Session; Beginning from the 26th of October to the 3rd of November of 2023.
The gimmick used this time was an attempt to group together a bunch of explorers, plus supports and actually make them good at killing type patrols. I also used the 5 generations method and discarded 15 of the rolled up options, per ACKs rules to collect a force with positive (generally) stats and it is quite a force.
Jorham Hill.
Scout 1st Level. 1 Hp.
Jonathan Bower.
Scout 1st Level. 4 Hp.
Bradford of Rice Manor.
Catechist 1st Level. 1 HP.
Charles of Bramshire.
Scout 1st Level. 5 Hp.
Tilly the Kid Mage.
Arcanist 1st Level. 2 Hp.
I assure you that the low hp is not indicative of the rest of their scores. The cleric has a +3 wisdom bonus, while the mage has +2 to intelligence and the leader has a +3 to charisma. You might wonder why he did not become a bard. The answer is simple. I very much dislike bards, and frankly, given Corosicalta’s burgeoning reputation, a bard leader seems less likely.
The party, having heard that the last group, the very successful group that went up to Blue Beard’s Hoard have not returned. So the party has a deep need for money though (despite their good stats, there is not even 400 gp between them for starting capital) and the Hoard is the best target.
They set out in the morning and as you would expect from a posse of woodsman, they slip through the forest fairly quickly. They cross into the mountains uneventfully and spend the night some distance from the hoard, in a secluded glen. They wish to be fresh for a fight, and not do a duel in the dark.
In the morning they move towards the building. They see somewhat outside the building a wagon with dead bodies of men and mules around it, horribly torn and shredded and this greatly offends these hardy folk. They, at the direction of Bradford swear oaths of holy vengeance, against the fell monsters that caused this. They very cautiously come forward, seeing the bodies of the men and the mules. They pass into the building and behold the ship and see nothing. Are the doppelgänger’s now freed and wandering the island as decent and respectable mortals? Or are they lurking in the bowels of the ship. The party carefully searches the five corners, and when nearing one corner, a blade appears from the wall to heavily hit their leader for -7 damage. He is fortunate that after re-reading the rules on proficiencies I have a whole bunch of people with healing in this party. And there is a mage who has +2 intelligence for the full healing proficiency package. Still we are down a man, though he is luckily alive! Even if he will require some unnatural tampering to get back to full mobility. No treasures are found and the party prepares to enter the ship. As they enter, a poisoned dart is launched, but it misses and buries itself in the ship, leaking a mysterious liquid. An arrow flies out of the darkness and nearly hits Bower, but his armor and turn save him from such damages. The ship is otherwise empty, as though recently cleared of goods.
The party leaves the ship and are confronted by a single figure, with a blue beard and sword. He appears indifferent to the party. They pass out of the unshapely pyramid. Once they are outside of the building, Bradford asks his companions what they think of a shape-shifter or undead, living out a life of an evil man hundreds of years after his death. Nobody likes it much. Jorham Hill leaning on his staff says he’ll watch for a rear attack and the party forms a line. The Doppelgänger reveals it's true nature as the archers draw their bows and Tilly the Kid starts chanting. The Creature charges forward and makes a very heavy attack on Charles of Bramshire, who falls. Bradford quickly kneels and begins healing.Tilly the Kid then blasts the Doppelgänger and tears its head off with a magic missile. Tilly the Kid then walks over and searches the body, while Jonathan Bower begins searching the bodies of those killed by the doppelgänger.
Charles Bramshire’s leg is badly destroyed (effectively the same injury as the leader.) Tilly the Kid, once again flexes his superior healing skills (within one turn) and bring Charles up to 2 Hp and saves his life. The following treasures are discovered on the doppelgänger;
3 000 Gold coins.
3 tiger eyes, 25 each, (75)
A chunk of jade (100)
A jacinth (1000)
A carnelian (75)
From the other party they found of value they found a crushed potion (so not collected), but they do find two 'brilliants.'
Flawless facet cut diamond. Facet cut imperial topaz, which equal 8000+4000 gp.
From the wagon they get 3 000 silver and leave everything else.
They then race for home, (by which I mean hobble, essentially forced hobbling) and to my immense surprise, they get in, with what is probably and will be the best haul ever to be brought in on Corosicalta.
It totals to 16,650 gp for xp purposes. We also get monster xp as 16785, which works out to 3357 xp per base share. This was divided 5 ways, as we are good team that don’t let our people bleed to death due to blade traps and all that. Sadly, Jorham and Charles take standard shares, as they are average in their strength (despite being better in their dexterity), while the absurdly wise and intelligent cleric and mage enjoy their 10% bonuses. Jonothan Bower has a +5% bonus.
Jorham Hill.
Outrider 2nd Level. 1357 xp.
Charles of Bramshire.
Outrider 2nd Level. 1357 xp.
Jonathan Bower.
Outrider 2nd Level. 1524 xp.
Bradford of Rice Manor.
Acoylte 2nd Level. 2192 xp.
Tilly the Kid Mage.
Seer 2nd Level. 1192 xp.
If I have understood the rules correctly, Tilly the Kid is taking up learning at the local magical society, and for the next week, he is learning the spells, to Read Languages. Bradford takes cure light wounds, to increase his survivability and that of his fellows. Over the next two weeks the party waits for their allies to recover and will be available for action.
Reflections.
For the monster I determined that any monsters encountered at the dungeon would be doppelgängers, but that I would re-roll how many of them would be rerolled, as I doubted all them would still want to play the blue bearded pirate after being effectively freed.
Lots of money. Healing, high quality troopers and decent initiative really improved things. I am thinking they will try to do some bigger changes with their funds, like maybe organize a trading ship’s visit, or something like that, but I am not sure.
Further, I am thinking that I want to have three groups alive and in action (given 1 to 1 timing this is not too much work) and the next session will probably be the Green Mountain Company hiring the three survivors of session 13 to go out with a wagon, collect the remains of the ill-fated previous party and have them cremated as is fitting in this setting.
No comments:
Post a Comment