This session was played on the 5th of December, 2021.
Characters for this session:
Aidan Cahir, Human Mentalist (124 points)
Ivan Ivanovich Virginovsky, Shadow Elf Bard (125 points)
Maro, Human Wizard (125 points)
We start at the entrance to the Keep. The group, formed because they took the same cart on the several day long journey out to the Borderlands, arrive at the top of the steep path leading to the keep's only entrance. A guard shouts at them from across the gap separating them from the keep, demanding they state their names and business.
Maro shouts back, "I'm Maro, and these are my two very short friends (Aidan and Ivan, by the will of RNG, being only 5'3" and 5'2" respectively). we're here to plunder the dungeon!" A little bit meta. Doesn't matter, the guys just aren't warmed up yet. Ivan tips his hat, giving no words but a disturbing smile and a thumbs up. Aidan lifts his staff and waves it, a giant cigar in his mouth. They receive back but a groan from the guard. "Agh, it's more of the same!" he shouts up to a high window. The chains rattle as the drawbridge lowers.
The party enters the lower town. Ivan immediately heads for the tavern, looking to soil his reputation amongst the keep's inhabitants by swindling someone out of their money. Good start. He searches for the meanest, most dangerous looking people in the tavern, and spots a menacing looking table playing cards. A devilish grin on his face, he asks to join, and pulls up a chair before waiting for an answer. "So what are we playing?", he asks, taking five cards from the stack, and looking them over. "Blackjack". He drops three of the cards on the floor, unceremoniously. The other guys at the table aren't too pleased by this, and one motions over to the tavern keeper.
"This guy bothering you?". A nod from the group. "Alright, buddy, you've got to get going.". "What do you mean? We have a good time! I buy drink!", says Ivan, flipping a copper piece at the stout tavern keeper. Through the oracular power of the dice, the coin bounces off of the table, and hits Ivan in the eye. "You sure you haven't had enough already?", asks the keeper. Aidan walks in as Ivan, not missing a beat, jumps up from the table, bursts into a spontaneous little dance, and finishes with his arms spread. At this point, the keeper can't really be bothered to deal with this anymore, and leaves him be. He sighs, and leaves to clean some glasses. The other players at the table, also not bothering with confrontation, resume the game.
 |
| The gesture in question |
Ivan asks them who's in charge, and if they know of any good ways of making money in the area. "The Castellan, Sergei Abramovich, runs the place, but I'm sure you know that already. Lately, a few groups have been poking at the caves a half-days walk from here", replies one of the patrons, who I'll call Keith. "I got it, I got it", replies Ivan, making a nose-tapping gesture which puzzles the man.
"Did you come here alone?" asks Keith. "I come with my friends! You want to meet them?". "How well do you know your friends?" asks Keith, ignoring the question completely. "Well, it all started in my village..." starts Ivan, rambling about his troubled childhood and tragic backstory. "...and then I hopped in a cart to come here, and met the other two guys, and that's how we know each other". "Well, if you don't know them too well, be careful. The guys I came here with turned out to not exactly be the most upstanding citizens, if you're picking up what I'm putting down". A blank expression from Ivan, showing he was, in fact, not picking up what Keith was putting down. "Wat?" "I'm telling you to be careful. Not everyone around here is who they seem.", with a nose-tapping gesture from Keith. "Oh, I see!", says Ivan. He doesn't see.
After sinking away to grab a beer, Aidan approaches. The group resumes their game of Blackjack. Wanting to get in on the fun, Aidan attempts Mind Control on one of the guys playing. A success. Dave the mind control victim promptly takes his whole coin pouch, and drops it onto the table. Ivan bets. The cards are dealt. An Ace and a King goes to Ivan. "Aha!" he exclaims. Ivan grabs the bag, and leaves the tavern before Dave or anyone else realize what's going on.
Meanwhile, Maro tried to learn more about what to expect from the caves. Failing to find an alchemy shopkeeper to discuss this with, he goes for the closest thing. The town trader gives Maro a rundown on the caves. They're about a half-days journey away, following a rough path leading North-east from the keep. The "Caves of Chaos", scare-quotes included, as they've been nicknamed by those that go there, is a network of around a dozen caves in a U-shaped valley. Small tribes of kobolds, goblins, orcs, and other such creatures occupy the caves. They tend to be pretty occupied with their own affairs. At least two different tribes of orcs occupy the caves. The caves further into the valley are said to house something more dangerous, though rumors aren't exactly reliable.
Ivan bursts into the shop, in what now amounts to his usual, obnoxious manner. "Ah, Mr. Trader, this is my companion, Ivan Ivanovich", says Maro. "Aha! Nice to meet you!", says Ivan, offering the trader his hand to shake. Ivan's pinky finger is not extended, so as to tickle the trader's palm when he shakes his hand. The trader accepts, and responds surprisingly well to the gesture, cupping Ivan's hand in both of his. He gives Ivan a knowing nod. Ivan is oblivious. He tries to buy a platinum ring, but has nowhere near the amount of money necessary. He tries anyway. "You have quite the sense of humor, sir!", says the trader, as Ivan plops his pouch of Billon and Silver on the counter, "I didn't expect you so soon! I received no message". Ivan is puzzled. "Say, what brings you to our little town?", asks the trader. Ivan considers for a moment. "Ah, riches, women, music, drink and all that! Good time!", he responds. He then tried to buy the ring again. Failing, he tries a cheaper one, made of bronze. Not nice enough for him. Silver? No. There are some tumbaga rings available, that'd pass for gold. $150 each. Deal. "Pleasure doing business with you!" says Ivan, snatching the ring, paying, and walking straight out.
After that, the party stays the night at the inn. Bright and early the next morning, they decide to go and check out those caves they've been hearing about. Given a direction and rough distance, they head out with what they came in with. Ivan plays his lute along the way. About 4 hours into their journey, they hear something of note. Around the bend, loud conversation in a language unknown to them. An ugly, mangled language. Six hobgoblins turn the bend.
Ivan stops playing. "I think we should, uhh, maybe-" and hides behind a large rock. A critical success on his Stealth roll! Not even Ivan knows where he is. Aidan tries the same thing, and critically fails, sending him rolling forwards into the path of the approaching hobgoblins, landing on his back side. Maro prepares a 3d Fireball as the hobgoblins spot Aidan, and decide he's today's lunch.
The hobgoblins start about 10 yards from the party. They approach. Aidan attempts Mind Control on whoever seems like the leader. Success! The hob is his slave. Ivan waits behind cover for the hobs to get closer. Maro aims at one of the hobs. The mind-controlled leader turns around and slashes his buddy with his falchion. Misses. Some of the others are immediately distracted by this, while others push forward. The leader continues to slash at his confused buddy, getting a few hits in as the latter tries to defend himself. Another hob tries to take down his mind-controlled boss with blunt force, as the other three charge the party, seemingly identifying the source of their leader's sudden turn. In broken Common, one of the attackers shouts, "You! Baldy! Stop!". He doesn't stop. In fact, he attempts Mind Control the shouting hob. Another success! The hob stops approaching, and goes instead to hit his buddy, as Maro lets fly his Fireball, squarely hitting another.
At this point, the hobs are rather demotivated. They didn't even manage to get close to the party, and now two are mind-controlled, a third is getting sliced up by his own boss, and a fourth just received a nasty burn. They turn to run, just in time for Ivan to jump out. He points, and in a suddenly melodic voice, taunts the hobs, "Stop, or face your doom!". Nice timing, Ivan. I suppose that's one way of casting Panic. The recently mind-controlled hob snaps out of it, just in time to fall into a magical Panic, and continue running with the rest. "Aha!", continues Ivan, "I am Ivan Ivanovich, remember my face and my name! If I see you again, you will meet your death in the most horrendous, most disgusting, most vile, most hideous way imaginable!". One of the hobs, unaffected by the Panic spell, almost turns around to whack him, but he thinks better of it when he sees Maro readying another Fireball. After this, I realize how much Fatigue Panic costs, so Ivan proceeds to pass out from exhaustion.
At this point, it's getting late IRL, so the party returns to the keep, to rest and think of how to go about their next expedition.
Notes
- Immediately, contrary to BROSR philosophy, I spent a long time on prep. We're starting out with B2: Keep on the Borderlands. I spent the last few days learning how to do cool little multi-level battle-maps with multi-storied buildings and realistic lighting and all that in FoundryVTT, so I could really "immerse" my players in the game by giving them a full-scale explorable map of the Keep... only to give up on it almost immediately when session started (because it was more confusing than fun, and forced my players to open a 16Kx16K image in their browsers), download a keyed map of the Keep, and run with that. Lesson learned: Keep it simple, stupid. Players will say "Hey, that's pretty cool" once, and then they won't care. Too much time spent on unimportant details. Time which could be better spent actually reading the pulp fantasy and sci-fi works listed in Appendix N. No amount of technical magic is going to be a substitute for the creativity of a well-read GM and players.
- The group didn't manage to get to the dungeon today. Much of that can be attributed to technical difficulties and constant short breaks taken to look up this or that. My bad. However, with three not-so-brawny delvers, sans any hirelings, maybe heading for the caves right away wouldn't have been the best idea anyway.
- No real loot today, so no XP. Happens. Once the rest of the players join, with their beefier characters in tow, we should be able to pick up the pace.
