Session 5 held on 1/24/19

The Cleric Jannik, Priest of Prios
The Rogue Marklech, Spider Cultist
The Fighter Stanislav, Monster Hunter
The Fighter Friedrich, Treasure Hunter

October 6, I Watch – Sleep at Kingshall

At Kingshall, Roman and Esmerelda seemed to disprove that the party was planning to leave town without first resolving the witch situation. The adventurers did not confront the house staff, instead gathering up some extra food to take with them on the road.

October 6, II Watch – Set out from Cinderhouse Inn

Arpad Summerborn was busy getting his caravan organized. In total, there were 6 members of the watch, 7 hired guards (3 spear, 3 archer, 1 sword/shield), 10 laborers, and 3 wagons laden with supplies each drawn by 2 mules. Arpad gave a brief address regarding the momentous nature of their excursion. He thanked watch captain Kristina Changemaker for promising some of the watch to help see the mining camp established. Arpad gave an overview of the journey, saying that they would be traveling for two days.

October 6, III Watch – Boar in the Valley (Random Encounter – Boar)

After a few hours of travel, the caravan crested a small rise and saw a sounder of wild hogs in an adjacent valley. Five large boar herded their sows and piglets about near a small creek, feasting on the fall harvest of acorns. Stanislav took point on the hunt. He began to lead his companions to a vantage point within arrow range. Unfortunately, Stanislav was unfamiliar with the local flora and didn’t realize that the branches underfoot were of a brittle hardwood and prone to loud breaks. The boar charged headlong at Stanislav while the sows herded their piglets into the thick underbrush. Stanislav charged full-speed towards the boar and brought down the lead boar with a thrown handaxe. He was then knocked prone by the herd but was ultimately saved from the rampaging boar by some well-shot arrows.

After the combat, Friedrich observed one of the archers preparing to use a rusty knife to field dress one of the boar. Friedrich stepped in and introduced himself to Vaude, instructing him to take better care of his knife and sharing the work of preparing and moving the hog carcass.  

October 6, IV Watch – Friedrich the Pit-master

Friedrich worked with Vaude to prepare and smoke the five wild boar. When the meat was ready to eat, it was outstanding, and both men earned the appreciation of the caravan. While all were gathered around the fire, Janik cast the spell “Light” on a small stone and gave a brief sermon about the power of Prios. The performance was met with general astonishment. The act of performing magic made four members of the watch suspicious of Janik, while four of the hired guards who were not from Bridge seemed notably unimpressed.

In the aftermath, the swordsman Card accused Janik of witchcraft. Card spoke of the evil powers of the Davokar and called the all the other men cowards for refusing to stand against Janik. He seemed convinced that Janik’s powers were not from Prios but from the foul forest. When asked about why he knew so much about the foul magic, he talked about how he had travelled into the forest to help excavate a giant clay mound filled with artifacts. He departed after a foul witch from the forest tribes blighted the camp with a sickness that took his cousin.

Later, Marklech cheated Card out of 4sp by having his spider familiar get a vantage point during a game of cards. A laborer introduced himself as Blance and told Janik that he seeks to journey to Templewell to become a faithful of Prios. Janik encouraged him to pursue his dream.

October 7, I Watch – Sleep

The adventurers began packing up camp, but their morning labor was interrupted by shouting. The spearman Cantor was beating on a laborer named Thomer, accusing him of having stolen a locket. Cantor demanded that the pear-shaped man tell him where he had hidden the object. Arpad and the adventurers intervened and convinced Cantor to leave the issue to rest for the moment, further declaring that anyone who finds the locket must immediately return it to Cantor. Arpad insisted that the item was more likely lost than stolen, but added that he would personally check everyone’s belongings when they next made camp.

October 7, II Watch – Boar on the Road

The party encountered a second family of boar along the road. Stanislav again took the lead against the boar, charging ahead with his axe and maul while the rest of the group hunted down the swine with spear and arrow. While the attendants were field dressing the boar, Janik searched through Card’s Bag. Janik found a letter written to Card that seemed to corroborate the story he had told the night before about his bewitched cousin.

After the morning incident with Cantor, Friedrich thought it would be wise to keep watch on the camp attendants to see if any of them did anything suspicious. After some time, he noticed a man named Vine digging through the mule carts. After Vine walked away, Friedrich investigated the area. He stumbled onto Cantor’s locket and announced that he had located it to the camo, indicating Vine’s guilt. Vine ran for the woods, but Cantor gave chase and almost killed Vine before Frederich and Stanislav intervened. They advocated that rather than killing him on the road, Vine should be forced to work off his debt. Cantor had to be forcibly subdued, but in the end agreed to allowing Vine to live long enough to face a trial once they arrived at the Oldson Mine.

October 7, III Watch – Blance Confides in Janik

While travelling, Blance shared his misgivings about the Cantor & Vine situation with Janik. He said that it seemed odd that Cantor would make such a big deal about the necklace, or that Vine would risk stealing it in such a small group. Janik thanked the man for his insight.

October 7, IV Watch – The Oldson Mine

The group arrived at the mine just as the sun was setting, there were a number of neglected buildings that looked about ready to fall in on themselves. Arpad instructed the caravan to set up camp for the night, adding that they would begin the work of restoring the mine in the morning.

Janik took Card aside and told him that he believed his story about the Davokar. Janik told Card that it was his mission to find foul magick and purge the world of heretics. Janik asked Card for his help keeping an eye on some of the Bridge natives in camp, explaining that he believes one of them might be a witch. Card agrees, but also asked Janik to help him get vengeance on the Barbarian witch that killed his cousin.

New Named NPCs:
Vaude, the Archer
Card, the Swordsman
Blance, the Hopeful of Prios
Cantor, the Spearman
Thomer, the Pear-shaped
Vine, the Thief

(Names rolled from Jason Morningstar’s Story Games Name Project)

GM Thoughts (I would prefer my players not read)

As the characters departed Bridge, the players talked amongst themselves and joked “hey maybe they will hang a witch while we are gone and then we won’t have to keep dealing with these asinine town folk.” Someone else added, “Hey, at least Blaise is cool.” The players agreed that Blaise was their favorite member of Bridge. They went on to talk about how they couldn’t trust anyone in town; how it felt like the townies each had their own agendas, and how everyone had personal history that clouded their opinions of one another. I feel like this means that I have been successful at representing this claustrophobic small town drama.

I think some of the player reticence to force the issue of the witch hunt has been that the characters are not in particularly dire straits with regards to their own finances or personal safety. I began the campaign by starting the players in debt to “Lady Osis” who is the appointed baroness of the region. She is the one who dispatched them to Bridge, out of concern that the “witch fear” might have an impact on the stability of the town. Her main concern is that the crisis not negatively impact the annual taxes the town will pay her. I have not yet had her present in any of the scenes; neither to force the players to make any payments on their debt, to question why they left Bridge without resolving the situation, nor to demand they resolve the issue with haste. I am considering bringing her into the drama next session by delivering some demands via a letter brought by courier on horseback. The courier would also be a good way to bring news from Bridge about how the situation is progressing so that we can stay on the path of the moduled despite being out of town.

I’m not sure how long we will stay at the mine, I think the players wanted a break from the witch hunt so I am inclined to make the mine location a straightforward monster slaying encounter, but there is a part of me that wants to make it a multi-session hunt of an elusive foe, or to make another human drama related to hazardous mine work for little pay.

Two Random Encounters with boar

I rolled for a random encounter each watch. My method was to use a d6, with only the result of a 1 calling for an encounter with a wandering creature. I used the d12 encounter tables from Witchburner to determine what sort of wandering foe we would find. The only two encounters I rolled both ended up as “boar eating acorns.” When I got “boar” for my second encounter, I laughed out loud. As I contemplated re-rolling, I locked eyes with one of my players who grinned and asked “Did you roll boar again?” At that point, I felt like I had to go ahead with a second boar encounter. The players joked about trying to rename the mine “Boar Tusk Mine” or something to that extent to memorialize the significance of boar hunting, so I am glad I did not .

The other watches, when I didn’t roll a wandering creature, I would just introduce an impromptu social scene by making something up or rolling for inspiration from the d30 NPC tables from New Big Dragon’s d30 Sandbox Companion. I thought the whole Cantor/Thomer/Vine drama was some simple fun, and it actually encouraged some good conversations between the characters when they tried to defend Vine from Cantor despite their involvement in exposing his guilt. They seem to view themselves as lawfully aligned arbiters of justice, and insisted (without GM prompting) that Vine should be brought before a duly appointed body and tried for his theft, or be made to work off his debt instead of being slain.