WFRP4 - Campaign Session Reports Updates - From Bordeleaux to Dragonsbridge

Lord Agravaine, the player's nemesis

Oh boy, it has been awhile since I updated the WFRP4 session recaps. I knew it had been awhile, but not as long as it has. So there’s no way I’m going to go into the detail I did before for this post. Instead, I’ll try a bullet point list of the highlights and then maybe add back in some detail once we’re all caught up.

Map of Bordeleaux

Dramatis Personae

Boneshard, Norscan Marauder Champion (tier 3 career)

Regis de Pubiens (nomme de guerre – Don Gonada de Ciudad de … I don’t remember, some estalian identity)

Onfroy Proudhon le ‘Wretch’ – a new character who joined later.

Events

• As mentioned, with the aid of a chosen band of knights from Duke Alberich of Bordeleaux and four High Elf archers from the Ambassador’s guard, Boneshard and Regis plunged into the city sewers to find the Idol of Flies and stop the skaven plans.
• After many ambushes along the way, the adventurers made it to a skaven undercity with a slavemaster’s platform in the center of a market-looking square. From the derelict state of the affairs, the town looked semi-abandoned but then the group heard a crowd from a distance. Carved into some old sewers (built by High Elves in Bordeleaux’s far past?) was a large auditorium. The characters murdered some ratmen guards and snuck closer – there was a skaven Grey Seer before the Idol, his thousands of ratmen minions chanting and squeeking. The characters unleashed mayhem, ambushing the Seer with burning oil flasks and attaining several critical hits. Regis broke his leg jumping from the rafters to grab the idol, successfully chucked to Boneshard. Regis is captured while the knights hold off the rodent throng in the sewer and Boneshard runs out carrying the Idol. They make their way to the nearest sewer manhole, several passages and rooms past, and with some lucky rolls, Boneshard escapes.

• Boneshard makes his way through the streets as whatever skaven have amassed beneath the city boil out, frantically seeking the Idol. The Duke's men, warned by the characters, fight back, fires spreading throughout the city.
• Regis is captured by the skaven master Grey Seer, now burned. (He spent a permanent Fate point to survive.)
• After resting a few hours, Boneshard finds the Elven ambassador Menilthir who assists in finding Regis and teleporting Boneshard and himself below the streets. Boneshard kills the ratmen guards (and a ratogre), saving Regis
• The group advises destroying the Idol. In a ritual, Menilthir and priestesses assist in melting it down while fighting continues.
• Bordeleaux is saved, for now, though the rats have left behind disease and destruction. Not on the scale they could have unleashed with the Idol.
• After doctors' care, Boneshard and Regis now seek to save the cursed duke having destroyed the Idol of Flies and so travel to Castle Aquitaine.
• In the wilds on the journey, Boneshard receives a dream vision of a herdstone - with a large and powerful sword leaning against it. 

• Boneshard finds the beastherd, to Regis's dismay. He defeats the minotaur champion of the beastherd and the beasts bow to him. This lets him claim the sword, which now speaks to Boneshard in his mind. Regis goes along with the situation, but works with Boneshard to find a place for the beastherd to be wiped out in their raiding and rapine of the local Bretonnian towns. After gaining much corruption, the beastherd is drawn into a village which Regis prepared to defend itself a few hours before, and Boneshard cuts down the beastman shaman. Boneshard keeps the Sword of Souls.
• [DM note: Boneshard and Regis both gained much corruption in this episode. Boneshard's earlier acquisition of an enchanted bone necklace that summoned worms provided the pathway for the chaos sword to enter his mind and tempt him.]

• The duo emerges from the woods and soon finds Castle Aquitaine, but besieged by Lord Agravaine's host. They manage to signal a knight riding a pegasus and make it into the castle to tell Duke Armand's council their story of the Idol and that its destruction should free the Duke from the curse. The Damsel of the Lady, Dame Helvis believes the adventurers and lifts the magical slumber from the Duke. He is indeed no longer cursed. A new plan emerges: the adventurers will take their pages from the sorcerer's grimoire, captured in Castle Greemley many moons before, and letters from Agravaine to him and the summoning a pestilent demons to the King of Bretonnia, to formally accuse Lord Agravaine of sorcery. The Duke Armand, honor bound to defend his seat and his loyal men, will stay to fight off Lord Agravaine.

Castle Aquitaine

• [DM note: I made extensive siege rules if the adventurers had stayed, but they decided to come up with this plan of traveling to the King and I said to myself, that works.]
• With Sir Jaspert, the pegasus rider, Boneshard and Regis travel by flying horseback to the north. Then suddenly they are attacked in the sky over the Forest of Chalons near the western mountains of the Massif Orcal by a griffon, who slays their pegasus and they crash into the forest.

actually a lammergeier getting territorial with a vulture, but too cool not to share

• after crashing in the Forest, they encounter a traveling ne'er do well named Onfroy Proudhon le Wretch, wearing a wig on a horse. He was searching for work before getting lost in the forest after a drunken spree with a bard named Jarlyle. 
• The now three encounter a giant stag with many antler points, which speaks in their minds as the "King of the Wood." He will grant safe passage to the hungry travelers for removing an encampment of lumberers from the woods.
• Led to the camp of lumberjacks, Onfroy immediately accosts them at their palisade gate. They shoot arrows, yelling that they are free men not serfs of Onfroy. Armed with his Soul Stealer, Boneshard and Onfroy make short work of the 15 or so woodsmen who resist with but axes and gambesons. They take a few prisoners as slaves, and are allowed to leave the forest by the King of the Wood. They pass a troll crossing, slaying one of the river trolls.
• [DM Note: I did not expect their aggressive posture to the woodsmen to go so smoothly for them, but if you don't roll a critical, your PC got the Frightening trait, and they have some good rolls, they can carry out quite impressive feats. They also made short work of the trolls, which I forgot to use the surprise for.]
• The lord of the nearby manor allows the adventurers to stay as guests, as they reveal they are on an errand for the king with a known knight Sir Jaspert. They recover from the encounters in the woods and prepare to head north. They consider buying horses but do not have enough coin for Boneshard to have a horse.

Boneshard had gotten pretty ridiculous at this point

• They come to a monastery, really a nunnery, a few days travel to the north as they head for Gisoreux. Outside it's wall, a knight awaits with a lady nun. He challenges Boneshard to single combat, as she has had a vision of an evil and corrupted Norscan who should be slain. Boneshard agrees, and is badly wounded in the charge. Onfroy decides to attack the knight, seeing things going badly. Jaspert, horrified, steps in on the side of the Lady. Boneshard slays the knight, but Onfroy is blinded by the nun's prayer. They reach an agreement not to kill the nun to be left on their way. Jaspert refuses to travel with these men any longer, and takes the nun back to the monastery shrine.

• The party soon makes it to Gisoreux, bribing their way past the quarantine order on all southern travelers. While at an inn, they discover a man spying on them, having been paid good coin to report tales of a traveling Norscan and his companions, including an Estalian. They slay the man in an alley, then confront the innkeep if he has any knowledge. Onfroy, drunk, decides to stab the innkeep for the coin he demanded for his information not being good enough for Onfroy. All hell breaks lose, Onfroy tossing an illegal petard onto the doorframe soon after the local guards arrive. The Duke of Gisoreux's men-at-arms arrive soon thereafter. After much butchery and the use of flaming oil, the adventurers manage to escape. But they were spotted by the knight commanding the city men-at-arms.

• They steal a boat and collapse, exhausted in the slums outside the docks. Here they are taken in by the stevedores guild. Sometime around then Boneshard has used the chaos sword enough to develop a mutation, scaly skins granting 1 armor point. He was also having dreams of travelin to the Chaos wastes and becoming a mighty champion by slaying a chaos troll. The scales marked him as chaos-touched. 
• With her stevedores and spies in the slums of the docks, the Guildmistress Adele finds them, smiling to find Boneshard is chaos-touched. She offers them hospitality in her hall and revealed her interest in certain grimoire that spoke of opening a portal to the Realms of Chaos by orgiastic ritual. Sure enough at the full Morrslieb moon she brought Boneshard down to her secret temple to conduct a ritual with her and her cultists. During the orgy, Boneshard mutates further, growing spikes from his scales.

Adele at the ritual

Boneshard's spikes, approximately

• Boneshard dons a large helmet and black cloak to hide himself in public. The companions then decide to follow up on some leads, but end be drawn to near the Hall of Justice in the main Gisoreux square. Realizing they've been tricked, they knock out the investiagotr, but everything goes sideways for the adventurers. A general "hue and cry" is raised, and all within the city are mandated to grab weapons and seize the companions. Men-at-arms are assembling in the square. While distracted, somehow Regis steals Boneshard's blade as the adventurers scatter to the four winds running away.
• Separated, Onfroy and Regis make their way to the Stevedores Hall. Regis decides to set it afire to burn out the heretics, while Onfroy gets involved in a duel with a Hall's guard. Onfroy slays the guard, and before being found by a knight leading a continegent of men, they hide in the back alleys and escape.
• Meanwhile, Boneshard has been trapped on a main street by a large force of men-of-arms and knights. He throws down a burning oil flask as he is hit by several arrows. Three knights charge him, and he takes a lance wound as well. Bleeding, Boneshard cuts down a knight and intimidates the others. Then a mighty knight on a black destrier, his silvered armor fine and filigreed, leaps over the flames. Boneshard challenges him to one on one combat, which the knight accepts and combat is joined. Before his lance reaches Boneshard, however, Boneshard calls upon the dark powers to smite his foes, and knight's helmet crumples and he falls from the horse. Boneshard gathers the body, dragging him from the city as the gate's guards are too frightened to stop him.
• [DM note: through a long discussion with player badgering, I let Boneshard's player spend a permanent Fate point to kill the knight with a bunch of corruption points rather than merely save his own life - he would have died had he taken much more and was already burning Resolve to stop his bleeding critical.]

An impressionist rendering of Boneshard v. the knight

• That night, the companions tried to escape through the villages and hamlets ringing Gisoreux. They heard the howls and yelps of hounds and hoofbeats as the city gathered some force to find them. The companions successfully hid but abandoned the captured knight's body. They made refuge outside a village and found a deer for meat, but were soon found by some local knights, who they killed and stole their horses. Having been found, they decided to resume their quest to find the King in Couronne and resumed travels north.
• After getting lost in the ravines and valleys of the River Oise in rainstorms, the companions find the royal road. Exhausted, beset by a pack of wolves, they make their way to the village outside the Castle Dragonsbridge, which bridges the Oise in the mountains of the Pale Sisters. Winter had fallen and so the snows had come to the mountains.

Dragonsbridge

• In a tavern in the village beneath the mountain and castle, the characters take a room for the night and stable their stolen horses. With a knock at their door, a stranger introduces himself as Ferregus. He offers the characters a deal, but also a warning: the Lord of Dragonsbridge has been tipped off and is sending men. The characters escape and make their way to Ferregus's mountainside cave. There he offers them a bargain: he needs a key from Dragonsbridge to free a slumbering dragon beneath the mountain, and in exchange will aid the adventurers in any of their goals, as he will be a powerful Dragon Master.

what slumbers beneath the mountain?

Towers Two play report

Ran the player characters through this Towers Two adventure written by Oderus (Dave brockie) of GWAR. It was most GWAR and set us up for some fun future campaigning (players created level 5 characters for it). We've been playing it for many weeks, so not all details are there. What happened:

PCs are two thief/specialists and a fighter. Being 5th level, they ride into town on horses. Immediately, like 2 real minutes into the game, the giant dragonfly back breaker flew up and killed two of the three PCs (second one jumped on to kill it when it grabbed first PC). So good and deadly random encounter charts. 

Substantially same PCs (new ability scores, but same characters because they just got created) go into town. They go to Slippery Spot tavern hall run by a gangster lord type named Ferd. PCs accept his bounty to kill dragon fly, set out to do so. Get ambushed by pigmen, led by pigman chief, PCs kill him. Somehow (I forget) PCs lead more pigmen to near the dragonfly cave. In resulting fight, dragonfly kills pigmen while PCs attack. Everyone eventually runs away from the dragonfly, but PCs killed several pigmen.

Returning to village of Mlag, tavern keeper gangster dude Ferd and gang dudes try to kill PCs in their beds. PCs survive surprise, Oderus smashes his face in with his warhammer. They kill several of his guards. PCs find dude's sex dungeon in the basement, free the Old Lady who heals them. PCs fail to discover that Ferd was in league with the pigmen. They move to the other side of town and take up with Jack Dangle's much less creepy gan of skull heads (symbol no actual skulls). 

They meet Dangle's homicidal demeanor end lieutenant Looper, who has scouted the Towers Two above town. After discussing things with Dangle, PCs decide to check out the towers run by the decadent noble brothers, Zal and Razak. After all the PCs were here because the king had promulgated an edict that the two Hane scions had gone too far and were now legally kill-able and could have their shit stolen. Razak and Zal have let their lands go to shit and have tumors of me romantic rituals and pigmen marauding, so it was pretty inevitable. Dangle secretly asks the PCs to make sure Looper disappears, and they kill him after he leads them to secret tunnel entrance in the woods. 

Now underneath the towers, PCs find Zal's easterner jailor molesting some pigmen prisoners. They kill him, then try to set up a trap (setting fire to straw and sneak attacks) to kill some of Zal's gilded armored guards manning the entrances beneath Zal's tower. Plan fails although they kill a few guards. The Nameless, an assassin PC, and another thief PC are killed, while Oderus barely survives and is dragged as prisoner to Zal's throne room.

2 PCs roll up new characters; one is a cleric of deity of evil darkness and another is noble-born sorcerer Malort, second son. In the throne room of Zal, Malort and his companion, the darkness cleric, have an audience with Zal, able to get an introduction as Malort's family is of similar station to Zal. Oderus, wounded PC fighter, is dragged in by Zal's counsellor and father's old lieutenant, Cromwell (adventure says Cornwell but Cromwell was easier to say). Oderus is accused of being a spy for Razak, but Malort convinces them to spare Oderus and takes him into his service. PCs agree to undertake semi-suicide mission to blow up barrels of blasting powder beneath Razaks tower, Cromwell agrees to send a few guards with him. After being brought to his drug den behind the throne room, Malort feigns doing drugs with Zal and steals part of his stash and some gold and other stuff (reminder to self: check his character sheet). Oderus healed a bit.

Beneath the tower, PCs have Zal's handsome, cabana-boy-esque guards carry the blasting barrels. The PCs and guards get into a big fight with the pigmen at barricade in the tunnels beneath the two towers. The pigmen are overcome after Malort summons a demon into one of the corpses, a glass-demon in the shape of a giant salamander that distorts reality. They then advance to beneath Razaks tower (they may have pulled back and rested), where there are more pigmen by the door entrance. They blow a barrel and more mayhem ensues. While fighting the pigmen, Malort summons another demon, a pink shambling thing with claws and a sucker mouth, but this one fails to obey him. The pigmen behead Oderus and then the dark cleric tries to take them out with the other blasting powder, killing himself and a pigmen. Malort grabs Oderus's head and runs away as the remaining pigmen chase them.

After these two failed attempts, Malort decides to regroup at his house's castle. First, he hires a bodyguard and mercenary Rungus (new PC) who was drinking in Mlag at Ringler's joint. He travels home and has an audience with his father, Malort the Elder, and convinced him to risk sending 12 house soldiers and knights to take the towers for the family. Mallory (the other replacement PC), Malort's older knightly handsome brother (of middling intelligence and toughness, but strong), is convinced by Malort to accompany him to slay Razak and take his stuff. They also hire an experienced woodsman and tracking guide, Justin (new PC).

Next time, the taking of Razak...

Red & Pleasant Land Play Reports #1

So I started running Red and Pleasant Land (get it from Lamentations of the Flame Princess http://www.lotfp.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=190)  for my in-person friends group, with maybe 6-8 players. Enough stuff is already starting to go on that I'm realizing I need to write some of the session happenings down or it's going to get confusing, even after my weekly introduction "Last Time on D&D" that I give. 

As a precursor about RPL, I have to say I was initially intimidated and thought I did not know how to run RPL when I got the book. It took me awhile to realize how much I just needed to read and reread the Bestiary entries and just play with some of the adventure generation tables at the back. We have yet to get into much time-twisting or Escher geography though. Also, I thought the Alice references and nonsensical talk of the RPL inhabitants may be too silly or weird- but it turns out my players took them like fish to water! Turns out the Adventure Time and Rick & Morty (and Monty Python) vibe and RPL goes together like peanut butter and jelly. Also, RPL really is great for improve DMing, which is my preferred style (sorry megadungeons!) once you get the swing of the major factions and say fuck it to remembering every detail of how shits supposed to be according to the RPL book verbatim. Use it more as a resource/idea generator to pluck ideas from (though trying to have internal consistency about how the vampires work is good). 

Anyway, stuff that's happened so far in the Place of Unreason:

Party teleported to an interior from a magic circle they found in a pyramid after wizard stepped into said circle. The party found the wizard unconscious near a fountain beneath a translucent skinned knight calling himself Sir Baldrick. Baldrick challenged warrior Brotef to a duel to prove the party's professed  loyalty to the Queen of Nephidilia. Brotef lost, so Baldrick sent them on a quest to find the Cat, a servant of the HeartQueen  he spotted nearby. Party emerges into a forest by finding trap door atop steps near Baldrick's fountain. They find the cat with some rhyming, fight some Toves with some rhyming and later wolves (no rhyming), and start bringing Baldrick to a tower in the forest where they say they have the Cat (cat actually gone but party thought was just invisible). [quest and Baldrick created based on sample adventure locations in book plus some random adventure rolls from that section of the book, though I regret making Baldrick more like an honorable Pale Knight than the fishy-nephidlians].

Meanwhile the Cat has found a troupe of Huszars/Clubs, the Knights of the Heart Queen. Party betrays Baldrick, cutting him down in the road as the 6 Huszars ride up, and he is captured in mist form in a prepared jar by party sorceress Sassafras. The party claims loyalty to the Heart Queen. Patrical, the party trickster-magician (no spells only tricks), gives sexual favor to the lead Huszar ("eat me") after Anora the warrior loses a duel to one. These actions convince the Huszars to bring the party to the Queen's croquet game.

At the croquet game, Salacia, the Huszar won over by Patrical, introduces the party. After Salacia is permitted to whisper in her ear, the Queen asks the party to retrieve a wicket lost in the far forest near a tower of hers. The towers commander is also suspected of disloyalty, so she must be checked too. Then some Hearts, the Queens children, ride up on their ponies. Seeing a nearby lobster being walked by a Diamond courtier, Brotef grabbed the lobster, challenging a Heart child to duel, and flung it at the Heart, knocking him from the pony. The courtiers clapped and laughed, enraging the Child who began charging at Brotef, when he seized a second lobster being proffered and again knocked the Child to the ground. Delighted, to the shame of the Child, the Queen awarded a vorpal, lobster-handled sword to Brotef. [notes: two natural 20s rolled on these lobster attacks and I thought suitably silly to go for it, and the Roll on random objects chart in RPL came up vorpal sword when I wanted a Gift from the Queen.] 

Party sets out for Tower in the Terrible Goblin Wood, and ingratiate themselves to the Huszar commander, Vespesia, Salacia's arch rival. Anora makes a gift of a golden Minotaur nose ring, impressing her and putting the party in her good graces (she puts it on as a bracelet). They hear of Vespesia's search for a hidden human village, cryptically referring to being low on fresh food. And they see a giant Gelatinous Dome in the distance, apparently the result of a magical catastrophe from the gnomish sorcerer Trigon. Many magic items are rumored inside. But the party is focused on the wicket, which is in the hands of a band of frost goblins in a nearby cave.

On the way to the frost goblin cave, the party is ambushed first by 6 giant spider-riders (green forest goblins!). They defeat them, primarily through use of two sorcerers' spells, a fire blast from one and a giant subterranean gullet-hole opening by the other. The last goblin tries to escape on his spider, but the Elementalist chased him down on a chariot of wind. [note we use the Wonders & Wickedness spells and spell system]. On threat of death, the goblin Glimpfbop agrees to teach Poe the Thief how to ride the spider. Then the party is attacked by a band of frost goblin warriors outside the cave, which are quickly dispatched and their woolly Rams eaten. 

The party now approaches the cave, with its rumored giant frost gem inside... 

[the wicket quest just made sense, and I found some awesome One Page Dungeon 2016 dungeons I placed around. The factions are being pretty friendly to the party so far, which I think is fine when they're so low level, but we'll see what happens- Brotef has probably made an enemy of that Heart Child, I'll need a name for him...]