Wilderlands: Session 1

 

This is part of an ongoing campaign. You can find the other sessions over on the sidebar.

This session was run on April 11, 2022.

 

Most of the first session consisted of an extended combat sequence as the party fought to escape from the mines. I began the session by setting up that the characters had been working in the mines for about a month. During that time, they met a cleric of Athena named Sylvianna (she can be found on page 144 of the NPC Almanac Sketches) who was also a prisoner. She had been captured while investigating a strange cult dedicated to the evil goddess of love, Mokmalla, operating in the Trollslore region. Having been working in the mines for about two months, she was given tasks that involved going out into the town from time to time and was able to make contact with some of the other priests sent to spy on the village.

Trollslore is a mixed village where humans and goblins live and work together. The village, and the mines, are run by a brutal warrior named Custalcon who is devoted to the cult of Mokmalla. Almost all the humans in Trollslore have converted to the cult, and most have changed their name to include the syllable "Mok". The cult is run by a strange hermit priest who goes only by Mok.

Sylvianna informed the party that she had arranged for an escape attempt that night during their shift. She gave them an antidote for the poison that had been added to the food to keep spellcasters from concentrating and told them that they would need to get up one level to find the tunnel where the priests of Athena planned to meet them and lead them to safety. She would be escaping with them.

Before starting the escape attempt, Duycken, the Duck knight/wizard, used his link with his chicken familiar to see that the chicken was being held in an above-ground stable along with his riding turkey and some horses. Duycken was clear to the rest of the prisoners that he needed to free his animals.

Uggmar, the half-orc monk/rogue, and Stranger, the hoop druid/rogue, planned to start the escape attempt with sneak attacks on the two guards detailed to their work group, but they were foiled by Duycken's insistence on challenging one of the guards to a duel. While they dispatched the two guards quickly, they did not manage to deal with them before they could call for help, and they quickly wound up bogged down in a battle in the narrow tunnel leading to the ladder up.

While Gwythian stripped the armor off of one of the guards, Vargr used his barbarian abilities to push the guards down the hall and into a chamber where the rest of the party could join the fight. Sadly, Sylvianna burned (we are using the Spellburn rules from the CKG) her Cure Light Wounds spell the first time she cast it, leaving them to rely on Vargr's spell and Sylvianna's Aid spell for healing. 

Once they pushed the fight into a room where they could all get engaged, the guards morale faltered and they fled up the ladder. While the human-sized members of the party stripped the armor and weapons from the dead guards, Duycken investigated the other chambers on this level and discovered that the guards had slaughtered the rest of the imprisoned workers.

The party made its way up the ladder and were immediately engaged again with the guards. After a brief fight in a narrow tunnel, Vargr was able to push the fight into a larger chamber again and allow others to engage. Sadly, Uggmar, the first to rush in to the chamber, was quickly cut down by the guards. 

Once they were able to move the whole party back into the fight, the guards' morale failed again, and they fled down several corridors. While Vargr worked to heal Uggmar, Duycken and Stranger gave chase to the guards that ran to the west. As the session ended, Duycken entered a room full of giant rats.