Dark Age of Eracost Session 19

 

Party

• Baron Fingol Innes, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 4

• Kilosz the Cataphract, Fighter 3

• Tavenna, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 3

• Iazhir, Dragonman 2

• Ranenno, Forester-Bard 1

• Saporobir Caan, Explorer 4

• Bartosz, Fighter 2

• Arananno, Navgarine Battlemage 1

• Ransolnan, Navgarine Battlemage 1

• Karmrakir, Tratkean Thief 3

• Nalin, Assassin 1

• Gregosz The Chosen One, 0-level man teenager

Recap

Sept 27, 427

Having returned from Ierocain’s Academy with new information, we sent out the magpie belonging to the mysterious navgarines we’d rescued - the ones we assumed were the followers of Namo. We informed Onesvir of the Heaven’s Lance Academy of everything except the map pointing to Talbruin. Onesvir wanted us to leave Ierocain’s ruin alone. He said it was simply too dangerous to deal with. Didn’t have much else to add to our discoveries.

Sept 28

We waited for the magpie men to show up, and Fingol had some copies made of the map pointing to Talbruin, figuring that the knowledge should be preserved in case the party got themselves killed. He didn’t inform the party what was done with the copies.

Magpie men didn’t show up.

Sept 29

Karmrakir spent the day down on the docks of Siaro searching for likely contacts in the Nimonuin Trade Guild. He found some sketchy looking dock workers and brokered a meeting, to take place Oct 1.

Meanwhile a strange fellow entered the tavern - not the one we were expecting. A man in a dark cloak entered and immediately quarreled with the bartender. A black blade flashed, and the bartender was murdered. The party jumped into action and quickly discovered that the man had flesh of an incorporeal, glass-like quality. Weapons and fists passed through him.

Fortunately, Fingol’s choking wind seemed to work just fine, as did Kilosz’s enchanted navgarine sword. The creature was slain, and shattered into glassy shards. Fingol collected these into metamphorae.

Nobody seemed to have an answer as to where this guy came from, so we went to the local archpriest (custodian archpriest Melankaro) and found some minimal information - this was one of the spirits caught in the Ordinance of the Grand Marshall, forced to live on earth as ghosts. We sold the ectoplasmic glass to the temple.

Sept 30

Having hit 5th level, Fingol bought two spell formulae from the Heaven’s Lance academy and began to study new techniques.

Meanwhile, Sapporo went down to the docks to attempt his own interactions with the unsavoury types of Siaro. He also managed to find some likely criminal types. First, he paid them for a rumor:

“There’s an old navgarine place out to the east. A city ruled by Isluid. He built a maze, and hid in it a powerful staff.”

This corroborated our findings in the ancient city of “Blessed River” back in sessions 7-9.

Oct 1

Karmrakir went to a secret meeting with the Trade Guild.

Fingol and Sapporo met with Alcuin of the Magpie Men. We filled him in on everything that happened, and he said they believe the Amalgam has left Navgarin. Upon hearing of the glass ghost, he was very agitated, and dropped some of his secrecy. He gave us the location of his group’s hideout - in the woods east of Sarsanduil and north of Leverenso. His master (strongly implied to be Namo) would very much like to meet us.

Oct 3

Sapporo and Bartosz went to their secret meeting.

Strategic Overview

Experience

Reserve xp: 346

Fingol Keeper 4         14697 / 14560 (advances to level 5)

Kilosz Fighter 3         6938 / 8000

Tavenna         Keeper 3         5385 / 7280

Iazhir Dragonman 2 4206 / 5120

Ranenno         Forester-Bard 1 1646 / 1980

Domain

Vigilant Keep

Barony of 1 6-mile hex

Population: 56 families

Stronghold value: 60,000gp

Mercenary garrison (210gp / month):

• 10 light infantry

• 8 heavy infantry

• 6 bowmen

Notes:

• Keep contains an alchemy lab worth 4100gp

Expeditionary Force

Fingol, Tavenna, Iazhir and Ranenno on riding mules

Renenno’s Wolf

Armored War Bear

Kilosz on Medium Warhorse with backup War Mule

Animal handler with 2 hunting dogs, 5 war dogs

Baggage train of 7 draft donkeys

Mercenary squad of 5 spearmen, 3 crossbowmen

Novalia Campaign Session 31: Kasumi's Journey

Novalia Session 31 is a 1v1 (one player, one DM) session featuring a new character and new area never before explored by the players.

While this is part of the Novalia Campaign (read: world) in the old-school sense, it’s a new campaign in the modern sense (read: new party). I’m playing these with my wife after the baby is asleep, so they’re short sessions by necessity.

The setting is Ayen, an insular kingdom ruled by a council of liches. It lies about 300 miles southeast of Priorsford County in northern Ostheim, where the first 30 sessions of the ACKS campaign took place.

Hexes are 96 miles. The red box is the area covered by the original 6-mile hex map of the Middle Plains.

Where in Ayen are we? I don’t know yet, and neither does the lone PC. For these 1 on 1 sessions I’m doing some terrain generation on the fly, at least at the start.

Terrain and settlement generation is being done with AD&D Appendix B, and all the wilderness expedition rules, random encounters and weather are from ACKS II.

Party

• Kasumi, Assassin 1

Recap

Dolor (Sept) 24, 1181 EC

On a gloomy, drizzly morning, Kasumi left her hometown of Oborozato, never to return. Her attempt to kill the tyrannical local necromancer had failed, and they’d be after her soon.

Heading east along the river, she traveled all morning without trouble, and came to a forest in the afternoon. She decided to leave the river and enter the forest. After a couple miles, she spotted a herd of creatures ahead and hid herself. She remained undetected, narrowly avoiding being eaten alive as a swarm of 16 giant rats passed nearby.

As evening fell, Kasumi desperately returned to the river, hoping to find the next settlement. Finally, she found the village of Kageroishi and crossed the ford, having travelled over 24 miles.

She found a room at the inn and talked to the bartender Gyo. Not knowing anything about the geography beyond her village, she questioned him and found out that his supplies come downriver from Namigata, the nearest large town.

Map so far:

Kasumi’s path on Dolor 24:

Dark Age of Eracost Session 18

 

Party

• Baron Fingol Innes, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 4

• Kilosz the Cataphract, Fighter 3

• Tavenna, Navgarine Keeper of the Stars 3

• Iazhir, Dragonman 2

• Ranenno, Forester-Bard 1

• Saporobir Caan, Explorer 4

• Bartosz, Fighter 2

• Ileisan, Navgarine Warrior 2

• Arananno, Navgarine Battlemage 1

• Ransolnan, Navgarine Battlemage 1

• Karmrakir, Tratkean Thief 3

• Nalin, Assassin 1

• Gregosz The Chosen One, 0-level man teenager

Recap

Sept 18, 427

After the mixed results of our previous expedition to Iarocain’s Academy, we decided to spend a week in Siaro to allow Karm to recover from his tampering with mortality roll, and to hire a new thief to replace the late Koreltos.

Word was received from our recent comrade and fellow oligarch Ambrogino that he would renounce his noble title and follow the path of an ascetic (his player is actually entering a carthusian monastery and can’t play in the campaign anymore).

In the meantime, Fingol sent a letter with his mercenaries to Tavenna, summoning her to join them, and bring some of the spearmen from Vigilant Keep. The party had been noticeably struggling with a lack of healing and missing out on lots of profit from monster parts without her.

During the week, Karm managed to hire a 1st level thief named Soreltos - the brother of the thief who had been killed on the last expedition. He also attempted to hire a Navgarine Commander-Priest, but failed to convince him.

Fingol visited the Heaven’s Lance academy and spoke to Oneswir about what they’d seen. The ring of stone at the base of the vortex of chaotic power was a total mystery, but the sigil of the raven looking downward was a known Keeper symbol, indicating a secret.

Sept 24

Party left for another delve into Ierocain’s Academy. On the way we found a dead rattlesnake in the woods. Karm extracted a dose of poison, and Saporobir picked up the trail of a group of beastmen moving away from the scene in the direction of the academy. We decided to follow.

Before catching up to the beastmen we ran into a nest of giant weasels, and harvested them for components without trouble.

Late in the day, we were suddenly attacked by a mob of bugbears. The beastmen had detected us and turned on us, catching the party by surprise. Thankfully, the party’s formation is very solid against a frontal attack. Several of the dogs and mercenaries were wounded along with the bear and spider, but the only death was a single spearman.

The party’s counterattack was fierce. Navgarine lightning and dragonman fire blasted through the bugbear ranks, and in moments the majority of them lay dead.

A few stragglers fled, but were cut down by Kilosz charging after them. Two laid down arms and were tied up. The party figured that their value as beastman slaves outweighed the value of their magical components and kept them alive (for now).

Sept 26

After a day of rest, the party entered the dungeon.

We set the new thief to work, disarming the trap which had killed his brother. Surely he wouldn’t also nope he died too.

At this point the party had a bit of a brainstorm, since Karm didn’t want to be the next thief cut in half. Finally we realized that since this was the bottom floor, Fingol could use Earth’s Excrescence. The troublesome door and its attached trap trigger were exploded with extreme prejudice.

No enemies were found inside, nor in the room marked STUDY when we broke that door open. But we did find a few very valuable gems, and a bunch of notes and maps which we tragically did not study sufficiently. Finally we found a single electrum coin, which seemed to be a key meant for the indent in the stone ring. So of course, being cautious men but expecting glorious results, we handed the coin to Ileisan and he reached out to place the coin in the ring… and was disintegrated.

This led to a whole bunch of ideas and experimentation whose only result was both of our bugbear prisoners being disintegrated as well. Finally, we read the notes.

"Any man who takes this coin to the seal shall perish into dust, but any man who has neither murder of innocent nor theft nor heresy in his soul and has been blessed or bears an item of venerable power shall not perish"

RIP, Ileisan.

The notes also revealed that the ring was containing five horrific super-specters. So honestly, they may have done us a favor by disintegrating our guy instead of opening the seal.

Sept 27

Returned to Siaro without further stupidity.

Strategic Overview

Experience

Reserve xp: 346

Fingol Keeper 4 14412 / 14560

Kilosz Fighter 3 6795 / 8000

Tavenna Keeper 3 5242 / 7280

Iazhir Dragonman 2 4063 / 5120

Ranenno Forester-Bard 1 1503 / ??

Domain

Vigilant Keep

Barony of 1 6-mile hex

Population: 56 families

Stronghold value: 60,000gp

Mercenary garrison (210gp / month):

• 10 light infantry

• 8 heavy infantry

• 6 bowmen

Notes:

• Keep contains an alchemy lab worth 4100gp

Expeditionary Force

Fingol, Tavenna, Iazhir and Ranenno on riding mules

Renenno’s Wolf

Armored War Bear

Kilosz on Medium Warhorse with backup War Mule

Animal handler with 2 hunting dogs, 5 war dogs

Baggage train of 7 draft donkeys

Mercenary squad of 5 spearmen, 3 crossbowmen

Exotic Creatures in ACKS II Markets

"Can I buy a bear mount?"

"How about a trained giant spider?”

"What kind of trained beasts are available in the markets of Cyfaraun?”

These questions seem to arise naturally out of ACKS II, especially with its incredibly detailed monster statistics, including training time, cost, roles and ecology. But the availability of exotic animals in markets, like other things not included in the general equipment list, is left to the Judge to figure out.

I put together the house-rule below as a tool for judges to answer that question in a satisfying and consistent way.

Exotic Creatures in ACKS II Markets v1