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.
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