Session 71: Trials of a Different Sort

 Session 71: Trials of a Different Sort

5/19/24-5/22/24, rest 5/23, active 5/24

PC: Gwendolyn, Alex, Legany, Aldric

Hench: Madrof, Mahin, Amadayo, Godfrey, Steve

#ACKS

Lord Eros Tyring (Patron) had advertised a festival and series of trials to be held in his new domain of Arete. No small amount of resources were put into building a coliseum and luring PCs to his realm. The Paladin of Hextor has a bad reputation and maybe with some PC interaction he could show them his softer, less horrific side.

The PCs were interested because, hey why not? And also they were trying to sell an expensive project to any buyers on behalf of Bigtoe the Wombat (PC/Patron). They even spent the end of their previous session moving their characters into Arete so they’d be ready right when the festivities started.

Tyring’s player had developed a series of trials with simple mechanics to run during session and a list of NPCs to be interacted with. This worked out great so streamline the process.

Arete was a decent sized market (Class 4 by ACKS standards) but after some quick review of mounted combat (there was a jousting trial), the group found themselves severely lacking in military saddles. The search was on to pimp their rides. Unfortunately, they couldn’t source enough saddles. One player asked “Well surely there’s a street vendor hawking high demand items?” Uh, yeah, maybe. The dice revealed that there was indeed a black market saddle salesman overcharging for saddles. The PCs were rich and dgaf so saddles were acquired.

Gwendolyn the Bard was headlining the festival with 3 scheduled performances to close out each day. After all of the contestants were introduced in front of a roaring crowd, she took the stage and rocked the house, with some local urchins throwing confetti and goat pins into the crowd.

Some of the NPCs had conditional personality traits or actions depending on how the days progressed. The first was Lt. Jackhawk, a beady eyed mercenary who offered Aldric 300gp to throw the match. Aldric is a Paladin of Ehlonna and generally upstanding fellow, so he promptly turned him into the officials. Meanwhile, Legany was solicited by a barbarian named Wulf of the West to pay him off to throw a match. Legany gladly accepted and paid half up front.

The second day of the event was the start of the Trials. Gwendolyn sold walk-on songs to the contestants and hyped them up as they took their places. Legany requested “Let the Bodies Hit the Floor”, Aldric “Eye of the Tiger”, and Alex “What Would Brian Boitano Do?” The various other NPCs that participated let her expertise determine their hype music.

The First Trial was Fleetness of Foot, a foot race. The couple NPCs involved were ringers, with good proficiencies and stats to win the thing. Alex tried to trip up one of them, Derrick the Dancer, and was nearly discovered by the officials. More a test of endurance than speed, eventually the faster contestants got winded and Aldric was able to secure victory.

The Second Trial was Strength of Arm, arm wrestling. This event broke out pretty solidly along statistical advantages, with the very strong barbarian Legany winning the thing. We had our first tie of the event here, which was adjudicated by the host of the event Patriarch Halifax of Hextor, Lord of Arete and Tyring’s right-hand man. He simply chose Mahin the Lawful Assassin because he liked him more. Good to be the boss, but Mahin would eventually lose.

The Third Trial was Horsemanship, a joust and also the event where all the fixing was solicited the day before. Lt. Jackhawk was led away by officials before the event while Aldric the Narc looked on smugly. We were drawing names out of a hat to set brackets and this ended up with some interesting pairings.

First up was Alex vs Aldric. After a massive blow on the first pass, Alex conceded so as not to risk Mortal Wounds checks should he suffer another big hit. Legany was placed against Wulf, who happily flopped and Legany advanced. Round 2 had Aldric and Legany matched against each other, and after several tense passes, Aldric fell under Legany’s lance and was rushed to the infirmary, missing the rest of the contest due to his Mortal Wounds result. Legany would go on to win the event by unhorsing Sir Arthur Halleas, a Knight of Hextor from the interior who agreed to sign on as a henchman to the powerful barbarian.

The Fourth Trial was Skill of Mind, a wargame simulated using the Strategic Ability score from ACKS. Legany didn’t even bother to compete in this one, since it used Intelligence and Will modifiers. There were no shenanigans and none of the party were really built for this type of contest, so the NPC Elizabeth of Eastfair won easily.

The Fifth Trial was Prowess of Body, a martial duel. This was an absolute slugfest, with Alex getting knocked out and suffering Mortal Wounds and Legany going deep into the Trial before narrowly losing. The Trial would be won by an NPC Fighter named Drakon (pure coincidence, iykyk).

A big ceremony was held on the main stage and awards given, a crown and heavy purse of gold for each victor. This earned Legany the moniker “TwoCrowns” and a hefty bit of cash for winning two of the Trials. Gwendolyn took the stage and the PCs took the night to rest and recover.

Following the first 5 Trials was the final Ultimate Trial of Will. Everything was laughs and partying until this one where they learned the contest was who could stab themselves with a dagger the most times and survive. The dagger was a ritual dagger of Hextor and suddenly it got real dark. Aldric was determined to prove Ehlonna the stronger by winning this one, but would eventually fail the saving throw to keep stabbing himself. This event was also won by Drakon the Fighter, who was awarded a golden captain’s helm and an impressive chest of gold.

Tyring and Halifax hosted all of the victors and some plus one’s at a feast and then the party split. They wrapped the session up by chit chatting and doing a little shopping.

Musings:

Tyring’s player handed me a session, which is frankly one of the best reasons to have Patrons. When they get excited about a thing it can bleed into session play and have something with more investment from the whole campaign turn into great play.

I dropped the ball on some of the NPC roleplaying type scenarios which I’m finding I’m growing less interested in as time goes on. It’s impacting my DMing and I need to correct that for sessions like this, where it’s not objective-based adventuring. I should have done a better job with scenes and interactions. The players weren’t particularly interested in it either so maybe it didn’t matter, but I noticed it and can fix it going forward.

Session 70: A Pilgrimage, Part 2

 Session 70: A Pilgrimage, Part 2

5/6/24-5/17/24, rest 5/18, active 5/19

PC: Gwendolyn, Alex, Legany, Aldric

Hench: Madrof, Mahin, Amadayo, Godfrey, Steve

#ACKS

Continuing from last session at the entrance of a dark stairwell, the group formed up and descended. They found a very large room with intricate latticework walls of varied nature scenes. There were also large contraptions with big discs suspended from them. Eventually, Gwendolyn would learn through Loremastery that Laras Crofticus told tales of other devices like this that used smoke, sun, and other environmental factors to open secret passages or reveal treasure.

Having played a video game or two, the players quickly solved the puzzle, angling various mirrors to receive light and dissolving the northern wall of the chamber. They had to kill a spider and narrowly avoided combat with a stone giant statue during the solving, but otherwise it was pretty simple.

The northern wall of the room beyond was a very wide window into another place, a dark, elder forest. This scene shifted to a pastoral prairie when the party entered the room, clearly indicating magic of some kind. Two of the four columns were unbroken, depicting stylized versions of bears on their hind quarters. There was a dry pool in the center of the room with a large altar at one end.

Aldric immediately advanced and touched the magical scene on the wall. I knew the wall was a one-way portal but all these questions popped up. 2d6 determined that he was sucked into the scene and deposited thousands(?) of miles to the west. When they tossed a rope to him to pull him back another 2d6 determined that it was sheared off when they held one end. Aldric’s player immediately began rolling another PC.

Meanwhile, Legany and Godfrey inspected the altar devoted to Ehlonna, the goddess of woodland creatures and nature and such. Godfrey was a Crusader that followed Ehlonna, but Legany was not, and he triggered a defensive trap that animated the bears on the columns. Amadayo was nearly killed in one brutal attack routine, but otherwise the party defeated the creatures and carried on.

Glyphs in a language no one could read but were illuminated by Godfrey’s faith revealed that the portal on the wall was a one-way teleportation to scenes of natural significance to the Oerth. They also revealed that a significant sacrifice on the altar would allow the supplicant to shave years off of their life. This was a big find indeed and the target of their mission.

The group chilled until Redcorn’s troops arrived to secure the area, then bailed, traveling to Millon to get paid and then on to Bellport where they paid big money to get Aldric recovered through magic. The last stop was Tyring’s northern holding of Arete to position themselves for the Crimson Masquerade and the Trials of the Scourge, hosted by Halifax of Hextor, Lord Eros Tyring’s right hand man. The rest of the session the players did some admin work on Team B.

Session 69: A Pilgrimage, Part 1

 Session 69: A Pilgrimage, Part 1

4/28/24-5/6/24

PC: Gwendolyn, Alex, Legany, Aldric

Hench: Madrof, Mahin, Amadayo, Godfrey, Level 0

#ACKS

We began the session with a long talk about reserve xp and how the system works due to Flynn’s recent demise. Then the group launched on Team A to do more train salesmanship and chase a hook for Redcorn.

Travel to Millon was only interrupted by some zombies that were laid out in the road. When the party investigated they were ambushed! After the easily won fight, they tracked some footprints away from the scene to a small campsite. They scared the shit out of some scruffy looking guys but after some interrogation determined that the dudes were likely scavengers, not murderers. With no other evidence to follow, the group continued on their way.

Redcorn received them in Millon at his fortified monastery and gave them the hook. Some pilgrims needed escorting to a holy site that their leader had a map to. They were staging out of Northbridge and just needed some armed escort to go into the wilderness. The offered reward suited the party so they took the mission. They also convinced him to match the Baron’s commitment to develop a railway system which has been dubbed MARTA: Moving Armsmen Rapidly Through Aerdy. IYKYK.

Talston was recovering from the previous season’s hostilities under the care of Lord Delco, who agreed to see the party about the train. He matched the previous pledges and the party bounced.

EARS in Talston had apparently been turned into some kind of sweatshop, which Gwendolyn discovered after investigating some unusual behavior from the caretakers. She fired them and replaced them with fresh folk and a renewed mission statement for the noble EARS.

Issac met with the party in Northbridge about the train, but since it wasn’t a time sensitive thing I referred the party to Issac’s downtime player to hash out that conversation rather than run it as an NPC. The pilgrims were happy to see the adventurers and the whole lot of them took off the next day for the wilderness.

They found some more corpses, this time not animated, and then a pair of travelers that fled from them. This prompted a primal chase instinct in the party (apparently) and they ran them down on horseback, forcing a fight with what turned out to be a weird monster from ACKS called a Leyak and a charmed bodyguard. The fight was pretty tough but the party had all the advantages and won out.

It took a little while for the party to locate their target destination, but eventually they discovered a ruined temple complex the size of a small village. The whole place was gloomy and shadowed ominously by evil. The amphitheater in the center of town appeared to be the source of the gloom which was verified when the party destroyed the altar in the center. This revealed a staircase leading down into unknown depths.

Session time was late so we cut out there. The party is into the future beyond the next session date, so we’re gonna give it a run next week. If something comes up I’ll abstract their retreat back to Northbridge.

Musings:

Stopped play in a dangerous spot again. I swear there’s a way to make this work. ACKS Abstracted resolution will have to be used if something prevents us from playing next week.

Resources in the campaign are too plentiful given the unbalanced way that solo play was run for the first year or so. Implementing the changes from ACKS II will help some but I’m afraid we’re over the event horizon for any real impact to the established realms. I don’t fault the players involved, only myself for not recognizing it sooner. It's a small consolation that we’re not the only game that misinterpreted the way armies behave in the wilderness, leading to clearing for lairs that was much too easy and profitable.

Session 68: Here Come the Mummies

 Session 68: Here Come the Mummies

4/21/24-4/27/24, rest 4/28, active 4/29

PC: Valda, Zektel, Brumdor, Cracaryn

Hench: Arif, Zero, Taco

#ACKS

Team B made it back to Northbridge through Abstract Wilderness travel since the session last week ran late. Bigtoe’s representative who rescued them with the flat-bed truck failed to succumb to Brumdor’s negotiation and stuck firm at a 50/50 split of goods. She left with the items headed back to the Friendship Hills and the party stayed on to continue pursuing treasure maps.

Their travel to the first map location was annoyingly profitable, having great luck finding buried treasure and ore deposits and such. They even found and stole a fairy conclave’s mushroom ring that could double for iron rations.

Eventually they arrived at their destination, which turned out to be a small family cemetery with a mausoleum at one end. The cast-iron fence and gate was in surprisingly good condition but the rest of the place was pretty weathered.

Taco the thief was able to decipher some of the old script, dating the graves to 500-600 years ago. He also was concerned about mummies being nearby, so the group systematically desecrated the dozen or so graves in the yard, digging them up, stabbing the long-dead inhabitants, and then burning the remains in the holes. This took them like a day and a half but no random encounters interfered. They learned many of the bodies were buried alive by the claw marks along the inside of the coffin lids.

The heavy stone door of the mausoleum pushed in to reveal a small interior with eight slots for bodies. These were occupied by slightly better condition but still poorly mummified corpses that the party again desecrated immediately. No respect for the dead, I tell ya.

A massive tome bound in stone tablets and latched closed sat on a lectern at the far side of the mausoleum. Brumdor believed it to be mechanically trapped or something, so they devised a plan using rope, a horse, and Cracaryn to grab the book and get pulled away. Unfortunately, his neck didn’t break and they acquired the super heavy tome, stowing it on one of their pack horses. The lectern itself rose and slid to the side, revealing a crypt space beneath past a narrow cast-iron spiral stair.

Descending into the crypt below, the group found sarcophagi standing against each wall and double doors with a rising/setting sun motif decorating it. Painstakingly detailed precautions were taken to wrap each coffin in rope before opening them one by one. This revealed better preserved bodies with some grave goods inside. The only complication during this process was that some of the bodies were infested with murder maggots that sprung out at Valda and Cracaryn as they opened the lids. Good saves and a quick response from Zektel of Doctors without Orders rendered the potentially deadly situation trivial.

Through the double doors they found very finely crafted sarcophagi lining each wall of the next chamber, with a raised dais covered in treasure at the far end. Again they prepared to tackle the situation as methodically and safely as possible. They buffed up with magic and laid out a plan, then entered to execute it. Unfortunately, they tripped the trigger to awaken the inhabitants before they could apply any of their mummy-dampening measures.

Eight of the linen-wrapped undead sprang from the coffins and the fight was on. They’ve got a nasty fear effect on first contact but only one PC failed their save, so the group was able to bottle up at the entrance and slug it out. It took a long time, but Brumdor’s big AC kept those with spears able to attack safely from the second rank. Eventually the party destroyed all the creatures and looted the place, but the session was an hour over so it’ll be another Abstracted run to a town.

Musings:

I find lairs easier to improvise during session. I can envision them in their total theme easier than I can a dungeon, particularly one that’s being generated live. Makes sense since it’s a smaller situation.

I did better with the random encounters during travel. Updated my cheat sheet and practice practice practice.

A PC focused on Healing is a literal lifesaver. Doctors without Orders coming in clutch again vs. Mummy Rot.

I wonder what’s in the book?