From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.

Session II - Chapter V (of VII)

As dawn breaks, Artemisia takes the opportunity to get a better look at the smaller island across the channel.  She spots what appears to be a large section of ship on a stretch of beach, with most of the island rather mountainous.

Dion tries to get a better look as well.  He can see there are some bodies along the beach, but no one is moving.  Attempts to signal the beach with a fire get no response either.  He does note, however, that the section of ship is at an angle where it may be being used as a shelter.

The mighty barbarian would like to investigate closer, but notes the channel is too wide to swim, particularly with sea monsters around.  Instead, they decide to head back to camp.

When they arrive, they find a well-rested Gaylord, much in contrast to the many now exhausted rowers in camp.  Gaylord proclaims he  is ready for action and pledges to never again go into battle without his trusty linothorax armor.

Dion speaks with Ampelios about the wreckage.  He suggests they build a raft and travel over there, noting that if they don't find the navigator then they will die anyway.

The four heroes then head back to the ruins area, intent on crossing the channel.  As they cut through their now-familiar path in the forest, however, Gaylord stops them.  He can hear idle chatter up ahead, but in a language he doesn't recognize.

Dion attempts to hide and the others retreat back into the jungle.  A group of men approaches.  They wear loincloths are carry primitive spears, apparently the native inhabitants of the island.

The barbarian emerges from his hiding spot to greet them.  They appear confused at the sight of him.  Dion attempts to communicate with the leader of the natives, but they make little headway.  They do make a clear motion for him to follow them.

At this point, Artemisia steps out and the others follow.  The natives are not threatened, and again insist they follow.  The natives position the heroes in the middle of their group.

From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.

Session II - Chapter VI (of VII)

Rather than towards the beach or ruins, the natives lead the group further into the jungle.  The jungle eventually turns into a swampy area surrounded by fungal forests.  They stop at the mouth of a large cave with large opened bronze doors.

The head native motions for Dion and the others to go inside.  Only Chrysostomos holds back.  But when they motion again, this time with spears, he follows their orders.

Once everyone is inside the dark cave, the natives slam the large doors shut, bolt them, and run off while making noises that suggest they are frightened.  Dion has a bad feeling about this.

The mighty Dion strains to force the doors open, but even he cannot break through.  When Chrysosotomos and Gaylord suggest giving it a try, he only laughs at them, noting their puny strength is no match for his.

Artemisia lights up a torch from her backpack.  With the room illuminated, they can see it is the entrance hall to an old Minorat fortress.  It was apparently built into the side of the mountains.  The entrance hall contains several columns and two doors leading further inside.

Gaylord listens at the door on the left and hears a very faint scuttling.  Dion listens at the door on the right, but hears nothing.

Deciding the quieter door is probably safer, Gaylord opens the door on the right.  But once he opens it, a creepy moaning can be heard coming from down the hall.

Artemisia brings over the torch to investigate.  The hall travels down 25 feet before ending in another door, with statues at either side.  No source of the moaning can be found.

Gaylord shuts the door and decides to check the other way instead.  This one opens to a much shorter hallway leading to another door.  Hearing nothing behind that door, he attempts to open it but finds it stuck.

Dion mightily thrusts open the door, revealing an old dining hall.  Inside are the rotten remains of two wooden benches and a long marble table still in good condition.  Two more doors are found in the room.

The group heads over to the closer one.  After Dion hears nothing at the door, Gaylord opens it to find an old kitchen.  A kitchen being used by a quartet of giant crab spiders as a nest.

The warrior shuts the door quickly and everyone heads back over to the table.  They place it on its side and are attempting to move it into position to block the door when the spiders burst through.

From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.

Session II - Chapter VII (of VII)

Artemisia remains hidden behind the table as Dion, Gaylord, and Chrysostomos ready themselves for battle.

The heroes maneuver themselves to only allow two of the spiders out of the door.  Dion strikes his first to the ground, knocking one of the spiders off balance.  Chrysostamos then smashes it with his mace.  Gaylord finishes the creature off with his spear, but not before the other spider bites him.

Chrysostomos strikes the leg of the other spider with his mace.  It turns and bites him.  The grievous injury causes him to collapse.

Gaylord then pins the spider down with his spear while Dion rips it in half with his bare hands.  The other spiders scuttle up the kitchen chimney, not wanting to face the mighty warriors in battle.

But rather than rejoicing in victory, Gaylord feels flush and staggers a bit.  Dion ties off Chrysostomos's wounds, but notes the two men are both poisoned and will die soon.  Artemisia begins working on an antidote...

Session II - Translation Notes by Prof. Barker

Careful readers will notice this translation fully restores this set of poems detailing the heroes' battle with the beetles (sometimes called "fire beetles") and journey to the ruins.  Several of the more recent translations tend to leave these stories out or heavily abridge them.

The battle with the beetles is usually left in, though the manner of the tale has changed over the years.  Some versions had Dion with a larger role, while others expanded on the humorous misunderstanding between Chrysostomos and Gaylord.  And this is one of the very few translations that correctly credits Chrysostomos with the kills; most editions downplay his combat abilities in favor of his healing powers (which are not seen until the later poems).

Both Gaylord and Dion take on leadership roles in these stories, and exactly which of them does what is often interchanged between retellings of the story.

The story with the giant ants is the most frequently omitted of the tales.  Many consider it "filler" material as little of consequence happens.  The same occurs with the search for water and the exploration of the Minorat ruins.

Literary scholars do not subscribe to the filler theory.  Rather, they attribute the giant ants as establishing the dangerous nature of the island, and the Minorat ruins as giving a sense of foreboding.  They also foreshadow the appearance of the natives.  As for the water, that was probably added later after someone nit-picked the story and wondered how the men survived without water.

The encounter with the natives is another classic story tale – the primitive natives on a remote island.  Here the story takes on a darker tone of foreboding as the heroes are clearly thrown into some ruins as some kind of sacrifice to whatever dark god of the island the natives live in fear of.

If one were looking at the story as a screenplay (with projects currently rumored to be in development by both Jerry Bruckheimer and Ridley Scott), the entrance into the old Minorat building would be the start of the second half of the second act.  

This part of the story begins to establish the exploration of the ruins; at the end of which, the heroes will obviously have to fight the dangerous villain.  And right off, the heroes face a group of deadly spiders.  Note that several revisions did not have the spiders as poisonous; that part was often removed as part of the de-protagonization of Artemisia, who is very important in having sorcerous skills that could save the dying men (though not all versions removed this; even some that kept her as a prostitute managed to include her trying to save the men by sucking out the poison in imaginative ways).

Session II - Session Notes part I

First, a couple of notes about how the session notes for Session I went over.  The players really seemed to like the new light-hearted, exaggerated approach.  For the first time ever, I got multiple people (even ones who are on the email list but not actually at the session) saying good things about them instead of the usual nit-picking.

A bonus plus - because the notes aren't a literal accounting, no more nit-picking.  Except for the translation notes, I still got a comment noting that my timing of women's sufferage was a bit off.  I responded by noting the translator is also from an alternate world with a different timeline; problem solved.  :cool:

Actually, the translation notes threw people off a little bit at first.  I tried explaining they are just there for humor value.

One thing I forgot to do last time was make a couple of notes about what really happened in the session:

* The PCs were actually recruited for the good of the city, though securing the merchant trade route was mentioned.

* Dion does not fight bare-handed.  In fact, he has the most weapons of anyone and spent forever deciding on which to use.  At present, he carries a bow, a sword, a spear, and a battle axe.  Him fighting bare-handed in the write-ups is part in-joke, part goofing on the barbarian concept.

* The group really did just back away slowly from the pleisosaur.

The only other thing I was originally going to say about session I was that I was originally going to have them roll saving throws to see if they lost any of their equipment in the shipwreck.  But I decided that was a bit mean-spirited, particularly since they spent so long picking things out.

Oh, and I'm using Roman numerals because I can't be bothered to number in Greek.  Plus, the Hellasians of the alternate world use Roman style numerals.  Honest.

Session II - Session Notes part II

So, now on to comments about this session.  This was the first full three hour session and we got a lot of exploration in.

The initial boar encounter was a planned encounter, but they somehow misunderstood and thought the boar was running from the giant.

The dead men hanging from the trees is clearly taken from Predator.  I thought it would give them something interesting to see before they got to the cave.

The cave is a fully mapped out dungeon encounter area.  I was disappointed they didn't go in there, but it was probably the smart move.  During the session the actual discussion about whether to go in or not took a long time.

I admit, I didn't really get the driftwood "alarm" concept.  It would seem to me that almost anything would be able to get around it.  But it was nice to see ideas coming up.

The scene where Chrysostomos wakes up Gaylord involved a good 15 minutes of (inappropriate and juvenile) jokes in the session.  Despite that, the creepy lights slowly approaching the camp still felt ominous.

The beetles were rolled as a random encounter from my wandering monster table.  That battle ended up being pretty dangerous - with one NPC dead and Gaylord nearly killed.  I had forgotten just how fragile PCs could be.  Granted, he wasn't wearing his armor at the time and for some reason they decided not to wake anyone else to help.

The mounds in the desert was inspired by the large termite mounds in Africa/Australia.  It probably doesn't make as much sense for giant ants, but I didn't want to pass up on the cool visual.

I have no clue what Minoan buildings are like, so the architecture of the temple ruins was more or less the Parthenon.  Clearly if they would have taken the gems they would have been attacked by living crystal statues.  Given how much trouble they had with the beetles, that could have killed them all.

The native encounter was kind of fun to run, since they couldn't communicate verbally.  This was another random encounter roll.  I did already have natives planned on the island, but far to the south.  So, I had to improvise what they would do here.  Since I already had the big dungeony-ruins planned, I figured they would take them there.

Again, the spider encounter was perhaps a bit deadlier than intended.  Luckily the other two failed their morale check.  Artemisia concocting an anti-venom from the dead spiders was the player's idea.  Since it is a good one, I'll give it a fair chance of success next session.  Otherwise, we'll have two dead PCs.

As always, I'm looking forward to the next session.  The smaller group and lighter rules is really making the game fun, though it does lack a certain amount of mechanical interest.

I have made a couple of additional rule changes prior to this session.
* The first was overhauling the encumbrance system a bit.  I gave a simplified bonus to the amount carried for high strengths and revamped the weights a bit (the biggest one being making coins 1/20 instead of 1/10 of a pound, which is still quite a lot heavier than they really are).

* The second was to give spears a special rule to give them some kind of advantage to keep the flavor of the spear-heavy times.  This one was simple - in the case of simultaneous initiative, anyone with a spear gets to resolve their melee attack before anyone who doesn't have a spear (monsters with long reach attacks are treated as having a spear, per the DM's judgement).  Given that I'm using a straight 1d6 per side for initiative, this actually came up a lot in the fights this session.

Session III - Cast of Characters

Gaylord, the fighter and lover
Dion, the crude barbarian
Chrysostomos, the stoic cleric
Artemisia, the magic-user and scholar

From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.
Session III - Scene I (of VIII)

The mysterious Artemisia uses her sorcerous knowledge to examine the remains of the giant spiders as Dion stands guard against the others returning, using his mighty strength to move the marble table up against the kitchen door.  Using some herbs and her waterskin, she concocts a potion which may save Chrysostomos and Gaylord before they die from the slow-acting poison of the spiders.

With Chrysostomos the more wounded of the two, she wisely decides to try the potion on him first.  After giving to him, she can see the unconscious priest’s breathing begins to ease and his fever breaks; she believes the antidote has been successful and applies the same treatment to Gaylord.  In a few minutes, he recovers his strength.

The brave Dion wishes to check out the kitchen.  He slides the massive table back away from the door a short distance at an angle, allowing him to crack the door open.  Looking inside, he can see some shelves with a few old pots, pans, and cup, as well as a large wine barrel in the corner.

Gaylord drags the unconscious Chrysostomos back to the hallway to keep him safe while Dion moves the table further to allow himself to see the rest of the kitchen.  Opening the door more, he sees the fire pit and some crates of long-spoiled food.

The mighty warrior heads inside with his torch.  Throwing the food crates into the long-dormant fire pit, he lights them with his torch, hoping to smoke out the arachnid beasts for more battle.  Meanwhile, the crafty Artemisia searches the room for items of use.  She finds the old poker for the fire and a pair of rusty knives.

Artemisia has Dion open the wine barrel and looks inside.  The substance looks like wine, but she first tests it with one of the knives.  She then wishes to use the shaft of Gaylord’s spear to test the liquid, but the mighty Dion laughs at her timidity and pushes her aside.  

Grabbing one of the cups from the shelf, he pours out the silver coins hidden inside and takes a drink.  As Artemisia scurries to collect the coins off the ground, Dion, who cares only for battle and not for money, announces the liquid is wine though it has turned to vinegar.

The sorceress knows the secrets of using vinegar in her healing arts.  She collects some of the liquid in the cups to apply to Chrysostomos’s wounds.  She then has Dion move everything of use from the kitchen into the dining hall and block the door again.  Despite his wish to face more spiders in battle, the barbarian complies.

From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.
Session III - Scene II (of VIII)

Not content with sitting around, Dion wants to go explore the rest of the building in search of glorious combat.  With Gaylord and Chrysostomos still wounded and Artemisia too timid, it is up to the mighty barbarian himself to do the exploring.

He first heads back into the moaning hall.  Unlike the others, he is not scared of its sounds.  He heads up to the door at the end of the hall and notices the moaning sound is the result of a crack in the wall near one of the statues.  Using his mighty strength to pull, he opens a secret door behind the statue leading to a dark hall.

Dion heads inside the hallway behind the secret door with his torch lighting the way.  Looking down, he sees that it continues for a short distance then curves.  Before heading in any further, he decides to check the door at the end of the hallway.

There is no noise at the door.  He pushes it open to find a long, thin room with an altar table at the end of it.  The altar is stained with old blood.

Artemisia, hiding behind Dion, looks over his shoulder at the altar.  She can tell it has an old Minorat inscription on it.  From what she knows of the language, it appears to be a message that sacrifices on the altar will bring good health, but to beware placing any profane offerings.

None of the heroes trust in the magic of pagan gods and decide to leave the altar alone.  The altar room has another door near the entrance.  Dion forces that stuck door open to discover a large room filled with skeletal remains.  On the other side of the room appears to be another door.

Artemisia spots a large rocky python snake hidden amongst the bones.  It looks in the direction of the group then slithers away through a crack in the wall.  Terrified of the snake, she makes Dion close the door.

From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.
Session III - Scene III (of VIII)

With Artemisia too scared to face the snake, Dion decides it would be best if he finished exploring the hidden hallway first.  Heading around the corner, he discovers the passageway continues on a bit further then curves again.

With everyone staying far behind him, he heads up to the next corner.  As he turns the corner, he disturbs a giant bat sleeping in the corridor.  As the bat approaches him, he smacks the beast with his torch.  The bat screams in pain and flies up to exit through a narrow crack in the ceiling.

Dion looks up at the crack, but can see no sunlight.  He waves to the others to move up and not get too far behind, lest he be unable to protect them.  At the end of this hallway is a door.

The mighty Dion thrusts open the door to discover a small room.  Inside is a small chest with two bronze statues to either side of it.  The statues appear to be of Minorat soldiers, wielding short swords and shields.  On the other side of the room is another door.

When the others move into the room, Dion cautions them about the chest.  He believes disturbing it could be dangerous.  Gaylord, hoping for riches, pays him little mind.  He goes ahead and opens the chest, causing the statues to come alive.

Dion moves away from one of the attacks, but the other statue cuts Gaylord with its blade.  Artemisia tries to assist with her quarterstaff, but it bounces harmlessly off of the thick bronze.  Gaylord has no better luck with his spear, nor Dion with his fist.

Artemisia notices a weak point in one of the statues.  While it is attacking Dion, she slams into the point hard with her staff, causing a dent.  The statue then turns and slices her arm with its sword.  She recoils in pain.

Dion is cut across the chest and the already-weakened Gaylord is cut down by one of the automatons.  Full of rage, Dion throws one of the statues back against the wall, destroying it, while Artemisia trips the other one with her spear.

The barbarian tries to attack the other statue, but has no luck.  Instead, it gets back up and slams Dion’s head with its shield, sending him unconscious.

But with its back to Artemisia, the statue gives her the opportunity to strike again.  She again trips the creature then finishes it off with a sharp staff jab to its weak point.  It lies still, much like her three unconscious companions.

From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.
Session III - Scene IV (of VIII)

Artemisia can tell all three are badly wounded.  After doing what she can to stop the bleeding of Dion and Gaylord, she examines the contents of the chest – there are around 400 pieces of Minorat silver inside, along with three bottles that appear to be potions.

Desperate for any assistance, the sorceress sips from one of the bottles.  It gives her a slight feeling of vitality.  Feeling it must be some sort of healing potion, she pours one down Dion’s throat.  He instantly awakens, healed from his injuries.

She then sips the other two potions, in turn.  Each of them appears to taste the same.    She applies the potions to Chrysostomos and Gaylord, healing them as well.

With everyone now conscious, Dion decides they should continue exploring the building.  He listens at the other door in the room, hearing slight hissing sounds from the chamber beyond.  Readying himself for battle, he opens the door.

Inside the hallway is a trio of deadly poisonous pit vipers.  Fearful that Artemisia may swoon from the sight, the mighty warrior quickly closes the door before the snakes can approach.

Deciding that one possible snake is less likely to agitate the sorceress than three, Dion tells the group they should return to the skeletal room.  Everyone heads back, with Chrysostomos readying himself to call upon the gods in case the skeletons are enchanted with dark magic.

When they reach the room, Dion steps inside, intending to check the other door.  But as soon as the barbarian enters the room, the floor underneath him collapses, sending him falling into a pit.  Several of his bones are shattered as he lies in a pool of blood at the bottom.

Gaylord looks down into the pit to look at his injured companion. Not wanting his friend to die, he quickly looks around for a way to retrieve him; to his sadness, he realizes only Dion carried a rope.

Not content to do nothing, the brave warrior jumps down into the pit, twisting an ankle in the process.  He attempts to stop Dion’s bleeding, but finds his skills in the healing arts to be lacking.  

Rather than risk any more injury to the barbarian, he ties his grappling hook to the end of the rope and throws it above, warning the others to be mindful.  They then secure the hook to the door frame, allowing him to climb up, whilst carrying his companion.

Once the two are up, Artemisia immediately focuses on stopping the bleeding.  Dion is in very bad shape, and she can tell it will take several days for him to heal.

From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.
Session III - Scene V (of VIII)

The group discusses what to do next.  Gaylord and Artemisia are in agreement that it would be better to find a way out of the building rather than waiting for Dion to recover.

Chrysostomos looks around at the room of skeletons.  He sees the rock python slithering in and out of the room again.  He can also see teeth marks on the bones in the room.

Gaylord decides to proceed.  He ties the rope around his waist then jumps over the pit and heads over to the other door.  After hearing nothing, he opens it to find a small hallway in three directions.  Two of the directions lead to doors while a third is a statue of a man with a bow.

Worried the bow statue is another trap, Gaylord heads back to the others and they decide to retreat to the treasure room.

Chrysostomos then decides he should attempt to fight the vipers in the hall to see where it goes.  Heading inside, he quickly finds the snakes slithering towards them.  Using his mace, he slams into one but scores only a glancing blow.  The snake bites back, failing to penetrate his armor.

Finding the snakes more resilient than expected, Chrysostomos starts backing up slowly.  One of the other snakes bites at his, finding a weak point in his armor.  The priest begins to worry about the deadly venom of the reptiles, and elects to head back into the treasure room and close the door rather than be sent to Hades by their fangs.

After telling the others that the passage is not a viable option, the three decide to take Dion and fortify themselves in the dining hall while they record.  

The first night passes without incident.  But in the middle of the second night, on Artemisia’s watch, she hears someone trying to open the door she has forced shut with the poker.  She quietly wakes the others and listens at the door.  She can hear whispering, but can’t make anything out.

Everyone readies their weapons.  Whoever is on the other side begins pounding against the door, trying to force it open.  The group decides to let the door be broken down rather than open it.

Eventually, the door crashes open and three men start heading into the room.  Spotting the heroes, they raise up their makeshift clubs until one of the men stops the others.  It is Phokas.

From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.
Session III - Scene VI (of VIII)

Phokas greets the heroes and explains he and his two companions, two hoplites named Timotheos and Nikanor, are the last survivors of a group that headed into the mountains behind the jungle to get a better viewpoint.  

He goes on to explain that his section of the ship crashed on a beach to the east of the ruins.  After discussing the location with Artemisia and the others, it appears to be a third crash site not related to the one they spotted on the small atoll north of the main island.

The navigator goes on to explain that he left the quartermaster, Barnabus, in charge of the surviving men while he took the hoplites into the jungle.  There they were attacked by a large, misshapen ogre who captured them and brought them to this building.

Last night, Phokas and the three surviving hoplites who had not yet been eaten by the ogre managed to escape.  One of them was killed by an arrow from a statue of an archer in the hallway outside the room they escaped from.  Artemisia and Gaylord then explain back to him what they have encountered in the ruins.

Phokas is distraught to here that the heroes have not been able to find a way out themselves.  He is concerned the ogre will return soon.  He also cautions that someone is controlling the ogre and may be the larger threat on the island.

After some discussion, Chrysostomos and Gaylord form a plan to have Phokas, Nikanor, and Timotheos assist them in using the remains of one of the bronze statues as a battering ram to knock open the main doors.

From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.
Session III - Scene VII (of VIII)

The next morning, the heroes and their companions grab one of the bronze statues and haul it to the main entrance.  Artemisia stands back to guard the still-unconscious Dion as the men begin ramming the door.

The doors hold strong with the first set of thrusts.  Before the men can continue, the door to the other hallway opens and eight men stumble through.  They appear to be the corpses of natives, with yellow eyes and jaundiced skin, with a strange yellow flower growing from the back of their skulls.  

Chrysostomos can tell they are not the Ptomanathos, the walking Chthonic dead, but rather appear to be animated by the alien plant attached to them.  His powers of the gods will not aid him against creatures such as these.

The creatures move in swiftly, surrounding the men and Artemisia.  Everyone is able to fend them off except for Timotheos, who is ripped apart by a pair of the creatures.

Phokas and Artemisia are the first to score a hit in return.  Artemisia manages to cave in the heads of one of the creatures with her staff.  The animated dead attack back, scoring injuries on them both.  Across the room, one of the creatures smashes in the skull of Nikanor.

Artemisia, Gaylord, and Chrysostomos use their weapons to take down three more of the creatures, but another of them hits Artemisia hard, sending her unconscious.  Chrysostomos quickly follows her after being attack by a creature himself.

Gaylord cuts down another of the monsters as Phokas crushes one with his club.  One of the remaining creatures manages to further injure Phokas, but the resilient navigator's counter-attack crushes the monster's chest.  Finally, Gaylord chops the head off of the remaining corpse.

From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.
Session III - Scene VIII (of VIII)

After Phokas is able to stabilize Chrysostomos and Artemisia, he asks Gaylord what to do next.  The fighter strategically decides they will need Chrysostomos and Dion to recover before they can break open the door, so he has them retreat back to the dining hall to rest up.

Three nights pass until finally Dion has recovered enough to awaken.  He is surprised to see Phokas there and the two talk at length to catch the barbarian up on recent events.

A fourth night passes before Artemisia and Chrysostomos recover enough to awaken.  As they do, everyone else hears the main doors loudly open and something large stomp inside.  The ogre has returned…