The Bonehoard

Tonight's game was with a smaller crew than we're used to, yet it was quite eventful! It turned out to be a super long play report, so maybe grab a cup of tea before you dive in. :) Characters: Belina the (mutant) printer [Jackson] Barbarus the aspiring chicken farmer [Also Jackson] Roxanne the wrecker [JT] Cecilly the acrobat [Alex] The session started with some upkeep / long-term plans. Cecilly is rounding up acrobats, jugglers, and other performers in a scheme to establish a sort of street performers' union backed by the protection of the Stone Cats. She found a few acquaintances willing to join if the Stone Cats established their reputation a little more solidly (Roxanne: "So we're a clown gang now?"). Work was also done to take control of the Belltower, former hangout of the Blind Vipers and crossroads of two inter-building bridges, where Cecilly hopes to establish a sort of soft toll checkpoint. The resident old bell-keeper resignedly sighed and ...

And with this, the blog is finally caught up! Previous play report: [ link ] Last week's session summary: Roxanne [JT], wrecker Tom [Mackenzie], fungus farmer Ludovica [Lauren], apprentice alchemist Leonora [Bart], spy Cecilly [Alex], acrobat Zamara [Heather], initiate of Zig Belina [Jackson], mutant printer The party returned to the borough Krüger on the inhabited side of the river, seeking to recuperate from wounds the Vorn Owls inflicted as well as establish themselves as a proper gang. Lo Ren Zao was left in the Rat King's care as he underwent a transformation... In Krüger Cecilly gained patronage for her performances from one Count Marshhold, a smiling but somewhat creepy noble who has recently moved back into Strigastadt, apparently at the behest of his relative Greta the Pious (leader of the Glass Street merchant consortium). Zamara worked hard at gaining new converts to the following of Zig, and Tom focused on setting up his mushroom children... He...

Previous play report: [ link ] first: [ link ] Session summary: Belina (Jackson), printer Celeste (Heather), fisherwoman Jafar (Mason), apprentice sorcerer Leonora (Bart), spire polisher Lo Ren Zao (JT), initiate of Otun Tom? (Mackenzie), fungus farmer Zabina (Lauren), Sewer Militia recruit After discussing plans for returning to the inhabited side of the city, the party spent the night on the upper floor of King Murod's building. After the party heard distant animal screams in the night, a messenger from King Murod appeared, requesting their presence. He informed them that the immediate area was controlled by Vorn Owls [taken in a half-ass manner from Fire on the Velvet Horizon , which I highly recommend] , terrible predators that kill all that moves after sundown, and warned them to avoid the streets at this hour. The party offered to remove the threat for King Murod, who was skeptical they could do so and survive. The party bargained him up to offering four...

The next session was a bit unproductive as far as play goes - due to people's schedules coinciding and other factors we had a full eleven players show up, so things kinda ground to a merry halt. They still managed to explore a little more of the fungus building (this time without any incidents of infection) before deciding it was too dangerous and expending a considerable amount of oil in order to burn it to the ground as the Rat King requested. More strange fungal creatures were encountered, and Tom the fungus farmer smuggled out a colony of tiny fungoid creatures who appeared inquisitive and non-hostile. Tom's mushroom children have been the subject of some debate, some characters advocating throwing them back on the blaze when first discovered, and much trepidation shared amongst the rest of the party. Mushroom children Awesome illustration by Emma Lazauski , a print hangs on the wall next to our play table.  The remainder of the session was spent investigating the se...

Part of my ongoing series of posting older play reports in order to catch up. Only a few more now! A largely different group of players returned to the Grey District the next session, following up on the previous session's lead, flasks of oil and a sack of cats in tow. As they entered the building, cinnamon-scented miasma began filling the street, burning exposed skin. They quickly filed in and beelined it to the chamber from where the drums had sounded last session, bursting in to find swarms of rats and several circles of white mice already formed. The poor cats were released and simply cowered before the massive quantities of huge rats, their exit barred by the party. As they considered their next step, a voice from deeper within commanded them to halt their futile struggle. Surprisingly the party complied, and as mishapped humanoid figures lit the candle sconces in the room, a voice from the silhouette of a throne began to speak. Thusly they met Rat King Murod, lord over secr...

Another old session summary: Last session was the party's initial foray across the river to the abandoned / quarantined Grey District, looking for loot. The party had just pulled off a heist on an arms warehouse of the Hargrave Guards, and wanted to make themselves scarce while patrols led by Sigga the Wolf scoured the borough for the culprits. Most the evening was spent cautiously exploring their selected landing spot, well away from the vaguely threatening group they had sold their ill-gotten arms to a couple days prior. After passing over the building overflowing with fungal blooms (party: 'Nope nope!') they entered a large dockside building with ratholes gnawed through the doors. Predictably, the party immediately had to deal with a flood of rats. After the initial wave retreated, however, a small swarm of white mice entered the hallway ahead, running in concentric counter-rotating rings that began to mesmerize the onlookers. Fortunately Cecilly the Arsonist...

Continuing with my posting of month-old summaries to get the blog caught up: Session recap: Last session the group put on their strategist hats and drew up a plan of attack for a job Barbarus (Jackson) received from his contact with the Righteous Banner. Mork had requested he burn down a warehouse full of armaments owned by Lady Hargrave's guards, a callous but skilled group stationed on the upscale Glass Street. The Righteous Banner fears that, should the political situation turn violent, the ruthless Hargraves would be a serious existential threat to their people. Several plans of attack were drawn up, including convincing a waiter of an upscale tower-restaurant overlooking the building to conceal them after closing so they could descend unseen, but the party was split over the arson aspect of the plan since the warehouse was on the ground floor of a partially residential building, and a midnight burning would likely entail the deaths of bystanders. Barbarus argued...

This is like two months old at this point, but I'm gonna post up some older summaries I'd sent out to the group to get the blog caught up, and then start posting weekly summaries thereafter. Background info: The group has now been back in Strigastadt for ten or so sessions, running a homebrew rule system I made based on WHFRP 1e and B/X, with other bits thrown in (variable spellcasting, advantage/disadvantage, etc). It's worked surprisingly well so far, with a few tweaks. They started out this foray to Strigastadt in a funnel, impressed into service in the sewer militia (a handy way to run a funnel in a city, sewer militia stolen from Heretic Werks ). Each started with a secret objective, like half of which ended up unused but dangling hooks for later. With surprisingly few casualties they managed to escape. Session recap 0.5: In a shocking turn of events not a single person died! There was an encounter with what is now known as "grease dogs" which develope...

(warning, wall of text ahead!) Due partially to icy roads only three players showed last night, which created a much different dynamic than the 7ish person parties we've been used to. With less people in the decision making process, shit got done! Also, since they were painfully aware of being under-staffed, potentially hostile encounters were avoided at all costs, leading to much less random bloodshed and speedier travel. Blax Jax the fighter has been taking every opportunity to prove himself in the fighting pits of Zig (muscle priest fight club, have an obsession with bears), initially as a means of becoming more skilled with cesti. We moved to Dungeon Crawl Classics where two-weapon fighting is pretty crappy for fighters with normal dex, so this was a way for him to become competent at what he wanted his fighter doing. It soon enough transformed into a spectacle where the other PCs bet on the fight outcome, almost exclusively favoring his opponent since he had a streak of ba...

RIP Harvald the Sorcerer : Single most useful party member with his use of floating disk, Harvald was slain by a very excessive amount of centipede venom. His body was recovered and properly cremated by his kinfolk from the East Shore. RIP Fisto Majisto the Fighter : Fisto was slain on only his second voyage to the Grey District, overcome by centipede venom. His burial was less noble, being dumped into a vat of necromantic ooze "just in case". May the ritual to raise his scoured bones in a mockery of life never be learned. RIP Aelfric the Specialist: The most hardened of the adventurers, Aelfric was on his sixth journey across the river when he met his fate. A trapped ladder to the third floor enveloped him in a cloud of lethal gas. His linkboys could only flee the oncoming cloud. Another ignoble burial, may the ritual to raise his scoured bones in a mockery of life never be learned. RIP Jerry the "Halfling": His first foray across the river, Jerry egged on...

(Warning: rambly post-game thoughts follow) We sat down and ran a few adventurers through Strigastadt today using Lamentation of the Flame Princess as ruleset, and I am quite pleased to report they rather enjoyed the experience. This run through was meant to be a test of the random room generator , my city layout concept, and the overall campaign idea. I had to fill in some gaps with the generator by grabbing random traps from donjon (wonderful creation that it is), and some repetition was evident in the lower-level monster types, but I was pretty pleased with the thing. Highlights of play: Most of the party's cash was generated by using floating disk to transport six marble statues across the river and sell them to a local temple whose deity the statues depicted aspects of. That is one kind of treasure... Brother Klaus was nearly slain by a poison dart trap to the neck, but a risky tracheotomy as his airways closed was able to save him long enough to get to his local temple...