[Actual Play] Cruth Lowlands Campaign: Session 10 - "Just forget about the 300 gold pieces..." (With bonus wrestling rules and Bullywug class)

Previous session reports for my BECMI campaign can be found here.

PCs present:

• Jason, playing Naghmeh, a 3rd level magic user
• Patrice, playing Dragosta, a 3rd level fighter
• Luke, playing Andy, a 3rd level fighter

Hirelings and henchmen: Philemon (2nd level cleric of Zeus), Naomi (4th level elf), Yokomosok (1st level bullywug), Zoe (hireling)

The PCs began back in Riverfork, having fairly elaborate "She swallowed the spider to catch the fly..." plans. Their initial goal was to go to the village of Myrsina to take part in the wrestling tournament they had heard about. After that, the plan was to go to the halfling village of Mallowfern to get silver weapons from a trio of dwarf triplets, in order to slay the wear-boar leaders of a band of smugglers in a nearby river fortress, which was on the way to the Black Hawk Barony, which is where Andy and Dragosta want to go to receive Weapons Mastery training. Phew. In the event, basically no progress was made. But we'll get to that. 

They arrived at Myrsina later that day to find the hamlet flooded with visitors - several thousand, all come from miles around to either watch or take part in the wrestling. A mini tent-town had been set up to house all these people, together with food and drink stalls, archery contests, and everything else you might expect from a country fair. Andy and Dragosta both took part in the wrestling. Andy was ignominously disqualified in his first bout for cheating, but Dragosta got all the way to the final before finally being defeated. Here are the wrestling rules I came up with:

Quick and Dirty Wrestling Rules 

The aim is to beat your opponent's score by greater than double, at which point you win the bout. 

Determine which participant of the two is stronger. He rolls a d12. The weaker rolls a d10. 

In the first round, both participants roll. If one beats the other by greater than double (e.g. 9 against 4), he wins. Otherwise, the bout continues but the party who won the first round gets to roll an additional d6 and add it to his score. If in the second round there isn't a winner, things revert to d12 vs d10 and the process repeats itself.

You can cheat (declare what you are doing - e.g. a headbutt or bite - then roll twice the number of dice) but if you get a double, you are discovered and disqualified outright. 

Example: 

Bob fights William. Bob has a STR of 14 and William 9, so Bob rolls 1d12 and William rolls 1d10. In the first round, Bob gets 9 and William gets 6. Bob wins the round but does not win the bout outright. Next round he rolls 1d12+1d6 against William's 1d10. Bob gets 6+2 = 8. William gets 5. The fight continues, reverting to 1d12 versus 1d10. And so on.

The tournament over, the PCs set about doing what it was really all about - carousing at the party afterwards. Andy spent handsomely, having borrowed 300 gp from Naghmeh for the purposes, and was the toast of the camp; he even successfully managed to flirt his way into the evil elf maiden henchwoman Naomi's affections. But Dragosta was fined for exposing her breasts too often and was forced to pay a fine of 250 gp (which was eventually reduced to 125 gp for her previous good behaviour). The next morning, with the party nursing hangovers, they set off for Mallowfern. 

On the way, Naghmeh announced she wanted to visit the Jann again. She had 1,400 gp left to give him in return for magical knowledge, and she also somehow persuaded Andy to relinquish his Ring of Ice Elemental Control to trade in to the Jann for cash. But the Jann simply gleefully swallowed both the money and the ring (after having announced it was probably worth 8,000 gp), and then offered to teach Naghmeh the Fireball and Web spells in return. Andy was outraged at the destruction of the ring for no apparent gain to himself, but Naghmeh very generously (?) waived the debt of 300 gp he owed her. Apparently feeling generous, the Jann took pity on Andy and told him where he might be able to find magical weapons: an abandoned castle, to the North of Riverfork, known as The Lost Twin. 

The party had heard about The Lost Twin before, but nobody (including the DM) could remember where or why. In any case, they knew that a few centuries ago it had been garrisoned by men loyal to the Grand Duchy of Karameikos, equivalent in power to Riverfork, but it was long abandoned (hence "The Lost Twin"). It was apparently a lair of undead and other evils. Feeling confident (especially with Dragosta's mighty warhammer, which was a bane of undead), the party decided to take a detour to The Lost Twin to see what they might find there. Before leaving, Dragosta asked the Jann if he knew anything about her warhammer; he told her that although it was powerful against undead, it was also critically weak against some other category of foe, although he did not know what type of foe this was.

Saying goodbye to the Jann, the PCs headed back to Riverfork and then made their way to the Lost Twin, which was a journey of a day and a half to the North. It was a large, dark-stoned castle, with several different entrances, which they eventually realised (after sending Yokomosok the Bullywug to scout around) was really three or four separate keeps, all clustered together. The party decided, based on instinct, to explore the South Eastern building.

They discovered a large open courtyard, overgrown with ferns and small trees, with a doorway leading to their right. After setting up a trap with a piece of string and some pots and pans to guard their rear, they headed inside. Here they found a room with doorways leading North, West and South, as well as a corridor in the South wall - from which emerged six scrawny, bestial, near-hairless things which had once been men. After Philemon was paralysed in the initial melee, the party quickly realised these were ghouls - and they were in serious trouble. Andy, Dragosta and Yokomosok were successively paralysed; Zoe was killed outright; and in the end it was only Naomi and Naghmeh's desperate efforts with magic and weapons alike which avoided utter calamity. 

Naomi and Naghmeh were now in serious difficulty. They couldn't move all the paralyzed bodies of their comrades, but nor could they stay where they were: they had used all of their spells for the day and Naomi was badly wounded. They ultimately decided to go back to collect their horses, bring them to the courtyard, load up their fallen comrades, and then retreat somewhere to lick their wounds. They knew that one random encounter could spell disaster and, sure enough, while outside the castle getting their horses they were stopped by four bandits on horseback - the world held its breath, but Naomi managed to intimidate them into leaving.

Eventually the party successfully extricated itself from the keep - though not without seeing more ghouls, who they were able to distract by tossing them Zoe's corpse. Some distance away, Naomi and Naghmeh waited for the others to recover, and then the party started plotting. They would go back to the keep well-prepared for ghoul activity, and clear it out. They would use meat to distract the creatures before attacking with holy water and fire and whatever else was necessary. This plan ultimately worked. They rested that night while Naomi and Naghmeh prepared the necessary spells and the others hunted a deer. Then, when dawn broke, they were back at The Lost Twin: they threw a deer leg attached to a rope into the ghouls' lair and then, while the ghouls were devouring the meat, launched some holy water grenades before attacking. In short order, all four remaining ghouls were killed and their lair was free to plunder.

One of the rooms was revealed to be the ghouls' latrine. Disappointingly for the DM none of the PCs succumbed to the evil stench here, but Andy did manage to fish out a gold dwarven belt buckle which clearly one of the ghouls had swallowed at some point and then defecated. In another chamber they found six large clay pots sealed with leather; suspecting a trap Dragosta used a long spear to poke at the seals while the others waited in the next room, and sure enough the seals on the pots turned out to be gas-trapped. Once the gas was dissipated, the party examined the pots and discovered three were full of copper coins and three gold. They decided to load up their cart with the whole lot, thinking that the copper coins might have value as antiques. 

Finally, the party discovered that another of the doors leading off the first chamber was magically sealed, and could not be opened by force. And with that mystery to solve, the session ended.

As a bonus, here are my rules for a BECMI bullywug class. I've had to introduce this since Yokomosok is now adventuring with the party as a henchman.

BECMI Bullywug Class 

Advancement as dwarf
Saving throws as dwarf
Can swim 150'
Can make a leap attack at 3rd level, doing double damage, to a range of 12', but is flat-footed in the next round
Has natural claw attacks doing d3/d3, advancing to d6/d6 at 6th level
Has natural AC 6

[Actual Play] Cruth Lowlands Campaign: Session 9 - On the Usefulness of Perfume for Escaping Vampiric Mists

Previous session reports can be found here. 

PCs present:

• Jason, playing Naghmeh, a 3rd level magic-user
• Patrice, playing Dragosta, a 3rd level fighter

Andy's player, Luke, was unavailable today, so it was just "the girls" in this session - although as was pointed out fairly early on, the PCs are now quite a procession: Dragosta on a warhorse with barding, Naghmeh on a fine riding stallion, a cart pulled by oxen, another pulled by mules, two hirelings (Zoe and Zeno) equipped with fine chain mail and longswords, their cleric retainer Philemon, and the bullywug Yokomosok. This doesn't include Andy and Sir Gerard (who we decided had returned to Riverfork to oversee construction of the new inn.)

The band left the Jann's tent and headed in the direction of the Tower at the Fork, where they were going to investigate the activities of smugglers in the area, and a missing shipment of grain. This led them to the village of Myrsina, a small hamlet where there was a ford over the wide Magos river and what appeared to be some sort of pit. The villagers came out to greet the newcomers and Dragosta and Naghmeh began questioning the headman, Christos, after showing him their letter of marque from Sir Georgios. Christos informed them that there was small garrison at the Tower at the Fork led by a knight called Sir Acamos, but Sir Acamos rarely ventured out of his tower and seemed to prefer the pleasures of wine, beef and whores to stopping smugglers. The PCs rapidly surmised that Sir Acamos might well be in cahoots with the criminals. 

The PCs also learned that in a week's time the village would host the annual wrestling tournament, with fights taking place in the pit in the middle of the settlement. People would come from all around the neighbouring area to watch or take part, and the victor would get the hand in marriage of the local Beauty Queen - or a tithe of the proceeds from last year's harvest. They were naturally extremely keen to take part, and decided that this was perfect timing to sort out the smuggling problem and then return for the wrestling. 

There was some talk of visiting the tower and taking on Sir Acamos directly - perhaps even offering to garrison the holdfast for Sir Georgios themselves - but ultimately the PCs decided to head South down the river and try to tempt an ambush. As night fell they set their carts and oxen by the river and then hid nearby, watching to see what happened; eventually, as dawn approached, a small raft or skiff appeared, crewed by two figures. These figures apparently noticed the carts and then set off back downstream. 

Yokomosok was sent in pursuit and he swam off down the river. A few hours later he reported back, saying that the raft had gone downstream to a series of caves. The PCs and their entourage immediately set off to investigate. This resulted in a quick but bloody battle in which sixteen smugglers were killed, with Zeno shot through the eye with an arrow and instantly slain in return. But the PCs were able to kill the leader and also capture an elf woman who was with him. This woman, called Naomi, revealed herself to be an outlaw from her homeland who had been cast out for delighting in murder, theft and blasphemy. She had taken up with the smugglers as a result. Dragosta, wearing the magical cloak taken from the elf wraith the party had tangled with earlier, was able to use its strange suggestive power over elves to persuade Naomi to join the party. Naomi agreed (probably sensing opportunities for more murder, theft and blasphemy), and informed the PCs that there was a much larger fortress nearby which the smugglers had infested, and they were led by two mighty were-boars who would not be easily defeated. She also confirmed that Sir Acamos was in league with the smugglers. 

Hidden in the smugglers' caves was Niketos's missing shipment of grain and a flat barge-like boat. The party piled all the grain on board, together with the corpse of the leader, and began the laborious journey back to Riverfork, with their oxen pulling the boat slowly upstream. Their plan was to head back to town, deliver the grain to Niketos, plan an attack on the smugglers' fortress, and then go to Myrsina for the wrestling tournament.

On the way, they came across a group of five pixies sniggering in the trees, and engaged them in conversation. Dragosta eventually offered the pixies her bottle of elven perfume (also taken from the elf wraith) in return for them warning the party of any threats while they were travelling in the forest. The pixies, loving the smell of the perfume, agreed. This was to come in very handy that night when the pixies warned the party of approaching vampiric mists, advising them to flee as quickly as possible. The PCs abandoned the boat and cart and quickly fled with their oxen, returning a few hours later when it was safe. The only sign that anything untoward had happened was the smuggler chief's corpse, now entirely drained of blood and totally dessicated.

It eventually took four days to get back to Riverfork. On the way, Naghmeh suddenly remembered that she could cast the Read Languages spell. She used this to spend 20 minutes reading the books she had recovered from the elf wraith's tower. The first was apparently a diary and largely useless, although it did contain many references to something called The Emerald Fortress, which she found interesting. The second was seemingly a book of clerical wisdom that a holy man might use to enhance his power. Naghmeh asked Naomi about The Emerald Fortress. Naomi told her that The Emerald Fortress was a now-legendary and lost castle made entirely from green, volcanic glass, which had once been the capital of an elven kingdom in these parts, known as Cruah. That was the origin of the word "Cruth", which the humans now used as the name of this land. 

Back in Riverfork the PCs recovered their payment from the delighted Niketos for the return of his grain, and also reported to Sir Georgios on the treacherous Sir Acamos's doings. Sir Georgios agreed that there needed to be some way to trick Acamos into revealing his betrayal, but the PCs decided to take care of that after storming the main smugglers' fortress and killing their were-boar leaders. For this, they would need silver weapons, and discovered that in a halfling village a few days to the South West there could be found three dwarf triplets who were expert blacksmiths....

[Actual Play] Cruth Lowlands Campaign: Session 8 - In Defiance of Easy Summary

(To catch up on previous reports from my Known World Rules Cyclopedia campaign, see here.)

PCs present:

• Jason, playing Naghmeh, a 2nd level magic-user
• Patrice, playing Dragosta 'Wraithkiller', a 3rd level fighter
• Luke, playing Andy, a 3rd level fighter

The session started with the PCs wondering how to go about advancing. Naghmeh was keen to find a teacher to help her improve her magic (and identify the rare elven books discovered in the elf wraith maiden's tower). Dragosta and Andy, on the other hand, wanted to find weapons trainers. They were also all aware, however, that they probably needed an adventuring cleric to accompany them on their journeys. They decided to put the word out at the Temple of the Elements, and with Yokomosok, to see if they could find such a retainer, and in the meantime (2-3 days) started planning their next move.

Asking around, they made a number of discoveries. First, as they knew, there was a Jann living somewhere in the Achelos Woods, to the south-west. Also in these woods lived a druidess called Harmonia and a hag known as 'Lady Yellow'. Second, they learned a lot more about the layout of the local region, including the location of Fort Doom, home of Baron Ludwig von Hendricks (a likely location of weapons experts to carry out training); the lay of the land to the South (Blight Swamp, as attractive as the name suggests); and the nearest place where elves might be found in large numbers (Callarh, at least two weeks' journey to the East). Finally, they heard that to the South of Riverfork, where the Magos, Gustos and Achelos Rivers meet, there was a small fort called The Tower at the Fork, and the garrison there often had trouble with smugglers. 

They decided their best move would be to visit the Jann in the Achelos Woods, then hook round and visit the Tower at the Fork. There, they planned to buy a boat to sail down the river through Blight Swamp to the sea, where they could make their way to Fort Doom. Failing that, they would go by land (either through the Riverfork Woods and Blight Swamp or around the road via Luln.)

They received a letter of marque from Sir Georgios, the captain of the guard in Riverfork Keep, to give to the commander of the garrison at The Tower at the Fork, with the intention of offering their services as "sell swords" there. They also learned that, in fact, there was a merchant in Riverfork called Niketos who had recently lost a shipment of grain in that area - it had last been seen at the coast, but somewhere between there and Riverfork the boat had disappeared. Niketos offered to pay 700 gold pieces to each of the adventurers if they could recover his grain. 

While making inquiries, Andy noticed that a little old woman was obviously following him around. On several occasions he spotted her watching him. The next time he saw her he took her to one side and demanded to know what she was doing. She told him that a group of men had offered to pay her to follow him and report on his movements. They knew that he was friendly with Yokomosok at The Bull Rushes Inn, and that he was sleeping at The Temple of the Elements and in cahoots with the other adventurers. She heard one of the leaders referred to as 'Anacreon'. Andy recognised the name as belonging to one of the inhabitants of Lithakia, the village which was home to the Cult of Cronus, bitter rivals of the PCs from previous sessions. Clearly, they were planning an assassination attempt. He offered to pay the woman in return for information on Anacreon and his men - she would leave a feather for him under a loose brick in the wall of a certain building whenever she thought she had something useful to pass on, and he would then meet her at midnight and pay her for it.

Satisfied, the party decided to spend the night at Yokomosok's inn. Dragosta and Naghmeh took expensive rooms and spent the evening trying out the elven perfume they had recovered last session, while Andy, expecting something might happen, slept hidden in the cellar amongst the beer, with Chucklefuck the ice demon on watch. 

The PCs were awoken in the middle of the night by a crash of glass and the sound of screams. It seemed somebody had set fire to the inn. Sure enough, after Dragosta and Naghmeh extricated themselves from the building and gathered together with the rest of the guests, it became clear that somebody had thrown several flasks of oil through the windows to the common room and set the whole thing ablaze. In the chaos, they noticed that on the rooftops opposite the entrance to the inn were five archers with bows and arrows at the ready - apparently waiting to rain arrows down on people leaving the pub. Thinking quickly, Dragosta whipped up the crowd of guests (and Yokomosok) into a frenzy, suggesting that they were all under attack from unknown forces. Together, she (naked except for her elven cloak), Naghmeh and the mob of guests charged across the street and began hammering down windows and doors in an attempt to get up to the rooftops. 

Meanwhile, Andy and Chucklefuck were trapped in the basement under a raging inferno. Andy attempted to climb the ladder to escape but the smoke was too thick and he was paralysed by coughing. With the fire descending through the ceiling and down the walls he began desperately smashing holes in barrels to release all the beer and hopefully make it more difficult for the flames and heat to descend. 

Dragosta and Naghmeh, at the head of the mob, charged up onto the roof. The archers opened fire and Dragosta was severely wounded, while several of the other guests died. But Dragosta's bravery prevailed and she killed two of the archers in short order - their bodies falling to the ground below with satisfying crunching sounds; the other three surrendered in the face of overwhelming numbers. The crowd hoisted Dragosta and Naghmeh onto their shoulders in triumph while the town guard were summoned.

Down in the basement, however, things were getting desparate, and Andy decided the only thing to do was to attempt to mount Chucklefuck and ride him out of the inn, braving the fire. His ice demon slave obeyed without question, and managed to fly him out - but then succumbed to the heat and melted to nothing. Andy had lost yet another friend...

Sir Georgios arrived to take the three prisoners away for questioning and to congratulate Dragosta and Naghmeh for saving the day. But it quickly became apparent that the inn could not be saved - it was burning to the ground and the fire was in danger of spreading. 

It was then that the party decided that the only thing to do would be to give Yokomosok the money to build a new inn. Andy would invest all his gold (since he had been looking for an investment opportunity anyway), and Naghmeh a sizeable chunk of hers, for a majority stake in the business. They would rebuild the inn, and Yokomosok would run it for them. But in the meantime, while the inn was being built, Yokomosok would accompany them on their adventures - particularly since, as a bullywug, he would be invaluable when travelling near or around Blight Swamp. [DM's note: I think the idea of having a bullywug henchman was a prospect they could not resist.] Yokomosok duly agreed to this plan. 

The next day dawned and the PCs' fame had now spread around the town. The tale of naked Dragosta Wraithkiller and her magic user ally was being told in every inn and alleyway, with rumours abounding that the two women were lovers and had fought a dozen wraiths in order to rescue the guests of the Bull Rushes Inn. This made it easy for them to recruit a cleric, who was attracted to their service; his name was Philemon and he agreed to accompany them for a full share. 

With that, they set off into the woods in search of the famous Jann. On the way they spotted a wyvern flying in the distance and hid from its gaze; Yokomosok told them that the creature was known to live somewhere in the woods. Once it had passed by they continued their journey and a short time later came to a side trail that led to a clearing where the Jann had his home. This consisted of a large, brightly coloured tent - decorated with purples, yellows, reds, oranges and greens. The Jann was a flamboyant older gentleman dressed in fine, multi-coloured silks. Naghmeh asked him to teach her magic, offering 500 gp in exchange. The Jann took the money, threw it up into the air, and clicked his fingers, whereupon it disappeared. He suggested she try again. She gave him another 500 gp. This time he took the money and slipped it up his sleeve with a flamboyant gesture, whereupon it again disappeared. He suggested she try one more time. She gave him another 500 gp and he piled all the coins up in a column, threw it into the air, and swallowed them all in one. But he agreed to teach her the spell Sleep overnight while the others rested. 

The session closed with the party camping with the Jann, ready to press on the next day towards the Tower at the Fork. [DM's Note: We also realised at this point that due to XP gained from overcoming the would-be assassins, Naghmeh was now 3rd level.] The party currently consists of Dragosta (3rd level fighter), Naghmeh (3rd level magic user), Andy (3rd level fighter), Philemon (cleric retainer), Yokomosok (bullywug retainer), Eva and Zeno (hirelings). 

[Actual Play] Cruth Lowlands Campaign: Session 7 - And the Party Was Incensed

Session 7 of the Cruth Lowlands Campaign took place today. For previous AP reports, see here.

PCs present:

• Jason, playing Naghmeh, a 1st level magic-user
• Patrice, playing Dragosta, a 1st level fighter

Andy and Sir Gareth were absent for this session, so Naghmeh and Dragosta, "the girls", decided to explore some new areas of the map. They were told by Yokomosok about an ancient elven tower in the forest that was rumoured to be haunted by the ghost of an elf princess. They also heard about an abandoned castle in the North, and about a merchant who had lost a shipment of salted fish in mysterious circumstances. They decided the ancient elven tower was the place for them. Before going, however, they decided to round up some help. While the party had exhausted all of the likely-looking brigands and mercenaries in town by now, at least for this month, they did manage to find some pathetic beggars and vagrants willing to do anything for cash. These were the friendly Calliope, the small person Zoe, and the one-eyed old man Christos. None had armour or any other equipment except clubs. They agreed to work for 1gp a week and a share of 10% of any treasure gained, split between them.

The tower stood alone on top of a hill amongst pine trees, and had a single dead oak outside. In the roots of this huge tree was a tunnel entrance, closed off by iron bars. Dragosta yanked off these bars and the party headed inside. They found an oak door on their left and a very narrow passage leading straight on. Examining this door, they noticed that around the edge was a strange, pale white mold. Dragosta noticed this could be scorched off with a torch. They did this and opened the door, revealing a room full of the mold. At the far end, in an alcove, was a gold statue of a young man with a huge sun-like disc behind him. 

The group spent quite some time investigating this room. They knew the mold was definitely dangerous, and that they shouldn't breath in any spores. They also noticed that just putting a toe into the room was enough to make the statue come to life, whereupon it would raise out its hand as if to say "halt", and speak in some strange language. They also surmised that this must have something to do with the cult of Apollo. Eventually, Dragosta scraped some of the mold into a pouch and sealed it, to carry off with her.

They explored beyond the narrow passage. On the right was a door which seemed locked and they couldn't force. On the left were stairs heading down - a long way, well over 100 steps. Beyond that was another door on the left, behind which they could hear strange chittering sounds. And further beyond that was a large, open room. 

They decided not to go down stairs, but to investigate the door beyond it. Opening it, they found half a dozen large centipedes, at least three feet long. Dragosta quickly threw in the pouch of mold and then shut the door. They decided to leave it and wait to see what effect it had. In the mean time, they would explore the large open room further in.

This large room was the base of the tower. On the floor was the long-dead skeleton of a man, wearing rusty plate mail, and carry a strangely-pristine iron warhammer. On the South wall was a staircase heading down. Above them was a hole in the ceiling, which had presumably once housed a pulley. They hit on a plan to have Dragosta climb on Christos' shoulders, and then toss Zoe up into the hole in the ceiling with a rope she could lower down. This she did, and they got up into the second level. This proved to be a large room with many windows, and a strange sweet smell in the air. The source of this was revealed to be 12 large sacks of some kind of elven incense. They lowered this all down to the ground floor with the rope, and then investigated the windows. Dragosta tried tossing Zoe up onto the roof of the tower with a rope round her waist, but didn't make it; luckily the rope didn't snap and the hireling survived. They reeled her in and descended the tower. Naghmeh then hit on the idea of using incense in the statute room, on the basis it might have religious significance. She put a sack's worth in Dragosta's small cauldron, and set it alight, then place it in the statue room. Sure enough, the incense seemed to placate the statute and seemed to stimulate the mold to release clouds of spores. They decided to leave the incense burning in the room and see if it would cause the mold to 'spend' all of its spores. . 

In the meantime they decided to investigate the staircase in the Southern wall of the tower base. At the bottom they found a series of rooms. One of these was decked out like the room of an elf maiden; it contained a bed, a beautiful coat stitched with silver and gold, a wolf skin rug, two books, and three vials. Dragosta put the coat on and Naghmeh took the books; they also took a vial each and gave one to Zoe. Zoe immediately opened it and, assuming it was perfume, put it all over her body.

In the next room they found a big, open chamber decorated with magnificent frescoes of elf lords and ladies, hunting parties, and banquets. And in the corner, sitting on a chair, a skeleton wearing a beautiful green dress. Heedless of Dragosta's warnings, Naghmeh strode forward to investigate. Sure enough, this turned out to be a spectacularly bad idea, because it led to an epic conflict - which must have lasted 20 rounds - in which what turned out to be an elf wraith killed all of the hirelings and very nearly killed Dragosta. [DM's note: I had a brain fart and completely fluffed my lines, giving Dragosta a saving throw attempt against the wraith's energy drain, which she survived. For some reason I forgot there is no saving throw against level drain. But on the basis that DM errors in the player's favour shouldn't be overturned, the result stands.] But the warhammer seemed to have some kind of powerful effect over the wraith and ultimately the party prevailed. 

Dragosta and Naghmeh went back to the statue room to see what had happened. Indeed, the incense seemed to have over-stimulated the mold so it no longer released any spores. It also seemed to placate the statue, and they were able to inspect it. It seemed the statue itself was stuck fast to the ground, but the sun disc could be removed and was solid gold. However, they knew they had no hope of carrying it back to town, so they got what loot they could carry (two sacks of incense each, the coat, the rug, the vials, and the books) and headed back to town. Selling the incense gave them 3000 gp, more than enough cash to buy two oxen and a large cart and some hay, and the next day they took this back to the tower to get the disc, with two new vagrants in tow - Eva (infested with fleas) and big, muscular man [DM's note: his name currently escapes me). 

In the tower they noticed that there had been activity during the night. The skeleton corpse in the plate mail armour had disappeared, and the door to the centipede room was mysteriously open - revealing six dead giant centipedes, all apparently killed by mold exploding out of them. The PCs decided not to investigate further, but to just get the sun disc and get out of there. This they did, and took it back to town covered in hay.

The halfling woman jeweller, Squinter, agreed to value the disc and turn it into bullion in return for 10% of its value. This turned out to be 7000 gp. They agreed to this; giving a share of 10% to Eva and the big, muscular man resulted in a total haul of 5600 gp. Split two ways and with the sale of the sacks of incense taken into account, this was enough to take Dragosta to level 3 and Naghmeh to level 2. A stunning success after a number of barren sessions, and good reward for sheer bravery in not fleeing the wraith. 

They then took the hammer, books, vials, and elven coat to the sage, Karpi. He agreed to identify them for 100 gp each. The vials were revealed to be ordinary perfume, and Karpi didn't know about the books (he thought there were in some old elven dialect) but he knew that the hammer had once been owned by a man called Sir Evangelios, who was the older brother of the ruler of Riverfork, Sir Iannis. Sir Evangelios had gone into the forest in search of adventure with this hammer, but never returned. It was rumoured to be especially puissant against the undead, but was also said to be cursed. He advised Dragosta never to wear it around town. He then told them that the elven coat was the kind given to elf maidens on their wedding days. Wearing it would have a strange effect on elves, making them easily persuadable by the wearer.

The PCs heard that in the forests to the South lived a Jann, from Ylaurumm, who might know more about these items. They decided this should be their next port of call - and that they also wanted to seek out some elves to translate the books and persuade to do things. (Possibly after revenge on the gnomes to continue the vendetta from last session.)

[Actual Play] Cruth Lowlands Campaign: Session 6 - Grand Larceny and the Murder of Gnomes

Session 6 of the Cruth Lowlands Campaign took place yesterday. For previous AP reports, see here.

PCs Present:

• Luke, playing Andy, a 3rd level Fighter
• Jason, playing Mixaham, a 1st level Magic User, and then Naghmeh, a 1st level Magic User
• Dan, playing Brother Ambrose, a 1st level Cleric, and then Sir Gareth, a 1st level Elf

Last session had ended with the PCs just entering a dungeon within a glacier, in search of an "ice spirit" to bring back to the Three-Faced Wizard, so that he could transform it into a magical oil which would freeze an underground lake. This needed to happen for....complicated reasons. 

The party had found a stone door, which they quickly pushed open, revealing a passage carved from stone, heading down underneath the glacier and the cold rock below. They followed this passage for some 500 yards, before eventually coming across a door to their left. After getting this open, they were attacked by two dwarf skeletons dressed in strange and old-fashioned banded mail armour; they quickly dispatched these and explored what was apparently a guard room beyond. This contained lots of weapons - odd-looking glaives, mauls and cleavers - which they thought might be worth money, but too heavy to carry. They went back to the corridor and followed it onwards a short distance, where they came across a stone ladder heading down a steep incline. Brother Ambrose volunteered to climb down. As soon as he did so - emerging on a landing of some kind - he was attacked by a winged, clawed, humanoid ice demon which came swooping up from the darkness and breathed a cone of ice shards at him. He was rendered unconscious by this, but not quite dead. [DM's note: 0 hp is unconscious; -1 and below is dead.] 

Andy and Mixaham, at the top of the ladder, saw this unfold. and surmised that this must be one of the ice spirits the Three-Faced Wizard had described. Mixaham had received a wand from the wizard, as well as a ring which was supposed to help control ice elementals. He zapped the ice demon with the wand. This withered it considerably, but did not weaken it completely, and it flew up and breathed another blast of ice shards. This killed Mixaham outright and badly wounded Andy. Andy decided to seize the ring from Mixaham and uttered the magic words ("I command thee!") which bound the ice demon to his will.

After reviving Brother Ambrose, the two remaining PCs decided they were in no shape to continue exploring these caverns, and in any case, Mixaham needed a proper burial. They also thought that since the ice demon was now their slave, they would keep him around, but punish him with a humiliating nickname. They decided on "Chucklefuck". Chucklefuck's first task was to carry as many weapons he could from the dwarf guard room stash, to be sold back in Riverfork.

They carried Mixaham's body, plus all the weapons, back to the surface, and descended the mountain in the night. The next morning they buried Mixaham with full honours, Brother Ambrose reading a special rite over the grave. Then they headed South towards Riverfork, abandoning their rescue mission of the river pirate, Hector, and leaving him to his fate with the kobolds. (See session 4.) They thought that the wand and ring, plus ice demon slave, were compensation enough for their troubles in the glacier caves, and, I think, wished they had never come on this wild goose chase up North. However, almost immediately they came across - by some strange twist of fate - Mixaham's sister, Naghmeh, who had come from Ylaurum to try to find her brother. Learning of his death, she decided to join up with these strange travellers. 

Things took a turn for the worse on the way back to Riverfork. On the second night of travelling through the hills, they were disturbed while Andy was on watch by noises some distance off. Andy sent Chucklefuck to investigate and within seconds there were sounds of a fight. Andy and Brother Ambrose charged off to support their ice demon comrade. (By this point they had stopped resenting Chucklefuck and were treating him as some sort of weird pet.) They discovered eight dark, diminutive figures who Andy immediately assumed were halflings. At this point Luke, Andy's player, revealed some of Andy's back story: he had previously been involved in the Halfling Wars, or "Halfling Nam" (YOU WEREN'T THERE, MAN), and whenever he was confronted with a halfling had horrible flashbacks and aggressive responses. However, he then realised that these enemies were not halflings, but in fact gnomes. And in the ensuing fight, the party seriously suffered from a lack of infravision. Only Chucklefuck could effectively see the gnomes, and while he blasted them with ice and then ripped them apart with his claws, they managed to kill Brother Ambrose and seriously injure Andy. [DM's Note: We actually thought Andy was dead too, at one point, but then realised he had recouped a hit points or two from resting on the journey back.]

But eventually Andy and Naghmeh triumphed, with two of the gnomes surrendering. Andy quickly got it from these gnomes that they lived nearby in a series of caves in some ravines, and had come on a raid in search of goblins to kill. (The tribe called "The Quiet Ones" who the party had heard about before.) The leader of the gnomes, a female, said that in exchange for her life she would reveal the secret entrance to her people's tunnels, which would lead to the tribe's secret treasure. The PCs noted the details down and then killed the two captives in revenge for Brother Ambrose's death. 

Back in riverfork, Andy, Naghmeh and Chucklefuck ended up back in Yokomosok's inn. (They fashioned a chain and leash for the ice demon to keep him secure in town.) Here, they met an old friend of Andy's from "Halfling Nam", an elf called Sir Gareth. Although an elf, Sir Gareth had renounced his racial heritage and chosen to live as a human. His aim in life was to marry into the human aristocracy and eventually have his own realm.

The bullywug bartender offered to give Andy some news in return for gold. This turned out to be a warning: armed men had come to the inn looking for him while he was away, and they were led by the hunter, Anacreon. Andy realised suddenly, with horror, that there were actually consequences to his and his comrades' actions. Anacreon, he remembered, was from the village of Lithakia. This settlement's population were in cahoots with the Cronus cult; this was the very same village whose priest had been murdered by Marm Jo'a in session 2 and the very same cult whose acolytes the party had massacred in session 3. Andy lapsed into depression at this news, and looking back over the course of the last couple of weeks. Was he cursed? All of his comrades kept dying. He began drowning his sorrows in Yokomosok's ale, before the conversation turned to what to do next.

The session ended with the party at a crossroads. They had visited at least three major cave systems: The Worm's Mouth, the tunnels under the Achelos Fort, and the glacier caverns near the Three-Faced Wizard's tower. But they had not explored them for any distance. It was also Andy's stated (and longstanding) aim to burn down the village of Lithakia, but there was also some notion to go on a grand campaign to the West against The Quiet Ones. First, however, the three PCs decided that they wanted revenge against the gnomes who had killed Brother Ambrose - and to get their hands on the diminutive humanoids' treasure... 

[Actual Play] Cruth Lowlands Campaign: Session 5 - Do not come between the growlfin and its mules

Session 5 of the Cruth Lowlands took place yesterday. I took the opportunity to mix in part of the old B1: In Search of the Unknown module, to mixed effect - more on that later.

PCs present:

• Luke, playing Andy, a 3rd level fighter
• Jason, playing Mixaham, a 1st level magic-user
• Dan, playing Diogenes, a 1st level fighter; then Evangelios, a 1st level fighter; then Brother Ambrose, a 1st level cleric

This session began with the PCs back in Riverfork, about to set off in search of the tower of the Three Faced Wizard. They needed his help to freeze or purify an underground lake containing "water demons", in order to satisfy the kobold kolony of The Worm's Mouth, who were keeping the ex-river pirate henchman Hector hostage. Who swallowed a spider to catch a fly, etc.

The Three Faced Wizard apparently lived three days to the North across very rough terrain. The party decided that it would probably be more trouble than it was worth to take their wagon, so they set off on foot: the party had now been whittled down by death and absence [Patrice, playing Dragosta, couldn't make it this week] to Andy and Mixaham, with the hireling Christina and two henchmen river pirates, Diogenes and Evangelios. A new player, Dan, took over Diogenes, who he quickly christened 'Diog'.

On the second day out, they came across a wagon some distance away, with camping equipment around it. After being challenged by whoever was inside the wagon, and threatened with crossbow fire, they executed a pretty effective raid, with Diogenes sprinting forward under cover of Andy's heavy crossbow, while Mixaham unleashed a darkness spell. This resulted in the capture of two prospectors, who seemed willing to give up their gold. Andy was in the mood to just take half of their treasure, but Diogenes slit their throats for 'banditry'. [I think Dan was taking the whole river pirate business seriously.] 

The party took the mules and wagon owned by the prospectors and continued on their way. But that night the scent of the mules attracted a griffon through a random encounter roll; since this was at night, I decided that the griffon was instead a 'growlfin' - a griffon but with an owl's fore-body instead of an eagle's. This resulted in quite a fight. The growlfin went for the mules, and killed them in short shrift. The party took the opportunity to do some serious damage to the monster while it was distracted - but then it killed Christina and badly savaged Andy. Diogenes then attempted to distract the beast from his friend but was likewise dispatched by the growlfin's beak. It was looking seriously bad for the party, and things got even worse the next round, when the growlfin unceremoniously slaughtered Evangelios. (Once Diogenes had died we decided Dan could 'be' Evangelios - he was killed instantly. I'm not sure Dan even had the chance to roll the dice. Good times.) 

This left the badly wounded Andy and Mixaham. We were staring a TPK down the barrel. But the growlfin was badly injured by Andy in the next round and I let Dan roll for its morale check to build suspense: he rolled badly (or well, depending on your perspective) and the beast decided enough was enough and fled. 

Andy and Mixaham were in no position to continue. Three of their comrades, plus their mules, were lying hither and thither amidst scattered blood and entrails. They spent that night in nervous fear of the growlfin returning, but the next morning came across an apparently friendly cleric, Brother Ambrose, who was tracking the growlfin in order to smite it as a demon. (What a coincidence!) He agreed to team up with Andy and Mixaham to get revenge on the creature. 

They rested for a day, during which they spotted a gold dragon flying far off in the distance. Hardly being in the mood for another entanglement with anything, they kept out of sight. The following day they headed off following the trail of blood left by the wounded growlfin. They tracked it to its nest, in a huge hollow cypress tree; Brother Ambrose managed to creep closer...and closer....and closer....throwing it chunks of meat, until he was close enough to 'smite' it in the head. With the beast dead, Mixaham proceeded to dissect it, as is his wont, in order to try to gain alchemical materials. He was now in possession of a growlfin's internal organs, with plenty of blood and bile too.

The party continued their journey and reached the tower of the Three Faced Wizard without incident. The tower of the Three Faced Wizard lies at the foot of high mountains. It is made entirely from silver. As the party approached, they began to hear a grinding, squelching sound underneath them that grew louder and louder; they subsequently learned that this was the work of giant earthworms whose noise prevents spell-casting in the area - except by the Three Faced Wizard, who is used to it. 

At the tower they were met by the Three Faced Wizard's three apprentices - a beautiful red-head, brunette, and blonde, known as the First, Second and Third. These apprentices agreed to let Mixaham have an audience with the wizard. After passing his baboon servants and giant lizard guards, the party reached the top of the tower and the Three Faced Wizard's solar. The wizard agreed to provide Mixaham and Andy with a potion that would freeze an underground lake, but he needed a captive "ice spirit" in order to do this. The party would need to go to a nearby glacier in order to try to get one, and the wizard gave Mixaham a magic ring in order to capture such a being. In return, he wanted any magical or interesting treasure the party came across inside the glacier. He also agreed to teleport the party to the kobolds' cave afterwards, in order to meet the one week deadline for freeing Hector, which would otherwise pass before they could get to him; in return they promised to give him a considerable amount of treasure. Mixaham was also able to ask for some alchemical training in return for handing over his accumulated wealth, some thousands of gp-worth of gems. 

The party set off for the glacier. Here they found a series of caves [DM's note: this is level 2 from the B1 module] and began to explore them in search of an 'ice spirit'. They didn't do this before the session ended, but they did manage to kill two ice zombies and a carrion crawler, and flee from an ochre jelly and some crab spiders. Brother Ambrose also almost died from a poison gas trap on a chest, but survived with 1 hp remaining.

A very enjoyable session, but I wasn't particularly happy with the way B1 worked in play - it was, I think, a little bit dull. I will have to spice it up a bit for next week. Dan almost managed the considerable feat of having three separate PCs die in a single session, but Brother Ambrose proved a bit luckier than Diogenes and Evangelios had been. The perils of wilderness travel as low-level characters in D&D was strongly in evidence here. 

[Actual Play] Cruth Lowlands Campaign: Session 4

The fourth session of the Cruth Lowlands Campaign was a long time coming. For various reasons it dropped off the agenda and it was very hard arranging a resurrection. But it's back now.

Session four was good fun - and strangely enough featured more hireling deaths than monsters, which has to be a first. PCs present:

• Jason, playing Mixahâm Straji, a 1st level magic user
• Patrice, playing Dragosta, a 1st level fighter
• Luke, playing Andy, a 3rd level fighter

The session began with the introduction of a new character, Dragosta, to replace the dead Marm Jo'a. Dragosta is a female barbarian type, with a chain-mail dress and a shield decorated with huge horns. She has gambling debts of 7,000 gp, which is why she needed to join the party.

Initially Andy was not present, so it was just Mixaham and Dragosta, the hirelings Christina, Procopius and Menelaus, and the river pirates Evangelios, Diogenes and Hector. Having reached a natural break in the action from last time, with the Temple of Cronus having been ransacked and a nice reward received as a result, Mixaham and Dragosta decided to investigate nearby caves, known as the Worm's Mouth, which they had heard about from Yokomosok during session one.

They left their cart, and amassed gold, at the Temple of the Elements, and headed off to the cave, which stands at the end of a rocky ravine or chasm. Entering, they managed to clamber their way up a steep scree slope with the help of a lasso, and then investigated what appeared to be a dwarf-made chamber above. Almost immediately they disturbed some creature or creatures which made a horrendous loud chirping or squeaking sound. But they also found some doors. Picking one more-or-less at random, they found it to be locked. Procopius was ordered to barge it down, which he duly did; he then charged through, fell down a flight of stairs, and landed in a heap at the bottom.

It seemed that there were creatures down the stairs, in the darkness, so Dragosta followed. She too slipped on the stairs, which it appeared had been covered in some sort of grease or oil, and fell to the bottom, suffering a minor injury. She looked up and saw two kobolds in the room, menacing them with spears.

Mixaham still had two doses left of his spider climb potion, and used this to clamber into the room by the walls and ceiling, avoiding the grease. The kobolds, seemingly having no stomach for a fight, turned and ran in to another chamber. After the PCs and hirelings had gathered together beyond the greasy stairs, Dragosta, Procopius and Menelaus charged after the kobolds. They found themselves in a room with a murder hole above them, through which two kobolds emptied a large bucket of scorpions, right on their heads. Dragosta made her save, but both Procopius and Menelaus were stung, choking to death on their own tongues.

Dragosta fled back to the others and she and Mixaham hatched a plan to use the spider climb potion to get up into the murder hole and surprise the kobolds. Dragosta slipped inside and killed one of the kobolds in short order; the other meekly surrendered. After numerous threats and clear lies, they were able to get from the kobold the information that there were about twenty kobold males in the caves, plus a number of females, and they were led by a chieftain called Ho El and a shaman called Yezakal. They worshipped a god they referred to as the Mighty Grishnack.

There was no apparent entrance to the murder hole except through the floor, but they also managed to extract from the kobold that there was a secret entrance. They then threw the poor creature to the scorpions and, once this was done, used Mixaham's staff to clear away the scorpions to allow the hirelings to all climb up and join them.

They then tried to open the secret entrance, but found out it was a one-way door which could not be entered through the side they were on. But they also found that there was somebody in a room behind it. Initially, Mixaham (who can speak draconic) tried to pretend he was a kobold, but this wasn't persuasive, so he and Dragosta hit on the plan [DM's note: I was astounded at this] to try to stir up all the kobolds so they would come and attack the murder hole.

This failed miserably, as the kobolds were indeed stirred up, but laid siege to the murder hole instead. With everybody up in the hole it was clear that the group were completely stuck - the kobolds could just starve them to death if they really wanted. So Mixaham and Dragosta decided the only option was parley. They offered to turn to the worship of Grishnack if Yezakal and the other kobolds would let them live. Yezekal and Ho El, instead, offered to let them live if they would go and destroy other creatures who lived in the caves, which they referred to as water demons, who pull unfortunates into an underground lake to drown, then feast on their souls.

Mixaham and Dragosta saw no alternative but to agree, and pledged allegiance to Grishnack and surrendered their weapons and those of the hirelings. The kobolds proved true to their word and allowed the PCs to come down from the murder hole and then reclaim their weapons.

At this point Luke, Andy's player, arrived, so Andy (having been there all along, of course), was able to chime in. The PCs were clearly of the view that they needed to find some way to get out of the caves without having to fight any water demons. They hit upon the idea of pretending they were going to the distant town of Koriszegy to buy a huge amount of salt to pour into the underground lake. The kobolds agreed to this if they left a hostage, and they ended up choosing poor Hector. [DM's note: I rolled a dice for this and was extremely disappointed that it didn't end up being one of the PCs] The deal was that if the PCs did not return within a week with their salt, Hector's throat would be cut. Hector, naturally, begged his boss, Andy, to return.

There was some debate about whether to just run off and leave Hector to his fate, but eventually the PCs came to the conclusion that they ought to at least investigate the possibility of killing the water demons. (There was also considerable discussion of how to come back and get revenge on the kobolds, but they realised they had hired all the hirelings available in Riverfork a few weeks ago, and there were unlikely to be enough left to take on the kobolds, who it seemed also had at least four giant weasels.) They realised that they were on good terms with the Temple of the Elements, who would surely know something about water demons.

The next day they headed back to Riverfork and to the Temple of the Elements. There, they met a sage called Karpi, an expert on elemental water. He surmised that these 'water demons' could be killed either through freezing whatever lake they were in, or casting purify water on it. Either way, it would take a wizard of considerable power. He also reckoned that the 'water demons' had either been summoned by some evil priest or druid to guard something, or the lake which they inhabited was a place where the Elemental Plane of Water nudged up against the Prime Material. He also told them that if they were looking for a wizard of sufficient power, they might ask the Three Faced Wizard, whose tower was three days to the North across dangerous terrain.

The Three Faced Wizard was somebody the PCs had heard of before, and Mixaham had already made it one of his goals to meet this famous archmage. So he was keen to go. Andy was also of the opinion that he owed Hector his loyalty and ought not to just leave him to be killed by kobolds. Dragosta, on the other hand, needed some persuading as to why they needed to risk so much in the name of a hireling. [As Patrice put it, that's like going to find God and then, when you meet him, asking for a good recipe for minestrone] But ultimately he agreed that it might be worth going to meet the Three Faced Wizard anyway.

And at that logical break, the session ended. A lot of negotiation and parlaying this session, and not so much violence. A nice change of pace. Tune in next time for, it seems, an encounter with the infamous Three Faced Wizard.

[Actual Play] Cruth Lowlands Campaign: Session 3 - Do You Want to See My 18" Ebony Wand?

The third session of the Cruth Lowlands Campaign took place this afternoon. For previous sessions, see here.

Players/PCs:

• Patrice, playing Marm Jo'a, a 2nd level cleric 
• Luke, playing Andy, a 2nd level fighter 
• Brian, playing Core, a 1st level dwarf

This week Jason was unavailable so Mixahâm bowed out; we decided he was spending a few days conducting more research into monster-organ-based alchemy.

The session started with the players back in Riverfork, licking their wounds and keen to get revenge on the Cronus cult on the River Magos and the people of Lithakia. But they were also brainstorming ways to kill Sir Iannis; Andy came up with the idea of trying to insert explosive chemicals into his horse. They went to the Guild of Sages to ask about this, and Iappas told them that in the town of Armstead (quite far to the North) they might find dwarves who could provide such chemicals. But reasoning the journey would take weeks, the PCs decided that this was a dead-end as far as killing Sir Iannis went. But they also asked Iappas what he knew of Cronus. Iappas told them that Cronus was the father of the Gods, who Zeus and his family had imprisoned thousands of years ago. But since Cronus was the God of time, he could exist in the past, present and future simultaneously, which meant his prison was only at best contingent. It could be that he had worshipers in the area - and the sages agreed to pay money for proof of this.

The PCs came up with a new plan for attacking the river fortress, which meant Marm and the bulk of the hirelings swimming up the river, against the current, and entering the side cave which Mixahâm had previously discovered. In the meantime Core and Andy, the heavy mob, would travel up the river bank and get across once the entrance to the complex was secured. This worked well - Core and Andy were able to kill a lookout, while Marm and the hirelings entered the caves and killed another.

However, enough noise was made to alert the inhabitants of the caves, and a brutal fight ensued, with the PCs and their mini-army storming a hive of Cronus-cult acolytes, armed to the teeth with spears and bows - not to mention a priest of Cronus. This cost the party dear. Andy was paralyzed early on by a Hold Person spell and completely incapacitated, while Marm was seriously wounded. Eusebius and Loulia, the hirelings, were both killed - although not before Loulia had dispatched 3 or 4 cultists and won the hearts of the men through her warrior prowess. And finally, we had our first PC death - the cowardly Cronus priest outflanked the party at one point and was able to kill Marm with his sickle; Andy, nearby, was only saved by swift action of the river pirates.

Nonetheless, they were ultimately victorious - all the cultists were apparently killed, although one of the priest's two well-armed bodyguards managed to escape; the other was the only captive (victim of a Fear spell cast by Marm). By the end of the fight Core had 1 hit point remaining and was the only PC still able to actually move -they were a sliver away from a TPK. But they prevailed. In the cave complex they discovered 4,000 sp in clay pots, but more interestingly they also found a large bronze statue of Cronus: an old man with a sickle in one hand, and a set of completely castrated male gonads in the other. Around his feet were arrayed a beautiful copper shield and bronze short sword, of exquisite quality, and an 18" stick of pure black wood. The PCs surmised this was a wand, although they were unable to identify it.

Returning to Riverfork, they reported back to the Temple of the Elements and received their reward - 3,000 gp, which, split between Core and Andy, was a sizeable chunk. Just enough, indeed, for Andy to go up to level 3, taking into account all the kills and a reward offered by Iappas the Sage for the captive bodyguard (who the sages intended to torture for information). There are advantages to the deaths of party members after all...

They also met up with a new PC (who Patrice rolled up to replace Marm). This was a first level female elf with STR 3, called April, who has long blonde flowing locks and a thin blonde moustache but "oddly is not so bad looking". We used the Why Does The New Guy/Girl Know the PCs? table and discovered that April had begged Core and Andy to join them, because she needed 17,000 gp to ransom her lost love, an elf called Elendil.

Thus ended the session. Fun as always, although it was sad to lose Marm - it looks like we'll never know how the geas to kill Sir Iannis would have worked out. We now have a dwarf and an elf in the party, though, and it wouldn't be Basic D&D without that, would it?

[Actual Play] Cruth Lowlands Campaign: Session 2 - The Debacle at the Riverside

The second session of the Cruth Lowlands Campaign took place earlier today. For a recap of the first session, see here.

Players/PCs:

• Jason, playing Mixahâm Straji, a 1st level magic user
• Patrice, playing Marm Jo'a, a 2nd level cleric
• Luke, playing Andy, a 2nd level fighter
• Brian, playing Core, a 1st level dwarf

The PCs began the session back in Riverfork with a considerable amount of cash in their possession and nowhere to put it. For a while they discussed burying it, or taking it back to the caves around the Achelos Fort; all they were sure about was that they didn't want to give it to any bankers. Eventually they bought a wagon and some mules to carry it all around with them, with a rough plan of making it to Luln where they thought there was a merchant's guild who could take care of it. They also kitted themselves out with better armour, and bought long swords for the three river bandits they had recruited, but they decided not to arm their hirelings any better in case there was a revolt. One of the hirelings, Eusebius, seemed to have set himself up as a kind of shop steward to represent the hirelings' interests, and the PCs were keen to keep the hirelings as weak as possible.

Mixahâm went to the Guild of Sages with his killer frog innards and was given a recipe by a sage called Iappas for a magic potion that could be made from the frog's liver. He also agreed to give Mixahâm further recipes in future if he agreed to share any rare animal organs he found. Mixahâm went away and brewed up three potions of something mysterious.

There was some discussion of going back to the tunnels around Achelos Fort, but ultimately the players plumped for going to the Temple of the Elements, where the monk Milos had previously made a job offer. Milos met them and offered to pay them to destroy a newly re-inhabited shrine to the old God, Cronus, which the priests at the temple could "feel" was nearby. After some haggling the PCs were offered 250 gp per person for finding the shrine, plus 3000 gp shared between them if they destroyed it. Milos also said they could rely on the Temple of Elements for healing their ailments in future if they carried out the mission.

The PCs agreed and headed off to the village of Lithakia, which they were informed might have followers of Cronus present. There they discovered the villagers kept a herd of wild boar as guards (which were categorically not for sale) and that there was a small temple to the god Apollo. They also heard tell of a famous hunter called Anacreon, who they found in the forests nearby. They asked Anacreon if he knew anything about Cronus (definitely not) and asked if there were any ancient shrines nearby. He took them to a few caves on a river bank which he said had housed a shrine in days past. The river was 10 yards wide and at the bottom of a rocky cleft or ravine about 10 feet deep; the caves were on the opposite side.

Convinced they had found their goal, the PCs headed back to Lithakia. They were suspicious that the villagers may be Cronus-worshipers, in cahoots with whoever was at the river shrine. Marm, as a cleric, was appointed spokesman and went to talk to the local priest, a man called Spyridon. Marm attempted to bluff Spyridon into giving away information by pretending to be a servant of Cronus himself. He quickly ascertained that the villagers were definitely not Apollo worshipers and that Spyridon was a priest of Cronus in secret. Spyridon said that he would trust Marm if, after dark, he partook in a ritual. This turned out to involve taking a sickle and carving an hourglass shape into his own chest. Marm took the sickle and, instead, cut Spyridon's throat. He then ransacked the village shrine and discovered strange spices, silk, and furs. 

Cleaning up all the blood and covering himself in silk and furs, Marm went back to meet the others and told them that they would have to leave early in the morning, pretty sharpish. He, Core and Mixahâm then decided to try to set light to some of the spices they had found in the temple and breathe in the smoke. This turned out to cause strange hallucinations. Mixahâm successfully saved against magic and Core simply hallucinated that he was a child, but Marm had a hideous vision of being sucked away from his body to meet a coloured snake, who commanded him to kill Sir Iannis, the ruler of Riverfork. This turned out to be a Geas, and Marm would die within d4 weeks if he did not carry out the quest. 

The next day dawned and the PCs headed back to the river shrine with Marm seemingly distracted and morose, and Core gibbering on enthusiastically and childishly. At the river, Andy clambered down with a raft the PCs had bought the previous day from the villagers in an effort to swim across. He was immediately showered with arrows from the caves on the opposite side and fled back to the others with a flesh wound. 

The PCs were now sure they had found the Cronus shrine but had to come up with a plan. After a protracted discussion it was agreed that one group would chop down a tree and use it as a bridge to get to the other side of the river and then abseil down into the caves from above. Another group, the amphibious assault team, would head upstream for a bit and then swim down to attack the caves simultaneously. The river bandits and Marm volunteered for this mission.

Meanwhile Mixahâm did some scouting downstream and drank one of his mystery magic potions. This turned out to be a climbing potion, turning his fingers into sucker pads. [This was entirely through luck: we rolled for the magic effect at the time the potion was created, but I didn't tell him what it would be until he drank it.] He used this to climb, spider-man-like, around the cliffs, and discovered another cave - but this contained a lookout who quickly ran deeper into the tunnels.

Before the tree chopping could really begin, Core heard some commotion coming from the forest behind them. The PCs immediately realised that this would be the villagers of Lithakia, who would by now surely have discovered Spyridon's corpse. Realising they were in serious trouble, they eventually fled behind a vast firestorm they created with flaming oil - but not before Core was almost killed by more arrows after trying to storm the caves one last time.

They regrouped at Riverfork feeling pretty sorry for themselves. At this point Marm decided to tell the others about his vision and the Geas quest to kill Sir Iannis. They knew that Sir Iannis had at least 200 men-at-arms in his keep, plus a dozen knights and at least one magic-user, so they knew this was likely to be a suicide mission. But they reasoned that they may have a week or two in which to plan for this. Asking around, they discovered that in a week's time a tournament was due to be held in the Black Eagle Barony to the South, and thought that this might be an opportunity to get a shot at killing Sir Iannis.

Thus ended the session. Another enjoyable one even if the PCs suffered quite a set-back. They are getting to know more of the local actors, and there was some good role playing too. I'll be interested to see if they can pull off destroying the Cronus shrine, and what will happen with Marm's Geas. Patrice was pretty unlucky with that. As soon as the players made the decision to 'smoke' Spyridon's spices I decided it was an opportunity to use the Yoon-Suin hallcinogen table, and Patrice just rolled really badly on it. But it should prove to be nothing if not an interesting development... 

[Actual Play] Cruth Lowlands Campaign: Session 1

As an effort to get out of my own head when it comes to RPGs (haven't run or played anything in weeks; focusing too much on a follow-up to Yoon-Suin to the extent that it is robbing the process of any joy) I have started a no-pressure game of Rules Cyclopedia D&D via Google hangouts and roll 20. After years of essentially creating entirely my own stuff, from settings to bestiaries to dungeons, the philosophy of the Cruth Lowlands campaign is: use plenty of pre-existing materials, don't worry about things making sense particularly, and run things straight from the book as much as possible. In other words, it's a game of paradigmatic D&D. It's set in the Known World, in the West of the Grand Duchy of Karameikos - the region around Riverfork Keep. I have populated the map (see below) with plenty of locations (approximately 25), of which most are hidden, although I may also introduce some classic modules into the mix.

I am going to post Actual Plays of the campaign on the blog. For the first session, I was joined by three players;

• Jason, playing Mixahâm Straji, a 1st level magic user
• Patrice, playing Marm Jo'a, a 1st level cleric
• Luke, playing Andy, a 1st level fighter

The PCs started off in The Bull Rushes, an inn in Riverfork owned by a bullywug called Yokomosok. Yokomosok noticed they seemed like "adventurers", and they got into a conversation in which Yokomosok told them he sometimes directed "adventurers" towards various locations where they might find fame, glory, wealth, and so on. One such place was the Worm's Mouth, a network of tunnels a day to the East. Another was the Achelos Fort, a holdfast which used to be garrisoned by a knight and men-at-arms from Riverfork, but which had in recent decades been abandoned and fallen into disrepair. There were said to be tunnels underneath. The Worm's Mouth was quite well known, but the tunnels under Achelos Fort were largely secret. 

The PCs struck a deal with Yokomosok that they would give him "interesting items" recovered from these locations if he agreed not to tell any other adventurers about Achelos Fort, and decided they would try to keep it secret and possibly even establish it as a base camp. They then set about attracting hirelings, and employed a grand total of five: Eusebius (fat and greedy, net), Menelaus (says "yes" all the time, hand axe), Christina (big nose, spear), Loulia (pet rat, hand axe) and Procopius (goitre, whip). In the meantime, Marm Jo'a went to the Temple of the Elements, a cult of Zeus in Riverfork, to chat to the monks. He met one named Milos, who told him that if he came back in a few days there may be employment opportunities.

The gang then set of for Achelos Fort the next morning. On arrival, they discovered an empty shell of a tower, with the River Achelos running along nearby at the bottom of a ravine. They noticed that there were caves at the bottom of the ravine on the opposite side, and decided to rappel down the cliff side and cross the river to investigate. Leaving Procopius and Menelaus to watch over the tower in case anybody came out to cut the rope while they were rappelling, they abseiled down to the cliff bottom and discovered there were also caves on their side of the ravine. They investigated these and discovered that one held the concealed remains of a boat and jetty, while another contained a sack buried in sand, containing a gold pendant and 100 gold pieces.

They noticed that the caves on the opposite bank of the river extended inwards some distance, and decided to investigate. This meant crossing a ford in the river. However, when about to cross they saw an eel lurking in the water, and sent Eusebius with his net to catch it (concluding that he must be a fisherman since he had a net). Eusebius approached the water but after casting his net went into a kind of paralytic spasm and fell down on the sand. After he recovered they concluded the eel must be electric; it also emerged that actually Eusebius wasn't a fisherman - he just had a net.

Andy had brought two chickens along with him, and they set up a cunning decoy for the eel using one of the birds, tempting it away from the ford and then killing it with ranged weapons. The chicken, however, seemed to decide that its future with the group was likely to be short, and made a run for it.

The group entered one of the caves on the opposite bank, using the remaining chicken to walk in front of them and set off any possible traps. Here, they discovered a trip-wire and bell system and disabled it, and pressed on. Eventually the passage they were on hooked back on itself and they stumbled across another trip wire, this time setting off the bell it was attached to. Immediately they heard a commotion up ahead and discovered a killer frog, which was attached to the cave wall by a chain. It did serious damage to poor Eusebius, but was finished off with missile weapons.

While this was going on Andy luckily heard a noise from behind them, and they realised that whoever inhabited the caves was alerted to their presence. They cunningly (again) used the chicken as a distraction, placing it around a curve in the tunnel with a lit torch next to it, and then hiding in the darkness nearby. Four brigand-ish men appeared and started examining the chicken; everybody charged out of the darkness to attack. One of the brigands was killed and the others fled; Marm Jo'a followed them outside and killed another, but the others entered the river and swam off. While this was going on, Mixahâm was busy dissecting the killer frog and removing its internal organs for alchemical purposes.

After regrouping, the party realised that the brigands had come from a secret door - an artificial wall they had walked past previously and which was now revealed. Investigating behind it they discovered some tiled rooms carved into the rock. They also - again - were lucky enough to overhear somebody whispering around a corner, and after a brief discussion of tactics charged around it to discover 7 brigands waiting for them in  room at a bottom of a staircase with spears and slings. But the brigands proved woefully inept in combat [6 attacks were made on Andy in the surprise round, without causing I think a single hp of damage] and three were rapidly killed; the rest surrendered.

After a brief torture scene the leader of the bandits revealed the location of his loot, under a trap door in a nearby room. Marm and Andy then hit on the idea of giving the other three captured bandits the opportunity to join them as hirelings. They agreed, and then revealed that their now ex-leader was laying a trap for Andy and that the trap door did contain loot, but also poisonous centipedes. You can imagine what happened next - the leader was fed to the centipedes, the centipedes were then killed, and the party recovered 2,000 gp and a small sack containing 14 semi-precious gems.

It was now the end of the day and they decided to stay in the caves and go back to Riverfort the next day after doing some more scouting. There was another tunnel a hundred yards or so down the river bank and they wanted to take a look inside. Despite being warned by the superstitious bandits about the place, they ventured in, discovering a large chamber with one clearly artificial wall and a thick iron door. Concluding that "This is where we die", they beat a hasty retreat and went back to Riverfork.

An impressive haul of 2,100 gp was bolstered after they took their other ill-gotten gains to a dwarf called Squinter and a halfling called Sauce; it turned out the gold pendant they had found initially was worth 1,000 gp, and the semi-precious stones were worth 3,000 gp in total. 6,100 gp split three ways was more than enough for Marm Jo'a and Andy to level-up, although they did have to pay 25% in tax to the tax collectors of Sir Iannis, the castellan of Riverfork. Mixahâm also kept back four of the semi-precious stones to use to pay any magic-user he might find who would tell him what to do with the killer frog innards he had taken.

Thus ended the session. It was a lot of fun gaming with three nice fellas. They were a pretty wily crew and thought their way through or around everything they came across, so 6,100 gp was a fair reward, but they were also very lucky with their dice rolls at times - with attack rolls and surprise rolls in particular, but also with crucial morale checks on the part of the bandits. I was amused that after having dealt with the bandits so easily, a mere iron door was enough to make them conclude that "This is where we die." I also learned a lot about the value of chickens. 

Tune in next week for the next installment of.....The Cruth Lowlands Campaign.