With a combination of procrastination and laziness, I've neglected updating this blog for awhile now. I owe my players, and you, the readers an apology. I'm sorry. While I've slacked off on doing session reports, I still keep session notes. Unfortunately when I go back to read them, they come across more of the mad scribblings found in the Necronomicon rather than actual notes. Moving on.
Between sessions 42 thru 49, the players mostly stayed underground, looting the ancient dwarven keep while using Undertown as a base of operations. That said, through using random encounters from the DMG, MM 1& 2, and the Fiend Folio, they've made a couple of allies. First, while exploring a bit outside of the keep, they came across a caravan of silver gnomes. The party quickly befriended said gnomes and learned of a great trouble emerging in the northern crystal forests. The gnomes once lived there but were forces out and now residing is the Cyclops Lord. This vile creature has been gathering forces to him for unknown purposes. The players invited the gnomes inside the keep and soon the diminutive race began trading with the denizens of Undertown.
The party also came across a band of albino Bugbears who quickly surrendered after their leader was dispatched. After some minor interrogation, the party learned that the bugbears were heading north, to go in service with the Cyclops lord. Growing concerned, Laughing Fox decided to take the bugbears to Cyclops and pretend to ally with him, but spying on him all the while. He left out of the end of July and planned to stay at least a month before deciding to leave out or continue to spy for longer. I'll get back to him in a bit. Another faction that the players came across were mongrelmen in the ruined levels of the keep itself. They were forced out of their home by forces of the cyclops lord and found a tunnel leading to the keep. They soon became under the protection of the dwarves.
During one session, the party came across some green dwarves performing some weird ritual inside the keep. They killed two but the leader disappeared within the acid pool that had a strange tree growing out of it. Another time they managed to get down to the second level, which turned out to be a long abandoned dwarven town. Spooky.
Eventually Laurentius, verging on level 9, decided to venture out of the depths and head down south to the vast coastal city of Ies-Ton. He wanted to see if he could gain support for a plan involving him building fortifications going north along the Thundhr river to finally connect to Pottsfort. He's gained support, but also some resistance threatening his life. That said, the king of the city and most of the city counsel have agreed to his plan but under the condition he brings his former ally Boldvay the Black to Ies-Ton for justice. Preferably alive, but dead if left with no choice. He's agreed to this but is seeking a way to redeem his friend and maybe even change his alignment. Laurentius also found a letter in his abode telling him there are forces that will try to stop him, even if it means to end his life. Hopefully things will work out for him.
Back to Laughing Fox. After some time, he managed to finally make it to the far northern crystal forest. What was once a glittering and glimmering hope in the vast underground, was now darkened and poisoned. Forces of orcs, goblins, giants, among others, were slowly gathering to the new lord. After using his magics against a goblin in a show of brute force, Laughing Fox was accepted among the underground vermin. Since he wasn't an assassin, I ruled that I would have to roll on a more difficult mission table on the spying table in the DMG on page. Laughing Fox's player accepted this. Once a week, I rolled and for three weeks he was successful in spying. On the fourth week however, it all went south. Rolling on the captured table, Laughing Fox was found out as a spy, captured, and eventually killed. That said, he never gave up any information about who he was or about Undertown and Pottsfort. This hurt as while it is the job of the DM to remain neutral, one does eventually root for and even become attached to the players' PCs. And Laughing Fox was one of the longest running PCs. He's now with The Great Spirit.
So where does this leave us? Not sure to be honest. At the moment I've not run any games in over a year, including Red Frontier. When I do get back to running something, I doubt it'll be The Red Frontier. Or at least not in it's current form. Maybe Red Frontier Rebooted or something. Regardless, I'm going to try to be diligent in writing session reports in a more timely manner whenever I start back. I've had fun running this game for some really great players, and have learned a lot that I can apply to whatever comes next. Hopefully I can get something started sooner rather than later. Until then, fight on!
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