IF YOU PLAY IN MY GROUP, DON'T READ ANY FURTHER OR THIS BLOG'S CURSE WILL SLAY YOUR CHARACTER AND OUST YOU FROM THE GROUP CHAT! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Preamble
First things first: We play Hyperborea 3e: very similar to AD&D but Sword & Sorcery (no elves, dwarves or orcs but dinosaurs and more Lovecraft / C.A. Smith; implicit multiclassing through a myriad of subclasses and a more streamlined combat). I like play reports, you like play reports (if not: why are you here?); simple as that, so let's get going.
This is my first play report of my current home campaign that runs since a little more a year and is composed of family and friends, about half of whom had never touched a TTRPG before. We are 7 people in the group chat and averaged 5 players per session for maybe 8 to 10 sessions total (we meet about once every five weeks on the weekends).
Previous Sessions
I might bother going through my session notes and write up a more thorough summary but until then this must suffice:
- We play on the west side of the Brigand's Bay in Hyperborea (expect a blog post with my map soon).
- Play started with the fantastic Well of Frogs where we had the first TPK (damn Ninja Turtles), the group killed a mummy with a fireball scroll and they traded an evil magical fasces for a crystal ball (which gets a lot of use).
- 8-10 sessions, average of around 5 players per session, 6 player deaths (the one TPK, one poison gas trap on a chest) equals around 120-150 milliwhack
- 4 out of the 6 PCs are second level, the other two are first level.
Currently, we play a slightly adjusted N1. Stop reading, if you want to experience this module as a player in the future because I will spoil some of it.
After the investigations of the last sessions, a massacre of the poor village's drunkards (fodder for another play report...) and some pokes at a (suspected) cult, the group finally decided that the root of the evil had to lie in the desecrated temple of the lawful Boetzu (in the original it's Merikka, but we are in Hyperborea not Greyhawk). Surprising indeed, as during a nightly attack on the PCs they previously identified one nightly attacker to be the temple overseer (crystal ball ftw)...
Session Summary
The session was eventful (around 18 rooms in 4 hours). The group's risk-taking led to some genuine heroics as they cleared the temple of the evil reptile god in the picturesque village of Orlane, which lies on the east side of the Brigand's Bay, just north of the Lug Waste.
A couple of dicey situations were handled by some well placed spells (by the two magicians), pure brutality and tactical finesse by the two tanky fighters (berserker & cataphract) and the steady support of their bard. I want to highlight the PC's luck during this session, as I can't overstate how many insane rolls happened.
Actual Play Report
Inside the temple walls
They magically mended the cage of the temple wolfs, relentlessly murdered all the temple servants and rushed into the temple proper.
Ground floor
The overseer (a mid level cleric) just had enough time to put on her chainmail. In the end she didn't do too much damage and had a quick end. The bard's Inspirit Allies was almost wasted, as there were only 4 combat rounds. A cloak of protection +2 and an expensive looking amulet were taken from the cleric's corpse.
Invigorated by this bloodshed, the bard continued to loot the temple of a golden statue and loaded Boetzu's curse on him. He made the save so he gets a -2 on all rolls for the next 3 days (though he assumes it's permanent). Curse for a treasure of 2000 GP. Not too bad.
While prepping, I thought the meditation chambers with three 4-level monks might be a tough challenge. Maybe too tough. But 2 of the 3 monks were quickly sent to sleep after the first got beaten quickly by the two fighters. This first monk even rolled a crit on one of his first hits but that was negated by the cataphract's shield sacrifice.
First floor
The first room on the first floor contained 8 skeleton wardens which only move when somebody enters the room. The group exploited the chokepoint at the door to turn them all to dust without taking much damage.
A room further, in the torture chamber, they got rushed by 6 cave men that were seemingly clothed and armed by the cult. The cave men took advantage of three secret doors and made some heavy damage but they again were sent to sleep just at the right moment. Had the group lost initiative, this would be a very different play report. Both magicians had now used up all of their prepared spells. Most PCs (minus the 23 HP berserker...) had only a couple HP left. They were exhausted and discussed retreat, but pressed on instead.
The big bad of the temple was an evil, scary priest (7th level) with a bunch of useful spells. He anticipated the group but his Fear spell only sent a single mage running. Both fighters had insane luck in this first round of combat and depleted around half of the priests HP who healed himself in the next round, then cast Hold and held three out of the four remaining PCs. Then berserker killed him before his Weird Warhammer could cause serious harm. Near-death experiences for all the PCs, I could almost smell the next TPK but the dice gods were in favour of the group. Also some expensive loot was found.
Aftermath
After this excitement, the group found a badly hidden secret door behind which a caged girl was freed and they promised to bring her to the next city. Which aligns with the group's goals as most of them were close to a level up at the begin of this session and they anticipated training time. They also learned that this wasn't the cult's headquarters and they need to travel into the swamps of the Lug Waste to find it (cue my hex crawl prep...).
In total they got over 13,000 XP, a cloak of protection +2, ring of protection +1 (not identified yet...), an expensive amulet, the temple gold mentioned above and a few coins change. More coins are to be anticipated because the cult seems to clear their coffers quickly and brings it all into headquarter.
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