Chapter 4: "Eye of Traldar, part 4"
by tjedge1Well another instalment in the campaign. They made a deal with the inn keeper to clean up their mess (he was not a friend of the men they killed or the Baron himself). So they did, except Nikolai who went to bed, and well after nightfall they finish burying the bodies behind the inn. When they go back inside to get a night's sleep, via the kitchen door in back, A 7 1/2 foot man-like thing with a funny walks barges in the front room with two orcs trailing behind him. They question the innkeeper who denies seeing any strange travellers. The giant man thing leaves with the orcs afterwards. As Seraphim, Ragnar, Leonine and Filsmorph walk across the room to get to the stairs, and the giant man-thing bursts in with his sword drawn. Luckily the players never mentioned disarming themselves. They realise he's a bugbear and he's wearing the uniform of the Black Eagle Barony. Ragnar charges forward, the orcs come around to either side of the bugbear. Filsmorph steps away from the others and flanks the humanoids as they attack. Since they don't have a description of him, they run past him. Seraphim fires off a shockbolt and burns the Bugbears weapon arm real good, but doesn't slow him. Ragnar lands two solid blows with his swords, but mostly manages to unbalance the Bugbear. Leonine fires off an arrow but misses. Filsmorph slashes the arm of the nearest orc. All the humanoids attack Ragnar but only manage a couple of cuts. After swinging at Ragnar, the orc that Filsmorph slashed turns on him. Seraphim fires another shockbolt and misses. Filsmorph then gets a critical against the orc and cuts his eyes out. The orc dies soon after. Ragnar swings at the Bugbear again and injures him. Leonine lands a powerful hit with an arrow that rips open the bugbears side. The bugbear swings back, the other orc attacks Ragnar as well. They only manage more scratches. Leonine transforms into a Lion and everybody swings a little wild. Next round Leonine takes the bugbear down, and the other orc tries to run away. Too bad for him, Ragnar has a skill in sprinting and runs him down and ties him up. They interrogate the orc and then kill him and drag the bodies into the hills behind the inn. They found out that the hills are going to be soon be combed over by bugbears and orcs. They decided to wake all the refugees, the Luln soldiers and the fat merchant. They all get back on the wagon and take off.
They arrive in Luln by sunrise and decide to sleep most of the day in the guards barracks and freshen up before going to the church to hand over the Eye of Traldar. Seraphim explains the situation about the Eye to Filsmorph. When they arrive at the church they find out that the cleric who is supposed to pay them has left to Specularum for some reason. They aren't a trustful group and they leave. Filsmorph questions the cleric there who admits to being a fake to him. He thinks Filsmorph is actually Tzak (He's never seen a Gnoll or Lupin and doesn't realise the difference). He admits to work for the thieves guild in Specularum and they have made a deal with Guchi. He tells Filsmorph that the clerics of the church are dead, and all the gold has been hauled back to the thieves guild. He tells him also that Guchi should be back in a day or so and he's got about 30 men with him. They will take care of the other characters then weather or not they have the eye. Filsmorph claims to find out if they have the eye and then get back with him. Filsmorph tells the others and they decide to leave at nightfall.
They take off and pretty much have an uneventful trip. At Radlebb Keep they get a healer to heal Ragnar's broken rib. He wanted 1,400 gp, but they convince him to take a pair of gold earrings and a box of ivory dice. They head onto the ruined former capital of Traladar. To avoid any contact with the thieves, Nikolai tells them of a cousin that lives in the ruins, during their travel Leonine sleeps with Ragnar and teases Seraphim. They have been camping at night, after leaving the keep, off the road in the woods. One of the nights they are camping and Seraphim is keeping watch. She is invisible and sees several horsemen travelling by. She flies over them and watches them for a while. Filsmorph and Ragnar wake up from hearing the horses. Filsmorph smells an awful smell from the horsemen as they pass. Seraphim sees eight caskets about 3' long. Being hauled by some horses. They move on the next day and Nikolai's cousin finds out that Guchi arrived and went to a church where Tzak was taken to recover. He didn't have the smelly caskets with him though and apparently he has purchased passage on a boat. They don't know where to though.
The players decide to continue with their plan to give the Eye back to the elves themselves. They gather their gear and travel the 16 day journey to Rugolav where they will try to find someone to help them get to the Lake of Lost Dreams and find the Seer to return the Eye to him. (The journey was uneventful, because we were short on time and the combat system for Rolemaster is too slow. Before our next session, I'm going to rework the whole system to more resemble RCD&D, yet with still more detail in the critical hits.) They are afraid that Guchi is taking the boat to Rugalov to spread word about them as being thieves or something. Nikolai says he knows the man who runs the town and keep and that he will speak with him about Guchi. The session ended here as they arrived at Rugalov.
My plans for their future. Well, I'm going to rework the Dymrak Dread module a bit and then have them go on a mission to prove they are not criminals of any sort and to get a guide to the Lake. It is a good tie in to that adventure and then I'll be giving them some clues to the Dragon Mountain adventure. And possible do the Forge of Fury game and the Immortal's Fury Part 1 somewhere in the middle of it.
Well it was a rather dull session, but the players seemed fine with it. They are really not happy with the RoleMaster's skill and combat systems, so I'm going to be reworking it and making it faster and more basic. I have some ideas. Well they are others ideas, but I like them. It will be a combination of RCD&D, Diablo II (Video Game, not RPG) and Rolemaster. If anyone is interested, I'll post those ideas up after I have completed it and the players have tested it.
Here is an update of the players stats:
Here is the RoleMaster stats and their abbreviations along with their CD&D equivalent:
Strength (Str) = Strength
Agility (Agi) = Dexterity
Quickness (Qui) = Dexterity
Constitution (Con) = Constitution
Self Discipline (Dis) = Charisma
Presence (Pre) = Charisma
Memory (Mem) = Wisdom
Reasoning (Res) = Intelligence
Empathy (Emp) = Intelligence
Intuition (Int) = Wisdom
All stats numbers are converted to OD&D for reading ease and the bonuses are including the racial bonus that RoleMaster uses so they will seem higher for some characters than others with the same score.
First player up:
1) Name: Seraphim (Female)
Race: Avariel from the Mengul Mountains in Wendar
Class: Battle Mage
Level: 3
Hair/Eyes: Platinum/Violet
Hgt/Wgt: 5'6" / 85 lbs
Age: 200 (appears as 21)
Alignment: Lawful Good
Personality: Moral, Ethical, Principled
Str: 15 (+1)
Agi: 17 (+3) +1 Racial
Qui: 14 (+3) +2 Racial
Con: 15 (+1)
Dis: 14 (+2) +1 Racial
Pre: 15 (+3) +2 Racial
Mem: 17 (+2)
Res: 14 (+1)
Emp: 14 (+1)
Int: 13 (+2) +1 Racial
Strongest Skills: Flying (wings), Archery, Magic, Quick Draw, Pick Pockets, Pick Locks, Stalking & Hiding, Lores, Fletching, Alertness
Favourite Spells: Shockbolt (RoleMaster's version of Magic Missile)
Motivation: Wants to travel the world and rid as much evil from it as she can
Special Equipment: Bow that summons food/water. Ring of Invisibility
2) Name: Ragnar Maximus (Male)
Race: Human Norseman from Whiteheart in the Soderfjord Jarldoms
Class: Barbarian
Level: 2
Hair/Eyes: Brown/Brown
Hgt/Wgt: 6'6" / 260 lbs
Age: 23 (appears as 26)
Alignment: Neutral Good
Personality: Impatient, Angry
Str: 15 (+3) +2 Racial
Agi: 14 (+1)
Qui: 16 (+2)
Con: 16 (+4) +2 Racial
Dis: 15 (+0) -1 Racial
Pre: 13 (+0) -1 Racial
Mem: 14 (+1)
Res: 13 (+1)
Emp: 14 (+1)
Int: 14 (+1)
Strongest Skills: Dual Weapon Fighting, Frenzy, Sword & Two Hand Weapon Masteries, Weight Lifting, Boxing, Stun Recovery
Motivation: Searching for his parents murderers (Iron Ring Slavers)
Special Equipment: Scimitar +2 (a dormant intelligent sword with numerous powers), Short Sword +1, Iron Ring Records & Documents
3) Name: Leonine (Female)
Race: Shiye Elf from the Shiye Lawr, near Alfeish
Class: Ranger (Shapeshifting Elf Sorority)
Level: 2
Hair/Eyes: Dk Brown/Green
Hgt/Wgt: 5'6" / 110 lbs
Age: 200 (appears as 28)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Personality: Arrogant
Str: 14 (+1)
Agi: 14 (+3) +2 Racial
Qui: 14 (+2) +1 Racial
Con: 15 (+1)
Dis: 16 (+2)
Pre: 17 (+3) +1 Racial
Mem: 14 (+1)
Res: 13 (+1)
Emp: 13 (+2) +1 Racial
Int: 15 (+2) +1 Racial
Strongest Skills: Shapeshifting, Archery, Seduction, Alertness, Survival, Animal Handling, Scaling & Climbing, Detect Traps, Lie Detection, Locate Hidden Things, Tracking
Motivation: Only cares about her personal pleasure and riches
Special Equipment: A piercing that allows her to shapeshift into a Lion (Her secret society sisters will be wanting it back)
4) Name: Filsmorph (Male)
Race: Morph-Lupin (Mixed breed)
Class: Paladin
Level: 2
Hair/Eyes: Auburn/White
Hgt/Wgt: 5'11" / 195lbs
Age: 28 (appears as 24)
Alignment: Lawful Good
Personality: Moral & Trustworthy
Str: 15 (+2) +1 Racial
Agi: 14 (+1)
Qui: 14 (+1)
Con: 14 (+2) +1 Racial
Dis: 15 (+1)
Pre: 14 (+0) -1 Racial
Mem: 15 (+2) +1 Racial
Res: 16 (+3) +1 Racial
Emp: 13 (+2) +1 Racial
Int: 16 (+3) +1 Racial
Strongest Skills: Quick Draw, Dual Weapon Fighting, First-Aid, Sword Mastery, Whip Mastery, Awareness, Tracking, Rope Mastery, Various Lores
Favourite Spells: Repel Undead, Healing magics
Motivation: Preserve his religion
Special Equipment: Katana +2, Cat-o-Nine Tails +2, Pendant that casts Shield twice daily (It's in the form of the symbol of his former church, a cross).
4) Name: Nikolai Monescu (Male) - NPC
Race: Human Traladaran
Class: Magician
Level: 6
Hair/Eyes: White/Brown
Hgt/Wgt: 5'4" / 125 lbs
Age: 68 (appears as 52)
Alignment: True Neutral
Personality: Witty, Calm
Str: 9 (+1) +1 Racial
Agi: 10 (+0)
Qui: 13 (+1)
Con: 9 (+0)
Dis: 16 (+2)
Pre: 15 (+1)
Mem: 18 (+3)
Res: 18 (+4) +1 Racial
Emp: 14 (+1)
Int: 15 (+1)
Strongest Skills: Various Lore, Alchemy, Science, Influential Skills, Attunement
Favourite Spells: Sleep and Charm
Motivation: Freedom of his people from the Thyatian oppressors
Special Equipment: Spellbook