Tuesday 18 April 2017

Keep on the Borderlands - The Path of Evil - Session 30



SESSION 30: DAY 13-14 – CAVES OF CHAOS TO BURG LIECHENSTEIN  

Lucien turns to the group and declares “Asmodeus has genuinely blessed our efforts to date. I think it would be best to beat a hasty retreat from this place. Whilst we are unwounded our resources run thin and more powerful adversaries await. Best to get back to a safe place, rest and make up with another go on our own terms.”

Malandir adds, “We have much to carry and some light casualties. Perhaps I should scout the secret passage before we leave to have an idea what is at the other end.” He quietly walks up to the passage and looks to the west. He can see that it extends to the range of his infravision, 30ft, in a straight direction but then he can see no more. 

He comes back to the party. “I can see nothing down there. Let’s not push it. Let’s go back to the Burg and cash in all this loot. We might be able to get some better equipment.”

Kord nods “I agree. We should go back to the Burg. Whilst we may not have many wounded we’ve expended most of our spells and we’re exhausted. Also, we’ve learned a lot from this expedition and I think it’s time to take stock and plan our next attack.”

Lucien adds “Mayhaps we should get better equipment for the men at arms as well. Perhaps upgrade their armour, maybe get them morning stars and light crossbows as well.”

The men at arms all nod in agreements “Yes, yes better equipment for us.”

They re-group and get back into formation. Ragnar is placed in the middle of the formation and kept under watchful eye. As they approach the outside of the cave Lucien asks him “Ragnar, what tribe do you fear the most? Is there one warlord or chieftain of all the tribes? Do any of the tribe brag about having pet monsters and how do they describe them?”

Ragnar looks confused. Lucien uses Sense Motive and feels that Ragnar thinks this is a trap question. The little monster responds “Youz, youz evilz klericz are ze most powerful monsterz in all ze kavez.”
They head straight to the Burg and bypass Cragmaw Caves. They encounter nothing along the way, and, in the dark they finally reach the safety of the Burg. [DM’s note: 3 random encounter checks (ie 1 day and 2 night checks) against a 1 in 8 chance but no random encounter]. 


Upon entering the gate the see Knight Lorenz, the Corporal of the Watch. Flanked by brothers of the watch, Lorenz greets the party, makes some remarks about their tatty attire, and collects their entrance fees. He also places Ragnar under arrest. The men at arms take him away to the dungeon.

They quickly seek out the Cold Hart Tavern where they find warm and familiar surrounds. 


Berrin the proprietor, makes arrangements for a private room for the party. They eat quickly and go to bed to rest. 

The next morning they rise and take stock. They accumulated a lot of experience from their last raid as summarised in the following table.




And they accumulated a lot of loot, as summarised in the following table (note the Not Cashed in Loot at the bottom of the table). 


They still have many of their consumables available.


Scratching their heads they remember there are quite a lot of people that they know in the Burg. 


In summary, the party has earned a lot of experience with Lucien, Kord and Talmark all gaining a level. Malandir isn’t quite there yet but he isn’t far off. 

The men at arms also have gained enough experience to advance a level. 

One of the men, Per, has been taking tutelage from Talmark in the way of advance fighting skills and he’s been learning about Asmodeus from Lucien. He decides to leave the mercenary company and asks if he can join the party. Over breakfast Lucien, Kord, Talmark and Malandir decide that it would be good to have another faithful party member. 

DM’s notes. Guys, Per will advance to become a 1st level fighter and a player character. He’ll be played by Vampifan aka Bryan Scott, who you may have seen post to the site from time to time and you’ll note his site in the “Blogs I like to read” column in the left hand margin. Bryan has been a great inspiration to me over the years and if you want to see a great blog with almost a million hits please check out his site. In particular, he has had some great single player campaigns and I’ve learned a lot about solo campaigning from his site. I’ve applied a lot of the principles that Bryan uses to our own Pathfinder games.
Please welcome Bryan. 

We’ll probably have a few sessions of levelling up and local interactions at the Burg. Please come back to me with details of leveling up and also interactions that you want to do at the Burg including selling the loot, buying new equipment etc. I’ll update the summary character sheet in due course. 

DEW

11 comments:

  1. Player opinion...

    (1) Let’s cash in the not-cashed-in ears with Captain Wallache.
    (2) With Per now being a PC (does he want one of the looted Scale Mail sets?) and having his own starting gold, we only need to purchase two morningstars (the third is available as loot), three sets of armor and three crossbows with quiver & bolts. I think it was Leather armor they had?  Graduate to Studded Leather.  
    (3) Sell back the Men at Arms old armor, shield and spears and any of the other weapons and armor as loot that they will buy to Berowalt or Dearg, whichever is more appropriate (no weaponsmith or armorer at the burg, so blacksmith or trading?)

    I would normally say review our finances at that point, but I honestly think we will not have enough gold left over to do much after all that, so we should cash in all the other loot also (Tapestry, Silver Cup, Statuette) and see where we are.

    *******I am open to other suggestions*******

    Lucien canvasses about the Burg, asking guards about how Sildar is faring and where he might be found, just want to check in on him.  Tend and till the relationship a little more, see how he is getting along, ask if he needs anything, and showing him Lucien cares (do a Bluff check if necessary...)

    For the DM - it was not really made clear if we would be in violation of Burg ordinances selling loot without, “paying a fee and license ourselves at the Guildhouse,” can you please clarify? I would see it different if we were selling what would be provisions, but I want your ruling before we proceed with selling the large gp loot.

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  2. Oh, and how socially clumsy of me - WELCOME BRYAN!!! Another Asmodean to His Infernal Fold! Might Per be secretly high borne? It matters to Lucien...

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  3. How are you working HP advancement? Max at level? Average at level? You roll (I am good with that.)

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  4. I am delighted to be allowed to join the group and yes, Per is happy to follow Asmodeus and to learn from his higher ranking brethren. I hope to get to know you all a lot better as the campaign progresses. I hope he will prove to be a worthy asset to the party.

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  5. Welcome Bryan, good to have you! (Sorry been out, holiday weekend and all... did we find any Easter eggs? lol!)

    Before the group gets too far, are we still going with the plan to bring the corpse of the do-gooder that visited our cave and tell the story about an Ogre taking them out? Also, wasn't the tapestry, cup, and statues part of loot that the goblins had raided from a caravan? We may want to be careful there as the original owners of intended owners may take exception to our cashing them in. Something to check on.

    Beyond that, Talmark will pal around with Lucien, both to be able guard his back as well as provide the occasional glower if needed. He is also interested in how Sildar is doing, fighter to fighter. And later, he will train with some of the knights (as part of leveling up) and see what more he can learn about the fortress and it's defenses.

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  6. Bryan, may I add my welcome, at least im not the only first level character now!

    If the loot stretches that far, Malandir would like some masterwork studded leather. Other than that, he will work on his mastercraft bow and spend a day regenerating his arrow stock.

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  7. Hit point advancement is 1/2 hit die rounded up for 2nd level, 1/2 rounded down for third and so forth.

    Easter Eggs - hahaha I should have thought about that. Actually I really missed my opportunity on the 1st of April didn't I.

    No violation of Burg ordinances for selling loot. But setting up a business would require licenses and fees.

    There will be no repercussions for selling loot that had been taken from the goblins. Problems may occur from selling identifiable loot that it can be proven that the characters took from someone under the Burg's protection. For the sake of clarity, you don't have any of that at the moment.

    I'm just updating a few bits and bobs so no post today. Got a little bit to do.

    Talmark come back to me on what feats and skills you want and I'll update your character. I'm assuming that you're going to advance another level of Fighter.

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  8. Indeed I am, sir. Have my laptop here at work with me (updating windows, of course) and will level up over lunch and send the PDF to ya.

    I was running some Vietnam skirmish games for some friends on the April 1st weekend. The 3 games were linked as part of an operation, and just for fun during the last game I had the Main Force VC that were killed pop back up as Agent Orange Zombies. Both surprised and delighted the players. For the record, AOZ burn just as well as normal troops when hit with napalm!

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    Replies
    1. Mate that sounds like you had a lot of fun. I really like the Vietnam era and the zombie genre. Nice combo. What rules were you using?

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    2. The rules are called FNG. I wrote them for Two Hour Wargames years ago and am finalizing the 3rd (and final!) edition. The zombies were easy to slide in as THW also has All Things Zombie, which is a great game with friends or solo. (all THW games can be played solo too, so that's a bonus!)
      When I get the latest FNG done I'll send ya a PDF!

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