 |
| "This is our forest!"-- Zyrrith Wildthorn |
Introduction
Following last week’s triumphs, many of Machodor’s heroes were occupied with training to advance their levels. Sheamus seized the opportunity to pursue his audacious plan to breed “chicken jockey” troops. He persuaded a motley band of adventurers, including several henchmen of the players off training, to join him on a quest to secure a cockatrice feather and troll blood for a sage’s alchemical experiments, leading them south to the Tuarhievel Forest.
Timekeeping
This session began on May 29th, 2025, with the player characters adventuring until June 3rd. Downtime for these characters begins the next day.
Player Characters Present
Sheamus (Level 7 Irish Fighter from Brovenloft, rider of the Rocket Cycle and wielder of the Drewblade)
with henchman McScales (Lizardman F4)
Gurt the Green (Level 6 Paladin of Machodor, wielder of the Liberator+3, bearer of the Fabled Ice Jewel of Frigia, rider of Artax)
with henchman Anri (M4) and Cedric (C1)
Dusty (Level 4 Druid, henchman of Karshe)
Roger (Level 2 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, henchman of Sever the Wrathful)
Downtime
 |
| An ancient map indicating the location of the two forests |
Sheamus, driven by his vision Castle Irish fielding chicken jockey troops, consulted a sage in Minas Mandalf who revealed that cockatrice feathers and troll blood were essential for breeding experiments. Tavern-hopping across the city, Sheamus then learned that cockatrices inhabit sylvan forests and were currently migrating between Tuarhievel and Sielwode, approximately 120 miles south of Minas Mandalf. Yes, this session occurs outside of the Bandit Mountains!
Session Report
Day 1: Planning and travel to Tuarhievel (May 29, 2025)
Having planned out his expedition, Sheamus realised that the best location to try was the forest of Tuarhievel (the X on the left of the map). This made sense as it was the summer nesting for Cockatrice. Most of the party clambered aboard the Rocket Cycle, while Roger had his Pegasus. The weather was good and they made the vicinity of the forest by lunch time. The forest beckoned and so in they went full of confidence, but the day ended without any discovery. However, that night did not quite pass so uneventfully. Roger was on duty in the last watch when he heard the sound of heavy feet moving through the undergrowth. He had just enough time to wake up Sheamus before a guttural growl revealed the presence of two horrible creatures charging at them.
Combat #1: 2 Trolls
Rounds: 3
Result: Party Victory
Highlights: Sheamus was still groggy and chose to start stringing his bow, but before he could do so the creatures were upon him. Their claws racked him viciously but somehow he avoid their even more terrible jaws.
Gurt, being a civilised paladin, has a tent that he camps in with his henchmen (even if the fact that one is actually a henchwoman is a source of amusement to the others). The holy warrior sprang into action in his pyjamas, relying on his dual wielding ability to protect himself. Dusty cast Entangle, it was in the hope of getting the trolls before they reached melee combat range, but instead got them as they reached melee range, with the results that Anri and Cedric were also stuck fast. Roger and Sheamus, with McScales leaping into action from the other side of the rocket cycle, whittled down the hit points of the trolls, and then Gurt arrived to get them some more. Next round the party won initiative, and this was needed with Sheamus on his last legs. The party combined to down both trolls.
A few heals later and Sheamus was collecting Troll blood by the gallon in purpose build flasks, then they burned the creatures to a crisp (somehow not attracting anything else, they were still practically at the forests edge so that probably explains it). The party were please with achieving one of their goals so quickly.
Days 2–3: Tracking the trolls (May 30–31, 2025)
Roger found he could track the trolls, so they set off in the hopes of finding a lair, the Rocket Cycle was kept on hover mode to be quiet as possible. The forest became thicker as they moved deeper in, slowing their advance. The could now cover only about 5 miles a day and nothing of note happened before nightfall. Next morning they continued on the Troll trail until they encountered some crows (I was tempted to reference the womenz division here but managed to avoid the distraction).
Encounter #1: 12 Crows
Rounds: 4
Result: Parleyed for information.
Highlights: Dusty managed to get off a Speak with Animals spell as half of them flew off (don't we all love DMing when that spell is used?) and the crows were able to indicate with their beaks where they had seen some Cockatrice the day before. This was to the east, but the troll trail led south. The players decided to keep on south after the hoped for Troll lair.
Day 4: The Barkburr grove (June 1, 2025)
A day or so later they came upon an open clearing. Immediately they had a bad feeling about the two troll shaped trees in the center of it; they looked very lifelike, but were clearly not alive. Other trees nearby had strange clumps on them.
Encounter #2: Barkburrs
Rounds: N/A
Result: Avoided.
Highlights: Suddenly, Dusty recognised (with only an 8% chance to do so) that this was the grove of Barkburrs (see MM2 p14, the whole page!). The party were just 10 feet out of range of the things as he explained the danger of the creatures launching themselves at unwary adventurers. Fortunately, with this warning the party did not trigger an attack.
It was clear though that tracking the trolls further was out of the question, so they abandoned their lair hunting and returned to where they had marked their conversation with the crows. Once there they continued in the direction indicated by the crows finding nothing, until nightfall, and wondered if the crows had been messing with them. That night, while Sheamus was on watch, their little camp was suddenly surround by the elves who gave the forest its name.
Day 5: Surrounded by bastard elves! (June 2, 2025)
Encounter #3: 20 Tuarhievel Grugach Elves
Rounds: n/a
Result: Parleyed for information.
Highlights: Sheamus managed to get Anri to translate for him and also offered a Potion of Heroism to the leader of the elves, one Zyrrith Wildthorn, who was mounted on a giant stag. The elf passed on a clue to a cockatrice sighting and granted them three days to follow up before he would once again demand tribute if he ran into them again.
Though impressed with the party's goals, he scoffed at their following the troll tracks looking for the monsters' lair, "We don't allow their kind to lair in our forest, they must have been passing through."
At one point Gurt, being a good Paladin, was going to going into evangelisation mode with these elves. I can only assume someone messaged him in the back channels, because he stopped before I could confirm what he had said. I then immediately forgot about it, but later I remembered I was going to get right into my Appendix N to answer, "We will not worship your White Christ!" Maybe next time.
They parted on relatively good terms with elves and followed the directions they had received from them. These led south into the thickest part of forest, which was now canopied to such an extent that it would not be possible to fly out without having to cut their way through to the sky. They would need to return to a more lightly forested area first. Heedless, they plunged on until they reckoned they had gone as far as the elves had suggested, then camped.
Day 6: Cockatrice Hunt (June 3, 2025)
Night passed and then they resumed their searching. Soon they found a petrified rabbit, and from there found tracks again heading south. I decided to determine from the results of Roger's tracking rolls just how fresh the tracks were, his next roll came up 01: they were near! Dusty fired off a spell that none of us had seen used before:
Locate Animals. Would this work on Cockatrices? Well each of the different Druid Animal spells has a slightly different take on valid targets, the DMG didn't add any light, so I decided it did work. Of course, the range is quite short on the spell and, as Dusty's player kept having to remind me - he had no Greater Mistletoe -- so it was even worse for him. On the second round of his second casting of
Locate Animals, he finally pinged on something up on a crag of rock deep within the canopy.
They set about an ambush with spells Snare and Trip. Then Sheamus used a charge on the Hawkman Bracelet for Invisibility 10' Radius, which covered the Rocket Cycle and everyone on it. Roger stepped off and stood with his Pegasus and began a hooting yell that he hoped would attract the Cockatrice (and nothing else). What could I do? Of course I checked to see if this drew another encounter, and it did. At the same time as Roger heard the screech of approaching bird life from the rocky cliff ahead, 4 stags wandered up to see what was making the noise. They didn't know what to make of the ranger; it was not their lucky day.
Combat #2: 5 Cockatrice
Rounds: 6
Result: Party Victory
Highlights: Two Cockatrice were attracted to the Roger's calls, they flew out from the cliff ahead of the invisible Rocket Cycle and went in his direction. Unfortunately for the party this meant they sailed right over the traps they had laid and right over their heads towards the targets they could see. Unfortunately for the stag's they looked like just as good targets as Roger and his Pegasus, one was turned to stone immediately while the other made its save. Dusty cast Hold Animal but, realising at the last moment (DM adjudication) that this spell wouldn't effect the cockatrice he targeted the stags instead (should I downgrade him for that? hmmm), one was held. Roger, who had chosen to flee on his Pegasus, made it away free and clear, he turned to provide archery support from a safe distance.
Next round Gurt dramatically leapt off the back of the Rocket Cycle and joined the fray. Three more cockatrice burst out of their lair in the cliff face and were ready to join in, but Dusty threw Entangle up at the trees (remember the thick canopy) and I ruled that it was just as effective as if they had been on the ground. Two were stuck, but a third made its save and came down to get Gurt from behind. The Paladin's saving throw was good and he struck about him with his sword and knife. Sheamus and the others joined the fray and put down the three cockatrices (with Gurt passing another petrification save) while there was still three rounds left on the Entangle. Not taking any chances, the characters pulled out their ranged weapons and proceeded to annihilate the two remaining monsters before the spell expired.
They raided the lair (loot below) and were ready to pull out; but again, with the canopy, that was not going to happen immediately. Instead they retraced there trail back to an area less dense with trees. They manged to take off just as a big group of Trolls (we those elves lying or what?) noticed them, but they were too far away to prevent their departure.
DM Resources
This
hex map from
Mr Wargaming was very handy to use live in session to keep track of the party's movements. I used it as a 30 mile hex of forest containing 6 mile smaller hexes. As events occurred I noted them down in the numbered boxes. Very handy and now a permanent resource if the players return to the area in the future.
Session Statistics:
Wilderness travel: 102 Miles
Combats: 2
Combat rounds: 9
Treasure & Items
8 gems 500, 100, 1000, 1000, 50, 100, 50, 5000 total: 7800gp
3 jewellery 12000, 11000, 4000: 27,000gp
Cloak of Elvenkind (Tuarhievel Grugach elves) 1000xp
2 Cockatrice eggs (Sarumin offers 100gp each for them)
Identify Costs 450gp
Monsters
2 Trolls 1626xp
5 Cockatrice 2225xp
39,651 XP & 34,350 GP Assignment
Sheamus (E) 7,209 XP & 6,245 GP
and McScales(E) 3,605 XP & 2,123 GP
Dusty (E) 7,209 XP & 6,245 GP
Gurt (E) 7,209 XP & 6,245 GP
and Anri 3,605 XP & 2,123 GP
and Cedric 3,605 XP & 2,123 GP
Roger (E) 7,209 XP & 6,245 GP
Graveyard
Gurt the Green (Paladin level 6) killed by a poison needle trap in session #114 RAISED FROM THE DEAD (with a roll of 94!)
Solaire the Fallen (Henchman Fighter (paladin) level 3) killed by Stone Giants acting as catapults in session #114
Paul (Henchman Paladin level 1), reduced to 0 hit points by white dragon breath when climbing down a rope ladder in session #108. Killed not by the fall; but by the sudden stop at the bottom. RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Ignatius the Smiter (Cleric level 1), horrifically mutilated and killed by double hit from a Shoggoth in session #106
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), wrong place, wrong time; killed by Sever the Ranger in session #72 RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Petrov the Prestidigitator (Magic-user level 1), killed again by the toxic gas of an Achaierai in session #72
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
No comments:
Post a Comment