Thursday, January 14, 2021

Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #9


On the 2nd day of Ostar was held a funeral for guild member Laethen, who was slain by an undead on the day prior. Also cremated was the prisoner who had died on 30th Lenzin.

On orders of Guildmaster Hassel-Hoffa the inventory of the bows and arrows was examined, and no loss was found. By the Guildmaster's order henceforth all purchases from the guild store are to record the names of the members making the purchase.

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On the 3rd day of Ostar guild members Tamira, Leowe, Madian, and Piper (see PC profiles here) returned to barrow #34, where they avenged the death of guild member Laethen and recovered the grave goods of the undead therein; however, they were attacked by several other undead which came upon them from another passage in the tomb, who by their appearance were tomb robbers recently raised to undeath. Guild member Tamira was able to fend them off by the power of Kellos, and the party returned in safety.

Grave goods recovered assessed to be 45 Gros in value, of which 16 Gros were disbursed to the members according to the contract.

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On the 4th day of Ostar, guild members Tamira, Leowe, Madian, and Piper, along with guild members Findal, Marak, Grimmson, and Helmond, returned to barrow #36, where the latter were driven off by an incorporeal undead, in the suggestion of Tamira. However, they were unable to overcome the undead, and Marak fell down dead, and could not be revived.

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On this day the 5th day of Ostar a funeral was held for guild member Marak.

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On the 6th day of Ostar guild memebrs Tamira, Leowe, Madian, and Piper returned once more to barrows #36, where they were finally able to vanquish the undead. The party recovered a stone sceptre topped with a skull, which was valued at 56 Gros. Guild member purchased the sceptre at the cost of 38 Gros, according to the terms of the contract.


Signed,

Jeras, Guild Chronicler


Prepping and Running the Game

Although the players only explore two barrows this session, it was quite an eventful one.

The first part of the session was about the funeral, when the players/PCs protested the decision to cremate the dead cultist at the same time as Laethen - I had thought nothing of it, and it was nice to see that they felt strongly enough about the cultist to raise the issue.

Thereafter the PCs had a discussion with the Guildmaster on the issue of the skeletons being armed with bows and arrows, which resulted in an audit of the guild stores - I had decided that the cult's contact had pre-empted this, and worked the books; and as the cult paid cash, there was no shortfall of gold even when it was not recorded whom the bows and arrows were sold to. The decision to keep a record going forward though is going to throw another spanner in the cultists' works. I will have to figure out a way for them to obtain a supply, and until they can do so the skeletons will likely run out of arrows if they meet the party a few more times. Meanwhile, their contact in the guild will decide that the game is up, and will flee in the middle of the night before his involvement is discovered.

I also imagine the guild will also realise that the cultists will need other supplies like food, and similarly monitor the supply. This will really put pressure on the cult, as well as their rivals also operating in Barrowmaze. Again, I need to come up with a solution or the operation of both parties will no longer be tenable. The cultists and I are really paying the price for the decision to arm the skeletons with bows and arrows - we have solved a tactical problem, only to cause a logistical one.

The other thing which happened which pleased me was when the players proposed to the NPC party to combine forces and loot the barrow which the latter had failed to. It is always gratifying when the players take the initiative to engage with NPCs.

Unfortunately, the fight against the wraith went badly for the guild members, and Marak went down, and when I rolled the Death Roll in the open I rolled a 1, which meant a 'real' death. Now the NPC party is based on the Dragon Warriors cover art, and I named them the Fearsome Four after the party in the module, and they have been a fixture in our campaign for many sessions now, providing a rival for the PCs and making the setting more than just a plain dungeoncrawl. I will most likely have the Fearsome Four take on another fighter in Marak's place - after all, that's what the PCs do after one of their own died.

One side effect of the deaths is that the funerals allowed me to advance the calendar a little faster than before, and the time will allow the actions of the various NPCs to take place: the church and the wizard's university will have time to receive news of the stele the PCs discovered and make an offer on it, the cultists will have time to come up with a solution to their supplies problem and implement it.

2 comments:

Khusru said...

I guess one solution is have weapons brought from the nearest town, down river or by weapon smugglers. Someone is always ready to break the law for a profit.
I like the campaign so far.

captain arjun said...

Glad you like the campaign, Khusru. :)

The problem is that the site is a good two weeks away from the nearest city, and so far our cultists have been piggy-backing off the guild's supply chain, which was why they were able to arm the skeletons with bows and arrows so quickly. It is possible to set up a new supply chain, but it will take a month, and the guild aren't their only rivals in Barrowmaze...