Session 26 - Pride and Precipie

Session 26 - Pride and Precipie

Foreword: This session had a weird social dynamic crop up. Aside from that, it was a really cool wilderness adventure, with some bizarre encounters neither the players nor I have experienced! This felt like real uncharted territory.

Timekeeping: Session elapsed from 30/04/2022 until 9/05/2022. Downtime requests available from 10/05/2022.

Characters: Bale Tyrannus (1/2O F3), Greg Chapel (H C2), Gilthur Goldburrow (D F1/T1), Ruck Mudsplash (1/2O F1)[H], Fitzpatrick Bateman (H C1)[H]

Downtime Adjudication: Party had downtime from 2/04/2022 until 29/04/2022.

Bale Tyrannus

• Trained to level 3, spending money on hiring equipment and lancers to learn how to use a Heavy Lance
• Bought chain armour for his guard dog
• Had his blood-stone embedded in the pommel of his morning star
• Sought out an alchemist to make a Potion of Heroism but they wouldn't do it without materials
  

Greg Chapel

• Preaching on the Street of the Gods. I worked through with the player how I would determine the outcome, to help enlighten PCs for self adjudicating downtime. We came up with a d12 table of outcomes, and he invested 50gp. Ended up with 12 new followers at the Thropsford stall!
  Cult of Globulah
  Thropsford Branch: 30 members
  Underland Branch: 8 members

The players also told me that since the Blood Moon was coming up on the 15-16th (the MOST important religious observation of the Globulites) they were going to try to make sure that they are back in civilisation so they can go and slaughter a village. This was hilarious. If the devouts do not do this they will get a Poor rating on their record.

Session Report:

30/04/2022
First session back after holidays. Evil PCs in tow, hoping to complete their quest for Winston Churchill and make some serious bank. They stock up on food, oil, and the clerics prepare Create Water for their drinking needs. They follow their map north of the city walls, passing through the plains on foot since the new dwarf Fighter/Thief Gilthur Goldburrow (who is made of quartz - a material which is found next to gold. His eternal struggle...) couldn't afford one. They arrive at the cusp of the swamp by nightfall and rest. It was a peaceful night.

1/05/2022
Greg digs a hole and casts Create Water. The party sets out into the swamp, and it is very rough terrain. They take almost the whole day to cover 5 miles and arrive at the Lizard Man huts they murdered the occupants of for loot last time. There is some sign of activity in the shacks and the henchman Ruck suggests everyone pretends to sleep. This doesn't amount to anything and they go to normal watch/sleep. I'm making the party roll their own encounters. This becomes hilarious later as wilderness marshes call for 6 encounter chances a day with a 1 in 10 of occurring. The groans whenever a 1 came up! Delightful. Anyway, Greg and Fitzpatrick are on the first watch when they notice some blinking lights floating outside the swamp. Fitzpatrick wants to follow them, and the group notices the lights going further into the swamp as he approaches - so they call him back and go to sleep. No other encounters.

2/05/2022
The party treks further north, eventually seeing some plains in the distance. They enjoy a reprieve from the fetid swampland, and eventually arrive at the start of a great lake stretching north and west. To the east, some huge stone crags reminiscent of badlands jut out on the horizon. The dwarf Gilthur, who has a southern accent for some reason, which became the running gag of the night, specifies that the blighted badlands are exactly the type of place an evil dungeon would be located. They camp at the 'precipie' (industry term) as the lake, swamp, and badlands intersect. There are no encounters.

3/05/2022
The party fills their waterskins at the lake and enter the badlands. There is a shallow, but discernible, decline in the area, and the rough rocky ground forms an escarpment to the north-east / south-west, forming something of a pathway. However, the terrain is also very rugged and perilous in areas. Since this hex was quite contained, I ruled that getting lost wouldn't put them in another hex but just mean they did circles. Before starting their journey, Gilthur suggested they use his daggers to carve markings into the hoodoos and Greg elects to smear his blood in them. Because of course he does. Anyway they end up going in a circle, but figure out where they are and eventually make it to the end of the badlands - the scenery changes now as the slight decline they were heading down becomes much steeper to the north-east, as some sort of swampy ravine comes into view. It looks like the Dead Marshes, with the fog and all. It's night-fall at this point, and the party camps... But during the night Greg hears a huge shriek from the badlands, and a group of wings begin beating overhead in the darkness. The party is awoken, the fire doused, and Bale sets his predator vision to the skies - alas, whatever it was is gone. No more encounters during the night.

comments were made

4/05/2022
The party climbs down into the marsh-ravine, and it is a tough slog - the worst of the rough and the fetid swampland. By noon they are the bottom of it, and see it slopes up now. The rest of the day is spent climbing up the boggy slopes, and eventually they make it to the top. To the north-east the party sees a lake. They camp for the night... And once again, Greg suffers an encounter on his first watch. He hears a large shape walking through the darkness. Then a voice calls out. It is feminine yet inhuman. The group wakes up and wields their weapons, but the voice insists they lay down their arms and it will enter the light. They concede, and a Gynosphinx enters the scene. I don't quite remember how or why, but they ended up insulting the creature and taunting it. I was honestly baffled, that days beyond the civilised lands, being met by a non-hostile being of immense wonder and enchantment, that they would not be amicable and risk angering it. I ruled that due to it's intelligence and alien nature it was equally baffled and instead decided that the party has a chance to meet its payment or it will eat them. They have until morning to present gems, riddles, poems, or knowledge (particularly of the location of an Androsphinx). The players all start talking. Greg tries writing haikus, Bale and Gilthur try to make riddles. The Gynosphinx sits patiently through it all. I inform the party that we can do this two ways - you make your riddles in secret and I'll see if I can answer them, or I will abstract the sphinx's discernment with a roll/some logic. Leaving me to figure it out seems more interesting, and probably seems like better odds to them and so the players conspire.

At about midnight they announce they are ready. Bale presents his riddle:

What is given by the Father
Flows like a river
Pools like a lake

The Gynosphinx answers correctly Blood, but Bale lies and says it's Time. Once more I am baffled. He is granted a chance to explain it, but his explanation broke down at "Pools like a lake". It went something like "Sometimes you have lots of things happening at once, which is when time pools" Then, Greg presented two poems:

Within this moist dry gorge,
In search of lost treasure,
I find the big breastfed creature
of all mankind's dream.

Beautiful badlands
Of all Globulah's blessings
To gaze upon thy titties
Is Holgard's own gift.

Finally, Gilthur presents his riddle:

What has peaks like a mountain,
Lows like a valley,
But does not exist

Now, I did actually hear the PCs discussing this one so I had an inkling, and thus left it to roll. I also came up with my own general answer. Gilthur Goldburrow was thinking of gold stocks. The Gynosphinx said "the value of something" and he conceded it correct.

However, the being was not satisfied with Bale's riddle and decided to test the other two presenters on whether they thought the answer was Blood or Time, their lives versus Bale's being weighed. Gilthur says it's blood. Now there is great tension... Greg Chapel has had some misgivings about Bale Tyrannus. He... Says blood. There is bickering, and the Gynosphinx grants an ultimatum - Bale's life, or all the parties horses, as well as Greg's armour. Gilthur votes horses and armour. There is more bickering... Greg decides to keep his armour and the horses. The Gynosphinx charges Bale. His dog flees, but his henchman is resolute. It doesn't matter. All 29 of his HP gets annihilated as he fails to land any blows. In his final moments, Bale Tyrannus was grovelling before the creature begging for his life. 

The rest of the party fled or hid nearby. Greg did pray to Globulah that, if this half-orc truly was the Champion he was shown through the Guru, then to send some agent for aid. Alas the call was not answered. Ruck stopped attacking the creature, which ignored him and ate Bale. It then took his belt pouch of 99 platinum, and snapped the blood-stone off his Morning Star's pommel, before flying away.

After this, the party regrouped, split the supplies of Bale they desired, began their journey homeward, leaving Winston Churchill's quest to rot with the corpse of Bale Tyrannus. Bale's player made the fitting statement... "Rest in turmoil."

The party spent the next few days, until the 9th, returning to Thropsford. Their map (as well landmarks) guided them well. There were few events:

• An ominous cave opening was found in the swamp ravine that they decided to ignore
  
• Ruck Mudsplash was found dead one morning after his watch, his face in a rictus of horror, with no sign of damage or harm.
• The strange lights appeared to them again

The survivors settled back at the Swan and Paedo, with naught to show for their efforts, though Gilthur ended up with Bale's horse.

Treasure & XP: Overcoming the Gynosphinx - 1280xp split 2.5 ways means 512XP for Greg and Gilthur, 256 XP for Fitzpatrick Bateman

Character Performance Ratings: Evil alignments were well represented this session, but otherwise not enough opportunity for a fair assessment. Default to Excellent (until I come up with a reasonable way to make a 2-3 rating the standard without crippling the PCs more than 1500gp/wk for Excellence entails) Nagora

Downtime Requests: Greg and the Globulites are preparing a Blood Moon Slaughter for the 15/16 of May, with pamphlets being handed out to keep the night available. There is only one more Blood Moon this year, and the next won't be until

Comments: This session a social issue manifested itself at the table. Both Bale and Greg's players had different views of how their characters understood the party dynamic, and this was reflected in Greg's ultimate betrayal of Bale to preserve his armour and the parties horses. This resulted in much discussion after the game, as both players discussed their position, and ultimately we left with an uncomfortable feeling of disappointment. But the campaign moves on.