Session 9; The Curse of Blue Beard's Treasure.

 Session 9; Played on 19th of October extending to the 23rd.   

Pregame there was some discussion about the ideal size of parties in ACKs.  I am unsure if I should be allowing the AD&D ‘1st level’ characters are free, as technically characters that are not owned specifically revert/transform to henchmen and that could have a significant effect on how combat works. 

Player team 1 (it has not been named) prepares to go off into the woods do some patrolling.  This does not really go great for them, but not in the total party kill way.  They do see some wolves, but given the positive reaction rolls the wolves did not attack and the two players were hesitant to risk anything themselves.  So they ended up exploring in the forest for two days.  They ended up becoming bored/finding the area safe and the lure of Bluebeard’s treasure became too great for them. 

Juventas Clodianus (Bard) 2nd level
Philippus Gurges (Priest) 2nd level. (He picked Purify Food and Water)

Rudolphus Rutilus (Explorer) 1st level
***** (Blade Dancer) 1st level.
***** (Fighter) 1st level. (One of these characters has a Trained Hawk)
And followed by two mules and a cart. 

They then walked to the dungeon and spent the night within sight of the entry point.  The building was an asymmetrical pyramid made of bricks and only enterable by a single door.  The fighter immediately tried to shoulder check the door and promptly fell into a pit trap.  He was only damaged for 1 hit point and with the aid of the rope brought by the senior party members he was back on his feet.  There was then discussion of how to defeat a pit trap and what proficiencies were (one player had clearly not been instructed enough).  Eventually they ended up sacrificing an hour to filling the pit with dirt, loose rocks and forest/mountain debris.  They then tried to kick the door down, but could not do so.  Giving up on the ’stealthy’ approach they took a war hammer to the door and knocked more convincingly.  The door perished.  

(Picture of the mini-pyramid.)

The party entered and found themselves confronted by a 50’ long boat.  By unknown means it must have been carried here and been built over by very dedicated persons. The players boarded the boat and came across a strange sight.  Six variations of a blue bearded man were engaged in a repetitive argument over who was the real captain.  There were different scar variations or sword handle hilts to tell the figures apart and while not exactly friendly, the six were so heated in their own discussion they did not seem interested in the unnamed adventuring party.  They rebuffed requests to be guided around the boat or let the party explore it, and so the party began searching the corners of the pyramid.

In the first corner they found some 5000-6000 silver (still not sure about the treasure table) and went to the next corner.  There they  found there a crate of aged cutlasses, a crate of monster parts and a few thousand electrum pieces, before a snake came out of the monster part crate and spit at the blade dancer.  It missed and the explorer immediately threw a javelin that killed it.  Jump scare over…

Except the screams from the party were enough to summon the six doppelgängers to aggression.  They, being 4 hd monsters, were a bit too much for the party and they ran them down as the party tried to escape.  This ended somewhat predictably, though the fighter was able to mash one of them with his war hammer before falling.  

Reflections.

Again this was something of a mistake in dungeon building.  The trap was randomly selected, fun and defeated through player solutions and learning systems. The doppelgängers are the big mistake.  Obviously (especially in hindsight) they were too strong for the party.  The party did have the good sense not to challenge them and it was really just bad luck that they got rushed, but that is something of a mistake on my part. I do remember thinking that the doppelgängers must be bound here by some fell magics, but logically that means they shouldn’t have followed the party out of the temple.  So that was bad gm-rating. 

The two players were generally ok with results.  There is talk of a party of 9 fighters or 8 fighters and a cleric going out as a kill squad and the other player coded himself a program to more quickly generate ACKs compliant characters, so they are raring to go.  I think I am not quite at the #zeroprep stage of my refereeing journey and should build out a few more of the dungeons, but given my previous commitment to the solo play aspect I do feel a bind.  I don’t want to know what’s in a dungeon or a lair until I roll it up and watch in horror and fascination as another party is wiped.  This seems less polite to other players, but I am unsure how I will resolve it in the near future. 

Session 8; Alignment and Punishment.

 Session 8.  Played October 18th to the 22nd 2023. 

The player from last Saturday’s success gathered up a second party and prepared for adventure. 

Noctius, Fighter. HP: 8

Fortius, Explorer. HP: 6

Bractius, Thief. HP: 1

Falconius, Fighter. HP: 4

To avoid just having their forces flounder around, I prepared a rumor table and after two rolls on it, they learned that the whole town is almost exclusively talking about the legate’s niece who has been kidnapped and the general belief is that she is being held in the Grave of Fell Heroes, the nearby mega-dungeon.  The party set off into the blasted badlands/beach and immediately were overflown by a young Red Dragon.  The party unilaterally decided that the legate could handle his family by himself and they immediately turned tail and fled into the forest, going for a more standard patrol.  They ran into 5 giant bats and started a fight.  Perhaps the funniest thing to happen there was on of the fighters managed to grapple a bat and then headbutt it in a brawl the next turn.  This did not really help the other characters as the thief was downed and the explorer severely injured (brought to 0 hp), before the bats finally failed a morale check and fled.  One of the archers got a spiteful shot into a fleeing bat and killed it.  They mercy killed the thief who was at -3 hp, while we consulted the wounds table to see how the downed explorer should have been handled.  As is something of a pattern, I misread it and there was some confusion as to how many of his eyes were missing and whether he should have been able to survive to get back to town or not.  Errors were made, but he was ultimately left in town with 1 eye in working order and bedrest for sometime. 

While the impression he was missing two eyes was still shared by both of us, I was trying to confirm the player’s intentions toward the wounded character.  Behold the statement given!

("I am a believer in saving money, not on spending it on lost causes." -Noctius 

Noctius said as he looked through the group's party's wallet, and saw very little money, and looked over at the blind Explorer. He made sure that Fortius was in earshot.)

Having waited a day to recover, the two remaining live party members very boldly went out into the countryside.  Their goal, to go to the Valley of Slaughter and get something for themselves there.  This was thwarted by their lack of explorer and they got lost, twice in a row.  The didn’t have any encounters until they found themselves in the mountains and spotted something flying.  2 Giant Eagles.  The two fighters decided they liked these odds and opened fire.  They achieved surprise, but the distance was too great for the arrow to hit and now the proud eagles were enraged.  

The fight lasted quite a while, but ultimately the fighters had picked too hard a target and died, having killed neither of the eagles.  There was some discussion about what their alignment was for them to attack eagles (in ACKS eagles are seen as related to the Lawful Gods) and how this would be seen in universe.  It was fun. 

Reflections.

Having received some advice on twitter, I should have already prepared lairs that can be cleared, so that players can have a sense of victory and progression for their combat.  I had not originally done this, but it seems unavoidable and I will try to figure out how many need to be done per area to make them safe for colonization by Silvans or their client groups.  This will likely be more interesting to my players than dungeons, given their tendency to go on patrols and just try to kill everything that moves. 

Rolling up a dragon on the fly is not quick.  I am somewhat tempted to roll a total number of local dragons and then stat them up in advance so that things won’t slow down so much for them.  

When I rolled for giant bats, I originally rolled up giant owls, but could not find giant owls in the bestiary and eventually gave them a species change.  Similarly, we used the hawk stats for the giant eagles, though I am unsure whether I should have actually been using Roc stats at small.  

It is not at all original to comment on the brutality of the injuries on the wound table.  It is also amusing that there has been no need to consult it until this point.  All cases of one party members going down has resulted in a total party kill.  I am thinking we will see more proficiencies in healing be selected by the players, but perhaps not.  Cosoricalta has really been an absolute killing field.  On the last session of the week, I will attempt a casualty report, for my own amusement. 

Solo Session 7; Honor the Elderly//Unless they find Littlebighorn.

Session 7; Starting from October 18th-22nd 2023. 

A new team of level 1s is prepared (somewhat unexpected day off) and go forth. 

Odysseus the Senior.

Bard 1st level. 1hp.

Brutalius the Fighter. 

Fighter 1st level. 3 hp 

Agamer Mon

Fighter 1st level. 5 hp.

Sickius the Fighter.

Fighter 1st Level. 1 hp.

Pious Leto Priest of the Storm.

Cleric 1st level. Hp 2.

Harmodius the Thug.

Assassin 1st level 2 hp. 

Circe the Young Magestress.

Mage 1st level 3hp.

The party has arrived by ship from the eastern parts of the Silvanus empire, trying to avoid the war happening there. They have landed with some 24 families of their country of origin.  These Sea Peoples will be settling in and trying to integrate with the local population (having believed the legate’s statements about claiming the countryside).  The adventurer’s are known as the Companions, and with their spears and shields ready they speak to the locals, trying to see if they can get a lay of the land.  Despite the local’s distrust of this wave of immigrants, the consistent death rates of adventurers encourages them to encourage these foreigners to go for one of the wizards towers that dot the island from ancient and darker times.  

Odysseus the Senior marshals his fellow countrymen and playing happy music on an expensive instrument, sets out for Musk’s Monolith.  At their marching speed, they shall be fortunate to get there in three days, barring unfortunate mistakes. Being new to the region they immediately get lost and end up going to the sea line before they realize their error.  Giving up on the hills, they follow the coastline to avoid getting lost and move along till they stop for the night.  The party rouses tries to go into the interior, but end up going back to the very same spot they woke up after a number of hours.  Sickius the Fighter, who is serving as mapper is chastised verbally for his errors and they continue until night, well behind schedule.  Having given up on the interior they successfully follow the sea watching the forest on the other-side of the strait for guidance.  Mapping renders future confusion significantly less likely and they continue marching pleased to do this service for their new community. Towards evening they spot a band of Mermen, who observe them for a time and then leave.  The party ponder on whether it is cannibalism to eat the upper half of a merman and their origins.  The night passes safely. 

They successfully leave the coastline and cut directly across the countryside on the morning of the fourth day, as they near the monolith. Nothing confronts them and the party begins to believe that the Legate has really begun to achieve his goal of pacifying the island.  The Companions reach the Monolith and look it over.  

The monolith appears to have been raised by either incredible labor or unnatural powers.  Perhaps this Musk was someone formidable.  Who can say.  A previous name marks the stone, but now it is cut through with an X, it is inlaid with some shiny metal.  At the base of the monolith is the entrance to the dungeon. The party advances as follows; the three fighters form a shield wall, the bard and the magestress move in the center, while the priest and the assassin guard the rear.  Lanterns are lit, and the descent into darkness begins. 

(Basic map pre-generation.)

As they come down they come across 11 Morlocks who seem to be preparing to come up.  The Morlocks would have been surprised, but the lanterns of the party gave them away and the fight is on.  They each at the far extent of the room and the Morlocks quickly prepare

Odysseus goes first, casting one of his javelins and it misses badly.  Sickius the fighter tries to improve and throws but misses equally badly.  Circe calls on a magic missile and aims for the Champion. With a mere 2 damage it is hardly impressive and she desperately wishes she had taken the more usual and useful sleep.  The first Morlock spearman comes forward at a run (charging) and tries to spear Sickius the Fighter. He misses and wastes his charge. Brutalias holds.  Agamar Mon holds and another spearman comes forward.  Brutalis lashes out with his spear at this second attacker and easily kills him.  He then cleaves towards the previous attacker but he misses.  A Morlock swordsman rushes forward and makes a slash at Sickius, but his shield and armor break the force of the blow.  Agamar Mon makes his own counter attack, but fails to hit anything and the rest of the Morlocks surge forward. Two spear-wielders come forward and miss as the armor comes in clutch.  The next also comes successfully forward, but fails to get a hit through the line of shields.  The next however (a chunky 6 hit point fellow) hits Sickius for 4 damage, putting him on the ground for -3.  The Morlock’s cleave fails.  A sword bearer gets a natural 20 which is good, but I am not sure how it is good for him.  Regardless, his 6 damage cuts Brutalius down to -3 and he cleaves for Odysseus, but misses.  Another 2 swordsmen come up and strike at Agamer Mon, but they fail miserably.  The bleeding Champion comes up and measures himself against the mage who shot him, having run over his dead fellow and wounded foes. He cuts her down with a single blow and she is left with negative -7 hit points.  The Pious Leto, having seen enough of this steps towards the Champion and strikes him with a dexterous blow, or so attempts. With a natural 1, it utterly fails (am I supposed to make it worse for him?). Harmodius tries to take the Morlock champion with his own short sword and dagger. He succeeds in injuring the killer, but that is all.  

(Side note, unless I am reading it wrong magical missile is not saved for/against?  If I am correctly understanding that correctly that is really cool.  Not that it saved the user here)

(Note two, unsurprisingly, given my record, I got dual wielding wrong the first time I tried to use it.  It should only improve attack throw by 1, not provide bonus damage.)

Odysseus goes first, stabbing the champion for 1 damage.  A Morlock swordsman attacks Agamer Mons and then a spear bearer.  They both miss.  He retaliates by stabbing out with his spear… he misses.  Pious Leto takes another attack for the Champion, and misses even harder.  2 swords attack Agamer Mon, one hits for 6 damage and he goes down with -1 health. The three spearmen who are next go for the wiley Odysseus and he dodges all strikes.  The champion a creature of darkness stretches out against the priest and is resisted by heavy plate. Harmodius makes his attack at the champion’s flank and utterly rips him apart (11 damage I think?). He then cleaves or tries to and fails. (I think they cleave at the same rate as the fighter) That fighter comes over and casually brings him down to 0 hit points.  The last spear wielder attacks Pious Leto but fails to even scratch his heavy armor.  

Odysseus is cut down by a Morlock sword and the cleave fails towards Leto.  Leto retaliates… or as rather as usual he misses. He weathers most of the blows and almost makes it through the round, before a sword finds a gap in his armor and he bleeds out.  

The new communities most valued heroes are thus rendered dead and gone.  Though… no one will know this in Punishment.  Or if they do find out, they will likely be missing key details.

Reflections.

So… I really expected that group to better.  Big sad that they all died.  But it was also epic.  The brave settlers and righteous colonizers don’t always triumph over evil.  

A lot of mistakes in the battle.  I shouldn’t have had the javelin throw at the beginning. That was not #eliteplaying. They should have readied their actions and tried to stab the morlocks as they charged.  Choosing Sleep could have made this fight almost trivial or at least more manageable and shooting at the champion was probably too greedy.  Given the charisma on some of these characters they should have tried to talk them down/wave them back and that was a mistake. Probably should have given more of the team arblasts or crossbows, not that it was relevant.  Poor guys.  

As my players, or at least one of them, reads my blog I will delay posting this until after the 19th when we do their session. 

Solo Session 6; To Cleanse the Valley take two.

 Session; Played out on October 18th 2023, played over two days. 

Finally finished putting together the next solo group and it is as follows;

1st level fighter Rico of Areos.

1st level mage Lorenzo the Luminous (my first character to get a +2 bonus on intelligence.) (Sleep+Detect Magic)

1st level mage Synope the Spiteful. (Sleep)

1st level mage Lexius No-Name. (Sleep+Charm Person.)

1st level cleric Bede (a weirdly healthy fellow of 8hp)

1st level cleric Syro the Seventh.

Given Bede’s preeminent wisdom, he has decided to assemble a party of adventurers to go to the valley of Slaughter and make sure that it is cleansed.  The exact state of the old cults is unknown, but it is known that the valley was visited by two fighters of lawful reputation who have not returned.  While they are positive interpretations that the cleric could put on it, he has decided to just go over and ensure things have gone well.  The mages, naturally, are less interested in this, but are invested in personal development and that regretfully pulls them from their books and learning, as they need funds to power their unnatural ambitions.  Rico the fighter’s motivations are his own, perhaps he seeks atonement for stain on his past?  Who can say.  More importantly, the party sets out.  With passable luck they find their way and enter the forest in high spirits on the morning of the 18th of October. Later in the day they break into the hills and notice that it has rained a bit here. They make camp uneventfully having marched about 8 miles.  The night passes uneventfully (I don’t think there are rules for night encounters at camps, but if someone has page number for this that would be nice.)

In the morning they get lost, but end up going the right way anyway (following the labelling of zones around where they are) so we will double their time in the zone.  Despite this, they arrive uneventfully at the Valley of Slaughter.   9 nesting fire beetles remain where they nested when the fighters came this way, but the party is surprised by this. However, the Fire beetles, for reasons unknown, make buzzing noises of happiness at the surprised party and make no attempt to molest them as they near the open door. (Weirdly positive reaction roll of 12.)

The party enters the narrow hallway and follows it without incident down into the first open door. They see a strange sight. Two bodies as though in rigid combat stand, swords upraised and around them 9 Striges burst and rotting as though smitten for a fell deed.  (Note; when restocking I rolled that they came across something unusual. This seems… unusual.). The priests made signs of their faith at the sight and noted the dark altars and blood pits and partially charred bones.  

The mages and fighter then turn to guard the door while the worthy Bede and the somewhat less impressive Syro prepare to cleanse the place and bring it back into the light. Sadly, even these two clerics are unable to bless the altars to make them permanently unusable, but their trusty maces and elbow grease provide an excellent stoppage solution. Thus decided they set about smashing and breaking things. It will take them over an hour to accomplish this and it is not quiet, but the mages and fighter are standing and waiting for anything to come through the door.  

Unsurprisingly, the smashing of the altar brings up the curious from the depths.  3 morlocks, two of the common sort and one champion, but they are uncertain in the daylight and surprised by the larger numbers. Lorzenso the Luminous immediately casts Sleep and lets his willpower make itself felt. Surprisingly, the ordinary two make the save and remain on their feet, while the champion falls.  Synope then spitefully casts his own Sleep. Both again resist, showing unnatural albino willpower,  or is it class solitary?  Who can say.   Rico steps forward to end this embarrassment and cuts one down. He then cleaves (D20+5) the last standing Morlock is utterly slain.  Rico then takes the next turn to stab the sleeping Morelock and begin the looting process. 

They find…

14 copper pieces.

A bent and crooked silver piece.

1 trinket of unknown value. 

And nothing else of value.  (I really feel like I am not getting this treasure chart yet, but we keep going.)

Having thus gathered their meager pickings, the four take up guard again and waited for anything else. Nothing comes for a while, but then a new challenger(s?) approaches. Three giant ferrets come speeding down the hallways of the interior towards the mace sounds.  The mages and fighters nervously prepare for battle, but the giant ferrets make pleased chuckles (I watched a few youtube videos of happy ferrets and this seems the most accurate term) at the breaking of the altars, look on for a few moments and then disappear out of the hallway, with the bodies of the morlocks in tow. (Weird 12 check on relations.)

Just as the altar is completely broken up (an hour and ten minutes of work have elapsed) a new danger appears. Three men appear from the outside of the tunnel (due to the location I have ruled them to be a Chaotic party and likely key cultists).  One wears the robes of a dark god, patterned in dark images, a silver robed mage and a nondescript figure of unknown class (thief) they are all at level 2. 

Neither side is surprised and no words are exchanged as initiative is sought. (Well, at least after I work out their character sheets… And these are some of the best characters have yet rolled up.)

. 

(Relevant map)

The evil cleric shouts out a war cry and rushes forward in a cry, mace raised high. And misses, badly.  Synope the Spiteful, out of spells, steps behind the corner and covers his head in his hands (he has 1 hp, bravery is unsuitable.). Lexius summons charm person and fires off his sleep spell at the mage and thief. Both of them immediately collapse onto the ground into a pile.  Lorenzo tries to knock the dark cleric down with a splitting crack at his ankles. Unsurprisingly, the mage’s special maneuver is unsuccessful as he is a pathetic mage. Syro and Bede move closer, but do not engage.  Rico having got his head in the game goes for the head. It utterly finishes the cleric off with a single stroke.  The magical sleep holds and Rico, kills the two wicked cultists where they lay. 

Rico’s haul.

6 silver.

2 ornaments of unknown value. 

4 trinkets of unknown value. 

A mace, a dagger and a staff.  Also the cleric's armor and four weeks of iron rations that have not been ruined by the spilled blood. 

These are collected and the swords and gold of the fallen lawful fallen fighters (these last are set aside to be sent back to their families.). The party then ventures deeper.  The door to room 3 is closed and the party bypasses it for now, Rico leading the way. There is no door into room three and the party enters. As they walk in, an arrow snaps out of a wall and zips towards Rico. It skitters off the rim of his shield, but no damage is done.  They spend some time in the open room and see nothing of interest.  So they return to the closed door, but it is too sturdy to open and they have no proficiencies that would aid in breaking the door down. Bede, ever wise, determines it is time to go home.  

They march back to their camp and spend the night there.  In morning they begin marching back to Punishment, or so they think.  Sadly, they are lost and heading south west through the hills. After some (2) hours they realize that they are on the wrong side of the Mountains of Catsum and they revert course.  As they pass their camp they see where they went off course and head in the proper direction slowly and steadily. They meet nothing while nearing the next set of hills and almost immediately before coming to a camp, they run into trouble.  Worse, they were surprised by  basilisks.  Two of them.  Worse, they long for human flesh.  

They rush forward and catch Syro the Seventh eye as they come forward. He takes ten damage and is turned into a statue. 

The party attempt flight, but they fail evasion!  The first of the monsters surges forward, not catching anyone’s eye, but he is now closer.  The other also gets closer and avoiding looking over their shoulder to avoid being a second, less healthy companion for Lot. 

The party keeps running, but cannot get away yet.  Synope mutters about casting Sleep on himself so that his death will not be so painful.  The Monsters get closer as the party keeps running.  They finally escape in a random direction and by this time it is too late to travel.  

In the morning they quickly find their direction and make their way back towards the legate’s town. As they go into the woods they meet a group berserkers, who at 150 yards declare wild statements of death and began coming forward. Neither side is surprised.  There are 31 of them, so naturally, the party attempt to escape. With an effective roll of 23 we escape this potentially overwhelming force.  It takes the rest of the day to get into town. 

5 trinkets are of fine wood which, I think we can actually identify it here, is 2000 gp value.  The ornamentals are recognized to be turquoise of 50 gp value (together.). The mace found early has a wobbly head.  The dagger is off balance and while the staff is in good condition.  The food is kept in bags. 

So this should (I think) work out to 148 xp from combat experience, (Morlocks+Cultists) and 2050 xp from the discovered goods (not counting the goods brought back from the lawful fighters.). This turns out to be 2198 xp, divided by 5.  Which is 436 per person, with Lexius, Bede and Rico lucking out on 457.  Luminous gets a neat 479.  I am not sure if accomplishing their goal of busting the altar should be counted as something.  They still need to cover it in holy water, to finish the job, but that will be in a few days.  

Overall Feel, Lore and the Like. 

Starting to get the hang of larger combat, and get a feel for fights that can’t be taken.  Sleep alternates from being terrifying to useless really quickly, due to the HD requirements to even attempt it.  I kind of want to have the mages do spell research on something more effective for the high value monsters, but that is a lot of gold for now.  

Session 5; Many Puns, One Could Almost Call it Trolling!

 Session; Played out on October 15th 2023 for 3 days.  

My friends were back at it and there was a party of five.  The three characters from the night before leveled up with their too easily gathered valuables, though the town of Punishment is too small to sell them (I think that is how a Level VI town works?)

Juventas Clodianus (Bard) 2nd level
Philippus Gurges (Priest) 2nd level. (He picked Purify Food and Water, without even reading Walker’s article on the topic!)

Rudolphus Rutilus (Explorer)

***** (Blade Dancer) 1st level.

*****(Fighter) 1st level. (One of these characters has a Trained Hawk)

And followed by two mules and a cart. 

There were quite a few jokes at the expense of the player running a blade dancer.

After a false start and a lot of out of game talking about the absolute danger of the ACKS random encounter table, retconned trolls and a few successful evasions, the party began doing close to the city patrols.  They missed most of the encounter checks, until they were attacked by a swarm of bats.  This is just kind of weird really.  Worse as bat swarms, especially those uncontrolled by dark powers are supposed to run away very easily, but I forgot to do the morale checks.  The party’s hawk did really good at the beginning, then I and the players forgot about him until after the fight had ended.  The bats then swarmed the blade dancer, and we all laughed at the image of the serene warrior priestess losing her composure after bat’s landed in her hair.  We are very mature.

Despite the erroneously high morale bats, the party eventually killed them all and content not to be eaten by trolls or crushed by the wandering Cyclops, they returned to the city.  We are tentatively planning to reconvene on Thursday. 

Overall Feel, Lore and the Like. 

On paper I would not think that an unsupported bat swarm would really be the highlight of the evening, but it really was.  Emergent game play is really fun, even if the Judge is making mistakes.  Still, we will do better next time.  #elitelevel play is within our grasp and we will get there eventually.  Looking forward to see where the players decide to go next.  

Session 4; Success at Last, Too Much Really.

 Session; Played out on October 14th 2023 for 1 day.  

After the previous party was destroyed one of the players called it a night to make new characters and do some IRL stuff.  The other player collected a new force of three pcs and prepared to set forth on a simple patrol.  The player found a random name generator and I have records for what we have for names and classes. 

Juventas Clodianus (Bard)

Philippus Gurges (Priest)

Rudolphus Rutilus (Explorer)

They then patrolled very briefly for one day and met a group of berserkers.  I misread basically everything to do with this encounter.  Instead of noticing that there were supposed to be 1d8 war bands, I rolled 1d8 berserkers (I must have just misread the table).  So instead of 30 or so crazed fighters, there were only 2.  I also missed the part about having a 4th level fighter leading them.  

The fighting went in the party’s favor and they killed the unreasonably small raiding party.  I did just about as badly at reading the treasure table as the berserker entry and the party ended up finding two gems of nearly the highest value.  This resulted in 12000+ payout.  

Total treasure.

78 cp. 

14.7sp.

24 ep.

2 gems. 

1 great axe.

1 unknown potion.

I knew I was doing something wrong, but I really wasn’t sure what the value should have been, and didn’t figure it out until the next session.  

Overall Feel, Lore and the Like. 

Lots of Judge error here.  Kinda pathetic in hindsight and not #eliteplay.  However, we live and learn.  Even if this is the first time the table hasn’t ended up being littered in 1st level characters.  As much as I have joked about them being free there are a few real costs to their expenditure; emotional damage to non-elite players and the time cost.  Obviously, the solution is to better understand the rules and we will see this figured out. 

Session 3; Friends??? Also Death.

 Session 3. (14th of October 2023)

4 new adventurers went out into the woods today and unlike all comers before them, they did not get lost.  

These were 2 Explorers, 1 Assassin and a fighter.  None of them had great stats, but they were jaunty and full of life. 

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After deliberation, the players who commanded them instructed me that they were looking for trouble especially and as such I informed them that I would increase their odds of finding an encounter in this fight.  They found this agreeable and we proceeded.  

They met Cyclops, which while ordinarily are solitary creatures, per direct following of the tables, came up as a full 4.  Worse yet, the monsters saw them, surprised them and after noting their donkeys, attacked them.  

The party was entirely destroyed by thrown rocks, after failed evasion rolls.  

This scene was referenced with essentially the same results. 

The assassin had the (bad) luck to survive getting hit by the first rock and survive with enough hit points to feel the next rock.  

Overall Feel, Lore and the Like. 

Cyclops are very impressive/scary.  I am unsure what they were doing that close to the village, but the legate’s declaration of subduing the island is seeming less successful all the time.  This is place a death trap.  

Also it was really fun.  Observant readers will note that the ’solo’ has slipped out of the title.  Yeah, I made the ‘mistake’ of telling my friends how much fun I was having and two of them immediately wanted in on the learning experience.  They got it, in full grapeshot mode, letting four more level 1 pcs be added to the altar of #elitelevelgaming.