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.
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!
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!
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