Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #13

On the 12th day of Ostar, Guild members Madian, Kimly, Tamira, Folly, and Leowe (see PC profiles here), with the bearer Karl in employment, explored the subterranean tombs. Entering via barrow #20, they came upon a long hall, wherein they found the remains of several tomb robbers. Thus forewarned, the party entered the chamber, whereupon the pillars animated and took the forms of men, and attacked them, but were overcomed.

Passing north still, they came into a square chamber and surprised two cultists within. The party sought to capture the cultists, but they refused to be taken, and a skirmish ensued. The cultists were soon joined by skeletal warriors, which entered the chamber from the corridor to the north, and also by several more cultists entering from a corridor to the east.

The party was able to hold off the skeletal warriors and repel the cultists, who retreated under the cover of a magical darkness. The party defeated the skeletal warriors, and using the remnants of the stone creatures in the the hall they had passed, blocked up the door to the east.

Proceeding further north, they came upon a passage leading to the east that had collapsed; here they found signs that the collapsed passage was being cleared.

Passing further north, they found that the passage turned to the east, and continued for several hundred feet, and terminated in a natural cavern, within which was an underground pond. At the near side of the pond was a boat. At the far end of the cavern was a small landing, beyond which a tunnel could be discerned. In the middle of the pond was a rocky outcrop.

The boat being small and unable to take the weight of all six persons, the party resolved to cross the pond in turn. In the first passing, they discerned the form of a woman with long hair seated upon the rocky outcrop. As the boat neared the outcrop, a force began to pull it towards the outcrop. The party was able to overcome this with vigourous rowing, and upon reaching the far shore they found long strands of hair on the hull. Then, steering as far from the outcrop as practicable, the party made further crossings, and the whole party was able to reach the far bank unharmed.

Entering the tunnel there, the party emerged within barrow #49, which they found to be already plundered.

No grave goods were recovered.

Signed,

Jeras, Guild Chronicler

Prepping and Running the Game

I was really excited that we managed to get five players for this session, as I had planned for this to be the big fight scene where the PCs and the dragon cultists launch a co-ordinated attack on the death cultists; unfortunately, plans never survive contact with PCs...

We began the session by playing out the negotiation between the dragon cultists - posing as plain tomb-robbers - and the PCs.

The dragon cultists were represented by their leader (a dragon-kin), the dragon-kin barbarian whom the PCs have met in an earlier session, and three of their human mercenaries. The dragon-kin proposed a co-ordinated attack on the death cultists' lair, with the PCs attacking from the west, and they attacking from the east. I made the very generous terms of leaving exploration rights to all the surface barrows to the PCs afterwards, plus all of the underground complex except for the quadrant north and east of the cultists' lair, as well as half of whatever loot they will take from the cultists, and sharing of whatever documents they recover.

The PCs were naturally suspicious of the terms, but I had decided beforehand that they would not be able to read the dragon-kin's faces. Still, this did not prevent them from asking for even better terms!

I had the barbarian speak to the leader in their own language, which ruffled the PCs' feathers, but they agreed to give the PCs three-quarters of the cultists' loot, which caused furrowed brows in the human mercenaries.

The players were very keen to learn the dragon-kin's interest in the northeast quadrant of the complex, and wanted to know what item exactly it was that they hoped to find there, but I gave the Sauron-ic reply that it is a "trifle that he fancies", which of course convinced no one. 

While they did not fully trust the dragon-kin, the PCs agreed to the temporary alliance, with no real intent to keeping to the terms.

The attack was planned for the 13th of the month, as the merchant bringing supplies from Tamalir was expected to arrive on the 12th, and the dragon cultists wanted to be well-prepared.

I expected the players to wait for the attack, but they surprised me by choosing to launch another expedition on the 12th, hoping to find out where exactly the death cultists' lair was. As they already had some idea of where the lair was, they quickly came upon the cultists' sentries, which triggered a fight. With five PCs and quite a few of them at level 4, their experience in dungeon-fighting and powers allowed them to quickly dominate the fight, forcing the cultists to retreat.

Their decision to blockade the door to the east essentially sealed the cultists' access to the northeast, a sector of the complex which is of interest to them. This really pushes them up against a wall, as even if they can easily unblock the door, the room is the main access to their lair and connects that to the sector they want to explore.

I now have a couple of tough decisions to make as the GM and the death cult leader: did the PCs' actions tip the cultists off to a possible impending attack? Will the cultists launch a surprise attack on the dragon cultists pre-emptively, with the aim of taking over their lair?

I have a few days to think this through...

Musings on Gaming #1 - Reality

This is hopefully the first of a series of posts where I pen down my thoughts about RPG and GMing.

I've been playing RPGs for something like 35 years now, being a GM almost exclusively during this whole time, but it is only really in the past ten years or so that I started thinking about GMing as a craft. I started GMing in school as a teenager with Dragon Warriors, and back then with no frame of reference, we just played the way we thought the game ought to be played. There was no session zero (beyond "we already have enough fighters but we need a healer"), no discussion of character motivation (beyond gaining XPs and leveling up), but the strange thing was, as we played on and the characters explored and interacted with more of the world around them, we started developing motivations for them, and my players started to ask for their characters to do this or that: they started to develop goals.

The reason for that, even though we did not consciously know at that time, was because we all believed that the game world was "real" in some way. That is to say, we believed that the game world operated within certain rules and moved due to certain forces, just like the real world does, and that our characters, much like our young selves, could interact with this world in a meaningful way if we understood how it worked. This was also the time when we were learning History and Geography (in particular Human Geography) in school, and the subjects reinforced the ideas that the physical world and people did not behave randomly, but were the way they were for specific reasons.

In that respect the rules that we were using - Dragon Warriors - played a big role. The world of Dragon Warriors, called Legend, is an unashamed Earth-analogue, and lovingly described in Book 6 of the book series. There was even a table showing the evolution of the languages on the world, which had a bearing on how easy it was for the speaker of one language to learn another. This was the kind of detail that the teenage mind craved and thrived on, and even though I didn't know it then, the game had a formative effect on how I look at RPG worlds even today. In a future post I hope to discuss why I think such details are important to a medieval fantasy setting.

To me, an RPG is about immersing yourself in the role of a character in a make-believe world, which you imbue with a personality, traits, and motivations. For a player to do so, the GM must provide a game world that is "real" and operate by known cause-and-effects. That is to say, we expect that the PCs need to breathe, and that the game world has an atmosphere that the PCs can breathe in; that gravity exists, and if you fall from height you will take damage; that people respond pretty much like people in our world, and if you are rude to someone he is likely to respond negatively to you; and that laws exist and breaking them will bring consequences. That is not to say that the game world has to be an exact replica of our world, or that only the mundane exist, but however the game world is different from ours, those differences must have consequences, and should be taken into consideration in the way the world works in such a way that they do not result in plot holes.

It is such a belief that makes me exclude powers like resurrection and long-distance teleport (or at least make them extremely rare), because I am not able to decide how a world where such powers exist will operate. Of course, your average low-level magic user can still become an effective burglar with spells like Mage Hand and Misty Step, but the effect of these spells have non-magical equivalents such as stealth and sleight-of-hand and lockpicking, so they are easier for our minds to accept that the world would not be significantly different from ours just because those spells existed. The further a power or an ability is from our real-world possibilities, the harder it is for our muggle minds to imagine how the world must change to account for them. This is also an argument for limiting the frequency and power of magic in a game world, or making magic dangerous to the caster, but that is probably the topic of another post.

Another effect of this belief is that I have an aversion to "narrative" RPGs where the players get to decide what happens as a result of their actions. This does not mean that I do not believe in player agency, but that I believe that player agency means they can decide their characters' actions, but not the result of those actions. In the real world we get to choose what we say or do, but we cannot control the outcome of our words or actions - so it should be in our game world.

That said, I have played in games where the players get to choose what happens (or rather 'happened') in the form of flashbacks, but that took place in the context of games where such flashbacks are an explicit and important part of gameplay; as enjoyable as those games were, I feel that the mechanic will not be sustainable in a long-term campaign.

In the instances where I played in "collaborative" games where the players get to decide what happens as a result of their die-rolls, the gameplay was typically stilted as the players pause to think about how to narrate an interesting and reasonable outcome to their actions.

Is my way of gaming the only correct way then? Certainly not; the fact that many games where flashbacks and "collaboration" are main features are very successful proves that many people enjoy that way of gaming. But for me, a campaign with longevity needs to be one that is grounded in a kind of reality that parallels that of our world.

Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #12

On the 9th day of Ostar, guild members Francis, Kelso, Moonshadow, and Partha (see PC profiles here), with the bearer Karl in employment, returned to the underground chambers, with the purpose of recovering the grave goods from within the chamber of salted corpses.

They overcame the undead in the first chamber, and recovered the grave goods within.

Exploring the next chamber in the corridor, they found a silver statuette upon a plinth in the far end, and the bodies of three tomb-robbers upon the floor, which was covered with a thin layer of fine silt. The party surmised that the tomb-robbers had perished from some trap within the chamber, and with the means of a rope with a loop made in the end, successfully dislodged the statuette from its position, whereupon a stone door descended over the doorway, and the chamber began to be flooded by water that came from a hidden port in the wall. After a period of time has passed, there came sound from behind the door, and when it stopped the door opened, and they party found the room drained but still wet.

Exploring the next room in the corridor, they came upon a strange portal in the far wall, which appeared as a vertical surface of a dark pool of water. The party was able to gather water from the portal, but were unable to determine if it led to some other locale.

Therefore leaving the portal, they came to the next room, and found within several plinths, upon which were embalming tools. In the corner of the room was a pile of salt, which too the form of a giant man and attacked them when they entered the room. The party resolved to transport the water from the portal to the chamber, which eventually caused the salt to dissolve, and were able to recover the implements within.

Passing then to the corridor to the north, they came upon another chamber of salted undead, which they overcame, and claim the grave goods within.

Passing further north, they broke into three more chambers, which appeared similar to the one before, but the remains within which did not rise to attack them.

Finally, turning west and then south, they came upon a chamber with decorated doors. Within the chamber was a single sarcophagus, the occupant of which rose to attack them when they opened it.  Unable to overcome the undead, the party retired to the guild.

Grave good recovered were assessed to be 525 Gros (!) in value, of which 175 Gros was disbursed to the members, according to the terms of the contract.

On the 10th day of Ostar, guild members Kimly, Tamira, and Erik, with tbearer Karl in employment, explored the chambers underground. Returning to the chamber with the decorated door, they vanquished the undead within, and recovered much grave goods.

Turning then north they passed along a long corridor that eventually turned east, and entered a flooded chamber with a doorway on the south wall. When they entered the chamber with the purpose of passing through the south door, they were attacked by animated skeletons which had hid within the water, which they were able to vanquish.

Passing then through the southern door, they came upon a large flooded chamber with faded frescoes upon the walls, which suggested that the chamber was used for some religious rites which involved the immersion of the worshippers into the water. Here the water took the shape of a giant and attacked them, but it was defeated.

The party then retraced their steps, with the purpose of exploring to the east, but passing a junction guild member Erik discerned a hidden portal upon a wall. Entering the portal, they found themselves in a long corridor leading to the west. The party passed into the corridor with caution, and were able to defend themselves against skeletal warriors that issued forth from hidden niches along the walls. 

Overcoming these undead, the party came into a large chamber, the walls of which were painted with figures of men and ships. At the far end of the room sat an undead warrior upon a throne of stone. As they were already wounded and weary at this point, the party left the room, and returned to the guild.

Grave goods recovered were valued at 5 Gros, of which 18 Gros was disbursed to the party according to the terms of the contract.

Prepping and Running the Game

This session was the last one before our Chinese New Year break, which means there are a projected 6 more sessions to the end of the campaign.

The two days of exploration took place during the same session, with the first day garnering the PCs the largest haul in the history of the campaign. This happened partly because I made a mistake in my planning, putting four identical rooms stocked with the salt mummies. It seemed like a good idea when I was planning the dungeon, but when I realised that the repetition was going to be boring and tedious, I removed the undead and granted them grave goods of lower value instead. It took them some time still to break into and sift through the grave goods and pick out the valuable bits though.

The room with the water trap was initially supposed to be sealed, but I realised that as it stood it would not have been an interesting encounter for the players. I needed to 'telegraph' the existence of a trap, and I figured a good way of doing this was to show the remains of others who had fallen prey to it. This worked, and gave the players a way to bypass the trap and still claim the treasure within.

The magical portal of water actually leads to a pool in one of the barrows overground, but the players were wisely wary and did not attempt to pass through it, although they did tie a rope around the waist of one of the dead tomb-robbers and throw him inside. What I did not expect the players to do with the portal was for them to use it as a limitless reservoir, which they used to flood the subsequent chamber and neutralise the salt golem which had a high Challenge Rating (and hence more treasure). This clever weaponisation of a feature of the dungeon was partly responsible for the huge haul they made.

Their abnormally large haul meant that we now have more characters at level 4, which will be important for the next phase of the campaign.

The expedition on the second day was more typical. I revealed the existence of a hidden door to a section of the dungeon here by having one of the dwarven PCs notice that there was a part of the map that was blank, which did not make sense. Hopefully this will prompt the players to start looking at 'blank' sections of the map and searching for secret doors more carefully.

I ended the session by having Gamdar, the orc tavern-hand who is secretly in league with the dragon cultists approach the non-human, non-dwarven, and non-Kellos-worshipping members of the guild to arrange a meeting with the head of the dragon cultists.

The dragon cultists, posing as merely common tomb-robbers, offered the PCs an alliance: they knew the location of the death cultists' lair within the dungeon, and proposed a combined attack on them to eliminate them, and thereafter they and the guild members could partition the dungeon between themselves to avoid conflict.

I then gave the players the two weeks until our next session to discuss among themselves which PCs if any would take up the offer. This means that the next session may see a large and challenging battle, and the levelling up during this session would put the PCs in a better position to fight that battle.

The reason why I want the battle to be challenging is because I want the PCs to level up quicker over the next few sessions, ideally with most if not all PCs reaching level 7 as they enter the finale session so they can have their second class feature.

With the approach of the end of the campaign I face the question of what to do with the PCs who survive the final battle. Five Torches Deep is rather limited in PC progression, especially in the list of available spells, which I feel is an important part of any fantasy RPG game. Perhaps I will let all the PCs convert to their equivalent class in 5E, retaining the number of XPs that they end the campaign on.

Knock! - and am I an OSR DM?

Spoiler: I am not.

A few months ago I came upon the kickstarter for Knock!, an OSR "zine", and liked the look of it enough to back for a physical copy. It wasn't cheap, but I thought a physical copy would be better for appreciating the art and finding the articles I wanted.

I received my copy a couple weeks ago, and I was glad I made that choice.

Now I am not someone who appreciates a thing simply for its beauty; even when I get something beautiful, it is for what it represents, and what it advertises about myself (i.e. vanity).

But this thing.

This zine here is a joy to behold and to hold. The artwork within are so evocative and varied, and the layout so whimsical, one could spend hours poring over the pages.

Actual photo of me reading Knock! #1, 2021 - colourised

The text are of course good and useful too, but they are apart from the physical quality of the book: the texture of the paper, the heft, the boldness of the colours, the contrast, the use of non-parallel layout... Suffice to say that I will be backing issue 2 of the zine later this year.

The text did, however, cause me to ask myself: am I an Old School Revival DM?

That question in turn begs the questions: what is an OSR style game? What other styles of games exist besides the OSR style? Is this a binary thing, a spectrum with two ends, or a multi-dimensional measurement thing?

There are articles aplenty already written on what defines an OSR game, and having read several of these and the zine, I came to the conclusion that I am not an OSR DM.

Well, not entirely anyway.

There are aspects of the OSR style that I like and employ in my campaigns, such as a grittiness instead of high fantasy (something often said of 5E) and emphasis on player-based solutions instead of character-based solutions (again, 5E).

At the same time, there are aspects of the OSR style that I do not enjoy, such as the "gonzo" style dungeon, where the whimsical and unexplained exist seemingly just to impress, but make no sense.

Of course neither of these preferences/peeves are absolute; depending of the campaign I am playing, I may occasionally embrace the gonzo (as I did when I ran a short White Plume Mountain mini-campaign), or I may handwave away the logistical problems like money and encumbrance (as I did when running my Space Opera campaigns).

I do, however, have a preference when it comes to running my staple fantasy campaign in Terrinoth, and I hope to pen down these thoughts in the future, both as reference for myself, and any new GM who might find them useful.

In the meantime, do consider getting a copy of Knock! #1 from here.

Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #11

On the 8th Day of Ostar, guild members Kimly, Tamira, and Leowe, with the bearer Karl in employment, descended into the underground complex via Barrow #16.

Proceeding to the chamber where the guild members had previously been driven out of by creatures of stone (see here), the members were able to overcome the stone creatures and recover the grave goods within the chamber, and bearer Karl discovered a secret door that led northwards, into the flooded chamber which the the members had earlier also explored (see here).

The wraith once more appeared, and according to member Tamira conversed with her in her mind, calling her a worshipper of the god Yasoda, and correctly discerning the mace which she wielded as the one recovered from the tomb of Druentes (see here), whom he named his companion and whom he claimed to have betrayed many years ago, in conspiracy with the cultists of Nordros. The wraith implored the party to find and vanquish the followers of Nordros, and so lay the undead to rest.

Invigorated by the encounter, the party then proceeded north to the chamber behind the large stone doors, and confronted the fearsome undead within. While they battled the undead, a hidden door in the corridor behind them opened and a skeletal warrior came forth, so that the party were fighting to their fore and their rear. With the power of the mace, Tamira was able to vanquish the undead, and recover the grave goods stored within large urns inside the chamber.

The party then explored westwards, into parts previously unexplored by the guild, and came upon a long corridor with several doors upon one side. Entering the first chamber, they found within many wall niches, each with a desiccated corpse with an urn by its feet. When the party sought to recover the grave goods, several of the corpses rose and attacked them. So dry was the air within the chamber, that soon the guild members were overcome with thirst and had to retreat from the room. Their weariness being so great, the party returned to the guild.

Grave good recovered were assessed to be 140 Gros in value, of which 48 Gros was disbursed to the members according to the terms of the contract.

Signed,

Jeras, Guild Chronicler

Prepping and Running the Game

There were only three PCs this session, but with Tamira now at level 4, the spells she now had and the magical mace she now wielded made the party so powerful, they were able to defeat two encounters which they had to run from previously.

The encounter with the wraith is something which I had been looking forward to, as it provided plot exposition that now gave the party some purpose other than looting. In particular, PCs who are worshippers of Kellos now have more reason to seek out and defeat the cultists.

It was interesting to see how, emboldened by the wraith's story, the players decided to seek out the undead behind the large stone doors, which they had indicated as "big scary undead" on their map after fleeing from it in an earlier session. In this fight I was taken by surprise at how powerful the cleric spells were against an undead opponent, and what I anticipated to be a rather tough fight was over in three rounds or so, but not before Kimly took a lot of damage from the skeletal warrior.

The last portion of the complex they explored is a separate section from the parts they have explored so far; the culture here practised salt-mummification, and the undead here had desiccating powers, which was surprisingly effective against the party. The players seem to have assumed that the desiccating property was a function of the room and not the undead, and I did not correct them.

Outside of the dungeon, I decided that the death cultists' contact within the guild, the tavern-maid Mertha, had also fled the place, fearing that her identity would soon be discovered. I had one of the NPCs speculate that her departure had something to do with Tosot's abscondment, which the players did not question.

The next session is scheduled for next week, after which we will take a break for Chinese New Year, and after that there will be just six sessions before we end the campaign and play Season 2 of the Sorcery! campaign.

The pace of the campaign had been slower than I anticipated, and now I am planning to give it a little push by having the dragon cultists approach the PCs with a proposition for an alliance. This will lead the PCs, should the accept the proposition, into more direct conflict with the cultists, leading them closer to the final showdown that will conclude the campaign. I plan to make this proposition at the end of the next session, which will hopefully allow the players to discuss it via messaging in the following weeks.

What happens after the finale? I had not thought about that until this moment, but I imagine it is possible for the players to keep their characters, and perhaps convert them into 5E characters for a subsequent campaign. While I appreciate the supplies and encumbrance rules in Five Torches Deep, the game is limited in other ways, and especially so in the spell lists. Some of the mechanics can of course be ported over from 5TD, such as the death roll.

Blood Bowl Pre-season Game

The Skavenholme Scallywags play the Middenheim Marauders

FG, Adrian, David and I got together last week to play a game of Blood Bowl Season 2 - well, it was two games, each played to a half, so that makes one game...

We gave the rules a try, agreed on the league rules, and then generated a league fixture using a website that does those things. We are fortunate enough that my tabletop can accommodate two pitches at the same time, and that we have two pitches and enough dice to go around. With luck, we should be able to start the season in two weeks.

My skavens will be playing the dwarves in the first game. Hopefully I come out of it with enough players for game 2...

Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #10

On the 7th day of Ostar, guild members Findal, Grimmson, and Helmond asked for and received the Guildmaster's leave to quit the guild. All accounts have been verified and closed.

On this day guild members Tamira, Leowe, Madian, Piper, and Grak (see PC profiles here), with the bearer Karl in employment, returned to the underground complex via barrow #20, the skeletons guarding the way below having been cleared by guild members Brodir, Renard, Torvik, and Ornulf.

Turning south to the large chamber wherein the broken stele was found, they vanquished the skeletal warriors there, and broke through the door on the southern wall to enter into the chamber, wherein was found a sarcophagus of white marble. Entombed within (according to the inscription upon the door and cover of the sarcophagus, as translated by guild member Madian) were the remains of one Druentes, a "paladin of Yasoda, Giver of Gifts". The party recovered from within the sarcophagus a blue-steel mace of dwarven craft.

Turning then north and then east, the party then broke into and entered in turn two chambers opposite each other, finding within each a single sarcophagus, each of which held a single undead, which they defeated, although guild member Piper was seized by the second and fell down as though dead, and had to be revived.

The hour being late, the party returned to the guild. Grave goods recovered were assessed to be 53 Gros in value, of which 20 Gros was disbursed to the members according to the contract. The steel mace was assessed to be 84 Gros in value, and sold to guild member Tamira for 56 Gros, according to the terms of the contract.

Addendum: Guild staff Tosot was reported to be absent at his post this morning, and upon searching of his quarters found to have absconded with his possessions. Inventory of the stores and purse did not reveal any shortfall. There being no loss and no evidence of wrongdoing, Guildmaster Hassel-Hoffa resolved to not pursue the matter.

Prepping and Running the Game

Dave, one of the earliest members of our group, managed to join the session, bringing the number of players in the campaign to eight, and the number of PCs to a total of 14.

I opened the session by having the remaining members of the Fearsome Four bid the PCs farewell as they decided to seek their fortunes elsewhere, declaring the barrows to be an 'evil place'. The PCs asked where they were headed, but unfortunately I had not expected this and could not come up with an answer immediately - this was a lost opportunity as I could have planted a seed for future adventures.

I then introduced a new party to the guild, consisting of four warriors from Isheim, the Terrinoth analogue of the Norse realm. The Weiks (Terrinoth for Vikings, I imagine) first asked if Piper and Grak were Gio Gerbo and his servant Strigoi (see here), as they have heard about the two on their journey here - I had checked my calendar and realised that they would have passed Nornholt not long after the A Team's adventures there, and would have heard about them.

I then had the newcomers ask the PCs for tips and advice, partly to help Dave get up to speed on what the situation was. In return for their advice, the Weiks volunteered to clear the way into the underground complex for the party, which was my way of demonstrating that the northmen were competent, and to save us another skeleton fight... because I knew there would be more to come.

The party managed to defeat the skeletons set to guard the stele chamber easily. One of the skeletal archers there rolled a '1' on his attack roll, and I declared that the bowstring snapped, which I hoped reiterated the fact that bows and arrows required a supply chain to function.

While they were breaking into the next chamber, I had another party of skeletons attack them. This served the function of the wandering monster in old school dungeons, and hopefully gave the players the sense that even though they are now stronger, they cannot afford to be complacent. This lesson had to be taught again not long afterwards, however, as Piper's player had him pop his head too far into a sarcophagus, where he was seized by a mummy and reduced to zero hit points - fortunately for all of us he was revived with the loss of a point of Constitution, and did not die permanently like Laethen did, which would have been quite a blow for the player.

The party now have two magical items, which will give them a bit more bite against the enemies. Tamira had to take a huge loan from Brother Othar, but I guess that is the advantage of being a cleric of the church of Kellos.

The other event that took place was Tosot's abscondment. I decided that whomever was diverting supplies to the cultists would be feeling the heat by now, and would choose to flee at the first opportunity. The timing would be in the morning, soon after the adventurers and guild rangers have left for the barrows. I decided that he would leave with only his possessions, and not steal any of the guild's money or goods, which would give them a reason to pursue him. The players also asked to know which direction he headed towards, perhaps considering hunting him down; here I told them they had no way of knowing, as he had left when there were few people around to see him leave, even though in my mind I had an idea of which way he went. It would of course be possible for some of the PCs to try to track him down, but to do so would require not just splitting the party, but splitting the campaign - something which I was not prepared to do when already juggling seven players and 14 characters!

While the actual delving was not too different, the plot did move along a little, and very soon the cultists will feel the squeeze even more as I plan to have their informant within the guild abscond next, and their meagre store of bows and arrows will soon be exhausted. Depending on how much pressure the PCs apply on the cultists, I may decide to have the cultists' rivals approach them and propose an alliance to eliminate them altogether. That will shift the whole campaign to a higher gear, and move the focus from looting to thwarting a villain.

===

Now some thoughts on the religion of the people who built the barrows.

On reading more on the Weiks after the game, I realised that the new additions to the guild can be used for exposition, as the people of Isheim have their own mythology about Nordros. The PCs/players have been asking me about Nordros, but I have decided that knowledge of Nordros among the people of Terrinoth is scant, with the church possibly suppressing the knowledge. In the Terrinoth sourcebook it is stated that the people of Terrinoth depict Nordros as Weiqar's (equally) evil twin brother, thereby casting Weiqar as the greater evil, and Kellos, their chief deity, as the champion and saviour of mankind. The Weik, however, see Nordros in a more primal, more elemental role, as the god of ice and death.

I tend to view Nordros as a god of the Indo-European-equivalent people from whom the Weik and Terrinoth people are descended from, and that he initially represented their storm god and was depicted with lightning bolts, as the Indo-European storm god was. When these people migrated to the current-day Terrinoth region, they brought along with them their diseases, which the indigenous people had no immunity to; the spread of diseases to the original occupants of the land made it easier for the ancestors of the people who built the barrowmaze to conquer them and become the dominant culture of the region. The role diseases played in this was recognised, and Nordros was given the aspect of the god of disease, and also death, who prospered his worshippers by striking down their enemies. and the javelins which he was depicted with turned from lightning bolts to contagion. This accounted for the rise of the death cult among these people. Their obsession with death led to the construction of numerous burial mounds, as well as the giant underground burial complex. Presumably the death cult eventually turned to human sacrifice, and the ruling and priestly class were eventually overthrown and the culture faded. When the ancestors of the Weiks migrated further north, the death aspect of Nordros became associated with ice and cold, and he became an evil god.

The god Yasoda, however, was something I made up for what would have been the next arc for the A Team. I see him as a sun god, perhaps of the indigenous people of the land. The people recognised the association between the sun and plant growth, and he is identified with both nature (and the bounties of the forests) and agriculture, and thus called the 'giver of gifts'. Perhaps the cult of Yasoda survived the initial conquest and continued among the conquered people, and eventually spread to the elites, who eventually overthrew the death cults.

Under this mythology, Kellos, in the form that he is being worshipped by the people of Terrinoth, is perhaps a manifestation of Yasoda, or at least inherits his aspect as the sun god and the protector/provider of the people.

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.

==

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.

==

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.

== 

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

==

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.

2020 in Review and Looking Ahead

Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, the hobby seems to pale in comparison, but at the same time, it's something that connects us with who we are, and with each other.

We only managed to play nine sessions of RPG this year, with a couple more online. I was not able to complete the arc for the Terrinoth A Team, nor play the campaigns that I had planned for this year (nor FG make his debut as a GM), but we did manage to start a new campaign with new players.

What was unplanned for was the start of Thursday evening gaming sessions with Adrian and FG. Plus the few Sunday games Martin, FG, and I managed to play after lockdown lifted, we played a total of 15 sessions this year.

While the future is still uncertain, I am going to continue with tradition and lay out our plans for the year.

We will likely continue our Barrowmaze campaign through March.

In April I hope to play the Sorcery! sequel campaign. We will probably be using the Forbidden Lands rules, since they are suitably crunchy for my vision of the game.

From June onwards things get a little hazy. One of the big campaigns I planned for 2020 was Season 3 of our Space Opera campaign, using the Traveller Deepnight Revelation kickstarter campaign. The delivery of that kickstarter had been delayed, but it should (fingers crossed) deliver by then, which allow us to play through that campaign in the second half of the year.

Other possible campaigns are a return to our Gamma World campaign, or something that uses The Hero's Journey rules, which seem quite fun.

On the wargaming front we are planning to play a short league using the Blood Bowl Season 2 rules. That should take us through the first three months of the year. Thereafter Stargrave is a possibility - presumably Northstar will release more plastic and metal figures to tempt us closer to date.

Then there is also the Spanish Civil War project that Martin is helming, and my 28mm sci-fi WW1 figures to be delivered and then painted, and the 10mm Arab Revolt project I will finally get to complete

And that's that.

I notice that I have been more tentative than in previous years, for obvious reasons. The year has no doubt taken a toll on all of us, not just in terms of health and finances, but also on our morale. But perhaps that's all the more reason we should be gaming in the upcoming year: to keep alive the friendships we have made through the hobby, and to encourage each other.

Be of good cheer, my friends.

Everything I painted this year

28mm Fantasy

28mm Sci-fi

20mm Historical

15mm Historical

10mm Historical

North Star Oathmark Skeleton Infantry

I was really excited when North Star announced their plan to release a set of multi-part plastic skeleton warriors with European Bronze Age-style armour and weapons. There are many sets of plastic skeletons on the market, but most have rather unrealistic looking skeletons and armour and weapons that are too fantastical for my taste. In my opinion GW has some of the best skeleton warriors available - I haven't bought any of Mierce Miniature ones - but these North Star ones are right up there with them.

One of the issues I have with skeleton warriors is their armour and weapons. Most fantasy wargames and RPGs are set in the medieval or pseudo-medieval era, and skeleton warriors are usually styled as the reanimated remains of the long-dead warriors (well, long enough for the flesh to have rotted away, at least); the idea of having skeleton warriors sporting what are contemporary armour and weapons just seem off to me. Zombies, yes. But for skeleton warriors, I want a more archaic style.

When I started my RPG campaign in Terrinoth, I imagined that the civilisations there went through a similar progression from Stone Age to Bronze Age and then Iron Age, as our own did. That means that when the PCs explore (aka loot) any ancient tombs, they should come across artefacts and remains from these eras.

When preparing for my Barrowmaze campaign, I wanted to give an European Bronze Age aesthetics to parts of the complex, and to that end I bought a few Etruscan warrior miniatures to paint as bronze statues - I wanted a visual contrast between the arms and armour the PCs had and those used by the civilisation that created the burial complex. I was unable to find any figures of skeleton warriors from the Bronze Age other than those of classical Greek style, which was not what I had in mind. So you can imagine my joy when I saw the first pictures of the North Star figures.

The figures are multi-part, with the torso and legs coming in one piece, and separate arms holding weapons, and heads/skulls. As with all multi-part skeleton figures, there is not a lot of surface area at the connection between the parts, which would make the assembled figure fragile. To overcome this, I drilled holes at the bases of the skulls to allow for a better fit between the neck and the skull, and for the arms I aimed for at least one more point of contact between the arm and the torso. 

For these archers, this meant having the bow or bow arm touching some part of the torso, or gluing the arrows to the bows (to the correct side of the bow, I might add) such that there was a whole mechanical connection running from one shoulder joint through the arrow, to the bow, and then back to the other shoulder joint. As you can see from the picture, there were a few ways one could do this and still make the poses look natural.

For the spearmen I either rested the butts of the spears on the bases, or else rested the shafts of the spears on the rims of the shields.

Similarly for the figures holding one-handed weapons, I glued the weapons to the rims of the shields, giving the look that they are shielding their weapon hands while waiting to strike.

These guys still need to be put on bases, and I will also need to eventually make a banner for them, but for now they are ready for my RPGs. I look forward to using them in my next game.

Mirliton Etruscan warriors and Northstar/Frotsgrave multi-part plastic figures

To me, one of the greatest developments in the hobby in recent years are the number of multi-part plastic figures Northstar Figures have been releasing in support of Frostgrave and Oathmark. Between the two lines, a GM can probably create a PC figure for any human, elf, or dwarven PC. With the latest release of the demonic infantry box, one can also create Tiefling figures, although personally I have never had a Tiefling PC in any of my campaigns...

Shown above are two of the PCs from our Barrowmaze campaign: Francis the paladin and Tamira the cleric, both from the cult of Kellos, as evident by their red garb and golden shields. Francis was built from the Frostgrave Knights sprue and carries an Oathmark dwarven shield. while Tamira was build with the head and torso from the Frostgrave female wizard sprue, and arms from the Frostgrave Knight sprue.

I also made a "supplies" base using bits from the various sprues - this represents a cache of supplies stashed by an adventuring party in the dungeon; encumbrance is a major issue in Old School RPGs, and I assumed that at some point the party would have to leave some of their supplies behind so they could carry more loot, or that they might come across supplies stashed by other parties.

The bronze statues are Etruscan warriors from Mirliton's 28mm historical range. They are meant to represent humans, but their old school proportions are not a good match for those of the modern plastic figures. Their style, however, match those of earlier bronze age cultures, and that was why I chose to use them. They were painted with a base coat of Citadel Warplock Bronze (a very nice dark bronze), and the patina was created by mixing Citadel Sybarite Green, Citadel Hoeth Blue, and methylated spirit.

Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #8

On the 1st day of Ostar, guild members Laethen, Madian, Kelso, and Francis (see PC profiles here), with the bearer Karl in employment, attempted to return to the chamber where the steles were found via mound #20, but were driven back by skeletal warriors, some of whom were armed with bows, which the members surmised must be supplied by some unknown party.

The party then instead descended to the underground complex via mound #16, where they explored to the north and then the west. Here they came upon a chamber, where the remains of two tomb-robbers were found. When the party attempted to discover the cause of their deaths, the corpses reanimated and attacked them, but were destroyed.

The party then explored a blocked door along the passage, and found behind it a cave, wherein was a stone statue of a humanoid figure with a tail and antlers upon his head, which the party surmised to be a representation of the god Kurnos. A pit, hidden by an illusory spell, was discovered in front of the statue, but nothing else of note or of value was found here.

Them proceeding south with the aim of reaching the chamber with the stele, they found their way once more blocked by skeletal warriors, and retreated to the surface.

Guild member Kelso then proposed that the party explore mound #35, which previously was used by tomb-robbers as a lair, and found within a passage leading to the underground complex, which was not discovered by the guild rangers previously. Descending the passage, the party was yet again assailed by skeletal warriors, and retreated once more.

Thrice thwarted in their attempt to reach the chamber of the steles, the party then decided instead to explore barrow #34. Here they found an antechamber with the statue of a bearded warrior. Taking the passage to the left, they came upon a chamber with a single sarcophagus. When they attempted to recover the grave goods within, the remains of the occupant within animated and attacked them. Guild member Laethan was struck upon his throat, and fell, and could not be revived. The party withdrew from the mound, and returned to the guild.

Signed,

Jeras, Guild Chronicler

Prepping and Running the Game

This session was significant for three reasons.

Firstly, I decided that the Death Cultists had to take some action to prevent the incursion of the guild to the underground complex, as they were interfering with their goal. An attack on the guild itself would be too drastic and would invite retaliation. A more "natural" way of  dissuading the guild members from entering the complex would be increase the number of "wandering monsters" in the complex by animating more skeletons, and arming them with missile weapons so they can fight on an equal footing with the adventurers. The problem of course is that while rusty swords and spears might still be able to cause some damage, there was no way centuries-old bows and arrows could realistically work. The cultists (i.e. I as the GM) had to make the decision to supply them with "modern" bows and arrows, which of course advertises the fact that someone with access to a supply of these things were arming the skeletons... I guess there is no perfect solution.

The second significant event in this session is that the players have finally made the connection between the overground map and the underground map, which allowed them to predict the likely entrances to the underground complex. Using this knowledge, they were able to deduce that mound #35, previously used as a lair by the cultists, would possibly contain an entrance to the complex. They were of course correct, but the cultists have anticipated this, and placed a party of skeletons here too. While they were unable to get to their destination, the players now know that someone was actively preventing them from doing so, and with the supply chain to the area being rather limited, it will be just a matter of time before they find information that will lead them to the cultists.

The third significant event was the death of a character. In Five Torches Deep, while it is easy for a low-level character to "go down", actual, permanent character death is still rare, happening only on a 1 in 20 chance. Almost every PC in the game so far have "gone down" and suffered loss in stat points, but this is the first time someone rolled a '1' on the d20 "death roll". Worse, it happened to a player who is new to the group and to the hobby. I was reluctant to make the result stick, but I decided that the possibility of death was what gave meaning to the game.

Due to the year-end holiday season, our next session will be in about four weeks. Have a good holiday, and let's all hope that next year will be a better one.

Ogre, Tiny Towns, and Blood Bowl Season 2

With our Frostgrave campaign concluded, FG, Adrian, and I decided to play a few boardgames in our last session for the year.

The first game we played was Ogre, which FG, Martin, and I last played two years ago. The last time we played the maths seemed a little off and the Ogres crushed everything in their paths. This time things seemed more balanced, but it seems like the best strategy is to target the Ogres' tracks. Perhaps one of these days we can play a large armour battle instead.

We then played Tiny Towns, which I really enjoy but which I am really bad at.

Finally, we played a few turns of Blood Bowl using the current Season 2 rules. The rules don't seem to have changed enough to make them totally foreign, but I am sure some of the new rules (like allowing players to jump over prone and stunned players) will be significant.

Our next game will probably in four weeks or so, and hopefully we will be able to play a non-league game for warm-up by then.

Thaw of the Lich Lord Games 9 and 10

 

After a short hiatus due to work, we finally managed to play the last two games in the campaign last week.

The first scenario was rather easy: with no real ranged attacks and a limited movement range, the banshees were no real threat to us and easily defeated, which gave us time to set up the second and final scenario.

The final scenario looked rather intimidating: there were armoured skeletons and cultists to overcome, before we can get at the Lich Lord, who was protected by wraith knight bodyguards.

We made a quick plan and got to it: Adrian's barbarians dealt with the skeletons, while FG's medievals went for the cultists, and my skavens, fastest and armed with the best Undead-slaying weapon we have, charged straight for the Lich Lord.

While the two other warbands made short work of the resistance, my skavens arrived in the end zone: some charged at the wraith knights to prevent them from interfering, while the three skavens with magical weapons engaged the Lich Lord.

At one point things looked grim as one of the skaven warriors was killed, and the Lch Lord fended off the other two attackers, leaving him free to cast spells the next turn... then FG's magical construct made it into melee, and cut down the already wounded Lich Lord.

Over all the campaign was fun, but with each successive game the challenge became weaker. A lot of it had to do with the fact that we were not very competitive in our play after the first two or three games: there was plenty of treasure to go around, and since we all knew that the final scenario was against a powerful villain, it made little sense to weaken each other.

FG has bought the next campaign in the series, and I have yet to have a detailed look at the scenarios, but I think we will need to build the competition into the rules, or else have one player take the role of the bad guys, either permanently, or on a rotating basis.

We will be playing the Ogre boardgame next, while we wait for Adrian and his friend to paint their Blood Bowl teams. In the meanwhile, I will need to learn the game rules - not easy as I will need to abandon the preconceptions from the previous edition - and the league rules.

Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #7

On the 30th Day of Lenzin,

Guild members Kimly, Tamira, Laethan, and Madian (see PC profiles here), with the bearer Lennard in employment, explored the underground chambers via the entrance in barrow #16.

Exploring to the south and then east, they came upon a chamber wherein the pillars took the forms of men and attacked them, and they retreated.

Proceeding east from there, they broke into the chamber to the north of the one which held the tomb of a dwarf, to find within it a single sarcophagus, the occupant of which rose as an undead and battled them. They were able to vanquish the undead and recover its grave goods.

Proceeding then further eastwards and then south, they came to a chamber, within which was a plinth, upon which a large bronze mirror, held in a gold-leaved ornamental frame, sat. Suspicious of traps, the party observed the room, and found a pit trap before the plinth, and protrusions in the facing stones upon the walls on either side of the chamber.

When the party entered the chamber, the protruding facing stones animated and took the forms of men, and attacked the members. While their weapons had little effect upon the guardians, the party were able to with clever use of ropes trip up the guardians, and then drag them into the pit, and recover the bronze mirror.

Proceeding then back west and then south again, with the intent of returning to the surface via the passage from barrow #20, the members heard the sounds of hammering upon stone. Suspecting unlicensed tomb robbers, the members investigated the source of the sound, and found within a large chamber six men in the act of breaking a white stele inside it. The men would not parley with the members, but immediately attacked them. The party feigned a retreat, and lured their pursuers to a junction, where they were able to trip them with a rope, and then slay two of their members; then, pursuing their erstwhile pursuers back to the chamber, struck down three more of them, and capture their ring-leader, who was a spell-user.

Within the chamber they found the white stele, which was set upon a black stone base. Upon the stele were inscriptions in the ancient Terrinoth tongue, which member Madian could read. The text on the stele, and also upon a stone door to the far side of the room, marked the chamber beyond as the tomb of one Druentes, a holy warrior of Aesodes, the "giver of gifts".

Also upon the floor was a broken black stele, made of a similar stone as the base which the white stele now sat. Upon this black stele the party discerned inscriptions in three scripts: the Terrinoth script, a script similar to it (which guild members have previously seen inscribed upon certain doors in the tombs), and the strange script which was found on the obelisk among the barrows.

The hour being late, the party then returned to the guild with their prisoner via barrow #20, which they discerned was whence the robbers entered the chambers below.

Grave goods recovered were valued at 66 Gros, of which 24 Gros were disbursed to the members according to the contract.

Signed,

Jeras, Guild Chronicler

Addendum: The prisoner, having been incarcerated in the guild cellar, was found dead on the morning after. It is not certain if he had died from the wounds sustained in the affray, or of some other cause. The matter being reported to Sergeant Tarran of Fort Rodric, the prisoner and the five men in his company were judge as tomb robbers upon the lands of the Baron, and the guild acquitted of their deaths.

Addendum 2: The matter of the black stele having been known, Brother Lothar had entered into a negotiation with Guildmaster Hassel-Hoffa for its recovery and purchase by the Church, and the expense for the labour for its recovery from the chamber had been duly approved by the Master.

Prepping and Running the Game

This session saw the addition of two new members to the guild and our group, playing the characters of Laethan and Madian. Both are new to the hobby, but took to the life of tomb-robbers pretty quickly.

With two level-1 PCs in the party, the party wisely ran away from fights they thought they could not win, and used their wits and non-weapon equipment instead. Laethan used the randomly-generated 10' chain as a bola in one fight, and the party used ropes to great effect in two fights.

The encounter with the cultists was something I had planned for for a while now. This encounter will advance the plot of the campaign via the discovery of the "Rosetta Stone", which will allow the party to read some of the inscriptions within Barrowmaze.

This encounter also put the plans of the cultists in jeopardy, as after having been denied the use of barrow #35 as their entry to the complex, I decided that they would use barrow #20; now that #20 has also been denied to them, I will need to find another entrance for them.

I imagine that these events will make the cultists realise that the activities of the guild is now interfering with their work in a way that cannot be ignored. How their leadership will respond to this fact I have yet to decide.

There is no game this coming week, so perhaps I will spend the time getting inside the heads of the cultists and decide what to do...

Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #6

On the 28th Day of Lenzin,

Guild members Francis, Kelso, and Graves (see PC profiles here), with the bearer Lennard in employment, explored the underground complex via the entrance in barrow #16.

Entering a chamber to the north, they came upon a chamber with many burial niches, the remains within which were partly fossilised by the water that seeped through from the ceiling. When the party sought to recover the grave goods, the skeletons animated and began to attack them. Their magic having failed them, the party retreated, and returned to the Guild without goods.

Addendum: The twelve guild rangers sent by Guildmaster Hassel-Hoffa to secure barrow #35 reported it being abandoned.

On the 29th Day of Lenzin,

Guild members Kimly, Kelso, and Graves, with the bearer Lennard in employment, returned to the chamber the members had retreated from the day prior, and by luring the animated skeletons to a defile, vanquished them and recovered the grave goods.

Then, exploring to the east and then north, they ventured into a long corridor where the dragon hybrid was seen fleeing from. Here they found signs of a skirmish, and blood trails leading to the north. Following the trail, they came upon a chamber, within which was a stone altar, upon which were signs of a recent sacrifice. It is not known who was sacrificed, nor who performed the sacrifice.

Leave the chamber, they turned south and entered a blocked chamber, the floor which was flooded. Exploring the chamber, Kimly was attacked by three undead, their forms preserved by the peat-stained water, which disgorged leeches from their mouths. The party was forced to retire from the chamber, and was pursued by the undead, which they then defeated. Returning to the flooded chamber, they were confronted by an incorporeal wraith, which soon vanished. The party was able to recover grave goods from bodies found under the water.

Exploring then to the west and then north, the party came upon a pair of stone double-doors, upon of which was the relief of a man (god?) holding several javelins in one hand, and a tablet with inscriptions upon it in the other. The figures of many men, in apparel of warriors and priests, were depicted below.

Entering through the door, they found a chamber, within which was a stone statue of the same man (god) depicted on the door.  To the north was a blocked door, which the party did not seek to enter, for they had found a hidden door on the western wall. Entering through this hidden door, they followed a passage that led west and then north to anther blocked door, this one unadorned.

While they were attempting to break the door, they were assailed by skeletal warriors that emerged through doors hidden in alcoves along the passage. After defeating the skeletons, the party entered the chamber to the north, and found a single undead figure standing by a sarcophagus. The party was overcomes with fear, and fled.

Grave goods recovered were valued at 101 Gros, 33 Gros of which were disbursed to the members according to the terms of the contract.

Signed,

Jeras, Guild Chronicler

Prepping and Running the Game

This session caught me a little off guard.

The first outing pretty much ended before it started, with the two spell-users in the party failing the spell rolls almost immediately, forcing the players to return to the guild empty-handed.

The next expedition was much more profitable, in terms of gold, XPs, and plot.

They chose to go up the corridor where the dragon hybrid fought the cultists in session 2. The dragon hybrid's party came off worse, so I decided that the losers were... recovered by the cultists, and brought to one of the rooms which had a sacrificial altar in it. I actually bought and painted a Reaper Bones altar, which is shown in the photo. There was little the players could learn about the identities of those who were sacrificed and who did the sacrificing, but it was clear to them that there were more than just the usual looters running around in the complex.

The flooded chamber was nearly a TPK, as somehow my players are still making the mistake of having one character explore the room while the rest waited by the door. The wraith is supposed to advance the plot too, but unfortunately none of those present was a worshipper of Kellos, which would have unlocked the plot point. I suspect the party will return here again.

After this encounter the players took me by surprise when they decided to move far north, to a part of the complex that is "above their paygrade". In general, the "level" of the dungeon increased as one moved further away from the western part of the main entrance - the great mound, or barrow #12; however, as Barrowmaze is a single-level dungeon, there was no easy way for the GM to signpost to the players that they were moving into a more dangerous part of the dungeon. I tried to do so by letting the players know that this part of the complex seemed unexplored, and I even had Lennard express reservations about passing through those imposing double-doors, on account of the fact that so far, it seemed that the more elaborate the door, the more dangerous what was behind it turned out to be. The players, however, seemed to take that as: the greater the risks, the richer the loot.

Combat with the undead in the last chamber would certainly have resulted in a TPK, so I decided to ask the PCs to make a Wisdom save, which thankfully two of them failed.

I had earlier planned to up the stakes of the campaign by revealing more of the metaplot this session, but one thing that I have learned is that the tone of the session depends a lot on the composition of my players. Some of my players are more "serious" and interested in the plot, and some are less serious and more interested in the loot. When the serious players are not in a session, I worry that any information I give about the greater threat lurking in the background may be lost on the players, so I tend to want to reserve them for the session when one or more of the serious players are present.

Next session will see two new players join the table and the Guild, so stay tuned for more.