So... Friday night, two weeks later than planned, my game kicked off, kicking and screaming to raise the dead.  Everything that could go wrong did, it felt like.

Lets see... Two of my players have absolutely incompatable timetables, which with the small size of my group leaves me having to compromise and run the game late at night at the game store where they work.  On friday night.

Fuck.

Arriving on time, I find one player first missing, then roped into a shit nothign conversation, so we wind up an hour late.  Turns out he'd also gone to bed at 7 AM then up at fucking noon to buy a god damn comic book,so he was tired and unmotivated.  Cue one Smiting to get his ass to the table or quit, so we can move on...

Followed by no less than half a dozen interruptions from people with NO FUCKIGN INTEREST in RPG's coming over to talk to my players. I HATE gaming at the store. Can NOT abide it! Arg!!!!


Okay. So we played.

The Cast of Characters:

Erdith: A local dilletant, tall and somewhat reedy, well educated and something of a fop, he carries a rapier but is only marginally skilled in it's use

Kitara: An Elf hunter from the nomadic Tuathans of the Sea of Grass. She barely speaks Nornsan at all, and is a skilled shot with a bow.

Chidi: A son of a wealthy Avante merchant, he has recently returned to Renbluve to continue his studies of sorcery.



The narrated opening and move to trial went off reasonably smoothly.  I'll have to add some details about the process of law in Renbluve, but no matter.  

I had the case presented against them (the theft of the Ducal signet ring of the House of Assar) which was mostly described rather than spoken in character. I detailed a few lackluster witnesses and then let the PC's speak their peice.

Despite the fact that the Magistrate was a fellow worshipper of the Lightbringer sun cult in Renbluve, Erdith failed to recognize the Magistrate as a fellow. Despite this inauspicious beginning, he spoke eloquently on the parties behalf and used withering logic to tear apart the flimsy case as best he could.  Kitara made a soulfull plea of innocence, despite her linguistic limits, and Chidi made sarcastic, but cutting remarks as to the character of the witnesses.

[ In essence, all three players rolled really well to influence the Magistrate...]

The Magistrate asked about their evidence, of which of course, they had none.  He gave them 48 hours to return with evidence on their behalf or face death by drowning. Their accuser left, but not before the PC's noticed he seemed relatively unconcerned with the outcome.

They were escorted into the Magistrates chamber where they were unshackled and had their belongings returned.  THe Magistrate greeted Erdith as a Brother Under the Sun and told them that he could see a shadow in the city, one that needed light shed upon it. He told them that legally his hands were tied, they had no case yet, but he hinted that he would not cause them to be overly pursued if they chose to flee.

Shortly thereafter the PC's found themselves in Upper Renbluve, outside the Halls of Justice in the city center.  Almost immedeatly and Urchin delivered the following message:

"The Magistrate says you should flee".

The PC's immedeatly noticed the problem and asked 'who sent the message', whereupon they were told some fat man with a big nose (matching their accuser) had paid him to deliver it.  

After brainstorming for a bit they decided they wanted to talk to the fat man, but had no means of finding him. Erdith figured he might be a high ranking servant of the Duke, based on his mode of dress, so they hired a guide to lead them to the mansion owned by House Assar.

[ Erdith made his Lore: Nornsa check]  

The door was answered by a young boy of perhaps ten years of age, dressed in the colors of the House. After a breif converstation they learned that they didn't smell like thieves.  After requesting to talk to the seneschal, the boy closed the door. They determined he hadn't locked it, but after pushing it open decided not to go in.  Eventually a obviously hung over young man in his twenties answered the door, and when pressed announced that HE was the the Duke... though in such a manner as to suggest he couldn't be less concerned with his title.  After a few hollow lies and some only slightly respectful interrogations the PC's learned the following facts.

The old duke had died a year ago,
the young man was the Dukes younger brother, and the only other member of the House in town (the rest were in teh Marches, a region somewhere else... )
The Sensechal was probably bignose, and he was apparently out doing whatever sensechal's do... the duke wasn't sure.
The Ring had been on teh Dukes finger the night before, and he had just then awoken next to a young lady he didn't know.
The House Assar has an excellent wine cellar, and at least one drunkard never left it (the Great uncle who died of acute alcohol poisoning and was left in there...)
The maid might know something.
The Duke had a very lovely chamberpot of ivory and gold that the maid emptied several times a day.

Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth at the abscense of the Sensechal. Indeed, Kitara, who had a hunting dog she swore was a wolf, insisted on trying to get an article of clothing or some such to hunt him down by scent. Wolves are not bloodhounds, so this proved to be a non-choice for them.

Cue the interrogation of the maid, a pleasant if slightly plump peasant girl. Only Kitara noticed that the maid wasn't quite human, but other than noting it, failed to grasp any implications.

[ the PC's failed their perception checks, except for kit, who then failed her lore check. the Maid is likely half orcish, but Kit doesn't know, nore does the rest of the party. This is not an important fact at this time, merely color.]

The PC were incredibly charming, and very shortly Consuela [failed my 'make up name on the spot check... ] proved to be a veritable gossip. The party learned the following (via RP, rather than here is a list of facts...)

She was very certainly sleeping with him. In fact, he had been a veritable animal in the sack the last few nights.
He (bignose) had had a visitor in the wee hours of the morning, a visitor who smelled of 'sewage'.
He (bignose) had been very mysterious lately, coming and going at all hours
He (bignose) did most of the ducal work, bringing papers from the palace, shipping the signed ones out to the Marches or wherever, arraging food to be delivered, keeping the wine cellar stocked, etc.  He'd been slacking lately, busy with something else.

At this point Erdith recalled that the Upper City has a bunch of natural caverns and tunnels in the rock, and rather than toss sewage into the streets (upper class neighborhoods and all that) they poured their chamberpots into covered holes carved into the rock into these natural caverns. Not all the caverns have sewage in them, but the true extant of the cavern system was unknown [Lore check again].

Further interrogation... er... gossip, revealed that she had seen him receive some mysterious letters of his own. She happily went and retreived one, or rather teh burnt scrap of heavy parchment from his fireplace. The scrap read

".... meet you at the 12th hour. I will take care of everything." with a signature at the end.

At this point the party was very frustrated at the lack of access to the Seneschal, and wanted to wait for him. Eventually they decided to split up, the hunter would wait outside to watch for him to return while the other two went back to the halls of Justice to see what sort of records could be turned up.

[Kitara's player is very very impatient with RPing and puzzle solving. While I expected her to be a bit bored, she almost ended the game. Partly due to the delay in starting the night, partly due to the entire puzzle thing...]

[Dice roll revealed a three hour wait for the Seneschal to come back...]

The two PC's at the Halls of Justice were able to find, from the scribes, that the trial had been requested the day before by the Seneschal, and a list of the witnesses by name and occupation who had sworn against them.  

Meanwhile, Kitara spotted her mark walking with a shady looking fellow. While her stealthiness wasn't very up to par, they didn't notice her. The Seneschal turned up to the mansion after handign over a small package to his cohort, who proceeded, Kit in tow, to the Lower City where he entered a rough looking tavern.
_____________________________________________________

Aside from the very very rough start and a few angry words when they couldn't magically find the Seneschal, the game actually went very well. Erdith's player and Chidi's player had a great time and seemed to get into character pretty well.  Kit's player was also a bit in character, but fairly one track minded. I broke with canon and gave out one advance to get them familiar with expirence in RQ, rather than waiting until the end of the adventure to give them the recommended three.

The Players have figured out the sewer connection, but refuse to wade through sewage to look for clues. Amusingly: The sewers were used to provide some comfortable 'D&D Dungeoneering' expirences for them, and had they gone that way they might actually have gotten the ring back.  

Right now they still have a day and a half to come up with more proof. They have a decent case now, though not airtight and they seem to realize it.  They had some idea of convincing one of the witnesses against them to admit he'd been paid to lie.

I may have a fourth player joining us next week or the week after, but as she has to drive maybe twenty miles to join (and like me, hates gaming at stores...) it might not happen.

Due to the problem of solving mysteries in RPG's I have been more generous than usual, laying out what the PC's have learned to the PC's a bit, reminding them of things they'd heard or seen.   I think this is a good idea when running mysteries. Everything has to be either bold (murder scene covered in blood, what not) or repetetive. They KNOW the seneschal is up to no good, they just have to prove it. If I made the villian smarter, they'd be utterly stumped. As it is, he's fairly clever, just not expecting them to actually try and prove their innocence.

The Plot? The ring is in the sewers, along with the theif, a mercenary hired for the job. The Seneschal is of low birth, and plans to use the ring to set himself up in style (counting on non-existant communication and easy access to forgeable documents) in some distant part of the kingdom where his deception will not be noticed.  He's using the players as patsies, some random schlubs drown for his crime, the duke is a sot playboy who won't tell the rest of the family the ring is missing, and the people who need to know (the palace) won't learn of it ever. At some point he may even provide a forgery to the Duke after the heat dies down.

The theif is simply waiting for the heat to pass before returnign to get paid. The rough lookign fellow is his contact with the Sensechal, who has a small purse and 'shopping list' of goods to pass on to the theif...

Now, if the players are dead set on tipping their hand, they may get the seneschal to panic and call his 'men' including the thief, to deal with the interlopers.

There are several avenues open to the players, some of which I'll have ot point out as they may be working under mistaken assumptions. Erdith would realize he can in fact inquire at the palace (which is the seat of government  as much as, if not more than, just the king's home) the status of the missing ring, just for example.  Or they could ask around the Lower city about the seneschal, a good half days work (less now that they have a lead down there) would reveal witnesses who saw the man where normally he'd never be, including perhaps a name or two of people he talked to.  

We'll see next week.

Well, bad news, sad-ish day. One of my players flaked out completely tonight. He waited until the absolute last minute... I mean, I had all three players there, had the table, the books, the pizza guy was about ten minutes from delivering. Then he just went

"Fridays aren't good for me." and went home. Like a magician in a puff of smoke he was gone like that.

WHat REALLY hurt about it was we were gaming when and where he said was his only real time to play. HIS schedule, and 'Friday isn't good for me"? Fuck him. Even though I don't have enough players without him, I do have two interested parties, one for sure, one potential from my flier... word to the wise, if you ever get ahold of my phone number, DO NOT leave it at a voice message, my service invariably delivers two to three weeks later. God only knows why.

So. Moving the game from the FLGS (Thank GOD!!!!) and from Friday nights to a weekend (damn.. I work some weekends...). It might be two weeks before I get the new player in, and if mr. Friday night can't make the new day/time, fuck him and his good roleplaying. Good player when he's there, but getting him there is not worth the fucking hassle.

So... with a much needed change of venue and a brand spanky new player at the Table, the Runequest Game oncemore was on!

Our cast of characters are

Chodi- the Avante Sorcerer in training
Kitara- the Elf with bow
and replacing Erdit...

Tabok- an Alchemist from the rougher streets of Renbluve, he refuses to join the Guild because he values his freedom.  

I also started introducing the concept of 'drama wheels' from Ramlar, though I cut it down to three. The players seemed to like the idea, but were somewhat hard pressed to come up with decent goals to start out with. No harm, though.  Without prestige classes or levels to work towards, three is a good number I think.


Tabok has just returned to Renbluve, his native soil, after heading out after hearing of some new formulation that some fellow hedge alchemist had come up with. (Alchemists, so far, only have a very small number of canon potions available to brew... three, so I'm expanding their portfolio a bit to include anything remotely 'material science' related). The trip, while long, had proved fruitless, or nearly so.  During his stay in the boonies he had been purifying and refining some metals and had accidentally created a Metal rune, which he bonded with.  Looking for work to expand his wallet, he'd been directed to the House Assar, where he was hired to remove the annoying sewage smell from the hallway.  The dilletant Duke rather subtlely mentioned a reward might be offered for the return of his missing ducal ring, along with some clues pointing him to other seekers.

Erdith, at the halls of Justice with Chodi wandered off to sell his ass for a pardon... or something.  Chodi, being of similarly low morals flirted with everyone of any gender in the place.

Tabok, upon exiting the House Assar manages to spot Kitara just leaving the neighborhood and follows her all the way to the Lower City where she finally notices him. After explaining to him in broken Nornsan that she was following the tavern they were at, they go inside where she is able to watch the ruffian go about ordering a meal.  Given that it is mid afternoon there aren't many customers, so Tabok is able to get the waitress/wench to explain to him that this fellow is 'Black Bart, or so HE says... just a local boy grown up and gone sort of bad.  Doesn't work, but he pays for his lunch, hangs out with a local rowdy bunch, most of them haven't been scene lately.'  Bart proves oblivious to this exchange, but happens to leave while it is going on, Kitara hot on his heels.

(Bart proves very resistant to making his perception checks, and the party continues their almost unbroken record of making Influence checks)

The duo split up, each following Bart seperately, and witness him enter various dry goods and general stores for a few minutes until Tabok follows him around a corner and is Jumped!!! (Bart finally noticed the big burly alchemist)  

So, we had our first combat, and it was slightly messy since no one really knew what we were doing. I used a mix of iterative and sequenced attacks, rather than just the iterative. So Bart makes a grapple check for his first attack, trying to hold a knife to Tabok's throat to interrogate him.  Sadly, Bart isn't much of a grappler and is much shorter than his target and flubs badly. Before Tabok can respond (or Bart can use his other two combat actions...) Kitara, across the street, uses her combat actions to put an arrow into Bart, taking his chest to 0 in one shot. Bart is hurt badly, but still game (you make a check at negative health, at 0 it's still a minor wound).  

This was a mistake on my part, as Kit really wanted to make a called shot, but I couldn't find the rules in time. Everyone was fairly cool with the call, because a precise shot is -40% and her skill is only 55%, making it very hard to do.  

Tabok, shocked at the arrow that just wizzed by, attempts to shove Bart away, but having no points in unarmed (the player ironically couldn't decide if he wanted to be an unarmed brawler or take advantage of the extra damage Metal gave him with weapons...and he went with weapons) fails miserably. Even though Bart didn't take a defensive action, I let Bart riposte (due to the unarmed shove being awkward when someone is waving a knife in your face) and tabok, the only armored player, winds up takign two points to the face... an unarmored location.  Tabok's player realizes he's in a hard place, as if he draws his shortsword he'll get knifed again.  

Bart moves to keep the hulking alchemist between him and the archer, a wise move, and in so doing is able to slice open Tabok's left arm pretty good.

Kitara realizes that she still has actions left (this is all round one) and draws her dagger and crosses the street, wolf in tow. She takes her non-existant free action to order her wolf to attack Bart, but the beast just looks at her funny. (She rolled a 93 on her Lore:Animal check, which is the default use animal skill...)

Tabok meanwhile decides he's not going to be the only unarmed man in a knife fight and draws his sword rather than back out of reach and then draw his sword.  For once Bart misses with his free attack, using the last of his combat REactions to do so.

Next round, same initiative order, Bart realizes he's fucked but good, so he uses a 'fighting retreat to get out of reach, then takes off around the corner at a dead sprint for his other two actions.  Kitara (who rather vocally refused to drop her bow to get into the knife fight action earlier) drops her dagger, runs to the corner and manages to put an arrow through Bart's left arm, the arrow punching completely through and taking a chunk of meat with it. Bart staggers but amazingly keeps running. Kitara nocks another arrow but can't get a shot off...

[Bart goes to -2 in his left arm, but rolls amazingly well to not pass out from the shock of impact. On the other hand, he lost two of his three combat actions for the next round. ]

Tabok turns the corner and watches the show...not having any ranged attacks himself.

Bart staggers around another bend in the tight confines of the city, but can't get far this round. Kitara sprints after him (having to unnock her bow first... she'll have to re 'ready' it to fire') and catches up to him, only to see him regain his wind (new round) and duck into a building screaming about murderers.  Given the sounds of outraged citizens, the duo wisely retreat to where the wolf is licking up the spilled blood. Luckily Kit sees the package that Bart had dropped to have his hands free to fight with (neither player thought about it, in proper adventurer fashion, but perception rolls were made) As the sounds of an angry mob get closer they flee until they are safe.  Kitara applies some ungents and bandages to Tabok's wounds

[In true Kit fashion, she makes both her First Aid rolls, but only heals half the face hit, and almost all the arm shot, leaving one point of damage to both locations that will have to heal naturally, taking a couple of days.]

and the duo retreat to a tavern where Tabok slams some grog to clear his nerves.  Then they make the trek up to the Upper City to retrieve Chodi, whom Tabok has yet to meet.  They return to their new tavern HQ in the lower city, rent a 'private' room for the night and check out their loot, which consists of nothing more than some lamp oil, spare wicks and some preserved foodstuffs.  


This, however, turns out to be THE clue that convinces them to go to the sewers. Tabok, a bit more literate than Erdith was, notes that the writing on the burnt scrap they retreived was too clean to be written by some jumped up street thug, ending speculation that Bart was some sort of mastermind behind the plot.  Tabok, as a Loreseeker (new cult, ripped entirely from Glorantha's cults) writes in his journal about the days events, and is convinced by Chodi to teach him to read.  They also buy some cheap peasant's clothes for Kitara, as they feel her buckskins are too distinctive given the recent attempted murder they particpated in.


The next morning, after the gates to the Upper City are unlocked, they head up semi-furtively, until they realize they have nothign to hide, and head for the sewer entrance, hoping to find the ring in the muck.  With some dismay they note that it will be a tight fit for the two large gentlemen in the party.

This was pretty late so we called it a night.  I gave everyone another advance to spend. So far Kit hasn't spent a single advance, which I'll have to talk to her about. Of the three points spent (two by Chodi, one by Tabok) only one check was made, for minimal increases, so every increase was only a point or two. Their luck on this was comically tragic. Attempting to help Chodi learn Nornsan (to read), Tabok rolls a 93 (his skill at Nornsan is 92...) then Chodi rolled a 12 on HIS language check to learn (needing to roll high to improve). Tabok rolled a 27 out of 27 to improve his shortsword skill, and the bonus point I gave him on the roll because it was his first game and he was the target dummy for every attack that night, resulted in a 1 on the die roll for improvements. Tragic. :keke:

Everyone had fun, even Chodi who mostly read up on his sorcery rules while the other two fought it out. Kit is still very much a reactive/active player. She can't focus well on in game goals for herself, but can't stand to sit around while other people do stuff around her. She can drive the game... like a bull in a chinashop.  Still, everyone had fun, and that is what matters most.


Notes:

Everyone agreed that the combat is relatively simple and straight forward... BUT that I  need to make cribsheets of what are their various combat actions and combat reactions so they can make smarter choices within the ruleset. I can't complain, it was my idea.

From my perspective, I need to spend a bit more time describing things. I talk about actions going on and talk 'in character' as NPC's fairly well, but I feel like no one has much idea 'where' they are, or what things look like.  I didn't do much...anything... to convey cramped streets in the Lower City, and I other than talking about the 20-30 foot statue of Versilimatu in the plaza in Upper Renbluve, not much scenery up there. The Statue has become something of a running gag, as you can walk under it and the Statue is wearing a Kilt. Apparently the Realist school was very popular when they were carving the statue. Don't look up.

Tabok's player is the only one so far to express interest in the world, he might come on and read the World Building thread some more soon. He's already asking about pilgrimage sites for his Cult and other interesting things.

In Jimbobian terms I have picked up an Active player to counterbalance the reactive player and the Bull in China Shop player. Okay, I totally made up that last one. We had no cheetoes, but we did have pizza and chips with salsa.  I have high hopes for a fourth player next week, provided she gets over her flu bug (it's been a week now...)

Back by semi-popular request...

I have three game sessions to post, so the details will be a bit fast and loose.

Our three intrepid heroes entered the natural sewers under the Upper City of Renbluve after some amusing fun and games about who was to go in first, pushing and shoving and other hijinks.  Despite my best intentions it seems that I am consituitionally incapable of running a serious table. :deflated:

Anyway, Tabek noticed some footprints in the pile of refuse moments before Chobi (the Avante Sorcerer)  fell into it trying to climb down the rope.  Kit was convinced that staying up would be boring and climbed down easily.  They were able to follow the trail with no real difficulty (both because they had a tracker and because their prey were not attempting to hide. This was a mistake in that I could have made Kit's tracking more useful to convice everyone that it wasn't all combat checks... need to emphasize these more)

To ratchet up the tension I had a swarm of large sewer rats sweep through. This proved problematic. First Kit was the only one to notice them. She threw a flask of lamp oil at them but had no way to light it. So, how exactly do I run large swarms of sewer rats in lieu of any rules on them?  Simple, for the players who are aware (Kit in this case) they may attempt to dodge or attack as usual. They can't 'kill the swarm', but a successful attack means clearing a path for a round. Three rounds of legbiting rat attacks later Kit and Chobi were unhurt (Chobi proved both lucky in defence and reasonably violent with his heavy walking stick (club), kit just stayed out of reach or was missed completely, but Tabek just sort of stood there like a lump, taking a couple of points of damage to each leg and failing a Resiliance check... with omnious overtones for later.  I made it clear that the rats were fleeing from something...

... and then failed to use it at all.  I was not expecting multiple sewer trips from this bunch, so I meant to use something reasonably harmless and entertaining, maybe some lizardmen who were trying to catch dinner, maybe a kobold pack (not the D&D Kobolds. These Kobolds are viscious predatory little trolls with wicked teeth and a bad attitude. Okay, that doesn't establish much of a difference, but it's there, okay? )  It wasn't that I forgot, I was trying to establish a bit of atmosphere... dark tunnels with occasional lighted areas, strange sounds and what not. But telling someone that the Rats were fleeing something, then never using whatever they were fleeing in any way? Wasted effort.

Regardless, this was the only hurdle. The trio found the natural tunnel they'd been following opened up into a much bigger cavern of sorts with many natural tunnels in it, one with some light dimly showing.  However, this time there was a tracking roll, and the trail led away from the light to a small side tunnel that proved to be more of a mini cavern, this one with a wooden wall and door built across it, with lamp light barely visible in the cracks.  They spent a few minutes discussing what to do then simply barged in.

[ I had the occupants make perception checks, which they failed miserably. The Players had heard muffled talking earlier]  

They saw two men in black leathers sitting at a table arguing, apparently over what to do with the woman who was currently tied up in the corner. The room itself was crudely furnished and lived in, which no one questioned.

[ the woman was a Kerkeshi Noblewoman, a spy, and coincidentally, my fourth player, Charisam.  Charisam's player had gone from religious warrior to heavily armored spy to ordinary spy during creation, though the nobility had remained.  Typically I ask people for their character concept and point them at the backgrounds that make sense for that, Charisam's player went with spy completely out of left feild, I think she liked the disguise skill....]

The men were surprised, Kit was first (this is going to be repetetive, always assume kit is first :raise: ) and she put an arrow into the leg of one man, who fainted dead away (I even played it out... and repeated that he'd fainted several times over the next few hours). Chobi, who is a sorcerer you must remember, ran forward and swung mightily, clearing the table of all dishes, but not much else. Tabek ran forward to join him, to little effect.

Note that each player still had actions left. I like to split up attacks, though I do sort of free form it.

The man grabbed his shortsword from the table and almost took Chobi's leg (-2 body points left), and Chobi managed to avoid fainting, though he fell. Kit put an arrow into the man's arm, but he kept fighting until Tabek finished removing it with his short sword.  

The amusing thing about the fight was that neither of the spell casters in the party attempted to cast any magic. Tabek can only buff weapons, which ironically is now Chobi's favorite trick and the only spell he has that he actually has used.   I think the actual fight lasted two initative rounds and Tabek took a hit (again) but sadly this was three weeks back and I don't recall.

The party freed Charisam, who had been hunting for treasure or possible secrets (the caverns of Upper Renbluve are rumored to hold all sorts of stuff...) when she'd been attacked.

The Kit stole outright Charisams healers kit, which she used immedeatly on Chobi, then kept. They ignored the two men bleeding to death on the floor, though they did remember to search the bodies, fiinding the Ducal Signet ring and a letter which revealed there were some serious plottings going on. Sadly the letter was signed with the ducal signet rather than a name.

I should point out that the players spent hours in that room, or rather a long long time, discussing plans, stratagy and the nature of politcal maneuvers. So when Black Bart, his injured arm in a sling, showed up it was only fair. Everyone failed to notice Bart walking up, although Charisam did look up in time to see him standing in the doorway, which he slammed, barred from the outside and then lit it on fire before fleeing.

Cue panic. The players seemed to get into things, everything at the table moved rapid fire. They rushed the door, cut the hinges (leather hinges) and pulled it down, which revealed a hot oil fire was consumbing everything and letting smoke into the room. Kit leapt out unhurt by the fire, Chobi had to be carried out by Tabek and Charisam, and Tabek was the only one smart enough to put a rag over his mouth, though even with that everyone wound up taking two or three points of damage to the chest from smoke inhalation.   The party was set to chase after Bart, but three things stopped them...

One: Chobi was extremely hurt, and Tabek certainly had a nice collection of future scars as well.

Two: Bart had entered the lower part of the natural caverns, an area they were unfamiliar with  and could easily get lost in.

Three: their gear was still in the room, which almost started a mini riot until I pointed out that only the wooden wall in the front could burn.  I think I needed to describe the room better (being a stone pocket walled on one end)

I point out to them that they had once had a possible prisoner to interrogate, but they left the poor bastard to die in that room with an arrow in his leg and smoke in his lungs.

That night Tabek started to feel very poorly from his infected rat bite, which wasn't healing. Charisam, kindly enough, put everyone up in her hotel for the night.  The party made no effort to talk to the duke at all.

The trial was short and somewhat brutal. The party gave up all the collected evidence, Tabek and Charisam spoke up as witnesses for the defense, and the accuser failed to show. Despite this, due to crappy influence rolls and an utter failure to communicate clearly, the party was freed less because they'd done great things, but because their case was fairly clear.  Tabek failed to get rewarded by the Duke, in fact, failed to even attempt to get a reward from the duke... he seems very uninterested in monentary rewards.  Thus freed, the adventure 'ended', even though this only took half the session. I let everyone spend their advancements.

Tabek took three days to recover, the first two no one did anything. Not exactly. Charisam and Kitara made a little money working for a living (bodyguarding and hunting respectively) while the men healed up.  Charisam, i should point out, is a largish woman (high size, not fat) with a fetish for leather corsets and socializing.

On the third day, everyone started doing things. Namely, continuing their investigation!  Specifically, they started focusing on the 'mysterious' woman the duke had slept with the night his ring had dissappeared. I was flabbergasted, a nameless fluff bit had suddenly become the center of my campaign?

To start things off they continued to harass the duke, going to his house, chasing down the ever elusive seneschal (who I had already decided had 'fled' for a few days after hearing from Bart, until things cooled down) and basically trying to get a piece of information I didn't really have (the name/location of said nameless loose woman)  Charisam even sprung for a party dress after trading on her own nobility to finagle an invitation to a 'Salon party' from the despondent young duke.  Tabek was practically ordered by Charisam to 'take one for the team' from Consuela the maid to allow Kit to ransack the Seneschals quarters. This worked reasonably well, until Kit had to make freindly with the 10 year old younger brother of the duke (not that way, Ew....) after failing to find anything useful.  

Meanwhile I scrambled to come up with 'clues' for them to find, along with laying the seeds for future adventures.  Close day three. Chobi, for the record, rather than laying in bed healing from his near maiming, decided to wander the hotel 'schmoozing'.  I rolled for a random number of face slaps and moved on.

The Salon party was both a success and a failure of sorts. I clued in the two ladies that these were hollow snobs, more interested in being seen than doing anything, that the slavery situation was ugly indeed and controversial even in such a bobble headed crowd, and that the Duke was hardly enjoying himself at such parties, though he did get drunk and virtually passed out crying into Kit's chest.  Charisam practically stormmed the Upper City hotels after hearing that the young woman was the sort that either slept with rich men or stayed in a hotel until the next rich man came along... no dice.

End of the night... I spent the week thinking up things about the missing woman and her role in the 'plot'.

No dice, Charisam's player had family emergencies and couldn't make it.  Without her driving the investigation, the players sort of wiffled for a bit then decided to hire on as caravan guards. :raise:

Cue a colorful pepper merchant from Wei, and the mysterious stomach bug that incapacitated his entire crew of mercenaries, thus necessitating his hiring of whomever he could find.  The Pepper merchant, like all his ilk, had no intention of actually going back to Wei. Kit made fun of his wings (feathered headdress bigger than him) and everyone was suitably impressed by the massive, stoic Bear, the caravan master/head guard.  Bear decided that Chobi was no warrior (still limping, shirtless etc...) and made him the cook.

I know that travelogues are brutally dull to run, on the other hand, how do I handle a slow, months long trip to Wei to make it exciting?   Cue... the Plot!

See, there is a bandit who caused the food poisoning, infiltrated some men into the caravan (small caravan, only about four heavily laden ox drawn carts, dozen men all told) and planned to take it easily early on and resell the goods.  

This meant that the almost unthinkable occured: bandits attacked the first night, less than twenty miles from Renbluve! People fall asleep on guard duty all the time in my games (I make them roll until they get used to it), especially after walking all day. Pogo, one of the guards was waking Tabek, who had first shift, when the bandits attacked, firing bows as they pushed forward. (load, fire, run. Load, fire, run..). Meulo, another guard went down with an arrow in the leg right off, while Pogo hid. Tabek has no ranged weapons or skills, so he started to run forward. Bear killed a man with a massive iron throwing axe (actually not an ax, but that's what I used for stats...) though his second one missed completely, flying off into the darkness.  Inspired by Tabek, Pogo ran forward. Go plucky Pogo!

I'll sum up the fight, since it was long and consumed most of the game. Five on the side of the caravan with Tabek, four on the other side. I gave the bandits 45% for their skills, but with the way I was rolling dice, it didn't matter. Most of the caravan slept through the attack (I forgot about the rest of the NPC's), Kit woke early and her return fire took out half the attackers. Chobi woke and swung a few times while Kit convinced her wolf to fight, which it did, being damn good at attacking, not so much with the damage.  Chobi cast 'Buff Weapon' on the wolf's teeth for +5 damage, which allowed the wolf to butcher the remaining bandit on that side so throughly that it terrified most of the NPC's and a few of the players. Sadly, no one was watching Chobi cast his spell...

On the other side Tabek was doing miserably, and Pogo not much better. On the rare occasions he hit, the bandit defended. He was dying slowly by degrees. On the upside, however, the flimsey sheild he'd been given payed off in spades, he critically defended against a critical hit, defended about three other hits... all without a single advance in shields.  Bear proved that two handed weapons are brutally effective by lopping off limbs left and right. No one objected to the NPC helping out.  Bear rewarded the PC's (and Pogo) for fighting, kicked everyone else as cowards, and later admitted that he was certain there was a spy in the caravan.  

With that the players holed up in a trade post two days out from Renbluve, allowing them to do a little shopping and allow Charisam (who has a horse) to catch up.

Cue the next Game:

Charisam, having read the note left for her, hurried to catch up to her new friends. Bear hires her to replace Meulo, who quit after nearly losing his leg to an arrow the first night out.  Tabek buys some animal traps and, given that Chobi was a terrible cook, everyone buys some rations. Everyone but Bear and Chobi, Bear because he loves the aweful stuff (makes Man Strong, quoth Bear) and Chobi because... well, he's Chobi, he doesn't think of stuff like that.

Tabek spent the entire night enchanting his sword with his magnitude 3 bladesharp, and actually succeeded (this was his third attempt).

The next night out was supposed to be reasonably calm. I rolled a d12 and determined that bandits would harass, rather than attack on the 11th hour.

Sadly, all the guards fell asleep.  Even Bear, who woke up 9 hours later to toss people against the wagons for sleeping on the job.  Charisam woke Chobi to make coffee... which he did so badly they figured it would be better used as a weapon. (lacking Lore:cooking, I let Chobi roll completely randomly. He invariably rolls very very high, resulting in aweful food. He critically failed the coffee check) and Chobi goes back to sleep.  No one realized how late it really was, so Tabek and Charisam are still on watch. Tabek went to wake Pogo when the Bandits (who had gotten word that everyone was asleep... attacked in force instead) Pogo dropped in the first volley. Tabek immedeatly ran forward (the bandits decided to stay 100m out and just shoot everyone.)

Bear took a massive, but not fatal, hit to the chest as well, then returned fire with a bow from the previous bandit raid.  Again, I'll sum up the combat:

Tabek ran for four round, dodging and deflecting from five attackers.  Charisam hid the entire fight when the first arrow took her chest to 0 (thanks to her leather corset she was still alive). Kit sent her wolf forward while shooting back, but despite hitting almost every time, she wasn't doing enough damage to kill people. Bear killed two men with headshots, broke two bows in half from overtension and ran around angry that no one was close enough to kill. Chobi slept almost to the end, buffed up the wolf, who savaged the last bandit until an arrow killed him. Three NPC's dropped, one to a heart attack (00 result on the wake up perception check), two fought back valiently, and hit nothing at all.

Tabek, with his enchanted sword took off three arms and a leg... each accompanied by an audible 'ping'.  He did wind up taking 4 points to the face, but every other shot bounced off the crude ringmail he'd scavenged from teh previous bandits.  

Charisam did first aid on the three NPC's and failed all of them. Kit later did her first aid and saved all but the heart attack guy... who she left for dead, and captured on bandit who had just fainted.  Bear handled the interrogation off screen, though everyone heard the screaming and whimpering.

Bear tells the only guards he trusts (the PC's... well... them and Pogo, but Pogo was out of it at this point) that Bazof leads fourty men, is rumored to command powerful magic, but the loss of two raiding parties is a serious blow to him. Revenge will be slow, but inevitable.  Everyone digests this.

Chobi cooks a magnificent breakfast, then proceeds to deliberately ruin it for Bear. everyone cries.  No, I'm serious, they were all upset that he destroyed the food so Bear could enjoy it.  Of course, they did get some first, but it was the principle of the thing.

That night Tabek sets some traps... badly.  He, Charisam and the nameless NPC who took over for Pogo all manage to stay awake. Meanwhile it is revealed that Bear sleeps standing up in his armor. Waking only to look around once before sleeping once again.

Kit decides to do her guard shift (only her second in, er... five... nights) by sneaking off and hiding in the bushes like the wiley hunter she is. She stumbles into, and ruins, one of Tabek's traps without setting it off. The wolf accidentally sets off others as she sets it to roaming.  Her guard partners fall asleep, and she watches.

Bear wakes up and notices two sleeping guards and one missing elf and goes ballistic: tossing sleeping guards into wagons and whatnot. Kit calls softly to him that she is in the bushes.... and fails miserably at her language check. Bear responds with a throwing iron, which demolishes the bush, rips half her shirt off (she took minimal damage due to a dodge check, two points to her chest) and more. She starts shouting in elvish and Bear loses his grasp of Nornsan and starts shouting in his language, waking everyone.

Cue comments from the peanut gallery (Tabek and Charisam) about lovers quarrels. Chobi, meanwhile sleeps through it all.  

After that we broke for the night to watch the final scenes of Equilibrium, which I had foolishly left on the table.

What is the best way to take the gun from a Grammaton Cleric?

You ask him for it.

:what:

We got to a latish start last night due to the weirdness of Daylight's Saving's Time and birthdays.  We started roughly without Chobi, broke while I picked him up and continued again.

The caravan rolled into Karalon on the river Erb.  [in other words, the GM looked at his map and realized that getting the players all the way over to the major river was going to grind out the rest of everyone's lives, and there is a branch of the major river network much closer to Renbluve.]

Due to the delays caused by bandit raids, the Caravan was behind schedule, thus they had missed the major Barge train going upriver.  Of note is the fact that the players, if they continue all the way to Wei will have to travel several thousand miles no matter what, seeing most of the northern continent.

Having several days, unpaid mind, to wait around before the caravan could continue on, they availed themselves of the local facilities, namely 'fancy' inns, hot baths and good food.... ironically spending more money than they earned in a day on the caravan.  Tabek purchased some leather trews to protect his legs, thinking that he wanted to keep the enchantment bonus on his sword rather than suffer the penalties of excessive armoring. Foolish mortal.  Tabek is rapidly turning into the party tank, being the only one to salvage armor from the bandits previously.  Charisam refused to wear smelly peasant gear, Chobi swears he is just the cook and Kitara prefers no armor penalites at all, and asked about the cost of armor that doesn't penalize... and wants to get her skin enchanted with armor.  Both are possible, the one is pricy the other has no cost listed, you have to work out a deal with someone powerful for each location to enchant...

The next morning at breakfast Bear offered them paying work if they'd take the delay to track down the bandit camp and run them off.  The party spent the day working the streets... interestingly two characters (Tabek and Chobi) have streetwise, and eventually they got a lead, the bandits were said to be camped out to the north a ways.  

It's actually interesting to hear the party talk stratagy sometimes. This group above all others I've worked with, is full of oddball ideas and misapprehensions about what I will or will not do to them.  Also, it should be noted that they knew the camp had 40 bandits.

So, the party sets out in the late evening. As darkness falls they see a lamp coming up the road behind them and hide in the darkness off the road. Tabek is about as stealthy as a foghorn,but somehow they pulled it off. [I make the weakest stealth player roll for the party, something I stole from another game] and they watch as one of the nameless NPC's from the caravan hurries by, lantern in hand. The SPY!!!

They follow, rather smartly, as Kitara was all set to shoot him and finish him off.  That might have actually been smart, given what followed.

The spy leads them down a side road to an old abandoned barn. Charisam and Kitara both spot sentries about 200 meters from the road as they watch their spy enter the barn, closing the door behind him.  The two women sneak off, one to each side and 'ninja' their respective targets.  Due to the darkness it's easy to sneak, but not so easy to fight, Kit kills her sentry with a knife in the dark, Charisam has a short scuffle after missing but no one notices, not even the rest of the party on the road.  Sentries taken care of these two sneak up to the barn and peek through gaps in the planking. There are a LOT of people in that barn, and a small group holding a converstation.

Kit, who had snuck around to a different side of the barn notices two more Sentries, and when the party regroups she and Charisam sneak out once more to ninja them. This time Tabek and Chobi manage to enchant their weapons. These two sentries, being only bandits, are actually asleep (fumbled their perception checks) and die easily.

Convinced they've taken care of all the sentries, they start planning their assault. That's right, realizing there are potentially 36 more bandits in that barn, they still plan to attack!  Kitara finds a fallen treebranch, eventually, to bar the door with, while they prepare to light the barn on fire! of course, they'll have to deal with the door on the other side, but they at least know that.  In order to make the branch serviceable they begin cutting the excess branches off of it.

This takes long enough that the spy leaves the barn, headed back to Karalon! Oops.  There they are, sitting on the side of the road, cutting branches off their 'log' as the man approaches with his lantern. There is no way they can hide in time. [for the record the party wasn't arguing that they were well hidden, they literally were caught out and knew it]  Kit grabs her bow and shoots (she's got four combat actions, enough to nock another arrow if she wants), Tabek and Charisam run forward and Chobi watches.

Kit's arrow maims his left arm, causing him to drop the lantern, which breaks and burns in the middle of the road.  Perception checks are made, sentries from another side of the barn see the fire!  As I point out that there are four sides to the average barn the players wince.  Charisam and Tabek seriously hurt the spy, but he flees back towards the barn, shouting. (I rolled really good for him to stay up) Chobi and Kit both injure his head, but not enough to take him to zero (chobi with a thrown dagger) and Charisam tosses her rapier (entirely by accident) at him as he staggers down the road. Finally Kit finishes him off.  

One sentry, not sure where they are, runs across the front of the barn to alert the bandits inside, while the other starts shooting the players, who are standing around a circle of light.  Charisam runs at the shooter, kit kills the runner, Tabek runs forward to seal the barn door and Chobi hides in the dark. Silly Chobi!

Tabek takes his rope and starts trying to tie the barn doors shut as Kit kills the other sentry just before Charisam reaches him.  Charisam decides to run around the backside of the barn instead [players can sprint roughtly 24 meters a turn with three combat actions, I rule it will take her three rounds of running] Tabek loops the last of his rope around the iron hooks in the doors and grins satisfied and runs the other way. [He failed his mechanics check badly and decided he thought he'd done well] The counter on the bandit cheif is up and he and his liuetenants barrel out, armed to the teeth!

[ as a GM I screwed up here. I put the bandit leiutentants in scale mail, heavy helmets and with 'warswords'. After two rounds I realized that the players lacked the punch to reliably beat AV 4 armor and the bandits didn't have time to put on armor. No one argued as I reduced their armor to helmets and leather jerkins].

The six lieutenants break off into groups of two, one for each of the three players they see, while Beaudroh spits fire at Tabek! Chobi is given the opportunity to reflect the spell [technically illegal, he can only reflect spells cast at him, but we are still working out his magic, so this one time we allowed it] but failed. Of course, Beaudroh can't roll higher than 2 on his d8 fire damage the entire night, so it wasn't a major issue, Tabek's armor easily takes the hit.

Kit bangs arrow after arrow into Beaudroh's helmet, after ordering her wolf to intercept one of the bandits coming her way. [Kit cheats, badly. For reasons I won't go into here I can't really stop her. Normally it's fine, as the rest of the players fail enough to make up for it, and she still raises her skills like everyone else.  When she focuses on the 'big bad' exclusively like this it's a bit awkward, however.  As long as no one complains I won't make an issue of it.]

Of course, other than Tabek's enchanted sword, everyone's enchants have long since worn off.  Beaudroh spends the next several rounds spitting fire at various players as Charisam runs all the way around the barn to the back door, only to find one of the sentries trying to goad the rest of the bandits into waking. One bandit is upstairs firing arrows into the dark (never hit anyone). Tabek takes heavy damage to the legs, but is able to take out the two on him, then a third as one breaks off from Chobi, who fought purely defensively for several rounds.  About then Chobi proves that even a weak man with a heavy stick is dangerous as his D8 damage heavy club/walking stick breaks legs reliably every time he rolls high. Kit virtually ignores the one bandit on her until she has to start dodging him. Luckily for her she rolls 'give ground' results several times.  Tabeks player remarks that the combat system is a little wonky as we realize that failed defenses still have to be 'rolled' because a failed defense allows the defender to be hit.  We also make a house rule that sheild arms automatically get the benefit of the shield's AP, as we've have quite a few left arms disabled despite people having sheilds.

Beaudroh drops as more bandits, these ones unarmored, rush out, quickly surrounding the injured but still dangerous Tabek.

meanwhile Charisam stabs the sentry in the back, failing to beat his armor [the party was hindered by shitty damage rolls most of the night, while the bandit regularly rolled sixes or eights on their damage dice... except, ironically, the lead bandit, who had exhausted his magic points spitting fire]  Charisam takes down teh sentry after he turns on her, then moves into the barn to start clearing out the slowly rousing bandits. Note that all of this fighting had taken only a minute or two of 'game time'.   The party was burning Hero points like mad to stay up, negating crippling hits left and right.

Tabek learned the hard way why not to allow himself to be overwhelmed by even weak opponents, as after dealing with two of the bandits, the rest quickly overwhelm his defenses, taking his legs to negative. I let him keep standing, but unable to move anywhere, as the amount of negatives were minor.  Chobi runs up and breaks another leg, the wolf assualts another, doing better against these unarmored types.  (the wolf does a d8 minus a d2 in damage), while Charisam takes out three more inside.  

Eventually the ones outside are killed, the ones inside, reduced to about five, capture Charisam and attempt to negotiate for their lives. Sadly, Kitara doesn't understand what they are saying, but Charisam, in heroic fashion, shouts 'Bow!" the only word they know Kitara knows, and struggles to free herself. despte being a crappy unarmed combatant, so are the bandits, and she wrestles free in time ot duck before the arrows start flying in.  

leaving the injured bandits to survive or die on their own they do first aid and minor surgery on the injured party members (kit regularly took one point hits from successful dodges (minimal damage, but it adds up), Tabek was seriously hurt. Luckily the bandits had a cart and some brokendown nags to pull it. Knowing there is a bounty on the lead bandits they pile bodies and loot and injured onto the cart. I take a moment to narrate the Dragon rune pulling free of Beaudroh as the last breath finally escapes him.

I hand out the rewards, that is to say.. the loot, which is semi-fat, the reputation, which is extreme. Ten to one odds, and mention how greatful the people of Karalon are (as compared to the local farmers. Karalon is a trade town. They prefer not to have their source of income hampered by banditry), so much so that minor repairs to weapons and adjusting captured armor would be free.  


The player decided to leave the question of the Dragon Rune for another night, though they let Kitara play with it (cause it's cute) for now.  The 'rune' appears to be a smokey gem/marble with a minature dragon coiled inside of it. I expect I'll narrate out the 'imbuing' process once someone 'gets' it.

After Action: the combat system is wonkier than it appears at first blush. Hits are more common than misses unless the defender is spot on. As 'lose combat actions' is a common result, and people have fixed numbers of defensive actions I had to 'guess' what happens once you can't defend (automatically fail defense checks).  While Parrying give the player AP from their weapon, no guidelines seem to exist to govern wether or not the weapon takes damage, and how much. I've taken the tack of appling the damage equally to the weapon as the man behind it.   I'm tempted to pull out an older edition of the game to compare the combat rules and I may hybridize the system we use.  Of note, all those players who refused armor before have pretty much changed their minds after this fight.  I've already considered adjusting the hit location table, as we get way too many left legs and left arms.  I also have a hit location die I bought a few years ago that I may use instead.

How do you feel it's going currently?  At one point I thought this was going to tank and felt quite bad about it, I'm glad it seems to be going ahead all guns blazing (as it were).

Well, the players are happy enough, so no stuggles there.   The combat system is proving challenging, which is a surprise given how short it is, and how many fights we've had. Part of it is the two failures equals a hit and other 'interactivity' of attack/defense rolls.  Like I said, I hope to spend some time with an older version of the rules and see if it's 'cleaner', in which case we'll hybridize the game.

The biggest obstacle to ongoing play is my own disorganization.  If it weren't for the fact that I have detailed most of the map in some way or another, I'd be lost for dealing with a trip to Wei. As it is, keeping the game flowing while simultaniously doing a 'caravan' trip that will take months of 'in game' time is proving challenging to keep interesting, if it weren't for good group dynamics (and blossoming romance...) I suspect it would have fallen flat.  I'm rusty as a GM, obviously. :deflated:

There comes a time in every gaming group where you have to spend the night doing nothing much, yet getting a metric fuckload done in the process.

Not making sense?

Well, it was Kit's (the player's...) birthday. Chobi's player was out until 8 pm, but for once didn't need a ride (fourty freaking miles round trip... at least Tabek's player can take him home...).

So at five the three players we had spent some time goofing off and doing pizza and birthday stuff, then a few minutes spending their advances from last week.

Then we watched the first two episodes for Firefly so Charisam's player could keep up with some of the table banter...and just because I like spreading the good word.

Chobi's player showed up at the end of the 'The Train Job', and we sat down for another round of admin and integration of the Rune (Dragon) they had gotten. Chobi, needing some firepower to back up his Mojo started.

Oops. Each character can only try one time (in their life!!!) on any given copy of a Rune. Everyone failed. The found a guy to trade runes with (being priceless artifacts or something they couldn't really just sell it, or buy another) and wound up with the Fertility rune.  Kit, who really wanted to be the party healer tried and failed, and Charisam failed, but Chobi succeeded.

RESET!!! Kit, who has been sick all week, and whose birthday it was had a quiet breakdown in the back room. Oops.  I've commented she cheats on her dice frequently... sometimes openly demanding a given roll not count, or rolling way in advance. I've also commented that preserving the status quo is healthier than making an issue of it as she's not typically a power gamer/game breaker.  Thirty seconds of quiet discussion later we gave her the rune (no rolling) as a birthday present.  Actually, I feel stupid for not thinking of it earlier, recalling how important it was to her to be  a healer in character creation.

After that it was selling/distrubting the loot, everyone felt damn rich until they started looking at getting better than average gear.  Chobi wants power enhancers, Kit wanted armor made of 'Elven Silk', so she wouldn't suffer a skill penalty for archery, everyone but Tabek wanted 'Greater' quality weapons with 'skill enhancer'... that is a bonus to hit.

There were limits to what could be accomplished in a small trade town with only a few days to spare, but they did a lot of shopping and getting armor tailored to fit. They decided to keep their cart and brokedown nag they'd taken from the bandits, so they filled the cart with bales of hay and bags of feed grain.

I spent some time setting the scene, the barge suspended over the mighty canyon river that seperated Avante and Southron Nornsa, the slow processon of wagons being loaded by the lone blinkered ox, then the preist chanting to the gods, sacrificing the ox for the safety of the voyage. The lowering of the barge onto the river below, and the massive mule driven rope tow that would assist them in moving upriver.  

They stopped at a city where rivers met, which allowed them to do a bit more, better shopping, where kit was able to borrow from the rest of the party to afford her fancy elven silk armor. Hey, this is only a 100 miles from the Hydimenoi forest, so the stuff isn't that hard to find.  I described it as a brocade chinese style robe/dress in metallics, given the description of the stuff.  It's only as protective as heavy leather but half as penalizing, so she comes out with only a -8% to all dex skills.

More travelouge as they travel by steamboat up to Northern Nornsa then barge with the current down the great river (the Erb? Damn, I need to look that up!) I described the vistas, the Melitior plains, replete with at least one 'heretic burning' visible, then they headed into Hesh, where they were able to feel the power radiating from the great pyramids.

At this point everyone was pretty excited about the idea of heading into the Hydimenoi, now they wanted to hit Hesh! Travelouges as adventure seeds! Go ME!

Hah. Anyway, I continued describing things. Had it been earlier (it was 11:30) I would have included a scene with a hostile crocadile (40 feet long!) or something to spice things up.  

After months of travel (10 weeks by river...) they finally unloaded at a small village near Wei, though they still have to caravan overland. I described the natives and the scenery, then had Bear, the caravan master/head guard lay out the local politics in breif.

I gave everyone a free Language skill to represent their training from Bear, a free advance in Lore:world, and Chobi finally learned Lore:cooking. Tabek was the only one to fail his advance check, so he spent the trip mostly seasick, though he did get his '1%'.

Like I said, not much happened, but they did a lot of stuff.

Tabek's player will be out all of April, so I'm hoping to hear some clever ideas from him on what his character will be doing. Of course, i'll be out part of the month, so he won't miss much. Charisam at least will be over to keep watching Firefly, even if we don't play.

Charisam and Tabek's players have a bit of a romance going on. This has the potential to go bad and break the group, so they are both under dire warnings not to fuck up the group. Not that they are listening to anyone's advice on the matter. Good natured ribbing's are more in line with our 'way' anyway. This romance was visible in the caravan portions two weeks ago, when they spent their guard shifts together, but otherwise hasn't appeared in the characters.  Unless it does, or affects the group in some other way, I won't be posting on it again.

Apparently I have been reporting Tabek's name wrong... it's something Thubosh or some such. Ah well, I'll keep calling him Tabek for now, so people don't get confused.

After leaving the river port, Bear (the NPC) bought more oxen and explained that the locals payed tribute to the Jui De, a minor problem as the Wei Shakti and the Jui De were the two most agressively opposed players in the region... and their caravan was headed to Wei.   Never the less, the caravan headed out (with new oxen) without incident and some four days later they were approached on the road by an armed band of men, obviously military types.  

There were some moments of nervousness as the 50 odd men with their massive black iron swords fanned out to surround the caravan, which had halted, but Bear knealt and spoke to their leader, a giant of a man (taller than Bear, but not as massive, and nude but for golden paint of some sort). This was the Wei Shakti himself, leading his honor guard on their morning run. (shades of Shaka Zulu, I'm shameless...)

Cue juvenile commentary from the female players at his nekkidness.  

While Wei Shakti did not escort the caravan to the city itself (and none of the players made their language checks to know what he said to Bear or vice versa), he did detail a portion of his honor guard to finish escorting the caravan in, a process that took the rest of the day (caravans being very very slow) No one noticed or commented on the lack of border markings, ah well.

The city of Wei is built on an artificial island or peninsula on a large lake. The Wei Shakti, we learn, rules from a 'throne' of stone atop a temple at the back of the city under the burning sun. As the sun goes down, they witness him dive into the lake, leaving behind only the golden stain upon his skin, but does not resurface.

Bear strips out of his armor and don's native dress (in his case a leather kilt typical of the warriors), and revealing a scorpion shaped scar, his totem animal. Ah, the players learn, Bear is married and has three children here in Wei... but he points them to the taveling god's temple to stay the night (there being no 'inns' in Wei, a concept foriegn to the Savannah kingdoms. Really, Bear should have invited them to his home, but he wasn't that charitable minded), and the next morning the party watches the Wei Shakti rise from the top of his temple to be painted gold once again, accompanied by chanting of his name/title by half the city.  It is then that they notice that all the temples in the city face the Wei Shakti's temple. (the Traveling God does have a proper name, but unless you speak/read bushman it's impossible to relate, what with its hard palate click and all. As Bear put it, it doesn't translate)

Tabek gets the ball rolling as the players realize they have no idea what to do now that they are in Wei.  He hires a translator for 10 days, which he shares with the party after a setback with the local, imperfect, understanding of the language. Looking for a library (his cult is all about knowledge and libraries) he instead finds a whorehouse, more or less. Meanwhile, Chobi learns that each temple maintains their own library specific to their own traditions.  Tabek, on his return, investigates the library of the temple they are staying in and learns that books are made of thin clay tablets on wooden backings, with rare documents preserved on engraved slate.

Charisam, having learned that the locals bath in the lake, and that woven cloth was almost unheard off (leather and knotted cord make up most garments) went shopping for something reasonably demure yet local in flavor, in deference to the heat.  

Chobi went to study with the local sorcerers, a terrifying bunch who are reputed to practice Necromancy, and obviously DO practice mortification of the flesh (scourging, flaying of their own skins, other scary practices to terrible to describe in detail)

Other than seriously taxing my ability to describe a culture in detail, not much happened for a couple of in game days until Tabek got his audience with the Wei Shakti.  

Ascending the 25 steps to the top of the temple (each guarded by two of the honor guard), he and Charisam and Kit... along with his translator, went to speak to a God...

It turned out that the Wei Shakti spoke Nornsan about as well as Tabek spoke Wei (not very well) but his own translator filled in the gaps.  To sum up the conversation:

Tabek wants to build a central library in accordance with the teachings of his Cult (not that he mentioned even once the religious aspect of it), the Wei Shakti was concerned with the empty words of diplomacy and the way Tabek couldn't explain WHY he wanted to do this.  More he was concerned with this centralized control of knowledge which was only nominally under his command.  Rather than simply kick the idea aside, the Wei Shakti told Tabek to back his words with actions: bring in 'secret knowledge' from Xibaltci and Humnatpr and the library could be built. To take knowledge from the other temples would require more quests, one for each temple who would provide books.   Tabek was rather stunned by the herculean nature of the task... before he could be dismissed we had another amusing interlude.

Kit, in perfect Wei'an, announced that Charisam wanted to fuck the Wei Shakti (direct quote, and the girls had been talking about it most of the night). :eek:

The Wei Shakti reveals that the Sun can make fertile any feild.... etc. Kit also then perked up that she wished to lick him. (I wish I was making this up).

Cue another sun/fertility metaphor as the girls are led down into the temple to bath in sacred pools and otherwise get pampered for a night of deific lovemaking.  

The next morning they have sun amulets of Amber set in jade jammed into their foreheads, signifying that they are symbolic brides of the Sun, reputation rewards etc.

With that we pretty much called it.  There was a lot of sidebar chatter at the table all night.   No, the girls are not stuck in the seraglio of the Wei Shakti. The disturbing turn of events re:sex was a bit unusual, though not unprecedented.

One minor event which I used earlier was to point out to the three 'nornsans' (only one actually from Nornsa itself) just how shocking their first encounter with orcs walking the streets alongside the humans (sharing the same culture) really was.

This will be the last report for a while, as Tabek's player is going to be gone for a month, so our game night will be taken up watching Firefly or doing one-shots until he gets back... given that he's the one with the library quest anway.

Chobi does have a side quest of his own, to bring an artifact of power to the sorcerer who is teaching him, possibly dragon bones. Of course, Chobi does know where to find dragon bones... back where the players started out in Renbluve. Oops.

I make it a personal rule in fantasy games never to be ashamed of stealing from decent sources, or in your case indecent ones

Quote from: BalbinusI make it a personal rule in fantasy games never to be ashamed of stealing from decent sources, or in your case indecent ones

How many sources did I steal from when writing the savannah kingdoms region? Let me count the ways....

Shaka Zulu, El Dorado, The Mummy, Apocalypto, RL Africa, That Dolph Lundgren movie where he's a Spetznatz.... and more!

Now if only I could explain where the Jui De came from....:confused:

Quote from: SpikePart of it is the two failures equals a hit

Check the Mongoose errata; I'm pretty sure they fixed that..

Quote from: lev_lafayetteCheck the Mongoose errata; I'm pretty sure they fixed that..

I'll look into it. The Game is on hiatus until the first weekend of May. Tabek just left for California for the month, and I'm going to be out the loop after next weekend, so I have some time.


[time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking....]

After a month+ hiatus, the Runequest game was back on in 'full force'.

Everyone spent some time getting settled  back in, much shit was talked and a few plans were made, but hours passed and not much happened from my perspective.  We did add a new player to the group, another elf girl... this one named Unique, from the Illycli elves in Northern Nornsa.  She is a preistess of the Sun God of the Elves (as yet unnamed/underdeveloped Cult) and had been in Wei for some time trying to discuss an alliance of Sun Cults with the Wei Shakti, but had been unable to get a meeting.  Her Spirit Rune would be useful later on...

We left off last time with Kitara and Charisam recently 'annointed' concubines of the Sun via the Wei Shakti and their 'walk of shame' provided the impetus to get Unique to speak with the party about meeting the Wei Shakti.

Tabor, who you might recall, was the one with the 'plan', went to the temple of the local water god to find out what quest would get their support for his planned library, despite not having any plan on how to convince the Jui De or King Haruma of Xibaltci to give up secrets to take back to the Shakti.

What does any good water temple need? A good old fashioned 'God' tamed. Namely the famed Children of the River that the party had seen on the Erd as they passed through Hesh.  You may recall me mentioning the thirty foot crocadiles they saw on the trip to Wei.  Nothing like bringing back a ten ton angry lizard, eh?

Almost immedeatly everyone seemed ready to give up on the idea of capturing and hauling the beast.  Curious, I may have been to rough on them in the past. These are the players who took on 40 bandits and won without me cheating on their behalf (at least, not much...)... In RQ of all systems.

Eventually they decided to make their way to Hamuntrp, where most of the major woodworking in the region was done. there was some discussion of splitting into two groups, but as they didn't really do anything that needed to use that, we sort of ignored it.

Tabor and the Avante, both being alchemists, brewed up some 'tranquiler' potions, about 20 human doses worth, using locally available plants.

After contracting for a massive wagon to be made for them the party made an effort to contact the Jui De.

I should speak of Hamuntrp (we have taken to calling it Hamunaptra from the Mummy... ).

Wei is the southmost city of the three major kingdoms in the Savannahs, and the Eastmost. Hamuntrp is perhaps a week's journey on foot (at a vigorous pace) and is near the forest to the west and somewhat north. While Wei is built mostly of grey stone, and the natives wear scant clothing of knotted cords, Hamuntrp is built almost entirely of wood and thatch, the natives tend to wear cloth or leather kilts.  They noted that the nobility, of which were many, wore green decorations, the soldiers wore leather capes, kilts and vambraces reinforced with wood.  Falcon wings were used to denote officers, and the military was very disciplined and alert.

Speaking to the nobles was a waste of time, everyone failed their language checks.  This may have turned out to benefit the party as they were shortly greeted by a powerful figure, an officer of some standing by the 'breastplate' of preserved wings he wore, who spoke broken Nornsan. He pointed them to the 'Waystation'... mostly populated by younger elves fleeing the Siti Elves of the forest, and said he'd arranged a meeting with the Jui De.

on the way into the palace, Tabor noticed an older man, a noble apparently, handing a package to a younger man, also a noble.

The Palace of the Jui De was built of mud over wood framework, but was large and airy inside. After an ititial maze of halls they found themselves in teh very large 'throneroom', where they were stopped some 50 feet from the Jui De. It was obvious that the food taster had just been poisoned, as his corpse and the tainted food were being hauled out. A rank of soldiers stood between teh party and the Jui De, an older woman of stern visage.

To cut it short-ish, The Jui De already seemed to have a good idea what the party was doing in her town, if not perfect, and strongly suggested that they not lie to her. Of course, she didn't really know much more than was obvious, but the GM's bluff check passed perfectly.  I was hoping Tabor would talk about his library more, and press her to support him with a secret, but that topic was avoided by the party in favor of talking about the giant lizard they were going to catch.  They learned a bit about the local politics, and more later, and that the Jui De really needed to have the ringleader of the current plots brought to heel... but couldn't order it of her willing soldiers or have anything to do with potential assassins.  Hint hint. The party got it.  They were assigned an 'off duty' soldier as a translator and chose to rent a 'house' in town to discuss things.

The politics of the Jui De's situation were complex to the outsider. Nobles, it seems, were religiously appointed families with a long tradition behind them. The 'Gods' had appointed the Noble families some time ago. In addition to their theological power, they also controlled a lot of the industry that supported Hamuntrp.  The Jui De, traditionally, came from the nobilty and was the mortal spouse of 'Lord Falcon', who as a God was genderless.  The current Jui De had been a 'War Bride' and during her concecration ceremony to the previous Jui De had 'accidentaly' become the new Jui De when the old one died during the ceremony.  The Jui De had a great deal of Civil and Military authority, but no power over the Nobility (or vice versa), and in twenty years had soldified her rule quite well... except for those pesky nobles.  the last few years had taken a turn for the worse, so bad she'd had to hide her children away to avoid having them murdered in attempts on her... it wasn't revealed that some had already died in such plots. From their soldier they learned that it was an open secret that the General was in love with the Jui De, though it was Taboo to consummate it, and that several attempts had been 'impossible' for various reasons.

All well and good, yeah?  Sounds like a dull night of exposition and politics. So, as they discussed this in their hut as their NPC went to get an unaligned translator (so they could 'infiltrate' the local nobility....), someone crashed right through the walls of their hut, attacking Unique!

Only Kitara made the 'perception' check to avoid surprise, but the crazed madman (with a big old bronze knife) was faster... if clumsy. He slammed into Unique, rather than stabbing her, knocking her back into the wall for minimal damage.  Kitara drove her knife into his leg, doing 5 points of damage... which he ignored completely. His backhand dislocated her arm knocking her out of the fight (neg one hit points in the arm from his 8 point hit)

Everyone rallied almost immedeatly, Unique dove for her spear, came up and cut him with it (one point to the arm), also casting her 'second sight' to see the spiritual wound/possession that drove him.

Once more, Tabor's magic sword saved the day, severing first the madman's leg, which didn't put him out of the fight, but severing his right arm did... the arm with the dagger continued to twitch and flop for several seconds after it was cut.

Unique was able to tell them that the spirit had fled the room, but the dagger was still possessed of evil, while Ong'la (their NPC) was able to identify the half naked (for the area, saying alot) as a younger son of one of the noble clans. That clue was enough for Tabor to recognize him as the young man who had received the pacakage earlier.  They wrapped the dagger and arm up, after healing Kitara and letting her sleep, and in the morning headed out to find a shaman of the Maxcai tribes to help them deal with the evil thing.

I stole a note from the older edition, as I don't have the current 'spirit magic' rules at this time. The Maxcai shaman insisted they deal with the cursed thing, and took them on the spirit quest to awaken their Fetch spirit prior to engaging the spirit in combat.  I did the whole deal, the Horned Man, the Bad Man fight (which started out brutally, but ended easily...) most of which I made up on the fly.

Tabor was The Bull, Kitara the Wolf, Charisam the Serpent (wise and devious), Unique, being new to the group and mostly unknown, got the Gazelle, while Chobi got the Cat.  Mostly they liked their choices, especially once explained.  They put a lot of power into their Fetches, which is mechanically sound... then they merged with the Fetch (descriptive text) and fought the Bad Man. I had a lot of fun describing their spirit forms and the affects their bonded runes and spell knowledge had.  Unique forgot consistently to apply her bonus from teh Spirit rune she had, though to be honest I forgot about it too.

the Bad Man looked like each persons greatest fear, and having 35 POW was a hard opponent to beat ( I doubled his POW for his 'weapon skill' and as his stats, meaning his damage was 2d6 to start with, as his POW went down to damage he got easier and easier to beat)


The fight against the spirit of the dagger was almost harder as only Tabor had a weapon that could work against it. As becoming a Shaman gives free 'second sight' I let her swap out her spell for spirit bane and spirit ward spells (same force total). She warded everyone, preventing possession, but didn't have the juice to put bane on their weapons.

Tabor smacked it down, but when the return strike came, he took a point of damage and failed to resist the 'madness' it inflicted him with, taking him from the fight. Luckily he couldn't be possessed, or it might have been brutal. the old shaman proved much less powerful than he could have been, his spirit stick should have smacked down the spirit, but as an old man he couldn't hit! He handed his stick to Chobi, but that round Kit picked up the fallen sword and laid the felling blows to the spirit, ending the fight and the dagger, which blew away as greasy ash.

As it was 2 AM we called it a night.


One thing that came up was Kit's character being 'knocked out'. the party failed to wake her up. I've mentioned before that her player is very challenging at times and this was one of those times. I've decided to ignore the open cheating on dice as long as it doesn't piss anyone off, but when she 'quit' the game because she was unconcious we had to take a break and sort it out.   I wish I had sound advice for dealing with immature players, and if she was any other player I might be inclined to boot her.  We have a tight enough group that dynamics sort of preclude that, but sometimes I have to baby-sit.

Another thing coming out of the current arc is 'chained quests'. Not in the MMORPG sense where each quest completion leads to another quest, but the idea that in order to complete quest A you have to get, and possibly complete quest B, and in order to do Quest B you have to look at Quest C. It seems to be working very well, keeping everyone motivated and 'moving forward' while allowing them the freedom to chose their course of action freely.

If it hadn't been for the lateness of the hour I might have drawn out the spiritual quest situation. Cliffhangers and all that sound like good ideas, but I've found I can't really work them at the table, everyone wants a good stopping point, a sense of closure, and with occasional long breaks between games we sort of need that as well.

My group gathered once again, though Charisam was missing. We started late and finished early, so it was a short night.

The party woke from their spirit quest, and after dressing and seeking out some breakfast (Chobi wanted to cook but the other players shot him down. I admit to some guilt here as well, I drug my feet. I didn't think he'd brought cooking supplies, didn't think the Maxcai tribesmen would be eager to shared, and mostly just didn't want to get involved in cooking rolls right about then. So to sum up: my least active player got shot down when he piped up to do something because the GM was tired and bitchy. Oops.)

The first hour was spent going over what Shamen could and could not do. Since the players had no intention of spending 90% of their time working for the tribe's shaman doing bitchwork, the decided they'd find their own spirits to bind into spells later.  Good call, party!  

They headed into town and, after some discussion and expirimentation, decided to wander about the city with Second Sight active to see if they could find the source of the cursed dagger.

Mind you, I had already decided that the current source of evil doings in the city was a demon masquerading as a Noble.  I figured Second Sight would show the demon's true form. What I expected when I decided all that was that the party would investigate, work their way into mystery, and confront the demon, who would reveal himself during the climactic battle. Instead, they wandered into the area where the nobles gather to discuss business and, random roll later, found themselves witnessing a disgusting twelve foot tall 'thing'.   Luckily they were not themselves spotted... or at least not meaningfully so.

After some internal discussion and a few religion checks they figured that it could be a mythical 'Demon'.  Unique wanted to talk to the local priests about the Demon, but upon being reminded that the local temples were the source of the Noble's power... and the bloodthirsty nature of the local temples... discretion was the better part of valor.

Tabor's player was tired so we broke off without acutally accomplishing anything of importance.  Though discovering the Demon seemed pretty important, so that's not entirely true.