Session 1: The Chud Squad Assembles!
Everyone's first experience with ACKSII. It went... smoothly.
Party Roster
Homeros Samsonides of Nicea, bard and reciter, played by Saul
Norden “Boengus” Oengus of the Meniri Mountains, Dwarven craft-priest and craft-catechist, played by Ignatius
Sextus “Mr Sex” Septori of Tirenea, fighter and man-at-arms, played by Sfaccimm
Party Motivations (rolled)
Homeros is the apprentice or squire of a retired hero. His mentor is alarmed by the ferocity of the recent beastmen raids. Now too old to handle the situation personally, the adventurer’s mentor has tasked him with investigating the threat.
Norden is the scion of a patrician family with holdings in the borderlands. Duty and honour dictate that he take action to defend his family’s clients and lands.
4 members of Sextus’ family were kidnapped during the most recent beastman raid. Sextus promised his remaining family members that he would rescue their kin – or avenge them!
Starting Rumours (rolled)
Homeros: “Elves still live in the forests of Southern Argollë, but they’ve gone feral, and crave nothing more than the flesh of man.”
Sextus: “When a dragon’s scales turn purple, that means the beast is diseased and near death.”
Norden: “The brigands in these parts are led by a scheming warrior named Drusus. He’s not to be trusted.”
Starting Situation
Location: Outside Türos Tem
Objective (Declared): to find more information on the missives they found.
Initial Conditions:
Date: Ammonadras, Froelen 1, 382IY.
Finances: Everyone is broke and have no money, except Norden, who starts with 9gp.
Weather: Balmy (22 to 23°C / 72 to 74°F) temperature, overcast precipitation, gentle winds. Moderate, fair conditions.
Summary of Play
The party entered Türos Tem, passing the western gate at approximately 14:25 pm.
They travelled through the avenue, having met Subaltern Peleos Methori. Homeros was the face of the party, and so he was lucky enough that the reaction roll resulted in a Neutral result.
GM: “Subaltern Peleos Methori is a balding, ugly, dull-eyed man in his late 20s with several missing teeth and a badly broken nose.”
Homeros: He’s in his LATE 20s?!
Norden: The Norwood reaper comes for all… how tragic!
The Subaltern, having recorded everyone’s name and purpose of visit, and regarding Sextus “Mr Sex” Septori with a healthy degree of scrutiny, bade them to go visit the Headquarters building, where they may find the posted missives.
At the headquarters, around 4:15 PM, they found the posted missives:
“By order of Legate Ulrand Valerian, a reward of 2,000gp shall be paid to whoever puts a stop to the beastmen raids that have plagued our territory as of late. Adventurers seeking to claim this reward should bring evidence of their success before the Legate at his Office in the Villa.”
“The Guild Merchant earnestly seeks word of the whereabouts of two of its members, Daros Thenes and Odysios Panas, gone missing along the highway to Siadanos. Those with knowledge of their whereabouts should speak to Aeropos Karanos at the Forum in town.”
“Join our band! The Fierce Brethren, captained by the legendary Quintus the Rager, Vestus the Unlikely, and Zaira the Beautiful, are recruiting bold comrades for expeditions into the Viaspen Forest! Find us at the Traveler’s Inn in town.”
“Wanted: The brigand Drusus for desertion, drunkenness, kidnapping, manslaughter, mayhem, murder, robbery, and other outrages against the Empire! 750gp shall be paid by the Quartermaster to whomever brings this outlaw to Imperial justice, dead or alive.”
“Soldiers accursed by nightmares should seek sleep draughts or invocations of salving rest from Priestess Genelen at the Hospital. Sleeplessness is no excuse for dereliction of duty!”
After reading the missives, and deciding to join the Fierce Brethren, Homeros met Annalist Hometri Socolo, with whom Homeros got a Neutral reaction. He simply reiterated the missive they found, and directed them to the villa.
The party went to the villa next. However, the line of petitioners at the villa was far too great, and the party wasn’t willing to wait.
Considering it was early evening already, they went to go to the Traveller’s Inn, to get some food in their tired bodies and to get a place to stay for the night. At the inn, they met the Innkeeper, whom they did NOT like, at all.
They decided to get 3 rooms for 3 days, which cost Norden 4 gp and 5 sp. He gave the innkeep 5 gp, not having any change, and the innkeep gave him, instead of 5sp… 3sp and 7cp! Bullshit! Norden, incensed by this irresponsible financial custom of humans, spits at the floor, and goes to his room…
… or he would, until they saw Peleos leaving the latrines with a loud burp, and going back to the eatery. It was at that point they realised that the noise from the eatery wasn’t just the noise of regular comers-and-goers, but of the soldiery! So, there they found the annalist once more, accompanied by Peleos, and the other subaltern, one Lynara Miren.
Homeros, this time having more time to converse with the annalist, decided to make a better impression, meaning his first attempt to influence!
Pleasantly surprised by Homeros’ breadth of knowledge, Homeros invited him to peruse the archives later in the day, and shared a rumour he had heard:
“Legate Ulrand Valerian doesn’t expect to ever pay the bounty he’s offering – he knows no one’s coming back.”
This caused the party considerable hesitation. No reward for the righteous slaughter of beastmen? Preposterous! Regardless, the destruction of beastmankind is a reward unto itself, and so dictate the Seven Radiant Scrolls.
Homeros decided to try a saucy pickup line on Subaltern Miren (Seduction tone reaction roll), and rolled an incredible 13! She immediately left the table of Peleos, and started talking to Homeros. With a Friendly reaction roll as this, she shared a rumour she knows:
“Behind the beastman raiders is an elven wizard-lord, bent on revenge against the Empire!”
and offered to introduce him to Malyn, the fortress’s resident mage, and her best friend, the next evening.
Eventually they retired to their rooms, after having bought and eaten several beets (which i counted as standard rations), and then they started messing around.
Sextus: “HEHEHEHE! 3 LITTLE CHUDDIES JUMPING ON THEIR BEDS! HEHEHEHEHE!”
Homeros: “So, is there a “jumping on the bed” proficiency throw for us to make?”GM: “No, but Homeros, you picked the southwesternmost room, and behind your wall, you can hear a little girl go “Mommy, why are the new people so loud? Is daddy going to kick them out?” and an older woman replying with, “No, he is not.” The innkeeper then starts arguing with his wife.
Homeros: … yeah, I’m not going to jump on the bed anymore.
The next morning, at 7 AM, they decided to go see the Headquarters again (after going outside, travelling to the fort, and seeing one of the infantry rushing out of the infantry-barracks towards the headquarters, going “shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!”) where they found Legate Ulrand Valerian giving orders to everyone, and they chose to wait until he was done. Subaltern Lynara met Homeros again.
Homeros attempted to talk with the legate, who initially went to banish them from his presence for wasting his time (unfriendly reaction roll), before Homeros told him they’re there to kill beastmen, which resulted in him moving to neutral, which meant he just reiterated the missive and told them to go get it done.
Homeros decided to immediately go meet the Quartermaster, Koinos Thales, though the quartermaster was seemingly ambivalent to his presence, offering to sell gear at standard prices, due to a Neutral reaction roll.
Homeros perused the archive for 2 HOURS, after which he discovered a pattern in the garrison’s patrol reports suggesting that the beastmen raids have been slowly increasing in frequency over the last two years. Prior to that, the frequency of raids was consistently low.
Homeros also found records of two major events both occurring around 24 months prior – an earthquake shook the region, and the Empire re-deployed the majority of the fort’s troops to the west, what OOC we called the “two-day special military operation”.
After all this, they finally decided that it is, in fact, time to go to the Viaspen forest, because “there’s nothing left to do”. Getting there took them a day and a half.
They were lucky enough to not encounter anyone hostile while on the road. While resting on the first day, they met a group of dwarven furriers, travelling to trade with faraway kin. They pointed the party in the direction of a large dome of black granite, from which they saw beastmen coming and going. A Manual of Arms proficiency throw from Sextus revealed nothing useful, other than that they are disorganised bands.
Following suit, the party went to the dome, and were greeted by 4 whinging, annoying kobolds, who heckled them and asked if they were here to see the Lady Below. Homeros, not willing to negotiate with kobolds of all creatures, just took out his crossbow, and so combat began!
Combat happened, and all but one kobold were killed. He ran off to get the others, who went with the kobold, berating him for ending their game.
The party used this time to reposition into somewhere they can ambush the kobolds, so two of the eight kobolds were surprised. The party thus killed all eight of the next kobolds.
Sextus cut the head off of one of the kobolds, to show the Legate. Seeing that the door to the interior was now open, Homeros adventured further, showing the party that there are frescoes in the great hall beyond! Homeros and Norden then went ahead with using their combined intellectual prowess to analyse the frescoes.
Having exterminated ten kobolds and made some headway into the dungeon, the party, seemingly oblivious to the nature of what they’ve found, return home, which takes them another one and a half days. They are greeted by an annoyed Lynara, whom Homeros calms down, explaining that they were killing beastmen, which she accepts, but doesn’t exactly like.
They made no maps, and designated no one as the mapper, either.
Combat
Opponents: 10 kobolds
Outcome: Total Kobold Death.
Casualties: None, on the RIGHT side!
Reward: 40xp
Exploration & Discoveries
First arrival to Türos Tem
Discovery of The Buried Temple
Treasure Recovered
29gp, 4 sp, 48cp found in the pockets of kobolds. Particularly rich kobolds.
End of Session State
Final Location: Türos Tem, Iannadras, 6 Froelen, 15:23
Party Condition: (wounded, exhausted, supplied, etc.)
Immediate Situation: safe, lightly injured.
I made so many mistakes that I’m pretty sure I need a macro or something to just handle morale rolls quicker.