The Return
So after a pretty short (and honestly, poorly run due) session that was called short due to my evident exhaustion, we put our campaign on hiatus for a couple of months due to personal stuff that distracted from my ability to DM effectively. So this recap will cover the session before the hiatus and the one after, since neither was especially long and both cover the same adventure.
The Party
Our intrepid adventurers consist of:
- Ingrid the Warrior, a formerly lawful forester who became damned when she sacrificed a companion to a chaos god-beast to save the party. Cuts quite an imposing figure with her black-iron plate armour and fire-enchanted flail.
- Walden Jr., a lawful chimney-sweep now a wet-behind-the-ears warrior. Eager to prove himself and physically fit, although perhaps not the brightest.
- Myyrah, a mudlark turned cleric of Ashakhan, a homebrew god of death without the evil that is usually associated with the domain.
- Arwil the Thief, who got his start as a wool smuggler and now looks to adventuring as a fast path to fame and riches.
- Asher the Wizard, a capable and worldly caravan guard pursuing the black arts to further his own ambitions.
- Sigismund, still a rutabaga farmer at heart, he nevertheless exhibits at least some characteristics of a spellcaster. He talks to his rutabagas sometimes.
(Anti-)Hammer(space) time
We are using an alternative inventory and encumbrance system called the Matt Rundle's Anti-Hammerspace Item Tracker and it's pretty cool. It avoids most of the issues with conventional inventory systems by focusing on the actual problem with carrying lots of stuff: BULK. As any experienced infantryman or hiker will tell you, the space your equipment takes up usually becomes a problem before the weight does, and modern large packs have all sorts of complex engineering and gimmicks to deal with this issue which is what even allows someone in the field to carry the amount of junk your average D&D character takes for granted. More weight will make you tired faster, but more bulk becomes impossible to carry (and still be able to do things like fight) very quickly.
It also, incidentally, cuts down on a lot of tedious math computation while making inventories a bit of a fun mini-game.
A good chunk of the start of session #1 was spent explaining and orienting players to this new and interesting way of tracking inventories, which in short order had everyone collaborating on how best to stow and haul their equipment.
Arrival
The party had a treasure map sown into a cloak from their previous venture into the old castle on the hill. They waited out the cold season in their home village, honing the skills of their newfound trades, before embarking on a journey to retrieve whatever riches this map would reveal.
For three days, the party ventured north. North, through the Trolltooth mountains, into the lands beyond where the great Jarls rule with iron fists. The trip itself was largely uneventful, save for the gathering of flocks of crows and, one evening, a close call with a pack of wolves.
From the mountains they had spotted a village, and so they descended into a valley and followed the King's Way (a road in name only) until they came upon a mob of peasantfolk forcing before them a girl bound and gagged, and escorted by several mounted men. At the sight of these armed and armoured adventurers, the column halted.
The horsemen advanced and the leader introduced himself as the Jarl of Hirot, before demanding the party withdraw. Ingrid, always aggressive, had intended to press for an explanation but was ultimately convinced to continue on to the village by her compatriots, which the Jarl reluctantly permitted.
At the village they chatted with the eager watchmen who admitted them for a while before heading to the inn. There they met with the innkeeper Broegan "Bull" Haverson who was quite distraught. From him the group learned that the town was being ravaged by a monstrous wolf that killed by night, and that his daughter Morgan had been selected via lottery as a sacrifice to appease the wolf for another few days.
The Wolf of Hirot
The band decided to investigate for more information, and came upon the master of the night watch, Nothan the Younger, who claimed to have harmed the beast and watched it dissolve to mist. They also learned from another villager that those bitten by the wolf transform into wolves themselves.
Armed with this knowledge, they set out to stop the sacrifice and attempt to best the wolves themselves. They met the Jarl's procession on its return trip and after a tense moment, earnestly explained themselves. The Jarl was not especially receptive, but they nevertheless convinced him with the logic that they themselves would be the ones to suffer at the beast's claws should they fail to drive it off. With so many villagers about, the Jarl could hardly refuse.
The group carried on and as twilight broke discovered Morgan tied up for sacrifice at a set of standing stones. Here, Arwil the thief suggested that they just take the girl and go rather than wait to be killed by a demon wolf - but Morgan shut this idea down when she bravely informed them that she would refuse rescue if nobody remained in her place. As a compromise, the group decided to try and drive off the wolf.
Once the wolf finally arrived, the group was ready, and the ensuing battle was rather short. Although not weak by any means, the group made short work of it - predominantly thanks to Ingrid scoring a crit with her flaming flail. Myyrh was bitten, however, adding to the party's concerns. The wolf, beaten but not defeated, turned into inky mist and fled into the night.
Session #1 ended here and there was a two-month hiatus before we picked up again.
Returning to Hirot
The party was welcomed back with Morgen in tow, and despite the Jarl's inevitable wrath (as well as that of the returned wolf), the village's mood was lightened a little. Bull was thankful and offered them room & board, and so the group used the rest of the evening to pump the locals for information they might be able to use.
The following morning the band was awoken by the Jarl's men and brought to the great hall. On the walk they befriended one of the thegns, Clohn the Bald, who explained how the lottery worked. At the hall the Jarl cursed them for their meddling, explaining the wolf would now surely return and seek vengeance. Unswayed by their protests, the group was dismissed - they would be allowed to continue their foolish wolf hunt so long as they did so outside the walls of Hirot.
Deciding to make the most of the morning, the group split into three. Arwil and Walden would go to the Three Rats Flophouse to parley with the local criminal element. Sigismund and Ingrid would go visit the Mad Widow Ymae, who all concerned think is a witch. Asher and Myyrh would go to check out the Sky Biers where the village had been cremating its dead. Arwil managed to squeeze in some conversation with the local fire & brimstone priest of Justicia on their way back to the inn, discovering a bit about the region's history - especially some juicy tidbits about the last of the Savage Kings, Ulfeonar, who was known as Wolf-Slayer.
At the flophouse, Arwil engaged in a game of dice with the thieves in exchange for information. After a truly incredible string of excellent rolls, Arwil had extracted not only the information he was looking for, but all the gold at the table - a feat which Walden would excitedly relay to the others later on. They had also learned that three of the thieves number had disappeared after embarking on a treasure hunt to the burial mounds to the north - as well as obtaining a useless and lice-infested sack of their leftover possessions, promptly disposed of.
At the witch's hut, Ingrid and Sigismund discovered of a possible way to destroy the wolf: Ymae could weave the hair of a corpse into shackles for the wolf, which would anchor it and prevent it from escaping as mist. The price for this would, incidentally, be Sigismund's hand in marriage. Sigismund needed very little convincing - his player only asked if that would mean 'the end of his character' to which the answer amounted to 'not necessarily'. Sigismund would spend the rest of the session dispensing relationship advice, a sudden and inexplicable wellspring of knowledge on retaining a long-term partner.
At the Sky Biers a confrontation with the local thegns was averted after Myyrah tried to remove a corpse's wrappings to inspect it. Myyrah remained with Asher to consecrate the dead until Ingrid and Sigismund arrived, hoping to maybe snag some corpse hair from one of the fallen. Fearful and disgusted by the notion of harvesting their dead for magical components, the thegns ordered the bodies burned immediately to keep the party from returning later.
The group returned to the inn and pondered their options. First, they attempted to convince the local entertainer Llore to allow them to kill him to get his hair (the previous night Arwil had discovered he was infatuated with Morgan, and they used her inevitable sacrifice as justification to hurry along their plans). When this failed, Arwil suggested killing someone in the town - perhaps one of the unpopular flagellant priests from the temple, or maybe a sick person? A heated ethics discussion ensued.
Eventually the group decided that, since it was still early, they might as well follow up on their major lead - they would head to the burial mounds to the north. Incidentally, this looked to be the location indicated on their treasure map.
The Serpent Mound
The group marched north a few hours to the burial mound and made their way to the entrance. Ingrid, a skilled forester, was able to determine the clumsy passage of the three missing thieves along the largely overgrown old paths.
Gaining ingress to the mound proved more difficult. The great circular slab serving as a front door proved too heavy to move. Scouting around the sides they eventually discovered a stream had worn a cleft into the side of the mound and, after taking precautions as to its safety, the group wriggled inside.
The pitch dark interior seemed mostly undisturbed. They explored a few rooms, finding hidden beneath a stone alter in one a great hide cloak woven with skulls and a paired bear helm. Shortly thereafter, while moving single-file down a passage, they were ambushed in the rear by a pair of Tomb Ghouls. Luck was on the party's side and despite several rounds of harrowing combat, the warrior Walden, trapped in the back, wasn't struck even a single time. When one of the Ghouls fumbled and fell on its face he made a run for it and the group destroyed the two creatures from a more favourable position.
They found the bottom level of a pit trap towards the south of the dungeon and Ingrid spent a few minutes destroying the bronze spears serving as spikes. Then, they went back up the stairs to try and cross the room with said trap - discovering that it was in fact slippery with algae, and the curved surface of the floor meant anyone trying to cross it would be dragged towards the hole in the middle.
Fortunately the group had taken precautions - only Arwil was attempting the crossing, and the two warriors held a rope tied around his waist to arrest his fall should he slip. Which he did. Repeatedly. After a half-dozen failed saves and numerous attempts to scale the slippery wall to the other side, Arwil fell into the semi-disabled spike pit trap. and took exactly enough falling damage to knock him to 0 hit points. Myyrah sprinted down to the pit chamber and managed to heal him before he began bleeding out, sparing him a permanent injury as well as an embarassing death.
As some players had to go, we called it here. Arwil's player indicated she would spend the intervening period deciding whether or not to make another attempt across the trap room.
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