Session 7: Of Fire Water and Lizardman Holocaust

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 

Session 6

 A few weeks back I dropped in a hook about a young boy named Byrne who had gone missing while fishing on the southern bank of the Thundhr River. Byrne also happens to be the son of the local cattle rancher Bran Drover. This last week, Lord Commander Rogget received word from Bran that he received a letter from the bandit Ruthless Bill detailing that he has Byrne in his possession, and demanding a ransom of 5000 GP. That letter also contained one of Byrne’s little fingers, and a bloodied dagger that Byrne received from his father on his birthday. For this session our adventurers, now considered local folk heroes due to their exploits against the wolfmen, decide to help Bran get his son back.

They head to Bran’s ranch, and greeted by his men. Bran himself tells them about the letter and it’s grizzly memento. He tells them about how Ruthless Bill and His Gang have harassed his ranch, his cattle, and even his men. The rancher lets the party know that he believes the gang’s hideout is somewhere in the Lowland Hills about a day west from his ranch. Bran doesn’t think Ruthless Bill has many members in his gang and probably wouldn’t pose much of a threat if they were caught unawares by an unknown group. He devises a plan where he will send out three men to deliver the money at the set location, while the party is making their way stealthy to the hideout. By only sending only three men, this leaves Bran with nine men to help him defend his ranch in case Ruthless Bill decides to make a visit.  

Ruthless Bill!

The party sets out the next morning and make their way through the northwestern area of the hills until the find two men on horseback. They attack the men, killing one instantly, while the other was thrown from his horse. He’s tied up and integrated. He gives up that the boy was back in an abandon mine. The party heads out, with their hostage guiding them, all the while expecting Ruthless Bill and most of his gang at their hideout. They arrive and see only two men guarding the entrance. Laughing Fox locates two wild boar, and puts them under his control. He tells the boars to attack the men. While one boar is injured from an arrow, it doesn’t stop him or his bacon companion from attacking, killing, and then feasting on the men.

Rumbo and the party came down, and they knocked the door loose and let the boars run in and cause mayhem after commanding them not to attack the boy. Except they didn’t find Ruthless Bill or his gang. It seemed Ruthless Bill did indeed take his most of his men to wreck havoc upon Bran’s ranch and cattle. They untied the boy, told him who they were, and proceeded to head back to his father’s. But before they left, they let the boy cut one of their hostage’s fingers off in retaliation, and let the hogs have him.  

 They missed Ruthless Bill and his men on their way back, though they did see some sort of optical illusion in the hills, like the Flying Dutchmen. Arriving, they saw some of the barns burning, blackened corpses of cattle, and Bran trying to get things settled down. Seeing his son, he gave him a hug, and thanked the party for their help. He also told them how only one of his men came back injured from the drop-off point, with the other two being killed. With that, the players ended the session at Bran’s ranch.

But we’re not quite done yet. Earlier in the week I finally brought in patron play. What’s that you ask? Well, the quick version is that it’s allowing an outsider party, probably someone who would like to play in a regular session, but not able to due to conflicting schedules, to run an npc or npc faction of the game. This eases the burden for the DM, but also has the potential to make the campaign more dynamic. There’s a good chance that someone controlling the npc or faction will make decisions and think of things that the DM will never think of. It’s pretty cool if I say so myself. So what does this have to do with this session?

Well, simple. I gave control Ruthless Bill and His Gang to a patron to see how their actions would effect the game. Not only that, but during the session, I was also in communication with Ruthless Bill’s player and was able to see how he would react to the players in real time. Really amazing! Patron play is great, and adds another dynamic layer to the whole game. But one that’s not really new, but sadly forgotten. Patron play is derived form Braunstein, a sort of proto-rpg from before the days of D&D, and one even played by Dave Arneson, co-creator of said D&D! It’s great, and the BROSR has not only brought this technique back into play, but like everything else we do, are using it and other forgotten rules to lead the charge in playing D&D the way it was meant to be played!

 Players & their XP total:

Rumbo Battlecock (10%): 44 XP

Laughing Fox (0%): 40 XP

Stonewall (5%): 42 XP

Henchman:

Mysterious Anon (formerly Man With No Name): 40 XP

Session 5

During the week, I dropped a hook about some werewolf attacks from the last two months during the week of the full moon. And with this new full moon week, the Lord Commander of Pottfort has placed it and the surrounding village Woodshome under marshal law. Players “bit” into the werewolf hook and took off to kill some wolfmen. But first, let’s talk about a downtime activity one of players did during the week.

Tony Rice is the party’s thief, and decided a week before to do some stuff around town. He found another party, and decided to follow them around, in hopes of stealing some of their stuff. Tony realized they were going to the Old Bastard and silently pursued them. On the second night, the party was ambushed by a group of 13 ogres. Four dead, three captured. Bodies were taken too. Tony returned to Pottsfort and let the authorities know what happened.

With that out of the way, lets get back to the werewolf problem. Before the party set out to the nearby Chickasaw tribe to see what the healing man knows about the werewolf attacks, they stocked up on silver weapons and got some henchmen, including two Chickasaw warriors and a mercenary with no name. Laughing Fox also bought a hunting dog and a war dog. The healing man and the Fr. Justine believed the remains of the three victims of the last two months had not only sacrificial markings and wolf hair on them, but smelled of brimstone. The group set out to the location of where the last victims were found and let the hunting dog sniff around and then let him sniff the wolf hair given to them. He took off in a southeastern direction.

 The group came across a group of Blackrot Swamp goblins looking around for something. The goblins seeing the group, decided talking, not fighting, was in their best interest. The party found out that the goblins were making their way to the Old Bastard to claim some treasure but were attacked by three werewolves and what they thought was a witch. They want revenge and agree to join the party. Under the condition that they will also get paid.

The now larger party found were lead to a clearing in the woods by the hunting dog. Searching around, the players found a large, angular rock. On top of the rock was dried blood, like an altar. The rock was pointing north to something large that was shimmering. They realized it was some keep, but Stonewall came to the conclusion that it was made invisible by elven magic. After standing around for some turns, Stonewall managed to undo the spell by saying the right elven word. While he was doing this, Laughing Fox located two black bears in the area and decided to put them under animal control. With the keep now visible, and it’s large door closed, but unlocked, Rumbo slowly opened the door and Laughing Fox sent the two bears bashing in.  

The group heard lots of growling and a woman shrieking. Inside, they saw the bears had kill a haggy looking woman, and was fighting a werewolf. It was quickly killed. The dead werewolf quickly returned to it’s human form and Rumbo noticed that there was a pentagram on its palm. They soon let the bears go, and then set up an ambush to kill the remaining two werewolves.

Not long after, the other two wolfmen (one in human form) and another witch appeared unawares that they were about to die. With a combination of flaming oil, and Rumbo along with the others using their silver weapons, the werewolf coven was wiped out from the face of this world. After this, the group decided to explore the keep. It was similar in look to the Pottsfort keep, but not as tall or wide. They noticed that keep seemed to made of a single piece of stone, instead of many. Weird. Exploring brought them success. Finding various treasures, they also found the remains of many victims in the basement. Hopefully this ends the werewolf scourge in the area. After returning, the party was rewarded with 600 gold for each dead wolfman, and another 200 for both hags.

TOTAL XP:

Rumbo (10%) = 602 XP

Tony Rice (5%) = 575 XP

Stonewall (5%) = 575 XP

Laughing Fox = 546 XP

Henchmen:

Two Chickasaw Warriors: 546 XP each

Man With No Name: 546 XP

Session 4

"It's best to let sleeping dragons lie." 

Before we begin, I need to make a correction to the last session. I was under the impression that Laughing Fox had the two goblins as his minions and they went with him back to Pottsfort disguised. That’s not so. Instead, he had them stay at the Old Bastard, acting as spies for the party. With that out of the way, let’s see what happened during this session!

We start out with the group finally opening the golden metal chest found all the way back in the first session. Glomm, the dwarven jeweler, was able to make some keys for the ancient dwarvish chest, one for each latch. There’s four latches in total; one on each side of the chest and they have to be opened at the same time. The group gathers around, with they four square like keys, and manage to open said chest. It hisses open, but not trapped! With the top off, they find three items: a black spike wrapped in golden tentacles, a map, and a gold ring with an onyx kraken with golden eyes. The onyx seems to glitter, like as if it’s made of stars. The ancient map shows the Devil’s Spine, in most of it’s foreboding glory. They see a skull like mountain at it’s southern western edge, Glomm thinks this is the Old Bastard. Sprinkled about the range, are several square blocks. This astonishes Glomm, as he didn’t realize there were so many Dwarven Blocks among the Spine. Or even on the other, northern side of the vast mountain range. They see a lake on the opposite northern side of the mountain, which seems to be dotted with ancient human cities along it’s coasts. But what captures the groups attention is the kraken symbol in the middle of the north eastern section of the vast mountain range. The symbol is just as black as the ring, but above it is a giant red X. Glomm has no idea what to make of it, and has never heard of a black kraken. He tells the group to maybe ask some of the native tribes, or perhaps go down to Rivertown and see if anyone knows about the strange symbol. With that, the group decides to open the wooden chest they found last session. Managing to unlock it, they find inside three potions and two scrolls. They’re unable to identify them at the moment.

Though a smaller group than that of the previous week, our four adventurers decide to head back out to The Old Bastard. Once there, Rumbo, Stonewall, Laughing Fox, Kazzik, and a new henchman, Nickos the Dwarf, decide to head back to the four chambers containing the escape tunnel found last week. On there way, the come across three orcs. They aren’t in a talkative mood and proceed attacking our party. An orcish arrow knocks out Nickos down to zero hp. He falls down, unconscious. The adventurers soon wipe out the orcs with little effort. Searching the orcs, they find that two carry a strange insignia: a black leg, with blood coming out of the top. Stonewall’s player has leave early, and takes Nickos back out to the wagon, and finds some healing herbs to stabilize his wounds. The rest of the group proceeds with their plan.

Getting to the escape tunnel, the party realizes it’s not a steep drop, but slopes under the stream they heard on the other side. The decide to send Laughing Fox’s spirit animal, a monkey named Buska inside the tunnel and to explore the other side. After a couple of turns, he comes back and tells Laughing Fox that on the other side of the tunnel is small stone chamber with set of stairs on the opposite wall leading twenty feet up to a door. Buska also mentions that the room is cold and the smell of dragon is coming from the other side of the door. Hearing this, the group decides to go down into the tunnel and check the other room out themselves. Getting in the small stone chamber, they realize that door on the stairs is actually a secret door, at least on the other side. They open the door slowly, with each side opening towards them. Rumbo and Buska peer inside and see large chamber, about fifty feet from floor to ceiling, and almost a hundred feet squared, except for the southwestern portion being cut at an angle. The two also see a large hole in the ceiling about thirty feet wide, with sun light pouring in. Inside, it looks like part of the underground stream was diverted and spills out into the chamber, making pond. Or did, as it’s now frozen, with a small glacier that rises about ten feet in the middle of the room. On that glacier, they see a sleeping, very young white dragon, with it’s small hoard of treasure. Looks like they found Whisper. About the frozen room, they see skeletons, and even the frozen corpses of goblins standing about the glacier.  

With this discovery, our players quickly decide to send in Bushka and for him to steal some of the loot. He goes, and a couple of turns later, returns with pack full of fifty gp, three gems, three rings, a scroll, and necklace that resembles that of the sun necklace found back in session one, except the medallions are silver, and the large middle piece is that of a moon, instead of a sun. With this haul, they decide not to take any more chances, close the secret door behind them, and make their way to the plaza in the middle of the level. They get to the plaza safely. Looking at the large stone door with the faces of the sun and moon carved into it, they realize that mouths of the celestial objects are actually slots, and adding two plus two, they place the large medallions into their matching slots. The door glows around it’s edges, and rumbles open about ten feet in the middle, revealing a forty-five degree angled hallway. Once more, they send in Bushka. 

He comes back reporting that the hallway is about sixty feet and leads inside a large cavern, with walls in the middle of the chamber with braziers with green, glowing fires lighting the vast room and a soft music playing within. On the western opposite side of the northern middle wall, sees a large man made pool, with land on the other side with stairs going down. In the north eastern section, Bushka sees a smaller chamber with some steps leading down to an altar with a statue of a large woman. He mentions that there may be a few smaller chambers in the southern part of the cave. With the session almost over, the group retrieves the necklaces out the mouths of the doors, and head back outside of the dungeon. On their way out, as they are leaving the middle of the intersection, the western hall becomes cold, and they see a ghostly figure floating their way, telling them to stop. Or at least they hear that in their heads. The group doesn’t listen and run out of the dungeon, with the ghostly voice echoing in their heads, saying “I’ll see you soon...” With Nickos wounded, they head to their secluded spot, and rest a full day and arrive back to Pottsfort unharmed four days later.

While light on loot, the party agrees that the session was a success with the information regarding that they found Whisper, what kind of dragon he is, and managing to open the large stone door and seeing some of what was inside. Sometimes success isn’t determined by the treasure found, but also by important intelligence that’s gathered.

Players:

Rumbo Battlecock (10%): 634XP

Laughing Fox (0%): 554 XP

Hazzik (10%): 634 XP

Stonewall (5%): 7 XP

Henchmen:

Lester: 0 XP

Nickos the Dwarf: 7XP

Session 3

Big crowd for this one! Seven players, plus two playing both of their PCs! And henchmen! Group headed back, with some light horses, mule, donkey, wagon, and other supplies. Tony tried to steal a horse, but failed, though he managed to get away without being seen. The three day journey was largely uneventful until the morning on the last day. The group spotted three goblins about seventy five or so feet away walking towards the Old Bastard. Two of the goblins held a pole between them with various dead animals. The other was walking behind. The first were unaware that their comrade in the rear guard had succumb to an arrow in the back, killing him. Soon the party rode up to the goblins, and the two surrendered. Dread Pirate Robert managed to convince the two to indulge information. It seems that the goblins are part of small group (now 12) that are working for a dragon named Whisper. Robert managed to convince the two goblins to guide them to Whisper, saying that he was old friends with the dragon.

Inside the entrance, they notice that intersection is once more lit. The goblins lead them north, to the plaza. They tell the group about how some were eaten by Whisper as punishment, and how he has sent them to go look for treasure throughout the level for the last few weeks. They’ve managed to find treasure throughout, but some haven’t come back. At the plaza, they come across three morlocks. The lead morlock was wearing a ragged robe and told the group to halt. It seems that Whisper has gained control of some the morlocks wondering around. The group basically tells the morlocks to screw off and leave them behind. The morlocks don’t pursue.

At the plaza, the group changes their plan. Instead of meeting Whisper, the group decides to search around the plaza, map it a bit better, and finally search the two story structure. The goblins tell them that they ransacked the lower level, but not the top floor. The group begins their search. Looking through the bottom floor turns up nothing. They find a set of stairs outside that go to the second floor. At the end of the stairs, there is ornate metal door. It’s locked. While the most of the group tries to unlock said door, Hazzik grapples up to one of the windows in the second floor. While it appears to be no glass, and he can see somewhat on the other side, his hand is unable to go through due some invisible force. The thief is unsuccessful in opening the door, but Bosca gives it the ol’ community college try and slams into the door, hoping it would break, bend, or do something. Unfortunately, it knocks him back down the stairs, causing six damage. While all this is going down, Laughing Fox decides to gamble with the two goblins, as a way to keep an eye on them. Using a dice game where a single dice is thrown against the wall by each player and the highest number wins, Laughing Fox beats both but decides to let them keep their small sums. He then ask them to play one final time: this time, if he loses, they keep his money. He wins, and they become his minions. Of course he cheats by using a little prestidigitation to make a dice that always says six.

The group realizes they won’t get anywhere, and head down south to the smaller intersection with stone doors on the east and west walls. They open the on the east wall, and inside is the previous large chamber from last session. This session, the group decides to search the room more thoroughly and are rewarded with finding a secret door in the north wall. The stones of the secret door are a bit concave, and the group looks to see if it’s trapped. Pushing the door with a ten foot pole and as it opens up, so does a pit trap at its foot. Looking inside, they see some shiny baubles and a skeleton at the bottom of a fifteen foot drop among some spikes. Tony does his Tom Cruise impression again and gathers up twenty gold and a black pearl. After that, the group makes a rope bridge to cross inside to the other side of the wall. On the other side, they enter a triangular room, with a twenty foot wide bridge set in the middle of the 45 degree angled northeastern wall. Directly west of the now opened secret door, they find a pedestal with two levers: one upright, the other pushed down. Pushing the one upright down, another door in the western wall opens, revealing a small room with a wooden, metal chest and a three foot tall marble statute of a woman with a jeweled necklace. Unable to open the chest, they take it and the statue with them and head out back the way they come. They also close first secret door so that no one else will find it.

They leave from the southern door in the large chamber and begin to try to open the wooden door at the end of the eastern passageway. They can’t get it unlocked, but manage to break it down with some axes. Unfortunately this draws the attention of five giant spiders. Before the spiders can surprise them, their chittering whispers gives them away (giant spiders can talk in the Red Frontier.) Hazzik throws some military oil at the giant eight legged freaks, setting the lead on fire, and causing the others to suffer from splash damage. Combat ensues, and the group kills three out of five spiders, sending the last two skittering away. The group then continues through the busted door. 

Inside they find four chambers with lots of jail cells aligning their walls. They also find some cell keys on the wall. Loud moaning begins to echo throughout the four chambers and the party realizes that many of the cells contain zombies. Veronica the cleric manages to turn about of the zombies, but leaving 16 continue to groan at the party with their undying hunger. They are all quickly dispatched by the party members. Looking through the corpses they find twenty copper, one silver, and one gold. A mighty haul indeed. In the middle of the jail cell in the north western chamber, the group sees that the zombie there, when it was still alive as a human, was making a whole and tunnel to escape. The players look into the tunnel and realize it goes underneath the nearby stream. They decide to leave and come back to investigate later. The group encounters nothing on their way back, and get back home to Pottsfort safely. One last thing. Goblins are notorious children kidnappers. Either to eat them or use them as slaves. Most people hate them. So Laughing Fox must keep his two new minions disguised, let's say with brown cowl.

Players:

Rumbo Battlecok (10%) 350 XP

Dread Pirate Robert (10%) 350 XP

Bosca the Fighter (10%) 350 XP

Giorgio Fishmonger (0%) 318 XP

Stonewall (5%) 334 XP

Tony Rice (5%) 334 XP

Hazzik the Delver (10%) 350 XP

Laughing Fox (0%) 318 XP

Veronica (5%) 334 XP

Henchmen

Lester the Miner

Conway Strong (0%) 318 XP

Markus (5%) 334 Xp

Session 2

 “The cold mountain winds don’t have as sharp or deep of a bite than that of the skinwalker’s maw.” Old frontier saying.

This session we've got a couple of returning players, along with a new player with all new characters! We've Bosca Rox (level 1 fighter), a former lumberjack, Stonewall (level 1 Elven Spellsword), and Laughing Fox a Chickasaw Shaman. Having heard of the treasures of the Old Bastard, and they decide to take a trip there to make their luck. They encounter nothing, and once at the Dragon's Eye entrance, they see the decomposing heads of the four Morlocks greet them. They enter in. Now I'm gonna assume, since they were from Pottsfort, then they've received information from the previous characters and even Rotho himself about what has been discovered so far in that evil, underground keep. And they put that info into good use this session.

Emerging from the entrance, they see the intersection, but it's no longer lit though the smell of oil lingers. They know about the Octagon chamber in the west, the plaza in the north, but decide to search the unexplored area of the east. Going down the eastern hall (road?) they find one room on the south wall twenty feet away from the intersection. It's unlocked, and the group makes their way in. Other than some ruined furniture, and a dusty, moldy smell, they find nothing. Leaving out, they go further down the passageway. Forty feet away from the empty room, the find another door on the north wall. Again, it's unlocked, and once more, the group heads in. They go through a small hallway of twenty feet and emerge into a very large stone chamber. It's ninety feet across and eighty north and south. Though the northeastern corner contains a smaller room about thirty by thirty feet. Before checking that room, they hear some rustling and the sound of feet or paws making their way to them. Their light gives away three giant albino weasels; each one looking hungrier than the last. The group makes quick work of the fowl beasts, killing two and the other one running away through the entrance of the room due to a failed morale check.

They head to the northwest direction of the chamber where the weasels were. The group finds a large a nest made out of debris. Searching the nest they find a ruptured leather sack containing 1500 gp. They also find a sword with strange runes written on it's blade. After this, they head back toward the room in the northeastern part of the chamber. they begin to hear what sounds like a stream on the other side. The door is once again unlocked, and the players carefully enter into small abode. Inside they smell oil and cinnamon, and the sound of rushing water grows stronger. The small room tapers off in the upper right corner, with four vases on the left, and chest on the tapered corner. And between the vases and chest, they see a spear and a hand axe. They look through the vases first and realize that whatever was in their, is dried, and not worth anything despite the smell they give off.

Next they grab the spear and small axe. The spear's shaft is made of dragon's bone, and it's metal tip bears runes similar to that of the sword. The hand axe's shaft is made of red ironoak, and like the previous two weapons, it's head has runes marked into it. They then put their focus upon the chest. It's about two or feet wide, and another foot in height and length. It's made of wood and metal and contains an outward lock. With no thief in the party, Stonewall manages to hack the lock off, triggering a trap. He fails his saving throw and is hit with poisoned darts that causes to grow sick and pass out to 0 hp. While Stonewall is down, Bosca and Laughing Fox look inside the now de-trapped chest. They find a bag of 500 gp, another bag with five jewels and a ring inside, and an odd looking piece of amber the shape and size of a large pear. Inside this amber they see what appears to be three human dancers, dancing in fire. Eerie. They decide to pick up Stonewall, their newly acquired loot, and head back of the Old Bastard. 

On their way out, at the intersection, things become frigid, and they hear down the western passageway someone shout "Who goes there?" in a hollow voice. They move quicker to the exit. After leaving the underground entrance, the group makes their way back to Pottsfort. They rest for the night in a secluded and sanitary spot, and Stonewall manages to regain 3 hit points. The next day they encounter nothing, but that changes when they set up camp again. By the fire, Stonewall and the other two spot what appears to be a woman in shadows, sixty feet away. Her eyes glow grey, and her she speaks out in a voice that sounds close "Can I come over to the fire? I'm so cold. And hungry..." She has the party's full attention. Walking closer, she continues to cry softly in the unnaturally close voice, and her limbs and teeth grow longer. Her skin peals off, revealing short haired, black fur. She grins, revealing a more skull like face. Stonewall throws a flask of military oil, and she alights in flames. She says she wants to be warmer. That they will taste good. Bosca tells her to leave while grabbing his axe. Laughing Fox uses prestidigitation, and causes her to see bright and flashing stars, distracting her. She swipes at Bosca, but misses. Stonewall throws another flask of oil, though it misses her, but some of the flames manage to splash on her. Laughing fox hits her with a bullet from his sling, and she begins to bleed between her eyes. Finally, Bosca takes her down with his axe, nearly cutting her in half at the chest. She goes down, turning to ash but leaving a shriveled, blackened heart, and her two glowing eyes. Laughing Fox scoops those up, and puts them into a pouch. The group encounters nothing else on their way back to Pottsfort.

After arriving back to saftey, the party heads to the small church. They meet with Fr. Justine who lets Stonewall stay and heal. They tell him about their encounter with skinwalker. Fr. Justine tells them that the description of the woman, before her transformation, sounded like that of Abigail, the mother of a family that went into self exile a few months back. No one has heard of them since. They hand over the heart and eyes, and Justine stabs them with a silver dagger and says a few prayers, finally destroying the creature once and for all. The group then heads over to Glomm the Jeweler and show him their new found treasure. He tells them that the weapons are indeed magical, and that the runes are an ancient form of dwarvish. The sword is called Orc Killer: it glows green around the presence of nearby orcs, and will inflict more damage upon them. The spear is called Wyvern's Bane, and glows a fiery red near dragons and wyverns, and brings extra pain to both of those winged serpents. Finally the hand axe is called Woodthorne, and will spit green flames against fae of wood. They then show off their jewels: five diamonds, two opals, four obsidian, and three tiger eyes. The amber though, that one catches his eye. He's never seen anything like it. Laughing Fox decides to contact his ancestors, asking their advice and knowledge on the strange piece. 

"Is it a danger to us?" 

"No" they say.

"Are the people inside dangerous?"

"Yes."

"Should we let them out?"

"No."

With that, the session ended and the party happy with their gains.

Total XP from Monsters and Treasure:

 

Bosca the Fighter: (10%) 3381 XP

Stonewall (Elven Spellsword): (5%) 3228 XP

Laughing Fox (Shaman): (0%) 3074 XP

 

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)