And off we go!

[Markdoc]

Started the new FH campaign last night, with the first session. I was worried about getting enough people to play - in fact, now I'm worried about having too many (we have 7, with one more interested if we get a gap)

 

Two players could not turn up to the first session (both had good family reasons, and promised they would be present next time...).

 

We made the first 5 characters up - which I had thought would take the whole evening - and then launched the game. Not bad really, considering that the group are 2 complete noobs and the other 3 have made about 4 characters between them. They are 100 point starting characters.

 

Anyway, we have:

 

1. A noble from another Dimension. He comes from a fairytale universe, with his faithful steed and has no idea about how he got to where he is. He is puzzled that the animals here cannot speak and don't always seem to understand him (he can in fact talk to animals, although the power is not reliable - and he can't understand their replies). He wishes to raise an army and go back to his own land and reconquer his beautiful castle. Talks with an outrageous french accent, peppers his speech with french swearwords and expressions and cries when he is reminded of his lost castle. Is actually not a bad fencer (martial arts) although he uses a weapon called a Flauburge that nobody else has ever seen before (in this world or any other).

 

2. The 7th son of a minor noble. Pretty useless as a fighter, but has lots of courtly graces and is actually a pretty good musician and dancer. Pretty. Cuts a nice figure at balls. Has the disadvantage "cannot fend for himself" since he grew up with servants doing everything and relies now on his extensive network of cousins, aunts,uncles, etc.

 

3. Batman. No, really, that's his role model. A grim and gritty thief-type, with a robin hood sense of justice, who has attached himself to the two nobles in the hope of earning some cash. The best fighter in the bunch, ironically enough.

 

4. A huge hairy hillman - who's a merchant. A vast towering, scarred, one-eyed figure with STR 21 and PRE 20 who strikes fear into many. Until they realise that he is also DEX 10 and SPD1 ( he bought his SPD down!). Talk about lumbering! He's a damn fine merchant though, and he has the magical gift of being literally able to smell treasure. Already nicknamed Hagrid the merchant.

 

5. The daughter of a qurrock-breeder (riding birds used in this part of the world). A decent hunter, a great rider and good with animals. Has the magical ability to enchant items by talking to them (although it's very unreliable - no conscious control) like Sophie in the book of Howl's Moving Castle.

 

Getting them all together and getting them engaged in the plot (a ritual contest to select the yearly husband of the fertility goddess, which has been infiltrated by the forces of naughtiness, with possible dire consequences for the coming year) was an exercise in inventive GM'ing as they completely ignored all the set plot hooks and wandered off in different directions.

 

Argh. Wotta bunch of misfits. Running them throuh the epic storyline I have devised will be fun!

 

cheers, Mark

[Super Squirrel]

Re: And off we go!

 

#1 and #3 concern me. I am willing to guess that #3 is a Hero System n00b and that shouldn't be much of a problem. #1 does concern me more though. I hope it is a trustworthy and dependable player.

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

#3 is a kind-of noob. Totally new to hero system and also new to face to face roleplaying. Is a world of warcraft freak and likes video games. So he's new to the system but quite happy with troll, monsters, dungeons, etc. He should be OK, as he's almost pathologically happy to be playing an actual live roleplaying game.

 

#1 has me concerned too! He did ask me worriedly afterwards if he was laying it on too thick, so we'll see. If not, well, his character is awfully fragile

 

Seriously though, it should be OK - I also had an exposition-mad player with weird powers (one of these players who always has to have a really different chracter from anybody else) but he calmed down and became a good trooper once the story started to roll - and actually ended up giving us some good belly-laughs along the way.

 

Also, the game is designed to start off light-hearted and "adventury" before it turns towards more serious stuff. That was intentional, giving me time to shake the players out and give them some experience with the system and the world, before starting to feed them into situations that could get them killed.

 

cheers, Mark

[Super Squirrel]

Re: And off we go!

 

Asking that question is a good sign. It means that you can approach him easier if you want by saying, "Remember when you asked if you were laying it on too thick..." and it means he is welcome to feedback.

[The Monster]

Re: And off we go!

 

Sounds to me like you've got a pretty creative group - there's a couple ideas I'm gonna steal for characters of my own some day!

[L. Marcus]

Re: And off we go!

 

#5 made me laugh.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: And off we go!

 

What are your ground rules? Clearly you weren't concerned about keeping the group together initially; what do you do when someone wanders off to sniff daisies for an entire session? How do you deal with that? I just stopped letting it happen, by enforcing a certain amount of common-sense into the PCs characters, but you didn't. So how do you handle when all five people chuck the whole plot? Do you railroad them? Let them wander and have them 'lose'? I'm curious!

 

Thanks!

[Curufea]

Re: And off we go!

 

Actually, I've a question on railroading in my campaign, but I'll start a new thread specific to railroading rather than hijacking this one.

[Vondy]

Re: And off we go!

 

Actually' date=' I've a question on railroading in my campaign, but I'll start a new thread specific to railroading rather than hijacking this one.[/quote']

 

Generally, for fantasy, it requires a setting where steam power is available, or some sort of magic that can simulate steam, gas, electric engines. Maybe steam demons trapped in the locomotive that create the pressure to turn the gears to move the train...

[Curufea]

Re: And off we go!

 

Some people have a one-track mind

Anyhow, I will be introducing steam at some point in the future - but that is beside the point.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: And off we go!

 

Anyhow' date=' I will be introducing steam at some point in the future.[/quote']

 

Looking forward to the introduction. I hear Steam is pretty hot....

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

What are your ground rules? Clearly you weren't concerned about keeping the group together initially; what do you do when someone wanders off to sniff daisies for an entire session? How do you deal with that? I just stopped letting it happen, by enforcing a certain amount of common-sense into the PCs characters, but you didn't. So how do you handle when all five people chuck the whole plot? Do you railroad them? Let them wander and have them 'lose'? I'm curious!

 

Thanks!

 

In answer to the question, I set fairly loose ground rules (ie: no outright evil characters, I squelched the guy who wanted to take "loner" as a 20 point psych lim etc.)

 

But it's up to me to hook the players together and so far it's going OK. The way things are set up is that the initial part of the game is designed to let the players "test out" their characters - so a fair degree of freedom is permitted.

 

Once the game gets rolling hopefully the plot will draw them in (I've been able to do this successfully with difficult players before). If they are interested in finding out "what happens next", they will be less inclined to wander.

 

As a bit of backup, I am also going to bait some of the characters - they will be offered a magic gift by a dying man. Knowing players, few will be able to turn down a neato-kewl magic power for free. Of course, once accepted, they will also get a geas (they have alreday been intreoduced to the gift/geas idea), which means to *keep* the neato-kewl magic power, they cannot break the geas - that will shovel them in the right direction. I haven't decided what the magic powers will be yet, though I have a list of ideas - the exact powers on offer will be designed to hook the most troublesome players.

 

cheers, Mark

[Thia Halmades]

Re: And off we go!

 

Wow, nice plan, Mark! I've considered that (Curse of the Azure Bonds uses a similar concept) but never attempted to execute it because I've generally been able to plot hook my fools, which has been good for me. That's on the list of things I may jack, though, especially if anyone gets uppity.

[Rage]

Re: And off we go!

 

Some people have a one-track mind

Anyhow, I will be introducing steam at some point in the future - but that is beside the point.

two track, it's not a mono-rail just a regular old railroad.

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

I don't really have time or inclination for a regular session-by-session log: I should be spending the time to write up new adventures!

 

But here's brief recap to date.

 

One of the missing players turned up for the second session. One didn't, so he's off the list. Pity, he plays in our D20 group and is a fun, team player (although to be honest his attendance there is also a bit spotty, which is why I am not surprised he didn't make it).

 

The new player is Brian (total noob - never played any FRP game before) and his character is a bit more standard - raised in the backwoods by two elderly relatives he has imbibed all their prejudices (as well as their cult secrets) - he distrusts foreigners and actively hates heretics. He's joined the Church Militant and is on the lookout for heretic sorcery to quash. If his grandfather wanted a crusading Paladin, Castor (the character) is probably a bit of a disappointment - he's flat-footed, kind of clumsy and borderline diabetic . But he's also a reasonably competent magician (and an Enchanter, curse it! Which means he has useful mental spells, so I'll have to be careful which NPCs they get their claws on).

 

Castor rolled into town, and managed in fairly short order to locate the Samadrian visitors - as Easterners, he automatically suspects them of harbouring vile sorcery, though so far they have done nothing actually to indicate this (He's right, as it happens, though most of the Samadrians don't know this themselves). He managed to hook up with Batman (who still doesn't have a name yet - if he doesn't have one next session I'll give him one myself!) and persuaded him to break into the house rented by the Samdrian Lord - if Castor can pay him. Castor doesn't have enough money, so is trying to scrounge up a place to live and make some cash.

 

While he was doing that Khazts (the useless lute-twanging minor noble) and the Qurrock-breeder's son (yeah, it was a daughter, originally, but the player asked to change since all the other characters were male - figured it would be easier. He's looking for a new name now too) both latched onto Lanmoniak, the crazed noble from another dimension (because he has several gold coins and they were broke). Also the Qurrock-breeder's son is fascinated by Lamoniak's horse, since he's never seen one before. He's learning to ride it and care for it while teaching Lamoniak to ride a Qurrock.

 

Khazts managed to sponge some living space off one of his cousins and got talked into taking part in the harvest festival - a competition to select the ritual husband of a minor goddess (it wasn't that hard once he worked out he'd get to sleep with the harvest queen if he wins). Lamoniak got talked into it as well - he has decided to go the College of Thaumaturgy in the White City to see if they can send him home, but that is thousands of km away. He needs to make money for the trip and the competition prizes are an honourable way to raise cash. Also, he likes the idea of honour and glory. They hired Batman to scope the other potential competitors with the idea of nobbling them if they can. To help, they also recruited Castor who has wowed them with his magical powers (5 points of TK - they're easily impressed!). He's hired on to help the Temple supervise the contests, being a trusty cult member, so the players see hm as a useful inside man.

 

The reason for all of this is that the competition - which has serious magical consequences - is taking on a decided political overtone, with nobles from rival factions turning up and fielding their own competitors, either openly or secretly. The local nobles are desperate to stop an outsider winning, so they are pushing any local who looks at all hopeful to enter. The players have been doing lots of running around trying to figure out what's going on in the background (why the sudden interest?), while at the same time selling their goods at the market. The enormous Hagrid the merchant (he does have a name, but for cult reasons won't give it out to just anyone) made a huge profit, while the Qurrock-breeder's son hasn't sold any Qurrocks or even any stud fees and is getting desperate (now he regrets all the time spent with the horse!). He hired Hagrid to help him in the market.

 

When they found out how strong he is, Khazts' cousin - Sir Bardath - also helped them hire him to participate in the festival contest. He has no chance of winning, but they are hoping he can maim any potentially dangerous competitors in the wrestling competition.

 

And finally after that, the contests started with rituals and story-telling and the first event - the Ladies' Choice. All the assembled harvest maids and the harvest queeen assembled and the contestants had to "woo" them. This turned out to be a real upset. One of the contestants is the sweetheart of the harvest queen (Corylon). He *really* wants to win. Not only are there valuable prizes (and he needs money to get married) but his sweetheart has to wed - and bed - the harvest king (the players have already worked this out - they are sympathetic, but are they sympathetic enough to throw the contest?) Anyway, I had figured either Corylon or Myhrryn (the secret Samadrian entry) would win - Corylon was the local favourite, He's a good looking lad, he's the harvest queen's sweetheart, he has a magic charm from her, etc - in all he had enough bonuses to raise his oratory roll to 20- Myhrryn had a Charisma spell secretly cast for his benefit, and his good looks gave him a bonus, which raised *his* oratory roll to 20-. Instead the useless lute-twanging Khazts, used his music and dancing skills as complementaries, to his poetry, added a bonus for his 18 COM, another bonus for excellent role-playing ( a brief song about how the Harvest queen's beauty had drawn him away from his house and family) and then rolled magnificently to walk off with first place (rolled 10 under his adjusted skill!). The charming, if slightly insane Lamoniak, basically did the same using courtly grace and oratory and took second prize with a great roll. Poor old Corylon had to be content with a run-off with two other contestants for third and a fair amount of headshaking by the crowd.

 

The next session is the great Qurrock race. The players are already trying to find ways to handicap it in their favour. Hagrid's a bit worried, for two reasons. 1. He's huge. 2. He can't ride. Wait til he finds out he has to jump his trusy steed over a barrier, make it swim a river and various other amusing tricks.

 

If he survives, wait until he finds the next contest is a mounted joust!

 

cheers, Mark

[Outsider]

Re: And off we go!

 

Threaten to name the "Batman" character Wuce Brayne.

[Curufea]

Re: And off we go!

 

Do what I do - get your players to write the adventure log - wave the carrot of an extra XP for it

[Markdoc]

the great qurrock race and the joust.

 

OK, another update for the game...

 

Well, there was a certain amount of skullduggery surrounding the quorrock race. The quorrock-breeder's son managed to get inside the lord's manor and sneak a peak at the mounts (he has the makings of a pretty good thief!). Hagrid bought qurrock food with the plan of scattering it to distract the others' mounts and Khastz had an interesting discussion with a man who wanted to pay him off to take a fall in the race. The others spent some time trying to work out who is competing on behalf of the Samadrians.

 

On the day itself, the competitors had to race on foot to the qurrocks, select their mounts and then race through the twisty streets of the town, up the hill to the gate, jump a barrier at the gate, race to the parade ground, collect a flag, swim their mount across teh river, plant the flag, ride to the magical storm apple tree and collect an apple and then ride back to town and present it to the Harvest queen. Phew. Hagrid the merchant's plan went awry more or less imediately - he's slow so the others outpaced him to the mounts. Lamoniak, the lunatic from another world chose the largest and orneriest qurrock he could see - it was faster than most, but also prone to biting and gave him a -1 on his ride rolls since it fought the reins. Khastz picked a flighty quorrock that was prone to starting (also a -1 on his rolls). The Samadrians cheated by using magic to switch their candidate with an expert ride when he slipped off to use the toilet and he picked the best mount. However, Khastz got off to a flying start using acrobatics to spring on his mount and actually led the pack through the streets all the way to the barrier, though the Samadrian and Lamoniak closed teh ga on their faster mounts. The rest all got tangled in a huge qurrock fight being unable to control their excitable mounts at one stage, with spectators running hither and yon to avoid getting pecked or stamped on as the action spilled into a side street. Hagrid was stolidly bringing up the rear - on foot, leading his quorrock, because he couldn't get it to do what he wanted.

 

The three leaders jumped the barrier and headed down to the flags, neck and neck, while the rest of the field had another pile up at the barrier, with riders falling off and injuring themselves all over. Hagrid finally reachedthe barrier after everyone had gone and used it to climb back up on his qurrock, before setting off sedately in pursuit of the rest.

 

At the flags, which were on poles stuck into the ground, Khastz surged ahead by taking the dangerous course of snatching a flag as he went past at the gallop. The Samadrian tried the same, but muffed his STR roll: he failed to pull it out of the ground and went flying off his mount. Lamoniak missed his grab entirely and had to circle back. By now Sir Baharach had broken free of the pack and he took TWO flags at the gallop, throwing one away so whoever needed the last flag would have to dismount to pick it up.

 

At the river, Khastz got his mount swimming but then fell off and had to paddle to shore under his own power. The Samadrian followed him and did the same. Lamoniak who was coming up fast, came unstuck here - his mount baulked and dropped its head at the river's edge and he went sailing over its neck into the river - he spent the next few minutes trying to get it to go into the river, which took him out of the race. Sir Baraharch came up and drove his mount through the river, staying mounted and picking up some distance on the leaders, who had planted their flags on foot then remounted and raced for the tree. Khastz was back in second place, but when they approached the tree, used acrobatics and riding to stand up and spring into the branches: when he had secured his apple he swung down (more acrobatics) landed on his mount and raced for the finish line ahead of the Samadrian, who had dismounted to search for an apple in the grass. Corylon, the local favourite, had had a rough race - despite being a decent rider he had had some rotten luck. Unlike some of the others though, he had never fallen - that's because a local priestess had decided to help him out - by gluing his trousers to his mount with a spell! However when he got to the tree he needed to climb up - he ended cutting the seat out of his trousers with his knife which cost him valuable time

 

In the meantime, Khastz and the Samadrian were riding neck and neck for the finishing line. At the last moment, splashing back through the ford, Khastz fluffed his very last riding roll and went flying off his mount, face down in the dust. Spitting blood, he had to limp over the finish line in second place. The Samadrian waved to the crowd and then rapidly disappeared so he could switch back with Mhyrryn. The players later worked out that a switch must have taken place, but haven't done anything apart from developing a desire to stomp Mhyrryn.

 

The following night was spent in tending wounds from falls, partying and plotting what to do about the Samadrians. The following day, the qurrock-breeder's son and the merchant (having cut a deal) started selling qurrocks together at the morning market, while the others prepared for the joust (actually just a series of mounted combats, fought in an open field, not a formal european-style joust). Khastz maged to get some light armour, but Lamoniak had none. This was interrupted by the discovery in midmorning of a mutilated body of a woman in a patch of long grass outside town. Much confusion and running around and eventually after rituals of protection and atonement, the joust got underway.

 

This was brutal and bloody. Khastz, depite his lack of any combat magic or much in the way of combat skills actually aquitted himself well against Promidor - a trainee armiger or professional warrior - who used combat magic against him. Khastz drew first blood and got in a couple of good hits but then took a lance - at full gallop - in the 13's and went flying off his mount with half a shattered lance sticking out of him. Despite the fact that the lances were blunt (normal, not killing damage) and light (break if more than 6 BOD done) he came close to death before being healed by a priestess.

 

Lamoniak got matched with Sir Baharach, a veteran warrior and the favourite, but managed to dismount him by crashing his mount into Sir Baharach's and then switched from lance to his speciality, the flauberge (a fencing weapon). He got in masses of hits, but unfortunately could make only a little impact on Sir Barahach's mail - he got a good deal of stun through, though, even though he kept hitting the arms. Sir Baharach evened the odds by cutting the legs off Lamoniak's qurrock with his axe. Before he could kill the stunned and fallen Lamoniak, Laughing Loolie - an intinerant priestess, who was outraged by his foul (fowl) behaviour in attacking the qurrock - cast a spell on Sir Baharach, gluing his boots to the ground - so he had to defend against Lamoniak at half DCV. That nearly did for him, although he tore his feet free at the cost of some phases. His armour saved him, though by then he had lost 9 BOD and almost all his STUN. Lamoniak used his martial arts to good effect, twice tripping Sir Barharach up and then going for called shots while he was down. That was what finally ended the battle - while lying down, Sir Baharach got in a second blow, badly cutting Lamoiak's thigh and stunning him, but Lamoniak got in a simultaneous hit, just pushing his opponent into unconsciousness. It was so close and one of the longest fights I've ever had in FH, going 7-8 turns. The crowd loved it: armoured axeman against unarmoured fencer, blood all over both combatants and only finshed when they were both almost on their last breath.

 

Hagrid faced off against Corylon and his lack of speed and lack of riding skill proved decisive - Corylon rode him down with the lance, then switched to sword and as Hagrid struggled to control his mount, rode in behind him and stuck him in the back. Not very chivalrous, but effective enough - the healers dragged Hagrid off like a sack of potatoes.

 

Healed of his wounds, Lamoniak faced off against Mhyrryn in the third round. Alas, the Samadrians cheated again - under cover of a wall of soldiers who blocked the line of sight, one of their mages used a legerdemain spell to lift Lamoniak's flauberge from its sheath. After the first pass, Lamoniak cast away his lance, reached for his blade and - helas! found himself unarmed. Mhyrryn was able to stab him as he tried to use his qurrock as a weapon, thus ending the combat.

 

We fought out the rest of the combats, around these ones, but I won't go into them here: suffice to say there were deeds of glory done, though no-one was killed. Mhyrryn won the joust, by cunning use of his own defensive combat magic plus the Ledgerdemain spell - first unarming another opponent and last of all, popping Corylon's helmet off. Lamoniak did come in third, however. The players knew something was up and managed to catch the mage who was casting Legerdemain (Agrestis) in the act during the last combat - though he was magically disguised, so they could not immediately identify him. They captured the men shielding Agrestis, although the mage himself escaped into the crowd. However when the men were bought before the priestess, Agrestis - doubling back and hiding behind the stands - used his own magic to interfere with the truth spell, so his own identity remains safe - for now. The players suspect him though, due to the unusual agility shown by the "old woman" during her escape: Agrestis's secret ID is as a jester to one of the visiting lords. They have already seen him tumble in his job as jester.

 

Side events - Khastz (with his high COM) has been asked to a ball at the manor by Lord Raus' flirtatious daughter to "explain the finer points of jousting". There's goingto be trouble with her father. Sir Baharach, ashamed by his loss of temper and by his maiming one of Lord Houndsgar's qurrocks has apologised to Lamoniak and invited him to dinner. The batman character has had a run-in on the rooftops with "the grey fox" - an well known thief/adventuress, although no-one knows what she is doing in town. And Castor the priest, is spending more time at the temple trying to wheedle admittance to the local cult so he can learn their secret cult magic.

 

Next adventure - the wrestling contest.

 

cheers, Mark

[Fitz]

Re: And off we go!

 

That all sounds like a great hoot! (Or possibly squawk -- I assume quorrocks squawk?)

[Enforcer84]

Re: And off we go!

 

Sounds grand Mark.

We played out a footrace/obstical course twice (a series of four ind four different cities) in a D&D game last year it was a hoot! Sounds like your games are even more fun!

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

That all sounds like a great hoot! (Or possibly squawk -- I assume quorrocks squawk?)

 

Yep. I basically modelled their personality off various bad-tempered roosters and parrots I have known.

 

Polly wanna finger!

 

cheers, Mark

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

Another brief update on the game.

 

The ball went off without too much of a hitch, with several other players turning up as "torchbearers" and checking out the assembled nobles, although Khastz is on Lord Raus' "enemies list" now after spending the evening greasing up to his daughter. The "Batman" character - who apparently had a name (Aquila) after all, it just wasn't widely disseminated - spent some time lurking about and following various Samadrians and discovered that someone else is also spying on them - though he has not yet been able to find out who it is, nor actually lay hands on him.

 

The next day the players spent some time doing market stuff and then we went to the wrestling (actually more like Greek Pankration - simply unarmed combat). Unlike the joust this was *supposed* to be a friendly contest of strength. Again, no deaths, but the healers were called on to mend a few broken bones.

 

Jarst Daro, the mysterious stranger, got things rolling by turning up for the wrestling in "classical" attire (ie: nothing at all). The judges made him put a loincloth on, but he's added a few points to his roll at the later "ladies' choice" event This event did not go so well for our players. Khelsen, the huge merchant, was a favourite for this event, but he's so slow and clumsy that his opponent - Carylyon, the local lad - danced around him throwing punches and kicks until he finally fell over and then jumped on him.

 

Lamoniak, who put on the previous day's dazzling display of swordsmanship has martial arts and levels - with sword. Without them, Mhyrryn was able to grapple him and sqeeze him senseless in pretty short order. He did so easily since he cheated, using a magical strength augment loaned to him by his patron which he hid in his a loincloth and Agrestis, hiding under the stands, helped him with magic protection.

 

Khastz drew the really short straw - he faced off against sir Bararach, who not only had greased himself with fat, making him almost impossible to hold (+10 STR for escape) but also used a spell to boost his STR to 30. Khastz stayed out of his grasp for a while but eventually Sir Barharach caught him and flung him into the audience. They got out of the way and Khastz got a broken arm (soon healed by magic, but that's about all the magic healing he can get). The crowd loved it.

 

Laughing Loolie, the trickster priestess was up to her old tricks again - using a "draw attention" spell and a display of her vast bosom to render Mhyrryn DCV 0 for one phase: enough for Carylyon to put him down in the second round, and casting "Fast as the Hare" on Promidor so that he was far more nimble then he expected. But it was Sir Baharach's day - one by one he grabbed all his opponents and threw them sailing out of the ring. Then he went off with a string of fans to drink them all senseless in the taverns.

 

The rest of the players spent the entire match scouring the crowd for magical cheaters. They didn't catch Loolie (who has a small group of men who help in her pranks in return for, ahem, certain favours: she also has the spell "sexual fascination"). They actually discussed if Agrestis would hide under the stands, but for some reason never looked there. Gen, the quorrock breeder, fastened on a cripple on a cart as mostly likely being Agrestis in disguise (since he was small) and stuck with him throughout while the others hunted high and low without success.

 

When Agrestis finally emerged the players decided to trail him and see what he was up to *except* Aquila - who was the only one who might have done it successfully - with the result that Agrestis led them around town, hither and yon until they worked out that nothing would come of this. Aquila meanwhile, had spotted the "man in the brown robe" who was watching the Samadrians. It turns out that he is following one group of them in particular and Aquila followed him following them. He lost the man in brown, eventually, but he knows where the Samadrians (who are actually sorcerors) are staying - but inexplicably didn't tell the others! Argggg.

 

In the meantime, the players had recruited a mercenary (another player, Liz, who has joined to replace the guy who was a non-show and who is playing a no-nonsense female warrior/sailor with two-sword fighting) and spent some time bringing her up to speed.

 

Lamoniak, Gen and Castor - the priest - set off for the sacred stormapple tree and while Lamoniak and Gen distracted the guards, Castor stole three apples with his "mage hand" spell. The apples give some degree of resistance to poison and were intended for helping the contestants in the next day's contest. At some point in the evening, though Castor had an attack of conscience about stealing sacred apples and helping people cheat, so he stole them back and fed them to a quorrock instead.

 

There was a second ball that evening, given by Lord Sorghall. Since the house he has rented was not big enough, he loaned the temple with the aid of a big donation, and had it done out with hanging cloths and pretty lights. Khastz's "little present" was alas not considered worthy so the Lady Jezra spurned him and settled on Lamoniak, with his rumoured wealth, acknowledged sword skills and fabulous "horse" as her new beau. He got an invite and Khastz did not. Khastz got in anyway as a contestant and spent some time chatting up the serving girls. Lamoniak and lady Jezra disappeared behind some hanging cloths while she "explained the finer points of local religion" to him and with the help of her serving maids arranged that they should be discovered in an almost compromising position by her father and Khastz simultaneously. A few angry words but no blows were exchanged and Lady Jezra made both annoyed parties look petty before taking Lamoniak away to do some dancing.

 

Khastz lost his taste for the party after this and being insulted by Agrestis in his official role as jester (Khastz: "What do I care - you're just a fool!" Agrestis. "Yes, but at least *I* get paid for it", etc etc) and left, hooking up with Aquila and Bellona (the new recruit) to drown his sorrows in a nearby tavern. Aquila - sneaking here and sneaking there, earlier on - had noticed some Samadrians paying a particular interest in one tavern which had a guarded shed. He has lipreading - a useful skill - which let him gather that they had plans regarding the shed that night and some more skulking around revealed that the shed was being used to store the barrels of ales for the next day's contest. Thus the three set out to keep a watch on the shed and eventually found out that a loose board in the back gave access to the shed, while the guards stood outside getting free drinks.

 

They eventually worked out that something was going on and managed - with only minor violence - to get past the sentry set, to surprise two samadrian agents in the process of spiking the beer with a purgative (their man would get the antidote). There was a brief fight, with beerkegs rolling hither and yon in the poorly-lit darkness of the shed (the only light was the firelight coming between the planks of the shed from a bonfire outside) and people tripping over them. Khastz put one Samadrian down with a well aimed punch - and a knife in the shoulder from Aquila. The noise alerted the guards who unlocked and opened the shed door. The other Samadrian (they are both sorcerors) used a spell to generate a blinding cloud of black smoke and dragged his comrade out through the door as the guards recoiled and they escaped under cover of smoke. There was seething confusion as the patrons abandoned the bar en masse, thinking it was on fire and there was some running about after buckets and water. Aquila used the confuson to steal the bar's overflowing cashbox When the smoke evaporated the guards were left with Khastz and a now-broken bottle of purgative in among the beer for the next day's contest. He got marched off to the temple by the guards where they had to drag the head priest and priestess out of the party to do justice. Fortunately Khastz was able to explain, and some witnesses backed him up - that, together with a truth spell got him (mostly) out of trouble, but he was sent home under guard so he wouldn't get into any *more* trouble.

 

Despite the fact that he always has a good explanation, Khastz and his friends are getting a reputation as trouble-makers.

 

Lamoniak had a good time with the Lady Jezra, teaching her dances of far-off Moncu and her father is about to have an apoplexy. Everyone got to bed late.

 

The next day was the Intelligence contest, but this was interrupted once again by the discovery of a second mutilated body - this time of a local girl, which stirred up much anger and some fear. It's clear that something serious is going on, now. The priestess of the Crone - the death goddess - noted uneasily that the bites resemble those made by human teeth...

 

A ritual was being performed to keep evil things out (too late, they're inside the walls!) and various people are on the track of the murderer, but the ritual of the contests must go on...

 

And that's where we are up to now. I've left out a fair bit of side stuff - the players don't realise it yet, but they have actually seen the murderer and his victim in the course of last night's events and I introduced two more NPCs and subplots which won't bear fruit until later so I will explain them then.

 

cheers, Mark

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

Wow, I've been really bad about updating this, so I'll skim through the last couple of month's play...

 

After the night's foul play with the beer, the Intelligence Contest was delayed a day and the Wall of Death taken in its place. For this event, the town put a narrow wooden footpath up on top of the battlements between two towers, 10 metres up in the air. The Contestants had to run between the towers, while 5 archers shot at them with blunt arrows. If hit, you had to make a DEX roll (at minuses depending on how much damage there was) to hold your balance.

 

The players spent the morning at the market, selling off the last of the qurrocks and some stud services and then scratted around town trying to see what was going on. Lamoniak had a flowery letter delivered to Lord Raus and Khastz managedto outrun two of Raus' armigers (military retainers) who wanted to "teach him a lesson". A huge crowd assembled to watch the Wall of Death, packed into the streets below or the grassy field outside the town.

 

The first contestant, Khelsen the huge lumbering merchant, got only a short way out of the door before being peppered with arrows - he decided he'd had enough and tried to jump off the wall onto the roof of a house across the street. Alas, he didn't quite make it, grabbing the guttering and tearing it off before crashing down into the crowd. The injured were carried away and Aquila used the opportunity to lighten a few purses in the crowd.

 

Several contestants made the run next. Corylyon, the local lad, ran and got most of the way, battered and bloody before collapsing near the second tower. Poor old Promidor decided the archers would hit him anyway, and sprinted (1/2 DCV, but only one phase of shooting), but took an arrow in the head. He didn't fall off, but was stunned, making him an easy target and went down. Sir Baharach decided to tough it out, trusting in his combat luck and bracing himself with his STR (bonus to DEX rolls not to fall off) but making him half DCV - he made it most of the way to the far tower before collapsing unconscious. Lamoniak was next and he got halfway before taking an arrow to the thighs and stumbling. He lost his balanced and went straight down into the street. He didn't bounce, and the healers dragged him away too - although he's already taken so much magical healing, there's not that much they can do. The crowd was loving it That left Khastz, Vathmar, Jaarst Daro and Mhyrrhyn Calmstorm. Khastz, unfortunately has a severe fear of heights . It took him several EGO rolls to force himself out onto the walk and then once he was started he ran screaming to the next tower - only overcoming the urge to drop and crawl with more EGO rolls. He got there bruised but OK. Vathmar had been boasting about catching arrows - he tried his missile deflection and managed to catch two arrows, to roars of approval from the crowd. He missed the next two and took one in the stomach and one in the groin, doubling up and falling off the wall intothe dry moat. The crowd roared it's approval of that maneuver too - and while they were doing it Aquila took another purse. Or at least he tried - but the mark noticed, called thief and Aquila took off with a mob in pursuit, eventually losing them by hiding under a canvas cover on the docks. Jaarst Daro made his run and also got shot up, eventually dropping to his stomach and trying to worm across so as to make a small target (Boo! Hiss!) He didn't make it . Last of all, Mhyrrhyn jogged across weaving and dodging - he didn't get hit once. Partly because of his dodging, partly because of a protection spell cast on him before hand by Agrestis, when Mhyrrhyn was pretending to take a leak. Since three people made the twoer, there was some debate about making them run again, (Khastz: NOOOOOO!) but eventually they all got first equal rankings.

 

After the wall of death, some of the armigers from Samadrian challenged their opposite numbers from Klinthe to a game of Shield Push out on the parade ground. This game is played by warriors in armour as a training exercise. Shileds are carried, but no weapons. You stick a spear in the ground, with a helmet on the top behind your team (usually 7-12 guys) The other guys do the same. Then you line up, shield to shield - and push. The idea is to break the shieldwall, grab the other guys' helmet and run it back past your spear, while stopping them doing the same. The Samadrians won, by a cunning trick - they had a small fast guy on their team who dropped back as their shieldwall advanced and then ran up over the back of one of his large team members and jumped over the Klinthan's heads. He was halfway to the helmet before they had a chance to react and managed to run it home while his team-mates ran interference for him. The Samadrians went surging in to town chanting about their superiority and the local warriors quickly started to recruit a pick-up team to challenge them. Eventually it was decided there'd be two matches - the Klinthans versus the locals and the winner of that match to take on the Samadrians. The local team was a pretty motley bunch but they had several good players together with some hopeless ones. Lamoniak was at Khastz' cousin's home nursing his injuries and complaining about barbaric sports, but Khastz, Bellona (the female armiger) and Khelsen the huge merchant all took part. The first match went well, with the Klinthans, who were in a bad mood after their earlier defeat, wasting too much time pounding some of the locals into the dirt and were caught off guard a second time, when Khelsen pushed two of the opposing armigers before him making a hole through which Bellona darted - she's SPD4 and lightly armoured, so easily outran her opponents, snagged the helmet and ran it home. The locals went wild. An hour later the second match took place - locals versus Samadrians. The atmosphere was electric, and the city guard had their work cut out for them preventing fights among the spectators. This match swayed back and forth, breaking up into several small fights. More locals got shield-bashed unconscious. Bellona and the fast guy on the Samadrian team both made a run around the edge of the shieldwall and got their helmets - Bellona got swarmed (and stomped, though not badly), but threw the helmet to Khastz before she got taken down. Khastz had to run a long route to avoid the rampaging Samdrians, who now had a numerical advantage and crossed the line a second after the Samdrian runner. With two victories, the Samdrians and their supporters went dancing into town to party, leaving the locals to carry away their wounded .

 

The players ended up at a bar, where people were more than happy to buy them drinks after their valiant efforts and were later involved in a brawl between Samadrians, Klinthans, local townspeople and some hill tribesmen who just joined in on principle. The players got out just as the city guard arrived and started to break up the brawl with heavy staves.

 

Next: The Intelligence Contest!

[Frenchman]

Re: And off we go!

 

Next: The Intelligence Contest!

I'm looking forward to how you'll do this. I hope you realize we'll be stealing much of this for our own games:thumbup:

[Markdoc]

Re: And off we go!

 

I'm looking forward to how you'll do this. I hope you realize we'll be stealing much of this for our own games:thumbup:

 

Feel free - I've written the whole thing up in detail, complete with NPCs, subplots and GM's hints - I'll post it when I have finished this part of the story arc. I still have the rest of the contests to post and the beginning of the post-contest adventures ...

 

cheers, Mark