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Author Topic: [Actual Play] D&D Bronze Age  (Read 5395 times)

jgants

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[Actual Play] D&D Bronze Age
« on: September 17, 2011, 10:04:49 AM »
This will be the actual play thread for my D&D Bronze Age game.
 
It is set in a bronze age style D&D world that somewhat resembles the Mediterranean area circa 500 BC. I'm going for a Greek Mythology style world, so I've removed some of the more medieval aspects and replaced them with things that give a more classical mythology type of feel.
 
Rules-wise, the game is primarily based on Moldvay era Basic D&D but there are changes. I got rid of alignment because I dislike it. I switched attributes to use point-buy, using a system similar to how D&D 4e works (though with a system that will give much lower scores on average). I also switched to using BAB and ascending AC, similar to the style of D&D 3e (though the math is still based on Basic D&D). These are all just my personal preferences and what works better for my players. I also added some spells from AD&D, particularly 1st level magic-user ones.
 
I also have a set of changes to give the game a different "feel". Some of it is just terminology changes, such as calling high level magic-users "sorcerers" instead of "wizards", or coming up with a new name for zombies (my terrible pseudo-Greek butchered term is Ptomanathos). Others are more substantial - instead of dwarves, elves, and halflings, I have centuars, nymphs, and satyrs (though they are very similar rules-wise). I also added a couple of new human classes - the barbarian (based on the AD&D one) and the hunter (based on the AD&D ranger). The weapon and equipment list is pared down as well to be more historically accurate to the time I am modeling.
 
Unlike my other campaigns, this one won't have any world-saving plots. It is simply an epic tale of adventuring.
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jgants

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[Actual Play] D&D Bronze Age
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2011, 10:05:44 AM »
Cast of Characters
 
Through a set of circumstances with job/life changes, I am down to a small group for once. At the moment, there are only four regular players.
 
The characters are:
 
Gaylord, a fighter from Spadonia. So far he's mostly there to make gay Spartan jokes but he also acts as second in command of the group.
 
Dion, a barbarian from the wilds of Epolia. So far he's taking the leadership role in the group.
 
Chrysostomos, a cleric from the island of Ithania. He's the laconic one.
 
Artemisia, a magic-user from the city of Athegara. The lone female of the group and scholar of Atlantean secrets.
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jgants

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[Actual Play] D&D Bronze Age
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2011, 10:07:32 AM »
A quick note about the session notes - I'm taking a different approach this time. Instead of a literal retelling of the session, I'll be presenting it as if it were an ancient epic poem being translated in modern times. I'll also be including "translation notes" from time to time that give a different perspective and provide humor.
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jgants

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Session I: Shipwrecked
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2011, 10:10:22 AM »
From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.

Session I - Chapter I (of V)

The evil forces of the Xersians sent dozens of ships to assault the Hellasian island colonies, pillaging the villages, slaughtering all the men, raping the women, and eating the children.  To combat this menace, the leaders of the free cities called out for champions to join the fight to repel the Xersian menace.

In the great city of Athegara, there were four such mighty heroes.  

There was Gaylord the Great, a veteran of a hundred battles and renowned lover of women and men.  

His mighty companion, Dion, was a fierce barbarian with a large barreled chest and thick arms who was known for ripping the heads off of his enemies with his bare hands.  

Another of their group was Chrysostomos, a priest and champion of the gods, watched over by Zeus himself.

Finally there was the beautiful sorceress Artemisia, a powerful arcane scholar of the secrets of the Atlanteans.

The four great heroes were lounging in the garden when a young man named Andreas approached Gaylord.  Gaylord couldn’t help but admire the youth’s delicate features as the man praised Gaylord’s reputation for battle.

The man then explained he was a messenger of Archon Diodoros, one of the rulers of the city, and that the archon requested the presence of the four heroes at his home.  When questioned by Gaylord about the reason for the summons, Andreas explained that the archon mentioned the Xersians.

At the mention of the Xersians, Dion grabbed his weapons and spoke with rage.  He vowed to fight the Xersians to the last man, and bid the others to follow him.

The group met with Archon Diodoros at his palatial home.  The archon introduced them to Lochagos Timon, who was organizing a force of local men to fight the Xersian hordes across the sea for the glory of the city.  Many ships would sail from the city, but the group would accompany Timon himself.

Timon was impressed to have such mighty heroes in his lochos.  He told them they set sail at dawn, and would travel 300 leagues to the islands where the Xersians were raiding.  

That night, everyone drank and feasted as the music played, and Timon hired the finest whores in the city for entertainment.
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jgants

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Session I: Shipwrecked
« Reply #4 on: September 17, 2011, 10:11:25 AM »
From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.

Session I - Chapter II (of V)

The next morning, the mighty heroes met with Lochagos Timon on the docks.  He was lining up his men, preparing to board the trireme.  All across the docks were other ships, also loading up with soldiers.

Timon then introduced the heroes to his second in command, Ouragos Arrian, and the crew of the trireme.  The ship was under the command of Trierarch Kleon, who had sailed all over the world. His navigator, Kybernets Phokus, was a scholarly old man.  And there was the gruff shipwright, Naupegos Ampelos.  The rest of the crew included Keleustus Isodoros, the ship’s boatswain; Pentekontarchos Barnabus, the ship’s quartermaster; and the young watchman Proreus Nachor, along with all of the lesser sailors and rowers (including the auletes and toicharchoi).

The first two days of travel were uneventful, with little more than a moderate breeze.  On the third day, storms appeared on the horizon.  The ship rocked as the waves built.  By the second day of storms, only the mighty Dion avoided being sick from the voyage.

Then, on the fifth day, the storms gathered even more strength.  Huge tidal waves appeared in the ocean.  Phokus was beginning to lose their direction, while Ampelios wondered if they had angered Poseidon.   The heroes watched as a giant wave crashed over the ship, and then were engulfed in darkness.
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jgants

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Session I: Shipwrecked
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2011, 10:12:48 AM »
From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.
 
Session I - Chapter III (of V)
 
The heroes awoke to find themselves on a sandy beach.  Nearby was a large section of the ship’s hull, ripped apart by the storm.

They appear to have crashed into a small inlet.  Sandy beach is all around, but the coastlines quickly turn to grasslands on either side.  Behind them is a large jungle.

Survivors lined the beach, with several injured and others attempting to locate their possessions.  The heroes were glad they managed to locate their goods in a crate nearby in the sand.

Among the survivors were Ampelios, a half dozen hoplites of the lochos, including Ouragos Arrian, and a small group of seventeen rowers and three sailors.

The bodies of the dead also washed up on the beach and floated in the surf.  One of the men is identified as Lochagos Timon.

The barbarian Dion is convinced the dead are a bad omen.  He has the men gather up the dead so they can be burned.  Gaylord notes that the proper practice is to bury the dead with the proper funeral rites.  Although the relatives of the men are not present for the proper lamentation of the dead, Chrysostomos anoints the dead with a drop of oil and lays out the bodies properly so they can be buried at dawn the next morning.  In the end, 47 bodies are recovered, including 44 rowers, 2 sailors, and Lochagos Timon.

Attention then turns to what to do next.  Dion asks Ampelios about repairing the ship.  The shipwright explains he and the surviving men can work at cutting down some trees in the jungle and fixing the ship in a weeks’ time at most.

Gaylord is concerned about food and water, but Ampelios isn’t worried about that, as the island likely has some source of fresh water and sources of food.  He is more worried about finding Phokus; without the navigator, they may never find their way back to the rest of the fleet.

With no other signs of wreckage in the area and much of the ship and crew still missing, Dion concludes the others may have landed on another part of the island.  He and the others offer to scout around while Ampelios manages the repair work.  Dion worries about leaving the crew alone, but Ouragos Arrian reminds him that he and his hoplites can stand guard at the crash site.

As Ampelios starts organizing work crews, Gaylord leads the group off, deciding they should head a league to the east along the beach first then head back and scout a league to the west.
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jgants

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Session I: Shipwrecked
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2011, 10:14:08 AM »
From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.

Session I - Chapter IV (of V)

Gaylord leads the group east along the beach.  The coastline quickly becomes a thick grassland area.  Up ahead, the coast curves to the south creating a large inlet.

Dion urges Gaylord to move ahead to the inlet, as inhabitants of the island may live there and give the opportunity for glorious battle.  They can also see across the bay to the other side, where there appears to be some kind of old ruins in the grasslands near the shore.

As they head into the sandy area of the inlet, a large beast emerges from the sea waters.  The creature’s long neck towers above them, twenty feet out of the water.  It turns towards Gaylord and lets out a mighty roar.

Thinking quickly, Gaylord backs the group up, narrowly avoiding the creature’s mighty jaws.  Dion uproots a small tree near the beach to club the creature with, but it moves away in fear of his great power, heading back below the depths of the water.

Not wanting to fight any more sea monsters, the group decides to head back to the crash site rather than travel any further east or south.  They skirt the edge of the jungle and make their way back to the ship.
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jgants

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Session I: Shipwrecked
« Reply #7 on: September 17, 2011, 10:15:32 AM »
From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.
 
Session I - Chapter V (of V)
 
Men are moving quickly performing tasks along the beach and coming in and out of the jungle.  Ampelios is barking orders at the various groups, and wondering aloud where one of them is.

The group approaches Ampelios and Gaylord and Dion tell him what they have observed so far.  The old man wonders if the ruins were one of the Minorat civilizations – a sea-faring people who originally colonized many islands in the seas around the Free Cities hundreds of years ago.  He wonders if any remnants of the civilization still live on the island.

The shipwright then updates the group on their progress.  The jungle is thick and it is difficult for Arrian to keep guard over everyone.  He notes that already a couple of the men seem to have gotten themselves lost, though he believes they should be able to find their way back soon.

Dion disagrees.  He believes the island may have hostile inhabitants.  Ampelios notes that so far, the most they’ve heard of is one of the men spotting a boar in the jungle to the west.

With a thirst for fresh meat, Dion calls on the others to follow him into the jungle to hunt for the boar.  He is unable to pick up the boar’s tracks, but does find other tracks half a league away.  

There is part of a man’s scalp on the ground along with a spray of blood over the area.  It appears to have been crushed off by the blow of a mighty bludgeon.  Spotting bare footprints twice the size of a man, Dion suspects a giant or similar creature lives on the island.  And the blood and drag marks on the ground suggest the men have been killed and their bodies drug off by the foul beast.

The group returns back to warn Ampelios before heading further into the jungle to fight the monster.
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jgants

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Session I: Shipwrecked
« Reply #8 on: September 17, 2011, 10:16:52 AM »
Translation Notes by Prof. Barker
This poem concerns some of the lesser known heroes of the later mythology period.  Like most tales from that time, the stories were brought back by soldiers and collected and retold by orators, often embellishing the tales for the benefit of the audience.

Right away, we see the propaganda of the time with the descriptions of the Xersians.  The tendency to dehumanize opponents in a war is as old as civilization.  In point of fact, the actual Xersians were quite civilized, with a complex empire of dozens of conquered cultures.  And while they were militarily aggressive, most accounts by their subjugated peoples paint them as no more or less murderous than any other faction of the time.

The description of the four heroes listed here is clearly exaggerated.  First you have the anachronistically named Gaylord (also called Gaylor in some translations).  The man’s original name is now lost to us, as we have only surviving documentation from the Hundred Years War period, during which many tales were altered to try and inspire the French people.

This was further exacerbated in the 20th century, when the name became linked with crude jokes about the man’s sexuality.  While some of the older translations had Gaylord with both men and women, later ones exclusively focused on his relations with young men, causing some even to be banned as obscene (see The United States vs. Prof. Reginald Cousins, 1948).  The less said about the “new translation” released in Greenwich Village in 1973 that re-purposed him as a hero to the gay pride movement, the better.

The hero Dion is perhaps the most exaggerated of the men.  His physical characteristics grow increasingly unrealistic over the course of the poems, making him nearly superhuman by the end.  And while the man came from the more tribal region of Epoli, he was likely simply less accustomed to the niceties of the city life and more at home in the country land with his goats (again, refer to 1947 translation for the more lurid tales).

Not much is said in the initial poems about Chrysostomos as they focused on the more colorful characters of Gaylord and Dion.  In story terms, he appears to take on the role as the straight man of the group, the more typical citizen of the Free Cities that everyone else in the group is contrasted against.

This translation of the poems restores Artemisia to her proper role as a sorceress hero in the group.  Older translations tended to be misogynistic, often leaving out her character or suggesting she was a relative or spouse of one of the others.  Particularly bad was the 1930s translation that suggested she was a prostitute hired by the ship for the benefit of the entire crew, likely a product of the times with conflict over women’s right to vote.

As mentioned before, the tale of soldiers heading out to fight the bloodthirsty Xersians is quite a common one.  A more likely scenario is that Xersian expansion was interfering with the spice trade between Athegara and the Bedab kingdoms and the archons levied small groups of soldiers to protect their investments.

The common theme of long voyages at sea with brutal storms and shipwrecks is present here as well.  The crash landing on an exotic island is a particular favorite, seen in everything from Shakespeare’s The Tempest to the television series Lost.  Note that this translation removes the 1950’s revision where the ship was sunk by the gods to punish the Hellasians for not rejecting homosexuality.

The afterlife was important to the ancient Hellasians, as can be seen in the explanation of the treatment of the bodies on the shore.  In reality, it is unlikely the men of a crashed ship would bother to do anything with the dead.  Although the Free Cities had elaborate funeral and burial rituals, out in the wild the dead were usually buried in shallow graves or cremated without great fanfare.

The size and nature of the island change dramatically over the years.  I have attempted with this translation to be as accurate as possible, though I am still a little unsure about using the term “jungle”.  While it is a more accurate translation to the original poems, the actual island was likely a semi-tropical forest with a Mediterranean climate.

Sea monsters often frequent the stories of the ancients, and this one is no exception.  Much debate has occurred over the years, as some believe the description to match a plesiosaur (which, paleontologically speaking, would be impossible) while others suggest a large sea snake of the tentacle of a giant squid or octopus.  In any event, it is likely all the group of heroes really did was back away slowly from such a dangerous threat.

Finally, the story turns to a scene of violence and a suggestion of a monster.  This is also quite common in the epic tales – the introduction of a vile creature that the heroes will need to overcome.
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jgants

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Session I: Shipwrecked
« Reply #9 on: September 17, 2011, 10:26:11 AM »
Session I - Session Notes

This session was pretty short - we got maybe an hour of playing in.  Most of it was taken up by character creation.

I had thought with only four players and the basic rules that character creation wouldn't take that long, but some people took a while to calculate their ability scores, some couldn't decide on which class to go with, picking a name took forever (despite me having a large list of appropriate ones), and a couple of the players spent a really long time deciding what equipment to buy.

Overall, I'm pretty excited about the game.  This campaign is meant to be a bit lighter, a bit more old school fun, than some of my others.  It's one of the reason for my more light-hearted approach to the session notes - after two really serious campaigns (Rifts and 4e), I want something more casual this time around.

Having a small group will help as well.  It seems so odd that my biggest problem a couple years ago was trying to figure out how to fit enough people in to a session and now most people's schedules won't allow for them to come any more.  I know a couple were also wary of the Greek setting, but honestly its going to be very much old school D&D just with some re-skinning.  It will essentially have the relationship to regular D&D that the Titan Quest game has to Diablo.  I am driving them a bit nuts already with all of the Greek names / words though, lol.  I apologize in advance to anyone who actually knows Greek for my crimes against the language.

Finally, I'll just note that this campaign is very much not historically accurate or attempting to say anything about actual history or cultures.  I'm only using the pseudo-Earth setting because I'm lazy and don't want to build a world from scratch.

Hope everyone enjoys the journey!
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jgants

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Session II: The Island
« Reply #10 on: October 04, 2011, 01:38:27 PM »
Session II - Cast of Characters

Gaylord, the fighter and lover
Dion, the crude barbarian
Chrysostomos, the guy with the name that is a pain to type (and a cleric)
Artemisia, the magic-user and scholar
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jgants

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Session II: The Island
« Reply #11 on: October 04, 2011, 01:39:06 PM »
From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.

Session II - Chapter I (of VII)

The four mighty companions headed deeper into the dark jungle.  The mighty Dion clenched his teeth as he felt the rush of the anticipated battle with the mighty giant beast.

The keen eyes of Gaylord spot a rustling in the foliage up ahead.  Dion has them spread out to give him room in case he needs to swing another tree.

As they approach slowly, a giant tusked beast emerges, squealing as it runs away from their direction.  Dion clenches his fists while Gaylord readies his spear.  They wonder if the beast is running away from the even larger giant, or perhaps could be his mount.

Cautiously the four head in.  With eyes as sharp as Apollo, Gaylord sees movement in the trees beyond.  Man-sized shapes sway back and forth behind the thick vines of the jungle.

As he approaches, the seasoned warrior can see it is the two men hung upside down from a tree using vines.  Most of their flesh has been carved away by a crude knife.  Dion knows something has eaten the men as a meal.  Chrysostomos readies his mace, not wanting to be the next meal.

Gaylord and Dion look around the area carefully.  Dion catches sight of the tracks of his prey.  The tracks appear recent.

As the others discuss cutting the men down, Dion stops them.  He tells them not to disturb the bodies, noting the men were weak and deserved to die if they could not defend themselves.

Dion storms through the jungle, following the tracks back to an area of jungle-filled mountains.  He sees a dark cave.

Although spoiling for battle, Dion is a cunning warrior and knows better than to charge into a dark cave against an unknown enemy.  His fellow veteran of battle, Gaylord, agrees.  They make note of the location of the cave then head back to the camp.
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jgants

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Session II: The Island
« Reply #12 on: October 04, 2011, 01:40:39 PM »
From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.

Session II - Chapter II (of VII)

When they reach the camp, old Ampelios greets them.  He praises their heroism as they tell him of the ghastly sight they found in the jungle.

Gaylord has the men gather driftwood to create a ring around the camp that will hopefully alert them to intruders.  He also starts small brush fires to give them light.  Ampelios and two of his men volunteer to assist the heroes in keeping a watch for the night, along with Ouragos Arrian and the hoplites.

That night everyone lies below overcast skies.  During Chrysostomos’s watch, a cloudburst blankets the island in rain.  He grows concerned as the water puts out the watch fires.

The rower on the watch, a small man named Eutychos, calls out to Chrysostomos, asking him if he heard the noise.  The priest nervously replies he did not, as he readies his mace.

Out in the darkness, Chrysostomos spots four glowing orbs a couple of feet off of the ground.  As the hoplite Karpos readies his spear, the cleric goes over to wake the nearby Gaylord.

Aroused from his slumber, Gaylord mistakes Chrysostomos standing over him as a romantic interlude.  He pulls the man to the ground before the cleric can protest.  Chrysostomos, overcome by the masculine power of Gaylord, can barely explain that there is something in the forest.

Gaylord shoves Chrysostomos aside, his desire for battle stronger than that of simple pleasures.  He grabs his spear and prepares for battle, wearing nothing except his shield.  From the ground, a flushed Chrysostomos calls out for Karpos to go investigate.

Karpos makes it into the darkness near the orbs before Gaylord can follow.  From the darkness, the two can hear the hoplite yell out.  Gaylord charges ahead to assist him, never one to leave a man in trouble.

When he arrives, Gaylord finds the man under attack by a pair of giant beetles.  The three foot high creatures have large glowing glands above their eyes.

Karpos stabs into one of the beetles with his spear as Gaylord is bitten by the other.  Gaylord responds by spearing the beetle back, but it continues to fight.

The other beetle surrounds Karpos with its mandibles.  Gaylord hears the loud crunching sound as it crushes the man’s chest.  Karpos falls limp in the insect’s embrace.

By this point, Chrysostomos has reached the scene of the battle.  As one of the beetles bites Gaylord, the cleric smashes the head of the other with his mighty mace.  The goo from the creature’s head splashes everywhere.

Weakened by the insect’s attacks, Gaylord steps back.  The remaining beetle and Chrysostomos exchange a series of blows, neither able to penetrate the other’s armor.

The din of the battle finally awakens Dion from his Elysian dreams.  He heads over just as the cleric crushes the beetle with another mace blow.

Dion grabs Karpos’ spear, not wanting a weapon to go to waste.  He also digs out the glowing glands of the creatures with his bare hands, and places them around the camp to act as new signal lights.  He then drags the body back from the outskirts of camp and goes back to sleep.
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jgants

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Session II: The Island
« Reply #13 on: October 04, 2011, 01:41:52 PM »
From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.

Session II - Chapter III  (of VII)

The next morning, Artemisia discusses heading back to the cave.  But Gaylord has decided he needs to recover from his injuries before taking on the beast and Dion does not want to fight the beast under-manned.  Chrysostomos suggests using Arrian and his men, but Dion reminds him the soldiers are trained for fighting Xersians, not giants.

Instead, Dion slyly suggests using Karpos’ body as bait to hold the giant off from attacking the camp.  But first, he makes a meal out of the dead beetles by frying them over an open fire.  He notes to the camp they will not go hungry.  He and the others then take the body out and dump it in the jungle near the area where the giant attacked, except for Gaylord who remains at camp in bed, attended by several rowers.

The three then head further west along the coastline, passing through a grassland area and into another beach.  The land beyond appears to be a desert.

Out in the desert, Dion spots some pillars.  Wondering if there are more ruins, he leads the others closer.

But as they approach, the heroes see that the items are not, in fact, carved pillars but natural mounds.  Outside of one, Dion spots a giant ant six feet long.  He alerts the others to leave before attracting the nest.  They return back to the camp and rest.

Ampelios isn’t overly concerned about the ant hills.  He notes they are making good progress on rebuilding a ship, but still need to find Phokas.

Dion consults with the sailor and discovers the current runs to the southeast, leading him to believe they need to head that way to find the rest of the ship.  He notes they will need to cut across the jungle rather than follow the coastline to avoid the sea monster.

Ampelios also notes the camp is running low on drinking water.  Dion hopes they will find a stream when they move across the jungle again.
Now Prepping: One-shot adventures for Coriolis, RuneQuest (classic), Numenera, 7th Sea 2nd edition, and Adventures in Middle-Earth.

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jgants

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Session II: The Island
« Reply #14 on: October 04, 2011, 01:42:36 PM »
From the Epic Poem, as translated by Prof. Arty Barker, Ph.D.

Session II - Chapter IV (of VII)

While Gaylord decides to spend another day recuperating from his injuries, Dion makes finding water the top priority.  The three heroes head into the jungles to the southeast, locating a stream coming off of the nearby mountains.  They fill up as much water as they can and head back to the camp and inform Ampelios and the others.

Once the water is taken care of, they grab their equipment and head back out for more scouting.  The follow the stream back out into the bay.  The area is calm and tranquil, with nothing but small pieces of flotsam along the beach.  Off in the distance, Dion catches the sight of a smaller island across the sea from the ruins.

Dion leads the others towards the ruins, keeping an eye out for any substantial pieces of wreckage.  It is nearly dark by the time they arrive.

As they approach the ruins, Artemisia identifies it as an old Minorat temple.  The temple is badly overgrown, with no fires or signs of life.

The temple does, however, appear to be structurally sound.  Dion wants to head inside to see if they can use it for shelter.  Chrysostomos is annoyed at having to enter a pagan temple, but follows.

Inside they can see several gems on the altar.  And to either side of the colonnade are six statues carved from some sort of rock crystal.  Artemisia believes they are in the image of the Minorat gods, but is unable to identify any of them.

The group decides to rest in the temple for the night.  Wary of the statues, Dion warns the others against taking the gems.  Although he is a mighty warrior, he fears the power of the gods.  Chrysostomos scoffs at the idea of pagan gods having any real power, but leaves the gems alone anyway.
Now Prepping: One-shot adventures for Coriolis, RuneQuest (classic), Numenera, 7th Sea 2nd edition, and Adventures in Middle-Earth.

Recently Ended: Palladium Fantasy - Warlords of the Wastelands: A fantasy campaign beginning in the Baalgor Wastelands, where characters emerge from the oppressive kingdom of the giants. Read about it here.