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
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.
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