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| not what it appears |
Timekeeping
This session took place on 26/09/2024, and the PCs adventured for 2 days.
Player Characters Present
Slippery Pete (Level 8 Thief, wearer of the Hat of Disguise and wielder of the Black Dagger)
Sever (Level 7 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, wielder of Were'shbane and wearer of the Girdle of Cloud Giant Strength)
Giuseppe (Level 7 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, wielder of a Dragonslayer and the Shield of Protection from Missiles)
Comfort Rod (Level 4 Cleric, wielder of the Hammer of Giant Influence)
Introduction
This session report has been embargoed until now due to certain information it contains (that I won't be drawing attention to apart from this disclaimer). Certain patrons, who until now had been busy establishing themselves or interacting with each other, are finally making moves that the PCs have chosen to interact with themselves. These concerns will dominate the next series of sessions and reports. Keep in mind that none of the dramatics that follow were pre-planned; but are all the direct result of patron actions clashing with PC agency, and impartial DM resolution.
Downtime
With the leaders of the Whyte Company of mercenaries, survivors of the Battle Braunstein session, killed by the Talibandit leader Usama Loot Laden when he attacked Guarda, command of the remnant fell to the Magic-User Blackthorn. He decided he had had enough of playing a good boy, and turned to a life of crime. He choose to strike at the most well known target in Guarda, the Countess. For the party, no downtime occurred as last session ended right before this one.
Session Report
"Countess Echellet has been kidnapped!"
Having only just returned to Schloss Ragnar, the news came to the party at via the enigmatic Pegasus 6th Company cleric, Sixtus. It seems that he had means of getting this information almost in real time. Details were scarce, but there was no doubt that the Guardan leader, wounded in the previous attack on the town, was gone.
The party immediately set off to investigate, as they approached the town they could see the place was in an uproar; word had gotten out. Three of the five militia companies in the town were setting off in three different directions to search for the countess. One heading out into the south west was nearly out of sight, while the other two were in a pushing and shoving match with Garrison guards manning the check points leading into the mountains north and east.
The party managed to settle matters down and got the other militia companies, even the one heading south west, to return to their tents. Then started the investigation proper.
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| Saffira the maid |
At Echellet's villa they spoke to the chief maid, Saffira, who told them how she had stumbled upon the kidnappers and was tied up while they escaped with the countess. To cut a long story short, the party were able to confirm her story and turn up the information about the Whyte Company remnants and that they had left town, heading east, just the night before. When asked the Guards pleaded that, after all, they had no orders to stop people leaving; and yes they may have had a wagon or two that could have concealed a person in it.
It had been a long day but the party did not want to let the trail go cold. This was just as well as the patron playing Blackthorn had given me additional orders right before the session, but we'll get to that.
The trail, a score of horses and a wagon, was easily for Sever to follow; but, as the party plodded on in the night a terrific storm rolled in. Fortunately this was not before they found that the trail turned to the south west, heading into the dead end Valley of the Pillars. The party hastened to find shelter nearby to wait out the storm, which finally ceased being lethal near dawn. However, the rumbling overhead made it clear it was still too dangerous for Pegasus flight, so the entire party proceeded at ground level into the valley.
As they neared the middle of the flat valley, they saw the two rows of pillars that gave it its name. If Bonecrusher was concerned at returning to the place Giuseppe had rescued him from last year, he gave no outwards sign. Beyond the pillars, where there should have been an altar, was instead a copse of trees. Giuseppe nudged Bonecrusher forward to investigate, but before he reached the trees he saw a shining glyph take form; they had stepped on a Glyph of Warding and set it off, wounding the war horse and pissing off the paladin. This alerted the men on the other side of the trees and they sprang into action and surprised the party.
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| Night Raven |
Combat #1: Night Ravens, Mounted Crossbowmen and their level 5 Cleric. (MM, Merchants)
Rounds, 5: Party Surprised for 1 Segment, Party win, Enemy win, Tied Initiative, Party win.
Result: Party victory
Highlights: Sadly for Comfort Rod's henchman Domby, his lowly Dexterity of 5 meant he was surprised for 2 segments, and one of those he was the only valid target for the horsemen. With their crossbows firing at triple normal rate (as per DMG pg. 62) he did not survive. Otherwise, even with various advantages, the mounted crossbowmen were able to make little inroads in the party's HP.
Sever skimmed the ground with Convess so as to avoid triggering any further Glyphs (smart) and dispatched the Cleric there before he could complete his spell. Having little to show for a round of missile weapons the riders closed with Giuseppe and Sever while Slippery Pete and Comfort Rod took cover. Although they got in a few more hits, they also fell fowl of the attacks on 0-level by high level fighters rule and got a lot worse then they gave. After this they struggled on a bit longer and then broke for the valley's exit. Again Sever zoomed across at ground level and cut off their escape. They surrendered.
Slippery Pete went forward to examine the trees, and at his touch they disappeared; proving, if such proof was necessary, that he is an intelligent creature (at least for the purposes of an Hallucinatory Terrain spell). This revealed the enemy's tent encampment and wagon, and the altar that in a previous time Giuseppe had rescued his warhorse Bonecrusher. A panel in the altar had been opened, presumably by the enemy Cleric, and the treasure hidden within proved to be lucrative.
There was no sign of Echellet, or the magic user that was supposed to be leading the others. After a short period of extensive interrogation, one of the surviving Night Owls spilled the beans that Blackthorn had taken on the form of a weird oriental dragon and flown off with her and Crokus (a thief), intent on trading the countess to the Master of Winter.
Now, with Sever and Convess able to speed off in pursuit, the question became just how far ahead were Blackthorn, Crokus, and Echellet? Well, the (last minute) instructions were that Blackthorn would use Polymorph Self to change into a Tun Mi Lung Typhoon Dragon (this dragon is not in 1e btw (actually I'm informed it is in Oriental Adventurers)) and then carry the other two with him. All well and good, but at level 8 the spell would only last 160 minutes, not enough to reach his destination (the Master of Winter's valley). Travelling at half speed with the weight of two passengers, I calculated the distance travelled, then allowed that he had set off before the storm had started and then took shelter while he re-memorised another Polymorph Self spell (having also used Hallucinatory Terrain to hide his camp).
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| DMG pg. 40 |
So, for a 4th level spell it would take a minimum of 7 hours rest and study. This duration put him pretty much still at that spot getting ready when Sever would arrive. But I couldn't really make an exact call for this, even with all this detail; minutes could be the difference between Sever arriving on time and Blackthorn being gone.
Sever found the camp by noticing the tell tale, slightly out of place, forest high on a mountain side. He flew low over the tress in an attempt to achieve surprise and; meanwhile I had whipped up a quick d12 table, with 1 meaning the magic-user was long gone and 12 meaning he was just taking off. I then rolled...12!
Combat #2: Blackthorn (Level 8 Magic User) & Crokus (Level 8 Thief)
Rounds, 1: 2 segments of Surprise
Result: Solo Sever victory
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| a sight to ruin any villain's getaway |
Highlights: Sever saw the dragon lifting off and clearing the illusionary trees; with a thief looking guy riding on top, and a bundle the size of a woman being carried below. He achieved surprise (they weren't expecting him) and had two segments, one to dive close and one to attack with his lance. The target might have been in dragon form, but Polymorph Self grants no additional hit points or other such bonuses; one lance hit and the mage was dead, and plummeting eighty feet to the ground in human form. The thief, suddenly ride-less, doing the same. Sever's problem now was the plummeting bundle the dragon had been holding; but the ranger had planned for that as well. He launched himself from the saddle* while activating his Wings of Flying, then swooped down and caught the falling bundle; which is a pretty cool ToTM image I think you'll agree.
*quick release being a standard feature on Pegasus Corps saddles
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| The party had had these for a year before putting them to use. |
Landing carefully, he confirmed that the bundle did contain the young woman Echellet, who appeared to be unconscious. He then looted the enemy of spell books and other items, then headed back to meet up with the party.
As he took to the sky once again, he saw, far off to the east, a force of men marching in his direction (west). They had a number of wagons, and maybe two hundred men; but he was too far away to tell more. It was no time for scouting, so he headed back. When he reached the party, who were part way back to Guarda with the prisoners, Giuseppe was keen to ensure the safety of Echellet; but, after a moment, declared: "That's not her!"
The woman Sever had brought back, still unconscious, looked a lot like the Countess; but the Paladin had spent considerable time with her in the past and he spotted subtle differences. What could it mean? Was the dragon cult involved? Only time would tell.
Addendum
Blackthorn had sent spies after both the bank of Guarda and the countess, I calculated the times required and rolled for the success of each operation. It turned out that the bank raid would take much longer to pull off. Frankly, when he first gave these orders I was a bit underwhelmed, and then while eating dinner I started laughing like a maniac when I realised the implications of the second plot. He didn't know she wasn't the real countess! But by kidnapping her the players would most likely find out.
Session Statistics:
Wilderness travel: 42 Miles
Combats: 2
Combat rounds: 6
Treasure and XP
Treasure & Items
16000 gp Gem Encrusted solid Gold sacrifice platter
220 sp, 40 gp loose change
Spellbooks 10800gp (Sarumin is very happy to purchase these from Sever, in addition he is prepared to offer his services for a period of two weeks)
Total Value: 26851 gp.
Shield of the Strict Rule (Identified in Guarda by Comfort Rod) 2000xp
Potion of Healing 200XP
Potion of Gaseous Form 300 XP
Onyx Dog 200 XP
20 Light Warhorses, 1 Medium warhorse
1 suit of human sized plate mail
20 * Scailmail, Light Crossbow, Longsword
Monsters
13 Night Owls (bandits) 325 XP
7 Night Owls (bandits) Captured and handed over in Guarda 210 XP
5th Level Cleric Malric the Grim 500 XP
8th level Magic-User Blackthorn 1540 XP Soloed by Sever
8th Level Thief Crokus 1600 XP Soloed by Sever
30,586 XP & 26,851 GP Assignment
Slippery Pete (Level 8, E) 7647 XP & 6713 GP
Sever (Level 7, E ) 10787 XP & 6713 GP
Giuseppe (Level 7, E) 7647 XP & 6713 GP
Comfort Rod (Level 4, E) 7647 XP & 6713 GP
Graveyard
Domby (Henchman with Dex 5), double surprised and turned into a pin cushion in session #87
Luke (Half elf Fighter/Cleric level 1), tragically killed by a normal hydra while trying to cauterise one of its neck stumps in session #86
Gurt the Green (Paladin level 3), killed by a hydra bite in session #86 RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Pleasance (Footman level 0), killed by a phase spider bite in session #81
Siegward (Henchman Fighter level 1), killed by a phase spider bite in session #81
Tawadros (Henchman Fighter level 4), killed by a phase spider bite in session #81 RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Patria (Footman level 0), killed by a two headed snake bite in session #81
Deltacron (Dwarf Fighter/Thief level 1/1), threw his last flask of oil at, and was level drained to death by, a Vampire in session #76
Petrov the Prestidigitator (Magic-user level 1), killed again by the toxic gas of an Achaierai in session #72
Petrov the Prestidigitator (Magic-user level 1), wrong place, wrong time; killed by Sever the Ranger in session #72 RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Red (Paladin Level 1), always popular with the ladies, he was eaten up by a female Roc in the Pizza Slice of Doom during session #67
Jacques Ocular (Magic User level 1), a fat green worm burrowed into his head and turned him into a Son Of Kyuss in Brovenloft in Session #43
Pino (Dwarf Footman level 0), Killed by a Frost Giant axe in the head in session #39
Paro (Dwarf Fighter/Thief level 2/2) Killed by Winter Wolves and frozen in session #39
Zabib (1/2 Elf Fighter/Magic User level 1/1), Killed by Frost Giant rocks in downtime prior to session #39
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