BSSS - Session 5, Swords Edition

These session recaps and overviews somehow keep getting longer and longer. I am not entirely happy with that, so I'll try and keep this one as short as possible, while also hitting the points I want to make. 

Note: I almost forgot the most important part of this session - the adventuring company now has a proper name! There was a vote held by the members currently present in the game (6 players), and the name chosen was Hedgehogs of Mercy! Company banner is planned, but not yet created.

The Death of Enlil Kishar. Art by his player, Roman.

Summary

Finally having found the Sword God's temple there's multiple sword fights, two of the characters die and a vampire is freed.

Characters

• Athra - Fighter
• Gal-Naha the Giant Gecko
• Esho - Sorcerer
• Shimsusa the Archer - level 1 Fighter
• Maru the Witch - Sorcerer
• Enlil Kishar - Fighter [Now Dead]
• Apsu Kishar - Fighter [Now Dead]
• Rajini - Sorceress

Recap

During a very very rainy week spent in their rather poorly equipped camp the party interrogates the bandit leader, who they decide to keep around and use as trap bait in the dungeon. They finally get into the Temple of 1000 Swords, fail to trigger the alarm and run into some mutated duck people. They chat for a bit, the bird people leader challenges one of them to a duel for the hell of it, wins, then a fight breaks out and a few of the bird people are left dead. They surrender and chat with the party some more, giving them the lay of the land of the temple, ask them to help them fight the "stupid fish bastards" that live in the underwater section, then head off. The party, as they recover...get accosted by a group of said fishy bastards. The party chokepoints them in the hallway, but in the fight the merfolk manage to kill two of the 1st levels in the party, the Kishar brothers, before being driven off. 

During all the fighting Iva, the bandit leader had tried to escape, was topped and managed to singe off the eyebrows off of one of the sorcerers. In the end the party compromised and had her climb the giant statue of the Sword God, pry the gem off it's forehead and bring it back to them. She did with little to no trouble, being a level 3 Fighter and a professional criminal type. She set off on her way...immediately falling into the alarm pit trap. 

The party then went to check out the immortal person stuck to the wall with a sword the bird people had warned them about, and discovered a charming and very well spoken and well mannered vampire, Bel of the Lotus. After asking for assistance and offering them one of his properties back in the Undying City the group pulled the sword out of him, he wrote a quick letter of recommendation to his servant who takes care of the property and bid them farewell. With that the group decided to just head back home to the city as well, their trip back being thankfully uneventful. 

My thoughts on the session

So, a lot of things happened in this session - We had the first PC death in combat in the entire game (mostly due to me finally rolling good in a fight for once!), we had them get a good idea of the place they were in without too much danger, making some tentative allies in the bird people. The party also freed up what will almost certainly be a recurring character in the game and made a good impression while doing so. 

It was rather unfortunate, even if predictable, that the deaths were from the two new players who only had level 1s and were also with rather low HP due to sleeping in bad conditions over the week. We also had another new player, but due to her rolling up a sorceress she was mostly safe throughout this whole nonsense. 

Overall I like where the game is heading, and it's starting to finally reach that stage where there's enough different factors at play that make an OSR world feel alive and, ya know, not staged.