Instead, I recruited a friend to join in. Robber-Allan joined the party. Totally not a thief.
Pre-session prep
In the last post, I had some things I should prep before the start of session 2. Here's how that went:
What else is out there?
- In a hut, a few miles from Utböle lives an old woman. She is wise in the ways of strange things, and she knows that this is not the only world, that other existences connect through various portals.
- Something is stalking the streets of Utböle. People are going home before night falls, and they're shuttering their windows.
- Mevverwen, a traveling merchant, brings a caravan of goods to Utböle every so often. She also deals in illicit goods.
What bigger city connects to Utböle?
Falbo is the nearest city. I've not done any work on it, figuring that I'll do that work when the time comes.
Answer Jeff Rient's 20 questions
I didn't. I answered 2. There are more interesting things to answer than those questions, right now. Instead, I answered 20 questions about the rules.
Map a hex next to Utböle
 |
| Utböle and surroundings |
0205: The Hole in the Oak
0602: The old woman's hut
0602: The old woman's hut
0604: Utböle
People in Utböle are behaving oddly. They never stay outside in the evenings, and they shutter their windows. The players made some inquiries about it, but the innkeeper wasn't willing to talk about it. He claimed that it's nothing. The party opted not to press the issue since Johannus is the only innkeeper in town. Lergax, their man-at-arms, pressed the issue of pay from the last session. The party agreed to pay him, and the other hirelings, daily instead of after the delve.The session
What follows contain spoilers for Hole in the Oak. You're warned. As ever, my players shouldn't read this.
Descending into the oak again. The party heads to the Hunter room and covers up the mirrors with cloth purchased in town. I entertained the notion of having them roll a save to avoid looking in the mirror while doing it but discarded it. Reward good ideas, don't punish them.
After that, they head through on to the Spider location. They're immediately suspicious of the arch, and spend a lot of time inspecting it. Poking about behind it with their 10' pole and such. This causes the spider to scurry away (makes sense though, doesn't it) so the party freezes in fear for even more time. They toss an arrow through. Nothing happens. They waffle some more.
Eventually, they make their way to the Hall of Kings. I've decided the spider has made its way north, toward the Fishing Bay for now. They spend about an hour in the Hall of Kings, searching around the statues and listening at doors and such. Here's my first issue with the map: the doors are not visible as doors at first glance.
They pick the lock to the Ogre's room and find him snoring in there. The thief sneaks in, manages to get the key off the ogre's neck, and looks around in the room. Unfortunately, I misread the Cages entry. I had them start making noise when the thief gets closer, which they shouldn't. BIG miss. Party misses out on a big stash of money.
That table works wonders. Everyone is leaning forward (well, digitally), waiting to hear the result. Will the PC live or not?
Halvar's injuries aren't bad, but he's in shock and if he isn't treated again within the hour he'll die.
Robber-Allan's foot was smashed, and he will need to rest for 11 weeks. Oof, that's harsh, especially with rooms at the inn going for a gold per day. Maybe he can camp out in the woods? Party is distressed.
Gullvar is, unfortunately, a dead man walking. He gets an exploration turn to do his final actions. He asks August-Wilhelm to avenge him, to get those bastards that ran, etc. The promise made, Gullvar dies.
Halvar is treated again. He won't die of shock. He quickly explores the last room in the Faun spiral and finds the chest. Figuring that Ramius had the key, he retrieves it and the party is treated to their first real treasure. Now they just gotta make their way out of there with it.
They opt for the long way around, avoiding the grabbing roots (they lost a 10' pole to them the first time), but they manage to not run into anyone (or anything). They make their way back to the city, and hold a funeral for Gullvar. I figure a couple of days passes in total.
Robber-Allan's brother, Buffalo-Frans arrives and figures that since Allan's down for 11 weeks, he'll help out in the Oak. A wizard of ... well, not renown per se, also joins the party, but I didn't catch their name (Rodwulf). The session winds down.
The Spider moves back to its arch.
The Ogre wakes up and finds its door locked. It smashes the door down with its club and eventually gets out. I figure it's smart enough that it knows that the party (well, "a" party) did it, so they'll get a -1 on the next reaction roll for him.
Lergax, Polbash, and Loldox are all on their way to Falbo. They know full well that the party won't accept them fleeing. They're planning on putting as much distance as possible between themselves and the party as possible.
The citizens of Utböle are sending their kids away to live with relatives, for reasons unknown.
Descending into the oak again. The party heads to the Hunter room and covers up the mirrors with cloth purchased in town. I entertained the notion of having them roll a save to avoid looking in the mirror while doing it but discarded it. Reward good ideas, don't punish them.
After that, they head through on to the Spider location. They're immediately suspicious of the arch, and spend a lot of time inspecting it. Poking about behind it with their 10' pole and such. This causes the spider to scurry away (makes sense though, doesn't it) so the party freezes in fear for even more time. They toss an arrow through. Nothing happens. They waffle some more.
Eventually, they make their way to the Hall of Kings. I've decided the spider has made its way north, toward the Fishing Bay for now. They spend about an hour in the Hall of Kings, searching around the statues and listening at doors and such. Here's my first issue with the map: the doors are not visible as doors at first glance.
They pick the lock to the Ogre's room and find him snoring in there. The thief sneaks in, manages to get the key off the ogre's neck, and looks around in the room. Unfortunately, I misread the Cages entry. I had them start making noise when the thief gets closer, which they shouldn't. BIG miss. Party misses out on a big stash of money.
They have a discussion about whether it's worth it to burn the ogre alive or not but opt against that plan. Instead, they lock the door from the outside and put a statue outside the door, to prevent the Ogre from getting out. They figure that the ogre will die from starvation or disease and that they can return to the room later.
They listen at the door toward area 38 and hear a battle taking place. They listen at the door toward areas 23 and 24 and hear nothing. Another party member spots the skeleton at 21, and that becomes a whole thing to investigate. After that, they make their way back to the Faun area and end up in the kitchen. They've now connected the loop that goes 2-11-13-22-21-4 if you're following along.
Ramius is welcoming and offers the party tea. One character, Halvar, accepts the tea and falls unconscious. The party reacts with surprise and anger. Ramius, sensing their hostility, calls on his Enchanted Sheep Skulls. Once they arrive, he makes the party an offer. Leave now, but leave Halvar. He promises to take care of him, he just doesn't know what happened, honest... The party will have none of that, thank you, and attacks.
Initiative proves to be their undoing. Ramius acts first and rams August-Wilhelm, but nothing happens. August-Wilhelm gets an attack in, but Ramius is still standing (5 HP left). A sheep skull rams Robber-Allan for 6 damage. Robber-Allan falls unconscious. Another sheep skull rams Gullvar von Drax and hits him for 5 damage. Gullvar falls unconscious as well. 3 out of 4 PCs are now unconscious.
At this point, I roll Morale for the hirelings. Lafirth stands firm. Lergax fails his roll and hightails it outta there. Polbash, a torchbearer hired the last session, sees Lergax lose it, and also runs. Loldox, seeing two hirelings beating it and 3 PCs down, also loses it and runs.
The group is not happy with this. End of turn token is drawn. In the next round, the first token to come up is End of turn. Next after that, the only one to act is Ramius. He makes the remaining player an offer: give up now, and live for a few more days, or die in vain. August-Wilhelm, a cleric of Helm, does not accept those terms. Ramius holds off on the sheep skulls and signals to the other fauns to not attack. End of turn comes up before August-Wilhelm gets to act.
In the following turn, August-Wilhelm acts first. He throws a bottle of oil at Ramius and jumps up on the table. He grabs the lantern and smashes it over Ramius's head. Fire. Everywhere. Halvar gets burned, but Ramius goes down, bleating in pain. The sheep skulls go inert, and the other two fauns run.
August-Wilhelm and Lafirth drag the party members back to the study room. He administers what little first aid he can.
For death and injury, I use a homemade table (not made by me) where you roll to see if PCs (and important NPCs) survive or not after the fight is over. It's meant to create tension at the table. Each PC that receives aid rolls a d20 and you add various modifiers to the roll. If you have a healing kit, you add a positive modifier. The healer's WIS modifier is also added, and some other stuff.
They listen at the door toward area 38 and hear a battle taking place. They listen at the door toward areas 23 and 24 and hear nothing. Another party member spots the skeleton at 21, and that becomes a whole thing to investigate. After that, they make their way back to the Faun area and end up in the kitchen. They've now connected the loop that goes 2-11-13-22-21-4 if you're following along.
Ramius is welcoming and offers the party tea. One character, Halvar, accepts the tea and falls unconscious. The party reacts with surprise and anger. Ramius, sensing their hostility, calls on his Enchanted Sheep Skulls. Once they arrive, he makes the party an offer. Leave now, but leave Halvar. He promises to take care of him, he just doesn't know what happened, honest... The party will have none of that, thank you, and attacks.
Initiative proves to be their undoing. Ramius acts first and rams August-Wilhelm, but nothing happens. August-Wilhelm gets an attack in, but Ramius is still standing (5 HP left). A sheep skull rams Robber-Allan for 6 damage. Robber-Allan falls unconscious. Another sheep skull rams Gullvar von Drax and hits him for 5 damage. Gullvar falls unconscious as well. 3 out of 4 PCs are now unconscious.
At this point, I roll Morale for the hirelings. Lafirth stands firm. Lergax fails his roll and hightails it outta there. Polbash, a torchbearer hired the last session, sees Lergax lose it, and also runs. Loldox, seeing two hirelings beating it and 3 PCs down, also loses it and runs.
The group is not happy with this. End of turn token is drawn. In the next round, the first token to come up is End of turn. Next after that, the only one to act is Ramius. He makes the remaining player an offer: give up now, and live for a few more days, or die in vain. August-Wilhelm, a cleric of Helm, does not accept those terms. Ramius holds off on the sheep skulls and signals to the other fauns to not attack. End of turn comes up before August-Wilhelm gets to act.
In the following turn, August-Wilhelm acts first. He throws a bottle of oil at Ramius and jumps up on the table. He grabs the lantern and smashes it over Ramius's head. Fire. Everywhere. Halvar gets burned, but Ramius goes down, bleating in pain. The sheep skulls go inert, and the other two fauns run.
August-Wilhelm and Lafirth drag the party members back to the study room. He administers what little first aid he can.
For death and injury, I use a homemade table (not made by me) where you roll to see if PCs (and important NPCs) survive or not after the fight is over. It's meant to create tension at the table. Each PC that receives aid rolls a d20 and you add various modifiers to the roll. If you have a healing kit, you add a positive modifier. The healer's WIS modifier is also added, and some other stuff.
That table works wonders. Everyone is leaning forward (well, digitally), waiting to hear the result. Will the PC live or not?
Halvar's injuries aren't bad, but he's in shock and if he isn't treated again within the hour he'll die.
Robber-Allan's foot was smashed, and he will need to rest for 11 weeks. Oof, that's harsh, especially with rooms at the inn going for a gold per day. Maybe he can camp out in the woods? Party is distressed.
Gullvar is, unfortunately, a dead man walking. He gets an exploration turn to do his final actions. He asks August-Wilhelm to avenge him, to get those bastards that ran, etc. The promise made, Gullvar dies.
Halvar is treated again. He won't die of shock. He quickly explores the last room in the Faun spiral and finds the chest. Figuring that Ramius had the key, he retrieves it and the party is treated to their first real treasure. Now they just gotta make their way out of there with it.
They opt for the long way around, avoiding the grabbing roots (they lost a 10' pole to them the first time), but they manage to not run into anyone (or anything). They make their way back to the city, and hold a funeral for Gullvar. I figure a couple of days passes in total.
Robber-Allan's brother, Buffalo-Frans arrives and figures that since Allan's down for 11 weeks, he'll help out in the Oak. A wizard of ... well, not renown per se, also joins the party, but I didn't catch their name (Rodwulf). The session winds down.
Session miscellany
Lafirth leaves the group; having failed his Loyalty roll.The Spider moves back to its arch.
The Ogre wakes up and finds its door locked. It smashes the door down with its club and eventually gets out. I figure it's smart enough that it knows that the party (well, "a" party) did it, so they'll get a -1 on the next reaction roll for him.
Lergax, Polbash, and Loldox are all on their way to Falbo. They know full well that the party won't accept them fleeing. They're planning on putting as much distance as possible between themselves and the party as possible.
The citizens of Utböle are sending their kids away to live with relatives, for reasons unknown.
Takes
The players are fine with the initiative, but they don't like that there's a risk that a player doesn't get to act. I tried explaining that there's an equal chance that monsters don't get to act, but they're still not too keen on the idea. I will modify the initiative in the next session, removing the End of turn token. It doesn't really matter, but I liked the idea of the group making a choice who gets to go when because it means that spellcasters beginning their spellcasting might not fire in the current turn.
Instead, I'll go with spellcasting firing at the end of turn, after 2H weapons, for now. Spellcasting is declared before turn start and continues throughout the turn, and fires at the end of the turn.
Side initiative or personal initiative, I'm not a fan of. Personal initiative is too much bookkeeping, and side initiative is too swingy either way. With random initiative, at least you don't know how it'll go.
I've also started looking at grappling rules. They're terrible in AD&D/Rules cyclopedia, so I figure I'll make something of my own for that. You never know when an ogre might suplex a PC.
No comments:
Post a Comment