killed two of the wolves with H’ruruzat techniques, while La Fleur dispatched the last with point blank magic missiles.

Noggin was standing in the creek right before the goblins and the hobgoblins, and heard the axe calling to him: ‘Release your fury, and wash your enemies away! ’ He did so, and created a giant wave that swept the hobgoblin back into the cave, not to be seen again, but felt exhausted afterwards.

The fight continued badly for the group, in the end, only Jang-Chi was still standing, badly wounded, but with all enemies defeated. Luckily, La Fleur woke a short while later and helped him drag Noggin to safety.

Everything looked like a TPK when Jang-Chi (with very few hit points left) was alone fighting two goblins, but luck was on his side when a hit only reduced him to one hit point, and he finally won. The players of La Fleur, Jalosch and Noggin frantically rolled their death saves, hoping to get on their feet again with a natural twenty, but only La Fleur rolled one, and only after Jang-Chi had already defeated the remaining goblins. Jalosch had bad luck and rolled three consecutive failures, which meant he had bled to death during the fight.

On their last leg (and even without looting the battlefield), the group retreated to Lowangen to lick their wounds.

[Actual Play] Adventuria Open Table Chat Game, 2018-08-31

After some weeks without playing, we finally continued our journey through Adventuria.

  • Roderick Clearwater (lvl 3), human rogue, 1791 XP
  • Noggin (lvl 2), Thorwalian War-Cleric of Swafnir 779 XP
  • La Fleur (lvl 3), human wizard, 1868 XP

The journey into the Finsterkamm was rather calm, nothing much happened. On their way to Hiltorp, the group saw a burnt corpse and found a tree that was strangely fallen onto a ridge nearby.

They found nothing at the tree, which seemed just a natural occurance, but when La Fleur attempted to identify any possible magic on the corpse, she was almost roasted from within.

In Hiltorp, the group found that the dwarfs speak either dwarvish or a very strong Middle Realmian accent they needed some time to get used to. They were friendly invited to stay at a local farmer, who told them a lot about the area around:

The dwarves are plagued by orcs and ‘traitors’, dwarves who do not accept the sovereignty of the king in Finsterkoppen.

A gryphon called Garafan is said to nest within the mountains. The dwarves do not particularly like him, but the church of Praios considers him holy.

The group should be careful before drinking from any of the springs in the mountains, as many were home to nymphs or other primordeal spirits. There were a couple signs they should check for:

  • Observe the spring before drinking from it. If you see animals drink from it, and the picture you see in the water looks like the animal, it should be safe.
  • Or you can try to leave a gift for possible water spirits overnight, if they are gone the next morning, you should be careful.
  • There is a place called ‘Nimmerquell’, who is rumoured to be home to a powerful nymph.

The group set out to Nimmerquell, hoping to aquire the hair they were looking for at that place. On their way, they passed the spring of the Black Svelt, where a pack of wolves drank. When looking at their mirror images, the lead wolf looked strange, and the group gave them a wide berth.

They later learnt that they had seen the nymph Nieijaa, who had a crush on red haired humans.

A little while later, Nadia found a group of dwarfs preparing an ambush. The group decided to spy on those dwarfs to learn what they were up to and learnt they were waiting for orcs whom they did not particularly trust, but  were said to bring important goods from the Rorwhed. It also turned out that one of the dwarfs had cut a locke of hair from a nymph, which had caused nothing but trouble for the dwarfs.

The group decided to ambush the ambushers, which resulted mostly in a lot of waiting. Finally, a combination of clever ideas, good luck and a high damage critical hit at the right time resulted in the dwarfs withdrawing.

I had the dwarfs roll a morale check after they had clearly witnessed magical capacity on part of the group (and owl causing an avalanche) and also Noggin impersonating a golem on his sneak attempt (OK, that was more Noggin critically failing his sneak attempt) and afterwards slaughtering one dwarf with a single hit plus Magic Fire.

Noggin managed to tame the dwarven burden rams, which carried a lot of food, and they group set out to find the nymph the dwarfs had been spoken for. This worked rather easily, again with help from Nadia the Owl.

After climbing a waterfall with a Spider Climb from La Fleur, the group finally met a very devastated nymph called Fomes of Finsterkamm, daughter of Krenä and learnt that any changes made to a nymph’s hairstyle were permanent, as nymph’s were eternal. Also changes to the nymph also change the water they live in, as was witnessed when a part of the lake started to glow after Fomes intertwined a locke from Noggin into her own hair.

The nymph asked whether they could ask Tsa how to restore her hair, and the group agreed. The next day, they returned to Lowangen where they knew of a temple of Tsa. They got an oracle in return:


What is gone, is gone, and cannot return, 
but where death lingers, live may return. 
For a new forest, the old needs to burn, 
and from beauty other beauty may return.

Thus ended this adventure, and will hopefully continue more regularly again.

[Actual Play] Adventuria Open Table Chat Game, 2018-07-17

This week ended in an catastrophe, with nearly everyone rather disappointed.

  • Roderick Clearwater (lvl 3), human rogue, 1124 XP
  • Tapio of Gareth, human fighter
  • Noggin, Thorwalian War-Cleric of Swafnir 112 XP
  • Dargoth the Daring, human fighter (lvl 3), 1763 XP
  • La Fleur (lvl 3), human wizard, 1201 XP

The group rested, with seemingly everyone reunited.

In reality, Tapio had been replaced by a Doppelganger who had tricked him into entering one of the cells. I did not think it would cause a lot of problems, as the players had announced they were returning there to free the prisoner, and I had Tapio’s player simply play the Doppelganger.

During the rest, Dargoth was target of several accidents, and finally had enough of it: He set the whole ruin afire, and the whole group left. After the next rest, Tapio was suddenly gone, with only the tracks of a giant snake remaining. The group rushed back to the ruins, but found only Tapio’s corpse in one of the cells. The wyfwolf and the prisoner had perished in the other cells.

Afterwards, Dargoth attempted suicide by wrestling with a kraken beneath the kitchen and diving through the exit afterwards, but extremely well medical aid by La Fleur saved him. The group returned with a horribly broken Dargoth to Lowangen. They also carried Tapio’s corpse all the way, to ensure his proper burial (which even Black Jandora attended).

While Dargoth tried to drown his sorrow in alcohol, the other’s attempted to identify the loot, of which only a little was magical:

  • When you identify the throwing knife, you always get the ID of the spell ‘Magic Missile’.
  • The piece of wood has some kind of spatial magic that twists within itself.
  • The axe has a strong affinity to water and wind, when you touch it, you feel as if a wave washed over you.

They sold the throwing knife to the Grey Staves, but kept the axe and the piece of wood, as La Fleur was curious what they might do and did not trust the Grey Staves to handle them properly.

Also at the Grey Staves, they met Noggin, an old aquaintance of Agdan Dragenfeld who decided to join them.

Noggin had a short adventure before meeting the rest of the group, where he investigated a severe lack of beer just before the carnival. He found it was caused by another group of adventurers with to much money on their hands, who intended a prank and paid him with some liquor not to reveal anything.

When the other party revealed their prank and offered the whole beer for free for all attendants at the carnival, La Fleur got extremely suspicious, and could only be talked down by Noggin.

The next day, they set out together to find the hair of a nymph for the witches, hoping to find a pure spring in the Finsterkamm.

[Actual Play] Adventuria Open Table Chat Game, 2018-07-06

This week was an exception, as only one player was present. Since that player had been separated from the group and wanted to test a theory, we played nonetheless:

  • Roderick Clearwater (lvl 3), human rogue, 1004 XP

Roderick triggered the mechanism several more times, ending in different combinations of tunnels leading into or away from the middle point:

  1. The form where he jumped into Tapio (stumps leading into all four directions, and a curved tunnel leading all the way around the center)
  2. Tunnels leading north and south through the center.
  3. Tunnels leading north and west.
  4. A Tunnel leading east toward a broken door.

He also figured out that he was not lifted when he activated the mechanism, but instead was spun arround very quickly, disorienting him.

He was unable to find Tapio again, despite several tries, and followed the marks Dargoth had left during the game before toward a door behind which he heard furniture being moved.

[Actual Play] Adventuria Open Table Chat Game, 2018-06-29

Again, the group delved into the dungeon and considered using the title theme from Scooby Doo as guideline for their actions.

This week’s characters:

  • Tapio of Gareth, human fighter (lvl 3), 1538 XP
  • Dargoth the Daring, human fighter (lvl 3), 1613 XP
  • La Fleur (lvl 3), human wizard, 1051 XP
  • Roderick Clearwater (lvl 3), human rogue, 984 XP

The group returned to the great storage room through the dungeon and searched it for treasure, finding mostly foodstuff, but also a snuff box, a golden amulet, a silver amulet (which, when identified showed as magic void), and some minor trinkets. The silver amulet burnt the werewolf, but did not change her form, and also did not prevent Dargoth from casting spells when he wore it.

The group attempted to rest in the storage room afterwards, but was disturbed by a bat flying in, diving for their camp fire! Luckily, La Fleur nailed it with a Magic Missile before it came into contact with the fire.

Even though everyone but Dargoth acted before the bat, nobody was able to hit it. La Fleur, the last to act before the bat, decided to Magic Missile it to circumvent the bad luck with attack rolls. Which was quite overkill for a completely ordinary bat, but the results speak for themselves.

When Roderick investigated the most sincerely dead bat, he found a small pouch with a horrible balm bound to its leg. Dargoth later recognized the powder as an instant demon, which would arise if the balm is set aflame. They decided to put the balm into the empty snuff box and gave it Roderick for safekeeping.

Afterwards, they considered setting a trap for their enemy, but finally decided against it as they considered it to risky during night. Instead, they pressed on through the dungeon in a hope to bring the fight to the enemy.

They returned to the kitchen where they removed the stove from the well. An eerie light washed over the slain and already partly scavenged giant rats, and La Fleur smashed and burnt the corpses just to be safe. Once the stove was removed, Tapio was sent scouting into the well, where he found a tunnel which lead to a room with a shelf, many bones and a cleaver. The others followed, and only Dargoth awakened whatever lurks deep in the well, but it was probably sleepy as it just tugged at the rope with a tentacle and then retreated again.

This was a great amount of luck for the players: Not only made most of the group extremely good stealth rolls, but their opponent also rolled very poor.

There were two exits from the room, one west and one east. The group headed east, and quickly came to a T-section. They heard howling from the north, noticed they had left the hogtied wyfwolf in the kitchen, and decided to go south till they got to a crossing.

Dargoth found tracks leading west, and Roderick a strong curving wall to the east. The group parted, with Dargoth and La Fleur following the tracks, while Roderick and Tapio inspected the curved tunnel.

The tunnels led on for some time, in a sharp bent. After a little while, they reached a crossing, the curved wall continued beyond, but one could also go north and south. Tapio remained at the crossing, while Roderick went a little south till he reached yet another crossing. Once he stepped into the middle of the crossing, one could heard a loud clanking sound, while dust filled the air. Roderick quickly jumped forward and ended up in front of Tapio, even though he had jumped away from him. Roderick afterwards followed the curved tunnel and finally appeared behind Tapio.

Meanwhile, La Fleur and Dargoth had followed the tracks and reached a door. They could not hear anything behind the door, and opened it. Behind, they saw an extremely cramped storage room full of furniture and, hardly to be seen, a leg beneath one of the furniture. Dargoth went in to investigate, suspecting foul play, and was right: The bones started moving once he looked at them. La Fleur dashed in as well to help him, but her magic did not do any damage, while she was hit by two attacks and lost conciousness. Dargoth hardly noticed this, as he smashed his way through the skeletons without taking damage.

This fight should have been easy, but the dice had conspired against La Fleur: Not only was she attacked twice, but both of these attacks hit with and one even hit critically. This caused sufficient damage to reduce her to −1 hit points, which meant that she was at 0 hitpoints, unconcious and had to roll death saves. Then her luck returned though, as she rolled a 20 on her very first death save, which caused her to regain 1 hit point and get back on her feet, where she could even cast an (albeit unsuccesful) spell.

Dargoth and La Fleur decided to prepare the cramped room as a resting space, while Tapio and Roderick were still puzzled as to where they were.

[Actual Play] Adventuria Open Table Chat Game, 2018-06-22

Four brave adventures delved into the underground beneath the ruins. None of them appreciated the amazing foundation that prevented the swamp flooding the dungeon level, though.

This week’s characters:

  • Tapio of Gareth, human fighter (lvl 3), 1488 XP
  • Dargoth the Daring, human fighter (lvl 3), 1563 XP
  • La Fleur (lvl 3), human wizard, 1001 XP
  • Roderick Clearwater (lvl 3), human rogue, 934 XP

Within the cellar, the air is stale, and the only breeze can be felt directly next to the entrance from the tower. Dargoth takes some parchments from a secretary in the room, afterwards the group presses on. A zig-zagging tunnel leads them north, at a T-crossing the group hears irregular sounds from the north.

Roderick sneaks ahead, passing three tunnels before finding the sound’s source: A ragged prisoner throwing pebbles out of his cell. When the group approaches him, he considers them just another ‘mind game’ by someone named Belgor, and only reluctantly gives his name (Ywain). Roderick attempts to free him, but finds that the door has no visible lock to pick. They learn that only the torturer can open the doors, but Ywain does not know how he does it.

The group sets off to find the torturer and get his keys.They find him a little to the west, in a archetypical torture chamber. He had noticed their coming, and awaited them ready for battle and with his latest victim’s head between the jaws of a wolf. Dargoth hopes the werewolf girl the group holds captive might be able to control the wolf, and thus the groups (angered by the torturer’s haughty behaviour) decides to attack. The captive is killed by the wolf in the first round, but otherwise, torturer and wolf do not pose a threat. Quickly, the group annihilated them, which ended with a dead wolf and an imploding torturer.

Somehow, half of the group thought torturer and wolf would be other werewolfs, and the other half thought they would be an ordinary wolf and a human. Both were wrong. Furthermore, I rolled very poorly, which is why I could not use any of the special abilities wolf and torturer had. Only Tapio was shortly afflicted with one of the special abilities, but at that time, the fight was almost over.

The group found a couple swords, three bone chips, and a smithing hammer, but not the keys they were looking for. La Fleur identified the bone chips and found them to be induced with painful magic, thus she decided to smash them, which succeeded.

Spoiler: The bone chips were the keys.

The group returned to the cells and investigated the doors a little further, La Fleur attempted to identify them as well and found the cells lock was somehow connected to excruciating pain. They decided not to smash the door though, and instead asked the werewolf to lead them to something interesting.

The werewolf lead them into a storage cellar and up a ramp. Dargoth opened the trap door at the top of the ramp, and they ended in the big storage room on the upper floor they had seen earlier. Directly in front of them, they saw a mirror floating in mid air. When investigating, they found a line protecting the mirror, which dissolved anything it came in contact with. Finally, the group decided that La Fleur and Dargoth will fire bolt the thing while the rest of the group hides back in the cellar.

This worked rather well. The line came rushing after them, though, and after some examination Roderick concluded it would be a transluscent Gelantinous Cube which ingested a mirror. The group decided to lure the Cube toward the tower, drop oil on it and set it aflame. On their way, La Fleur and Dargoth continued to harrass it with Firebolts and Rays of Cold, which finally brought the cube down.

It also made a lot of noise, which attracted the attention of other inhabitants: Just as the cube stopped moving, the shadows started to grow darker and almost substantial. A hideous laughter sounded through the tunnels.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/XaHEHlVMNyg

Most of the players are now convinced that their enemy is a wimpy illusionist, who pretends to be a dangerous monster. Still, they play it safe.

La Fleur and Roderick fled, Tapio had some success in thinning the shadows with a silver butter knife and Dargoth cast Protection from Evil to retrieve the mirror from the Cube before their opponent could appear. Alas, in the darkness, he could not see anything and found that his massive weapons were not good for such a task, as he accidently smashed the mirror.

I had the player roll an attack roll to retrieve the mirror unharmed, and he failed.

He did retrieve the mirror, but it was partly splintered and dented. Nonetheless, La Fleur attempted to identify it and learnt that it indeed was magical. When attempting to learn more, she heard countless rhymes overlapping each other, but any answers were lost in clinking.

With that, a somewhat frustrated group ended the session.

[Actual Play] Adventuria Open Table Chat Game, 2018-06-08

This week with complete cast again, including running away from bats and rats, as well as interrogating a werewolf.

This week’s characters:

  • Tapio of Gareth, human fighter (lvl 3), 1175 XP
  • Dargoth the Daring, human fighter (lvl 3), 1250 XP
  • La Fleur (lvl 2), human wizard, 688 XP
  • Roderick Clearwater (lvl 2), human rogue, 621 XP

The group rested a bit, but was disturbed by a hooded figure who conjures a swarm of bats and warns the group to leave before the next dusk. La Fleur annihilated the swarm with Flaming Hands, which caused the figure to disappear in a shower of sparkles. The spell also incinerated the wooden interieur of the room, filling it with smoke and heat. The group ran for their lives, through the tunnel, into the barn and the sowbug, which Dargoth scared of with Dancing Lights.

The courtyard was swarming with bats, the group ran toward the logway to the swamp, where more bats flew at them. Dargoth and La Fleur both cast Burning Hand, which incinerate the bats but also set the swamp gas aflame which causes an explosion that splatters the adventurer’s in mud and deafens them for some time.

On their way out, Dargoth attempts to drown the captured werewolf, fearing he might lead its vampire master to their position, but Tapio and Roderick stop him. They run a bit further into the swamp and rest there. The next morning, the three mercenaries take their leave from the group. Dargoth attempts to interrogate the werewolf, and determines that she is not a minion to a vampire master. He finds it difficult to ask questions that can be helpfully answered by ‘yes’ or ‘no’ though, and often gets seemingly contradictionary answers.

The players noticed that after an or question, and started making predictions what a specific answer might mean, finally coming up with a solution to the werewolf’s origins: She was bitten by a werewolf and later cursed by whoever lives in the ruins.

The group returns to the ruins, and investigates a little more. They find a stack with the werewolf’s clothes (turns out it is a she), a garden and that the north tower that is filled with guano of which a part has been dug out, and a deck chair with an empty bottle of wine on the tower’s roof. The west tower has a set of stairs filled with rubble, and the east tower a stuck door. When attempting to break the door open, Dargoth and Roderick collapse the ground beneath them and fall into a cellar with stairs leading up to the tower room. After unlatching the door, the rest of the group enters and looks around. Roderick finds a secret door that Tapio opens through sheer luck, and the group prepares to enter the cellar.

[Actual Play] Adventuria Open Table Chat Game, 2018-05-29

Only two players played today, the other two had to cancel on short notice. Due to public demand, I ran a session nonetheless.

This week’s characters:

  • Tapio of Gareth, human fighter (lvl 2), 1155 XP
  • Dargoth the Daring, human fighter (lvl 3), 1230 XP

Roderick and La Fleur stood behind and attempted to identify a few of the recently looted potions, while Tapio and Dargoth explored further. Dargoth drank one of the Orcish healing potions they had gotten from Erbert Domian, and felt healed, but also grew a greasy moustache.

They had been warned that Orcish Healing potions had side effects, which are rolled for on a d10 table.

First, they entered a large paltry, with a lot of shelfs, buckets and barrels. On the far side of the paltry, Dargoth noted a glistening piece of jewelry hovering in the room, which he considered odd but decided not to investigate.

Next, they went into a large hall. They heard a clanking and banging, as if from wood hitting metal, but assumed it just a door. The hall was wide open, as large parts of the ceiling had collapsed. Dargoth still opened the large door to the outside courtyard, hoping to let some more light in (but not much did).

Afterwards, he opened a tapestry that was flapping in the wind and stared into the maw of a wolf! Tapio immediately jumped to attack, but despite them all hitting the wolf, their attacks seemed to cause no damage but superficial scraps. Tapio shouted ‘Werewolf, run for your life!’ and the three mercenaries Alrik, Torben and Perainos immediately fled.

Dargoth felt lucky though and grappled the wolf, assuming it would still need to breath air. Thanks to a potion of giant strength he had drunken earlier, he succeeded and, after some tussling, Tapio managed to bind the held wolf.

During interrogation, in which the wolf could only give signs for ‘yes’ and ‘no’, they figured out that this werewolf could no longer change into human form and decided to bring it to La Fleur for treatment. Tapio looked for silver cutlery, but only found a silver quill, with which Roderick was to keep the wolf in check.

Afterwards, they quickly glanced in the three remaining smaller chambers, which were probably servant dorms, and found an engraved piece of wood:

A red gift in a white case.
A white case with no hinge.
Made in the dark. Ah, what a delight.
To find, to hold, to open.
When the other gifts are gone.

They did not dawdle here, though, fearing that Dargoth strength potion would wear off. Instead, they rushed into the kitchen, which was a horrible mess and stank like hell. Large holes dotted the north wall. Both Tapio and Dargoth agreed this looked like the work of rats. Nonetheless, Tapio decided to search for valuables, and finally found the silver cutlery hidden in the stove!

Of course, this was not due to old adventures hiding their treasure in strange places, but because the cook attempted to forge a weapon against the werewolf. Ahem. Good that my players fill in the blanks whenever they show up.

Greedy, Tapio tried to find even more treasure, despite squeaks and trippling from the holes. Suddenly, he found himself facing eleven large rats! After a bloddy battle, the rats withdrew after their leader, the Nimble Rat, had recognized Tapio as the Slayer of Rats!

OK. This was a rather humouros intervention, as Tapio’s player had said his character would have a lot of experience with fighting rats, and slew seven of them with eight strikes, only missing the eight attack, which lead to the assumption that this must be some kind of rat champion.

Tapio wanted to investigate the well in the kitchen as well, trying to yank the bucket up. Something down in the well yanked harder though and almost drew Tapio in, if it had not been for Dargoth’s swift reaction and giant strength.

After securing the well with the stove, the group returned to La Fleur and Roderick to rest. Here, we stopped a little early, as I felt extremely tired. Both Tapio and Dargoth reached third level and I am curious to see what they will choose as additional power for their class.

[Actual Play] Adventuria Open Table Chat Game, 2018-05-18

With some additional reinforcements from mercenaries that tried to plunder the ruins, the group continued their search for treasure.

This week’s characters:

  • La Fleur (lvl 2), human wizard, 668 XP
  • Roderick Clearwater (lvl 2), human rogue, 601 XP
  • Tapio of Gareth, human fighter (lvl 2), 668 XP
  • Dargoth the Daring, human fighter (lvl 2), 742 XP

First, they sent Jules into the tunnel entrance they found, but he only smelled rodents and found nothing else. Their next target was the barn, where the mercenaries Alrik, Torben and Perainos had seen a monster earlier. The group dispersed, taking vantage points up on roofs and walls, in case a monster storms out. Jules again was sent to scout the barn, but could only report a smell of decay.

Dargoth opened the door, but nothing dashed out and attacked. They started smashing barred windows and walls to let some light into the barn, and finally found the monster: a giant sowbug! It hid in the darkest corner of the barn. Discerning it probably was no threat if left alone, they gave it an opening to scuttle of, which it did.

I had them roll a Nature DC 8 check to safely route the sowbug off.

Afterwards they searched the barn intensly, but found only a couple copper pieces. Only when Dargoth took detailed measurements he found a trapdoor hidden under the hay. It took the group quite some effort, but finally with a lot of noise, they cracked it open.

And smashed the healing potion that lay beneath it. Such is life.

Beneath was a small tunnel where Dargoth barely fit into, and which caused a strange echo effect if shouted into. The group did that for some time, before Tapio decided to investigate (and stepped into a puddle of healing drought). Dargoth followed him.

The tunnel ended in a wooden grate, in the room behind it stood an ugly stone statue. Tapio simply threw the grate over, disturbing lots of dust, which temporarily blinded him. When the dust settled, the stone statue stood right in front of him, he immediately attacked, but his swords brushed the stone without any effect. In return, the monster grabbed him and gave him some nasty bites and shoves. Luckily, Dargoth managed to persuade the monster that he would be a more dangerous target, which let the rather winded Tapio go. After a harrowing back and forth, the monster finally crumbled.

Phew. That was a difficult fight – all fighters had to use their second wind ability, and Dargoth even drank his potion of giant strength as his early attacks barely caused any noticable effect. If Dargoth had not successfully intimidated the monster, poor Tapio would have probably been crushed in its grip. And all that by a well positioned standard monster.

Afterwards they searched the chamber and found quite a lot of loot among the rubble: Among other things, a throwing knife, an axe, a halberd, a morning-star, five potions in differently coloured bottles, and a little money.

I am really curious when they are going to test those and what they will make of them!

After having given XP for the successful fight, we stopped the session a bit earlier than usual.

[Actual Play] Adventuria Open Table Chat Game, 2018-05-11

This week the party faced an invincible swamp monster, and prevailed!

This week’s characters:

  • La Fleur (lvl 2), human wizard, 556 XP
  • Roderick Clearwater (lvl 2), human rogue, 489 XP
  • Tapio of Gareth, human fighter (lvl 2), 556 XP
  • Dargoth the Daring, human fighter (lvl 2), 630 XP

The party stood at the foot of a log causeway that was lined with willows. Dargoth noticed an owl sleeping in one of the willows, but otherwise, everything seemed calm. Of course, this made the group very suspicious and they set a marching order and prepared their weapons.

Dargoth went first, and when he came closed to the willows, he noticed its branches stretching and moving in his direction. He barely manages to step back, cutting a few twigs with his sword in defense. At the same time, Tapio (who was guarding the rear) is flooded with a black liquid over his shoulder, a gust of wind blows his hat on the swamp and when he turns around, he sees a horrible swamp monster coalescencing directly behind him! Furthermore, the owl opens it eyes and stares directly at La Fleur.

Frantically, the group attempts to fight the monster, but for naught, all their attacks are repelled: Arrows are just sucked into the monster’s muddy hide, other weapons get stuck and have to be retrieved, fire bolts are extinguished by the monsters watery surface, frost rays melt from the monsters composting heat. When La Fleur throws a Chromatic Orb, the monster simply swallows it, burps and licks its lips.

Grapping for straws, Roderick shoots and kills the owl, which he assumed was a proxy to control the scene, but it simply falls from the tree with a loud thud. Tapio attempts to run past the trees toward the ruins, but is grappled and lulled to sleep, losing his bow. Roderick gives up hope and runs for the shore, while Dargoth gets second thoughts and assumes this might be an illusion.

With Dargoth standing still and concentrating on what happens, but only figuring out that this makes him feel odd, the monster grabs muds from its stomach and throws it at La Fleur, who just barely keeps standing. Roderick meanwhile reaches the shore, turns around to support his comrades and sees … a rather odd scene: Dargoth stares at nothing, La Fleur attemps to brush of nothing from her rather clean robes, and Tapio leaning over a willow branch, sleeping. There is no monster!

When the group realized this, there was quite a lot of laughter as the tension was relieved. It was very much fun to run this scene and, according to the players comments, they enjoyed it as well. The poor owl was just an ordinary owl, sleeping in the willow, which wanted to know what all the ruckus was about.

Noticing Rodericks erratic behaviour at the shore, where he waves and shouts at them, the others are convinced that something truly odd was happening. Dargoth grabbed the sleeping Tapio, and dashed with La Fleur to the shore as well, where they all rested for a bit.

After the rest, the group simply walked over the log causeway and ignored the willows and monsters appearing. They safely reached the gatehouse, whose outer gate was torn apart by brute force and the inner gate was stuck at a low height, requiring the group to crawl beneath it.

Inside, there was a yard with four buildings, with the largest to the south-east, and a tower right next to the gatehouse. The group first investigated the tower, where they found three shadow-bats hanging from the roof. They attempted to roast them, but the bats evaded and dove for the shades beyond the buildings, with the group in pursuit. They finally found them in another tower, where they managed to burn one of them (which disintegrated as it fell down), and badly crippled a second one, which was shortly later nailed to a window frame by Roderick. When inspecting the bat, they found that it had purple fur looking like a collar beneath its head. The third bat escaped into a large building behind the first four buildings already discovered prior.

The group returned to the front yard, and decided to investigate the large building first. On their way toward the building, when passing between two of the smaller buildings, La Fleur noticed hushed voices within one of them, arguing about whether or not there was treasure in this ruins. The group assumes those are fellow adventurers and sends Tapio to introduce them, as he is the most charming of their lot.

Now, I had prepared for a nice little fight, but I made a reaction roll which showed an 11: Friendly and helpful. So, I had to quickly turn these plunderers into a group that was willing to somehow cooperate with our groups. Thus, a group of former mercenaries was born.

When Tapio enters, the opponents attempt to hide, but fail greatly, and are quickly overwhelmed by Tapio’s charm. They introduce themselves as Alrik (a Middle-Realmian), Torben (a Thorwalian) and Perainos (from Fairfields). They all worked as mercenaries for the Empire during the Orc Invasion, but when their units were annihilated, they got somehow stuck and tried to get rich quick somehow (but not very successful so far). It was Torbens superstition that kept them from the log causeway, and thus they never encountered the hallucination, but they report about a strange desk in the next building and strange noises from the fourth building.

Dargoth continued the search of the room the three had started, and quickly found a linen pouch with a few coins inside. In the house over, they found a strange tunnel that looked like it was dug by a mole, Jules reported that it smelled like rodent. Dargoth identified the wood as an exotic hardwood that was looked for by captains, and Roderick easily picked the desk’s lock. Inside, the group found a silver bottle filled with liquid (that La Fleur identified as healing potion), some coins and a gilded key (both non-magic).

I had always wrongly assumed a magic ritual in D&D5 takes an hour, but it only takes 10 minutes in addition to the normal casting time, as one player pointed out.

It was getting late at this point, so I stopped the session here. The group plans to investigate the stables next, where their three new sidekicks had seen a monster.