This time, we had three new characters roll up in town: Pocco the Magic-User, Gaia the Ranger, and a Fighter whose name I don't remember but it was a translation of Bubbles, the blue-eyed Powerpuff Girl. They are joined by returning adventurers Sir Goldborn the Paladin, Oscar the Thief, and Temalkel the Illusionist.
For downtime updates, Sir Goldborn found that the hills to the East give way to more flat terrain, where he found two settlements. They seem to be doing well and are not being harassed by any orcs. Then, in Borgogazze, he learns of the military structure of the town: with one Captain commanding six Lieutenants, four of which were sent with their troops to protect the nearby villages.
Oscar the Thief was able to panhandle/pickpocket for some gold, getting 25 c.p. and 15 e.p. from some innocent villagers. She did get caught at some point though, and was given a warning by the town watch.
Tavern shenanigans are relatively contained this time, with the party hotly debating what they are going to do next. Gaia is wearing a top hat with a comfortably nesting pidgeon on top of it, Oscar has her goat, Pocco a hunting dog and also a goat, and Bubbles brought a piglet. Bubbles' main motivation for adventuring is a fondness for/obsession with the Illusionist Temalkel.
Anyway, the party decides to ask Frank the ferryman for information on nearby dungeons and ruins. Sir Goldborn does the talking and gets a favorable reaction, so Frank tells them of a ruined castle that once was a pirate hideout, about 10 miles to the east of Trilo. This castle is rumored to have a maze-like, never-ending cellar underneath, and also to be inhabited by some strange creatures. The party convinces Frank to ferry them over there to avoid going by land. That will cost 5 g.p. per person, but he accepts. It is Dec. 14.
The party also convinces 7 of Giorno's soldiers to come with them for this "quick mission". So everyone boards Frank's barge and sailing begins. They get favorable wind, blowing southeastward, but as they sail the wind intensifies and turns into a proper storm! The boat is shaken! Man overboard! One of the soldiers is knocked out of the boat and plunged into the stormy waters. Temalkel quickly grabs Frank's rope and hurls it towards the poor man, but he fails his attack roll against the AC 10 water, and the rope lands far away from the man, who is overwhelmed by the waves and doesn't make it.
The storm subsides and the party lands on the hills about half a mile away from the ruins. They hide in the coastal bush and see that three flying creatures are circling around above the keep. Coming closer, they see that the creatures have a lion's body, a man's head and a bat's wings. They seem to be predators who swoop down to take prey once in a while.
A plan is hatched: live bait will be used to distract and attack the flyers! But Oscar and Pocco don't want to put their beloved goats in danger. So, Oscar, Pocco and Gaia try to look for some animals. With Gaia's tracking skill and an hour of time, a group of sheep is found. Pocco unleashes his hunting dog to go after one of the sheep, and Gaia just charges another one and subdues it with his bare hands. Burdened by two semi-conscious sheep, the party goes back to the others.
Just how exactly to make a trap out of the sheep is not clear to the party as they realize that none of them brought a rope. So they decide to fill a backpack up with rocks and make one of the sheep wear it, to slow it down and so that hopefully it won't run too far before one of the manticores goes for the bait. Sir Goldborn gets the sheep to drink the wine he brought for good measure, so now it's even slower (3'').
The plan works: one of the manticores swoops down to catch the sheep, and the party goes out of the bushes and charges! They are unhappy to learn that manticores shoot iron spikes from their tails. After getting hit with those, they go through with the charge. A general melee ensues where Temalkel and a spearmen get KO'd, but the manticore is killed!!
After resting and recuperating a bit and bringing the KO'd characters to safety, they just try the same thing with the second manticore. This time the thief gets KO'd, but again the second manticore is killed by the overwhelming force of party. The party starts to make a run for the castle!
After seeing this band of wild-eyed crazy people running toward the castle with two of its friends dead, the third manticore decides to (...morale roll...) surrender the castle to the party. It just nopes out and flies away. The party enters the castle and explores a bit. They find the rumored cellars, and more importantly, a giant treasure hoard from the manticores!!
Three manticore eggs, two scrolls, one magic sword, 10 magic crossbow bolts, and 6000 e.p. are recovered. The party will sell off all magic items safe for one scroll of spells, for an absurd amount of treasure and XP. The base XP prize for all of these goodies is 18000 (three zeroes!!), divided in different ways, plus 1500 XP for Pocco who will be keeping the scroll of spells.
The party rests one night in the castle. The next day, exhausted and with two of its members limping, they go back to Trilo by foot, because Frank is long gone. No random encounters are rolled on the way, and the adventurers are greeted with admiration and envy by the village folk.
For downtime, after healing up if needed, everyone will go to Borgogazze and seek training in order to level up.
Player's Addendum
Sir Goldborn (of Astora) will be training in a temple just outside of Borgogazze under Master Senju, a wise monk who had accompanied Sir when he fled his home city. It will cost 4000 gold, a small price to pay for our hero. However, due to the fact that in the last weeks Sir Goldborn has been surrounded by crazy animals, as well as weird and evil people, a lot of meditation is required for the training. As a consequence, he will only be ready to adventure again on the 11th January. By then his maximum HP will have increased to 8, new strenghts will have been unlocked, and a brighter golden light will be shining on Longuria.
DM's Notes
This session was a blast! One thing I would maybe do differently when there's such a big haul is to end the session before computing XP, since this time it took quite a long time. I feel that I could do it faster and with less mistakes the day after the session when I'm rested; the players would just need to tell me in-session what they want to do with the treasure (how to divide it) and magic items (who gets them, who keeps them, who sells them).
Also some weirdness happened around some players foreseeably leaving the campaign, so deciding to renounce on their shares to get the others more XP. On the one hand, division of treasure is explicitly up to the characters, but on the other I have difficulty imagining that adventurers risk their life for treasure, just to give up that treasure immediately after. Maybe it's fine, or maybe we might just have to role-play it out a little bit more next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment