Campaign Logs/Hellfrost/Savage Worlds

Hellfrost Side Trek #1a: Hrafn Point

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[Our Side Trek to give Cliff and Kathryn some experience with the SW system continues. This entry is from Robert. As always, my GM comments in italics and brackets.]

After dispatching the orcs on the platform, a horn sounded, echoing from deeper in the cavern. Our presence was known. A narrow suspension bridge led into the darkness. Orcbane took the lead, carrying the torch, and we all carefully followed him across the unsteady looking bridge, Stori keeping an eye out in the back. The bridge led to a hole in the cliff face, which opened into a small room with some orc beds, and a hole in the floor with three ropes tied to spikes leading down. We dropped a torch to see how far down it went, and saw that it was 60 or 70 feet, the narrow hole opening up about 40 feet down or so. We all got down fine, but Stori thought he heard voices from behind us before he went down the rope.

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Campaign Logs/Hellfrost/Savage Worlds

Hellfrost Side Trek #1: Hrafn Point

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[After the TPK from our prior session, I need a break from the main campaign to regroup and rethink the potential plotlines floating around in my head. Although only one of the “main” player characters was killed, the session’s end result has had a pretty significant impact on the direction the campaign had headed.

Plus, two new players are joining the campaign, Cliff and Kathryn, and both have never played Savage Worlds before. We all played a bunch of one-shots and trial games when we started up and it only seems fair that they have the opportunity to get a taste of the system too. So it all came together that it was time for a Hellfrost Side Trek! I made up some pre-gen characters (which can be found here) and quickly started throwing together an adventure (becoming a mini-campaign) around Hrafn Point…a settlement of the Járn Vale that lies rather close to the borders of the Withered Lands.

A Divine Slayer, Ivarr the Ghostmane (played by Rachel), and his cousin, Gansi (played by Robert), were tasked with hiring mercenaries and traveling to Hrafn Point to assist the Temple of Scaetha there deal with any undead incursions from the Withered Lands that may occur during the winter. Stori (played by Cliff), Ulfr (played by Kathryn), and Hefinnr (played by Todd) are three mercenaries hired by Ivarr. RJ missed this session but will be joining us in the upcoming sessions so I’ll be making up another charcter for him…probably a Eulogist.

Oh, one note about the PCs for this Side Trek…I randomly determined how many XP they had. It was something like 15 plus 2d6. I did this because SW seems so much more conducive to having characters of “different” levels than certain other games and it’ll be interesting to see this in play.

These events occur a couple of weeks before the start of the regular campaign. They may (or may not) have an element of foreshadowing for some larger events that may (or may not) develop in the regular campaign.

This entry is from Todd. As always, my GM comments in italics and brackets.]

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Campaign Logs/Hellfrost/Savage Worlds

Hellfrost Session #11

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Warning: Potential spoilers below for the adventure, D0: Hollow’s Last Hope, from Paizo. Although it is not being used “as written,” spoilers may certainly be in the writeup below.

[This entry is from Rachel. All of the players, except for Todd, continued to play different characters than their normal ones (Rachel as Hervara, RJ as Ljot, and Robert as Olvir). As always, my GM comments in italics and brackets…however, I don’t really have a lot to add. At least not until the end.]

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Campaign Logs/Hellfrost/Savage Worlds

Hellfrost Session #10

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Warning: Potential spoilers below for the adventure, D0: Hollow’s Last Hope, from Paizo. Although it is not being used “as written,” spoilers may certainly be in the writeup below.

[This entry is from RJ. All of the players, except for Todd, played different characters than their normal ones. As Todd noted in the last session writeup, the Ironbloom Mushrooms that everyone had hoped would be at the old Temple of Ertha were not found there. Sebbi, along with the Brighthammer brothers and Hervara set off for another Dwarven ruin in the Jagged Peaks. Rachel was playing Hervara while Robert and RJ played Olvir and Ljot Brighthammer respectively).

RJ wrote this as though Ljot and Olvir were having a discussion in the future as to how they were going to lie to some council or another about their journey to these dwarven ruins…although we only hear Ljot’s side of the conversation.

As always, my GM comments in italics and brackets.]

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Campaign Logs/Hellfrost/Savage Worlds

Hellfrost Session #8

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Warning: Potential spoilers below for the adventure, Jacob’s Well, from Dungeon Magazine #43 as well as D0: Hollow’s Last Hope from Paizo. Although neither are being used “as written,” spoilers for both may certainly be in the writeup below.

[This entry is from Rachel. As always, my GM comments in italics and brackets. It has been well over a week since this session and in that time, I hit up a few breweries and a great brewfest, Hickory Hops, in North Carolina so my memory of things may be a bit fuzzy and thus my comments more sparse than normal.]

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Hellfrost/Savage Worlds

Hexy Hellfrost

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Warning: This post is about my map of the Járn Vale but there are potential spoilers on the map for the adventure, Lair of the Vermin Lord, from Triple Ace Games.

I’ve been working on a map of the Járn Vale for my Hellfrost campaign. Since I plan on the campaign largely being located within the Vale, I it is probably a good idea that I get started on one. It’ll certainly help me plan things out and the direction and distance of, say, Eikstad from Dalsetter more consistent. I’m not the most artistic in the drawing department and so I’m all about the hexes. I recently grabbed a license for Hexographer (although the labels were added via Fireworks), read this great article on mapping with hexes: In Praise of the 6 Mile Hex, and did a little work. The map below the cut is the latest–pretty incomplete–draft but it is a start. Most of the locations on the map are places that the PCs have either visited or have been informed about. A number of them are from the last session…that writeup will be posted here eventually.

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Campaign Logs/Hellfrost/Savage Worlds

Hellfrost Session #7

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Warning: Potential spoilers below for the adventure, Jacob’s Well, from Dungeon Magazine #43. I’m not actually using it but it was certainly inspirational and provides a framework for the current situation.

[This entry is from Robert. As always, my GM comments in italics and brackets.]

The Velvetama had just killed Taran, and Erfiði the goat was running around as goats are wont to do. We were prepared to do battle, when a fire bolt shot out of the falling snow, nearly hitting Tor. The velvetama then leap 25 feet, landing on the roof of the stables and out of sight.

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Hellfrost/Savage Worlds

A Lord and House Rules

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A new player has joined the campaign. Well, not actually new. Todd had to quit playing for awhile but he’s back and, especially since he and I have known each other for almost twenty years, I’m quite happy about it. He’s going to be playing Sebbi ap-Howell, an Anari Heahwisard. Sebbi is also the newly appointed Lord of Clachmore, a manor in the Freelands that (surprise, surprise) has Dalsetter as part of its holdings. Todd took the Noble Edge (required since he wanted to be a Heahwisard). We worked it out that his family (from the Principality of Darovia in the Magocracy) has long held this manor. Being a younger son and the manor being sort of out of the way (at least to the Magocracy), it seemed like a perfect match when his uncle, Berwyn, the current Lord of Clachmore passed away suddenly. So Sebbi’s father sent him off to the manor to oversee it and maintain the family’s interests in the area.

It also ties in nicely with my desire to run a more community-based campaign.

Sebbi also has a “new” Hindrance: Dangerous Secret. Basically, the Dark Secret Hindrance from Ravaged Earth was the inspiration. I knocked it down to a Minor Hindrance. If the secret becomes public knowledge or known to certain NPCs, the Hindrance is changed to Enemy (Major) instead of the Wanted (Major) and -4 Charisma of Dark Secret.

We are using a few House Rules in the Hellfrost campaign (most of these come from the PEG forums):

  • Anyone can spend a Benny to re-roll damage.
  • On a critical failure, the GM can offer the player a Benny to NOT spend a Benny and re-roll and accept the consequences of the critical failure.
  • If Shaken and dealt a Joker for initiative, the character is automatically Unshaken.
  • We are not using Guts. If needed, it’ll just be a Spirit check.
  • If you miss the session, no XP for you.
  • And, of course, all the Hellfrost Freebies from Wiggy and TAG!

Our last session log coming soon…

Oh, Cuðbert, Lia, and Wulfwynn all got Advances after our last session and their character sheets have been updated.

Hellfrost/Savage Worlds

The Járn Vale

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[Below is some information on the Járn Vale. This area is the central location for my Hellfrost campaign. As Wiggy is fond of saying in response to Hellfrost questions, it is your campaign so do what you want…in other words, there are going to be departures from the published material and from anyone else’s campaign (e.g., I think most folks have Dalsetter and Dunross to the north and possibly east of Aslov…mine are to the west). This is definitely a work in progress and I’ll update elements as they get developed a bit. Most of the info here isn’t necessarily things that the PCs are aware of…I’m relying on the players in the campaign to distinguish between player knowledge and character knowledge. ;)]

Warning: Potential spoilers below for the adventure, Lair of the Vermin Lord, from Triple Ace Games…we’ve wrapped it up but there are references to it in the descriptions below.

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