mikeawmids
Explorer
Rise of the Runelords (Season 3 / Episode 4) – 20/03/2014
(GM Notes: Doug was absent this week, so Karrack was flying on auto-pilot).
After several days rest, Grogg regains consciousness.
“Please don’t be alarmed,” Solaris says gently from the half-orc’s bedside, “Someone has stolen a large piece of your brain. You should probably have died, but because you used that organ so infrequently, your body has adapted to managing without it. Of course, you could drop dead at any moment – but you should be alright, providing you don’t try to think about anything.”
Forced to confront the grim prospect his own mortality, Grogg summons a (goblin) lawyer to draft his will. It decrees that in the event of Grogg’s untimely death, ownership of the ‘Everstill’ passes to whoever possesses the necklace of gristly trophies (fingers, ears, etc; collected from his opponents in the arena) presently draped around the half-orc’s thick neck.
(GM Notes: Vic seems convinced that I’m trying to kill Grogg off and is taking precautions to ensure his character wealth can be easily/lawfully transferred to a new PC, preventing the rest of the party (coughRastcough) plundering his assets).
Meanwhile, Ben and Asha haggle with the merchants of Whistledown. They’re eager to exchange all the redundant magical gewgaws they’ve accumulated for something they can actually use. The gnomish traders have little to trade beyond intricate clockwork toys and ingenious clocks. Ben sighs and accepts a credit note.
Donning his deerstalker, Rast investigates the mystery of Grogg’s missing brain. After turning over enough stones, he learns two names; Samwick Stickle and Rollo Badcrumble. The former is a disgraced surgeon, the latter a brilliant – but deranged – engineer. The town militia have been looking for the duo due to allegations of unethical experiments being conducted on stray animals and the homeless. They were last known to be hiding out in a dilapidated warehouse on the riverfront. The building appears abandoned, yet the padlock sealing the front entrance is shiny and new. Rast picks the lock easily and slides the door open with a squeal of rusty runners. A half-taut tripwire catches his eye and he disarms the trap easily, disdainful of the sloppy work. Although most of the cavernous space is empty, one corner has been cordoned off. Bloodstained surgical tools lie discarded on a long table, dazzlingly bright amidst the dust. Something dry and brittle crackles underfoot. Dropping to one knee, Rast picks up something small and white(ish) and guesses it is a stray fragment of Grogg’s skull. Rifling through the hastily abandoned lab, Rast uncovers evidence that Monsieur’s Stickle and Badcrumble fled Whistledown earlier that very morning. Their destination: Magnimar. He also finds blueprints indicating that the body-snatchers were assembling some sort of humanoid construct, although the prototype of this device is nowhere to be found.
Once everyone is back aboard the ‘Everstill’, Captain Snot casts off. Goblin sailors scurry to make the vessel ship-shape (what other shape would it be?). The ‘Everstill’ putters west along the river. It is now early spring and the weather is bright, yet chilly. Asha takes the opportunity to soak up some sun, the rest of the passengers take the opportunity to perv on her scantily clad figure. Ben Kotek closets himself in his cabin with a mountain of magical literature (or so he claims, he was really reading the Twilight trilogy). Rast and Ameiko Sternhammer relax and enjoy each other’s company, often sharing meals with Karrack and Shalelu in the casino restaurant. Goblin waiters scurry up to take their order. Uninvited, Grogg pulls up a chair, completely ruining the romantic atmosphere.
Meanwhile, Solaris is enjoying a leisurely soak in the bath. He is washing the ogre blood out of his hair, when someone begins knocking urgently upon the door.
“Who’s out there?” he calls, wrapping a towel around his waist.
There is no answer, just more knocking.
Frustrated by the interruption, Solaris throws open the door. A bloodied dwarf falls forward into his arms, two black arrows sticking out of his back. Immediately, Solaris recognises him - it is the same mute, dwarven monk that the party rescued from Thistletop at the very beginning of their adventuring careers!
“What are you doing here?” Solaris asks.
The monk does not have the strength to respond. With his dying breath, he presses a scrap of bloody parchment into Solaris’ palm.
“Rest in peace, old friend.” Solaris says, lowering the dead dwarf to the floor. A golden whistle dangles from a string around the corpse’s throat. Unfolding the letter, he struggles to decipher the monk’s crabbed handwriting.
‘Brother Solaris,’ he reads, ‘You are in gravest peril. Agents of the Moonspike have escaped the shadowglass, they have abducted your super magical Uncle Aereon and corrupted the sacred relics of our order. I suspect that I have been allowed to escape only so that I may lead our enemies to you, yet find you I must! I can only hope this warning reaches you before it is too late. Your uncle thought he could separate you from your darkness and lock it away, but he was wrong.
< the next paragraph is obscured by blood >
‘Use the whistle to summon envoys of the Sunspire, they will deliver you to the Tower of Two Faces. There you must - ’
A sudden sensation of creeping disquiet causes Solaris to lower the letter. Two black-cowled figures step out of the shadows and attack. Both assassins wield nunchaku, one of which smacks the surprised half-elf in the face. He reels backwards, blood streaming from his nose and narrowly avoids slipping into the bathtub.
“Prepare to die, child of the dawn!” the hooded killers whisper in eerie unison. Both men have elven features and ghost pale skin, luminous beneath their cowls.
Unable to conjure a witty rejoinder, Solaris simply screams for help.
“Keep your girly shrieking down!” Ben Kotek yells, emerging from his cabin, “Some of us are trying to read!”
Realising that Solaris is in trouble, Ben casts Entangle, manifesting a length of magical rope with which to lasso the two robed intruders.
“Who are your creepy looking friends?” Ben asks, bundling the struggling assassins into a broom cupboard.
“Assassins, they were trying to kill me.” Solaris answers.
“Well, aren’t you popular?” Ben chuckles, looping another piece of enchanted rope around the handle, “That should hold them.”
“Ahem….”
Ben and Solaris turn. Asha is standing in the corridor, having emerged from her own cabin to investigate the disturbance.
“I think you’ve dropped something,” she says, averting her eyes. Solaris glances to where his towel fell when the assassins first jumped him.
Meanwhile, Rast’s romantic supper is rudely interrupted when some hooded, albino freak astride a giant owl firebombs the restaurant. Two more assassins appear out of thin air (GM Notes: imagine the way Nightcrawler teleports all over the place in the X Men movies) and attack!
“Ameiko! Stay with Karrack!” Rast instructs his beloved, before dashing onto deck.
Four owls circle the ‘Everstill’, winged shadows in the moonlight. Mounted figures snipe down at the boat or drop jars of alchemical fire, spreading pale blue flames across the deck.
“They’re burning my boat!” Grogg cries, “Nobody burns my boat but me - and maybe Snot!”
The half-orc rushes to the ballista mounted in the prow and begins the arduous process of loading it. An owl swoops towards him, talons poised to claws at his face. Aiming at the bird’s feathery breast, Grogg pulls the trigger (and rolls a critical failure on his unskilled shooting roll). The weapon jams! Realising something is wrong, Grogg dives to one side at the last possible moment and the owl collides with the ballista, tearing the weapon from its frame.
Ben, Asha and Solaris (still wearing naught but a towel to protect his modesty) emerge from below decks. Another owl swoops out of the sky and snatches the ranger up in its claws, carrying him off into the night. Asha casts Bolt, flash-frying the unfortunate bird. The two monks who had been riding the owl teleport to the deck. Ben grabs hold off one of them as they fall and is taken along for the ride. Both men appear, shaken and disorientated by the shared experience. Grogg hammers his shield into the stunned albino’s face, knocking him senseless.
“Who are you people?” the half-orc wants to know, “Why did you attack my boat?”
(GM Notes: Vic played the Spill the Beans adventure card, so the prisoners were more forthcoming that they might have otherwise been).
“We are the shadowcursed monks of Moonspike,” the prisoner responds, “We were dispatched by our master to slay the child of the dawn.”
Grogg looks confused.
“Him!” the monk spits at Solaris.
“Me?!” Solaris asks, “I don’t even know you people! What have you done with my super magical uncle?”
“He is being held prisoner within the Moonspike. If you wish to free him, you will have to return there. Our master is waiting for you. He has been waiting for so long….”
Solaris produces the whistle taken from the dead dwarf and blows into it. Doing so summons a convocation (apparently, thanks Google!) of large, celestial eagles, which bow their heads, inviting the heroes to clamber aboard their broad, feathery backs.
“Look after my boat!” Grogg instructs Captain Snot. The goblin gives him a big, green thumbs up. This seems to satisfy the half-orc.
“Rast Sternhammer! Where do you think you’re going?” Ameiko screeches, storming up to her husband, “Get off that bird this moment! What about the foot massage you promised me?!”
“Sorry darling,” Rast calls over his shoulder as the eagles take off, “I’ll make it up to you when we get back, I promise!”
Her response is lost in the howl of wind as the eagles launch into the sky. They ascend until the ‘Everstill’ is just a ill-defined blot on the blue ribbon river. The eagles soar northerly at great speed, while the heroes cling on for dear life.
“This is a decidedly second class experience!” Ben howls at Solaris, “Couldn’t you have summoned some more comfortable eagles? Mine doesn’t even have a cup holder!”
“Are we there yet?” whines Grogg, “I need the toilet!”
“You’re going to have to hold it!” Solaris snaps.
With all their bitching, it’s no great surprise that the group fail to notice the enemy fliers until they are amongst them. A great fiendish owl hurtles towards Rast’s mount and attacks it in a flurry of blood and feathers. Realising that his eagle is doomed, the dwarf throws himself into the abyss.
“Dwarf overbird!” Ben shouts.
“I can’t believe you just said that!” laughs Asha.
Plunging towards the distant ground, everyone around the table gets very nervous when the GM asks Gary for a Flying roll to activate his glider (GM Notes: Oh, how I prayed for a critical failure!). The harpy wings spring open and Rast glides along beneath the aerial combat, unobserved (for the time being).
Meanwhile, the rest of the heroes clash with the shadowcursed several thousand feet above the mist-shrouded mountains. Ben rolls a critical failure on his attack roll and somehow beheads his own eagle.
“Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiit!” he curses, tumbling through the clouds. Rast spots his falling friend and angles his wings to intercept - but he is not the only one to have taken an interest in the plummeting ranger (GM Notes: Mal played the Out of the Frying Pan adventure card). Flapping out of the dense clouds, a huge, mommy roc grabs Ben out of the air and carries him back towards her nestful of hungry babies. Rast glides after her, hoping to rescue his friend before he is eaten > regurgitated > eaten again....
To be continued...!
(GM Notes: I wasn’t too happy with how this session went. I decided to deviate from the adventure path and run a few homebrew excursions to encourage the development of certain characters (in this instance, Grogg and Solaris). This essentially meant derailing the story in order to put them onto a new track of my engineering – and the transfer was more than a little jarring. Andy immediately noticed that we were going off-piste.
Another regret was that I hadn’t prepped for the session as well as I could have done. Because Savage Worlds needs so little time/effort to prep (in comparison to other systems), sometimes I overlook elements that I should have paid more attention to. I’d statted up all the new monsters, sure – but I hadn’t given much thought to how these adversaries would respond to the PC’s outside of combat (interrogation) and how they would phrase the information that I needed them to relay, without it sounding clumsy/wooden/forced).
(GM Notes: Doug was absent this week, so Karrack was flying on auto-pilot).
After several days rest, Grogg regains consciousness.
“Please don’t be alarmed,” Solaris says gently from the half-orc’s bedside, “Someone has stolen a large piece of your brain. You should probably have died, but because you used that organ so infrequently, your body has adapted to managing without it. Of course, you could drop dead at any moment – but you should be alright, providing you don’t try to think about anything.”
Forced to confront the grim prospect his own mortality, Grogg summons a (goblin) lawyer to draft his will. It decrees that in the event of Grogg’s untimely death, ownership of the ‘Everstill’ passes to whoever possesses the necklace of gristly trophies (fingers, ears, etc; collected from his opponents in the arena) presently draped around the half-orc’s thick neck.
(GM Notes: Vic seems convinced that I’m trying to kill Grogg off and is taking precautions to ensure his character wealth can be easily/lawfully transferred to a new PC, preventing the rest of the party (coughRastcough) plundering his assets).
Meanwhile, Ben and Asha haggle with the merchants of Whistledown. They’re eager to exchange all the redundant magical gewgaws they’ve accumulated for something they can actually use. The gnomish traders have little to trade beyond intricate clockwork toys and ingenious clocks. Ben sighs and accepts a credit note.
Donning his deerstalker, Rast investigates the mystery of Grogg’s missing brain. After turning over enough stones, he learns two names; Samwick Stickle and Rollo Badcrumble. The former is a disgraced surgeon, the latter a brilliant – but deranged – engineer. The town militia have been looking for the duo due to allegations of unethical experiments being conducted on stray animals and the homeless. They were last known to be hiding out in a dilapidated warehouse on the riverfront. The building appears abandoned, yet the padlock sealing the front entrance is shiny and new. Rast picks the lock easily and slides the door open with a squeal of rusty runners. A half-taut tripwire catches his eye and he disarms the trap easily, disdainful of the sloppy work. Although most of the cavernous space is empty, one corner has been cordoned off. Bloodstained surgical tools lie discarded on a long table, dazzlingly bright amidst the dust. Something dry and brittle crackles underfoot. Dropping to one knee, Rast picks up something small and white(ish) and guesses it is a stray fragment of Grogg’s skull. Rifling through the hastily abandoned lab, Rast uncovers evidence that Monsieur’s Stickle and Badcrumble fled Whistledown earlier that very morning. Their destination: Magnimar. He also finds blueprints indicating that the body-snatchers were assembling some sort of humanoid construct, although the prototype of this device is nowhere to be found.
Once everyone is back aboard the ‘Everstill’, Captain Snot casts off. Goblin sailors scurry to make the vessel ship-shape (what other shape would it be?). The ‘Everstill’ putters west along the river. It is now early spring and the weather is bright, yet chilly. Asha takes the opportunity to soak up some sun, the rest of the passengers take the opportunity to perv on her scantily clad figure. Ben Kotek closets himself in his cabin with a mountain of magical literature (or so he claims, he was really reading the Twilight trilogy). Rast and Ameiko Sternhammer relax and enjoy each other’s company, often sharing meals with Karrack and Shalelu in the casino restaurant. Goblin waiters scurry up to take their order. Uninvited, Grogg pulls up a chair, completely ruining the romantic atmosphere.
Meanwhile, Solaris is enjoying a leisurely soak in the bath. He is washing the ogre blood out of his hair, when someone begins knocking urgently upon the door.
“Who’s out there?” he calls, wrapping a towel around his waist.
There is no answer, just more knocking.
Frustrated by the interruption, Solaris throws open the door. A bloodied dwarf falls forward into his arms, two black arrows sticking out of his back. Immediately, Solaris recognises him - it is the same mute, dwarven monk that the party rescued from Thistletop at the very beginning of their adventuring careers!
“What are you doing here?” Solaris asks.
The monk does not have the strength to respond. With his dying breath, he presses a scrap of bloody parchment into Solaris’ palm.
“Rest in peace, old friend.” Solaris says, lowering the dead dwarf to the floor. A golden whistle dangles from a string around the corpse’s throat. Unfolding the letter, he struggles to decipher the monk’s crabbed handwriting.
‘Brother Solaris,’ he reads, ‘You are in gravest peril. Agents of the Moonspike have escaped the shadowglass, they have abducted your super magical Uncle Aereon and corrupted the sacred relics of our order. I suspect that I have been allowed to escape only so that I may lead our enemies to you, yet find you I must! I can only hope this warning reaches you before it is too late. Your uncle thought he could separate you from your darkness and lock it away, but he was wrong.
< the next paragraph is obscured by blood >
‘Use the whistle to summon envoys of the Sunspire, they will deliver you to the Tower of Two Faces. There you must - ’
A sudden sensation of creeping disquiet causes Solaris to lower the letter. Two black-cowled figures step out of the shadows and attack. Both assassins wield nunchaku, one of which smacks the surprised half-elf in the face. He reels backwards, blood streaming from his nose and narrowly avoids slipping into the bathtub.
“Prepare to die, child of the dawn!” the hooded killers whisper in eerie unison. Both men have elven features and ghost pale skin, luminous beneath their cowls.
Unable to conjure a witty rejoinder, Solaris simply screams for help.
“Keep your girly shrieking down!” Ben Kotek yells, emerging from his cabin, “Some of us are trying to read!”
Realising that Solaris is in trouble, Ben casts Entangle, manifesting a length of magical rope with which to lasso the two robed intruders.
“Who are your creepy looking friends?” Ben asks, bundling the struggling assassins into a broom cupboard.
“Assassins, they were trying to kill me.” Solaris answers.
“Well, aren’t you popular?” Ben chuckles, looping another piece of enchanted rope around the handle, “That should hold them.”
“Ahem….”
Ben and Solaris turn. Asha is standing in the corridor, having emerged from her own cabin to investigate the disturbance.
“I think you’ve dropped something,” she says, averting her eyes. Solaris glances to where his towel fell when the assassins first jumped him.
Meanwhile, Rast’s romantic supper is rudely interrupted when some hooded, albino freak astride a giant owl firebombs the restaurant. Two more assassins appear out of thin air (GM Notes: imagine the way Nightcrawler teleports all over the place in the X Men movies) and attack!
“Ameiko! Stay with Karrack!” Rast instructs his beloved, before dashing onto deck.
Four owls circle the ‘Everstill’, winged shadows in the moonlight. Mounted figures snipe down at the boat or drop jars of alchemical fire, spreading pale blue flames across the deck.
“They’re burning my boat!” Grogg cries, “Nobody burns my boat but me - and maybe Snot!”
The half-orc rushes to the ballista mounted in the prow and begins the arduous process of loading it. An owl swoops towards him, talons poised to claws at his face. Aiming at the bird’s feathery breast, Grogg pulls the trigger (and rolls a critical failure on his unskilled shooting roll). The weapon jams! Realising something is wrong, Grogg dives to one side at the last possible moment and the owl collides with the ballista, tearing the weapon from its frame.
Ben, Asha and Solaris (still wearing naught but a towel to protect his modesty) emerge from below decks. Another owl swoops out of the sky and snatches the ranger up in its claws, carrying him off into the night. Asha casts Bolt, flash-frying the unfortunate bird. The two monks who had been riding the owl teleport to the deck. Ben grabs hold off one of them as they fall and is taken along for the ride. Both men appear, shaken and disorientated by the shared experience. Grogg hammers his shield into the stunned albino’s face, knocking him senseless.
“Who are you people?” the half-orc wants to know, “Why did you attack my boat?”
(GM Notes: Vic played the Spill the Beans adventure card, so the prisoners were more forthcoming that they might have otherwise been).
“We are the shadowcursed monks of Moonspike,” the prisoner responds, “We were dispatched by our master to slay the child of the dawn.”
Grogg looks confused.
“Him!” the monk spits at Solaris.
“Me?!” Solaris asks, “I don’t even know you people! What have you done with my super magical uncle?”
“He is being held prisoner within the Moonspike. If you wish to free him, you will have to return there. Our master is waiting for you. He has been waiting for so long….”
Solaris produces the whistle taken from the dead dwarf and blows into it. Doing so summons a convocation (apparently, thanks Google!) of large, celestial eagles, which bow their heads, inviting the heroes to clamber aboard their broad, feathery backs.
“Look after my boat!” Grogg instructs Captain Snot. The goblin gives him a big, green thumbs up. This seems to satisfy the half-orc.
“Rast Sternhammer! Where do you think you’re going?” Ameiko screeches, storming up to her husband, “Get off that bird this moment! What about the foot massage you promised me?!”
“Sorry darling,” Rast calls over his shoulder as the eagles take off, “I’ll make it up to you when we get back, I promise!”
Her response is lost in the howl of wind as the eagles launch into the sky. They ascend until the ‘Everstill’ is just a ill-defined blot on the blue ribbon river. The eagles soar northerly at great speed, while the heroes cling on for dear life.
“This is a decidedly second class experience!” Ben howls at Solaris, “Couldn’t you have summoned some more comfortable eagles? Mine doesn’t even have a cup holder!”
“Are we there yet?” whines Grogg, “I need the toilet!”
“You’re going to have to hold it!” Solaris snaps.
With all their bitching, it’s no great surprise that the group fail to notice the enemy fliers until they are amongst them. A great fiendish owl hurtles towards Rast’s mount and attacks it in a flurry of blood and feathers. Realising that his eagle is doomed, the dwarf throws himself into the abyss.
“Dwarf overbird!” Ben shouts.
“I can’t believe you just said that!” laughs Asha.
Plunging towards the distant ground, everyone around the table gets very nervous when the GM asks Gary for a Flying roll to activate his glider (GM Notes: Oh, how I prayed for a critical failure!). The harpy wings spring open and Rast glides along beneath the aerial combat, unobserved (for the time being).
Meanwhile, the rest of the heroes clash with the shadowcursed several thousand feet above the mist-shrouded mountains. Ben rolls a critical failure on his attack roll and somehow beheads his own eagle.
“Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiit!” he curses, tumbling through the clouds. Rast spots his falling friend and angles his wings to intercept - but he is not the only one to have taken an interest in the plummeting ranger (GM Notes: Mal played the Out of the Frying Pan adventure card). Flapping out of the dense clouds, a huge, mommy roc grabs Ben out of the air and carries him back towards her nestful of hungry babies. Rast glides after her, hoping to rescue his friend before he is eaten > regurgitated > eaten again....
To be continued...!
(GM Notes: I wasn’t too happy with how this session went. I decided to deviate from the adventure path and run a few homebrew excursions to encourage the development of certain characters (in this instance, Grogg and Solaris). This essentially meant derailing the story in order to put them onto a new track of my engineering – and the transfer was more than a little jarring. Andy immediately noticed that we were going off-piste.
Another regret was that I hadn’t prepped for the session as well as I could have done. Because Savage Worlds needs so little time/effort to prep (in comparison to other systems), sometimes I overlook elements that I should have paid more attention to. I’d statted up all the new monsters, sure – but I hadn’t given much thought to how these adversaries would respond to the PC’s outside of combat (interrogation) and how they would phrase the information that I needed them to relay, without it sounding clumsy/wooden/forced).
