GACKS AAR: Session 4

GACKS AAR: Session 4

Due to health reasons, there were no sessions the next two weeks. However, the game world wasn’t standing still. Isn’t that wonderful? Here’s what happened during these two weeks, at least what is known to the public, because there was plenty of hidden actions. What follows is, basically, a compilation of SEEN posts. And then you can read what happened in today's session.

Dwarven Messenger is Back!: A few days ago, the dwarves of Or-Tabram sent a messenger eastward, presumably to ask another dwarven fortress for reinforcements. However, the messenger got captured by goblins on the road. It took him a while, but he managed to escape their camp and return back to Or-Tabram.

Night Flyer Activity: Thyhaleran forces are on the move! Numerous winged fainil were seen flying off to the west, into the deep forest, where they confronted a troll tribe defeating the warriors and enslaving many of the trolls. Its said that ranks of trolls in Thyhalera now number in the dozens. On the diplomatic front, a dwarven diplomat has arrived in the city, meeting the ruling council and asking for help against Wolfhome barbarians. The barbarian menace is growing and many forces seem to be joining to stop it.

Dwarves Raise Taxes: Henceforth! Each visitors will be charged 3 copper pieces upon entry to Or-Tabram. This will be paid at the gates of the first fortification encountered. The Fort Gates for now, but at the Island Tower once it is complete. Furthermore, any profit made by adventurers, merchants, and any other stripe of visitor to Or-Tabram will be taxed by 10%!

Dwarves and Humans Conduct Joint Scouting: Word has it that dwarf & human scouts have been dispatched from Or-Tabram to scout out the goblin stronghold!

Mysterious Forest Message: Rumors spread regarding an animal of the forest delivering a package to the dark dwarves from an entity calling itself “The Great Lorrachs, He Who Speaks for the Trees” addressed to Foreman Grelt of the dwarven logging operation. Depending on who you ask, the package was poetry, a challenge to combat, a manifesto, or an improvised explosive.

Goblin Menace: Goblins attack Or-Tabram! Not in full force, of course, but a couple of sneaky squads managed to make their way unnoticed through the farms and attack workers building the new fortifications from afar. Their arrows killed a worker and injured six more before the militia intervened, but the goblins were already gone. Workers demand proper security and increased pay now (+20%).

Diplomatic visit?: A group of men and dwarves were seen departing from Or-Tabram and bound for Wolfhome. They were received with a feast before returning to the dwarven fortress.

Fainil attack Goblins: Fainil warband is seen attacking goblin nation. Multiple sightings of flying demonic creatures, hunting goblins for fun and profit.

Goblin Bounty: Rumor has it that the fainil are buying goblin slaves in reasonable condition for $245 a piece.

Dwarven Patrol Routed: Dwarven militia patrolling the hills around Or-Tabram encountered a roaming band of undead troglodytes (and some zombie dwarves too). Eight out of ten succumbed to the teeth of the zombies, while the remaining two fled back to Or-Tabram to report their findings.

Orcs loot Sky Riders: A roaming orc clan has invaded the lands of the Sky Riders! Coming from the far north the orcs have invaded the surrounding lands, pillaging, enslaving and driving back their captives to their fortified camps. Will this be a new power in the area or will they be defeated? Only time can tell.

Shimmerleaf Forest Activity: Recently, those who camp near Shimmerleaf Forest speak of a procession of multicolored lights that can be seen at night, sometimes moving along behind the treeline, sometimes circling the same spot for hours at a time... the few poachers and foragers who still brave the unfriendly forest also report more terrible accidents, injuries, and disappearances than usual as of late.

Undead Lair Found: The lair of the undead troglodytes has been found in [105.051], but it’s unclear who found it. The rumors claim different factions - orc scounts, dwarven adventurers, and even an imp whispering the location into the ear of a peasant whose brother was among those killed in the patrol.

Strange Lights in the Night Sky: At night, people from miles away could see a pillar of bright light shining over the forest where the glimmerfolk are said to live. The pillar was white at first, but then cycled through the entire rainbow spectrum several times, eventually receding and disappearing. Only the older generation remembers the same thing happening about four decades ago, albeit in a different part of the woods.

Gold Rush: A group of dwarves from Or-Tabram found a vein so rich, when they split open a rock both gold, silver and electrum sprung forth, already as minted coin! Prospective miners and fortune-seekers are already flocking to the area, said to be in the mountains somewhere close to the undead lair [104.050].

The Dwarves are expanding their settlement and fortifying tunnels!: Well, there's not much else to say here.

Goblin Traps: Dwarven scouts from Or-Tabram report encountering traps in the underground tunnels around the goblin encampment. Nothing lethal so far, but it's only a start.

SESSION #4 RECAP

Before the session, three of the adventurers went on a bear hunt, this time without any problems whatsoever, and got some money by selling bear meat and bear meat accessories. In addition, since a month has passed, I decided to have the PCs roll HT+5 to avoid catching a disease. I'm still not sure if this should be HT+5, HT+3, or just HT - this is something I have to calibrate. Surprisingly, not one, but two of them got diseased. For this purpose, my random disease generator was used that is based on the AD&D 1e disease rules. Of course, one of the diseases was a contagious one. The players spent a lot of time designing a small house used for their PCs' home base in CAD software, so of course they had to roll to avoid infection. The only secondary infected PC was the one who was already suffering from another ailment.

The players wanted to go to the undead dungeon as their barbarian chief suggested them that, and the dwarves put a $40,000 reward for clearing the dungeon and offered an escort of 10 dwarven warriors. Weather, however, wasn't very good - windy, rainy, and very hot. The PCs would have been able to cover one 1.5-mile hex in four hours, and that's eight rolls to about FP loss due to heat. Why not just use boats and cross the lake directly? However, about a month ago, three barbarian boats tried crossing the lake but were disappeared by some kind of green mist, according to the rumors, and people were also talking about goblins colluding with scrags that live in the lake.

The players decided that it's better to take the risk than to wait for better weather. They bought three 4-man canoes, with 3 characters in each. Yes, there are five players, but four of them brought both of their current characters on this mission. And, of course, they ran into the scrags because [spoilers]. Scrags appear in numbers of 1-12, and the result was 4, fortunately for the players. The situation seemed quite dire - there's not enough space to maneuver and retreat while on a canoe, most of the weapons wielded by the characters are long, the boats were rocking, incurring bad footing penalties, all of the character were at least lightly encumbered, and none of the characters took Swimming. The scrags got onto the canoes, grappled anyone within reach, and threw them overboard - that was their approach. Few characters got wounded, and none of them drowned (miraculously so), and eventually the scrags were killed. (Now I'm thinking why weren't the scrags dropping overboard with the characters they had grappled? That'd be smarter and more effective. I guess scrags are stupid, and so am I.)

The players had a change of heart and decided that boating is too risky. They turned around, got some rest, and then went on foot once the heat subsided (about 2-3 days). However, it was still muddy after the rain, so their travel speed was very slow. They had a couple of random encounters on the way that weren't anything dangerous. A few days later, they managed to reach the entrance to the undead dungeon, somehow evading all the goblin patrols on the way. I guess the dice decided to have mercy on them this time. Then, they crafted some barricades and traps, preparing for a fight with an undead horde that is by their estimates ~25 fighters strong. (And yes, they forgot to visit the dwarves and get the 10 promised dwarven warriors). We're going to have another session in two days, and boy, are the players in for a surprise.

Final Thoughts

I'm not really sure if letting players run multiple characters at once during a session is a good idea. On one hand, why not? On the other hand, this might make characters following their personal goals and then potentially coming into conflict more difficult. We'll see!

Also, it was very difficult for the players to agree on the course of action during this session, so things took a while. It would've taken even longer, but I decided to introduce the classic role of the caller to the players. They found it a good idea, chose the caller (randomly), and then things went much more smoothly. Thus, I believe that was a good decision.