Rotvalan Reveries Ep19: Walls

 Run Date: October 6, 2024

PCs
Vakara: Lv3 Thief
Lysalia: Lv3 Witch
Francisco: Lv3 Fighter

Hench
Hurriya: Lv1 Explorer
Rannulfr: Lv0 Master Blacksmith
Bellara (Belly): Lv2 Fighter

Walls

I’ve received feedback in the past regarding a united visual for players to communicate, map, etc so we spent some time playing with Owlbear Rodeo this session. One of the ACKS II stretch goals was a module for Foundry VTT, but I don’t own it. Maybe if it goes on sale I’ll give it a try and write some notes on our experience there.

The session began with Vakara joining the party; called by the distant ashes of a Heroic Funeral or something. Francisco then recommended grabbing a few henchmen and heading back out to the Whispering Cave to see what else they could squeeze out of it. On their way out, they passed some pilgrims and discovered the corpse of a dead boar. The latter was in a poor state from scavengers and it was difficult to judge if it was killed by another chupatoro (or whatever the boar version is).

Rotvalan Reveries Ep18: Zero Prep: Legend of the Chupatoro

 Run Date: September 29, 2024

PCs
Lysalia: Lv2 Witch
Francisco: Lv2 Fighter
Lorelei: Lv1 Explorer

Hench
None

Zero Prep: Legend of the Chupatoro

Unsure of what Helena was planning for her week, the party decided to remain near Rotval (the city) and find other work. We talked a while and I mentioned that there wasn’t any real hooks developed for this area of the map. I asked what sort of things the players wanted to get up to and they settled on a simple dungeon crawl and a bit of work. From this, I tried to create a mental work flow forward.

Background on myself: Previous to lockdowns and picking up ACKS, I had run 5e for my FLGS for some 6+ years. The nature of a public table requires a level of flexibility and I had gotten used to having broad-strokes laid out and building from them. I am not skilled nor practiced in creating things whole-cloth, nor considering all the semi-pedantic facets in-play. With that in mind, I had each player throw out details that I then stacked together into a concept/motif/theme. While they were making their preparations, I hunted down a random map from the internet, plopped down the POI on the map, and we got to it.

Rotvalan Reveries Ep17: Intermission: Carnaval de la Muerte

 Run Date: September 22, 2024

PCs
Helena: Lv4 Bladedancer (WasteThatWalks)
Lysalia: Lv1 Witch
Francisco: Lv1 Fighter

Hench
Lothor: Lv1 Vaultguard
Eduardo: Lv1 Mage

Intermission: Carnaval de la Muerte

With the Bloodmoon and raid of Nota Rosa wrapped up, the group set out to find some new fighters to fill their weakening ranks. The session began on the first day of Carnaval de la Muerte (keeping with the sloppy Spanish theme): a festival that celebrates when the Lady Iona laid down her sword for the harvest and the people united to kill the monsters in their midst. Salkana (the world) has major holidays slotted into the Solstices and Equinoxes, so our Halloween is a bit earlier than expected. Moreover, I want each festival to bring with it some extra effects. Back in Summer, every Rotvalan town had +1 Market Class. I decided to get a little more granular with this one, taking inspiration from Sinkholes/Places of Power.

During the Carnaval de la Muerte, and until Nov 1st, the following items have +1 MC Availability: Belladonna, Garlic, Holy Water, and Wolfsbane. In addition, Silvered Weapons increase their cost/value by 10%.

The season brings a shift that favors the evil and chaotic, granting the following effects:

• Rebuke rolls suffer a -2 penalty (does not effect HD turned)
• Death/Necro Magic Research gains a +1 bonus and associated spells are cast at +2 Class Levels
• Tampering With Mortality rolls suffer a -2 penalty

BrozerDiceless: My First Braunstein

Brozer Diceless

Pre-Game

From the guys that brought you RealD&D and Don’t Read Anything After 1980 comes a new old thing of great enjoyment that can solve, 100% guaranteed, all your RPG problems! The best part? It’s absolutely FREE! Get Brozer today!

Sales pitch aside, I decided to try it out after the hype-building from the BROsr and a desire to see things first-hand. As for this, I’m just sort of taking notes as I go in the hopes I can get ahead and get that sweet Tarzan book from Cirsova.

I joined up at the near-end of recruitment, a few days before everything was supposed to kick off. Not knowing what to do, or what was expected, I just sort of played from the offerings of others. I played Ferigno, by the way, the big green boi himself. @DoomstoneCrom was the GM, and he sent us a set of rules to build a character with. I am going to assume that these are from Amber Diceless or a simplified version therein. Either way, I got my numbers together on a notepad (I was at work) and re-read my faction.

Natural Disaster

 

Rotvalan Reveries Ep16: Bloodmoon

 Run Date: September 15, 2024

PCs
Francisco: Lv1 Fighter
Lysalia: Lv1 Witch

Hench
None

Bloodmoon

A small turnout for today’s event: raiding Nota Rosa. I decided to try out Owlbear Rodeo to help track general positioning and troop movements. The map itself was made using one of the random generators and tacking on some labels, but I didn’t know the actual size so I couldn’t scale the hexes in any proper manner. For the battle itself, we used a loose version of the Battles rules in the Revised Rulebook. I learned that BR is relative strength so I could get the “minimum 6 units” by dividing the units into groups of 5 men and tacking on their usual BR (4 for Vet Heavy Infantry). In hindsight, however, we may have wanted to divide the settlement into Zones. Instead, I had a “free movement” situation and “encounter” spread throughout. So, how did the session go?

Without Helena to call the shots for Ryder, Francisco took the lead. During his downtime, he did a bit of recon to sow some discord and gather information in both Coxhaven and Nota Rosa. His coinpurse was stolen and he nearly got arrested, but he made it back safe. He then formulated the plan of attack for the Roughnecks. The goal was to strike the morning after the birth of a new pack of werewolves and take advantage of the chaos (the results of the infected prisoner exchange).

Rotvalan Reveries Ep15: New Faces of Chaos

Run Date: September 8, 2024

PCs
Helena: Lv4 Bladedancer (WTW)
Lycalia: Lv1 Witch
Plethon: Lv1 Mage
Francisco: Lv1 Fighter

Hench
Mercedes: Lv1 Priestess
Athena: Lv1 Priestess
Lothor: Lv1 Vaultguard

New Faces of Chaos

I cast the net for recruitment and fished up a crop of three new faces. Much of the initial session time was handled with introductions, questions, and general explanations. Helena took the lead since much of the current goings-on pertained to various threads she’d been involved in.

After sorting out the orders and travel speed, the party headed toward the lake in the northwest of the Greenwood where Helena had previously met up with some “witches.” Helena described the conditions of the previous meeting and set expectations (including cracking open a hot one) well head of time. Her goal was to turn over a Lv2 Lieutenant from the recent raid as payment for a “spellcasting service.” On the way there, the party spotted a huge and holy falcon that didn’t take too kindly to the walking ball of chaos that was the party, but Helena’s scout managed to find a path to escape. The creature circled above them for a while before giving up and continuing on its way.

Rotvalan Reveries Ep14: Messing Around With Mass Combat

Run Date: August 11, 2024

PCs
Helena: Lv3 Bladedancer (Level Up!)
Gwendolyn: Lv3 Fighter

Hench
Mercedes: Lv1 Priestess
Athena: Lv1 Priestess

Messing Around With Mass Combat

We experimented a bit today with resolving combat that was larger than personal, but smaller than the Battles resolution tends to handle. I’ll go over the events first, then tack my rambling on later. You may also notice that there’s a gap between this report and the last. Difficult to run sessions when nobody’s around, but at least the power of 1:1 allowed things to keep moving in the background.

Rotvalan Reveries Ep13: Are We the Baddies?

Run Date: July 21, 2024

PCs
Adelbert: Lv1 Paladin
Gwendolyn: Lv3 Fighter
Helena: Lv3 Bladedancer

Hench
Mercedes: Lv1 Priestess (WtW)
Lothor: Lv1 Vaultguard
Eduardo: Lv1 Mage
Athena: Lv1 Priestess (Clotho)
Hugo: Lv2 Ravager

Are We the Baddies?

After their frustrations with the Unhidden Temple, the party decided to try checking out a different point of interest. They pulled out the handy map and plotted their route to a place marked down as the Ruined Mausoleum. Then they hopped on their horses and headed out.

The trek into the hilled areas of the Greenwood can be a slog, and today was no exception. The party passed through some cliff-like rocks and were nearly crushed by a falling tree, and their camp was attacked by a pair of feral lynxes while they tried to sleep. The following day they spotted a scout of parasitic wasps and promptly, and easily, evaded. As the day pressed on and the cloud cover shifted into a lightning storm, the party discovered the rocky valley that housed the mausoleum. It was shrouded in a thick fog, not unlike Silent Hill.

Rotvalan Reveries Prep-As-Practice Vol 2: Special Abilities (Infusions)

Volume 2

Foreword

In the previous volume, I talked a bit about creating the Feuckos for Wendyl the Mad. I’ve had some time to think over it and ask questions within the Autarch Discord. I learned that a lack of Man-Sized cavalry was an intentional design choice for (reasons above my pay grade). As a result, I went ahead and calculated the Fuecko Riders as Cavalry with a note that the creatures are rare enough that it would be difficult to fill out a full company of 120. To reiterate:

Fuecko Rider (Leather, Sling, Spear, 3 Javelins, Fuecko) (IndBR: 0.125, wage 75gp, Unit BR: 7.5)

Fuecko (As Giant Gecko except: HD 3, AC 2, Lob [30ft, 3d4 extraordinary fire, ignites flammables, save for half], Load: 7st, Trained Value: 900, IndBR: 0.0375)

A portmanteau of Fuego and Gecko, these 6-legged creatures serve as evidence of the chaos of wild magic and breaches of the veil. Fueckos are typically deep reds with orange to yellow mottling and prefer hotter habitats. They are reported to be a common sight around places infused with Elemental Fire. Fueckos can lob a ball of molten goo at a target within 15' that deals 3d4 extraordinary fire damage and ignites flammables (save for half). Being creatures touched by the veil, they are immune to mundane cold, as well as mundane and extraordinary fire damage.

Alex made sure to scold remind me that he intended for people to build with the basic blocks before jumping too far into the deep end. My players do not get such memos.

Rotvalan Reveries Ep12: Flour Power

Run Date: July 14, 2024

PCs
Helena: Lv3 Bladedancer (WasteThatWalks)
Gwendolyn: Lv3 Fighter

Hench
Mercedes: Lv1 Priestess (WTW)
Lothor: Lv1 Vaultguard
Eduardo: Lv1 Mage
Athena: Lv1 Priestess (Clotho)
Hugo: Lv2 Ravager

Flour Power

The PC group was small, but a few Mercs and slew of henches helped round things out. Helena took the lead and tossed out a couple options; including revisiting the Unhidden Temple and poking around a mausoleum. The former was chosen and they set out from the Shrine of the Golden Sun and into the wooded hills.

The entire crew being on horseback helped counteract the significant slowdown the terrain imposed (both hill and wood modifiers stack). While traveling, the party found themselves traipsing through a densely shaded area that pushed away some of the summer heat. They soon found out, however, that it wasn’t leaves, but webs, that had offered it. The party was ambushed by Giant Tarantulas!