Where are the Goblins?

To the honorable Knight Captain Dawes, I, Sir Percival, report on my recent activity. 

I have secured passage for Fr. Richardson and the Pilgrims of the Warming Rays of Benevolent Pelor in Ascendency aboard Captain Weathersby's vessel, The Osprey. Weathersby is a merchant and nothing more, hardly the example set by Captain Tinsworth. We are scheduled to depart 20 NOV.

In the meantime, a lawman of sorts by the name of Zimon joined our party along with the warrior Thom Bruise and Fr. Cassian of Pelor. In the days leading up to our departure, Zimon aimed to aid the local guardsmen in rounding up several outstanding bounties. What we discovered in the course of this action was disturbing for a few reasons, first of which is that the bounty system acts as an unsupervised method of petty vengeance for those with spare coin. I beg you to discuss the practice with your peers in the constabulary at your earliest convenience.

An alleged abuser of women, a heretic, and a cheese thief were all investigated, but each was an example of confusion, misinformation, or pettiness on the parts of those involved. It is a blessing that Fr. Cassian and I were present to oversee the endeavor as hiring armed and hungry adventurers for basic police work is an extremely irresponsible practice.

By Pelor's grace, we actually did uncover a criminal worthy of justice, Lord Locksley. He was stealing, committing insurance fraud, and smuggling goods while hiding behind his title. We were tasked with discovering solid evidence to justify a warrant for his arrest. Zimon and Thom Bruise spearheaded the operation by staking out, infiltrating, and discovering incriminating correspondence. We also confiscated much of the stolen goods through a clever ruse.

Locksley and his six uncommonly jovial companions were captured with only a few mercenaries losing their lives. We turned them in and have acquired a warrant for the arrest of his agent, Little John, in Bonevale. We intend to execute that warrant once we arrive in the border town.

Enclosed is my tithe to the Order out of my share of our reward. Should you require anything further of your humble servant, you have only to command and rest assured it will be done.

Yours in the Light of Pelor,

Knight Warder Percival, Gradsul

 

Logistics Wins Wars

Lady Echellet (Fighter ???) of Guarda has been a prominent and uncommonly Good aligned NPC in the Bandit Mountains of Trollopulous since we began play there. We rescued her from the necromancer at Castle Von Necro very early on and she's been an ally ever since. A combined force of gnolls and bandits attacked Guarda and captured her when she rode out to defend her home. She was replaced unbeknownst to anyone by a body double in a stupor who was then later kidnapped by a different bandit. Our primarily Good party wasn't going to stand for that.

I'm going to shine a light on a fundamental truth of warfare: logistics wins wars. Tactics are important but nothing matters as much as being where you need to be with the materiel and personnel you need to have to achieve your objective. In real D&D, the most important resource is time. There is no pausing the session to return to a scenario because everyone got sleepy. Failure to respect this truth by our Caller (that's me) cost us initiative and advantage repeatedly, leading to a less than total victory and causing more casualties than necessary including our ranger's Pegasus mount (again, me, making this failure particularly painful and personal).

Session 1: We learned Echellet had disappeared shortly after the gnoll attack on Guarda. We investigated and suspected she'd been kidnapped by a thief and/or spellcaster, likely on a large flying creature. We mobilized immediately and tracked them, the ranger taking point due to speed on his Pegasus. He was able to locate and destroy the culprits (a Patron player, we learned later) and rescue the Lady, but it was a plant or body double. This session actually went mostly as planned and we kept the time-wasting to a dull roar.

Session 2: We extrapolated on what we thought we knew, leading us to mobilize on a location where we thought the real Echellet was stashed. Hired troops, organized, equipped, took a lot of session time. Random hobgoblin ambush on the road distracted us from our objective. We diverted to track them to their lair and get their loot which ate up the rest of the session. While it was a good score, it was not the objective. We achieved nothing in the pursuit of our goal. 

Session 3: Some additional investigation changed our target to a nearby mountain range where we discovered the Talibandit group entrenched in Afghanistan-style caves and tunnels. We broke in, killed a bunch, and took a few captives. They had weird weapons like rifles that were inert once we got away from the mountains. This was recon so can't really consider it time wasted. Could be a mixed blessing changing targets, too, since this would end up being closer to the target.

Session 4: Captive revealed a map and confirmed the presence of prisoners, including one that fit Echellet's description. We returned, killed a bunch of entrenched riflemen with RPGs, found a boulder trap and some imprisoned animals mimicking the call of a mythical monster. Couldn't find Echellet, ran out of time, exfil. 

Somewhere around here we had a spooky Halloween session. It was fun, but again, a distraction away from our stated objective. Real time is a real resource.

Session 5: Dropped a message prior to session to the bandit leader, Usama Loot-Laden (another Patron), to turn the prisoners over to us or else. Also the captive we had was liberated by magic. We returned with the map, troops, and a plan. The thief would infiltrate and locate Echellet, then we'd attack and cause a distraction. He'd try to free or at least keep her from being executed or moved. We got into position but the sneaking portion took most of the session. A recovered note indicated Echellet had been turned over to another villain Patron. Our objective now became one of justice and/or retribution. 

We could leave, again, or occupy a nearby ruined village and stage for an assault next session. Having been thwarted time and again by failing to execute our plans efficiently, we stayed there, killed the gnolls in the ruins, and dug in. With only a day of downtime and no contact with the enemy we hoped to avoid notice until we could launch our attack. We failed. This was the most painful and costly of the sessions where the caller had mismanaged session time. We should have engaged the enemy instead of trying to get cute.

Session 6: We woke to find a magical forest boxing us into the ruins and the valley beyond. Usama offered a parley flag but betrayed it, cementing his death sentence. A hard fought battle resulted in many casualties that could have been avoided by engaging the enemy the session prior in their caves where they could not utilize their numbers or druidic magic and we could apply the advantage of our leveled PCs. We killed most of the enemy troops, but many of the druids escaped. The loot and casualties are still being counted but it was unnecessarily costly and bloody all because we failed to manage our time properly and execute on stated objectives.

Some of our decisions as a group in the sessions leading up to this scenario could be reviewed, like choosing not to negotiate with the kidnappers or pay any ransom. Communication from both sides was simply demands of one variety or another so maybe there wasn't an opportunity to resolve it that way. Ultimately, we were victorious in battle but failed to achieve the primary objective of rescuing Lady Echellet. The lesson here is choose an objective and make your every action serve that objective. Otherwise you'll bleed to death from paper cuts that drain resources, most importantly time, until your final confrontation is more difficult than necessary. Delays allowed the enemy to move Echellet and prepare for that final battle and the most galling part of the whole thing is that I fucking knew better.

RIP Convess.

Local 345 of the NSAD

From the journal of Namor the Mariner, Bastia:

Nov 10-11: Time kinda got away from us this past week. After drinking away the profits from the last adventure, we realized we still needed to repair the Bill's hull which is gonna cost quite a bit of gold. I gotta find us some work and fast.

Innkeeper is a bust, wants us to club rats for coppers. Morgan thinks this dago on the docks, Oliver, might have some work, so we hit him up. He sends us to the Red Fox, a front for some boss figure named Jimmy Hoffa. Hey if he's payin', whatever.

Jimmy is a union boss. Wants us to convince independent workers on the docks to join the union. Offers decent pay, if nothing world-altering, and we have no other prospects so we take a run at it. We get a list of those that need convincing and off we go.

We take a light touch to start and convince a few to join up, confirm a few others are die-hards, and learn that Jimmy is being investigated by a local patrolman, one SGT Barney Fife (Chris P. Bacon). Ole Fife and I have history, but if he goes sniffin' around the union he's like to disappear. We try to sell the information to Jimmy to let him know he's gotten law enforcement attention but he thinks that we should foot the bribe to run off Fife and threatens that if he goes down we go down with him. He's lost his bloody mind, I'm not payin' for trouble he got himself into.

There's a reason Morgan does the talkin'. I lose my temper and tell Jimmy not only are we not payin' his bribe, we also quit. He can keep his nickels for services rendered and we ain't no part of his little circus. Bye.

Great work, genius, now how do we get paid?

Nov 12: So I may have made an enemy of a local crime boss. Hard to say, I didn't stab him or anything. Either way, might be best to lay low for a while. We head up to the monastery to see if Hollander has any work for us, preferably out of town. He tells us about a potential Sinkhole of Evil that his unit caught wind of at the edge of the Dreadwood to the north. We accept the small incentive he offers to investigate and set sail. We arrive just before dusk and rest onboard after securing a solid landing spot for the next day.

Nov 13: Bright and early we disembark and get to sniffin' around. My dog Davey and I take point and fortunately miss the old tripwire set on the buried foundation of some long-forgotten building. Unfortunately the warlock Artorias doesn't miss it. The giant boulder that springs forth from some overgrown section nearby flattens him and his wardog. Morgan tries to scoop him into a bucket but there just isn't anything left. I make sure we get his gold and that there aren't any ambushers lying in wait.

We poke around and find some treasure stowed away beyond where the boulder was set. Musta been some cache left by elves or bandits or bandit elves. Ours now. Quite a lot of copper but we can't really be picky with how broke we are, so we organize a work detail from the crew and after a while get it back to ship.

Down a member but otherwise unharmed, we decide to continue the search for this sinkhole. We find a strange, crystal clear pool with a winding staircase visible at the bottom. I holler and it echoes back like there's no water and an open space beneath. More magic and our warlock's dead. Great.

We fuck about a while before someone calls back from inside. Maybe we can take him hostage? I toss a grappling hook down and after it appears to land on solid ground, tie off to a tree and descend. A brief pass through water and then I'm in a small chamber with a round stone door. Looks like a tomb. Has some elven scribbles on it, but I can't read it. Neither can Morgan.

We call through the door and a dude named V answers, says he's been trapped for over a month. Takes us a while but we're able to describe the characters on the door to him and he puzzles out there's a lever somewhere nearby. He just doesn't have any light. He fumbles around, finds it, and the door rolls open.

V says he's been reliving the same day over and over since Oct 6, the same day that we relived on MacDonald's farm. The tomb descends beyond this little landing that he's at and he says he's been killed wandering down there a few times. Having secured the bag and likely the target of our search, we "rescue" V since he looks like he probably isn't worth much to take hostage and sail back to Bastia.

Some seals accompany us a ways during the night which I interpret as a good omen. Porcan is with us. This is confirmed when we find a bunch of flotsam en route to town. We pull some aboard and it appears to be trade goods lost at sea. Some poor ship got et by a sea creature or something. We love salvage rights and secure the goods. Praise be to the Sea Lord!

Nov 14: Dock at Bastia. I'm prepared to fight my way onto the dock but there aren't any of Jimmy's goons waiting to thump us or anything. We report to Hollander and get our reward. We also learn that Fife is missing. That's a shame, but I did what I could. V and I plan to set out for Monmurg and move some of these goods. Morgan's gonna hang back.

A New Dawn, a New Day

 

After Action Report 

Order of Daybreak

Chapterhouse Dawn, Gradsul

    

7 NOV 24

MEMORANDUM FOR

TO:                  Knight Captain Dawes

FROM:            Knight Bulwark Percival

SUBJECT:      AAR for Expeditionary Excursion to Bonevale

REF:               Order 111.74

 

1.      GENERAL INFORMATION / INTRODUCTION

Command desires a presence within the elven-held territory of Bonevale to ensure proper conditions for the faithful of Pelor. 

2.      SUMMARY

The following is information regarding the contingency itself:

·         Deployed Location: Coastal trade hub of Bonevale

·         Deployed Personnel:  Knight Bulwark Percival

·         Duration of Deployment: 1 NOV to 7 NOV

·         Contingency Purpose: In support of establishing the Order and defending the interests of the faithful of Pelor in and around Bonevale

·         Scope of Operation: Establish presence of KoD within the territory. Render aid to those in need. Report on state of settlement to command.

3.      Pre-deployment

·         Booked passage with Captain Tinsworth of the Elegant Mercy.  

·         Captain Tinsworth predicted two day passage to Bonevale by sea. Readied equipment for voyage.  

·         Tinsworth is a faithful Pelor follower and should be considered for future missions. A mount and additional arms were unnecessary for this mission, despite the regular loadout for each Knight. Acquired a mace as a sidearm in case of CQB unsuited to primary weapon.

4.      Deployment

·         Arrived on schedule. Tinsworth donated to the Order's cause at disembarkation.   

·         Joined other adventurers in seeking lodging. Sanji the Warmage of the Glowing Hand chose The Bouche, an upscale inn. Innkeep Geoff. Regulus Cornelius (RC or "Cola") a sailor and archer completed the party. Prominently displayed my battle standard to advertise my presence. 

·         Sanji shared a desire to aid the town and establish a reputation. RC less transparent in motive. 

5.      Recon

·         Scouted the town, discovering a mix of human and elven cultural elements. No obvious religious or administrative centers. No sign of squalor or sickness among populace. Militia primarily elven archers. Defenses are wooden palisade and unconventional precautions against monsters/fauna. Would not withstand determined siege. Population transient. Market small but active.  

·         Scouted by foot, alone. Party remained at The Bouche.  

·         Resources should be committed to develop Pelor's presence within the town. The heretic elven influence is strong.

6.      Sheriff Kai-Lan

·         Sought introduction to elven Sheriff named Kai-Lan. He requested assistance with a petty crime, a misplaced coin purse on the docks. Interviewed Donny the Dockworker about the purse. RC produced the coin purse from his pack, insisting that he found it on the Elegant Mercy when we arrived. All involved were skeptical but Donny was happy to have his property returned. Reported back to Kai-Lan to lukewarm reception. Intended to await further opportunities from the elf. 

·         Party traveled by foot with little further planning. All were armed. 

·         RC demonstrated resourcefulness. I am dissatisfied with his inability to credibly explain how he came to possess the purse. Recommend scrutiny of the sailor's actions in the future.

7.      The Deal 

·         We were approached by a figure under dubious circumstances who revealed himself to be Theodore, a classmate of Sanji's from their school of wizardry. I did not care for the skullduggery. He solicited our aid with security during the purchase of an allegedly dangerous magic item on behalf of The Glowing Hand mage guild. He was cagey and evasive when pressed for details. Sanji vouched for him, so we agreed to help. 

After some time for Theodore to set the meet, we were provided with a rendezvous point. I dispatched RC early to the location to provide overwatch. He observed OPFOR combatants inserting in the same manner and engaged, defeating several after an exchange of bow fire. He then pursued a fleeing, robed elf with the intent to capture. The elf responded with lethal magic, destroying RC's hand and felling him. 

Sanji and I arrived after a civilian raised the alarm. We witnessed the exchange and engaged the elf mage. I demanded the elf's surrender but received no response. He turned his lethal magic on me, I inflicted a slashing wound with my greatsword, and Sanji bludgeoned him to the ground with his quarterstaff. He expired as I was rendering aid to RC. OPFOR consisted of boggarts and elves.

Secured the scene for civilian safety when Sheriff Kai-Lan arrived. Reported to his office to give statements. He was visibly frustrated by the violence and suspicious of our involvement. Sanji produced evidence that the elf was employed by the Scarlet Brotherhood, a dagger with the order's symbol on it that the elf carried. Theodore arrived and produced a sealed order, which caused Kai-Lan to accept our purpose. His writ to act was apparently legitimate. 

·         We expected trouble but not of this magnitude. The ability to establish overwatch prior to the ambush saved Theodore's life.

·         We acted in the interests of a known Lawful faction, albeit in a cloak and dagger fashion. RC acted with valor and if he were a member of the order would be recommended for commendation. Theodore took possession of two confirmed Evil items, an amulet and ring, to return to the Glowing Hand for research. Recommend command approach the Glowing Hand to coordinate future operations.

 

8.      Exfiltration  

·         Theodore secured passage back to Gradsul. We joined with in the intent to recover, resupply, and report to our superiors. Theodore offered the funds originally intended to purchase the item as a reward, which we accepted. I have tithed to the Order on my return to Gradsul. 

·         RC will require a week's rest before he is able to seek restoration of his missing hand. Sanji intends to develop his spellbook and seek further information from within his guild regarding the developing situation in Bonevale. I will train and volunteer for any specific orders before returning to the Bonevale under previous general orders.

·         Should secure passage ahead of time, if able. Fortunate that Theodore had a plan in that regard.

9.      CONCLUSION

Sanji is solid. RC is reckless but effective. Care will be taken to preserve the reputation of my unit and the Order at large. More information will be gathered before taking on any other missions under dubious circumstances. It turned out this was a sanctioned action by a Lawful faction, but knowing that ahead of time would have been preferable. 

I have taken an effective first step in developing the Order's presence in the Bonevale area. Need to develop a working relationship with Sheriff Kai-Lan. Need to learn more about the ruler of the area. Need to learn more about evil magic items being trafficked by the elves and boggarts. Request redeployment to the theater with these interests in mind.

 

PERCIVAL OF GRADSUL
Knight Bulwark

I Know My Rights!

From the journal of Namor the Mariner, Bastia:

Oct 19: Spent some time with the new rowers. Went over the Wither Bill and made some of the easier repairs. Looks like some bits of hull need replacing, along with much of the rigging and sails. Also need to fill out the crew. Man, we need cash.

Others of the Jolly Rogers dug up ghost stories about the Shadow, a ghost ship that haunts the area around Flotsam Island. New arrivals swear they were chased by the fairy tale. I'm not sold.

Hollander, our liaison with Bastia's leadership, lets us know about a weird cabin and cave nearby. Offering a reward in cash and a magic item to investigate. Now we're talkin'.

Oct 20: We plan out our tasks. Talk to a local animal trainer and learn some common commands for Keek war dogs. Buy some meat and peanut butter, make little snack packets for the dogs. Once we save the countryside from the canine menace, we'll move on to the cave.

Talk to the hunter that found the cave. He is terrified of it and loves us, hands us a perfectly drawn map. This Morgan chick opens all kinds of doors.

We set off after the dogs.

Patrol stops us outside of Bastia, abuses their authority, informs me I will be searched. I bare steel and dare Sgt Fife to put hands on me. It's a pretty tense stand off but Barney's all bluster and he moseys on. I can tell he's going to be a problem. For a little while, anyway.

I'm able to locate the dogs' tracks, but we're running out of daylight. Make camp.

Overnight the biggest weasel that's ever been seen tries to steal some rations, but Morgan shoos it away like the trespassing rodent that it is. I was reasonably sure she was about to die but it just scurried off into the brush.

Oct 21: Track the dogs to a copse of trees. I have an unpleasant demeanor I'm told, so I hang back, let Morgan and Sabo the dwarf approach with the treats and command words. Of course the dogs love Morgan and flock to her. In short order, we scoop up the half dozen pups and the handful of gore-covered war dogs and head back to town. We have to camp again before we arrive but pleasant weather and peaceful sleep make it an easy trip.

Oct 22: Report dog menace heroically defeated. Get our reward. Sell some of the pups, leave the rest with the crew of the Bill, take the adults as added muscle. Set off for the weirdo cave.

We arrive with some daylight left. Strangest site I've ever seen. Busted old cabin right atop a hole in the ground, like it was carved out with rushing water, but no stream or river in sight. Cabin looks from the outside to be a miner's camp. Tools and such. Tracks around of a horse drawn cart tended by a single drover, leads right up to the cave where it unloads and drags something heavy inside.

After some hemming and hawing, I jump through a window to prowl the interior. I panic a little as the party outside disappears and the inside changes to a charnel house of gore. More magic bullshittery. Sabo is a real one, jumps right in after me with his hammer out. The dwarf's alright.

Eventually everyone comes in and we search around. It's clearly some kind of foul ritual chamber that's setting off Basus and Sabo with their ability to Sense Evil. Stairs lead down to a cellar. We can see the cave mouth and a corridor that extends further, clearly a mining shaft, but veins of quartz ignored. Sabo informs us that doesn't make sense.

When we look out the mouth of the cave we can't see our mule, further confirming weird magic bullshit. We carefully prowl down the mining shaft, find a Y, take the left and end up overlooking a ceremonial crypt with an evil altar dominating. We back track and run into a clutch of walking dead blocking our exit.

Sabo rebukes the abominations, Basus, Farland, and I rush forward, and in short order we're huffing and puffing over the hacked apart corpses of miners. Disgusting and if we don't find some gold here quick I'm done.

The other branch of the corridor leads to a storage room of sorts with tools but no treasure. I hate it here. We exit and try to figure out the weird magic of the cabin. If we enter or exit through the cabin, we uh... phase? into some other realm. If we use the cave nothing changes. We exit the cabin back into our realm and decide to lay an ambush for ole boy with the cart.

The Lawfuls want to break the altar which they say is causing all the problems. Hey whatever, but they don't have the supplies they need. Sabo doesn't know the spell and neither of them have holy water. Great. With clear skies and fortuitous moonlight from Celene and Luna, I volunteer to run back to Bastia with a zombie head as proof, see if Hollander can supply us with holy water. He's a preacher of some kind.

I take up an easy lope with my new war dog Davey heeling. We see a creepy little fairy on our way but avoid him. Ain't got no time to sleep for 40 years or some other silly shit. Bastia closes its gates at night, apparently, so I get to banging. Sally port opens and of course it's Sgt Barney Fife of the Dipshit Brigade cussin' me for evil and a criminal and "nothin' good happens past 11pm".

I stick the zombie head in his face and tell him I'm on official business from Hollander and I don't have time for his foolishness. He doesn't believe me and demands I wait in the guardhouse while he sends someone to confirm. I imagine if I didn't have the zombie head I'd be writing this from prison.

I debate pushing this guy further but I'm tired and I'm gonna have to run back, so fine. I flop on a bench, prop my boots on the zombie head, and catch what sleep I can. I fully expect this fucker to waste my time or wake up in a cell or something but little I can do about that now.

They nudge me awake when Hollander arrives, allegedly about an hour later. That's not so bad. I give him the story, show him the head, and beg some holy water, which he creates on the spot. Ok, Hollander's seen some shit, apparently.

Hollander wants the necromancer alive. Uh, knowing Basus and them, that's not likely. That man thinks he's died once already and is quite unstable. I ask for a horse to get back faster and stifle my mirth as Hollander instructs Fife to cough up one of his. Hah, got em. Off I go into the night on a horse Barney is certain that I'm going to steal. I laugh to Davey about that once we're out of earshot.

Oct 23: I arrive predawn, hand over the holy water, and promptly fall asleep.

Once it's light, we go in and Sabo and Basus get to bustin' the altar. Sabo tries some dwarven technique of breaking it with his ass, but looks pretty sore afterward. Basus takes a pickaxe to it. After it's busted, they sprinkle the holy water and the world ends. Or something, reality tears or shifts. Davey and I ain't havin' it, we light out like our asses are on fire. Back in real space it's not so bad but I'm still queasy. Basus wanders out well after the rest and that experience does nothing for his mental state. Beginning to think we've got a madman in the party.

Investigation shows the realms have merged after the altar is busted. Quartz is gone, gore still there, etc. We continue the ambush, waiting for ole boy to come back.

Oct 27: Dude finally shows up with a cart full of corpses. We rush him but I trip and fall on my face and Basus nearly cuts his own leg off. Morgan wings him with an arrow and Farland makes contact with the flat of his blade, but our ambush was embarrassingly ineffective, like the enemy was protected by foul magic. We demand surrender but before we can apply any more encouragement he poofs like a fart in the wind. We search and track around but can't find any evidence, even with the dogs. Dammit.

We head back to Bastia with a cart full of corpses, report on the findings, and collect our reward for destroying the sinkhole of evil. Added to the bit of treasure we found, it wasn't a bad haul. We make plans to catch a ride to Monmurg, sell the little weird flute thing Hollander gave us, and use the profits to outfit the crew and Bill. Maybe we can get on the water soon and explore.

Welcome to Bastia

From the journal of Namor the Mariner:

Oct 6: Woke on this farm. Again. Back is holding out but the pay is terrible. Others like me with talents for adventuring open to collaboration. Quit with MacDonald, asks us to escort a delivery to Bastia on the coast. Try haggling over price but he's annoying me and clearly I annoy him. Take the job as an excuse to travel towards civilization.

Hit the road with Morgan the beautiful thief, Sabo the judgey craftpriest, Basus the zealot paladin, Farland the rugged fighter, and Urtorias the ladyboy warlock. Weather is fine. Discover a bandit waiting in ambush along path. Backtrack, ambush the ambushers, make easy work of them. Capture one but Basus executes him before interrogation. Hard man. Find some treasure and stow it on the wagons.

Travel on, make a good camp. Basus the Hard crushed by falling tree in the night. Make an effort to recover his body and gear, but it's bleak. 

Oct 6(?!): Wake to a fine dawn back at the farm. The fuck? Magic bullshit? Basus alive and well and our day beginning as though the previous never happened, including not having our score from the bandits. Farmhands and MacDonald behaving normally. 

A moment of panic and claustrophobia sets in as I imagine a never-ending loop of waking to relive the same day over and over. Group decides to try the road again. Allow Morgan to talk to MacDonald which nets us better pay, set a better ambush for the bandits due to foreknowledge, prevent the murder execution of the prisoner, and avoid the falling tree campsite. Anxiously rest the night.

Oct 7: Wake to a fine dawn at our camp along the road. Whew. Carry on, bandit walking out front to catch any unfriendly fire.

A bunch of animated skeletons rush us from brush near the road. I didn't see them in time to warn the party. I make space and lob a couple of ineffective arrows, but Sabo rebuked them with holy words and sent most running while the warriors cut down the few who remained. We pursued and destroyed the rest on principle but found no treasure.

A pack of feral war dogs could be quite dangerous, so I lead the party in a valiant evasion. These are probably the beasts MacDonald warned us about but we don't work for charity. Don't quite make it to Bastia today, camp.

Oct 8: Pass a slavers' party on the way to Bastia, consider talking but think better of it since we're wildly outnumbered. Don't wanna be chained up. Arrive at the small port run by a priest of some god I've never heard of. Sabo and Basus split to head to the church while Morgan leads the search for a buyer for our prisoner. Other option was execution, but why tf would we march him back to town just to kill him? Coulda done that on the road.

The thief has a pretty face and silver tongue. Def have to let her talk to everyone. Captain Crunch loves her and pays a premium for the prisoner, despite his missing ear from some backtalk on the road. We happily retire to the Freebird tavern and begin to drink.

The holy men show up with more holy men. We're invited to stay at the church due to our weird experience. Apparently Sabo was asking around about anyone else repeating days recently. Church boys see it as a blessing or sign or omen or something. To be able to relive a day and maintain free will is miraculous, they say. There's more they don't say but so far the rum's good and they aren't threatening us.

Learn of a bounty on the feral wardogs, but it's pretty meager for a tough fight. Maybe we figure a cheap way to trap them or something. Also learn of a bounty on a privateer named Bluto who's too handsy with the local ladies. Fled the law south to Monmurg. The reward for bringing him back alive is a confiscated galley. Ok now we're talking.

Oct 9: Secure passage with Captain Crunch to Monmurg. Depart around noon.

Oct 10: The salt and sea is refreshing, but the wind is unfavorable. Arrive late in the day.

Hit the bars looking for Bluto and I couldn't believe our luck. A little sweet talk from Morgan and he came right to her. She lured him to a compromised position while we shadowed, then escorted him back to the ship. Kept him on lockdown while Crunch did his business in town.

Oct 13: Crunch still at it. Farland and I living at the bars on the gold earned from the bandits. Come across Smee and his crew of rowers looking for work. Convince them we've got a ship to crew coming to us, they just have to follow us back to Bastia. They're in.

Oct 16: Set sail for Bastia.

Oct 17: Arrive with favorable winds, turn in our bounty, collect our small galley The Wither. She needs work but that's work that I can do.

Oberholt: AAR

Oberholt has wrapped up with a final victory of Law over Chaos. Coalition forces under the command of Lord Eros Tyring defeated the invading Chaos god Khorne's ground army of demons while Redcorn sacrificed himself and half the population of the realm to battle Khorne's aspect on the spiritual level. After 2 1/2 years I'm going to pass off DMing to another player and take a bit of a break.

I want to take this opportunity to talk about what I learned during this experimental campaign. I've spoken at length in session reports about what we were trying to do and tried to share what I was learning as we went. Essentially, we were testing the brOSR methods of 1:1 time keeping, staying as close to rules as written as possible, and reliance on emergent gameplay over predetermined plot points with a group of players who are not chronically online and hadn't formed their own opinions for or against.

We used the ACKS system which is the only modern ruleset that can compete with the OG AD&D for this game style. I avoided my predilection to try to be prepared for every eventuality and let the dice determine most everything, leaning into randomly created dungeons, treasure hoards, and points of interest in the wilderness. This combined with low or no preparation towards sessions is referred to as Lazy DMing and is quite aptly named.

I'm going to go into what worked, what didn't, and then offer some advice for anyone looking to run a game like this.

What worked:

- 1:1 time keeping: It's the single best way to encourage engagement in and longevity of the campaign. The pros far outweigh the cons.

- RAW: System choice is key to running a successful campaign. Use something that can support a wide variety of play options with actual rules. Non-game non-systems are bad at this, requiring too many rulings from the DM. DMs are not game designers. Hell most game designers aren't game designers. Play AD&D or ACKS and read the fucking manual (RTFM).

- Patrons: Patrons assume the role of NPCs in the world and offer a breath of life by playing to those NPCs' interests with energy the DM can conserve for other places. Use them to get input on what the big bad might do in the dungeon after several delves, or the witch in the woods might do, or the dragon the PCs discover down the way. The Patrons in Oberholt all generated gameable material just by running their domains and interests as independent actors rather than a DM contrived part of a narrative. Patrons are a double-edged sword which I'll get into later.

- Downtime: With 1:1 time keeping comes the opportunity for PCs to take actions during "downtime", when no session play is happening. This allows them to liquidate treasure, create magic items and spells, recruit mercs and henchmen, and anything else they can think to do to set the session up for an actual game. No one wants to RP the haggling with the blacksmith for the price of a sword, gtfo of here with that. This too is a double-edged sword which I'll touch on later.

- Multiple parties: 1:1 also opens up the opportunity for multiple parties of PCs. Whether your players are confrontational and choose PVP or more cooperative, multiple parties gives every player a chance to try different classes and alignments they wouldn't normally try. It adds a different dynamic than "We're all heroes" or "We're all villains".

- Player agency: Player choices drove the direction of the game, not DM railroaded plot. Let your players show you what they want out of the game. You're a referee, not a narrator or playwright. Run the game that emerges from the convergence of player choices and dice results.

What didn't:

- Setting generation: RTFM. I made choices as a result of foolish notions from previous experiences when generating the setting that ended up being a problem the whole campaign, most significantly the available markets. Follow the advice that your system offers for generating the setting, it's there for a reason.

- Scale: With inexperience and a new playstyle, I made a mistake early of revealing the entire map. I was leaning into the Lazy DM concept particularly for downtime. The intent was to allow travel and things to happen without my oversight during downtime. What actually happened was the game shrank and the wonder of exploration was taken from the players. Let the players explore the world, that's part of the game.

- Dismissal: With expanded scale came the dismissal of small things like mundane random encounters and smaller domains that fed larger. There was little to no interaction with smaller villages or hamlets that should technically exist to support the larger domains on the map. This cost valuable opportunities to engage with the world and focused the game only on big events. Small details matter and can generate gameable scenarios, don't overlook them.

- Downtime: Both with Patrons and PCs, I allowed unsupervised downtime play. The intent was to preserve DM energy while allowing the players to play the game according to their interests and energy levels between sessions. What happened was an explosion of resources from "farming" lairs and other actions and a "turtling" mentality, where those engaging in downtime were rewarded for farming rather than engaging with the other players. These resources inflated the economy and essentially ruined the game. Downtime should be run on turns with DM oversight. The alternative doesn't work.

- Lazy DMing: Most of the biggest mistakes that I made during Oberholt were made with an eye towards how I could make the game easier for me, the DM. Zeroprep can work, sometimes, but ultimately it's inferior to necessary preparation of setting and session. It's ok to prepare the ground, just not the action. The whole purpose of avoiding over-prepping as a DM is to avoid wasted effort. If the players truly have agency and the ability to choose their own course of action, then you don't want to find yourself preparing content that will never be interacted with. You have to find the balance between zeroprep and prepaddiction.

Advice:

- Say no. What I mean is that players will push you. They'll argue and finagle and "yeah but" you to death. It's ok to say no, even if it's only "no I need a chance to consider". You want to indulge them in their interests without giving them everything. Like most things it's a balance, but any ruling you give becomes a rule of the campaign. Consider house rules and edge cases carefully.

- Avoid Patrons in high level established Lawful positions in civilization. The caliber of men in our gaming sphere are builders, creators, disciplined men of high moral standard who will end up running the world. While this is good, in general, it flattens play in the game. Patrons should be if not antagonistic, at least apathetic and/or opportunistic when it comes to PCs. They should offer missions, but they should always "get theirs" from it. Very very rarely should there be gimmes or true total cooperation. Discuss that with potential patrons prior to recruitment.

- Henchmen are not extensions of the PC. They have their own desires and roles within the game. If the player does not enforce that side, then you'll have to.

- Avoid anything that results in too much energy spent for too little gameable content. In Oberholt, it was unsupervised downtime and the Machinist class. Encourage players to pursue their interests, but learn how to implement those interests into the game. This ain't solitaire.

- This game style can run perpetually. Know that going in and prepare for what you want out of the game. ACKS suggests a series of threats to the world. Once those threats see some resolution, win or lose, it can be a natural stopping point for the campaign. Alternatively, you can run perpetually in the same world. If doing so, I recommend sharing DM duties for different regions or different threads/hooks/dungeons etc. Even different tiers, one running lower level play, one running larger scale stuff. Whatever the campaign and group can support.

- Your mileage will vary with player interest. What's called "mudcore" gaming will be more common and comfortable to the conventional player. It's harder for them to see the advantage of setting goals for themselves, engaging in domain play, and expanding their view beyond the dungeon. Be patient and try not to force them. With luck you've got a player or two that can help guide their peers into the next tiers of play, but if not, advise where you can and otherwise just run the game the dice put in front of you.

- Don't be afraid to ask questions of your friends who have done this before.

- Don't be afraid to admit mistakes and correct them.

I'm excited to see what my local friend comes up with when he takes over DMing for the group. I'm hopeful that this AAR offers some useful information to anyone considering running this style of game. I'm thankful for the players in Oberholt that made the thing go for as long as it did.