OSR: The Calaveras Campaign 9, 10

This is an ongoing Knave Macchiato Monsters campaign, a smallish sandbox of sorts with new players to the hobby. Read what happened before here.

The cast of characters:

Zemalayou (iagson) - carrying a crossbow and knows some spells. Ranger-like. Face heavily scarred and mutated. Speaks through some tattoos. Solbion (iagson) - dwarven smith apprentice of the city of Falkcrest. On a sabbatical year, seeking to see and experience the world. Nerisse (Mo) - redhead bow-woman, who wakes up in the first visited dungeon without any memory of how she ended up there. Has some newly discovered Fae-powers. Angan Enge (Copernico) - beastman of the Biber Hills, assigned by Rhys to accompany the adventurers. Hirelings/Animals - Sprig, the freelancer astrologer-wizard

Session 9

A lesson is learnt from the night skirmish with the fungal goblinoids (and Ber the goat's demise). The group barricades the windows and lower doors of the sergeant's building to have a safer rest for the night.

 

With a fresh morning start, they go to the nearby Quartermaster's building, two-story as well. There are also evident signs of struggle in the building. Broken windows on the lower floor. Blood stains on the main door. Individuals with bows and crossbows and red leather vests get out of the upper windows, pointing their weapons to the adventurers! Bandits? Brigands? Guards? Agents?

 

Through parley, the reaction of both groups is wary, but not hostile. Ultimately these individuals understand there could be a mutual benefit in avoiding conflict. And potentially working together? Nerisse asks for answers to her Fae past nature and origin. If someone inside that building can provide any insights about the Fae. Well, it turns out these red vests are traveling with an individual named Sprig, that could help her for a price...

 

Sprig, art from OSEs Rogue Gallery I

There is some back and forth with the negotiations. Tension drops very slowly. And an accord can be struck. Sprig, turns out, is an astronomer-wizard versed in the Sylvan language. Claims to know Nerisse's origin to be intertwined with Ynn, and a passage to that place could be uncovered in the very near future... Sprig is interested in the characters. And apparently only associated with the red vests for this job. But why are the red vests here? What do they want? Turns out that the juicy delobia, currently at the watchtower with the manticore.

 

Now to plotting and scheming. The group puts Ber's corpse on the courtyard, and cover it in oil. In the hopes it drives out the manticore as bait. Then the group of seven (our party and the red vests) takes cover in the different buildings, missile weapons ready. And the thing takes the bait.

Angan has spent the last hour preparing his Roots spell to bind the flying manticore to the ground, but with the side effect of binding and immobilizing himself in the process (this takes the HP cost down to something manageable).

 

And it works! The flying beast is immobilized for some seconds when it approaches the goat. They pepper it with projectiles, ignite the oil, and make a general mess. One of the red vests perishes in the assault, being caught by one of the tail's spikes. We see the heavily wounded beast flap its wings away from the tower into the horizon, leaving the area.

 

Delobia gets handed to the remaining red vests, and Angan finds an obsidian spear in the tower. Objective done! Sprig, seeing the utility of the party, offers to tack on and show them the entrance to the Hole in the Oak, just south in the forest...

Session 10

Sprig leads to the site in the Glenry Wood, south of the Biber Hills. Or where he recalls have read it being in the dusty tome at the academy...? Answers to Nerisse's background await, as well as a wizard's lair to potentially pilfer for reagents and items. Bozurah the Imperishable!

 

Crossing the forest, Angan takes the lead to make sure the group keeps on track with Sprig's vague indications and general instructions. Thick webbing becomes evident as the group advances, hanging from the trees like rotten fruit. Obscuring, and covering the way like strong, fixed curtains. With the choice of push forward (for a faster arrival) or taking a detour to avoid the thick webbing, the group decides the former. And...

 

Four crab spiders jump the group. The adventurers are carrying torches and have an attentive Angan in the front, so there is no surprise. A deadly skirmish ensues, spells are chanted, bolts are shots, and Zemalayu is bitten by one of the spiders, dropping dead on the spot (SECOND PC DEATH). Angan is bitten too, and will have to worry about the poison later, but can carry on. The survivors manage to kill and scare the spiders away, but have to run away themselves, the murmur of something bigger coming to the site. Zemalayu's body, alas, stays there as a free meal for whatever is coming next.

After a jog through the forest, adrenaline levels dropping with the recent horror behind them, the group resumes their journey. Arrival to the Hole in the Oak glade occurs before nightfall. Time seems to slow down, a silence is cast among the unnaturally thick roots scattered around the bare oak. Near the tree, a dwarf examines an interesting graffiti "The most delectable night-tomatoes grow down there". After proper introductions, Solbion joins the group. 

With clever use of ropes and equipment, they are able to descend down the hole between the roots. In there, the natural tunnel and a bit of exploration reveals a left-handed leather glove, a message among the moss covered wall "NOLLY'S KINGDOM", green glowing roots covering the path to their right. So they decide to take the left. Which reveals a corridor, a ghost, phantom, or illusion giving a cryptic and broken message...

Wizard, from the Hole in the Oak module

"That was, friends, Bozurah the Imperishable!", suggests an excited Sprig.

Referee Commentary

I was very proud on how the group handled the conflict with the manticore. They allied with the red vests and Sprig to get to the common goal, and used a good assortment of preparation, spells, positioning and fire to deal with the scary foe. Handling that recklessly could have ended much much worse for them. They then went on next session to do the complete opposite with the giant spiders... I also decided to make the spider's poison a little bit less immediate, but something they will have to solve in the next 24h.

 

Macchiato Monsters narrative goals are very not OSR. Or rather, they are taking a bit of muscle effort to define between me and the players. Some seem to obvious or trivial, and we have in general a hard time agreeing on them (or harder than I'd like, anyways). 

We are getting better and faster at resolving the flexible and free-form spellcasting, as predicted. And I really like the freedom and creative problem solving it provides.

Memorial

• Daniele - woman-at-arms, sword & board.
  Mauled to a pulp by an animated serpentine statue in session 4.
• Pancho - guy with a lance, and a tendency to grab shiny stuff in front of him.
  Dropped from great height by a giant eagle in session 5.
• Ber - a goat granted by Rhys the beastwoman shaman.
  Eaten and scratched to death by fungal goblins in session 7. Instrumental even after death.
• Zemalayu - carrying a crossbow and knows some spells. Ranger-like. Face heavily scarred and mutated. Speaks through some tattoos.
  Bitten dead by giant spiders from the Glenry Wood and their poison in session 10.