ACKS Session Report: September 20
Cold reception
A little ACKS Guerrilla Gaming at the office this week. After two failed attempts at using my friendly local game store, I think I will need to find another solution for gaming while my players are on call and can’t come to my house. Thus dies the dream of recruiting more players, for the time being at least. This week we got some interesting wilderness encounters as the party finally realized how good a wagon and some heavy draft horse are, and headed out to pick up on a quest generated in my solo play session. On to the show!
Dramatis Personae
Torna - Level 2 Elf Ranger
Ostra - Level 3 Shaman
Bob - Level 1 Thief
Stagehands
Caldur - Level 1 Cleric
After recovering from their slog in the Graveward, Torna and Ostra went to the market of Rook’s Ward. Torna bought some basic supplies (including some silvered arrows), but Ostra went on a shopping spree. She purchased a wagon, two heavy draft horse, two war dogs and two weeks of fodder for the lot. Returning to meet Ostra, they both ran into the merchant they had spoken with about the Half-man, now traveling with a young priest and the bard Kline. The merchant, calling himself Grolvar now, had returned to town a few days prior and had heard of their exploits against the ghouls. He asked if they would help clear out the next of strange looking ghouls who were holding a glass merchan hostage. One brief haggling later, they had agreed to 15% of the profit on Grolvar’s next route, and a map to a hidden treasure horde.
That handled, they set out. Only to be stopped by the gate guards, who asked why they were smuggling a poorly concealed man under the wagon. This is how they met Bob the thief. Bob was forced to pay Ostra 3 gold to join, but after that they headed out, with the confused guards looking on. Traveling about half the day along the royal road, they came upon a mule standing in the open. No owner, cart or anything else in sight. Ostra decided this would be a good enough place for everyone to relieve themselves, and they all headed to a small copse of trees. They returned to find one of the war dogs fighting with the mule. Torna stopped the fight, and Ostra tried to speak with the mule in the secret language of beasts. Only to find that it was unable to speak, or respond and appeared dead. After a few moments of this, four black bone arrows fired from the grass and pierced their wagon. Torna threw a rock into the grass, to be met with a sickening crunch and the smell of rotting flesh. The mule also appeared to be rotting where it stood. They all hopped on the wagon and began fleeing, only to see four hideous flesh puppets1 stumble out of the grass, one with it’s skull split open and leaking a black, foul smelling ichor.
They fled all the way to the normal stopping area in the Miasmic Mire. Set up camp and began a watch rotation. Second watch was Bob’s, and during it he saw a woman in white walking into the swamp. She seemed to be emanating an extreme cold, and he woke Torna to ask for advice. She then woke Ostra, who yelled at the woman. The woman then turned, revealing that she had no facial features, just a smooth flesh plate. The wraith zeroed in on the one who had yelled. Some frantic moment later, Torna had managed to sink a few arrows into the woman, but not before the woman laid a cold hand onto the shaman and drained some of her vitality2. They were able to drive the wraith off by distracting it with noise and the sting of the arrows, but were unable to kill it. It made a half-hearted swipe at the horses on the way out, but seemed indolent from the life it had stolen. It wandered into the swamp. The group decided they may as well travel on to Milltown and lit torches to accomplish this. They were forced to camp outside its wooded wall until sun up.
The next day, Torna went into the one inn and drank enough wine to forget the night before. Bob did a little property reassignment, and got 10 Silver and 1 silvered whittling knife for his trouble. Mid-morning finally say Grolvar arrived, and explain they he had been delayed by trouble on the road. He said the priest, Caldur, knew where the ghoul nest in question was. Bob attempted to pickpocket the merchant, but the merchant stayed maddeningly out reach. The took their wagon as far as it would go to the edge of the reedy swamp, but were forced to walk. They came upon the next, a pile of animal skins and bones strewn over a burrow. Oddly, the ghouls were all out, standing around idly. The glass merchant was still in his gibet, looking mostly dead from exposure. These ghouls seemed small, and paler than usual3. They moved in for a suprise attack, Torna with Arrows, Ostra sending in the war dogs and lion, the priest attempting a turning. The turning was much more successful this time, and drove off half of them. Torna killed another, and the animals tore two to shreds. Bob snuck over and began breaking the hinges of the cage. The remaining ghouls tried to mount another attack, but were unable to land a clean blow and were cut down. They grabbed the glass merchant and whatever loot they could find, which included lapis lazuli teeth like the previous nest, though not yet in a ghoul’s mouth. The returned to Milltown for payment.
Grolvar paid them 500 go upfront and promised the rest when he finished his circuit. The were halfway returned to Rook’s Ward before realizing he had skipped out on the treasure map too. Cheap bastard. The return journey was uneventful. Upon returning, they decided to go see if there was any treasure left in the Princeling’s Crypt. Once again taking their wagon as close as it could go, they reached the crypt and entered in the left side door this time. Bob was able to discover a thin screen of wire in the only archway deeper, but couldn’t determing what it did. Taking up defensive positions, Bob threw a rock through it. This caused a loud, piercing noise to sound and the door to the outside slam shut and lock. Three Trogoldytes appeared in the doorway, but were easily put down, despite their smelly skin. This broke the will of the remaining three who agreed to become the group’s “henchmen” if they would be fed. It turned out this offer only extended to working inside the crypt, but the Trogs did hand over some treasure from their lair as a sign of good will. The group left, telling the Trogs they would return with fresh ghoul corpses to feed them in exchange for the rest of the money in the crypt.
They returned to Rook’s Ward once again and began discussing their next move. They determined that they would go investigate some stories of lizardmen causing issues in Laketop after being banished from their village in the Beastlands. So decided, they started buying up water barrels and rations for the journey, which would be the next session.
This session covered 09/20/0023 - 09/24/0023 in the campaign world.
These are archer-ghouls, a type of half-breed created by a witch coven in the area. They are 1 HD, 3 AC, ranged attack like a short bow, firing bone slivers. They count as undead for the purposes of turning, but are closer to small flesh golems. The mule was an illusion.
Energy drain is quite the drug. Torna got off lucky and only lost one level, due to this particular wraith’s behavior
These are vampire thrall ghouls, as I ruled in my solo play ruling. They are weaker from being controlled and underfed.