GM: Brian Isikoff
Players: Dennis Jordan, Regina Joyner, Karen Twelves, Angelo De Stephano, and Sean Nittner
System: Dungeon Crawl Classics, the RPG
Campaign: The Slumbering Tsar (for Pathfinder converted to DCC)
The highlight of this game was surely my character dying and being eaten by carnivorous plants. At least the highlight for me. But more on that in a bit.
A conundrum
So, last session we killed, or banished really, this Earth Elemental guarding a graveyard, which we thought was surely full of undead abominations. Turns out it was the last graveyard of the Heroes of Light and we had just removed it’s only guardian. Yeah, not so good.
Our boo-boo was articulated by three Vroks (demon vulture things) flying down at night and cackling over the horrible things they were going to do to the bodies in the graveyard. Laudron (my every bold but not everlasting halfling) decided to sneak up behind said demons and when the first two flew off to report on the good (or really bad) fortune, he took this opportunity to show off said boldness and garotte the remaining demon while yelling “THIS IS FOR THE ANTIQUARIANS, BITCH!” (Laudron was very keen on all religious and cultural artifacts making it back to the proper secular and sacred institutions for curation rather than fall into the hands of a demonic host. Well, he hit, which is yay, and made enough noise that Tilas, his one-sided bromance would be lover, came charging to his rescue with a magic missile the size of a meteor, which turned the Vrok to ash (that Laudron promptly collected into a jar for posterity sake). In it’s dying after image, the Vrok told Laudron “we know the guardian is gone.” Yay!
The party was divided on what to do. Sozen the Dwarf wanted Laudron to ride his magical centipede back to the druid’s grove and let them know we broke their guardian. Mira, on the other handed wanted to make reparations for his actions by calling upon Freya to protect the graveyard forthwith. Like all schizophrenic groups of murder hobos, we elected to choose option C: all of the above.
Tilas and Laudron set off to talk to the druids while the rest of the party stayed at the graveyard to ward off any other attackers while Mira performed a lengthy ritual to ask Freya for divine aid. One party succeeded with style. The other was druid stew. I’ll let yo guess who was who.
Fall out
Laudron – Dead
Finally made the list! My halfling collector just eaten by cannibal druids! twitter.com/SeanNittner/st…
— Sean Nittner (@SeanNittner) January 20, 2013
Tilas – Barely escaped with his honey badger familiar. Naked and withered to the bone from ability score burn.
Freya – Got it on with Mira and not only restored the elemental to protect the graveyard, but added her one white light of righteousness to the mix.
The rest of the part – Got to see an awesome fireworks show where the dozen oncoming Vrok were the unbeknownst fireworks and Freya’s light was the fuze. Four of them actually were smart enough to land…and be ripped to pieces by the earth elementals. Good times.
It’s pay back time. Or not. Well, maybe
When the party met Tilas on the road (naked and burnt) and found out what happened to both of them, they were ready for ACTION! Or maybe caution! Perhaps diplomacy! Or better yet, some good old subterfuge! As befitting characters of different alignment there were some strong voices to avenge the fallen, others to only do so if the druids came out of their grove (the carnivorous hedge being quite a threat). Others to let bygones be bygones.
The result was a melee of bloody nature. I brought in a new character, another halfling named Conrad, out to inspect on the progress of Laudron, who did little as the might adventurers killed one of the druids, his beetle animal companion and a quickwood tree.
Sozen was bad ass, he was made into a giant and smashed in the head of a lion, turning it to stone. Aileth put several holes in the druid with her bow, the druid responded in kind by putting holes in her with his pet giant beetle. Mira cured those in need and paralyzed the beetle. She also re-attached Aileth’s lower leg after said paralyzed beetle’s mandibles chopped it off. Lucius (Angelo’s theif) during the melee snuck up to the wounded druid (Aileth had just shot him in the eye) and poisoned him with Medusa toxin, rendering him unconscious for days…which he would never enjoy, as we promptly ended him by feeding him to his own carnivorous tree!
Parting is such sweet sorrow
To the Elf’s dismay, his new Halfling companion would not last long. As we wrapped up the session, Conrad gave his thanks to the party for their bravery in avenging a fallen Halfling (he was quite surprised anyone would care that much about a wee folk) and parted. Really I just realized that with near similar stats my “new” halfling was identical to my “old” halfling, minus the magic items. Time to try something new.
@ktwelves @seannittnerTilas waited 500 years for a halfling adventuring buddy…those Druids are gonna burn!
— Dennis Jordan (@GringoPistolero) January 22, 2013
Thoughts on the game
Dungeon Crawl Classics (for me, I’m not saying this in general) works in one of two modes. Either I remain ignorant of the rules, roll what someone tells me, and be content with the company at the table for my entertainment, or I take the dive and learn the system to I can have some mastery of it. Since I’m now playing this in a campaign game, I think I should do the latter. Learn how it works and make it work for me. Yeah, new rules!
I way dig how we are just trashing the Ashen Wastes and remaking it in our own image. Guardians? Kill em. Druids? Kill em. And these aren’t even the “bad” guys. But…it’s the ashen waste, everyone is kind of a bad guy.
Next up, Kail, the Hand of Tyr. Let’s see how a cleric rolls in this game.
