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!