Sunday, July 22, 2018

Play Report: Return to Land's End - Session 0

CAST OF CHARACTERS:

Vuk Thuul - half-elf snake oracle 1
Leliana - sylph witch 1
Nahash - lizardman barbarian 1

*****

This one was comparatively light on action as we finished character creation, I explained some rules and setting information, got the characters together and they did some exploring and talking to NPCs. 

My brother, Satan bless him, was the engine of the session and I suspect I won't need to spend much time on adventure hooks with him around. Just like last time, he hunted down every town NPC he could find and squeezed them for info he wanted to find out. Check it out:


*****


The sound of a pin dropping accompanied Vuk Thuul and Leliana's entrance into the Land's End tavern, where they met "old one-arm", the town drunk. He turned out to be my brother's old cleric, Aercius! One-Arm spent decades mourning the loss of his old adventuring comrades (the characters from the first time at Land's End). He warned Leliana and Vuk Thuul against going over the edge of the world, but did give them a few useful clues. He also mentioned he would be grateful if they could find whatever's left of his arm, and the holy symbol he was holding when some zombies ripped it off in the swamp!

The next day, the PCs visited the crooked stone tower in the old part of town. The conversation with the sage who lives inside was probably an hour of roleplaying, and Vuk Thuul contracted him to research his mysterious origins, which should cost a fair bit of money...

Boom, right away we have a reason to go on an adventure! So the Oracle and Witch descended the Barrier - the cliffs at the edge of the world - and entered the steaming jungles below.





For reasons unknown, the lands beyond the Barrier are obscured by clouds. Turns out there is a constant rainstorm in the jungles! This makes travelling pretty miserable, and cooking your food awfully hard. Feasting on a toucan they caught, Leliana and Vuk Thuul spent a damp night in the jungle camped out near a waterfall.

On the next day, they followed the river down the hilly jungle slopes until they found a ruined fort. Creeping up towards it, they were accosted by a few goblins who lurked in the trees, and this is where things got pretty funny. 





Vuk Thuul commanded one of the goblins to surrender, while Leliana made a run for the trees, getting pincushioned by a few lucky goblin arrows in the process. While Leliana hid, the goblin sergeant came out and offered to talk to the PCs.

A gross being even for a goblin, Sgt. Horgh wore a crudely hacked-up lizardfolk skin instead of clothes and armour, and only his eyes are visible peeking out between the unfortunate reptile's jaws. As Vuk Thuul and Sgt. Horgh parleyed, unbeknownst to them a lost and hungry lizardman crept into the clearing to find something to eat. On the run from his slavery in the obsidian mines far to the east, Nahash knew goblins but had never seen humans before.

Sgt. Horgh explained that he was instructed to parley with all strangers, and his guards just got a bit overzealous. The "pinkos" (neanderthals) to the south had pushed the goblins out of the ruined inn they once occupied. He couldn't spare the soldiers to go down and get it back. If the adventurers can do it, there was a nice sack of silver coins in it for them.

There was a tense moment when Horgh, walking around the clearing, tripped over Nahash eavesdropping in the bushes, who grabbed him as a hostage. After some hissed conversation, Horgh convinced Nahash to drop him and all three PCs accompanied him down into the rooms underneath the ruined fort to meet the goblins' leader, a wizened albino named Guzboch.

During that conversation, Nahash (accidentally, because he was so hungry) agreed to help the other two characters fight the neanderthals in exchange for some food. Maybe if he's lucky, the other two will give him a share of the money, but... we'll see!


*****


This session really flew by (six hours!) and was a lot of fun, especially considering there was very little fighting. We got the characters together and introduced two of the factions in the wilderness. Next time: PCs vs. Neanderthals!


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