Session 47: The Axe in the Rock; or Pick a Side, Heathen.
8/21/23-8/30/23, rest 8/31, active 9/1
PC: Ellin, Zektel, Brumdor, Cracaryn, Mycroft
Hench: Taki, Kissare
After last session’s emphasis on military activity, the players chose a different path today, hitting the road for the… uh... third attempt at securing the treasure at the end of a treasure map. They had gotten the map and some magic equipment from one of the player’s higher level PCs but had yet to deliver. Their benefactor was growing impatient. Bigtoe the Wombat wanted his material for making weird dwarf machines.
Blair and Sharles, the two nightblades captured last session during the nearly successful assassination attempt on Lord Talston, were replaced by Ellin (thief) and Mycroft (trickster). They did a little meager shopping at Teutch Tower’s minimal market and set off.
Their travel was uneventful for most of the first day but towards the end of the day they came upon an outpost of some kind flying a flag bisected by a solid line with a star on either side. Zektel raised a white flag, I’m still not sure where he got it but it’s becoming a theme. Probably has little kangaroos on it. Anyway, after a terse parley the occupants of the outpost decided they didn’t want any adventurer shenanigans and asked the party politely but firmly to leave, which they did after learning the outpost was under command of someone named Merchant Lord Zelas.
The next hex over the party’s loaner henchman land surveyor explorer hench of many hats Kissare discovered that this hex was ideal for settling, with a significantly increased land value above the average and a source of very fine clay that could be used in pottery and porcelain. The party camped the night in the pleasant environment and carried on the next day, entering the western Blemu Hills.
It was in these hills that the group came across a strange sight, a great axe driven into the middle of a large boulder as though from a giant’s blow. They could see the head of the axe was golden and studded with rubies, but the haft was worn and weather beaten. Zektel the shaman communed with his ancestors and learned that it wasn’t cursed and it was made by dwarves. A few hands tried to remove it but it was Brumdor the dwarf that was able to pull it loose. The head was solid gold and still sharp, as sharp as gold can be anyway, and the party decided to hang on to it since it seemed to be worth quite a lot. A master’s mark on the metal showed it to have been crafted by the Slate clan, which was recorded for future use.
Continuing their trek through the hills, they heard the grunts and groans of effort from a nearby copse of trees but couldn’t see what would make them. The high pitched tone of the voices made one of the players think of pixies. Zektel asked his animal companion, a big constrictor snake, to slither up and scope it out. It returned and described a dead boar in an iron bear trap being ineffectively tampered with by unseen forces. The party moved out without further investigation. The rest of their day’s travel was blocked by a massive avalanche that they had to figure a way around.
Descending into the plains beyond the hills, the group discovered a large field of young Bitterwood herb which is used to purge poison. It was going to be worth quite a lot if it bloomed sometime soon but wasn’t ready for harvest yet. Carrying on they found a massive ruined colossus type statue of a woman in a toga. Even damaged, Brumdor the dwarf estimated it at over 50,000gp in value. If they could just figure out how to move it.
This was turning out to be quite an eventful hex crawl just to get to the X on the treasure map. Shortly after the colossus the party disturbed a field of mites or fleas or something that swarmed and bit and stung them, subjecting them to the disease called Bloody Flux. Most of the group saved, but Mycroft was succumbing to his bites, the gnome certainly a goner. Fortunately, Zektel had max ranks in healing proficiency and was able to apply a salve to cure the disease. Otherwise, Mycroft would have not been able to travel. The gnome trickster swore revenge on the pests, planning to set the field on fire but the group stopped him due to wind conditions likely threatening the other fertile land nearby.
The adventurers neared the forest that was alleged to hold their target, some source of “purple cake” material, the next day. They entered the old wood cautiously, seeking out the location with the help of their loaner hench. They stumbled on a wyvern lair with six (6!) of the nasty winged creatures in and flying around it. Fortunately for them, the reptilian beasts were surprised and the group was able to nope right out of there.
They spotted a semicircle of bones in the loam of the forest floor just as a young woman appeared as if from nowhere to block their path. She was dressed in spotless white and bade them halt in a very calm voice, which they did. I think the white flag went up again here. Speaking in “we” and “us”, the woman declined the party’s request to travel further, clearly indicating the arc of remains as a barrier of sorts. She made no threats but did indicate that Taki the Cleric of Pelor (Lawful) was allowed to pass beyond the border if he chose. The party discussed for a bit about sending their cleric to join a cult, eventually settling on getting the recon at his peril. For Taki’s part, he was dubious but took the mission for an extra month’s pay. He followed the woman Lauren’s lead into the grove beyond where they seemed to disappear after just a short time.
They waited a few hours, some members poking about and learning that the remains were mostly beastmen bones and skulls and such that appeared to have been killed by cavalry. Puncture wounds and crushing hoof blows. After a while, Cracaryn hollered into the grove, careful not to cross the line, to get some response from the sentries that he was certain were observing them. He got none and the party decided to camp there to wait on their cleric hench.
In the morning, Lauren arrived with two baskets of fresh bread and fruit and some jerky. She told the party that Taki was fine and enjoying his stay. She agreed to ask the hench to return and talk to the party soon. The party was skeptical of the food at first, but eventually chowed down and definitely did not suffer any kind of fae curse or anything. Taki arrived and told them it was a unicorn grove with a circular pool in the center. They were a bit skittish but he was enjoying his stay, speaking at length about how the sun shone into the clearing near the pool. He felt there was more to learn about the area inside but he needed time. He was also scared of the unicorns, they were very intimidating. They bore battle scars and glared fiercely at him if he stepped wrong.
Zektel was growing impatient with just waiting, so he urged the party to help him search for herbs which they did. Unfortunately it didn’t seem like the right environment for the herbs he was looking for. They did find a strange burrow that they avoided after Mycroft learned from the nearby birds and squirrels that he should “run from the big worm it eats everything ruuuuuuuun”. Some nest of a bird of prey threatened to peck their eyes out if they got closer and that was enough for the day they figured.
Lauren was there the next morning with food and the party happily scarfed it down. Ellin and Cracaryn did their best to get Lauren to bring the unicorns to them, but she seemed puzzled about requesting the unicorns to do anything. Ellin was distraught and Cracaryn swore he would turn to Lawful if he just had a chance to see one of the mythical beasts. While holding players to bold claims is fun, I abide by the dice and it weren’t to be.
End of day, Taki arrived fully kitted and ready to go. He was rested and happy. He shared that there was a cave within the grove that the unicorns would not let him go near. If there was purple cake to be had it would have to be within that cave. The party considered options, like attempting to lure the worm from the burrow to fight the unicorns or using the worm to burrow under the grove. I loved all of these plans but as a fair and impartial judge I could not offer opinions. They camped overnight and left in the morning, not happy with any of their ideas and stymied by Lauren’s refusal to let any non-Lawful into the grove.
The way back was eventful as well. They found a trilithon and used an unclaimed language slot and collegiate wizardry to discover it was some kind of portal that operated on excessive disposable income. It was created by an ornery old wizard named Pokermaster and written in Ancient Merlantean, the language of a known seaborne society of sneaker fetishists. They were unable to activate it by throwing small amounts of wealth through it, although someone was able to get it to flash briefly. You can’t buy fly kicks with handfuls of gold.
Mycroft got his revenge on the pests by burning the field. The crew waited for it to burn out, wasting several hours, on the off chance that there was loot from some poor diseased casualty. There wasn’t. Near the field of Bitterwood, they lost some of their rations to spoilage. They were consoled by some of the herb having bloomed and scooped up several pounds of it.
A flight of what they were certain were sphinxes observed them at a distance. The party chose to flee which excited the creatures into nearly pursuing, but they couldn’t be bothered to fly all that way. A cave frosted over with ice in the middle of summer was a curiosity but after Ellin scouted it they realized it was going to be treacherous footing to navigate. Despite lots of talk of frozen treasure they left it be.
A mudslide that cost them more travel time and a hidden pit trap filled with poisoned stakes rounded out their travel back, the latter costing them a horse. Fortunately they had brought spares to navigate the hills instead of trying to force a cart.
Back at Teutch’s tower they had a really confusing conversation with Bigtoe about the map and their failure to secure the goods and how they owed him for the magic gear he loaned them and all kinds of things. Some of the newer players were trying to understand the dynamic of the single player involving his multiple PCs in the endeavor in some capacity. There was a little tension over lack of clarity to start when Bigtoe’s loaned out hench claimed all the maps for her employer. I spaced out while they bickered but it sounded like they came to some agreement or something. I’m glad it all worked out. Or they’re gonna kill each other. Idk, I’ll find out when it happens.
Off to Deinwick where they learned the armies had backed off due to some unknown religious event. It was raining frogs or something? Madness and these guys didn’t care as long as their market wasn’t under siege. They sold some loot and got paid and rested up.
Musings:
This was the first time that I used the wilderness stocking table from Axioms 8. It was pretty cool and the players really seemed to enjoy the mix of events that were popping up. It was a good exercise for me to have to pop off on the fly what a ruin was or a plague was or a bag of loot was. Two instances of free loot hit, the axe and another empty one. It was empty because they couldn’t roll the % needed for treasure of each type. Another reason I make them roll, it’s not my fault!
Using PC assets from one to another is a murky path to tread. It requires clear communication which I think they learned this session and will probably clean up in the future. It’s also potentially less profitable since I have some pretty tough limits on how XP is earned in those scenarios. PCs gain no XP from trading items among PCs or Patrons and only gain XP from rewards offered by 9th level characters or above. This keeps any kind of tomfoolery of cheesing the same items back and forth for XP or some other dumb shit that my players would definitely never do.
The unicorn grove was an original POI that I placed using the ACKS world creation best practices. I put a few lines in my key and I forgot about it until they found this map and I randomized which POI it was going to lead to because the unique stuff in the game is always tied to something cool. You’re never gonna find an artifact on a random orc encounter and you aren’t finding “purple cake” in a random lair. I like how the grove emphasizes the importance of choosing a side in the cosmic struggle, like being rewarded for cleansing altars of the opposite alignment. It’s a cool dynamic that’s mentioned… somewhere… in the ACKSphere and I intend to keep it rolling.
No comments:
Post a Comment