Session 22
Session 22
- Leon began taking part in training sessions at the Battalion, under the auspices of Eldritch Arts instructor Colonel Sebastian Harkness.
- Rumdoom took part in the first 'fundraising' demonstration of his Icy Ends of the Earth power, but began to suspect that he was being used by Khaled Valchek to drum up financial support for his entrepeneurial ventures.
- Marshal Korrigan rescued his wife from her own parents! (Having taken her there when Delft suggested the team take precautions following El Perro's death, her overly-protective 'rents weren't happy for her to leave again, so Big K had to fly into her bedroom using the Canary pendant and then walk her out.)
- Uru withdrew into Tinker Jack's workhop, shaken by recent experiences.
- Malthusius learned that Mayor Macbannin had admitted storing dangerous quantities of gloom oil, claiming to be working on his own, for the benefit of Risur. He regretted the consequences of his actions, in particular the death of Cillian Creed 'a patriot who had paid the ultimate price'.
- Oolsholeel - the aquatic elf the unit rescued from the bilge of the Sky Ghost - arrived in Flint with a request from the town council of Saltmarsh: they wanted help in dealing with the local lizard man tribe who were seeking to arm themselves with modern weapons. Ships had disappeared inexplicably, and townsfolk who hunted and gathered in the marshes had vanished too. Stover Delft, having been ordered by Lady Margaret Saxby to 'find Korrigan and co. something more suited to their talents' (ie. get them out of Flint and involved in something more low profile), tasked them with rooting out the rogue tribe.
- The Unseen Court had responded too: The lizardmen had transgressed boundaries laid down by the fey decades ago, and the court had dispatched a Sidhe Lord who would join the unit on their mission when they reached Saltmarsh.
- A recruitment drive went badly: The team met withCaji Dobre of the maustin caji - an elite cadre of warriors from the Anthras mountains who had once fought for the Kings of Risur. But Dobre (who now called himself Matunaaga) had married a local woman and settled down, and showed no interest in joining them. Next, the unit went to speak with Happy Harry, a gruff half-orc privateer who came highly recommended. But Harry proved to be entirely mercenary, and would only join the group if Leon was forced to leave. Korrigan ended the interview abruptly. Young trainees at the Battlalion turned out to be too inexperienced fro the group.
- Short one man, the unit returned to Saltmarsh by road. They found that the Sidhe Lord had grown impatient and headed into the Hool Marshes without them. The council wanted to keep most of their militia in reserve in case the lizardmen attacked, but agreed to send the two brothers who had worked with the unit before: Corporal Tom Stoutly and Private Will Stoutly.
- The unit took a boat to the mouth of the Dunwater, but the shallow bed made it impossible to go any further. Leaving the brothers with the boat, they headed into the Marsh, sending Uru to scout up ahead.
- They found a clear trail of ribbons along the riverbank - left by the Sidhe Lord. This brought them to a bole where many hunting trophies - the heads of a buffalo, a babbler and a bullwug - hung in the trees. A wood woad stepped foward and announced the arrival of 'Azure Lord Blackthorn, Bramble Baron of the Crystal Henge and Third of his Name'. The unit duly bowed, and a spryte emerged. This was the Sidhe Lord who had been sent to accompany them.
- They camped in the bole for the night, but were disturbed by giant mosquitos. Realising this was not the safest place to sleep, they headed back to the boat, using the messenger wind to contact Uru who had vanished into the swamp.
- Following the coast, with Oolsholeel ranging ahead of their boat in dolphin form, they discovered the lizard man lair and prepared for a frontal assault.
This was the first of several 'buffer sessions' designed to keep the unit busy until the release of adventure #4. I plan to start
Digging for Lies once
Always on Time comes out. With a break over summer (for my wedding and 40th birthday shindig; woot!) we should be comfortably able to rely entirely on the Adventure Path for material. This was one, but not the most important, of the reasons I bought into
Zeitgeist to begin with: lack of prep time. Should have waited for the AP to get going, though! I've slowed down XP rewards, so the group only levelled up once during
Dying Skyseer. They'll reach level 5 before adventure #3. I've also realised that the Zeitgeist treasure distribution method allows me to have these extra adventures, dish out choice items, and leave it for the players to decide which ones they actually buy with their stipend.
There were three main parts to this session:
1) Each character (except for Uru, whose player was absent) had time to explore their own private lives. I am heartily enthused by the fact that
three players independently emailed me over the last couple of weeks with character development ideas that stretched to almost essay length proportions! Clearly, they are buying into this world. Malthusius - still not an official member of the unit - has been assigned to desk duties, and his player is running the aquatic elf Oolsholeel for now. A predator druid. (Malthusius will be returning in adventure three when his investigations into fey pepper smuggling lead him to Kaja Stewart, causing him to team up with the unit once again.)
2) The recruitment process. This was fun. Saaladoor's player roleplayed all the NPCs. (Both he and I were once actors, so we're quite good at that kind of stuff. It was great to leave whole episodes entirely up to the players.) Of course, he's now playing the spryte (read: pixie) Sidhe Lord, but only for a short(ish) period. His eventual long-term character is Matunaaga, but we decided that shoehorning him in immediately would be eggy. Plus, he wanted to have some fun with this pixie beserker build in the meantime. Lord Blackthorn is designed to be a total pain in the ass: pugnacious, headstrong and utterly lacking in tact.
3)
Danger at Dunwater. Part two of a series of adventures that begins with
The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. I ran the latter as part of the series of buffer sessions before the release of adventure #2. I plan to run Dunwater and its sequel,
The Final Enemy before moving on to adventure #3. Lizardmen feature heavily in this 'module' and seemed like the perfect choice of 'humanoid monster' for the swamps of Risur. Not sure about the sahuagin in the final part of the trilogy. I'm thinking that they may be a very rare and (until now) very distant threat - creatures that actually worship
She Who Writhes in shark form. Implacable, vicious, but not
evil in the truest sense.
I'm saving Macbannin's cranial implosion for a later session.
Any reason why he shouldn't pull this trick in open court?