DM Notes 8/8/2004
Kalamar campaign
Cast of Characters (2nd level)
Dust, Sorcerer (keeps getting close to enemies and knocked unconscious, despite having a -1 Con penalty to HP. Hope she starts to figure this out and stay back)
Raven, Ranger (tribal tracker/hunter)
Astoria, Paladin (Lawful Stupid)
Kerrik, Monk (worships God of Oaths, will not break his given word)
T’Angel, Druid (player seems disappointed by lack of damaging combat spells)
Lysorn, Cleric (NPC) (worships god of Mercy, will not willingly harm intelligent beings, and has a disturbing tendency to heal fallen foes after battle ends)
Important notes on the situation thus far:
Villain (Rakshasa), has escaped death at the hands of Dust and Raven in Bet Seder. Character has a history of setting up cult-like Thieves’ Guilds wherever he goes. Dust and Raven made off with the funds with which he was going to start his most recent endeavor, as well as killing off half his cultists, and he’s likely to have taken offense at this. He is a notorious coward.
In Pekal, the characters have aided the tiny town of Popawon by returning a Halfling child, kidnapped and enslaved these two years.
Also in Popowan, the characters have solved the mystery of the village idiots by tracking down and capturing the alchemist Half-Dryad, Estella. This villain is currently in the custody of the characters, bound, gagged, and manacled in their cage-wagon (looted from a slaver caravan). They don’t know what to do with her. Estella knows a secret formula for the Purple Mist poison, made from ingredients only available on the shores of Lake Tali. This poison permenantly reduces Intelligence by 1d6 points in a 10’ cloud. I don’t worry about the PCs taking advantage of this formula, since they are good-aligned. They do have several vials of the stuff, but probably won’t think to sell it.
On a nearby road, the party was accosted by a Pekalese patrol. They claimed (true) to be searching for evidence of a rumored upcomoing assassination attempt on their Prince (Pekal is ruled by a Prince). They searched the party’s packs and found a jar of poison the party stole from the Rakshasa back in Bet Seder. Confiscating the poison, the guards seemed to buy the party’s story and good intentions. However, they did take down the party’s names and made special note of them. Should they get into trouble in the future this will come back to haunt them. Undecided on whether or not to have the assassination attempt be an important part of the campaign.
Also in Popowan, they have heard rumors of a nearby Barrow Mound with a mysterious riddle carved on the door. The locals brush off this place and insist there’s nothing interesting there. The mere fact that locals dismiss it has attracted the character’s curiosity. NOTE: the characters have spoken to the Flame of the Assembly of Light in Burido, and he assures them his scouts have located no undead at this burial site.
In Tali Lake, very near Popowan, there are two warring tribes of Nixies. Estella rendered the Good Nixies’ guardian, a local Naga, an idiot, and the Evil Nixies have steadily been gaining territory. Estella claims the Naga invaded her home and she was forced to idiot-ify it out of self-defense.
What’s really going on: the BBEG (as yet unnamed, but Lysorn’s long-lost father), has befriended Estella and enlisted her help. Estella’s job is to distract the villagers and any local adventurers long enough for him to get into the Barrow Mound, solve the riddle, and steal the Mask of Races (which can make him unerringly disguised as any of the major human subraces on Tellene). This occurred 3 months ago, at which time he immediately invaded Dust’s village disguised as a Dejy. He has subsequently taken over the tribe as Chief. Before the campaign started, he was involved in Raven’s backstory. His motives will become apparent as the campaign progresses. Meanwhile, Estella kept up making local villagers idiots and enticing the Evil Nixies to war with the Good Ones. The purpose for her mischief has ended, but she found it too much fun to stop. She was beginning to get bored with the game when the party showed up and captured her.
THIS SESSION NOTES:
(player for Kerrik absent, player for Astoria handling Kerrik in combat)
The party has captured Estella the Half-Dryad, but not before she used her idiocy smoke to lower Dust’s Int to about 4. She grudgingly directed them to a potion of Restoration she had in case of emergency, but the wouldn’t drink it out of suspicion. Estella attempted to make a deal whereby she would reveal her source of Restoration potions in exchange for her freedom. She was willing to swear an oath to never return to this area and give up her quest of vengeance against the villagers of Popowan. Without some way to assure her honesty, the characters declined (wisely) and bound, gagged, and manacled her, tossing her in their cage-wagon. Fearful that somebody might attempt to “rescue” their comely prisoner, they covered the wagon with a cloth.
The party wishes to restore the idiots in Popowan to their normal intelligence, but lacks the means to do so. If they were to level up, Lysorn would gain access to Lesser Restoration, but it would take weeks to restore all the idiots.
The party now has several choices. I expected them to either investigate the Nixie situation (the Good Nixies have offered to make them water-breathing for the duration of any underwater adventuring), or to examine the Barrow Mound. Instead, they decided to focus all their attention on the problem of the local idiots, and how to cure them (there are around 40 or so people in the village whose intelligence has been reduced to 2 or 3).
I was unprepared for this, but I refuse to restrict the party’s actions on basis of what I have prepared for. The remainder of the session is total ad-libbing.
The party hatches a scheme to locate a nearby cleric of at least 3rd level (hopefully higher), and talk him into traveling to Popowan and helping the villagers over the course of several weeks. One day’s travel away is the small town of Burido, where I randomly determine, via the charts in the DMG, a 5th level cleric resides. Flipping to the Pekal section of the KoK campaign guide, I note the major religions of Pekal and decide this is a temple of the Assembly of Light, the religion that worships the Sun God and hates undead. Traveling to Burido (with their prisoner discretely covered with a cloth), the party tries to convince the Flame of the Temple (their 5th level priest) to travel to Popowan and aid the villagers. For free. Needless to say, the Flame was not impressed, and required the characters to aid the cause of his religion in some way before he would agree to such a task.
The Flame’s request was for the party to travel to a nearby ghost village and slay the zombies inhabiting it. Doing such a favor for the overworked Assembly of Light would earn them enough favor for the Flame to help the villagers at Popowan.
At this point (while the players are debating what to do with their prisoner during this side quest), I draw up a quick map of the ghost village. I also develop an ad-hoc history in my mind – worshippers of the Knight of the Gods set up a temple here, a Hall of the Valiant. This was primarily to increase the influence of their religion in what was at that time (100 years ago) a rather wild and untamed place. Soon, locals built up a small town around the Hall, hoping the Knights would protect them (true). So I drew in on the map a temple, a blacksmith (to provide tools for the locals and weapons for the Knights), and several houses. The locals would need something to keep bread on the table, so I decided this was a lumber-rich area and tossed in a warehouse for their timber.
How did this place become a zombie-infested ghost town? The players were winding up their planning, and I needed more backstory fast, so the place would seem real. Perhaps the Hall was infiltrated by a worshipper of the Confuser of Ways? He could pose as a Knight worshipper and create havoc. He waylaid travelers in the night and raised them as zombies, and all the Knights who fell in battle were similarly raised after their burial. Due to clever manipulation, he kept the Knights from engaging the zombies effectively, so the Knights were reduced in number as the zombies’ numbers swelled. Soon villagers started to die from a mysterious contagion the Confuser worshipper planted, and the local graveyard (sketch in on map, quickly) began to overflow with fresh bodies. Soon the Knights were forced to abandon the town, and the surviving villagers fled. The worshipper of the Confuser traveled with the Knights, seeking more mischief, and the overrun town remained as it was for 100 years, zombies mindlessly wandering the houses and streets.
I finish up this frantic mental process as the characters start asking the Flame of the Temple questions again. He supplies them with the map (that I just drew) saying that his scouts have provided this information. The players decide on a plan of attack and travel to the ghost village, half a day away.
They leave their cage and the paladin’s light war horse north of the village (the heavy plant growth and building investigation would hamper the horse) and travel in on foot (NOTE: Perhaps Estella will escape and steal the horse? I still haven’t decided if the Evil Nixies care enough about her to be trailing her captors, hoping to free her).
I assign the houses in the village to each contain 1d6-3 zombies, stock out of the MM. Plus 4 wandering the street. The players seemed to really enjoy blasting their way through simple zombie encounters, taking only minor damage and using up a few Burning Hands and Cure (both to attack with and heal) spells. I decide the Blacksmith zombie will be tougher than the others, just to spice things up. I just use the stats for a Large Zombie. The PCs hardly notice and slash him down, not missing once and eating up his 29 hit points without taking one hit in return. I provided treasure in the smithy, 19 longswords marked with the sigil of the Knight of the Gods and an iron chest (locked) full of goodies. Not having a rogue, they try to bash open the chest (Hardness 10) and give up, deciding instead to kill as many zombies as they can before nightfall and finish looting the town after all the zombies are taken care of. The bothersome chest can theoretically be bashed open, given enough time, by Astoria and Raven, but they’d have to roll near max damage to make a dent. A plan to throw it off a high place is considered and discarded, since there is no high place available. Also discarded is the plan to light up the forge (coal is available) and melt the chest open.
Investingating 3 more houses, they kill several more zombies. Lysorn, per the plan, has been holding back his turning attempts in expectation of the party being swarmed with more zombies than they can handle.
[note here: wife annoyed at me for spending 2 hours writing about the game on the computer. Must go and do the “quality time thing”] [returned to keyboard]
Mutual decision to end the session here, and have the PCs hole up in the Smithy for the night (opportunity for Estella to escape!).
NOTE: The PCs have obtained enough XP for 3rd level. I will allow them to begin next session leveled up. This will also solve the XP distribution problem that has been plaguing us – I will just have everybody start with minimum XP for 3rd level, and start again fresh.
END NOTES
