ACKS Session Report: Solo Play 09-17-23
Rescuing damsels for profit
My usual group could not meet this week due to the shop we use having a comic sale day, and therefore not allowing in store gaming. So I forged on ahead. I had a few characters lying around from character generation, and decided to pick two of them for some solo playing. Those ended up being Grolvar Blazekiller, AKA Morthal, a venturer and Kline the Magnificent a bard. Grolvar got a level boost to three and some gold with which to buy a wagon, two heavy horses and four light infantry men as wagon guards. Then I backdated the goods he had carried from Iron Peak to Rook’s Ward the previous week and figured out if he made a profit with which to buy new goods.1 The intention being to use the mercantile rules and hopefully generate some new lairs and rumors as he and Kline roamed the country side delivering goods and making a profit. With that out of the way, on to the show.
Dramatis Personae
Grolvar Blazekiller / Morthal - Venturer level Three
Kline the Magnificent - Bard level One
Stage Hands
Four as of yet unnamed Light Infantrymen.
Game Days Covered
09/09/0023 - 09/16/0023
It was a lucrative trip for Grolvar this time. His load of Iron ingots and four loads of weapons and armor had sold quickly once he returned to Rook’s Ward from Iron Peak. They usually did, but he had been worried that festival would make the merchants in town indolent. In fact, it had the opposite affect. Hoping to capitalize on the influx of peasants from the farmland outside the walls, they were eager to buy his goods, hoping to sell a sword or ax to some poor sod who thought he could use it. The metal went quickly too, though it was likely stay in nearer quarters. Rook’s Ward was always clamoring for high quality metal, its proximity to the New Gulf was hard on tools and structures alike. That done, he looked to fill his cart for beginning the circuit again. He went to a glassware merchant and purchased his whole stock, 13 loads in all. An ill omen. He also purchased 7 loads of strong spirits. His next stop was Milltown, a sorry little village in the Softwood forest. Known for it’s lumber operation, Milltown was sandwiched downwind of the Miasmic Mire and bordered the Reedland swamps. The citizens were always looking for stout windows and spirits to ward off various smells and vapors that wafted their way. Fees paid, horse feed bought, and guard wages paid, he headed out towards the gate. He stopped briefly when Kline the Magnificent, a self styled bard, asked to journey with him. Offering to pay his way by keeping the entourage in high spirits. Grolvar so no harm in it, and so let him journey along.
The road from Rook’s Ward to Milltown was in good condition, and still maintained. It was an important trade route and part of the route lord Curwin took when heading to his new keep in the west. Curwin would not make due with ill maintained or non-existent roads no sir. Grolvar thought he shouldn’t complain, at least this and the next leg were relatively danger free due to this. The worst was having to camp near the Mire. That night saw foul smelling vapor disturb his horses but nothing worse. A lucky trip so far.
Entering into Milltown the day after he departed, Grolvar set to work asking about the glass merchant and spirits merchant. Neither were available. It was unsurprising about the spirit merchant, he split time between here and Laketop. Just meant Grolvar would need to make an additional stop. The glass merchant was odd. By all accounts he was basically a shut in. Asking around the market, he found that the man had been seen wandering into the Reedland swamp. Great. Realizing he would make no money unless he found this man, Grolvar went into the swamp looking for him. Or a body more likely. Kline accompanied him too, thinking that a merchant traipsing about the Reedland would make a good tale. Grolvar was bound to be eaten by giant leeches, a humorous and cautionary tale about chasing down mammon over all sense.
It took roughly half a day to broach the edge of the swamp, and they were rewarded almost immediately. They spied a ghoul nest little more than thirty yards from where they were stomping around. Ghouls were a common enough sighting, what was uncommon was the man in a gibet cage strung up over the ghouls bone pile. Even more oddly, the ghouls were not in a frenzy trying to kill the man, rather they lazy wandered about as though in a daze.2 Seeing they were outmatched, the two returned to town and passed another night. The next day, they brought the town’s cleric (Caldur) to the spot, who attempted to turn the foul things. He failed. There was a merry chase out of the swamp, but the ghouls were lost before the edges of the town came into view. Not knowing what else to do, the now trio headed back to Rook’s Ward to attempt to recruit more knowledgeable hands, or a member of the Burial Cult to help rescue the merchant.
This was the load that brought him to level 3, but I ran the machine backwards as it were. Whatever XP he earned from this trip was subtracted from 3050, and the rest was earned from trips in the past that I will not be back dating. This gives him plenty of money with which to have reasonably purchased a wagon and horses.
Encounter roll was ghouls, with a 19 on the lair check, and uninterested reaction. This lair is very close to a pre-placed vampire lair, so I ruled the ghouls are under the vampires control. I used an oracle dice to see if the missing merchant was among the ghouls and got a “Yes, but” result. I decided the “but” was that he was not yet dead or a ghoul himself, which is the obvious outcome for a peasant encountering ghouls.