Rotvalan Reveries Ep1: A Fresh Start

 Run Date: April 21, 2024

PCs
MaryMay: Lv1 Bard
Antony: Lv1 Mage
Gwendolyn: Lv1 Fighter

Hench
None

Foreword

After Ep30 of Salkan Soiree, I sat down with my players to have a talk and work through feedback. The major points involved a low player count, poor signposting, and a lack of VTT or similar software for shared vision/communication. There was, however, interest in trying something at the Faction/Patron level. We tossed out a few joke ideas and settled on Capture the Flag. I’d intended to try this as a pseudo-battle braunstein but there was little commitment. More on that later.

For Capture the Flag, I wanted to set up a simple play area. This resulted in me reviewing the Judge’s Journal for settlement information and discovering that I had messed up… a lot. Though it didn’t hinder adventures, I found that the map’s spacing was too cramped. I wanted something closer to the Borderlands with its in-borders wilderness, swamps, hills, and other varied terrain. The new map is… better? I overshot the size and have a blank canvas to fill for years to come!

By the time I finished the map, it was time to review the factions for CTF… Asking for a simple alignment and two sentence concept to start was too much it seems. Still, three factions is better than zero, and messing with the map left a lot of time for my failures to sink in. The Braunstein idea was dead at this point, but I wasn’t ready to let it go yet. I also have to admit that my morale was pretty low. I pushed through it and tossed out the net to recruit new players for a new start, and forced myself on a timeline to avoid Prep Hell. The next couple weeks were draining (yep, Prep Hell) but I got the simple foundations set up.

What about Capture the Flag? I turned it into the primary opening hook. The factions were placed into the world and everyone would start time simultaneously. Worst case scenario, the Factions become tools I can use and didn’t have to spend time working on. Frankly, letting old players make things for the world takes a lot off my shoulders. Anyhow, recruitment is currently ongoing and of the projected 6 players for this new start, only 3 showed up. Will I step up and run a proper campaign, or will it explode in my face?

A Fresh Start

The beginning of this session was predominantly jokes and chatter. Though it ate up nearly an hour of session time (one player was late), the initial rapport building was solid. It’s always energizing to hear folks’ excitement firsthand. After that, they decided to hire on some Mercenaries with extra funds and begin their trek to the Golden Sun. I didn’t mention it before, but the Golden Sun is our Flag; an Avarian (sky people) derelict crashed into the Greenwood north of Coxhaven and left a glowing fragment floating in the sky. Shamans, Seers, Diviners, et al know it contains something of great power.

Putting a reminder here that I run a “learning table” of sorts. I’m still learning myself, and I walk through how mechanics work while executing them. This tends to scale back over time until we’re rolling as most expect. Today’s discussions involved how encounters worked during travel, and what each subtype meant. First on the docket? Porco Rosso. As the party headed out of town, the Mage (Occultist) summoned his trusty Manes and added to the party’s overall numbers (3 PCs, 3 Manes, 4 Mercs). Heading into the fields, the group came across a ruined watchtower with territorial markings and terrible symbols. Stepping out of it was a massive man with a pig nose. It eyed the party for a few moments before hauling out a leftover chunk of human meat and taking it to his makeshift butcher’s block. His massive boar companions followed suit. The Bard succeeded at Loremastery and we quickly put together a backstory for this guy: A former butcher turned cannibal cultist. Their group was exterminated from Rotval years back, but his body was never found. I then explained that this was a Unique Encounter Monstrous Shadow with a Devil Boar. The players were already going to evade, but committed to returning to butcher him some day.

Navigating the Greenwood was simple enough since the Golden Sun served as a beacon. Rumour had it that the area under it had a spire and was enraging the creatures in the area. The party soon found out what this meant as they hit on their first monster encounter: 2 Giant Acanthaspiseseseses (big ol’ assassin bugs). The players, perhaps underestimating the creatures before them, decided to engage. They organized their Mercs and Manes to form a screen and a volley went out. The encounter distance and terrain prevented the bugs from charging so they advanced and engaged. The party made ample use of the Engagement vs Size rules to avoid needing Precise Shooting for their next volley. As a few hits landed, the corpse-shields on the creatures’ carapace began to slough off.

Then it happened: endless rolls no higher than 5. A big bug with a huge single attack… continued to miss terribly. The engaged Mercs retreated to continue using their javelins while the Manes formed the disposable battle line. Their target had started to take some proper hits at this point, and ended up killing and cleaving into the manes. That last roll was like a 2 or something, and the next round would be its last. Low initiative rolls allowed the party to take down their target before it could spray its panic acid and melt things, and the other immediately fled into the trees. All in all, everything went better than expected.

The party continued on into the afternoon and arrived at the spire that sat below the Golden Sun. A quick scour of the area revealed that the impact had cleared out the vegetation, but the structure itself appeared mostly intact. After descending a shallow dip into the crater, the party set their Mercs on guard and entered.

The first room had a tall, circular ceiling depicting the Avarians warring with a massive serpent-like dragon. There was water leaking through cracks in a nearby wall and flowing under a door that lead westward. As the PCs went to listen at the door, they were accosted by illusions from the ceiling. They nearly abandoned their plan here because of it. Still, treasure and rewards are tempting.

As the party pushed through the western door they discovered another arched hall with high windows and a sun motif. The water flowed through this room and continued westward. Several inches of water does wonders for player paranoia, and the group was certainly concerned with traps. So much so that they marched toward the archway that continued westward and immediately discovered one.

A Manes and Gwendolyn were the front rank, and both landed on a spot in the water that dipped several inches further. This triggered the portcullis above them to fall. Both made their save. The Manes pulled back, per Antony’s command. Gwen, however, pressed forward. “I’m not leaving here without something to show for it.” From both sides of the portcullis, the party searched for a mechanism to raise it. At this point, Antony and Gwen both noticed the flow of the water going into a spot in the northern wall of the hall. She gave it a push and opened a secret door which had the wheel and chains inside. She raised and locked down the portcullis and the party regrouped.

The secret room appeared to be a storage room with a variety of empty shelves. The back section of it, however, had stone partitions separating it into a miniature “room.” Since the area was dark, MaryMay lit her lantern and they peeked around the corner where they found refuse of an old “root cellar” and nests of Striges! Battle began in earnest as the creatures swarmed the party. Gwen and the Manes lashed out and cut down as many as they could, but their sheer numbers overwhelmed them and threatened Antony and MaryMay. Mary dropped instantly but Antony managed to cut one out of the air with his dagger.

During this battle, Gwen put the Combat Ferocity proficiency through its paces. With 14 low HP targets, that extra cleave pays in dividends; and Gwen’s dice were hot. She continued to cut swathes out of the striges, eventually freeing herself and the Manes to assist their backline. Antony attempted to retreat and was quite nimble in doing so, but a lucky clip dropped him. The Striges were destroyed shortly after.

Fate blessed Antony and MaryMay, as they avoided getting stuck in any primary arteries and the blood loss they suffered was minimal. It would, however, leave some scars.

With the fight over, the party dug through the nests and found a pair of sun medallions. Though they were caked in feces, their value was clear and continued to feed the greed. With the lantern revealing this dark pantry’s secrets, the group spotted a damaged safe/vault on the back wall. No thief to manage the lock, Gwen asked if she could break it open. Given the damage from impact, I ruled it would be extraordinarily difficult and require a crowbar. Antony promptly whipped his robe aside and produced his secret weapon: a crowbar. Gwen followed by absolutely obliterating her dungeon bashing check.

“Best 1 gold I ever spent,” Antony whistled as the door swung open. Inside the party found more Sun Medallions, polished and immaculate; as well as a chest. It seems this was enough to satiate them as they promptly marched back outside, convinced their Mercs to hunker inside the secret room with them (“I mean, you come into the area we cleared or camp outside with that giant bug still on the loose”), and spent the night at the shrine.

The party woke up the following morning and began their trek back to Coxhaven. Unfortunately, the dice weren’t going easy on them. Another monster encounter, this time with a massive demon wolf. I described its breath giving off wisps of steam and the nearby leaves and foliage curling away from it. Hello, Greater Barghest! The party made the only decision before them: Run! The Manes were sent to delay the Barghest, resulting in negating the -4 to Evasion they would have received for its overwhelming speed. They were also in a thick forest with lots of cover.

After fleeing the monstrosity, the party found themselves partially lost. The Golden Sun, despite serving as a beacon, was more useful traveling toward it than away. The group trekked on in the hopes that “as long as it gets smaller we’re going the right direction” worked out. It did, as luck would have it. They found themselves back on the Camino Norte and spotted a hamlet. They soon learned, however, that they’d wandered far west and were outside Ravensberg. They went into town, rented a room, and popped open their chest to find some malachites and a slew of silver coinage.

The following day, the party marched back to Coxhaven to try and cash in on the reward posted by Don Serrano. Prior to their arrival, however, the party encountered bandits! Wouldn’t you know it, those bandits were not only Neutral (15% chance), but Friendly (Nat 12 RR)! Antony and MaryMay got into an argument about how to handle the situation and negotiations, intimidation vs diplomacy. The bandit leader was good-natured and laughed it off as “kids these days.” The platoon of bandits, flavored as woodsman/merry men, escorted the party the rest of the way to Coxhaven. MaryMay, swashbuckler and definitely not a former pirate, tipped them one thousand of the silver pieces from their chest. There’s letters of introduction, and there’s proper respect. This sign was accepted with great elan, and the party formed their first connection: The Boggarts.

Since their arrival was at nightfall, things picked up the next day. The party hit up the Castille and only managed a bristling audience with the steward through a portcullis at the gate. The evidence they brought wasn’t enough to earn the full reward. The party was disappointed, especially when I told them that a 50% tax on treasures was the baseline. They promptly began negotiating it down and worked out a deal with the steward for 25%. At some point off-screen, it seems that discussions resulted in an additional incentive being added. Upon receipt of their exemption at noon, the party learned they could gain the right of tax-free treasure for up to a year by continuing their work for the Don.

With writ in hand, the group exchanged their medallions for something more liquid and we wrapped up.

Rewards (Totals)

1096 XP
689 GP

Afterword

I often refer to my game as feast or famine these days, as there seems to never be a middle ground. Today was a feast, and I’m happier for it since Famine in the first session can be explosive in more ways than one. We’ll see if player numbers improve as well. I’m used to some flex, having run public games at an FLGS for years, but even then it took some time to build up a solid core.

Taxes, ah taxes. I imagine most people ignore that little stipulation, be it “we definitely negotiated with the big guy” or hand waiving. The visceral response to 50% is pretty juicy, and I have to be honest: that was the best part. A visceral player response can explode in your face like many other things, but the strong will find ways around it. I’m all for incentives that encourage the players to take control or fight back; and they did just befriend a group of bandits.