*** Session 01 - Session Notes ***

This session went pretty well for an opening. The players are still getting used to the rules and the setting, but other than the fight at the end being far more dangerous than intended (largely because I rolled really well, the players rolled really terrible, and a few tactical errors were made) everything went smooth.

I did cause some confusion at the beginning by seeding multiple plot hooks for each character, many of which are foreshadowing for later. As I said before, I'm not holding back on my plotting this time so they'll get the whole "web o' plots" experience. In the end, they settled on the intended opening adventure, heading to Rodemus.

Notes about the session:
* We haven't fully detailed exactly what the Great Mulroney is and isn't. The player's idea is that Mulroney's spirit or whatever was taken by dark forces and moved to this plane as part of a larger, evil plot. I'm going to run with that, but told him he needs to keep the rest of it vague so I can fit it in with my plots. I will tease with one question - if the mind is that (at least partially) of Father Mulroney - where does he get the changeling body from? More on that in the future of the campaign.

* I wanted to start Mulroney off at a coven meeting since he's a witch.

* Glebecar is named after Carl Gleba, who created the whole Megaverse in Flames megaplot. That megaplot had some influence in the Rifts campaign and will have a similar influence here.

* Thomasin and Black Phillip are taken from the truly excellent and underrated film, The Witch. It is a favorite of myself and the Mulroney player so he was in on the reference.

* Alice and Vinegar Tom come from the play, Vinegar Tom.

* Janet and Jenny are (both) named after Janet Horne, the last person to be executed for witchcraft in the British Isles.

* Captain Spaulding, Otis, and Tiny (who is only mentioned here) all come from Rob Zombie's films, House of a Thousand Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. I lift a few lines of dialogue from the films for their later banter and Ruggsville Cove is named after the fictional town of Ruggsville from those films.

* Because I added Spaulding the whole "renegade clowns" plot seemed like a natural. Plus, someone in the message boards made a crack about misreading the title of the Warhammer Fantasy RPG book, Renegade Crowns, way back when and I always thought that was funny enough to deserve something more. The fact that Seimbeida had info on the clown guild going after renegades made it a perfect fit.

* The renegade clowns remain to be expanded on, but the whole "elf" angle has to do with their inspiration coming from 40K harlequins.

* Enilefil (named for the backwards spelling of a product from a company I once worked at) comes from the Rifts campaign. He was last seen in Dyval when the Rifts group escaped him to get back to Rifts Earth.

* As I mentioned before, Beartooth comes from the band. Mathias is a common, mysterious-sounding name I like to use and the Drunken Cyclops just sounded funny. Lorna, however, is named after someone specific but I won't reveal that just yet because of the reason I picked that having to do with the plot related to her.

* The Inn of the Red Bull is named after the record label for Beartooth, Red Bull Records.

* Materich was another random name. I wanted to start Tickles off at a Thieves' Guild meeting to remind him there's more than just him in the area. Plus, it allowed me to set up some goings-on in the area for future plot material.

* The Ruins of Rodemus were originally inspired by the B1 - In Search of Adventure module for D&D, but other than a play on a name from it I long abandoned any inspiration there.

* The Thieves of Harr-Ki are a bit of an in-joke for myself and the Mulroney player. More on them later.

* Khruul comes from old Avengers comics from the seventies.

* The plot around the Rodem family is a mystery that the characters will likely discover more about once they get to the actual ruins.

* The Deadly Snow player decided his assassin would dress and act differently when acting as "The Deadly Snow" versus when she was Yukiko Amagi (the assassin is silent, the girl acts and talks like a little girl). He even puts sunglasses on when playing the character in "assassin mode", it is kind of a fun effect.

* Everyone recognized the orc encounter for what it was - a tryout. I'm not sure anyone caught on that the orcs work for Khruul and that the mysterious man plot is the same plot mentioned at the thieves' guild (and to be fair, it requires some assumptions as I've presented no direct link).

* Thahn is a common enough Vietnamese name. The orc is named that because Khruul was Vietnamese in the comics and so were his henchmen.

* Originally I thought the PCs would start knowing each other, but since Mulroney didn't play it that way at the coven meeting I thought this worked out fine too.

* Clearly the reward for the goblins was a way to get evil characters to want to bother with Rodemus.

* The symbol left behind is intended to be that of Libra (as in the Marvel character of the same name) but to keep things more fantasy-like, I used the name of the Chinese constellation of the azure dragon.

* One thing I'm terrible about remembering in RPGs is light sources (it's up there with forgetting not everyone can read/write in games with literacy skills, which I'm sure I made a mistake with as well for this session). It's why getting the lantern and torches was a big deal to head to Rodemus but wasn't earlier when Mulroney went to the coven meeting or to see Spaulding. I may add in an idea that normal routes are lighted with magic stones or something but the off-path areas are not.

* The orc fight was originally intended to be more of a tension-filled encounter that could come back later, but the group went immediately into attack mode. Hopefully they learned some lessons from this.

* Since it will take weeks for everyone to heal up (not to mention the lost armor, etc.) I'm going to have to figure out a way to keep things moving for next session.

*** Session 02 - Cast of Characters ***

Tickles: An anarchist coyle thief. He raised the orphan Yukiko from a baby to work as a hard killer.

The Great Mulroney: A changeling witch who believes he is human and masquerades as a prestidigitator.

Yukiko Amagi (aka The Deadly Snow): An aberrant young human girl trained as a secret assassin. She considers Tickles to be her father.

*** Session 02 - Scene 1 (of 7) ***

When the group arrives back in Beartooth, they assess their situation. Not only does the Great Mulroney need a new set of armor, as does Tickles, but both are badly wounded. Healing naturally, it could take Mulroney a couple of weeks or more to get back to full health.

Since they know they can't wait that long and still rescue the prisoners at Rodemus, they consider going to Fleria for her healing touch but don't have enough money.

They decide to start by selling off the chain mail armor they took off the orc (since it isn't suitable for any of them, anyway).  Mulroney offers to do the selling. He takes it to the local armorer and attempts to claim it is enchanted (which he got off an "orc chieftain") but the armorer isn't buying the story.
 
The armorer offers 90 gold, but Mulroney insists it is worth at least three times that especially with its powerful enchantment. After some haggling, they eventually settle on a price of 100 gold and a suit of soft leather armor. He pockets 20 of the gold for himself and takes the remaining 80 back to the others to split.

On his way, he stops over at the Drunken Cyclops. Mathias is surprised to see him again. He asks if the prestidigitator is there to talk of wine embargos again.

For his part, Mulroney spins a tale of being off to a birthday celebration engagement he was hired to perform at when he was attacked by three large men. He tells Mathias the men claimed he worked for Mathias and he should warn him there is a wine embargo. After that, Mulroney claims the men beat him, said something about Lorna, then ran off. He asks after the clandestine wizard's assistance.

Mathias, skeptical, says Lorna is still missing. He doesn't appear to believe in any wine embargos, but does admit Mulroney clearly has been in a fight of some kind. He tells Mulroney he should go get healed, but Mulroney claims the men took all his money.

Giving in, Mathias gives Mulroney 25 gold to get himself at least a little healed up for his troubles. Mulroney thanks the man, saying he will be sure to pass along any more information he hears about the wine embargo. Mathias is still confused about that matter, but tells him to go ahead and give him any information he comes across.

After that, Mulroney makes his way over to Tickles' shack.

*** Session 02 - Scene 2 (of 7) ***

When Mulroney arrives at Tickle's house, he slams down the purse of 80 gold, saying that should make them feel better. He even offers to only take 10 of the gold and let them split the rest. Tickles and Yukiko agree to the deal, but aren't sure what Mulroney's game is.

Once the money is divided, they discuss what to do next. Mulroney offers to use some of his money to take them out to dinner at the Inn of the Red Bull. Again, Tickles accepts but isn't sure what the witch is up to.

At the inn, Mulroney buys them the cheapest meal he can afford – some roast pigeon. Not long after they finish eating, an orc wanders in.

The orc is clearly agitated. Deadly Snow notes it is not one of the orcs from the alley while Mulroney plans an exit strategy.

Tickles is paying attention to what the man is talking about at the bar. Apparently, the orc was the leader of a band of mercenaries called the "Rock Vipers" who were attacked by some kind of ghost while out planning an attack on the goblins of Rodemus.

According to the orc, two of his men were killed by the ghost and the others driven off. He's attempting to recruit new members for his mercenary group. Mulroney smells an opportunity for profit and winks at Tickles. Tickles isn't sure how to take that.

Mulroney tells the others this could be an opportunity to make a little money. Tickles wonders if his plan is to join the Rock Vipers or take advantage of them. Mulroney says it would be better to find out a bit more about them first since they appear to guard the pass to Rodemus. Deadly Snow is concerned the orc may recognize them, but Mulroney says the orc clearly believes there is a ghost.

Tickles and Deadly Snow aren't sure about joining up with the orcs to split the reward for Rodemus. Mulroney is more interested in scamming the orcs to say he has powers to exorcise spirits.

Mulroney draws the orc's attention over to their table. He comes over, asking if they are interested in joining the Rock Vipers. Mulroney says he isn't sure about that, but asks about the ghost that drove off the orc's men.

After getting some of the relevant information out of the orc (in order to maintain his cover), Mulroney explains he and his companions were also attacked by the ghost. He claims their wounds were the result of the ghost's attacks. The orc is suspicious at first, but between Mulroney's fantastical and animated story, and the orc's dim intelligence, he eventually believes it.

Mulroney offers to work together to take vengeance on the ghost, but the orc says he isn't interested in ghosts, only money. Mulroney tells the orc he was out on that path for a reason. The orc confirms he was, that reason being money.

The orc continues that his group wanted the reward for the hostages that Caleshomo offered; but even more than that, they wanted the spoils of the raids the goblins have been performing. The orc offers an attack on Rodemus could be very lucrative. Plus, the orc notes, Rodemus is located inside Rock Viper territory and he doesn't like that.

Discussing the potential rewards, the orc also believes they could get some money out of the local goblin gang leader, Materich, since the Rodemus goblins are interfering in his operation as well. Mulroney asks how many goblins are out at Rodemus, but the orc isn't sure.

The orc offers them each pay of 400 gold each plus half a share each of whatever treasure they recover from Rodemus. Mulroney says they are interested, but need time to heal up. To avoid a delay, the orc (who gives his named as Skulric Fortman) gives them half the money up front to get healed up and buy any equipment they need before they head out. They agree to meet back up with him the next morning after they have a chance to heal and buy equipment.

*** Session 02 - Scene 3 (of 7) ***

The next day, the three meet back up with Skulric. Tickles and Mulroney have spent much of their money on healing from Fleria, as well as a new suit of armor for Tickles, enough lantern oil to get to Rodemus and back, several more daggers for Deadly Snow, and a set of blowgun darts and a dose of scorpion blood poison for Tickles.

Skulric leads them out on the path to Rodemus. Little of interest happens on their trip until they reach the outskirts of Rodemus. As they approach the underground region where Rodemus is located, they can spot the outline of the large temple fortress.

When Skulric tells Mulroney to dim the lantern, the witch says ghosts can still see them in the dark. Skulric notes he isn't worried about ghosts so much as goblins and hobgoblins. Mulroney didn't realize the goblins at Rodemus also had hobgoblins working with them.

Skulric has him shine the light over near the end of the path to reveal the dead bodies of two hobgoblin archers. He explains his men killed them during a previous reconnaissance but this was as close as they got. He points out the tower nearest the path as where the guards were stationed.
Tickles asks about a plan of attack. Skulric prefers a more frontal assault approach, but admits he isn't a trained soldier. Tickles would prefer to recon the area first, sneaking around quietly and looking for alternate entrances.

Mulroney sends Shoes out to examine the area in more detail. The ruins of Rodemus lie near a sulfur-smelling underground river. Nearby is a pool of fresher-smelling water, though it is dark and brackish. The temple is built with two towers to either side, each connected to a main keep by a covered, columned walkway.

At the front of the temple, three sets of stairs lead up to doors – two single doors on either side and a larger set of double doors in the middle. There don't appear to be any guards there.

Around the back, there is another set of double-doors. Because of the slope of the ground, that set of doors is level with the ground. Two hobgoblin soldiers stand guard over it. Some distance away is the underground river with a bridge over it.

As Tickles passes by the rear of the building, he spots a nook along the side with a set of stairs leading down to a door that must lead to a level of the building below ground. In the back of the far tower, there appears to be some kind of statue as a shrine to Rurga. Neither Tickles nor Shoes spot any other guards as they complete their circumnavigation around the temple.

The group debates what to do next. Tickles would like to scale the walls and enter from above, while Mulroney wonders if they should go in through the lower level. Deadly Snow sees drawbacks to either approach, but feels they should kill the hobgoblins in the rear regardless. Skulric, anxious for battle, would prefer to rush in through the front doors.

Tickles says the back door will be less heavily guarded. Mulroney offers he can use some of his "magic tricks" to distract the guards so they can kill them quickly.

The witch's plan is to use a ventriloquism spell to distract the guards, and then follow it up with a befuddle spell to confuse them. Tickles offers he can use his grappling hook on the guards after Mulroney distracts them, but Mulroney isn't so enthusiastic about that.

Skulric says he can take a couple of hobgoblins himself, but since the others need to earn their keep he agrees to let Mulroney use his trick so they can advance on the guards before being spotted.

Shoes moves around to the opposite side of the back of the keep to cast ventriloquism. Once the guards are distracted, the plan is for Tickles and Deadly Snow attempt to sneak in for an attack. Skulric and Mulroney agree to hang back to let them attempt the assassination.

The ventriloquism spell works, causing both guards to look the other way. Unfortunately, both Deadly Snow and Tickles make too much noise moving in, spoiling their surprise.

With the element of surprise gone, Tickles quickly grabs his grappling hook and swings it at one of the hobgoblins, wrapping it around the creature's spear.

Mulroney then casts his befuddle spell at the other soldier. Unfortunately, the hobgoblin is able to resist the effects of his magic. Shoes attempts the same but has no better luck.

Deadly Snow tosses a couple of daggers at the guard. They slice his side and leg as they hit home. The hobgoblin responds by moving towards them all while his companion is able to free his spear from Tickles' grappling hook.

Tickles tries to grapple again, but fails. Deadly Snow gets another couple of hits on the other one with her daggers as the hobgoblins close in.

Skulric moves in with his sword and slices hard into the soldier near Tickles, badly wounding the creature. Tickles tries to finish the guard off with his grappling hook but the hobgoblin knocks it away with his spear.

Mulroney, wanting to prevent Tickles from getting killed, fires an energy bolt into the hobgoblin, killing it. Shoes finishes off the other one with his own energy bolt. Skulric is impressed with the witch's abilities.

Tickles searches the bodies and finds a key on one of them; he takes it. As he does so, his keen hearing picks up multiple people approaching from the bridge. He alerts the others, but while they discuss what to do Skulric charges off towards the bridge with a battle cry.

Leaving Skulric to take care of the soldiers on the bridge, Tickles unlocks the rear doors with the key he found and slowly opens it. He can see a hallway inside heading to either side but no one immediately inside. Not wanting to wait around for others to come, they all head inside the keep and close the door.

*** Session 02 - Scene 4 (of 7) ***

Once inside the keep, Tickles' keen sense of hearing picks up sounds of screams behind the door down the hallway to the right. He can tell they are screams of pain, and believes it could be from one of the hostages.

Mulroney hatches a plan, pointing out that Tickles could attempt to lure someone out of the room by speaking Gobbley. He thinks Tickles should attempt to sound like a goblin and tell whoever is behind the door there are intruders, with he and Deadly Snow standing ready at either side of the door to attack.

Tickles tries to say, "the boss wants to see you", but neither sounds like a goblin nor says anything of intelligence. Deadly Snow, with her own knowledge of Gobbley, recognizes her father has just spoken gibberish.

Mulroney hears a noise from around the corner in the hallway on the side of the door he's on. He spots a hobgoblin heading towards him with a knife. The witch makes a run for it, heading past Tickles and Deadly Snow while warning them.

The two, along with Shoes, quickly set up an ambush. When the hobgoblin rounds the corner, Tickles hits him hard in the head with his war hammer. Shoes follows it up with an energy bolt. Staggering, the hobgoblin's armor is hit by Deadly Snow's daggers.

The hobgoblin taunts the men, laughing at their attempts to kill "old Erto". Deadly Snow swings away with her battle axe, but misses again.

Shoes, slinking between the feet of Deadly Snow and Tickles, blasts the hobgoblin with another energy blast. Erto's corpse falls to the ground, still smoking.

*** Session 02 - Scene 5 (of 7) ***

Tickles doesn't hear anyone coming so he searches the body. He finds a few daggers and gives them to his young ward. He also finds a key on Erto, which he takes.

Deadly Snow forms a different idea – she strips the body and uses some make-up to disguise herself as a hobgoblin. While she's doing that, Tickles looks around and sees another door down the other hall.

The three discuss for a minute what to do and believe they should head into the room where they heard the screams. He listens at the door and hears the screaming has stopped and all he hears now is labored breathing.

Finding the door unlocked, Tickles attempts to impersonate Erto's voice saying he is coming in. He doesn't get the voice right, but at least says the right words this time.

Deadly Snow then walks in first, posing as Erto. But she finds no one there except for a human prisoner chained up to the wall. Based on the cuts on his body, it appears that Erto was torturing the man by cutting him with his knives.

Tickles heads over and uses the key from Erto's pocket to free the man from his chains. Mulroney looks around, spotting two other doors leading out of the room. He can also tell this room used to be the old nursery back in the days of the Rodemus family.

The man is terrified of Erto but they manage to calm him by explaining it is only a disguise. Mulroney and Deadly Snow use their knowledge of first aid to help wrap the man's bandages.

Tickles asks the man his name. He gives it as Samuel. Tickles asks if he is in shape to fight the goblins, but Samuel explains he is a mere pilgrim. Tickles gives him one of the knives he took off Erto to use as a last-ditch defense.

Samuel asks if they've found the others yet. Mulroney explains they have not and asks if Samuel knows where they are. He explains he's been kept in the torture chamber for days.

Tickles asks how many there are. Samuel responds there were five others besides himself. Tickles slaps the man, saying they already knew that and that what he wanted to know was how many goblins there are. Samuel says he does not know the answer to that, but there are many of them. Tickles notes again mentally that Mulroney said with confidence there were only eight.

Mulroney, deflecting the conversation, asks how many women there were with them. Samuel says there was only one woman. Mulroney asks if she was young. Samuel responds that she was a young maiden. He wants to know why the man is asking.

The witch starts carrying on about goblins and hobgoblins, and the terrible things they do to young maidens. Tickles tries to shut him up, but Samuel gets agitated. He says the goblin chieftain, Clotrol, did spend a lot of time looking at her. Mulroney says the goblin probably did a lot more than look at her, and suggests she may be impregnated by the creature at this point.

Mulroney continues on with a rant on the terrible shape of the hobgoblin phallus. Deadly Snow asks Tickles what the man is talking about, saying she would be interested to see such a horrific thing, but Tickles assures her she would not.

Samuel asks where they should go now. Tickles and Mulroney interrogate the man about what he knows of the building; he doesn't recall much except the cells being in a lower section of the keep.

Mulroney decides to open the door on the south side of the room and peer in carefully with his lantern. He can see the dilapidated room appears to be the old governess's room. There is also a large hole in the wall to the east. He wonders if there is a large rat around.

Tickles suggests Mulroney send in his cat to investigate. The witch tries saying his cat is only a cat, but the thief is pretty sure the cat is much more.

Deadly Snow offers to take the lantern and go investigate. She creeps over and shines the lantern inside, revealing a giant, coiled snake. Feeling threatened, the snake lashes out but Deadly Snow is able to deflect the attack.

The young assassin tumbles backward to get out of the way but the snake moves too fast. It bites her in the leg. She can tell from the bite it is not poisonous – it must be a giant bull snake.

Snow draws her battle axe and strikes down hard on the over-sized reptile; blood splatters into her face.

Mulroney, pretending to assist, makes various hand gestures and nonsensical incantations. Tickles moves in to assist with his war hammer, knocking it away from Snow.

The snake turns and strikes out at Tickles but he parries away the attack. Deadly Snow attempts to axe, but the snake moves out of the way. Meanwhile, Mulroney continues to pretend to cast spells.

Tickles strikes out again, smashing the giant snake in the head twice in rapid succession. Deadly Snow finishes it off with her axe.

*** Session 02 - Scene 6 (of 7) ***

With the snake dead, Deadly Snow looks back in the hole. It appears the hole was originally made by rats but the snake ate them all. She can see it leads into the adjoining room.

Looking in, Deadly Snow sees the room beyond appears to have been some sort of children's room. The ruins of an old bed sit along one of the walls, with the wall covered in long-dried blood. Lying against the wall, sitting on the bed, appears to be a child-sized skeleton. Snow moves through the hole and retrieves the child's skull so she can fashion it into a mask for herself.

Meanwhile, Mulroney talks with Samuel about how his pilgrim group was captured by the goblins on their pilgrimage. Samuel offers no explanation as to why they were captured except to suggest the goblins enjoy kidnapping, torture, and murder for sport (especially that old bastard Erto).

Tickles offers they could go retrieve Erto's head for Samuel as a present. Mulroney seems it sounds like a good idea so he retrieves the body. Samuel isn't so sure he needs Erto's head, but is glad to see he's dead.

Moving on, Tickles opens the door to the east of the torture chamber after making sure he doesn't hear anything. The room beyond appears to be an old sitting room.

The room has clearly already been gone through, but Tickles notices it contains the remains of a desk. The desk drawer has been thrown on the ground. He decides to examine it.

He finds an old journal hidden below a false bottom in the drawer. The writing inside identifies it as the diary of Lady Lissa Rodem. He skims through it quickly, reading a few choice passages to his companions.

The first passage of interest is near the back of the journal, from a few months before the last entry in it. "Today is a day of sorrow, for I have learned my lord husband, Cristion, has died in. According to the survivors, he met his end fighting a small horde of demons. The head demon was said to call himself Modeus, and was looking for some sort of enchanted black sword and only attacked our temple's patrol for being in his way. I grieve for the tragic circumstances of his death, but am glad the creature did not find what it was looking for. The demons moved on to look for their quarry, so the immediate threat is over, but it will be some time before Goffry can succeed as the true ruler." Tickles sarcastically says he's sure everything will work out just fine.

The next passage appears to be from a day or two later. "The high priestess Kandia has foreseen even more tragedy for us in her divinations, but cannot say what the real threat is. She refuses to tell me all and says only she must journey on to see L'ai Sau of the Priests of Pah-ma for more insight. She has taken our most valuable artifacts with her, though she left her Amulet of Rurga in the treasury for safe-keeping. The priest's hidden Temple of Agaphaur is far away and I fear her absence for such a long time." Tickles doesn't like the sound of treasure being taken away from this place, but makes a mental note to keep the Temple of Agaphaur in mind for the future.

Several weeks after that entry, he reads "Young Pieter was bit by a foul bat creature while playing out in the barrens today. I have cleansed his wounds, but his fever continues. Without Kandia here, there is little we can do but wait."

Tickles notes things take a turn for the worse, reading a passage from a few days later, "Pieter's condition continues to worsen. In his fevered state he even bit one of the men attempting to hold him down during his convulsions. I pray to Rurga for the quick return of Kandia."

The thief quips he has a feeling Pieter is going to get better before reading the next day's entry, "I can barely write the words of the tragedy that has befallen us. Pieter has gone missing, his infection appears to have made him mad. In his altered state, he must have attacked Goff, for we found Goff's body in their room this morning with his throat ripped out. I cannot bear to have the body moved yet; we shall deal with it on the morrow though one of the men named Klyvan says he has heard of a plague like this before and there is something he needed to do in the room after I left." Deadly Snow takes a mental note that the skull she is carrying is that of Goffry Rodem.

Trying not to laugh as Mulroney makes vile insinuations about what Klyvan may have done in the room with the body after Lady Lissa left, Tickles continues with the following day's entry: "One of the kitchen workers encountered Pieter in the yard today. His arm was badly bitten and acting on the advice of Klyvan, they quickly cut the arm off to try and stop the infection. As for Pieter, he seems to have run off again."

Mulroney is briefly confused by the story, having difficulty following the tale. Tickles and Deadly Snow clarify for him what has happened, saying the story is straight-forward enough and he hasn't been paying attention.

Deadly Snow speculates that the man Klyvan appeared to understand what was happening even if no one else did. Tickles continues reading the events of the following day, "The kitchen worker's condition continues to decline and Klyvan fears we may need to put him down. He talks about anyone being bitten needing to be killed immediately, but I fear he speaks too openly and now everyone is acting quiet and suspicious."

Tickles finds the next entry takes place two days later. It reads, "As things get worse, Klyvan reveals more to me. He says he first saw the plague years ago, as a young boy. His clan elders believed a necromancer was responsible; they blamed a mysterious man who arrived in the area recently but no one ever knew for sure. Klyvan recalls not who the man was nor that of his fate. He did, however, recall a strange symbol associated with the man."

The journal has a drawing of the symbol – it appears to be a spiral-like symbol, black with jagged edges. The symbol is not familiar to any of the men.

Tickles then reads the final entry, "Several more of the staff appear to have gotten sick, the result of unreported bites. Klyvan has urged me to seal ourselves in the East Tower until Kandia returns and can assist the remaining men in ridding this threat. I have agreed to his plan, but am insisting we include everyone who is not obviously sick; I will not sentence anyone to death by leaving them outside the protection of the tower. May Rurga watch over us and have mercy on our souls."

Everyone concludes the obvious – this series of events is clearly what led to the disappearance of the Rodem clan. They wonder if their remains are still locked away in the tower.

Tickles wants to discover more about the symbol, but Mulroney is more interested in finding one of the bat creatures and extracting its venom to use as a weapon.

Mulroney, however, fakes that he recognizes the symbol. He says it is the symbol of Reedikus, a powerful demon. He claims it means that any item of value found in this location will be cursed and that only those with the knowledge of Reedikus (such as himself) can take them without risk. Deadly Snow isn't so she believes his story.

*** Session 02 - Scene 7 (of 7) ***

As everyone is wondering how much they trust each other, sounds of moaning come out from beyond the door leading to the south. There appear to be two voices – one in pain and one in pleasure.

Mulroney approaches the door and finds a keyhole. Peeking through, he sees inside is a bed with a goblin riding atop a human female.

The witch uses his magic to cast a fear spell at the goblin raping the woman. Terrified, the goblin fouls the bed and runs out of a door to the south while still naked and covered in his own filth. The poor woman is also terrified, but still chained to the bed.

Mulroney opens the door and moves to help the woman out. Tickles unchains her and covers her with her discarded clothes on the floor.

Tickles then looks through the goblin's clothes on the ground, finding 20 gold in his pockets. He also spots a scroll with an encoded message of some kind, but cannot decipher it. He pockets it for later.

Once the woman is calmed, Tickles asks her name. She gives it as, Edwina. He asks her if she is OK or needs medical attention. She responds that she is pretty far from OK, but does not require any healing.

Edwina is happy they stopped Clotrol, but warns he will be back soon with many more guards. Mulroney asks about the others, and she explains they are in the lower part of the keep, to the south. He eventually convinces her to help them find the others. Tickles arms the woman with another of the knives from Erto so she can defend herself in case they run into any trouble.

Before they head south after Clotrol, the group decides they should make sure to investigate the second door to the north in this room to be sure they don't get attacked from behind.

Tickles doesn't hear anything from the chamber beyond, but does smell a foul odor. Opening the door, he discovers the room beyond is a large privy.

The others feel the room isn't worth searching, but Tickles wants to check the privies for secret compartments. Mulroney offers to back him up in case they encounter anything.

Tickles does not find any secret compartment, but when he sticks his arm in the privy hole, he discovers a milliasaur has taken up residence there. The rocky-hided, sharp-toothed giant centipede creature bites on to his arm.

The creature's toxic bite paralyzes the thief. Mulroney grabs Tickles and pulls his arm out of the hole, taking the creature with him.

Using his psionic powers, Tickles neutralizes the poison in his body. The milliasaur drops off of Tickles and attacks at Mulroney for interrupting its dinner. He carefully dodges the attack.

Shoes then casts a levitation spell, trapping the creature in the air. Everyone takes the opportunity to escape the room while the creature is trapped. Deadly Snow then moves in and hacks the creature to bits with her battle axe.

The three adventurers, Shoes, and the two freed hostages then make their way towards the south part of the keep, ready to take on the force of goblins waiting for them...

*** Session 02 - Session Notes ***

These are the session notes from our game a week ago. Because I was busy last weekend and this weekend, I just barely managed to get them done in time (our next session is this upcoming Friday).

I do love typing up these detailed journals of our sessions, but it really does take a great deal of my time (easily 5-6 hours) just to get the notes typed up. Then I have to post / email them to the group then post the messages on the two gaming sites I post to (side note - one site is annoying because of forcing a 60 second delay between posts while the other is now annoying because it throws an error whenever I attempt a quick reply).

In any event, on to how the session went. This session went very smooth - the PCs got a chance to recover from the previous session, do some role-playing, come up with some plans, and then make some progress in the dungeon. This is them at their most competent.

So far, they've caught right on to the Palladium system. It's nice to see the witch learning the magic system enough to be able to use spells intelligently (in some games, the person who ended up a spell caster never bothered to learn much and as a result was never very effective).

The group is still missing a front-line fighter type, which is why Skulric the NPC showed up (side note - he has a last name given in the write-up because of an in-joke). Skulric won't become a regular, necessarily, but at least got them to Rodemus. He also gets a cool moment where he heads off-screen to battle, leaving the PCs to fend for themselves and not sure if he is dead or alive (not that these three would care).

Other notes about the session:
* Step 1 to getting the game on track was giving the PCs a chance to recover without having to wait around a couple of weeks. To that end, the armorer, the wine merchant, and Skulric are a lot freer with money than I usually have NPCs being. The PCs found it unnerving because they know it isn't my usual style and started to get paranoid.

* Mulroney is still trying to figure out what the Lorna thing is or when it will come up.

* I thought it would be funny to have the orc they scared off last session hire them this session (as well as provide a little tension that they have to be careful not to reveal themselves). It was also a way to get them some money for healing / armor.

* Mulroney had a terrible idea about trying to rob Skulric or something but I kept implying that wouldn't work (nor would it have gotten them much). I would have ultimately let them try it if they kept pushing it, but they backed off. It's not that I want to railroad to Rodemus so much as I don't want them to overplay their hand and make the campaign environment untenable for their characters (as happened in some of the last campaigns). I don't mind them trying to be Vic Mackey or Tony Soprano, but going full Dexter Morgan or Tony Montana is a recipe for a short campaign.

* The ruins of Rodemus are based on the art museum near where I work (closed since the flood of '08). I always thought it would make a cool fantasy stronghold. The surrounding geography is similarly placed.

* Rodemus isn't trying to be a hard-core dungeon crawl - it's a base for goblins. The way I mapped out the building, most of the goblins are in the front of the building it gave them plenty of opportunity to explore.

* Erto wasn't exactly weak, but a couple of good rolls from the PCs (and bad rolls from him) killed him off quickly. The PCs were unnerved that I gave him a name (which they should have, he was technically a 3rd level assassin).

* The hole in the wall with a giant snake is there as more of a "classic dungeon encounter", but the backstory was that Erto was keeping the snake around to eat the rats.

* I had to stat up the snake myself since Palladium doesn't have much in the way of giant-animal type monsters (and didn't have a big snake that wasn't poisonous). Creating monsters for Palladium, like NPCs, is considerably more challenging than in most other RPGs I play (because of all the different numbers and wide ranges of values) and as someone who has to run the games, has always been the one thing I like least about the games.

* Deadly Snow taking the skull was intentionally disturbing. The player likes to contrast her more child-like nature (not understanding the conversation about the goblin genitals) with her killer nature (collecting a child's skull to wear).

* As is my usual custom, I had a big sheet of journal entries typed up in a script font to hand to the PCs. I love handouts - partially for the humor (the players dislike trying to read script and hate reading long passages aloud; they also know they will miss half the clues contained in it).

* Lady Lissa's journal is both an explanation of what happened as well as some foreshadowing for some things to come.

* Modeus was a demon in the Rifts campaign. He captured the PCs in that campaign and even killed one of their members and fed him to the rest in a stew. He was the demon Enilefil rescued them from.

* Anyone who is familiar with the Rifts campaign may recognize the reference to the "enchanted black sword". More on that later.

* L'ai Sau and the Priests of Pah-ma, along with the temple of Agaphaur, are based on the Marvel Comics characters, the Priests of Pama. They should also come more into the story later (clearly I am laying groundwork here to incentivize the PCs to find the hidden temple).

* The story of Pieter is straight out of a typical "zombie plague" style genre. The zombie plague in the undermound is something that was co-inspired by being a plot point in the Warhammer Necromunda game as well as being able to take advantage of Palladium's Dead Reign rules.

* Klyvan clearly made sure to destroy Goffry's brain before he reanimated as a zombie, but I'm not sure the players have understood this story yet.

* Readers of my D&D 4th edition campaign (Shadows Over Fallcrest) may recognize the spiral symbol. Again, more on that later.

* The Mulroney player sees the bat creature as a potential way to use the "use the green goo to try and take over the world" plot he wanted back in the original Cthulhubusters campaign. I'd say he should have learned his lesson, but since this Mulroney character is based on that Mulroney character it would make sense he has not.

* I had to guess how "Reedikus" should be spelled in the write-up since the Mulroney character ad-libbed that whole thing out of his ass in the session.

* The defeat of Clotrol is perhaps a bit too lighthearted given the circumstances, but at least they saved the girl and did it in a clever way.

* The milliasaur is another Necromunda-inspired monster. It's in the toilet because I thought had the most humor potential.

*** Session 03 - Cast of Characters ***

The Great Mulroney: A changeling witch who believes he is human and masquerades as a prestidigitator.

Yukiko Amagi (aka The Deadly Snow): An aberrant young human girl trained as a secret assassin. She considers Tickles to be her father.

*** Session 03 - Scene 1 (of 5) ***

Believing it would be too dangerous to take Edwina and Samuel into open combat against Clotrol and his guards, Tickles offers to take the rescued pilgrims to safety by slipping out the back. As they head that way, Edwina gives a description of a partial map of the temple ruins based on what she knows.

According to Edwina's map, the door in the hall they are in leads into a larger chamber that sits elevated above the main hall. It apparently is where Lord Rodem held audience. Edwina relates two hobgoblin soldiers usually guard the door nearest them as well as a second door leading from the opposite end of the hallway, across from the room where they found Goffry's remains.

From the chamber beyond, a set of open steps lead to the sunken lower level of the great hall of the keep. Here Edwina says there is usually a goblin sergeant and anywhere from half a dozen to a dozen hobgoblin soldiers. The double-doors from the front of the keep lead directly into the main hall, but the other doors outside lead into side chambers. She also notes she has seen a goblin lieutenant around at times, and believes he is staying in one of the side chambers.

Edwina can relate nothing about the western chamber attached to the great hall, as she never ventured there. As for the eastern side of the great hall, there are two doors identified by her – with one leading to a side hallway that connects to one of the outside doors at the front of the keep as well as a door leading to the covered walkway on the east side of the keep. At the end of the hallway is the cell area, kept under guard by a kobold jailer named Lymox (identified by Edwina as a hired hand of the goblins) and his goblin assistant.

The group try to decide what to do next. As an aside, Mulroney notes the stairs leading below the keep from outside do not connect with the lower area of the main hall, so they must lead somewhere else. He wonders if there could be something down there to help them.

Deadly Snow is more focused on the fact there are many more goblins and hobgoblins than Mulroney originally said there would be. He says they must have brought in more after he was last informed.

The small assassin believes the best idea is to sneak in to the prisoner area from the side door off the east walkway. Mulroney, however, believes the two of them (and his cat) are insufficient to take on all the forces inside Rodemus themselves.

Eventually, they decide the best course of action is to go look for Skulric to see if he can assist. They begin heading back down the hallway towards the doors at the rear of the keep when they hear the door from the main hall open behind them and soldiers moving inside.

They quickly move outside and Mulroney directs Shoes to go around the corner while they make their way towards the bridge and Tickles and the prisoners head back towards the path leading back towards Beartooth.

Shining his lantern out in the darkness, Mulroney slowly sees the bloody form of Skulric walking towards them. He appears to have won a hard-fought battle, being drenched in blood.

Skulric greets them, saying he has won in glorious battle. Mulroney praises the orc's skill (as if they witnessed the fight) but says there are more battles to come back at the keep. Not missing a beat, Skulric yells "To battle!" and charges on towards the keep.

Mulroney and Deadly Snow follow behind Skulric but he quickly enters the rear of the keep. Saying they need to keep the orc alive, Mulroney slips in after him, with Shoes following.

Deadly Snow decides to slip off in the dark towards the covered walkway to try and enter from the side.

*** Session 03 - Scene 2 (of 5) ***

Lighting her torch, Deadly Snow makes her way towards the covered walkway. She walks up the steps and notices a dead body between her and the door into the keep. It appears to be the upper torso of a long-dead man.

Snow kneels next to the body to examine it in more detail. But when she does so, the body springs to life and attacks her with the strength of the undead.

The crawler zombie moves to bite Snow on the arm, but she manages to block the attack with her lightning-fast reflexes. Drawing her dagger, she stabs into the zombie.

She struggles for a few moments, fending off the zombie's bite while continuing to stab away at the zombie with her dagger. Eventually a sharp blow penetrates the zombie's skull, causing him to go dormant. She throws the half corpse off of her and makes her way back towards the door.

She first checks the door and finds it to be locked. Deciding how to best ambush the goblin and kobold inside, she attempts to scale the wall around the door to get above it. After falling on her first attempt, she gets back up and manages to climb her way above the door.

From her position on the wall, she knocks at the door below her. When no one answers, she attempts to yell in Gobbley to those inside, but doesn't manage to phrase things correctly. The response from inside suggests she go away.

Dropping back down, Snow gets out her lockpick set and picks the lock open. When she opens it, Lymox is ready for her. Lymox immediately moves in with his short sword, catching the assassin in her side.

Deadly Snow responds with a telekinetic kick, causing the kobold to stagger. He swings at her with his sword again, but she easily parries with her dagger. Spinning around, she slices at him with both daggers, drawing blood.

Continuing her flurry of attacks, Snow cuts into him again. Lymox drops his sword and collapses to his knees, saying he surrenders. He promises to do anything she wants as she ties him up. She finds a key in his pocket and takes it.

With Lymox out of the way, Snow heads up the hallway to the cell room, finding the prisoners chained to the wall. The goblin assistant still guarding them takes one look at the diminutive killer and drops his knife. As he cowers in fear, Deadly Snow slits his throat.

One of the men chained to the wall thanks her for helping them, though notes she's awfully small for an assassin. Using the key from Lymox, she frees the prisoners.

*** Session 03 - Scene 3 (of 5) ***

Back inside the keep, Mulroney enters the back hall to see Skulric charging ahead into battle against a force of four hobgoblin soldiers.

Mulroney casts a fear spell on the front rank of the soldiers. One of the soldiers stands his ground, but the others turn to flee. Shoes casts an armor of ithan spell on Skulric to protect him against the remaining soldier.

Using his sword, Skulric makes quick work of the remaining hobgoblin and charges down the hallway after the others who fled. By the time Mulroney catches up to them, Skulric has cut the soldiers into pieces and is heading into the main hall.

Mulroney can hear the sounds of battle from beyond the door. He decides to head into the main hall to assist. Once he opens the door, he sees Skulric is surrounded by a half-circle of six soldiers with spears.

Skulric is stabbed once with a spear but fends off the other blows. Mulroney assists by using blinding flash spells cast by himself and Shoes to blind three of the soldiers.

To Mulroney's dismay, Skulric presses his attack with the soldiers who can still see. The soldier manages to parry his attack.

Skulric fends off another wave of attacks by the hobgoblins, but a lucky attack by one of the blinded soldiers manages to strike him and damages his armor. Skulric responds by cutting into one of the soldiers with a couple of well-placed sword strikes.

One of the soldiers stabs in at Skulric, but he deflects the blow. He tries to counter, but is parried as well. Meanwhile, Shoes casts an energy bolt, killing the wounded soldier.

Meanwhile, Mulroney casts another blinding flash spell, blinding another of the soldiers. Skulric manages to fend off a series of attacks by the soldiers and wounds the remaining non-blind hobgoblin. The soldier strikes him back, and Skulric responds by unleashing a furious strike that kills the hobgoblin.

With the remaining hobgoblins all blind, Skulric easily parries their attacks and strikes back. Shoes casts a fear spell on three of the soldiers close together, causing one of them to run into the spear of another, killing him.

For his part, Mulroney uses a ventriloquism spell to speak in Gobbley and distract the remaining three blind hobgoblins. Unfortunately, his attempt to use the language gets mangled in translation and the spell is ineffective.

Skulric continues to trade blows with the soldiers, with most of his attacks damaging their armor or being parried. He does manage to wound one of the hobgoblins just as a goblin sergeant and two more soldiers begin walking up the steps to the chamber.

The newly arrived soldiers and their sergeant move in to attack Skulric. The sergeant sticks him with the point of his sword, wounding the orc.

Mulroney has Shoes cast another fear spell on the new attackers as they are close together in battle. The goblin stands his ground, but his guards turn and run. The witch himself uses an energy bolt to take down the wounded, blinded soldier.

The goblin sergeant strikes again, his blade digging deep into the orc's chest. He attempts to attack back, but the sergeant parries away his sword. Their swords clash again as the goblin tries to hit again.

Shoving the goblin back, Skulric strikes once into the goblin's abdomen and another into his chest. The two men stare at each other with respect, each badly wounded but remaining determined.

The goblin and Skulric continue to exchange strikes against each other's swords. The orc also manages to block the spear of the remaining hobgoblins.

Mulroney blasts the goblin sergeant with an energy bolt from behind, further wounding him. He ignores the pain and continues to strike at Skulric, hitting only the mercenary's armor. Skulric tries to end the fight, but the goblin is as effective at parrying as he is.

Shoes finishes off the goblin with an energy bolt. Mulroney attempts to blind the remaining soldier again, but the hobgoblin avoids the attack. Skulric then dispatches the creature by lopping off its head.

Mulroney then draws his sword and moves in towards the remaining hobgoblin soldier. Shoes attempts to blind the soldier, but he avoids the attack.

Skulric turns to fight the hobgoblin, but is parried. Mulroney attempts a swing with his sword, but misses. With a second attempt, Skulric dispatches the soldier. To make sure he is dead, Mulroney drives his sword down on the body.

*** Session 03 - Scene 4 (of 5) ***

With the two hobgoblins who fled being nowhere in sight and the immediate fight over, Skulric and Mulroney take a moment to catch their breaths.

Mulroney suggests to the orc he can heal his wounds using first aid, but he fails poorly. Skulric yells at him to get off and they should get going to finish off any more goblins. The two then head down the stairs into the empty main hall.

Looking at all the doors leading out of the room, Skulric asks Mulroney which way they should go. Mulroney points him towards the door leading to the back hall where the cells are located.

As they move into the hall, they encounter Deadly Snow and the freed prisoners. After greeting each other, Deadly Snow suggests they try to get information out of Lymox by wrapping a cloth around his face and pouring water down his throat to simulate drowning. Unfortunately, her technique is a little too effective and the man ends up choking to death. Mulroney tries to help the man, but only succeeds in breaking the ribs of the corpse.

Skulric is unhappy, as they have freed the prisoners but do not yet have the goblin's treasure. He also still wants to kill Clotrol and any other remaining goblins or hobgoblins.

Mulroney wonders if the treasure could be located down the stairs they found outside, but ultimately they decide to clear the other side chambers first.

Deadly Snow moves quietly over to the door in the main hall and listens. She can hear some arguing in Gobbley coming from behind the door – with Clotrol arguing with one of his men that they should go out and attack the invaders, but the man saying they will be safer inside.

After Snow relates the information, Mulroney motions for her to move back. He then approaches the door and douses it with lamp oil then lights it afire.

The door smolders slowly, filling the main hall with smoke. Mulroney goes to open the main doors to the hall to try and ventilate some of the smoke. As he does so, the smoldering door crashes to the ground and a pair of hobgoblin soldiers emerge, followed by a goblin lieutenant.

One of the soldiers moves to attack Snow, but she knocks the attack aside. The other has no better luck against Skulric.

Skulric strikes back, hitting the hobgoblin. Behind them, the goblin lieutenant maneuvers around and heads towards Mulroney.

Deadly Snow strikes out with her daggers, hitting the soldier on her once with a slice across the leg.

Seeing the lieutenant heading towards him, Mulroney blinds the goblin with a blinding flash. Shoes uses an energy bolt spell to strike the soldier attacking Skulric.

One of the soldiers stabs at Deadly Snow, striking her armor. The soldier on Skulric fails to hit, and the orc cuts him down with his sword in response.

Towards the back of the hall, the goblin lieutenant stumbles his way slowly towards where he last saw Mulroney.

Deadly Snow slices out again with her dagger, cutting the soldier deeply along his cheek. The soldier attacks back, but the assassin avoids the attack. Skulric moves in and kills the soldier by attacking him from behind.

Clotrol emerges from the room, rushing at Skulric. He gets a solid hit into the mercenary, causing him to wince in pain.

Deadly Snow decides to assist the powerful orc mercenary, throwing two daggers into the goblin king's leg.

The lieutenant swings wildly in the rear of the room. Shoes blasts the goblin with an energy bolt, and Mulroney moves in to club the goblin with his staff, striking the creature in his armor. The attack alerts the lieutenant to his presence, however, and the witch is struck by his sword.

Skulric and Clotrol exchange attacks while Deadly Snow draws her battle axe. Skulric gets a hit in, wounding the king. A second attack kills him.

Over in the back, Mulroney gets another attack in on the lieutenant's armor. The lieutenant responds with another strike, wounding him badly. He follows it up with a second hit.

Skulric and Deadly Snow head over towards the lieutenant as the goblin strikes Mulroney again. Mulroney attacks back with his staff, hitting the goblin in the head.

Shoes pounces up at the goblin, slashing the soldier across the face. It isn't enough to distract the soldier, as he parries an attack from Skulric then strikes Mulroney again with another sword strike.

Deadly Snow moves in from behind, striking the lieutenant's armor with her axe. In front, Mulroney tries to attack the goblin but misses. Shoes has better luck with another cat paw strike.

Skulric once again fails to hit with his attack, but luckily for Mulroney the witch manages to parry the goblin's attack.

The parry gives Skulric an opening, and he hits the goblin from the side. Staying focused on Mulroney, the goblin cuts into the witch again.

With another strike, the goblin continues to slice into Mulroney. The witch is now bleeding badly. He attempts to attack back, but is parried. Even the cat is knocked away when it tries to attack.

Skulric once again fails to penetrate the defenses of the lieutenant, but Deadly Snow uses the opportunity to wound the lieutenant with her axe.

The lieutenant, for his part, continues his assault on Mulroney. The witch, badly wounded, makes a run for it. As he turns away, he is hit by the lieutenant's sword again. Shoes responds by attempting to attack the goblin's eyes, but fails.

With a mighty blow, Skulric then kills the goblin by running him through with his sword. To Mulroney's annoyance, the orc seems to take all the credit for the victory.