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

Hill Cantons - Session 05

This ended up being quite a long session played over five hours or so, though packed to the brim with action. I have provided some thoughts on the conclusion of the session, what I mean by this will become evident after having read the play report I'm sure. In any case - happy reading!

Characters

• Asim "Ace" Bakir - Level 3 Mountebank
• Lasryn Thunderhammer - Level 2 Cleric
• Luka Winograd - Level 1 White Wizard
• Frankopan Vladislav - Level 1 Psychonaut

Followers

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

Graveyard

• Roald Holzhausen - Level 1 Magic-User 
• Illya Ushenko (New) - Level 1 Thief
• Fido - Blink Dog

Action Report

With the last couple of days spent in the city, the party heads out to find the reputed frog demon temple, seeing if they can find any news regarding the expedition which had gone there previously. 

Breaking off from the main road and following a trail leading into the hills, the party come into a large valley with a marshy lake in the middle. As they follow a causeway leading out into an island at the lakes centre, it quickly becomes clear that the lake is swarming with amphibians as there is a cacophony of croaks as the party step onto the island. The party is able to make out their own names being whispered amidst the noise. 

After entering a large doorway leading into the temple proper, the party are hit by a wall of warm and humid tropical air. Finding a large circular staircase leading down, the party forms into marching order putting Fido the blink dog at the front of the formation. After walking 10ft down the staircase one of the steps gives way, sending Fido falling down the stairwell to the floor 50ft down. His ability to teleport saves him however as he is able to dampen his fall taking only minimal damage. Lasryn proceeds to smack her chain against the staircase as the party descends. Through this she detects a new false step every 10ft, safely leading the party to the bottom - reuniting with Fido and looting a dead body of a previous explorer.  

As the party leave the stairwell they come into a hallway 100ft or so long. Lasryn continues smacking the floor in front using her chain which detects a pit trap filled with urine-soaked stakes. After spending a lot of time debating how to get across the pit, the door at the far end of the hallway is opened. 

Three tadpole like creatures come through the door and approach the party, carrying long poles and bear traps. The party try speaking with them after which one of the tadpoles reaches out their pole for the party to grab. After Lasryn grabs it the creature attempts to yank her into the pit, though she stands her ground and turns the tables on the creature by smacking the tadpole into the pit. The party uses their ranged weapons to shoot and kill one other tadpole before the last one flees back where it came from. 

The party eventually uses the door leading into the hallway as a walkway, climbing down and walking across the stakes in the pit trap. As they come across another pit trap further down the corridor the party resorts to simply carefully climbing down the pit and the up again on the other side. 

In the chamber beyond the hallway the party finds four statues of frogs stod facing each other in a cross shape. Using their newly found pole they poke the centre, after which laser beams proceeds to shoot from diamonds set into the mouths of the statues. The party wisely avoid messing with the laser beams and instead scout ahead through the many doors leading out from the chamber. 

Through the western and eastern doors the party finds L-shaped corridors each leading to a door. Through the northern door the party finds a large chamber with pools of water containing pillars on either side of a causeway going through the middle, at the end of which a large mural has been painted. Luka (being the one to open the door) makes out the shape of a person sitting facing the mural and immediately decides to leave the chamber behind for the moment. 

the party head through the western hallway and into a large room with a pool of water in the southern portion with a pillar placed in the middle and croaking coming from it. On top of the pillar the party can clearly see what looks like a solid gold statuette of a frog. Roald throws caution to the wind and decides to walk into the shallow water and grab the idol. As he does so he is attacked by three giant frogs that leap from the water and kill him immediately. Lasryn reacts quickly and successfully manages to use her chain as a lasso, grabbing the statuette from the pillar. Before the giant frogs can attack her, Luka uses his darkness spell to confuse the frogs and allow the party to flee the room. Fido is lost and killed in the confusion, though before the party can close the door a dishevelled man runs out of the room. 

The man introduces himself as Illya Ushenko and explains that he had been hiding in the room after being separated from his fellow explorers - the very same expedition the party had come to find out more about. 

The party progresses to the room at the end of the eastern L-shaped hallway finding it near identical to the previous room although "flipped" to be facing north and with a distinct lack of croaking. Using the chain the party grabs the golden idol at the top of the room's pillar finding it to be significantly lighter than the last. This time no giant frog leap from the water. 

At last the party decides to enter the large chamber finding the figure sitting at the back to be another human being! The party recognizes him as the imperial surveyor whom had led the previous ill fated expedition to the temple. After some questioning the party reluctantly brings him along though not fully trusting him. Like the previous two rooms the pillars in the large room also have golden idols placed upon them. The party decides to take these with them before leaving the temple. As the party avoid a spring trap to grab the first idol the mural on the wall suddenly starts moving. The three large frog-demons depicted all start moving and playing instruments. As the party grabs the second idol the frog-demons burst from the wall coming alive and attacking the characters!

The party manage to evacuate the room and barricade themselves in the long hallway, although not before Illya is bludgeoned to death with a banjo after unsuccessfully attempting to parley with the demons. The GM rolls and decides that the party have a couple rounds before the door is broken down and the demons reach them. Attempting the placate the frog-demons the party try to offer up the surveyor as a sacrifice, only for the man to reveal himself as yet another frog demon in disguise who rears up to attack the party! Thinking quickly, the party throws a potion of gaseous form into the giant mouth of the "not-surveyor" turning him into a cloud of gas (though not before he drops a traditional Himyari wooden medallion on the floor). After managing to get the baboons to carry two of the idols, the party throw themselves across the pit with the monkeys following as quickly as they can as the door behind them breaks off its hinges. 

Whilst the party had been holding the door and dealing with the trojan frog-demon, a hooded shape had been approaching from behind. Now as the party seems to be about to be run down by the demons he reveals himself as Glamdalf the wizard! Immediately aiding the party with a much needed haste spell and in a subsequent round destroying the instruments of the demons with a well placed lightning bolt. With this increased speed the party are able to escape the temple, though not before Frakopan is unfortunate enough to sting himself on one of the piss-soaked stakes and the monkeys are nearly run down by the demons. 

Well on the surface the party thank Glamdalf for the timely rescue and he likewise tells them to beware of the temple, making vague references to his own supposed death. He finishes by warning them that he cannot be around to save them, before leaving the party to lick their wounds. 

The party head back to Marlinko to rest up and spend some of their money carousing. Ace returns the wooden amulet and which is taken as proof enough that the merchants brother is no more. Whilst carousing Luka manages to not get into too much trouble whilst Frankopan has a rough time, getting both swindled and having to fight off several muggers in the street. This is not the worst though, as both Ace and Lasryn find themselves in the company of the enigmatic Lady Szara, with whom they share a lovely evening. The only issue comes in the morning as the two wake up they find themsleves not in a bed, nor even in the gutter, but behind bars with no memory of how they got there... 

Demon Frog by Alexis Politz

GM Thoughts 

This session was a wild one! A lot of adventuring and dungeoneering, a big shift from the previous two sessions. Now, lets the talk a bit about the elephant in the room, the deus ex machina that was the appearance of Glamdalf at the eleventh hour in the fight against the frog-demons. 

First off I should mention that most of the group is either very new to roleplaying or new to the style of old school dungeon delving. They have been learning fairly well so far, but many of the decisions made this week still show that they are new to this style of play. Thusly, when it became clear to me that the party had gotten way in over their heads I naturally looked for a way to throw them a bone as it were. 

The player who had played both Roald and Illya had at this point finished making another magic-user with which to join the party. I took this player aside and asked that instead of this 1st level nobody they could temporarily play the role of Glamdalf and help out their fellow players. The player being a good sport said quote; "Omg yes!" and so it was decided. 

Although it doesn't come across in the play report, this was still fraught with danger as even though Glamdalf is a a 6th level magic user, I decided to randomly generate half his prepared spells (including the haste spell which ended up being the most critical). The player in question still also had to decide which decisions to make without any help from me the GM.  

All in all, as the intervention of Glamdalf didn't instantly solve the partys problems, instead only making them solvable, as the party had no real way of outrunning the demons. The players I don't think found the thing to be a cheap "get out of jail free card", and instead cheered as Glamdalf tore off his mantle and revealed he was there to help them.  

Perhaps the lessons drawn from the session are twofold; Always be clear to the players when there is a possibility of them getting in over their heads; if  a powerful NPC intervenes in the partys favour make sure that there is still a chance of failure and preferably put this NPC under the control of the players themselves.  

Hill Cantons - Sessions 03 & 04

Both of these sessions although played quite far apart ended up being largely focused on downtime (more thoughts on that later). Due to the very unfocused nature of both these sessions I've split up the action report to more closely follow the events of each individual character. Happy reading!

Characters

• Asim "Ace" Bakir - Level 2 Mountebank
• Lasryn Thunderhammer - Level 2 Cleric
• Luka Winograd - Level 1 White Wizard
• Frankopan Vladislav - Level 1 Psychonaut
• Roald Holzhausen - Level 1 Magic-User 

Followers

• Nosewise - Old but loyal dog
• Mojo & Mavi - Baboons
• Sir Duke - Squirrel Monkey
• Fido - Blink Dog
• Tom (new) - Trained Badger

Action Report

With the maze burning behind them the heroes meet up outside the burning maze behind them. Due to some rolls on the tables in the Axian Library it is determined that both the characters not present during the last session were able to safely escape the maze. 

The party then traveled through the night to eventually reaching the city of Marlinko early in the morning. After spending some time gloating to their former colleagues in the guild of condottieri, the party decided to band together and become homeowners by purchasing their own flat in the golden swine contrada. 

Having spent some time moving in and getting set up in their new home, the party then decided to fan out across the city, each going on their own little adventures... 

Roald

Before entering the city, Roald is taken aside by a hooded figure whom reveals themselves to have been sent by Roalds mysterious benefactors. The figure gifts Roald several new strange spells to scribe into his spellbook as a reward for having dealt with the tree-demon in the maze, as well as telling him to wait for further orders. 

Even though he is almost completely broke, Roald decides to spend his last coins at the seers guild wanting to know more about his destiny. He is loathe to discover that at the lowest price point all he receives is a bunch of strange mumbling and gibberish throwing a tantrum as he leaves. 

As Roald has to borrow some money from Ace to be able to afford the seers service he is forced to take to the streets deciding to try his hand at slam poetry street performances to make ends meet (what a choice!). Luckily he is successful enough to buy some scraps of meat for Fido and rations for himself. 

Ace

Having accompanied Roald to the seers guild and having pickpocketed the onlookers of his slam poetry performance, Ace takes the opportunity to pawn off the strange platinum arm found in the Rocs nest whilst in the southern market. 

As luck would have it, Ace stumbles into one of his fellow countrymen who seems happy to buy the artefact off him for a sufficiently high price. Inquiring as to why the merchant finds himself in these northerly lands, he finds out that the man is in the area searching for his missing brother. He had gone on some expedition to a nearby "frog-demon temple" and had yet to return. In exchange for finding out the fate of his brother, the merchant offers to take with him some letters for Ace's family in Himyar free of charge. 

Luka 

Luka spends his downtime prowling the streets of the city looking for rumours which could lead the party on to further adventures once they finish their time in the city (a showing of intiative worthy of a gold star in the GMs opinion). 

Spending his time in the Drunken Troll Luka overhears a group of adventurers speaking of some tower they were summoned to by a strange wizard. The same group also mentions some sort of frog temple to the west which they have heard is rumoured to be a murderhole in the truest sense of the word. 

As Luka is the proud owner of three monkeys he also attracts the attention of a pair of curious yet friendly orange farmers from the southern part of Marlinko canton. Offering their names (as well as free oranges) the two introduce themselves as "Jablinski" and "the Gas Man". They also tell Luka that if he is looking for employment, he should seek the master of the hamlet of Ctryri Ctvrt - a man named Sir Leopold. 

Lasryn

Seeing as the party has just gotten themselves a new place to stay, Lasryn sets out to try and find some suitable furnishings for their new home, though not before stopping by her dwarven parents and dropping off a very thankful Stumpy the entrance gnome whom the party had saved as they left the burning maze. 

Walking around the streets of the Golden Swine contrada, Lasryn has to flee a horde of children who throw their feces at her in an attempted mugging. 

Lasryn eventually ends up at the now seemingly abandoned st. jacks church, the former home of "the cult of the blood jesus". Inside the church she makes a strange discovery as she finds an injured robo-dwarf named Zhou whom she helps to his feet before he strangely runs off into the city. 

Lasryns quest for furniture is not in vain however, as she is wandering the slums she overhears a couple arguing on the second story of an apartment building. Suddenly a sofa is flung out the window as the argument reaches a new high. Lasryn sensing that this is her chance, offers a gold coin each to two nearby children if they will help her carry the couch back to the apartment - something to which they happily oblige. 

Frankopan

Looking to give something nice to his fellow party members, Frankopan sets out for the guild of accipitraries looking to buy some pets for those of his friends who are without animal companions. Arriving at the guild he spends some time looking over the selection of various birds and beasts, until finally settling on a trained badger for Lasryn and a couple of snakes for Ace. 

Additionally, as the party entered the city they received a pamphlet invinting them to a meeting of the mysterious evening star society. Frankopan wanting to learn more and joined by both Luka and Lasryn attend the meeting. 

Upon their arrival the characters are disappointed to find that this mysterious group seems more interested in things like "social justice" and musings about some celestial lady, rather than human sacrifices or acts of sexual deviancy. Not even after Frankopan reads the surface thoughts of one of the lodges organizers are any secrets revealed and the group quietly leaves the meeting. 

Together Again

As all the characters reconvene and discuss their next move, they are approached by a strange figure, bearing a pointed hat and sporting a long beard. The figure introduces himself as Glamdalf, having heard of the exploits of the party in the tree maze. He asks them to whenever they have the time to travel west the the great sand dunes, and seek out a place called the glittering tower. The master of the tower he says, has come under attack and is in dire need of help against a strange force of evil elves. 

Deciding to take the wizard up on his offer the party decides to first stop by the fabled frog-demon temple to see if they can find any traces of the brother of the Himyari merchant that Ace met. 

Doing some last minute carousing and stocking up on adventuring gear and supplies (including some very fine pipe weed) the party sets off the next day, back on the road to another adventure. 

GM Thoughts 

This post was long in the making as both these session were played last year before the holidays. Though as both sessions ended up being taken up entirely by downtime activities combining the play reports makes a whole lot of sense. I am generally not opposed to sessions taken up entirely by downtime, though two such sessions immediately after one another felt a bit much - a sentiment which was shared by the players. 

In the future I will try to keep entirely downtime based sessions as a one-off thing, either sandwiching them between or at the end of sessions with a bit more action. 

Something which should be noted is that the events described in this report happened scattered over a period of about three or so in-game days. Events like Glamdalf meeting up with the characters happened in the middle of all the events described here but has been put at the end so as to be easier to follow.