[CAMPAIGN JOURNAL] News on the March! Episode II.

Hags No Mo

This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on Discord. It does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and setup is what happens), but it covers our ongoing games.

16/06/2024

News from the Twelve Kingdoms! Following a quest received at a mysterious druidic altar, King Hjorl and his companions set out across the desolate hinterlands of Port Perdol to come to the aid of Izvald, a minstrel-judge. Not far from a stone circle, they learned from Izvald’s wife, Zilia, that the nearby garrison was attacked by the forces of the King of the Two Lands, and the survivors, along with Izvald, were the prisoners of three witches living in a nearby hall. The building, built of enormous timbers, proved much larger and palatial on the inside than outside, with tall ceilings and images of ferocious bears at various places. The hags’ trome (troll-gnome) servitors were fireballed in the great hall where they were feasting after their successful raid. Exploring the labyrinthine halls, they finally emerged in the witches’ steam bath, where they were caught in a pincer move: one hag from the north, one from the south with trome reinforcements, and a third from the west with a stone golem in the shape of a man-eating bear, with two enormous ruby eyes! The attackers’ spirit was broken after two hags were killed and one fled, and the golem was eventually brought down by King Hjorl (as he was the only one who could successfully engage it). Pursuing the last hag, she was confronted and killed in her own kitchen, where the sisters were cooking a soup of three captured soldiers.

The spoils were considerable: two enormous rubies from the golem; a great hoard of gold, a portable hole, an elixir of life, and potions brewed by the hags. Alas, while testing the potions, Tobias the Secretive opened a fire bomb, and the blast killed the party’s new follower, Severian the Executioner’s Apprentice (Fighter 2). However, Izvald and some soldiers were freed from prison. The way to Port Perdol across the wilderness was no less perilous. King Selvir’s armies were fighting a two-front war on the kingdom’s marches against the invading Empire of Sark, while lawless men and monsters roamed the countryside. Thus, on the way to the city, two large groups of barbarians and a pack of dire wolves were fought and defeated – but the adventurers won, and the characters finally arrived in Port Perdol, city of towers.

The Coasts of Pellagris

27/06/2024

News from the fallen empire of Kassadia! Having escaped from the fighting pits beneath the villa of Basilius Antonius Proculus, the company found itself in a forest shrouded in eternal night, and crisscrossed by twisting paths. There were also strange relics here; a standing stone with a magical inscription that brought beings of moss and earth to fight against the characters, strange beasts lurking beyond the narrow trails, and a talking chasm. From a burial mound came the sounds of revelry and a woman’s pleading, and the characters snuck down to find a feast of bandits about to do harm to a fair maiden. Charging the miscreants, this turned out to be an illusion created by an enormous tentacular monster clinging to the ceiling. Brondo Flintstonemount (Dwarf Cleric 3) was seized and devoured by the monstrosity, along with Arvonius Pidax (NPC Thief 1, rescued from beneath the villa). The rest of the group fled with their mere lives.

Later, they eventually found a way out of the forest, emerging in a sunlit landscape. The forest behind them was just a small wooded hill, and around them were gentle rolling hills and pleasant sunlit fields. They headed towards a ruined manor house they saw from their vantage point, finding it mostly deserted. After discovering an exsanguinated corpse, they explored the attic, where they fought vampire bats and found a small chest of electrum and a pricy dagger. Here, they were joined by a new traveller: Arden the Druid, looking for the mysteries of the wooded hill (the replacement PC). At another manor close by, they finally found a group of vineyard workers, and information about the nearby estates. Eastwards was the town of Pellagris, and westwards, far away, a village and a larger manor on the old imperial road to Borontium. However, they first explored a roadside cemetery – failing to enter the locked crypt – then found a hidden old road to a cliff plateau over the churning sea. This was a sacred site to Galerius Demarcator, God of Milestones and Boundaries (one of the main imperial cults) and a burial site too. Larth Ulthes Velznach, the sailor, sacrificed a little blood and electrum, but somehow did something wrong, bringing the god’s wrath, and a demand for a much greater sacrifice. But Larth tarried, and decided to wait. Thus, he was cursed henceforth with the curse of the Blood-Drinkers, to only heal naturally if he would drink fresh blood! And so came a new night to the group of adventurers, on the coasts of fair Frabotia.

Isle of the Dream-Spices

07/07/2024

News from ULTRAREALITY! A large group of adventurers set sail from the pirate town of Linquar, whose former lord they have overthrown in favour of a new contender. Their aim was the City of the Ape-Men, a set of mysterious ruins on the plateau of the Isle of the Dream-Spices. They circumnavigated half of the island, and finally followed one of the rivers falling from the misty plateau. The ape-men ambushed their boats on the upriver trek, but their hurled spears proved useless against the good bronze of these valiant conquistadors! Approaching one of their outposts, Lilith, Champion of Ishtar, stepped forward to parlay, and was immediately “recognised” as an emissary of their Goddess! Requesting a guide, they now found a way up to the plateau, where they spent the night by an azure lake... a giant snake almost strangled Lilith, but it was eventually defeated.

The next day, two two-headed lions were fought on a yellow brick road, one driven off and one defeated with a sticks to snakes spell. However, their guide fled into the jungles. Seeking higher ground, they climbed one of the island’s taller mountains, getting a good view of the southern plateau. Yet a crater also beckoned higher up. This place hid something new: a red lake, with an enormous, half-submerged metal disk lying in it! Two brave (and invisible) characters advanced, gaining access to the interior, but finding it hard to proceed. A few jars of a green gel were recovered before they had to flee from a metallic sentry. Fortunately, they also saved against the strange sickness of the weird craft! Now heading for the City of the Ape-Men, they camped out on the outskirts, and eventually explored one of the palaces. Filled by erotic statuary and haunted by figments of dancing girls, they found a central chamber, where they were met by a very beautiful and very dangerous demoness: she charmed one party member, and controlled another, but finally gated out at 1 Hp. The adventurers shall continue from here!

"I can fix her" -- Ion the Fighting-Man.

City Investigations

10/07/2024

News from the fallen empire of Kassadia! Having arrived in the coastal town of Pellagris, the company learned of sinister events. A young girl implored them to free her beloved, a young guard who was caught smuggling, and was now imprisoned in the building of the Judges Guild, awaiting his trial and execution. After some investigation, it turned out the smuggled item was a heretical artifact, and the trail lead to The Charming Princess, a ship whose crew kept suspiciously to itself. Visiting the waterfront at night, they hatched a plan to go on board, and dangle the promise of retrieving the item for a bounty. The ship’s presumed master, a sinister, turbaned fellow, agreed to the scheme. They also noted rats were leaving the ship in large numbers. On the way back, they encountered a group of smugglers loading merchandise on a boat; things soon came to a fight, where the smugglers were killed, and the group fled on a stolen boat under crossbow fire from a nearby ship – luckily, unrecognised and with no witnesses. The next day, Larth Ulthes Velznach and Diomedes Fulmino visited the temple of Galerius Demarcator, god of boundaries and milestones, and its high priest, the conservative patrician Marsilio de Albertonibus, responsible for stamping out heresies and also presiding at the Judges Guild. They made a report of the ship and its crew, and agreed to a plan whereby they would bring a fake artifact on board at night, and draw out the ship’s master while a larger force would wait among the waterfront warehouses for backup. Meanwhile, the other half of the party shadowed one of the crewmen through the alleyways to an old building, where he consulted with someone through barred windows –  suspected to be a wererat.

At night, they returned to the Charming Princess, showing the crewmembers the real chest with a lump of stone. They were invited below decks by one of the sailors, who was killed while he wasn’t looking. Now among enemies, they continued exploring the ship until they ran into more crew (some heavily diseased), and more of the nomads, swearing by the name of the demon Juiblex! A pitched battle developed, and eventually, the ship’s master, the evil cleric Zalamar also emerged from his den on the lowest deck. The party would have been slaughtered, but at the same time, the city’s forces rushed the upper deck, where half of the crew were put down in a brutal fight. Zalamar used his command spell to draw in Larth Ulthes, who would have surely been killed by the assassins Shalmur and Ilzabar if it were not for the help of his companions. But Zalamar was killed by Shalmur himself, commanded to do so by the hobbit cleric Axem Borbatuk. Cornered, most of the remaining crewmen surrendered, and were captured for later trial; but Shalmur, fighting desperately, had to be put down. The company captured Zalamar’s treasures, a spellbook, but also a demonic rat in a cage who offered power and riches if he were merely freed.

Don't Cross This Guy

18/07/2024

News from the fallen empire of Kassadia! Having slain the cultists on board of the Charming Princess, the company was invited for a meeting with Crimson Catullo, the most powerful magnate of Pellagris. The next day, they sought him out, and the corpulent Catullo made them an offer they could not refuse: he paid them a neat salvage price for the ship, and invited them to join the Condottieri, a mercenary guild that would open many opportunities, and also offer protection from various “accidents” of the adventuring trade – all for a modest 10% cut of income earned in adventuring. This was a very generous offer that was graciously accepted, and the charter was written for the Lion Pack, as the company would now be named. Catullo also gave an assignment to the newly formed Condottieri group: hunt down the brawlers Tullio and Rubiano, now fugitives due to beating a senator’s son to death.

The investigation led to the harbour, but here, the company was approached by a distraught merchant, Iacopo Mascari, lamenting a robbery wherein a family heirloom was taken from him by a thug called the Dog. Following the trail of the miscreant (with Iacopo in tow), they eventually wound up in a bordello near the harbour. Instead of “the Dog”, they found a bunch of bandits who tried to ambush and rob them, while Iacopo turned out to be a magic-user! Eventually, some robbers were slain,  Iacopo made his escape, and the survivors were let go in exchange for some information.

Further investigation in the slums of the town found no clues, but they had more luck in the Full Cauldron Tavern, a waterfront place for troublemakers. Proposing a match for valuable prizes, it turned out a school for brawlers and puglisits existed on the coast, named The Garden of Punches. It seems the fugitives fled there recently. The Young Lass, a small sailboat, was bought from a retiring old smuggler to sail along the coastline – and here is where we shall continue!

Beyond Cape Medusae

01/08/2024

News from the fallen empire of Kassadia! A small group of adventurers set sail from Pellagris to bring two killers to justice – reputed to be hiding in a coastal brawlers’ school called The Garden of Punches. Circumnavigating Cape Medusae, the lookout spotted a mound standing on the coastal plateau. Exploring the burial mound decorated with bas-reliefs of bulls, several vampire bats were fought at a great cost of blood – and the place was already looted, so the prize was only a fistful of electrum.

The company came to the conclusion that they must have bypassed the Garden, so the next day, they sailed back along the coast, then struck inland under a terrible storm. On the edge of a forest, they found cultivated lands, and a walled manor house with a garden of statues next to it. The local farmers were terrified of Ferox Aper’s caveman visage, thinking him a bandit slaver, and started crying for help. The company retreated to the garden, weathering the worst of the storm in a mysterious lakeside gazebo. An old man in a different cottage shared some information about the area (and the human-sacrificing druids who had carried off the brother of the major domo). It seemed the Garden was not in this area, so the decision was made to return to ship and sail south along the coast some more.

On the sea, however, zombies rose from the waves to climb on board. In pitched battle, they were slain (a mirror image spell and holy water proving invaluable), but Ferox Aper was torn apart by the living dead. At this point, they were back to the place where the burial mound was: and they carried the caveman’s body up to the coastal plateau, laying him to rest in the former sarcophagus of the Bull-Slaying Lord.

Against the Google

Addendum: the enshittification of Blogger continues. Year by year, a perfectly functional service gets worse and worse. Can it get worse? Can it get much worse? The jury is still out on that one! Thanks, Google, you are the best!