Session 80: Swamp Song

 Session 80: Swamp Song

8/11/24-8/17/24, rest 8/18, active 8/19

PC: Valda, Zektel, Brumdor, Cracaryn, Miquella

Hench: Bazam, Taco, Crom, Zero, Nicky, Randy, Ricky

#ACKS

Once more into the swampy breach! Team B was determined to clear those hexes for the big payout from Issac. They engaged in a little shopkeeping at the beginning of the session just to annoy the DM and then they were off.

A stacked-stone hut housed a handful of ogres who were torturing and eating captives inside. The party dispatched them easily, not even utilizing the troops standing at the ready to attack, which the mercs were ok with. They were still on duty and were still gonna get paid from the secret cache of loot the group dug up. Zektel also tended to the one survivor’s feet, a young woman in some kind of shock.

During their camp, the young woman was revealed to be a monster! Her head popped off and flew around, trying to scare everyone, and she threw some spells which had no chance to land because everyone’s saving throws are too high. The party killed it easily despite the shocking ambush.

Combing the swamp revealed a few lizardmen who evaded the adventurers, some ticks, some birds, and a giant prehistoric crocodile. This lair search happened at the same time as a dangerous terrain encounter hit, which was obscuring conditions. A heavy fog rose and the 40’ long 15 HD croc chose then to defend its lair.

Many mercenary crossbowmen got munched and Brumdor nearly got his face bit off. One of the new ranger henches lost a hand before the group was finally able to destroy the creature. They confirmed that it was the final lair for that hex and that meant mission complete!

The group bounced back to Riverstride, got paid for their efforts, then rushed out to Teutchland to deal with the pending sphinx situation. On their way through the swamp they saw some flying giant wasps buzzing overhead that were perfectly happy to fly on by. Miquella the Bard launched into Tool’s Swamp Song to inspire courage in his teammates in case there was trouble. I rolled to determine whether the wasps cared about that. Apparently they weren't Tool fans and attacked.

Their paralyzing stingers were pretty brutal and they were able to scoop two henches and try to carry them off, even implanting an egg in one of them. The party’s ranged attacks were too powerful though and thanks to Zektel’s massive healing ability everyone recovered fine. The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful and we ran out of session time as they arrived in Teutchland. The next Team B session will be staged to definitely not be killed between the two warring sphinx prides of Meowster Mittens and Simba.

Session 79: Portal Allergies

 Session 79: Portal Allergies

8/4/24-8/8/24, rest 8/9, active 8/10

PC: Valda, Zektel, Brumdor, Cracaryn, Vidimir, JP

Hench: Nicky, Crom, Zero, Taco, Bazam, Rich, Ricky

#ACKS

Our, ahem, heroes continued their quest to clear the swamps near Issac’s stronghold at Newbridge. They added two new members to the group in Vidimir the Paladin and JP the Venturer. They also spent valuable session time recruiting henches and soldiers. I prefer to handle tedium in downtime so they can roll stats and such for henchmen and then be ready to go at session, but if they want to spend precious adventuring time doing it during the game that’s ok, too.

The group and their small army of mercs departed for the swamps and got to work, finding a nice little safe haven spot to camp in, a short encounter with some dire wolves, and a strange shining metal spire in a large shallow bowl. This would end up taking most of their attention during the session.

The bowl was dry but scummy from exposure. The spire itself was tall and thin, with a slight widdershins twist to it. JP, with the boldness of a first level PC with nothing to lose, approached and searched it over. He could find no doors or symbols, but discovered that the bowl and spire appeared to have no seams as if they were one piece. 

The rest of the party got the courage to search around, clean off sections of the bowl, and experiment with some spells. They found a strange script that appeared to be instructions but they couldn’t parse them. Zektel also discovered that the bowl hummed in response to the rhythmic chanting of his Shaman spells.

JP got the idea to sing, which revealed a faint outline of a doorway on the spire. As more of the party joined in his inspiring rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, the door became more pronounced, eventually fading away to a rectangular opening filled with bright white light. Valda moved to inspect it carefully but was a little put off by JP just brushing by and walking into the light.

Maybe I lean on the trope of portals too much. We see a lot of them in this campaign for whatever reason. I like them as a tool to introduce different elements to the setting by traveling to other parts of the same world or even other worlds, but the players are wary of them and rarely (never?) engage as a group. This was no different.

Zektel and his henchman Bazam followed JP into the light, but no one else did. The two bold adventurers found themselves in a hilly forest of unfamiliar trees. They realized the wildlife was different here in subtle ways and knew they weren’t in Kansas anymore.

Much discussion followed about what to do with the portal, ending with the main group retreating to Newbridge. They needed a mage high enough level with the right repertoire to cast scry and teleportation to find and retrieve their missing comrades. Yeah right no way that happens. I left it to my trusty 2d6, which maxed out in their favor. Vidimir’s perfect Trump impersonation (and solid charisma) recruited the mage, True Patriot, into aiding the party.

Vidimir the Paladin, probably

The group escorted True Patriot back to the spire. Meanwhile, the spire side group explored a little and cast some spells, with JP eventually just marching off in a direction. The venturer was not accosted by any random encounters but he did discover an old battlefield gravesite. He searched around but didn’t find anything so kept it moving. When the mage arrived through the portal, Zektel turned into a giant hawk and retrieved JP, despite his protest, and delivered him to the spire.

There was some confusion from the mage when JP refused to accept his help, but he had already been paid so whatever. He teleported Zektel and Bazam back to his sanctum and returned himself. The party linked up and after a brief discussion about JP decided to write him off and keep on their quest. I chose to determine just how the 1st level Venturer would fare in a strange land in downtime so as not to slow the primary group with split party shenanigans.

Random encounter tables are so interesting. The next encounter I rolled a lair, with a unique terrain feature, with a portal. Again. I don’t know the statistics of how likely that is but it seems low. Anyway, I knew from 2 years ago that there was a specter lair in this hex. I also knew that I wasn’t going to have two portals right next to each other, but I could add something portal affiliated. So the head specter wore a crown of silvery metal similar to that of the spire.

The undead rose from the swamp at the rear guard of the marching army and moaned threateningly. The mercs, knowing they could not fight spirits without magic weapons, fled. The party engaged and defeated the undead, including the PC Bralen who had been killed and turned years ago, after a long fight. Most of the group was enervated, the replacement mechanic for level draining in ACKS II. It’s now a slow death of lost HPs over time unless they can stack Death saving throws together. A race to the grave.

They found a mausoleum with treasure but it was too late to let them roll it all at the table so I’ll do that in downtime. It was a great session with weird twists and I’m eager to see what happens next.

On The Shuckstein

The Shuckstein was played on 8/7/24 in the Dubzaron campaign and run by the incomparable Bdubs. The event was set in the Sepia Uplands region, a barbarian stronghold with a large capital city that could justify the presence of The Shucked Oyster, some house of ill-repute from a PDF merchant. I was not looking forward to the degeneracy from a module based around a brothel. Imagine my delight when the session opened with it burning down!

That delight faded when some pimp and hooker showed up, fingered the PCs as the arsonists, and fled the scene as the authorities moved in to arrest us. My PC was Warchief Einar Fann, a barbarian warlord sworn to the service of the region's ruler. I hit 'em with the, "Do you know who I am?" When that didn't work I knew something was amiss, confirmed by the LT of the arresting squad's bloodlust. A short battle ensued wherein a handful of mercs tried to apprehend an adventuring party. Some of the party chased their fleeing accusers while the remainder resisted arrest.

I'm not great at these Diplomacy style games. I'm a direct player and don't utilize subterfuge well. Bdubs knows this and when my dumbass Barbarian dropped a cursed helmet of alignment change on his dumbass head months ago, the DM turned it into a hook to serve Surtur, the Norse Fire Giant deity, in order to force me into conflict. I've been playing into that betrayal for ages trying to keep it secret while working against the party to free Surtur from his prison beyond the curtains. I was even able to convert the most suspicious PC in the party with another helm before he could find any proof and out me to the Lawful and/or vengeful members of the party. The dungeon exploded before I could realize any other plans.

The players in Dubzaron, including myself, are cooperative. I'd started being less so during sessions and was standoffish to friendly PCs during the opening sequence of The Shuckstein, especially Xanthos the Lawful cleric and Standing Mountain the elf. Once we defeated the charmed LT, me and my henches grabbed him up and split towards my moderate sized army camped outside the city. I was second-guessing the decision to separate here as I know convergence brings resolution but with no ground to go to, unknown factions at work, and no faith in local forces to recognize my rank, I didn't have much choice.

Interrogating the LT confirmed my suspicion that he was charmed. When Xanthos showed up to inquire about him I turned him away to "come back tomorrow" to cast spells and such. I let him believe I had tortured the captive to death. My plan was to keep him as insurance in case the authorities came after me for real.

In the meantime, I sent a message to the Great Hall of Warchief O'Conner but he hadn't been seen for days. Uh oh. If Kyle was compromised, this whole thing could go tits up. I immediately asked whether security looked to have suffered in his absence with the intent to just take control of the city. Alas, it seemed the day to day operations of the place were still running smoothly.

I met with Jalaan who had the charmed Tuck and Doc in tow. I guessed his identity as Slenderman and he dropped the charade. He told me he was going back to Barsoom if he could get this evil altar and free Surtur. I wanted to free Surtur. I wanted Slenderman gone. Sounded great! If he betrayed me I'd just kill him or die trying. We got beef.

I needed to get back into the action so I let Bdubs know I was gonna find Lambert. After some delay I just asked Lambert's player if he could be found. Since he wasn't hiding and was looking for me too we met in the middle. Einar and Lambert had a professional relationship from session play but translating that into an event like this is difficult.

We met and neither offered violence. I implicated the cleric or the elf as the arsonist and turned over the captive as a gesture of good faith. Lambert agreed to arrest them and interrogate them to get to the bottom of it. Great, elves suck and Xanthos was the only PC able to discover my cursed helm. Win/win for me there. It was also agreed that I would "hang back" so Lambert's authority wouldn't be suspect when we arrived at the ruins of The Shucked Oyster.

Lambert and his crew went in hot to an ongoing battle. I crept up with my troops as perimeter security in case anyone tried to slip out the back. My goal here was to get the altar which was Svetlana's. I was also going to kill anyone that got in my way, especially if I could do it without witnesses. I no longer needed the party to delve the Queen's Rest dungeon since it exploded.

Some glittery silhouette showed up, I chopped it in the face, and it hit me with fear magic. My henches cured me and put it down, revealing it to be Svetlana herself. Xanthos ran around the corner into the alley, but the other part of the fight was over before I could kill him, too. I sent my thief to sneak into the ruins while Lambert was arresting everyone. He found the altar but it was too big to steal.

I wanted to kill Slenderman on the way to the mountain once we got clear of the city but it was too late in the night to run another combat. When he didn't immediately go back to Barsoom on Surtur's release I knew I shoulda forced it. I claimed violence then and there to be resolved at some later date in downtime.

The session was a fun way to resolve my particular loose thread from months of session play and rattle the status quo of the campaign world. We'll see if this Always Braunstein Daily takes off.

Session 78: The Ballad of Princess Grogdalene

 Session 78: The Ballad of Princess Grogdalene

7/21/24-7/26/24, rest 7/27, active 7/28

PC: Gwendolyn, Alex, Legany, Okiedoke

Hench: Amadayo, Mahin, Em

#ACKS

Lord Eros Tyring had been trying to recruit and interact with PCs for a long time. That finally culminated in a plan to rob the paychest of the presumed BBEG Warval the Orc Warchief, King of Spinecastle. It had been in the works for weeks if not months, but the revelation that we were to have another wargame event soon accelerated the timeline I think.

The goal of the heist was to use magical disguises as hobgoblins, plant specially minted coins in the Spinecastle treasury, get aid from magical Scrying on those coins, then finesse their way into the vault and escape with as much loot as they could carry via magical potions of teleportation. What actually happened is… well…

They had a guide to the suspected location in Tyring’s henchman Lucky Bill the Explorer. He kept them from getting lost and increased their chances to evade encounters, which they did on a few occasions. Disguised as Hobgoblins, they assumed they’d be safe from Chaotic enemies, but that’s not really how Chaos works. It eats its own. I ran reactions in a much more swingy way than I would for human vs human, with results being more extreme, but fortunately for the PCs they generally went their way.

There were some terrain encounters that they ignored due to not wanting to be distracted. An orc warband showed up during one night’s camp only to bully into the campfire light and strike up their own camp. The party was able to learn a little bit about the area from them. Then they got to the swamp.

Hello, fellow beastmen!

They forced a march to try to get through it all in one day. A checkpoint of wererats shook them down for a toll which after much griping the PCs paid. Alex wanted to kill them all but the others weren’t keen on risking lycanthropy. They also ran across a pair of Cyclops who were looking for their lost sheep. The adventurers assured the giants that they hadn’t seen the livestock and carried on.

They bypassed a suspected lizardman stronghold and good reaction kept them from being challenged. Nearly out of the swamp, Lucky Bill missed the roll to discover a Viet Cong style pit trap along the road. The third rank of adventurers fell in and it was a doozy, 30ft down onto disgusting slimy spikes. Okiedoke the assassin was killed outright while Mahin had only a few hps left. They found some treasure from other poor saps and dragged out the victims. Some talk was had of using the dead adventurer as a war trophy to boost their “tribute” to Warval, but the other henchmen balked at the idea. They burned Okiedoke’s body once they exited the swamp.

Along the road to Spinecastle were about half a mile of crucified PC-playable races… humans, elves, dwarves, etc. There was a saving throw forced after walking some distance but no one knows why. Spinecastle itself was huge with tall, formidable walls and the primary tower itself rising from the middle like Saruman’s tower Orthanc, complete with the wide pit of industrial shenanigans. Around the tower was a thriving city of Chaos, a bizzaro world of slavery, pit fighting, and crime dressed up as civilization. The players were shocked at the scale of both the city and the massive army camped to the south and west.

The kobold gatekeepers interrogated them briefly but Gwendolyn easily bluffed her way by. Bearing a pass sealed with human slave blood, they were admitted into the city. They found a room and avoided the sketchier foodstuffs on offer, eventually settling for what they could convince themselves was “mutton”.

So far so good. They were in the city with their “tribute”. They just needed to deliver it and hope it made it to the vault. Off to the tower, where their pass allowed them entry to wait in a queue of petitioners also come to pay tribute to the Boss. They met a necromancer named Also who condescended to them as the stupid hobgoblins that they were. They did not like Also and tried to make a bunch of puns and wordplay goofy responses to him but he didn’t get it and continued with his melodramatic putting on airs. 

Most of the other supplicants had war trophies which made the group’s lack a point of anxiety, but a hefty bag of gold is universal. Also disdained their gold and showed his tribute, plates and cups and chalices and candlesticks of gold and silver. Certainly more impressive looking but as to value who can say?

When their time came they were ushered in and announced by a human female of some rank by her dress referred to only as the Herald. When asked for names to be announced the players froze and stuttered out gems like Princess Grogdalene of the Grok Tribe, Alex Kicked-by-Mule, Daddy Kicked-by-Mule, and Firesucker.

Warchief Warval was impressive for an orc. He was larger but not some giant and possessed a clear level of intelligence unseen before in any orc the party had ever encountered. He also had a strange brand on his forehead. During the short interaction, Princess Grogdalene implied that the “Grok tribe of the northeast” had many warriors and they wanted to join the war effort. This tribute was a small fraction of what they could bring. Charades happened over the table as players gave Grogdalene (Gwendolyn) hand gestures for suggestions of how many troops the tribe had. “5… 500… 5000! Yeah 5000 troops!” 

This staggeringly high number from a tribe no one had ever heard of made Warval suspicious, but he’d love to have them if they were real. So he “offered” for the party to stay in special rooms in the castle and for Princess Grogdalene to fly out by wyvern the next morning and bring the chief of their tribe for a meeting. Uh oh.

A weird black shadow/spirit thing took the gold tribute and the party was led to their definitely-not-a-prison-cell suite of rooms. The accommodations were nice, but in the way an outdated family restaurant is nice. Fallen far from the original. Two orcs stood guard outside, also clearly superior from your run of the mill beastman. When queried for dinner orders and such they responded professionally and mumbled the orders without leaving their post. Goblins arrived to deliver. They had remote comms of some kind.

A lot of planning and indecision started here. The advanced timeline took away the team’s ability to finesse the situation. They had to pull the heist before Grogdalene was forced onto the back of a wyvern. Eventually they settled on seducing the orcs to lead them on a tour of the castle. The first team of orcs resisted the foolishness but their relief bought full into it, flattered by the flirtation.

Eventually the group was able to con their way to the ground floor of the pit where the vault was for a “quick look”. The orcs were clearly uncomfortable and assured the party that they’d have to leave after they saw the “doggies”. Their scrying overwatch had told the crew that there were giant demonic dogs guarding the vault door so one of the players brought some ham hocks from dinner. 

When they approached the vault door flanked by the giant canines, the orcs said, “Ok you’ve seen them, that's it we’re leaving.” But Okiedoke’s player had taken on one of the henchman, a female mage played like a dumb white girl who tries to pet the bear. She ran forward with the ham hocks, “I’m gonna pet the doggy!” The supernatural “dogs” immediately saw her as a threat and the fight ensued.

The orcs were caught off-guard by the suicidal mage. They set spears against a charge and called for their bff Grogdalene to get her party to the lift. The hench scrambled back and threw the hams into the hands of the orcs. The one dog that was engaging chased, the other remained on guard.

Legany rushed to enter through the vault door which was ajar enough for a single man-sized creature. The party knew through their overwatch that there were at least two humanoids inside and the barbarian was going to kill them quick. Unfortunately he ran across the ward on the ground and failed his save, succumbing to magical paralyzation and sliding into the vault.

When others arrived they found the weird humanoids looking down at him. One of them executed the helpless barbarian while the other unhinged its jaw and blasted them with a cone of sonic damage that was enough to terrify them. This fight had gotten out of hand quickly.

Illusion kept one of the dogs engaged while the orcs and the other dog confusedly fought each other. The orcs miraculously passed all morale checks, even after one of them was killed in a single blow. Alex snuck into the vault while invisible, Mahin went down to the humanoids, and the heist turned into an emergency evacuation.

One of the teleport potions was used on Legany’s corpse, which I ruled would not work since he couldn’t metabolize it. He went from an entity to equipment, so the hench added him to her inventory and used her own potion. Mahin’s potion was poured in his unconscious mouth, with Amadayo and Gwendolyn following shortly after. Alex was left alone, invisible in a vault whose door had just been closed.

Having looted for a few rounds and not wanting to risk another blast from the weirdos, Alex grabbed a last handful of treasure and cursed them with what had become the convention of the dialogue for the session, “Grok you, mother grokers!” He drank his potion before they could respond due to really high initiative.

The party ended up in a bloody pile in an undisclosed location with heavy casualties and an unknown amount of treasure.

Musings:

The travel out there had some really interesting potential but the group stayed on task and were not distracted. I was impressed.

The heist, on the other hand, was a disaster, but Warval was clearly onto them and they chose to carry out a frontal assault rather than try to escape. It was a fun session, with a lot of shared laughs that these AARs can’t really share properly. Now I've got to roll what treasure Alex was able to escape with beyond the things that he targeted specifically.