Session 1, For Real This Time!

So this last Friday, I officially started my Red Frontier game. Returning from the previous test session, Rumbo Battlecock (dwarven vaultguard) and Dread Pirate Robert (bard) lead three new adventurers: Giorgio Fishmonger (explorer), Tony Rice (Thief), and Hazzik (dwarven delver). Robert also has managed to snag two level 0 henchmen: Conway Strong, a former soldier, and Markus Blackeye, a hunter. Rotho sends our group back to the Old Bastard and they no longer see the partially eaten, rotting body parts that surrounded the entrance. Instead, now four spiked morlock heads greet them. Markus is reluctant to in, but Robert manages to bribe him with 15 extra gold. Our group enters through the Dragon's Eye. Inside they see that the four cubicles in the corners of the intersection are now alight with torches. Giorgio deduces that they've only been lit for about an half of an hour. The team decides to finish the western branch of the intersection they came across in the previous session. 

On their way down, the hit the first door on the south wall of the hall. They find no traps, nor hear anything on the other side of the door. The door itself isn't locked, but is hard to move. Rumbo gives it a solid push and the group finds within a 20' squared chamber with some mold growing on rubble and three dwarven skeletons. Combat ensues. They manage to dispatch the short revived skeletons with military oil, sword, and spear attacks. Rumbo is wounded in the shoulder from a spear attack, unfortunately, Hazzik is severely wounded. They use a comfrey on Hazzik, prop him against some boulders (once the mold is determined to be harmless), and shut the door tight, with plans on retrieving their fallen comrade on their way out. Hazzik's player now takes control of one of Robert's henchmen, Conway strong.

They soon investigate the opposite door on the north wall, and another on the south wall. The door in the north wall is hides a gruesome discovery: four headless Morlock bodies, dripping blood and hanging upside down with from two morlock spears. The other southern door is 50' away from the first and they hear a creaking whisper from the other side. The thief Tony and Rumbo proceed to open it with caution once it's revealed it's not trapped or locked. Inside they looking upon a lone morlock enjoying a meal of goblin arm. It goes down fast with a combo of military oil and a crossbow bolt through the throat. Within the burned corpses, the find a small burned pouch with a handful of diamonds: 4 diamonds and a ruby. 

The group finally heads down to the end of the hallway, where the octagon and it's sand pit lies. Previously, Dread Pirate Robert threw a military oil down into the pit, resulting into obscene groaning and a foul, gaseous order that caused a couple of the members to retch up. Rumbo begins to search the doors around the octagon counter clockwise, only finding two collapsed rooms, while Tony looks into the pit and sees what appears to be to chained, blackened skeletons. He also sees a necklace with medallions and a gold, metallic box. While the pit is only 10' deep, they decide to tie a rope around Tony's waist, and attach it to the closest southern door back in the hallway, and have him slowly descend into the pit, Mission Impossible style. 

While Tony is going down into the pit to retrieve the items, Conway and Rumbo begin to look around the unexplored doors in each side of the octagon, making sure nothing comes out. Tony comes back up with the necklace, which a large golden medallion in the middle that depicts a large sun. The chest is unusual as it has latch on each side, and is a perfectly foot cubed. Their tools are unable to open the chest, while Rumbo determines that the sun medallion is one of the keys to open the large stone door they came across in the previous session.

Conway soon sees the most southern door begin to creek open, with skeletal hands peering through. He lets the group know and they soon descend upon the door with Rumbo leading and Robert throwing another military oil at the boney hand. The hand and arm ignites and soon falls down as ash and coals. Rumbo opens the door to find four human skeletons with the two in front charred with burn damage. The rest are quickly dispatched. All they find in the stone room is chains and shackles spiked into the wall. With the session nearly over, the group decides to head back and grab their fallen delver and leave the Old Bastard. This puts them in a bit of dilemma. 

Hazzik was only able to heal one hit point, putting him at -2 hp. Pottsfort is three days away. In ACKS, natural healing of 1d3 will only happen when a character is in a place with sanitary conditions, and it must be a full days worth without interruption. Being out in the wilderness three days away from any sort of civilization (sanitary), it's looks grim for our group. The player of Dread Pirate Robert informs, that due to his occupation in real life, that the minimum of sanitary conditions basically means as long it's not in dog shit. Comforting. With that in mind, and with the fact that I'm trying to reinforce that this a (mostly) howling wilderness full dangers, partially inspired by the American Frontier, I let the players know that if they can a place free of creatures, and what that's meets the bare minimum of sanitary conditions, I'll let them rest there as long as someone takes up guard. I'll probably flesh this out more and make it a house rule for the game. 

With Hazzik healed enough to walk, the group will have to take it slow, going from a three day journey to now six to make it back to Pottsfort. Thankfully, they encounter nothing on their way back and now are back in Pottsfort, but are now in time compression. They now will have the chance to sell their jewels and have their golden chest open by the newly arrived jeweler, Glomm the dwarf. Next week, any returning players will have to roll up new PCs who will hopefully be joined by new players. Until next time, fight on!

Total XP from Monsters and Treasure:

Rumbo Battlecock (10%): 935xp  (935+864(black sapphire was sold)= 1799)

Dread Pirate Robert (10%): 935xp  (935+864(black sapphire was sold)= 1799)

Giorgio Fishmonger: 850 xp

Hazzik the Delver (10%): 935xp

Tony Rice (5%): 893xp

Markus Blackeye (5%): 446xp (Now level 1)

Conway Strong (0%): 425xp
(Now level 1)