This is the first of my two Secret Arneson Exchange Gifts. You can find the second one here.
I was asked for: "I d love for someone to write me some cool horrific scene. Though more the subtle and disturbing horror (think Ringu) than simply gore."
And I thought, cool! I also thought, why just write a scene? Why not give everyone some tips and tricks on how to build tension and scare the shit out of players?
There seem to be several methods of scaring, that I have read about and used throughout my career as a DM. I will try to describe 3 of them. Each will be illustrated with an in-game example, or a scene.
1. Level and Point technique.
This is a very simple and useful technique and is often used in movies. It's based on gradually introducing plot elements that raise the level of fear and tension in players.
One example of such method of building levels of fear would be locking the players in an dark chamber/house/mansion/dungeon. In the middle there is a single burning candle with a letter/note which reads:
"When the candle burns out you're all gonna die".
This is a sort of a fear perpetum mobile. At first the players will feel safe and explore the possibilities open to them, but as the candle gradually burns down their efforts will become more hectic and chaotic.
When the DM decides the level of fear is high enough, he can use the Point Technique by introducing a sudden event that will instantly and unexpectedly bring the fear level to the maximum. Ex (assuming the players are in a chamber):
DM: "Suddenly, the door's open. A gust of wind blows the candle out!... You are now in complete darkness."
Get it?
Here's a more narration based implementation of the Level/Point method.
Layer one (mild, should spread over several hours): The players watch morning news and hear about strange and brutal murders happening in town. Later one of them reads a cover-story in some local newspaper on the same topic. They see flayers about a missing person, etc.
Layer two (more on point, but still vague and long): Players leave a bar where some drunk guy told them a story of a strange wolf that killed his friend many years ago. He seems to have seen it again a year ago in the mountains.
Layer three (short, intense):
DM: " You are walking home and it's cold. You start to miss the warmth and cosines of the bar. Suddenly you, you feel a horrible smell... A smell of something... Animal... Inhuman....
Point (DM plays a cassette with a wolfs' howl): A howl comes from the ally you've just passed!
Please note: once you decide to introduce another layer and turn it up a notch, it's very difficult to keep up the tension. One method I recommend is using a second point. For example: After the players fight the werewolf or whatever it was in the previous illustration, the tension will naturally fall. Let the players feel victorious for a second, make them think it was the end. And than strike. In the above example, after the players defeated the monster, this should follow:
DM: "You are breathing heavily, looking from one to the other. You're alive, you won. it's all over... Suddenly you hear a howl, than another and another joining in... Whatever you killed, it wasn't alone!
2. DM Acting
If you really want to scare your players, it's important to learn to act well. And I don't mean acting out Torgo.
What I understand under the term, is using the words and voice together when narrating. It's not just about what you say, it's about how you say it.
Try to use your voice like an instrument, learn to use it's dynamics to your advantage. Whisper and make the players move closer to hear you and shout when something sudden happens. If you want to make the players feel the pressure speak fast and leave them little time to decide. Finally, use rhetorical questions and play with them.
For example, the players are escaping a horrible monster through some dungeon.
DM (fast): Suddenly the tunnel splits in two, right or left?
P1: Right!
P2: Left?
DM (rising his voice): The grunts behind your are getting louder! You turn back, and you can almost see the beast's shadow around the corner!
P1: Right!
P2: No, Left!
DM (shouting): It's there! It's right around the corner, you can see it's shadow and the outline of it's tentacled head!!!
P1 and P2: RIGHT! WE GO RIGHT!
DM (softly with an ominous smile): Are you sure?..
3. Breaking the 4th wall.
This is the method which is already present in the previous example. But really, this is just an augmentation of the two previous methods, since it doesn't work on it's own.
The point is, to do something unexpected. As you might have noticed, throughout this post I was talking about scaring the players, not their characters. This is because I believe that any true attempt at scaring and building horror, must appeal to the players themselves and not their characters.
Even the most basic type of fear present in RPGs - the fear of dying, is not really role playing the PC's emotions, it's the player's fear losing the character. So why not go further and simply scare the players themselves? That's what breaking the 4th wall is all about.
Here is a real life example from the game of Cthulhu, that I DMed a few year ago.
The players were investigating a strange murder case in the Cracow of the 20's. We played at night, with candles. In game they just broke into some apartment. Inside there was a single candle burning. With a note. As they read the note (exactly as in point 1), I put all the candles in the room out. Except for one.
The atmosphere got really creepy and I started speaking in a hushed voice. The candle flickered as they went through the room looking for clues. When I felt they were about to do something to release the tension, I screamed that the door opened and blew out the last candle.
In the silence that followed, whispering, I started to describe the horrible stench they felt coming into the room. When one of them was about to speak, I suddenly reached across the table and touched his cheek, shouting that something just moved next to him!
It was a rampage, the guy got up throwing the chair back, shouting about how he tries to get out of the room, the other one followed and freaked out when I grabbed his arm.
After that one scene, they had to stop and smoke a couple of cigarettes. We finished the game that night. With all lights on.
___________________________________________
Discalimer: The point and level examples aren't mine. I did use them in game as described, but they are taken from an article written by Michal Marszalik and published in Magia i Miecz, in 2000. It was the main inspiration behind this post.
Showing posts with label session recap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label session recap. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Mutant Past
This is a writeup of a session that happened over 3 months ago! I wanted to do it for a long time now, but been unable due to my laziness/schedule. Still, it was so much fun that, even after so long, it still feels like it happened just a week ago.
It started with me and Julia trying to convince our friend Adam to play some D&D with us, since we knew he has played RPGs in the past. He said that he would like to, but is afraid that he's gonna kill it, since he always had problems with immersing into the game world. I told him that random jokes and bursting into laughter is nothing bad, but he wasn't quite convinced.
That is when I devised a master plan to lure him into gaming with us.
Since I was already pretty stoked about playing some Mutant Future I decided to kill two pigeons with one rock (or whatever that idiom is in English) and use the gonzo atmosphere of the game to convince Adam. Knowing what he likes, I showed him one illustration form MF handbook (the 50's astronaut sheriff riding a giant spider-chicken from page 23) and said: " Hey dude, look at this! Maybe that's what you'd like to play?"
He obviously laughed and said it's an awesome idea, but he was still kinda nervous about it. I told him not to worry, that we're gonna have loads of fun. Finally when an opportunity appeared, we met at my house.
We started in a most peculiar way. By rolling a joint (another step in my plan to make us feel relaxed and comfortable) and deciding when to order pizza, since the time pepperoni hits the gaming table is crucial to the whole evening. Order it too early, or too late and the game might be delayed/interrupted/suddenly ended by the heaviness caused by the cheese. We settled to eat and smoke in the break between making characters and playing.
And so character creation begun, while the joint lay on the table like a loaded Chekov's gun.
It soon became clear that we won't really need it. Choosing races and rolling mutations was enough to bring us to our knees and laughing to tears.
Adam quickly picked a synthetic android (though I tried to tempt him into making a robot on custom rules), but Julia couldn't decide whether to make a mutant plant or an animal. I decided that they can create two characters each and pick the one they like better, keeping the other as a back up since I still felt a bit uneasy with new monsters and not knowing how fast they can kill the party (a party of only 2 mind you).
Julia ended up with a nameless palm tree (thanks Jeff):
Str: 14 Dex: 17 Con: 16 Int: 14 Wil: 12 Cha: 10
Hp: 49 AC: 7
Mutations:
• Aprehinsile Tendrils (Dex 10)
• Radioactive Emissions (150ft./10d6)
• Pituitary Deformation
• Density Alteration
• Meta Concert
• Echo-location
• Unique Sense (smell water for 1 mile)
Pretty badass, isn't it? Her second character was no less awesome. It's a wolf, with wings and Vampiric Field, Killing Sphere and Control Weather mutations!
Adam was less successful with his rolls (and yes, I made him roll for mutations, cause it's funnier that way). He set out to create an assassin android, but this is what he ended up with:
Mr. Apple, Synthetic Android
Str: 14 Dex: 15 Con: 13 Int: 13 Wil: 11 Cha: 6
Hp: 50 AC: 7
Mutations:
• Chameleon Epidermis
• Optic Emission (3d6)
• Aberrant Form (large legs, twice the speed)
In other conditions, this would be a great character, but compared to Julia's doom bringing dendro-carnivores, his was kinda weak. I was trying to cheer him up by telling him he's rolling mutations that are in line with his original idea of an assassin, but than he rolled those damn funny large legs. He ended up drawing a huge all-star sneaker as his character pic.
His other character was also quite on the other side. It's a duck that spits napalm!
After we finished filling out character sheets and buying useless equipment (like a dog for an android, about which we forgot instantly), we took the aforementioned break. We ordered pizza, chilled for a couple of minutes and smoked that damn joint... This was a mistake.
You see, I especially made it extra light, so that it would just loosen us up and not send us flying under the ceiling. But the moment we started playing and eating pizza, all hell broke loose. In a good sense. Though I was the DM, I felt like watching Mutant Big Lebowski (and not because of drugs).
My players simply blew me away. The dialogues between the Palm Tree and Mr. Apple (aka the cowardly assassin android) were just pure gold. Every several minutes we would all roll on the floor laughing, because of something we would say. It was also the first time in my life I was afraid someone might choke to death on pizza.
Still, I feel that drugs had nothing to do with it. Mutant Future is just a great game and after the game we agreed we didn't need any superficial help in having ultimate fun.
I won't reveal much of what happened during the session, as I used some great stuff from this blog and my players might go back there. Let me just say, they were running away from giant anthropomorphic ants.
What I can say though, is that they solved a mystery of who's killing people in a small mutant western town, run by Roby - a sheriff that's a blend of those two guys.
Everything played out great. There were moments of genuine tension when the players where investigating an abandoned, supposedly haunted house. And some comedy relief when they found out that the strange creatures living underneath the house are actually cowardly Cockroachoids who will sell them the information they need for a nice load of shit.
In the end, both Julia and Adam were screaming for more and that's what is a measure of a good game. I think that, with the exams out of our way, I will try to go for a full on session in a bit darker tone. Still, for retro-stupid gaming, MF is probably unbeatable!
Session Quotes:
Me: " You see ...."
Julia: " I HAVE NO EYE'S DAMMIT!"
2 minutes later
Me: " You are walking down an old, squeaking staircase, it's pitch black and you can't see..."
Julia: "For fuck sake man!"
close to the end of the game
Julia: "Hey man, what happened to your dog?"
It started with me and Julia trying to convince our friend Adam to play some D&D with us, since we knew he has played RPGs in the past. He said that he would like to, but is afraid that he's gonna kill it, since he always had problems with immersing into the game world. I told him that random jokes and bursting into laughter is nothing bad, but he wasn't quite convinced.
That is when I devised a master plan to lure him into gaming with us.
Since I was already pretty stoked about playing some Mutant Future I decided to kill two pigeons with one rock (or whatever that idiom is in English) and use the gonzo atmosphere of the game to convince Adam. Knowing what he likes, I showed him one illustration form MF handbook (the 50's astronaut sheriff riding a giant spider-chicken from page 23) and said: " Hey dude, look at this! Maybe that's what you'd like to play?"
He obviously laughed and said it's an awesome idea, but he was still kinda nervous about it. I told him not to worry, that we're gonna have loads of fun. Finally when an opportunity appeared, we met at my house.
We started in a most peculiar way. By rolling a joint (another step in my plan to make us feel relaxed and comfortable) and deciding when to order pizza, since the time pepperoni hits the gaming table is crucial to the whole evening. Order it too early, or too late and the game might be delayed/interrupted/suddenly ended by the heaviness caused by the cheese. We settled to eat and smoke in the break between making characters and playing.
And so character creation begun, while the joint lay on the table like a loaded Chekov's gun.
It soon became clear that we won't really need it. Choosing races and rolling mutations was enough to bring us to our knees and laughing to tears.
Adam quickly picked a synthetic android (though I tried to tempt him into making a robot on custom rules), but Julia couldn't decide whether to make a mutant plant or an animal. I decided that they can create two characters each and pick the one they like better, keeping the other as a back up since I still felt a bit uneasy with new monsters and not knowing how fast they can kill the party (a party of only 2 mind you).
Julia ended up with a nameless palm tree (thanks Jeff):
Str: 14 Dex: 17 Con: 16 Int: 14 Wil: 12 Cha: 10
Hp: 49 AC: 7
Mutations:
• Aprehinsile Tendrils (Dex 10)
• Radioactive Emissions (150ft./10d6)
• Pituitary Deformation
• Density Alteration
• Meta Concert
• Echo-location
• Unique Sense (smell water for 1 mile)
Pretty badass, isn't it? Her second character was no less awesome. It's a wolf, with wings and Vampiric Field, Killing Sphere and Control Weather mutations!
Adam was less successful with his rolls (and yes, I made him roll for mutations, cause it's funnier that way). He set out to create an assassin android, but this is what he ended up with:
Mr. Apple, Synthetic Android
Str: 14 Dex: 15 Con: 13 Int: 13 Wil: 11 Cha: 6
Hp: 50 AC: 7
Mutations:
• Chameleon Epidermis
• Optic Emission (3d6)
• Aberrant Form (large legs, twice the speed)
In other conditions, this would be a great character, but compared to Julia's doom bringing dendro-carnivores, his was kinda weak. I was trying to cheer him up by telling him he's rolling mutations that are in line with his original idea of an assassin, but than he rolled those damn funny large legs. He ended up drawing a huge all-star sneaker as his character pic.
His other character was also quite on the other side. It's a duck that spits napalm!
After we finished filling out character sheets and buying useless equipment (like a dog for an android, about which we forgot instantly), we took the aforementioned break. We ordered pizza, chilled for a couple of minutes and smoked that damn joint... This was a mistake.
You see, I especially made it extra light, so that it would just loosen us up and not send us flying under the ceiling. But the moment we started playing and eating pizza, all hell broke loose. In a good sense. Though I was the DM, I felt like watching Mutant Big Lebowski (and not because of drugs).
My players simply blew me away. The dialogues between the Palm Tree and Mr. Apple (aka the cowardly assassin android) were just pure gold. Every several minutes we would all roll on the floor laughing, because of something we would say. It was also the first time in my life I was afraid someone might choke to death on pizza.
Still, I feel that drugs had nothing to do with it. Mutant Future is just a great game and after the game we agreed we didn't need any superficial help in having ultimate fun.
I won't reveal much of what happened during the session, as I used some great stuff from this blog and my players might go back there. Let me just say, they were running away from giant anthropomorphic ants.
What I can say though, is that they solved a mystery of who's killing people in a small mutant western town, run by Roby - a sheriff that's a blend of those two guys.
Everything played out great. There were moments of genuine tension when the players where investigating an abandoned, supposedly haunted house. And some comedy relief when they found out that the strange creatures living underneath the house are actually cowardly Cockroachoids who will sell them the information they need for a nice load of shit.
Session Quotes:
Me: " You see ...."
Julia: " I HAVE NO EYE'S DAMMIT!"
2 minutes later
Me: " You are walking down an old, squeaking staircase, it's pitch black and you can't see..."
Julia: "For fuck sake man!"
close to the end of the game
Julia: "Hey man, what happened to your dog?"
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
I hit it with his axe
In this post, Zak Smith asked us not to judge I hit it with my axe until episode 5 airs.
It just did.
And I liked it. I liked all episodes except for the first one.
I think that the biggest strength of Zak's show the fact, that it's a documentation of D&D is played. While any session report is a (more or less literary) retelling of the game, so in fact - a re-narration of a past narration, the show is a straight up account of how actual game play looks.
And I must admit that, the first time I watched it, I was amazed at how similar his and mine games are. It was very uplifting to see, that even with all his insight and superb writing skills, he still plays the game in the same way.
Finally, I think that the DIY, chaotic way the show is put together only adds to it's appeal and adds to the feeling of observing real game play, instead of watching some prearranged, polished tv theater.
It just did.
And I liked it. I liked all episodes except for the first one.
I think that the biggest strength of Zak's show the fact, that it's a documentation of D&D is played. While any session report is a (more or less literary) retelling of the game, so in fact - a re-narration of a past narration, the show is a straight up account of how actual game play looks.
And I must admit that, the first time I watched it, I was amazed at how similar his and mine games are. It was very uplifting to see, that even with all his insight and superb writing skills, he still plays the game in the same way.
Finally, I think that the DIY, chaotic way the show is put together only adds to it's appeal and adds to the feeling of observing real game play, instead of watching some prearranged, polished tv theater.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Entschuldigen aber ich konnte leider nicht rechtzeitig kommen, weil ich keine Uhr habe*
I'm really ashamed about my posting rate. But as you will find out today, it's not the only thing I'm ashamed about.
This is the second part of the post promised a week ago.
The last Session Recap might seem like an interesting game, but it was not. And for some time now, I am asking myself the same question. Why?
I know that there are those sessions. The ones that don't work out because many, at first glimpse, insignificant things happen. I had them and I'm sure all of you had them. (Right?!)
In fact, many such "unfavorable occurrences" took place that day. Katja came tired straight from lectures, we ordered Vietnamese food and got stuffed with it before playing (again! quoth the Raven: nevermore!), finally Julia was sleepy throughout the game. Perhaps the air pressure was low? The fuck if I know.
One thing remains sure. All those things shouldn't have prevented us from having much more fun than we actually did. And for that, I blame myself. Cause I am the DM.
It follows from my strong belief that the DM, as the privileged participant of the game, is the Protector of Fun. He's not solely responsible for everyone having fun - that's a collective effort. However, I do feel that the DM is in a way the person who, due to his privilaged position, is able to max out the amount of fun at the table.
I feel that I have neglected this responsibility. That is why over the course of last few weeks I came up with a number of things that I think are lacking/faults of my DMing style:
- The first issue that came to my mind is the fact, that we are playing in English. Somehow I felt compelled to run the game in English, since I knew it's the first language for both of my players and Julia would feel less vulnerable playing in English. Now I'm having second thoughts. Even though I consider myself to be a fluent speaker (after all I do study Philosophy in English) I feel that my vocabulary might be lacking in terms of providing rich descriptions and creating atmosphere.
- The second issue are the aforementioned descriptions. I do feel I need to prepare and remember about them. The language barrier is not an excuse. I feel that the lack of detail has made the game 2 dimensional and boring.
- This might be partially the fault of me being dependent on the materials scavenged from the net (especially the one page dungeons). Instead of using them as a guideline and making them my own or simply plundering for ideas, I just fell back on them. This has led to my initial setting losing flavor and reinforcing the bad D&D tropes. This has happened partially due to the fact that being unfamiliar with retro clones I was unsure of how to balance the game. Luckily this is no longer the case.
- The last issue is the one which really lies in the heart of this whole clusterfuck. I didn't prepare enough. That's it. There are many reasons for it, but there is no excuse.
So yeah. How do I straighten myself up? Well I came with a number of ideas.
First of all: PREPARE! This also means exercising in the way Zak has described in his comment for this entry.
The second thing is: make up more of my own shit. I do need to get around to writing a good dungeon and generally exercising my creativity more. The pornstars blog is a great example of how you can reconstruct used up stereotypes and create something interesting and fresh.
Thirdly: play more. I had quite a long break from gaming and I do want to play a lot now. That is why I am fiddling around with running a game of Mutant Futures (a thing I wanted to do since I discovered Jeff's sessions) as well as running some solo sessions for Julia.
Well, we'll see how it goes.
*this is the sentence that my German teacher in jr. high made me say every time I came late to the lesson.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Session Recap #3
It seems like it's high time to post something about actual game play. I've been putting off the writing of this post for some time now, mostly because I still don't know how to constructively re-approach the last session.
Because of this this post will be divided into two parts - a short session recap, followed by my thoughts on my DMing. Here's the actual game bit:
Session Recap #3
The session started with the PCs descending beneath the city of Adamask. As it turned out, the passage discovered in the Iron Sword's cellar lead to the sewers/remains of a much older settlement.
Since the whole session was primarily composed of just wandering around, I'll try to provide the key events in the form of bullet points.
Julia: looking quite tired from across the table "Can we go to the tavern now and get some spells and rest?"
Katja: "But we rested in the gem cutters workshop!"
Julia: Yawns, " We did? Then why am I so sleepy?", puts head on the table.
____________________________________________
art by Lucas Hardi
Because of this this post will be divided into two parts - a short session recap, followed by my thoughts on my DMing. Here's the actual game bit:
Session Recap #3
The session started with the PCs descending beneath the city of Adamask. As it turned out, the passage discovered in the Iron Sword's cellar lead to the sewers/remains of a much older settlement.
Since the whole session was primarily composed of just wandering around, I'll try to provide the key events in the form of bullet points.
- Shortly after descending into the sewers, the girls made their way into a passage filled with webs and spider eggs. Although they got ambushed by 4 giant spiders, they managed to survive (and torch the eggs) and press deeper into the spiders' lair, just to encounter a gargantuan (and I mean it in the literary sense) black widow, which proved to be a formidable foe. Though dangerous, the fight was short. The players lured the spider into the narrowest passage so that it wasn't able to turn around. There rest was simple - while Kai and Winston were facing the beast, Juchi performed numerous back stabs. In the spiders lair the players found a helmet shining a blue light and a passage leading into a forgotten gem cutters workshop.
- Later they encountered a small group of juvenile delinquents who took them into their hideout. The thieves' lair proved to be populated by three more grown men. After some crude role playing from both my and the party's side, a fight broke out. It was short and messy, with two of the thieves decapitated while crying for mercy. The group of street youths decided to not interfere, so when the fight was over, they offered their services to the party (they tried to deceive them and get them killed, but in the end just ditched them on the surface).
- For some reason the girls thought that their main goal is finding out where the rats are coming from. I must say that I found this quite amusing and probably will dedicate the whole post to this issue. Anyway, I did put some were rats on the map so eventually, that's where the girls got. It turned out that within the sewers a group of wererats built a shrine for worshiping some weird god. Inside there was only one rat priest with several rodents, all of which were quickly disposed of due to the extra muscle provided by the street gang.
- After destroying the shrine the players ascended back to the inn in order to finally get some proper sleep. One of them woke up at night hearing screeching noises coming from the ground floor. Soon all three were awake and going down to inspect the main chamber. Down stairs they found two wererats (in the shrine there were signs of 3 inhabitants) dragging the unconscious tavern boy, who began changing into one of them (due to an earlier leg bite)! Needles to say, the ratmen and the half turned boy were dead in no time and the innkeeper, who got woken up by the fight, was crying over the boys body...
Julia: looking quite tired from across the table "Can we go to the tavern now and get some spells and rest?"
Katja: "But we rested in the gem cutters workshop!"
Julia: Yawns, " We did? Then why am I so sleepy?", puts head on the table.
____________________________________________
art by Lucas Hardi
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Session recap 2
As some of you might have gathered from my previous session recap, I've played the second session of my new S&W campaign over a weak a go. I was eager to go over that game and post a short recap, since it proved to be a great tool for ordering what happened during the session, as well as the progress of my players - both in game and on the meta-game level.
Unluckily I've been struck down by some weird illness that gives me vertigo so strong that for a few days I was barely able to walk, not to mention using a computer. I feel a bit better now, but after a weak of visiting doctors, there's still no clue what's wrong and I still can't spend too much time typing - this post took me 3 days to write!
But anyway, since I feel a bit better and can finally do something constructive - I give you the second session recap!
The next morning after the happenings of the first session, Kai and Juchi decided to leave the town of Stillwater and head south for the nearest city, where they hoped to coin some of the goods they retrieved from the caves underneath the shrine of Skaghe.
As soon as they decided to leave the tavern they met Winston - the young boy that helped them in the caves and who was eager to join them on their adventures. He lied (of which they did not know) that his father gave him permission to go.
The girls noticed that the boy was wearing a viking-like helmet, a farewell present from Thorson. The former adventurer decided that the several times he got wounded in the caves was too much for his old bones and gave away his lucky helmet.
The girls accepted the boys company, but only after they made sure that he was wise enough to prepare his own traveling rations. And so they set out into the wilderness...
That was the point where I pulled out a white sheet of hex paper... As I was preparing for the session I decided to make it a hex-crawl during which the players will draw their own map. Using the hexographer I made myself the outline of the terrain, but decided not to mark any specific locations. Instead I created some random charts that would determine what the players might encounter, thus filling the map with dungeons, encounters, villages, etc...
Here are some of the things that happened during their travel through the wilderness:
1. A day of travel from Stillwater, the girls saw a line of smoke emerging from distant ruins. The whole party managed to sneak to the ruins, despite them being located in open sight and on top of a small hill. Within the partially collapsed walls of a small keep they saw three Norse males sitting and chatting...
Kai, filled with joy of meeting her kinsmen, neglected any common sense and came out of hiding. The three men immediately attacked the warrior-woman, proving to be bandit berserkers. The fight was short and the party was cooking warm stew before the bodies got completely cold.
2. Few days later, the party came to a river. As they were following the road, hoping it will take them to a bridge or a brood, they came upon the remains of a burned village. They were examining the ruins, trying to make out what had happened, when the other river bank started swarming with goblins.
Julia and Katja decided to face them. The encounter was long, with the cowardly goblins sending deadly rain of arrows, nearly taking Winston's life... Finally, the girls decided to retreat and try to find another crossing up the river.
I noticed a drop in mood, but i hope they learned to judge their foes more carefully...
They circled the forests for a few days and found themselves returning to the village, hoping that the goblins are long gone ("It's not like they're sitting there waiting for us"). Turned out the goblins left some guards, since the bridge was the only crossing in miles. However there were few guards and the party manage to safely cross the river.
3. On the next day they came across an old burial ground, but weren't interested in jumping into the open mouth of danger again.
4. Few hexes to the south the party had to stop, as the road was cut in half by a canyon-like rift in the ground. The road seemed to continue on the other side, prompting that perhaps the hole in the ground came into existence quite recently.
Kai and Juchi decided to look for a way around the rift. They lost one day traveling west where they found this Elder construction. I was hoping that after they defeated the enemies they'd flee from the monster without barring the doors, but they proved to be more thoughtful than I suspected. Since the little dungeon wasn't a path to the other side of the rift, the party decided to head East.
5. After two days they've found the "end" of the rift and decided to get back to the road. They didn't want to loose another day for following the ledge and so they went straight through the woods, hoping their path will cut the road at some point.
This took them to a hex occupied by a goblin war camp (probably belonging to the same goblins that raised the village), but the party decided to sneak by.
6. After that they finally made it back to the road, just to enter into the middle of a fight - two merchants wagons fighting off bandits. The brigands proved to be no match for party's skill and soon our heroes were offered a lift on one of the wagons.
The merchants were quiet and didn't ask many questions, nor were they asked any by the party. Somehow no one voiced any suspicions about the place where the merchants were encountered... They were traveling south, but they were just a day away from the rift and no other trading rout was visible. Was their travel north interrupted by the appearance of a new geological formation, making them turn back? or was it the goal of their travel?
Whatever was the answer to those questions, the rest of their travel went smoothly and just three days later, after almost three weeks of traveling, they made it to the city of Adamask!
I must admit, that I didn't expect the party to get to the city during this session, not to mention exploring it! However, ever since being beaten by goblins, I sensed that girls got weary of the wilderness, so at some point I decided it's time to risk letting them reach Adamask, with me being completely unprepared. Luckily, the game took off anew once they crossed the city walls.
Once in, they were very interested in the market (here I could put something about women and shopping, but I would feel a horrible hypocrite as I 've seen male players spending hours haggling with traders). Juchi managed to get a good deal for preparing the wolf hide and both girls took some time to flirt with a tall, black southerner trading in fine silks and exotic wares.
Later they stopped at the fine artisans street and visited an old jeweler (role-played by putting a beer bottle-cap in my eye), with whom they haggled really hard and managed to make a nice profit on gems they found in the goblin caves. They also briefly stopped at a blacksmith, who directed them to a good tavern. Before they left he mentioned that he's the innkeepers friend and perhaps they'd find some work there.
The Iron Sword turned out to be a small and modest inn, run by an old mercenary called Drognar. After a short conversation he told them of his problems with rats and offered a free meal and room for the night. When asked, why he hadn't settled it himself, the man told them that he ordered his tavern boy to take care of the rats, but one of them bit him badly and now the wound was turning bad. After giving it some thought, Kai and Juchi promised him, they'd look into it first thing in the morning.
After a good meal, the girls talked a bit with the innkeeper and asked him about good brothels!!! He told them, that hearty adventurers like themselves would probably feel best in Warrior's Rest.
As they were about to leave, they noticed little Winston trying to sneak out. They told him it's dangerous to wonder the city alone at nighttime and inquired where was he heading? The boy tried to sell them a story about "leaving to get some air", but to his embarrassment they saw through his bluff and managed to pull from him his true destination. The boy was off to a brothel himself! After laughing about "itching virginity" they promised to take him with. Needles to say that only made the awkward boy more uncomfortable.
Warrior's Rest proved to be a jolly and crowded place. The bartender, who th
e clients call simply Bob (an anagram for his long and complicated name), turned out to look and sound like Jack Black.
The girls told him their business and the innkeeper offered Winston "a go for half a price". Kai also found some pleasure in the arms of a woman, while Juchi waited in the main room drinking the surprisingly good beer...
After the curse of Winston's virginity had been lifted and everyone met back at the bar, I asked whether the girls want to party Conan style and exchange some of their coin for experience. To my surprise they were reluctant, but after some thinking decided to take a roll on the party table, Winston included.
The next morning was a painful one, exactly as it should be! Kai woke up bruised up, with a black eye. Juchi smelled literally like a pig, vaguely remembering getting into some argument with an old woman. But the biggest surprise was yet to come. As they descended into the main tavern room, Drognar welcomed Winston with curses and shouts. As it turned out the boy got so hammered, that he peed all over the tavern's main room...
After this was settled with some coin, the party bought themselves a big breakfast, and still a bit hungover, decided to descend into the cellar. There they encountered four giant rats. The fight was short, but Kai got bit by the only infected rat. Julia almost neglected that, as the girls found a crack in the wall and wanted to explore more of the city's underground. Luckily, in the end she decided to go seek help at the temple of Skaghe.
At the temple they were offered some cure potions, but the temple pharmacist told them that three portions will take a day to prepare. The party decided to go easy on themselves and spend the day on sight seeing, until the medications are ready.
The next day they received the promised medicine and descended beyond Iron Sword's cellar, deep into the darkness underneath the city of Adamask...
Unluckily I've been struck down by some weird illness that gives me vertigo so strong that for a few days I was barely able to walk, not to mention using a computer. I feel a bit better now, but after a weak of visiting doctors, there's still no clue what's wrong and I still can't spend too much time typing - this post took me 3 days to write!
But anyway, since I feel a bit better and can finally do something constructive - I give you the second session recap!
The next morning after the happenings of the first session, Kai and Juchi decided to leave the town of Stillwater and head south for the nearest city, where they hoped to coin some of the goods they retrieved from the caves underneath the shrine of Skaghe.
As soon as they decided to leave the tavern they met Winston - the young boy that helped them in the caves and who was eager to join them on their adventures. He lied (of which they did not know) that his father gave him permission to go.
The girls noticed that the boy was wearing a viking-like helmet, a farewell present from Thorson. The former adventurer decided that the several times he got wounded in the caves was too much for his old bones and gave away his lucky helmet.
The girls accepted the boys company, but only after they made sure that he was wise enough to prepare his own traveling rations. And so they set out into the wilderness...
That was the point where I pulled out a white sheet of hex paper... As I was preparing for the session I decided to make it a hex-crawl during which the players will draw their own map. Using the hexographer I made myself the outline of the terrain, but decided not to mark any specific locations. Instead I created some random charts that would determine what the players might encounter, thus filling the map with dungeons, encounters, villages, etc...
Here are some of the things that happened during their travel through the wilderness:
1. A day of travel from Stillwater, the girls saw a line of smoke emerging from distant ruins. The whole party managed to sneak to the ruins, despite them being located in open sight and on top of a small hill. Within the partially collapsed walls of a small keep they saw three Norse males sitting and chatting...
Kai, filled with joy of meeting her kinsmen, neglected any common sense and came out of hiding. The three men immediately attacked the warrior-woman, proving to be bandit berserkers. The fight was short and the party was cooking warm stew before the bodies got completely cold.
2. Few days later, the party came to a river. As they were following the road, hoping it will take them to a bridge or a brood, they came upon the remains of a burned village. They were examining the ruins, trying to make out what had happened, when the other river bank started swarming with goblins.
Julia and Katja decided to face them. The encounter was long, with the cowardly goblins sending deadly rain of arrows, nearly taking Winston's life... Finally, the girls decided to retreat and try to find another crossing up the river.
I noticed a drop in mood, but i hope they learned to judge their foes more carefully...
They circled the forests for a few days and found themselves returning to the village, hoping that the goblins are long gone ("It's not like they're sitting there waiting for us"). Turned out the goblins left some guards, since the bridge was the only crossing in miles. However there were few guards and the party manage to safely cross the river.
3. On the next day they came across an old burial ground, but weren't interested in jumping into the open mouth of danger again.
4. Few hexes to the south the party had to stop, as the road was cut in half by a canyon-like rift in the ground. The road seemed to continue on the other side, prompting that perhaps the hole in the ground came into existence quite recently.
Kai and Juchi decided to look for a way around the rift. They lost one day traveling west where they found this Elder construction. I was hoping that after they defeated the enemies they'd flee from the monster without barring the doors, but they proved to be more thoughtful than I suspected. Since the little dungeon wasn't a path to the other side of the rift, the party decided to head East.
5. After two days they've found the "end" of the rift and decided to get back to the road. They didn't want to loose another day for following the ledge and so they went straight through the woods, hoping their path will cut the road at some point.
This took them to a hex occupied by a goblin war camp (probably belonging to the same goblins that raised the village), but the party decided to sneak by.
6. After that they finally made it back to the road, just to enter into the middle of a fight - two merchants wagons fighting off bandits. The brigands proved to be no match for party's skill and soon our heroes were offered a lift on one of the wagons.
The merchants were quiet and didn't ask many questions, nor were they asked any by the party. Somehow no one voiced any suspicions about the place where the merchants were encountered... They were traveling south, but they were just a day away from the rift and no other trading rout was visible. Was their travel north interrupted by the appearance of a new geological formation, making them turn back? or was it the goal of their travel?
Whatever was the answer to those questions, the rest of their travel went smoothly and just three days later, after almost three weeks of traveling, they made it to the city of Adamask!
I must admit, that I didn't expect the party to get to the city during this session, not to mention exploring it! However, ever since being beaten by goblins, I sensed that girls got weary of the wilderness, so at some point I decided it's time to risk letting them reach Adamask, with me being completely unprepared. Luckily, the game took off anew once they crossed the city walls.
Once in, they were very interested in the market (here I could put something about women and shopping, but I would feel a horrible hypocrite as I 've seen male players spending hours haggling with traders). Juchi managed to get a good deal for preparing the wolf hide and both girls took some time to flirt with a tall, black southerner trading in fine silks and exotic wares.
Later they stopped at the fine artisans street and visited an old jeweler (role-played by putting a beer bottle-cap in my eye), with whom they haggled really hard and managed to make a nice profit on gems they found in the goblin caves. They also briefly stopped at a blacksmith, who directed them to a good tavern. Before they left he mentioned that he's the innkeepers friend and perhaps they'd find some work there.
The Iron Sword turned out to be a small and modest inn, run by an old mercenary called Drognar. After a short conversation he told them of his problems with rats and offered a free meal and room for the night. When asked, why he hadn't settled it himself, the man told them that he ordered his tavern boy to take care of the rats, but one of them bit him badly and now the wound was turning bad. After giving it some thought, Kai and Juchi promised him, they'd look into it first thing in the morning.
After a good meal, the girls talked a bit with the innkeeper and asked him about good brothels!!! He told them, that hearty adventurers like themselves would probably feel best in Warrior's Rest.
As they were about to leave, they noticed little Winston trying to sneak out. They told him it's dangerous to wonder the city alone at nighttime and inquired where was he heading? The boy tried to sell them a story about "leaving to get some air", but to his embarrassment they saw through his bluff and managed to pull from him his true destination. The boy was off to a brothel himself! After laughing about "itching virginity" they promised to take him with. Needles to say that only made the awkward boy more uncomfortable.
Warrior's Rest proved to be a jolly and crowded place. The bartender, who th
e clients call simply Bob (an anagram for his long and complicated name), turned out to look and sound like Jack Black.The girls told him their business and the innkeeper offered Winston "a go for half a price". Kai also found some pleasure in the arms of a woman, while Juchi waited in the main room drinking the surprisingly good beer...
After the curse of Winston's virginity had been lifted and everyone met back at the bar, I asked whether the girls want to party Conan style and exchange some of their coin for experience. To my surprise they were reluctant, but after some thinking decided to take a roll on the party table, Winston included.
The next morning was a painful one, exactly as it should be! Kai woke up bruised up, with a black eye. Juchi smelled literally like a pig, vaguely remembering getting into some argument with an old woman. But the biggest surprise was yet to come. As they descended into the main tavern room, Drognar welcomed Winston with curses and shouts. As it turned out the boy got so hammered, that he peed all over the tavern's main room...
After this was settled with some coin, the party bought themselves a big breakfast, and still a bit hungover, decided to descend into the cellar. There they encountered four giant rats. The fight was short, but Kai got bit by the only infected rat. Julia almost neglected that, as the girls found a crack in the wall and wanted to explore more of the city's underground. Luckily, in the end she decided to go seek help at the temple of Skaghe.
At the temple they were offered some cure potions, but the temple pharmacist told them that three portions will take a day to prepare. The party decided to go easy on themselves and spend the day on sight seeing, until the medications are ready.
The next day they received the promised medicine and descended beyond Iron Sword's cellar, deep into the darkness underneath the city of Adamask...
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Session recap 1
SOoOoOoOoOo!!!!
As you may know from my previous posts, last Friday I finally got back on the line with some D&D!
I haven't mentioned it before (or have I?), but after a long time of searching for some players, Julia (aka fishlemons) came up with an idea, that maybe her friend - Katja, would like to play with us. Katja proved to be intrigued enough to check my blog. After she read it (along with D&D with porn stars - thanks Zak) she got really amped about playing, to the point of buying her own set of dice a week early. Cool!
We decided to meet on Friday. We first made some pasta and, with our tummies full, decided to roll up characters. I had to take a small break beforehand to print all the spell lists, the dungeon map and so on. During that time girls got a bit restless at the kitchen table and I got really stressed out. My biggest fear was, that the girls will find the game boring and won't play ever again...
Luckily, seconds after we started to roll up characters, the atmosphere got joyful and we had a lot of laughs. Character creation took us quite a lot of time, since I had to explain everything and both players proved to be very inquisitive (which is obviously a good thing).
After everything got cleared up, the girls decided what race/class they want to play. Katja was very excited about my take on halflings, so that's what she decided to play. Julia, very in touch with the old school tradition, decided to play a half-elven cleric of Skaghe - a strategic choice aimed at the party's survival (apart from being an aesthetic one).
The most memorable moment of characters creation was a discussion that followed my question about the sex of their PCs.
K:"Hmmm, perhaps we should play men characters... They might have some special abilities..."
J: "What special abilities?! Peeing standing up?!"
More joy ensued, when I asked them to roll a d100 (on a special table that I made) to find out what their characters were doing before they decided to change their qualifications. And so we found out that Julia's PC used to be jester, while Katja's halfling was a candle maker (which btw. led her to quickly come up with a story that the nomadic halflings of my world make candles and lamps out of pony poo)
Here are our heroes (in order of appearance):
Juchi (Katja)
halfilng scout (thief) HP 5
STR 12 DEX 16 CON 15 INT 8 WIS 10 CHA 9
Kai (Julia)
half-elf, cleric of Skaghe HP 8
STR 17 DEX 12 CON 13 INT 8 WIS 16 CHA 10
As you can see, both characters are rather powerful. After rolling and all that stuff, girls went shopping with the S&W manual and I must say, that once again, they behaved like veterans of the game - buying ropes, rations, grappling hooks etc.
And so I played Goblin for the mood and our adventure begun.
We started out with a little prologue in order to clear up why both characters decided to travel and fight together (instead of risking crude roleplaying of good friends pretending they are complete strangers getting to know each other).
Turns out that the half-elf Kai was tired of serving as a Jester on the court of some northern Jarl and decided to hit the road in order to become someone respected - like a cleric of the powerful and feared Skaghe! After she got to one of the mountain monasteries, she had to wait outside for several nights and days, in order to prove she's strong enough to become a cleric-warrior. Of course, her motivation was strong and she got accepted into the order.
Skipping all that time, we moved on to the final day of Kai's apprenticeship, when an old monk called her and said that for the last trial, she has to travel south to a small village of Stillwater. There, there is a small shrine devoted to the Axe Wielder; where a statue holding an axe was protecting the land. Now it has been desecrated and Kai has to set things right. The old priest also informs her that on her way to Stillwater she should join arms with the first person she meets outside the monastery... Needles to say, that someone turned out to be Juchi.
After that introduction we started playing. The PC's were just a few hours away from Stillwater and slowly cold winter night was approaching. Kai and Juchi decided not to stop for the night and try rush for the village. I rolled for a random encounter and it turned out that a lone hungry wolf decided to prey on the party.
The fight was short, the wolf managed to wound the cleric, but Kai made him pay by splicing his head open with her axe (That's right. Clerics of Skaghe wield axes! DUH!). After that she decided to heal her leg with a Cure Light Wounds, while Juchi made a successful attempt at skinning the dead animal.
The adventurers finally got to the village, heading straight for the only tavern. Inside they let themselves get ripped-off; renting a very small room for 1 Gp. However they managed to get some quite good food included in the price of the room. They also decided to pay extra and take a warm bath.
As Juchi was washing Kai was approached by an old man named Thorson. He turned out to be an old adventurer and offered to take them to the old shrine of Skaghe, for a small price of course.
Next morning, while eating their breakfast (which the girls managed to haggle into the price of the room) they were approached by Winston, a boy who wants to be an adventurer, offering to aid them in their escapade. Since the boy was cute and annoying, the girls decided he could be a live shield and agreed to take him with them (little did they know that if they boy died during the adventure, his old father would turn the village against them). After that they met up with Thorson and set out.
The shrine turned out to be a small, a bit neglected building in the woods, just two hours away from the village. Juchi tied her pony and decided to enter in first. When she opened the door a huge log fell from the ceiling, speeding at her. Luckily she made her save and dodged the trap.
It turned out that the floor of the shrine collapsed, opening a huge hole in the ground, possibly swallowing the statue. As soon as the party descended into the darkness, they were ambushed by goblins.
I won't detail what exactly happened underground. I think it's enough to tell you that I took the dungeon from Chgowiz's One Page Dungeon pdf (it's called The Lost Staves of Maurath and was written by R. Lawrence Blake).
The main highlights were:
After clearing the dungeon and finding the aforementioned axe, everyone returned to the village. This is where some confusion set in - no one knew what to do next. To me it seemed obvious that the players are ment to rebuild the statue and place the axe on it, but I realized those were the instincts of an old player, not someone used to the railroady nature of computer games and etc.
I quickly managed to introduce an old fisherman, who noticed the party drowning their confusion in beer and suggested rebuilding the shrine.
The adventure ended after a few days of work. The party repaired the old statue (which smashed on the floor of the cave below the shrine) and replaced the axe. When they were about to leave, the old fisherman turned up and revealed himself as the same priest who sent Kai on her quest. He congratulated the party and told Kai that now she's officially a priestess of the order.
I'm not completely happy with the way I handled parts of the game. I also think some of my role playing was kinda stiff, but I hope it's all part of me warming up.
Now, if you excuse me, I have a game to prepare for tomorrow...
As you may know from my previous posts, last Friday I finally got back on the line with some D&D!
I haven't mentioned it before (or have I?), but after a long time of searching for some players, Julia (aka fishlemons) came up with an idea, that maybe her friend - Katja, would like to play with us. Katja proved to be intrigued enough to check my blog. After she read it (along with D&D with porn stars - thanks Zak) she got really amped about playing, to the point of buying her own set of dice a week early. Cool!
We decided to meet on Friday. We first made some pasta and, with our tummies full, decided to roll up characters. I had to take a small break beforehand to print all the spell lists, the dungeon map and so on. During that time girls got a bit restless at the kitchen table and I got really stressed out. My biggest fear was, that the girls will find the game boring and won't play ever again...
Luckily, seconds after we started to roll up characters, the atmosphere got joyful and we had a lot of laughs. Character creation took us quite a lot of time, since I had to explain everything and both players proved to be very inquisitive (which is obviously a good thing).
After everything got cleared up, the girls decided what race/class they want to play. Katja was very excited about my take on halflings, so that's what she decided to play. Julia, very in touch with the old school tradition, decided to play a half-elven cleric of Skaghe - a strategic choice aimed at the party's survival (apart from being an aesthetic one).
The most memorable moment of characters creation was a discussion that followed my question about the sex of their PCs.
K:"Hmmm, perhaps we should play men characters... They might have some special abilities..."
J: "What special abilities?! Peeing standing up?!"
More joy ensued, when I asked them to roll a d100 (on a special table that I made) to find out what their characters were doing before they decided to change their qualifications. And so we found out that Julia's PC used to be jester, while Katja's halfling was a candle maker (which btw. led her to quickly come up with a story that the nomadic halflings of my world make candles and lamps out of pony poo)
Here are our heroes (in order of appearance):
Juchi (Katja)
halfilng scout (thief) HP 5
STR 12 DEX 16 CON 15 INT 8 WIS 10 CHA 9
Kai (Julia)
half-elf, cleric of Skaghe HP 8
STR 17 DEX 12 CON 13 INT 8 WIS 16 CHA 10
As you can see, both characters are rather powerful. After rolling and all that stuff, girls went shopping with the S&W manual and I must say, that once again, they behaved like veterans of the game - buying ropes, rations, grappling hooks etc.
And so I played Goblin for the mood and our adventure begun.
We started out with a little prologue in order to clear up why both characters decided to travel and fight together (instead of risking crude roleplaying of good friends pretending they are complete strangers getting to know each other).
Turns out that the half-elf Kai was tired of serving as a Jester on the court of some northern Jarl and decided to hit the road in order to become someone respected - like a cleric of the powerful and feared Skaghe! After she got to one of the mountain monasteries, she had to wait outside for several nights and days, in order to prove she's strong enough to become a cleric-warrior. Of course, her motivation was strong and she got accepted into the order.
Skipping all that time, we moved on to the final day of Kai's apprenticeship, when an old monk called her and said that for the last trial, she has to travel south to a small village of Stillwater. There, there is a small shrine devoted to the Axe Wielder; where a statue holding an axe was protecting the land. Now it has been desecrated and Kai has to set things right. The old priest also informs her that on her way to Stillwater she should join arms with the first person she meets outside the monastery... Needles to say, that someone turned out to be Juchi.
After that introduction we started playing. The PC's were just a few hours away from Stillwater and slowly cold winter night was approaching. Kai and Juchi decided not to stop for the night and try rush for the village. I rolled for a random encounter and it turned out that a lone hungry wolf decided to prey on the party.
The fight was short, the wolf managed to wound the cleric, but Kai made him pay by splicing his head open with her axe (That's right. Clerics of Skaghe wield axes! DUH!). After that she decided to heal her leg with a Cure Light Wounds, while Juchi made a successful attempt at skinning the dead animal.
The adventurers finally got to the village, heading straight for the only tavern. Inside they let themselves get ripped-off; renting a very small room for 1 Gp. However they managed to get some quite good food included in the price of the room. They also decided to pay extra and take a warm bath.
As Juchi was washing Kai was approached by an old man named Thorson. He turned out to be an old adventurer and offered to take them to the old shrine of Skaghe, for a small price of course.
Next morning, while eating their breakfast (which the girls managed to haggle into the price of the room) they were approached by Winston, a boy who wants to be an adventurer, offering to aid them in their escapade. Since the boy was cute and annoying, the girls decided he could be a live shield and agreed to take him with them (little did they know that if they boy died during the adventure, his old father would turn the village against them). After that they met up with Thorson and set out.
The shrine turned out to be a small, a bit neglected building in the woods, just two hours away from the village. Juchi tied her pony and decided to enter in first. When she opened the door a huge log fell from the ceiling, speeding at her. Luckily she made her save and dodged the trap.
It turned out that the floor of the shrine collapsed, opening a huge hole in the ground, possibly swallowing the statue. As soon as the party descended into the darkness, they were ambushed by goblins.
I won't detail what exactly happened underground. I think it's enough to tell you that I took the dungeon from Chgowiz's One Page Dungeon pdf (it's called The Lost Staves of Maurath and was written by R. Lawrence Blake).
The main highlights were:
- a giant frog, that scared the players a bit (apparently I acted it out quite well, although I think it was mostly Julia's frog-phobia) and they were afraid to kill it, leaving it for the end, setting it on fire by making it swallow a fire beetle's abdomen.
- an Ogre, that also scared them a bit. Julia managed to roll well, beheading the beast and finishing the fight quite quickly. Old Thorson almost got killed when the huge body collapsed on him.
After clearing the dungeon and finding the aforementioned axe, everyone returned to the village. This is where some confusion set in - no one knew what to do next. To me it seemed obvious that the players are ment to rebuild the statue and place the axe on it, but I realized those were the instincts of an old player, not someone used to the railroady nature of computer games and etc.
I quickly managed to introduce an old fisherman, who noticed the party drowning their confusion in beer and suggested rebuilding the shrine.
The adventure ended after a few days of work. The party repaired the old statue (which smashed on the floor of the cave below the shrine) and replaced the axe. When they were about to leave, the old fisherman turned up and revealed himself as the same priest who sent Kai on her quest. He congratulated the party and told Kai that now she's officially a priestess of the order.
I'm not completely happy with the way I handled parts of the game. I also think some of my role playing was kinda stiff, but I hope it's all part of me warming up.
Now, if you excuse me, I have a game to prepare for tomorrow...
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