It's been at least 3 years since we met our GM in what was then the Red Goblin store in the city (the place where I learned of all the fun stuff, including Warhammer and DnD). We got off to a rough start, with frequent and long pauses. After a while, however, we started playing more frequently. In this post, I go back to the beginning of the road...
First adventure: the bandits' camp
The two players, a friend and I, picked up an announcement posted by the GM and turned up without a clue on how to play. He gave us a choice of pre-made characters, so we chose a knight and a warlock specialized in lightning magic.
The adventure began with the adventurers reaching a small village, plagued by bandits. Naturally, we took up the task of ridding the world of the bandits, and started out towards their supposed hiding place. They were living quite well, in an abandoned mansion, in the middle of the forest. We found two guys standing guard, killing them (obviously), but not before torturing some information out of them. We found out that they are actually members of a sect belonging to some kind of prophet. We started exploring the mansion, but immediately got shot at with poisoned darts. We retreated into a dormitory and barricaded the doors, resting a bit to recover.
After a short rest and lunch, we continued exploring the mansion. Obviously, the bossman seemed to be hiding out in the basement. We bypassed some traps (more precisely, I blundered into them, but my armor protected me), eventually reaching the main rooms of the basement and confronting what turned out to be the prophet's bodyguard. The well trained and well equipped bandit gave us a hard time - I spent the latter half of the fight retreating and barely fighting him off, waiting for the warlock to kill him with poison.
After another short rest, we decided not to stop there, and entered the inner sanctum. There we met the "prophet". He turned out to be a stray warlock, who succeeded in convincing the bandits of his own divinity using all kinds of party tricks. He was, of course, reluctant to give up his position without a fight. We were showered by lightning, and attacked by animated undead. I left the zombies to my companion, and charged at the warlock.
In the end, we managed to win by a hair's breadth. The warlock enclosed me in a cage of lightning. Seeing my last chance, I charged at him. I lost consciousness due to the lightning - but the last thing I saw was the warlock's head, flying off his shoulders. Polearms for the win!
In the meantime, my companion had his own problems. He tried electrocuting the zombies, but to no avail. In the end, he exploded their necks, but the shrapnel-like bone fragments caused enough damage for him also to lose consciousness.
The adventurers awakened after some time. Luckily, they have defeated all of the bandits before confronting the warlock, and noone was around to take advantage of their unconscious forms. They looked around the dungeon, finding treasure and clues to the story above.
In the end, they retreated to the village, received their reward, and threw a party in the local tavern.
Second adventure - the goblin association
As I mentioned before, we just sort of happened into the first adventure, without knowledge of the rules, and with premade characters. It turned out to be loads of fun, so we decided on continuing the adventures. We read through the rulebook first, though. I found my knight to be fun enough, so I only gave him a proper name: Wilborin. My companion, the warlock, changed his subclass, respecializing from lightning magic to necromancy instead, naming himself Aegon.
We were joined by a firemage and a ranger.
Our second adventure was to be less fighty. We gathered at our old friend, the innkeep at the Prancing Pony. There we discovered that the inn had become cursed. All the food and drink spoiled - including the one we already ate! Cue speed test to see who reaches the bathroom.
We left our quarters in a hurry, but promised the innkeep to look into the situation. The curse was cast by a long dead goblin shaman, who used to live in the poor quarter. We followed every possible trail through the city, while the inn looked worse by the hour. Finally, we found a goblin who could undo the curse, but the price of his services was to be ridiculously high. He was a member of a goblin association - the Bloody Victory - which aimed to create a goblin quarter in the city. This was, of course, laughable - who has ever heard of anything like that? We had no way of accomplishing this, but he saw it sufficient if we cause enough damage to the local authorities while drawing attention to his cause. We did not want to be responsible for any terrorist activities, but we apparently had no choice. We promised the goblin to ruin the coming of age ceremony of the son of the local lord, the following day.
My knightly upbringing prohibited actually harming the young noble. Nevertheless, we were annoyed enough to come up with ruining the ceremonial stage. During the night, we... got hold of some poor man's clothes, and pretended to be woodcarvers, working on the stage. We had actually fiddled with the ropes, enabling us to bring down the covering of the back wall of the stage at any moment. We decorated the back wall itself with the initials of the goblin movement - BV. Of our rather unorthodox methods, more below.
On the following day, we awaited for the ceremony to be going full swing, before putting our plan into action. The firemage, mixed in with the crowd, alighted the fuse that would burn the necessary knots. The ranger stood as backup in a sniping position, atop a nearby house, ready to shoot at the knots should the fire be discovered. Alas, everything went according to plan, and the cover - along with all hanging flags and decoration - was brought down in the middle of the ceremony. On the black wall, written up in goblin poo, the letters: "PV" (we didn't see quite well in the dark).
We enacted a quick retreat after the deed was done. The goblin proved true to his word, and lifted the curse. Immediately after, we vented our pent up frustration on him - he burned, he was electrocuted, his heart was pierced by an arrow, and his head was cut off with a halberd - AT THE SAME TIME.
...
At the end of the adventure, we said good-bye to the ranger. The player was a friend passing by, who could not continue alongside us. However, the firemage Phempheus was now a permanent addition to the party.
We were joined by a firemage and a ranger.
Our second adventure was to be less fighty. We gathered at our old friend, the innkeep at the Prancing Pony. There we discovered that the inn had become cursed. All the food and drink spoiled - including the one we already ate! Cue speed test to see who reaches the bathroom.
We left our quarters in a hurry, but promised the innkeep to look into the situation. The curse was cast by a long dead goblin shaman, who used to live in the poor quarter. We followed every possible trail through the city, while the inn looked worse by the hour. Finally, we found a goblin who could undo the curse, but the price of his services was to be ridiculously high. He was a member of a goblin association - the Bloody Victory - which aimed to create a goblin quarter in the city. This was, of course, laughable - who has ever heard of anything like that? We had no way of accomplishing this, but he saw it sufficient if we cause enough damage to the local authorities while drawing attention to his cause. We did not want to be responsible for any terrorist activities, but we apparently had no choice. We promised the goblin to ruin the coming of age ceremony of the son of the local lord, the following day.
My knightly upbringing prohibited actually harming the young noble. Nevertheless, we were annoyed enough to come up with ruining the ceremonial stage. During the night, we... got hold of some poor man's clothes, and pretended to be woodcarvers, working on the stage. We had actually fiddled with the ropes, enabling us to bring down the covering of the back wall of the stage at any moment. We decorated the back wall itself with the initials of the goblin movement - BV. Of our rather unorthodox methods, more below.
On the following day, we awaited for the ceremony to be going full swing, before putting our plan into action. The firemage, mixed in with the crowd, alighted the fuse that would burn the necessary knots. The ranger stood as backup in a sniping position, atop a nearby house, ready to shoot at the knots should the fire be discovered. Alas, everything went according to plan, and the cover - along with all hanging flags and decoration - was brought down in the middle of the ceremony. On the black wall, written up in goblin poo, the letters: "PV" (we didn't see quite well in the dark).
We enacted a quick retreat after the deed was done. The goblin proved true to his word, and lifted the curse. Immediately after, we vented our pent up frustration on him - he burned, he was electrocuted, his heart was pierced by an arrow, and his head was cut off with a halberd - AT THE SAME TIME.
...
At the end of the adventure, we said good-bye to the ranger. The player was a friend passing by, who could not continue alongside us. However, the firemage Phempheus was now a permanent addition to the party.
No comments:
Post a Comment