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!

Rotvalan Reveries Ep11: Legends of the Unhidden Temple

Run Date: July 7, 2024

PCs
Helena: Lv3 Bladedancer (Waste That Walks)
Gwendolyn: Lv3 Fighter
Adelbert: Lv1 Paladin

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

Legends of the Unhidden Temple

During downtime, Helena purchased a map from an Explorer the group previously hired (more about that later). After going over the various points of interest with the others, the party decided to make their way toward the Unhidden Temple. Before that, however, Helena wanted to drop some laborers off for her boyfriend, Ryder.

While crossing the prairie to the Greenwood, Helena’s scout stopped the group (and their mercs) and called her forward. He pointed out an excavated pit trap hidden among some tall grasses and they weighed whether it was Porco Rosso’s doing before moving around it. Shortly after entering the Greenwood, the scout stopped the army again. This time, it was to point out that the area was despoiled; desiccated, half-petrified plant life gave off a horrifying aura. The henches and hirelings were more than happy when Helena ordered the scout to find a path around it.

Rotvalan Reveries Ep10: Nightfall

Run Date: June 30, 2024

PCs
Anthonie: Lv3 Mage
Emmelina: Lv2 Wonderworker
Friedrick: Lv1 Mage

Hench
None

Afterword

I’m putting the afterword first (yes, that means it’s a foreword) since the report itself will be fairly short. I am often critical at myself, possibly moreso than I should be, but my goal as a game master is fairness wherever possible.

Today I made a decision for expediency. 60ish Orcs vs 25ish PC/Crew. I stand by the decision that rolling individuals here would have dragged on, though my bias played a part in tipping the scales. One player controls most of the army and extras, and my goal was to abstract what I could as quick and fairly as possible so the adventure could continue.

Prep-As-Practice Vol 1: Monster Creation

Prep-As-Practice

Shortened to PAP, I guess. There seems to be two major sides that come to blows from time to time: Prep vs ZeroPrep. Having observed some of the skirmishes, I believe the NoPrep side favors Efficient Prep and avoiding PrepHell; a state where a game master spends all their timing thinking and zero time doing. I’d like to explore a facet of this that came up during a couple side interactions: Prep-As-Practice.

Prep-As-Practice shares similarities to maintenance, drills, or training; the idea that you should be practicing and honing the foundations of your skills at regular intervals. For a game master, this could take form in generating dungeons with Appendix A, prerolling encounters (recommended in ACKS), or managing downtime actions from your players. That last one can be especially useful since DT actions can run the gamut from dealing with ACKS II’s arbitrage rules to learning about Domain Incursions and Fortifications.

What I’d like to do is occasionally share my experiences and log my own practice, to be criticized by the community or reviewed by myself later. Since I’ve had a downswing in players and sessions are in limbo, it is a good opportunity to work on improving my skills. To that end, let’s try out the Monster Creation Rules!

Rotvalan Reveries Ep9: Poking the Bear

 Run Date: June 9, 2024

PCs
Spring: Lv1 Nightblade
Anabelle: Lv1 Explorer
Sigfried: Lv1 Crusader (Shattered Soldier)

Hench
None

Poking the Bear

With the larger party still ahead in time and roaming the forests of the Greenwood, the shoddy side crew met up to discuss options. The church recently put out a 1,000 gold bounty to bring justice to pilgrims that were attacked by brigands; the same event that Anabelle had witnessed during her previous foray.

The group set out from Coxhaven with Anabelle leading the way. She attempted to follow her previous path, but after several hours of searching, could not locate the camp where the Barghest had slaughtered the band. What can I say? It’s been raining pretty heavily this past week. Since that proved to be a dead end, the group decided to do a bit of searching in the nearby woods.

Rotvalan Reveries Ep6: Scissors vs Paper

Run Date: June 2, 2024

PCs
Helena: Lv3 Bladedancer (WTW)
Gwendolyn: Lv3 Fighter
Antony: Lv2 Mage
Friedrick: Lv1 Mage
Zjane Zjulin: Lv1 Ruinguard
MaryMae: Lv2 Bard
Dex: Lv1 Thief

Hench
Harshnik: Lv1 Barbarian
Todd, definitely not a demon barber
Francois the crossbowman
Mercedes
Lothor
Eduardo

Scissors vs Paper

As you can see, we had a pretty large group today. This doesn’t include the extra 30 or so Mercenaries in Antony’s employ. Among the newbies are some returning oldies and one person who’s never touched an RPG before. Despite what some may believe, it is much easier to teach a new person when they don’t have “40 years of experience.” No terribly ingrained bad habits to break makes for a much easier time.

The players spent some time catching each other up on recent happenings and figuring out what their plan for the session was. We’re all scrubs here, and I think this size of group could have used a proper caller. It wasn’t as rough as I expected due to having several leader-types more or less run the show, but Zjane and Dex did end up dropping later due to various reasons.

Rotvalan Reveries Ep5: Confronting a Weakness

Run Date: May 26, 2024

PCs
Anabelle: Lv1 Explorer
Urso: Lv1 Thief

Hench
None

Confronting A Weakness

Nearly everyone was busy due to Memorial Day weekend so today was a trek off the beaten path with fresh Lv1s.

Today’s duo decided to hit up a rumour from a couple weeks back involving a Serif, the equivalent to a Viscount, and his desire for discreet action. The party headed to the local church of Iona for Sunday mass and located Serif Georgio. After mass, and a bit of stumbling, the pair managed to get the attention of Georgio’s steward and set up a meeting. They were taken in an unmarked carriage to a side road in the shadier part of town where the Serif met up with them.

Rotvalan Reveries Ep4: Adjudicating Chaos: Securing the Shrine of the Golden Sun

Run Date: May 19, 2024

PCs
Gwendolyn: Lv2 Fighter
Dex: Lv1 Thief
Helena: Lv2 Bladedancer

Hench
Mercedes Lv0
Eduardo Lv0
Lothor: Lv1 Vaultguard

Adjudicating Chaos: Securing the Shrine of the Golden Sun

Our Occultist, master of Mane and Merc, was out this session; but the teenager from the original crew returned. The players had decided they wanted to begin securing the Shrine of the Golden Sun. Due to their numbers, however, their MO was to favor scouting over warfare.

Before everything got going, they needed to actually return to Coxhaven from Rotval (the city). Given the distance, this would be a lot of encounter checks (like 14). I had the group give me an overall MO for their travels and slowed down only to cover anything that was potentially risky. To this end, they came across a rotund fisherman walking down the road. He had a giant pole and heavy basket on his shoulder. The group were immediately suspicious of him (per their MO: “Super paranoid and anti-social). They gave him a wide berth and wave, and kicked up their horses as they passed him. Fat man was none too happy, but rolled well enough on his RR to not care. The next couple days were mostly merchants, a group of shepherds, and some farmers.