Ep3 Session 1 Play Summary

CP awarded 3

Dave 4

Present

Dave - Tobias

Tom - Icarus

Tim - Cognor

Given 1000cp by church upfront. 

The party was sent north by the church on a mission to find a missing priest, Brother Gramdell Roque, who was tending a small church at a small manor named Tawley Court

The Church provided a wagon and supplies for the journey

The party travelling North west for 2 Weeks and 3 days

Followed road from west to east

River valley.  small walled manor to North of road and river.  village around manor and villages to north west

Forest to East foot hills to east and far to north

Fens and Bogs to South of river – smoke seen rising from that direction. 

Upon arrival, the party was confronted by an open drawbridge over a small dry moat and a dropped portcullis. 

The guards were suspicious but the party was invited in happily by the Bailiff, Gottfried.  Gottfried is flanked by 2 large carnivorous apes.   Gottfried is polite and cultured, likely from the East

Gottfried is the brother of the Lady Delwyn, who is the wife of Sir Bradley. 

Sir Bradley has recently been critically wounded by a rampaging demon.  He was rescued in time by Gottfreid's Apes, Horatio and Ignatius.

Brother Tobias offers his assistance to Sir Bradley.  Gottfried tells the party that Lady Delwyn is mad with grief and is refusing anyone but Gottfried access to her husband.  Brother Tobias beseeches Gottfried to convince Lady Delwyn to let him help.  Gottfried leaves and is gone for a long time. 

While waiting, the party discuss the death of Brother Grendell with Captain Crandle.  Brother Grendell had been Slain in a demon months ago.  Crandle commiserates that he has lost a lot of good men to those beasts. 

As they wait, a blood curdling screech echos across the landscape to the east.  The faces of Crandle and his guards blanch as they look to the east in fear.  The Manor is called to arms and the bells rings to call the villagers in from their crops. 

It is known that the demons appear from the cave system a couple of miles east.  The Party is asked to assist by riding out to meet the demon with Crandle and Mr Robertson.  They are given mounts and hastily ride out. 

The road bends to the north after a mile and the party find a small box canyon that runs back to the west for a 200 yards or so.  The walls are forested and made of limestone (similar to steep escarpment around) and ~30ft high.  A large cave mouth sits at the far end.  Icarus takes to the northern edge to get a good aim point on the cave mouth.

As the Party gets to within about 30 yards of the Cave mouth, a demonic horror appears.  Roughly humanoid, red skin with chitinous plates, batlike wings and carrying a wicked blood drenched blade.  The party defeat the demon, with Mr Robertson being cleaved in half through the torso and Crandle being critically wounded by the demon's poisoned tail.  Tobias revives Crandle.  Cognor is also badly wounded during the battle.

The party returns to the manor and are greeted as heroes.  They are invited to stay in the way house within the manor walls.  While drinking and eating they discuss their suspicion of Gottfried.  They resolve to investigate.

Icarus sneaks into the manor house with the help of Capt Crandle.  On the 1st floor he finds a door guarded by one of the apes.  He then sneaks down into the basement kitchens and hides in a storage room.  After lights out, he hears footsteps approaching accompanied by a light moving past his door.  He follow into he kitchen and through a secret trapdoor.  He follows down a tunnel and witnesses Gottfried ritually cutting himself in front of a tone portal and appealing to the powers of darkness.  He sneaks back out.  Crandle confirms that the guarded door is that of Sir Bradley and Lady Delwyn

The party plan to have Tobias draw Gottfried to the gravesite of Brother Gramdell under the pretext of having to witness proper death rites, while the others will attempt to reach Sir Bradley.  Capt Crandle will help them.  The plan starts well, Gottfried agrees to go along but as they near the gravesite he pauses for a moment, as if to listen to something, and then orders the carnivorous apes to "take care of him".  Meanwhile Icarus and Cognor get into the room of Sir Bradley, and a re greeted by a wild eyed and suspicious Lady Delwyn who is guarding her husband with a knife.  As they negotiate, a small winged demon with a scorpion like tail (an imp) appears from under a veil and dashes into the room to attempt to put Sir Bradley down for good.  They manage to kill the imp before any further damage is done.  Icarus notices the battle outside the walls and dashes for the battlements after Cognor casts Haste on him. 

Tobias battles the two apes and manages to defeat them with good use of defensive magic and well placed bowshots from Icarus on the wall.  Gottfried flees to the keep, beseeching the guards to kill the intruders.  Capt Crandle orders his guards to stand down.  Icarus takes aim and manages to drop him with a shot to the knee. 

The Aftermath

Gottfried is hung for treason.

Sir Bradley is brought back to full health after a week of care from Tobias.

Tobias is recruited to dismantle and sanctify the alter and portal in the secret dungeon. 

The party find that the secret dungeon is connected by a natural tunnel to the cave where they confronted the winged demon.

Sir Bradley reveals that he has recently been granted a lordship and is now to be styled Sir Bradley Tawsley, Baron of Carth.  He is Baron in name only though, apart from Tawley court it is a wild and untamed place. 

Sir Bradley proposes that the party stay and assist him in reconquering his new Barony.

An old Citadel lies to the East - guarding the old mines

Lizardmen have taken up residence in the Fens directly to south.  They have not made incursions over the river yet, but are preventing access to the Fens which are a rich source of bog iron. 

Ep2 Session 2 Play Summary

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Ep2 Session 1 Play Summary

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Ep1 Session 4 Play Summary

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Ep1 Session 3 Play Summary

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Ep1 Session 2 Rules Notes

Combat Movement in the sewers

During the encounter with the scoundrels in the sewer, I failed to invoke movement costs correctly.  The knee deep sludge of the sewer should have made moving 1 yard cost 2 yards of movement.  There also should have been bad footing penalties for all combatants.  Icarus's ability to move and spin in place to fire back at his opponents would have been heavily affected.  This is where a combat map would have been very handy.  I'm finding it hard to mentally track the relative movement of players and their opponents!  I will look into printable tokens and maps.  

Ep1 Session 2 Play Summary

The party started this session as they left the last, in the Dancing Goat Inn.  They took some time to eat and heal, and found out that there was a temple on the North side of the city.  Sir Piffler of Rimsley was healed back to full health by a Sister-Healer.  They spent the rest of the day clearing the junk and debris away from the corner of the cellar, and were presented with a tool dug tunnel in the wall behind.  The party then slept for the night in the inn above, with Icarus retreating to the woods outside of the city, unable to bear the thought of sleeping indoors.

Having restocked on torches and managed to acquire some healing potions, the party made their way through the tunnel and found themselves in a well-constructed, but foul smelling, sewer running with foot deep excrement and waste.  The tunnel was an even 6 x 6 foot and a dim glow was cast by a thick layer of slime.  The flow seemed to be going to the left, so the party went upstream, with Icarus starting to feel noticeably sick with sewer rot.  After an hour or so of wandering through winding tunnel and having taken a left turn at a T, Icarus managed to notice a light being extinguished and then foil an attempted ambush by ruffians.  Icarus made a fighting retreat, spinning and firing his bow as he moved back toward his companions.  The crossbow wielding assailant had his hand near cut off at the wrist by an expert shot and retreated.  Another was hit square in the chest and limp of into the dark cursing and crying.  Yet another suffered a knockdown when hit in the liver and spent the battle struggling to keep his head above water.  While Icarus was retreating, Piffler of Rimsley was moving forward to help, and Cognor charged a powerful fireball.  Cognor let the fireball fly when the battle was brought close, but fumbled the attempt and his aim was not true.  The deadly fire hit Icarus in the back, destroying much of his belongings, and bringing him perilously close to death.  Piffler of Rimsley brought another of the scoundrels close to death with a mighty stab to the face, the man breaking his shortsword attempting to parry the greatsword.  All told, two of the bandits lay dead, two had retreated with terrible wounds, and two fled in full health, fearing for their lives.

Piffler felt that there was something unnatural about how quickly Icarus had fallen ill upon entering the sewers and counselled a retreat to the surface to seek healing.  The party managed to find 23 copper pieces, and retrieve both the broken shortsword and dropped crossbow.  Cognor was able to repair the sword with his magic, making it worth more than scrap.

The party returned to the surface and sought aid at the temple, healing Icarus of disease and damage.  Cognor also acquired some materials to magically repair the armor off Icarus's back.

Returning to the sewers, the party started searching the sewer walls meticulously and eventually uncovered a concealed door opposite the tunnel through from the cellar.  Cognor blasted away at the door with fire, with Icarus battering through the remainder.  The other side of the door was a perfectly rectangle stone corridor 6' wide and 8' high, probably crafted out of stone by magic.  Red glowing runes covered the walls and floor, and there was a heavily bound door about 20' forward .  Cognor deciphered the runes as powerful defensive wards, causing a damaging dehydration effect to any crossing their boundary.  As the party ad no apparent means of circumvention, they pushed through, with Cognor and Icarus taking a moderate amount of damage.  As the corridor ended in a heavily bound door, the party took time for Piffler to administer aid, praying and using the last of his holy water to provide some relief.

The door was found to be unlocked, although the party noted the glow of blood red light spilling through beneath the door.  Upon opening the door the party looked upon a large room (30 x 30') with temple like architecture, complete with high vaulted ceilings.  Three brightly glowing blood red ornate lanterns hung from the ceiling around the room, keeping the room in full light.  A large alter lay directly opposite them, a large black curtain was in the center of the left wall, and a large canvas painting of demonic debauchery hung in the center of the right wall.  Piffler stood examining the room as Icarus moved toward the black curtain and Cognor moved straight toward the altar.  Before Cognor reached the altar, a daemonic female form with six arms wielding curved blades and with the lower body of a giant snake rose up from behind it.  Piffler was able to identify the daemon as a Peshkali.  He recalled that they are known as guardians of remote places of evil and of places of demonic sanctity.  He also recalled that the only real chance of defeating them is to severe or destroy all of their arms.  The daemon cursed at them and it swore they would not bring it under control.  Piffler was able to stride forward and strike the daemon over the altar, crippling an arm before the party decided to make a hasty retreat when they realised they were likely outclassed.  The party made it back into the corridor unharmed, with the Peshkali refusing the follow them out of the sanctified temple.

The session ended with the party having retreated back to the surface and having sought out healing at the temple.