LFG Session 3: Graveyard Gutterball

 Run Date July 30th, 2022

Not a lot of note happened in today’s session, but the party got a lesson in a world that doesn’t scale to their level. The Magic User has also shown interest in designing his own spells or converting some from other games.

PCs

Rebel(Sa): Lv1 Monk

Thorin(Pa): Lv2 Magic User

Hallow(Sh): Lv1 Fighter

Graveyard Gutterball 

We started the session with a bit of clumsy tech work and going over downtime results and details. I’ve been trying to get everyone into a Discord server so I can manage things with them throughout the week and distribute news/events. Downtime is an opportunity for me to throw out more narrative and do a bit of the storygaming stuff I’m so used to, as well as build more layers and texture into the world. After the initial stumbling, the group starting talking about last week’s trip to the graveyard and getting Rebel up to speed. While they were working out ideas and a plan, I was working out the progress of the Graveyard in Oldtown’s. The group helped me roll up a bunch of baseline pieces to work with (they rolled the Number Appearing, but didn’t know what for or why). After that, the mission was on.

It was raining today (we’ve been needing it for a while), and the group had zero issue finding a torchbearer for this week’s excursion (Dyrri). They were efficient in their movements; hitting up Father Henry for some Holy Water (for a tithe) and going straight into the graveyard. Once the door was closed and locked behind them, though, they slowed for a few. Despite the veil of water, they started spotting movements in the distance: wandering undead in groups of varying sizes. It’s amazing what one week’s time passage can do to a place with a growing source of evil.

 

Seeing all this, the party played it safe and hit up the mausoleum from last week. They wanted to do a bit of investigation into the growing desecration while remaining close to their single exit. Thorin took a few steps in and learned that the necromantic energy was ambient now; and there were many more broken bits littering the floor. The group took a moment to chat about their next step: hitting up the Lancaster plot. Unfortunately, Thorin was caught off guard by his shadow flickering and moving toward him. It seems they were not alone.

 

Out from the wall came a pair of cold, inky arms. They reached through Thorin, draining his life and strength. Initiative went to the players, and Thorin opened with a Thunderous Invocation. He had spotted more movement along the walls and attempted to aim his spell, but the angle wasn't quite right. Rebel followed up by attempting to shatter a vial of Holy Water on the wall it was coming out of, but she hit Thorin’s shadow instead of the shade (attack: miss). It was at this point the party decided they were going to start falling back. Rebel finished her turn by heading back out into the rain and Hallow grabbed Thorin. GM Note: LFG has rules for Party Retreats, but the group typically has to make a decision at the top of a round and describe how they’re doing it. In this case, Hallow used her turn to pull Thorin away and start trying to book it. Since the others had taken their actions, the Shade got a free attack on Thorin. He survived the blow and the group booked it out. Lucky for them, the Shades were trapped inside the walls of the Mausoleum and could not follow. Unlucky for them, the Thunderous Invocation made a ton of noise and summoned the horde.

 

The retreat through the rain was full force, and the group’s luck mostly held out as most of the horde following them was behind instead of in front. However, just on the side of their intended path there was a wild, gaunt creature with tight skin stretched across old bone. It was on all fours and spotted the fleeing group. There was some quick back and forth about how to deal with it, and Rebel decided to attempt to clothesline the thing with her staff while they rushed by (miss). The creature had taken the blow and used Rebel’s grip to stop her enough for it to start clawing and lashing out. Among the exploits LFG offers, a Rescue is an opportunity to negate or affect an otherwise harmful event. In this case, as the creature was slowly “climbing” up Rebel’s staff, Hallow made a zero-turn and bull rushed the creature away. The creature was sent rolling through mud, grass, and path stones 10ft back. With Rebel saved, the group hit the main gate and started banging on it.

 

The horde continued to close, growing from 10 to 20 onward as the gate was unbarred. The gaunt “dog-zombie” (as the players called it) was quicker and rushed the door just as it was closing. They all teamed up to bash the monster’s little face in and forced it back through the gate, cutting off one of its hands as the large doors slammed shut. Thorin tossed the hand back over the wall (it was still moving) and told the guards things were much, MUCH worse than before. There was some concern that the horde would bust through the door, but Thorin had the guards lift him up and “walk” him along the wall to draw some away and thin them out a little. Now they’re hoping the group doesn’t ball up and “roll” over the walls.

 

With the plan in shambles, it was time to take a few to breathe. Everyone discussed the close calls and the growing threat of the situation while trying to figure out a solution. It’s at this point that a couple jokes about a TPK and becoming part of the zombie horde went out, and I’m proud that they actually took a moment to consider everything proper. They knew there was something evil. They knew it was spreading. They knew they had connections or ways to garner support. This last one was the start of the new plan. The party split up to inform Father Henry and hit up some of their connections (James, the Khairnite Priest and Richard, the Guard who worked the Graveyard shift). 

 

A quick bit of RP here and there later and we hit a wall. One hour of session time remaining, but not much to act upon since the groundwork they set up needed some time and a raid right now might take too long. Instead, we used the time to chat about downtime, timekeeping, and do some rolls in preparation for next session.

 

Rewards

A “short” session with very little to show. I went over the XP rewards in the Companion again, and ruled that the Social (Recruit a Henchmen) would be added to this session. They all invested money into the pot for the search, and Richard is slowly becoming a new friend and ally. Total Reward: 4 XP

 

Downtime

Thorin(Pa): Doing research on the Lancaster Patriarch (he also met a Nüra child while training and began mentoring him)

 

Hallow(Sh): Training to Lv2

 

Rebel(Sa): (Carousing was last week, Hench this week)