Scribe's Work - Arthurian West Marches Campaign - Part 31

(picture from Kristina Boyko)

PREVIOUSLY
Last time they went out, they explored the far southwest of the Woodlands. They found a group of rangers that gave them useful information. Notably they know now of a second passage west into the Wastelands that doesn't include a Type III demon protecting a bridge. This is critical because one of the players (level 4 ranger) has been geased into exploring the Wasteland and provide a map to a wizard.

PARTICIPANTS

• Ernold the ranger (Dan), level 4 ranger
• Durance (Oli), level 4 goliath (my version of dwarf, some kind of half-giant)
• Ludwig le Fol (Vince), level 3 Fae Knight (my version of elf)
• Follower magic-user level 1 (he has sleep so he's actually very useful to them, although he has poor loyalty and most of the time he run away to return back later)
• Norbert the Fighter (Math), level 2 Fighting-Man

Hireling (they decided to up it up a bit, especially with full horse crew):

• 5 light horsemen
• 4 heavy horsemen
• 8 horsemen medium
• 6 mounted archers
• 5 peasants with mule and cart

(their map)

PLAY REPORT - First incursion in the Wastelands

Plan was simple: get to the wasteland through the path that the Rangers had shown, gather information for cartography purposes and bring it back for the Wizard that geased the ranger (that's now suffering from crippling immune system failure, half Constitution and -1d6 max HP).

They journeyed along the road to 010.014 where they were told approximately that west from there was some kind of crossing for the rangers. They realized that the whole area was a huge landslide: poor day to bring horses and carts.

As they were traveling down (taking a lot of time), they heard and saw the trees moving west from them: something big was coming. They formed a defensive formation and saw a very tall humanoid of 12 feet (hill giant) with a big smile. Fortunately for them, the brutish giant, named Gluag, was actually friendly and told them that he lived nearby. He helped them move their stuff down the slope/landslide and bade them farewell.

Continuing west, they found a small path in the wood and followed it back to a tower. The tower was garrisoned by a group of gnolls that weren't in the mood to share their tower for the night. The players decided to storm the place by dismounting. They destroyed the front door only to find barricades inside it. A group of brave men decided to climb from the back to a higher level and created a divide in the gnoll group by figthing in the stairs. Meanwhile, the Fae Knight and his magic-user comrade threw spells at the Gnoll (notably sleep) and allowed the Goliath and the heavy dismounted knight to charge in. Some of the players were midly injured, and unfortunately some hirelings were killed in the action, but the tower was conquered. They found some gems inside the towers and equipment leftovers by the Gnoll and rested for the night.

The next day, they kept moving west until they found the river and the passage to the wasteland: an ancient aqeduct of a previous civilization that's traversing the river and could be use as a bridge for humans. They let a group behind with the horses and the cart and went to the other side. Down on the other side, they were able to climb down through a house (a previous maintenance building for the aqueduct) that had some stairs leading down from the highest level of the aqueduct.

They then followed a trail from there south-west and found an open-air temple on a small man-made hill that was very ancient. On it was no symbol or distinction for any of the gods: only a huge throne of marble-like stone in the form of a lion. The Goliath was brave enough to sit on it, and instantly felt protected (a globe of invulnerability and protection from evil was on him). He then tried to speak to the throne, which, to their surprise, answered them. He told them he was a servant of the gods and ask him what brave and lawful act he had done recently. Fortunately for the Goliath, as brash and violent as he was, he was of good heart and did many things for the gods recently. The Lion told him he could help him: he gave them some information (although cryptic) on multiple subject (including the Grail), and then transformed into a golem lion. He took some of them on his back and basically gave them a ride to the hexes they needed to explore and cartography*.
* I know this sounds like a Deus Ex Machina to help them, but realize that this hex was put them randomly, and that the geas itself was also randomly determined. It's just a case of "stars alignement".

With the information in hand after a couple of hours of traveling without any problem on the lion's back (nothing dared attack it), they came back to the Temple, traveling back east to the Tower, and then went directly to give the map to the Wizard at 010.016. In exchange for the service, he broke the geas and gave them a "scimitar of an ancient blue silver metal" (+1 sword). And so they happily went back to the Haven.

AFTERMATH
They didn't get a lot of loot per se, only about 500 XP total each for the gems, the gnolls, the exploration bonus and so on. At least they got a decent +1 sword.

What is interesting is that now they like the position of the tower, and they are eyeing it to make an advanced fortification out of it. Not a keep/domain yet, but they will try to deal with the local Baron to get him to help out construction of a road up to the tower and then a defended bridge where the aqueduct stand (using the material from it I guess ?). Note that in my setting, I use the default OD&D assumption that you become a "basic" lord at level 9. Therefore the local baron is level 10 Fighting-Man: this is why he hasn't dealt with the player directly until now, they are "just" level 4. Although, as "heroes", they have a name for themselves.

TLDR
In a sentence, what happened: Found a giant friend, traveled west to the wasteland, accomplished a geas of exploration and got a magic sword out of it.
What impact all of this will have: I think it's a huge game: they will now be able to go west into the wastelands and will want to start building roads and fortification along that line.
What I take from this: I will have to finish putting my hexes around the wasteland. For now I only had the first fews hexes along the line of the woodlands done. Outside from that, I'll have to go check for prices of roads and all. I think I will use ACKS for this because it's more precise. I'm still on the fence of the domain system I want to use: An Echo Resounding from Kevin Crawford being my first choice for now.