Lands of Cantona - Session 2

This is the recap of Session 2 of my new campaign "Lands of Cantona" that I am running for my two nephews, my son and my wife. The party is composed by Ragnar the elven fighter, Larry the human fighter, Tak the human cleric of St. Cuthbert and Cesar the human druid.

~ o ~

After getting directions to the elves they leave the dwarves. On the way they cross paths with a giant scorpion which they manage to avoid, only to find it behind them! Cesar casts Faerie Fire while Ragnar and Larry rushes to melee and Tak throws a bottle of wine at it. A fight breaks out with Ragnar and Larry throwing blows but having to sunder their shields to survive the creature’s claws. Tak and Cesar keep throwing bottles of wine and a torch to light it up. The creature finally collapses and Ragnar cuts out its claws as a trophy. Shortly after, a blinding trap leaves everyone blind except Ragnar and Tak’s men-at-arms. They wait until an elven patrol finds them and guides them to their quarters . There they wait until everyone gets their sight back and they trade 4 bottles of rare wine for 2 shields for the fighters, 2 spears for the hirelings, 1 longsword for Ragnar and 1 chain mail for Larry, whose splint mail goes to Tak. The elves let them rest there.

The next day, they leave for the dwarves but get lost in the dungeons. They manage to avoid a Giant Toad but shortly after a spear trap claims the life of Ragnar's torchbearer and wounds Larry. Behind a stuck door they find a lit room with vases & roses. After fooling around they find what looks like a treasure map inside one of the vases. Cesar finds that if the roses are taken from the vases they quickly wither, but regain life if put back in. That gives Larry the idea to put his wounded arm into a vase. He is healed but all the roses wither. Tak gets the idea to use them to revive the dead torchbearer, but to no avail.

More exploration ended in finding a rhino that charged at them, wounding several, but it ended up being all an illusion. They found a secret door in the room where the “rhino” came from and proceeded to follow the corridor behind it. After several twists and turns, and a spear trap that claimed the life of another hireling, they reached a corner where they found another secret door that led into a dusty, clearly unused corridor. They followed it and reached a dead end… with another secret door. This one led into a room with a spiral stairs leading up and several exits.

They followed one of the exits and after a T intersection on a long corridor they found yet another secret door. Larry opened it and found 3 skeletons. Two rush forward to attack, but the other, a slightly bigger one with lightning eyes, stays back. As Ragnar and Larry moved to meet them, Tak tried Turn Undead on them and Cesar cast Faerie Fire on the bigger one. As the turn failed, the big skeleton pulled its head off and threw it at the cleric. The head exploded and rolled back to the skeleton. Ragnar moved to attack the big one as Tak successfully turned it. Cesar cast Shillelagh on his staff before moving to attack. After many hits, misses and shields being splintered they destroy the skeletons and find some treasure in a chest, 400 gp, a potion (of Polymorph, but yet unknown) and a clerical scroll with 2 spells (Resist Cold and Remove Fear). 

After the fight they decide to rest in the secret room, and after some hours (luckily without any random encounters) they go back to the elves’ to get some food and possibly shields. They get the former, for them and the hirelings, but not the latter so they decide to try with the dwarves. They do get a couple of dented metal shields for the fighters (no wooden shield for the druid) in exchange for the last bottle of rare wine.

Healed and equipped they take the circular stairs…

~ o ~

The session ended with the party unsure about going down deeper into the dungeon or up and out to look into that treasure map.

Lands of Cantona - New Campaign!

 Last Sunday I started a new campaign for my two nephews, my son and my wife. I introduced the kids to the game some time ago (you can read about it here) and played sporadically at best, but now I wanted them to play regularly. They were thrilled when I dropped the idea on them and, to be honest, it's always refreshing as a DM to run the game for new people.

The campaign is set on the Lands of Cantona, a relatively undeveloped region of the Wild Coast, in the World of Greyhawk 576 CY. I developed the village of Baz on the fringes of the Welkwood forest, in the style of the famous village of Hommlet, surrounded by several nearby locations for them to explore: an abandoned mine on the hills, an ancient cemetery among dead trees, a supposedly haunted tower deep in the forest, and some ruins sunk in the marshes. The first three are short low-level Labyrinth Lord scenarios (Den of the Morlock Shaman, The Tomb of Sigyfel and The Gibbering Tower), while the ruins were initially going to be the Ruins of Ramat adventure, which I have ran before, but then discarded it and I have not yet decided what to do about that location. I also expanded the tunnels under the mine with another dungeon (Lair of the Morlock Chief) and put, a bit further away, the Castle of the Mad Archmage. 

I had the players randomly roll on Rogues Gallery to see what characters the would be playing. The party ended up being Ragnar the elven fighter, Larry the human fighter, Tak the human cleric and Cesar the human druid. 

So, after hiring some men-at-arms (3) and torchbearers (3) they left early in the morning heading South looking for the Gibbering Tower. After a couple of hours they reach an ominous 40’ tall tower, built out of black stone, lying hidden in a small valley among the dark woods. 

Upon entering, they found a room with rotting chairs, couches, and rugs. A fireplace at the west wall, spiral staircase at the north wall leading up, and a staircase at the south wall leading down. On the fireplace mantle is a terrarium filled with a silvery fungus. They took the stairs down. 

Exploring the tower dungeons they find an ossuary, three cells (two empty, one with a shackled skeleton), a torture chamber and a cauldron chamber, both with two undead (ghouls), bodies of adventurers and two more undead (zombies), a trapped hall and some giant rats, a winery that they proceed to plunder, and finally a room with a 10” diameter glass sphere, on a metal stand. Someone touched the crystal ball and all were teleported somewhere else…

They found themselves in a circular room with a secret door that exits into a circular staircase with steps leading up and down, and an opening into a large square room with exits on the three other walls. They went straight ahead, opposite to where they entered and took the corridor until they reached a Y intersection with the corridor continuing ahead.

They took the right  passage until an X intersection where they came across a group of dwarven warriors. They were led by Hilding Ironhelm of the Bloodaxe clan. He told them they were in the first level of the dungeons of the Castle of the Mad Archmage, known as the Storage Rooms. The dwarves held the northern section, the elves the southern and the kobolds the east. They controlled the access to the lower levels and charge adventuring parties with a percentage of the treasure found.

There ended the first session. 

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Read the full article here.

Virtual Greyhawk Con 6 Report

Here is long postponed Virtual Greyhawk Con report. As always, I had a wonderful time again this year, at the convention's sixth annual installment. Thanks to the organization and everyone that made it possible!

This year I played in four games, and attended to the "Ask the Experts" seminar.

Thursday 

The first game I played was Anna B. Meyer's "Shield Lands Skirmish" game where she was further testing Hawk Tales, her FRPG ruleset. We were a group of fairly new recruits that got to man one of the keeps guarding the frontline, some miles to the Southeast of Critwall, while the regular crew went on a mission further into Iuzian controlled territory. Even though Hawk Tales doesn't have classes, we were a Fighter (Gamus of Furd, this was the character I played), a Cleric (Kadius of Eragern), a Magic-User (Eddal of Eragern), a Thief (Alwes of Hirtfer), a Druid (Briad of Furd) and an Archer (Mogret of Herechel). 

Before getting into the fort, Briad scouted around as a fox and found that "something is out there". Shortly after setting in, goblins hailed arrows upon us while a group of skeletons tried to cross the ford. We returned fire while Eddal blasted most of the skeletons with a Fireball. After that , a flock of vultures, crows, ravens and other flying monstrosities flew over the tower causing fear and madness, but also dropping pieces of bone. When we checked them out the bones coalesced into skeletons that exploded after you hit them. After the cleric's Turn Undead dealt with them, a wave of ghouls swiftly came over the ramparts. We managed to retreat and held the door that gave access to the tower from above. Meanwhile downstairs orcs tried to break through the main entrance but were deterred by arrows and cold magic.

"Hold the door!" was the shout that became the motto for the rookie companies sent to man those forts.

Friday

At night Les "OblivionSeeker" Reno ran "The Deadsinger of Molag" where I played Pandreyus, a 9th level Thief, or Rogue because it was a 5e game.

It all started investigating a farmhouse massacre near the frontier. We arrived at a farmhouse in the springtime, just after Growfest, to find a horrific scene. The family (5 adults, 4 children) had been attacked. The children were missing. The father was found decapitated (his head facing East), and his wife was also brutally murdered. The other adults were apparently taken captive along with the children. The house was ransacked, and animals were either slaughtered or set free. We found many clues: the door was opened from the inside; tiny footprints were found coming up the chimney, which felt familiar. The Bard's Speak with Dead on the wife revealed the attacker was "a small one with a fake face" (possibly wearing a mask) and that "none" of the attackers had a lute.

After that we hit the trail where we picked up the tracks of five men plus the kidnapped adults, which soon joined wagon tracks heading northwest, giving the kidnappers a lead of about a day and a half. Along the road, we found another body: face down, throat slit; a scythe symbol was carved on his forehead; he had a strange puncture on his forearm (not animal or insect), similar to the decapitated father.

Further ahead we came across a couple of helpful Knights that provided us with some troubling intel. We encountered Roderic (a cleric) and Archer (a huge archer), both Knights of the Holy Shielding in training. They offered to share their nearby camp and information. They reported seeing "travelling performers" (later we found they were actually Orcs & Hobgoblins!) with a couple of wagons. They also provided us with 4 potions of healing, 1 potion of greater healing, and a map showing an abandoned keep, a dolmen, and caves. 

After a night of rest we followed the tracks, crossed the Ritensa River by barge and found graffiti in Old Oeridian on an old  low stone wall near an also old body: “We will steal when we cannot buy what you stole from us. We also discovered a strange, iridescent blue blight on the grass that causes apathy if ingested. As sun begun to set we readied a camp among a rocky outcrop and assigned the watches for the night. A night that turned eventful. During the 1st watch drums in the distance were heard. The guy on the 2nd watch spotted vultures, one of which swooped down to grab a "furry figure", and on the 3rd watch a band of 20 drunk orcs passed by but didn't spot our camp. It was on the 4th watch that we heard sounds of a fight. Four goblins on worgs were being pursued by human horsemen in black leather armor, bearing a scythe and skull symbol (Nerullites!). One worg broke from the chase and headed straight for your camp. Everyone woke and the Druid summoned wolves, which helped us capture one goblin and one of the human pursuers after the other were killed. The goblin cooperated, but the human didn't so we killed him. From the goblin, we learned of two locations: "StinkTower" (Fort Tippit) to the East and "Little Longshanks" that dwelled in a cave described as "alive with arms and legs," where "a lady sings dead songs."

In the morning we freed the goblin and decided to check the dolmen. We found a 30-foot high mound with five wagons at its base. The area stank of roasting flesh. Over 30 hobgoblins and human Nerullites were drinking and gambling. We attempted a ruse disguised as "4 guards and a prisoner", which succeeded long enough to get you close to the tent at the top. However, we were discovered, and combat erupted against a hobgoblin, seven twig dolls with tiny scythes, and a halfling wearing a mask.

The Barbarian raged and killed the hobgoblin right away, then attacked the halfling. The Druid burned the halfling, knocking his mask off. The halfling creature shrieked, "You freed them!" The Sorcerer cast a protective Wall of Fire around the party. We identified the twig dolls as Carrionettes—a sinister Flan puppet that possesses human vessels. One Carrionette apparently dominated the Barbarian, but the Druid cast Hold Person on him. The Sorcerer then dropped the flames and cast Protection from Evil on the Barbarian, freeing him from the puppet's control. Meanwhile, a major threat emerged from a portal at the dolmen: Mir Murcas, "The Deadsinger of Molag," carrying a lyre!

The Bard tried to cast Hypnotic Pattern on Mir, but the spell bounced back, hitting the Bard instead! Despite the setback, the Barbarian, Bard (recovered), and the Druid's bears managed to surround and hack Mir Murcas to pieces. With their leader dead, the remaining hobgoblins and Nerullites scattered.

In the aftermath we pieced together the final clues: 1) The Carrionette were the "funny little man" from the Growfest—this is why the chimney footprints were familiar. 2) The children were the target all along. They all share identical birthmarks (related to an acorn and a tree).

We secured the wagons with the children inside and began riding south. As we left, we spotted two familiar figures—Roderic and Archer—who were now accompanied by five more people (four men and one woman).

Saturday morning

Brian Jagusak from "Dice and a Pencil" ran Rob Kuntz's 1975 tournament module "Sunken City". The great mage Drawmij put our group together to retrieve from the city a magical item that could read any language. He opened a portal to the submerged city that will remain for 4 hours. 

I played Othlinden, an 8th level lizard man fighter pretending to be a human. He was looking for the legendary Serpent Belt, a powerful magic item and national treasure of the Kingdom of Oogresh. Returning it would bestow great rewards to the one doing so. This was Eric Shook's character in the original RJK's World of Kalibruhn campaign.

After one of the several rafts that are available, we advanced in the general direction thanks to a Locate Object spell.  On our way a group of four hungry giant crabs attacked us. We fought back with some arrows and a well placed Fireball that killed two but rocked the buildings around, even bringing one down! All this made a couple of giant eels to investigate what was going on, but a good reaction roll and Speak With Animals spell were enough to have them on their way back to their lair. Some giant turtles were interested in us but a Speak With Animals spell and some rations got us past them.

Next stop was tower with two serpent heads. Othlinden was excited because the place looked promising to his interests. We entered the tower and explored it. The northern side was empty while the southern one was filled with bones in front of an altar that had an ornate belt on top of it. Othlinden knew instantly he was looking at the Serpent Belt. When he moved to take it he was attacked by something huge and invisible. In the end we defeated the thing, a 12-head hydra!

Moved the raft across the tower to avoid two whirlpools and continued to the other side towards a semi-submerged tower. Some made their way inside through an underwater doorway and then lowered a rope for the rest climbed to a window. There we found a tinkerer's room with workbenches, tools, books, cabinets, blueprints and more. Inside a 6' tall locked metal cabinet we found what we were looking for. What we found could be best described as a Star Wars Probe Droid. We also got its manual and managed to get it going.

With this construct in tow (we found it could Levitate) we exited the tower and tried to find the Silvery Dorr of Oricholum before the portal closed. On our way we were chased by five mermen with tridents riding giant sea horses. Othlinden drank a Potion of Polymorph Self to turn into a giant crocodile. He grabbed the raft with his mandibles and used his tail to propel it forward, while the rest fought the mermen with sling shots, rocks, javelins and a Hold Monster spell.

As we were racing towards the shrinking portal a huge sea troll tried to block our way, but we managed to get past it and dive into the portal to safety!

Sunday Afternoon

Allan "grodog" Grohe ran the playtest of "Gnoll Raiders Cairn", a scenario where the party is hired to go after a particularly ferocious band of gnolls that have been looting caravans en route to the Free City of Greyhawk, striking along the Urnst Trail and recover the wares.

I played Freda, a human 6th level ranger from the Slave Lords pre-generated characters. Since this was like I said a playtest, I will not go into many detail that could spoil some of the surprises this adventure has. Just say that I was eager to play a ranger against gnolls, but couldn't use some of her abilities when we fought them...

Sunday Night

In the "Ask the Experts" closing event I won one of the giveaways consisting in "Fortress Ellendar", an adventure for the High Fantasy RPPG from 1979, and the supplement "Relics & Ruins" from Knave rules toolkit.

Halloween game

"Somewhere under a lost and lonely hill of grim and foreboding aspect lies a labyrinthine crypt. It is filled with terrible traps and not afewstrongeandferocious monsters to slay the unwary. It is filled with rich treasures both precious and magical, but in addition to the aforementioned guardians, there is said to be a demi-lich who stillwords his final haunt."

Since this year Halloween falls on a Friday, the day we have our regular AD&D 1e game, I decided to run the classic "S1-Tomb of Horrors" for my group. We will be using the pre-generated characters that come with the module so they don't have to use their current characters.

I have 4 players so they will be running 2 characters each rolled randomly from the list.

Player 1 - Human Cleric 8 (#14) y Elf Fighter 5/Magic-User 11 (#5)
Player 2 - Halfling Fighter 4/Thief 5 (#20) y Dwarf Fighter 7/Thief 8 (#8)
Player 3 - Half-Elf Cleric 5/Ranger 7/Magic-User 6 (#10) y Human Fighter 8 (#13)
Player 4 - Human Ranger 13 (#4) y Elf Magic-User 7/Thief 9 (#11)

I know it's not any of the suggested combinations for a better success, but the idea is to have fun... and die horribly.