Hill Cantons - Session 11

Here I am again back with another Hill Cantons recap! This session was actually played more than two months ago, so expect a big combination-recap coming up soon. Happy reading! 

Characters

• Lasryn Thunderhammer - Level 5 Cleric
• Frankopan Vladislav - Level 4 Psychonaut
• Natalie Bukowski (new) - Level 4 Monk

Followers

• Stephen (new) - Man-at-arms
• Katja (new) - Man-at-arms
• Alexei (new) - Man-at-arms
• Nosewise - Old but loyal dog
• Tom - Trained Badger

Action Report

Following their previous adventures in the Glittering Tower, Lasryn and Frankopan say adieu to Luka as he rows off eastwards headed for the port of Bystrica. There he will spend some time contemplating the adventures thus far and scribe some new spells. Figuring that two persons are not enough to continue exploring the dungeons, the other two head back to Kugelberg where they hope to recruit some additional travelers. 

Once they arrive they are met by Natalie Bukowski; a monk traveling the cantons in search of herself, abandoned by her former party for her infectiously positive disposition. The three companions decide to then spend the rest of the day having a picnic before heading off towards the northerly town of Muth the next day to look for hirelings. 

During their rest in the old smith's barn the characters uncover a strange golden chariot, but decide to question Jaromir about it in the morning. Going back to sleep, both Lasryn and Frankopan each have a strange dream... 

Lasryn finds herself standing on one of the dunes around the Glittering Tower, looking out across the sea towards the misty isles beyond. The surrounding night sky is suddenly broken by a speck of light going across the sky, clearly seen by Lasryn to be a golden chariot pulled by chargers with burning manes. As the chariot passes over the isles the mists are briefly parted and a paradisiacal green and forested place can be seen before the chariot zooms past and clouding the sky in darkness. 

Frankopan's dreams take him to a featureless plain, stood face to face with what seems a perfect copy of himself. He hears a phrase and as if possessed proceeds to attack his lookalike, slashing him until he dies. 

The next morning the party confront Jaromir about the chariot in the barn but get nothing but reflections in answer. Eventually Jaromir leaves to fetch firewood with Frankopan following close behind him. When the two are alone the smith grabs Frankopan by the shoulders, telling him he has had prophetic dreams - a shadow is approaching, and it comes to claim the lives of the group. 

The suitably shaken party say their goodbyes and leave for the north. During their two days of travel nothing eventful happens aside from happening upon a group of rooster-headed bards. The two groups have a pleasant conversation, though nothing ultimately comes of it. 

Arriving in Muth the characters are dismayed to find the town to be incredibly run down. Tall rickety and mildewed wooden buildings shield dark alleyways where shady fish-eyed townsfolk furtively eye the party. The party stock up on supplies and hire three men-at-arms at the local tavern, one of the less run down buildings in the town. Frankopan procures a tall brimmed hat which along with his trenchcoat gives him a suitably mysterious appearance. 

Exploring the town the seaside the party come across an "acropolis like" temple standing out like a sore thumb between the wooden townhouses on either side of it. Knocking on the temple doors, the party meet a strange looking priest of Dagon named brother Occhus. Conversing with the priest the party are offered a job; northward along the coast there is supposed to live a powerful magician by the name of Cetus the plangent who supposedly has taken a horn-like artifact holy to the Cult of Dagon. At the promise of great rewards the party buys a fishing boat, wanting to speed up their travel to the wizards tower. 

Arriving at the island where the wizard is supposed to live, the party first stop by the nearby village of Imbrich. Speaking with the locals, the party find them to be friendly although visually similar to the fish-eyed inhabitants of Muth. Learning about a nearby group of beached whales the party decide to investigate. 

The party are surprised to discover that one of the whales is strange hue of hot pink. They are able to have a rudimentary conversation by asking questions aloud and being able to read the whales mental response. Through this process it is discovered that this pink whale is in fact Cetus himself! The group learn of the location of the horn, the bottom of Cetus "undertower" but also that it is guarded by a monster which Frankopan only receives a brief mental image of. Before leaving Cetus to die (as is his wish) the party help push the other whales back into the sea and promise the wizard to lay to rest the spirit of his beloved dead wife. 

GM Thoughts

After having a few character deaths this session ended up being focused on finding something to do whilst Luka's player has a vacation for about a month. In a sense this became a sort of "filler" session (perhaps set-up would be better?), where the characters didn't do much "adventuring" but instead did a lot of in-character roleplaying and spoke with a bunch of NPC's. As a GM this was highly enjoyable as I got to flex some of my acting muscles playing both the old smith and brother Occhus. 

Narrating cryptic dreams is something I have done many times before, and I thought both dreams from this session went over quite well! The players were left pondering what these dreams meant, each having their own theories. 

Since my players have never read any pulp fiction, the references to Dagon and this strange horn went totally over their heads. This I think is really cool! I was not aware how familiar with my players were with Lovecraft or 1980s fantasy films, but it turns out they barely are at all. Expect this game to feature a lot more evil sorcerers and unknowable horrors in the future. 

Hill Cantons - Session 10

Another session, another play report! Considering last session was quite uneventful, this time around the characters once again lept into the action - delving down into the dungeons of the Glittering Tower. Happy reading! 

Characters

• Lasryn Thunderhammer - Level 4 Cleric
• Luka Winograd - Level 3 White Wizard
• Frankopan Vladislav - Level 3 Psychonaut

Followers

• Nosewise - Old but loyal dog
• Mojo & Mavi - Baboons
• Sir Duke - Squirrel Monkey
• Tom - Trained Badger

Graveyard

• Asim "Ace" Bakir - Level 4 Mountebank

Pirates Cove, by Midjourney

Action Report

Waking up from the previous day of adventuring, the party find the servants of the glittering tower busying themselves with the removal of the eld instillations on the upper floors. After a quick chat with Pan Orso the group is directed towards the dungeons of the tower in order to clear them out. 

Heading down the staircase the party find themselves in a large hall illuminated by a strange pink gemstone hanging above from an alcove. The party notice several silvery grooves carved into the ceiling, which Luka manages to figure out are depictions of leylines all converging at the glowing pink gem. 

The group decide not to mess with the gem and instead head through the first of the room's eight doors. Here they find a smaller cluttered room filled with broken shelves and crockery. With some further investigation the party find a chest put against the wall, on which there is a mural depicting a human-like figure. Frankopan opens the chest and the Mural on the wall behind suddenly comes alive and attacks the party! Luckily the party act quickly, and are able to destroy the mimic before it can do any harm. 

Going through a western hallway the group enter a room filled with ropes alongside a large statue of a bear. Finding nothing besides a strange smell of sea the group return to the main chamber once more. 

Before they can enter another one of the doors they hear a strange deep chatter. As they hide in the room with the broken crockery the source of the noise enters one of the other rooms and disappears. The group quickly move on and enter one of the large hall's eastern doors. 

Inside they find piles of old cloth, which after moved reveal the skeletons of several rats arranged in a strange circle. Suitably weirded out they progress to another chamber where they find rows of jars containing an orange goo. Finally the group enter a third chamber wherein they find a boat made of reeds, alongside a couple oars and what looks to be a wall painted black with small points of white light. The party toss a rock against the wall only to find it floating through and into it, as if the door is a portal into outer space. 

The party make their way back towards the large hall and are surprised to once again hear the chattering noise, this time coming from the room with the rat skeletons. The group burst into the room managing to surprise the two large white apes inside, making short work of them via a very successful backstab by Ace. As the group congratulate themselves on their victory, they hear even more voices from the door leading into the large hall. Fankopan quickly sets up a snare at the door, and the party ready themselves for yet another battle. 

As the door is opened, three small fishy-looking figures enter. Two are caught by the snare whilst the other charges the group seeing his companions captured. The party quickly find that their weapons are totally ineffective against the hide of the creature, with only Frankopan being able to hurt it using silvered arrows. By using his charm person spell, Ace is able to stop the fighting and begin a parley. 

The little creature introduces himself as Pingu, telling the party that he is a lesser wereshark and part of the crew of Ondrj (whom the party had entered the dungeons with the intention to kill as per the wishes of Medved). Pingu is convinced to lead the party to Ondrj so that the party can make an alliance with him. He also pokes fun at his captured companions and is even fine with leaving them hanging, laughing at their misfortune. The party takes the opportunity to let Ace and Pingu walk ahead as they finish off the snared weresharks. 

Pingu leads the group to the room with ropes and proceeds to move the large statue, revealing a trapdoor underneath. Following the trapdoor into a long corridor, the characters are led to a large cove with a moored ship. Luka goes invisible so passes inside unseen as Lasryn blesses the group in case things turn hostile. 

The party are led up on the ship, coming face-to-face with Ondrj the reaver - pseudo-god of weresharks. Some light mind-reading by Frankopan discerns that Ondrj has to restrain himself to not immediately attack them. Ondrj suggests that the party kill Medved, something he would pay a kingly sum for. The conversation winds on, seemingly going nowhere. As Ondrj seems to have lowered his guard Ace attempts a hypnotism spell which lulls one lesser wereshark to sleep but enrages Ondrj. 

A desperate battle ensues between the party and the pirates. Frankopan is wounded by one of the weresharks, yet Ace suffers the most as he is cut down, his last words in Himyari lost on his fellows. Luka luckily casts a light spell, blinding Ondrj and allowing the party to strike back and slay the weresharks - including Ondrj - using their blessed weapons. 

Lasryn makes several desperate prayers to resurrect Ace, offering both her services and much material wealth. Her cries go unanswered and the Sun Lord remains silent. The characters somberly loot the sizable hoard of treasure from the ship and bring the body of Ace to the surface to bury. 

Reporting their success to Medved they are offered  a small reward of gold and a magical item from the master's treasury; a pair of gauntlets of ogre power. Burying Ace, the group take their rest in the now reclaimed upper levels of the tower. 

Player's Map of the Dungeon

GM Thoughts 

RIP Ace! It's always sad when a character that has been part of a game for it's entire run passes away, but such is life I suppose! His death was caused equally by very good rolls on my part along with a lack of hit points (11 hp max at 4th level). I don't think of this game as being particularly lethal, but at this point a fair few characters have been lost adventuring through the Hill Cantons. 

Luka's player wasn't here for the session and so he was relegated to NPC status. The player will in fact be gone for quite a while and so expect some time before everyones favorite monkey-monger appears again. 

The party has at this point dealt some serious damage to the Eld plans for the dunes AND killed Ondrj which has left a power vacuum that will inevitably be filled by the servants of Medved. For the high price of both Ace and Paula, the party has certainly granted the master a second wind which will finally allow the bears to begin reasserting themselves as the rulers of the dunes - a positive development to be sure!

One thing I have noticed whilst playing through the Slumbering Ursine Dunes is that though there is not lack of danger, I find the amount of treasure to be lacking. At the very least the gain is not equal to the danger, as many times over there are masses of high hit dice opponents with no treasure to be found, the upper levels of the tower being a prime example. Ondrj doesn't seem like he has an amount of treasure befitting a legendary pirate figure, so for this session I also rolled on an appropriate treasure table to bulk out his hoard. 

Hill Cantons - Session 09

This ended up being quite a short session with not a lot happening, therefore this recap is naturally also shorter than most. This also means that there was little for me to reflect on, hence no "GM Thoughts" section either. In any case, happy reading!

Characters

• Asim "Ace" Bakir - Level 4 Mountebank
• Lasryn Thunderhammer - Level 4 Cleric
• Luka Winograd - Level 3 White Wizard
• Frankopan Vladislav - Level 3 Psychonaut

Followers

• Nosewise - Old but loyal dog
• Mojo & Mavi - Baboons
• Sir Duke - Squirrel Monkey
• Tom - Trained Badger

Action Report

Continuing the action from last session, the party grieve the death of Paula as they prepare to storm the third floor of the glittering tower. Luka had previously scouted the floor whilst invisible by climbing up one of the ladders leading there. Inside he found an eld captain berating two technicians surrounded by a variety of strange materials. 

After some deliberating the party use a phantasmal forces spell from Ace to make the three eld believe the roof is caving in, knocking out the captain and "wounding" the others. 

The party charge up the ladders to face off against the last eld. As Frankopan climbs up the top one of the eld seem to recognize him. The eld shouts a phrase at Frankopan which sees him suddenly turn around and attack the rest of the party! Luckily Luka has a Light spell on hand, blinding his companion as the rest of the group finish off the last eld. The party then use a rope to tie up the now impotent Frankopan. 

Luka loots a strange tube-like device from the eld captain, which with his great intelligence he works out is a ranged weapon of sorts. A test shot reveals the weapon fires large balls of goo. Lasryn climbs a central ladder to the roof of the tower, finding the top empty of anything besides a large steel tube. Satisfied, she climbs down as the rest of the party begin to interrogate Frankopan. 

To their surprise he seems to have no memory of attacking his fellow party members, nor of the phrase the eld spoke at him. The party release him from his bonds and then decide to report their successful clearing of the upper levels to the master, though not before smashing the eld equipment they find in the room. 

On their way downstairs the party notice that the two large humming metal boxes stood at the top of the stairs seem to have strange hand shaped indents. Thinking quickly, the group run back and cut off the hands of the captain which they then press into the indents. As they do, the boxes cease their humming. The characters notice a sudden shift in temperature as the room suddenly gets a lot less cold, and a gust of fresh sweet smelling air drifts in from the outside. 

The party descend the stairs to report their success to the Master below. They are a bit miffed at the reward of 1000gp and a couple spells considering the death of their companion, but still decide to take Medved up on his request of ejecting his semi-divine "cousin" Ondrj from the lower levels of the tower. 

The party hold a small but sombre burial for Paula, and then settle in for the night. As they listen to the gentle sounds of waves washing against the sand they are approached by Pan Orso, the majordomo of the tower. The party and the old soldier bear have a long and pleasant conversation, with Pan Orso telling them the story of the dunes creation as they are slowly lulled to sleep. 

Paula blinds Lady Szara

Paula & Fifi

Keep on the Borderlands, a Reviewcap

Having run my Hill Cantons campaign for several months in person by this point, there are always those who for some reason cannot commit to meeting in person that regularly. For some of those friends of mine that would normally not be able to join in person I have been running a mini-campaign playing through the titular module. 

The campaign is set concurrently with the regular Hill Cantons campaign, being set in the more northerly borderlands province of Hoimatbuch (I decided to base it loosely on Austria). With continual squabbling between the various petty fiefdoms the area has been left without a strong central power to protect the people of the province. 

Aside from the recap itself some GM thoughts as well as a mini-review of module have also been included below, happy reading! 

Characters

• Bear Stormpissed - Level 4 Fighter
• Jarno Ironbraid - Level 4 Dwarf
• Pearl the Reckless - Level 4 Magic-User
• Huldovic Klyvballe - Level 3 Fighter

Followers

• Dromat - Level 1 Fighter 
• Pavel - Level 1 Thief
• Argo - Loyal Dog

Graveyard

• Jutta Longbeard - Level 2 Dwarf
• Belnar Longbeard - Level 1 Dwarf
• Etti Fogcrest - Level 1 Elf
• Men-at-arms - x11
• Torchbearers - x3

Note: Character levels are taken from the end of the adventure. 

A certified classic? by Dave Trampier

Action Report

Meeting up at a fort near the southern border towards the Hill Cantons our dramatis personae are as follows; Bear Stormpissed, a former mercenary and self described "power twink"; Belnar Longbeard, a dwarvish scoundrel and all-round asshole; and Etti Fogcrest, a plump elf who has distanced herself from her fae heritage. 

The characters find themselves contacted by a local noble named Hermann von Hyggvald. The man explains his brother was traveling to meet him in the local capital of Dregendorf when he and his entourage was ambushed and captured by goblinoids from a local series of Caves. Hermann offers the party a rich sum of 3000 gold suns for the retrieval of his brother and his sister in law, giving the party 500 suns up front with which to outfit themselves and hire additional help. 

After a series of short delves into the caves fighting everything from kobolds to goblins, Belnar is killed by a local Ogre whilst Etti is speared to death by a goblin (not to mention the many hirelings who perish during these delves). The two are replaced by; Pearl the Reckless, a mage who lives up to her name both in the dungeon and the alehouse; and Jutta Longbeard, the daughter of Belnar whom had come to track down her deadbeat dad. The party eventually manage to fight and trick their way to the hobgoblin prisons and rescue the prisoners therein. The brother of von Hyggvald and his wife are are rescued from near death and the party return triumphantly to the keep. 

The party spends their next series of adventures exploring the lands around the keep itself, and hearing rumours of treasure in the dens of a nearby group of Lizardmen they decide to investigate. In this the party is joined by Huldovic Klyvballe; a warrior on a quest to cleave as many schlongs in twain as she possibly can. The party also enlist aid from Pearl's continual hookup Pavel, whom had been the one to originally tell the party of the treasure. Though the party defeat the lizardmen in a desperate battle, Jutta is sadly slain in the process. Pavel claims a magic sword as his share and subsequently heads off to the capital to meet with a supposed buyer. The rest of the group divide the treasure amongst themselves with Pearl taking one of the eggs to raise as her own. 

The group spends the next expedition exploring the so-called "cave of the unknown" and find it to be overrun by ghouls. They slay many of the undead, rescuing the cave's resident oracle and her dog Argo from the creatures and leaving them behind as they head back to the keep. 

As the characters are preparing their next delve, they are surprised to once again encounter Pavel only for the man to remember none of them. All attempts to reconnect with Pavel are met with failure, and eventually he goes back the way he came. The only explanations the party find are vague rumours of a strange town up north where folks seem to be loosing their memories. 

Before the party can investigate further Argo arrives at the keep seeming worried. Following Argo the party find a raided campsite and signs of a struggle. The characters come to the conclusion that the Oracle has been kidnapped and use Argo to follow her track. Eventually the tracks end up leading them back to the Caves of Chaos, specifically a cave which the party had been told was inhabited by humans. 

After encountering strange acolytes as well as various undead creatures and a gelatinous cube, the party eventually manage to find the tracks of the oracle. Sneaking past perfumed pleasure dens the group make their way to the main chapel of what they now figure to be a strange snake cult. 

As they burst into the chapel the group are shocked to discover the oracle captured and about to be sacrificed in what is clearly a demonic ritual. The party valiantly charges the assembled cultists, making short work of most of them. This is still not enough to stop the head priest from performing the sacrifice and ushering forth a giant frog demon from the depths of the hot hells. As the situation seems the most hopeless Huldovic throws herself against the frog demon whilst tossing a heap of burning oil against the now jubilant high priest. The oil miraculously burns the priest to death, whilst with a single desperate stroke Huldovic slashes the crotch of the demon sending it back to whichever dank place it came from. 

With her last breath the oracle grants her last bit of power onto Pearl. Finally the party loot the priests chambers before retreating back to the keep to celebrate their victory. All the characters spend some time carousing, with Pearl hooking up with Dromat - a Brazonian exile and the groups last surviving hireling. The party finally decide to take their leave of the caves and further investigate the strange reports of people loosing their memories, trekking north to the village which they by now have learnt the name of: Orlane. 

by Jim Roslof

GM Thoughts

This game has so far been a blast to run with a lot of the sessions being played whenever me and the players have the time (which has so far been multiple times a week). The first session of this campaign was in fact the longest I have ever played, totaling around eight hours. In total the adventures took place over a total of seven sessions. 

What I initially found interesting was the high amount of character deaths at first and second level. This was largely skipped during the Hill Cantons campaign due to the speed at which the characters leveled up, but here it was really apparent how vulnerable low level characters really are. I'm also sure that the greenness of some of the players in this campaign also was a contributing factor as it has either been a long time since some last played D&D or they have never played before at all. 

At this point the party has survived the grinder of lower levels and are now beginning to become the types of characters that can both take and deal out a hit. Bear especially has by this point acquired both a set a magical platemail and a magic sword, alongside having rolled incredibly high on his hit point rolls. The fighter class is one which I don't see nearly as much as the other "basic" class types and I'm happy to have it nicely represented in this campaign. 

I have tried to interlink this adventure with the next one (can you guess which one?) as best as possible, which in hindsight has worked quite well. The way I've directed the players has been very natural so far, even though this is not a sandbox the players have very willingly bought into the "adventure path" (or railroad if I'm being unkind to myself). In this way I think starting with a more sandboxy module and getting more linear from there is a good idea, since it gives the players time to buy into their characters and the setting as well. 

One thing I regret about setting this adventure in the world of the Hill Cantons is the lack of setting specific monsters and treasures. Aside from the frog demon and parts of the snake cult it has all been very vanilla fantasy stuff, which is something I would have liked to change. Perhaps this is not as bad as I think though, as since a couple players are very new it might be good to have a more vanilla introduction before things get truly strange. 

Lovely cover art by Jim Roslof

The Module

Does this adventure deserve its status as a classic? I certainly think so. The content to page count ratio is quite high, the amount of mileage you get from its 30 or so pages is really quite a lot. I'm sure the characters could have stayed in the caves for many sessions more if they had wanted to. 

The fact that the tentpole dungeon - the Caves of Chaos - is made from many separate small caves is also great since it allows a GM to simply drop in one of the caves somewhere on its own should they be in need of a quick dungeon. 

The keep itself is fine enough, very utilitarian as a home base and not very intricately detailed. I am not the first to notice, but a lot of the NPCs described therein are perhaps more villainous than the various humanoid groups in the caves. Having run this module twice now I'd like to run it one final time "in reverse" with the players being part of one of the various humanoid groups making raids against the keep. 

Much has been written in regards to the largely problematic nature of this module, something to which I readily agree. In the two times I've run this adventure I've generally played it very straight ("what are you going to do about those orc babies?"). I think this adventure generally works when your style of play is more "beer and pretzels", as has been the case both times I've run this adventure. 

I really do think the adventure kind of falls apart when you really do take it seriously. It makes very little sense to be rooting for the characters when they invade the homes of and kill sentient humanoids without provocation. Framing the initial delve as a hostage rescue did make the initial delve somewhat more justified, which was also helped by the players being happy to negotiate with and ignore those humanoid groups that were not involved in the kidnapping. Each time the players came across humanoid civilians they either scared them away or circumvented them. 

Framing the human cultists as the real threat is also something which I would consider an idea. Perhaps the humanoids would normally live in the valley peacefully if it were not for the influence of the real bad guys. This also opens up for the potential for the players to take a more diplomatic stance. A campaign centered around social conflict and by diplomatic means turning the humanoids against the cultists sounds like a fun time! 

I would still recommend the adventure, with the caveat that GMs should take care to consider if their players are the type to stop and think "are we the baddies?". If so perhaps this is not the adventure for you. At least I think the GM needs to add additional reasons for why the players should charge headfirst into the home of some kobold. 

Hill Cantons - Session 08

Hello again! This session was mostly focused on exploring the area and getting to the Glittering Tower, as the characters find their footing in the Slumbering Ursine Dunes. Many hijinks were had and all in all I thought this was really quite a fun session! In any case I hope it is at least half as fun to read after the fact 

Characters

• Asim "Ace" Bakir - Level 4 Mountebank
• Lasryn Thunderhammer - Level 4 Cleric
• Luka Winograd - Level 3 White Wizard
• Petar "Duckboy" Mihailovic (New) - Level 1 Druid

Followers

• Mojo & Mavi - Baboons
• Sir Duke - Squirrel Monkey
• Tom - Trained Badger
• Strawberry (New) - Donkey

Graveyard

• Paula Puddlelob - Level 2 Gnome
• Fifi - Chihuahua Familiar

Action Report

Picking up from last session, the party are alerted by Paula to the danger approaching her in the cave. After leveling up and developing a fear of boogeymen, Frankopan flees as Paula screams for help against a quickly approaching wall of darkness. Acting quickly the party successfully yank Paula out of the hole, though not before she takes a nasty hit from whatever creature is attacking her. 

As the party recuperate they are joined by Petar "Duckboy" Mihailovic; a druidic acolyte seeking the glittering tower for news of his supposed masters, joined by his donkey Strawberry. 

After introductions are made the party once again take a look down into the cave only to find it pitch black. Hoping to maybe blind whatever creature they are facing, Luka throws a light spell into the hole which seemingly dispels the darkness. Luka and Ace just manage catch a glimpse of the strange creature as it flees further into the cave. After a quick vote the party decide to take their leave of the current clearing to backtrack and try to find their way to the Glittering Tower instead. 

Going past some of the centaur toll-collectors, Paula decides to make a rude hand sign which enrages the four centaurs present. Paula and one of the Centaurs challenge each other to a one-on-one which is interrupted halfway through before the centaur can pummel Paula to death with its hooves. Petar pretends to be a centaur which serves as a much needed distraction, allowing the party to intervene and apologize for the situation. Paula eventually gives the centaur twenty gold pieces which ends the altercation. 

After passing by an ironwood grove and slaying a wayward giant snake, the characters proceed to go south eventually arriving at a large four-way intersection with a wind chime of human bones hanging from a nearby ironwood tree. 

The party debate their next move but eventually vote to go east to explore more of the dunes. To their surprise they end up at a large field of rye with several paths going out of it. As the party discuss their next move, Strawberry wanders into the field only to come back running in pain. The party investigate the donkey to find a strange black spot on her stomach. Lasryn tosses a torch into the dry field in an attempt to set it alight in retribution. This has no effect however as there is a rustling in the rye from where the torch lands. Luka attempts the same and starts lighting a fire at the edge of the field. 

As Luka hunches down with his tinderbox several figures spring from the field. They are short and bearded with wild eyes and wielding sickles, recognized as poleviks. Even though they make several attacks against Luka, the party manages to calm the situation and are told to leave immediately. Petar gives one of the poleviks a potion of unknown liquid which gives him the ability to fly. The party make a break for a southern path on the far side of the field as the other poleviks look on as their comrade flies circles around the clearing. The party manage to get though without taking any damage as Ace causes a distraction by making an illusory fire on the far side of the field using phantasmal forces. 

Going south, the party arrive at a large amphitheatre guarded by several war bears bearing polearms. After speaking a bit with the guards the characters decide to take a night and rest whilst they are surrounded by friendlies. 

After venturing west in the morning the party arrive at the remains of a giant statue inhabited by a religious hermit named Oldrich. The party stay to chat and listen to an impromptu sermon, after which Oldrich heals up Paula after her tussle with the centaurs. 

As they head south the party finally arrive at what can only be recognized as the sandstone walls and marble foundations of the Glittering Tower. After a quick chat with the guards outside they are let in to talk to the tower's elderly war bear majordomo Pan Orso. After a quick chat the majordomo falls asleep in the corner of the hallway as the group await an audience with the master. After waiting for more than half an hour the party simply enter the masters chamber. 

Inside they find the naked and reclined form of Medved, master of the dunes, alongside his lover Yavo. The party quickly realize that Medved is unaware of Glamdalf and their supposed quest, yet they still put themselves at the service of the seemingly uninterested godling. At his behest the party decide to attempt to retake the upper levels of the tower which the master says has been occupied the eld, a group of elves hailing from the dimension of the cold hell. 

As the master seems magically unable to enter the upper levels the party send Luka up invisible to scout out the upper floor. Luka sneaks past several sentries and explores the entire floor, finding a common room with several eld playing dice, a room with several large energy beams, and a room with an altar with different liquids put into two bowl like impressions. 

By use of a sleep spell Luka put all the sentries to sleep, allowing the party to safely head up the stairs and silently kill them off. Lasryn recognizes one of the liquids in the "bowls" as a potion of gaseous form and the party fill up their empty vials. 

Charging into their surprised enemies, many of the eld in the common room are slaughtered before they can draw their weapons. Paula decides to bodyblock a trapdoor leading up to the next floor, though is charged and slain by one of the eld attempting to fetch reinforcements (this also leads to the death of Fifi). The party mop up the remaining eld and grieve for their former comrade...

GM Thoughts

It seems my fears at the end of last session were realized after all, though not at the point at which I thought they would. Paulas player really has a penchant for throwing themselves into the fray of quite dangerous situations which they have now repeatedly paid for with their life. In my ongoing against the giants game, the player has excelled as a fighter so perhaps a martial class would suit their playstyle here. Although the player was really quite attached to Paula they still took her passing like a champ, even though her death came quite unceremoniously at the very end of the session. 

The party has also finally made it to the Glittering Tower! I expect this place to be the focus of play for many of the upcoming weeks (do prove me wrong players), after which we'll see where the campaign will end up afterwards. Perhaps the characters will try to mount an expedition to the misty isles, maybe delving more into the dunes trying to find the golden barge, or maybe the glittering tower will serve as a nice end to the campaign. Regardless of how many sessions are left the characters still need to square off against Lady Szara (and maybe the potential TPK resulting from that will be what ends this off). Fighting the eld is something I have tried to gently nudge the characters into since character creation however. Whilst avoiding spoilers for those of my players who read this, all I can say is that there is perhaps a lot of potential for some character focused beats should they pursue that path. 

I'll finish off by saying that this might perhaps have been once of the funniest sessions so far. Petar was played by a guest player and alongside Paula the two brought a very chaotic energy to the session with a lot of zany plans and hijinks. Not only is that just fun in and of itself, but is is also something that fits with and really plays into the actual setting. All I can say is thanks to Petar's player for joining us, let's hope they join at some point again!

Hill Cantons - Session 07

After the constant action of the last few sessions this one proved to be a lot more slow paced for a change. Fear not however, as I'm sure it will still prove an entertaining read!

Characters

• Asim "Ace" Bakir - Level 4 Mountebank
• Lasryn Thunderhammer - Level 4 Cleric
• Luka Winograd - Level 3 White Wizard
• Frankopan Vladislav - Level 3 Psychonaut
• Paula Puddlelob - Level 2 Gnome

Followers

• Nosewise - Old but loyal dog
• Mojo & Mavi - Baboons
• Sir Duke - Squirrel Monkey
• Tom - Trained Badger
• Fifi - Chihuahua Familiar

Action Report

Lying low in the aftermath of the raid on Lady Szara's townhouse the party spend the week shopping and scribing spells. In an act of great ballsiness considering wanting to lay low, Lasryn leaves one of the dresses taken from Szara with her dwarvish mother, who then resizes it to fit her instead. 

It does not take long before the party can see wanted posters with their faces across town accusing them of a variety of crimes including; arson, theft, breaking and entering, as well as other minor infractions. This alongside the knowledge that Lady Szara has several friends in the city council sparks a debate in the party. One side argues that the party should leave the city as soon as they can to avoid capture, whilst the other argues for trying to somehow redeem themselves or to turn the city council against the now somehow returned vampiress. It is a bit of a back and forth, though eventually the side advocating leaving the city wins out. Deciding that it might finally be prudent to heed to the advice of Glamdalf, that evening the party sets off to seek the master of the glittering tower and aid him against the supposed strange elves. 

Just as the party are walking off from their apartment building they observe as a group of soldiers storm through the door of the house. As they make their way though the streets Frankopan is stopped by a dandy looking for someone with which to duel. The duelist recognizes Frakopan from the posters, but before anything can happen Ace intervenes and charms the man into not giving them up. With a couple close calls behind them, the party leave Marlinko behind and hurriedly strike out into the moonlit wilderness. 

Besides some distant singing the party's first night passes uneventfully. During their second day of travel the party comes across a squabble on the road between a group of very heavily armed "merchants" and a lone war bear. According to the merchants the bear had stolen and eaten some apparently very expensive fish for which they now demand compensation. In a moment of altruism the party pay off the bear's debt of 20gp and then send the "merchants" on their way. 

The war bear introduces himself as Preved! and offers his services in exchange for 40gp and two fish (the fish being non-negotiable). In an attempt to solicit help for their coming adventure the party spend the rest of the day fishing in a nearby stream to try to hire Preved!. Sadly their efforts are in vain and the party are forced to bid farewell to the war bear the next morning. 

During the next day the party successfully fight off some aggressive giant beetles and make the aqaintance of some quarterlings traveling the same way as the party. Even though they have just been in Marlinko none of the quarterlings seem to recognize the party as they introduce themselves using fake names (barring Paula who has a moment where she forgets about her criminal status). The two groups share a camp and decide to travel the last leg of the journey together. 

The final day of travel does not end up being long as it is only mid-morning by the time the party arrive at the burgeoning hamlet of Kugelberg. Saying goodbye to the quarterlings, the party are a bit miffed to find that the settlement consists of only five residential buildings alongside various barns and stables surrounded by a wooden palisade.

The characters are approached by the master of the settlement - the old smith and mercenary Jaromir - who welcomes them and immediately begins telling them stories of his youth. The party offers to help the smith and his sons with physical labour if in exchange they can have some food and a place in the barn to sleep, something to which Jaromir readily agrees although he warns them to beware of centaurs defacing the barn with dwarvish penis runes. As the day finishes the party joins Jaromir and his extended family for a dinner during which they are regaled with even more stories. Among other things the smith supposedly once stopped an opponent from pulling down his pantaloons by using a very tight belt after which he then kicked his attacker off a cliff.  

The next day before departing for the dunes, the party try acquiring more information from Jaromir but find him to not be particularly forthcoming at all. The smith seems to deliberately direct the conversation away and actively mishears all talk of the supposed dunes or glittering tower. Frankopan decides to try and read the mind of the old smith and finds that Jaromir seems to be duplicitous in an effort to shield the party from the supposed dangers of the dunes. 

Saying their goodbyes to Jaromir, the party travel out south from Kugelberg following a dirt trail. As they arrive at a strange petrified forest the road splits into two paths with one more well trodden than the other. The party take the less trodden one, arriving at a hitching post as well as an incredibly tall staircase leading up into the side of a gigantic sand dune. 

After making the tiring climb to the stairs' top the party are greeted by a surprised centaur who then demands each person meaning to enter the dunes pay a fee of 5gp at the masters behest. The party reluctantly pays the fee and are then given seashells with their entrance date stamped upon them. The party takes a gentle sloping path heading west which leads past a small grove of ironwood trees and bushes and at the end of which the party find yet another centaur standing at the top of yet another staircase. After paying the centaur for information on various nearby locations (and not finding out much) the party head southwest to another supposed grove of ironwood trees. 

  

After 30 minutes travel the party arrive at the grove and find it to be smelling strongly of decaying meat. After searching the area the party eventually find some solid sandstone ground which seems to be cracked and lead into a small cavern below. As Paula is the only one with infravision the party decide to tie a rope around her waist and lower her down to investigate the cavern. As she reaches the bottom Paula accidentally kicks what is first thought to be a rock, though it makes a hollow sound as it hits the stone. To her horror Paula realizes the chamber is full of the bones of human beings. Before she can react Paula hears a sound which makes her stomach churn; the heavy breathing of another creature... 

Excellent map of Marlinko Canton by Karl Stjernberg. From What Ho, Frog Demons.

GM Thoughts

This was a nice change of pace from the previous couple of sessions with a bit less action, and a slower pace. Really don't have much to say besides that it's always nice when you can end on a bit of a cliffhanger, which we haven't really had so far outside of maybe the end of the very first session. 

I feel a bit bad for the player who plays Paula, as she has been in charge of every character that has died so far in this campaign. I find it can happen quite often that there is a single player who somehow ends up with a large majority of the character deaths under their belt. In the past I have definitely been a part of this group whether i've meant it or not, so I cannot help but empathize. In this case especially, since a torch is just as good as someone with infravision and there are other party members with much better armour classes and even some with hit points reaching the low twenties at this point. 

It remains to be seen whether Paula can survive whatever it is she has attracted, though I certainly hope she will not become another addition to the newly discovered pile of bones!

Hill Cantons - Session 06

Like with session five, this one was also jam-packed with action and fraught with danger. Once again I have split up the action report into two parts as the party was split for essentially the whole session. Let's see how the party fares in the dungeon of Lady Szara!

Characters

• Asim "Ace" Bakir - Level 4 Mountebank
• Lasryn Thunderhammer - Level 4 Cleric
• Luka Winograd - Level 3 White Wizard
• Frankopan Vladislav - Level 2 Psychonaut
• Paula Puddlelob (New) - Level 2 Gnome

Followers

• Nosewise - Old but loyal dog
• Mojo & Mavi - Baboons
• Sir Duke - Squirrel Monkey
• Tom - Trained Badger
• Fifi (New) - Chihuahua Familiar

Action Report

Waking up to knocks at the door of the party apartment, Luka discovers that Ace and Lasryn have yet to return from last nights round of carousing. Frankopan awakes also, yet with an immediate feeling of sickness and fever. After answering the door the party are introduced to Paula Puddlelob, a gnome gemstone enthusiast and illusionist. Paula introduces herself and her familiar Fifi with a letter of recommendation from Glamdalf, after which the remaining party then turn their attention to the feverish Frakopan. 

After scouring the city for remedies to Frankopan's condition, the party eventually end up at Irenka the herbalist. Purchasing a salve with supposed healing properties, Frankopan begins to feel better immediately after it's application to one of his wounds (which had begun to turn gangrenous). 

Seeing that it is now close to midday the party fan out and begin to look for any traces of Ace and Lasryn as the two of them have still not returned from last night. Deciding to ask around marlinko's various bars for clues to their friends whereabouts, the party set off into the city. 

House of the Vampire Boyarina

Waking up together in a cell, both Ace and Lasryn struggle to remember the events of their previous night out on the town. Both find themselves sore yet also strangely pale, in addition they find nearly all of their gear has been taken from them! By a stroke of luck Ace finds he still has his thieves tools, whilst Lasryn is happy to find her holy symbol has not been taken from her. 

As the two are coming to terms with this new situation, the door to the cell is suddenly opened. Ushering them out of the cell and into the room beyond is a man whose facial expression seems frozen in a sort of resigned agony. As the party enter the room they are ushered to sit down onto a plush sofa. Although their seating is comfortable the room itself is filled with various torture devices which makes our two intrepid partygoers begin to feel increasingly worried about their situation. 

After a short while of waiting, another door is opened and stepping through comes a slightly older and brittle looking - yet voluptuous - woman. The two recognize her from the night before as lady Szara, yet they cannot recall much of their time together. 

With just a look Szara ushers Ace to sit down next to her on a nearby chaise longue. Whilst making smalltalk Szara suddenly reveals fangs, which she then plunges into the neck of Ace. As Szara begins to drink his blood the charm put on Ace fades, yet he still does not dares leave her embrace as she seems freakishly strong. 

As Ace is realeased from her grip, Lady Szara begins to make small talk with her two captives. The conversation veers from topic to topic with the characters scared to say anything that would upset their captor. Szara seems aloof and happy to flirt with both the characters, whom at one point she offers to turn into vampires themselves. 

A little while passes and a new figure enters the room; he has a powdered face and fancy clothing, yet his expression is frozen like that of the previous man (now known to be called Kugel). Without having heard any word from the man, Lady Szara hastily directs the newcomer and Kugel to lead Ace and Lasryn back to their cell as she excuses herself, leaving through a different door than the one she came in through. 

After waiting for the sounds of the servants leaving the room beyond, Ace decides to use his thieves tools to break out of the cell. Even though Ace is most certainly a roguish character, lockpicking is not one of his skills. He is able to force open the cell door albeit making quite a lot of noice. Funnily enough the first door they open seems to be some sort of storeroom, which by a stroke of luck has a chest containing all of their missing gear!

As the characters finish kitting themselves out, they suddenly hear a strange alarm going off further into the complex. Ignoring this, the former captives decide to try and investigate the way from which Lady Szara originally entered the torture room. 

The two pass through a long hallway, successfully detecting and jumping over some sort of pressure plate. At the end of the hallway the two find a new chamber. Lying in what looks like a birds nest is a large coffin. Dressers and cabinets also line the wall with a big bear rug placed right in the centre. The characters begin to furiously loot the room as there does not seem to be anyone else present. Some finds include: some of Lady Szara's fine dresses, a porcelain bowl full of gems, and what seems to be Lady Szaras spellbook. 

As they begin to finish up their looting the characters are startled by the door they came in though opening. Entering the room comes Kugel who immediately reaches out to attack the pair. After a couple of rounds of struggling Kugel has manages to suck some of the vitality out of the two through the use of his necrotic touch. Lasryn brandishes her holy symbol and prays to the Sun Lord for deliverance. Her prayers are answered as Kugel flees heedless of order at the sight of the symbol. Running through the corridor he passes over the pressure plate, accidentally stepping on it and causing the roof above him to give way. Large stones tumble from above and crush him nearly to death and before he can get to his feet Lasryn is upon him, ending his unlife. The characters do not have time to recover as a few seconds later they hear their names called out from the other side of the wall... 

Townhouse Thrashers

Searching the city for any trace of their compadres, Luka, Frankopan, and Paula decide to try and trace the places visited by the other two the night before. After some digging at the flaming goat inn the party can conclude that the pair was last seen in the company of the enigmatic Lady Szara. The barman directs them to her townhouse, though he warns the party he suspects she is a witch and to be wary of sorcery. 

Arriving at the house the group find it to be quite unassuming aside from being a floor higher than the neighboring buildings. After a quick discussion the party concludes that their friends must be inside and decide to attempt a break-in. 

Luka uses magic to turn invisible (which also dismisses his monkeys), whilst Paula creates a distraction for any bystanders and passers-by by performing dog-tricks with Fifi and Noswise. Whilst standing on Frankopan's shoulders Luka is able to open one of the ground floor windows and leap inside. 

Had it not been for his invisibility Luka would have been discovered then, as right in front of the closed door stands a man with a powdered face, fancy clothing, and a thousand yard stare. The man proceeds to close the window and then goes back to his position behind the door. 

Hoping to cause a distraction, Luka sneaks up the large central staircase to the second floor. Entering a large salon with fine furniture and paintings on the walls he knocs over a vase and starts a small fire, sneaking out of the door as the doorman comes to investigate. As the man leaves the room Luka observes him walk down the stairs and enter a hidden door behind the staircase on the first floor. Luka pounces on this opportunity and hurriedly opens the front door, ushering the rest of the party inside. Any bystanders are at this point distracted betting on an impromptu dog race as Paula sets Fifi and Nosewise running down the street. 

Anticipating the return of the doorman, the party sets a snare tied to one of the planks in the roof just outside the secret door and await the mans return. Luka also reenters the upstairs room and just for good measure relights the fire he had set before. 

Exiting the secret door comes a brittle-looking and older yet still beautiful woman who the party immediately recognizes as lady Szara. As luck would have it she does not spot the snare laid out for her, stepping right into it and then getting strung up from the ceiling. The party immediately jumps into action with Luka hurrying down the secret passage whilst Paula and Frankopan unsuccessfully attempt to stake Lady Szara. 

As Luka runs down the stairs he arrives at an intersection of three doors. Heading through the middle one he hurriedly runs along the corridor past the door. With his quick stride he fails to notice that one of the flagstones he steps upon seems to have a strange crack through the middle. In a split second the flagstone has parted in half, leaving Luka tumbling down a pit and setting the alarms off in the complex as he falls to his doom... 

Lady Szara meanwhile escapes the snare through turning into a giant bat and wriggling out of her bonds. Paula and Frankopan engage her in combat and attempt to cut a ring of her finger which seems to make her unaffected by the sunlight. As their weapons seem to have no effect on her, Paula attempts to blind her with a light spell. To the characters amazement the spell takes full effect after which by a stroke of luck Frankopan manages to stake Lady Szara through the heart, paralyzing her. Frankopan then takes the ring off of Szaras finger and pushes her into the sunlight. He and Paula does not need to wait long before Szara's body burns away, leaving only a cloud of gas to float down into the floorboards. 

There is little time to celebrate as running up from the secret door comes the doorman charging at them. Before a true fight can start the creature is suddenly blinded by a similar spell to before, this time though not cast by Paula. As the two turn towards the front door they see Luka standing in the entrance, monkeys crawling about him! Luka has little time to explain, though seems to have no memories of any events since the tree-maze. Having little time to ponder this, the party descend down the secret entrance into the dungeon below. 

Arriving at the three-way intersection the party first head right to discover a room filled with bricked up alcoves. Finding no way out, the party return to the intersection to head through the middle door. They are shocked to find the dead body of Luka in the pit. Both Luka (the living one) and his companions are deeply disturbed and the paranoia is immediately increased tenfold. The party avoids the pit and trying the final door to the left, they enter what looks to be a cellar full of casks of alcohol. Frankopan tests one of the brandy casks by turning the spigot back and forth a bunch trying to see if this is in fact real alcohol. This unintentionally causes the wall behind the cask in question to open up, revealing a long tunnel behind. 

Investigating the tunnel the characters are surprised to hear familiar voices on the other side. After pressing a button at the end of the tunnel the far wall lowers slowly, revealing the familiar faces of Ace and Lasryn on the other side. Now reunited, the party runs out of the cellar as fast as they can, making it out of the house as the fire Luka had started blazes on the second floor. 

Eventually making it back to their apartment, the party spends the rest of the week lying low and resting up. The party finally manage to suss out that this "new" Luka is in fact the actual Luka as he is able to answer all their questions flawlessly as far as relating to any events before the tree maze. As a final hurrah Lasryn decides to go carousing which ends up with her urinating on the door to the local thieves guild - the league of the free handed. 

Good Luka

Evil Luka

 

GM Thoughts

This session might just have been the most action packed one of this campaign yet! The way I ran it I was constantly switching between the characters in the dungeon and the ones outside - which I thought actually worked out great! Any time at which the players of either group were unsure or needed some time to think I switched to the other group which made the session "flow" really nicely with the actions of one group affecting the other. 

This session was characterized by a lot of lucky rolls on the part of the players as they generally rolled really well when it mattered. I have also not mentioned so far, but this game uses a variation of "popcorn initiative" with the player characters generally always getting the chance to make the first move. This was especially important for this session as the party was able to lock down Lady Szara before she could really do much to them. I do have the feeling that this is not the last that the party will see of the vampiress however... 

On the topic of Luka, his death and reveal as a body double was a long time coming (since session three in fact). When I rolled on the tables in the Axian Library way back when, it was determined that Luka had been replaced with an evil clone (after getting the consent of the player of course). The player did a great job of subtly playing a slightly more evil character whilst not screwing over their fellow pc's (which unfortunately doesn't really come across from these play reports). They also get a gold star for playing their character just as they would have otherwise even if they didn't effectively have a second life. The only dud regarding this is that the original version of Luka had not really been around enough for the difference in personality to be apparent. Several of the players suspected that something was up, though they didn't feel that their characters would be able to act on that information. 

Finally I should mention that at the end of the last session I forgot about the rule which mandates that character may only level up once per session. This is the reason that some of the character have leveled up twice since session five. Since the players had already spent a lot of money carousing (and it being my mistake), we will consider last session an abnormality whilst adhering to the rule going forward. I should also say that the reason Paula has started off at level two is that I allow characters to start with half the experience of the previous character. 

PS: If any of my players can correctly guess the reference in either of the two action report headers I promise I will either give you 500 free XP or alternatively if you get both I'll get you a drink next time we're out