[Glowing Exclamation Mark]

Our session started off with some book keeping, with a lot of conversation about alchemy and potions and formulae. It's a new wrinkle for our players so the interested parties want to make sure they're getting everything right. The danger of ACKS is getting lost in the weeds. It's an eternal battle.

Once we got down to business, we resolved a meeting with the abbot of a group of monks concerned with constellations and orrery maintenance. We had previously recovered a holy relic that when used in concert with the order's orrery would reveal a secret entrance in the subterranean temple. The conversation was primarily about how much the monk would pay us for the artifact, for access to the temple, and other transactional behavior, leading to the departure of my Lawful Nobiran Wonderworker from the party.

I missed whatever terms they eventually hashed out while I was rolling a Neutral Elven Spellsword, but when I joined back up we were in the temple with the abbot, who used the Sextant of Naurivus to open the secret passage. It revealed a chamber with some books on constellations, maintenance instructions for the orrery, and a map leading to the next of three total temples like this one.

There was more research to be done with the discovered material but that would take more than session time so I committed to that for downtime, since the spellsword is essentially a fighter/mage. We had session time left and a treasure map that wasn't too far away so we thought to cap off the day with a little score.

The map led us to a rocky outcropping near a waterway. There was an entrance leading underground that we wriggled into. A workshop filled with mechanisms and traps awaited us. Some cleverness and luck got us through, avoiding a rushing water trap and portcullis to trap us there. When we exited with a little treasure, there were bandits occupying our base camp and menacing our hireling wagon drivers.

Fortunately, it turned out that Guygiss knew them from a past life. We learned they had worked for the wererat lieutenant Jenner that the party had killed some time back and were rudderless without his guidance. So bandits do what bandits do. They were using the spot to lure folks in, trap them, then kill them and take their stuff. Probably put the map out as part of the trap.

Guygiss convinced their leader to join up as his henchman and we were invited back to their camp. The rest of us were pretty suspicious and when our escort started trying to make space as if to fight or take cover, my new spellsword Vylas sprung into action, shouting "ambush" to warn the others and killing the nearest bandit to him. The fight was short and one-sided, with the adventurers suffering no harm and all but Guygiss's new friend Brutus dead. There wasn't even an additional ambush! These handful of gomers thought they'd catch us off guard I guess?

Brutus said there were ten or so bandits back and camp, but he'd get us by their sentries and help us subdue them to show his loyalty to Guygiss. Duplicity and magic defeated the remaining bandits, which we captured to turn in for bounties. We confiscated their wagon and loaded up our own with prisoners and loot and trundled back to town, fat and happy to have robbed the robbers.

Musings:

You've got to know when to fold 'em. I find myself at odds with murderhobos and cutthroats pretty often, but there are two friction points there and the distinction is important. 

The one is character behavior in line with their role. The thief is gonna steal, the mercenary is gonna work for the highest bidder, and the necromancer is gonna raise the fallen to fight for him. These are things that happen in the game, driven by the characters' roles, and if there's friction over them, there should be. It can lead to interesting play as a result. My characters tend to clash with those characters, but it's all part of the game.

The other is more of a meta approach to the game itself, which I attribute to a combination of the influence that video games have had on player behavior and the gp for xp conversion of games like ACKS and AD&D. When the focus of play is the ROI of every action taken, then it's no longer about the interactions themselves but only how big a reward you're gonna get for the quest you completed. You're playing a video game at that point, identifying the reward system and maximizing the output. You're a stealth archer in Morrowind.

I say all this only to point out why I retired my uber-Lawful Nobiran Wonderworker, a half mage, half priest character unique to ACKS. If there's friction between characters, then the characters can work through that, as we had been doing to this point with Caldor the Nobiran as the party's kind of conscience balanced by the self-serving Neutrals. If there's friction between players, then that's lame. 

Dunder Moose once called me the "fun police" after noting my penchant for playing the straight man style characters. I can't really argue with that. But that's all in character. I'm not trying to police anyone's fun as a player and it's easy enough to adapt to the game the other players want to play. If we're out here tryna ding, then so be it. It's all just an excuse to hang out with our friends anyway.

Planetarium

March 1, 2X26

The cultists are still active within the city. We are learning more about their operation every time we act but we still don't have a firm target to eliminate them. They are compartmentalized.

Adventuring is hard on my studies. I am committed to getting my spell books in order which leaves me little time for anything but serious action. I am told the rest went to invest in a whaling ship to hunt giant rockfish. Their spines are useful for counteracting poison.

Once they are finished at the docks, we return to an unexplored passage beneath the city, near the beetle lair we cleared out recently. It lets out into a forgotten temple with long-abandoned relics bearing the symbology of Naurivus, the god of explorers. We clear the place and discover a mechanism that mimics the constellations and an access point into a basement filled with tools and workbenches and such.

We are prepared for bloodshed but discover only a small monastery of monks dedicated to the upkeep of the machinery. They do not know anything of the temple other than rumors of its existence. We request to speak with their abbot who comes around every few months. He is supposed to arrive towards the end of the week. His visits are close to but not exactly mimicking itinerary of the smugglers we have apprehended. I pray it is mere coincidence.

March 3, 2X26

It appears that our party members have all independently accepted employment at a masquerade party which many worthies of the city are attending. I am supervising door security, Sloane is watching the side entrance, Slaid is performing, and Guygiss is somehow allowed near the food to inspect for poison.

I select a man in a bull mask for a "random inspection" which we all know is never random. He has an aggressive bearing that does not match the mood of the party. The guards recover a poisoned blade and though large and angry, the man goes quietly into custody.

Sloane arrests a man trying to smuggle in swords and Guygiss detects poison applied to some vegetables being readied for service. He slaps them out of the hands of anyone working with them and then things start happening.

The cooler holding the prisoners has a ruckus during an escape attempt. Guygiss arrives and somehow the bull-headed man ends up in a pool of his own blood. Meanwhile, a man is stabbed in the crowd. We lock the place down, render aid to the wounded, and capture the would-be assassin before he is able to escape.

The party is over and we await updates from the Temple of Turas investigators.

What a Tangled Web

February 22, 2X26

We return to the park where we destroyed the tiger beetles and dragonflies to search for any evidence of cultist activity now that we know what to look for. We dig out a false wall that leads outside of the city and follow a trail into the countryside beyond.

February 23, 2X26

We bypass a copse of trees with giant flies and bees fighting over some pile of carcasses and arrive at a cabin in the woods. Guygiss scouts ahead, triggers a trap, and gets shot at by a crossbow. We get kinetic and secure the scene with 2 captives and several dead. The captives as usual claim ignorance, just following orders, etc.

We collect evidence, paperwork, and verify that the smuggling operation is similar to what we've already seen from this group. A small tributary has a loading area where they take on barrels of parts from dissected beetles and row it away on rafts bound for the ships docked in the city.

February 24, 2X26

We pack the confiscated wagon with everything we need to take back to the Temple and burn the rest of the parts as they have no value to real magic, only this weird cult. The giant flies and bees are dispatched by smoking them into docility and using magic to subdue them. We capture the giant bee queen and a bunch of larvae. Could be our own hive of jelly or valuable to sell. There's an unknown challenge with raising killer bees.

We return victorious to the Temple and turn in another batch of criminals and evidence. This cult is bigger than we realized and spans at least a few nearby ports. We'll have to consider our next moves to take them down.

God Forbid a Man has a Hobby

February 15, 2X26

My studies are interrupted by Slaid who attempts to draw me into the taverns and bars he is so comfortable in. I decline. I learn a short time later that there are strange blue lights seen from the sewers. Our party decides it is our duty to investigate.

February 16, 2X26

Jonathan of Turas does not have any reports of civic unrest due to the lights and gives his blessing to investigate on our own. We effectively have sanction to travel the sewers without being considered trespassers and that is good enough for us.

A massive nest of luminous beetles greets us, which we destroy with magic and sword. Beyond it is a revealed a poorly hidden passage leading into a proper basement. Curious.

Slaid subdues an old man working at his table on leathers or something. I remain behind with Elmo the Elemental, who is too large to effectively navigate the smaller corridors. Further inspection reveals Dimitri to be collecting and harvesting bugs for parts, but not the usual parts for sanctioned magical research. While weird, this is not necessarily criminal despite Slaid's aggressive tactics.

Unfortunately for Dimitri, schematics and formulae and other written materials are found implicating him in cross-breeding activities for bug-centric abominations. We had just last week dispatched two lairs of bugs in the local park. We had taken that to be pretty mundane but now we are not so sure.

There are many men in the building above who conveniently descend into the basement in twos and threes to be easily dispatched by Sloane and Slaid. I watch the rear with Elmo, only needing to drub a runner and a group investigating from beyond a locked door in the basement. Elmo is easily up to the task.

In short order we have the location under control, a pile of evidence, and some prisoners to interrogate. We learn a little about the operation, where the bug parts are transported by river to the docks to be shipped to parts unknown. We ambush and capture the rivermen when they arrive and cart the whole lot down to the Temple.

Jonathan is convinced the ship at harbor needs to be investigated. The ship captain complies and we uncover more evidence as to their ports of call. We also suspect another cell remains locally. It appears that a compartmentalized organization is secretly contributing various aspects of a cross-breeding operation to a central figure. Istreus reveals to me that the Captain is bewitched, adding another layer to the nefarious nature of our quarry.

We await the results of the Temple's questioning and further sanction to act in the Law's name, at least against the local cell. I am eager to uncover what knowledge is possessed by this cult and separate the wheat of the delicious secret power that is Istreus's purview from the chaff of the heinous Cthonic activities of chaos-worshipping madmen.

Musings:

We're low level so we catch low level hooks. There's a farmhouse with milk being overturned and bugs infesting the park and whatnot. I am excited that the seemingly mundane, tutorial level stuff is revealing bigger doin's. I'm ready to confiscate research and material from this cell and put it to proper use. It also looks like an opportunity to spread into the region beyond the city which will give the DM a chance to flesh out his world. Exciting things coming.

I don't typically play spellcasters so this Nobiran Wonderworker is a reach. He's both arcane and divine, levels very slowly, and has fingers dabbled in all the magic research mechanics. I'll have to force myself to engage with these things as we go. I even hired an apprentice.

Annals of the Frozen North

It's not so long a trip as it is a cold one to the monastery in the mountain pass north of Trenova. The Sisters Gate is tended to by a sect of militant monks led by Sir Cedric and a coven of Sisters of Rora, the Mother of Mercies. They are welcoming and kind, provided you don't track mud onto their floors.

The small settlement is abuzz with the recent arrival and activities of an adventuring party, come north to aid the Sisters against the wicked critters of the wilderness. That aid was needed quickly, with a raiding party of Gwerian bandits driven off and a camp of ogres defeated before they could launch their own strikes at the soft targets of the surrounding farmhouses. But these battles were not without cost, several of the party's members falling in the fighting. The smell of their pyres still lingers in the air, the most recent bearing the warrior Davos who was felled by ogres in a heroic stand to prevent the beasts from raiding the nearby farms.

The leader of The Sundowners, as the band is known, is a Madran sorcerer named Nicanor. It appears their roster has had some turnover but they sit on a pile of ogre skulls and the spoils to go with them. After a few drinks, Arnth and Julius, the Sundowners' fighting men, share the tales of the party's origins in Vinovia and travels northward through brutal cold and frost giant ambushes, apparently learning of these things second hand as the brutal life of adventuring claimed their previous members one by one. The crusader of Jash, Flavius, rounds out the group and keeps to himself mostly, with his hunting hound "Dog" or "Hound" or "Hey you." I'm not entirely certain.

The Madran is a serious sort, studious and lamenting the loss of so many so recently, but the rest of the band's spirits are high. Warriors know to appreciate their victories as there's another battle just around the corner.

Dante of Vinovia
21st of Quickening, 28th Year of King Decius' Reign - The Sisters' Gate

Musings:

This is an ACKS II pbp game run by Arbrethil of Lord Eros Tyring fame in Oberholt. He is an expert in regards to ACKS and it's a pleasure to see him run the thing. We've had a bit of a stuttering start to the game, with the vagaries of pbp, holidays, and the like causing some hiccups.

Our first party delved the dungeon in the city we started in and was lost to a TPK. Reviewing our actions there led us to the consensus that we needed to be more decisive. We rerolled and folks wanted to hit the road after some hook about goblins to the north. I raised the concern that wilderness travel at low levels is risky but agreed to give it a shot.

A random encounter during watch cost us one warrior to charm magic. We tried to track him down and he nearly killed another of us so we let him go. He was effectively lost as a PC. Another random encounter cost us our first sorcerer. Then frost giants ambushed us and our explorer attempted to delay them so we could escape. We did escape but he was killed in the process. We finally made it and hit the dungeon with a few rerolls, only to run up against bandits on the way back raiding the monastery. We intervened with a little success, but lost another PC. Then the ogres and another lost PC after a conversation about risk/reward. We were pretty split on the wisdom of the fight but man, if we won it could be a real score.

It's been a deadly journey but who's to say we'd be doing any better in the initial dungeon? For my part as a player I enjoy pbp but sometimes the pacing feels slow. Fortunately it can be gotten to whenever and I've got plenty to do in the meantime. 

We've got a target dungeon or lair to investigate, we just keep hitting snags in the offing. Maybe this next delve will be the one that produces some real momentum.

Justice or Revenge?

January 13, 2X26

Sloane, Slaid, Guygiss, and I have spent the past few days securing Jenner's site for an ambush upon his expected return. We have a look-out schedule, established engagement plans based on approach, and a keen thirst for discovering more about this cell of lycanthropy plaguing our city.

A wagon approaches matching the description provided by the captive shopkeeper. It parks around back and we post up to engage upon their entry. Jenner exits with two bodyguards, one a thick fellow who stays by his side, the other a slender warrior who tends to the horses. Jenner and Thick approach the shop from the rear.

We leave the interior dark to draw them in, but Thick comes in alone to light a lantern. My Slumber spell is still able to catch them both, but only Thick succumbs to it. Guygiss cartwheels out to engage Jenner, followed by Sloane and Slaid. I rush to the rear of the workshop yard in case the final guard flees.

I hear the sounds of battle and by the time I regain line of sight, Slender joins Jenner and Thick on the ground. The headman is clasped in silver manacles while the others are executed as the monsters they are. We are eager to learn more about the cell's activity and if there are any children still in captivity, but Jenner is resistant to Slaid and Guygiss's interrogations. We deliver him to Jeremy at the Temple of Turas.

Slaid, ever the opportunist, convinces Jeremy to award us one of the buildings captured during the operation, provided we keep up appearances until the end of the month to draw in more cultists. The priest informs us that interrogations have revealed two other suspicious actors that warrant observation, MacFarland the Toymaker and Tandy's Leathers.

Our group plans our next steps. Fortunately, a gladiatorial bout is scheduled for the 15th where we expect to be able to observe the two new players. The rest of the group prepares for that while I retire to the Tower of Knowledge to scribe spell formulae into my spellbook. A magician's work is never finished.

January 15, 2X26

The arena is full and Slaid is bouncing with anticipation of the fight involving Scarface and his cronies who we captured some days back. Their punishment is to die on the sands of the coliseum. I wish the group well and pray to Istreus that the secrets of this cultist cell will reveal themselves to my compatriots.

My studies are interrupted when the party arrives some hours later to the Tower's grounds. Apparently, Slaid was dissatisfied with the performance of the gladiators and jumped from the stands to the sands, shooting Scarface dead. While a bold choice indeed, I worry that he will sooner than later cause himself trouble acting out of turn.

During the aftermath, Slaid discovered the horned rat tattoo among other gladiators, tracing it to a branding mark used by the Lanista Nicodemus. When Jeremy was summoned and the party mobilized to capture him in the stands, he had already fled, likely tipped off by the public interference in the bout. The team were here at the Tower to collect me en route to Nicodemus compound for questioning.

I join them, Guygiss and I slipping off to watch the rear entrance while Slaid, Sloane, and Jeremy of Turas make their interrogations. Apparently Slaid's blunt aggression causes them some difficulty with the Lanista and his staff. Jeremy is able to convince Nicodemus to allow a search of the premises, which turns up a shrine to Galmorm, the Great Poisoner, Cthonic god of Treachery. This is justification enough for the Temple to seize the location.

Meanwhile, Guygiss trails a furtive figure departing from the rear entrance to a tannery. After some observation, he returns and I join him. With unknown combatants within, we plan to secure the scene. This means different things to the strange little not-elf and me. 

My magic neutralizes the suspicious figure and shopkeeper in the front room. Guygiss enters to secure them and search while I watch the door. We are interrupted by a worker at the tannery and Guygiss knocks him out with a quickly produced sap. Unfortunately the scene gets more complicated as more workers try to push into the front room of the shop with others come around to the front. Guygiss produces a blade and fells the two near him, while the others flee, presumably to summon the guard.

Wolfsbane reveals only the first suspicious man to be a lycanthrope and I use my magic to stabilize the bleeding men, likely dupes similar to the other locations we had uncovered. Guygiss quickly interrogates the apparent owner of the shop and gets him to confess to cooperation with Nicodemus and some knowledge of questionable activity. When the guards show up, we are able to explain the situation and are relieved to learn that they are en route to Nicodemus' compound to execute the seizure of the property. We join them.

Despite Slaid's best efforts, he is unable to apply wolfsbane to any of the principals of the Lanista's staff, or even the Lanista himself, but the compound is locked down, the occupants arrested, and the rest left up to the Temple's interrogation team for now.

Musings:

We just keep winning, again able to control the battlefield with advanced knowledge and ambush tactics. Picked up a couple magic items too.

I was surprised that there was no immediate repercussion to a citizen joining the arena bout. I was surprised at how cooperative Nicodemus was in the search of his premises. I expected an ambush or at least resistance after Slaid's insults. It's possible the cell doesn't reach all the way to the top, but with the horned rat symbolism all over the compound I doubt that.

Jeremy is showing himself to be a cautious investigator, seeking more evidence than is satisfactory to Slaid's player, who immediately suspected him of being corrupt when he wouldn't just kick the door in and kill everyone in the Lanista's compound. We're still getting our feet under us in regards to expectations of setting, notably that NPCs have rank and status. City work is different than dungeon work. The tone is being established through play, which is the way. Don't tell, show.

While I like the idea of the building as part of our reward, I'm certainly hoping for some more cash for the xp attached. The Nobiran Wonderworker has an absolutely brutal xp progression. Either way, we're affecting the city in significant ways, earning a reputation among the Turas Temple, and having fun doing it. I'm ready for the next session.

Meal Team Six

January 10, 2X26

We are kinetic. The Temple of Turas supports our momentum, paying out a small reward for our previous efforts and offering logistical support to push further at the enemy and rescue the boy Nathan. I have a Wand of Slumber on my belt and fresh intel from the Temple's interrogation of our prisoners.

Guygiss, a slight "man" confused about his elven heritage, joins our party. He is quick and observant, volunteering to scout our advance at every opportunity, and shares a little of my aptitude with arcane magic. He fits our capabilities well.

The target location is what we believe to be the original store front of the lycanthrope's terrorist cell. We surveil the place early in the morning, finding little apparent activity. There is a poorly maintained rear entrance that our copied key works on. We breach and clear the floor, encountering no resistance.

The layout is the same as the prior location, including poison manufacturing paraphernalia in the lab above. Guygiss claims some aptitude with alchemy, specifically poisons, so he collects what he find use out of. He also discovers the key to the coded ledger we found hidden behind a painting. We stack up to clear the basement.

The scene is familiar, shackles on the wall and barrels stacked about, but there is no one here. After some time we locate a secret passage and follow it into a poorly crafted tunnel. We hear rats in the distance but encounter none. Slaid rubs against some goo on the wall and vomits in disgust. Guygiss correctly identifies the goo as a destroyed gelatinous mass. We carry on carefully.

A smokey, hazy window reveals sunlight ahead. I caution the party to halt, the prior goo causing me to suspect the window as something more. We hurl fire at it and destroy it, another mass of goo waiting to ambush the unwary. Unpleasant as it is, we dig through the muck to recover a bit of treasure and otherwise are stymied by the dead end, the "window" having been just a small hole illuminating the goo deceptively.

Sloane picks up a faint trail of feet arriving and departing back up the tunnel. Curious, and our only lead, so we follow. She takes us right to where the trail diverts directly into a wall, clearly a secret entrance, and it does not take long to locate it. We breach into a more well-crafted tunnel through which a handful of giant rats flee, likely as early warning for the wererat cell beyond. I quickly dispatch them with the wand and we carry on.

Guygiss reports contact ahead. I sneak up with him and use the wand to dispatch them as well. We verify with wolfsbane their affliction before eradicating the vermin. We are too few to effectively guard captive monsters.

The next chamber has seven enemies, again unaware of our presence. I pass off the wand to Guygiss and we both sneak forward, using a combination of the wand's final charge and my magic to neutralize the enemy. Again we dispatch them, unable to divert resources to guarding captives.

Guygiss hears the voice of a boy resisting abuse in the room beyond. We stack up and breach, nearly out of magical resources but resolved to save the boy no matter the cost. The foe resists my spell but Sloane knocks him prone and Guygiss makes quick work of him. The boy knows little of the operation, imprisoned as he is, but he is otherwise unharmed and we free him.

Up the stairs and into the main level of the building above us, we discover no further combatants. Slaid dupes the women running cover for the operation and we subdue the household. The master, Jenner, is suspected to be the head of the snake. The staff expects him back within a few days.

We report back to the Temple and have another net cast at the second location to capture any loose ends that may show up, while we maintain our position at Jenner's residence. The ledger implicates some well-known and positioned names in town, but that seems above our paygrade. We are resolved to destroy Jenner when he arrives. For now, we wait, crouched and ready to strike.

Musings:

Hunting season stole one of our players but he's back, reskinning a character from our childhood games, a terror of selfish criminal activity that I can only hope doesn't repeat itself. An elven nightblade's skill set fits what we're doing really well. We only lack some sort of outdoorsman/explorer type but so far we haven't needed it.

Session went well, pacing was good when we would stfu and focus on the game. We have a tendency to chatter, especially when the roster rotates and an absent player returns, but the point of all this is to hang with the homies. The game's just a welcome excuse. We ended on a bit of a hanging chad with the ambush but we were running out of session time.

I appreciate that the DM presents a scenario the elements of which act in plausible ways. He pointed out after the session that he had a good idea of the operation and expected us to potentially jack it up by being too aggressive or overt. Kicking in the front door or something. He did not lament our cautious approach. He may or may not regret loaning us a wand of slumber.

We've been lucky so far in that we can sneak up and ambush most of our enemies. I'll be interested to see how we hold up in an actual fight, but as a wise man once said, "I'll kill a man in a fair fight, or if I think he's gonna start one..." I'm not on a paladin this time to care so much about honorable combat. We're striking hard and fast and can hopefully maintain our momentum.