Annals of the Frozen North

It's not so long a trip as it is a cold one to the monastery in the mountain pass north of Trenova. The Sisters Gate is tended to by a sect of militant monks led by Sir Cedric and a coven of Sisters of Rora, the Mother of Mercies. They are welcoming and kind, provided you don't track mud onto their floors.

The small settlement is abuzz with the recent arrival and activities of an adventuring party, come north to aid the Sisters against the wicked critters of the wilderness. That aid was needed quickly, with a raiding party of Gwerian bandits driven off and a camp of ogres defeated before they could launch their own strikes at the soft targets of the surrounding farmhouses. But these battles were not without cost, several of the party's members falling in the fighting. The smell of their pyres still lingers in the air, the most recent bearing the warrior Davos who was felled by ogres in a heroic stand to prevent the beasts from raiding the nearby farms.

The leader of The Sundowners, as the band is known, is a Madran sorcerer named Nicanor. It appears their roster has had some turnover but they sit on a pile of ogre skulls and the spoils to go with them. After a few drinks, Arnth and Julius, the Sundowners' fighting men, share the tales of the party's origins in Vinovia and travels northward through brutal cold and frost giant ambushes, apparently learning of these things second hand as the brutal life of adventuring claimed their previous members one by one. The crusader of Jash, Flavius, rounds out the group and keeps to himself mostly, with his hunting hound "Dog" or "Hound" or "Hey you." I'm not entirely certain.

The Madran is a serious sort, studious and lamenting the loss of so many so recently, but the rest of the band's spirits are high. Warriors know to appreciate their victories as there's another battle just around the corner.

Dante of Vinovia
21st of Quickening, 28th Year of King Decius' Reign - The Sisters' Gate

Musings:

This is an ACKS II pbp game run by Arbrethil of Lord Eros Tyring fame in Oberholt. He is an expert in regards to ACKS and it's a pleasure to see him run the thing. We've had a bit of a stuttering start to the game, with the vagaries of pbp, holidays, and the like causing some hiccups.

Our first party delved the dungeon in the city we started in and was lost to a TPK. Reviewing our actions there led us to the consensus that we needed to be more decisive. We rerolled and folks wanted to hit the road after some hook about goblins to the north. I raised the concern that wilderness travel at low levels is risky but agreed to give it a shot.

A random encounter during watch cost us one warrior to charm magic. We tried to track him down and he nearly killed another of us so we let him go. He was effectively lost as a PC. Another random encounter cost us our first sorcerer. Then frost giants ambushed us and our explorer attempted to delay them so we could escape. We did escape but he was killed in the process. We finally made it and hit the dungeon with a few rerolls, only to run up against bandits on the way back raiding the monastery. We intervened with a little success, but lost another PC. Then the ogres and another lost PC after a conversation about risk/reward. We were pretty split on the wisdom of the fight but man, if we won it could be a real score.

It's been a deadly journey but who's to say we'd be doing any better in the initial dungeon? For my part as a player I enjoy pbp but sometimes the pacing feels slow. Fortunately it can be gotten to whenever and I've got plenty to do in the meantime. 

We've got a target dungeon or lair to investigate, we just keep hitting snags in the offing. Maybe this next delve will be the one that produces some real momentum.

Justice or Revenge?

January 13, 2X26

Sloane, Slaid, Guygiss, and I have spent the past few days securing Jenner's site for an ambush upon his expected return. We have a look-out schedule, established engagement plans based on approach, and a keen thirst for discovering more about this cell of lycanthropy plaguing our city.

A wagon approaches matching the description provided by the captive shopkeeper. It parks around back and we post up to engage upon their entry. Jenner exits with two bodyguards, one a thick fellow who stays by his side, the other a slender warrior who tends to the horses. Jenner and Thick approach the shop from the rear.

We leave the interior dark to draw them in, but Thick comes in alone to light a lantern. My Slumber spell is still able to catch them both, but only Thick succumbs to it. Guygiss cartwheels out to engage Jenner, followed by Sloane and Slaid. I rush to the rear of the workshop yard in case the final guard flees.

I hear the sounds of battle and by the time I regain line of sight, Slender joins Jenner and Thick on the ground. The headman is clasped in silver manacles while the others are executed as the monsters they are. We are eager to learn more about the cell's activity and if there are any children still in captivity, but Jenner is resistant to Slaid and Guygiss's interrogations. We deliver him to Jeremy at the Temple of Turas.

Slaid, ever the opportunist, convinces Jeremy to award us one of the buildings captured during the operation, provided we keep up appearances until the end of the month to draw in more cultists. The priest informs us that interrogations have revealed two other suspicious actors that warrant observation, MacFarland the Toymaker and Tandy's Leathers.

Our group plans our next steps. Fortunately, a gladiatorial bout is scheduled for the 15th where we expect to be able to observe the two new players. The rest of the group prepares for that while I retire to the Tower of Knowledge to scribe spell formulae into my spellbook. A magician's work is never finished.

January 15, 2X26

The arena is full and Slaid is bouncing with anticipation of the fight involving Scarface and his cronies who we captured some days back. Their punishment is to die on the sands of the coliseum. I wish the group well and pray to Istreus that the secrets of this cultist cell will reveal themselves to my compatriots.

My studies are interrupted when the party arrives some hours later to the Tower's grounds. Apparently, Slaid was dissatisfied with the performance of the gladiators and jumped from the stands to the sands, shooting Scarface dead. While a bold choice indeed, I worry that he will sooner than later cause himself trouble acting out of turn.

During the aftermath, Slaid discovered the horned rat tattoo among other gladiators, tracing it to a branding mark used by the Lanista Nicodemus. When Jeremy was summoned and the party mobilized to capture him in the stands, he had already fled, likely tipped off by the public interference in the bout. The team were here at the Tower to collect me en route to Nicodemus compound for questioning.

I join them, Guygiss and I slipping off to watch the rear entrance while Slaid, Sloane, and Jeremy of Turas make their interrogations. Apparently Slaid's blunt aggression causes them some difficulty with the Lanista and his staff. Jeremy is able to convince Nicodemus to allow a search of the premises, which turns up a shrine to Galmorm, the Great Poisoner, Cthonic god of Treachery. This is justification enough for the Temple to seize the location.

Meanwhile, Guygiss trails a furtive figure departing from the rear entrance to a tannery. After some observation, he returns and I join him. With unknown combatants within, we plan to secure the scene. This means different things to the strange little not-elf and me. 

My magic neutralizes the suspicious figure and shopkeeper in the front room. Guygiss enters to secure them and search while I watch the door. We are interrupted by a worker at the tannery and Guygiss knocks him out with a quickly produced sap. Unfortunately the scene gets more complicated as more workers try to push into the front room of the shop with others come around to the front. Guygiss produces a blade and fells the two near him, while the others flee, presumably to summon the guard.

Wolfsbane reveals only the first suspicious man to be a lycanthrope and I use my magic to stabilize the bleeding men, likely dupes similar to the other locations we had uncovered. Guygiss quickly interrogates the apparent owner of the shop and gets him to confess to cooperation with Nicodemus and some knowledge of questionable activity. When the guards show up, we are able to explain the situation and are relieved to learn that they are en route to Nicodemus' compound to execute the seizure of the property. We join them.

Despite Slaid's best efforts, he is unable to apply wolfsbane to any of the principals of the Lanista's staff, or even the Lanista himself, but the compound is locked down, the occupants arrested, and the rest left up to the Temple's interrogation team for now.

Musings:

We just keep winning, again able to control the battlefield with advanced knowledge and ambush tactics. Picked up a couple magic items too.

I was surprised that there was no immediate repercussion to a citizen joining the arena bout. I was surprised at how cooperative Nicodemus was in the search of his premises. I expected an ambush or at least resistance after Slaid's insults. It's possible the cell doesn't reach all the way to the top, but with the horned rat symbolism all over the compound I doubt that.

Jeremy is showing himself to be a cautious investigator, seeking more evidence than is satisfactory to Slaid's player, who immediately suspected him of being corrupt when he wouldn't just kick the door in and kill everyone in the Lanista's compound. We're still getting our feet under us in regards to expectations of setting, notably that NPCs have rank and status. City work is different than dungeon work. The tone is being established through play, which is the way. Don't tell, show.

While I like the idea of the building as part of our reward, I'm certainly hoping for some more cash for the xp attached. The Nobiran Wonderworker has an absolutely brutal xp progression. Either way, we're affecting the city in significant ways, earning a reputation among the Turas Temple, and having fun doing it. I'm ready for the next session.

Meal Team Six

January 10, 2X26

We are kinetic. The Temple of Turas supports our momentum, paying out a small reward for our previous efforts and offering logistical support to push further at the enemy and rescue the boy Nathan. I have a Wand of Slumber on my belt and fresh intel from the Temple's interrogation of our prisoners.

Guygiss, a slight "man" confused about his elven heritage, joins our party. He is quick and observant, volunteering to scout our advance at every opportunity, and shares a little of my aptitude with arcane magic. He fits our capabilities well.

The target location is what we believe to be the original store front of the lycanthrope's terrorist cell. We surveil the place early in the morning, finding little apparent activity. There is a poorly maintained rear entrance that our copied key works on. We breach and clear the floor, encountering no resistance.

The layout is the same as the prior location, including poison manufacturing paraphernalia in the lab above. Guygiss claims some aptitude with alchemy, specifically poisons, so he collects what he find use out of. He also discovers the key to the coded ledger we found hidden behind a painting. We stack up to clear the basement.

The scene is familiar, shackles on the wall and barrels stacked about, but there is no one here. After some time we locate a secret passage and follow it into a poorly crafted tunnel. We hear rats in the distance but encounter none. Slaid rubs against some goo on the wall and vomits in disgust. Guygiss correctly identifies the goo as a destroyed gelatinous mass. We carry on carefully.

A smokey, hazy window reveals sunlight ahead. I caution the party to halt, the prior goo causing me to suspect the window as something more. We hurl fire at it and destroy it, another mass of goo waiting to ambush the unwary. Unpleasant as it is, we dig through the muck to recover a bit of treasure and otherwise are stymied by the dead end, the "window" having been just a small hole illuminating the goo deceptively.

Sloane picks up a faint trail of feet arriving and departing back up the tunnel. Curious, and our only lead, so we follow. She takes us right to where the trail diverts directly into a wall, clearly a secret entrance, and it does not take long to locate it. We breach into a more well-crafted tunnel through which a handful of giant rats flee, likely as early warning for the wererat cell beyond. I quickly dispatch them with the wand and we carry on.

Guygiss reports contact ahead. I sneak up with him and use the wand to dispatch them as well. We verify with wolfsbane their affliction before eradicating the vermin. We are too few to effectively guard captive monsters.

The next chamber has seven enemies, again unaware of our presence. I pass off the wand to Guygiss and we both sneak forward, using a combination of the wand's final charge and my magic to neutralize the enemy. Again we dispatch them, unable to divert resources to guarding captives.

Guygiss hears the voice of a boy resisting abuse in the room beyond. We stack up and breach, nearly out of magical resources but resolved to save the boy no matter the cost. The foe resists my spell but Sloane knocks him prone and Guygiss makes quick work of him. The boy knows little of the operation, imprisoned as he is, but he is otherwise unharmed and we free him.

Up the stairs and into the main level of the building above us, we discover no further combatants. Slaid dupes the women running cover for the operation and we subdue the household. The master, Jenner, is suspected to be the head of the snake. The staff expects him back within a few days.

We report back to the Temple and have another net cast at the second location to capture any loose ends that may show up, while we maintain our position at Jenner's residence. The ledger implicates some well-known and positioned names in town, but that seems above our paygrade. We are resolved to destroy Jenner when he arrives. For now, we wait, crouched and ready to strike.

Musings:

Hunting season stole one of our players but he's back, reskinning a character from our childhood games, a terror of selfish criminal activity that I can only hope doesn't repeat itself. An elven nightblade's skill set fits what we're doing really well. We only lack some sort of outdoorsman/explorer type but so far we haven't needed it.

Session went well, pacing was good when we would stfu and focus on the game. We have a tendency to chatter, especially when the roster rotates and an absent player returns, but the point of all this is to hang with the homies. The game's just a welcome excuse. We ended on a bit of a hanging chad with the ambush but we were running out of session time.

I appreciate that the DM presents a scenario the elements of which act in plausible ways. He pointed out after the session that he had a good idea of the operation and expected us to potentially jack it up by being too aggressive or overt. Kicking in the front door or something. He did not lament our cautious approach. He may or may not regret loaning us a wand of slumber.

We've been lucky so far in that we can sneak up and ambush most of our enemies. I'll be interested to see how we hold up in an actual fight, but as a wise man once said, "I'll kill a man in a fair fight, or if I think he's gonna start one..." I'm not on a paladin this time to care so much about honorable combat. We're striking hard and fast and can hopefully maintain our momentum.

Allegany, City of Division

January 4, 2X26

There is a tension in the air. My time of waiting, of watching, has concluded. I am restless. Istreus, Master of Secrets, is usually content to let me ghost through the halls and streets of the city but there is now pressure to move, to act, to seek. I welcome the change after these many years.

It is the eve of the full moon and as such there is a gladiatorial event at the arena. The energy of the city draws me there and I find myself watching the crowd rather than the pedestrian battle on the bloody sand. I sense a desperation, a bloodlust, a frustration in the people of Allegany, Citizens and peasants alike. I do not know why.

As the crowds depart, I find myself deep in thought, contemplating what catalyst of unrest that hides from me. We meander out and disperse, many if not most diverting to the west and back to their peasant hovels while the Citizenry remains east of the river. A forceful shove knocks me from my thoughts as a brutish man, not so tall as me but much heavier, barrels past. The tension remains and I follow in his wake, curious but cautious.

The ruffian causes no small amount of offense, forcing his way through the crowd who for the most part grimace and mumble about low-born disrespect. I find two others stirred to action, a dapper performer, maybe even a skald by his arms and armor, and a small but fierce young woman bent on murder by the glint in her eye, apparently caused by the piece of jammy toast knocked from her hands. The fates are rarely kind, and this time is no different, the glistening sugary treat lying tragically jam-side down on the cobblestone of the avenue.

The bard, Slaid, is a local and driven to the edge of patience by the recent increase in hostility and uncouth behavior seen in the city. He accosts the offender, chastising him in every way short of physical violence, but is rebuffed by the scar-faced brute's remorseless indifference. The young woman, Sloane, grips her sword hilt and accuses him of ruining her lunch, to which he shrugs.

It appears we all share a common local pride in Allegany and a Citizen's duty to see the city prosper and I find myself suggesting to the man that he at least apologize to the lady for the jostling. He flicks her a copper piece with a smirk and departs. I am surprised to find Slaid nocking a quickly drawn arrow to his bow and I place my hand on his forearm to dissuade him from murder in the street, careful not to impede his aim should he choose to loose anyway.

Restraint and civility prevail, for now, and the bow is lowered. We follow the man into the Black Horse, a rough establishment frequented by brawlers and grapplers. Slaid is apparently no stranger to the place and takes the small stage, singing several songs aimed to publicly shame Scarface, who has joined two compatriots we dub Chucklehead 1 and Chucklehead 2. Sloane and I get drinks at the bar and try to learn a little about the unrest from the barkeep.

It does not take long to learn of the exploits of Scarface and his friends, troublemakers from across the river who spend their time around arena days scuffling, insulting, and disrupting the good Citizens of the city. We also learn there has been an increase in incidents, westerners evading the guard posts and crossing the river to the dismay of the easterners.

Slaid is a talented performer and the patrons of the tavern already hold a grudge against Scarface and his Chuckleheads. It does not take much to rile the mob, so to speak, and Scarface senses the danger. He and his friends back towards the door but Slaid dives off of the stage to thrash the man, landing a glancing blow with his elbow of all things before he is joined by the mob and the men are restrained.

The bard is like a dog chasing a cart, unsure of what to do should he actually catch it, but he recovers quickly enough and encourages the frustrated Citizens to drag the men outside and humiliate them by beating them with their own belts across the backside. He and Sloane confiscate their weapons and pocket lint and march off to the nearest Guard station to turn them in. I follow.

Harold and Sven the Guards know the men as regular troublemakers and agree to take the items to the Temple of Turas, forcing the men to make right their wrongs before their property is returned. Harold is a young man, excited to meet the neighborhood celebrity Slaid. Sven is older and strikes me as... off. I do not like Sven and do not care for his tone during the interaction. I suggest as much to the others as we depart, our civic duty concluded.

Slaid offers to ply Harold for information, leaning on his influence as a performer, to ease our suspicions regarding Sven. We learn that Sven takes frequent and unusual breaks during his shift, which the younger Harold is simply forced to cover for. We decide to establish a stakeout to see if Sven is up to no good.

Sven leaves and visits a shop on a street just the other side of the Wall from his post. Slaid is able to eavesdrop a little and it is as we suspected. Sven is clearly involved in illicit behavior, complaining of his bribes coming late and warning the unknown third party within of the attention garnered by Scarface. We even witness Chucklehead 2 visit the shack and collect their things, circumventing Slaid's clever plan for justice and implicating Sven even more.

January 5, 2X26

Slaid, Sloane, and I report to the Temple of Turas our findings regarding Sven and learn that the Guardsmen have been ineffective in policing this very issue as posed by the Lord of Law. The corruption may run deeper than we know. We are tasked with investigating and reporting our findings to which we dutifully agree. It is somewhat challenging to keep Slaid from reaching his hand out for payment every other word.

We establish a watch schedule, utilizing a room in a bathhouse across the street from the soap-maker's shop in question. We settle in for a stakeout, a long and boring but necessary process, and keep careful logs of the comings and goings from the place. Slaid infiltrates the staff, seducing one of the shopkeepers, and comes up with a rubbing of a key. The administrator at the Temple is able to have the key reproduced.

We also identify a shady figure who comes around late at night, entering through a wagon dock in the back of the building.

January 6-7, 2X26

Our stakeout continues. The shady figure visits regularly and we are establishing the targets' patterns of behavior. Slaid reports laborers seen in the back of the shop during his visits, one of them resembling Chucklehead 2, but if they come and go we cannot place how.

January 8, 2X26

Slaid, using his copied key, infiltrates the rear of the building through the dockside door. He overhears some chatter but is forced to leave before being discovered. He narrowly evades the shadowy figure on his nightly visit. We choose now to act.

We set an ambush one block from the shop along the figure's known path and easily subdue him, my ability to channel Istreus' will neutralizing him before he even knew we were there. We then move on the rear of the building and make entry. We quickly subdue the two other men in a central room, Chucklehead 1 and 2, again with my magic, before we clear the rest of the house and discover Scarface asleep in the basement.

Searching the building reveals all the trappings of a soap-maker's shop covering over a poison manufactory, primarily wolfsbane. The sprigs of wolfsbane found in Scarface's pockets after his humiliation now make more sense and a dread thought occurs to me. What if the wolfsbane is for more than poison? What if he uses it to protect himself from Lycanthropes? What if this cell is part of a larger attack on the eastern side of the city?

I rush with all of our evidence to the Temple and rouse the sleeping administrator. I am proud to say the priest represents his calling well, dispatching two of his Top Guys with doctor's bags full of werefighting implements. You see, we expect the proprietor of the shop to return on its opening in just a few short hours and aim to cut the head from the snake. Or wolf. Or rat. The werewoman, we are sure.

We stage the scene in the front of the shop as a customer, played by myself, chatting at the counter to one of the captured shopkeepers, pressed into service of the cell by the kidnapping of their son. She is all too willing to help since we aim to free her kin as soon as possible. The ambush awaits in the depths of the building.

Our target enters and begins making her way to the back which appears to be her routine, but something tips her off and she approaches me. No fool am I, I swat her on the nose with the bundle of wolfsbane held by my side, praying to Istreus that our suspicions are correct and she does not just stick a poisoned blade in my belly. Welts spring from her face and she flees into the building and the waiting arms of my comrades, who subdue and capture her with silver-lined shackles and the like. She is a lycanthrope, the cell is captured, and interrogation is to commence immediately to learn more of the operation and especially where the child is being held.

Musings

This was our first session of the new campaign, DM'd by Jes who has played Cassian/Farland/Legany at the table so far. We are using ACKS core setting this time instead of skinning everything Greyhawk, which should help keep us consistent with the material in the books.

The session went well, the self-declared rusty DM knocking off that rust as he went and my careful nudging towards action keeping us moving. The DM can confirm, but I suspect the situation developed out of a limited hook prepped beforehand as there was a chance we pursued any number of other endeavors in town. I was impressed with the agility of the DM to keep up with our investigation and keep the game going on a low or no-prep pace considering how long it's been since he's run. Like a bicycle!. 

Our efficiency as a playgroup with the new dynamic will tighten up with experience. We ran an hour over time.

Slaid - Bard 1
Sloane - Fighter 1
Caldor - Nobiran Wonderworker 1