As we’ve just realized the previous scenario, this one and the next are all linked together. This means we can’t go back to town to upgrade our characters, buy/craft stuff or retire as in my case, etc. So we have to soldier on.
Characters
Lazy Liz the Deathwalker (David) lvl 3, sun-averse, why walk when I can teleport
Britney the Bannerspear (Mathieu) lvl 5 a great leader, might be related to Bruce
Boson the Blinkblade (Guillaume) lvl 5, Master of the 4th dimension
After defeating the Chaos Demon last time we could choose to inspect the spire’s basement or we could be bold, some would say foolish, and jump into the unknown through a teleporting light beam. Of course we chose the latter.
Here’s the whole thing in all its splendor! We start at the bottom and have to defeat the mobs to go up.The illuminated tiles have random effects if one walks over them as this poor living bones discovered after being pulled by the Bannerspear and suddenly became all brittle. He was not long for this world…Here’s the Bannerspear again, fearlessly charging the enemies.Is it a shadow monster behind her now? No, it’s her cheerleader! Go Britney, go!Cleaning up the second level of its last minion. Both the Bannerspear and the Blinkblade are seriously depleted by this time.And the last level won’t be easy…« A bit crowded over here, we need back up! »Time for the Deathwalker to fully unleash her dark powers!
Closing Comments:
Math, ever the perfectionist, wanted to improve his splendid decor even more but hadn’t enough time.
Tough scenario, particularly for my deathwalker who’s a slowstarter character in the best of case and even more so here as I couldn’t afford to quickly bring forth shadows that would be lost after teleporting. Tricky.
As it went, we each did a great job on one particular level.
We’re still doing the unfettered thread of the campaign and this time we’re entering the eponymous Ancient Spire, which I thought we already did but it was some other place we’d entered previously. Anyway, here we are.
Characters
Lazy Liz the Deathwalker (David) lvl 3, sun-averse, why walk when I can teleport
Britney the Banner Spear (Mathieu) lvl 5 a great leader, might be related to Bruce
Boson the Blink Blade (Guillaume) lvl 5, Master of the 4th dimension
We soon find ourselves in front of a scene of utter carnage as robots are carrying body parts (they don’t discriminate on species) and dump them in a pit. The boss of this macabre operation, a Chaos Demon, directs the machines against us.
Hello friendly lil’ robots, are we intruding on your covert dismembering operation? Is that a kidney over here? Not that it’s any of our business…But wait there’s more going on: DJ Chaos Demon is on the floor! Or on the scaffold thing above us, whatever.But the Blinkblade isn’t here to dance, one robotic boltshooter down!Deathwalker and Bannerspear summon shadows and banner to improve the ambience .The Blinkblade quickly gets above, leaving us to deal with the noisy assembly below.The Blinkblade warps space and time and is now behind the clueless Chaos Demon! He then proceeds to shower us with love (healing) and damage our foes with, huh, the accounts differ on what he showered them with exactly. Was it pebbles, acid rain, melting pee, who knows?He picks up a chest and now has the DJ station all for himself! Way to go!Blinkblade: « I’ll kill this dude in no time » Deathwalker: « No, no, please take your time. You know me, killing ruined machines is like the thing I enjoy the most in life. No really, I insist. » Blinkblade: « Fine, fine, let’s procastinate some more, »
Closing Comments:
Easy one complicated and delayed by the fact that I needed to kill Ruined Machines for my personal quest. I needed five and now it’s done!
This scenario is a bit too rigid on its concept (only one character can go above), limiting artificially our abilities (shadows, teleporting, items and so on), a bad case of suddenly you can’t do thisanymore.
Chaos demons are, yes, chaotic. Their abilities are all over the place, that’s fun, good design.
I think that video games have now too prominent an influence over tabletop rgs, often to the point of denaturing the latter. But if we stay clear of what works for crpgs but should absolutely not be imported to ttrpgs, we can absolutely borrow some great ideas from one to the other.
Now the game I’m gonna talk about I can’t say it’s a great game, I would not even recommend it except for a very specific kind of gamers, those who like punishing turn-based tactical games, like say Darkest Dungeon or Battle Brothers.
Dungeon Rats by Iron Tower Studio is kind of an annex to the more complex Age of Decadence game, both set in the same ancient Rome-like world. If the latter offers a full immersive rpg experience, the first only focus on tactical combat with some (very well-made) crafting on the side.
The premise is quite interesting to me: we’ve been sent to a special kind of prison, a deep and nearly depleted mine, we’ve arrived at Rock Bottom… As we’re the fighting type we’ll be spared the back-breaking work and have a few missions until we’ll be facing a hard choice: live our the rest of our miserable, short life in the oppressive darkness or… try to escape.
Now, as we’re in the aptly-named Rock Bottom, to see the light of day and gain our freedom we have to go up!
But in order to do so we first have to go through gang territory:
And that’s where I said to myself that this game would be highly interesting as a ttrpg conversion. DR is a pretty limited game, mostly linear, from one fight to another without a lot of choices. Converted into a proper tabletop dungeon and with faction play with the above-mentionned gangs? And with the fascinating crafting/alchemy system (i.e. you can make liquid fire, or craft The Claw, a spear made with a scorpion pincer). There’s a lot of potential there methinks.
There’s more to fight than fellow prisoners though. From giant ants, scorpions, carnivorous plants, giant spiky worms to… demonic metal-skinned beings! Hmm, yeah, there’s a weird turn into sci-fi in the later part of the game, that’s a matter of taste I guess if one would keep the abrupt theming change or not.
Just for fun, the levels/sub-levels are thusly arrayed in DR, note that the whole thing is more horizontal than vertical (maybe 4 Levels, 5 counting the Fort):
Rock Bottom, where the latest prisoners are dumped
Deep Caves, below Rock Bottom, full of critters and lava but somewhat less depleted in ressources
Old Town, neutral ground, I would imagine, of the upper level
The River, fast underground river, access to precious fresh water, controlled by the Dredgers
Crystal Caves, eerily-glowing minerals
The Mines, labyrinthine, controlled by the Molerats
The Forge, soot-blackened, controlled by the heavily-armored Praetors
Ancient Factory, sub-level, sci-fi, robots
Old Cellblock, « proper » prison, home of the Emperor, ex-gladiator, inhumanly enhanced
Fort, above the dungeon, sunlight at last! but we’re not out of danger yet, a century of legionnaires is between us and freedom
There’s three minor factions on Level 1 of Gunderholfen: the kobolds, the goblins and the hobgoblins, all hostile to each other. The hobgoblins are closer to Level 2 but are stuck inside the dungeon as they don’t have access to any exit (in my version, as written their area has its own entrance). My own explanation for the presence of these three groups is that the goblins were serving the hobgoblins mostly as cannon fodder for exploring the lower level until they had enough, revolted and claimed a part of Level 1 for themselves, The kobolds simply invaded in the ensuing chaos. Of course my players didn’t know any of this but learned of it in this session.
For this campaign we’re using Free League’s Dragonbane as the rpg system and we’re spicing up the whole thing with a Ryoko Kui’s Delicious in Dungeon flavor so to speak.
It was decided that Alfred the hobgoblin would be Lebeau’s hireling, paid by him, and not a full member of the guild for the moment.
Aracyne pays some gold pieces to Cedric the Sage to learn of the history of Gunderholfen in broad strokes.
Ganfal Swamp:
The PCs leave town, cross through farmlands and reach the Ganfal Swamp. This time, two-third of the way in they have a fight against giant poisonous toads. Alfred is wounded and poisoned but survives. The PCs make camp to rest a moment.
While they lunch they ask their new hobgoblin companion, what he knows of Gunderholfen (about time) and they learn a few useful things.
He was outside the dungeon with a hunting party, came back after a few days and he and his companions were surprised to find kobolds at the main entrance. They tried to force their way in but were outnumbered. He was the only survivor and was thrown in prison.
When he left the hobgoblins controlled almost all of Level 1, so something happened to change that.
Negruf is the hobgoblin chief.
The hobgoblins were in the process of exploring Level 2, cautiously, using goblin patrols. Level 2 is made of natural caves and there’s some monstrous critters roaming around.
There’s two entrances to Level 1 (not quite true), the Snake Door and another tree shrouded gully entrance on the northern side of the hill.
(Unbeknownst to him, things changed a lot since he left hunting)
North Side Entrance (Level 1B)
The party goes around the hill and reach the entrance that their new hobgoblin companion told them about.
There’s five goblins guarding the entrance and they tell the PCs that this is goblin territory now. Alfred tells them to stop messing around but they’re serious, they no longer take order from any damn hobgoblins.
Seeing that Aflred can’t make them enter, Hédralynn comes forth and show the goblins the dead kobold chief’s headdress and tells them that they (the PCs) could be useful to the goblins. One of the goblin go fetch their chief.
Chief Yurt arrives with his bodyguards. Hédralynn makes it known that they wish to get to Level 2. After some discussion between them it’s agreed that the adventurers could pass this one time through goblin territory in exchange for 30 gp now and more gifts on their way out.
10 goblins (including the chief) escort the PCs to the eastern end of goblin territory. Behind a reinforced door, beyond a long, dark passage with columns and corpses (both goblins and hobgoblins) littering the floor, is where the hobgoblins are now confined.
As Chief Yurt says farewell to the party, Hédralynn executes her plan, she lobs two fireballs at once, one at Yurt and another to the goblin in charge of this guard post! The latter dies instantly but Yurt survives just to be finished by an arrow from Aracyne. The surviving goblins, still outnumbering the PCs 8 to 5 yells angrily and try to take advantage of their superior number. One lucky goblin pierces Malique’s boot with his spear and cuts his big toe off (injury). But three more fireballs from the mage definitely turns the fight to the adventurers’ advantage, not too soon though as more goblins are coming in.
Malique snatches Yurt’s body from the floor, Alfred takes back the gift of gold and then they all flee through the passage to the east. The last two in the passage, Lebeau and Alfred, are hit by stones from goblin slingers and almost don’t make it but they see the hobgoblin guards and Alfred yells at them to open fast and they do.
After a discussion with the hobgoblin guards, helped a lot by the fact that they are accompanied by Alfred, the PCs are escorted to chief Negruf. They tell him of their objective of going down a Level and explore. They give him the corpse of Yurt, whom the hobgoblins sees as a traitorous rebel, and the gold. They tell him of how they saved Alfred from the kobolds too.
Negruf is pleased and allows them safe passage and also let them have a room to rest.
Closing Comments:
Olivier’s love of hirelings and Marjorie’s usual craftiness led in this session to their party shortcutting a big chunk of Level 1 and they’ll be able to go to Level 2 next session. They also have a potential alliance with the hobgoblins already in the going but they’re now enemies of the goblins.
Eventually they’ll have to figure a way out of the dungeon but all in due time…
How Negruf should see the adventurers? They can help him with his goblin problem so I think he clearly has something to gain out of it for the moment.
First session of what should be the main dish ot this new campaign: the Gunderholfen megadungeon. It’s mostly vanilla fantasy (less so the deeper you go!), but after years of kinda atypical D&D I think it will still feel refreshing. We’ll see how it goes.
For this campaign we’re using Free League’s Dragonbane as the rpg system and we’re spicing up the whole thing with a Ryoko Kui’s Delicious in Dungeon flavor so to speak.
We start in Longfelt. The PCs hear that the mutants that they had saved are slowly getting back to normal at the town’s sanatorium. Hédralynn sells a scroll of diminution to a gnome magic-user and buys some goods in exchange. The characters leave town, walk through farmlands until they reach the Ganfal Swamp. They have several hours of walking on a treacherous path but they manage to reach the ancient dwarf hold without incidents (no encounters rolled).
Snake Door Entrance (Level 1A)
There’s a lot of small, clawed footprints and piles of damaged bones around the entrance. The interior is dimly lit with flickering light.
Three kobolds stand guard and threatens the adventurers with their spears. One is slain quickly and the two others flee inside, side-stepping one area on their way.
The PCs ran after the fleeing kobolds but took care of not stepping on the suspicious area themselves. Aracyne broke his bow trying to shoot down a kobold. Malique managed to catch one and slew him with his warhammer. The other suffered from the same fate soon after.
This wasn’t discreet at all however and now the PCs could hear kobolds coming from the east and from the north at the same time. Aracyne borrowed Hédralynn’s bow and killed an incoming kobold as Malique got in melee against two others. Malique is very efficient with his warhammer but also got stabbed by a spear but nothing serious.
Meanwhile Lebeau was facing two other kobolds that tried to bait him into a trap but weren’t subtle enough. One even fell headlong into the hidden pit when he tripped on his own feet in the course of the fight.
After taking care of the last kobold together, the adventurers inspect a half-rotten blue curtain and find a passage behind.
They get into the chief’s hall. A fearsome kobold, as fearsome as a kobold can be, is flanked by three large weasels and there’s also 5 kobold guards.
A big fight ensues. Hédralynn starts to lob fireballs (dragonbane’s fireballs are single target 2d6 dmg, or more if boosted) with abandon. Aracyne finishes a giant weasel with a well-placed arrow. Malique does his best to block spear thrusts at the front. The adventurers prevail but Malique sports many wounds now. Hédralynn does her best to heal him with her magic.
Lebeau finds a door behind a wall hanging, this leads to the chief’s modest treasure of copper pieces.
Another door in the chief’s hall leads to a larger room that smells of charred flesh. A kobold shaman starts to casts a spell at them as his guards charge the adventurers. Lebeau has a hard time fighting as the shaman unleash a swarm of insects at him. Fortunately the shaman isn’t long for this world as he gets a fireball and an arrow from the elves PCs. One kobold surrenders after his colleagues die and gives some information on the lair’s layout, where the jails are after being asked.
Backtracking a little, the adventurers go the kobolds’ jails but a portcullis is blocking their way. The two dogmen manage to force it open. There’s a brief fight thereafter against two kobold guards.
There’s two prisoners still alive, the daughter of Clement the tailor and one severely wounded hobgoblin. For some reason Lebeau is convinced that the latter will be a fine addition to the party and asks Hédralynn to spend her last bit of magic on healing him. Lebeau offers a full treasure-part to the hobgoblin if he joins the guild but it will be up to the Aracyne the guild leader to make such a contract or not.
The adventurers leave Gundeholfen, go across the Ganfal Swamp safely and get back to town.
Closing Comments:
Dragonbane characters start as capable adventurers but they don’t really ever have access to game-changing spells or abilities, unless they find magic items that is. I’m not sure how it wil impact the game later on to be honest.
I’ve shortened the walk to the dungeon through the Ganfal Swamp but nonetheless I have to remember that crossing the swamp should be seen very much as an irritating and serious logistic issue to solve before long i.e having a base nearer.
They’ve gone through a big chunk of the Kobolds lair and killed 2/3 of them but it wasn’t that easy either. Malique got almost injured despite being the most heavily armored until Olivier reminded Edmond that he could try to block one Kobold’s fatal spear attack with his shield and he succeed in doing so.
As we’re not playing a gold>>xp game I’m cutting dramatically on the amount of treasure they find. In fact, most creatures won’t have anything of value. Sorry, but not sorry!
The first kobolds that have fled should have alerted 2-3 more kobolds immediately in the next room instead of going farther on the lair. My first mistake of the dungeon happened really quick! I have to look at a few adjacent rooms whenever they advance into a new one just to be sure. I’ll prepare an enemy roster per area next time and won’t be caught off-guard…
The start of a new thing for us. This time we’ll have a megadungeon called Gunderholfen as our campaign tentpole. You’ll learn about it soon enough. But not now, in our first session the players have chosen instead to go into the Magical Forest to explore The Hole in the Oak.
TTRPG system used: Free League’s Dragonbane instead of OSE
Aside: Yes, once again I’ll be running adventures within a system not intended for them. This is the way I’ve been doing things for a while now, a bit more complicated as I have to adapt quite a few things, but there’s an intent behind this… Huh, yes, there’s an intent I’m telling you!
Furthermore, I’ll be borrowing some concepts from Ryoko Kui’s Delicious in Dungeon.
Player Characters (PCs):
Aracyne (Isaac), Elf Hunter, Guild Leader
Malique, (Edmond), Dogman Knight
Hédralynn (Marjorie), Elf Mage
Jean Lebeau (Olivier), Dogman Fighter
We start in Longfelt. The party meets with the town’s high constable Vandemaut who wants them to go check on the dwarven ruins of Gunderhlofen, see if there’s monsters inside or just humanoids. « Oh, I almost forgot », he said, « there’s the daugther of Clement the taylor missing, probably held captive into the ruins. There’s a reward if you manage to save her ». The adventurers buy a few goods and leave town.
They don’t go to Gunderholfen though, they go explore a place that Aracyne had found earlier while roaming the Magical Forest.
The Hole in the Oak. Dungeon Type: Natural (Pertubed).
The PCs enter a passage at the base of an ancient oak. They see hoof-prints and boot-prints on the ground. NOLLY’S KINGDOM is carved on a root.
They manage to slip through the roots and go left at a junction. A purple-robed man appears from thin air and delivers a semi-coherent message before disappearing.
They get into a circular room with a rug in the middle. There’s a rune under the rug.
Thence, the PCs open a door west and find two scrolls and numerous jars with tiny dead persons floating in them. They take the scrolls.
Going north, they are blocked by a locked door and then open another one into a room that has a pit filled with grimy water and a suspicious pile of gold on the other side. They don’t fall for it and go elsewhere.
Going on they hear the subtle sound of a door opening behind them, the one that they found was locked. Three foul-smelling troglodytes are coming at them! The two dogmen have a hard time because of their sensitive sense of smell. The adventurers prevail but Malique is wounded.
In the big adjacent room through the now open door, the PCs find a secret door and a chest full of silver pieces.
Thence, the PCs go north, they hear the sound of running water. They turn a corner and stumble upon several naked corpses on the ground. A beast lore check tells Hédralynn that they’re most likely ghouls and the PCs retreat silently.
Backtracking a little, the adventurers find another access to the underground river and even take the time for some fishing with the fishing canes readily available. They catch several fishes that will come in handy later on.
A bit further, they get into a large room with some statue and with several doors and passages going in every direction.
In the nearest passage they find a dead dwarf with a coil of nasty black vine around his neck. They see the same black vines hanging from the ceiling a bit further.
They try another way. Listening at a door they hear loud snoring. They open the door and see an ogre, terribly malformed and sleeping on a large chair. A makeshift jail hold 4 prisoners, barely human mutants. The adventurers want to free them and Hédralynn opens the jail’s door with a spell. The Ogre doesn’t wake up luckily but the mutants eye the adventurers with a look of hunger. They receive fresh raw fish that they devour instantly Gollum-like.
Fed mutants in tow, the PCs go explore a strange metallic room nearby. There’s a huge metal ball on one side and 6 levers on the wall. That doesn’t hold the interest of the adventurers and they go further south along another passage.
To their left is a huge widening natural cave but they go right, near the entrance in fact, into a small room with all sort of root faces. The faces speak in unison and offer knowledge in exchange of payment. Cordélia give some silver pieces and learn of the « treachery of the gnomes ». Another go and this time it’s « the fruits of the underworld are magical but can twist the mind of the weak-willed ».
Going further they enter a spiralling passage. They also see hoof-prints going in. They find bright-colored hats and cloaks hanging from roots and Jean takes one of each. But seeing that there was 12 hats the PCs get a little anxious to encounter their hoof-footed owners and decide to call it a day.
They exit the dungeon and escort the mutants back in town to see if someone could help them with magic or something.
Closing Comments:
I’d only skimmed through the adventure prior to running it but it has a very user-friendly layout and it went smoothly enough.
The players had more positive comments about the new system than about the adventure itself. in particular they liked how xp gains is attached to the use of skills in Dragonbane.
So we have a party of two elves and two dogmen, that’s a bit weird haha! The Dogman kin is not even a thing in Dragonbane but it replaces the Wolfman as a throwback to Kobolds (that are bipedal dogs) in Delicious in Dungeons.
The Mage’s magic trick Open/Close isn’t supposed to work on locked doors so I could have retconned the Mutants and Ogre situation but I’ve let it go this time.
Ahh, I’m not much of a multi-tasker (don’t ask my wife what she thinks of it). I’m always missing several cool moments that I should definitely have taken pictures of but didn’t ’cause I’m too busy with managing my cards or something. This time was worst than usual, don’t know why.
Characters
Lazy Liz the Deathwalker (David) lvl 2>>3, sun-averse, why walk when I can teleport
Britney the Banner Spear (Mathieu) lvl 5 a great leader, might be related to Bruce
Boson the Blink Blade (Guillaume) lvl 5, Master of the 4th dimension
After the last scenario with the elevator we had a choice opened to us, go to the quatryl library or to the rusted tunnels. One sounds a lot cooler than the other but, the fact that there was an alarm system activated on the rusted tunnel was lure enough for my character as she hates ruined machines (her personal quest).
Boson: « Why oh why didn’t we go at the Quatryl Library? »Britney pierces through a Flaming Bladespinner: « Bah! That’s not so bad! »« Ok guys we’ve reached the door, now here’s the big question: short or long rest? »There’s no end to these unfettered coming at us. Let’s collapse the whole thing! No, wait! There’s treasure to take first!No treasure? Some more Xp then and we’ll call it a day…
Closing Comments:
This one should be easy for any party sticking to the scenario goal. Or could go really bad otherwise!
The treasure is a good tactical dilemna though as the Blink Blade going for it got surrounded pretty quickly by spawning enemies and thing got a little hairy for a moment. As it was, the Blink Blade gave me the opportunity to kill several ruined machines. I hesitated to continue the destruction of ruined machines but in the end I got ahold of myself and destroyed the debris pile with a good shadow attack less things got too risky for us.
Session impromptue de D&D 5E alors que ce qui était prévue était plutôt la session annuelle de Vampire: Dark Ages (qui avait déjà été remise à plus tard ce printemps) mais deux des joueurs ont laissé tombé à la dernière minute. Le problème c’est que tous mes efforts de préparations des dernières semaines ont été mis au placard et en remplacement je me retrouve à faire une session d’une campagne quasi-abandonnée! Mais au minimum je pouvais me rabattre sur ma préparation antérieure (principalement celle-ci).
Personnages Joueurs (PJs)
(Marjorie) Kalohan, (level 11) High Elf Wizard (evoker), Inheritor, doit trouver un sort inconnu jusque là avant de pouvoir obtenir son héritage
(Isaac) Anfi, (level 11>>12) Locathah Fighter (eldritch knight), Outlander, venu sur la terre ferme en passant par la Caverne-Tunnel, là pour découvrir ce nouvel environnement + Salamandre Géante
(Olivier) Léon, (level 9) Human Monk (way of shadow), Outlander, revenu à la vie grâce à Zotzilaha, maintenant libre de faire ce qu’il veut
(Edmond) Vingt, (level 8>>9) Myconid Druid (circle of spores), Acolyte, envoyé de Zuggtmoy, la Déesse du fongique + Fourmi Zombifiée
(Chris) PaxDouble-Poches, (level 10), Halfling Rogue (arcane trickster), Criminal, fuyant un passé criminel, a vu de ses yeux les trésors merveilleux qu’a rapporté le ranger Flyzus de sa dernìère expédition et s’est immiscé dans le groupe depuis
(Chris) Rufb (level 10), Half-Orc Barbarian (berserker), Mercenary Veteran; capturé par des pterafolks, seul survivant de sa bande de mercenaires, délivré par Flyzus au sommet du Firefinger
(Jason) Shin, (level 10) Tabaxi Fighter (arcane archer), Outlander, veut devenir le plus grand chasseur de tout les temps + Vorn, Shield Guardian
Intro: Coup d’État à Port Nyanzaru
De retour de leur dernier périple dans les jungles de Chult, les aventuriers ont pris connaissance des bouleversements politiques dans la ville principale de la péninsule, Port Nyanzaru. En effet, un membre du conseil de gouvernement, Ifan Talro’a, s’est emparé du pouvoir avec l’appui de mercenaires étrangers et d’un mystérieux chef criminel (Jobal).
Les aventuriers étant à peu près en guerre ouverte contre ces mêmes mercenaires, il ne leur sied pas du tout de les voir placer leur marionnette en tête de la ville…
Entrée et Retrouvailles
Avec un bateau-volant sous la main, faire le trajet jusqu’à Port Nyanzaru depuis leur repaire ne leur a jamais été aussi facile et rapide. Le capitaine Flyzus les dépose à une distance raisonnable de la ville pour ne pas trop afficher leur arrivée. Ensuite, profitant de leur réputation bien méritée de sauveurs, ils se dirigent vers le quartier des pêcheurs (Tiriki’s Anchorage) où les locaux favorisent leur entrée discrète.
Art: Mehmet Ozen
Pax et Léon surveillent les patrouilles des mercenaires, puis à l’aide d’un contact, le groupe s’infiltre à l’intérieur des murs de la ville par un tunnel de contrebandiers. Après quelques essais infructueux, Pax réussit à entrer en contact avec des membres de la Main Mauve, des teinturiers/gang de rue à la solde de Jessamine, une membre du conseil abolit et opposante du nouveau gouverneur. Dans le repaire de cette dernière, ou est aussi présent le magicien Wakanga, les PJs en apprennent beaucoup sur la situation. Après quelques hésitations, les aventuriers décident de s’en prendre à la partie cachée, mystérieuse, de leur ennemi en tentant de sortir Jobal de l’équation. Ce dernier à sa base principale quelque part dans les tunnels sous les antiques ziggurats de la Vieille Ville.
Un bâteau de pêche dépose les PJs près de la Vieille Ville, une illusion programmée de Wakanga les aide à passer inaperçu. Kalohan utilise un sort de True Seeing et trouve une entrée secrète dans un endroit nommée le Gauntlet où des spectacles sanguinaires ont lieu couramment. Les aventuriers s’y engouffrent…
Sous la Ville
Après une première salle bourrée de pièges et une deuxième pleine d’ennemis morts-vivants, les aventuriers s’enfoncent plus avant et affrontents d’autres morts-vivants, cette fois juchés sur un système de passerelle surplombant du bétail en contrebas. Un usage judicieux du sort Shatter de la magicienne accomplit une bonne partie du travail en précipitant les ennemis dans le troupeau, un piétinement s’ensuit….
Plus loin, une grande salle contient de nombreuses cages avec toutes sortes de bestioles à l’intérieur, le tout gardé par des cultistes (des guerriers et une mage). Les PJs ont un plan redoutable: laisser s’échapper des monstres tandis qu’ils s’occupent des gardes les plus proches. Kalohan brise la cage d’un wyvern, la bête s’empresse de terrasser la mage cultiste tout près et prise au dépourvu.
image: Rhadov
Une deuxième cage d’ouverte, cette fois par Pax, voit des Ettercaps cavaler vers la liberté après avoir empêtrés dans leurs toiles leurs geôliers .
Une fois les cultistes éliminés il y a un moment tendu alors que le wyvern semble hésité à les attaquer aussi mais finalement la bête part dans la diretion opposée (au hasard). La suivant à une certaine distance, les aventuriers voient le wyvern confronté à des adversaire morts-vivants et être submergé sous le nombre. Des flèches explosives de shin ont tôt fait de faire le ménage après la mort du wyvern.
TBC
Notes du DM:
Marjorie penchait davantage pour organiser une guérilla contre le nouveau pouvoir mais le manque d’enthousiasme des autres joueurs pour cette idée a fait tourner vers une implication plus directe des PJs (baston!).
Pour faire vite, j’ai « emprunté » la section Blood Pens du donjon Doomvault (Tales of the Yawning Portal) et l’ai présenté presque tel quel pour une fois.
Les joueurs ont bien apprécié d’avoir des monstres dans leur équipe en quelque sorte.
Our second session of the campaign outside of the Château. This one was a bit laborious in the going as the three boys were out of their zone of comfort in how to approach a somewhat subtle objective. It also led to an absolutely major change of the campaign further on, one that I’ve hinted was possible but I thought was unlikely to happen.
The action this time is set into the city of Ximes, in Averoigne, with a backstory as it turned out heavily inspired by The Holiness of Azédarac by Clark Ashton Smith and, as is my fancy with this campaign I’ve used material from Gabor Lux to help me flesh out the setting a little more.
TTRPG System used: Worlds without Number, by Kevin Crawford
Adventurers – Player Characters (PCs)
Noah (Isaac), crafts stuff, has a repeating crossbow and a magic sword called Scrupulous, Expert lvl 6
Cordélia Lenoir (Marjorie), using the dark arts for Good (probably), Necromancer lvl 5
Monmon (Edmond), has a powerful antique spear, Warrior lvl 6
Paul Nareff (Olivier), friend and sponsor of the numerous Jean clan, Warrior lvl 6
Rumors:
There’s an extensive network of tunnels below the city of Ximes. Smugglers who makes the run on the Ysoulde river use the tunnels to hide their stuff.
Bishop Azédarac is often seen with merchant Jehan Mauvaissoir, a shady individual whom, like the bishop, nobody seems to have known a few years ago.
One important piece of information was obtained in downtime has Cordélia has finished deciphering the notes of the late Rogat Demazien. The latter had some kind of a deal with the « Holy Man »: find a way to create and control gargoyles in exchange for the recipe of a powerful time-travel potion. Could this saintly man be Bishop Azédarac? Certainly all the rumors they heard about him made it sound likely.
Could be useful as for now the adventurers have to work for the Bénédictins monks and the Church in finding incriminating evidence against the infamous bishop to pay off their debt.
Arriving in Ximes
Cordélia sends her homonculus at the cathedral to spy on Azédarac’s entourage. She finds a mark in the person of a young nobleman, one Boudevoy, who’s to become a churchman and is now a protégé of the bishop.
The adventurers manage to join a game of cards with Boudevoy at the Gamesman’s Court, Cordélia uses her natural charm on naive Boudevoy and convince him to show her (and her friends) where he works, at the cathedral.
Inside the cathedral, with the information gathered by the homonculus and with Boudevoy as a laissé-passez of sort, the party manage to find a door leading to the undercity.
They get into a large room lit by two braziers, armed men block their way, They get their weapons out and the fight is on! Even if the thugs prove no match for the battle-hardened veterans they still fight to the last one.
Thence, the PCs get into another large room and choose to follow the more visibly well-trodden path on their right, ignoring many others.
After a few turns this leads them to a locked, reinforced door. Noah starts to try some of his false keys but someone from the other side of the door says that whoever is there better leave very soon.
The adventurers retreat no further that in the corridor behind the angle and goad the threatmongers into coming to them. The door opens, furtive footsteps, almost inaudible. Noah advances, crossbow in hands but gets jumped upon by three assassins and almost die. Fortunately his companions rush to help him and manage to prevail.
Cordélia, Paul and Monmon then disguise themselves with the assassins’ clothing (bloodsoaked as they are) while Noah will wait back with most of their equipment.
They open the door into a large, dimly-lit room with other likewise clothed people and try their best to be inconspicuous. They get to the other side after uttering a quick explanation and get through another locked door.
Thence, they get lost for some time in a network of confusing corridors before finding a secret passage. They go North and open a door into a large plush hallway with a dozen thugs playing cards or sipping beverage. There’s a heavy curtain on the northern wall, the adventurers want to check it out but are stopped « did the Boss asked for you? » to which Cordélia replies that indeed they are here to make their report on the intruders situation. The PCs are eyed suspiciously but are brought forward nonetheless (and pretty much trapped).
Behind the curtain is a small room with arrow slits on each side, a set of bars blocks another area with and a vague human shape can be seen behind a veil: « Do you think you can fool me? Men, bring the other one » And here comes Noah, with his wrists tied together.
« Certainly not » replies Cordélia, thinking fast. And acting on her strong suspicion that it was Azédarac himself behind the veil: « We’ve been sent by the church but we’d much rather make a deal with you, something that could benefit us all and allow my special, frowned-upon talents to flourish… »
And so, after a bit more discussion between the adventurers and Azédarac (because indeed it was him), they reached some kind of understanding. Through his powers he would endeavor to get himself and his new allies into another epoch entirely no less…
Closing Comments:
There was many ways to approach the (ultimately discarded) mission. The most likely I thought would have seen the party explore a good chunk of the undercity, with possibly many sessions to do so. It did not happen like this at all and I was a bit disappointed quite frankly. I wanted encounters with hanging snagworths and slimecones and dubious characters but instead my players managed, part by inspiration and part randomly, to get the shortest route possible to the hidden domain of Azédarac.
Of course Azédarac doesn’t feature in Gont: nest of spies, I’ve switched him over with the assassin leader Grave-Wight. Likewise, the cathedral took the place of keldor’s manor.
I still feel a bit of an impostor when I cut open an adventure or setting, discard unwanted stuff, add some other, switch characters and so on and sew it back together to run at my table but at the same time I think it’s the next best thing if I don’t take the time to create my own.
It’s the end of this Castle Xyntillan run, big hanging threads and all, just like that.
It’s the beginning of something else if we choose so, I’m not quite sure myself. Do we hear the call of Khosura?
Okay we’re now truly in unfettered territory and this scenario is one of the best to date in my opinion. Of course the fact that Math took the time to put the main tile on a real mechanical device that could simulate our descent helped make it really impressive!
Characters
Lazy Liz the Deathwalker (David) lvl 2, sun-averse, why walk when I can teleport
Britney the Banner Spear (Mathieu) lvl 4 a great leader, might be related to Bruce
Boson the Blink Blade (Guillaume) lvl 5, Master of the 4th dimension
We’re on board the derelict elevator with its guards, some Ruined Machines, and we’re passing by side-platforms occupied by Ancient Artilleries. 12 rounds to go!
And a lot of tokens telling us that we’re in for a few unexpected things too…Shadows and banner out. Meanwhile the frantic Blinkblade jumps on the nearest platform to take out the artilleries.The Banner Spear will mostly stay in one spot doing what she does best: absorb and dish out punishment.4 rounds in and the security is keeping us very busy!Fortunately, the Ruined Machines have seen better days and aren’t very effective.Britney pulls an artillery on our side: « Come over here! »Debris keep falling down near us and now, a more potent defender shows up, a Flaming Bladespinner.We have the upper hand though but we’re still getting deeper and deeper. 3 more rounds to go!2 more of these dangerous foes but with the banner behind us we’re sure to prevail!
Closing Comments:
Most impressive set-up with Math’s 3d decor and very enjoyable tactical challenge.
It looked like a hard scenario on first sight but we managed to defeat the ennemy waves without much of a sweat.
The Ruined Machines kept getting the same card at random, Signal Jam, one of the least troublesome that only put the muddle condition on us. That helped us a lot.
The Blinkblade quickly killing off the artilleries on each side platforms while the Banner Spear and Deatwalker could stay put, focusing their efforts on the main tile, meant a very optimal situation for our team composition.
The Banner Spear even managed to get her mastery with the banner surviving to the end from round 1.
I’ve killed a whole bunch of Ruined Machines, advancing my personnal quest more that I’d hoped for.
Streets & Spores 