Game log for 18 January 2015

Dramatis personae

Anêr, a swashbuckler who shares a name with an NPC bargeman

Yémos, a cleric of Dōsaútōr, goddess of wisdom and magic

Mayhem, a barbarian who is vertically challenged

Caleb, a wizard of the Order of the Sun

Quid occurrit

Anêr the bearded man set them forth on a fair spring day. He had four mules, which dragged the barge on the left side of the river. He steered and his two orc slaves pushed with poles from the barge. He knew of a few ideal camping sites, and wanted to reach them.

They passed by the village of Órkōn Wall. After this, they ran into ten soldiers wearing khaki tabards over their armor. They were leading an orc in chains towards Órkōn Wall and Rēlaístis. Yémos looked to Anêr the bargeman, and Anêr chuckled. The orc slaves cringed.

Yémos asked the soldiers what they are doing, and they told him, “We think he’s the leader of a slave insurrection. The others are all dead.” Both went on their merry way.

That evening, a man in mail and a shield showed up, and watched them from afar. Yémos asked Anêr the bargeman about him, and Anêr scoffed. “We’ve seen him before. We’re armed. He won’t do anything. Just ignore him.”

That evening, there is a light rain. The night passed with no issue.

21 Blôs went without issue. It again was a fair day with a light rain in the evening. In the middle of the night, a rainstorm hit, making the banks of the river muddy.

On the morning of 22 Blôs, the group spotted a hippogriff flying low. Anêr the bargeman says, “Oh shit! If it gets one of the mules, it’s coming out of your pay!” The hippogriff dove to claw the mule, then flew around for another pass as Yémos and Mayhem miss with their bows while Caleb misses with Sunbolt. It came around, and right after it got another swipe at the panicking mule, Yémos hit it with an arrow, then Caleb felled it with Sunbolt. Yémos healed the mule after Anêr the bargeman calmed her.

They made it to the landing of the river, and passed the night there after dining on hippogriff. The morning of the 23rd, Anêr the bargeman loaded the mules and the orcs with the grain, and they trekked until they came in sight of the mining camp. Once there, ogres took the grain, and other ogres went back to the barge to get the rest.

Pellê, the head slaver, greeted them. Thickset and craggy-mugged, she lisped as she gleefully met the new, strong men who came, especially Anêr the swordsman. A burly woman brought cinnamon buns and cookies to the newcomers while overseers passed out grain to the humanoid camps: orcs, goblins, kobolds, and ogres. Many chickens ran free in the sunny weather.

The next morning was also sunny. Pellê gave the heroes two orc slaves: Kuflaug, who had a big ring in his septum, Gaddurub, who had wet hair.

Kuflaug and Gaddurub led the gang into the mines. They walked past some miners, then a flock of bats flew into their hair before Caleb blasted them. After a few twists and turns, they came to a fork where the body of a man had started to crystalize. Some more bats flew out, and Kuflaug called the body a “landmark.”

After winding down a bit farther, they find another dead body, this one of a kobold. His lips still bore his last grin, and there was a big wound from a spear or a pick in his chest. As they were looking at the body, the baker and a kobold slave came from behind them, and offered breadstuffs. The kobold slave cringed upon seeing the body, which was only a few weeks or so old. The baker and her slave then left.

After going through a room with a small patch of small bell-shaped mushrooms, glowing emerald green that Kuflaug said they were edible, another passage came from above and back. This one was smaller, more kobold size. There is a mound of dirt against the wall opposite the passage, clearly from the surface. The dirt was not new. They marked the room and went back after Mayhem heard hubbub up the small tunnel.

Trivia

The gang wants a kobold slave for traps and small tunnels. No word if they’re going to put a red shirt on him.

I have an adventure I want to run in the mines: Caverns of Thracia. I’m adapting it to GURPS and my game world, which does mean no Dog Brothers. (Awww.) I’m putting it under some working mines, so I rolled up each encounter on the Location Crafter, since I have no yen to draw a bunch of mines that have lots of nooks and crannies and are mostly only dirt and slaves. I need to learn to use this thing better to get my three dollars worth.

I gave out three character points for the session before and two for this one.

Alia

I’m working on a few blog posts. One might wind up at the GURPS Repository, since it’s D&D dragon converted to GURPS. Right now, this is an Excel spreadsheet of the evil dragons, since there are loads of tables. Another has to do with dynamic lairs and lair detail in general. I might move that to April and make a series of lairs for the April blogging challenge. No, not A-to-Z monsters, but 26 from the original Monster Manual that I’ll convert to GURPS (or use existing GURPS stats), and write up a lair with notes for both D&D and GURPS.