Session 56: Of Course the Truck Can Swim
11/26/23-12/4/23, rest 12/5, active 12/6
PC: Alari, Zektel, Brumdor, Cracaryn
Hench: Elizabete, Mel, Demeko, Kushima
The party showed up without much planning so for the first bit of the session I ate snacks and listened to them go back and forth on what they wanted to do. They settled on a series of treasure maps advertised by one player’s two separate name-level PCs for various rates of return.
Part of this deal was the loan of a deuce and a half military grade truck that the machinist Bigtoe had developed for another Patron. When discussing what route the truck would take to the action, someone mentioned carrying it on a ship up river. I informed them that that wasn’t gonna be an option just before Bigtoe’s player told us the truck has a swim speed. Of course it has a swim speed. I missed that when approving the schematic however long ago which is one of the reasons my instinct is to tell players no. Every time, all the time. I’ve done well fighting that off because I think it makes for poor DMing but sometimes I find myself faced with something I probably should have said no to.
Anyway, the truck and an escort were going to meet the party in Northbridge to carry on while the party advanced at a faster rate to find Redcorn and pick up additional quests. This felt very MMO to me where they attempted to stack hooks from various sources based on location and efficiency. It’s smart use of the resources and time but I think something is lost a little in the execution of it.
Alari bought another bunch of donuts in Millon and made a joke about being the first fat elf which is now canon. Redcorn offered them some portion of a treasure map and a kicker if they’d take his first level cleric follower with them to get him some experience. With Cleric_01 in tow, the group left along the newly constructed Holy Road towards Newbridge.
Travel was pretty uneventful for most of the session. They got through Newbridge and across the river towards the first of their maps. Some kobolds were by a river and the critters were able to evade the party when confronted. Then they found a hippogriff lair in a storm-devastated copse of trees. Their map indicated that this X was the spot but hippogriffs are pretty mean and tough. The party bounced to go have daddy Redcorn solve the problem for them.
When it comes to searching for treasure maps, I usually roll to see what lairs are in the hex then randomly determine which lair has the map. Sometimes I do something weird but in general, the map leads to a lair. I think some DMs treat the map as unguarded or hidden, with the travel to get there counting as the adventure. That could be cool, but I haven’t done that yet.
While in Newbridge and waiting on reinforcements, the group was approached by a “Mr. Taylor”, a well-dressed fellow who offered them a bit of cash if they could orchestrate something bad happening to a heavy trebuchet that was purchased recently in Bellport. The group was curious but not overly moved to act until Redcorn arrived and offered them even more. This moved the needle and got added to their MMO quest log.
The high level cleric escorted the party back to the hippogriff lair, where he attempted to convince the creatures to join his weird menagerie situation in his domain at Millon. They were standoffish and agreed to speak with him only if they were provided with food for their entire nest of 10 hippogriffs. That’s a lot of food. Various PC level plans were tossed about, all framed around apparently delivering this food IMMEDIATELY. Buying some cows in the nearby town was OFF THE TABLE.
They spent the day hunting and eventually got a sufficient amount of deer, goats, and elk to bribe their way into the hippogriffs’ good graces. Redcorn was able to strike a deal and one day they’ll move over to his spot. In the meantime, the party was stymied because the treasure map led to the lair’s loot and the creatures weren’t giving it up. Fortunately, Redcorn paid them for the location of the lair and they returned to Newbridge.
Next on the list was to do a little vandalism. They left Cleric_01at the house because they were uncertain how devious they would need to be. The group’s thief henchman was able to track down the location of the warehouse but not much else on it, so they did a little live scouting. The guards on the place were alerted but the thief was able to escape. The group planned while rolls were made to see how the guards would respond.
This was an active Patron player’s location. I used his logs to determine what forces were available for security and who the leader might be. I knew how the response would go and when the PCs showed up after purchasing spell casts and such, we were ready.
The group had had invisibility 10’ radius cast on them, which took a little while to find a mage who wouldn’t ask questions about why they needed it. They approached the place and found it much more heavily guarded and alert than before, with many soldiers and some armored war dogs and hunting dogs sniffing about. They noped out and looked around the building, finding a smaller door in the rear that I rolled randomly for which was less heavily guarded. They waited until dark and ambushed the rearguard, achieving surprise and completely overcoming them before an alarm could be raised.
Rolls for discovery went their way and they made entry, absolutely coating the trebuchet that was stored within in military oil. By the time the dogs outside smelled the smoke, the group was out and running. I rolled for the leader to attempt pursuit or recovery of property and it came up property so they tried to put the fire out.
The PCs collected their payout at a counting house in the city then fled to Millon, where they got paid again by Redcorn and ended the session.
Musings:
This was a great example of how important logs are for Patron players that do not get input during session play. The owner of the trebuchet is fastidious with his logs, but there are a lot since he has quite a few irons in the fire. It took me a while to find what I needed but using his details and randomizing the blank spots got us an interesting encounter with implications immediately and for the near future.
The rest of the session was pretty standard. We started a bit late but the group pulled in a solid payday and no one died. It was mentioned that one of the players has yet to experience significant combat at the table. Every session that he’s present for is a city session or sneaky session or something. Interesting, maybe he’ll be here for the next dungeon delve.
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