Scribe's Work - OD&D Play Report Arthurian West Marches Campaign (Referee) - Part 32

PREVIOUSLY
Last time they went out, they tackled a Gnoll Tower (that now interest them) and they entered the Wastelands to the west for the first time in order to do some reccon that enable the Ranger to remove the geas he had on him.



PARTICIPANTS
  • Ernold the ranger (Dan), level 4 ranger
  • 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
  • 2 medium horsemen
  • 6 mounted archers

(their map)

PLAY REPORT - Friends and Basilisks

Their plan was simple: they new that a castle to the south (you can see it on the map in the middle of a desert tile) had been cursed and all the territory around it rendered dry; but they, unwittingly, had removed the curse. Therefore, they wantd to go there to meet with the lord and see if he could become a potential ally or something else.

On the road there, they met up with a group of orcs that tried to bully them, being in equal numbers. However, cavalry charge in Chainmail are brutal, and so the player took none of it and charged them down quickly.

They moved to the castle, met with the local peasants and finally were granted entry to the castle. They were received politely until they explained that they (the group at large) were responsible for the breaking of the curse. At that, the lord was delighted and offered them a banquet in their honor and a piece from his personal arsenal, a meteorite dagger of old (+1).

There was a joust between the lord and the group knight, which was tight but won by the most experienced lord (level 8 F-M). Then a banquet and much discussion. It appeared that the lord came from a very old family that had been, so the legend says, the first custodian of the Holy Grail. He gave them some information but it was so far past that not all of it was useful.

They learned that he had a basilisk on his land and didn't want to sacrifice himself or his man to take care of it, so he was willing to trade any loot the player could find in exchange for its demise. And so the player decided on a plan the next day: create a trap with a local animal (a goat) as a bait.

So they went there and installed their trap (bear trap, oil on the ground and archers in hiding). The basilisk after some time heard the goat and went out of the temple he was guarding to eat the goat. He stepped on the bear trap to no effect, but the fire arrow create a fine distraction (and some damage) to allow them a full volley of arrows afterward that crippled him. Yet he was still alive and so he started to charge them and looked at them intently: to which 11 hirelings, 1 follower and 1 PC were petrified. On the next turn he was put down by the remaining 2 PCs. That was a close one.

And this was for a good cause: they found many offering in the ancient temple that was an amazing loot of type F (bunch of platinum pieces, gold pieces, magical items, scrolls, etc. it was a bit crazy). They went and took a cart from the lord to transport back the petrified corpse of their PC friend and follower and went back to the haven. They used a big portion of the money to depetrify their PC friend and kept the head as a trophy.

AFTERMATH
HUGE XP bonus and a lot of magical item (sword, staff of snake, dagger, scrolls, ring of fire resistance). I rolled at random so they were REALLY lucky.

Since a lot of hirelings died on that run, they will require more money from them starting from now since they are a liability to their safety.

TLDR
In a sentence, what happened: Found a lord they had heard about and (unwittingly) helped. They killed a basilisk that was on his land and gain massive loot.
What impact all of this will have: Huge power spike that will help them go deeper and further.
What I take from this: Random loot can be really helpful to players. Basilisks are always a dice roll away of killing everyone.

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