Post by diogenes on May 18, 2023 5:39:45 GMT -6
Hello everyone, here is the seventh “Session Report” from the ongoing Viper Archipelago campaign. Although this game took place some time ago, the report is only just being released, as I was on vacation.
The players for this seventh game were:
J: A semi-experienced player.
L: An experienced player.
G: An experienced player.
S: A semi-experienced player.
R: An experienced player.
T: An experienced player.
In this game, J was playing Hamiltin (F-M 1), L was playing Vishan Durnas (M-U 1), G was playing Father Gerard (W-P 1), S was playing Lamin Slavi (W-P 1), R was playing Hamilton (F-M 1), and T was playing Odd Secundus (W-P 2).
The pre-game rumours provided for this session were:
-
The group of pirates from the white temple have returned to camp, heavily-laden with strange treasures. In the camp, celebratory grog flows freely, as do many wild rumours. You hear stories about marble pools of living water, relentless mechanical guardians armoured in polished silver, construct-beasts of all shapes and sizes, and more.
Something that catches your attention in particular is an argument you hear among a group of pirates, who are crowded around a parchment map. You hear the pirates saying things like "I'm telling you, the corridor was clear, and then we turned around and the wall was RIGHT THERE!" and "listen, I know how to map, and this corridor should have taken us back into that garden room where we killed those brass birds, so I don't know how we ended up in that chamber with all the sarcophagi" and "it must have been when we stepped onto that weird circle in the floor, all I remember was a flash of light, and then we were in that big circular hall with those wolf-things".
Regardless of the confusion, it seems like these pirates are going to launch another expedition to the white temple later in the week. In the meantime, the pirates have moved off the beach, up into the jungle, and are clearing the land there to establish a more permanent base of operations.
-
Blue lights have been spotted in the sky above the cliffside fortress, similar to those spotted near the now-functioning lighthouse. Another group of pirates, separate from those who just came back from the white temple, ventured up to investigate, but they haven't came back yet.
-
A number of large sailing ships have been spotted on the shore of the Serpent-Man city, but no one really knows what they're doing, or who these ships belong to.
-
The party hired Karbash as a retainer, and once again ventured south to the white temple on the cliff. Venturing up the carved stone stairs to the clifftop, they saw no sign of activity. There were some burnt-out cooking fires, and some discarded refuse, but no sign of any current habitation of the area.
The party wasted no time, going to the secondary entrance that they had travelled to before, and descending into the darkness. They found themselves in the now-familiar maze of smooth stone corridors, with various passages open to them. They travelled east, pausing to look into several rooms that split off from this main passage. In the first room, they found five severed heads neatly arranged in a row on a long marble table.
The heads look as fresh as the day they were cut from the body, as if somehow magically preserved. One of the heads is that of a huge Orc war-chieftain, with enormous tusks and a dense mane of black dreadlocks. One of the heads is that of a pale-skinned, hollow-cheeked human vampire, with fanged incisors and canine teeth. One of the heads is that of a Dwarf Lord, with a jewelled circlet on his brow, and many golden rings in his beard. One of the heads is that of female human, her face covered with hard-edged geometric tattoos, a mark of a sorcerer. One of the heads is that of a male Dark Elf "sword-slave" with a shaved head, a scarred face, and an iron neck collar. All the heads are arranged so that they are facing anyone who enters the room.
The players thought this was pretty creepy, but ventured in anyway. When one of the party reached out to pick up the jewellery-laden Dwarf’s head, they felt as if they were putting their hands into ice-cold molasses, as if the heads were surrounded by some kind of magical stasis field that kept them preserved. Hamilton tucked the Dwarf’s head into his backpack.
Moving to the next room, the party looked around the corner and saw a great beast, a huge humanoid but with vulture-like features, and great bony hooks at the end of its arms. The creature remained motionless, but it was in a stance as if it was rearing up to attack. The party hid back around the corner in fright, but after regaining their composure, summoned up the courage to have a second look. The creature remained motionless, seemingly “inert” or unmoving. The party hypothesised that the creature might be trapped in a similar magical “stasis field” to the one they had already seen.
To test this theory, they gently threw a sling bullet over to where the creature was positioned. The sling bullet rattled to a stop near the creature’s feet, seemingly acting as a normal sling bullet would, without being subject to any magical effect. The players found this to be quite curious, but were cautious about investigating further. The party moved on to the next room.
In this room, there were a number of large sealed clay urns, which were decorated with various pieces of artwork on the side. It seemed as if a sequential series of events was being represented through the artwork. In the first set of images, an army of High Elves in gleaming silver armour were fighting back a teeming horde of Beast-Men. One of the High Elves was depicted leading the charge, as if he was a general or a leader. In the next set of images, the silver-armoured High Elves were depicted as celebrating their victory, the ground strewn with slain Beast-Men. The “general” figure from the previous set of images was centred prominently in this second set of artwork. In the final set of images, the silver-armoured army were depicted as marching east, their heads downcast, led by the same “general figure” from earlier. The figures are marching away from a golden city, which occupies the left or “west” side of the artwork.
The party figured that these large urns might be valuable, if they were taken back to the sort of “history buff” or “antique enthusiast” who might be interested in them. Father Gerard approached one of the urns, wrapped their arms around it, and tried to lift it. They were surprised to find that the urn was extremely heavy, and appeared to be full of liquid. They were even more surprised when the urn started shifting back and forth, as if something inside was trying to escape. The party withdrew to the doorway of the room, ready to flee, or fight.
As they stood ready, several more of the urns in the room began shaking and rocking back and forth, just like the first urn. The party held their ground, even as the first of the urns toppled over, shattering on the floor. A great quantity of liquid, that looked and smelled similar to Chinese rice wine spilled out over the floor, and a humanoid shape flopped out onto the stone tiles like a landed fish. This humanoid figure was wearing tattered finery, and was bloated like a submerged corpse. At the same moment, several more of the urns fell, also shattering as they hit the stone floor. More of the “rice wine” flooded the room, and more of these sodden, bloated humanoids began emerging from the wrecked urns they had been trapped in. As one of the urns near the corner of the room fell, it knocked over another urn on the way down, and as this second urn hit the ground, it burst open to reveal that it was full of glittering silvery coins, which gleamed in the party’s torchlight.
As the bloated corpses began to twitch and struggle to their feet, reeling like drunken men, the party faced a tough decision. There were eight of these undead creatures in total, arrayed against six player characters, and a hired retainer. Would they run, or would they fight? In the end, I think it was the glittering treasure that persuaded them to stand their ground, and so battle was joined.
I’ll spare the readers here a blow-by-blow recount of the fight, but it was a brutal slugfest, where the mindless undead advanced headlong into a party of stubborn players who would not budge from their established chokepoint in the doorway. Despite good tactics from the players, the dice were not on their side this time around.
Two separate attempts to “Turn Undead” were unsuccessful, and their initial round of attacks only succeeded in felling a couple of the creatures. The creatures drew silver daggers from amongst the folds of their robes as they entered melee, and these blades quickly began to take a toll amongst the party members. As the fight progressed, Hamiltin went down, stabbed in the neck, and a moment later, Father Gerard was slain by “friendly fire” as Lamin Slavi foolishly attempted to launch a slingstone into a contested melee. The front line of the party collapsed, and the creatures swarmed forward, forcing Lamin Slavi to push up into the gap, where he promptly met his end as the result of a lucky dagger thrust that bypassed his defences.
Vishan Durnas, Hamilton, and Odd Secundus made a fighting withdrawal back along the hallway to the entrance, successfully whittling down their opponent’s numbers with missile fire as they did so. I inquired if the remaining party members intended on climbing up the ladder and exiting the dungeon, but they were determined to hold their ground.
It seemed like the lure of the treasure was too strong, and I expected this session to result in a TPK, but the survivors rallied, and re-entered the fight with gusto. Luck seemed to be back on the party’s side, with Odd Secundus charging back down the corridor and single-handedly holding off three of the undead creatures, killing one in a single blow, before Vishan Durnas and Hamilton joined him in a final charge that saw the last two creatures finally put to rest.
After an intense battle, which saw many casualties, the survivors amongst the party took the time to package up as much of the coinage as they could carry, before laboriously making their way back to the entrance, and hauling their loot up the ladder to the surface. Their luck held, and they were able to escape the dungeon and make it back to the village with no further incident.
After this session, I went on vacation for two weeks, and at the time of writing, have only recently returned home. The next game for this ongoing campaign is scheduled for Sunday, at 8:30 PM, in the timezone of GMT + 8. This upcoming post-hiatus game would be a perfect opportunity for any interested persons to join this campaign. I am keen to expand the pool of players, so please click on the Discord link below if you are interested in getting stuck into this campaign. We’re pretty low-tech, all you need is a good microphone, no need for any virtual tabletop or suchlike. All rolling is handled on the server.
Viper Archipelago Campaign: discord.gg/faT8DtAvwn
Until next time, players.
The players for this seventh game were:
J: A semi-experienced player.
L: An experienced player.
G: An experienced player.
S: A semi-experienced player.
R: An experienced player.
T: An experienced player.
In this game, J was playing Hamiltin (F-M 1), L was playing Vishan Durnas (M-U 1), G was playing Father Gerard (W-P 1), S was playing Lamin Slavi (W-P 1), R was playing Hamilton (F-M 1), and T was playing Odd Secundus (W-P 2).
The pre-game rumours provided for this session were:
-
The group of pirates from the white temple have returned to camp, heavily-laden with strange treasures. In the camp, celebratory grog flows freely, as do many wild rumours. You hear stories about marble pools of living water, relentless mechanical guardians armoured in polished silver, construct-beasts of all shapes and sizes, and more.
Something that catches your attention in particular is an argument you hear among a group of pirates, who are crowded around a parchment map. You hear the pirates saying things like "I'm telling you, the corridor was clear, and then we turned around and the wall was RIGHT THERE!" and "listen, I know how to map, and this corridor should have taken us back into that garden room where we killed those brass birds, so I don't know how we ended up in that chamber with all the sarcophagi" and "it must have been when we stepped onto that weird circle in the floor, all I remember was a flash of light, and then we were in that big circular hall with those wolf-things".
Regardless of the confusion, it seems like these pirates are going to launch another expedition to the white temple later in the week. In the meantime, the pirates have moved off the beach, up into the jungle, and are clearing the land there to establish a more permanent base of operations.
-
Blue lights have been spotted in the sky above the cliffside fortress, similar to those spotted near the now-functioning lighthouse. Another group of pirates, separate from those who just came back from the white temple, ventured up to investigate, but they haven't came back yet.
-
A number of large sailing ships have been spotted on the shore of the Serpent-Man city, but no one really knows what they're doing, or who these ships belong to.
-
The party hired Karbash as a retainer, and once again ventured south to the white temple on the cliff. Venturing up the carved stone stairs to the clifftop, they saw no sign of activity. There were some burnt-out cooking fires, and some discarded refuse, but no sign of any current habitation of the area.
The party wasted no time, going to the secondary entrance that they had travelled to before, and descending into the darkness. They found themselves in the now-familiar maze of smooth stone corridors, with various passages open to them. They travelled east, pausing to look into several rooms that split off from this main passage. In the first room, they found five severed heads neatly arranged in a row on a long marble table.
The heads look as fresh as the day they were cut from the body, as if somehow magically preserved. One of the heads is that of a huge Orc war-chieftain, with enormous tusks and a dense mane of black dreadlocks. One of the heads is that of a pale-skinned, hollow-cheeked human vampire, with fanged incisors and canine teeth. One of the heads is that of a Dwarf Lord, with a jewelled circlet on his brow, and many golden rings in his beard. One of the heads is that of female human, her face covered with hard-edged geometric tattoos, a mark of a sorcerer. One of the heads is that of a male Dark Elf "sword-slave" with a shaved head, a scarred face, and an iron neck collar. All the heads are arranged so that they are facing anyone who enters the room.
The players thought this was pretty creepy, but ventured in anyway. When one of the party reached out to pick up the jewellery-laden Dwarf’s head, they felt as if they were putting their hands into ice-cold molasses, as if the heads were surrounded by some kind of magical stasis field that kept them preserved. Hamilton tucked the Dwarf’s head into his backpack.
Moving to the next room, the party looked around the corner and saw a great beast, a huge humanoid but with vulture-like features, and great bony hooks at the end of its arms. The creature remained motionless, but it was in a stance as if it was rearing up to attack. The party hid back around the corner in fright, but after regaining their composure, summoned up the courage to have a second look. The creature remained motionless, seemingly “inert” or unmoving. The party hypothesised that the creature might be trapped in a similar magical “stasis field” to the one they had already seen.
To test this theory, they gently threw a sling bullet over to where the creature was positioned. The sling bullet rattled to a stop near the creature’s feet, seemingly acting as a normal sling bullet would, without being subject to any magical effect. The players found this to be quite curious, but were cautious about investigating further. The party moved on to the next room.
In this room, there were a number of large sealed clay urns, which were decorated with various pieces of artwork on the side. It seemed as if a sequential series of events was being represented through the artwork. In the first set of images, an army of High Elves in gleaming silver armour were fighting back a teeming horde of Beast-Men. One of the High Elves was depicted leading the charge, as if he was a general or a leader. In the next set of images, the silver-armoured High Elves were depicted as celebrating their victory, the ground strewn with slain Beast-Men. The “general” figure from the previous set of images was centred prominently in this second set of artwork. In the final set of images, the silver-armoured army were depicted as marching east, their heads downcast, led by the same “general figure” from earlier. The figures are marching away from a golden city, which occupies the left or “west” side of the artwork.
The party figured that these large urns might be valuable, if they were taken back to the sort of “history buff” or “antique enthusiast” who might be interested in them. Father Gerard approached one of the urns, wrapped their arms around it, and tried to lift it. They were surprised to find that the urn was extremely heavy, and appeared to be full of liquid. They were even more surprised when the urn started shifting back and forth, as if something inside was trying to escape. The party withdrew to the doorway of the room, ready to flee, or fight.
As they stood ready, several more of the urns in the room began shaking and rocking back and forth, just like the first urn. The party held their ground, even as the first of the urns toppled over, shattering on the floor. A great quantity of liquid, that looked and smelled similar to Chinese rice wine spilled out over the floor, and a humanoid shape flopped out onto the stone tiles like a landed fish. This humanoid figure was wearing tattered finery, and was bloated like a submerged corpse. At the same moment, several more of the urns fell, also shattering as they hit the stone floor. More of the “rice wine” flooded the room, and more of these sodden, bloated humanoids began emerging from the wrecked urns they had been trapped in. As one of the urns near the corner of the room fell, it knocked over another urn on the way down, and as this second urn hit the ground, it burst open to reveal that it was full of glittering silvery coins, which gleamed in the party’s torchlight.
As the bloated corpses began to twitch and struggle to their feet, reeling like drunken men, the party faced a tough decision. There were eight of these undead creatures in total, arrayed against six player characters, and a hired retainer. Would they run, or would they fight? In the end, I think it was the glittering treasure that persuaded them to stand their ground, and so battle was joined.
I’ll spare the readers here a blow-by-blow recount of the fight, but it was a brutal slugfest, where the mindless undead advanced headlong into a party of stubborn players who would not budge from their established chokepoint in the doorway. Despite good tactics from the players, the dice were not on their side this time around.
Two separate attempts to “Turn Undead” were unsuccessful, and their initial round of attacks only succeeded in felling a couple of the creatures. The creatures drew silver daggers from amongst the folds of their robes as they entered melee, and these blades quickly began to take a toll amongst the party members. As the fight progressed, Hamiltin went down, stabbed in the neck, and a moment later, Father Gerard was slain by “friendly fire” as Lamin Slavi foolishly attempted to launch a slingstone into a contested melee. The front line of the party collapsed, and the creatures swarmed forward, forcing Lamin Slavi to push up into the gap, where he promptly met his end as the result of a lucky dagger thrust that bypassed his defences.
Vishan Durnas, Hamilton, and Odd Secundus made a fighting withdrawal back along the hallway to the entrance, successfully whittling down their opponent’s numbers with missile fire as they did so. I inquired if the remaining party members intended on climbing up the ladder and exiting the dungeon, but they were determined to hold their ground.
It seemed like the lure of the treasure was too strong, and I expected this session to result in a TPK, but the survivors rallied, and re-entered the fight with gusto. Luck seemed to be back on the party’s side, with Odd Secundus charging back down the corridor and single-handedly holding off three of the undead creatures, killing one in a single blow, before Vishan Durnas and Hamilton joined him in a final charge that saw the last two creatures finally put to rest.
After an intense battle, which saw many casualties, the survivors amongst the party took the time to package up as much of the coinage as they could carry, before laboriously making their way back to the entrance, and hauling their loot up the ladder to the surface. Their luck held, and they were able to escape the dungeon and make it back to the village with no further incident.
After this session, I went on vacation for two weeks, and at the time of writing, have only recently returned home. The next game for this ongoing campaign is scheduled for Sunday, at 8:30 PM, in the timezone of GMT + 8. This upcoming post-hiatus game would be a perfect opportunity for any interested persons to join this campaign. I am keen to expand the pool of players, so please click on the Discord link below if you are interested in getting stuck into this campaign. We’re pretty low-tech, all you need is a good microphone, no need for any virtual tabletop or suchlike. All rolling is handled on the server.
Viper Archipelago Campaign: discord.gg/faT8DtAvwn
Until next time, players.