Doomed Reach Session 4

Characters

Amon Amarth, the Dwarf Cleric of Holy Law
Kalos, the recently masterless Magic-User
Maur Stern, Cleric of Holy Law
Cirrel, Elven Herald
Florby, Elven Alchemist
Brother Murray, Cleric of the Light Above
Ki-Mun, the Dwarven dandy
Torin, the sneaky axe-wielder

Downtime

Our characters begin by recounting prior adventurers and shoring up an additional hireling to account for previous losses.

Florby convinces his hireling, who owned a Saint’s head, to put the head in a pot of water for a week. They then paid a street urchin to drink some of the water and found it to have a mild numbing effect.

Brother Murray continued teaching his pigeon and goat more adventuring tricks.

Cirrel was granted an audience with Lady Mecit, a new-to-the-Reach noble looking to reclaim her uncle’s manor after he went mad. He retrieved more information on the manor and promised expedition funding should the party agree to it.

Adventure

Our group returned to the very chaotic caves, witnessing a floating geode on the way that radiated a freezing field, wilting the plants it came across.

As they climbed the peak above the caves, they witnessed that the cultists had rigged up some noise instruments attached to decapitated zombie heads in their wooden watchtower overlooking the gully, seemingly to drone noise when noticing nearby living. Torin snuck up to the tower and quickly dispatched the grotesque sentries.

Succeeded in preventing alarm, they went to the caves and saw a new trap rigged, a mechanism to shut a portcullis behind invaders, and opening one in the hallway to unleash zombies. Having been cautious, the party downed the zombies with ranged implements, but not before the foul undead could cause much noise.

Traversing to the south, they entered the circular chamber that held a vat of writhing, living gore. Florby begged that they determine if this monstrous flesh creature was sentient and evil. Amon Amarth interrogated the mass but determined its gasping and wailing to be that of a chaotic being.

Seeing bloody tracks on the ground leading out of the room and checking its direction revealed two giant spider beings wearing cloaks, medallions, and weapons. The adventurers engaged them in combat, casting light into one’s many eyes, blinding it, and dumping holy water and fire onto the flesh creature, which rose to strike the party.

After a short battle and only a few wounds, they chased the blind spider to a dead end. The cursed being told them it had recently been recruited by the cult with its brother and that only six other cultists remained, hurriedly trying to bolster their numbers. It also revealed to them a secret door to the outside, but this was not enough to save it, as the party imparted fatal justice to the creature.

They wandered the complex some more – finding the ruby skull room from the previous week reset, they also found a room full of bones and shattered skulls, and Cleric Stern was able to locate a small emerald within. They also retrieved some silver and a pendant from the pit of burned gore.

Progressing north, they found an altar room with black marble pillars depicting humans in agony and bronzed ritual implements, as well as a fine tapestry depicting the Sanguine Skull’s dominance. Continuing to delve, they ambushed four cultists in the middle of a ritual to empower a glowing red skull and smote these acolytes and the skull.

They finally stumbled upon a massive ritual room, with the undead head priest and his ghoulish assistants getting ready to call forth something from the dark. Amon Amarth stepped up and repelled the ghouls with his faith just before they could ring some hideous bell, while the rest of the party engaged the high priest and came out victorious, although slightly shaken by a fear spell.

The ghouls ran from the priest into a room full of skeletal statues similar to those in the ruby skull throne room. Deciding not to enter, they doused the room in oil and ignited the ghouls.

The party then went about stripping this floor of the dungeon bare of goods – tearing tapestries from the walls, plunging priests’ quarters for magical items, and returning to town with many artifacts to trade for silver, as well as the reward and praise from the Bishop.

Doomed Reach Session 3

Two-thirds of the party meet a grisly end.

Characters

Florby the Elven Alchemist
Wulfwig the Ponderous, Cleric of Light Above
Yarlexia the Elven Witch

Downtime

Throughout a week and a day, Florby decides to get completely blackout drunk, never having done so. They ask for Wulfwig to chaperone them, but the good cleric refuses. Yarlexia joins, and they meet a treasure seeker who found an ancient megalith about 40-50 miles to the southeast, ruled over by actual Harpies.

Wulfwig felt that the fortress did not have an adequate place for the followers of Light Above to worship, so he rented out a small plot of land near the market, and begin making plans to install a shrine.

Yarlexia continued to tell fortunes, and was graciously rewarded with a minor crystal ball by Lady Lecit, a residing noblewoman down on her luck.

Hirelings

Our group decided to interview quite a large number of hirelings, taking into service Hildo (lol name generators) the Aescetic, Carmox the cat-toting peasant, Fulco the Hobbit who worships a divine badger and seeks were-badger-dom, and Stalforth the archer who had been a slave to some inhuman monsters in the reach.

Yarlexia decided to sacrifice Hildo, who was noted as “having nothing” to summon yet another demon. She called out to a Prince of the Abyss, who was so offended by this offering he cursed her with a blunted intellect.

She resigned to resummoning Betsy, who gladly consumed the hireling.

Adventure

The adventurers made their way back to the caves, on the way encountered a small community of hobbits immigrating to the reach. Yarlexia paid them a sizeable portion of silver and pointed them towards the villages surrounding Fortress Solace, so they “blessed” the party by playing them a moving tune, and allowed each member to take a bite of their heirloom scone, baked ages ago and passed down through the generations.

They made their way back to the caves, where the fallen corpses had been stripped of flesh, but their bones remained. They made their way into the cult’s cave but found it strangely unguarded. To the south, where once lay a pit of zombies instead had a bubbling pit of gore, seemingly the flesh from the deceased turned into some unholy, roiling slurry. The group decided to not prod this, and made their way south to a large, vaulted room carved of dark stone. At the far end of the room sat a black throne whose seat held a large ruby, carved in the shape of a grinning skull – the symbol of the Sanguine Skull. All along the west and east walls stood twelve skeleton statues, painted red.

The party decided this was a trap, and thought to solve it after investigating the rest of the complex. Yarlexia instead convinced the demon Betsy to sprint in with her, grab the ruby and dash. As they made their way across the floor, a pit trap opened – Betsy falling to her apparent demise, while Yarlexia held onto the edge. The party intended to throw a rope to their Elven witch, but were shocked and surprised when the skeleton statues animated – they made their way over to Yarlexia and slew her, dumping her corpse in the pit. They also used their stone swords to knock Wulfwig to the floor, and then decapitated him. They also stabbed Solforth, who winced in pain and remained shocked as the party made a hasty retread back to the fortress.

Florby had grabbed Wulfwig’s head on the way out, and intended to place it in the cleric’s shrine. When the Elf confronted the Bishop Cadriel who had sent them on this mission, he was not pleased with the Bishop’s remote and uncaring response, cursing the priest and storming from the church.

Doomed Reach Session 1

Yesterday I kicked off an in-person open-table game here in L.A. using a hack of OD&D plus a lot of various hex-crawl tools mashed together.

The intent behind this campaign is to get as close to a West Marches as is feasible – I’ve run one successful West Marches late in college, and while I have tried a few times after that I’ve never breached the point of referee scheduling games to players scheduling games. I have a hope we can in this game, but I am not making it an outright goal, instead, I’m letting players loosely provide availability over the week, and if they schedule a game in my availability that’s great – otherwise I’m happy to book the sessions.

I had six players initially, for the first session I almost thought to have eight, but that would have been too difficult, as I was having trouble hearing even the middle of the table at points in the game store. So six players is a great amount, as long as I work to clarify what players say.

Characters

Our six characters were (and apologies to players if I’ve spelled the names wrong, feel free to correct me):

Florby, the Elven Alchemist
Apicius, the Farming Gorumond Fighter
Leandril, the tough-love Elven Fighter
Brother Murray, the Cleric of Light Above
Yarlexia, the escaped slave-turned-Witch Elf.
Wulfwig the Ponderous, Cleric of Light Above

Session Report

Our party met in the Copper Cockatrice, the local mercenary haunt and drinking hole in Fortress Solace. Amidst wine and banter, the party sought out a small collection of adventure hooks, including:

A map purchased from a mourning Hobbit, having lost his companions to a crow demon at the end-point of their quest for treasure.
Investigation of, and eventual elimination of a Chaos cult rumored to be abducting children, northwest of the fortress, paid for by a Bishop of the Church of Holy Law.
A mining collapse in a small village of Bryny to the West uncovered an ancient Lightbringer temple, with the Church wanting such a site cleared out and sealed off immediately.

Having questioned the drunk Hobbit, our party heard horrific tales of a crow demon that slew his companions. Citing the fact that mundane weapons could not hurt the beast, the party instead decided to pursue the more local option of investigating the cult.

They interviewed and hired a slew of hirelings, including:

Drogos the Mercenary, is a stout fellow who has experience with soldiering.
Labrix the Link-Boy. A young herder who lost his flock, and wishes to scrounge up enough silver for an impressive herd.
Hingle the Thug. A tall fellow with many notable facial scars and missing teeth, they wield a nasty hunting knife and has a conflicting relationship between his religion and his zeal for violence.

They also interviewed another henchman with wild eyes and a big beard who began shaking excitedly and licking his lips when the topic of combat was broached, but the party decided his eagerness was a step too far for their liking (as of now 😉)

While the party conducted these interviews, Yarlexia pandered traveling merchants with tarot and fortunes, playing to their egos, and earning enough payment for two silver pieces.

To The Caves

Our party marched off into the wilderness, seeking a strangely fresh forest to the northwest of the fortress. Easy going along the plains brought them to the border of these woods, whereupon they spied a Gnome burrow, a strange fellow named Fluppix had been drawn to recent migration in the area and he decided to start up a bakery and “art experience” to take advantage of the hinterland populace.

The party decided to partake in his venture, although Brother Murray thought better of the situation and kept watch. They ate the Gnome’s tasty bread and were subject to a rather rough massage (Fuppix’s chosen “art” for the day). Utilizing the time to question the Gnome, they did discover that a few dozen folks were camped somewhere nearby and that they did have Gnome-sized beings with them. Apicius provided the Gnome with an onion to feed his “children”, which turned out to include a rather portly badger.

The Gnome pointed out where they headed off to, noting that a troll cave lay between them, best to be avoided. Avoided this ominous cave they did, and found an oval-shaped valley beyond, beset by cliffs to the west, north, and south. Instead of pressing head-on, our group thought it better to circle around to the rear of these cliffs, gaining a vantage point over the many caves below.

Atop this crest, they discovered a camouflaged, but unoccupied watchtower or hunter’s lodge. Rooting around they found a spear and some items, as well as a buried lockbox in the earthen floor below. Brother Murray and Leandril kept watch and saw a hunter stalking a deer in the woods below. After felling the deer, the hunter sounded a horn, which drew members out of one cave to retrieve this deer, while the hunter made their way back to the watchtower.

Our party debated capturing or dispatching this hunter but decided discretion was better, leaving everything but the lockbox and making their way into a dense thicket for cover.

Yarlexia used her witchcraft to assume the guise of the Hunter and entered the caves below. She was met with a robed acolyte, wielding a metal staff whose end terminated in two collared zombies. Yarlexia played it off as if she had brought more food (in the form of her own sheep and goat), and the acolyte told her that the deer was more than enough to get them through the summer. He insisted instead that the goat, Luna, should have its name transcribed in the Book of Blood and enter into unlife as a new guardian for the community.

Yarlexia hesitantly agreed, but mentioned that she felt that she was ready to conduct the ritual herself, and would make her way into the ritual chamber. Passing by the guard she realized the cult’s complex was very deep, and she feared her illusion wearing off, so she turned and stabbed the cultist, calling out to any spirits or demons for protection. She was answered by a fell spirit demanding more supplication and ritual before providing aid.

Deciding against partaking in a full-blown ritual at the cave entrance, she grabbed the acolyte’s religious symbol, a blood-red skull, as well as the dual man-catcher zombie apparatus and returned to the group.

The party decided to make haste and double back to the fortress to provide proof to the bishop of the cult. They were promptly rewarded, and our session closed.

Referee Notes

Hopefully, I did the session justice, and apologies to any players whose antics or quips I may have missed. Running a pretty generative-oriented hex crawl involves juggling quite a lot of details at once, so I unfortunately sometimes misremember a few details.

Overall this was a fun session. Time was a little packed as half the session included character creation and setting summary, so I couldn’t quite get the spotlight on everyone as I would have wished, but I think there’s a decent way forward for everyone to grow and drive goals and ambitions.

I am running this game in real-time, so the party may have a week or more to carouse, do downtime, research, etc. before deciding if they want to fight this cult or go about another hook.

If you happen to be in the L.A. area and are interested in playing, definitely drop me a message and I’ll shoot you a player survey!

Late Gary Con 15 Summary & Braunstein

So about a month ago (time does fly), I traveled to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to attend Gary Con 15. GC15 was my first convention since the initial outbreak of Covid, so I was pretty excited. I was initially planning on running an event there, but after a lot of life stuff got in the way, I decided to attend as a player for once. Going to a convention without referee slots is quite a change of pace for me, as I have had whole trips to GenCon, where I have run three sessions daily. I did grab some pick-up play as a referee and player, though, so I guess I can’t keep away from the backside of the screen.

I got to play in about 75% of the games I had wanted to try out. Unfortunately, I missed Daniel Norton‘s Unchained sessions, but I could play several other peoples’ takes on D&D + Chainmail, so that was a fitting consolation.

I met with my pal Directsun and played face-to-face with him as he ran his Seer’s Sanctum adventure. I had played in a playtest version, but I often play in adventures I have read or run, so I have no problem playing support for the other players and maybe goading characters into trying “fun” ideas. Directsun ran the game in a very “FKR” sort of style. When players showed up to the table, he had them roll up three stats, ask for something the character is good at and is poor at, and contribute whatever else they wanted, such as background, motivation, etc. I played a braggart mercenary who was adept with a polearm but very cowardly. We got through the dungeon and were able to unleash some stuff in it that the author hadn’t experienced before, so that was a blast.

Most of the games I played were what I would recognize as what Mike Monard described in his original FKR post on the odd74 forums. I think this is a testament to the toolbox nature of D&D’s original three little brown books (and also how vague and obtuse they are, necessitating hacking, I say lovingly). Not to get too into yelling at a cloud, but I think sometimes people chase some big secret when it comes to these sub-niches of games like they need to find some perfect mechanic or principle when it is – play games with people you trust and talks about the fun you want to have. That’s an aside from the con, though.

The highlight of the convention was getting to play a session of Braunstein I with David Wesley. If you are unaware, Braunstein was a “war game” that Wesley ran for his wargaming group, which included Dave Arneson. In this game, everyone played individual characters in a tense situation. Wesley needed to come up with rulings on the fly for all the unexpected hijinks the players got up to. What he thought was a failure became the spark igniting the tabletop roleplaying hobby.

The session lasted six hours, with an hour and a half of setup and discussion. This length of time might seem like a lot. Still, it was an absolute gem of a session for me – Wesley overviewed how and why he proposed the game, the history of how it happened, and the following Braunsteins he ran to eventually arrive at the notion of what made them fun. He also gave a historical overview of the scenario behind the game – noting that many of his original players were familiar with the political situation given their wargaming, so he wanted to highlight the political and religious underpinnings of the adventure.

Wesley immediately handed out a few characters based on contributions and answers to questions he asked during the history section. For example, a player who could recite a quote from Jefferson was handed the role of a dissident student. I was “Student #3”, imprisoned with other students who had incited violence (or defended against it, per their report). I will not go into deep detail on the scenario as I know David Wesley is running this at many more conventions to come, and I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone who does want to play it. My character had a cushy job and a somewhat mysterious past, and my goals related to keeping that position, not being expelled, and discovering the details of my background.

Every character had a collection of different, secret goals. While we were supposed to accomplish them, many of us found additional avenues for fun, messing with other characters, repairing or ruining extraneous situations based on the players, and hijinks.

The game is played much like one might think of as a parlor larp. We had sections of the room to represent different sections of the town – the prison, with tables representing cells, various buildings, the university, and a town square. We didn’t have all the players for every single role, so our Referee would go about the players portraying them. For example, he showed up as a corrupt guard to my cell looking for an easy payout, which my cellmates and I jumped at the chance to contribute to on promise of immediate release.

The experience was one of the best games I have played in. After the game, David Wesley signed a copy of Olde House Rules‘ Barons of Braunstein (a book he contributed the forward and some extra materials to). We also had time to discuss historic details I had questions about with the Major and players from his group. I’ll probably collect them in a future post to get further information after I correspond.

Overall, the convention was a lot of fun, definitely one of the better ones I have been to, and I don’t think that is just because it is the first I’ve attended in about three years!