Foreword: This was in March 2021. At this point, I was new to 1e, and also was doing a LOT of the work (as in, the PCs had NO info from the DMG. No hit tables, etc. So I managed all that during combat). The original session reports were posted here and I've partially edited it here.
Session Report:
SESSION 1 (27/03/21)
No such thing as session 0 here, that sort of character spotlighting is
foreign to the campaign I intend to run! This is some of my players
first ever RPG experience, but they don't seem to mind the rules (since
nobody reads them! Thus I take much of the burden...)Players rolled up stats and this is the group (I allowed Method 1 for first characters but have since changed it to Method III in DMG, faster and better suited to the campaign due to the element of time).
Sixtus Sunwalker the Gallant - Human Paladin 1 - 6'5" nordic chad with a jawline that could slice metal. Clad in chain-mail, a great helm, large shield, and Footman's mace. Already heavily encumbered. Furthering the cause of Lawful-Good after completing his initiation. This player instigated the canon in the campaign that all Paladin's must have a roman name, which is given to them after their Squire-hood.
Maethedir (Elvish for Man-Handler) - Wood Elf F1/MU1 - short & slender elvish features, green eyes. Clad in chain-mail with a great helm. Wields a short-bow and Guisarme (which the player later realised sucks compared to the other polearms, but understood better after reading the Polearms appendix in UA). Left his village in The Weald to better understand Men, and their martial abilities.
Milton North of Fourex - Human Fighter 1 - Young 5'10" lad, medium brown hair and eyes. Clean shaven. Clad in chain with a coif. Wields cross bow and short-sword. Name and home village are tributes to commercial breweries in our homeland of Australia. Left his northern home to seek adventure and prove himself after his training.
Kovani - Human Monk 1 - lithe female figure with black hair & grey eyes. Forced to lawful good otherwise Sixtus wouldn't adventure with her more than once! Clad in monastery garments, wields a Fauchard. Pursuing self mastery after departing from her ocean-mountain monastery.
Day 1 - 27th March, Year 1037
Weather: a beautiful and fresh spring day
The party arrived at Steemham at about mid-morning. As is accepted, they went straight to the inn while the local peasants toiled in the fields. The paladin (rolling an 18 charisma and seeing he could have 15 hench-men) immediately tried to recruit the people within. While everyone he spoke to loved him without quite knowing why (18 charisma reaction rolls?), nobody was really interesting in adventuring. Heard from a dwarf and gnome pair that their mining settlement at Khun Kaldur in the south-eastern mountains was being harried by orcs, and they left for better prospects. Also met an ornately dressed mute woman called Elean who wrote down that she lost her voice due to a nymph in Lake Athystra. This did not add up with Maethedir's folk knowledge that the nymph blinded men rather than muted them, and the woman left suspiciously after being questioned.
After Sixtus insulted Balgo the innkeeper's Steamed Hams recipe, passed down for generations, the party decided to go check out the lake down the main road. They rented a cart from a farmer for 4 days, paying premium coin, and also learned that the local lord had banned them from practicing their religion. When they saw the massive lake, they noticed a gathering of tents and small figures in the distance beside it. Hesitant to abandon the cart, and seeing the tough terrain beside the lake, they chucked their gear in and carried it to the tents...
Some time passed when they arrived, and noticed it was a somewhat stressed out group of hobbits clearly out of their element, some even armed and defensive. Their chief, Galgalolf, who had massive mutton chops and chain-smoked from his pipe, told them rats had taken over their home in the Weeping Wood to the north-west. The party asked if anyone had experienced anything strange around the lake, possibly blinding them, when they said that young Fergi claimed to see a beautiful woman and then lost his vision. To the party, this confirmed the existence of a nymph, but didn't add up with Elean's experience. They warned the hobbits to not look at any beautiful women in the lake, and decided they would help them with their rat infestation. The hobbit Goldo said he would guide them, and claimed it would only take a day.
Well, by nightfall they only arrived at the border of wood, and Goldo complained he could have done it in a day, but the paladins encumbrance slowed them. The party could smell and feel the boggy humidity of the Ghoul Fen a few miles west, with meaty marsh flies hanging about. They decided to camp outside the woods, and they rested peacefully...
Day 2
Weather: Storm brewing over the lake - begins to rain
The party was a bit disheartened by the rain and the obvious tedium to follow, as they realised they needed to redistribute their equipment to minimise encumbrance. Nobody liked this, but they did it like one does their tax return - a critical fervor fueled their calculations, as they optimised their loadout for travel. This really only meant that the party started carrying the paladin's equipment. They set out into the dense and looming wood, and by nightfall they arrive at the hobbit settlement, and they elect to sleep in Goldo's home. He is going to stay for a day after they enter the warrens, after which, he will leave, with or without them. During the night, Kovani noted strange sounds and squeaking outside, but they were otherwise uninterrupted.
Day 3
Weather: Storm continues
The party descends into the hobbit holes. They open up a gnarled wooden door wrapped in lavender and covered in scratches, noting inside rat holes everywhere, and there is a table at the end of the room with notes on it. These are mundane ledgers of food stock, alcohol, leaf, etc. of note is the population ledger showing an unusual number of deaths in the past weeks. Behind the desk is a tunnel they go down, which leads off into various rooms, all of which have rotten and chewed up doors. One of them is a keg-room, a number of which are missing, but many remain, with labels: "Holbington Stout, Gadobious' Greed, "The Solution""... They check out another room with some general provisions but it's empty, and after stomping a rat, go down another passage further down. This room has a pile of fetid, pungent refuse in the corner, and one of the walls is smashed to pieces with a man-sized hole and tunnels beyond it. Maethedir pokes around the refuse, and a rot grub slinks out, which he quickly skewers with his guisarme.
They first head right down the tunnel, and follow it for a while, noting some rubble against a wall, before it descends sharply into darkness for an indeterminate distance. Backtracking, they head back to the refuse room and head in the left-direction. On the way, they note a sloping, large rat-hole above, that some light is coming, through. Before long, they arrive at a cavernous room full of piles of rubbish, debris, provisions. The largest is a huge, writhing mass in the middle - baby rats are falling off of it and crawling about blindly. The party takes a square formation and enters, with Sixtus and Kovani in the lead. From behind the mass, 4 humanoid figures with rat-like features emerge and surprise the party, but demand they leave instead of attacking. The party refuses, deeming it necessary for the hobbits well-being that this threat is expelled. Actions are declared and group initiative is rolled!
Simultaneous round! Sixtus and Kovani charge to each side of the mound while Maethedir decides to cast Sleep - I ruled it would occur later in round since had to drop his Guisarme. Milton puts his lantern down and loads his crossbow. 2 of the rat-things meet Kovani, she gains first attack due to weapon length! She strikes one with her fauchard, but its wound heals immediately. They then both slice her with their swords, and she drops to 0 HP (unconscious, bleeding!) The other 2 met Sixtus head-on. He misses his attack, blocks one of theirs, but in this moment the other one slices down his chest. It is a shallow wound and he remains stalwart. At this moment, Maethedir's spell goes off, and three of them fall asleep! The remaining one flees, turning into a giant rat as it dives into one of the various rat holes.
Sixtus lays on hands Kovani, and she returns to consciousness, but she is not in a good state. The party executes the sleeping rat-men, and search around the place. They find 1000 silver and 1000 copper in some coffers, divvying up the silver and leaving the copper. Maethedir had a thorough look around and found a pouch stuffed into a small hole with a golden figurine with ruby eyes. After looting the place, everyone agrees they should blow up the tunnel with the hobbits own brew. On their way out, a big procession of giant rats comes skulking down the hall. Everyone adopts a defensive position, Sixtus kneeling and shield-walling the narrow tunnel, while Milton skewers one with a crossbow bolt. The rats flee and the party quickly rigs up a keg-bomb after determining that "The Solution" burns as potently as oil. They form a trail of it to the bomb, and chuck the rest of the flaming oil from Milton's lantern on it. A small explosion follows, and the party proudly heads up to the surface, ready to return home, noting Goldo was a bit suss when rat men were brought up. They make their way to the fringe of the wood, and with no light sources or fuel left, camp under the cover of the trees, trying to avoid the rain.
Day 4
Weather: Storm persists
Their journey to the encampment is uninterrupted. Turns out the hobbits have a folk tale about their home once being the host of a great battle against were-rats, but nobody said anything. The party, at the behest of Sixtus Sunwalker, went to return to silvers they recovered, when the (surprisingly honest) hobbits said it wasn't theirs. Still, Sixtus insists they be given half, for their troubles. Sixtus also explains that they did not kill all the rats, so it may not be safe, but the hobbits say they will finish the job. The party then returns to Steemham, camping on the road along the way, seeking cover from the rain by their cart, but there is little reprieve...
Day 5
Weather: Breezy and overcast, the storm has departed
Steemham comes into view about midday. The peasant is relieved to have his cart returned, and Sixtus donates 100 silver to the inn to host a great feast in honour of their journey. Balgo then decides the party may stay free of charge.
XP Total - 650 XP each (including the figurine valued at 2000gp). I also give full experience for an encounter even if all the monsters aren't slain (thwarted or overcome). Not necessarily btb but leveling is not the fastest thing anyway, and it encourages other types of play besides murder.
Class Role & Alignment Performance Ratings - Everyone received an (E)xcellent rating, remaining true to their class roles and also alignments. Sixtus showed great devotion to doing the right thing, selflessly, for the hobbits.
The party will be out of play until 31st March midday, which is when they arrived back at Steemham.
No comments:
Post a Comment