The Butchering of Baleah

The Butchering of Baleah

This is a record of the campaign-scale event instigated by a PC who, with his cult, slaughtered a small village during a Blood Moon. But let me provide some context.

Context

your campaign could not do this without 1:1 time

Back at the end of Session 10 last July, two new PCs were introduced to the evil party (after those players PCs had just been killed). They were clerics of their made-up god Globulah, who is a God of Bloodletting. The name came from He-Man or something. Anyway, these two are totally hilarious and insist they are a legitimate religion (the c-word (cult) is banned). This becomes the standard PC religion for Evil characters and over time the following begins to grow. Through trial and tribulation, documented in the session reports, we would see one of the original founders die, the cult's confirmed champion betrayed and killed, and also the franchising of the religion as it expanded from Underland to Thropsford.

Now, some time ago, I sent the group chat an omen. It was an astronomical forecast of the Blood Moons. I inform the Globulites that this is a Holy Day for Globulah and that failure to perform adequate ceremony at this time will result in a POOR rating.

And so it came to pass that, close to the date, only Greg Chapel was alive to give ample respect to Globulah. And by the Bloodletting God himself, he did.

The Lead-Up

So recently there has been a huge shift in the campaign landscape. The Iron Kingdom, which was once quite steadfast and maintained safe roads between the various cities bound under the Iron Pact, has been fracturing. This started with Burnett far to the north, who, due to intense bandit raiding along the Thropsford-Burnett road, withdrew from the Iron Pact and declared independence. Then, after the sacking of Warton by goblins, the King sent his army to destroy the foul creatures, which he did, but then relinquished the territory to the wilds, forcing villagers to migrate to the city or be left unprotected.

Then, between Thropsford and Burnett, quite literally the heart of the Kingdom, monstrous and bandit incursions, amplified in effect by the general unrest, began to shatter even that once reliable road. The tl;dr is that most settlements outside of cities have begun to be abandoned in favour of either cities or walled and defended settlements.

With this information, Greg Chapel and Fitzpatrick Bateman (henchman) set out between the 10th and 14th of May to try and find an undefended village no more than 50 in populace that they could lead the 30-strong Thropsford sect of Globulah in Unholy Slaughter.

I come up with table to adjudicate this - each day has 1 in 6 chance of finding a Thorp (population 20-80 as per DMG). Meanwhile regular encounter checks are made. Well, Greg comes across not 1 but 4 settlements, each of randomly determined direction/distance from Thropsford (no more than 30 miles however). He settles on the thorp of Baleah, which lies 25 miles south of Thropsford, has a population of 50, and has two roads entering it which lead to the south-eastern and south-western gates of Thropsford.

Now we come to the main event, which I broke up into 4 main sections, each adjudicated individually with the result modifying the next stage:

Stage 1 - The Journey to Baleah

Greg, Fitzpatrick, and the 30 cultists (armed with dagger and club) set out from the South-Eastern gate in red robes, informing the guards they are going on a humanitarian and religious mission to Baleah. They journey through the day without any encounters and arrive with hours to spare before night-fall. The player informed me... Well, he sent me this:

"We will commence a ritual outside the hamlet of our choosing far enough to not alert them, chanting and praying to the blood moon for a bountiful harvest of blood. Then we shall march on the hamlet adorned in white robes and slaughter the inhabitants. After all are slain we will vote on the "MVP, (the person who assisted the most in the harvest) Moon Howler (the most energetic and fanatical player, and the most prestigious, The Top Glob (the person with the most bloodied robe)"

So when he arrived at the settlement with no encounters, I moved onto stage 2 of adjudication...

Stage 2 - The Ritual

I made up a d100 table with outcomes from crippling failure to unbelievable success, scaled towards success due to the fact that this was a prime time for the ritual and the Globulites are zealous and fanatical. I also ruled that the Globulites would get a divine influence check as per DMG p112 that may be modified by the ritual's outcome. For this calculation I considered this event to be "serving the deity proximately" so they accrued that bonus also.

Dice were rolled, and the ritual was revealed to be a major success - it had all the makings of a successful cult ritual - lots of chanting, praying, high adrenaline, orgy, self mutilation - the whole lot. The Globulites truly felt blessed as the radiant light bathed their white robes in a deep red hue. RPGPundit would be proud. The next stage took place...

Stage 3 - The Slaughter

The important thing to monitor here, I felt, was whether or not any villagers escaped and if the Globulites took any losses. I decided to roll by stages with the following parameters:

• Globulites inflict 2-8% casualties on a 1-3 on d6 (extra 1 on range due to success of ritual, higher casualty due to blood-lust)
  
• Peasants inflict 1-4% casualties on 1-2 on d6
• The Globulites will not make morale checks
• The peasants will make morale checks at the usual increments. Morale failure gives the fleeing villagers a 1 in 6 chance of escaping

Hemogoblins!

Now, the villagers were not totally unprepared, as they had some watchmen. It did not matter. In stages of slaughter the Butchering of Baleah was enacted. But, it was no ordinary act of violence. Remember how I said I allowed a divine influence check? Well... It manifested itself as every time a villager died, a vile and vicious creature that looked and acted exactly like the Chestburster from Aliens blew out of the carcass and began killing even more villagers (I ruled this as a cumulative 1% addition to Globulite inflicted casualties for every casualty they deal). With every dead villager another force of bloodshed was added to the entourage...

Do not give in!

Right when things were looking desperate for the peasants, a stout leader revealed himself and rallied the folk! He was the sort of man who questioned whether a strange lady distributing swords from a lake was any basis for a system of government. With him at the helm, the stout villagers gritted their teeth and fought - fought for their lives, fought for their children's lives, and fought for their homes.

Yeah! We're fucked anyway!

 

But this meant little in the end. Somehow succeeding on both their 50% and 25% forces morale checks didn't matter. Nobody will ever know the tenacity of the villagers as they were mindlessly slaughtered, except for the Butchers of Baleah. Only two Globulites fell. After the massacre, the Chestbursters dissolved into pools of blood. 

 

Moon Howler: Fitzpatrick Bateman

Top Glob: Tsutomu Miyazaki

Round MVP: Ralph Wiggum

 

 

Stage 4 - Aftermath

After standing in a circle and praying to Globulah, thanking him for the bountiful harvest and a few choice words on the slaughter, they (the Globulites) burn their white (now red) robes in a fire and clean themselves up before changing into their uniform red robes. Next, they commenced a forced march back to Thropsford. I consulted the section on this in the DMG which I never really got until now. They had 5 miles of juice left which meant their forced movement would be 20 miles - that's about 67% extra (I rounded up to 70% due to battle fatigue) of their usual daily movement, meaning they would need 3 hours per 10% x 70% forced movement = 210% rest (2 full days plus 10% of the third - as per the exact example given). They miraculously make it back near the south-eastern entrance without event, and, utterly exhausted, camp a bit away from the road, out of sight of the villagers, as they recuperate.

Camping Encounters
Terrain: Plains (Check Morning, Evening, Midnight)
Habitation: Civilised (1 in 20)

16/05/2022
Checks: 7, 9, [1] = Midnight Encounter!
Monster: Groaning Spirit
Surprise: Spirit: 4 Globulites: 4 = No Surprise
Encounter Distance: 19" (190 yards)
Reaction: 25% (Hostile, Immediate Attack)
# Watchmen = 3 (I nominated)
Watchmen Fear Saving Throw (vs Spells): 10, 4, 12 - All afraid and flee into the darkness screaming
Greg Saving Throw: Rolled a 16 (needed to beat a 15) so is resolute! Fitzpatrick succeeded also.

Both Greg and Fitzpatrick grovel on ground, lying down and waiting, with no idea what to do. Most of the Globulites are running wildly with fear into the shadowy landscape, dully illuminated by the waning gibbous moon. 40 yards away the echo of a bloodcurdling and sinister shriek is heard (I rolled 1d10 to see how many yards it was away from Greg and Fitzpatrick). How many Globulites did it affect? We'll say at least 5 in proximity would cause it to wail, plus a modifier of d4 (I rolled a 2). So 7 Globulites have to make some saving throws vs Death (17 needed). Rolls: 5, 13, 19, 15, 14, 10, 15. Four Globulites' hearts stop.

Now, I roll another Reaction to see if the creature moves on, having scattered the camp and killed several people. 44. Uncertain, but 55% prone towards negative. 92. The creature ultimately decides to move on. The Globulites slowly trickle back, but I rule that 1d4 do not return (rolled a 4). The final numbers left alive at the camp are 28-4-4 = 20, plus Greg and Fitzpatrick.

17/05/2022
Another day of rest.
Checks: 5, 8, 12. No Encounters

18/05/2022
Return to Thropsford after a couple of hours sleeping in.
Checks: 14. No Encounters

Time will now tell the ramifications of this event - how long does it take for word of the town's demise to reach the capital? Will the Globulites be held accountable? Where are the missing cultists who ran away during the night of the 16th?

Session 27 - Razorback

Session 27 - Razorback

Foreword: A "successful" session - the players scored big, got off scot-free, and had a fun adventure!

Timekeeping: Session started on the 14/05/2022 and ended on the 24/05/2022. Downtime requests available from 25/05/2022

Characters: 

Caelestis Daemon - 7ft lump of muscle with traps to his ears - 18 years old - Human F1 - CG - 11HP

Daubeny Jamwine - Some Hobbit with a crazy dex bonus - 45 years old - Hobbit T1 - NG - 6HP

Malcolm Mount-Batten - A refined ranger with one of those wide-brimmed British archer helmets - 22 years old - Human Ranger 1 - NG - 11HP

Finesstro the Nimble - Sportacus with bath robes and nothing underneath - 28 years old - Human Magic User 1 - NG - 4HP

Downtime Adjudication: 

Due to this being a new roster there was no downtime to adjudicate except for Finesstro the Nimble (who had downtime from 14/04/2022). Having heard of his friends dying in the sewers beneath Underland while he was sinking ale after ale in the tavern above, he decided to see if the city guard would go down with him and check out the explosion that was heard. They came across a strange study-room with alchemical equipment (mostly destroyed now), as well as the charred carcasses of what must be his friends, for the distinct jawline of Sixtus Sunwalker was evident on the skeleton. The bodies had been picked clean and very obviously after their demise - for sooty trails and disturbances were everywhere. While he was there with the guards, a phantasm appeared! The guards fled, but Finesstro remained and witnessed the traumatic recollection of Milton North being ripped to shreds by a ghastly troll. As an act of Good he gathered his friends remains and set to Sunland where a proper burial was held. The Lord of the town (a Patron player whose PC was one of those who died) declared that the 13th of April would be Saviour's Day (the day of the heroes death), and that monuments to the fallen heroes who have aided Sunland would be erected. 

Aside from this, Finesstro also uncovered some knowledge in the Underland library pertaining to two alleged ruins - the journal of a time-lost explorer documenting a supposed wizard's tomb 70 miles north of Thropsford, and an old ledger specifying a strange ruined village uncovered during patrols far to the south-west of Underland.

Session Report:

Bill

14/05/2022
The session opens up in the Giant's Shin in Underland. There is no period of awkward introductions as the 3 new PCs are wrangled together by Finesstro the Nimble and soon find a common bond in their conveniently shared birthdays. The 'sacrifice' of seriousness for the unbelievable is totally run-over by its efficacy in driving the game forward. Anyway, for some reason all the players joined hands and I had no idea why. Caelestis got Finesstro intro a friendly headlock when Bill came up to the table.

In the city discord channel Bill posted a notice a week ago about some troubles with a giant boar in the outback. 

"BREAKING NEWS
A notice has been posted at the Giant's Shin by an estranged farmer and hunter who is requesting aid in hunting down an elusive and vicious giant boar ravaging the countryside to the west. He claims it's tusks are over a foot long, while the creature itself is the size of a carriage. Bill is offering considerable payment and undisputed access to the spoils of the beast's lair if someone can provide it's head! The man is staying at the Giant's Shin for a week. Otherwise, find him at his campsite on Broken Hill, by following the road North-West of Underland towards Brill, and heading due south from Traveller's Lake for another 30 miles."

Yes. This is totally a Razorback reference. After Elf Finder General's Thread on Razorback I watched the movie (something I should have done a while ago, being Australian myself). I couldn't resist sticking it in the game... And it stuck. The players pounced on this and soon enough, after some supplying and equipment checking by Finesstro, the crew were on their merry way to the scrubby north-west of the continent. The temperate moist plains of Underland conveniently gave way to bush-land and after a day of riding they rested. On this first night Bill confessed to Finesstro some anxiety about the parties efficacy when it was revealed that the three new PCs all shared parental complexes related to abandonment or violence. Finesstro was dexterous with his words and calmed the old farmer... Thus they rested. The following day the party arrived at Traveller's Lake, and ran into their first encounter...

Hi there

16/05/2022
It was near night-fall when the party sighted a bonfire and large group of people prostrating before an idol by Traveller's Lake. Bill swears and informs the party about the local Fish Cult who he hoped to avoid. Apparently they charge a toll for camping and accessing the water, and as long as you follow their instructions there won't be any trouble. The party gets closer. Someone makes a joke about Old Gregg and I inform them that the idol does look like Old Gregg. Anyway, this weirdo in fishy looking robes with gaunt face comes up. He comments on the Hobbit having favourable blood but nothing comes of this - Finesstro fronts the 10gp camping fee for each member, and informs everyone they will pay him back when they get some treasure. Bill warns everyone to go to sleep straight away and not open their eyes that night. Everybody is tense while very obvious Cthulhu chanting is going off down by the lake and the water is lapping. While everybody is asleep in their cloaks and bedrolls (or pretending to be) they hear squelching steps and a gurgling heaving like a fish out of water by their campsite. Finesstro feels slimy scales rub against his face but... The night passes peacefully. Everybody is up before the cultists. There is some talk about wanting to do something about these evil people - at least robbing them while their asleep seems noble. Cooler heads and impatient Bill's prevail, and the party follows a dusty trail due south into some red-dirt hills for the rest of the day. They go to Bill's shack about 5 miles North-West of Broken Hill, and camp there for the night...

Basically this

17/05/2022
The characters are up early and leave Bill (who has a peg-leg from the boar) for a watering hole with a wind-mill to the south-east about 5 miles. They get given a map. Now this is a very interesting situation as the party has a ranger - who can follow tracks! As they arrive at the hole they notice two things - a group of boars drinking around it and, roving over the red hills, a pack of 7 huge wolf spiders charge into the boars and start attacking. The swine flee but 3 get pulled down. The party waits it out and once the coast is clear heads down to the watering hole - where they pull out a waterlogged and mostly consumed corpse of a human buried in the mud. Huge prints are around the site which Malcolm the Ranger picks up and finds a trail! The hunt is on! The party follows him east and by late evening they make it to a strange cave-like formation - two hills intersecting with thorny brambles forming a roof. A pungent and acrid odour permeated the air. There is no activity. Daubeny the Hobbit elects to scout ahead into the darkness while I dutifully roll his Move Silently check. His predator vision doesn't pick up anything but a huge amount of tiny signatures which are presumably maggots given the stench. His foot kicks something and he hears coins tip out. All breaths are held as the echo subsides. Nothing. He calls out. Nothing. Quickly he scoops up a handful of coins and returns. Turns out he found some electrum, and pocketed 20 of them for himself.

The tone changes now as night comes and the party tries to decide on a course of action. They unanimously agree they will fill the place with oil, lead a trail of oil away, and when (if) it returns they will blast it while it sleeps. Firstly they scope the lair out - a lantern is lit and... Score! There are just bags and bags of electrum coins scattered about. Dead, maggot-filled carcasses adorn the place. No signs of plate armour on the corpses, only some banded and chain. Though they do find a couple of gems. Four oil flasks are poured around what appeared to be a nest, and the party, after spreading the oil, drags the fetid bodies over it to mask the scent. They depart from the cave and lie in wait some distance away...

They hear a deep pig-like squeal over the hills. Then, a huge hulking shape can be felt nearby. It is making a ruckus as it shuffles through the dry, red dirt. The players are all on the edge of their seats waiting to see what it does. It rears up a bit as it gets closer to the den... Then, after a pause, it enters. About 30 minutes later Daubeny sneaks up and lights the oil - in moments the brambles are on fire, and pained squealing can be heard as this wagon-sized razorback charges out, with its bristly hide aflame like a burning cape. Triple rate of fire for surprise results in a huge amount of missiles shot at the great beast, which is an easy target due to the flame. Now I call for actions declaration and initiative is rolled - but the beast fails morale and tries to flee, confused and panicked. That same round the flames engulf it and it drops to the ground dead. Every cheers as roast pork is on the menu and nobody got hurt! Still remaining cautious, they camp a little distance away from the burning cave... Resting without interruption. 

18/05/2022
Finesstro dumps his spare rations and all the saddle-bags are loaded with electrum, amounting to 1200EP total. Next, Daubeny's two large sacks are tied to the warhorses (owned by previous PCs - decent inheritance!) with 400 EP each, amounting to 2000EP total to be hauled away. As per Bill's request, the Razorback's bristly head is severed and brought back. Finesstro skins the beast too intending to utilise its rough hide. They make it back to Bill's camp safely by evening, and the haunted man is at a loss for words as his vendetta is ended with a charred head thudding on his doorstep. He promised the party a family artifact if they did this task, and so, he hands them the dingy old heavy crossbow he carried around... But not before showing them that it auto-cocks itself. All eyes were wide open as this item was received. The players immediately discussed (away from Bill) how they were going to sell it. *facepalm* Malcolm also donated 400 of his EP to Broken Hill (via Bill).

Over the next few days they journeyed back, which was uneventful except for an encounter with 2 red-desert berserkers who charged them (but got mowed down by missile weapons + the new crossbow, which Caelestis used though non-proficient). Looted 24 silver pieces off them. They also came across a trail of giant arts marching into the north, but had surprise and avoided them. (note: need to find out if PCs should actually get the 'sold' XP if they end up using the magic item on their adventure back to civilisation. This session I gave it to them but probably not kosher - you either keep it and that person gets the keep-reward, or you sell it and divide the GP for group XP. Use of the item then selling means you keep it for a short period and selling won't give group XP)

yeah, yeah... So you robbed them? I'll call off that hit then

 23/05/2022-24/05/2022
The party makes it back to Underland and we round off the session with some haggling. Two of the PCs (Daubeny and Caelestus) take their gems to Alfie Solomons who is conveniently the last jeweler in Underland. He regrets to inform them that their have been some changes to his business and will be charging 100gp per gem-stone evaluated for price (Jewelers don't evaluate for free! Read the DMG!). They refuse and leave on bad terms, insulting Mr Solomons. The other two PCs (Finesstro and Malcolm) go to Barbanikos to sell the magic crossbow. Barbanikos says he needs to check it out and after a while ends up calling Finesstro saying he'll buy it for 5000GP. The players jaws' all drop and the deal is immediately accepted. Finesstro requests his share be kept by Barbanikos in exchange for magical knowledge (the result of which is yet to be revealed). Afterwards, Finesstro and Malcolm take the gems from the other two PCs and go to Alfie to get them evaluated. They notice Alfie is a bit down and inquire - when it's revealed he had some bad customers, Finesstro says he had some gems that he stole from some chumps. Alfie notices that they are the same ones the rude customers brought in, and kindly gives the PCs who "robbed" them a discount of 50gp per evaluation. I note this event as two Good players intentionally lied for personal gain. Turns out the gems are rubbish anyway and Alfie buys both of them for 54gp. It is agreed that Malcolm gets this XP since he fronted the cost. There was some talk of going to Thropsford but the PCs seem to be a lot more cautious now since rumours in the campaign discord have revealed that settlements between cities have been dwindling due to raids from bandits and monsters. The Iron Kingdom is rusting.

Treasure Recovered
2000 EP (1000GP value)
5000 GP
20 EP (10gp value, Daubeny only)
54 GP (Malcolm only)

Monsters Slain
Razorback = 465XP
Wild men x2 = 22XP (total gain reduced to 9XP by relative strengths, as per DMG p84)

Experience Gained
Caelestis = 1618

Daubeny = 1628

Finesstro = 1618

Malcolm = 1672

Character Performance Ratings:

Caelestis = E = Apt adventuring spirit, brave, generally behaved in accordance with Good.

Daubeny = E = Employed thief abilities appropriately, took advantage of opportunities to make some extra money

Finesstro = E = Thought strategically and avoided the front lines. Was eager to give up his treasure share to Barbanikos the Wizard for magical knowledge. Note, did lie to the jeweler Alfie Solomons for personal gain.

Malcolm = E = Appropriate use of ranger abilities in tracking the Razorback. Considered the well-being of the outback residents of Broken Hill when donating his excess share. Note, did lie to the jeweler Alfie Solomons for personal gain.

Downtime Requests: None given at end of session. Downtime will be from 25/05/2022.

Comments: It was nice to see the players come back strong after the past two sessions had ended in either a TPK or loss of resources with minimal gain. After 1 session we've got a Thief ready to level up and the other 3 PCs pretty close.

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.

Session 25 - Of Trolls and Men: The Crustacean Manifesto

Session 25 - Of Trolls and Men: The Crustacean Manifesto

Foreword: Heavy emotions this session - we were down a player and for some reason I had a bit of an odd feeling.

Timekeeping: Session started 10/04/2022, ended on 13/04/2022

Characters: Sixtus Sunwalker (H P3), Milton North (H F3), Maethedir (E F2/MU2)

Downtime Adjudication: Milton recuperated after going unconscious for a week. The party relaxed in Stoutholm for their downtime of 10 days.

Session Report:

10/04/2022

The game opens up with monthly upkeep. Nobody had enough money for themselves let alone their henchmen. All of their henchmen finally have enough of the lackluster treasure gains and the failed upkeep was the last straw - they all leave them. Since they couldn't pay all their upkeep I request all their character sheets and roll to see if any items had broken due to failure to be maintained. Sixtus' Footman's Mace, Maethedir's Potion of Animal Control, and Sack, as well as Milton's Quiver, Large Crossbow, and Bastard Sword were all broken. The players begrudgingly accept upkeep costs, but I think it would help them a lot to read Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser to appreciate what they are trying to simulate. It is obvious however that they 1) take wealth from PCs which 2) encourages adventuring.

Finesstro the Nimble's PC was away this session too, so he would not be partaking in any adventuring. Now, I had spent some time preparing more of the dungeon I was certain the players would delve - they finished last session having just scoped it out, they were two days from a city but in a "safe" place right next to the dungeon they could restock up at, but no... As per the rule of Total Player Autonomy they decide they want to go back to a city and do 'Bounty Hunter Work' to make some coin before they go on wilderness expeditions. I'm confused but put all my prep away and crack open the DMG. Finesstro went with them, thus they had his map and made it back to the city unscathed, arriving on the 11/04/2022...

11/04/2022

The party got to Underland relatively late, so they went to the Giant's Shin and rested for the night. There was some banter and conversation as the tavern was surprisingly bustling with what appeared to an insurgence of adventurer-types. They heard that the Duke was having trouble on two fronts - armed red men were harrying villages to the south-west, while Lizard Men were taking sacrifices from farmsteads to the north-west. The party didn't care, and rested.

12/04/2022

Everyone hikes to the Guard House. This is the first time anyone actually mapped the city. It takes ages to travel using dungeon movement rates while mapping as specified in the PHB. They eventually make it - the guard presents them a 'lucrative' job - there is a cult on the Street of the Gods that is breaking the protocol and disrupting status quo by preaching and harassing people outside of the street devoted to it. This is a no go. So far they haven't been violent just annoying. 10gp per cultist 100gp for the leader, dead or alive. 

So the party hatches some scheme involving the party disguising themselves and tipping off cults for information about this particular one (known as the Cult of Farglegand - their followers wear rainbow harnesses and are generally Chaotic). The Paladin was to go in the lead, Detecting Evil on each stall to make sure they didn't donate to any evil religions. Anyway, the plan doesn't go anything like this - Firstly, they run into a press gang on the way, who are quick to leave them alone upon finding out a Paladin is in the party. Secondly, the Paladin found his deities stall (at the upper rung - they are a dominant religion in Thropsford but only a high-end cult in Underland) and the priest there tells him the cult in question are at the lower end. Maethedir tried talking to a priest from the Cult of Yama's Water Buffalo who couldn't look past the fact that Maethedir was a godless elf. They return to the Giant's Shin with this information and plan on working tomorrow. Sixtus calmly dismantles a young liar's fanciful tales of dragon-slaying, while simultaneously complimenting and motivating a rat-catcher of 27 years that he can always grow. The party also heard that Sunland had finished it's palisade (which Sixtus paid half of) and wanted to mine stone to the south, but were having troubles with monsters there. The party puts this info on the back-burner, and rest.

 13/04/2022

The party hits leg to the Street of the Gods, and they run into an old henchman of Milton's, who is peddling his proto-god Issek of the Jug. This henchman, Orfel, had left after Milton last died. He was sorry, and gave them some useful info about the Farglegandians. Their leader is called the Big Fargooble and he has 10 followers. As per the hierarchy of the Street, this is enough info for them to find the stall. 

The party apprehends the leader when he is alone, listening to his ramblings about Chaos awakening recently, something to do with 'amorphous fluidity and rigid conformity clashing'. Milton related this complicated concept to feces and urine. After this conversation, a quick and decisive employment of the Grappling Rules saw the wild cult-leader in ropes. Sixtus waited at the stall for followers to return - he ends up capturing one and killing another who tried to overbear him. All told, they net 120gp for a job well done. Why a level 3 party is happy with this after previous hauls is beyond me, but anyway. They also heard there was some trouble in the sewers - they infer this to mean a blocked passage. Taking the entrance north of the Giant's Shin they enter the very same room their evil PCs entered almost a year ago...

They are in a 30x30 room with a door to the north-west, a passage where laughter can be heard to the east, and roaring water to the south. They go east. They try to investigate the laughter which is just above a small bridge over some flowing sewerage. It stops, but starts back up. This goes nowhere, so they continue - eventually coming to a crossroads. Sixtus falls in a hidden, spiked pit and takes 8 damage! After this shenanigan, they continue, and follow some long sewer tunnel for ages, hoping to find some Mongrel Men (now known as Pit Men™) who are accepted citizens of the city after some Patron dealings last year. They speculate the sewer troubles are related to troubles they might be having (which may be related to Lizard Men troubles that the evil PCs in all likelihood instigated a long time ago). Anyway, they have no luck, but do come across a collapsed tunnel wall leading into some ancient speleothem-filled cave. There is a stone staircase leading up to a platform, about 10' high. They ascend - it has a huge (10' diameter) statue head of reddish-brown colour, with a dominant hooked nose and vacant eyes, about 3/4 buried in the earth. Maethedir checks it closer and finds a hidden lever at the nape of the neck. The party rigs up some rope contraption and pulls it - a huge earthshaking event occurs for about 5 minutes straight. Then nothing.

The party continues into this cave system, through a rotten wooden door. They come to a very obvious pit into darkness with wooden planks across it. Sixtus walks it fine. Then he ties a rope around himself and throws it to Milton. Milton steps on it and breaks the wood, but is saved by the Paladin's smart idea. He made his save to hold onto the lantern. Finally, they throw the rope to Maethedir (looping it twice so it is twice as thick/strong). The intent is for him to jump and them to pull him. The rope doesn't break and they make it across. Shortly after, they find a huge metal door bolted from their side. It has a rotten sign with a skull painted on it. They are in something of a rough-hewn mining tunnel with scaffolding along the way. They continue, coming to a crossroads, and keep going the way they are - busting open a locked door to some sort of mining equipment room. Everything is super old - and there is a desk with a huge ledger on it as well as an array of huge red-brown pincers on the table, about twice the size of a human hand.

A perusal of the ledger shows mining operations documented as far back as year 876! That's 161 years ago in the campaign. However, there is a disturbing journal entry sitting within detailing a warning to all - do not pull the lever on the head of the statue, lest you unleash the humanoid crustacean men who are wont to violence in the presence of silver and women. The players all go "Oh shit". They grab the ledger which, after some random jokes about Jordan Peterson and lobsters, leads them to call it 'The Crustacean Manifesto'. Next, they gather some timbers to board that pit back up, and then explore a few other tunnels. There are some more natural caves with the bodies of deceased small humanoids and ruined mining equipment, but otherwise all pathways are caved-in. So they leave. Before they do this, they knock on the huge metal door... A strange clicking sound like the Predator can be heard. They knock again and a huge dent is left in after something big rammed into it. It's time to go. They kick away the boards and Maethedir throws a bead from his necklace of missiles, burning up two supports and half-collapsing the tunnel in front of the door. 

There is debate about what to do next. Go back to the surface and warn the city, perhaps netting some coin for the claws and manifesto? There are some concerns about the... Integrity... Of the Duke, however, so they stay for some more exploration. This section is pretty sparse, except for one room which has a ring of various cock-roach boxing rings, with little cockroach gloves, portraits of victorious roaches, and so on. They end up back where they entered - there is a door to the north-west which opens up. Straight ahead is another door which is locked but I just upped the open-doors requirement to a d12 since it's pretty old anyway. They bust it down in a timely fashion - no random encounters so far surprisingly. This changes soon...

The room is some sort of alchemy lab. The walls have chains and shackles with skeletons, a table with two potions on it, and a trunk of vials of some milky fluid. The characters take some of this, and go and try and bust another door in here open. They are determined to smash it open, and spend a good 10 minutes attempting to open it. I'm just rolling wandering monster checks left and right. Finally it gives. They hear a squelching slurping behind them, from the way they came in, but it is beyond the lantern light. They take up formation at the doorway, backs into the unexplored corridor, when these slime-ridden kobold/goblin things come charging out. It's a meat-grinder. Sixtus Sunwalker has an AC1 blocking the doorway and only 2 of these things can fit at once, so he's not getting hit at all, while Maethedir is just nuking themwith his Guisarme from second rank. This continues... However... There was more than 1 random encounter. 

In the darkness they hear slashing and gurgling as the slime creatures stop fighting and try to flee but are hemmed in from the rear. The party thinks they are turning on each other, until the tide is thinned enough that the lantern light casts its shadowy glare on a true monstrosity. It's the troll from 3 Hearts and 3 Lions which I had just loaned the Paladin's player at the start of this session so he could better understand what the class is about. Nobody seems overly concerned, and they feel quite confident. They move back into the corridor while the thing is cleaning up the slime creatures, and Maethedir throws a bead at it - it blows up and there are some burnt spots on the creatures body. It and Sixtus charge each other, meeting in the middle... It rips into Sixtus and drops him before he could drink his Potion of Heroism or anything. Maethedir slashes the thing before swapping places with Milton. We have some disengage-retreat and repositioning house-rules that answer the undefined terms in the DMG morale rules. I allow PCs to reposition within 1" if coordinated, and avoid a free attack. So Maethedir and Milton swap - if PCs win initiative, Milton gets a blow on the Troll, if the Troll wins then it gets a blow. Milton wins and scores a whopping 13 damage (I allowed a +1 to hit and +1 to damage due to the horrifying event of Sixtus dying) cutting off the things arm, which already seems to be twitching and trying to rejoin with the main body.

how they wish it went

Melee continues... The troll is regenerating - it doesn't seem to quite as much as it's receiving but it just isn't enough when Milton is cut down. Rather than have their bodies eaten by the thing, Maethedir decides he will throw the whole necklace at it (he's within the blast). He rolls to-hit, and in this case I give him a chance by using the missed trajectory rules for oil flasks etc. It doesn't go his way, and ends up being short. Him and the troll, and everything in that corridor, are totally incinerated. And so ends the tale of the trio - the first TPK of the campaign, on level 3 characters that had been there since the first session over a year ago. That night, the citizens of Underland reflected on the strange earthshaking and explosions beneath them, wondering what other grim event they herald...

Treasure & XP: Not Applicable

Character Performance Ratings: Not Applicable

Downtime Requests: Not Applicable

Comments: This was an emotional game and I felt truly upset at the outcome - these were the first, and most prominent and influential characters, in the campaign. Unlike the evil PCs, who everyone accepted could die at any moment, likely deserving it, these guys were the heroes who should triumph! They had altered the fate of the realm, saved the dwarves from invasion, liberated the backwater hamlet of Steemham (reformed to become the thriving town of Sunland) and more... But no more. Though tragic, I quickly moved on as it is the nature of the game. The take-away observation here is that, the fact that it was jarring and upsetting, meant that it was significant. If I had altered things to save the party, it would have diminished the value of their achievements, to the point of it being nothing more than my own fan-fiction. The players tried their best, but today it wasn't enough. Their characters ashes pave the sewers beneath Underland, an eternal reminder of the mortality of us all.

Also, I must roll to see what items were incinerated.. Perhaps some choice things may be recovered.

Session 24 - The Seed of Chaos

Session 24 - The Seed of Chaos

Foreword: "0 is 1 and 3, and -1, but not 42! Blarg-du-larb-barb" - Thaddius the Prophet

Timekeeping: Session started on the 25/03/2022 and ended on the 1/04/2022. Downtime from 2/04/2022

Characters: Bale Tyrannus (1/2 O F2), Greg Chapel (H C2), Finin O'Conoghain (1/2 E C2/MU1), Fitzpatrick Bateman (H C1), Ruck Mudsplash (1/2 O F1)

I can't believe the Guru prefers Greg Chapels sacrifice to mine

Downtime: 5/03/2022 - 24/03/22
Finin O'Conoghain spent his money to level up his cleric class to level 2 - he said he was paying the Assassin's Guild to kidnap people for him to sacrifice.

Greg paid off his 750GP debt to the Guru of Globulah and got a new henchman he trained himself for 4 months - level 1 Cleric Fitzpatrick Bateman.

Session Report:  

25/03/2022

The game opens up with Bale Tyrannus seeking out Winston Churchill for some work. I inform the characters who are in Thropsford that a few nights ago, on the 23rd of March, everyone in the city heard and saw 3 quick lightning strikes in succession north of the city. Churchill wants Bale to check it out, and bring back any living specimens from it. He definitely seems to know more about it than he's letting on. Bale tries to negotiate for his 3000GP training cost to be paid for, in advance of the job. The Bulldog doesn't bite, and the final ultimatum is that Bale will have his training covered if he does the job first.

The party gears up and heads due North - they ride for about 2.5 hours (15 miles through the sparsely populated plains beyond Thropsford) before arriving at a very abrupt and harsh border - for blighted marshland lay before them. There are scattered farms around, most look derelict and ill-maintained in this portion of the Kingdom. 

A side note - I am trying to be more clear/transparent about the game structure for different factors of the game, such as Dungeon Exploration, Wilderness Travel, etc. since the book gives very clear procedures for these. I have always used these methods, but how much the players understand has been limited - now I am being clearer. For example: You (supposedly) travel North for 5 miles, which took you all day. You can see marsh in every direction, yada-yada. This is all around a positive IMO - not least because PCs can now make meaningful maps that I can hold them to. If it's mapped wrong because they got lost that's their problem, rather than having no map because I don't provide enough info to begin with.

Anyway, the party heads into the swamp - they spend the rest of the day batting away huge marsh flies, mosquitoes, and hand-sized leeches which swell up like balloons before your eyes. Every step is into fetid quagmire, the air buzzing with irritating creatures, and no sign of wholesome life. The horses struggle immensely - and after hours of trying to make headway the sun begins to set and the PCs set up a dismal camp and spend a restless night. Before it was dark, they could still see the plains they came from to the south. Not much progress was made... Though the night passed without event.

26/03/2022 DM Note - employ Chainmail weather table in future

The party spends the morning having Fitzpatrick Bateman prepare and cast Purify Food and Water on a festering swamp pool. Everyone has a drink, fills up their water-skins, and heads out for another day of horrible marsh-tromping. I dutifully check to see if they get lost. They totally do, and realise it when they emerge back in the Thropsfordian Plains, but in a different locale to where they entered the marsh. They spy a lone farmstead and decide that they need to enact violence to help cope with the overbearing swamp. The party rolls up and stables their horses and knocks - a very senile old man answers. I couldn't repeat the conversations had with this man, only that they were utterly deranged and nonsensical - Finin casts Charm Person and finds out his name is Thaddius and apparently he had a Powerful Moment™ when the lightning struck. He rambles about festering cankers of Chaos that are growing and changing, inexorable links to said Chaos so that he may discern the precise site, some planar cosmology, and also tells the players his most valuable items are the deed to his farm and his great-great-great grandfather's pipe. The players persuade him to guide them to this place through the swamp. They make him sleep in the stable, while they rest inside. DM Note: I think I do not rule Charm Person critically enough, as it has a history of being a bit of a cheese ability at our table. At the very least, when a spell is invoked I ought to pull out initiative dice and have declared actions on the chance that the individual will get suss and retaliate. Admittedly the people they use it on have a tendency to already be senile.

27/03/2022

Coming out of winter, I had Thaddius roll a system shock to see if he died during the night in the stable. He passed and the party heads out into the swamp once more. They notice some queer signs about the old man though - his hands randomly changing to bird talons, strange colours or lights bursting about him, weird words or phrases coming out etc. No method to it. Anyway, by evening, they actually happen upon a den of 9 Lizard Men! Their is a sickly countenance to them but nonetheless menacing in appearance - the players have surprise and Ruck Mudsplash looses 12 arrows in his 2 segments, killing 1 and injuring another. Greg began casting Bless while the rest of the party held fast. Having 2 segments to cast, his spell will go off on segment 8 of the first round. This matters as he is at the front-line. If the lizards close the distance before he casts it they may interrupt the spell!

The party declares actions and we roll initiative. Ruck is loosing more arrows, and I calculate how far the Lizard Men would have traveled by the time his shot went off. It is fruitless anyway, and 4 Lizard Men collide with the front rank of Greg, Finin, Bale, and his dog Douglas. I rule the PCs get first blow due to having actual weapons while the monsters are naturally-equipped. BTB monsters with natural weapons act simultaneously with their opponent (or on the segment indicated by the Defender's initiative die) but due to having a 3 attack routine these Lizard Men will always go first/last, with their 2nd attack depending on the initiative roll. This is wrong. Natural weapons only happen simultaneously on simultaneous initiative and Lizard Men have 1 attack routine. I mistakenly treated the individual attacks as individual 'routines'. I think in this session I actually played it this way, but thought I messed up when writing up the report...

Somehow Greg gets his spell off, and a mass melee ensues. The second rank are loosing arrows or throwing hammers, while the front rank is beating away at Lizard Men. Finin wipes the head off one with his 2 handed Flail, but the Lizards have also flanked them. They are doing some decent damage, and in a stroke of tragedy, Finin O'Conoghain falls to a 9 damage claw/claw/bite routine. Nobody else dies and eventually the sickly monsters try to Disengage-Retreat and are cleaned up by the party. Greg Chapel dropped to 0HP and went unconscious during the combat, but was stabilised by Ruck afterwards.

It was a heavy moment when Finin fell - he was an original founder of the Cult of Globulah, the default evil PC religion conceived many sessions ago. Oh well! Everyone in the party brutalises his body and eats it. Bale takes his spell-book and loose change. Then they go check out the Lizard Men huts. Inside are some dead bodies with evidence of armaments and 4 sacks with a total of 2000GP. They also find 2 gems and 2000SP, which gets ditched. DM Note: Be more vigilant with encumbrance. Not just weight but carrying capacity of vessels. Next session will need to do a full PC inventory check and recalculation to make sure everything is correct. Now, there was something else that was bizarre - Thaddius was acting stranger than usual. The Lizard hut melted away, then reappeared. He was talking to Greg about missing Finin, and asked some totally nonsensical riddle along the lines of 

"When the jacinth cracks, and 0 becomes 3, what does it mean to me?" 

Bale intuitively guesses the correct answer to be 0, and so Thaddius asks Greg to disrobe and places his hand on his stomach - impregnating him with some entity. Greg comes to term in moments, as his stomach bulges and expands - strange shaped extremities poke through his belly. In one sudden release, it departs his body through his mouth. A black and red shadow, which grows angel wings, then bat wings, before dropping to the floor and running on legs, with colours bursting from it. Greg is sad to see his son go. After this experience, everyone rests in the huts and decides to return to civilisation the next morning.

28/03/2022

They safely make it back to the derelict farmstead and Thaddius is adamant about not going to Thropsford. The party rides back to Thropsford. Greg & Bale go to the Swan & Paedo - Greg goes to sleep for a week from the 29/03/2022, and won't be available for play/downtime until the 5/04/2022. There is some negotiation about how to divide up Finin's gold he had stored in the inn-room. It ends up being agreed as an even split.

29/03/2022

Bale gets the gems valued - he nets 800GP for a slightly flawed Fire Opal, and keeps a 50GP gemstone. Next, he waits in the tavern for days when, on the 1/04/2022, one of Churchill's goons turns up and escorts Bale through a very disorienting and unclear route through the city to a warehouse in an industrial area. Winston is there - wants to know why Bale hasn't done the job yet. Doesn't care about his dead companion. Eventually a new deal is struck - Bale gets 500GP now and 500GP if he returns with Thaddius. Both parties are aware of the consequences if the deal is not held up.

Bale flies through the Thropsford plains to the house of Thaddius. It is in shambles - strange lights dance off the walls, invisible creatures swing from the rafters, light reflects in ways it shouldn't, queer sounds permeate. Thaddius is NOT going to Thropsford despite Bale's insistence that he saw a vision of him going there. Eventually even Bale is disturbed by the senile man and his survival instinct tells him to leave. Suddenly he is outside 30 yards. He looks to the farmhouse and it grows legs, before running into the marsh. Bale is shocked, disturbed, and dismayed. The ride back to Thropsford is uneventful, and he goes to Greg to negotiate the treasure divisions from the session, before we discuss downtime activities.

Treasure & XP: 2000GP, 800GP gem, 50GP gem exclusively to Bale, 500gp exclusively to Bale, and monster XP came out to:

Bale: 1574XP*

Greg: 1074XP*

Ruck: 537XP

Fitzpatrick Bateman: 537XP

*Had no effect as they were frozen at their previous XP total

DM Note: Need to keep track of when PCs have their XP frozen so a true total XP is retained until they train. Greg's value is in my documents since he has some XP for a special item he got

Player Performance Ratings: All Excellent

DM Note: Toying with idea of reducing training cost/modifying rating system so players can be given 'Standard' or 'Superior' ratings normally, with Excellent being for truly Exceptional play. As it is, I can't bring myself to give out anything other than Excellent's normally thus nullifying the utility of the Rating System and the power of Excellent PCs being able to self-train.

Downtime Requests: Bale is training from 2/04/2022 until 9/04/2022 and spent his 3000gp on hiring out stable areas, heavy warhorses, heavy lances, and experienced lancers to train against. His new weapon proficiency for level 3 will be Heavy Lance and he rolled 9 HP. Bale is also getting one of the gems he found, which is dark smoky black with red flecks, embedded in a ring, as it matches his dark black red-hued cloaks which him and his followers wear. Bale's Tyrants is back in business!

Greg will be going to Underland to try and negotiate a new training contract with the Guru, for he is exceptionally poor but also at frozen XP. Hilarious!

Comments: Lots of theatrics this session, with American Pyscho references rephrased to fit the campaign. Also, this session I began to feel more comfortable with some still-not-understood facets of AD&D combat, such as how to figure out when missile attacks happen relative to a charging opponent, and when/how a spell-caster might succeed in casting during melee. It's still not totally there, but definitely a step in the right direction. I am using the Item Saving Throw tables more diligently, and have been vigilant in PC food/water availability, but could improve on tracking Encumbrance, which was something we did very well at the start of the campaign but I feel is slipping to the wayside.

Session 23 - Mogwai's and Potato Hobbits

Session Number 23 - Mogwai's and Potato Hobbits

Forward: "It is what it is" - drunk tradie at a caravan park

Timekeeping: Session started on the 19/03/2022 and ended on 30/03/2022. PCs have downtime from 31/03/2022. They are all at Stoutholm in the hills south of Underland.

Characters: Sixtus Sunwalker (P3), Milton North (F3), Maethedir (F2/MU2), Finesstro the Nimble (MU1), Kovani (M1), Betanochin Wormington (Henchmen F1), Articulatus Superfluous (Henchmen MU1), Jake Mace (Henchmen M1)

Downtime Adjudication: A day or so ago I sent a blood moon calendar in the group chat and informed all the Globulites (PC Clerics who worship Globulah) that they would be getting Poor ratings if they didn't perform human sacrifices on these dates. They only have to make 2 this year. One player informed me he set an alarm on his phone. So we still had some PCs who hadn't had their hiatus downtime adjudicated. One character, Greg Chapel (Human Cleric 2) said he couldn't believe there was no Fitzpatrick Bateman cult member of the Globulites. I informed him there now was, and if he spent all his hiatus downtime uninterrupted (about 4 months) then he would be a level 1 Cleric of Globulah. Win-win all around.

Milton North was working off his debt for training costs to the Duke of Ardenward, earning 300gp a month as lieutenant. He got 4 months of work, so covered 1200/1500 of his debt.

Kovani the monk was rumour-mongering:

• Apparently there is a strange archaeological dig-site in some badlands in the south, between Underland and Thropsford, where the workers are resigning due to nightmares
• Villagers in the south/south-west of Underland are being harried by tall red monsters in oriental armour
• There is a mystical desert to the west of Brill which is home to insect men
• A dragon lives on Thunder Peak
  

I also trialed something different - palming off the DMG p35 Henchmen hiring to the PCs. Let me tell you, if you aren't using the DMG p36-37 alignment and racial modifiers for reactions, you're missing out. Bale Tyrannus, Chaotic Evil Half-Orc, realised that out of all 75 prospective henchmen he reached, due to his race and alignment (and minimal upfront offer) about 55 of his 75 prospects departed immediately after a short conversation with him. Nagora has written that the 1e rules imply a "sixth sense" for alignment, and using the aforementioned modifiers concretes that notion.

The awesomely procedural nature of almost everything in the DMG, from henchmen hiring to wilderness exploration, means you can give players freedom to do things themselves. This makes the game world a collaboration, takes the load off the DMs shoulders, and increases everyone's investment and care! We see it being done with great success in the Trollopulous campaign as Macho Mandalf carves out his own domain. A lot more can be said here, but I digress...

Session Report:  

19/03/2022
The Good PCs were in play. Everyone discussed their copious amounts of rumours and information from the downtime, and basically unanimously agreed to go for the low-hanging fruit of an alleged wizard's tower in the hills south of Underland. We will see that this was not as easy as they may have thought. They head to Castle Ardenward, which takes about 2 days, camping on the road during the night. They had one encounter during the day with a merchant wagon, who inform them to be careful as the road is dangerous these days.

20/03/2022
There were no encounters on the rest of their trip to the Castle, and while they are there they learn from the Baron that the wizard's tower was a childhood fable he heard, and that a young lad did go there once many years ago. Apparently he lives in the village of Arford about a day's walk towards Underland. They spend the night in peace

21/03/2022
The 'heroes' make haste as they arrive at the backwater hamlet of Arford in the late afternoon. They spend the night at the makeshift tavern, tolerating the drunken stupor of a peasant who complains about giant ants taking away their sheep. He then asks that Sixtus Sunwalker bless the crop, the village, and his wife's fertility. Finesstro the Nimble tries to inform the peasant he may be able to help with the last issue, but eventually Good prevails and he leaves the issue...

22/03/2022
The party learned that the man who went to the tower was called Egidius and he lived on the 'second last house on the left of Shanty Lane, the only lane in Arford'. What followed was a depressing interaction with a deranged man who lost his mind in the dark places of the world. The party insists they will conquer the place and end his nightmares. He eventually informs them that it is due south of Underland, over the bridge, through the plains, and among rugged and scrubby hills. There is a moment between him and Maethedir, as he says he was saved from the 'gibbering monstrosities' by folk such as he. With this information, the party decides to return their cart to Castle Ardenward and ride for glory!

23/02/2022
Quicker travel without the cart sees the party making it about 2/3 of the way to Underland before resting for the night - it passes without event.

24/02/2022
They make it to Underland and cross the bridge, now heading south. There is an interaction with a bridge-guard who was collecting tolls, but after some prying questions about the taxation and the mention of a paladin in their party, the guard lets them pass for free. They travel the remainder of the day south through the plains of rural Underland. They rest on a trail. No encounters

25/02/2022
They continue south and make it to the hills. They are winning in terms of avoiding encounters, and by nightfall they find a water source and set up camp.

weird wizard tower door

26/03/2022
The moment they entered the hills, and were no longer following a trail, wilderness travel rules for getting lost were in play. Somehow, however, they came atop a high bluff, and a few miles to the south-west, in a valley, they could see the makings of a black structure... So they rode to it. It is a couple of hours past noon when they hitch the horses to some cruel shrubbery, before analysing the structure further. It is about 30' in diameter, and emerges 5' from the earth as a tower would - though it is truncated and totally flat on top, except for an iris-valve door in the middle. The structure is made of a very dark grey/black stone. Sixtus touches the center of the metallic iris-valve and it spirals open, revealing a stairway into darkness. Hurriedly the party forms a marching order, lights a lantern, and descends into the black hole...

strange

They reach the bottom, which is the entrance to a triangular room, and I call a roll for surprise. Nobody is surprised, so I state that they can see shadows at end of their lantern-light and hear some grunting. Actions are declared, and initiative rolled, when out of the darkness these pale, stocky, white-eyed creatures with sharp teeth and long matted hair charge towards them! There are 5 of them, 2 with hand-axes and 3 with long-swords. A grueling melee ensues, with Sixtus and Milton in the front smiting the creatures, while the Monk Kovani and Fighter/Magic-user Maethedir are defending the flanks with polearms. Blows are exchanged - the creatures are sturdy, and eventually Kovani is cut down below 0hp! Thus she dies! A character who had not seen many adventures, but had been in the campaign since the very first session.

so cute

The creatures are eventually slaughtered, fighting to the bitter end as they pass their morale checks. Sixtus heals Milton using his Lay on Hands, and the party investigates the room some more. It's a triangle with the point towards them. There's a corridor ahead, from which a chiming sound emanates, while to the left and right tunnels continue into blackness. They go ahead. After about 30-40' the chiming grows immensely, and dissipates another 30' beyond as they come to an octagonal room. There are some leaves and debris strewn about, but not much. They head back to the chiming noise and scan the walls - eventually feeling a loose flagstone. They pry it off - there's a Mogwai inside swinging a makeshift bell. The creature tries to flee, when Jake Mace scoops it up and nurses it to sleep. Finesstro takes the bell, and the party goes back to the octagonal room and rings it. They hear another faint ringing beyond the eastern wall. Searching reveals a small 2' tunnel at the base. Finesstro looks in it and sees the reflection from eyes back at him. He calls out to it and swings the bell. The eyes disappear.

The party backtracks to the main hall. They go take the right tunnel, which comes to a weird diagonal crossroads. To the right is a 20' wide tunnel that is cut off abruptly by a huge ravine which stretches beyond lantern light. Black stairs down are carved into the side of it. There is a short path to a door back the way came, only 45 degrees to the left. Similarly 45 degrees ahead and to the left is another corridor. Finally, the path they came in on continues straight. Everyone agrees that they want nothing to do with the stairs, and opts to suss out the door. Milton bashes it down when it's stuck, and a few loud bangs go off as he does. There are these huge industrial ovens/baking apparatus within which had presumably fired off. Finesstro the Nimble keeps trying to bell, but has no reply here. They search every oven and find a sack of 250 gold pieces hidden in one. 

go to sleep

Next they head to the other diagonal path, ahead and to the left. They come to a double door on their side. Sixtus and Milton both try it, and it is stuck, so they elect to bash it down. Milton knocks down his side, and is surprised for 2 segments as this haunting creature with no eyelids, pale face, and a slack, cut jaw leers and lunges at him. It deals 5 damage and Milton is paralysed! Sixtus tries to pull Milton back, and I rule that he succeeds but the creature gets a parting blow as per the fleeing from melee rules. It bites onto Milton and deals another 6 damage! Things are not looking good out of the gates, but as soon as Milton is ferried out of the way and the creature tries to pursue, it shrieks and flees in horror at the holy aura of Sixtus Sunwalker. The players were thinking about fleeing after the horrifying opening, now the tables have totally turned. Sixtus will not allow this creature to live. He enters the room - there is another one, and both are mocking the Paladin, but keeping 10' away at all times. Sixtus charges while the creatures are against the wall. I rule that they can attack since he broke the protective barrier by forcing it upon them. Betanochin Wormington, Finesstro the Nimble, and Maethedir follow in behind. Blows are traded, and Betanochin falls paralysed as well! Sixtus makes his save and Maethedir, who didn't need to make any saves when he was hit, disengages to try and cast sleep - but to no effect! Meanwhile, Finesstro is throwing daggers from the back, and eventually even the might Sixtus succumbs to the paralysing claws. But there is only one left! In desperation, Finesstro overbears the specimen, rolling over 100% outcome, and shoulder-barges the unholy monstrosity into the wall, cracking its sternum and smashing it's brains. 

The party recuperates. Sixtus and Beta recover, but Milton is still paralysed. They search the room, finding a hidden lever on the right wall. They evacuate, tying a rope around it, and pulling it. They hear some mechanism going off, and the whole wall slides away, revealing 10 copper pots about 3' high. They search them and find 100 platinum and 1000 copper, electing to take only the platinum. Finesstro rings the bell, waking the sleeping Mogwai which charges him. He kicks it, and the poor creatures vomits. Everybody is disgusted by this treatment. Finesstro lifts it into his robe and gives it some water. The thing starts going off it's nut. A weird cocoon begins to grow around its body. The wizard lobs it into the copper pot room and the pull the lever, hopefully sealing that horror away for good.

It was getting late, and the party had plans to recuperate in the wilderness before entering the dungeon again. So they leave, without event, aside from a swarm of bats flying through. Milton comes to, and the party ascends the stairs to a fine evening, as the sun is setting behind the hills. They rest. The next few days (27/03/2022 - 30/03/2022) are spent foraging, gathering water from the stream back the way they came, and having Sixtus use Lay on Hands to try to restore the party. They have no encounters! Until 28/03/2022, when Maethedir stumbles upon a quaint settlement of small, potato-looking men - they are Stoutlings! This changes the parties despondence about food and water, as a good reaction roll and like alignments secures the party relative safety. They rest here, and notice there are some ancient stone lanterns with glowing ores in them, which the Stoutlings say 'came before them'. It was also revealed that, such as all the Hobbit races of Holgard, they partake some form of mind-altering substance. In this case, it is a fantasy version of the blue asbestos - crocidolite. Nobody is game to try any, except Finesstro who has a very bizarre and stimulating trip. The morning after he tried to peek at the other MUs spell-book and was caught. He ultimately redeemed himself with an apology, and appealed to his 'drug-addled-state', though I am curious what precautions the other PCs will make now.

Treasure & XP: All PCs got 187XP, all henchmen got 94XP.

Player Performance Ratings: Everyone got an Excellent, though Finesstro toed the line a bit on his alignment, but ultimately his actions were in accordance with his Magic-User side and he tried to correct the situation anyway. I'm thinking of toying with the player rating/training costs so it doesn't cripple PCs to have a 'Standard' rating as the, well, standard. This would mean that Superior and Excellent is given to PCs who demonstrate good play beyond just what is expected. So far I've been too sympathetic to give anything but Excellent except in some edge cases which, at worst, warranted a Superior rating. This makes the rating system somewhat meaningless.

Holgard Campaign Session 22 - The Thropsford Fight Club

Session 22 - The Return

Foreword: This "session" ended up being 8.5 hours of catching up and downtime adjudication... For one group of characters.

Timekeeping: The campaign was on hiatus for approx 3 months, so for simplicity we went with 3 months downtime.

Characters: Evil PCs: Bale Tyrannus, Half-Orc Fighter 2 (capped at XP, trying to get money to level up), Finin O'Conoghain (Half-Elf Cleric 1/MU 1 - capped at XP for Cleric, needs money to level up), Jerry Narg (Half-Orc Assassin 1)

Session Report: We open up with a list of everyone's requests for the 3 months hiatus. Bale Tyrannus is doing security guard work around dodgy areas in Thropsford (the capital city). We discuss what each PCs ideal outcome or total failure would look like, and extrapolate from there. I then roll percentile dice for each week to see what category they land in - the table looked something like this:

d100	Result	Outcome
1	Critical Failure	Arrested, robbed, attacked
2-60	Failure	No yield/work
61-99	Success	150gp/week
100	Critical Success	300gp/week

I cannot attest to how effective, accurate, or fair this is. It worked though. I decided the work Bale was undertaking was dangerous, but due to his exceptional strength I gave him about 40/60 success/failure chances. He ended up with 750gp over the 3 month period. Not bad! Would've got XP too but he was capped. Hilarious!

Finin was hoping to develop the Cult of Globulah (religion him and other PC invented so have to build it up from nothing) and he rolled a whopping critical success! The net result was that he established a stall in Thropsford, gained 18 followers there, earned 200GP doing miracles/prayers for the peasantry.

Note Cult of Globulah Status
Underland Stall - 8 + Guru (lost 7 members over downtime due to both Clerics being elsewhere)
Thropsford Stall - 18

Finin also performed some magical displays and made 176GP demonstrating spider climb.

Now, Jerry Narg. He wanted to do some assassin work. I abstracted this out by using the spy rules on DMG p18/19 based on the level of the target for the job, and let Jerry pick his jobs. He failed heaps of them, got caught, almost killed, yet somehow weasled his way out of the consequences. His failures ended up with him losing a finger, nearly dying, but being revived by a pedestrian. He suffered permanent scarring and lost all his stuff. The Underland Assassin's Guild looked after him and gave him an ultimatum - a special in-house job - to eliminate a Curate who is building a following speaking out against the existence of an Assassin's Guild. Jerry scopes out the sect, views the movement patterns of the members, and succeeds in getting into position. He lunges for the holy man, who avoids the assassination attempt and tries to calm the crazed assassin and convert him, to be a turncoat against the Guild. Jerry runs away, steals a horse in the night, and flees Underland. He then signs up for the Unionised (and very bureaucratic) Thropsford Assassin's Guild, who offer him a new contract with a blood-binding, with the understanding that he will submit himself to the Thropsford Guild, who demand a hefty 50% income for all training, plus other Union member benefits. He's totally a pawn. Jerry suggests they open up a Fight Club for the important hostages they have that nobody wants to pay the ransom for. It's a total success, as we will soon find out...

Before that, Jerry tries out another assassination mission. He fails. The guild sees it might be better for him to join their "Young Assassin's" Program and get a bit better at his job, when it become obvious that Jerry's strong suit is infiltration and disguise-work. (This PC has a list of disguises with names. None of them are sensible names, but they are all legitimately different disguises. DM NOTE I need to check the disguise failure rules better for how int/wisdom affects it. Also the nitty-gritty of how much a disguise might weigh, how long it takes to adopt it etc. since it's a bit of a silly trump card atm)

New Patron?

He gets a spy mission. There is a merchant alliance developing in secret, and there seems to be some sort of shady dealings taking place which is subverting the majority of the merchants. A third party wants to know who is running it. Jerry's player gives me some good ideas about how we wants to approach it - so I don't bother using the abstracted rolls since we are playing it out. He scopes out the market square, and notices several stalls closing down within days as their clientele departs and their stocks disappear. Jerry ends up tipping one of these defeated merchants some money and beer at the tavern, and learns that three primary merchants are using thugs to force competitors to sell their stock to them for horrible prices. The head of this is Barrick, a large bald merchant. The Assassin's Guild informs Jerry they will be in touch with him once this information is given to the informant.

The net outcome for Jerry from all his downtime was 300XP, 100GP, and his debt for being re-geared by the Thropsford Assassin's Guild repaid.

Now, an off-the-cuff suggestion from Jerry ended up being brought up by the other PCs who liked the Fight Club idea. So it happens. It's the first time it's ever been run - it's in a derelict warehouse with hardly any people - a few assassins knocking off work, some scruffy people, and Winston Churchill with well armed guards besides him. The fighters are Big Boris Borgstrom and Little Lenny. Both are literally the extreme ends of the DMG random height/weights. It's an unarmoured match. The bets are on, and the DM (me) who has no idea about what is sensible, decides Little Lenny is 5:1 and Boris is 2:1. The players all bet on Little Lenny (Bale - 100GP, Jerry - 98GP (he paid for entry fees), Finin - 50GP). I let two PCs roll the stats for these guys and play them. Little Lenny gets annihilated from a lethal charging Overbear. Bale Tyrannus calls out to join, reckons he is a champion. I'm an idiot and make the odds 3:1 Bale Tyrannus, 5:1 BBB (Bale is a bit shorter but even heavier). So the players all bet on Bale (including Bale who puts 300GP on himself) and that's how the DM gave the PCs a free tripling of the money. What happened was both BBB and Bale charged to Overbear. I didn't know how to adjudicate this at all, so I just decided that since they both have 100%+ chance of success, I got them to roll their modified Overbear outcomes, and the loser would subtract it from the victor. Maybe I should have used dex to determine who gets the first overbear? I am also not sure how the follow up attacks are meant to play out but it didn't matter. Bale killed (yes, killed) BBB instantly. Then he stomped his head and ripped his femoral artery so blood blew everywhere. Winston Churchhill was very impressed, and asked if Bale would be interested in enacting violence in future for money, as he found it very rewarding. He also hinted at being something of a collector - potential wilderness work to recover items!

So now the evil PCs (minus a couple who were not present) are caught up. There was also some campaign events I divulged that had occurred over the downtime:

Campaign Events

The County of Burnett has withdrawn from the Iron Kingdom. The road between Thropsford (the Iron Capital), and Burnett is now totally un-patrolled.

The County of Halford to the south-west portion of the Iron Kingdom is reporting southern raids.

Warton, to the south-east, has been invaded by Goblins and is now "Goblin Town". No steps have been taken by the King, presumably because he is preoccupied with issues with Burnett. However, rumours are that the Goblins leader is amicable and communication is taking place.

The road between Underland and Thropsford has more bandit activity than usual. Mechanically, it is sparsely populated with more-or-less no-name settlements. 

A bizarre celestial event was seen in the western sky.

Local Events

Villages NW of Underland are suffering from a slew of abductions by Lizard-Men. Presumably the Lizard King is returning to his old ways.

Sunland has been expanding - a military force has been enlisted by Lord Bryne with work being done on a ditch and rampart around the town. The design is larger than what is currently inhabited to accomodate growth.

There are reports of raids on villages on the outskirts of Underland's borders, towards the southern hills.

Treasure & XP: Bale - 750GP, no XP due to cap. Finin - 376GP, with 88XP for MU, none for Cleric due to XP cap. Jerry Narg - 300XP plus (probably) some for assassinating level 0s but I doubt it's much. Will need to calculate at some point.

Player Performance Ratings: All Excellent

Downtime Requests: Downtime is caught up for Evil PCs (except for a few other players). The Good PCs also had their downtime set up but not resolved this time. I'll be doing that before next session.

Comments: Not much of a "session". I was hoping to power through downtime and actually play a game but it didn't happen. We had a lot of IRL catching up too, so was definitely more of a "campfire D&D" session. Bale's player said the ridiculous betting odds and having random observers enter is a good representation of the Fight Club's early kinks being ironed out. My one issue with this session was confusion with the ruling around two opponents charging to Overbear, and how Overbear follow up attacks work. Got some bedtime reading to do!