Game Report - Second Play

Today we played our second game.  Joining the crew from last time were two new players, S and H.

S created Becca, a ditch digger; William, a beggar, an urchin named Anja, and two mushroom farmers, Okhena and River.

H's characters included Eridan, a hunter; Bec Noir, a ditch digger, a baker named Gamzee, a guild beggar named Tavros, and a Gambler named Vriska.

The original party made the trek back from the ruined village.  At the place they'd encountered the orcs, they found a large tree cut down and laying across the path.  Approaching cautiously, they climbed over it and continued to Milburn Hall.  They arrived in time to see the coach disgorge a new group of indentureds in the Hall.

Grimm asked Pyotr to find a jeweler who could tell him about the necklace he'd found.  After breakfast the next morning, the jeweler arrived and offered Grimm 630 gold pieces on the spot.  As they were counting it out, Tavros ran over, grabbed a handful of the coins, and tried to run out.  Grimm, Bardzz, Penn and Baisil killed Tavros, retrieved the coin, and then paid Pyotr the 280 coins needed to free themselves from their indentured service.

The group of 28 then headed north to the ruined village.  When they reached the downed tree, an orc sitting there demanded a silver coin from each to let them pass.  The party hesitated.  The orc raised his hand and waved it, and the group heard noises from behind trees on both sides of the path.  They quickly handed over the silver, and were allowed to pass.

Two hours further along, there were surprised by a great bird with a thirty foot wingspan, which swooped down silently and grabbed up John the Hunter in it's talons.  It quickly flew out of arrow range, then dropped John from a great height, scooped up the corpse and flew away.  The party stuck to the trees, and made it to the ruined village without further incident.

At the village, they went to the large marble building at the end of the road, which had both a T-bar holding the door shut, and a chain and lock.  Above the door was an inscription that read "Kemper Village Mausoleum."  They moved the T-bar, and Becca the ditch digger managed to pick the lock.   They opened the doors to find a single room.  Lining the walls were shelves with urns full of ashes; while the center of the room held a raised platform with an altar on it.  On the alter was a three-branched oil-lamp with symbols of law, neutrality and chaos on it.  On the front of the altar the same symbols were engraved, with the names Aros, Topha and Samana under each one in turn.  The party lit all three wicks, and called out each name in turn, which caused the glow to become brighter than daylight.  Searching the room, they found a hidden door opposite the entrance, which revealed a stairway leading down into the ground.

Exploring below, they battled zombies and skeletons, and both Daxter the cutpurse and Vriska the gambler lost their lives in combat.  The survivors found several gems and some gold, camped out in houses in the village, then headed back to Milburn Hall the next morning.  On the way, they kept a look out for the great bird, and at the downed tree, no orcs were to be seen, so they continued back without paying a toll.

While the injured rested for ten days, half the group wove baskets out of brambles, while the other half cut a new path from the front of Milburn Hall due north toward the stream.  It took them an additional ten days to cut all the way through.  At breakfast the next morning, they found that two men had gone out overnight to collect firewood, and had never returned.  They found footprints and followed them back to the kobold tunnels.  Each player picked one character to enter the tunnels.  This smaller group took torches and followed the tunnels.  A giant rat attacked as they were exploring, but it was dispatched with ease.  After almost an hour, the tunnel dipped down and opened up in a stone cavern where the party could again stand up.   A group of eleven kobolds confronted them, and the party bribed them with a bunch of excess equipment to win their escape.  As quickly as they could get out into the sunlight again, they returned will all their characters... only to find the kobolds no longer there.  The party began to explore, and quickly found a corrider leading out of the cavern.  Turning their backs on the cavern, they marched 2 by 2 into the 8 foot wide corrider, which proved to be a trap.  The front row was attacked and one round later the rear of the party was attacked as well.  Roxy, Jak, Bardzz and Baisil all lost their lives in the ambush, but after eight kobolds died, the rest fled, letting the characters escape again from the tunnels.

Back at Milburn Hall, J, who'd lost his last two characters, created a new batch:  Rudy, a baker, Merin, a fortune teller, Salvador, an alchemist, a minstrel named Shern, and a wizard's apprenticed named Draco.

This time, after recuperating, the group decided to skip the kobold tunnels and head back to the village.  Grimm and Penn carried the bodies of Bardzz and Baisil with them for internment in their house at the village.  On their way, they found the orcs had replaced the fallen tree with a double wall of tree trunks sunk vertically into the ground, with a door in the center.  An orc stood above them and told them the cost was again a silver coin apiece in order to pass.  Grimm and Penn called out saying they were on their way home to bury their dead, and could they pass for free?  A lucky reaction roll had the orc grant them approval, and the entire party was allowed to pass without paying.

Before reaching the village, the party was again attacked by the giant bird, which managed only to snag and drop the corpse of Bardzz.  The party hid under the trees, and the bird gave up and flew on.

Back in the mausoleum the party continued exploring the first basement, battling zombies, skeletons and rot grubs.  Merin the fortune teller was killed by a zombie.  The party found a deep pit, but their torches weren't strong enough to let them see the bottom.  They dropped bones and three zombie corpses and estimated the pit to be almost 50 feet deep.  They tied their ropes together, and knotted it every few few feet to make a climb down easier.  Three members successfully climbed down the pit, but Bec Noir slipped and fell to her death, impaling herself on ribs sticking out of the zombies they'd dumped.  The rest of the party stayed above, keeping an eye out for wandering monsters.  At the bottom, the smaller group explored the corridor in both directions, finding stairs leading further down, several doors they ignored, and a room with two zombies.  After killing the zombies, they found a chest full of gold, then battled several more zombies, one of which killed Penn the scribe.  As the party hoisted the chest of coins up from the pit, there were forced to battle one more zombie, which had climbed aboard for the ride up.  Leaving the mausoleum, they again camped in village houses, then headed for Milburn Hall in the morning.  This time, when they reached the orcs' wall; a new guard appeared on the wall and looked them over.  Seeing the ornate wooden trunk they carried, he told them the toll was a gold piece each.  Turning back, they went north a half mile then left the path and went half a mile to the east before again turning south.  They defeated a small group of orcs, and made it back to Milburn Hall to rest and recover.

After receiving their experience points, one character, Grimm the ditch digger, had earned enough to become a first level character.  He opted to become a mage, and was told he'd need to receive a month of training.

Again, the players said they really liked the much simpler rules, and how much faster play could be.  All in all, everyone seemed to have a good time, even J, who had to start on his second batch of zero level characters.