Adventures in Krowne Keep
So, I've been taking some players through B2 - Keep on the Borderlands through play-by-post gaming. We use Discord for this and I'm constantly learning how to do this better. There have been two "sessions" this far, which I kind of classify as a separate excursion. Our playing mainly depends on me having the time and state of mind to run it, which means that it's usually a school vacation thing. We're also in quite different time zones, which makes it slower than it might otherwise be, but I've got nothing to complain about. The pace is right for me, going from about two posts a day to one every other day moves things about quickly enough to still feel like we're getting things done. The system we use is Maze Rats, which makes things go rather smoothly. Anyway, here are the reports. I'm bundling the two sessions we've had so far together, as the first one was just testing the grounds a bit.
Session 1: We're Going on a Bear Hunt (We're going to get a big one!)
Our heroes and scoundrels arrive at Krowne Keep. Some of them have been here before, others are new. They're let in and warned to "Keep the law and keep your head." They explore the keep a bit, which I rushed them through a bit because I wanted to go out on adventure. That was my mistake. They found a traveling priest who wanted to help them should they want to head to the caves of chaos. He was pretty strong worded and judgy though. They left him, for now, and head on. They found out that the trader pays for furs and that Miss Chloe, the provisioner, would pay them if they could collect some berries and mushrooms should they head into the forest.
Poppy had her own little adventure when she spotted a jewelry merchant. She tried to rob him, but could not get past all of the guards, even though she turned out to be quite the "Captain America", knocking people out by throwing her shield. She was spotted, but it was by a silent acolyte, so he would not tell on her. In the end she failed, being bitten by a guard dog and having to flee.
So, they head out into the forest, splitting up, setting a trap for a bear on the one hand and collecting berries on the other hand. They catch not one, but two bears and manage to kill one and scare off the other, afterwards tracking back the wounded bear to its cave and finishing it as well. They debate on wether or not to skin the beasts, and decide to just tie them to pollards and wooden beams and return to the keep.
Session 2: To the Caves!
They got to the keep and sold their stuff. They decided they might try to go to these caves they've been hearing about. They've heard that if you bring back a big treasure or trophy, or bring in valuable prisoners you might get to meet the Castellan. They ask that traveling priest and his two silent acolytes to accompany him, as well as a bounty hunter who isn't opposed to some extra coin and the possibility of finding some trace of her bounty.
Poppy, again, looking for extra coin, managed to successfully steal the lockbox of the Trader, but was spotted (not recognized though) by his sons.
They walk for a day and camp out on a hill close by the caves so they can head to the caves in the morning. Night passes uneventfully, except for Oliver spotting some glowing bugs the size of dogs on the hillside. They seem harmless enough, and being a gravedigger he knows that they are Fire Beetles and generally scavengers. Right now, they were eating a rotting log on the side of the hill. He doesn't even bother to report this to the group in the morning.
They go to the caves and choose a cave entry. After listening carefully Clive yells "Come get your cabbages!" and throws a lit torch into the cave. Little gray wrinkly men come streaming out and rumblings can be heard. Beryl recognizes them as goblins, and the team seems to be handling them right well, partly by Clive's honey golem snake restricting two at a time.
Eventually, after the third wave of goblins, an 8 foot tall man shows up wielding an iron banded club that looks like it's a whole tree or something. He runs past, greeting Father Durant as Master Durant and attacks, immediately killing one of the team. Master Durant and his acolytes now throw off their clocks revealing pentagrams made of snakes and the acolytes opening their mouths, revealing snakelike fangs and split tongues. The monsters from the other caves, who had been spectating in their cave entrances started hooting in excitement.
Things get deadly, the goblins, after a while, flee back into the cave (the few survivors) and a lot of the party fall. Gros Jean, the ogre in question stops attacking as the goblins who payed him are no longer involved. Through cunning action and positioning Clive manages to drag Master Durant towards the cave using the snake and convinced Gros Jean that Durant was going to attack the goblins. (he had been indiscriminate in who he killed before) which made these two fight it out, the ogre surviving. The acolytes were dispatched as well by the group and in the end the only ones left standing where Oliver, Clive and Poppy Stoker.
Gros Jean got to loot his own kills (I mean, where they going to pick a fight with him now over that?) but was asked to leave the body of Master Durant so they could take it back as evidence. The rest also started looting. This took some time and all of a sudden they heard wolves howl. They decided to cut their losses, quickly grab what they could and leave. They licked their wounds on the hill they camped on and waited for the day to end, so they could walk up to the keep from there in one day. Clive went fishing and had such a success with that that he even caught a fish that had a pearl in its mouth the size of his thumb!
They discussed what they would do next. They are not sure who they can trust in the Keep. They knew the curate already suspected the traveling priest to be up to no good, so they would like to talk this over with him. They go to sleep, hoping to recover. Clive volunteers for the night watch, seeing as he's at full HP. He will not get a new spell yet but the rest heal one hit point each. Poppy really needs it, as she had only one hit point left.
At night Poppy startled awake from a dream in which she saw the name from Master Durant's armor and heard a slithering "I sssseeee you." At that point the ground burst open from under them and fire beetles poured out, eating the leftover food and anything edible they can find. Not wanting to get into a fight again they just let the beetles go and Clive sacrifices his pot of glue to make the fire flare and scare the critters off. Their bags are ruined, which they take the time to fix and they head over to the Keep.
Arriving there they are uncertain if going into the keep carrying the body is a good idea. Poppy remembers she heard that there was a secret way out of the keep that they could take to get in. They would exit from the fountain in the square. Going at night would be best as they would be less likely to be spotted by the guards. The question was razed where they were going to keep the body, to which Poppy smiled. She had seen where the acolytes lived. "In their own apartment.", she said.
And we cut to credits there. Next session, they will try to secretly infiltrate the Keep.
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