Session 2 (27th of September 2007 : 20.30 - 0.00)

Starday, 1st of Readying 690 SV

After their initial encounter last night, Killigan and Caernym have decided to spend the night at the Dancing Wolf Inn.

5.00

Caernym wakes up in order to pray for about two hours after which he goes to the main room for breakfast.

8.30

Killigan joins Caernym, who's reading from the Book of Penitence, and orders breakfast. The Inn is getting pretty crowded with merchants for the market being held, but also several woodsmen have gathered. Curtis heads for the market in order to sell some meat and animal skins he has gathered. At the market he meets up with a merchant called Jacob who usually buys some rabbit skins. While at Jacob's booth, Valorin walks up and starts conversation with Curtis about some fox skins he's displaying.

Valorin tells him that he's a hunter himself, hunting animals, humans, … whatever brings cash into his pocket. He has come to Rendrick since he heard rumours of a big wolf roaming the surroundings of the village and he wants to hunt it down. He tells Curtis the mayor of Rendrick is going to speech at the Inn and also informs him about some rumours of orc attacks near the neighbouring village of Tristor. After his conversation with Valorin, Curtis looks for a tanner to work a bit on a bear skin he has brought with him. The tanner happens to be from Tristor and confirms the rumours about the orc attacks. He strikes a deal with Curtis to tan the bear skin in return for Curtis' protection on the way back to Tristor.

Nileth'tan makes his appearance in the Inn, greets Caernym with some wise words, then notices Killigan and greets him with some not so nice words. Hanne intervenes telling her father not to tease Killigan like that after which Nileth'tan has a few words with her in elvish. Caernym, being the only one to understand elvish, learns that Nileth'tan doesn't understand what Hanne sees in 'that guy'.

9.00

Curtis arrives in the Inn, which is now really crowded, makes his way towards the bar and 'charms' his way into getting a merchant to volunteer his chair to him. Helen then tells him to not treat her customers like that but since it wasn't a regular Curtis doesn't really care. Caernym has noticed this 'injustice' and moves in to lecture Curtis about his behaviour. Killigan tries to mediate in the situation.

Samuel Arnault then enters the Inn to address the crowd. He speaks about a large wolf with a silver pelt which has been roaming the surroundings. The wolf has attacked a local farmer named John Gallows and his 10-year old daughter last night and needs to be caught or killed. The mayor offers 200 gp as a reward. After his announcement, most of the woodsmen leave to start their hunt.

Caernym asks to see Nileth'tan and speaks to him about the wolf. He actually manages to make it look like it's due to Nileth'tan's incompetence that the wolf is still roaming free so he receives a cold stare and is sent on his way. The characters then discuss whether their help with the situation would be usefull since so many woodsmen are already tracking down the wolf. When Hanne says she'd like to join them, they decide to give it a try. Hanne goes to her room to get ready while the rest of the party decides the best way of action.

10.30

Hanne finally returns, wearing a full set of elven chainmail. The chainmail is adorned from boot to shoulder with a tree motif depicting roots, bark, branches and leaves. It also has a distinct black-blue-ish shine to it. Killigan is most impressed by her appearance.

11.00

The party arrives at the farm of John Gallows who sits outside cleaning tools. John tells them the story of how he came back from the field to see his daughter being attacked by a giant wolf. He attacked the wolf with his pitchfork and managed to drive it off. Killigan then speaks to Beatrice, John's daughter, who tells him that the big dog was very nice and only wanted to play. She could even carress it and it licked her doll. She then shows Killigan the holes the wolf made in her dress by tugging it.

The party then decides to check the tracks left behind by the wolf. Hanne finds tracks coming from the North Woods and heading towards Rendrick. It is decided to check where the tracks are coming from and thus the party enters the North Woods.

13.00

Hanne stumbles onto some strange tracks, seemingly not originating from the same wolf. After some investigation of the tracks, it seems someone has gone through some trouble to hide the original tracks and make a false one in a different direction. It takes Hanne about 15 minutes to get back to the original track.

15.00

The party stumbles upon a small clearing where they see a burning campfire. By moving closer they unknowingly set off a silent alarm spell and inform the kidnappers of Tamris who set up an ambush. Performing a circular movement around the clearing, Curtis suddenly stumbles into a 20 ft deep pit trap, bruising himself in the process. He has only barely climbed out by means of some ropes, when Killigan, who was circling the clearing towards the other side, suddenly falls into yet another pit trap. Killigan is less fortunate and passes out due to the fall, bleeding profusely from a headwound.

Caernym is then lowered into the pit and is able to help Killigan regain consciousness by means of magical and non-magical healing skills. Just when they are about to climb out of the pit, Curtis is hit by a crossbow bolt seemingly coming out of nowhere. Hanne and Curtis drop to the floor, scouring the surroundings for any sight of the enemy, while Caernym and Killigan climb out of the pit, making sure to stay low. Curtis then pulls out the bolt and notices that it's not just blood, but also a black fluid oozing from his wound.

Killigan is moved behind a big tree to receive further treatment, using Caernym's shield as cover. Then all of a sudden a small owl dives onto Caernym attacking him with his claws and beak. Caernym feels an icecold chill emanating from the wound but the effect passes almost immediately. Killigan, with a superhuman reflex or just sheer luck, is able to shoot the owl with his crossbow almost skewering the owl and sending it flying with bolt and all. Then they notice Hanne's disappearance.

At that moment Curtis tries to move from one tree to another and gets hit with a crossbow bolt again. He goes down and doesn't get up anymore. Caernym hears a soft voice emanating from a pit near the fire and moves in to investigate, using his shield as cover once more. He spots a discheveled and wounded Tamris at the bottom of the pit. Killigan in the meanwhile spots a female with dark hair aiming a crossbow at Caernym. In true western style both of them take aim and fire another bolt. Both of them miss but the most important objective, keeping Caernym from getting hit, is met. Right after firing the bolt, Killigan notices a dark shape behind some bushes near him. Thinking it's Hanne, he doesn't take any action but lies down and aims his crossbow at the tree, the female is hiding behind.

Caernym then moves towards Curtis who is slowly bleeding to death, and manages to heal him once more. Killigan then suddenly hears sounds of battle from the area where he had seen the dark shape, and spots Hanne in combat with a male figure. Hanne slices at the figure with her scimitar but misses. The figure then jumps towards her. His mere touch makes sparks of electricity fly all around and both Hanne and him tumble to the earth. Killigan forgets all danger and runs full speed towards Hanne's location. Caernym and Curtis at the same time charge the location of the female figure who makes a run for it.

When Killigan arrives at the spot Hanne was last seen at, he notices the male figure climbing to his feet again. He dives into him, two daggers in hand, and both fall down. While they're down, Killigan stabs him a few times, neutralizing the meager attempts of the man to push him off. Since the female figure ran off, Caernym and Curtis head for the fight. Caernym checks the unconscious Hanne while Curtis, who has given in to his rage, pushes Killigan to the side and stabs his sword in the man's neck.

Killigan gets up, spots the female figure nearby and drives her off once again. Curtis keeps on stabbing and slashing the man, who is by now obviously dead. After a while, still completely enraged, he runs off looking for other opponents. Caernym then moves towards the big pit again to check on Tamris while Killigan remains with Hanne until she regains consciousness. When Curtis has finally calmed down, he helps Tamris out of the pit. Caernym then heals him while Curtis produces a make shift stretcher.

Before returning to Rendrick, Caernym searches the male figure. He finds some scrolls, a heavy crossbow, a nicely crafted dagger and a pouch full of gold pieces. In a backpack near the fire, he also finds a book containing strange sigils. He takes the scrolls, pouch, dagger and backpack.

Memorable moments of roleplay

  • DM: Nileth'tan telling Killigan that in all the centuries he has walked the earth, noone has managed to irritate him like Killigan does.
  • DM: Killigan being so impressed by seeing Hanne in chainmail that he wasn't even interested in appraising the armor. Actually … he was appraising something, it just wasn't the armor.
  • DM: Curtis getting hit by two poisoned crossbow bolts and beating the Fortitude check DC of 14 easily twice.
  • DM: Conrad getting a Ghoul Touch spell delivered to him by the owl but beating the Fortitude check as easily as Curtis. Had this spell connected, it would have paralyzed Conrad and would have most probably meant the end of the party.
  • DM: Killigan falling in a 20ft deep pit trap, me announcing 11 damage and then asking : "So how many hitpoints did you have ? Only 6 ? I see."
  • DM: Killigan actually growing a conscience by not taking advantage of Hanne's slight crush.
  • Koen: Mouthing off to Nileth'tan.
  • Koen: Making a run to get to Curtis, lying mortally wounded, in the firing zone of our mysterious assailant.
  • Koen: Charging the assumed position of our attacker, with Curtis in tow, with the prayers of Heironeous on my lips.

Player comments

  • DM: This session was considerably shorter than the last one and a lot more action driven since the party experienced its first combat encounter. EL 6 for a 1st level party might seem a bit over the top and the players for sure didn't have an easy time and could have gotten wiped out even but they survived, making their enjoyment much higher. Surviving a seriously difficult encounter is much more rewarding than slaying the X-teenth kobold in my opinion. I also figured out the purpose of these "Scaling the adventure"-sidebars found in Dungeon magazine. A 1st level character with 6 hp falling into a 20 ft deep pit trap could be pretty unhealthy as was demonstrated tonight. Had there been wooden stakes at the bottom … The sidebar said : When running the adventure for 1st level characters, make the pit trap only 10 ft deep so the damage roll is only 1d6 instead of 2d6. Oh well. *shrugs*
  • Koen: This session was significantly more combat oriented with almost all of the other RP moments leading up to the eventual encounter. I have mixed feelings about the forest encounter but they are purely based on the fact that my character was the least equiped for forest combat. Noisy, bulky armour and no ranged attack capabilities are not ideal tools for such an encounter. Eventually Conrad pulled through marvelously, thanks mostly to his healing abilities.

Session 1 Session 3
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