ACKS Session report: September 9th
Grave goods.
I’ve finally begun my ACKs campaign utilizing 1:1 time and some other goodies. This is the first session report from that endeavor. The first session was a little over eight hours and contained two trips out into town.
Dramatis Personae
Torna - Elven Ranger - Level 1
Ostra - Shaman, lion totem - Level 2
The campaign opened on a festival day. Specifically, the festival of First Harvest which is a celebration of the first successful crop raised after the flood waters came and receded slightly. Games, food and song are happening in the green space of Rook’s Ward. Once the bastion of the great megalopolis of Tyreth Rook’s Ward is now the only thing resembling a city among the ruins. A third of the population survived the apex of the flood waters, and many of them are here celebrating their good fortune to still be alive.
Torna and Ostra have been sheltering here for their own reasons, having both come from the distant Breezewood. To participate in some of the contests of skill: darts, log throwing and the game of Stones (similar to chess). Torna wins darts and chess handily, though they both lose log throwing to Big Bald Billy, a native. The end of festival sees a story telling contest, Ostra bests Torna here, with a rousing tale of slaying a man-beast (or elf-beast more accurately!) in the Breezewood to earn her totem. Torna meanwhile bored the audience for a recital of a traditional Elven love story (four hours long, as she gave the abridged version). The night was not all wasted though, as they heard several “true” tales of happenings abroad. A trader from the Northen mountains told of the Half-man of the Hills, a freakish being with only 1 arm, 1 leg, half a trunk and a full, pig-like head. A young priestess, working for the Burial Shrine, told of hearing awful noises while recovering bodies who had not been buried in the Grave Ward. She claimed it sounded of eating, and that when she investigated the place later, she found jewelry clearly from a rich person’s grave clothes. A bard gave a resounding story of giant silver mushrooms that would make a person feel as though they were starving, but allow them to survive for a week on a single bite.
The next day the duo met up again, now that they knew each other’s faces and names, and decided to go follow up on the rumors. Meeting the trader from the night before, who explained that he had seen the Half-man lurking near his camp during the night, and that it was heard to scream and mutter to itself in two different voices. The two decided to keep this in mind and track down the priestess. While doing so, they encountered the bard from the night before. They tried to recruit him, but a dispute of pay saw them part ways. Meeting the priestess yielded more fruit, in the form of a very specific location in the sprawling open air cairn of the Grave Ward. They set off at once.
The first day travelling among the bones, graves and hills of the mass burial site saw them find a small mausoleum. Breaking into it and attempting to disturb the sarcophagi saw them paralyzed with fear on failed spell save, a swift bite by the Ostra’s lion cub put them to rights, but a lingering fear persisted for days. They camped outside. During the night, they heard the noises described by the priestess but were not disturbed. The next day they found it’s source, a pack of ghouls living burrow under a pile of bones. Drawing out a few proved that the battle would be difficult, though they were able to slay two, Ostra lost her spear when the apparent leader disappeared into the burrow. The duo retreated to rest for a few days at the mausoleum, using it’s interior for cover. Returning, three more ghouls were slain, but the remaining seven tried to overrun the two. They escape, at the cost of Ostra’s totem companion. A few more days of resting and planning, and they returned. Building a smokey fire at the burrow entrance during the day, they were able to smoke the ghouls out, killing them. They gathered up the coins and grave good in sacks and returned to town. They also received three Lapis Lazuli gemstones, which the lead ghoul had shoved into it’s mouth for replacement teeth. Feeling high with the success, they tried the mausoleum again, and were rewarded with more silver, a small amber brooch worth 100 GP, and a potion of Sweetwater.
Returning to tell the priestess, Ostra secured a meeting with the prior of the shrine, a man named Father Michel. The prior rewarded her with a key to the crypt of the Nameless Princeling, and a warning to enter by the right door, not the left. She then went to preform a ritual to call another totem companion. Torna met with a group of traveler’s from the west who told of lizardmen who had been kicked out of their village for failing a coming of age ritual. They rested a day and then returned to the Graveward.
On the way to the crypt, they encountered a group of Hobgoblins picking over the remains of the ghouls. The hobs claimed they had killed the ghouls. Not wanting a fight, Ostra and Torna told them of the Mausoleum, saying it was still full of treasure, perfect for those brave enough to kill the ghouls. The hobs left on the promise of easy money. Before entering, Ostra communed with her ancestor spirits to determine the possible risk and reward of delving in. She decided based on their answers that it was worth it.
Delving the crypt was a simple affair, they entered via the right door and were met with a defaced statue. Torna’s keen eyes spotted a secrect door into a room containing moth eaten royal clothes, with a small closet. Opening the closet, Ostra was surprised by the appearance of 10 skeletons. The door was promptly shut and locked. To the north was a room with 10 coffins, each bearing naught but rusted and useless weapons. War banners adorned the room. A loud marching drum invited them to step to it, but all made the spell save. North again to an annex, they could see a fine sarcophagus beyond a locked portcullis. Following a narrow hallway south and west, they encountered a locked door. The door was made of flimsy, rotted wood and they kicked it in easily. They entered a burial offering room. A single large chest was in the center of the otherwise spartan room. Investigations via thrown rocks and prodding proved it to be a normal chest, unlocked. Torna lifted the top with the bow, and two poisoned needles sprang out where her hands would have been. The chest contained 10s of thousands of copper and silver. They left it where is lay. Further east and into a defaced fresco and mural room. Then into a hallway, Torna fell into a pit trap while headed north, but Ostra was able to help her out. To the north was another sarcophagus, though investigating it proved it was made of tin and hollow. Opening a door to the east, Ostra was struck with sleep dust but awoken by Torna. This long narrow room contained seven sarcophagi, each in the likeness of a different woman. The duo open the first and found that its occupant was a zombie. They dispatched it with ease and did the rest likewise. They found the Princeling’s coffin behind a grate to the south. The ghastly faceless figure of the prince’s wight arose from his coffin, and promptly was shot full of arrows. It fell back in the coffin and appeared dead1. Even allowing the two to take it’s grave goods. Sacks full, they returned to the treasure room and dragged the chest back to Rook’s Ward for a well earned rest.
All told, they each earned a little over 4161 experience for the two delves, and a fair bit of gold after the exchanging was done. Very lucky with wandering encounters, only the single run in with the Hobgoblins.
These characters will be available again on the 21st.
I made a mistake at the table. The wight should not have been susceptible to damage from mundane weapons but I forgot that and they won initiative and dealt well over it’s rolled health. Once I realized, it was far too late, and I’m not going to deprive characters of XP earned, even if I made a mistake.