Resumption of Posts

First, Thank You to those who left kind words the last couple months.  I'm not certain I can express how much I appreciated them, but I did, very much.

Next, I plan to resume posting next week, although I'm not certain what I'm going to start with.  My Monday group has just about finished Book 4 of the Shattered Star Adventure Path - we have another 3-5 sessions to go.  The Other GM said we were that close at the beginning of December as well, but we (the players and he) feel he underestimated how cautious we were being.  That said, were are 1 maybe 2 encounters from the final boss and wrap-up, so end of February is feeling right.

Overall, this book should have been right up my alley as it is majority dungeon crawling but it felt like it was full of grudge monsters [monsters that are immune to the PCs best attacks or exploit PC weaknesses at the relevant levels].  There was also fun but the fun felt very spaced out compared to the grudge, which is why we were being so cautious in our explorations.  I probably will not do detailed summaries of these sessions, partly [mostly] as my notes are skimpy in places but also to get it done quickly.

Once we finish this book of the Shattered Star, we are returning to the Sudden Sea and the political mess the players caused at the end of the last arc.  The PCs caught the head of the Green Hand bandits, only to discover the Green Hand was stealing from merchants and using the loot to help as many of the 10,000 refugees from the rising of the sea as they could.  The PCs got paid the bounty but with thousands of unhappy refugees surrounding the town, chanting "Free the Hand", they decided to sneak out of town while they could and wait for things to blow over.

"Things" do not in fact "blow over."  They instead "blow up."

But with a month to go before that campaign resumes and I have notes to post on it, I will probably start with summations of the Shattered Star Book 4 sessions and go from there.

Later!

The Sudden Sea –Session 21

[Night of May 23 – Clouds gather over Mouzaki]

[This game uses the Hero System Fifth Revised Edition (FREd) roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened February 12, 2024.]

[This adventure takes place on the continent of Terik, two years after the appearance of the Sudden Sea.  The PCs are refugees seeking a better life through adventuring.]

 

Player Characters

Sorvia of Stavros – female human ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Tharduk Lavabreath – male dwarf glassmaker from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom, had a glass shop in County Modon that is now underwater, literally

Kadruth Worldbender – male dwarf priest, serving He Who Protects, from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom

Anomin – female human shapeshifter, from lots of places, most recently County Modon

Islo Redgrass – male elf ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Via Roll20

Inserrant – female human musician, player of zills (finger cymbals) and singer

 

Spring

Moonday, May 23, 56 I.C.

Noon

Anomin flew out of Mouzaki in crow form to find Inserrant and verify she was OK. After searching for a while, Anomin located Inserrant at the adventurers favorite drinking place in the refugee camps.  Inserrant explained she spent the night keeping the thousands of refugees from outright rioting.  Anomin told Inserrant that the prisoners were in the hands of the Count and the adventurers were waiting on payment before leaving the town.  She advised Inserrant to lay low and be ready to leave.

After updating Inserrant, Anomin flew back to the rest of the adventurers at the Blue Pig inside Mouzaki.  By the time she arrived, Tharduk was done writing up his report.  It was factual and covered most of what the adventurers had learned about the bandits, but left out some details.  [My notes are not specific as to what he left out, but I believe it was the existence of the bandit town.  Unfortunately, I have no player notes on this session so I am forced to embroider my skimpy notes with my memory.]

1:00 PM

The adventurers left the Blue Pig.  Islo, Sorvia, and Tharduk headed to the sheriff's office while Anomin and Kadruth went to the Post Office to look for delivery contracts to Nomi and Galanti.

When Islo, Sorvia, and Tharduk arrived at the Sheriff’s Office they found it very busy.  Sergeant Greenpike was busy-gruff and waved them through to Sheriff Raptis’ office, stating he was waiting on them.

Sitting with Sheriff Raptis was another man, modestly dressed, but Tharduk could tell the material his clothes were made of was the highest quality.  Sheriff Raptis introduced the other man as Lord Loukas, who “advises the Count on security”.  They were both interested in the additional information the adventurers had about the bandits.

The adventurers loosely described what information they had, which led to negotiating the reward for the information.  Once that was settled, Tharduk presented the report he had written up, which included names and descriptions of Green Hand operatives in Pedino and the farms north of the crossroads, the location of a fort in the hills north of the County Road, and the likely occupants of the fort.  Then Tharduk brought up that the adventurers had a coded message book from Pedino and the heliograph used there.

In the end the adventurers were paid 200 gc of the intelligence on how the bandits operated and their locations and an additional 50gc for the message books and heliograph, all of this on top of the 200 gc bounty for Paraskevi and the 2 gc for the other bandit.  Payment was in the form of 9 tradebars worth 50gc each and 2 loose gold coins.  [Tradebars are sort of like bearer bonds in that they can be taken to most merchant guild locations and be converted into coins or goods of equal value.  They are much more portable than the equivalent value in coins, making them ideal for merchants and adventurers.]

After the meeting, Sorvia and Tharduk headed over to the Merchant’s Guild while Islo made his way back to the Blue Pig.

At the Post Office, Kadruth and Anomin spoke with the Bounty Clerk and asked if there were any jobs delivering mail to Nomi or Galanti.  The clerk told them there were contracts for both.  The delivery to Nomi pays 2gc and is due June 7 and the delivery to Galanti pays 8gc and is due June 21.  Both pay 10% up front with chits to be redeemed upon delivery.  Kadruth accepted both contracts and signed for the group, listing out the names of the rest of the adventurers.  With contracts fresh in hand, the two made their way back to the Blue Pig.

Sorvia and Tharduk arrived at the Merchant’s Guild.  The guild guards would not allow Sorvia entrance past the public room as she was not a guild member.  Sorvia accepted this and told Tharduk she would head over to the Blue Pig and wait there.

Tharduk met with a guild representative.  He explained that he and his traveling companions were leaving town for a month or so and he needed someone to receive some commissioned equipment and hold it until they returned.  This was a standard service the guild performed for its members and so Tharduk and the guild representative filled out the paperwork necessary for the guild to receive the armor and daggers the adventurers had commissioned out of the Nemean Lion pelt and claws.

Tharduk left the Merchant’s Guild and headed over to the armorer and weaponsmith to explain to each that the Merchant’s Guild would accept delivery for the finished works and make final payments when the items were complete.  He then returned to the Blue Pig, feeling the effects of being awake since the previous morning.

When Sorvia arrived at the Blue Pig, she found her two apprentices there.  They should have been keeping low at the Ranger Camp nearly 10 miles away but instead were having a conspiratorial conversation with a horse tied up in front of the Blue Pig.  When Sorvia asked what they were doing, they claimed to be bringing Anomin up to date on things.  Sorvia pointed to Anomin inside the Blue Pig and said “Anomin’s over there.  That’s just a horse.”  She then escorted the two embarrassed apprentices into the Blue Pig to wait.

2:00 PM

Once all the adventurers in town were back at the Blue Pig, they discussed options.  There were angry mobs at the town gates who would probably recognize and attack the adventurers if they tried to walk through the gates.  Something more subtle was needed.  They left the Blue Pig as a group and started walking the inside of the town walls until they reached a point equidistant from the two gates.  The guards there were spread thin and spent most of their time looking towards the town gates in case the mobs broke in.  [I rolled a terrible Perception roll for the guards.]  The adventurers took advantage of this and a couple castings of Kadruth’s Force Wall spell shaped into stairs to sneak over the town wall and into the enormous refugee camp surrounding the town.

The adventurers took a round-about way to get to their preferred drinking place and picked up Inserrant.  They then quietly left the Mouzaki area, heading south.  Once out of sight of Mouzaki, they turned east and made their way to the Ranger Camp.

4:00 PM

The adventurers arrived at the ranger camp.  There they quickly explained the situation back in Mouzaki to the retired rangers before finally getting to sleep.

End of session

Commentary

[I had to pause the campaign here.  The players unknowingly set in motion things that will lead to some form of civil war in County Modon and I need to map that out before I can have the PCs interact with it.  In my mind, the situation in the County was always unstable and in precarious balance.  The Count had basically usurped one of his own barons and with a passel of de-landed barons in tow, each one seeking compensation for their losses to the Sudden Sea.  The barons whose lands are still above water know that the Count is being pressured to divvy up (or take entirely) their lands to share out to court favorites.  They’ve spent the last year thinking hard about this and some have “made plans”.  On top of this, the Grand Duchy of Mercia, the County’s neighbor to the southwest, is interested in adding the remains of the County to its possessions and is pursuing its own machinations.  I now need to figure out what the next month or two of political maneuvering and rebellion looks like before resuming play.]

[In the meantime, we have been playing through Book 4 of The Shattered Star Adventure Path.  I’m not certain how much of it I’m going to write about here.  The writing for this one seems a bit weak, especially on the PC motivation front.  We might be saving the world or maybe we just stumbled into a divine grudge match fueled by the next shard’s curse.  We’ll see.]

Sudden Sea Adventures

Sudden Sea Landing Page - Links to all the write-ups for this campaign 

Last session: Session 20

Next session: Session 22 [Not Yet Scheduled]

The Sudden Sea –Session 20

[Night of May 22 and 23 – Expected Ambush - Part 2 and Return to Mouzaki]

[This game uses the Hero System Fifth Revised Edition (FREd) roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened February 5, 2024.]

[This adventure takes place on the continent of Terik, two years after the appearance of the Sudden Sea.  The PCs are refugees seeking a better life through adventuring.]

 

Player Characters

Sorvia of Stavros – female human ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Tharduk Lavabreath – male dwarf glassmaker from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom, had a glass shop in County Modon that is now underwater, literally

Kadruth Worldbender – male dwarf priest, serving He Who Protects, from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom

Anomin – female human shapeshifter, from lots of places, most recently County Modon

Islo Redgrass – male elf ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Via Roll20

Inserrant – female human musician, player of zills (finger cymbals) and singer

 

Spring

Sunday, May 22, 56 I.C.

Morning, continued

[Fight resumes in Turn 2, Segment 9]

Islo took a shot at the archer leader fighting with Anomin and hit her shield.  Inserrant, seeing that Kadruth was awake again and recovering, ordered the wagon driver to take the dwarf to town before she hopped out of the wagon.

The archer leader warned the other archer of the elf behind her [meaning Islo] and attacked Anomin, who blocked the attack [after spending a Hero Point].  Tharduk remained in place on Wagon 7 to protect Kadruth.  Islo took another shot and hit the archer leader in the stomach, stunning and knocking her unconscious.  The second archer took cover from Islo and shot at Anomin who blocked the attack.  Sorvia crept to the second blind entrance.  Kadruth continued to catch his breath [he took another Recovery].

[Post-12 Recovery phase]

Islo climbed on top of the blind and used the extra elevation to look for the archers who fled, but could not spot them in the deep grass.  Inserrant ran closer to the fight.

Anomin entered the blind and attacked the second archer, scratching the archers thigh armor.  The archer leader, barely awake, recovered from being stunned.  Tharduk, satisfied that Kadruth was not going to die and was no longer under threat from archers, hopped off Wagon 7 and moved south towards the fighting at the blind.  Sorvia, now in the blind, shot the archer leader in the shoulder, knocking her unconscious again.  The second archer stubbornly decided to stay and fight, took another shot at Anomin but missed.  Kadruth, stubborn and not wanting to leave the rest of the adventurers without healing, climbed out of Wagon 7.  The caravan continued heading west as fast as it could, the wagon guards saluting Kadruth for his determination.

Islo hopped down off the blind, blocking the exit from the blind and cutting off all means of escape for the two bandit archers.  Seeing this, the second archer threw down her bow and surrendered, ending the combat.

Anomin, heavily injured as a cougar, shifted back into her equally-injured human form and placed manacles on the captured archer and her unconscious leader.

Sorvia put away her bow and started bandaging Anomin’s wounds.  Kadruth used several healing spells to heal his own wounds and then did the same for Anomin.  Kadruth then healed the archer leader’s multiple wounds and discovered that the archer leader was Paraskevi the Green herself, leader of all the bandits!

Sorvia and Islo (assisted by Anomin) trapped the blind and concealed the trap.  [Or so they think - the Concealment roll was successful but the trap roll failed so it doesn’t work.]  Anomin and Tharduk talked a little about whether or not the bandits might attack again.  During this conversation, Anomin shapeshifted back into her crow form [which has Deduction] but is also easily distracted and the conversation petered out with no conclusion.

The prisoners were relieved of their weapons and other possessions but kept in their armor.  Items confiscated were: 2 heavy long bows. 2 quivers of Arrows (40 minus those used in the fight), and a couple bits of personal effects, including an amulet from the leader that Anomin palmed. The prisoners were also searched for lockpicks and other things before being stood up to leave.

The adventurers got back on the road, heading back to Mouzaki with their prisoners.  Anomin shifted into her horse form and the prisoners were tied onto her back.  As the party progressed, Sorvia did her best to conceal the group's tracks until they passed Pedino.

Sundown

The group reached the campsite from the previous night.  After a quick discussion, they decided staying would be dangerous and so they kept walking.  Anomin warned that people in Pedino might attack the group. The group decided that if things went wrong, Anomin would run off with the prisoners and everyone would eventually meet back up at the Ranger camp.

Moonday, May 23, 56 I.C.

Dawn

Fatigued from marching through the night, the adventurers arrived at Mouzaki.

As the adventurers passed through the vast refugee camp surrounding the town, a sullen and angry crowd started forming around them, following the adventurers through the camp.  The adventurers prepared to defend themselves if attacked, but continued to walk to the gates of Mouzaki.  Inserrant lagged behind and started using her mind control powers to keep a riot from happening.

When the party reached the walls of Mouzaki, hundreds of people were following them, hostile but not yet violent, thanks to Inserrant’s influence.

There were some people waiting in line at the gate to enter the town. Some of the guards looked up and noticed the mob following the adventurers.  The guards moved the line off to one side and called for backup. They then pushed one of the two gate doors closed and waited for the adventurers to reach them, visibly concerned.

The crowd started chanting “Free the Hand” over and over.  Tharduk explained to the guards that they believed they had Paraskevi the Green as a prisoner for the reward.  Suddenly understanding the situation, the guards hurried the adventurers in through the gate.  Realizing what was going on, the mob let out a great roar and rushed the gates.  Kadruth put up a Force Wall outside the gate to give the guards time to secure the gate and start reinforcing it.  The shouts and chanting of the mob could be heard to spread and get louder.

A group of guards escorted the adventurers through the slowly awakening town to the palace.  The palace was a fancy house, possibly the fanciest house in Mouzaki, but not really a palace.  When the escorted adventurers arrived, the palace guards demanded an explanation.  The gate guards explain the situation at the gate and who the adventurers had.  The palace guards called up more palace guards and took possession of the adventurers, freeing up the gate guards to return to defend the gates.

The palace guards escorted the adventurers around to the stable and asked that the prisoners be presented.  The two prisoners were let down off Anomin’s back and stood up.  One of the palace guards held up the head of the leader and said, “yup, this is her.”

At this point Sheriff Raptis arrived.  “I heard you have taken Paraskevi. Well.  This will be a busy day,” he said sardonically.  He had also heard about the mob at the main gates and others forming at the lesser gates.  “I’m going to take the prisoners as I'm sure the Count will talk to them. You should hang out near my office to get paid.”

Tharduk offered that the adventurers also had information on how the bandits were organized.  Sheriff Raptis thought on that and said, “I can get that from you back at my office.  Don’t go to far in case the Count wants to speak with you sooner.”  Sheriff Raptis then took the prisoners into the palace with most of the guards.  One of the palace guards went with the adventurers.

The adventurers went over to the one bar near the sheriff’s office.  There the palace guard announced to the bar that the adventurers were allowed to be at the bar by order of Sheriff Raptis.  He also announced that these were the adventurers who brought in Paraskevi the Green.  The occupants of the bar, mostly lawmen and guards having their breakfasts were excited to hear that and bought breakfast and several drinks for the adventurers while asking for the story.

Tharduk took this time to sit at a separate table and started writing up an official report for the Count.

End of session

Commentary

[Anomin was heavily injured in the bandit fight as she has very little armor in her cougar form.  If the last attack against her by the second archer had hit, she would have been forced back into her human form for the first time ever.  This would have put her at a disadvantage as her human form is not as good at combat as her cougar form.  It would have also blown her cover as some sort of familiar to one of the spell casters in the group to those outside the adventuring group.]

[The players were surprised that the Green Hand had a large following in the refugee camp but they had never heard of them.  I explained that the Green Hand was keeping a low profile in the camp because they cannot feed everyone.  To avoid becoming targets themselves, they were slowly expanding their network amongst those who could not feed themselves otherwise.  The PCs, being able to feed themselves, had never been approached.]

[There is one more session after this to write up.  After that I needed to take a break as the GM while I worked out the results of this session.  The capture of the Paraskevi the Green will make the Green Hand desperate to rescue her.  They have been providing food to parts of the refugee camp and have hundreds of loyal followers among the thousands of refugees surrounding Mouzaki.  Worse, the Green Hand have backers who do not want to be exposed.  This event is likely to trigger a premature civil war in the County and I need to work through the stages of that so I can describe what the PCs see/encounter along the way.]

Sudden Sea Adventures

Sudden Sea Landing Page - Links to all the write-ups for this campaign

Last session: Session 19

Next session: Session 21

The Sudden Sea –Session 19

[Night of May 22 – Expected Ambush - Part 1]

[This game uses the Hero System Fifth Revised Edition (FREd) roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened January 29, 2024.]

[This adventure takes place on the continent of Terik, two years after the appearance of the Sudden Sea.  The PCs are refugees seeking a better life through adventuring.]

 

Player Characters

Sorvia of Stavros – female human ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Tharduk Lavabreath – male dwarf glassmaker from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom, had a glass shop in County Modon that is now underwater, literally

Kadruth Worldbender – male dwarf priest, serving He Who Protects, from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom

Anomin – female human shapeshifter, from lots of places, most recently County Modon

Islo Redgrass – male elf ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Via Roll20

Inserrant – female human musician, player of zills (finger cymbals) and singer

 

Spring

Sunday, May 22, 56 I.C.

Dawn

After an eventful night, the caravan mounted up to leave the campsite and make the second half of the trip to Grizano.  The adventurers spread themselves among the nine wagons that made up the caravan.

• Sorvia was on Wagon 1.
• Anomin (in crow form)  and Kadruth were on Wagon 5.
• Tharduk and Inserrant were on Wagon 7.
• Islo was on Wagon 9.

Space was made on Wagon 5 for the three captured bandits.  Kadruth cast his Force Wall spell over the prisoners to keep them alive.  He then sat on top of the crates in the back of the wagon so he would have a good field of view.  The pace of the caravan was noticeably faster than the previous day.

Late Morning

The caravan passed the fork in the road that heads south into the Ygro Dasos Barony.  The hired caravan guards became particularly vigilant at this point as the caravan entered the area where the bandit attacks happened.  Sorvia regularly watched the signaling hill that the bandit prisoners talked about, hoping to catch sight of a heliograph in use.

While the adventurers and the guards were all alert to the possibility of attack, when the bandit surprise attack happened, it was in an unexpected way.  Rather than step out of the tall grasses on either side of the County Road and demand surrender like attacks in the past, four archers attacked from hiding on the south side of the road, all targeting Kadruth on top of the crates in Wagon 5.

Kadruth saw the arrows and attempted to avoid the shots [he aborted his action to perform a Dodge maneuver] but was hit anyway in the left arm, the shoulders, and twice in the chest, triggering his teleport spell, which dropped him onto the Wagon 7 driver’s lap, much to the driver’s surprise.  These shots also knocked Kadruth unconscious, dropping his Force Wall spell, but just failed to kill him.  Sorvia caught sight of where the attacks came from and shot an arrow back, hitting her target based on the cry of pain that resulted [solid hit in the chest for 9 BODY and 27 STUN].

Islo could not see any of the attackers to the south and held his fire, hoping they would show themselves.  He and Inserrant also noticed movement in the grasses north of the road that were not caused by the wind.  Inserrant called out a warning about attackers to the north while climbing to the front of the wagon to render Kadruth some first aid.

Tharduk exhorted the wagoneers to go faster while also warning of bandits to the north.  Not actually seeing the bandits, he held at the ready for the bandits to show.  Sorvia hopped off Wagon 1, looked for a target and shot at a bandit to the south, hitting them in the shoulder.  Anomin, in crow form, flew south, trying to find the concealed bandits to no avail [the bandits were very well concealed].  Suddenly 20 archers volley-fired from the grasses to the north, all targeting the prisoners in the back of Wagon 5.  The entire back of the wagon was pin-cushioned by arrows, killing all of the prisoners.  The wagon drivers sped their wagons up as fast as the horses could pull the heavily laden wagons.  No shots came from the south.

Islo held for counter fire while Inserrant continued aiding Kadruth.

Tharduk moved to the front of Wagon 7 and prepared to block any incoming attacks against Inserrant or Kadruth.  Sorvia moved into the tall grass and hid herself to avoid becoming a target for the archers to the north.  Anomin finally located the blind the camouflaged southern archers were hiding in.  She could see one of them doing first aid on another and decided to land behind the blind.  Once there she shifted back to human form and then changed into her Cougar form.  Luckily for her, all the bandits were either watching the first aid being applied or keeping an eye on the caravan attack.  [Anomin made her Stealth check exactly but the archers all missed their Perception rolls entirely.]  The north archers fired again on Wagon 5 and Islo counterfired at them to little effect [hit his target in the ankle, a reduced damage location, and rolled minimal damage on top of that].  The southern archers started to flee south and ran into Anomin in cougar form instead.  They loaded their bows.  The wagons continued to move through the ambush area.

Islo shot again at the northern archers but missed.  Inserrant continued aiding Kadruth.

Tharduk held his position over Inserrant and Kadruth, ready to block any attacks against them.  Anomin attacked the fleeing southern archers, hitting the lead archer in the vitals, stunning the archer.  Islo held his action.  The obvious leader of the southern archers, an arrow in her chest, demanded her shield and gave orders to the other archers to flee back the other way.  Inserrant continued to aid Kadruth, who appeared to be slowly regaining consciousness.  Sorvia advanced towards the blind holding the southern archers.  The northern archers retreated, heading north, away from the ambush.  Islo, seeing this, attempted another shot, hitting one of the archers in the hand.  One of the southern archers, clearly ignoring the order to leave, shot Anomin in a forelimb for low damage.  The Wagons continued fleeing the ambush site.  [The wagon train was 80 hexes in length and only moved 5 hexes at a time, so it was taking them time for it to clear the area.]

Islo held to see what the northern archers were up to.  Inserrant aided Kadruth, who was regaining consciousness.  Tharduk continued defending Inserrant and Kadruth.  Anomin attacked the archer who shot her and raked their legs.  The leader advanced with sword and shield, attacking Anomin but failing to connect.  Sorvia, hearing the sounds of fighting ahead, advanced on the blind.  [She started far away and was moving at half rate to stay hidden, so it was taking time to close in.]  The first southern archer recovered from being stunned while gasping for breath.  The second shot Anomin in a back leg as retaliation for the rake across her legs.  The carts continued forward.  Kadruth opened his eyes, consciousness fully returned.

Islo, satisfied no further attacks would happen from the north and hearing the sounds of fighting to the south, hopped off the last wagon and moved through the tall grasses to the south.

Tharduk held to protect Inserrant and the reawakened Kadruth.  Anomin switched to attack the archer leader and hit her in the chest, discovering the leader had better armor.  The archer leader slashed at Anomin, hitting the shapeshifter in the foreleg.  Sorvia finally reached the blind and observed three camouflaged archers fleeing south through an alternate exit from the blind and the fight between Anomin and the other two archers.  The second archer fighting Anomin shot the bloody cougar in the foreleg again with her bow.  The Wagons continued fleeing while Kadruth took some time to catch his breath [took a Recovery action].

[Combat Paused]

End of session

Commentary

[We did not want to stop the session mid-combat, but it was well past our normal stop time and the combat was not resolved, so we paused here.]

[This took longer than anticipated to get typed up.  To be honest, I’ve been prioritizing work on my new novel over writing here.  I’ll do my best to wrap up the last two session notes this month and then start talking about the science fiction novel I’m outlining.]

Sudden Sea Adventures

Sudden Sea Landing Page - Links to all the write-ups for this campaign

Last session: Session 18

Next session: Session 20

The Sudden Sea –Session 18

[Night of May 21/22 – Anomin vs. Calliope and Interrogations]

[This game uses the Hero System Fifth Revised Edition (FREd) roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened January 22, 2024.]

[This adventure takes place on the continent of Terik, two years after the appearance of the Sudden Sea.  The PCs are refugees seeking a better life through adventuring.]

 

Player Characters

Sorvia of Stavros – female human ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Tharduk Lavabreath – male dwarf glassmaker from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom, had a glass shop in County Modon that is now underwater, literally

Kadruth Worldbender – male dwarf priest, serving He Who Protects, from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom

Anomin – female human shapeshifter, from lots of places, most recently County Modon

Islo Redgrass – male elf ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Via Roll20

Inserrant – female human musician, player of zills (finger cymbals) and singer

 

Spring

Yggsday, May 21, 56 I.C.

Night

In the barn in Pedino, Anomin shook off the last of the paralytic poison from the trap protecting the wooden box in the hayloft.  She took the heliograph out of the box and stashed it on her person before transforming back into her crow form.

Anomin flew back to the house the teens reported to, attempting to be quiet, but she landed heavily [rolled terrible on her Stealth check].  Luckily no one seemed to have heard her.  She fluttered down to an open window and snuck inside.

Having better luck indoors, Anomin landed silently on the floor.  She then first transformed back into a human and then into her cougar form.  Now that she could see clearly [neither her crow nor human forms can see in the dark], she realized she was in Calliope’s bedroom with Calliope asleep in the bed.

Anomin moved as silently as the big cat she was over to the door.  The door knob proved to be a challenge to open with no thumbs [she spent 3 Hero Points to improve her roll from complete failure to just a success].  The knob unexpectedly squeaked when Anomin turned it, waking up Calliope.  Anomin hunkered down as Calliope looked around in the darkness.

After a tense moment, Calliope started quietly getting out of bed, carrying a large dagger.  In response, Anomin attempted to crawl under the bed, but Calliope kept the dagger between her and Anomin, apparently able to track the cougar's movements.

With no better option, Anomin swatted at Calliope with her claws retracted to avoid murdering the woman.  Anomin hit her hard in the ribs, probably breaking one or two, and stunned Calliope.  Calliope shook off the stun and tried to catch her breath, one hand holding her injured side.

Anomin followed up with a pulled punch to Calliope’s vitals, knocking the woman unconscious but breaking no additional bones.

Anomin immediately took advantage of Calliope being unconscious to go search the rest of the small house, especially the floor in the corner of the living room.  It took Anomin some time [5 minutes and another Hero Point] to locate the well concealed compartment and lift the floor boards covering it.  Inside was the journal she had seen Calliope making notes in.

Anomin pushed the journal around a bit with her paws until she could get a bite on it and lift it out.  She then padded back to the bedroom window and awkwardly and noisily pushed it the rest of the way open before jumping out through it.

Anomin padded quietly to the edge of Pedino with only one barking dog any the wiser to her presence.  Once past the edge of the village, Anomin set the journal down and returned to her human form.  She secured the book on her person and then shifted back into crow form for the long flight back to the caravan.

In the Caravan Camp

The captured and tied-up bandits, 2 human women and 1 human man, were sat down on the edge of the camp.  Tharduk and Kadruth stood aside to discuss how they were going to question the captives.  While they did this, Inserrant started singing and playing her zills, ostensibly to entertain the caravan guards, but really to hide her casting her Mind Control spell on the captives, giving them the command to “Tell the Dwarves everything.”

Once Tharduk and Kadruth approached the captives, the captives were completely ready to spill the beans on anything the dwarves asked about.  The dwarves learned:

• They do work at the nearby farm to the northwest as cover and for food.
• They are part of the Green Hand.
• They use a heliograph to forward information in the morning to guys at the Watch Rock, so the ambush people know what to expect.
• The Watch Rock is a formation in the hills to the south of the County Road, next to a rock that looks like some guy's nose. 
• The leader of their team was not here now.

That piece of information prompted Islo and Sorvia to immediately go looking for their leader.

The captives continued to tell the dwarves everything:

• They gave the 5 names of people they know in the Green Hand, including themselves and their leader, Nikos.
• They gave a complete description of the other person and where to find them - at the hill fort where ambush guys are from.
• The hill fort holds 40 to 50 people. 
• They provided a description of the fort and its whereabouts.

Tharduk was also able to pick out [using the Conversation skill] that in addition to the hill fort, the Green Hand have their own town hidden in the hills south of the County Road, past the Keramidi cross road.  Kadruth asked why the captives were working with bandits and learned the entire Green Hand were once farmers in areas of County Modon that are now under the Sudden Sea.  As they fled the rising waters, merchants kept swindling them or used thugs to outright steal from them with no repercussions.  Eventually they had enough and formed the Green Hand with the intent of raiding the merchants in kind.

Tharduk and Kadruth indicated they were done questioning the captives to Inserrant, who used her high levels of Mind Control to muddle the captives’ memories of the questioning.  The captives were now convinced that Kadruth used some unspeakable dwarven torture devices on them, so horrible that cannot stand to think about it or remember details.

Out in the Grasses Surrounding the Camp

Islo and Sorvia went back to the blind and followed the tracks of the captives when they approached the blind.  It wasn’t hard as they seemed very confident they would not be seen.  Following the tracks along their approach, they found where a fourth set of tracks split off from the group.  These tracks were a little harder to follow, indicating that their leader had some skill.

At a certain point, the leader had stopped, possibly when the trap in the blind had gone off.  He seemed to be serious about not being seen nor tracked after this point.  They lost the tracks for a bit and spread out to reacquire them.  Islo found a spot where the leader stopped for a bit.  It was near the edge of the camp, close to where the captives were questioned, possibly close enough to hear what was said.  After this the tracks moved away from the camp and Islo and Sorvia lost them again.  The two rangers spread out again, but had no luck picking up the trail again.  Failing to reacquire, they returned to camp.

Back in Camp

Kadruth cast his Force Wall spell and placed it around the captives to hold them in.  When the rangers returned to the camp, the group shared information.

Third Watch

Anomin finally returned to the caravan.  She was able to locate the campsite due to the camp fires.  She shared the  information she had acquired and produced the journal for Kadruth to look at.  While Tharduk brought Anomin up to date on the captives and what they had spilled, Kadruth looked over the journal.  It was in some form of code, but he was fairly certain the first column was a notation of date and time, suggesting the journal was a message log.  He will need some time to attempt a decipher.

Anomin, having been up most of the night, went to sleep and Kadruth covered her watch.

End of session

Commentary

[I think I mentioned that I was awarding Hero Points to the players for turning in their session notes.  If I hadn’t mentioned that, I was doing so.  This helped me greatly when it came time to write the blog entries as they recorded things important to them and their characters that I might have missed.  It also meant I could spend more time running the game and less time writing down what was happening.  I believe the complete rules for the use of Hero Points is in the Pulp Hero genre book from Hero Games.]

Sudden Sea Adventures

Sudden Sea Landing Page - Links to all the write-ups for this campaign

Last session: Session 17

Next session: Session 19

The Sudden Sea –Session 17

[May 18 to 21 – Caravan Guard Work, Lights, and Prisoners]

[This game uses the Hero System Fifth Revised Edition (FREd) roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened January 8, 2024.]

[This adventure takes place on the continent of Terik, two years after the appearance of the Sudden Sea.  The PCs are refugees seeking a better life through adventuring.]

 

Player Characters

Sorvia of Stavros – female human ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Tharduk Lavabreath – male dwarf glassmaker from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom, had a glass shop in County Modon that is now underwater, literally

Kadruth Worldbender – male dwarf priest, serving He Who Protects, from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom

Anomin – female human shapeshifter, from lots of places, most recently County Modon

Islo Redgrass – male elf ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Via Roll20

Inserrant – female human musician, player of zills (finger cymbals) and singer

 

Spring

Magusday, May 18, 56 I.C.

Tharduk returned to the Merchant Guild with Anomin in crow form.  Tharduk used Guild records to track down the ownership of the farmstead at Pedino, a village west of Mouzaki.  It used to be a waypoint for caravans before the Sudden Sea submerged most of the County.  Pedino officially owes loyalty to the Yorgos, Baron of Mouzaki.

While at the guild, Tharduk went fishing for the next caravan to head west to Grizano.  He wasn’t able to get the information [with all the raiding, the Guild is keeping tighter leash on that information] but he didn't alert anyone that he was looking either [just made his Conversation roll].

Failing at the Guild, Tharduk next went to the regular hiring area for caravan guards and asked around who was hiring.  He eventually tracked down Attor Cerdicson, the leader of the next caravan to leave Mouzaki for Grizano.  He was able to convince Attor that Tharduk’s group were serious bounty hunters with all the capabilities needed.  Once Attor was certain that he will not need to pay Tharduk or his group of bounty hunters, he stated that they will need to bring their own supplies and will fall under the authority of the caravan guards, led by Vagn the Lion.  Attor introduces Tharduk to Vagn and they discuss capabilities.  

Once Vagn was satisfied, Attor started writing up a contract for Tharduk to sign on the group’s behalf.  At this point Anomin whispered into Tharduk’s ear, reminding him to add a clause where the “bounty hunters” were free to leave once they captured bandits.  Tharduk brought this up with Attor and they haggled a bit before Attor agreed to include the clause.

Once Tharduk signed the contract, Attor told him the caravan would be leaving within a week.  Tharduk would need to check in at 4:00 PM each day until told the caravan was ready.  Tharduk’s team would then need to assemble the following dawn with the caravan.  They shook hands and parted.

Afternoon

Tharduk met back up with the adventurers and informed them they had a caravan to use as bait.  Kadruth discussed the details with Tharduk and then worked out placement of the adventurers, especially himself, along the caravan for optimum attack capability.

The adventurers then spent a total of one gold coin buying manacles, rope, and food for four days.

Freysday, May 20, 56 I.C.

4:00 PM

At the regular check-in, Tharduk was told that the caravan would be leaving the next day at dawn.

Yggsday, May 21, 56 I.C.

Dawn

The adventurers arrived as the caravan assembled.  The caravan consisted of 9 wagons with 2 caravan guards on each wagon followed by Vagn and his lieutenant on horseback.  The adventurers situated themselves on the wagons as follows:

• Sorvia was on Wagon 1
• Kadruth and Anomin on Wagon 5
• Tharduk and Inserrant on Wagon 7
• Islo on Wagon 9

7:00 AM

The caravan left Mouzaki, taking the County Road west to Grizano.

Midday

The caravan passed the village of Pedino.  The adventurers saw that it was an extended farmstead that sat north of the road with multiple crop fields around it.  People could be seen weeding the fields.

Afternoon

Several hours later, Anomin happened to notice a signal light come from Pedino [made a very high Perception roll].  Turning quickly, she caught the return signal in the hills ahead, off to the left.  She whispered to Kadruth, asking the dwarf if she should fly off and investigate the light back at the farmstead.  He said yes and she immediately flew off, back towards Pedino to try and find the source.  Sorvia had also noticed the return signal from the hills ahead and gave a bird whistle signal that alerted the rest of the adventurers...except Inserrant, who wasn’t paying attention [made a terrible Perception roll].

Late Afternoon

The caravan arrived at the regular campsite for this route, which was marked with boundary stones.  The area inside was officially County property, separate from the barony it resided in.  While things were being set up, Islo and Sorvia scouted the area around the campsite.  In addition to signs of other caravans using this site, they also found a blind for observing the campsite just north of the campsite.  Islo set up a spike trap in the blind and Sorvia concealed it.  The trap was designed to injure but not kill and to pin the target in place.  They then returned to the campsite and informed the other adventurers about the blind and where it was located.

Tharduk asked Kadruth for a prayer to bless the campsite and he agreed to do so.  Kadruth’s blessing generated a feeling of safety that seemed to relax the caravan drivers.  The caravan guards set up watches while the adventurers kept their own.

An Hour After Sunset

Anomin arrived at Pedino and looked around.  There were 7 houses, 3 large barns, and a smattering of out-buildings of various types.

She deduced 3 possible locations the heliograph could have been discretely used from: one of the barns and two of the houses.  She checked the barn first and found nothing amiss.  Inside were several draft horses, some cattle, and some goats with hay up in the hayloft.

With nothing incriminating found in the barn, she flew over to the  first house, looking for an open window.  They were all closed until one opened and a person climbed out.  Anomin followed that person discreetly, nearly losing them as they headed over to the barn Anomin had just investigated.

Back At the Campsite

During the first watch, the trap Islo and Sorvia set in the blind went off and someone there cried out in pain.  Islo and Inserrant, on watch for the adventurers, immediately headed out to investigate, bow and xill at the ready.  Tharduk and Sorvia were awoken by the cry and readied their weapons.  Kadruth slept soundly.

Islo reached the blind first and found three humans in the blind, one pierced in the leg by the trap.  Islo whipped out a bolo and entangled one of the free humans with it.  He then shot the other one in the stomach with his bow before any of them could react, leaving that person unconscious and bleeding.  The humans immediately surrendered.

Tharduk woke Kadruth before heading out to the blind, taking rope with him.  He tied up the captives and brought them back to the campsite where Kadruth healed their wounds.

Back at the Barn

Anomin followed the person back to the barn, where they entered through a side door.  Anomin flew around the barn and found an opening she could squeeze through.  Inside the barn, she discovered that the person she had followed was a teenage boy who was hugging a teenage girl up in the hay loft and both were giggling.

After a moment the girl got up and opened the hayloft door to peer out.  The boy walked up behind her, wanting to continue but she told him to stop, a message was coming in.  Anomin glided around so she could see as well and caught the tail end of a flashing light out in the far distance, likely the same hills south of the County Road from earlier in the day.  The girl pulled a heliograph out of a nearby box and used a candle to reply.  She put away the heliograph and made a note on a slip of paper from the box before closing and latching the box.  She stating, “We need to tell Calliope.”  The boy, dejected, agreed.

Anomin made her way out of the barn as quietly as she could and then followed the two over to one of the smaller houses.  The girl knocked quietly and they were let in.  Anomin flew closer and found a window she could peek through.  While she could not hear what was said, she could read their lips enough to get the idea.  She saw a woman older than the teens receive the message and read it.  She then stated that the message would need to be passed along and she dismissed the teens, making the boy wait until after the girl left so the two would not “get up to anything”.

Once the teens left, the woman went over to a corner and did something on the floor that Anomin could not see from the window.  She then walked over to the lit candle holding a book she was not holding earlier and made some notes in it.  She then put the book back and burned the note from the girl with the candle.

After learning what she could, Anomin returned to the barn to steal the heliograph.  Up in the hayloft she turned human to open the box and take the heliograph.  The box was trapped with a needle covered in a paralytic poison, paralyzing Anomin for nearly 10 minutes [thanks to her unusually high Constitution - anyone else would have been paralyzed all night].

End of session

Commentary

[The PCs are learning how the bandits work and have prisoners.  Will the prisoners talk?  I didn’t want to stop in the middle of the action like this, but it was well past our stopping point for the night so we had to.]

[I tried something different when writing up these notes this time.  First I just typed up my notes as is, which are fairly sketchy as I’m busy running the game.  Then I embroidered the notes from the players on that, which seemed to spread the whole thing up.  Previously I have multiple source documents open and combine them as I go, which involves switching back and forth.  This time I just layered text and made modifications to my notes by adding the details the players captured.  That seems easier.  I’ll keep doing it this way for a while to verify.]

Sudden Sea Adventures

Sudden Sea Landing Page - Links to all the write-ups for this campaign 

Last session: Session 16

Next session: Session 18

The Sudden Sea –Session 15

[May 12 through 16 – Unexpected guest and return to Mouzaki]

[This game uses the Hero System Fifth Revised Edition (FREd) roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened December 18, 2023.]

[This adventure takes place on the continent of Terik, two years after the appearance of the Sudden Sea.  The PCs are refugees seeking a better life through adventuring.]

 

Player Characters

Sorvia of Stavros – female human ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Tharduk Lavabreath – male dwarf glassmaker from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom, had a glass shop in County Modon that is now underwater, literally

Kadruth Worldbender – male dwarf priest, serving He Who Protects, from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom

Anomin – female human shapeshifter, from lots of places, most recently County Modon

Islo Redgrass – male elf ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Via Roll20

Inserrant – female human musician, player of zills (finger cymbals) and singer

 

Spring

May 13, 56 I.C.

Pre-Dawn

Aware that someone is approaching the camp, Anomin cougar-screamed to wake the deeply sleeping adventurers and failed.  She was more successful in causing the whoever was approaching to pause.  This allowed Sorvia to circle around them and take the approacher by surprise.  Sorvia tackled the person, who screamed in surprise like the little girl she was.  Sorvia tied up the girl who protested that she had a message the entire time.

Once Sorvia was done, she turned the girl over - it was Morvia, her ward/apprentice.  Moravia explained that Sorvia’s other ward/apprentice, Kailor, was wanted for poaching the count’s animals.  Once untied, Moravia pulled out a wanted poster for “Kailor the Elf”, wanted alive by Count Constantin for poaching in the Count’s Preserve [a hilly area west of Mouzaki that used to be Baron Yorgos’ Preserve].  The bounty being offered was 20 gold pieces.  Moravia explained that Kailor would go off with some old guys and come back with food to cook.  Sheriff Raptis came around asking for Kailor and Morvia told him she did not know where he was.

Sorvia introduced Anomin to Morvia.  Anomin changed from cougar form to human and asked Morvia when she last saw Kailor.  That was 6 days ago.  After the sheriff came by and the posters went up, Moravia headed south to find Sorvia, which is how she got here.

By this time Islo was awake and had heard most of the story.  He had an idea who the “old guys” were and where they might be holed up.  There is a place in the northern end of the Tsepi Forest that abuts the hills of the preserve where the retired rangers tended to hang out.  Islo would lead the group there to see if Kailor was hiding out.

Day

Once everyone was awake, rested, and had eaten breakfast, the group resumed walking back towards Mouzaki.  The day was otherwise uneventful and as the sun was setting they made camp in the Onomastike Hills [the border between the Barony of Nomi Pediades and the Barony of Mouzaki].

May 14, 56 I.C.

The group made it another 10 miles before rain rolled in from the east.  Islo and Sorvia searched the area for a place to shelter and Islo located a small abandoned fort.  The fort had a single tower with a dry ground floor large enough for the entire group to take shelter in.  Tharduk and Anomin looked around the fort and determined it had been abandoned for a long time.  Anomin flew up to the top of the tower.  The tower would have a great view of the forested valley if it hadn’t been raining.  She can occasionally just see the areas being logged in the forest to the north, but not the logging camp itself.

The rain lasted through the afternoon until it petered out in the early evening.  The adventurers set watches and during the second watch Tharduk and Kadruth heard something hunt and kill some prey down in the forested valley, but it never came close to the old fort.

May 15, 56 I.C.

The party continued marching to the northwest, exiting the Onomastike Hills and entering the branch of the Tsepi Forest outside the Ladon River valley.  Islo led the group through the forest to the area the retired rangers used.  He didn’t know exactly where they were, so Sorvia used her tracking skills to locate a well concealed campsite.  Islo used a birdcall not native to the area to announce the group and was immediately answered by someone on watch.  Islo presented himself and the older human on watch greeted him with, “Hey Ears!  Come on in.”

The inside of the camp was neat and held several older humans who all knew Islo and called him Ears.  Islo explained why he and the group are there and Kailor was sent for.  After a couple minutes Kailor showed up [he is a “young” elf, about 50 years old but looks slightly younger than Morvia, who is an 8-year-old human].  Kailor admitted to working with the retired rangers to hunt for food to share with people in the refugee camp around Mouzaki.  During their last hunt Woodfoot’s foot came off while the Count’s men were chasing them and Kailor had to cover for Woodfoot.  Woodfoot [a retired ranger who lost a foot back in the day] vouched for Kailor, stating the Count’s men would have captured him if Kailor had not helped.  Sorvia asked how much hunting the old rangers had been up to and they admitted to taking 5 deer in the past month.  The Count seemed sore about that, using his ability to put lavish meals on his table as part of his show of wealth.  Due to scarcities, those deer would fetch 2 gold each if sold.

Options were discussed on how to get the warrant rescinded.  It turned out some of the blank forms Tharduk took from the secret rooms in the Nicabar house included pardons, but they would need the Count’s seal.  Anomin pulled out the shiny thing she had taken from the desk in the other room just after Viktor Nicabar had been killed and asked, “Like this?”  Tharduk looked it over and it was a replica of the County’s Seal.  Tharduk handed it back and said, “That would do it, but maybe it’s not the best idea in the Count’s own city.”

The retired rangers offered to catch replacement deer from the forest if the adventurers could negotiate a deal with the Count.  That sounds promising and the adventurers decide that negotiation is the best path.

The adventurers spend the rest of the day at the camp.  Islo shared stories of the creatures they group had fought and killed, omitting the troubles inside Nomi entirely.  Tharduk kept asking about how the campsite was set up, what the watches were, and so on, earning him the nickname “Ballbuster” among the retired rangers.  Sorvia spent part of the day completing her map of the Mikro Dasos.

May 16, 56 I.C.

Sorvia left her spare rations with Morvia and Kailor at the ranger camp with strict instructions for them to stay at the camp until she sent for them.

The adventures left the forest and headed to Mouzaki, about 7 miles away.  Once there they split into two teams.  Sorvia, Kadruth, and Islo were on one team to go and make a report to Sheriff Raptis and get paid for that job before asking about the warrant for Kailor.  Anomin, Inserrant, and Tharduk made up the other team and they were to go to the Post Office to deliver the return mail from Nomi and get paid for the delivery contract.

On the way to the Post Office, Anomin made a side stop at the Job Board to see if any new jobs were available.  She saw that the bounty for the Green Hand had increased to 2 gold per bandit and 200 gold for the leader.  The pay for caravan guards traveling west to Grizano and the western parts of the County had gone up due to the Green Hand bandits being successful.  There was an announcement from the Count that new settlements must be approved before being settled and there was Kailor’s bounty.

The Post Office group went straight there.  Inside they went over to the Bounty Desk on the left, ignoring the long line at the main desk.  They noticed people looking at them and whispering, eventually working out it is because they had the mail crate.  The clerk at the desk accepted the crate and had Tharduk sign the delivery form to accept payment [so the Post Office can prove they paid on the contract and to whom].  The clerk left and came back with a small pouch containing 9 gold coins.  He then asked if the adventurers were interested in taking another contract, either back to Nomi or over to Grizano.  Tharduk asked if he needed an answer immediately and the clerk said it could wait a week.  Tharduk thanked him and said he needed to ask the rest of the group first.  The trio of adventures then left the Post Office.

Once outside, Tharduk said he wanted to find a buyer for the cyclops wool, bearskin, and wendigo claws.  Anomin and Inserrant agreed to go with the dwarf.  Being a professional merchant, Tharduk was able to locate a buyer for the bearskin and the six wendigo claws he had, making 3 gold and 5 silver in total.  Tharduk wanted to get the best price for the wool, so it took longer to find a buyer.

Meanwhile, Sorvia, Kadruth, and Islo went to the sheriff’s office. Sergeant Greenpike was sitting at the front desk and greeted the adventurers with, “Hey!  I think I have wanted posters for you.”  She then winked and said, “Don’t worry about it - they were marked as cleared a couple days ago.”  [Fantasy cop humor.]  The adventurers explained they completed the scouting mission to the Mikro Dasos and would like to see the sheriff.  Sorvia then put one of the Nemean Lion claws on the sergeant’s desk as proof.  Sergeant Greenpike sent a messenger to let Sheriff Raptis know they were there.

Once escorted into Sheriff Raptis’ office, Kadruth handed the sheriff one of the bottles of mead he had purchased on the way out of Nomi, which perked the sheriff up.  The adventurers then handed over their written report and map of the Mikro Dasos [this is a copy, Sorvia kept the original].  They also handed over a sodden bag full of various animal parts from the monsters they killed as part of the job, including the head of the bear and the head of the Nemean Lion.  The sheriff was both impressed and disgusted with the smell.  He quickly summoned someone to take the bag for cleaning.  Once the bag was gone he had another person take a marker to the bursar and retrieve the reward money.

While they waited for the reward money, Sheriff Raptis asked questions about what they had seen in the forest.  He also shared information, explaining that the Green Hand bandits were getting very successful, having robbed 3 of the last 4 caravans from Mouzaki following the Trade Road west.  He also mentioned that now refugees were trying to establish towns of their own on lands belonging to others.  The Count felt this was to avoid taxes and had to establish laws on creating settlements.

The runner returned with the 10 gold for the report and 30 gold for the map.  Sheriff Raptis told the adventurers that they’d need to come back tomorrow for the monster clearing bonus.  Sorvia took this as a good time to ask about the situation with Kailor.  The sheriff looked a bit uncomfortable about the topic and stated that the bounty was set by the Count who was angry about the poaching.  Sorvia asked it was possible to negotiate a pardon and Sheriff Raptis agreed to inquire.  He would have some form of answer when they returned tomorrow.

Sorvia, Kadruth, and Islo then left the sheriff’s office.  Not having a plan for what to do next, they went over to the police bar to drink and discuss.  While there they work out about half the patrons think they are still wanted for something, but the barkeep was not among them.  Even so, after a while they left and headed to the group’s favored drinking place in the refugee camp outside the town.

Roughly at this time Tharduk found a buyer for the cyclops wool.  He got a price of 70 copper per clove, for a total of 420 copper.  [A fair price.]  This group then left the town proper and headed over to their favorite drinking establishment in the refugee camp.  There they met back up with the rest of the group.  Tharduk started telling the tale of the group’s adventures to the other patrons and did a good job at it [made his Oratory roll by 4].  As a result, the group received several free drinks each.  [Note: this is at a refugee bar, so maybe not the highest quality drinks, but earnestly sent.]

End of session

Commentary

[So I’ve started working on the outline for my second novel.  This is consuming most of my writing time right now and will for most of this year.  I’d like to get the first draft done while my dad is around to read it.  I don’t know how long I have, so there is some urgency on my part.  I will continue to post session notes to this blog, but I can’t promise what schedule I’ll be able to keep to.  We will see how it goes.]

Sudden Sea Adventures

Sudden Sea Landing Page - Links to all the write-ups for this campaign 

Last session: Session 14

 

Next session: Session 16

The Sudden Sea – Session 14

[May 11 and 12 – Anomin finds the goods]

[This game uses the Hero System Fifth Revised Edition (FREd) roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened December 11, 2023.]

[This adventure takes place on the continent of Terik, two years after the appearance of the Sudden Sea.  The PCs are refugees seeking a better life through adventuring.]

 

Player Characters

Sorvia of Stavros – female human ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Tharduk Lavabreath – male dwarf glassmaker from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom, had a glass shop in County Modon that is now underwater, literally

Kadruth Worldbender – male dwarf priest, serving He Who Protects, from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom

Anomin – female human shapeshifter, from lots of places, most recently County Modon

Islo Redgrass – male elf ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Via Roll20

Inserrant – female human musician, player of zills (finger cymbals) and singer

 

Spring

May 11, 56 I.C.

Evening

While Sorvia, Tharduk, Kadruth, and Islo were at the Crossed Arrows, watching Inserrant perform on the stage, Anomin continued her exploration of the Nicabar house and the secret passage she had found in it.

Anomin, in crow form, found herself in a small dark room and thought she was in a closet.  Listening, she heard someone walking on the other side of a wall.  Unable to see anything, Anomin returned to her human form and then switched into her cougar form, which could see in the dark.

What Anomin had thought a closet was actually a small furnished room with no windows and a trapdoor as the only exit other than the secret door she had entered through.  Anomin took some time to quietly search the room.  On one side was a cupboard with two barrels beside it.  On the other was a set of bunkbeds with a chest at their foot and a side table with a lantern and some gnomish matches.  Anomin checked the barrels and found one was water and the other wine.  The cupboard contained drygoods and iron rations.  The chest held 4 sets of clothes: a set of male peasant garb, a male city guard uniform, a set of female peasant garb, and a female city guard uniform.  Under a false bottom in the chest Anomin found a small coffer and a bag of coins.

Anomin turned back human again and pocketed the coffer and the bag of coins [with some minor fumbling due to the darkness].  Anomin then returned to cougar form and started investigating the trapdoor.  She was able to open it and found a shaft descending deeper than the first floor with hand grips on the side.  Anomin sighed.

Anomin turned back into a human again and searched the table for the lantern and matches.  She found them with little trouble and lit the lantern while pocketing the rest of the matches.  She then turned into a crow, picked up the lit lantern, and flew down the shaft in a corkscrew path.  The walls looked sound-proofed.

Arriving at the bottom of the shaft, Anomin discovered it connected to a small passage.  She followed the passage a ways until it ended at a different shaft going up.  She climbed up the passage to another trapdoor with a hook on the wall adjacent to the built-in ladder.

With some slight difficulty, Anomin hung the lantern on the hook and landed on the top rung, where she listened for a couple of minutes.  Hearing nothing, Anomin carefully switched back to human form and cracked open the trapdoor.  The trapdoor opened in a small area surrounded by stacks of crates.  She climbed out of the shaft and looked around and up.  She appeared to be in a warehouse, probably outside the town walls.

Anomin pulled up the lantern from the hook in the shaft and set it aside.  She quietly closed the trapdoor and snuffed out the lantern before turning back into a cougar.  She picked up the lantern’s handle in her mouth and started looking for an exit.

Anomin quickly found an open door with two guards standing next to it.  She bolted past the guards and one called for her to come back before the other asked, “Do you really want that to come back?”

Once out of their line of sight, Anomin paused and looked around.  She was in the small warehouse and brewing district to the north of Nomi, near the apple fields, bee hives, and fields of flowers.  She turned human again and then switched to crow form so she could fly back to the Crossed Arrows, taking the lantern with her.

Several minutes later she landed in an alley near the Crossed Arrows and returned to her human form.  She then returned to the Crossed Arrows and found the other adventurers inside.  She quickly explained what she had found.  She and Sorvia left the group at the table to go upstairs to their rented room.

Once in the room, Anomin pulled out the two bags and the coffer.  Looking at the coffer first, it was locked with a high quality lock.  Anomin went back downstairs to get Tharduk so he could open the lock.  Tharduk pulled out some tools and set about disassembling the lock, taking time to do so.  It resisted him for an hour before he gave up.  [He took an hour of extra time for the +3 bonus but still failed the roll.]

The trio switched to examining the bag from the chest.  Inside it were four pouches, each marked with a different crest.  Of the four, the only one Anomin recognized was the one with the County Modon crest [the principality she lived in].  Inside it was a mix of gold and silver coins totaling 50 gold coins, the majority in gold.

They opened another bag and it had the same amount of coins, but these were stamped with the portrait of the Emperor of Crendia, Orion I.  A third bag contained coins Tharduk recognized as minted in the Free City of Freegate, a major trade city far to the northwest and not part of the Empire.  The last bag contained coins from the Kingdom of Silverloc, once part of the Empire but now independent, mostly.  Anomin then opened the bag from under the bed.  It contained 15 orbs of raw gold that Tharduk estimated were worth 10 gold coins each.

Now very curious about what was in the coffer, Tharduk returned to it and worked hard to unlock it.  This time he was successful!  Inside were trade bars, larger units of money that the Merchant Guild used to settle debts between chapters or to move large amounts of wealth.  The coffer contained 10 bars worth 100 gold coins each and 20 worth 50 gold coins each.  Tharduk started hyperventilating slightly.  This was not only a large amount of money, but in very suspicious forms for a merchant to have stashed away.  Anomin was of the opinion that they should give the gold orbs to The Sheriff with an explanation of where they were found.

By this point, Inserrant had finished her performance.  She collected tips worth 13 gold.  She and the rest of the group headed up to the rented room where Anomin, Sorvia, and Tharduk explained what Anomin had returned with.  The group discussed what to do with the money.  The Imperial coins would be suspicious to spend anywhere in the Syrak Alliance [the other break-away part of the Empire, of which County Modon was a part of] as people might think the adventurers were spies in Imperial employ.  The group decided they would need to exchange the coins for local coins when they could.  All agreed that the gold orbs were too dangerous to hold onto having likely come from the illegal mine.

The following discussion was about who would take the gold orbs to The Sheriff.  Anomin suggested that The Sheriff really liked her, but they would need to wait until after he had his coffee in the morning.  She understood it was really important The Sheriff get his coffee, even if she didn’t understand why.  The group decided that the two dwarves, Tharduk and Kadruth, would take the orbs over to The Sheriff in the morning with Anomin following.

May 12, 56 I.C.

Over breakfast, the group of adventurers agreed to meet at the tannery outside town if things go bad for any reason.  After they finished eating, Kadruth and Tharduk left for the sheriff’s office with Anomin unobtrusively following them as a crow.

At the sheriff’s office, Kadruth and Tharduk walked in through the front door and one of the deputies waved at them in greeting.  Kadruth stated they needed to speak with The Sheriff and the deputy pointed out The Sheriff at an adjacent desk going over some papers and taking notes.  When Kadruth and Tharduk walked over to him, The Sheriff greeted them with, “What interesting things do you have for me today?”

Tharduk started by asking if there was a more private place they could speak.  The Sheriff wasn’t having any of it and responded, “This is my office. We are surrounded by my deputies: what do you think would happen?"  Anomin’s response was, “A misunderstanding.”

Tharduk started explaining what Anomin did the previous night.  The Sheriff interrupted with, “Wait. You’re admitting to what now?”  In reply, Kadruth thunked the bag of gold orbs onto the Sheriff’s desk.  Intrigued, the Sheriff opened the bag and looked inside.  "I understand your trepidation," he said, closing the bag.  He quietly listened to Tharduk tell [mostly] the whole story.

"Are you leaving town anytime soon?" The Sheriff asked.  Tharduk stated the group was leaving immediately after lunch.  "So I have to wait till after lunch before taking these to the baron," The Sheriff replied.  “You should definitely be out of town when I do that.”  The dwarves agreed and they and Anomin left the Sheriff.

Tharduk, Kadruth, and Anomin went back to the Crossed Arrows and relayed the conversation to Sorvia, Islo, and Inserrant.  Inserrant stated she wanted to go confront the ne’er-do-wells at the Courageous Plate about nearly kidnapping the two dwarves when the group first arrived in Nomi two weeks ago.  Tharduk and Kadruth were good with this but Kadruth suggested they do so on the way out of town.  Everyone agreed.

The group of adventurers settled their accounts with Hira and left the Crossed Arrows.  They walked across Nomi to the Courageous Plate.  They received several friendly waves along the way over from townsfolk that recognized them for helping put out the fire at the Michelakis house.

Arriving at the Courageous Plate, they found a handful of people sitting at tables out on the veranda.  Inserrant asked the dwarves if any of these people were part of the near attack.  Tharduk and Kadruth looked the people over and saw no one they recognized.  Kadruth answered, “Nope.”

When the adventurers entered the Courageous Plate, the entire bar went quiet.  Clearly there were people in here who recognized the adventurers.  Kadruth walked right up to the table Theodore Damaskis had once guided he and Tharduk to and sat down at it.  The rest of the adventurers followed and sat down.  Tharduk and Kadruth looked around and recognized several faces in the crowd.  The bartender was also looking very pale.

Eventually a server came over to the table and asks if he could help the group.  The adventurers ordered drinks and then quietly drank them in the silent bar.  The adventurers then paid for their drinks and Kadruth bought 3 bottles of mead for the trip.  The adventurers then strode out, daring anyone to say anything.  No one was brave enough to do so, looking into their drinks and otherwise avoiding any eye contact.

The adventurers left Nomi through the Brewer’s Gate and headed northwest to the Ygro Dasos forest and the Onomastike Hills.

That Night

The group was several miles into the forest and at the edge of the hills when they made camp.  During third watch, Sorvia heard the rustling of people approaching the campsite...

End of session

Commentary

[So we did not play for a month between the last session and this one for a mix of reasons, most revolving around the Thanksgiving holiday at the end of November.  My wife and I did an Orphan’s Thanksgiving where we invite friends in the area that can't have Thanksgiving with their families for various reasons to have Thanksgiving with us.  The week before we had to do shopping for food and a deep cleaning of the house.  The day itself was a huge pile of food and friends and some boardgames but mostly conversations with friends.  Afterwards, my wife and I were exhausted so the following week we did boardgames instead of me running the Sudden Sea.  I forget why we skipped the week after that, but we did eventually resume plate for this season.]

[I may have given the PCs too much money during this session.  Part of it was balanced by the fact that some of it would be dangerous to spend as it might draw unwanted attention.  On the other hand, in the past I’ve been stingy with handing out treasure and I’m trying to avoid doing that again.  That said, this isn’t D&D, so there will not be thousands and thousands of coins.  The local economy is copper-based so the treasure they have represents a lot of buying power, but where are they going to spend it?  Plus, several have dependents they need to take care of.]

Sudden Sea Adventures

Sudden Sea Landing Page - Links to all the write-ups for this campaign

Last session: Session 13

 

Next session: Session 15