edit: I accidentally listed this as session 7 before, but have edited the title to the correct number, sorry if the URL stays the same and is confusing.
I am going to try more of a short summary this time around (instead of the longer form narration of events), since I’ve fallen behind updating these. This may also allow me to kind of summarize process a bit more.
If you’re reading along and you have a strong preference for one style or the other let me know.
Cast of characters
Player Characters
- Barkface the Druid, played by EvilTables
- Donnie the Bard, played by Malley
- Lothomir the Elf (deceased), played by Graytung
- Thangbrand the Barbarian, played By Graytung
- Virion the Elf, played by Sarcor
Hirelings
- Arnd Cobblestone the Dwarf
- Irya the former Squire
- Cravos & his dog Snookums, torchbearer
- Garbash, Cleric of Crom
Summary of Events
Our group decided that hiring a cleric would be a good idea, and were fortunate to come across Garbash of the North, Cleric of Crom.
Many participated in the new carousing rules (1d6 * 100 gold spent, 6s explode resulting in a calamity if the PC goes into debt), gambling coin away at the Foul Pheasant.
Barkface accrued a debt gambling against the usual patrons, and in his revelry he accidentally set fire to the Brazen Strumpent’s roof. Unable to rent out the common rooms, the Inn doubled prices.
The group also invested in Karg’s remaining suits of plate, as well as putting down payments on his order of steel and iron from Ironguard Keep, to build more.
The party returned to the Barrowmaze through the usual entrance, deciding to return to the North section around where they encountered the ghouls from the last session.
Hearing sounds to the east immediately upon descending, the group witnessed six armed skeletons with sapphires in their foreheads, and decided to enter into combat.
Despite striking down two of the skeletons, the party witnessed the sapphires begin to glow. Virion attempted to crush one under his boot, but was unable to produce the force needed.
The downed skeletons were reanimated, chunks of bones flying across the hallways to reassemble.
Lothomir was struck dead, chopped viciously through the collarbone, and Arnd had his shield arm severed from his body.
The living beat a hasty retreat, grabbing Lothomir’s magical sword and dragging Arnd along with them.
Seeing the excursion at a loss, everyone returned to Helix to recuperate. They sought out the means to heal Arnd’s arm, but did not find the magics required. Arnd opted to attach a hook to his stump, and affixed leathers to be able to carry his shield.
Barbarian Thangbrand joined the party.
Returning to the Barrowmaze, the party made swift progress back to the north rooms.
Several tombs were searched, many alcoves dug through and the party came across a good deal of a haul, including a platinum chalice in a trapped room, pulled off the pedestal housing a gas trap by Donnie with a lasso.
The found a locked steel door, and Thangbrand decided it surely housed riches, so he set about tearing it down as the others kept searching alvoces.
Eventually cracking the stone the door was affixed to, the obstacle was removed and the group came upon a massive room bearing a large statue of a death god, with a glowing magical sword at his feet.
Barkface tried moving over the sword, but fell through the illusory floor into a pit trap with green slime.
The group pulled him up as the ooze went about dissolving him, as they set to setting fire to the slime and trying to remove it, Barkface suffered severe acid burns to his face and mouth, damaging his lips and tongue, and burning out an eye.
Deciding to plumb the alcoves jutting out of this room, the calamity and scent of burned druid flesh attracted a swarm of dire rats. Twelve horrible beasts approached the party from the north.
At a dead end, the party made a concerted effort to litter the north quarter of the room with burning oil, which terrified the hungry creatures. The group was able to finish searching the alcoves, finding many worthy relics, magic items, and even found a lockbox that was opened by the flanged key staff they picked up off of a dead magic-user many days before.
The group returned to Helix with the largest amount of treasure they have found yet.
Overall
This was definitely a frustrating session for the players – two wandering monster rolls with max occupants, and Sapphire Skeletons are no joke, reforming in 2 rounds if their sapphire is not destroyed.
I also need to find a better process for getting the players moving initially. Part of this is my fault as I want to make sure to give new players a full context and give players room to do town and downtime stuff, and the mapping format does kind of slow thing down a bit.
I think I may ask players to nominate a Caller for an upcoming session. In dungeon deciding what to do isn’t too bad, but the initial “should we go back to the dungeon? do we want to investigate other barrows? which direction do we initially head?” takes a bit of time getting through.
I like that there are many options and the players are invested in trying out new things or looking into side quests, but I feel I need to do a bit of work spurring on action a little quicker. I’ll try to experiment this week and see how it goes.
I am having fun, definitely not complaining, but there are times that I can identify some of the players just want to get moving, and I definitely feel that from time to time. Always looking to improve the quality of play and my refereeing.
Feedback
Anyway, what do you think of the above format? I guess it didn’t change too much, but I tried to break things down into slightly more terse description and spend less time on exact actions and the details of every room.
Let me know if there’s a particular format, style of session report, or something else you’d like me to try out or suggest I do. I always appreciate feedback.
Thank you for reading!