Ok time for an update. This was from the last session, which was about 2 or 3 weeks ago. The new rules are in place and the new combat system and so far the players loved the increased speed but they were upset at the lack of detail to injuries. I began to make them up when they had a killing blow. I'm still figuring out how to include the Critical hits. The next game won't be for another 2 or 3 weeks so I have time to work on that. Now to the update.
Eye of Traldar: Part 5 "The Dymrak Dread"
by tjedge1The players arrive at the town of Rugalov which has a new wooden wall erected around it and built all the way to about 25 feet into the river of the same name. The players are eventually allowed to enter after some arguing with the guards at the wooden gate. As they entered they were arrested. Their wagon is confiscated as their weapons, which are thrown into the back of the wagon and it is pulled into a stable. The players are taken to the ferry at the river and travel across to where the Duke lives. Inside Fort Rugalov, they realise the Eye of Traldar was still in the wagon. The Duke recognises Nikolai and knowing him tells the players they are under arrest for murder and theft. A cleric by the name of Guchi had passed through on his way to Thyatis and left their descriptions. He informed the Duke that they were possible heading this way. He wanted them held until he could return and retrieve the artifact they had stolen form his church in Luln and then to be hung for the murders of his fellow clerics. The Duke has little patience with criminals and has agreed to do so. But realising that the Nikolai described to him is the very same that taught him when he was a child, so he decides to test them.
The players stand before him and are tied up. He tells the guards to untie Nikolai and asks him what his side of the story is. Nikolai explains being a slave of the Iron Ring and that these adventurers rescued him and he is helping them return an artifact to it's rightful owner. The artifact was stolen by the Iron Ring or someone working with them and that this "cleric" is trying to steal it from them before they can return it. He also explains that the cleric is not what he seems. The Duke decides to explain to the players about a goblin warlord who has been harassing the town and merchants trying to trade with it. He claims the Callarii and Vyalia elves have stopped trading with the town due to the danger the goblins bring. They used to be no problem as they would just have regular raids on rare occasions, but recently a new warlord has taken over the tribes of the Dymrak Dread and he seems to be gaining control of all the tribes and uniting them. This has made the goblins a serious threat. Due to the increased raids and the organisation of their attacks. The Duke tells them his Lord Forester can lead them to the edge of the marsh where Kosivikh, the goblin warlord, is reported to be staying. He tells them they can prove their innocence by bringing back the Dread's head. Ragnar asks him, "Or what?" The Duke responds calmly, "Or you can rot in prison until this cleric returns and you can be hung in the gallows and then thrown in the river." Seraphim and Leonine both respond, "We'll do it!" Ragnar grumbles and Filsmorph asks about being equipped for such a trip. The Duke tells them he will give them their weapons and equipment but Nikolai and the wagon will remain in the town.
The Lord Forester guides the players along with a few other foresters for protection. They question the Foresters and learn all kinds of rumours such as, The Dymrak Dread is actually a shaved Bugbear, and that he is not form the Dymrak woods but actually a magical experiment that escaped and came here. Some of the rumours were really crazy such as the Kosivikh could read minds and he had many powerful creatures protecting his lair. One forester told him he had seen him once and he was about 8 feet tall! The players at this point are thinking they have gotten in over their heads. Once they enter the marsh the foresters leave them and wish them luck. The Lord Forester mentions a bounty of a 1,000 gold coins to whoever brings back the head of Kosivikh. The players drool at this since they are having trouble gaining wealth in all this running around.
They begin their journey with Filsmorph in the lead looking for tracks. He finds some and they follow them into the marsh. After a bit of travelling, Ragnar says he wants to go back and get the "Eye." Leonine agrees, but Filsmorph and Seraphim talk them out of it by explaining that they would just be thrown in prison. If a whole tribe of goblins with a supernatural leader couldn't burn the town down, then how would they? Filsmorph pointed out that then they would also be fugitives in all of Karameikos, not just wanted by the corrupt guys. So they continued on.
After finally finding several sets of tracks, Filsmorph finds that one set is that of Lizardmen and the others are of goblins. One of the sets of prints in the goblins is rather large for a goblin. They follow the tracks and see that the Lizardmen tracks enter the same cave. They enter cautiously and are faced with 2 Lizardmen. After a quick battle, they kill the Lizardmen and then drag their bodies to a corner. They travel into the cave deeper and follow a flooded path. They find a prison cell a ways down a ways and open the cell. Inside is an elf and orc arguing. Neither seems friendly to the players but they decide to release the elf first. He tries to kill the orc, but Filsmorph and Seraphim drags him away. Ragnar asks why they did that, "It's just an orc." Filsmorph explains that they should question them both first and find out how they got here. They do and find out the elf is a trader who was ambushed near the river and brought here. The rest of the others that came with him have been eaten by the goblins and he was the only one left. The orc says he was part of a scouting party trying to find the headquarters of Kosivikh. He was caught by one of Kosivikh's scouting parties on the other side of the marsh from Rugalov. His party was killed. He figures it doesn't matter what he tells them since they will kill him anyway. After much arguing between Filsmorph and Ragnar they finally let the orc go and he runs off. The elf is furious and begins whining about it. The players tell him to leave the cave and Filsmorph escorts him out and tells him to follow the goblin trails and eventually he'll be at the river. They figure the elf will be dead soon, so they hurry back into the cave.
The find a tunnel covered in giant webs and Seraphim casts firewall, which burns out all the webbing, but disturbs its owner a Giant Black Widow. They battle it out for a bit and eventually take it down with out much injury and nobody poisoned. Ragnar jokes that the elf might have been a useful decoy with that fight, and Leonine laughs, while Seraphim is annoyed by the comment. They look down the tunnel that the web was blocking and see that it continues on down quite a ways. Filsmorph points out that there are no tracks so the goblins haven't been travelling this way for quite some time.
They return back to the main passage and find a small tunnel with a curtain hanging in it like a door. They sneak into the cave beyond the curtain and find a messy Wicca's room. They are surprised and attacked by the Wicca who crawls out of a carcass of a Lizardman hanging in the corner. The Goblin Wicca casts sleep but everyone makes their save Throws. Somehow, and then they clobber him to death. They here laughing and arguing on the opposite side of another curtain in the room and set up an ambush. They make a bunch of noise to attract the voices. The voices quiet down while they yell and scream and then when they stop the voices just carry on. They decide the voices are used to strange noises form this room and decide to barge in. They surprise a room full of goblins and overtake them pretty quickly. A couple put up a good fight though and as they are taking down those, a big goblin about a foot taller than the rest barges in and joins the fight. They manage to capture him and kill the rest. They ask him if he is Kosivikh? He laughs and says Kosivikh is too much for them and they should run away now. After a little bit of this going back and forth, Seraphim hears heavy footsteps coming towards them from the same tunnel the big goblin came from.
She signals the others and Ragnar slits the goblins throat quickly and then they spread out in front of the opening. A huge goblin steps into the room and the players burst out laughing. He is as tall as Seraphim but very broad. He growls and swings his battle-axe a t them. After a tougher fight than the players had expected, Ragnar and Leonine sustained some serious injuries, Kosivikh goes down from an arrow. Seraphim removes his head and then explore the room where he came from. They return to the tunnel that had webbing and go on down.
At first Ragnar and Seraphim try to convince them to return back so they could finish returning the artifact. Filsmorph and Leonine both decide they are going down with or without them. Seraphim follows them and Ragnar decides he doesn't want to go back alone. They travel down into the cave and find a little maze, with a dry spot big enough to camp and a door on the opposite side. At the door they find a body that is leaning against the door. They shove it aside and find that it was a thief that set off a poison trap and died. They thank him for opening the door for them and then go in. They explore a room that smells like dead bodies and discover the 6 statues around the room are actually dead people in armour. Filsmorph uses a Detect Undead spell and finds out that all the statues are actually zombies. They figure that if they haven't attacked then they must be triggered by something. They decide to leave the other door in the room alone and then return to the dry spot to camp out. Since the dry spot is completely surrounded by water they figure they won't be surprised. And that's where we left off.
I'll try to keep this more up to date next time and the next session will hopefully be soon.
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
I've redone the stat system to resemble more D&D style. The Racial bonuses are now included with the stat score and that will in effect raise the bonus. I also included a system to allow players to increase these stats gradually up to a max score, which is determined by race.
First player up:
Note: In the process of converting the players, I have powered them down a bit. They now have less skills than the previously had.
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
Personality: Moral, Ethical, Principled
Str: 15 (+3)
Agi: 18 (+5)
Qui: 15 (+3)
Con: 15 (+3)
Dis: 14 (+2)
Pre: 17 (+4)
Mem: 17 (+4)
Res: 14 (+2)
Emp: 14 (+2)
Int: 14 (+2)
Strongest Skills: Flying (wings), Archery, Magic, Quick Draw, Pick Pockets, Pick Locks, Stalking & Hiding, Lores, Fletching, Perception
Favourite Spells: Shockbolt (RoleMaster's version of Magic Missile), Wall of Fire, Waterbolt
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, Elven Cloak, Kosivikh's Head
2) Name: Ragnar Maximus (Male)
Race: Human Norseman from Whiteheart in the Soderfjord Jarldoms
Class: Barbarian
Level: 3
Hair/Eyes: Brown/Brown
Hgt/Wgt: 6'6" / 260 lbs
Age: 23 (appears as 26)
Alignment: Neutral
Personality: Impatient, Angry
Str: 17 (+4)
Agi: 14 (+2)
Qui: 17 (+4)
Con: 18 (+5)
Dis: 14 (+2)
Pre: 12 (+1)
Mem: 14 (+2)
Res: 13 (+2)
Emp: 14 (+2)
Int: 14 (+2)
Strongest Skills: Dual Weapon Fighting, Frenzy, Sword & Two Hand Weapon Masteries, Weight Lifting, Boxing, Sprinting
Motivation: Searching for his parent's 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
Personality: Arrogant
Str: 14 (+2)
Agi: 16 (+3)
Qui: 15 (+3)
Con: 15 (+3)
Dis: 16 (+3)
Pre: 18 (+5)
Mem: 14 (+2)
Res: 14 (+2)
Emp: 14 (+2)
Int: 16 (+3)
Strongest Skills: Shapeshifting, Archery, Seduction, Perception, Survival, Animal Handling, Climbing, Locate Hidden Things
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
Personality: Moral & Trustworthy
Str: 16 (+3)
Agi: 14 (+2)
Qui: 14 (+2)
Con: 15 (+3)
Dis: 15 (+3)
Pre: 13 (+2)
Mem: 16 (+3)
Res: 17 (+4)
Emp: 15 (+3)
Int: 17 (+4)
Strongest Skills: Quick Draw, Dual Weapon Fighting, First-Aid, Sword Mastery, Whip Mastery, Perception, Tracking, Rope Mastery, Undead and Religious Lores
Favourite Spells: Repel Undead, Healing, Exorcism, Bless
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), Leather Breastplate +1
4) Name: Nikolai Monescu (Male) - NPC
Race: Human Traladaran
Class: Magician
Level: 6
Hair/Eyes: White/Brown
Hgt/Wgt: 5'4" / 125lbs
Age: 68 (appears as 52)
Alignment: True Neutral
Personality: Witty, Calm
Str: 10 (+0)
Agi: 10 (+0)
Qui: 10 (+0)
Con: 9 (+0)
Dis: 17 (+4)
Pre: 14 (+2)
Mem: 19 (+6)
Res: 19 (+6)
Emp: 14 (+2)
Int: 16 (+3)
Strongest Skills: Various Lore, Alchemy, Science, Influential Skills, Attunement
Favourite Spells: Sleep, Charm, Detect Magic
Motivation: Freedom of his people from the Thyatian oppressors
Special Equipment: Spellbook