John Biles Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 The Party, all young adults initiated two years earlier: 1. Robby Flay, Troll Trickster searching to recreate the perfect meal he had during his initiation 2. Mercutio, A Seshnelan whose village was wiped by raiders and ended up in Dragon Pass as a priest of Lhankor Mhy (home brew class posted on this forum.) His purified grimoire gave him reskinned Magic Missile as an at-will, which he used a LOT. 3. Bill, a Duck Humakti whose father, a great Duck General, was slain by the Lunars during the Duck Hunt 4. Sanria, an Elf raised by the Ernalda Priestesses, who is now an Ernalda Priestess 5. Thumpson, Half-Orc Wind Lord, who was found in a mysterious cosmic egg as a baby and no one knows what a 'half-orc' is, since he seems to be entirely present. What ensued was a scenario where everyone tried to figure out their abilities and I, the DM, screwed up and had made encounters too brutal for them, though technically not overpowered. I had created weaker Tusk Riders, but they came in a pair of a level 1 troop and a large level 2 troop. So two riders and two boars and that was far more brutal than I realized. The PCs had to scout in the woods around the men's initiation for the year, protecting five boys. They stumbled on the tracks of two tusk riders and their mounts, who they followed and ambushed. Sandals of Darkness proved a brutal power for Thumpson, as he basically vanished just before the attack and on round 1, cut one of the riders in half. A brutal fight ensued in which we learned: The lower access to healing was brutal. The trickster, the windlord, and the humakti all got knocked out at least once. Feckless strike is a really good power. Tricksters in general seem very effective. The Earth Priestess basically sucked. Possibly none of us understood how to use her, but she was mostly worthless unless she used a daily. She was awesome at negotiations, though (Charisma 18 and a +3 relevant background.) All the other PCs did well, but I'd made the encounters too hard. They did win, alert the Blue Quartz Clan, and get help from another clan; next time, I'm going to add a healing oriented NPC (a reskinned cleric of Chalanna Arroy) to help them and avoid any large creatures until they have more HP. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Biles Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 Session 2: Okay, so the PCs joined the Blue Quartz and their allies the Green Snakes and fought some Tusk Riders. The PCs invoked the Harmony rune to help the Clans cooperate, invoked the Man Rune to have some wandering trolls show up and eat some of the Boars of the Tusk Riders. And used the Air rune to hamper enemy missile fire. The PCs had a fight with a bunch of footmen and that went reasonably well, save for Thumpson, the Wind Lord, forgetting to use his Sandals of Darkness. Afterwards, they went to go check on the boys and see if they made it to Uncle's Lodge, only to find that a group of outlaws had captured the boys and planned to haul them off to sell as slaves. An intense argument ensued in which the PCs decided to send Sanria, Priestess of Ernalda, to negotiate. She scored a critical on her diplomatic roll and talks them into accepting a small fee for 'protecting the boys during their initiation' along with a bath and some food and moving on. It was the greatest moment of the night. We then skimmed over Sea Season in which they helped out with the sowing of crops and other clan tasks, then in Fire Season, they headed for Clearwine to trade loot from the Tusk Riders for Clearwine and special seeds for next year. They encountered an area of burned chaos plants; the Trickster took some seeds because, well, Trickster. They then met a patrol which warned them that the Oak Leaves Clan was having huge internal discord and they might want to detour. Instead, they went in and found that a marriage to reconcile two clans had been disrupted because the bride was pregnant by a guy from a third clan. The Ernalda Priestess talked them into reconciling and bringing a lawsuit against the third clan. They beat some Stone Crabs, but the Trickster used the seeds as part of one of his flustering attacks. This will come back. Then they reached Clearwine and the Issaries they escorted made the deals. The Priestesses asked the Ernalda Priestess and the Trickster to be part of a small Heroquest. Because I had not planned enough, Ernalda now has a daughter named Cynthia, who they saved after Eurmal lost her in the woods. They got lost trying to find her and had to save Barntar from an alligator. They talked the alligator into trading Barntar from fish; the Trickster dove into the water, caught a bunch in his mouth (he's a troll) and spat them into the alligator's mouth. Greatest Troll moment. They found Cynthia and the new plant and brought her home. A very simple quest. They started home and had to fight chaos vines where the Trickster used those seeds. They burned the vines and hoped they'd fixed it and we ran out of time. That's where we stopped. On 3/11/2024 at 5:07 PM, John Biles said: Ignore this, I can't get rid of it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Biles Posted April 2 Author Share Posted April 2 (edited) This is a heroquest which may happen in the next session or the one after that: Odayla and Yinkin Flush the Game Step 1: Odalya and Yinkin know the game are hiding from them; they must go into the wilderness and find the game. This is a simple huntng skill check, DC 15. If they make it, they go to step 2. If they blow it, they end up in Step 1 - B. Step 1-B: Ogre Ambush They encounter three hunters, Ivar, Corwin, and Blarin. They are *Ogres*, but only Ivar is a full-power one. Corwin and Blarin are less potent. They invite the PCs to a feast. The PCs must beat DC 15 for someone to realize it's a trap. If they eat it, they are dazed (save ends). Then the Ogres attack. DC 20 to see through disguises. Ivar Once a member of the Fire Flowers, he went cannibal in his initiation and is now a low-level priest of Cacodemon Large 3rd level leader [humanoid] Initiative: +5 Spear Thrust +8 vs AC - 21 damage Grab +8 vs PD - 14 damage and grabbed (DC 15 to break free on Strength.) Bite +8 vs PD on a grabbed foe - 21 damage and 5 ongoing damage 😄 Encourage. Quick Action 2/Battle. Blood Drink: Whenever his foe takes ongoing damage, he heals twice that amount. Haunted by Victims: His dead swirl around him; while he lives, he has resist 11+ against weapon damage... but when he is staggered, they chew on him and he takes 4d6 damage. AC 19 PD 16 HP 90 MD 12 Corwin and Blarin Seduced by Ivar, they now serve Cacodemon and wish to grow in power; this is a heroquest for them to gain gifts from Cacodemon. 1st level Troop (Humanoid) Initiative: +5 Spear Thrust +8 vs AC - 5 damage Natural 16+: They also inflict 5 ongoing damage. Blood Drink: Whenever his foe takes ongoing damage, he heals twice that amount. Haunted by Victims: His dead swirl around him; if he reduces anyone to zero HP, he gains resist 11+, but any attack on him does +5 damage. AC 17 PD 15 HP 27 MD 11 However, if the PC playing Yinkin is staggered, Orlanth intervenes and each round on Yinkin's turn, he drops a lightning bolt on whoever last hit that PC - +8 to hit and it inflicts 10 lightning damage; it attacks Ivar if it has no Yinkin-hitter to smite. After this, they can try to find the right way, DC 15. Blow it twice and they drop back to reality. Otherwise, go to 2. Step 2: Disguise themselves as Deer and infiltrate the herd. DC 15; failure means they may be trampled for +8 to hit AC and 10 damage. Passing out or failing 3 times means you drop out of the Quest. Step 3: Guide them to a watering Hole. DC 15 again; failure means they may be trampled for +8 to hit AC and 10 damage. Passing out or failing 3 times means you drop out of the Quest. Step 4: Hunt the game! Everyone makes a DC 15 check; the more success, the more game. Only there is one problem. After everyone rolls once... DC 15 to hear trouble coming. 6 Hungry Bears rush in to devour the deer; Odayla can use charisma skills to convince them they don't have the right (DC 20), otherwise, you have to fight them. 6 Bear They flee once 3 bears are dead. 2nd level troop [beast] Initiative: +4 (Average) Bite +7 vs. AC—6 damage Natural even hit: The target takes +1d6 damage from a claw swipe. AC 18 PD 16 HP 36 MD 12 But if you can beat them... you can eat them! They effectively add 1 success per dead bear to the hunt. (A neighboring clan lost all its adult men and has only old men and children for males, though it has a full set of women. They need this done to initiate some hunters and each PC gets paid a cow for it.) Edited April 2 by John Biles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Biles Posted Monday at 08:57 PM Author Share Posted Monday at 08:57 PM (edited) Session 3: Team PCs continued escorting the caravan home; they had to fight a force of raiders from the Blue Axes, a war clan. Blue Ax Raiders These guys come from a rival clan. What they really want is the Clearwine. But violence is okay too. 2 Blue Ax Heavies 1st level striker [humanoid] Initiative: +3 Great Axe +6 vs AC - 5 damage Natural 16+: They inflict 5 ongoing damage (save ends) Critical: They also push the target adjacent to an ally, who gets a free attack. They then move to engage another foe. AC 17 PD 15 HP 27 MD 11 8 Amateur Blue Axe Raiders 1st level mook [humanoid] Initiative: +3 Axe +6 vs AC - 4 damage Natural 16+: They can disengage and move to another foe within nearby. R: Shortbow +6 vs. AC—3 damage AC 17 PD 15 HP 7 (mook) MD 11 Mook: Kill one mook for every 7 damage you deal to the mob. Blue Axe Leader 2nd level Leader [humanoid] Initiative: +7 Battle Ax +7 vs. AC—6 damage Natural even hit: He commands a nearby ally to make a basic attack. During the distraction, he moves to engage the same foe. AC 18 PD 16 HP 36 MD 12 Blue Ax Shaman of Kolat 1st level caster [humanoid] Initiative: +6 Staff of Winds +6 vs. AC—4 cold damage 😄 Burst of Winds +6 vs PD (1d3 targets) - 3 cold damage and the target is pushed to nearby range and is now prone R: Focused Wind +6 vs PD against 1 nearby target - 5 cold damage and dazed until the end of the Shaman's next turn. AC 13 PD 13 HP 27 MD 17 The Heavies and the Amateurs rushed the PCs, who had several strokes of luck. Bill (Humakti Duck) got lucky with one of his powers and hit the mooks which attacked him three times. Thumpson (Troll Windlord) also began smashing the mooks up. By the end of round 2, all the mooks were down and the other guys ran for it; they will be ransoming their captives to the Blue Axes later. They got to the tula, then discovered it had been invaded from the land of their neighbors, the Golden Ospreys, by Chaos Weasels. These guys are based on an article from one of those men's adventure magazines from the forties and fifties. Being chaos weasels they were covered with feathers and the players briefly feared Velociraptors were attacking them. But they chopped up the weasels and delivered the clearwine and were rewarded with a silver armband for each PC (worth 20 gold coins or a cow). They then went to see the Ospreys, who apologized for the incursion slipping through. They basically are a clan in very bad shape. A peace clan, they offended the Lunars and lost all their men of adult age; they now have only old men and boys, though they kept most of their women. Their chieftaness is an Ernaldan and they only have 4 Vingan thanes and two barely initiated boys (Orlanthi). They asked the PCs to help initiate some boys into Odayla and Yinkin in the Heroquest I posted last time. They encountered the ogres, got suckered and would have eaten tainted meat save for the Trickster, who is a Chef, scoring a 23 on Int + Level + Chef and realizing the trap. Thumpson slaughtered one of the junior ogres with the Sandals of Night and then they took out the other ones. Bill was acting as Odayla and managed to get the Hungry Bears to leave despite being lousy at Charisma checks and the quest was a huge success. The Golden Osprey, who need husbands, are now studying the PCs for that, though they'd have more interest if the party wasn't mostly non-human. (A Troll, a Half-Orc who hatched from a cosmic egg like Nysalor, an Elf, a Duck, and two NPC humans). They also drove off some wolves which had invaded the tula, then went home and helped during Earth Season; ironically, the Trickster Chef was the biggest help because of his skill at preparing food, though everyone is kind of nervous about eating things he prepared. Then, in Dark Season, Lunar Dead invaded the Tula, coming out of the mass graves from the Battle of the Creek-Stream River and invading several tribes worth of lands. They had been buried hastily without respect. The Humakti led the party in taking out a squad and next time, the fyrd will be called for a big fight. Edited Monday at 08:59 PM by John Biles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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