Session 5 Downtime: My Power Level Is Over 9000

 

Flush with cash and enough XP to go to level 4, the party is going to be in training jail for a while. Since I'm doing solo play, I'm going to default to Fair performance which means they'll need 4500gp (1500gp/current level * 3) and 3 weeks to level up. This means they'll have to return to Valthrun ot train and won't be available until 12 May 2024. Let's issue the downtime orders in the meantime:

Brogallo:

Brogallo upgrades his armor to banded mail and does likewise for the mercs, along with buying them short swords and light crossbows with bolts. They're happy to have the extra protection and join Brogallo in some epic level debauchery in between his training sessions. He hires another 4 crossbow horseman mercs, as well as a merc sergeant, in an impetuous act of inebriated martial brotherhood. He now has 8 men-at-arms in his posse (and payroll). 

When Brogallo sobers up the next day, he realizes he's got to pretend that he's a commanding officer with some sort of plan and orders Sgt. Slaughter to take the boys on a series of recon runs around Valthrun and Fort Rackham to expand their area map. Most of the sorties are uneventful, but the boys run into some minor scrapes:

1. Hex 302.300: They spot a group of 17 Ogre Magi that have overrun the village of Gunnolfsfell. I roll for surprise and encounter distance. The mercs fortunately surprise the Ogre Magi (roll a 6 to the Ogre Magi 1) at a distance of 160 yards, and their ogre reaction roll comes up at 84% (Friendly, immediate action), so I rule that the Ogre Magi are amused at the puny flesh things having the temerity to approach them and don't immediately turn them into sushi. Wisely deciding that discretion is the better part of valor, Sgt Slaughter orders a hasty retreat to Valthrun and reports back to Brogallo. They were unable to spot any villagers, however. Their fate is unknown, but the siting of so many hostile humanoids in the vicinity does not bode well.
   
   
2. Hex 304.294: They run into a pack of 9 dire wolves in the mountains east of Orchard Hollow. Their luck continues to hold as they surprise the wolves (5 to 2) at a distance of 120 yards. The wolfie reaction roll comes up at 52%, so they're not particularly hungry. Sarge decides the boys aren't getting paid enough to run recon and harvest wolf pelts like some filthy barbarian, and elects to report back instead of turning the wolves into pincushions.

It's interesting that the Ogre Magi are spotted in close proximity to the orcs that have been the focal point of recent gossip. Let's see what the party decides to do about it next session.

Brother Sully:

Sully talks to the liberated prisoners at Fort Rackham and discovers they were all captured on the road by the bugbears and sold to the ogres as part of the agreement to join the ogre tribe. They're thankful for the rescue, but unsure what their next move will be since they're destitute and unsure if their families are even still alive in the northern warzones. Sully sees the benefit of having some grateful catspaws to counter the influence of both Lady Kophryn and the Valthrun factions and tries to convince the prisoners to settle in Fort Rackham. This makes him look good to Kpohryn while helping build a network independent of her and the Valthrun factions.

• The dwarf likes the mountains and stone so he takes a job as the settlement's master mason. He'll probably start lending money at usurious interest rates as well since he's, you know, a greedy dwarf...
• The gnome finds a lot of useful herbs and fungi and starts brewing hallucinogens for "personal research" as expected of the psychotic little junkie bastards...
• The 0 level human decides to permanently settle here since the northern wars have ruined his home
• The NPC L3 cleric (N) reaction roll is Uncertain but 55% prone toward positive (base roll of 30% + total modifiers of 45%); a followup 22% means that he reacts positively and decides to establish a hermitage near Fort Rackham and seek answers by communing with the Cosmic Balance
• The NPC L3 fighter (CN) reaction roll is Friendly, immediate action (base roll of 49% + total modifiers of 45%). He decides he likes Fort Rackham and is a kindred spirit with the former bandits so he'll throw in his lot with them to see how things progress.
• The NPC L3 fighter (LG) reaction roll is Uncertain but 55% prone toward negative (base roll of 15% + total modifiers of 30%); a followup 69% means that he reacts positively. He decides to stay at Fort Rackham and try to rebuild his life since Lady Kophryn is clearly a good-hearted liege that's trying to bring order to these Chaos infested lands.

Satisfied with the results of his budding network, Sully retires to Valthrun to study with the local hierarch to advance his powers. He upgrades his armor to banded mail and replenishes his supplies.

Brother Fitzy:

Fitzy upgrades his armor to banded mail and helps Mighty Redneck recruit some new party members (see below) before joining Brother Sully in contemplation and training. 

Mighty Redneck:

Mighty Redneck joins the trend and upgrades his armor to banded mail before making the rounds with Fitzy to find some new murder hobos. A d6 roll shows 5 potential comrades are available and I use the character subtable on DMG pp175 to see who's available (rolling a d4 for level). The results with encounter reactions:

• L2 Fighter (CG) Hostile, immediate action (or morale check if appropriate) (base roll of 20% + total modifiers of 5%). Homeboy wants nothing to do with our murder hobos after the stories about the debacle in the Shrine of Lethria
• L1 Fighter (CE) Uncertain but 55% prone toward positive (base roll of 58% + total modifiers of 5%); positive with 17% means he doesn't like the Lethria rumors, but definitely likes the loot they scored from the ogres and wants some of that action
• L2 Cleric (CN) Uncertain but 55% prone toward positive (base roll of 55% + total modifiers of 5%); positive with 31% tells us that he's willing to join the Brothers in their campaigns for the Balance, even though they're both a little whacky
• L2 Thief (NG) Neutral - uninterested - uncertain (base roll of 35% + total modifiers of 20%). He's not a huge fan of our murder hobos' exploits, but needs some cash...
• L4 Magic-user (LE) Enthusiastically friendly, immediate acceptance (base roll of 100% + total modifiers of 5%). He secretly appreciates their clear dedication to survival of the fittest and acquisition of mad amounts of loot.

Four out of five ain't bad, so Redneck begins training and continues nurturing his small, but manageable, drinking problem. He holds on to gems and coin worth 1000gp and gives the rest away to a Valthrun orphanage he happened to run across while contemplating the fine whiskeys available in the city. He's such a lovable lunkhead! The grateful souls running the heretofore nameless facility rename it The Redneck Home for Wayward Munchkins in honor of his generosity and begins renovations to accommodate even more lovable tramps!

We'll check in with the crew in three weeks and see what we do next.

Session 5: Seeking Serpent Shrine

 

I'm going to use a d4 to determine party direction (1=north, 2=east, 3=south, 4=west) as they explore the shrine. Let's see if Brother Fitzy and the Mighty Redneck, sole survivors of the Shrine of Lethria, have better luck this time.

Accompanied by Brogallo's surprisingly faithful mercenaries, the party makes their way from Fort Rackham to the Serpent Shrine. No encounters occur during the trek, so the party dismounts and prepares to make their entrance to the shrine. Ominously, the ancient shrine's entranceway seems to have been recently cleared so the murder hobos prepare themselves for some sort of resistance.

They notice that every square inch of the shrine is covered with bizarre serpentine decorations and glyphs, some of which are legible while others have faded with the passage of unknown centuries. They all emit a faint phosphorescent deep green glow that occasionally changes to a deep mauve before reverting. The effect is unsettling and makes them nauseous if they stare at the glyphs for more than a few moments.

Making their way down the ancient stone stairs, they enter room 1 and decide to head east. They check for secret doors at both ends of the intersecting corridors and fail to find the secret door in the northern wall (so they're unaware of room 9). They proceed to the eastern door. Lightfingers Louie fails his Hear Noise check and the rest of the party fails their listen checks so they hear nothing beyond the thick age darkened door. Brogallo successfully forces the door, revealing the passage beyond.

Lightfingers Louie decides to scout the passage, using Move Silently and Find/Remove Traps to make sure no nasty surprises await. He fails both checks with no effect since there aren't any dangers. He sees the door at the end of the corridor, succeeds on his Hear Noise check and can make out an odd sibilant grunting being made by something large in the room. He quickly makes his way back to the party and informs them of his findings. They decide to force the door and swarm whatever is in the room in a blitz attack. Brogallo and Mighty Redneck will close to melee with Brother Fitzy and Brother Sully providing support. Bro-thazarr will provide missile support while Lightfingers Louie and Slicer move to rear and attempt backstabs.

The party makes their way back to the door and Brogallo successfully forces it to reveal the Ogre chieftain within. Neither side is surprised. Per DMG pg 62, they are within striking distance so we roll for initiative:

Round 1 Initiative: Ogre (24hp) 6 party 3

    Ogre picks Brother Sully and hits with a 13 for 7, leaving him with 2 (ouch!)

    Brogallo: miss

    Mighty Redheck: hits for 11+1hp (ranger bonus) rocking the ogre

    Brother Fitzy: miss

    Brother Sully: miss

    Lightfingers Louie: rear attack at +2 hits for 5hp

    Slicer: rear attack at +2 hits for 4hp

    Bro-thazarr: DMG pg 63 throws 2 daggers and hits for 4hp, dropping the ogre

Post combat Brother Sully CLW on himself for 6hp, bringing him back to near full strength. They loot the body and move back to room 1. They know ogres seldom travel solo and begin looking for the rest of the group (and the loot!).

In room 1, they open the northern door and Louie again decides to scout ahead, following the same procedure. Louie's Move Silently and Find/Remove Traps both succeed (15% and 22%) so he disables the pit trap. He moves to the stairs and sees the empty room and decides to scout the room. Unfortunately, Louie moves into the room and FMT fails. He triggers the trap (1 on d6) and 2 spears launch; luckily each comes up with a 1 so Louie is hanging on with 1hp. The situation is desperate, but not hopeless!

I check for wandering monsters and it check comes up positive (1 on d6). It looks like the 2 Ogres (17hp, 20hp) from from room 6 have decided to see why the Chief from room 1 has not checked in and they stumble across the party.

Encounter distance is 8" so party sees Ogres as the exist the room. The encounter reaction comes up 68% (Uncertain but 55% prone toward positive). Since Mighty Redneck is the only PC that speaks ogre, we're going to use his stats to determine results. He gets a 38% to the ogres aren't immediately hostile; he decides to trick them and attack them from the rear. He tells them in ogrish that the chief is being attacked by some filthy elves and sent the party to get help from the subchiefs. The ogres, not being particularly bright even by ogre standards, fall for the ruse. The party decides to split their attacks between the two and repeat the winning strategy from the combat with the chief. Mighty Redneck and Brogallo will attack ogre1 and others will attack ogre2. Louie will move into combat and won't reach until next round.

Round 1 Initiative: Ogre (17hp, 20hp) 1 party 4

    The ogres move past the party who then springs their attack (at +2 to hit since

    they're attacking from the rear of the ogres)

    Brogallo: hits ogre1 with 16+2 for 9hp

    Mighty Redneck: hits ogre1 with 18+2 for 8+1hp (ranger bonus) dropping ogre1

    Brother Fitzy: hits ogre2 with 13+2 for 5hp

    Brother Sully: miss

    Lightfingers Louie: moving into melee range and out of combat this round

    Slicer: misses

    Bro-thazarr: DMG pg 63 throws 2 daggers for 6+2 and 17+2 and hits ogre2 

    with 1 for 4hp

Round 2 Initiative: Ogre2 (11hp) 5 party 6

    Brogallo: miss

    Mighty Redheck: miss

    Brother Fitzy: hit with 15 for 5hp

    Brother Sully: miss

    Lightfingers Louie: rear attack at +2 misses

    Slicer: rear attack at 20+2 hits for 4hp

    Bro-thazarr: DMG pg 63 throws 2 daggers and hits for 6hp, dropping the ogre

The party loots the bodies and the moves into room 6 where they clear the hoard. Suspecting the door to the right might lead to a hidden room behind the dead end in the opening room 1, they open that door and find the prisoners in room 5; I rule that they know about the ogre females and bugbears in the remaining rooms and tell the

players in exchange for their freedom. The players check room 4 and find it empty.

The players free the prisoners and tell them to stay with the merc guards at the dungeon entrance. I'll figure out what to do with these wretches in downtime...

Players have used up 8 turns worth of torches. They've got plenty left, but they'll need to keep an eye on their supply.

Louie proceeds down the corridor towards room 7 with Move Silently/Hear Noise and Find/Remove Traps all failing. He reports back to the party that the corridor looks clear but the door to room 7 is too thick for him to hear anything. They assume the remaining ogres are in the room behind and prepare to attack.

Brogallo will force the door, Bro-thazarr will cast Sleep, Louie will protect him with missile fire and stay out of melee since he's down to 1hp. Everyone else will attack whatever is inside. Brogallo rolls 1 on d6 and successfully forces the door.

    

Both sides roll 6 for surprise, so no surprise

Encounter distance is within striking distance again and the females are on the western side of the room, with the younglings opposite.

6 female ogres (14hp, 13hp, 13hp, 14hp, 13hp, 10hp); 5 young ogres (as goblins; 4hp, 1hp, 3hp, 2hp, 5hp)

Round 1 Initiative: Ogres 2 party 6

    Brogallo: miss ogress1

    Mighty Redheck: miss ogress2

    Brother Fitzy: miss ogress3

    Brother Sully: hits ogress4 with a 17 for 5hp

    Slicer: hits ogress5 with a 19 for 5hp

    Lightfingers Louie:  miss ogress6

    Bro-thazarr: Casts Sleep on ogre cubs (rolls a 9 on 4d4); all cubs are out of the fight

    ogress1: miss Brogallo

    ogress2: miss Mighty Redheck

    ogress3: miss Brother Fitzy

    ogress4: miss Brother Sully

    ogress5: hits Slicer with a 17 for 5hp, killing him. Slicer has been diced...

    ogress6: miss Lightfingers Louie

    Bro-thazarr

Round 2 Initiative: Ogres 1 party 6

    Brogallo: hits ogress1 with 19 for 3+3hp

    Mighty Redheck: hits ogress2 with 14 for 12+1hp, killing her

    Brother Fitzy: miss ogress3

    Brother Sully: miss ogress4

    Slicer: DEAD

    Lightfingers Louie:  miss ogress6

    Bro-thazarr: hit ogress5 with 18 for 3+3hp taking her to 2hp

    ogress1: DEAD

    ogress2: DEAD

    ogress3: miss Brother Fitzy

    ogress4: miss Brother Sully

    ogress5: miss Bro-thazarr

    ogress6: miss Lightfingers Louie

Round 3 Initiative: Ogres 1 party 2

    Brogallo: hits ogress5 with 16 for 5+3hp killing her

    Mighty Redheck: miss ogress6

    Brother Fitzy: miss ogress3

    Brother Sully: miss ogress4

    Slicer: DEAD

    Lightfingers Louie:  miss ogress6

    Bro-thazarr: miss ogress6

    ogress1: DEAD

    ogress2: DEAD

    ogress3: hits Brother Fitzy for 7hp taking him to 1hp

    ogress4: hits Brother Sully for 4hp taking him to 5hp

    ogress5: DEAD

    ogress6: miss Lightfingers Louie

Round 4 Initiative: Ogres 5 party 3

    Ogre morale check (66% -10% for dead Slicer +30% for 3 dead ogresses = 76%)     I roll an 86 and fail it by 10 so fall back fighting towards the bugbears in room 8

    Brogallo: miss ogress3

    Mighty Redheck: hits ogress4 with a 20 for 8+1+1hp killing her

    Brother Fitzy: hits ogress3 for 2hp

    Brother Sully: hits ogress4 but already dead

    Slicer: DEAD

    Lightfingers Louie:  DEAD

    Bro-thazarr: miss ogress6

    ogress1: DEAD

    ogress2: DEAD

    ogress3: miss Brother Fitzy

    ogress4: DEAD

    ogress5: DEAD

    ogress6: hits Bro-thazarr with a 17 for 6hp, killing him. Alas poor Bro-Thazarr!!

Round 5 Initiative: Ogres 3 party 1

    Ogresses make it to the door and flee towards the bugbears

    Mighty Redheck and Brother Fitzy slam the door shut and spike it

    Brogallo slits the throats of the ogrelings

The party is weak and has lost two members, so they decide to flee with the loot before the ogresses return with bugbear reinforcements. They grab the loot in the coffers and strip their dead comrades, before beating a hasty retreat to the surface and quickly saddle up for a return to Fort Rackham with the liberated ogre prisoners in tow.

Wandering monster checks come up blank as they travel through the hexes so they make it safely back to town, easily outrunning the angry humanoids.

Experience

9 Ogres: 1500xp

5 Ogre young: 65xp

Treasure: 33,381gp= 33,381xp

Total: 34,946xp (8,737xp each of the four surviving party members plus 10% XP bonus for 9,611xp where appropriate)

Book of the Dead:

The fallen heroes will be listed in The Book of the Dead at https://easternarchon.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-book-of-dead.html

The Serpent Shrine

Let's take a few minutes to roll up the Serpent Shrine in hex 302.296:

• d4 for number of levels = 1
• d10 for the difficulty level of the dungeon = 3
• d10 for the starting room of the dungeon (per AD&D DMG pg 169) = 4 which translates to room 2
• d8 for number of rooms = 8 (plus starting room 2)

I'm feeling like making this a themed dungeon so lets see what the main monster will be for the Serpent Shrine. Rolling d100 on Monster Level III (DMG pg 177) comes up with 65 meaning ogres and a d6 shows there are 2 ogres infesting the place. Looking at AD&D MM pg 75, d100 comes up with 13%, so they are in their lair, which means potentially more ogres, slaves and loot. 2d10 for number appearing comes up with 3 ogres total, along with 6 females, 5 ogre younglings, and 6 prisoners. I generated the treasure shown below (room 6) and will spread out the monsters based on dungeon rolls.

This might end up being a lucrative delve, after all...hmmm.

Turning back to DMG pg 169, we roll up the dungeon and get the following:

I rolled up the rest of the dungeon (see below) and came up with the backstory based on the rolls. 

A group of ogres wandering south and heavy with loot from the northern wars, saw the same green glow that the Fort Rackham refugees previously described to the party. The ogre chief, Gurishnak, was mesmerized by the scintillating hues of the temple as they connected with the Chaos inherent in his being. After brutally suppressing any dissenters, he ordered the tribe to make for the temple and soon they too felt the pull of the shrine. While moving towards the shrine, they encounter a group of bugbears and have little trouble convincing them to join them on their pilgrimage. Clearly the Chaos Lords are speaking to them all!

They find the shrine largely abandoned and quickly make it their lair. The chief spends his time endlessly staring at the baroque carvings that cover every surface of the ancient shrine as if he could understand them and frequently begins chanting in a strange hissing that has no relation to the crude ogre tongue. This has struck terror into the hearts of the other ogres and bugbears, but also convinced them of Gurishnak's favor in the eyes of the Chaos Lords. Gurishnak has told them that soon the Chaos Lords will reveal their purpose and they reluctantly await their fates for who can defy the will of Chaos Manifest?

Key:

Room 1 - The Entrance (No Encounter)

The northern corridor has a trap (Pit, 10’ deep, 3 in 6 to fall in). The room is otherwise empty.

Room 2 - The Evil High Priest Chamber (Monster with Room Treasure)

Chief Gurishnak (24hp) is here studying the room's carvings and praising the Chaos Lords by chanting in the ancient tongue of the Serpent Men. There are 6 small coffers in alcoves containing a total of 6000sp and the chief has 48gp in his pouch.

Room 3 - The Unholy Altar (Trap)

This is the source of the shrine's unholy power. An incredibly ancient stone altar made of a strangle mottled green stone monolith, completely unlike the material used in the shrine's construction, stands in the center of the room. It is covered with strange serpentine images and indecipherable hieroglyphs which glow with a very faint pulsing light. The pulses occur in a completely random pattern that does not repeat, and makes any sane observer deeply uneasy. Any sane being staring at these blasphemous carvings will begin to feel nauseous within a few minutes and pass out for d12 hours if they persist in their unhealthy obsession. The room is otherwise empty, but any visitors feel that the monolith is strangely sentient and seems to be waiting for...something.

Room 4 - Old Storeroom (No Encounter)

Empty room

Room 5 - Ogre Prisoners (No Encounter)

I rolled no encounter for this room and decided to make this the ogres' slave pen.

Interestingly, almost all the AD&D humanoid/army entries (orcs, ogres, etc) have information for how many prisoners or slaves the humanoids have, but no way to randomly determine if they're 0-level mooks or someone more interesting (NPCs, etc). I adapted the Monster Level I: Human Subtable from DMG pp175 (and minimized dwarf, elf and halfling entries since ogres like to eat them):

d100 Result

01-25 Human (0-level)

26-27 Dwarf (per AD&D MM)

28 Elf (per AD&D MM)

29 Halfling (per AD&D MM)

30-45 Gnome (per AD&D MM)

46-100 Character (roll on DMG character subtable; use d4 for character level)

I roll 6 prisoners: dwarf, gnome, human, NPC L3 cleric, NPC L3 fighter, NPC L3 fighter. Let's see if the PCs find them...

Room 6 - Ogre Guardroom  (Room Treasure)

I rolled a room treasure for this room and decide to place the remaining two ogres here. The two ogre subchiefs (17hp, 20hp) lounge here, guarding the prisoners in room 5, the ogre nursery in room 7 and, most importantly, the tribes loot. The subchiefs have 59gp and 47gp in their belt pouches. I rolled a room treasure of 3,000sp when generating the room and it is contained in a huge chest in the northeastern corner. The tribe's loot is in sacks piled next to the chest and consists of:

2,718cp

        Gems (qty 8): DMG pp25-27

            Fancy Stone - Coral: crimson (100gp)

            Fancy Stone - Amethyst: deep purple (100gp)

            Ornamental Stone - Turquoise: light blue-green (10gp)

            Gem Stone - Fire Opal: fiery red (1000gp)

            Semi-Precious Stone - Citrine: pale yellow brown (50gp)

            Ornamental Stone - Turquoise: light blue-green (10gp)

            Fancy Stone - Spinel: red, red-brown, deep green (100gp)

            Fancy Stone - Pearl: lustrous white, yellowish, pinkish (100gp)

        Jewelry (qty 4):

            Belt, Silver jewelry with gems (11764gp)

            Ring, Wrought gold jewelry (2965gp)

            Ring, Ivory or wrought silver jewelry (321gp)

            Orb, Silver jewelry with gems (10563gp)

        Total Hoard Value:               27,096gp

            Total Monetary Value:            13gp

            Total Gem Value:              1,470gp

            Total Jewelry Value:         25,613gp

Room 7 - Ogre Nursery (Monster with Room Treasure)

The 6 female ogres (14hp, 13hp, 13hp, 14hp, 13hp, 10hp) occupy this room with their 5 hideous offspring (young ogres as goblins; 4hp, 1hp, 3hp, 2hp, 5hp). The room treasure consists of 300pp and jewelry in small coffers:

        Jewelry (qty 4):

            Ring, Gold with gems (3,000gp)

            Comb, Ivory or wrought silver jewelry (321gp)

            Decanter, Wrought silver and gold (1,000gp)

        Total Hoard Value:                 5,821gp

            Total Monetary Value:        1,500gp

            Total Jewelry Value:           4,321gp

There is a trap just outside the northern door (Pit, 10’ deep with spikes, 3 in 6 to fall in).

Room 8 - Bugbear Barracks (Monster with Room Treasure)

The 7 bugbears (11hp, 17hp, 9hp. 19hp, 5hp, 8hp, 13hp) that the tribe befriended in the wilds occupy this room. They have a total of 99cp between them and the room treasure is in sacks in the southeastern corner (2,150ep and an Ebony Fly Figurine of Wondrous Power). A nice little bonus if the PCs make it this far!

Room 9 - The Sacrificial Cells (No Encounter)

This secret room once functioned as the holding cells for the temple's sacrificial victims. It is currently covered in the thick dust of eons and otherwise empty.

Next time: We delve the shrine!

Session 4 Downtime: Rocking Out at Fort Rackham

The party breaks camp in the morning and returns with Tazennarit to the Croaking Castle of the Miraculous Toad (hex 300.298). Lady Kophyn does an admirable job of covering her surprise, but Brother Sully is a student of humanity and sees that she didn't expect them to actually succeed in the mission. Negotiations are quickly concluded with Tazennarit and she is established as the commander of Fort Rackham (hex 300.297) with the title of Knight-Protector. Lady Kophyn provides her with sufficient materiel and tradesmen to repair the fort and begin settlement. The fort is in the mountains overlooking the northern roads with excellent views and has a small thorpe nearby with some hardy villagers. The surrounding land is suitable for shepherding, lumbering, quarries and sustenance farming. With some work, the former bandits should be able to fit in with the villagers and prosper in their new home.

Flush with the reward money, Brother Fitzy and Bro-thazarr are dispatched to Valthrun to settle as many of the party's outstanding debts as possible and restock their supplies. Lightfingers Louie and Slicer join them to see if they can pick up any leads on some loot, since their collective finances are still in shambles. Brother Sully, Brogallo and Mighty Redneck will spend time among the denizens of the Croaking Castle and Fort Rackham to see if they gain get more information about the nearby environs (and leads to some cash, or course). Brogallo's mercs are quietly drunk and passed out in some hidey hole...as usual.

Based on campaign events so far, the party was able to shake loose the following rumors/information:

1. Orcs have been sighted poking around the Shrine of Lethria (hex 301.300) for unknown reasons (and killed 3 former party members, but nobody outside our group knew that). There is a larger group somewhere south of Valthrun but they've been suspiciously quiet, if they exist at all.
2. The ruined shrine (hex 302.296) north of the Croaking Castle glows with an sickly green light during the new moon. The shrine is apparently dedicated to a now-forgotten serpent god. The Tazennarit's troops have all heard there's fabulous treasure to be found in the ruins, but were never in any condition to try to find it themselves.
3. The metropolis of Tallow Watch (hex 301.295) has fallen to a junta of former officers who were driven from the city of Old Brightwood (hex 302.295) by the nomad/hobgoblin wars. Both cities have sizable populations (50,000+) and Tallow Watch is home to many of the bandit refugees. All of them still have family in the cities and desperately want to discover their fate, but are fearful of the likely tragic news.
4. The new rulers of Old Brightwood have made a truce with the invading hordes by enslaving a sizable portion of the population and offering them as tribute. All orphans and children of criminals have been forced to become jannisaries in a wretched attempt to replenish the decimated military and maintain some sort of control over the city. The hordes are leaving the city unplundered...for now.
5. The hobgoblin hordes that broke the human defenders were driving towards the ruined shrine (hex 301.294) north of Tallow Watch. Nobody knows why they have an interest in it, but it can't be for anything good. On a side note: WTF?? I'm rolling these things everywhere based on DMG pg 173. I better switch to different clacky math rocks...
6. The city of Orchard Hollow (hex 302.294) are still somehow resisting the nomad/hobgoblin/ogre forces. Though smaller than the other nearby (14,000 inhabitants), it has been a famous bastion of Law since time immemorial and has a strong contingent of clerics with heroic paladins as their chamber-militant. This has doubtlessly contributed to their strength but nobody believes they will last long in face of the superior humanoid numbers.

OK we've got a lot of gameable content here. Note that I really haven't done any heavy lifting here. All of the above was generated via the fucking epic AD&D DMG Appendices and I just added some fluff to tie it all together by spending a few minutes thinking about the implied relationships of the random rolls. All names came from free online generators (take your pick - there's a lot of them). I'm harping on this (again) because it repeatedly makes the point that you don't need to endlessly purchase product from people that hate you. Seriously, this stuff is great and blows away the agenda-driven dreck that WoTC is trying to cram down your throat with current edition. 

Let's roll a d6 and see what our next session will explore. We get a 2 so Serpent Shrine it is! Let's hope the party has overcome their PTSD from the last dungeon delve and has better luck. I really would like to see my murder hobos make it past first level at some point...

Session 4: Not so Merry Men

Freshly rested and ready to deal with the bandit menace, Brother Sully tries to convince Lady Kophyn Mizzar to lend him a squad of her men-at-arms to support the party. He gets reaction roll of 11% with Charisma mod to 36% (unsure/with 55% chance of negative) and gets a 46% on the followup. Apparently, her Grace likes Sully, but isn't so besmitten that to give up her muscle. Guess they'll "just be friends"...

Considering the distance involved and the fact that party's mercs are footsloggers, Sully tries to convince her to cough up some horses and has better luck (modified reaction roll of 58% with a followup 19% to tip the balance in his favor). The PCs have light riding horses, so I rule Lady Kophyn offers similar horses so the party now has a mounted move rate of 24" which translates to 24 miles of travel per day.

The party decides to head out to the location where Kophra Era spotted the bandit camp to see if they can make contact. I randomly generated the terrain and checked for encounters. Luckily no nasty wandering monsters, but the party spots some ruins and hints of some large settlements further north. They mark their map and make notes for further exploration later. They see the forested hills mentioned by Kophra and leave the load to begin searching for the bandits. Leaving the men-at-arms to make camp, the party dismounts and commences the search to take advantage of the deepening shadows of early evening.

Lightfinger Louie scouts ahead via Move Silently/Hide in Shadows with Bro-thazarr, Slicer, and Mighty Redneck behind following at a distance. Bro-thazarr has his Sleep spell ready while the remaining party members have their missile weapons prepared.  Brother Sully has prepared Cure Light Wounds and Brother Fitzy has Sanctuary ready to go. They've all worked out a system of hand signals and bird whistles to communicate intent if the bandits are discovered.

After an hour or so, the scouts spot the camp. Let's see if Louie snuck up on the camp:

Lightfinger Louie: Move Silently (Needs 25% and succeeds with a 19% ) and Hide in Shadows (Needs 25% and fails with a 75%). This means one of the bandit guards spots him so we need to see if Louie lives to steal another day. I make an encounter check and Louie kills it with an 80% roll - Hermes has blessed Louie this night!

The bandit guard taps Louie on the shoulder, nearly causing him to fill his breeches, and says "Ere now, mate - yer tradecraft needs some work. Tell yer crew to come on up and have a drink. The venison will be ready shortly and we're all too famished to start using you lot as pin cushions." Soft chuckling echoes from the tops of the trees and the party clearly realizes they're surrounded and outgunned, so they stow their weapons and make their way to the camp.

The party enters the camp and sees numerous campfires burning as the smell of roasting meat fills the evening air. A quick glance shows there are at least 100 dishevelled highwaymen in the camp, performing a variety of upkeep tasks in a likely futile attempt to keep their tattered clothes and battered equipment from disintegrating due to obvious hard use. The organization of the outlaws is obvious, however. These are clearly former soldiers fallen on hard times and not a band of degenerate reavers.

They are brought to the Tazennarit, the female leader of the bandit group. I roll for encounter reaction and "Face" Sully again delivers the goods (modified roll of 96%). After some verbal sparring, Tazennarit tells the party that the group was once soldiers in the cities to the north, but were forced to flee south after a devastating suprise attack of savage mounted nomads from the Cold Wastes and a Hobgoblin Legion allied with a combined force of ogre magi and orcs/ogrillons. She has no idea why these groups have allied, what their goals are or what the fate befell their home city of Tallow Watch. As a matter of survival, they've been raiding what few caravans have been coming south, but to little avail. These caravans have been refugees themselves, more often than not, and Tazennarit has little interest in obliterating common folk. It's highly suspicious that they haven't encountered large numbers of refugees, and she is at a loss to explain what's happening.

Brother Sully, moved by the group's situation, makes Lady Kophyn's offer: amnesty for all deeds and the right to settle around The Croaking Castle of the Miraculous Toad for usual taxation and militia commitments. A modified reaction roll of 96% means that Tazennarit enthusiastically accepts Lady Kophryn's offer and agree to meet with her to discuss settlement at what she has dubbed Fort Rackham. The party summons the men-at-arms and they all spend an uneventful night at camp.

Tazennarit also updates the party's map so they have a better idea of what the north looks like.

Until next time...

Experience Points:

XP for defeating 112 bandits: 112x14 + 4hp/bandit (avg) = 2016xp

GP reward from Lady Kophyn for each PC (rolled a 3 on d6x100 = 300gp)

Total: 4116xp (divided by 7 = 588xp each; 647xp for those with attribute bonuses)