Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="kenada" data-source="post: 8373312" data-attributes="member: 70468">After two and a half months, we finally got to have a session! The session started on the shore of a river with the characters having finished dealing with some ghouls. This was a soft reboot of the campaign (due to setting building for WWN resulting in some pretty big changes), so we figured out their aspiration: they want to loot the fallen capital. They know it’s a megastructure, and they figure they’ll need some gear and supplies. Their short-term goal for this session was to find a ruin and explore it (with the hope of getting useful treasure).They set out to the east along the river until they returned to Finland (the settlement they had named in the prior iteration of the campaign returned as their base of operations in this one). On the way into town, they heard from the guards that the Caretaker had sent his hammer orcs to effect obedience in Orlæg, which is just across the river from Finland. There is a population of rebels that are being allowed to reside in Finland, and they are not happy about this.Finland had been established as an outpost by Warin-Graf, a republic to the east, when it sent its military west to push back the Outsiders that had spewed forth from the capital of the now-fallen kingdom of Adal-Sinths. They fought for ten generations, and the war was nearly over. Unfortunately, Dyrstelice is positioning itself to make a claim to some of the land now that the hard work has been done of liberating it. The guards warned the PCs that the rebels were press-ganging people and to watch out.The PC steered clear of them and solve off the treasure they recovered from the ghouls, splitting it four ways. Three shares were for the party. The fourth was their fund for carousing the night away (along with some funds to donate to the local temple). The barbarian boasted of their deeds and entertained people with her recorder while the thief won money at cards that the party just turned around and spent. Good times were had by all. I also got a chance to hint at some of the potentially volatile relationships amongst the rebels. A couple of them were vying for the affections of another, and they were making a show of outspending each other and the barbarian in the party.The next day, they went about their business getting some supplies and asked around town to see if anyone knew anything about where they wanted to go. Their target was Hirzhus, a ruined settlement a couple of hours upstream by boat where the Fin river meets the Eternal Lake. They learned that adventurers had taken an interest to it a month or so ago, but no one returned. There was supposedly treasure there, but it was dangerous. People eventually turned their attention elsewhere.Someone eventually got the idea to see if there was a sage in town who knew anything about the history of Hirzhus. It turns out there was a researcher who was helping the civilian administration. The barbarian managed to catch him before work, and she talked to him a bit. He mentioned that a peculiar elven had shown up a while back. He was wearing white robes. When he did, the administration took him in another room where the researcher couldn’t hear the conversation. He thought it was odd that the man had neither come nor left with anything, but he was given an audience.After that, the party caught a boat upstream to Hirzhus. When they arrived, they saw a couple of people in white robes fishing on a dock. The people fled as they were rowed out from the ship to shore. The town itself was in disrepair, but some parts of it were obviously still being used even though it should have been abandoned a long time ago.The PCs first explored a priest’s quarters and found a latrine. They remained cautious and vigilant, assuming the robed figures were some kind of ill-intented cultists. They moved further into the settlement and found a flooded amphitheater and a statue dedicated to one of the old leaders. None of them actually spoke elven, so no one could read it. They also saw corpses lying across on the far side of the amphitheater, which was the first sign of something actually dangerous. While the party’s priest took a rubbing, one of the robed figures poked her head out from a doorway behind them and got their attention. She invited them inside to meet their patron.Surprisingly, the party went along with it. The room where the orcish woman brought them was a chapel. There was an altar and some religious paraphernalia. There was also a pear-shaped creature with four wings and four heads, atrophied limbs, and eyes all over its wings and body. The creature’s front-facing head reflects its current mood, and it always appears to face you no matter where you are in relation to it. The woman told the party they should listen to its song. Fortunately for the party, they managed to talk their way out of a performance.The party managed to learn that there was another creature in the town. A magician had been there long ago, but she disappeared. This creature was a threat to Horsiel (as the thralls referred to the Outsider), but they didn’t want to leave because this was their home now. The party made an excuse about needing to use the latrine, and got out of there.While they were regrouping and discussing what to do next, the man who had traveled to Finland followed them and then tried to talk to them. He asked if they had been sent there. He explained that he had gone to Finland to ask for help. Some people had shown up, but they stopped coming about a month ago. The party indicated they had not been sent (which was true since they were just looking for places to loot and were not deterred by the fact no one had returned from this one).The party wants to help with the creature, but they’re not sure about Horsiel’s song. They thing it’s an Outsider, but they don’t have any idea what it is or what it can do. However, they’re sure that song is bad news for them.They decide to go investigate a bit further. They head around the southern side of the amphitheater and notice pipes leading out of one of the buildings to the forge. They’re not really big, and they’re suspended in the air. The players wrack their brains trying to figure out why it would be set up that way, but they just don’t know. The priest decides she wants to blow up the bodies, which are obvious undead. They set a trap, and she rolls terribly on Smite the Dead. She rolls a 2 and 4. The corpses get no saving throw, but that’s not enough to destroy them.The party tried to set up a choke point. The thief had set up a fire trap, and the barbarian was chucking spears and trying to dismember them. Unfortunately, the undead are coffer corpses. Unless you’re using magic, they can’t be harmed. They’d go down, then they’d pop back up. The party opted to retreat once the barbarian dropped her axe and ran away in fear. They left the town and decided to rest for the day since it was getting late.We stopped the session there, but since the barbarian’s goals involved defeating a foe to accomplish them, I let them go back out and try again against the coffer corpses. The priest rolled better, they were destroyed, and we stopped there. The party’s goal for the next session is to solve the mystery of the magician. They know something weird is happening, but they’re not exactly sure what it is.</blockquote>

Verification