Post by diogenes on Feb 28, 2023 7:36:36 GMT -6
Hello everyone, I've decided to create a "Session Report" for the new campaign that I advertised on here previously. The main aim of this is to help me keep track of the events that occur during the campaign, as well as to provide some entertaining reading for the community here on this board. I’ll also be using these reports to further develop the setting and provide some background detail, as well as workshopping some ideas and concepts I want to explore further. I welcome suggestions, ideas, and commentary from the community, your contributions are greatly appreciated. Without further ado, let's get into it, with a review of this campaign's inaugural session.
The game began with a brief description of the adventuring locale, and a short history of the region. The Viper Archipelago consists of a chain of lush tropical islands, where pirates, mercenaries, thieves, treasure-hunters and other fortune-seekers gather to seek riches amidst the steaming primordial jungles and along the pristine white beaches.
Originally, the islands were inhabited by the Serpent-Men, a coldly-intelligent race with great command of cruel, inhuman sorcery. The Serpent-Men maintained a sophisticated and sprawling civilisation in the region, in which they treated the primitive proto-human inhabitants of the island as their livestock. These proto-humans, who would be roughly-equivalent to the homo heidelbergensis or homo erectus of our own world’s pre-history, were used as a source of slave labour, a source of food, and as a source of sacrificial offerings.
The Serpent-Men’s tyrannical reign of terror was interrupted by the High Elves, who arrived from across the gleaming blue sea in great ships. The High Elves were an advanced people, skilled in the ways of magic, warfare, and exploration. Their arrival in the region can be seen as analogous to the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadores to what is now Central America, specifically Mexico.
After a prolonged and brutal conflict, the High Elves conquered the Serpent-Men, and established their own foothold in the region. This colonial outpost of the greater High Elven Empire continued to operate for an extended period of time, before a terrible plague swept through the archipelago, wiping out many of the colonists, and forcing the rest to abandon their holdings and flee the islands.
The islands were shunned for many years after this event, with a persistent sense of superstition and dread seeming to hang over the region like a dark stormcloud. Rumours swirled of blasphemous rites and pagan rituals conducted deep in the jungles, sorcerous practices that were said to have produced the plague that drove the High Elves from the islands.
It is only in recent years that explorers and treasure-seekers have dared step foot back onto the islands of the archipelago, but the daring of these new adventurers has been richly rewarded. The long-abandoned colonial outposts and island fortresses of the High Elves have proven to be packed with valuable relics, as well as magical artifacts of great power.
The availability of these treasures prompted a “gold rush” of sorts in the region, and before long the archipelago was occupied once again, this time by treasure-hunters, fortune-seekers, explorers and adventurers of all stripes, as well as those who prey on them.
Here, we return to the “present day” of the game world, and the beginning of the game proper, where the players are just some of the many brave (or foolhardy) souls arriving on the sandy white beaches of one of the islands, aiming to win their fortune, or die trying!
The players for this game were:
A: A relatively new OSR player, whose only prior experience with OD&D was an introductory one-shot that I ran for a small group of new players.
R: An experienced OSR player and referee, but hasn’t played in a game that I have run before.
Since we were a bit light on player numbers, I had each player create and run two characters each, for a total of four PC’s. A was playing Gralzolor (Magic-User 1) and Marahara (Warrior-Priest 1). R was playing Colby (Warrior-Priest 1) and Hamilton (Fighting-Man 1). For context, Warrior-Priest is just what I’m calling Clerics in this game, otherwise they are pretty much “by the book”.
The party had arrived on one of the many ships that frequented the island, disembarking in a small rowboat to make the final journey to shore. The beach the party found themselves on was a scene of mild activity, with rough-looking sailors and pirate-types ferrying cargo back and forth between the beach and the ships anchored off the coast, or else sitting around on crates and barrels drinking some kind of dubious “pirate grog” out of clay jugs.
To the west of the beach, there is a steep, jagged cliff face, with some rugged trails leading up and deeper inland, to the jungle interior of the island. To the east of the beach, is the blue ocean, with a few ships anchored in the sheltered inlet off the coast. To the south, the coastline extends off into the distance, without any noticeable points of interest. To the north, the coastline continues for a few miles, before turning eastward, where a spit of rock juts out into the sea like a pointing, accusatory finger. At the far eastern end of this spit of rock, a stone lighthouse can be seen, rising up into the blue sky.
About halfway between the player’s current position on the beach, and this lighthouse, there is a coastal fortress up on the western cliffs, overlooking the sea. Both the lighthouse and the fortress can be seen from the player’s current position, and both of these structures feature in the rumours I provided at the start of the game.
These rumours were:
The fortress is haunted by the restless spirits of the dead, but they only come out at night. If you go during the day, you should be fine.
Prior to the coming of the plague, the lighthouse keeper was known as a skilled alchemist. If you go to the lighthouse, some of his alchemical supplies and equipment may be left behind, and they’re sure to be valuable. However, the lighthouse is infested with harpies, so be careful!
From a referee’s standpoint, I suggested the players check out the lighthouse, as it is a bit more of a self-contained location, and would be more suitable for a short session with a smaller group of players. The players seemed pretty happy to go along with that, but R, the more experienced OSR player, sensibly wanted to check out their immediate surroundings first, in order to determine if there was any further information that could be collected, and if there were any mercenaries, hirelings, or retainers available who would be willing to lend their services in exchange for some silver.
There was a rustic wooden shack of moderate size a little way further up the beach, with a few drunken sailors slumped around outside, so the party decided to head there to see what was what. Pushing aside a curtain in the doorway and entering the shack, it was evident that this was the local “drinking den” for the pirate crews who frequented this beach. Pirates sat around on rough wooden stools, using crates and barrels for tables, daggers and swords in their belts, leather drinking jacks and wooden tankards in their hands, and smoking pipes clamped in their teeth.
Towards the back of the shack, there was a makeshift bar made up of a few crates pushed together, where a scruffy-looking older pirate is pouring out drinks. If you imagine Geoffrey Rush in the first Pirates of the Caribbean, then you’ve got a pretty good image of what this scruffy pirate barkeep looks like. Behind him, a huge, muscular man leans casually against the back wall of the shack, arms folded across their powerful chest. This man is dark-skinned, totally bald, and seems totally disinterested in the comings and goings of the pirates in the shack. If you imagine Michael Clarke Duncan, you’ve got a good mental “casting choice” for this particular character. The players approach the bar, and order a round of pirate grog, while A asked for any further information about the lighthouse to the north. The scruffy barkeep didn’t know too many details beyond what had already been covered, but he offered to buy any valuable treasure or artifacts that the players found in the lighthouse.
Meanwhile, R is working on hiring some mercenaries. Five of the pirates loitering outside seemed to be up for adventure, and the party put forward enough silver to hire three of them, their names being Karbash, Barlow, and Tibio. Something about Tibio’s randomly-generated name (thanks, Meatshields!) caught my attention, so I described him as a flamboyantly-dressed bravo with a silk scarf, wielding a rapier and dagger. Mercenaries in tow, the party struck out to the north along the sandy coast, heading towards the lighthouse.
Passing under the sea-facing clifftop fortress, the party makes it to the spit of rock without incident, clambering up the scree-covered rocky slope. From there, they were able to walk east along the spit, reaching the outer sandstone-like wall that encircled the lighthouse. There was a pair of heavy wooden double doors set into the west side of this perimeter wall. The doors were closed.
The players gathered at the base of the wall, and formed a “human pyramid” to boost up Colby. Once given this boost, the Cleric was able to grab the top of the wall with their hands, and haul their head above the parapet, feet scraping for suitable footholds in the chipped and weathered stone. Looking over the wall, he is able to see a courtyard, with a modest single-story house towards the north interior wall, and a small shed across from it, closer to the south interior wall. Finally, there is the lighthouse itself to the east, and stairs can be seen leading up to a simple wooden door on the west side of the lighthouse, the side facing inland. Narrow cobbled paths through the courtyard connect these locations to one another, as well as leading to the double doors on the west wall.
Colby is lowered back down, and the players reconvene. A decision is quickly reached, and an attempt is made to pry open the double doors with a crowbar. The doors are stuck closed, but their weather-beaten timbers are no match for the combined strength of the party, and the leverage of a crowbar. The doors crack open, and the party gain access to the lighthouse courtyard.
Together, the party moves over to the shed that’s relatively close to the south wall. The flimsy wooden door is held shut by a short length of rusted chain and a battered padlock, which unsurprisingly offers little opposition to the crowbar-wielding party. The rusty chain snaps, and the door is pulled open, revealing a dusty interior cluttered by simple farming tools, like a sickle, rake, hoe, and so on. On some rickety shelving there are a few murky glass bottles, containing various unknown liquids.
The first liquid was a dark inky blue in colour, and has a highly-viscous, almost honey-like consistency. Shout out to A for reminding me of the word “viscosity” when I was struggling to describe the way this potion slowly slid around the container. The second liquid was a light golden colour, and sloshed around in the glass container like a sweet dessert wine. The third, and last liquid had a similar consistency to the second, but the colour was a deep emerald green. The players pocketed these liquid-filled containers, and continued to search the shed.
R was showing his experience as an OSR player, as he immediately inspected the floor, revealing an iron ring-pull set into the wood, which was previously hidden under the thick layer of accumulated dust. The trap door was quickly pulled open, revealing a set of rickety wooden stairs leading down and south into a dark cluttered basement.
Taking a torch, Gralzolor bravely descended into the basement, which had a floor of hard-packed earth. Once down there, he was able to see that the basement was cluttered with junk, half-topped shelves, scattered books and papers, and all sorts of other mouldy detritus. This was a real “hoarder’s den” by the looks of things, and it would take time to sift through in search of anything valuable or useful. Before any further action could be taken, there was a rustling sound from the north side of the basement, and a strange creature slowly emerged from behind a pile of collapsed shelving and stacked-up books.
This was a giant beetle with an iridescent green shell, and fearsome looking-mandibles. The beetle was about six feet long, and three feet broad. For a reference to what these beetles look like, look up “tiger beetles” under Google Images, and just imagine those, but as long as a man lying down, and about the same width as a small coffee table. Antennae twitching, this creature gradually advanced towards Gralzolor, who backed up to the foot of the stairs. At this point, the remainder of the party were clustered around at the top of the staircase, looking down into the basement below.
At this moment, there was a further rustling sound from the east side of the room, which solidified Gralzolor’s decision to flee! Just as he planted his foot on the first step, preparing to retreat back up the stairs, the nearest creature surged forward, jaws snapping eagerly! It was time to roll Initiative! Luck was on the side of Gralzolor, and he was able to scramble away, avoiding the beetle’s bite as he scrambled up the stairs, the beetle in close pursuit behind.
As soon as he cleared the trapdoor, the other party members threw it closed, slamming it right in the beetle’s face. Colby quickly stood on top of the trapdoor to hold it closed, and the beetles thudded into it from below, scratching and scraping at the wood with their mandibles. At least for now though, it seemed like the trapdoor would hold firm, and the players quickly devised a plan.
The pirate mercenaries arrayed themselves in front of the trapdoor, swords drawn. The PC’s crowded around the sides and rear of the trapdoor, with their weapons also poised. Any beetle that came scrambling through the trapdoor to attack would face a barrage of blows from all sides. With this plan in mind, it was time to fight. Colby stepped off the trapdoor, and the first of the beetles came surging out from under the trapdoor, mandibles clicking, looking like a shiny-shelled insectile torpedo.
Immediately, the charging creature was met by a smashing blow from Gralzolor’s quarterstaff, mangling the side of its face and stunning the beast. A split-second later, Hamilton’s spear flashes out, and the full length of the spearhead plunges deep into the creature’s back, just where the thorax connects to the head. The beetle seizes up and falls back, legs twitching and drawing inward as it slides back down the stairs. Hamilton pulls their spear free, the spearhead dripping freely with weird green insect-blood. With a final convulsion, the dying beetle rolls off the side of the stairs, and slams back down into the basement floor below with a heavy dead-weight “thud”!
With one beetle dealt with, two more are still up. The pirates lash out with their swords, but score only a glancing blow on the second beetle. The third and final beetle creeps forward, and together, the beetles lunge forward.
I rolled to see which of the pirates the beetles would attack, and as luck would have it, poor Karbash was going to be on the receiving end of both attacks. The beetles leapt at him, biting into his legs with their mandibles and shredding his trouser legs in the process, but incredibly, Karbash survived with one hit point remaining! I rolled 4 HP for him, and despite hitting with both attacks, the beetles rolled a 1 and a 2 for their damage, respectively. We’ll see if this pirate’s luck will run out in the next round, however.
In the course of the next round, the PC’s were only able to inflict light wounds on one of the two beetles, but Barlow fared better when it came to his turn to strike a blow. He hacked down once, splitting the creature’s head in two, and then followed up with another brutal strike that finished the job for certain. Two beetles down, one to go. The remaining beetle will check Morale at the end of their turn, but they’re going to resolve their attack first. I thought this would be the end of Karbash, but this time, he was able to skip nimbly backwards, and avoid the beetle’s attack.
The beetle’s Morale failed (no doubt disheartened by not being able to finish off Karbash) and it began to flee. At the same time, Karbash was ordered to disengage and withdraw from the melee, an order which he happily obeyed, limping outside with chewed-up calves and shins, leaving a trail of his own blood behind him as he hobbled out. At the beetle turned to run, Hamilton threw his spear at it’s exposed rear, but only succeeded in inflicting a light injury to the fleeing beetle, which promptly disappeared back down into the darkness and clutter of the basement.
The game session was drawing to a close at this point, so Hamilton retrieved his spear, the party regrouped, and then began their journey back to the village, making sure to close the trapdoor behind them. There was no further trouble on the way back to the village, and so the party returned without incident.
Back in town, the party were able to review their spoils in the closing minutes of the game. In order to test its properties, the party poured a drop of the blue liquid into a tankard of water, and were surprised to see that the water was momentarily frozen when it came into contact with the liquid. The party were even more surprised to see that the water than began rapidly heating back up, reaching boiling point in under a minute. From there, fragrant, pleasant-smelling steam began emanating from the tankard, and the water now looked like some kind of herbal tea. Risking a taste, Gralzolor felt a sense of strong warmth sweep over his body, and was able to identify this liquid as a Potion of Resist Cold.
The emerald-coloured potion was tasted by Hamilton, and after a moment of strong dizziness, he found himself looking at himself through the eyes of Tibio, the hired pirate standing behind him. This strange effect quickly faded, but it was now obvious that the emerald-coloured potion was a Potion of Clairvoyance.
Finally, the golden-coloured potion was tasted by Hamilton, and he saw a small shaving cut on his chin heal over immediately, and a splinter he had picked up from leaning on a wooden railing earlier in the day was pushed out of the skin of his hand, with the tiny wound also closing over immediately. It was quickly understood that this golden-coloured potion was a Potion of Healing.
In an act of great generosity, the PC’s gave the Potion of Healing to the wounded pirate Karbash, who drank it on the spot. Immediately, this pirate’s wounded legs were fully healed, (with R rolling the maximum result when determining how many hit points the potion restored) and Karbash was quick to offer his thanks. He will certainly be more than willing to sign up for a future expedition with these player characters.
All in all, that was the outcome of Game 1 of the Viper Archipelago campaign. I hope you enjoyed reading it just as much as I enjoyed running it, and as much as the players seemed to enjoy the adventure. I hope to run another game soon, so keep an eye out for more actual play reports.
If this report has sparked your desire to play in this campaign, send me a message, and we can see about getting you involved with this ongoing game.
The game began with a brief description of the adventuring locale, and a short history of the region. The Viper Archipelago consists of a chain of lush tropical islands, where pirates, mercenaries, thieves, treasure-hunters and other fortune-seekers gather to seek riches amidst the steaming primordial jungles and along the pristine white beaches.
Originally, the islands were inhabited by the Serpent-Men, a coldly-intelligent race with great command of cruel, inhuman sorcery. The Serpent-Men maintained a sophisticated and sprawling civilisation in the region, in which they treated the primitive proto-human inhabitants of the island as their livestock. These proto-humans, who would be roughly-equivalent to the homo heidelbergensis or homo erectus of our own world’s pre-history, were used as a source of slave labour, a source of food, and as a source of sacrificial offerings.
The Serpent-Men’s tyrannical reign of terror was interrupted by the High Elves, who arrived from across the gleaming blue sea in great ships. The High Elves were an advanced people, skilled in the ways of magic, warfare, and exploration. Their arrival in the region can be seen as analogous to the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadores to what is now Central America, specifically Mexico.
After a prolonged and brutal conflict, the High Elves conquered the Serpent-Men, and established their own foothold in the region. This colonial outpost of the greater High Elven Empire continued to operate for an extended period of time, before a terrible plague swept through the archipelago, wiping out many of the colonists, and forcing the rest to abandon their holdings and flee the islands.
The islands were shunned for many years after this event, with a persistent sense of superstition and dread seeming to hang over the region like a dark stormcloud. Rumours swirled of blasphemous rites and pagan rituals conducted deep in the jungles, sorcerous practices that were said to have produced the plague that drove the High Elves from the islands.
It is only in recent years that explorers and treasure-seekers have dared step foot back onto the islands of the archipelago, but the daring of these new adventurers has been richly rewarded. The long-abandoned colonial outposts and island fortresses of the High Elves have proven to be packed with valuable relics, as well as magical artifacts of great power.
The availability of these treasures prompted a “gold rush” of sorts in the region, and before long the archipelago was occupied once again, this time by treasure-hunters, fortune-seekers, explorers and adventurers of all stripes, as well as those who prey on them.
Here, we return to the “present day” of the game world, and the beginning of the game proper, where the players are just some of the many brave (or foolhardy) souls arriving on the sandy white beaches of one of the islands, aiming to win their fortune, or die trying!
The players for this game were:
A: A relatively new OSR player, whose only prior experience with OD&D was an introductory one-shot that I ran for a small group of new players.
R: An experienced OSR player and referee, but hasn’t played in a game that I have run before.
Since we were a bit light on player numbers, I had each player create and run two characters each, for a total of four PC’s. A was playing Gralzolor (Magic-User 1) and Marahara (Warrior-Priest 1). R was playing Colby (Warrior-Priest 1) and Hamilton (Fighting-Man 1). For context, Warrior-Priest is just what I’m calling Clerics in this game, otherwise they are pretty much “by the book”.
The party had arrived on one of the many ships that frequented the island, disembarking in a small rowboat to make the final journey to shore. The beach the party found themselves on was a scene of mild activity, with rough-looking sailors and pirate-types ferrying cargo back and forth between the beach and the ships anchored off the coast, or else sitting around on crates and barrels drinking some kind of dubious “pirate grog” out of clay jugs.
To the west of the beach, there is a steep, jagged cliff face, with some rugged trails leading up and deeper inland, to the jungle interior of the island. To the east of the beach, is the blue ocean, with a few ships anchored in the sheltered inlet off the coast. To the south, the coastline extends off into the distance, without any noticeable points of interest. To the north, the coastline continues for a few miles, before turning eastward, where a spit of rock juts out into the sea like a pointing, accusatory finger. At the far eastern end of this spit of rock, a stone lighthouse can be seen, rising up into the blue sky.
About halfway between the player’s current position on the beach, and this lighthouse, there is a coastal fortress up on the western cliffs, overlooking the sea. Both the lighthouse and the fortress can be seen from the player’s current position, and both of these structures feature in the rumours I provided at the start of the game.
These rumours were:
The fortress is haunted by the restless spirits of the dead, but they only come out at night. If you go during the day, you should be fine.
Prior to the coming of the plague, the lighthouse keeper was known as a skilled alchemist. If you go to the lighthouse, some of his alchemical supplies and equipment may be left behind, and they’re sure to be valuable. However, the lighthouse is infested with harpies, so be careful!
From a referee’s standpoint, I suggested the players check out the lighthouse, as it is a bit more of a self-contained location, and would be more suitable for a short session with a smaller group of players. The players seemed pretty happy to go along with that, but R, the more experienced OSR player, sensibly wanted to check out their immediate surroundings first, in order to determine if there was any further information that could be collected, and if there were any mercenaries, hirelings, or retainers available who would be willing to lend their services in exchange for some silver.
There was a rustic wooden shack of moderate size a little way further up the beach, with a few drunken sailors slumped around outside, so the party decided to head there to see what was what. Pushing aside a curtain in the doorway and entering the shack, it was evident that this was the local “drinking den” for the pirate crews who frequented this beach. Pirates sat around on rough wooden stools, using crates and barrels for tables, daggers and swords in their belts, leather drinking jacks and wooden tankards in their hands, and smoking pipes clamped in their teeth.
Towards the back of the shack, there was a makeshift bar made up of a few crates pushed together, where a scruffy-looking older pirate is pouring out drinks. If you imagine Geoffrey Rush in the first Pirates of the Caribbean, then you’ve got a pretty good image of what this scruffy pirate barkeep looks like. Behind him, a huge, muscular man leans casually against the back wall of the shack, arms folded across their powerful chest. This man is dark-skinned, totally bald, and seems totally disinterested in the comings and goings of the pirates in the shack. If you imagine Michael Clarke Duncan, you’ve got a good mental “casting choice” for this particular character. The players approach the bar, and order a round of pirate grog, while A asked for any further information about the lighthouse to the north. The scruffy barkeep didn’t know too many details beyond what had already been covered, but he offered to buy any valuable treasure or artifacts that the players found in the lighthouse.
Meanwhile, R is working on hiring some mercenaries. Five of the pirates loitering outside seemed to be up for adventure, and the party put forward enough silver to hire three of them, their names being Karbash, Barlow, and Tibio. Something about Tibio’s randomly-generated name (thanks, Meatshields!) caught my attention, so I described him as a flamboyantly-dressed bravo with a silk scarf, wielding a rapier and dagger. Mercenaries in tow, the party struck out to the north along the sandy coast, heading towards the lighthouse.
Passing under the sea-facing clifftop fortress, the party makes it to the spit of rock without incident, clambering up the scree-covered rocky slope. From there, they were able to walk east along the spit, reaching the outer sandstone-like wall that encircled the lighthouse. There was a pair of heavy wooden double doors set into the west side of this perimeter wall. The doors were closed.
The players gathered at the base of the wall, and formed a “human pyramid” to boost up Colby. Once given this boost, the Cleric was able to grab the top of the wall with their hands, and haul their head above the parapet, feet scraping for suitable footholds in the chipped and weathered stone. Looking over the wall, he is able to see a courtyard, with a modest single-story house towards the north interior wall, and a small shed across from it, closer to the south interior wall. Finally, there is the lighthouse itself to the east, and stairs can be seen leading up to a simple wooden door on the west side of the lighthouse, the side facing inland. Narrow cobbled paths through the courtyard connect these locations to one another, as well as leading to the double doors on the west wall.
Colby is lowered back down, and the players reconvene. A decision is quickly reached, and an attempt is made to pry open the double doors with a crowbar. The doors are stuck closed, but their weather-beaten timbers are no match for the combined strength of the party, and the leverage of a crowbar. The doors crack open, and the party gain access to the lighthouse courtyard.
Together, the party moves over to the shed that’s relatively close to the south wall. The flimsy wooden door is held shut by a short length of rusted chain and a battered padlock, which unsurprisingly offers little opposition to the crowbar-wielding party. The rusty chain snaps, and the door is pulled open, revealing a dusty interior cluttered by simple farming tools, like a sickle, rake, hoe, and so on. On some rickety shelving there are a few murky glass bottles, containing various unknown liquids.
The first liquid was a dark inky blue in colour, and has a highly-viscous, almost honey-like consistency. Shout out to A for reminding me of the word “viscosity” when I was struggling to describe the way this potion slowly slid around the container. The second liquid was a light golden colour, and sloshed around in the glass container like a sweet dessert wine. The third, and last liquid had a similar consistency to the second, but the colour was a deep emerald green. The players pocketed these liquid-filled containers, and continued to search the shed.
R was showing his experience as an OSR player, as he immediately inspected the floor, revealing an iron ring-pull set into the wood, which was previously hidden under the thick layer of accumulated dust. The trap door was quickly pulled open, revealing a set of rickety wooden stairs leading down and south into a dark cluttered basement.
Taking a torch, Gralzolor bravely descended into the basement, which had a floor of hard-packed earth. Once down there, he was able to see that the basement was cluttered with junk, half-topped shelves, scattered books and papers, and all sorts of other mouldy detritus. This was a real “hoarder’s den” by the looks of things, and it would take time to sift through in search of anything valuable or useful. Before any further action could be taken, there was a rustling sound from the north side of the basement, and a strange creature slowly emerged from behind a pile of collapsed shelving and stacked-up books.
This was a giant beetle with an iridescent green shell, and fearsome looking-mandibles. The beetle was about six feet long, and three feet broad. For a reference to what these beetles look like, look up “tiger beetles” under Google Images, and just imagine those, but as long as a man lying down, and about the same width as a small coffee table. Antennae twitching, this creature gradually advanced towards Gralzolor, who backed up to the foot of the stairs. At this point, the remainder of the party were clustered around at the top of the staircase, looking down into the basement below.
At this moment, there was a further rustling sound from the east side of the room, which solidified Gralzolor’s decision to flee! Just as he planted his foot on the first step, preparing to retreat back up the stairs, the nearest creature surged forward, jaws snapping eagerly! It was time to roll Initiative! Luck was on the side of Gralzolor, and he was able to scramble away, avoiding the beetle’s bite as he scrambled up the stairs, the beetle in close pursuit behind.
As soon as he cleared the trapdoor, the other party members threw it closed, slamming it right in the beetle’s face. Colby quickly stood on top of the trapdoor to hold it closed, and the beetles thudded into it from below, scratching and scraping at the wood with their mandibles. At least for now though, it seemed like the trapdoor would hold firm, and the players quickly devised a plan.
The pirate mercenaries arrayed themselves in front of the trapdoor, swords drawn. The PC’s crowded around the sides and rear of the trapdoor, with their weapons also poised. Any beetle that came scrambling through the trapdoor to attack would face a barrage of blows from all sides. With this plan in mind, it was time to fight. Colby stepped off the trapdoor, and the first of the beetles came surging out from under the trapdoor, mandibles clicking, looking like a shiny-shelled insectile torpedo.
Immediately, the charging creature was met by a smashing blow from Gralzolor’s quarterstaff, mangling the side of its face and stunning the beast. A split-second later, Hamilton’s spear flashes out, and the full length of the spearhead plunges deep into the creature’s back, just where the thorax connects to the head. The beetle seizes up and falls back, legs twitching and drawing inward as it slides back down the stairs. Hamilton pulls their spear free, the spearhead dripping freely with weird green insect-blood. With a final convulsion, the dying beetle rolls off the side of the stairs, and slams back down into the basement floor below with a heavy dead-weight “thud”!
With one beetle dealt with, two more are still up. The pirates lash out with their swords, but score only a glancing blow on the second beetle. The third and final beetle creeps forward, and together, the beetles lunge forward.
I rolled to see which of the pirates the beetles would attack, and as luck would have it, poor Karbash was going to be on the receiving end of both attacks. The beetles leapt at him, biting into his legs with their mandibles and shredding his trouser legs in the process, but incredibly, Karbash survived with one hit point remaining! I rolled 4 HP for him, and despite hitting with both attacks, the beetles rolled a 1 and a 2 for their damage, respectively. We’ll see if this pirate’s luck will run out in the next round, however.
In the course of the next round, the PC’s were only able to inflict light wounds on one of the two beetles, but Barlow fared better when it came to his turn to strike a blow. He hacked down once, splitting the creature’s head in two, and then followed up with another brutal strike that finished the job for certain. Two beetles down, one to go. The remaining beetle will check Morale at the end of their turn, but they’re going to resolve their attack first. I thought this would be the end of Karbash, but this time, he was able to skip nimbly backwards, and avoid the beetle’s attack.
The beetle’s Morale failed (no doubt disheartened by not being able to finish off Karbash) and it began to flee. At the same time, Karbash was ordered to disengage and withdraw from the melee, an order which he happily obeyed, limping outside with chewed-up calves and shins, leaving a trail of his own blood behind him as he hobbled out. At the beetle turned to run, Hamilton threw his spear at it’s exposed rear, but only succeeded in inflicting a light injury to the fleeing beetle, which promptly disappeared back down into the darkness and clutter of the basement.
The game session was drawing to a close at this point, so Hamilton retrieved his spear, the party regrouped, and then began their journey back to the village, making sure to close the trapdoor behind them. There was no further trouble on the way back to the village, and so the party returned without incident.
Back in town, the party were able to review their spoils in the closing minutes of the game. In order to test its properties, the party poured a drop of the blue liquid into a tankard of water, and were surprised to see that the water was momentarily frozen when it came into contact with the liquid. The party were even more surprised to see that the water than began rapidly heating back up, reaching boiling point in under a minute. From there, fragrant, pleasant-smelling steam began emanating from the tankard, and the water now looked like some kind of herbal tea. Risking a taste, Gralzolor felt a sense of strong warmth sweep over his body, and was able to identify this liquid as a Potion of Resist Cold.
The emerald-coloured potion was tasted by Hamilton, and after a moment of strong dizziness, he found himself looking at himself through the eyes of Tibio, the hired pirate standing behind him. This strange effect quickly faded, but it was now obvious that the emerald-coloured potion was a Potion of Clairvoyance.
Finally, the golden-coloured potion was tasted by Hamilton, and he saw a small shaving cut on his chin heal over immediately, and a splinter he had picked up from leaning on a wooden railing earlier in the day was pushed out of the skin of his hand, with the tiny wound also closing over immediately. It was quickly understood that this golden-coloured potion was a Potion of Healing.
In an act of great generosity, the PC’s gave the Potion of Healing to the wounded pirate Karbash, who drank it on the spot. Immediately, this pirate’s wounded legs were fully healed, (with R rolling the maximum result when determining how many hit points the potion restored) and Karbash was quick to offer his thanks. He will certainly be more than willing to sign up for a future expedition with these player characters.
All in all, that was the outcome of Game 1 of the Viper Archipelago campaign. I hope you enjoyed reading it just as much as I enjoyed running it, and as much as the players seemed to enjoy the adventure. I hope to run another game soon, so keep an eye out for more actual play reports.
If this report has sparked your desire to play in this campaign, send me a message, and we can see about getting you involved with this ongoing game.