This is a long one folks, so get a drink and settle in. It's gonna get crazy. And violent. So earlier in the week, my patron, Wirrow Warrens who runs the local hillbilly hobbits that are trying to open a river-side tavern called The Bloated Badger, ran in a bit of trouble. And by bit, I mean one of the little fellows nearly got bit in half by a giant gator. The hobbits, being exemplars of their kind, managed to kill off their large scaly attacker, and saved their companion. They took the creatures head, and plan on putting as the center piece of their soon to be opened tavern. But what's amusing is that the patron for the hairy footed group never once thought the river could hold dangers. I on the other hand, didn't.
With that in mind, this session was lead by the groups shaman, Laughing Fox, and they decided to help the hobbits with their gator problem. Laughing Fox was also joined by three new players, some who haven't played in decades. On their way to the hobbit village, Laughing Fox bought ten chickens and one goat. Why? To bait out any gators along the river bank. Jaws and Jurassic Park style. They ask Wirrow Warrens about where the attack took place and asks if any of the hobbits want to help. Four volunteer. And so after leaving the hobbit village, Laughing fox began to kill the chickens ever so often and threw them into the river. They plan on saving the goat for last. While strolling down the bank, I began rolling encounters, and lizardmen came up. Rolled to see if they were in a lair. Sure is. Rolled up a good bit too. So I figured they sent out a a handful to scope things out. The players got surprise, and saw the lizardmen swimming their way. They got their bows ready and shot at the submerged foes (their spinal fins were showing.) Arrow were let loose, and one of the lizard folk was killed and another injured. The remaining three began to walk up the bank where they were shot at once more. Another fell to the ground. This left two, but they were angry and after rolling morale, they decided to stay and fight to the death. They began hissing and saying that the party had killed their gator. Eventually one was killed and the other captured. They integrated it and told of the lizardman lair in a swamp on the other side of the river. They killed inhuman creature, and Laughing Fox got the bright idea to use their skins as disguises. He managed to only successfully retrieve three of the skins.
Instead of trying to do raid the lizardman village right then and there, Laughing Fox spoke to his ancestors and asked if they knew any ancient knowledge of the lizardmen in area, when was the best time to attack the lair, and if While they didn't know anything of the history of the lizardmen in the area, they did say the best time to attack was during the day.
The party headed back to Wirrow Warrens and asked if he wanted to help. He said he could spare ten hobbits, and loaned the party four canoes. They asked if he had any military oil, and he said no. Wirrow did say he could provide ten bottles of their strongest whiskey, to set aflame. And so the group obtained ten fire waters. The group sets out to the location of the stream that pours into the river and leads to the lizard folk village. The group got lost and decided to come ashore. Laughing Fox sent his spirit monkey up the nearest tallest tree to see if it could see anything. ACKS has a supplement called Lairs & Encounters has a procedure on locating lairs in a hex. For 11 miles or less, the DM must make a secret roll of +18 for a successful find. Since the hex is 6 miles, I had to get an eighteen or higher. First try and the d20 rolls up a 19. Nice. The money comes down and tells the group he saw the hatch roofs of some huts and a lot of smoke coming about a mile or less in the northeast.
So Laughing Fox's player, who was also playing a venturer called Joe Bridger, the son of famous real life mountain man Jim Bridger. You see, Joe was travelling in world one day when he came across the mythical glass mountain. Instead of hitting the invisible mountain, Joe fell through and landed into the Red Frontier. Pure Appendix N here folks! With that out of the way, our Laughing Fox, Joe Bridger, and one of the newer players disguised themselves in the slain lizardman skins ala At the Earth's Core, left the main group by the tree, and set about sneaking around the village. Looking about, they notice that the village is set up on a lake, with most of the huts being on stilts and decks connecting them. Within the decks, they see four cages, with two containing two large gators. They see some commotion amongst the lizard folk, and also realize that there were far more than the twenty one their former prisoner told them about. Laughing Fox decided to look further and goes out alone from the other two. He winds up getting spotted by two Lizardmen guards. They believe he was one of their former members who went out the day before to look for their missing gator. Laughing Fox convinces them that swamp goblins were responsible for the party's slaughter and tells the two that some are hiding back some ways. He leads the two to the other disguised party members where they quickly kill the curious lizardmen. Our party leader sets out once more to find a way to release the remaining two large gators and try to find the third one and control it with his ring.
And once more he gets found out and manages to convince his captors that he's the real deal. Monster reactions are great. And so is having a high charisma and diplomacy. And a gruesome disguise. He tells them about the swamp goblins and is taken to the lizardfolk chieftain. And he's pissed. Laughing Fox manages to deceive the angry lizard people to finally deal with the troublesome swamp goblins. The lizardman chieftain, Blargz, has grown infuriated about the swamp goblins across the river. All the noise they make, the smell of their horrible food, their walking up and down the river on their hairy feet. With the lizardman war party heading out on the two remaining gators and some canoes, Laughing Fox realizes that the swamp goblins Blargz was complaining about were Wirror Warrnes and his hobbits. Oops! While this going on, the rest of the group, along with the small hobbit force, gathers and decides to raid the village while the warriors go on the warpath. Their plan is simple: infiltrate the village, slay the lizardfolk females and their hatchlings, grab their loot, and when the remaining warriors come back, burn the hatchery and its eggs down to the ground. Simple as.
Back to Laughing Fox. On their way down stream, our shaman manages to locate and gain control of the third gator. He manages to convince the leader that the Great Gator has chosen him as his mouth piece and tells the lizard chief that the Great Gator demands a blood sacrifice of five of the lizardmen warriors and by doing so, they will manage to wipe out the swamp goblins. The chieftain is concerned, as the war party is only twenty one lizards strong, and killing five of their warriors will weaken them. Using animal control, Laughing Fox puts his head in the third gators mouth, with it never chomping down on his neck. The chief obeys and has five of his men killed. After this, Laughing Fox unleashes the third gator upon the rest of the warriors, and manages to sneak off during the resulting chaos.
The rest of the party is making short work with the lizardfolk slaughter. With most of the group bringing the lizardman village down, the party's new thief Mark Tarvar and the cleric Laurentius (or was it the new fighter Roy Longshanks?) find the chief's hut, and inside it, his treasure. Two chest are left opened, and with copper, silver, jewelry, and even a gem gleaming bright. Laughing Fox reunites with the rest of the party and lets them know what happened. As some of the party are soaking the hatchery in fire water, the chief and his remaining handful of warriors show up, each one injured. They engage in battle with our lizard slayers, and Laughing Fox manages to gain a flesh wound. They lizardmen are quickly turned into a new set of boots. The party retrieves the chieftain's dragon bone trident, his trophy necklaces, and finally his head. They leave the village in fiery ruins, and the local lizardmen menace wiped out, and head back to Wirror Warrens with their well earned loot.
Players:
Laughing Fox, Shaman (0%): 1626 XP
Joe Bridger, Venturer (5%): 1707 XP
Mark Tarvar, Thief (10%): 1789 XP
Laurentius, Cleric (): 1626 XP
Roy Longshanks, Fighter (10%): 1789 XP
Henchmen:
Big Nose: 1626 XP
Dogbreath: 1626 XP
Hobbit Hellforce: 10 x 1626 XP