After-Action Report: Road to Monsterberg, session 8

Link to the Previous Session! Wherein we met my new character and got invited to the dukal hunt!

The next morning, people wake up and go a-hunting. Wojslav buys himself a nice heavy crossbow and some broadheads, rides out on his horse, everyone else goes as they are. Humorously, Jules just brings a hatchet and his executioner's axe.

Estelle gets to talking with some huntsmen about wild stories and splits from the group (her player was absent).

Meanwhile, Elias holds up the party because he's busy convincing one of the huntsmen to take the midden mutt that Elias adopted during the Teschen bakery heist and use it in the chase, so it learns some basic hunting tricks from the other dogs. Elias actually manages to convince the guy, which is good for the dog.

Unfortunately, in the time it takes to do so, the party have lost track of the hunters who were supposed to lead them to their position. A rather impatient looking fellow in green livery comes out of the forest and beckons them to follow, chastising them for laying about and wasting time. How helpful!

He leads them to a dried out creek bed and the hunt begins. Huh, surprisingly many animals start coming their way...

 

Wojslav prepares his crossbow and reckons he'll shoot mounted, Vuk crouches down with a sling, Elias ties his whip to some trees to use as a line to trip any big game that happens to come the right way, and Jules just crouches down next to a tree on one bank of the creek and tries to fight his headache (Jules is so debilitated from last night's drinking that all the checks he has to roll are at the second highest difficulty if no additional difficulty applies).

 

The first half an hour, there come various small game animals and some fowl. Vuk and Wojslav manage to bag a few rabbits and pheasants, though they also miss their shots at a bunch of elk coming by and some martens...

 

Then come the Wild Hogs. These wild hogs were perfectly content to keep running and ignore the idiots in the creek bed. The party had other ideas. Vuk and Wojslav shoot one boar and just as they're happy that it's almost certainly dead after being hit by a heavy crossbow and a sling bullet, they hear the thing start to squeal in a frenzy and realize why people tend to use spears to hunt boars.

 

Meanwhile, Elias is apparently unhappy that Vuk and Wojslav are getting all the game so far (by virtue of being the only ones with any ranged weapons, but I digress) so he proceeds with his plan to trip the other incoming boar with his whip, which he's tied to the other side of the forest trope that the animals keep using. He actually does so ... and finds himself with a prone, enraged boar a meter away from him.

 

So right now, there are two enraged wild pigs and a bunch of people who are wholly under-equipped for a boar hunt. The pig that Vuk and Wojslav shot charges at Vuk, ready to end him. 

 

Vuk, who I must point out had previously somehow voided a saber charge by one of von Jarashow's horsemen, now crits on his evasion and manages to throw a bunch of river pebbles into the boar's eyes while he dives to the side, blinding it and avoiding an early death while screaming obscenities in Serbian.

 

Meanwhile, Elias tries to keep his boar at bay with his whip, but the angry creature just bites onto the whip and destroys it after a few combat cycles, finally closing the distance as Elias feverishly tries disengaging with it, chucking a hatchet at it, and then scrambling for his messer. 

 

Here, it is also worth pointing out that Elias is almost entirely unarmored, has the frame of a twig, and has a combat skill somewhere around 60, whereas the boar has 73 and is built like a brick shithouse. 

 

Somehow, Elias does not get gored once and keeps fighting back against the boar.

 

Meanwhile Wojslav dismounts, draws his sword, and goes in swinging at the blinded, frenzied pig that charged Vuk. 

 

The Serbian is still on his stomach, trying to crawl away and get up while the angry blind pig keeps pushing him, keeps him prone, but never manages to actually skewer him due to still being blinded. Jules in this time gets up and throws a hatchet at Vuk's boar, nearly taking Vuk's head off with his hung-over aim.

 

Things were going like this for 7 rounds (each with ~3 combat cycles, i.e. turns) and during this time Elias actually manages to get a critical strike in at his boar and tear open its frontquarters, causing it to slowly but surely start bleeding out. Meanwhile, Vuk has managed to take out his shortspear and impale one boar with it, making it terribly ineffective at actually goring anyone. While Vuk feverishly keeps his spear stuck into the boar, Jules is blearily swinging his unbalanced executioner's axe at the pig and missing every strike, while Wojslav pokes both pigs on their rumps with his sword, but doesn't achieve much, visibly.

 

As Elias' pig is almost completely exhausted by blood loss, Elias gets another lucky defense in and manages to get the pig to accidentally skewer itself on his messer while bearing down on him one last time.

 

Meanwhile, in the very last round of combat, a miracle happens!

 

Jules, still so hungover he can barely be considered awake, finally hits. He rolls some abominable damage number with his impractical executioner's axe, and he rolls the pig's head as a random hit location. So Jules ends up cleanly decapitating the one remaining wild pig, much to everyone else's astonishment.

 

...and funnily enough, Elias' family sigil is actually a boar. It's engraved on most of his pouches and his belt (which yes, his player has detailed). Must have helped him solo his pig.

 

Anyway, after all this, things were surprisingly quiet. Several dozen minutes of nothing, interspersed with some small game animals.

 

The party ends up meeting with the chasers as the hunt winds down, who stare at them incredulously for standing around in one of the most dangerous spots possible. It becomes clear that the man in green who led them there was definitely not one of the hunters and likely had some malicious motive. 

 

Unnerving, that. Who might be trying to hurt nice people like our characters?

Meanwhile, as the bodies of the animals are counted, Vuk and Wojslav overhear some people discussing that there is a reward for anyone who bags 5 or more small critters. 

 

Vuk teaches Wojslav the magic of Balkan scams, and the two decide to pool their caught small game and pass it off as Wojslav's to get the reward. Thankfully, the scribe doesn't catch on to the deception or notice the differences in wounds, so Wojslav gets credited the entire catch.

 

And at the Duke's post-hunt feast, all the party gets is a single fox pelt for their troubles, the pigs bringing no prizes besides some hearty meat. It was meant to be a small game hunt, the prizes are for small game!

 

Despite this, the ridiculous story of how the pigs were brought low. Two factors work for us: Elias' family sigil and his unlikely win against the boar, coupled with Jules being an executioner! People see his win as "him performing his duties on a pig", which makes for a riotous laugh at the feast (and earns everyone involved a bit of Ehren in the eyes of the attendees).

 

And that's it for now. 

 

As a side note, the GM has commented that he honestly half expected the party to roll up an encounter of 4 angry bears and end up eaten. Especially sitting at the dried creek bed. 

 

"I don't know how they had such a relaxing time of it thanks to their encounter rolls, with the exception of the pigs which were entirely self-inflicted", as he put it.

Ah, the magic of rolling stuff in the open, encounters included!

After-Action Report: Road to Monsterberg, sessions 6 & 7

After the last session, Marzena's player, also the GM's girlfriend, dropped from the campaign and we got a new player, our Warhammer GM!

His character is Jules-Henry Desfornaux, Ratibor's executioner, hailing all the way from France after some rumors surrounding his family force him to hit the road. From here on out, Marzena finds employment with Lothar and sticks around his house. 

Personally, I find it that it's fully suitable for a Warhammer veteran to play an executioner! Also, as a last note: this session is narrated by our GM.

The next morning, Marzena has gone to inform and fetch Lothar about the events at the inn. When Lothar arrives, he comes accompanied by his guards and Ratibor's executioner, whom he trusts to manipulate the beastie's remains.

Vuk and Estelle, at Lothar's request, go to secure the spider from upstairs. Nobody had really checked on the spider since Vuk knocked it out during the night. The corpse is there, so Vuk starts poking and prodding it, only to realize that the spider wasn't really dead - it was knocked out and is now very unhappy at being woken back up. Miraculously, Vuk and Estelle manage to finish the damn thing without anyone else getting bitten and poisoned.

When Lothar eventually sics Jules to inspect the spider's corpse, Jules obediently does so.

Now, due to the trouble with his family line, which involves a supposed curse laid on them for executing Gilles de Rais, Jules has spent some time researching the occult to figure out a way to escape the supposed curse. He doesn't have any actual magical skills, but he is familiar with some profane topics.

So when Jules recognizes the sigil of the fiend Baal (with a very lucky critical roll), he first nearly has a heart attack, then he asks to speak with Lothar privately, visibly losing it. The two agree to keep the nature of the sigil a secret from the party and the people of Ratibor, since this is obviously a matter for the Dominicans.

Instead, Lothar just gives them some "Tears of Chios" he's imported from abroad to help their nerves, tells them to take some time for themselves, and invites them to welcome Duke Nicholas of Oppolen when he arrives in a few hours.

(Asen: Ah, so it was Nicholas, not Nicolaus!)

When Duke Nicholas arrives, the group is invited to share breakfast with him and his companions. Even the executioner is invited, so that he may give his testimony about the spider if asked, though of course he sort of just mills about the yard at a respectful distance instead of touching any of the food or sharing people's company. 

Breakfast also includes my new character - Wojslav Stolt, Katarzyna Stolt's somewhat ardent brother, who has been petitioning for someone to help his family rescue his sister.

During the breakfast, Estelle does a great job of speaking for the party in front of Nicholas, her fancy words even earning her the Duke's compliments. The local Dominican abbot was less amused, however, and started probing for any heresy or heathenry that may have invited unholy attention in Ratibor. Even Lothar, who tries to speak up to placate the abbot, is quickly cowed. Things come to a head when Vuk makes the sign of the cross in the Orthodox way, which causes the abbot to come down on him with some very pointed questions. 

(Remember, we know OOC that Vuk still secretly worships Dazhbog, a Slavic pagan deity, so he has very real reasons to be afraid here!)

Vuk starts blubbering and completely losing it (Willpower is a very fun skill to dump), and only a very unwelcome interjection by Estelle gives Vuk some time to compose himself, find the right words, and barely get his story straight in front of the abbot. Estelle, meanwhile, gets harshly rebuffed by both the Duke and the Abbot for forgetting her place (so much for that bonus Ehren for making a strong first impression on the Duke).

Moving on, the Duke buys off the party's captive lancer from them.

Well, technically, he was Jaroslaw's prisoner so the money goes to Kristan, who then shares it with the party and keeps enough to pay for his master's treatment. Jaroslav had mentioned he intends to give them half, so that's what the dutiful squire does!

Meanwhile...

Barbara Rockember pries into some people's lives, in particular wringing the truth about Jules past from him despite his futile attempts to brush it under the rug.

After the breakfast, the party, Wojslav Stolt (who is told by Lothar that the party are currently the frontrunners for helping him rescue his sister), and Jules the executioner (who is now becoming fast friends with both Vuk and Estelle), are invited to participate in the next day's hunt. 

Jules' presence is mostly a way for Lothar to keep an eye on the party. Plus, having someone who knows about the occult on the lookout for more dirty business happening around the party is easier for Lothar's peace of mind than completely handing off matters to the Dominicans.

They spend the afternoon browsing the markets and gathering rumors. While doing so, Jules spots someone following them, so he leads the party to his workplace (i.e., Ratibor's prison), where it's safer and where he keeps his homemade hooch hidden.

Eventually, Jules, Wojslav, Vuk, and Estelle corner the person who's following them and recognize him as a servant of the Dominicans. Wojslav surprises the man by plainly inviting him to tag along with them in town, promising him that nothing bad will happen to him, and saying they have nothing to hide. With little other options, the Dominican servant just relents and tags along at a respectful distance, keeping an eye on them.

Elias, meanwhile, spends the day a bit paranoid after hearing about what happened to his friends at the Sleeping Lynx. So after breakfast with the Duke, he asks around for where a man can find a ballistrino and some poison. Unfortunately for Elias, he lacks any streetwise skills, so the end result is something like a first year art history major going to the bad part of town and asking for the "marijuanies".

Doubly unfortunately for Elias (and unknown to him in character or OOC), he does all this while followed by a Dominican himself. Not great. This will possibly lead to something further down the line.

Anyway, Elias meets up with the rest of the party as the evening approaches. Everyone's pretty on edge at this point, so at Jules' suggestion they decide to head to the premiere establishment for "slumming it" in Ratibor - Hairy Hanno's Taphouse over in New Town, the last place the militia close up each night and the beating heart of Ratibor's night life.

This night, between the servants of Duke Nicholas' retinue and the people of Ratibor wanting to take their minds off of the troubling rumors surrounding events at the Sleeping Lynx, Hanno's is packed. People drinking, playing dice, etc. There's also cockfights being organized in the walled back yard.

Seeing a group containing the town executioner and a very low-Ehren Serbian that just keeps smiling at her, Hanno's wife does her best to politely decline service to the group so they don't scare away her customers. But Jules, in his best impression of a quiet and good little boy, manages to melt her heart with pity after a few great rolls. Not only is he not turned away, not only is he not charged triple or double the price, he is just asked to put some mittens on when touching anything, not bother the other patrons, and keep the Serb in check.

Wojslav ends up paying the cockfighting entry fee for Jules and Vuk, so all three of them go to bet on the upcoming match between the birds Tatar and Bloodwattle. Jules figures out Bloodwattle is meaner and likelier to win, while Vuk just likes Tatar a lot for an inexplicable reason.

Jules and Wojslav end up betting 4 kreuzer each on Bloodwattle and losing them against the odds, much to Vuk's delight at Tatar's ferocity.

Meanwhile, Estelle is busy playing for the taphouse while Elias plays dice outside with scruffy looking individuals and somehow cajoles them into telling him where he can buy a ballistrino in exchange for returning their bet to them. After he finally learns of where he can get one, he realizes he has less than a fifth of the money he needs to buy it and likely concludes he should have just taken the dice money.

Wojslav buys the corpse of Bloodwattle and asks Hanno's wife to cook it for him (he lost me money, now we're going to eat it!)

Vuk and Jules (who had already started early on Jules rank homemade hooch), drink cheap ale like fish. Vuk holds up, but Jules even has a passion for being a complete pig - so he ends up going way overboard despite his few remaining brain cells screaming at him that he has to get up before dawn for a hunt the next morning. 

Jules ends up hallucinating Bloodwattle's remains beckoning him over, then fails his endurance rolls and blows chunks over Wojslav's nice meal.

Everyone shambles back to "The Sleeping Lynx", kept out of the fools' cage only by Lothar's protection spurred by his upcoming need for them. Elias treats the worst of Jules' intoxication with some home remedies, but come dawn he can still barely walk. 

After-Action Report: Road to Monsterberg, session 5

Here's a link to the previous session.

Also, if you find anything triggering, you might be well-advised to stop reading now.

***

The session began after saving some traders. Turned out, one of them is the vogt of Ratibor, installed by Duke Nicolaus!

He offered to take over our prisoner, a guy that they've got a bounty on. He is likely going to get executed.

We also learned that he's serving a particular robber baron, himself suspected of being in league with heretics (i.e. Protestants). And if that wasn't villainy enough, it is well-known he has kidnapped a fair maiden (who might not be a maiden at this hour, but we didn't mention that) from a good family, and keeping her in his castle!

The vogt therefore offered us Ratibor's hospitality when we get there.

We removed the prisoner's armour, which Jaroslav planned on giving to Vuk to improve his odds of survival, as the foreigner has been nothing but useful, and was quite handy with his axe. Every knight needs a "spear" of battle-hardened men to be relevant, Jaroslaw reasoned. And Vuk might be a heretic, but at least he's fighting alongside Christians (i.e. Catholics) and against infidels.

As the knight pointed out, that's more than one can say about damn Hussites!

Overall, we arrived in the city. They installed us in Sleeping Lynx tavern, all expenses are on the city. We're not overdoing it, sleeping two by two in rooms...and our trader even declared he's going to sleep in one of his colleagues.

(OOC, we know he's doing that because he's a crossdressing female, who can't accept being paired with Vuk - Esthel and Marzena are natural pairs. IC, we just think he's being rude to the city's powers, spurning their hospitality...but it's on him).

So there were a few minor accidents. At some point, the mastiffs guarding the Sleeping Lynx attacked an woman who works in the kitchens. J

aroslav and Kristian ran out to help - all they knew was that there was an woman screaming, might be anything from a bug to a snake to a rapist or infidels' activity - but they didn't find anything suspicious. After ensuring the proprietor would reward her for the injury adequately (she couldn't work with her arm torn, could she?!?), they retired - with compliments for the quick reaction by the city's watch.

Admittedly, part of the hurrying was due to being, well, in their underwear. Which was understandable, but unsightly, and made us feel uncomfortable.

In the night, however, Jaroslaw awoke when a giant spider (as big as a dog, can you believe that in a Christian land?!?) started chewing his leg. He grabbed it and tried to smash it against the wall, and directed Kristian - who had awoken by his master's startled cry - to go find a healer!

The multilegged menace, however, was extremely quick, and surprisingly tough. He didn't manage to injure it well enough, despite smashing it in the walls, while it chewed his arm to ribbons and managed to inject poison elsewhere, too.

His friends also arrived, and finally managed to hurt the spider badly enough it lost consciousness.

And the session ended with one of the two healers who had arrived - part of other noble visitors' retinues, no doubt - trying to save Jaroslaw. They succeeded, but barely.

How barely? They needed to roll a critical. They were as good at it as Jaroslaw was in fighting, the GM ruled, so the odds for each roll were 8% exactly.

He was still going to be in a coma for the night, and then they could leave his side.
Amusingly, there were calls to "summon Elias" who is our healer. But he couldn't possibly get to Jaroslaw in time, even were he (or rather, she...) to run in his/her underwear. Something that Elias would never do, no matter who was dying.

 

Please note for next time:

My next PC got named Vojslav due to a misunderstanding. I had misremembered Vojislav and said it to the GM erroneously (AFAICT, Vojslav is a fully acceptable name, grammatically, and it exists in other languages of the same group - just not in Polish).

Then we decided he's the equivalent of Bulgarian kids that end up being named "Steven" or the like, instead of "Stefan"... IOW, he was probably getting into fights due to other kids mocking his name!

We've all seen such kids, so we mocked his parents mercilessly for a while, and moved on.

Now, why was he summoned? Well, simple enough: he's the brother of the aforementioned maiden!

And why do I need another PC? Because recovery time is going to be measured in weeks. Makes no sense for his travelling companions to wait for Jaroslaw, unless they get tangled in conflicts and/or opportunities in the region, and decide or need to stay

After-Action Report: Road to Monsterberg, Session 4

I'm catching up...well, almost! Here's Session 3, at any rate.

Estelle lost the race, too. Which allowed Jaroslaw to explain to Elias, he's showing prudentia in not risking a peasant horse throwing him off and allowing another peasant the glory of winning against his betters.

The next day, Elias woke up Vuk with home remedies and we arranged for him to travel on a cart. 

After separating from the trader, we encountered a road that's been cut off by mudslide. Worse, Jaroslaw knew it was produced by an explosion. He's got a combat style including black powder rifles.

So we had to decide, to the ferry or up the trail of mud...

Then Jaro prayed to the Highest Lord for guidance. I'm not sure how well I interpreted it, it was a Bible quote (and I played him as a Int 9, so not too bright), but he decided to go for the ferry.

We dealt with a small storm, and then reached a place, where obviously the defenders of a cart were fighting off a robber knight. We didn't fancy doing the right thing, but it was the right thing...and besides, as Jaro pointed out, if we let them be overcome, the robbers could still go after us. But if we joined now, we'd have numerical advantage at least initially.

Thus, when Marzena declared she is going to help, Jaroslaw really couldn't stay behind!

The robbers sent a demilancer, a crossbow rider and two guys in brigandine to check us. Jaroslaw stated his full name and city, and demanded to know what's going on...holding his crossbow. The demilancer made three mistakes then...

He told him it's a matter that concerns his betters.

He told him to drop his crossbow and go back, not even allowing unobstructed passage.

And then, when Jaroslaw objected that he goes on the public road, he hasn't dropped weapons in front of Ottomans and he shall be damned before he does so on this road... he wasn't ready for Jaroslaw shooting as soon as he saw him dropping his point to charge.

The bodkin bolt got inside his leg not even being slowed by the armour and it was on. 

A few javelins were stopped by Jaroslaw's armour. Vuk stunned the leg of another robber's horse with his sling. The demilancer got entangled in a net, which foiled his charge. It didn't unhorse him, but it was a drag on his ability to attack!

And a thrown hatchet got the crossbow rider bleeding from his arm.

Meanwhile, their charges got interrupted or voided. Shots flew away or hit the foliage. Vuk did indeed manage to void a mounted sabre charge, though, quite an impressive and unlikely feat.

And after Jaroslaw delivered another wound to the same leg, which nearly stunned his enemy and made him cry in pain, and Marzena unhorsed him, they broke and ran.

Jaroslaw looked at the the fallen man.

"My betters, sir, aren't on this road, except maybe protecting that cart. Do you surrender?"

And that's how my PC in Mythras: Road to Monsterberg now has a horse. One he won in combat, too!

Meanwhile the protectors of the cart lost a man, but killed the other demilancer with shot and arrow, and the robbers finally broke and retreated. 

Jaroslaw rode to the richly dressed people around the cart - the richest guy had killed the demilancer himself - and spoke thusly:

"It was a honour and a pleasure to meet you, gentlemen. May I know your honourable names?"

After-Action Report: Road to Monsterberg, Mythras edition - session 3

I am trying to be more regular! Here's the second session, too!

Jaroslav wined and dined with the Vogt of Teschen, meeting an itinerant fencing instructor from Moravia, as well as a travelling Polish merchant headed for the Bohemian border to do some risky trading.

We actually conversed nicely, and Jaroslav fenced and wrestled briefly with the instructor. He did well, as a veteran - but the instructor proved his mettle, and showed to everyone why he's teaching the likes of Jaroslav!

Meanwhile, the rest of the party carried out their heist. They managed it well - Elias the merchant first cased the bakery under false pretenses of being a journeyman from another guild, then scored some shitty improvised lockpicks for the footpad from the jeweler's guild where he was staying.

En route to the bakery on a cloudy night, Elias the merchant and Marzena the footpad arrived without incident. Vuk and Estelle stumbled upon two guards leading a drunk to the fools' cage, and decided to try to talk their way out of their predicament. That didn't go so well, and though Vuk somehow managed to escape, Estelle ended up in the fools' cage too.

Nevertheless, Marzena managed to pick and sneak her way through the bakery while Vuk and Elias kept the coast clear. 

Elias also made friends with a stray midden dog while waiting. Marzena found a sack of sawdust in a hidden compartment, then while Vuk caused a scene outside to draw out the baker's apprentice from his room, Marzena heaved the sack of sawdust out the window and all over the roof of the bakery's covered porch, leaving no doubt as to where it came from.

Vuk then drew attention to the scene from the street, making sure it couldn't be covered up, before everyone hightailed it out of there.

The next day, Jaroslav arranged to travel together with his new Polish friend partway to Ratibor, while the rest of the party got paid for their work.

With that done, everyone (including Elias's new mutt), set off to Ratibor alongside a merchant caravan.

Stopping at Freistadt for the wedding, Vuk and Estelle performed some slapstick routines for money while Elias and Marzena met Sir Vaclav of Novi Ves' squires again (see Session 2, link at the start of this post!), who put in a good word for them with the bauer and allowed one of them to race without having to pay an entry fee. Just as well, because the first two races in the qualifiers were a loss.

Meanwhile, Vuk wagered two pfennigs on being able to outdrink the village drunkard and managed to beat him by 5 seconds, before joining him in a drunken coma.

As the session ended, Estelle was preparing to pay her way into the race too, seeking a chance at fame despite not being the greatest rider.

We left there.

After-Action Report: Road to Monsterberg - Mythras edition, session 2

The first session is here.

Now, just one thing I need to share: normally, when you read an AAR/APs (After Action Report/Actual Play), you are reading in the tone of the PC I'm playing, if I'm a player. When I'm the GM, you're reading what the NPCs saw.

It's point-of-view-centric, though Asen himself only gets a voice when I'm talking explicitly about the players.

However, this AAR is breaking with the normal. Why? Well, because I wasn't on this session. So you're reading what Jaroslaw never saw, but I was told by other players. So, mostly their words, not mine...my comments are in italic.

Also, correcting some names' spelling.

Last time in Monsterberg, we found out what happens when the travelling knight leaves his fellows unsupervised for 4 hours in Teschen.

While Jaroslaw and Kristan were off to meet Teschen's Vogt, the less privileged in the party (i.e. everyone else... :D ) had a threefold mission: 

1. Shake off the stresses of the road with drink and bath [i.e., recover some Tenacity]

2. Gather some information on the local affairs

3. Find a way to score some gear or spare cash.

The Teschen market was pretty busy. Estelle the bard was so focused on the people and dreaming up ways to profit from them (promoting businesses as a crier/musician? exploiting rivalries between traders?) that she ended up tripping into a donkey's trough and making an ass of herself. Had to get a bath to be presentable again.

Someone else was already at the baths, though - namely, Vuk and Elias. Vuk was getting the stink of his rancid clothing scrubbed from him and his beard cut at Elias' insistence, for double the regular price.

At least they let the stinky foreigner in, I guess?

Unfortunately, there was a misunderstanding between the Serb and a boy Elias had asked to stay behind and confirm that Vuk had indeed cleaned up before he would be allowed to leave. The language barrier played a big part in this misunderstanding, but Vuk and the boy got the same wrong impression of each other and the Serb ended up banned from the bathhouse. At least he was clean now!

As his players put it, he's used to Ottoman baths, so the boy asking to scrub his back was...ahem, not welcome.

Meanwhile, at the market square, Marzena had stumbled upon two squires to one Sir Vaclav of Nova Ves, hawking armor from a wagon. All the pieces had grand stories accompanying them, but they were mostly just second-hand junk that was obviously looted from whoever had been on the receiving end of this Sir Vaclav's business. 

Marzena tried to ingratiate herself to the squires by giving them some street-smart tips on how to sell more goods. They were actually pretty horrible tips that should have made the squires' job much harder, but somehow the squires made them work (by means of a very lucky crit). 

As sales started taking off, Teschen's arms merchants who had until now been very unamused were properly pissed off at someone breaking their monopoly. A bunch of craftsmen and apprentices came up and were about to start trouble with the squires and Marzena when Elias was passing by and managed to defuse the situation.

For their help, both Elias and Marzena got a few free pieces of gear on the down low - some bulky jack chain for one of Marzena's arms, and a garish (and kind of thin) gambeson for Elias that could be given to Vuk in place of his fouled gear.

No more Mr. Stinky!

Anyway, everyone spent some more time picking up rumors wherever they could (e.g., Elias visited the office of the local jewelers' guild since he was in that trade himself).

Eventually made their way to the big German tavern. Had a few drinks.
Got interrupted by a drunk journeyman from Tarnowitz who had overheard the party's introductions at the gates earlier in the day. He abused Elias for being a good-for-nothing northern pansy who was ruining Silesia by dragging in the scum of the Balkans back with him. Elias was pretty good at ignoring the provocations.

Marzena, on the other hand, tried to prove she wasn't pretending to be a noble by presenting her rondel with Zawisza's crest. The man from Tarnowitz asked her which knight has had his grave robbed by her knave father for her to have something like that, which was the final straw. There was a duel in front of the tavern after that.

Marzena scored a flawless win against the man, delivering several nasty smacks to his head before people started crying "peace".

After that scene, the party got called over to a table by a well-spoken man called Gerat. A searcher from the baker's guild, he had seen what they're about and figured they were rough/disposable enough to help him prove that one of Teschen's bakers was adultering his bread with sawdust.

All they needed to do was a little breaking and entering during the night, since the baker had the protection of the head of the baker's guild...

My own personal contribution: AFAICT, the city of Teschen is called Cieszyn in Czech, and here is its coat of arms.

I like its motto, too, which is "Amore et non dolore" ("By love and not by pain").

 

And that's where we picked up the next session.

Kind of short, but again, I wasn't there - and in fact, Jaroslaw never learned about this in-character.

After-Action Report: Road to Monsterberg - Mythras edition

Long time no see, dear readers! But it was a smaller pause than my previous one, right?

I've been playing and running games, but not posting much. But now I want to tell you about the game I joined recently. It's happening online due to us being in two different countries, so we're using Foundry.

First, are you familiar with the Road to Monsterberg campaign?

If yes, skip ahead. If not...you really should go and acquaint yourself. 

 For those hesitating, it's a campaign set in historical, 15th century Silesia (Poland). And I kinda doubt anyone who dislikes historical games reads this blog...

So here's a link to the adventure (first of three parts).

However, the game we're playing uses the Mythras rules* (by The Design Mechanism) . We have the corebook and that Book of Schemes is allowed as a supplement, and the GM has done a whole lot of work to convert it.

It's really funny how this started. I was on the Discord of Peter Von Danzig/Codex Martialis.

A user on the server turned out to be Bulgarian as well. So I invited him to a Bulgarian Discord.

Turned out, he was already planning to run Road to Monsterberg for Mythras, and online. He just wasn't sure whether he'd be able to find the players.

...about 24 hours later he had a full group and had to turn some people down. We actually have a waiting list!

So with no further ado, here are the PCs.

Jaroslaw, my PC, Czech gentry, staunch Catholic and knight. Has an arms-bearer.

Elias, a Burgher who want to get gentrified (and is actually a woman in disguise), trader.

Vuk, former Serbian outlaw, even more former Ottoman slave. Might or might not be a secret pagan.

Marzena, a Serbian warrior woman who's been fighting the Ottomans before. She gets a pass for being a wild one.

Esthel, Frenchwoman, wandering entertainer. 

***

We started the game with being admitted to the city. Which ain't automatic.

I looked at the guards and didn't even need to remind the Ref that I've got an Ehren of 77 (divide by two for the number in the original system, but it's in the low numbers for a noble, despite me being gentry). My armsbearer goes with me (I have his name written on my character sheet, under "equipment"!), and I guaranteed about Vuk as well. 

He's got Ehren in the single-digit numbers or low, low 10s. Again, this is a d% system... Ehren can be rolled, or assist your rolls.

But hey, since Vuk used to kill Ottomans, he's doing God's work, as far as Jaroslaw is concerned. Yes, despite being a schismatic!

Jaroslaw loves the Catholic faith with all his heart. He's also got NO lore skills related to it, so he's a bit unclear on specifics, and usually refers to the closest priest when needing details.

Actually, most of the party hates Ottomans, as in having the passion "Hate: Ottomans". Hey, we were fighting them...

Then the German wannabe-gentry/wannabe-man, who is affiliated with the Hanza, guaranteed for the two women, and we were in. I also got an invite from the local rulers, forgot the name. 

This is going to come in handy, as I can't attend next session due to work.

The entertainer got us the first memorable moment of the session by claiming she's making a travelling show, and Vuk is the bear (he wears a bear skin as cloak). We just used social standing power we've got to smooth it over...as in, they thought that's outrageous, but didn't want to argue with a knight's travelling companion.

And then they asked us "how was the road", and we went straight for a simulation of the 4 weeks we'd needed to get from Belgrad to the Polish town.

***

First week, we met 10-12 Ottomans on horses. We turned around through the forest.

GM: "everyone roll Stealth".

Me, looking at my 23% Stealth: "OK, I'm going to fail you all...oh wait, I got a 3, that's a crit".

So the knight actually helped the others sneak, as per the rules...having to explain it, I stated that I'm leading the horses with a secure hand to prevent them from making noise.

We avoided a fight, here.

Second week, we're in Buda and we went on to train a bit, teaching each other Polish (and the trader was teaching the French gal some writing). 

Afterwards, we played out a tournament between the PCs to get used to the combat system.

Jaroslaw won, quite expectedly. But it took quite a while (OOC, not IC). The group is getting used to a system that's new to them OOC. 

Next week (or was that the 2nd week, with the tournament later?), our obstacle were Hungarian peasants-cum-brigands. None of us speaks Hungarian.

They're asking us for 6 pfennings a head, we were able to work out.

That's not really that much, but trouble is...we don't actually have that kind of money. I've got 14, and I'm the richest in the party. 

(Well, I've kept enough money for my armsbearer's food and lodging, so I'm actually carrying more, but OOC, we just removed them and agreed Kristian is covered).

We detected that they're hungry, and offered them travelling rations for a couple days. Seeing as how Jaroslaw is on his horse, looks down on them (literally and figuratively) and has just removed his battleaxe's coverings, they wisely decide to take the offer.

Yes, he's using an axe. He's old school that way. 

Also, fun fact, he can use a gun, a crossbow (he has one) and a sword...all worse than he uses spear, axe, or grappling. In the Mythras system, he has those as different Combat Styles: Knightly Arts & Kutna Hora Citizen Training. Gun, crossbow and sword are all in the latter group. The GM said a single style can have up to 3  weapons and a shield.

As I put it, those are for shooting at people that approach Kutna Hora's walls, or defending myself in the street, or after they manage to close up. The rest is what he does on his horse.

Either way, then we had to deal with a storm. We sped up and mostly avoided getting tired. Most avoided getting depressed, too.

Not so Vuk. He's been more and more in the edge, and he's holeric. So at some point the other Serbian, the warrior woman, sees him praying. And she recognizes the words - he's praying to Dazhbog! 

(Did I mention he has only passing knowledge of Polish and Czech, due to "related, but not close" language? He does, and we are playing this out. Yes, he's learning as fast as he can). 

The player of Marzena, however, is a young woman in her 20ies. Which explains what happens, if you ask me...

So Marzena just goes next to him, pushes him in the ribs, and asks "how come you're praying to Dazhbog, man?" (or something to that effect)...

And he very nearly jumped her with fists. Very good roleplaying from the player.

(OOC, he's 46, probably twice her age or nearly so - the generational gap is obvious, and part of it is NOT assuming that you can say anything WITHOUT getting punched in the mouth).

I try to calm them down with authority...and fail the Influence check badly. The trader, however, snaps "his" whip, which startles us all, and allows Esthel an opening to get in and talk him down.

...Which was a good thing, because had he started it after being ordered not to...well, you can guess how Jaroslaw would have reacted. He knew that, and knew Jaroslaw expects obedience.

Yes, I play it to the hilt, and then twist, as they say. No, I don't play J as a modern human. I mean, what's the point? I play one of those everyday.

Amusingly, Vuk's player is more than fine with that. Some of the others are getting a kind of culture shock, however, most of their experience being with D&D...

Importantly, no horses broke feet, and then I made sure to inquire about the humans as well (yes, those are Jaroslaw's priorities, as I'm playing him). Then we spent the night under some trees, and the entertainer...entertained us with song and tale.

Vuk was keeping a bit aside, though. At some point, I went to him, put an arm on his shoulder, and told him "I want no more such performances").

"Ain't gonna happen again, jupan". (Jaroslaw is a milec, but he knows what a jupan means, and he accepts the word without commenting as a close equivalent).

"Good. No more talk about it, then".

And I went back to the others.

Hey, my Polish actually isn't much better than his. I actually got a +5 from the lessons, but that only raised it to 28%: I'm barely past the level of "separate words and very simple phrases", and into "speaking accented with very simple phrases".
Jaroslaw has much, much better command of Czech (of course, native language gets +40 bonus...) and Deutsh (48, close to passing the 50-mark).

On the final week, we got my horses confiscated, for the Polish Crown and against the Ottomans.

The GM wanted to hit me with a big Tenacity loss there, but I pointed out that Jaroslaw is more than willing to lose horses to help the anti-Ottoman fight. So I got to augment Willpower check with his Passion, and only lost a couple points.

So, Jaroslaw took the documents ascertaining that he has to receive 4 horses (2 warhorses and 2 coursers, good-natured...well, as good-natured as warhorses go) from the Polish Crown, or an equivalent amount of money.

***

And then we are back to where we started the session: we had just arrived in the city. Jaroslaw is going to spend the following days without the party, talking to the local rulers.

GM: "You've got any plans?"

Me: "Have they got a marriageable daughter, and what does she look like?"

And that's where we ended it.

 

 

*BTW, Codex Martialis/Stara Szkola is a great system and I'd have been fine playing it with the original system. But it's no secret I like Mythras, and I'm glad that we're using it, because this way the guys I'm playing with are learning the system better.

Who knows, they might start their own campaigns as well, some day?

My Low Fantasy/Mythras setting

I am working on my own setting (and might publish it this time...). I already posted two NPCs from it.

So, here's what I want from said setting:
A place where weapons and emotions are the only magic.
That's the setting I'm working on...dual-statted for Low Fantasy RPG and Mythras (I've been toying with the idea of making it tripple-statted for Cepheus/Traveller, and/or one of The Riddle of Steel clones, too - but neither is part of it yet). 

Why, you ask me? It resolves "the supremacy of spellcasters" and the complaints about "how can I do a monk and why do I need a weapon" in one fell swoop. And I just like weapons being magic.

Emotions 
Since there's no magic, and a person can only be so strong and skilled, people are your only real, nigh-infinite resource for achieving greatness. You can't defeat an army...but you can lead your own army. Or you can work the army's strategist into committing a mistake, and defeating himself.


And the only way to control people, as we all know, is to appeal to their emotions. (Of course, that means finding out what they want, first. And catering to people's emotions is always taxing). 
And some of the people you meet are weapons with spirits inside. Others are demons. Both can give you great power...at a cost, because they also have emotions. Granted, not all of them have the emotions you'd consider sane, but then that applies to those people of flesh, blood and human parents, too... 

Swords (and other weapons) 
It's important to note that the Spirit Weapons aren't always swords. Sometimes, they're something else, but always have steel parts (making shields and iron-shod staffs eligible).

One thing is for certain: they're virtually indestructible, and never need sharpening (nor is it possible, even if they're less sharp than you wanted them to be - as might be the case with some anti-armour implements, if you ever get to a place where people walk around mostly naked). You never clean rust, nor does it impact the functioning of the weapon, if it's there (on some rare* cases). 
Last note: a true demon can never become a weapon. Only once-godlings can, and they can only be weapons. Because weapons are holy.
Don't hope to have both, though. Neither of them are into sharing, and even less are into sharing with another kind. To find two different ones that don't mind, is so unlikely as to be virtually impossible. 

The POWERZ of thy sword! 
First and most obvious: they give you bonuses and penalties on some Passions. And they demand that you indulge in those that they give you bonuses for, and avoid those where you have penalties...at least they don't make it harder for you to obey. And obeying makes you happy (that's listed here, because a naturally violent person who gets another shot of magic weapon-inspired violence might become a murder machine with no special powerZ needed - but you get those anyway). Keep in mind, it's never just "violence+20%", it's "violence against equals", "violence against groups", and so on. It's never "Love+20%", it's "love for your lawful wife+20%", or "love all the nice women+20%". 


The next thing you get...depends on the weapon's personality. 
A weapon that can be any other weapon? A weapon that can fly to your hand? A weapon that can help you teleport, as long as you already are wielding it? A weapon that sheathes itself in flame, or ice, or spits lightining or acid in the enemy's face? An weapon that gives you wings? An weapon that executes your wishes, but at a price? 
The important thing is, they all have an...call it "theme". That's because they all have spirits inside, dontchaknow, and spirits have...well, personalities. 
And all NPC personalities have a "theme", even if the "theme" is "person living in the Wild West and driving cattle around". Or, for a fantasy game, "a normal Nemedian guy who hopes his skill at arms would help him get ahead in life". 
Or, in the case of weapons, The Noble Eagle, the Principle of Cutting, the Principle of Insertion, and The One Who Spots Everything (beware of ever meeting The Ruthless Ferret, though - he kills for fear, profit, pleasure, glory, infamy, food, because someone was in reach and his head was conveniently situated to shear off, and because once you start, you might as well go for the full round...) 

The Noble Eagle has the powers of Sight (including through objects), See Magic, Flight, Paralysis, Telekinesis** and Longevity. He wants riches,  power, but be ready for you your sex drive to take a plunge: eagles fuck once a year, after all, and he finds it distracting. 


Farseer also gives you Sight, but also DarkSight, See Magic, and only then Flight (to get to better vantage points), and Longevity. He's quite close to The Noble Eagle, but while he respects the Eagle, the Eagle secretly envies Farseer. His desires are Curiosity, Respect, and Sex (being able to see people naked either makes you horny, or jaded, but being jaded doesn't match well with his curiosity). However, he lowers your desire for mass violence: Farseer prizes understanding and showing off the knowledge so obtained, not killing off. He very much wants battles with worthy opponents, though: what's better than figuring out the weakness of a man with no weaknesses? 


Cleancutter is probably his stellar opposite, yet the two are, for some reason, close friends. Cleancutter allows you Power Cuts, Transformation (of Cleancutter, not yourself - you can always carry him like a knife, if only a knife is allowed, or as a glaive, if you face a horseman), Spirit-cutting, Wounding, and allows you to sever causality to get what you want by merely making a symbolic cut in the air. However, something is going to happen, as a price: when you cut the strings of causality, expect backlash! (Also: karma is a bitch). 

You get the idea.


*Rusty weapons are alternately said to have spots on their souls, or to be weeping...forever. Or both. 
**You suck being an eagle if you can't carry your prey off, if it's struggling, and eagles are long-lived. 

P.S.: Those are the versions of Farseer and Cleancutter that I'm using. They might well be different in your campaign.

Farseer, Lord of Glorious Battle and Cleancutter, Red Rainbow Amidst The Rain Drops!

I'm running a campaign for Low Fantasy RPG, on-and-off...meaning "any time that the WHoOG campaign isn't running for one reason or another". We are playing Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate, and I'm behind with the updates again - it's just that we play more often than that!

I'm also planning to make it into a setting supplement...or mini-supplement, we'll see. I'm not even trying to hide that my main inspiration for that are the Books of Twelve Swords by Fred Saberhagen, the French RPG Bloodlust, and Earthdawn's magic items. (Well, I hear Dave Arneson himself has been putting magic swords in his setting as important part of the magic, but I don't know anything else. Either way, it's nice to know I'm following good tradition!)
The first thing that you'd notice if you played in this campaign, would be...that there's no Wizard class. Want magic? Find an item.
Most such items are weapons. For a reason that's part of the setting's lore.

And now, let me introduce you two NPCs from this campaign!

Farseer, Lord of Valorous Battle looks like a slender Type XIX (with side rings), according to Oakeshott's typology. He's black as night, and carries a symbol of the Iron God (which I decided to adopt in my setting...though he might turn out to be just a namesake).
He's made of cold iron, of course.
The first power he always gives to any user is the ability to see the invisible, including in the dark. This was already used to notice a dryad hiding in her own tree. (Previous unscrupulous owners have used it to see through clothes, as Farseer would tell you - not that he's hinting at anything...he's not a pervert at all!)
Later it might be upgraded to "seeing magic emanations".
Then, he'd give you the power of sprouting wings (for a time), and then having them retract.
And if he likes you well enough, then he would make you unaging. Forget
He has one more power that he seldom grants to any user. Speculations abound as to what is might be: Does he teach the owner deadly counters, coupled with sixth sense? Grant stunning beauty? Allow the limited use of a Forbidden Wish (1/lunar month)? Immunity to fire? Control over water?
Is it even only one power, or does he just hold back several things he doesn't give access to, except as required?
One thing is for sure: Farseer doesn't want you to kill many people. He wants you to avoid fights, except with enemies that would provide a valorous combat. He's very much a "quality over numbers" guy!
And yes, the sword is a "he", most definitely, as he'd tell you if you ever met. It's just an accident most of his wielders have been female, and good-looking at that...funny coincidence, that!
Or, as it often works with those blades - is it a coincidence?


Cleancutter, Red Rainbow Amidst The Rain Drops looks like a mix between a Peidao and a Bulgarian sabre, with slightly bigger guard. And he's white...like the bones long-dead gods, some would say.
Cleancutter is also silvered, which might or might not explain his colour.
The first power he'd give you is the power of sudden, deep cuts. Which is something all swords do, in a way - but he can decapitate an enemy regardless of armour (which normal swords can't do).
The second power he would reveal is his ability to change shapes temporarily. So, if you need to enter a palace, you could have Cleancutter as an inoffensive dagger on your belt (though he'd remind you about that...) A rider attacking you? Cleancutter can be your halberd or pike. Someone grappled you? Cleancutter can become tigerclaws affixed to your wrist.
The third power is his ability to drink souls of your enemies, and grant you parts of their abilities (or just of their lifeforce, should you need it - and yes, if you didn't need it, this can prolong your "natural" lifespan a lot, preventing aging, much like Farseer's ability).
His fourth power is the ability to hurt even targets that are far away.
His fifth and subsequent powers are subject to speculation, too. Does he grant true agelessness, regardless of killing? Does he cause wounds that can never stop bleeding, unless the user touches them with his blade again? Does he give you the power of bladedancing, which can allow you to protect a single target against any attack, even at the cost of your life? Does he allow you to stop any attack (1/ lunar month)? Does he hew the weapon of any enemy when you defend?
Or does he, as some claim, allow you to cut the binds of causality, granting you a Forbidden Wish for seemingly unconnected actions - but possibly at a terrible price?
Or, conversely, does he allow you to cut the ties that bind enemies to what they cherish? No doubt there would be a price for the ability to sever the love of the grieving wife for her perished husband, or the like - but what would it be?
Questions, questions...and no answers in sight. But a few things are for sure: he likes women (not as targets), money, and slaughter - not necessarily in that order. He's a "quantity over quality" kind of guy, unlike Farseer. And he's slower to give you his trust, but readily adits what (and how) he wants you to do.
Oh, and you should never call him Vorpy. Only Farseer gets away with that, at times...and he hates the price so much, he tries to avoid it.


Important: all magic weapons in my setting have the one obvious power of never needing sharpening, anti-rust measures, or the like. That's a separate power in Low Fantasy RPG which I decided to make a default in my setting.
But then, they're the only way to gain magic powers of any kind, so it makes sense to preserve them!