A Tabletop Trip into Phlan VIII: The Battle for Sokal Keep

As the party approached the Keep in their boat, they noticed regular puffs of smoke rising from an area near the side of the keep facing the Old City across the harbor. Landing again on the gravel beach, they made their way around the Keep’s walls to the source of the smoke, rightly believing it to be signals from an Orc watch party. The orcs and their hobgoblin officer were quickly slain, but the party had already noted smoke signals rising in response from the Old City. Another humanoid war party would soon be upon them.

Having no other choice, they proceeded into Sokal Keep, skirmishing with more undead guards (their ranks replenished by the Orcs the party had slain in their previous attempt, as well as the tiny and unhappy skeleton of their former halfling companion) as they desperately sought a defensive position. Alodar, Beck, and Aeryn searched the keep’s old Armory, which had appeared empty when Wolf and MacTavish had last checked it out, but which Alodar and Aeryn’s more practiced eyes found to actually have an illusionary wall concealing several magical weapons.

MacTavish, Wolf, and Inigo gave fuller attention to the Keep’s Chapel, noting with trepidation that something had drained the life out of several orcs here, leaving them as mere husks. Upon approaching the altar to Tyr there, they found that the force at work was the spectre of Ferran Martinez, last chaplain of Sokal Keep, who fortunately recognized the passwords Wolf gave him. Martinez explained that his final spells were crafted to ensure that the keep would always be guarded; in doing so he had inadvertently bound both his own spirit and those of the original garrison to the place as well as animating the bodies of the dead. Wolf explained that Men again inhabited New Phlan and sought to reclaim the old city, and suggested to Martinez that the arrival of a new garrison might allow the curse to be lifted. Martinez agreed, but insisted that the adventurers must prove the ability of the new settlers to protect the Keep by fighting off the rapidly approaching orc war party. The party agreed, and prepared for battle.

The party rightly suspected that the Orc would attack the front gate of Sokal Keep, the collapsed gate being the weakest point. To make up for this, the party rigged up several tripwires and concealed spike traps (shallow pungi stakes) in the gateway itself. Inigo mounted the section of wall to the right of the gate, Alodar the left, and Beck stood near the gate itself, boasting that he would hold it alone. Wolf, MacTavish, and Aeryn stayed in the courtyard to provide support where needed.

The Orc assault force arrived in five ominous black longboats, and began to pour onto the beach – the party counted at least 40-50 orcs and hobgoblins. Immediately, the Orcs rushed for the gate, only to be repelled by accurate archery from Inigo and sorcery from Alodar. But this was only an initial assault, a testing of strength.

The humanoids’ next assault came in three wings. The largest, a party of orcs stiffened by an elite all-hobgoblin assault team, struck directly at the gate. Some were killed or incapacitated by the traps. The rest faced Beck, who crushed many with each swing of his great two-handed maul. The other two groups each made for a section of wall, hoping to climb over it with grapnels while the defenders were occupied at the gate. The lefthand group’s attempt bogged down into a stalemate, as Alodar used his spells and accurate sling shots to keep them from successfully gaining a foothold. The righthand group, however, managed to make it up the wall, where some descended into the Keep while others fought desperately to keep Inigo pinned until they could be reinforced.

Wolf rushed forward to help Beck at the gate, and the two of them tore into the hobgoblin elites while MacTavish and Aeryn shot down any orcs who managed to slip past the fight. A squad of orcs from Inigo’s position on the wall rushed towards them, and the defenders of the gate would have been overwhelmed had not the remaining undead garrison of the keep shambled forward to reinforce them. Unable to take the left of the gate, the orcs there resorted to sniping at Alodar with their javelins, badly wounding him. All of the party was, in fact, badly wounded and MacTavish’s healing spells were gone.

But as Beck and Wolf, streaming with gore, cleaved down the last of the hobgoblins, the warparty’s morale broke and they ran for their boats with a frenzied Beck in hot pursuit. Quickly pushing their longboats back into the river, they rowed frantically home as Beck sent loud insults and a hurled vial of acid after them.

After searching the bodies of the dead, the badly wounded but victorious party returned to Martinez’s chapel, where the spectre gratefully released the keep to the City of New Phlan’s care. He also warned them that they faced further challenges, for the invaders of Phlan 500 years ago had been aided by a magical pool, and a great and powerful general, Tryanthraxus. Martinez advised the party to seek the library of the sage Mendor, then faded away, his task complete.

A Tabletop Trip into Phlan VII: A New Party Assembles

Along with the treasure the bandits had hidden in Kuto’s Well, they had also stashed two elven captives: a ranger, Inigo (Bob), and a wizard, Alodar (John, in his first night playing with our group). Grateful for the rescue and in desperate need of a fresh infusion of cash, the elves agreed to join the party: with their numbers bolstered and access to an arcane spellcaster, the PCs began to consider a return to Sokol Keep to settle accounts with the Orcs. They discussed their options, then rested in the chambers beneath the Well.

Climbing out of the well the next morning, Inigo was greeted by a shower of rancid, regurgitated alcohol. This was, of course, Beck, who had chosen Kuto’s Well to void the combined aftereffects of a night on the run from Vola as a werewolf, and his natural Tucker Max-ian penchant for alcohol. A fight almost ensued, but fortunately Beck recognized MacTavish and Wolf, and rejoined the party as it made its way back to New Phlan. Here, they split up again, with most of the group stopping at Jerome of Melvaunt’s shop for supplies before heading back to their rooms at Nat Wyler’s Bell while Beck roamed New Phlan seeking a refill of his keg and a hot bath. Instead, he had to make a hasty escape from Vola at the Bitter Blade (a hangout for political malcontents with all the worst aspects of a caucus and an open mic night), was turned away at the Cracked Crown (a more upscale inn catering to locals), and after a cold bath in the Moonsea vowed revenge.

In the meantime, Alodar had identified the magical items from the bandits’ stash (a +1 suit of chainmail, a +1 bastard sword, and various potions) and the party decided they would indeed return to Sokol Keep. Accordingly, they bedded down for a good night’s sleep at Nat Wyler’s…except for Beck, who convinced Aeryn to help him rob the Cracked Crown. The two arrived at the Crown, and Aeryn picked the lock. As they searched for the cashbox, Beck (not good at moving silently at the best of times) bumped up against a table, sending a mug crashing to the floor. The innkeeper woke and called for the Watch, and Beck made a hasty exit (but not without leaving some caltrops behind) while Aeryn hid in the Crown’s kitchen. Aeryn waited in hiding for the innkeeper to leave, and Beck managed to talk his way out of being arrested by the watch by convincing them he was looking for a lost puppy (the New Phlan watch must like puppies…Beck rolled amazingly well on his Bluff check). Finally, both characters slunk back to Nat Wyler’s Bell around 3AM…40 GP richer, as Aeryn had found the Crown’s cashbox.

The next morning, the party visited the New Phlan City Council and, while unable to see their patron Poryphrys Cadorna, obtained a writ from the Council Clerk for a new rowboat. Loading themselves and their gear inside, the party rowed out into the harbor towards the Keep.

4E Test Run: Forest of Doom – The Game

I decided to start Project: Old School with Forest of Doom for several reasons:

1. While I do own a copy of Keep on the Shadowfell, the structure of that adventure was set up so that it would probably take more than 1-2 sessions to play it.
2. Forest of Doom was designed for first level PCs, and as a 3.0 module had encounter levels already in place.
3. Forest of Doom was set up as a lot of little discrete encounters, rather than as an extended dungeoncrawl, giving me a chance to play with a lot of different settings and also to play with the Action Point and Resting rules more.
4. I was always a fan of the mushroom plantation encounter when I played the gamebook and I wanted to see how well it would translate.

Converting things over took me about a week of futzing around in the evening. As I mentioned in a previous post, 4e is very GM friendly once you master the nuances of its encounter building system (in particular I was initially caught off guard by the fact that you have to watch out for monster levels as well as XP values when building encounters – thankfully I caught myself, or that first ogre would have exterminated the PCs); it’s easy to adjust monster levels up and down to provide an appropriate challenge and NPCs are fast to stat.

I changed the adventure locale and backstory from Titan to Oerth in part for aesthetic reasons (I’ve been rereading Gygax’s Gord series and I wanted to see how the new system “felt” in old-school Greyhawk), and in part for design purposes since my philosophy was “use core monsters whenever possible”; I wasn’t confident enough to design too many new monsters, and the idea was to test the core rules, not adapt them specifically for Fighting Fantasy. As it happened I did end up doing 4e stats for the infamous Blood Eel, but since none of the party ended up in the river they never got tested (darn those good rolls).

Due to the 4th of July/Treason Day holiday (you keep Christmas in your way and I’ll keep it in mine, ok?), only Bob (Jerkxes) and Scott (Alodar) were available to play, so I had to scale all the encounters down by half last minute. For the most part this worked well except for the succubus (originally a Fire Demon, but 4e doesn’t have an equivalent low-level demon, and using a succubus and substituting enslaved humans for the Clones gave the encounter a nice twist) who would have charmed both PCs in 2-4 combat rounds, even as a Level 5 monster, had I not done a little fudging. In general, the north-of-the river encounters were on the tough side, largely because I expected the game to end and the party to level before that point.

I’m sure Bob and Scott will chime in with their own opinions, but here are my impressions:

Pros:

• Convenient: Quick and easy to design and stat encounters.
• Plays fast: we made it through two to three times as many battles as we do playing 3.5e
• Intuitive: the system’s been pared down to basics and there isn’t much to look up except for details on various powers.
• Flexible Characters: A 3.5e Ranger and Wizard would have found this tough going once the Wizard had burned off his spells for the day. The 4e party was able to keep moving along nicely, generally resting after 2-3 major encounters.

Cons:

• Repetitive Combat: the management and specialization aspects of 3.5e are almost nonexistent in 4e at low levels. You use the same powers in combat again, and again, and again rather than being able to change your spells and strategies. The new emphasis on positioning and terrain makes up for this a little, but combat still has something of a rinse-and-repeat feel. Perhaps this problem is lessened at higher levels when the PCs have more choices.
• Cardboard Opponents: one Human Bandit’s pretty much like another Human Bandit. Varying your descriptions helps hide this (my PCs treated the treehouse primitives, the hillman bandits, and the charmed Furyondian soldiers very differently even though they had the same stats), but the fact remains.

On the whole, I enjoyed running the game and though the mechanics certainly felt different, the feel was, for me, very similar to past iterations of D&D. It certainly captured the feel of both the Fighting Fantasy gamebook and the Gord the Rogue series, which is I suppose either good or bad depending on how much you like Livingstone’s or Gygax’s style.

Either way, the second part of that hammer’s still out there and I’d like to see if they can find it…

4E Test Run: Forest of Doom – The Story

This is the tale of Jerkxes, son of Jerkxes, an ambitious young human Wizard, and Alodar, a half-elf Ranger with some skill at dweomercrafting as well, and their progress through the Gnarley Forest south of the city of Greyhawk in search of the fabled Hammer of Gillibran.

The two young adventurers were a week out of Greyhawk, exploring the wilds of the southern border of the Kingdom of Furyondy, when they came upon a dying dwarf, Bigleg. BIgleg, who had been ambushed by a raiding party from Keoland, explained that he had been part of another adventuring group hired by Lord Gillibran of Stonebridge. Lord Gillibran’s impetuous son had been fighting against Keoish raiders on griffonback when his mount was mortally wounded, and crashed somewhere in the Gnarley Forest carrying the Gillibran family’s ancestral warhammer. With visions of reward dancing in their heads, Jerkxes and Alodar agreed to take up the Bigleg’s quest.

Following the dwarf’s dying directions, the adventurers sought out the Master Mage Yaztromo, who lived at the edge of the forest. Wakened out of a sound sleep, Yaztromo grumpily agreed to help them by scrying the Hammer’s location. His spell revealed that the young lord’s body had been pillaged by two goblins, who had divided the head and haft of the hammer between them. Annoyed, but still resolved to find the Hammer of Gillibran, the adventurers bought healing potions and rituals from Yaztromo before heading into the forest.

Their first encounter was with a talking raven (really a polymorphed thief), who advised them to head north. Moving northward along a trail, Jerkxes and Alodar discovered a large hole in the ground, which they declined to investigate, and then a cave, which they did. The cave was the lair of an ogre, who was busily preparing to cook his dinner: a goblin trapped in a wicker cage. After a tough fight, the party dispatched the ogre (and the goblin, whom Alodar antagonized by trying to whack on the head), and discovered amongst his treasure the haft of the Hammer of Gillibran! One down…one to go.

The next morning, the adventurers continued north towards the River Velerdyva hoping to find the crash site, which Yaztromo had told them lay near a large path of stepping-stones. They had a brief skirmish with some barbarians in a crude treehouse (Jerkxes burned their climbing rope in hopes of trapping them there), and were attacked by a flock of Stirges, which nearly drained all of their blood before the party could kill them. FInally they arrived at the river, with a rickety wooden bridge the only visible crossing point. After a brief discussion, the party decided to cross carefully and, though Alodar in particular found it tough going, they made it to the other side.

Having camped for the night on the banks of the Velverdyva, Jerkxes and Alodar worked their way west along the river in hopes of finding the area Yaztromo had described. It took them most of the day to push their way through the thick foliage of the Gnarley Forest, but eventually they did find the remains of the griffon and the unfortunate young man. Alodar found one set of goblin tracks going north, and one south towards the river. Based on this, the party decided to concentrate their search efforts north of the Velverdyva.

They also found a tumbledown hut with a large marble jar inside. The Jar was inscribed: Disturb me not, Lest ye free what has been bound, and seemed to be full of a swirling black mist which swallowed up anything dropped inside. As Jerkxes examined the jar, Alodar examined the area around the hut, finding some grave like mounds which left him unnerved. Nevertheless, the party spent the night in the hut, and Jerkxes insisted on taking the jar with them in the morning.

They pushed north, and around midday their path led them into a steep defile between a forested hill and a sheer rock face. Wisely deciding to take the hill, they were ambushed by a raiding force of Hillmen, whose canny use of the terrain made up for their inferior fighting skills. Eventually, Jerxes and Alodar triumphed (one thing the Hillmen could not cope with was sorcery, and Jerxes’ magical talents were very effective).  Near the end of the day, the party found a muddy, but peaceful grove and camped for the night.

Continuing northwards the next day, the party discovered mysterious signs pointing to a large hollowed-out stump, which seemed to be the entrance to some kind of underground tunnel. Crawling through, Jerkxes and Alodar found themselves in a huge, mushroom filled cavern filled with workers (bandits, hillmen and even a few Furyondish soldiers). The workers seemed to be charmed or controlled in some way, only responding to the party’s inquiries with a dreamy smile.

Discovering a large staircase at the end of the cavern, the party climbed it and investigated the alcoves it lead to. The first was a storehouse of weapons and equipment for the as yet unseen guards (including an obviously valuable shield). The second was a pair of these  guards, more charmed  men who put up a decent fight after Jerkxes and Alodar refused to be escorted to their “Mistress”. The third alcove was the throne room of this mysterious ruler: a succubus condemned through some minor infraction against the Dukes of Hell to watch over this mushroom plantation and provide fungal delicacies for their tables for a thousand years!

With slavery to a succubus’ appetites sounding initially appealing, but lifelong service in the mushroom fields considerably less so, Jerxes and Alodar decided to fight. The succubus used her demonic beauty and charm adeptly, playing the two adventurers off against each other as her guards strove to take them down. Jerkxes and Alodar eventually triumphed, however, and availed themselves of the demoness’ considerable treasure hoard before freeing her slaves, who promised to spread their fame far and wide. Though considerably richer and karmically enhanced, Jerxes and Allodar had not yet found the second object of their quest, the head of the Hammer of Gillibran, and as they rested they discussed where to search the next morning…

Shipyards Reopen

It appears that Iron Wind Metals will be producing miniatures for A Call To Arms.

I’m actually very excited about this…Iron Wind does good work, so we should see some serious improvement in the quality of the sculpts and especially the castings.