PDA

View Full Version : Campaign Log-The Lost City



FunnyMattress
2009-10-05, 09:50 PM
Yes, yes. Another one of these dime-a-dozen camapign logs. I'm playing this with my family, so it's....interesting. It basically means that we've got me, an experienced RPer, my dad, who's about as experienced, my mom, who's....not quite as experienced, my slightly-younger brother (same level of experience as me), and my younger brother, who has no experience at all.

I used the Labyrinth Lord "retro-clone" of the B/X Ruleset, and the late-great Tom Moldvay's module The Lost City. Everyone started out at 1st level, with Max HP. We have:

Urendi- A former royal guard, he was "dismissed" after a rogue Magic-User disfigured his face to the point that he was considered an eyesore by one of the princes, despite the fact that he saved the brat's life. After that, he used his skills in combat to make a few pieces of gold. Most recently, he signed up as a guard on a caravan heading across the desert to the city of Sanarkand. ((OOC Info: Level 1 Chaotic Fighter, played by my father.))

Isadora Graver- An initiate of the Order of the Dying Twilight, a clerical order of the sun-god Aldanaer that is devoted to destroying the undead. She is heading to Sanarkand on a religious pilgrimage to the Great Cathedral of the Sun in order to become a full member of the Order. ((OOC Info: Level 1 Lawful Cleric, played by my mother, name ripped from the Internet because she can't name characters to save her life.))

Fredrick O'Datson- Best described as a fantasy-version of Indiana Jones, Fredrick raids ancient ruins to find lost loot to sell, and finance his favorite charities. He signed up on the caravan on the off-hand chance they'd come across a lost temple or something. ((OOC Info: Played by my younger brother. Level 1 Lawful Thief.))

Jackson the Prideful- An arrogant-but-knowledgable mage, Jackson was sent by the superiors of his order to Sanarkand to bargain for the right to have a grimoire loaned to them by a group of elven scholars. As Jackson spent a few years studying elven culture and speaks Elven fluently, he was a natural choice despite his vain and arrogant nature.

For future reference, any OOC comment will be in double-parenthesis.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the campaign began, Uriendi, Fredrick, and Isadora ((My other brother had a date, and so couldn't make it.)) became separated from the caravan during a massive sandstorm. After losing their way and stumbling around the desert for days, they came across a ruined city in the desert, with a step-pyramid at the center. After finding no food or water in the ruins, they climbed to the top tier of the pyramid, only to find a secret door.

Urendi was the first to draw steel, purely out of habit. The door was propped open by the long-dead corpse of a hobgoblin, a large crossbow bolt jutting from the body. Isadora searched the body, finding nothing. Meanwhile, Fredrick looked for traps, and saw a large crossbow in a hice in the wall opposite the door. He surmised that the hobgoblin had triggered a pressure plate, and that the crossbow should be safe now.

Once the trio entered, however, Fredrick accidently knocked the cropse out of the way, causing the door to slam shut. However, there was a metal pull-bar, should they wish to open it again. After this ominous event, Fredrick walked right up to the crossbow as Urendi strapped his shield to his back and struck a torch. ((I fully expect Fredrick to die during this campaign. I do. It will be a harsh lesson for my brother to learn, but caution is an adventurer's best resource.))

Isadora took the torch for the fighter, allowing him to strap his shield back onto his arm. Meanwhile, as the three turned a corner, Fredrick searched a door up ahead for traps. There were none, however. ((At least he's being paranoid about traps. That's good.)) The party pushed the door open, and Urendi stepped into the room, longsword at the ready.

He was relieved to find that the room was empty, save for three bronze tubes connected to three statues atop the pyramid. Since the party was starving and parched, they voted to open the doors to the tube connected to the statue of the goddess Madura ((I think I spelled that right.)) as they took the fact that one of the statue's hands held a sheaf of wheat to be a good sign.

Fredrick checked the tube's door for traps just as the door behind them swung shut. While he didn't find any traps, he did hear a small hissing noise coming from four holes, one in each corner of the room. After relaying this to the other two, Fredrick correctly guessed that it was a poisonous gas trap. Urendi wrenched open the door to the bronze tube....

And fell through a hinged stone block in the floor to the room below ((suffering 3 damage from his total of 8.)), and prompting the first of many, many cracks that session about Fredrick's inability to discover traps. Isadora and the thief immediately began to climb down the ladder, both to help their companion and to escape the gas.

Meanwhile, Urendi stood from his fall, and was confronted by a trio of fire-beetles. The light of their glands gave him enough light to fight by, and while the trio of them attacked, none hit him, and one even went sailing through the air as it lunged. For his part, the former guardsman cleaved one in half with his longsword on the first strike ((Natural 20. We're using Critical Hits, so it did double damage.))

At this point, the other two made it down the ladder. The beetle nearest Fredrick tried to bite him but missed, and was rewarded by Isadora bashing it's face in with her shield. The overgrown insect stumbled back a bit, surprised but not stunned. The last beetle then charged forward to bite a chunk out of Urendi's leg. His studded leather did nothing to help him as the beetle's mandibles tore the flesh from his calf ((he now had two HP.)). Fredrick then struck the offending beetle with a dagger, and Urendi ended it's life with a blow from his longsword.

Taking advantage of the fact that the final beetle was distracted, the cleric prayed quickly, healing the fighter's wound ((CLW, brought Urendi up to full HP)). Fredrick ducked past the insect's maw and grabbed his dagger, throwing it as he did. It bounced off of the bronze tube and clattered to the stone floor. Urendi threw his handaxe, which finally killed the thing.

The starving party looked around their new locale ((an ancient foundry for fixing mechanical parts.)), and broke a jug of oil. After a few minutes, a group of four people with the features of animals walked into, carrying a gourd paitned like a dog on a stretcher.

After a few minutes of hearing broken Common and watching pantomime, Fredrick had a rough understanding of what the quartet were saying. They were taking their sick "friend" Dog to find a healer. It was then that the party realized that these were not people with animal's features, but people in animal costumes.

Then, as one of the costumed people's gazes landed upon Isadora's holy symbol around her neck, they grew excited and asked her to heal the gourd. Though wierded out by this, Urendi convinced the party that, since food and water were most important, they needed to bargain "healing" for food. Isadora, who protested against such trickery asked "Well, can't we eat the bugs? I mean, we took their glands, so-"

"No." was all Urendi had to say on the subject of a Beetle BBQ. So, after sprinkling a bit of holy water on the gourd, the four ran off, but not before telling the party that the "Brotherhood" to the southeast sometimes gave out food "if they're in a good mood."

So, spiking the doors shut, the trio unrolled their bedrolls and began an uneasy rest.

((For good RP, combat, and counting the PR bonuses, the current XP is: Urendi with 56, Fredrick with 33, and Isadora with 21. Not bad for a first night, and we'll continue tomorrw, with my brother this time.))

Dragon Elite
2009-10-05, 10:24 PM
Sounds good, I hope more will be up soon! :smallsmile:

FunnyMattress
2009-10-05, 10:36 PM
Yeah. Fall Break's a wonderful thing, so our second session is tomorrow night. I've chatted with my brother, and we've worked out the details of his sudden "appearance", since the secret door to the outside shut.

FunnyMattress
2009-10-06, 09:20 PM
Session Two:

After resting for hours, the party removed the spikes from the door, rolled up their bedrolls, and got ready to head out. That was when, in a bright flash of light, a confused-looking young man in a robe appeared. He introduced himself as Jackson, and asked where he was. When Urendi explained the situation, Jackson nodded. He explained how he got into the now-sealed pyramid: spearated from the caravan, he was attacked by bandits. His order had given him a Ring of Wish, with one good charge left on it, to "smooth over" relations with the Elven scholars. The mage wished himself to safety, and closest "safe" place was with the party.

Deciding to join forces, the party, now numbering four, headed out through the eastern doorway: the same route the masked men had come through and left by. Conforted by two doors and a T-intersection down the hall, Isadora opened the door to the north of them. As the sone slab was pushed out the way, the beetle-glands they were using as lights illuminated a large, pale-blue lizard behind the bed in the room.

Surprised by the party, the gecko didn't react. Similarily, the party was surpised by a second gecko dropping in from the ceiling. ((The surpise order? The first gecko couldn't act at all, and the party couldn't act against the second gecko.)) Jackson, the coward he was, hung out in the hallway during the entire fight. After Isadora missed the first gecko with her mace, Urendi stepped in and slashed it something awful with his longsword. Fredrick killed it with a well-aimed crossbow bolt.

When combat actually began, Uredni almost killed the second gecko, and Isadora almost beat it's skull in. Yet again, Fred made it dead with a crossbow bolt to the head. ((Forgive me.)) pushing the door shut, the party searched the room ((including a humorous "Traps Search" roll on an empty chest.)), and had a nice BBQ with the lizard's corpses. Urendi found a nice, gold-inlaid mask on a corpse that the first gecko was munching on.

About an hour later, they proceeded down the hall to the south. Fredrick eagerly pushed open a door.....Only to find five chainmail-clad men in golden masks speaking. The masks were of a stern-faced, bearded man ((The Brotherhood of Gorm)). Two men rushed to the characters, and demanded that they explain themselves. This time, everyone could understand the men, who became estatic when it was revealed that the party were "outlanders".

Kanadius, the leader of the Brotherhood, gave them water, and told them of Cynidicea, the ruined city outside. ((For those of you who haven't played this module, and if you haven't then what's wrong with you, long story short: Workers awaken ancient monster. Monster is given prisoners to keep it from killing everyone. Cult forms, things go bad, people go underground and most of them become addicted to wine and drugs.)) Then, he asked for their assistance. Since none of them were qualified to be full members ((None were Lawful Fighters.)), he instead offered them the chance to become "Friends of Gorm" ((A sort of "associate" membership.))

All four accepted, and were sincere. ((Even Urendi, who was "as sincere as he could be and still look for a way to profit.")) While the party rested, ate, drank, and talked, a messenger was dispatched to the Brotherhood's main stronghold in the city below. The session ended with the four being officially declared "Friends of Gorm".
------------------------------------

I missed the amount of XP given, but Fredrick got about 66 or so for the geckos, Urendi got 80 for the mask, and everyone got 25 for good RP and successfully convincing the Brotherhood that they weren't hostile.