With everyone's schedule what it is one of our players wasn't able to come to the first session, 3 of the players would be missing the next one and neither he nor I would be able to go to the game on the 25th because of respective work. So the GM floated an in between episode. I would play a side mission with the Bard to get him introduced to the story, then the next week the Cleric, Paladin and Mage would run a concurrent side mission, reconvening after Easter where we will hopefully all be together for the first time. Unfortunately the Bards player hadn't really gotten much done character wise so of the 4 hours we had available only 2 of it was actual game time. C'est la vie.
Session 1.5
A travelling Gnome begins to enter Sandpoint from the south when he hears something from under the bridge. Looking down it is a young woman who says she was fleeing with some children when they were set upon by goblins, she was knocked over and hasn't been able to climb up yet and needs his help. The gnome (who at this point I still do not know if he has a name yet, and I took to calling Tiny Nuggets) mentions that he is not the guy she wants for hauling things but will try anyway. Grunting with effort Tiny Nuggets does succeed in pulling her out. She introduces herself to Tiny (I have completely forgotten her name, but I do remember she was a red head and the picture was a little bit slutty). She has Tiny take her to the local clergyman who looks over to Kumak and requests they find the children the goblins made off with. Tiny takes one look at Kumak and makes some cutting remarks about his size. Kumak hands his backpack and bag to the priest grabs Tiny and throwing the gnome over his shoulders takes off at a run.
Following the tracks the two come upon a full Orc standing over the bodies of 3 goblins and a crying child. The Orc introduces himself as Gris and calls for a challenge. As a fellow follower of Kurgess Kumak agrees. If Kumak and Tiny win then the Orc will tell them where the rest of the goblins went with the other children and Gris will return the one child here unharmed to Sandpoint. Gris does not mention what happens should they lose. Preparing himself for a test of strength Kumak is surprised to see Gris has chosen what is essentially a puzzle box/cryptex hybrid. Tiny manages to solve it in fewer moves than Gris. Gris nodding picks up the kid and begins walking towards Sandpoint. Tiny is unsure if they can trust Gris, but Kumak assures him that Gris would abide by the deal.
Continuing in the direction Gris pointed the 2 find a large pool of blood, a discarded child's toy and what appears to be the entrance to a burrow. Tiny begins talking about how they should proceed when Kumak grabs him and shoves him in the warren first his half-orc form squeezing behind. Finding what appears to be a refuse pit Tiny refuses to enter so Kumak does, finally able to stand up again. A giant centipede drops from the ceiling and tries to take a bite but finding only the rough crocodile hide of his shirt. Kumak shakes the centipede off and with one back swing of his hammer crushes the insect. Finding only the remains of a strange book mostly buried in an alcove they descend further into the warren hearing chanting that Tiny identifies as the goblin language. Without darkvision Tiny is relying on Kumaks guidance and when they come upon 3 goblins gleefully tormenting a terrified child Tiny forgoes the element of surprise to insult the goblins. The fight is difficult, without light Tiny is relying on on his hearing and after several misses elects to illuminate the room. Kumaks first strike crushes a goblin but spends the next few swings missing while the much smaller goblins begin taking the large half orc down with many small cuts. Finally Kumak scores a hit against another goblin, and quickly finishes the last. The small girl tells the 2 that there was a fight at the entrance, one of the goblins took a bite out of the other boy and the boy ran, chased by some of the goblins. Kumak escorts Tiny and the girl outside and away from the blood, conducts a final search of the goblin warren then using his Earthbreaker collapses the tunnels from the surface.
Tiny distracts the girl, making her laugh to keep her occupied. Following the trail Kumak finds an escarpment where 60 feet below he spies the body of the boy and 3 goblins among the rocks not moving. Without his pack for a rope and as injured as he is Kumak decides to return for the body after he takes the 2 small ones back to town. Hefting one up on each shoulder he begins the long walk back to Sandpoint.
Thoughts: With another 2 hour session, not what I was hoping for, but understanding this is another outlier. The interaction with Kumak and Tiny was, almost hostile I suppose. The Bard kept throwing out insults and demeaning terms, which with an Int of 7 I imagine Kumak is still picking up on. That being said the fault I rolled for him was Loyalty (So long as I don't feel betrayed I will be loyal to a fault) so I took it to be Kumak seeing Tiny engaged in combat despite being completely outclassed, yet staying with him would be enough to earn some respect and if he feels Tiny needs some correction he can certainly make his opinion known.
Split the Party
The other side: I only have the GM's synopsis but it went something like this;
Villister, Susan and Tiberius hear about the children being abducted and a local bar owner and former adventurer Ameko mentions that she knows about some goblin caves by the sea. Leaving Sandpoint they spy a large Orc entering the village with a scared and confused looking child under his arm but shrug and continue. Finding the goblin caves Ameko stays at the entrance to keep any goblins from surrounding the party should there be a trap. Encountering a few traps on their way in they find a large room where an elderly female goblin squawks something that only Susan understands as "run children" before charging the heroes. With that a swarm of even smaller goblins begin coming out of every turn. Tiberius swings with wild abandon while Villister brings his heavy mace down on the adult goblin. Susan finds the work unpleasant so guards the entrance but an escaping goblinoid forces her to act and soon the cave is cleared. Searching further they come upon the bodies of 3 goblins on the rocks and one human boy. There is a large crab that is about to make its meal out of the bodies and with one of the heroes spying the barest breath from the boy they leap into action. Using a wand of Glue Seal she found in the caves Susan glues both the crabs claws shut. Tiberius now only in danger of aggressive poking from the crab makes short work of it. Villister tends to the boys injuries and brings him back from the brink. Searching the fallen goblin bodies they rejoin Ameko and return to Sandpoint.
Tuesday 27 March 2018
New Beginnings - Rise of the Runelords campaign session 1
Long hiatus there, but what can you do?
Our RPG group found ourselves deciding what to pursue next as Starfinder did not really hit the mark and we settled on Rise of the Runelords. Paizo's first official Adventure Path, and from what I hear one of the better ones.
We decided to go a bit old school with our rolls to see what we got. 4D6 drop the lowest. No moving your rolls around. 1st is Strength, 2nd Dex, etc and ended up with an interesting assortment. I ended up with (before modifiers);
Str: 17
Dex: 12
Con: 17
Int: 7
Wis: 10
Cha: 14
So I figured that looked like a typical hulking barbarian to me. The charisma of 14 got me thinking however and instead of going pure barbarian I went into Bloodrager, which is a hybrid of barbarian and sorcerer. Since in our Pirate game our current GM had done a Dwarf Barbarian with an Earthbreaker, and I had decided to run Earthbreaker I went for Half-Orc instead and pumped up the Str by 2.
Doing up a quick backstory rolling in Ultimate Campaign I ended with;
Kumak Half Orc Bloodrager
Human mother who has never talked about his orc heritage, as far back as he can remember she was already remarried to a human farmer who had 3 sons and 1 daughter from his late wife. No issues in the family, the husband loved them all like they were his own and no issues with brothers and sister. Local lord (Jarrus) is fighting a campaign against nearby Shoanti tribe,raising taxes both food and money on the farmers to pay his army and when his youngest son Endrev comes of age the son decides to join the war. Conscription comes by and Kumak being of massive build even as a teen volunteers to keep his family safe. In their first foray the young lords regiment is supposed to guard a pass to prevent fleeing barbarians from escaping, but seeing a chance for personal glory he orders his regiment to attack. The Shoanti seeing a now unguarded means of escape begin surging en mass. The entire exchange lasts maybe 30 minutes but is a bloody one. Kumak for the first time feels his Orcish heritage rise up and in a rage slaughters dozens of Shoanti. The regiment that once numbered about 150 strong has maybe 20 that will live the night. Kumak while surveying the dead hears whimpers and finds the lord hiding beneath bodies of the slain, not a scratch on him. As the lords father is riding up, Kumak makes the deal that he will tell no one how he found the lord cowering beneath the dead if the lord agrees to have the farmers tax lowered to its pre-war rate, even if it means he pay the difference himself. With moments before his father arriving the young lord agrees, while his father surveying the landscape knows the truth of what happened there, the official reports reflect well upon Endrev's conduct. Jarrus declares that he needs his son close, so the remainder of Endrevs short lived regiment is disbanded. Kumak returns home and remains for a few months, to be sure that the taxes collected have been lowered. Wanting to explore this raw power and aggression he can feel Kumak leaves home, to find work where he may. Which brings him to Sandpoint, on the day of the Goblin attack;
Session 1:
Arriving in the town of Sandpoint it is arrayed for a festival to dedicate its new church. Games, prizes and food are all on display. After some delaying speeches the fun is finally begun. Kumak looks around and spots a well armored human whose size seems to rival his own. Sizing each other up, they each hear that the hammer game has opened up and decide to let their muscles do the talking. Each are given a heavy nail about a foot long and a heavy one handed hammer. Their first swing sees Kumaks nail driven halfway in with a solid blow while the humans makes a respectable third of the way in. The second blow Kumak only manages a glance but still sees his nail almost driven to the end, however the human lands a solid blow and is only inches behind. Not wanting to be shown up Kumak lets out a bellowing roar and feels his muscles swell, the nail is driven clean through the heavy wooden board and the board itself is shattered. Panting Kumak looks to the human who arches an eye brow then nods. Kumak laughs and holds out his hand, taking it they introduce themselves, his name is Tiberius, and he wants to know if Kumak would join him for the ale drinking contest.
Villister an elderly clergyman from Sandpoint enters a trivia contest where he places well but is outshone by a young female newcomer named Susan, who not only answers the questions but unprompted provides ancillary information not related to the questions. Susan is declared the winner and Villister suggests they find another activity to let some others win at trivia for a while.
Kumak and Tiberius sit down to the ale drinking contest. There is a progression of drinks beginning with a lighter lager and working its way to a rich dark ale. Kumak makes into an early lead easily downing the drinks. Tiberius forces too much drink down at once and finds it coming back up, covering himself and splattering on Kumak. Kumak reaches the penultimate drink when he hiccups while drinking and causes himself to lose his breakfast. Tiberius continues towards victory but Kumak concedes, Tiberius eyes the pie eating contest but Kumak declines opting to wash himself in a nearby horse trough.
Villister and Susan partake in a game of hide and seek in a nearby barn. Susan finds a well hidden position in the rafters while Villister finds a cozy well shaded position in some hay. Down to the wire Susan sees she is about to be caught but spots what she feels is the only other contestant and using her Mage Hand makes a noise by them causing them to be caught first. After confirming the count again the officiant declares there must have been a miscount and as Susan was the last found she is the winner. Looking around Susan does not see Villister and after searching the barn finally discovers the old man having fallen asleep in his hiding spot.
More officials begin giving speeches when all 4 notice something small dart under a table and a flash of metal as something is about to kill a dog, its a goblin. Kumak enters a rage and charges at the goblin as 4 more appear and pandemonium breaks out. The goblins alternate between attacking, eating food, throwing fish at each other, and setting anything on fire. The four make quick work of the nearby 9 or so goblins. Hearing a commotion from up the street they run to investigate. Seeing a goblin riding a mangy dog threatening a local dog protecting a cowering man Kumak charges and with his last reservoir of rage caves in the head of the goblin with one swing. Tiberius accounts for another goblin, Susan and Villister together dispatch one, and a final goblin making a hasty retreat is taken down by the no longer cowering man.
End Session
Thoughts: The session went well, Tiberius and Susan's players were new meets so it was held at a local store as our host would prefer to meet someone before bringing them to his place. Both players (a boyfriend/girlfriend team) seemed to enjoy it and were very pleasant. The session was only about 1.5-2 hours long, not great considering I find our usual 4 hour sessions lean enough as it is but there it is. As they are new to this we elected to not use battlemat/minis and did combat as a much more free form thing.
Our RPG group found ourselves deciding what to pursue next as Starfinder did not really hit the mark and we settled on Rise of the Runelords. Paizo's first official Adventure Path, and from what I hear one of the better ones.
We decided to go a bit old school with our rolls to see what we got. 4D6 drop the lowest. No moving your rolls around. 1st is Strength, 2nd Dex, etc and ended up with an interesting assortment. I ended up with (before modifiers);
Str: 17
Dex: 12
Con: 17
Int: 7
Wis: 10
Cha: 14
So I figured that looked like a typical hulking barbarian to me. The charisma of 14 got me thinking however and instead of going pure barbarian I went into Bloodrager, which is a hybrid of barbarian and sorcerer. Since in our Pirate game our current GM had done a Dwarf Barbarian with an Earthbreaker, and I had decided to run Earthbreaker I went for Half-Orc instead and pumped up the Str by 2.
Doing up a quick backstory rolling in Ultimate Campaign I ended with;
Kumak Half Orc Bloodrager
Human mother who has never talked about his orc heritage, as far back as he can remember she was already remarried to a human farmer who had 3 sons and 1 daughter from his late wife. No issues in the family, the husband loved them all like they were his own and no issues with brothers and sister. Local lord (Jarrus) is fighting a campaign against nearby Shoanti tribe,raising taxes both food and money on the farmers to pay his army and when his youngest son Endrev comes of age the son decides to join the war. Conscription comes by and Kumak being of massive build even as a teen volunteers to keep his family safe. In their first foray the young lords regiment is supposed to guard a pass to prevent fleeing barbarians from escaping, but seeing a chance for personal glory he orders his regiment to attack. The Shoanti seeing a now unguarded means of escape begin surging en mass. The entire exchange lasts maybe 30 minutes but is a bloody one. Kumak for the first time feels his Orcish heritage rise up and in a rage slaughters dozens of Shoanti. The regiment that once numbered about 150 strong has maybe 20 that will live the night. Kumak while surveying the dead hears whimpers and finds the lord hiding beneath bodies of the slain, not a scratch on him. As the lords father is riding up, Kumak makes the deal that he will tell no one how he found the lord cowering beneath the dead if the lord agrees to have the farmers tax lowered to its pre-war rate, even if it means he pay the difference himself. With moments before his father arriving the young lord agrees, while his father surveying the landscape knows the truth of what happened there, the official reports reflect well upon Endrev's conduct. Jarrus declares that he needs his son close, so the remainder of Endrevs short lived regiment is disbanded. Kumak returns home and remains for a few months, to be sure that the taxes collected have been lowered. Wanting to explore this raw power and aggression he can feel Kumak leaves home, to find work where he may. Which brings him to Sandpoint, on the day of the Goblin attack;
Session 1:
Arriving in the town of Sandpoint it is arrayed for a festival to dedicate its new church. Games, prizes and food are all on display. After some delaying speeches the fun is finally begun. Kumak looks around and spots a well armored human whose size seems to rival his own. Sizing each other up, they each hear that the hammer game has opened up and decide to let their muscles do the talking. Each are given a heavy nail about a foot long and a heavy one handed hammer. Their first swing sees Kumaks nail driven halfway in with a solid blow while the humans makes a respectable third of the way in. The second blow Kumak only manages a glance but still sees his nail almost driven to the end, however the human lands a solid blow and is only inches behind. Not wanting to be shown up Kumak lets out a bellowing roar and feels his muscles swell, the nail is driven clean through the heavy wooden board and the board itself is shattered. Panting Kumak looks to the human who arches an eye brow then nods. Kumak laughs and holds out his hand, taking it they introduce themselves, his name is Tiberius, and he wants to know if Kumak would join him for the ale drinking contest.
Villister an elderly clergyman from Sandpoint enters a trivia contest where he places well but is outshone by a young female newcomer named Susan, who not only answers the questions but unprompted provides ancillary information not related to the questions. Susan is declared the winner and Villister suggests they find another activity to let some others win at trivia for a while.
Kumak and Tiberius sit down to the ale drinking contest. There is a progression of drinks beginning with a lighter lager and working its way to a rich dark ale. Kumak makes into an early lead easily downing the drinks. Tiberius forces too much drink down at once and finds it coming back up, covering himself and splattering on Kumak. Kumak reaches the penultimate drink when he hiccups while drinking and causes himself to lose his breakfast. Tiberius continues towards victory but Kumak concedes, Tiberius eyes the pie eating contest but Kumak declines opting to wash himself in a nearby horse trough.
Villister and Susan partake in a game of hide and seek in a nearby barn. Susan finds a well hidden position in the rafters while Villister finds a cozy well shaded position in some hay. Down to the wire Susan sees she is about to be caught but spots what she feels is the only other contestant and using her Mage Hand makes a noise by them causing them to be caught first. After confirming the count again the officiant declares there must have been a miscount and as Susan was the last found she is the winner. Looking around Susan does not see Villister and after searching the barn finally discovers the old man having fallen asleep in his hiding spot.
More officials begin giving speeches when all 4 notice something small dart under a table and a flash of metal as something is about to kill a dog, its a goblin. Kumak enters a rage and charges at the goblin as 4 more appear and pandemonium breaks out. The goblins alternate between attacking, eating food, throwing fish at each other, and setting anything on fire. The four make quick work of the nearby 9 or so goblins. Hearing a commotion from up the street they run to investigate. Seeing a goblin riding a mangy dog threatening a local dog protecting a cowering man Kumak charges and with his last reservoir of rage caves in the head of the goblin with one swing. Tiberius accounts for another goblin, Susan and Villister together dispatch one, and a final goblin making a hasty retreat is taken down by the no longer cowering man.
End Session
Thoughts: The session went well, Tiberius and Susan's players were new meets so it was held at a local store as our host would prefer to meet someone before bringing them to his place. Both players (a boyfriend/girlfriend team) seemed to enjoy it and were very pleasant. The session was only about 1.5-2 hours long, not great considering I find our usual 4 hour sessions lean enough as it is but there it is. As they are new to this we elected to not use battlemat/minis and did combat as a much more free form thing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)