Run Date: April 18th, 2023
Since the library is having complications, today's session was run in a side room at the bowling alley. Props to them for allowing us to chill at their place. As with any session (and a new system), I spent more time fiddling with my lack of knowledge and skill than running proper. Nonetheless, the first proper session went fairly well.
PCs
[Pa]: Dalinar (Lv1 Asn); Corvus Lv 1 Ftr, Amaram Lv1 Dw Cp
[Sa]: Amethyst (Lv1 Dw Vg); Rue Lv1 Cleric, Hatty Lv1 Mage
"Spooky Shrine Temple Thing"
The party, having finished resting in Türos Tem, planned their trek out west. Unfortunately, someone forgot to make a note: "I have a map!... but I did not write anything down." Their terrible navigation also seemed to continue this session as they veered off course just after leaving.
The move through the local plains was easy enough, and the party even discovered an open field of hops. Dalinar's player immediately asked the age old, "Can we make money on this?" I got to return with the proper "ACKS does indeed do that." I let them know the basics of the process. The group didn't have any equipment or cart so they ended up tabling it.
The party managed to make it to the forest near the afternoon. Within, they discovered a fairly wide clearing of grasses and rock. One stone with glinting veins stood above the rest, and gnawing and nibbling at it was a strange creature. I described the creature's features and how it pawed at the veined stone, as well as noting that it hadn't spotted them. The group's Dwarves confirmed that the shimmer they could see was iron, though some had rusted due to exposure of the elements. The players had no idea what these clues meant, but certainly weighed their chances at killing it in their "first real combat." There were quite a few arguments back and forth, especially regarding how they'd penetrate such a tough-looking carapace. Alas, they decided to avoid it entirely and went on their way.
The party traveled deeper into the woods, continuing to try and get their bearings and find the clues they left the last time they departed. As the sun was fading, they stumbled across an old cabin next to a pitted rock. Dalinar stepped in to scout the area and spotted several Giant Bats snoozing away through the broken roof and siding. He decided to try and sneak into the cabin and see if anything of value could be found. As he worked his way through the tiny room, Dalinar spotted an old trunk tucked under a rotted cot. Outside, the rest of the party examined the head of a rusted wood-axe and waited.
Dalinar pulled at the trunk, and unfortunately woke the bats. He immediately dove out of one of the holes in the side of the cabin and started running for cover in the brush. Meanwhile, the others armed themselves and started firing. Before the bats could figure out what was what, one had been turned into a pincushion and another was heavily wounded. The ruckus woke the other Giant Bats within the pitted rock and the whole colony fled.
With the creatures gone, Dalinar returned to the trunk and found an old pair of boots and 10gp in a sack. Hatty, meanwhile, decided to cut the bat into pieces. She had heard some stories of eye of newt, wing of bat, etc; and hoped she could find a buyer. As for the rest of the bat, Dalinar suggested roasting it for dinner. (I forgot to note that there was indeed a question regarding the value of bat guano, and the response from Hatty's player was, "We don't want to be known as the Guano Guys.")
The next day, the party continued their trek and managed to locate their old clues: small strings tied to branches. Well, what was left of them. They followed these clues until they could see the massive dome, and worked their way toward the hole they spotted. I have to say that I'm still new to dungeon crawling in any real sense, nor do I run modules or other content. I am extremely thankful that the necessary stats are on the same page as the room, and the HP was already rolled! Good thing, too, since I tend to apply one roll to a group and... well later fights would not have gone so well. Anyway...
The party spotted a wagon just outside the entrance, and noted that there were no pack animals. Dalinar, after scouting, noticed the various damage it had suffered. He waved down the others and they moved toward the hole proper. Within, they discovered the four kobold guards. However, the group was ready for a scuffle after spotting Hatty's strange cat scouting them out.
This battle was our first "real fight" in this system. It also went extremely quickly. I didn't roll so well on initiative and the players let their volleys fly. They downed one, one of the Dwarves met another in the middle and slaughtered it, and yet another fell to Hatty's Not-So-Magic-Missile (Dart). Though late, I explained declarations and how combat generally flowed. There are still a few nuanced bits I need to learn, but running a "get in and smash" is simple enough. The final kobold failed his morale and attempted to flee, but got picked off just as he moved to the door. I don't know if ACKS has rules for "chump change," so the players found something like 6 coppers between the kobolds. They then set up their battle lines, ignited a torch or two, and marched into the first hall.
Left or right, the first real decision. Dalinar's player has a "Right is always right" mantra and so the part headed east. They listened at the crossroads door, studied one of the frescos, and decided to keep heading further east. As they learned about the humans on pikes fresco, one of the henches passed a coin to Hatty. It seems there was a bet going on in the background.
The party continued down the hall until they reach a pair of double doors rimmed in dim light. Dalinar attempted to look under the gap and see if he could spot what was beyond, but couldn't quite get the right angle. The group decided to save that until after they checked out the southern doorway. Unfortunately, they did not find much of interest in the garden, but Hatty's player did make note of the lack of ceiling and access to the sun.
Eastward through the doors the group stumbled into an old chapel; and with it a group of brigands. There was a stalemate of sorts as the brigands asked if they were new blood. The party fell into whispering, causing the brigands to hover over their weapons. The on-duty leader discussed the situation with a couple of the others. As the meetings finished, the brigand repeated his question. The group, however, was split and the lawful crew had no interest in bothering with them. As weapons were drawn, Hatty was stammering about just having gotten out of college and not wanting to end up in a bad crowd.
Hatty began casting sleep as the initial volley went out and the frontlines crashed. The heavy armor and shields protected the warriors long enough for the spell to finish, KOing the entire enemy crew. After that, it was throat slitting and dig through their pockets time. I have to say, while I'm familiar with Sleep as a spell, I did not expect a lack of radius nor targeting preferences. I'd have figured that some of the frontline PCs would have been KO'd as well (8/13 HD or something). I made another mistake here as well. I didn't notice the connected room was a hangout space with extra brigands. I guess they were just too deep in their cups to notice what was going on. Speaking of that recreation room, the party wrecked them, too. That battle was even faster than the last because of that sweet and glorious thing known as a Cleave. ("You're just trying to get us to make a bunch of fighters, aren't you?")
The group kept one of the brigands alive, offering him freedom for information. He told them what they wanted to know (mostly where the leader was) and they let him go free. I even tossed a reaction roll to see if he had the balls to charge to the boss's room and warn of the intruders, but the dice did not approve. With the area known and not much pocketable change in the rec room, the crew set out to spying on the boss's chamber. They went unnoticed by one of the brigands at the drinking table, and decided to snuff their torches to prevent drawing attention to their light. They sat in the hallway between the chapel and lair and prepared for their surprise assault.
The party was efficient. Their initial volley dropped the three brigands they could see during their surprise, and the next round the bow/xbowmen charged into the room and used one of the long tables as cover. My poor initiative roll resulted in the ranged attackers murdering Drusus out the gate. 3 deaths from an ambush and their leader instantly killed, Dalinar commanded their surrender and that was it. They sent the remaining brigands away after asking a few questions, and began looking through the room to take stock of valuables. (The brigands ran into their drunken buddies on the way out, and another roll for the possibility of coming back and ganging up on the PCs failed). They learned about a Lady as well as some other beastmen in the area, more or less confirming for the players that this place had a lot more potential treasures.
While Hatty checked bodies, several others found themselves trying to get into Drusus' chest... the hard way. They bashed the thing one after the other, shattering some of the valuables within. Just as the final blow revealed the damage, Hatty stood up with a key and asked, "I wonder what this goes to?" Hopefully a lesson to be learned. At the very least, they dodged the poison needle.
Logistics was the next obstacle. Sure the money was easy enough to carry, but how would the group get those barrels of liquor out? The party pocketed the goods they could, rolled the barrels down the hall, and carried the glassware crates behind. I didn't stop to navigate the encumbrance in its entirety, choosing to go with "full" for movement. This converted to 10 turns to move everything out to the entrance and load it up.
While there were several encounters, only a couple were of interest. The first was a rat king style abomination. The party won initiative again and put the disgusting beast out of its misery before it could do anything. A couple stirges were sucking on one of the kobold corpses, and a quick cleave took them down. Finally, as the party was loading their goods, they were spotted by a group of five hobgoblins. The reaction was fairly high on these guys (uninterested). Since they had returned from their own little adventure, I ruled that they were too wounded to consider outright attacking. Moreover, the players seemed amiable enough. One of the hobs even chuckled and said, "Thanks for doing our job for us." The PCs had no idea what this meant, of course, but they weren't going to stick around.
Without pack animals, the party was forced to haul everything themselves. I don't know weights so I docked them some travel time. The dice were having none of it because they immediately found a shortcut that got them back on track. They spent a night in the Viaspen free of encounters, and finally hit a proper navigation throw. It was late evening when they finally hit Türos Tem. With that, I had to figure how the hell to run the numbers for XP, etc.
Afterword
Something I'm still trying to familiarize myself with are the market rules and Market Class. I think Türos Tem is a Class V, and some of the prizes they recovered were worth a good chunk. One of the benefits is that it acts as a layer of protection from "go to peasant town and come out with 100k gp." Unfortunately, I have to figure out how to apply it in a way the players enjoy, and within the constraints of 1:1 time.
To that end: 4 days were spent on the adventure, and I rounded to the week (3 days) to allow for sales, ruling that traveling merchants would likely pick up some of their goods. Drusus's special sword was another point of confusion. Selling a magic item uses its base value, but the sword is a +1, +2 vs Mages. I may have read it wrong, but I valued the sword at 10k. The group decided to "surrender" it for XP, meaning they'd get the reward but not the GP until it sold (I just rolled for a buyer and... 3. Guess they'll get that cash sooner than expected).
All in all, today's session went alright. Things are still lumpy since the timing of this experiment has been surrounded with a lot of real life obstacles, but here's hoping for continued success.
Rewards
PC: 3148xp, 3041gp
HM: 1574xp, 1520.75gp
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