The Greylands House Campaign - Session 9

   

Summary 

The group returns to the dungeon underneath the manor house, slaying the beasts that have been hunting the talasumi and finally securing an alliance with them.

Party Members

• Verasha - Level 3 Druid 
• Pipam the Younger - Level 3 Thief
• von Plarf - Level 2 Elf
• Zoltan - Level 3 Dwarf
• "Rusty" the Talasum - Level 2 Fighter

Followers

Jaro (Verasha's war boar); Grub (Verasha's other war boar); Alois (Porter and Cook); Old Ben (Porter); Walter of Potsdam (Man-at-Arms); Tatana (Woman-at-Arms); Baba Tonka (a brown bear) and 3 War Hounds

Session Recap

With preparations for the winter over, the party headed down into into the dungeon once more. They were given fairly good instructions by the bigger boss on how to find the top boss of the talasum population within the dungeon. On the way down the group stopped at the catacombs of level 3, clearing out a nest of robber flies and also finding a secret door they had missed previously. 

After looting the trapped sarcophagus of its contents, the group was now satisfied with having secured level 3 and thus headed deeper down, into the lair of the beasts that have been terrorizing their friends. 
Making their way carefully to the holdings of the Goblin King (a.k.a. the Biggest Boss) the strangely tall talasum thanked them for their willingness to help and also gave them a rough overview of the level, nothing that they really had no idea what the beasts that hunted them were, as nobody had returned alive from encountering them. The goblins' best guess was that there were two of the things stalking the hallways. 

The Biggest Boss promised to reward the party with his very fancy gilded full dining set (plus cups) if they managed to get rid of the menace. With introductions and rewards settled, the party had nothing else to do but go and hunt down their target.

Making their way towards the part of the level that the monster inhabited they saw a room that clearly served as a slaughterhouse or a feeding ground for the beast - corpses of both talasum and humans dismembered or nailed to the walls with bony spikes. Deciding to not go through there they instead approached from the side and through a rather screechy door which revealed a room who's floor was absolutely covered in a blanket of silver coins, as well as a large chest nestled between them. Before the group could do much of anything about it though, Walter the Man-at-Arms shouted from the back that they were being attacked. The beast, now revealed to be a manticore, had heard the group and circled around to ambush them. 

A frenzied battle ensued, with the two porters desperately trying to get away from the monster, the two soldiers backing away to get some arrow shots at it before it closed completely and animals and people all shuffling around and trying to get anywhere, underscoring the dangers of fighting in hallways. 

As the manticore blasted the back ranks with its tail spikes, killing Old Ben on the spot and wounding Walter as well as one of the party's dogs, Verasha acted on a hunch and instead took Baba Tonka and some of her other animals and sprinted through the rooms, trying to ambush the ambushing manticore! Meanwhile von Plarf had cast Light, blinding the monster and as it was flailing uselessly in its blindness the manticore got ripped apart by the rather angry brown bear. 

Taking a breather the group took stock of their situation. Verasha healed Walter's wounds, while Pipam the Younger sprinted back to the hold of the Biggest Boss, informing him they had succeeded in slaying one of the manticores and leaving the wounded dog with the talasum for safe keeping. 

With that handled, the party got to thinking on how to find and lure the second manticore. After lengthy plans on using one of the trapped rooms on the level the group decided that probably the simplest way was the surest and they dumped the killed manticore's corpse in the room holding the stairs that lead both up and down, and then just waited behind the door. 

After an hour or so of waiting Zoltan the dwarf, who was peering from the cracked door with his infravision, saw the large shape of the manticore emerge from the down staircase. As it found the mauled body of its friend, the Manticore flew into a rage, screaming "They fucking killed you, brah! I'm gonna fuck them up brah!" and smashed through the door...inadvertently flinging Zoltan to the floor and coming face to face with Baba Tonka.

A proper hoss fest then ensured with the manticore and bear tussling while Zoltan was trying to get off the floor. The rest of the party could not do much to assist, with the large bear essentially blocking any attempts to advance into the melee. Their help was not needed though, some lucky swings and the bear managed to take down the manticore, tumbling forward into the room beyond and ripping its throat out. 

Victorious the group returned to the Goblin King with the happy news and the alliance between the party and the talasum was officially struck. However the reward part of the deal did not quite work out. As the Biggest Boss unlocked his treasure chests he...found them completely empty. After nobody fessed up to taking his fancy dining set, the group set about investigating what was going on. They found a secret door connected to the treasury and a series of hidden tunnels! Searching the tunnels the group ran into some lizardmen, who quickly fell victim to a Sleep spell and Baba Tonka. 

With the lizardmen captive the group surrendered them to the Goblin King (who was happy to simply hire them to work for him as long as they promised to stop stealing his shit). The group found the missing treasure and took it as their reward, then gathered up the manticore's treasure and headed back to town, happy at a job well done. They also gave a hefty bonus to all their retainers, as well as giving Old Ben's remains to the town church for proper burial, earning them a positive reputation among the mercenaries of the town guild.

GM Observations

Oh man what a session. This I am fairly sure was the single biggest loot haul I've had in any of my campaigns so far, with 12,810 gold pieces worth of coinage, fancy dining sets, bejeweled goblets and gold-threaded robes. The party is very close to getting the funds to start rebuilding the manor proper, and with the talasumi of the top 4 levels of the dungeon now as firm allies they have fulfilled the requirements set to do so. Obviously the lower levels still remain, and the group will have to figure out a way to restrict access from there, but that is for the future.     

Also everyone except von Plarf and Zoltan leveled up (and both the dwarf and the elf are now very close to leveling too), which is not surprising considering the windfall from this delve. The game is very much progressing slowly towards the midgame - overland adventures and the beginning of domain play (which would really come around once the manor is completed). 

Also, as expected, a grizzly bear wearing scale armor is an absolute tank in combat, though a lot of it also come down to lucky vs unlucky rolls. With something like manticores there is honestly a good chance Baba Tonka might have been overwhelmed. 

The session also presented a great example of why having a lot of followers and fighting in corridors is not really a great combination, with people having a hard time maneuvering around each other and also the veritable zoo that Verasha has along with her. 

Talking Animal - A Greylands OSE Class

I kept working on a replacement for the dwarf and halfling classes from B/X, similar to my take on the Elf, in a continuing effort to help define the setting of my campaign a bit more. However that one was just not coming together. After spending over a week of not being able to actually write it out, I decided that if it isn’t working, it isn’t working. Instead I am going to draw on another common trope of folk stories, which is animals talking and behaving like humans.

Thanks to everyone on Discord who helped with ideas and links to existing ones, and thanks to this blogpost in particular since I am basically copying large chunks of it!

Talking Animal

Requirements: Minimum DEX of 9
Hit Dice: 1d6
Maximum Level: 9
Weapons and Armor: A Talking Animal can use any weapon appropriate to its size (so no two-handed swords or polearms for example), but not firearms. They can wear up to medium armor (as long as it is tailored to them individually) and can use shields.

Description

Like their bigger and stronger cousins, the War Bears, this class represents what are ostensibly normal animals that due to the powers of Chaos and the influence of the Primordial Beasts have the ability to speak the human tongues, walk on their hind legs and even use their paws to wield weapons or use tools.

Talking Animals are seen as a fantastical curiosity in the stable corelands of the world, but out in the rough and unfinished parts that still feel the influence of Chaos, they are rarely even given a second thought.

These animals do not really have any real culture or customs, being simply individual occurrences (or at most, a small family unit), however a common practice is a sort of ancestral veneration of the Primal Beast that is associated with their specific species. Beyond that they simply act like other people in whatever area they are, though often in slightly exaggerated stereotypical manner in some unconscious attempt to draw attention to, and act as a mirror of, certain human traits. Most talking animals tend to feel mildly embarrassed at their tendency to do that.

Abilities

Small size: Talking Animals all seem to end up roughly the same size, which is about a meter tall when standing up. As such they can not effectively wield large two-handed weapons or tools, any armor they wear must be tailor made for them (doubling its base price) and when fighting opponents that are larger than human-sized, they get a +2 to their AC.

Natural weapons: Be it claws, fangs or anything else. Unarmed attacks by talking animals deal 1d4 damage.

Animal Traits:
Either select or roll what kind of animal you are. In addition to anything granted by your species you also have the ability to communicate with mundane, non-talking versions of your species.

1. Badger - You may fly into a fit of rage, allowing you to make as many attacks per round as your level, but making you easier to hit (-2 to AC). Lasts a number of rounds equal to your level and you can’t use that again until a night of sleep.

2. Hedgehog - Due to your spikes you can’t wear any armor, but you have a natural bonus of +2 AC and anyone attacking you in close quarters suffers 1 point of damage.

3. Fox - Once per day you can cast Read Magic and can cast non-divine magic from scrolls with a 10% of a magical mishap occurring.

4. Wolf - If you are in a melee where you and your allies outnumber the enemies you get +1 to hit and +1 to damage. During downtime you can call forth 2d6+character level regular wolves to join you for one session, after which they leave. You can’t use this ability again until you’ve gained a level.

5. Squirrel - You can climb up sheer surfaces like a Thief on a 5-in-6 chance.

6. Rabbit - You can jump up to a distance of 30 ft.

7. Weasel - Your natural attack does 1d4+1 damage. On a successful hit you can latch onto the enemy. At the beginning of each round of combat they can try and shake you off with a save vs paralysis. If they fail they take an automatic 1d4 damage.

8. Boar - You may use your tusks to charge someone, giving you +1 to hit and double damage if the hit succeeds. You need at least 20 ft of clear space to pull off a charge.

Level Progression

Experience and saves as Dwarf.

The Greylands House Campaign - Session 8

  

Summary 

The party return to their base only to find it overrun with bandits, then they spend a good deal of downtime getting ready for the coming winter and for their next delve in the dungeons below. 

Party Members

• Verasha - Level 3 Druid 
• Pipam the Younger - Level 3 Thief
• von Plarf - Level 2 Elf
• Zoltan - Level 3 Dwarf
• "Rusty" the Talasum - Level 2 Fighter

Followers

Jaro (Verasha's war boar); Alois (Porter and Cook); Walter of Potsdam (Man-at-Arms); Grub (Verasha's other war boar); Baba Tonka (a brown bear) and 3 War Hounds

Session Recap

After spending the evening and next day visiting Verasha's people, the party decide to head back to town and get ready for a month of downtime, so that Verasha can focus on training her newly magically befriended bear. On the way back to the ruins of the boyar's manor, however, they noticed that there is campfire smoke coming from the ruins. Sneaking in through the southern entrance of the dungeon, the group ran into some of the talasumi and a pair of dead bandits. It was clear someone was squatting on their claim!

The state of the boyar's manor as the party found it. It currently is a bit more fortified.
Map is courtesy of Dyson Logos which I then edited myself.

Figuring they could get the drop on the bandits the group went back up through the spiral staircase and then proceeded to fight off the bandit gang, as well as a familiar (and ugly) face - the toady that managed to run away during their excursion into the tomb of Maximillian. As with most fights so far, the party was victorious due to their use of magic and animals. 

They managed to capture 3 of the bandits, with last living one running away somewhere. They brought them back to the town and while there started working through their list of downtime activities. They also learned that the town council had now recognized their claim to the Manor, mostly on the behest of the clergy of Greytown's church. 

Selling off some shockingly good loot that the bandits had on hand (they had done a successful breaking and entering job in town recently, and were hiding out in the ruins until the heat died off a bit), and giving their gear to the talasumi under their now legally recognized domain, the group also started doing some prep for further delves. Custom armor was commissioned both for Grub and Baba Tonka, as well as Rusty upgrading his armor to partial plate. They also hired laborers and bought construction materials in order to start slowly working on restoring the manor into a livable home.

One of these.

Currently their goal was to construct a big wood oven with sleeping space on top of it in the eastern tower of the ruins, as well as building a roof and adding a door to that place, essentially making it habitable even during heavy snow. They also closed off the wester tower where the dungeon entrance is, by putting in a heavy trap door and turning the tower into the personal space for their grizzly bear (while of course informing the talasumi in the dungeon of the changes). 

The rest of the month went mostly in training Baba Tonka some basic commands (as per the Animal Friendship spell) as well as going on hunting expeditions to try and stock up on food reserves. 

The group also met with the Bigger Boss, the talasum seemingly in charge of level 2 of the dungeon, who informed them that their Biggest Boss, who lived on level 4, had asked for their aid in slaying the beasts that roamed that part of the dungeon, and were killing the talasumi. The group of course accepted the task eagerly, seeing as that aligned with their plan of action anyway.

GM Observations

So this was another quick session. In many ways one can treat it as the second half of the last session, really. The players have been planning on taking a longer downtime in order to get a bunch of stuff done, and with the added excitement of a quick fight against some bandits, that is what the session ended up being. 

So, general observations...even with morale and all that, man animals are fucking brutal. War Dogs are already powerful as is, but once you factor Animal Friendship into the mix and you get fucking grizzly bears walking around following the party, things are getting serious. We'll see how well that helps the party against the terrors lurking deeper into the dungeon, of course, and Baba Tonka's size is also a downside since she often blocks passages due to her girth, but...still. A fucking bear! 

Quite earlier in the campaign as the players told me what their long-term goal was, we decided that 20k worth of coins was needed to fully restore the manor, plus they needed to clear and secure the first 5 levels o the dungeon. However, after reading through the dungeon again, I actually realized level 4 is the much more logical cut-off point, so I changed it to that. 

Further more, while the group is on friendly terms with the goblins/talasumi under the Manor, they are not quite at allies status yet. Helping them out with level 4 will do that though, and it feels like a very organic progression, not really something I as a referee necessarily needed to force to happen, but simply riffing on the stuff that is already in the dungeon as written. 

The Golden Barge

 During the pandemic I was looking for a mid-sized crafting project to keep myself occupied, and ended up settling on trying to recreate the golden barge from the Slumbering Ursine Dunes. I have a soft spot for the Hill Cantons in general, being the first thing that I was really exposed to when coming into the OSR. (As if you couldn't tell by me mentioning it in every other blogpost, talking about it constantly on discord, creating art for it and also ripping off large chunks of it for my own campaign, hah!)

Recently my partner helped me take some decent photos of the Barge (or at least better than the potato camera quality my phone can muster) and so I am going to share a few images of the finished project here. 

The Wondrous - The Greylands alternative to the Elf

I have been doing some worldbuilding and/or refining of ideas in my head about my Greylands setting and one of them is to lean a bit more into getting rid of your Tolkienesque stuff like dwarves and elves and lean into more human-centric stuff. I am also working on a replacement of sorts for Dwarves and Halflings, but more on that in the future.

I still like the “Elf” in B/X as the powerful intersection between Fighter and Mage (balanced with very slow leveling), so I figured I’d try a different spin on it. As such I am leaning into the many stories of children born from mortal mothers and a dragon, zmej or other serpent as a father, or heroes such as Krali Marko who was nursed by a supernatural mother like Vila Samodiva.

The Wondrous

Requirements: Minimum POW of 9
Hit Die: 1d6
Maximum Level: 9
Weapons and Armor: Wondrous can use all non-black powder weapons and all types of armor.

Description

While Chaos has been observed to produce many strange things such as naturally occurring dungeons, fell beasts, the Little Folk, mutations, magic and worse, its effects are not always as dramatic. Often it simply just makes people that are strange, weird or just kind of off.

The Wondrous are those people. Born of a mortal parent and a supernatural being of some kind, the Wondrous are obnoxiously competent compared to most of humanity. Being innately magical due to their heritage and close relation to Prima Materia grants the Wondrous the ability to master and cast spells, while most of them also being very adept at combat. The downside, however, is that the societal perception of them as being too full of themselves does make them advance slower in its arbitrary measurement of one’s place in the hierarchy (a.k.a. gaining levels).

The Wondrous are rare, but not unheard of, within the stable and mundane parts of the world, but seems to be a very steady phenomenon in more Chaotic zones, perhaps due to humanity’s never-ending propensity to have sex with supernatural creatures.

Outwardly most Wondrous look just like normal humans, however there is something off or strange in their eyes that betrays their true nature.

Abilities

Spellcasting: The Wondrous can cast spells similarly to magicians, but due to their inherently magical nature they also can learn a new spell every time they level up, without needing to devote time and resources to research or learn it from a teacher. Of course, they can still do those things if desired.

They can not learn any Healing or Law-associated spells, as those are the domain of the followers of the Sun God.

Inability to use firearms: Again due to their personal connection to Chaos the class can’t use firearms or other gunpowder-based weaponry. It simply doesn’t quite work for them.

Immunity to energy drain: A Wondrous often has a very strong personal aura, and are immune to the effects of energy drain (which in my game will make you lose stats, rather than levels, cos fuck that noise!).

Keen senses: The Wondrous are only surprised on a roll of 1, instead of a 1 or 2. They can also spot secrets or traps with a 2-in-6 chance even when not actively looking.

Level Progression

As Elf. Duh.

Renaming Ability Scores

Whenever I have had the chance over the past couple of years I have been playing in Humza's wonderful Legacy of the Bieth game. One of the things in LotB's extensive player handbook document of house rules is a simple renaming and retooling of sorts for the standard D&D Attribute scores. Namely the game no longer has Constitution as a score and replaces Intelligence and Wisdom with Skill and Power. 

I've seen discussions online of both the general problems of having stuff like "Intelligence" (with all of its weird connotations and baggage) as a stat anyway, plus the ever-present discussion of how does one play a character more intelligent than the player themselves. 

Combining that with the approach of establishing setting through renaming the classic Saving Throw types, I have decided to do some tweaking and renaming of attributes in my own ever-shifting patchwork of house rules of B/X.  

From here on out, instead of Intelligence characters have a Knowledge attribute, whereas Wisdom (an even harder to define concept) is now Power. Magic-users will now rely on both of those, with Knowledge helping them with starting spells, and both Knowledge and Power both being used when performing magical research, using an Arcane Research toolkit or doing similar stuff. 

This way Power still affects your ability to withstand magic by modifying your Saving Throws, but also lets all characters, not just magical types, interact with various devices and things by making checks against it. Meanwhile Knowledge is a bit more straightforward in indicating how much stuff your character knows (with low Knowledge not meaning the character is stupid or incompetent, but simply has a very narrow field of what they know). 

That's about it. Not much else to this post, but I wanted to establish this as I plan on posting more ideas for house rules, class changes (or even new classes entirely) and this would be helpful so people aren't utterly confused.

The Greylands House Campaign - Session 7

 

Summary 

With a month past, the group heads back to the Hidden Village so Verasha can receive another war boar from the head priestess and along the way the group messes around in the southern forest, their goal being - to find and magically befriend a bear!

Party Members

• Verasha - Level 3 Druid 
• Pipam the Younger - Level 3 Thief
• von Plarf - Level 2 Elf
• Zoltan - Level 3 Dwarf
• "Rusty" the Talasum - Level 2 Fighter

Followers

Jaro (Verasha's war boar); Alois (Porter and Cook); Walter of Potsdam (Man-at-Arms); Grub (Verasha's other war boar); Baba Tonka (a brown bear) and 3 War Hounds

Session Recap

With the last delve beneath the Boyar's manor bringing great fortunes, but also the death of one of their own, the party is joined by Pipam the Younger, the former illusionist's younger twin sister. The group also finally deliver the remains of Saint Ulther unto the care of the Greytown church, which nets them a permanent 50% discount on all clerical services such as buying holy water or casting spells. 

As Rusty goes out carousing in order to get that last few bits of experience, the rest go about buying supplies, renegotiating hireling contracts and giving their notice to the Town Council about their intent on claiming the former boyar's manor for themselves. 

Jan and Ludwig, the two porters the party had so far, refuse to go back to working with them, while Adam the warrior is willing to work, but doesn't get resigned. Instead the group keep Walter and also hire the porter and cook Alois, who due to uncertain pronunciation of his name is now stuck with an outrageously stereotypical French accent. 

New people finally recruited, the group heads south-east through the forest in order to visit the Hidden Village of pagan worshipers that Verasha is from. After meeting Leshy and chatting with him for a bit, the group decide to explore the southern part of the forest, full of caverns and, hopefully, bears! 

Along the way they find a logging camp, but choose to ignore it, and as they explore the more hilly parts of the forest they do run into a camp of ragged looking men and women by the mouth of a cave, claiming to be "spelunkers." Verasha, having grown up around these parts, immediately recognizes them as were-bears. 

After asking a bit too many personal question about how one becomes a were-bear the group leaves them to their spelunking, and instead finds a cave with a brown bear and her two cubs. Luring the mother out by making noise, von Plarf blinds her with a Light spell to make sure she doesn't rip everyone limb from lib, and Verasha starts weaving her enchantment of animal friendship. After an hour feeding and talking to the bear, the animal is now bonded to the druid, who triumphantly proclaims her new follower Baba Tonka (Truck)! They decide to also take the cubs along as well, not wanting to leave them alone in the woods. 

At the bridge over the river, they are approached by a pack of wolves, but thanks to Verasha using Speak with Animals and holding up the skull and fur totem of Uncle Wolf the proclaiming that they are here with his blessings. The wolves, now rather uncertain about the whole situation (though still tempted by the bear cubs) decide to just leave for now.

As they finally make their way to the Hidden Village, the group meets with Verasha's mom and then the head priestess of the Old Gods. After the woman calms down from having a goddamn brown bear show up at her doorstep, she then gives Verasha one of the magically grown boars, birthed by Svine, a Primordial Beast that the village worship. Being a very rude boy indeed, the new boar is named Grub and the party give the two cubs to the villagers to look after and train. 

GM Observations

So, a bit of a break from dungeon delving this week, and a bit of a shorter session too. Grub the Pig has been something set up from the beginning so it was finally time to go collect him. Verasha's player had also wanted to get a bear since the game began, and finally got around to looking for one. Luckily for the party they managed to approach the situation without severe loss of life (always a risk when approaching a brown bear) and now the druid has two war boars, a bear and two war dogs (the third one was taken in by Zoltan, since Verasha was at her cap for followers she can have). 

In expectation of the session I also had to completely redo my map of the region, which is good since the old one I used was frankly terrible, an the new one is at least a digital file I can correct and edit easily. I also redid the wilderness encounters tables, using the system from Through Ultan's Door by Ben L, where your d6 encounter roll also serves to tell you if you find the actual encounter or just a spoor of it. I think it works rather well.

Also as Verasha's player pointed out, turns out Druids are really damn good when in the forest, and not that amazing in the dungeon! Obvious, yes, but is always fun to have it underlined through play. 

All in all a fun short session, and one that helps move the party along their goal of establishing themselves as the owners of the former landlord's manor and hey, now they have a bear to enforce that claim!

The Greylands House Campaign - Session 6

Summary 

Returning once more below the Boyar's Manor the party reaches level 3 of the dungeon, has a rather scary fight and an anti-climactic death.

Party Members

• Verasha - Level 2 Druid 
• Pipam - Level 2 Illusionist
• von Plarf - Level 1 Elf
• Zoltan - Level 2 Dwarf
• "Rusty" the Talasum - Level 1 Fighter

Followers

Jaro (Verasha's war boar); Jan "the Hard Up" (Torchbearer); Ludwig (Porter); Adam (Man-at-Arms); Walter of Potsdam (Man-at-Arms) and 3 War Hounds

Session Recap

While back in Greytown to sell off some loot, the party managed to figure out that the gloves they got from the sarcophagus of Saint Ulther were, indeed, magical and and allowed the wearer to swim with amazing speed and climb improbable surfaces with ease - clearly the source of some the feats the saint was known for back when he was alive.

However the group had no use for them, and looked to get them converted to cash. Frantishek, the resident wizard in Greytown offered them 100 gold coins for the gloves, but the group were not impressed and so passed. Instead they actually found out that the church was not only aware of their re-discovery of Saint Ulther's remains but also had a counter-offer - 80 gold up front, but also a 50% discount on clerical services from now on if the party were willing to bring them the saint's remains so that they and the gloves may be properly stored and displayed in the church. The party agreed and headed back to their basecamp and delved into the dungeon itself.

Before they continued to delve deeper, they stopped by the Big Boss of the talasumi that lived on level 1, and gifted him with the pair of braziers from the tomb of Maximillian the Girthy and as thanks for their general attitude and helping clear out the undead from the level, as well as the rats, they were informed that the Bigger Boss has granted them permission to freely walk around in their territory on the first two levels of the dungeon. They were not exactly allies yet, but definitely friendly. 

Continuing down the stairs the group stopped by to introduce themselves to the rest of the talasmi on the second floor, including a big rust-colored one with an even bigger axe who apparently was part of the Bigger Boss's retinue, a strange small talasum living alone in a closed off room and having a bit of an attitude problem, as well as running into the talasumi's sort-of-successful attempts of rounding up and keeping contained the population of fire beetles found in the dungeon. 

They did not get a chance to meet the Bigger Boss personally, since he was apparently busy with other things, so the party kept exploring, and after finding a secret door due to telltale bit of dried blood, they found the staircase heading down to level 3, but also in the room they found numerous talasumi all violently nailed to the pillars in the room via some kind of bony spikes. Since talasumi, as far as the party could tell (and Rusty confirming by pricking his finger), did not really bleed that meant that at least whatever killed these ones had taken a few hits in return. A pair of large orange-haired talasumi warned the party off from not messing with this stuff, but otherwise left them to their own devices.

Deciding to take a different way, the party went into the caverns instead and followed the staircases to level 3 from there, slowly exploring the various alcoves full of the remains of the dead (and pilfering any grave goods worth the bother) as well as fighting off zombies, swarms of rats and such. They also kept feeling a strange breeze blowing through the caverns - a curious thing considering they were quite deep underground. They found a door leading back into the actual catacombs proper, and in the process of pilfering that as well (and again, fighting more zombies and avoiding a big swarm of fire beetles, apparently attracted by the Sunfire flasks the party had utilized) the group found the bottom end of the stairs leading back to the room with the pillars. 

They also, less fortunately, found a trio of ghouls hiding in some of the burial alcoves, jumping the party and catching most of them by surprise. A vicious fight ensued in which Zoltan, Pipam along with some of the party's dogs all took some serious hits in (with the dogs and the dwarf all succumbing to the paralyzing touch of the ghouls) before the group managed to dispatch them.

Deciding that it was time to go, the party quickly gathered whatever loot they could, and found in the last alcove they hadn't checked, a small coffer. Pipam, wounded from the fight, with adrenaline pumping through his veins, simply swung the coffer open, with a poisoned dart shooting right at him, the foul trap quickly killing him on the spot. The rest of the group knew this was then definitely the time to go. They grabbed the paralyzed dogs and dwarf, as well as the remains of Pipam, and rushed back up to their camp - significantly richer than before, but at the cost of a party member.

GM Observations

So this was a very straightforward dungeon crawl focused session. The party have now effectively neutralized the first two floors of the dungeon, having cleared out everything that could potentially be a source of danger either through violence or diplomacy (and seed cakes)! 

This feeds into their further goals of eventually reconstructing the manor above the dungeon and claiming it for themselves. I had made a ruling that the top 5 floors of the dungeon had to be secured and essentially neutralized as sources of threats, with the lower floors being shut off in some way to stop things coming up from below and causing problems. 

That is step one (and the hardest one really). Step two would then be getting some 20 to 25k worth of coinage in order to hire builders, bribe the Greytown council into letting them do this, and other general expenses in order to actually reconstruct the manor. With the last few good hauls the party has had, they have about a quarter or so of the money already on hand, so that's definitely achievable as a long-term goal. Plus, as a referee, it means I don't have to try and keep much of the area outside the dungeon constantly moving and stocked with stuff to do, because the party is so focused on it (hell they made a base camp on top of it simply to save themselves the 2 hour trip to and from Greytown).

As for the session itself - the fight with the ghouls really showed off how terrifying they can be, despite being rather whimpy monsters in terms of HP. One ghoul is usually not much of a threat to a party, but three of them? That is nine attacks and any that hit have a good chance of removing a party member from the encounter. 

Pipam's death was very much sudden and, honestly, rather flat. It very much underscored the bathos of OSR play - of people's lives ending not in some big gesture (though that can happen), but in sudden and shocking moments of brutality. See also the fate of Esho the Necromancer in my OD&D campaign from earlier this year.

The trap, as I had to detail it (the original Dyson's Delve does not provide any information beyond it simply being a poisoned dart) only does damage, rather than instant death..but for a level 2 illusionist who had already taken some pretty nasty hits in the fight that preceded the trap, it might as well have been just a save vs death. The Death and Dismemberment roll did not help either (it is even debatable on whether it counts, since this was a trap, and not combat).

But, this is how these types of games go. The party had managed to avoid another trap earlier in the game, but sometimes if Death wants to get her grubby hands on you, there is only so much you can do. 

Toolkits as an alternative to skills

There has been so much written regarding skills systems and their place in OSR gameplay already, that I am not going to rehash it here. My position is that I generally don’t like them, but I don’t outright hate them as others do. So I have been thinking about tools instead.

Reading through Gus L.’s excellent house rules document for his Crystal Frontier campaign, among the various neat ideas there was one that really stuck with me, and it was the note on toolkits and their relation to skills:

So it got me thinking about my own campaign and whether or not I want to deal with skills in it - currently the Greylands thief doesn’t even have separate d6 skills, instead just using a single Thievery score similarly to White Box FMAG’s version of it (and I am sure others too).

But what if I simply take the toolkit idea and dispense with the skills concept? I am planning on trying it out and seeing if it works. Plus some of these would allow me to provide players with actions they seem to desire in the game, such as a way to actually identify magical items.

The right tool for the job

Sticking with Gus’s idea above, a toolkit is a single bundled “item” that you can buy or potentially even assemble if given enough time, money and negotiation with the referee. Toolkits can be used by anyone, but certain classes would be better at using certain tools compared to others.

Improvised tools. Lockpicks made out of paperclips.

A toolkit can also have 3 specific items in it defined by the player during the course of play, or alternatively special items found throughout the course of play can be added to a toolkit to improve it in some way. That is definitely the element in Gus’s write up above that I like the most.

Toolkits can allow characters to attempt certain actions, either rolled as an X-in-6 chance or as a number of d6s under a relevant attribute. Especially good toolkits, higher levels or specific circumstances within the game can allow for bonuses to those, either permanent or temporary ones.

Possible toolkits (a non-exhaustive list)

Thieves tools

You know what they do. You need them to do Thief stuff. Thieves can use these with their thievery skill to pick locks, disable delicate traps and so on. Non-Thief classes can attempt to do this with a roll under their Dexterity on a number of d6s, depending on how bullshit I think the attempt is.

Arcane Research toolkit

Used by magicians, elves and other similar classes, to try and discern various arcane secrets. This toolkit can replace spells like Detect Magic, Read Magic, Identify and similar effects.

Trying to detect if something or someone is magical while in the dungeon requires a full uninterrupted turn and an Intelligence check, while trying to identify the properties of a magical item or figure out what kind of spells are on a scroll or spellbook requires an entire downtime action, an Intelligence or Wisdom check and potentially some amount of costly reagents and consumable materials (Let’s say 1d6x10 coins).

Of course, if the magician in question simply has the spells that do those things, then…well they can just use the spell and move on with their lives, but not everyone does.

The toolkit is also required in order to perform broader magical research activities like creating scrolls, copying spells, researching new spells and so on, however that still has the attached sum of materials and reagents involved in those activities as per your favorite B/X Downtime rules.

Shot Making toolkit

Detailed in my previous post on firearms. Allows Fighters and similar military-adjacent classes to create firearms ammunition with a downtime action and a roll either under Intelligence or Dexterity. Non-fighters can also do this, but will likely have to roll more dice for the check.

Alchemical Research toolkit

Similar to the above two, this one is used to manufacture stuff during downtime actions. In this case - potions. Magic-user types can spend downtime actions, money and a roll under Intelligence or Wisdom to try and copy or recreate a potion. Having the potion at hand can help, knowing what the potion actually is supposed to do helps further.

This toolkit is not really portable, instead requiring a dedicated space where it can be set up.

I don’t plan on having super detailed potion making rules, and finding an NPC who can do this would almost always be a better investment in terms of time and potentially money.

As is it says above, this list is not exhaustive - think of any kind of toolkit, mundane or fantastical, and this would cover it too. Want to build and run a printing press? Do wood carving? Metalworking? Dog training? It requires a toolkit. That might be something you can just carry around in your backpack or satchel, it can be something that takes up an entire room or building.

Hill Cantons Session Report - Sessions 1 and 2

I’ve had the chance to play in Chris’s 5e experiment…thing set in the Hill Cantons, and while I didn’t write a session report for the first game I figure I’ll do one now and combine them.

The Characters

Misha the Wide - War Bear Fighter (Level 1)

Nazgul - Human(Kozak) Ranger (Level 1)

Grubler - Human Motivational Speaker(Bard) (Level 1)

Session Recap

The characters met outside Marlinko as they all realized they were heading east for the same reason. They had all found themselves in the recent possession of a very legitimately looking certificate declaring them sub-boyar of the village of Hovno Potok (Shit Creek in the language of the Overkingdom). With dawning realization that their sub-boyar duties were clearly going to have to be shared the party was soon joined by a shit-covered man named Goran the Gobshite and his ever exasperated son. They were both also headed towards Shit Creek, Goran having purchased a certificate granting him the title of Head Peasant of the village in question (while uncertain what the duties of a head peasant involved, Goran was sure it was important work).

The party soon found Hovno Potok, a beautiful and picturesque walled village styling itself as a miniature version of Marlinko (even being divided into 4 contradas). A visit to the local “headman”, a polite but exasperated lady, she explained that this was New Shit Creek, and their deeds were for Old Shit Creek, which nobody lived in anymore, due to being so awful. It was also clear the trio were not the first ones she had encountered with such documents, and delivered them the bad news (well further bad news) that these certificates also came with a 300 gold sun debt worth of processing fee and filing taxes back in Marlinko.

In the evening the trio decided they were not leaving empty handed and proceeded to rob the village’s watchtower, stealing a whole stack of blank sub-boyar title certificates from a crate with a false bottom, as well as some gold-painted human skulls.

After some more travel and encounters with progressively more jaded, shit-covered and unpleasant villages, as well as a pair of cat men, the party finally made it to the ruins of what looked to have once been a sizable settlement.


Old Shit Creek currently seemed to have two peasant hovels and housed a pair of women who each had identical twins (one set boys, on set girls), along with a wiry gentleman in Marlinko clothing and a talking corgi, all arguing loudly about the two peasant women not wanting anyone to be sub-boyar of their village and just to be left alone.

Misha the Wide intervened and after picking up and chatting with the talking corgi named Samo (because really, who could resist?) he also took away Milovoy’s (the man from Marlinko) certificate, with the man acknowledging that there really was nothing he can actually do to stop the rather massive bear.

Deciding to go investigate the nearby red marbled construction up on the hills overlooking the village, the trio ran into the laborers who seemed mostly interested in just playing dice games and laying around, apparently being paid good money regardless of what was being done. The construction was some kind of monumental ziggurat being built for the Overking’s son, on orders from some official who was not present, but who the laborers were rather weary of.

Exploring the half-constructed building the party found the doorway to it trapped with an electrical barrier and then found the keystone in one corner of the building to contain a hatch. The hatch was blocked off by the sacrificed (relatively recently by the looks of him) corpse of a master stonemason. His mouth stuffed with grain stalks and with slivovice in one hand and a bag of flour in the other he was blocking a second hatch leading down into what the party realized was an inverted ziggurat underneath the mountain and of Hyperborean origin.

Map of level 1 along with annotation and loot.

Exploring the first level of the dungeon the party encountered magic mouths spouting riddles whenever the doors were touched (and then continuing to do so as the group ignored them and simply opened the doors), a table with three desiccated and old Hyperborean (presumed) corpses dressed in the outlandish over-the-top fashion typical of the declining period of that civilization, as well as a fancy cauldron containing the writhing remains of some corpses.

The mass of reanimated corpses attempted to leave and attack, but through oil and fire were quickly dispatched. Inside the cauldron Misha found a fancy sparkling and shimmering pitcher, apparently the effect being powered by a glowing orange ring in a glass cylinder that slotted into the pitcher’s base.

The party also found a secret door but no means to open it, to which Misha offered the straightforward method of kicking a hole through the stone panel, revealing the mechanism (it was the cauldron in the adjacent room!)

Inside they found an illusion of an Earth Mother shrine concealing a black pedestal with a metal cylinder on top of a vacuum tube delivery system. The cylinder contained a spell scroll as well as some very fancy and ornate looking paper written in Hyperborean (possibly the actual deeds of ownership to this place?)

Satisfied with their finds the party went back to the room with the tree corpses…only to find that one of them had in fact left behind their backs (taking its strange curvy sword along) and out through the hatch they came in from.

Deciding to be safe, Misha and Nazgul proceeded to behead and remove the legs off the other two (apparently the two corpses being quite sturdy and even seeming to twitch at the acts done to them) and then chucked them in the cauldron room, before heading back out to go find the third one.

 

Personal Observations

It’s great to finally be able to play in the Hill Cantons even if it is using this strange barely-by-the-book version of 5e (which, second session in, we are already discussing simply giving up on and just going back to B/X). The main thing I noticed, system wise, is that it takes so SO fucking longer to make a character, even using just the Basic document which is supposed to be the more stripped down version.

But hey, I can say I’m playing in a 5e game (barely)! The sessions themselves are a load of fun, with the typical cast of colorful characters typical of the Cantons. I am also deeply enjoying the experience of playing a huge, fat and hairy tank who’s main solution to problems is intimidation and direct violence. Ah the joys of being a bear!

Firearms rules for the Greylands Campaign

The world (still unnamed come to think of it) in which the Greylands is set, being a loose distortion of our own world during its Renaissance and Early Modern period, makes fairly widespread use of black powder firearms.

While most of those are still found primarily within the ranks of mercenary companies and the occasional standing army unit, their proliferation among the semi-criminal class of people with mercurial loyalties (ya know, adventurers) is also notable, since their unreliability at long range, but comparative deadliness in close quarters is excellent for the type of people who regularly fight in small underground corridors and rooms.

On a more meta level, I feel like firearms being present is an important element in anything drawing inspiration from our real world history and set after the mid 1400s (and sometimes, earlier). I am not the only one too, as how to handle firearms has had almost as many takes as what to do with the Thief.

Below is my current idea on how to approach them, though whether this will survive contact with the campaign, I would not hazard a guess. I can be quite fickle that way.

Firearms General Rules

Easy to Use: Unless otherwise noted, any class can use firearms, although more diminutive folk like gnomes or halflings might struggle with the heavy musket.

Slow Reload: All firearms require a full round to reload, similar to a crossbow.

Unreliable: An attack roll with a firearm that rolls a natural 1 to 5 not only misses, but causes the gun to misfire, clogging it up and requiring a full exploration turn to clean out and reload.

Susceptible to Chaos: Guns really do not appreciate being around the unstable energies of Chaos. When in an area of particularly high levels of Chaos, an attack roll of 1 does not just misfire, but instead the firearm explodes, dealing 2d6 for pistols or 3d6 for arquebuses and muskets to everyone within a 10 ft range.

Inaccurate: Greylands firearms are not the tool of choice for marksmen. They get the usual +1 to attack rolls when in short range, but get -1 at medium and -2 at long. 

Penetrative: If maximum damage is rolled when someone attacks using a firearm, the dice explode, meaning you roll another damage die of the same type. If that one also rolls max damage, keep going until it doesn’t. This ability does not function against enemies wearing Plate armor (be it a full suit of plate or just partial one) or monsters with equivalent resilience and toughness (up to the Referee's discretion). 

Specific Firearms, Ammunition and Others

Pistol (wheellock)

Missile Weapon, one-handed.

Cost: 30 gold 

Range: 5'-25'/26'-50'/51'-90'

Damage: 1d8

A rare and hard to find weapon from the top engineers of the Blessed Empire's corelands, reserved for important members of the military or rich mercenaries. The current height of firearms tech, does not require one to light a wick in order to shoot! Due to their rarity out among the border territories this can be very hard to find and requires payment in gold coinage, rather than the standard silver. 

Biggest upside? Can be used one-handed and can be fired even when you are engaged in melee.

Arquebus (matchlock)

Missile Weapon, two-handed.

Cost: 60 silver

Range: 5'-50'/51'-100'/101'-140'

Damage: 1d10

The standard firearm that most people in the setting would have at least heard of if not had the misfortune of interacting with. Big and bulky guns, hard to aim and hardly precise, but capable of devastation above what most bows or crossbows are capable of, and very easy to train someone on how to shoot it. 

Musket (matchlock)

Missile Weapon, two-handed.

Cost: 120 silver

Range: 5'-70'/71'-140'/141'-210'

Damage: 1d12

The heavy arquebus, most commonly known as the musket, is quickly becoming the primary weapon of choice for the more well-off mercenary companies fighting the wars between the Blessed Empire and its neighbors of the Southern Kingdoms. Bigger, heavier and deadlier than the arquebus, the musket might frankly be overkill in a dungeon, but sometimes you just want the biggest boomstick around.

Due to its size, bulk and length the musket automatically makes the wielder one step more encumbered.

Ammunition Pouch, Lead

Ammunition

Cost: 10 silver for 20 shots 

This contains enough black powder, lead projectiles and other stuff necessary for 20 shots of any firearm. Usually carried in an oiled pouch or a horn to keep it dry, as any moisture making contact with the black powder renders it useless until dried.

Ammunition Pouch, Silver

Ammunition

Cost: 30 silver for 20 shots 

A specialty item used almost exclusively by adventurers. Similar to regular ammo pouches, but the projectiles are made out of lumps of silver rather than lead. Useful for shooting at...well anything that requires a silvered weapon. The high price is due to scarcity and inability to make the silver ammo using a home shot making kit.

Shot Making kit

Toolkit

Cost: 60 silver

A kit composed of the tools required to melt and shape lead shots by yourself out of whatever scrap lead you can find (say, by digging it out of the person you just shot). Requires downtime and access to a fire to be useable, but can save you a lot on buying ammo (though you still need to buy the black powder). 

Why isn't everyone using this? Well, these are quite rare to find outside of armies or mercenary companies, and not everyone knows how to make the tools necessary. Plus local authorities tend to look down on people being able to make their own ammunition.  

The Greylands House Campaign - Session 5

  Summary 

The characters make camp in the topside part of the ruins of the Boyar's former manor and start securing the perimeter, as well as clearing out the rest of level 1 of the dungeon underneath it. 

Party Members

• Verasha - Level 2 Druid 
• Pipam - Level 2 Illusionist
• von Plarf - Level 1 Elf
• Zoltan - Level 2 Dwarf
• "Rusty" the Talasum - Level 1 Fighter

Followers

Jaro (Verasha's war boar); Jan "the Hard Up" (Torchbearer); Ludwig (Porter); Adam (Man-at-Arms); Walter of Potsdam (Man-at-Arms) and 3 War Hounds

Session Recap

During their downtime the party buy some good camping gear and large tent and set out to the ruins of former boyar's fortified manor, where the clear out some of the rubble, forming it into a defensive barricade and set up their camp within the walls. The reasoning being - there is no point in going back and forth an hour in each direction from Greytown if they'll be focusing on the dungeon underneath the manor anyway. Some of the hirelings complain that this is an odd choice considering the town is, ya know, right there but are quickly told that this is part of their contract (and technically, it is) and shut up.

Finally ready to head back in the group makes their way into the section of the first floor that houses the actual family catacombs and goes in. Exploring the place they find, unsurprisingly, a whole bunch of stone sarcophagi. They also found the resting place of one Saint Ulther - a man with a bristling mustache, bulging eyes and, more importantly, a former mortal incarnation of the Sun God.  Rusty, being a talasum born of this house, knows that the reason why the remains of Ulther are here instead of some temple, is that the former boyar's family are descendants of Ulther and so had spent a good amount of money to bribe several officials to have the remains moved to the private catacombs underneath their home. 

As the party were discussing about the potential of opening Ulther's sarcophagus and maybe even bringing/selling his remains to the church back in Greytown, Jan the porter started loudly protesting. He was someone already trending towards neurosis and religious fanaticism, and after some of the stuff he witnessed while in the employ of the party, this was starting to cross the line for him. Pipam made sure to take him aside and promise him that the party would not do something as reprehensible as desecrate the resting place of a saint. 

As this commotion was going on, one of the doors in the crypts opened and skeletons started marching out. The party rushed to meet them with a big ass melee ensuing. Rusty, who was now the wielder of Maximillian the Girthy's impressive +1 zweihander was having a rather hard time actually using the thing, on account of the sword being significantly taller than he was. That meant that one of the skeletons got a lucky stab at the poor talasum before being brought down by the onslaught of arrows, dogs and an angry war boar.

As the fight concluded, the party felt confident in opening up another sarcophagus, one they had (turns out correctly) suspected of housing another unquiet dead. The fight with the zombie was much briefer though, as Rusty finally figured out the hang of this two-hander business and along with Zoltan the dwarf managed to destroy the zombie before it even had a chance to do much of anything besides get up from its grave.

Taking its chain armor, longsword and the odd looking dagger it had stuck in its chest, the party still had some unfinished business to attend to. They asked Rusty, Walter and Jan the porter to stand by in this room and keep an eye out, as the party was going to go sweep the adjacent hallways and make sure there were no more skeletons.

With that diversion they went back to Ulthar's tomb and opened it, finding him mercifully still dead. They did however steal his suspiciously well maintained leather gloves though, as it was obvious they were magical. With that they returned back up. Also, just as an act of friendly pranking they spent some time banging on the door and howling and making noises, in an attempt to scare any potential talasums walking by at the time.

Satisfied with having the first floor of the dungeon secured the party returned aboveground to rest up.

GM Observations

A fairly straightforward session this week. The two most notable things having to do with Ulther's tomb. The tomb itself was already there in Dyson's dungeon, however it contained nothing of interest which to me did not make sense for the burial place of a saint. So instead I used the OSR miscellaneous magical items table and got a pair of magical gloves which fit quite well with the saint's supposed deeds. 

The other was Jan's freak out at the whole prospect. I try and give hirelings at least some personality, but often times doing so just takes too much mental energy while I am running, especially if there's a lot of them around (and there usually are). However Jan has specifically been already appalled at all the party have done and their general irreverence for the Sun God's ways (von Plarf being from a branch of the faith now deemed heretical and Verasha being an outright pagan) and the idea of opening a saint's tomb just had to be addressed in character. 

The party have also expressed interest in potentially rebuilding and claiming the boyar's manor house for themselves as a long term goal, which I think is a great thing to aim for in a sandbox game like this. I made a call as a referee that in order to make sure the place is safe, they needed to get the first 5 levels of the dungeons underneath secured in some way (either killing all enemies like with the rats, or simply making alliances with them like with the talasumi) and then making sure that access to the lower levels can easily be cut off. After that, of course, they would also need the funds to buy materials and hire laborers to actually reconstruct the building, along with a hefty amount of bribes to the Greytown council to let them do this in the first place. 

A difficult goal for sure, but in no way an unachievable one!