LFG Session 1: A Rat In The Hand

 Run Date July 16, 2022

I feel like I’m eternally behind on prep, but I hope to have a strong foundation to work outward from in due time. The session itself covered a little bit of everything despite being a bit too by-the-numbers for my preferences, and the players seemed to enjoy themselves. The group took ~7 days to complete their missions, leaving on the 16^th of Cervis Rising and returning on the 23^rd of the same.

PCs

Varsay- Lv1 Artificer

Hallow Sween- Lv1 Fighter

Rebel- Lv1 Monk

A Rat in the Hand

We open with the party chillin’ in an old tavern called the Red Tankard in the trade district of Riversmeet. It’s your typical place for rumors and job posts. Of the options available, the party found themselves discussing profit, risk, and altruism with Rebel and Hallow favoring the latter and Varsay the former (nobody liked risky business). After a bit of discussion, the group decided to hit up a call by an apprentice alchemist from the Amstral University to inquire about his request for a particular ingredient. They headed down the road a ways to an inn their potential patron was staying in.

The party were somewhat taken aback by the chemical burns across the top of the alchemist’s skull, otherwise they jumped right into it with a flurry of questions. Turned out his master was quite the eccentric and enjoyed experimenting with all sorts of concoctions, and for this particular brew he needed a large fang from a rat infused with the energies of the Wolfsmere. They weighed the deal a bit, but when they heard about the reward (far more than other offers running at the moment) they jumped right on it. While they were headed back to the Red Tankard, they noted that the place they’d be hunting was in the same direction as one of the requests they’d discussed previous. Two rats, one stone.

The patron of the request happened to be an old gentlemen well into his sixties; a Kairnite Priest looking for an escort to a town that burned down some 50 years previous at the edge of Crestwood. (WB Note: Kairn, The Vigilant, represented by the brass lantern housing a silver crescent moon, is the deity of death, release, and peace. Kairnites are generally nomadic, wandering into old roads, lost villages, and deep forests in search of lost souls, and guiding them to the afterlife). Varsay was not particularly impressed by the payout, and negotiated with the priest for a bit. They settled on a couple extra gold, or something from one of the Kairnite caches on the way to Crestwood. With everything sorted, the party set out from the southern gate of Riversmeet, heading south.

It was night 2 when they had their first encounter, and with Reaction Rolls, I got to do some interpretation. The group settled down around their fire and decided on watches. Prior to going to sleep, they noticed the moon was full (or close enough) and there was a silver glow coming from a large old tree some 60ft or so from their camp. The tree had a circular “brand” on its trunk, but nobody dared go near. The group asked the priest (James) about it, and he warned them against it: “Probably faeries or some such, best to stay away. They’re just as like to steal you than help you.” (WB Note: My original hope for the baseline of the world was old fairy tales; Grimm type stuff. I use Fae and Faerie liberally in reference to many supernatural occurrences). The party took James’s advice, choosing not to toy with powers of the unknown. Too bad the powers were not amused.

First watch, Hallow. Things were peaceful for about an hour before she started to hear a strange high pitched giggling “swinging” from her left to her right ear. She started looking around, but saw nothing but the camp and the shimmering brand upon the old tree. She decided to walk it off a bit and patrol the camp, making slow laps around the edge of the fire. The giggling slowly got louder, closer, and on her third lap she noticed there was an extra shadow near hers. It was half her height longer and much wider. She tried again to look behind her and found nothing. Sufficiently freaked out, she began shaking Rebel awake. Rebel, despite being all sorts of drowsy, instantly spotted the edge of a silver disk reflecting the light from James’s lantern (Kairnite lanterns, being special holy objects, give off a purifying white light). The monk slowly got to her feet and started to kick James awake while the creature started conversing with Hallow.

The back and forth was short and simple, the creature noted they were searching for something and it would help them find it, but it didn’t want them waking up the priest. Unfortunately, between Rebel’s kicking and Hallow’s growing voice, the rest of the camp was rousing. James grabbed his lantern and started chanting the massive shadow creature away, tearing it away from Hallow’s shoulders. After that, the group decided to pack up, stay close, and get the tree out of sight. (Final Note: LFG Deluxe 148, Forest result 17, 50/50 good vs bad (bad), reaction positive, friendly curious; Interpretation: Old spirit bound to tree by ancient seal, looking to build trust but inevitably bait, harm, or trap the party in some way).

The party arrived at the old burned hamlet the next day. As the priest told it, the place had burned some 50 years back, but for some reason nature was being prevented from taking its natural course. He believed the place haunted by bound souls, and proceeded through the old structures and charred remains with his lantern and prayer. The group in the meantime was assigned to gathering stones for the cairn and patrolling the area. Rebel, being somewhat curious about the place, checked out one of the bigger frames near the well. It was an old town meeting hall or elder’s house. She tried to get a sense of how dangerous or haunted things were, and discovered an overgrown cellar door that sent a chill straight through her heart. She immediately went back to gathering rocks.

A little after noon, the group has lunch and James explains the purpose of the rocks. They help him assemble the cairn and he pulls out a long candle and lights it. With his work finished for the moment, he told the group that they were welcome to search the area for any old valuables if they so chose: “We understand symbolism as much as the next, but the souls of those passed have no use for the materials of the living.” Rebel mentioned the overgrown cellar and her sense of dread. As she had before, the others decided better safe than sorry.

There was some time to burn in the day and the party was still interested in finding the Infused Rat. They left James to his vigil and headed a few miles into Crestwood proper to try their luck. They spent some time searching for tracks and found a path covered by all sorts of creatures’ passing; big to small and every print imaginable. This was where they set a trap. It was a simple design reminiscent of old cartoons: big boulder attached to tree via rope, cut rope and squish. Additionally, they chose to camouflage as best they could and make a blind out of their little camping spot.

I haven’t mentioned yet that it’s summer, humid and hot as hell. They pushed through this hour by hour, first seeing a small family of rabbits and kits, then a deer that dove just beside them the moment it sensed something amiss. Dice be a lady because, despite the odds, the thing that was coming happened to be what they were looking for. It started as a mass of moving brush and tall grass, no confirmation of what was coming aside from a weird, almost humanoid wailing. It wasn’t loud, but more like a distant mass of tiny cries. The party stood fast while they waited and saw a group of giant rats diving out of the brush as they tackled the rabbit family from earlier like a herd of wild coyotes. I’m not sure what narratives the players had been involved with in the past, but they didn’t seem to expect this little twist. If this wasn’t a public library game, I’d probably have gone a little more descriptive. Alas.

Hallow and Varsay had a crossbow and rifle at the ready, Rebel on trap duty. They held their position despite the feeding frenzy they were witnessing, hoping to catch a few more rats under their trap. Their patience was rewarded as the frenzy built into a convenient clump. Rope cut, rock falls, (almost) everything dies. 6 of the 8 giant rats were killed instantly, the other two fled back to the oncoming group. One of those two got picked off by Hallow, but Varsay missed his shot. Combat proper works a bit different in LFG than 5e (the game we’re all used to), especially when a Boss monster is involved (I messed this part up, as I’ll explain later).

Initiative goes out. The group has no line of sight, but can see the brush. They decide not to charge in and spend time preparing and reloading. The rats (who should have checked for morale after the rock) were involved in a commotion and split off. The group followed the movements until everything suddenly went still. It wasn’t a second later that two groups of 3 swarmed each side of the party in a pincer attack. Hallow managed to ward off the chaos and avoid damage against her side, but Varsay could only defend against the smaller two. Unfortunately for him, his side had the leader; a rat the size of a small bear, beefy and vicious. It clipped him for 3 damage. Lucky for the party, despite the infusion, these rats were not carrying any diseases (50% chance).

Combat continues apace as I remind the party of the various exploits, rescues, et al. The reminders are useful since Rebel took the opportunity to rush the big boy with her staff and throw it off of Varsay (Minor Exploit). Varsay misses another shot, point blank this time, and holds steady as he tries to figure out a way to disengage (melee is a lot more sticky when there is no disengage action). Hallow, in the meantime, tells me she wants to free herself from this little swarm that’s assaulting her. After I ask her to clarify what she means, I settle on a Major Exploit. Hallow, still holding her loaded crossbow, starts flailing and throws all three rats off of her. One is crushed against a nearby tree, another splatters against the rock trap, and the third flies off into the brush and leaves. The rats on Varsay’s side manage to nip him again, but the blow on the big boy must have staggered him quite a bit (terrible rolls ahoy). The following round Rebel felled the big boy and the others fled.

So, remember when I said I messed up the Boss part of Boss? LFG’s rules for Boss rank monsters gives a variety of boons to such a creature, one of which is Off Turn Attacks. This allows the Boss to be making attacks between each of the player’s turns (including some movement to close gaps). Alas, it was the part I had forgotten until about halfway through the fight. I did forget the other parts (bonus luck, reroll pool), but none of it came up so I feel less bad about it. Anyhow:

With their prey felled, the party started cutting out the teeth of the Infused Rats. While they retrieved a smattering of the smaller ones, they only managed a couple of the larger ones. Thankfully, they only needed one of the large ones for the bounty. Bloody, a touch hurt, but overall excited the group marched back to the town where James was waiting. They cleaned up a bit before marching back to Riversmeet.

Rewards

The party received 150gp for the tooth (choosing to experiment with the others)

6gp/ea for the escort

1x Vial of Holy Water

42gp (Big Boy’s belly)

Mini-Telescope (Big Boy’s belly)

Exp 3

Note: I’m experimenting with LFG’s optional XP rules located in the Companion book. It uses smaller numbers than other games (to hit Lv2 is 10xp) and has a breakdown of ways to earn experience from treasure, exploration, social encounters, etc. That said, I have to feel out the pacing a bit and compare it to the group’s activity.