Session 48: Beware the Wild
9/3/23-9/12/23, rest 9/13, active 9/14
PC: Ellin, Cracaryn, Mycroft
Hench: Taki, Kissare
A civil war had erupted and I was running a Braunstein event in the background with eight online friends driving the various political factions. Some of the patrons had reached out for assistance from the PCs for shenanigans but I think the prevailing thought was “a man could get killed out there.” So the group opted to chase one of their other hooks.
Bigtoe (PC/Patron Machinist) had achieved name level finally, which by my reckoning gave him the ability to award not only material goods but also experience points for completing missions on his behalf. He offered the party some obscene amount of gold to retrieve an artifact for him, probably an amount that conventional wisdom says the DM should step in and say yo that’s too much but… nah. I just put it deep into enemy territory.
We sat around and shot the shit for a bit longer than normal, which was fun, but eventually I had to push them for a decision on the session’s goal. Mycroft wanted to do something less risky, like the ever-present Fallen Castle dungeon near Teutch’s tower. Cracaryn, the same player that plays Bigtoe, wanted to get the artifact (big surprise). Ellin didn’t care and Mycroft’s player buckled under the pressure and leaned into losing a character every session, declaring that they were certainly going to die.
The group set out to Teutch’s tower from Deinwick to pick up the treasure map in question. They encountered a deserter from the Deinwick army on their way back, kicking his heels over the rail of the Friendship Bridge. Cracaryn was concerned that he was gonna jump, but he was just chillin’. He was too high level to hench, so that conversation went nowhere and the party moved on.
I thought. Mycroft stopped at the end of the bridge and used gnome trickster ventriloquism to try to startle the guy into jumping in the river. Madness. Unfortunately the guy failed two saving throws and fell into the Teesar Torrest (the notMississippi). He didn’t make it. Mycroft cackled. When folks complain about murderhobos, pretty sure they mean Mycroft.
When the group got to Hillfort, the garrison at Hillfort shared a little about the local war efforts, which hadn’t been much up to that point, and nods were shared all around about how smart they were to avoid tangling themselves in that. They paid big to hire a ship to carry them upriver and drop them off on the opposite bank and started to the north into the Bone March.
Last session we had used the wilderness stocking table in Axioms 8 and everyone was over the moon with how successful and interesting and lucrative it had been. This session, Axioms 8 advised the table to hold its beer. I will summarize for brevity the events the table shared with the party this trip:
A shortcut clogged with corpses. Would have sped their trip some but not while having to pick through and over tons of meat.
A localized storm that reduced their travel speed.
A cursed copse of trees right at camp time cost several of their members like 6 points of wisdom, driving the loaner hench Kissare insane after being reduced to 0 wisdom.
A barrow mound that was avoided out of laser focus towards the goal.
A plague knocking half the party out for 4 weeks, leaving them to be carried by their horses like cargo. This is where they decided to turn around.
Another storm, even worse than the first causing damage and halting travel.
A wretched orchard of corrupted apples and peaches.
Another diseased field that left only Cracaryn and Taki able to move freely.
More terrible weather.
A field of comfrey that despite their current state Cracaryn stopped to harvest.
A kobold lair detected at distance and surprised, so the elf could evade.
The group was making progress back towards civilization, struggling mightily but with some hope. The bugbear ambush was insult to injury. Or disease. Or madness. Whatever. Twenty bugbears leapt out of the brush near the group and only Cracaryn was not surprised. The elf called to flee and won initiative, so he did just that. We randomly determined which reins of the cripples he had hold of which was only Kissare, so the two of them sped away. Ellin, Mycroft, and Taki were brutally murdered under a wave of bugbears and most of their comfrey was confiscated.
It was pointed out that maybe the diseased characters would pass it on to the bugbears that were eating them so yeah sure, I rolled some saving throws. Cracaryn was going to leave them behind but Ellin’s player reminded him that she had several magic items on her corpse. The ranger circled back under cover of night and observed that several of the bugbears had succumbed and been left on the side of the trail they took back to their campfires. Cracaryn executed them and then tried to figure a way to take on the remaining 9, but ultimately chose the better part of valor and fell back, eventually flagging down a passing ship to get them back across the river. He limped into Teutch Tower with an insane henchman and another notch in his PTSD belt.
Musings:
The wilderness chart is just awesome. There was some absolutely horrible luck this session, but many of the obstacles may have been overcome with a balanced group composition. There was zero planning for the session and spontaneously chasing an artifact into the furthest reaches of beastman held territory was a bold choice for such a session. Mycroft’s player hit ‘em with the “I told you so” and we joked about his schtick being two-session PCs, perpetually. Cracaryn’s player has yet to lose a PC, but his time is coming.
I was surprised there wasn’t more interest in the war efforts. Historically, player controlled patrons have been very generous with the PCs in Oberholt and shenanigan type sessions are usually more accessible to smaller parties. I think their last shot at Lord Talston and the fallout still had them gun-shy.
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