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?