Skip to main content

MERP: Dawn of the Fourth Age Session 13

 


This is part of an ongoing campaign. You can find the other sessions over on the sidebar.
 
This session was played on August 9, 2020. It is based on "What Lies Beneath", a scenario for The One Ring RPG found in The Ruins of the North.
 
11 Urui F.A. 15
 
The fellowship reached Hiraval's manor around noon without further incident. The manor was set against the wall of a valley and covered with vines. There was a fair amount of open ground between the manor and the lip of the valley where the fellowship was currently out of sight. There were some trees to offer cover, but they determined that it would be difficult to approach unseen in the daylight.
 
Dirdan used his invisibility spell to sneak up to the manor. As he approached he could see several figures in the manor's tower, they appeared to be armed with longbows. Once he reached the manor, Dirdan started by making a circuit around its perimeter. He spotted a stone covering the entrance to a crypt on the backside of the manor that was mostly covered with thick weeds. There were faded runes on the stone, but he could not read them. He found that the ground floor was a stable, but it seemed to hold only one horse. He then slipped up the stairs leading to the front door of the manor house. He could hear at least five voices coming from inside, but they did not seem to be bloodthirsty bandits.
 
Elyanis, deciding it was time to start the assault, fired a long range shot at one of the forms in the tower. Her arrow struck true and the man fell back from the window. Dirdan took this as his signal to enter the manor and burst through the front door. He found a young man right inside the door, shocked at his intrusion, and used his sleep spell on him. 
 
A hobbit woman and another young man ran into the room. After a brief standoff, both sides were satisfied that the other were not murderous bandits and everyone stood down. The truce was cemented when Ardaer healed the man, Folulf, wounded by Elyanis's arrow.
 
The current residents of the manor were a band of "adventurers" led by a young man named Elwin (the one Dirdan used his sleep spell on). The band consisted of Fay, a hobbit archer, and three human warriors, Folulf, Arnulf, and Herbert. They had been living in the manor for a few months, and even partially fixed the roof. 
 
Hiraval was not happy about this, he seemed to be obsessed with forcing the group to leave his manor immediately. The fellowship grew concerned that he might break the truce in his ravings, but Elyanis was able to convince him to stand down and allow the adventurers to stay on as help by appealing to their shared Dunedain heritage. He still seemed agitated though.
 
After a brief search of the house, including a water-filled basement, they decided to explore the crypt that Dirdan had discovered during his earlier search of the grounds. Before they entered, Sindawe raised concerns about how skittish the horse in the stable seemed. He also reminded them not to loot crypts.
 
The crypt was fairly simple, just a small basement, supported by columns, with crypts lined against each wall. Hiraval, the first of his line to enter the family tomb for generations, was unable to identify many of those resting there, but he did recognize Huldrahil, the last of his ancestors to reside in the manor. Huldrahil had perished while fighting an evil wizard, according to family lore.

Finding nothing amiss in the crypt, they decided to leave and get some rest. As he passed over the threshold, Hiraval seemed to suffer a seizure, crying out, "I brought them as you commanded," and falling to the ground. As he fell, a specter appeared above the tomb of Huldrahil and attacked the party.
 
The fellowship was able to defeat the undead Huldrahil, but the victory was bittersweet; Hiraval had choked to death during the battle. They decided to return to Bree in the morning, bringing Erdrahil and the adventurers with them. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Traveller: Session 33

  This session was run on June 15, 2023.   130-2108   They confronted Reverend Kavanaugh about the wrench and the explosive bolts and he changed his story again. He now claimed that, even in his revised story, he had still tried to protect Dieter and his memory. Dieter had not just surrendered to fate and drawn straws after his failed attempt to poison Kavanaugh at breakfast. As soon as it was clear that the paralytic was not working, he attempted to choke Kavanaugh. As the two wrestled, Kavanaugh grabbed a wrench from the toolbox, left in the common room during their repair efforts, and bashed Dieter over the head. He had then flushed Dieter’s body, along with the wrench, out of the airlock. He claimed not to have known about the explosive bolts and said that, because there were only two of them aboard, there were sixteen hours each day where only one of them was awake.   Unable to determine if this latest story was true, they informed...

Wilderlands: Session 32

  This session was run on February 13, 2023. Determined to find Uggmar, the party, now accompanied by Rasaz, headed back into the dungeon beneath the barrow mounds using the northeast entrance. They decided that they were unlikely to find him on the first level and, rather than risk getting swarmed by skeletons again,they headed directly down the stairs they found on their last expedition. After a hundred foot descent, they found themselves in a large cavern that contained what appeared to be an underground city. The architecture of the buildings they could see seemed to be from an earlier era, perhaps before man learned to work iron. As they began searching the streets, they noticed a woman standing very still in a doorway. They approched her to find that she seemed to be frozen in time, surrounded by a strange red glow. Nothing they did seemed to affect her. She could not be moved, nor could her clothes or body be disturbed. As they were examining the woman, Strange...

Traveller: Campaign Overview

    This Traveller campaign is intended to be kind of a history of the Traveller universe (or at least my version of it). The framing device for the campaign is the start of The Rebellion in 1116 with the assassination of Emperor Strephon. The players took the roles of imperial archdukes that were present at the assassination and through them help define the fate of the Third Imperium. The archdukes will be the constant backbone of the campaign, providing context for everything else. We will return to them between arcs spent with other characters in which we explore different parts, and different eras, of the universe. I hope to visit many different times throughout the history of the Traveller universe and to tie events in those times to the fate of the empire in the future.   This page will be useful for figuring out which arcs were covered in which sessions. I hope this will make it easier to keep all of the different characters straight and to re...