In our last session, our party had continued their exploration of Castanamir’s abode in search for both the six books that Chakos had retained them to find and for a way out as well. In this session, Rachel, RJ, and Theo were in attendance and so Morgraen, Riordan, Lavinia, Rurik, and Aelwulf were played. As Theo had lost another of his characters in the prior session, he was also going to introduce Beorn this session…a dwarven cleric. We have also had an old player rejoin us…Thomas. Yes, the Dire Rattitude has returned to Tallahassee and wanted to get back into a game. To add to his list of quirky and memorable past characters, Thomas has now added Lilly. Lilly is a halfling cleric who can be briefly best summarized, at least from the first session, as a hippy stoner! Well, a hippy stoner who has visions that (conveniently) fit with what Lilly happens to be interested in doing. đŸ˜‰
We began this session as Morgraen passed through a portal to find herself confronted with the two human thugs that the party had encountered a number of times already…encounters that largely consisted of the thugs taking a shot at the party and then fleeing. Spoilers: There are, of course, spoilers for the old AD&D module, C3: The Lost Island of Castanamir, below the break.
My GM comments, as usual, are in [italics and brackets].
As Morgraen passed through the portal, the two humans who had been using hit and run tactics against the party came through the opposite portal. This time, perhaps still a bit miffed that Rurik had “killed” one of their pet rats, they didn’t run and attacked all out instead. No quarter was given nor asked for during the fight and Morgraen was badly injured before the two were dispatched by the party as the rest of the group had also come through the portal. There were two additional individuals who entered as well and both were quickly determined to not be hostile. Beorn and Lilly both introduced themselves to the party and joined in…Lilly claiming that she had been looking for them as a result of some “vision” that she had had.
As their continued explorations and conflicts had worn the party out, they retreated back to one of the “bedrooms” to rest for the evening. In the morning (not that they have any clue of the time at this point), they began their explorations again. Entering the kitchen, they found that all of the pots and pans had been set around the floor again as a warning system and, in addition, the large butcher block table had been set up as a barricade. The hobgoblins had set up a camp in the kitchen (as, it was later learned, the ogres had chased the hobgoblins from their prior “stronghold”) and attacked the party.
During the fight, Rurik was grabbed by the hobgoblins and dragged into the cold storage room. With a member of the party taken hostage (yet again), the hobgoblins yelled for a truce. As the fighting stopped, the hobgoblins offered to release their companion if the party would go to the Zim exhibit and bring them back the two short swords and the amulet. Morgraen pushed the issue and said that the two parties should form a truce or alliance. Evenutally, it was settled on a mutual pact of non-aggression.
With that, the party set out for the Zim exhibit with one of the hobgoblins, Private Leigh, accompanying them as part of the new spirit of alliance. It became clear pretty quickly that Private Leigh was not quite stable. During the subsequent adventures, he came to the conclusion…with the help of Lilly…that it was time for a revolution against the existing new hobgoblin empire and to establish a different new hobgoblin empire with, of course, Private Leigh at the head. By the time the party returned to the kitchen, Private Leigh had promoted himself to the level of “God-King.”
In the Zim exhibit, the party was able to acquire both of the swords as well as the amulet. They also acquired, at Lilly’s insistence, the small potted plant in one of the exhibits. She then identified it as a plant whose spores can turn people into zombies and it was quickly stashed in a sack. At no point did the party cross any of the orange lines (heeding the warning sign hanging from the ceiling) into the exhibits. The glowing lights did seem agitated by the party’s activities but they never crossed over the lines either.
It was also discovered that the exhibit with the broken glass case had a narrow hole in the ceiling above it. Combining their various skills and talents, the party was able to get Lilly up to the top of the hole some fifteen feet above the ceiling of the exhibit. It led to a large room with various features, the most pressing of which was a large wolverine charging. Lilly tried to talk with it and befriend it, being a disciple of the nature god Silvanus, but she failed at both. The wolverine jumped down the hole and into the Zim exhibit and began to attack the party. It was “killed” or, at least, it disappeared in a small puff after it was attacked a number of times.
With the “ransom” in hand, the party headed back to the kitchen to retrieve Rurik the hobgoblins. When they arrived, however, Private Leigh’s…sorry, God King Leigh’s…mental instability (and Lilly’s ongoing encouragement) led to his screaming out “Revolution!” and throwing his spear at the hobgoblin commander. The party quickly knocked out the self-proclaimed God King and shouted that they were still holding to the deal but the treachery had already inflamed the hobgoblin’s lust for war and a fight began. Despite some wounds to the party members, the hobgoblins were defeated. After freeing Rurik from his bonds and looting the hobgoblins for some equipment, the party headed back to the Zim exhibit to go up the hole and explore this new area of Castanamir’s home.
[That’s pretty much where we stopped the session. There was a good amount of interaction both in-character and out-of-character. No PCs died…yea! This session was a couple of weeks ago and we had the following week off due to too many players missing. We pick up with the campaign again tomorrow night.]
