Session 3 brought us through three more scenarios for our Devilry Afoot campaign. If you need to go back, Session 1 covered the first three hunts, Session 2 covered hunts hunts four and five. For this session, the party of Clijsters, Fr Hans, Gruber, Dr Midnite, and Betty were joined by the Scottish gentleman, Jacobus Stuart (a secret flagellant), and his follower Hamish.
When the pay chests disappeared, it didn’t really come as a surprise. To have had such wealth protected by such a small escort had practically damned them all from the start. What had come as a surprise was the savagery dealt to the half-company meant to guard the army’s wealth: hamstrung, and with their heads dashed in with rocks or cloven by poleaxes, the hapless bodies left drained of blood. Now, as the shock of the barbarity wears off, thoughts turn to the treasures rumoured to have been buried in the neighbouring moorland.
For this scenario the party set out without Fr Hans, Dr Midnite or Betty, taking to the moors to hunt three redcaps. Jacobus and Hamish cornered one by the edge of the moors which struck out at them, before dashing off the table. Gruber and Clijsters managed to slay another. All the while , the third redcap skulked beside a lone tree. Only after its comrades were dead or fled did it come out of hiding, becoming easy prey for the party who walked away with the loot.
Scenario 7) The Beast in the Fog
The great black dog had been seen in the past, but its appearances were getting more frequent, and increasingly violent. Eviscerated remains of travellers had come to light more than a few times in recent months and the baying of the hellish beast could be heard clear across the lonely moors. The hunting party recruited to track the beast had followed it far out into the wilds before the dense fog closed in, causing the hunters to lose their way, and making it impossible to determine the intentions of the eery shapes emerging into view.
Still without Dr Midnite and Betty, and now with Fr Hans rather than Goodman Gruber, the party stumbled further into the moors. Separated in the fog, and pursued by dark shapes, it soon became clear that a barghest was hunting Col. Clijsters. Not wanting to face the beast alone, he chose to flee, relying on his party members to converge on his position and face the beast together. He was attacked multiple times, but each time was saved by his combination of buff coat and cuirass. Holding true to the plan, Jacobus, Hamish and Hans came together and the beast was slain.
Scenario 8) The Cursed City
The city had defiantly closed its gates on the advancing enemy, bravely holding out longer than anyone could have imagined, but famine and pestilence stalked the streets long before the enemy assault. Now, in the wake of the sack, among the ruinous, burnt-out buildings, the pattering sound of feet in ash is all that can be heard where once there were the cries of street vendors and the laughter of children. For those that still eke out a meagre existence among the chaos, the traumas of the siege have left an indelible mark.
The vampyre, however, was very active. He was charged first by Gruber whom he charmed, before sending him running. The monster then killed an innocent, before swinging back to face Col. Clijsters. Distracted by the soldier, the vampyre failed to see Fr Hans approaching from the rear. Stowing his holy item and readying a wooden stake, the religious rushed at the vampyre. Having foretold this moment when reading the stars earlier in the evening, Hans defied the odds and plunged his stake straight through the creature's withered heart. It was then a simple enough job hunting the ghouls, both of whom were ultimately killed by the Scottish gentleman.
So three more scenarios in, and the hunting party are feeling confident. Their various experience upgrades are telling with a couple of specialists emerging: Fr Hans using scripture to keep monsters at bay while Clijsters and Gruber provide muscle. It was a relatively smooth session with the dice in our favour all night long. Having a redcap and ghoul each skulk in the shadows rather than joining the fray early in two of the scenarios proved a real boon, while Fr Han's great fortune made killing the vampyre look easy. Even the barghest, who has torn our hunters asunder more times than not, failed to make much of an impact.
Still, there are more testing times ahead...
An enjoyable read, thanks for sharing more of the playtesting. One question in my mind from this instalment is...why would you choose to not deploy your entire Hunter party? Is it because you get more rewards for successfully completing a hunt with fewer Hunters, or perhaps some were determined injured before th hunt, and you didn't want to risk further injury and perhaps death/loss of a Hunter or Hunters, or perhaps is it that there is a hard (or randomly rolled) limit on Hunter participants for each scenario?
ReplyDeleteThere are a variety of reasons you may not deploy all your characters at once. In our case it was to balance the games. We had an additional player (running Jacobus and Hamish), so to allow those hunters to join the scenarios which were meant for fewer characters, we opted to leave some behind. We could have just included more monsters, or imposed other scenario conditions, but it was easier not to worry too much about it.
ReplyDeleteOf course each character taking part did end up with more loot than those not present.