Pipes, Pints, and Polyhedrons

Sins of the Fathers is what I've taken to calling the campaign I just started for my Tuesday night gaming group. It's based off a completely homebrew system that takes concepts from several different versions of D&D (1e, 2e, AD&D), Pathfinder (ugh!), VtR/VtM, and several other games. It is truly a Frankensteinian monstrosity, but at the end of the day it mechanically plays very similar to AD&D, but with vast flexibility for the characteristics and abilities of characters, the one feature from Pathfinder that I do like.

Sins of the Fathers is set in a world of my own making called Sunsebb. It is an incredibly dark and gritty world where the Big Bad isn't necessarily a lich seeking to enslave humanity, an orc horde closing in on the last remnants of civilization, or Demogorgon seeking to bring the Abyss to the Prime Material Plane. No, more often than not the Big Bad is the peasant farmer tending his crops in his liege's fields, the priest healing the sick over at the local temple, or the hardworking young man who you paid a copper piece to run a message across town for you. It's these people who, like the vast majority of human civilization, consider all the truly heinous behaviors of human society not only normal, but "good".

Being a "hero" in Sunsebb is helping rid the world of demihumans. Being a "villain" in Sunsebb is fighting against the institutional slavery that is rampant throughout almost every major culture. "Good" is embracing laws that are unjust, simply because they are the law of the land, and being "evil" is anything that goes against the norms of human society, even if those norms would be considered quite evil (and rightfully so) by modern real-world standards.

In other words, it's a seriously messed up place to live, even if the NPC folks who live there don't see it that way. Thankfully, I've not had any players yet decide they want to be a "hero". I'm not actually sure how I would handle that. I'm quite content with them all choosing to be "evil villains" to some degree or another.

All of the players of my Tuesday group work up their own journal of events in the campaign, written in-character, but I'll be posting DM updates here, much the same way Ancalagon does in the Barons of Bellevue (of which I am a die-hard member) thread. Providing there is no issue with doing so, in each update I'll provide links to my player's journals as well, which are kept on a ad-free blogspot blog.

Very cool, Arashi! I look forward to reading your updates and thereby getting a glimpse in to your game world.

You comments about institutional slavery reminded me of my AD&D campaign with the Barons in 2015. I had dropped many not-so-subtle hints about the slave trade that focused, for the most part, on demihumans. Several of the players had their demihuman PCs hot foot out of town whenever any mention of slave ships / slavers. Though they were never targeted, the players were pretty paranoid at the chance of their PCs being taken to an auction block.

Campaign Prelude

My campaign, Sins of the Fathers, is set in Trant, the cradle of the Trantoran culture (there are three predominantly Trantoran kingdoms, of which Trant is one). It is a culture based heavily on the Most Serene Republic of Venice, circa1100 AD. Rather than a city-state like Venice, however, which used its economic might to control its surrounding environs, Trant is a full on kingdom consisting of a traditional feudal nobility with a King at its head and an advisory council composed of merchant princes.

The old Microprose game Merchant Prince factored heavily into my design of the culture as well, making Trant a hotbed of political, religious, and economic intrigue. Noble and merchant families are just as likely to maneuver against their own family members as they are against external rivals. Being a first or second born son in such families tend to shorten one's lifespan considerably as fratricide is a perfectly acceptable method of climbing to the top in one's own house or defending one's existing position within it.

In early AN249 then-King Cantelli -- as well as his entire family and nearly a hundred servants -- lost their lives in a conflagration that consumed and destroyed the vast majority of the royal palace. Blame was laid at the feet of Cantelli's court wizard. Cantelli was much loved by the people and thus his death was a national tragedy. With no Cantelli heir to the throne, the merchant council elected Concordio Megazzo from among the then-Dukes to assume the crown.

As loved as King Cantelli was, King Megazzo was hated and despised, at least by the common people. He quickly instituted widespread policies and laws which shifted wealth into the hands of those who already possessed great wealth and power. A ten year long revolt would culminate in the spring of AN262 with the deaths of over 10,000 Trantorans at the hands of several hundred knights of the realm and the back of the rebellion was broken, but not before it had done considerable damage to the nobles and merchants of the northern provinces.

Less than a year and a half later, on Threesday, 3rd Hand of Reaping, AN263, King Megazzo, the Queen, their two sons as well as their daughter were all assassinated within the walls of Achakies Castle. As news of death of Megazzo and the premature end of his family's short-lived dynasty spread through the streets of Trant-on-Sea, a fury against the merchant princes and nobility that supported him and Trant's capital city began to burn while its streets ran red.

Campaign Plot

As I don't have much worry about one of my players showing up here and discovering spoilers, I'll provide a general overview of the campaign's intended plot. I'm a sandbox-style DM, so I won't railroad my players into pursuing this particular story arch, and events will unfold in due time with or without their intervention. There are major points in time where the players can choose to intervene in planned events, with periods of time between them to allow them to pursue their own agendas.

The Trantoran throne is heavily warded with magics. Only a man who is a rightful heir of the last king may sit upon the throne, the act of which provides legal recognition of the position and right of rulership. In the event that no heir exists, there is no such protection in place and it awaits the next king to be recognized by the merchant council.

The entirety of the Cantelli family was not, however, killed during the fire that destroyed the royal palace in AN249. There was one survivor, their six year old daughter Sabina, who watched Megazzo, a trusted ally and friend of her father, murder both of her parents before ordering the palace set aflame. She managed to escape and was found wandering the royal grounds by a priest of Tomes, who suspected foul play. Although Sabina, being female, could not inherit her father's position, she could pass it on to a male if and when married. With a possible line of succession the throne would not relinquish itself to anyone else, putting young Sabine's life at risk. He quickly arranged to have her magically warded from divination magicks, thereby concealing her survival from both the plotters and the throne.

King Megazzo ascended through to the throne as a puppet of the merchant council. Although the vast majority of the Trantoran people loved King Cantelli, the merchant princes and the nobility had quite the opposite view of the man due to his willingness to place the concerns of commoners over those of the merchant princes and noble families. A plot was hatched to eliminate the entirety of the Cantelli family in one fell swoop, a plot which eventually came to fruition. Had Cantelli's daughter Sabine not survived and not been so well hidden, the plot likely would have ended there (or with the death of the son), but with no heir apparent the merchant council stepped in and crowned Megazzo.

Megazzo himself had a bastard son whom he recognized (making him a legitimate heir) but sequestered in a Ducean (god of war) monastery and concealed using similar wards placed upon Sabine. He possessed no particular love for this child, but used the boy as a tool of revenge against anyone who might attempt to do to his family what he helped orchestrate against the Cantelli family. Upon his death the protective wards would fall, preventing the throne from being passed to another. A new plot would have to be launched to depose the last of the Megazzos.

It may turn out that King Megazzo's spiteful posthumous attempt to spit in the eye of his usurpers is his one benevolent act as king, for the culprits behind the murder of him and his family is a powerful vampiress and accomplished sorceress working in the service of Kovoon, the Tyrant, one of the "dead gods" of ages past.

Central to all of this is an Earl by the name of Ezechial Carulli, King Megazzo's staunchest ally and most loyal supporter. His son, known to commoners as the Butcher of Fiori, led the two hundred knights that single-handedly broke the rebellion's back in AN262. Carulli may only be an earl, but he is the only earl with a hereditary title, the largest county in the realm and whose political influence exceeds that of many of the kingdom's dukes. He also happens to be reagent, placing him in charge in the king's absence... or in the event of the king's death.

Throughout the campaign, the Carulli family -- Earl Carulli, specifically -- will be implicated in the events leading up to the death of King Megazzo. Everything will point to the Earl as an ambitious, power-hungry man driven to claim the throne for himself. Some of these things are certainly true. He is an ambitious man, a political schemer and certainly would not shy away from accumulating more power, he is actually quite content remaining an Earl. His ambitions tend to be limited to strengthening his position, power and wealth within his own county.

It is Carulli's wife who is the mastermind behind the ongoing plot to place her husband upon the throne. It is also his wife who is the vampiress and sorceress in service to Kovoon, and she has done an excellent job of orchestrating things to suit her agenda without -- so far -- resorting to dominating her husband's mind, although she is slowly increasing her control over the earl. She cannot rule the kingdom herself -- the people would never accept a woman on the throne, even if the throne itself would, but is confident in her ability to subsume her husband's will once he is installed.

The PCs will have an obvious target in Earl Carulli, but he himself is only a pawn, and a completely unwitting pawn at that. Meanwhile, the church of Tomes (god of Rulership, Nobility, etc) is attempting to enlist the aid of the PCs (whose fathers all have had a role to play in the events of the last two decades) to uncover the perpetrators of King Megazzo's murder and ensure the safety of both Sabine Cantelli and Tyrus Megazzo. It is the church's goal to have the two marry despite the animosities between the families, and installing Tyrus (who is a legitimate heir) as King, thereby quelling dissent from those who still revere the Cantelli name and those who supported Megazzo. The church's far fetched goal is to restore some degree of political stability to the kingdom.

Whether this comes to pass or not will be entirely up to the characters and how successful they are at the choices they make. Trant might one day become the Most Serene Kingdom of Trant once again, or it may be Kovoon's first foothold that permits his resurgence. Without the characters' intervention, the latter will surely come to pass.

There are many obstacles to be overcome in the course of this. Obviously, uncovering the threat of the earl's wife and ending any future plots against Tyrus would be a major obstacle. If they choose to pursue the church's plan of marrying Tyrus and Sabine they will have Sabine as an obstacle. It's unlikely she's going to jump for joy at the idea of marrying the son of the man who killed her parents. One of the PCs is himself a bastard child of King Cantelli, and though unrecognized and thus ineligible to claim the throne for himself, could cause it's own set of issues.

On top of all these obstacles placed as part of the campaign plot, the kingdom itself will quickly descend into anarchy as old hatreds and rivalries find it easier to breath in the vacuum left by a vacant throne. Many, many side adventures will be available to pursue, some of which may provide information relevant to the campaign plot.

I'm going to end this here because this has already turned into quite the wall of text.

That's quite the succession crisis you have designed. Sounds like a lot of fun for the players as time allows them to get in to peeling back the layers of what is going on! Will you be starting the PCs at 1st level?

Campaign Cast

Character generation was done three weeks ago on January 15th, 2019. We recently changed game time from 11pm-6am Mondays to 6pm-1 am Tuesdays and lost a player as a result of schedule change, putting us back down to three players for the time being. Attributes were rolled on 3d6 and if I recall the highest attribute rolled was a 17. The character generation system used has a "life path" mechanic to it which allows you to build skills, weapon proficiency, and traits and flaws into a character through various phases of his life. While it can't alter the level a character starts at, it does allow players to sacrifice age (and risk decreasing attributes, physical flaws, etc) for a better selection of starting skills or more potent skills. All three players chose to keep their characters relatively young rather than risk the effects of middle age (which begins early in a medieval times).

Giovanni se'Accardi - Second-born son of the Accardi family, a prominent merchant family residing in Trant-on-Sea, the capital city of the Most Serene Kingdom of Trant. Giovanni attended the Arcanyx, an elite magical academy that is well known for the quality of specialty wizards it turns out. He chose the path of a transmuter in a vain attempt to alter his own weak, frail physical nature. The character is run by Paul, the more experienced player in the group, and tends to be the most thoughtful. He's always on the lookout for my traps, physical or otherwise, and has tended in the past to be the group's leader. He is a devout adherent to Zysohr (rhymes with Eyesore), the god of knowledge, books, logic, etc.

Callisto ti'Accardi - Third-born son of the Accardi family, brother of Giovanni, Callisto is a charming, roguish fop (basically a Swashbuckler kit from one of the "Complete" series of AD&D books) who is willful, headstrong, and complete smart Ants Say Sue. His primary diety is Buone, the goddess of Luck or Lady Luck, though it seems to be her sister, Ixris, goddess of misfortune, who tends to bestow her "blessings" most often on Callisto. This character is played by Mark, who first sat down at a gaming table two short years ago. He tends to jump straight into the thick of things, is the most unpredictable of my players, and I honestly have never seen anyone in my life (including myself) who rolls more natural 1s than he does. I've seriously seen him roll four nat 1's in a row before. The odds of that happening are... staggering. This guy's dice are cursed, literally cursed. Or he is!

Sigfrido de'Zolezzi - A bastard child raised within the Church of Siyja, god of law, justice, honor, etc., most often referred to as the Lion of the Law. Sigfrido is an Adjudicator of Siyja, a walking judge, jury, and executioner all rolled into one (though with pretty serious limitations to his authority at level 1). Sigfrido is played by Dillon, the newest member of the group who is an experienced tabletop gamer, really gets into the setting lore and in turn inspires the rest of the group to do so as well. He sometimes knows and understands the setting lore better than I do it seems, and I'm the one who made it all up! Sigfrido, thus far, has shown himself to be highly dedicated to the law, and not-so-dedicated to the uncommon trait of common sense. He has made enemies just about wherever the party has went, come close to an abuse of his powers twice (command spell, grovel, for example) because he dislikes the attitude of a person he's questioning. He also tends to run off on his own personal missions by himself, which has nearly resulted in his death once already.

Because of the limited party size, they were given early access to henchmen. I allow players to run henchmen during combat encounters and players have a "player-version" of the henchman character sheet that provides only the bare minimum information needed to effectively run the character in combat. Otherwise, I mostly keep the NPCs in the background. If the PCs can't answer a question they're posed with, a riddle they're facing, etc., then neither can their henchmen. Nor will they step in and use skills that the characters themselves don't have. They're there for support only, not to solve problems.

They started out with a priestess of Noyja, goddess of mercy, healing, etc., who would have served as a party healbot, if her and Sigfrido's personalities hadn't clashed so thoroughly and completely. She basically abandoned the party due to the Adjudicators actions through the first and second game session, leaving them with very limited ability to heal on the go. They currently have a brother/sister fighter/universalist mage pair of adventurers, but they'll likely lose them as well in the upcoming session thanks to the party's current lack of solid leadership. (I use NPCs to bring meta issues to light.)

All characters are 1st-level, starting with max hit points, and after three sessions are roughly halfway to their second level. I'm usually very stodgy with XP, but after spending half a year rolling new characters regularly for playtesting purposes, they're pretty sick of 1st-level characters so I'm speeding things up a bit this campaign.

Session 01 - January 15, 2019

Most of this session was devoted to rolling up characters, figuring out character backgrounds, etc. It's a bit more complex of a system than old school AD&D thanks to the life path system I've implemented, but we still had a few hours remaining to kick things into motion.

Giovanni and Callisto, the brothers, began the campaign in an oft-overused starting location: an inn in the town of Padua, an hour or so ride south of the capital city, Trant-on-Sea. They were having a meal after a failed attempt by Giovanni to secure a position as an advisor to a nearby baron. Wizard or not, the baron had taken one look at the weak, frail young man and turned him away. Callisto had accompanied his brother out of the city not so much to provide escort and protection, but to get reacquainted with the mage who had spent most of his life locked away inside the Arcanyx with limited contact with family.

I went through a long narrative sequence that explained the recent history and political dynamics of Trant since our previous playtesting had all taken place in the Hirossian Empire far to the north, which is heavily modeled after the Roman Empire, and the political and social differences between the two cultures is fairly detailed. The narrative ended with the most [sarcasm] original [/sarcasm] line of prose I may have ever penned, involving a nameless, faceless NPC commoner bursting through the inn's front door and screaming about the king being dead.

Their first thoughts turned to their family, having been born into a rather wealthy merchant house that was closely allied with King Megazzo. The peasant revolt of a turning (year) prior was still fresh on everyone's mind, and with the king dead some of the old, still festering wounds might be reopened. After the PCs and more than a few shocked NPC patrons started asking questions of the man it was discovered that the city guard had sealed the capital city's gates and there were already reports of unrest in the city's "Low Districts". A quick look outside confirmed this, if the sky on the horizon, darkening with smoke, was any indication.

Rather than return to the capital that evening as planned they chose to stay the night at the inn, fretting over drinks and an evening meal the fate of their own family. Late in the evening, a woman caught the attention of Callisto. He managed to catch a glimpse of red hair under the hooded cloak she wore, which is a "big deal." Red hair is a one in a million occurrence in Sunsebb, and those born with red hair are almost always "twinborn" witches. Callisto watched as she met with a man dressed in the vestments of a priest of Tomes (god of nobility, right of rulership, etc.) and had a rather hushed conversation. He moved to eavesdrop and caught just enough snippets of conversation to know they were talking about a Ducean (god of war) caravan that had headed south out of the capital earlier in the day, something about a young man who was accompanying the caravan, and that caravan guards she had hired to provide escort had backed out at the last minute.

After a few more minutes of conversation, the priest rose, the two hugged and he departed the inn. The two PCs turned in shortly thereafter.

Come morning, however, Callisto spies the same woman at another table and approaches her, offering the PCs services as caravan guards, since the word from the capital that morning was far more dire than it had been the past evening and returning to the city did not seem to be a wise choice. There was a little back and forth banter as Callisto tried to push for more information on the caravan, but was met with stonewall silence for the most part. There was a job, it paid 50 bronze pieces (a fairly large sum of money, half a month's wage or more for most commoners) for just a few days work. They'd have to ride hard to catch up with the caravan, as it departed he previous day.

They took the job and rode south.

When they came upon the caravan they found it under attack by goblins and worgs. The Duceans had held out for as long as they could but dozens of goblin, hobgoblin and gnolls (gnolls don't mind goblins in Sunsebb) lay dead along the sides of the trade wars, and the Duceans were down to a single warpriest, a single Siyja'an Adjudicator (our third PC), and a young man armed with nothing but a dagger.

The following combat was goal oriented. Every time a goblin was killed, it was replaced with a new one. As long as the worgs remained alive, the goblins would continue attacking, and the worgs were only lurking on the outskirts, not making themselves immediate threats. The remaining survivors of the caravan needed to be protected from the endless goblins and the worgs needed to be simultaneously hunted down and slain, requiring a division of forces. Or that was plan. DM plans rarely survive first contact with a knowledgeable player, however.

Giovanni cast phantasmal force around the survivors, creating the illusion of the forest coming to live and enclosing them in a dome of vines, something that would be very akin to elven druidic magic. Most intelligent beasts of the forests/woods are quite familiar with the abilities of elves in this regard, and wouldn't provoke them further by continuing to attack something/someone they are clearly intent on protecting. The player in question did a solid job of explaining the illusion, and the effect he was going for. This effectively allowed the PCs to avoid splitting their efforts. They went after the worgs, and the goblins went after the PCs, ignoring the enclosed caravan.

Callisto took the brunt of the damage but managed to kill more than his fair share of goblins. By the end of the fight his leather breastplate was heavily mauled and he was down to a single hit point. Giovanni, for his part, played no further roll as he continued concentrating to maintain his illusion. The Adjudicator added a few more goblin kills to his belt as well as killing two of the three worgs.

With the late start due to character generation, the session came to a close at the end of the combat.

I've skipped over quite a few things, such as them picking up Vissia, a priestess of Noyja, a lot of the interaction between the twinborn witch and the PCs, etc, but at my age I'm lucky I sometimes feel lucky I can remember yesterday, let alone four weeks ago. I have not yet received a copy of the other two players' logs yet, but will add them when they hit my inbox.

Paul/Giovanni's Session Log
Dillon/Sigfrido's Session Log

Session 02 - January 22, 2019

This session was all about throwing them into the deep end of Trantoran politics and introducing them to the unwitting puppet (Earl Carulli) of one of the factions vying for the throne. As well as establishing some of the backstories of the families the characters had been born into and the sins that their fathers had committed decades ago that led to the current chaos beginning to consume the kingdom. It also properly introduced Sabine Cantelli and Tyrus Megazzo, the two surviving children of the past two kings of Trant.

They arrived at a Ducean encampment with Vissia, their NPC healbot, Tyrus, the young lad from the caravan, the warpriest and a few survivors that Vissia had managed to save. They hadn't bothered asking for any names from their employer in Padua, so they were at a loss about who to see about being paid until they were eventually summoned by messenger once word got around that they had arrived with the remnants of the caravan.

Character behavior in this session was just as atrocious as in the first. Enough so that Sabine Cantelli, upon meeting the PCs, decided then and there that her and Tyrus' best chance of surviving was to not be in their company. Her and Tyrus would slip out of the Ducean encampment they had been sequestered in the night after the PCs arrival. Sabine had other reasons for doing so as well, namely vengeance against the son (Tyrus) of the man who murdered her mother and father in front of her when on her sixth name-day (birthday).

The party got sent on a fishing expedition for information about who put the goblins up to the attack on the caravan. Goblins tend to be cowardly little beasts, so it made no sense that they would attack such a well-defended caravan and willingly suffer the losses they did unless there was some greater threat motivating them to do so.

In Ravesoria, a small village north of the encampment, they first came across a peasant girl on the village's outskirts. This would be one many moments when Callisto, who sees himself as a smooth-talking womanizer, would eat crow. He attempted a spectacular dismount of his horse, and rolled a nat 1 on his riding check, falling on his butt. Standing, brushing himself off he attempted to grab hold of the peasant girl and dance with her, only to roll a second nat 1 with the result of pushing the poor lass on her butt. Only Adjudicator Sigfrido intervening kept the poor terrified girl from running off screaming. The party was directed to the village elder for information on goblin activity in the area and Callisto once again tried to show off by leaping into his saddle, only to fail his riding check yet again.

I have never seen anyone roll dice as badly as Mark, the player who runs Callisto, does. And to think his character's primary deity is Buone, the goddess of luck. As a result of his miserable dice-rolling, I've chosen to introduce a new minor god into the campaign, the sister of Buone, the goddess of misfortune, who has far too much fun thwarting her sister's followers.

The party discovered from the (not so) kindly village elder that a group of goblins had set up a den a couple hours to the west and had been raiding outlying farmsteads for crops. He was quite aware that Earl Curalli was negotiating with the goblins and their gnoll leader about withdrawing from the area, but kept this to himself. Like most commoners, he possessed a strong dislike for King Megazzo, and for everyone who supported him and there could be no bigger supporter than the Earl. If the PCs blindly ran in killing goblins and potentially put the earl's life in danger, that would be an excellent outcome.

Upon reaching the "den" they discovered that it appeared to be a man-made tunnel into the side of a hill, almost like a mine entrance. They also found two saddled horses tethered outside and four goblins playing some game that involved throwing rocks at each others' heads. Buying into the whole "goblins are evil and must be slain on sight" schtick, they attacked, killing all four before going through the saddle bags on the horses.

Paul/Giovanni's Session Log
Dillon/Sigfrido's Session Log

Arashi wrote: ↑February 8th, 2019, 4:45 pmAll of the players of my Tuesday group work up their own journal of events in the campaign, written in-character, but I'll be posting DM updates here, much the same way Ancalagon does in the Barons of Bellevue (of which I am a die-hard member) thread. Providing there is no issue with doing so, in each update I'll provide links to my player's journals as well, which are kept on a ad-free blogspot blog.

Sounds great! Feel free to post, I'm sure everyone will enjoy reading. Very interesting setting premise that definitely shakes up the norm.

Just catching up on the new posts, lots to read and take in.

Arashi wrote: ↑February 11th, 2019, 8:27 am Session 02 - January 22, 2019
<snip>
I have never seen anyone roll dice as badly as Mark, the player who runs Callisto, does. And to think his character's primary deity is Buone, the goddess of luck. As a result of his miserable dice-rolling, I've chosen to introduce a new minor god into the campaign, the sister of Buone, the goddess of misfortune, who has far too much fun thwarting her sister's followers.
<snip>

Paul/Giovanni's Session Log

Emphasis mine.
I like this idea!

Good reading there, Arashi! Look forward to more as time allows.

Session 03 - January 29, 2019

As the party is rifling through the saddlebags of one of the two horses, they manage to hear movement echoing out from somewhere in the tunnel. Callisto has been messing with one of the two horses prior to this, an obvious warhorse that has been well-trained, attempting to lead it away, and when failing to do so (rolled a 3 on a Animal Handling check) gathering up the goblin corpses and placing them around the horse to see what it's reaction to them would be. (Uh, what? Um, it rolls a goblin corpse away from it with its nose and returns to munching on the grass? I think? I am sometimes seriously at a loss for words at some of the stuff my players do!)

Anyways, the PCs and their NPC healbot priestess take up positions on either side of the tunnel entrance. Those exiting the tunnel have no reason to be suspicious of their environment in the first moments they exit, so I grant surprise to the PCs. As soon as a big fat goblin steps out (everything about this goblin has been unapologetically stolen from Ancalagon's Skinny character in his C&C campaign I play in) alongside a typically brutish gnoll Giovanni begins casting color spray. Unfortunately, he rolls a 1 for effect, blinding the morbidly obese goblin only, as he was closest to Giovanni at the time of casting.

Callisto darts out from the trees with rapier and dagger and begins trying to hack the goblin apart. Mark visibly pales as I graphically describe hits with his dagger as his hand slipping between folds of fat and coming out covered in foul smelling yellow puss. (Skinny, from Ancalagon's game was truly hideous and odious and I've done my best to push that even further.) The description itself is enough for Mark to declare he is not going to attack the goblin any further, even as the blinded goblin is lurching forward towards Callisto forcing him back towards the treeline lest he have this thing... touch... him. My players are truly a riot!

At the beginning of the following combat round two humans emerge from the tunnel behind the gnoll. One is easily recognized by Adjudicator Sigfrido as Earl Carulli, regent to King Megazzo and more powerful, politically speaking, than most of the Dukes of the realm. Everyone is immediately called upon to making a Willpower saving throw vs Death/Charm. I roll for Vissia, the NPC healbot.

(I use a hybrid saving throw system that uses the Reflex/Willpower/Fortitude concept from Poofinder with the static saving throws by class of AD&D, allowing me to better mix and match... Reflex vs Spell to avoid a fireball, Fortitude vs Polymorph, etc. It expands my possible saving throw categories from 7 to 21, which covers just about every situation imaginable.)

Everyone succeeds at their saving throws, surprisingly, except for the NPC healbot. Upon seeing Carulli everyone is struck by the man's regal bearing, his natural charisma, his... suitability... to rule. Everyone is struck by these qualities of his, but it is Vissia who gets a little zealous and moves to interpose herself between her party members and the Earl, screaming at them that if they wish to harm the earl they'll have to first kill her.

The magic effect was not one that Carulli was in control of. It's a residual charm-like effect placed upon him by his wife. Use of the effect was two-fold: first, I wanted some of the PCs to fail the check, and some to succeed, pitting them against one another. Those who succeeded would be left wondering what kind of magic Carulli had ensnared their companions with. It would also hopefully prevent any initial attack from devolving into combat with Carulli, who though as of yet undetailed, would be of at least the 9th-level (name level) given his status as a landed noble with a stronghold (1e rules there, I believe.) Mostly it was to make the PCs suspicious of the Earl. They all made their saves but Vissia's failure managed to save the day.

Longer story made only slightly shorter, the gnoll felled Vissia with one mighty blow of his halberd. (I mean, come one, a fight has just broken out and someone runs towards you, what else are you going to do?) At that point the gnoll, the two humans and the recovered obese goblin retreated into the safety of the tunnel, leaving the PCs to tend to Vissia. The Adjudicator got her back on her feet with a cure light wounds and she got herself back up to full health. As they stood outside debating what to do (with the freshly healed Vissia now interposing herself between the PCs and the tunnel entrance) the second human emerged, identified himself as Alwyn, personal guard and translator for Earl Carulli, and started up some parlay. Once the PCs made assurances they were not a threat, the Earl re-emerged and they began discussing recent events in the kingdom, which to everyone's surprise the earl was not yet aware of, having been camped out nearby for the previous hand (week).

He was negotiating with the gnoll, Varrlair, to leave the area. With Cinnabaran raiding in the north and most of the kingdom's levied troops deployed to protect against those coastal incursions, more unconventional methods had to be employed to deal with problems in the south. One of those unconventional methods was negotiating with beasts that would normally be hunted down like dogs and slain. After being informed of the king's death he bid the PCs accompany him to his nearby encampment, as such topics were ill-suited for discussion in the presence of gnolls and goblins. The party obliged and an hour or so later arrived at a small encampment of approximately 20 of the earl's guards, retainers and servants.

The PCs were suspicious. The earl was concerned about the state of the kingdom. Thus began a back and forth dialogue between PC and NPCs that ended up with the earl learning pretty much everything the PCs know, including the existence of Sabine Cantelli and Tyrus Megazzo, with the PCs coming away even more suspicious. (Someone needs to teach them how to hold their tongues!) One thing that both sides discovered was that several days prior the gnoll Varrlair had sent away a large number of his minions, supposedly as a sign of good faith in his negotiations with Earl Carulli. The composition of that force that was sent away sounded to Adjudicator Sigfrido like the force that had attacked his caravan. Varrlair the gnoll had pulled a fast one on Earl Carulli... or was Earl Carulli lying and been responsible for the attack. The PCs were of mixed opinion on this.

The Earl, not suspicious of the PCs, instructed the PCs to return to Varrlair's lair the following morning and slay him and his minions, as he felt they had negotiated in bad faith with him. He would have to ride for the capital at first light to take up the duties of regent, which would essentially make him the de facto ruler of the kingdom until a new king could be crowned. To continue pulling on the suspicion string, Vissia continued to be enamored with the earl and joined him in his pavilion for the remainder of the night, not emerging again until the earl did as well.

The party returned to Varrlair's den with Alwyn, the Earl's man. As 20 pieces of silver (a small fortune in Sunsebb) had been part of the agreed upon arrangement for the gnoll and goblins to depart the area, they schemed up a ploy wherein they would pretend as if they had come to make that payment, and only after getting in close proximity to the gnoll would they attack. Their plan actually manged to work out fairly well. Varlairr was felled, along with a few of the goblins that had been standing guard nearby, and then they worked their way back towards the entrance to deal with those that they had simply walked past earlier, including the obese goblin. Vissia and Giovanni stayed behind in the room where the gnoll had been killed, and to Giovanni's horror she healed the gnoll and then enspelled it in some manner.

Through Vissia, with Alwyn translating, the PCs were able to interrogate the gnoll briefly, during which they learned some interesting things. The earl's daughter, Illaria, was supposedly responsible some way for the attack on the caravans a few days prior. The earl was, supposedly, a fool and a weak man. Callisto, throughout the exchange, was carefully watching Alwyn. Alwyn was the only one of the group who spoke gnollish, and they were trusting the retainer of a man they were suspicious of to accurately translate the gnoll's answers to their questions. I make a lot of the PCs skill rolls behind the screen, so that the players never gain meta-knowledge of whether a roll is likely a failure or success. Callisto attempted to discern whether Alwyn was accurately translating, or attempting to hide anything in the answers he provided. All three times he failed his rolls, so despite Alwyn accurately translating, Callisto's suspicions got the best of him and he was certain Alwyn was covering something up, hiding something, etc. Alwyn was absolutely, unequivocally a liar and in league with Earl Carulli, which only drove suspicion of the earl higher among the PCs.

Paul/Giovanni's Session Log
Dillon/Sigfrido's Session Log