Castle Redvald - Session 3 - I stab the baby as my heroic last stand
Third game of Castle Redvald was a bit shorter than usual - we had 3 people call in sick, leaving only two players - Another-Day (CarlosH) and Mélusine (Lu').
What Happened
• Another-Day met Mélusine and her crew of Grey Hens at the Blue Rabbit Inn where they quickly decided to team up to go on an expedition to Castle Redvald.
• The first trip was uneventful. Mélusine explained a few of the now-known tricks of the dungeon's first few areas to the newcomer, and the party headed north-west to map some unknown parts of the place.
• The party was soon faced with a strange, lively-looking "wooden" door which bled when carved with a knife by Another-Day, and revealed a small, 30' by 30' fleshy room with a bag of gold at the bottom of the wall opposite of the entrance. At this point, the party realized they were lacking in gear, and decided to backtrack.
• Cautiously avoiding a small troop of Horned Ones, the party sneaked outside and went back to Blightburg to buy some essentially stuff like a 10' Pole, some rope, a grappling hook, etc.
• Perhaps foolishly so, the party decided to head back to the dungeon immediately, during the night. This led to an encounter with a young green dragon, who tore apart one of the thieves with brutal efficiency. Terrified, the rest of the party ran away and reached the dungeon, strangely happy about getting into an unknown dangerous place that would at least (probably) be devoid of any dragons.
• Going back to the previous area, clever use of ropes and hooks allows the party to fish the bag of gold without stepping in the suspicious fleshy room.
• Further ahead, the scouting thief disappears after a turn that leads to a dead-end. Investigation with a ten foot pole reveals a hole right in front of the hole, covered by illusory floor. Beneath is a 30', spike-covered pit out of which no sound comes, which had covered the victim's cry when he fell.
• Backtracking a bit, the party finds a chamber that looks inhabited by something large, littered with human bones and some makeshift furnitures. They hear humming from another door, slightly ajar, and decide to kick it open, revealing a large bearded ogre chopping up a dead body, which Mélusine decides to shoot. In the back of the room, a large hairy ogre baby foot sticks out from yet another chamber, and it begins crying.
• While initially reluctant about fighting, convinced a peaceful solution could be found despite the initial shot, Another-Day eventually had to join the fray and after a few intense rounds of combat, got mortally wounded, but was hardy enough to keep fighting despite knowing his doom. He decided to rush past the ogre and murder his kid to spite him as his last stand, thus focusing the ogre on him and allowing the others to retreat safely. Mélusine decided to disregard his last wish and backstab the ogre, and with help from the two remaining thieves, the party eventually fell the monster, about at the same time Another-Day drew his last, disappointed and sour breath.
• While backtracking to the entrance, the BURNING GIRAFFE found the party and charged at them, screaming while burning everything around it. Somehow, Mélusine managed to escape its wrath mainly by running away into the woods, where the party lost the beast.
• Once home, Mélusine counted her coins and gained another level, reaching 3rd level by session #3, which led me to wonder if I haven't been a little too nice on treasure placement after all.
What Worked Well
• Two players and one Ref works perfectly fine in a narrow but content-dense environnement like a dungeon, which means the party did a LOT of stuff in about two hours and a half game time (with three absentees, we didn't want to do a full 3 hour session as initially planned).
• Here's the map Carlos did, which is pretty accurate, leading me to believe my navigational instructions are getting better.
• And here's Lu's notes, in drawings form. A few details are inaccurate but I just love the contrast between the quick doodly-style and the horrible stuff happening within the game.
Thoughts
• Not sure what could have been done better this time honestly. We had a slow beginning but that's mostly because I was unsure of whether to start things off right off the bat or wait for potential players. Plus I didn't make it that clear to the new player (Carlos) that the party could buy gear and hire retainers to help.
• I've been reading Boot Hill 1E lately and it is an amazing game. I want to run it ASAP, but I'm not sure when or how. I'll probably increase the number of games I run and see how I handle it, seeing as I have a lot of free time on my hands lately. Am also considering Delta Green again, may post about it later on.
What Happened
• Another-Day met Mélusine and her crew of Grey Hens at the Blue Rabbit Inn where they quickly decided to team up to go on an expedition to Castle Redvald.
• The first trip was uneventful. Mélusine explained a few of the now-known tricks of the dungeon's first few areas to the newcomer, and the party headed north-west to map some unknown parts of the place.
• The party was soon faced with a strange, lively-looking "wooden" door which bled when carved with a knife by Another-Day, and revealed a small, 30' by 30' fleshy room with a bag of gold at the bottom of the wall opposite of the entrance. At this point, the party realized they were lacking in gear, and decided to backtrack.
• Cautiously avoiding a small troop of Horned Ones, the party sneaked outside and went back to Blightburg to buy some essentially stuff like a 10' Pole, some rope, a grappling hook, etc.
"The fact that you, while carrying more than two thousand gold on you, refuse to buy a 30 gold war dog on the account that it is too expensive tells me a lot about your character."
-Carlos, to Lu
• Going back to the previous area, clever use of ropes and hooks allows the party to fish the bag of gold without stepping in the suspicious fleshy room.
• Further ahead, the scouting thief disappears after a turn that leads to a dead-end. Investigation with a ten foot pole reveals a hole right in front of the hole, covered by illusory floor. Beneath is a 30', spike-covered pit out of which no sound comes, which had covered the victim's cry when he fell.
• Backtracking a bit, the party finds a chamber that looks inhabited by something large, littered with human bones and some makeshift furnitures. They hear humming from another door, slightly ajar, and decide to kick it open, revealing a large bearded ogre chopping up a dead body, which Mélusine decides to shoot. In the back of the room, a large hairy ogre baby foot sticks out from yet another chamber, and it begins crying.
• While initially reluctant about fighting, convinced a peaceful solution could be found despite the initial shot, Another-Day eventually had to join the fray and after a few intense rounds of combat, got mortally wounded, but was hardy enough to keep fighting despite knowing his doom. He decided to rush past the ogre and murder his kid to spite him as his last stand, thus focusing the ogre on him and allowing the others to retreat safely. Mélusine decided to disregard his last wish and backstab the ogre, and with help from the two remaining thieves, the party eventually fell the monster, about at the same time Another-Day drew his last, disappointed and sour breath.
• While backtracking to the entrance, the BURNING GIRAFFE found the party and charged at them, screaming while burning everything around it. Somehow, Mélusine managed to escape its wrath mainly by running away into the woods, where the party lost the beast.
• Once home, Mélusine counted her coins and gained another level, reaching 3rd level by session #3, which led me to wonder if I haven't been a little too nice on treasure placement after all.
What Worked Well
• Two players and one Ref works perfectly fine in a narrow but content-dense environnement like a dungeon, which means the party did a LOT of stuff in about two hours and a half game time (with three absentees, we didn't want to do a full 3 hour session as initially planned).
• Here's the map Carlos did, which is pretty accurate, leading me to believe my navigational instructions are getting better.
• And here's Lu's notes, in drawings form. A few details are inaccurate but I just love the contrast between the quick doodly-style and the horrible stuff happening within the game.
Thoughts
• Not sure what could have been done better this time honestly. We had a slow beginning but that's mostly because I was unsure of whether to start things off right off the bat or wait for potential players. Plus I didn't make it that clear to the new player (Carlos) that the party could buy gear and hire retainers to help.
• I've been reading Boot Hill 1E lately and it is an amazing game. I want to run it ASAP, but I'm not sure when or how. I'll probably increase the number of games I run and see how I handle it, seeing as I have a lot of free time on my hands lately. Am also considering Delta Green again, may post about it later on.
Some of us would very much like to see the stats for the Burning Giraffe.
ReplyDeletehttps://undergroundadv.blogspot.com/2019/01/on-serious-vs-rules-light-games-and.html
ReplyDeleteI put the monster before the rant to "buy" my right to talk about game stuff that's not directly useful to readers.