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!