NDT Session 26: All buy by elves.

 The wilderness north of Kelvin

The party quickly defeated the remaining hobgoblins and released the horses and prisoners. The prisoners were mostly people who had been captured at various homesteads plus a few goblins (who ran off as quick as possible). Included amongst them was a young woman who had been captured along with Babushka (who had been left at the wolf skull lair). The ex-prisoners decided to return to Sukiskyn to start rebuilding their lives, Loshad allowed them to ride the freed horses.

The next day the party encountered a merchant caravan, the lead merchant Akihitos fleeced them by selling the some information which was largely useless but included the titbit that a red-robed mage and a dark-haired woman were looking for them.

That night they stayed at a very expensive inn run by some gnomes who operated a ferry across another river. A small group of shady characters left with undue haste when the characters entered the inn. 

The next day they finally reached Rifflian, crossing yet another river, The Windrush. The elves were keen customers for the white horses and the party could finally complete the quest given to them many weeks earlier. But they now had other fish to fry - journeying to the north.

At the local inn, the proprietor, a half lung called Stubbs Platterman, seemed to be friendly with Stephan and mentioned a dark-haired woman had been asking after the party members.

The next day Tara’s left the party to take Pyotr’s share of the profits back to Sukiskyn. Stephan and the party then caught a ferry heading upriver to the frontier town of Threshold. The 2-day journey was largely uneventful but overnight Aengus heard some loud honking which disturbed some of the party and the next day a flying carpet was spotted bearing a red-robed figure northwards.

Late in the afternoon, the party arrived at Threshold - the end of the line for boat travel upriver. A guard seargent (Athos) met the boat and made them aware of certain local bylaws. 

So will the party spend much time in town? Get sidetracked by some side-quests? Or head to the mountains post-haste? 

DM notes: As the party have completed their original task I thought they could level up. They’ll also have the opportunity to do some shopping.

The original module mentioned that Babushka was captured along with a young woman but no indication is given of her fate so I thought I’d tie up that loose end for my sake.

I also ignored the attack on the boat because… well… it’s just too like in all the old fantasy novels where in the first book the hero is told he has to travel in a caravan for safety and it then gets wiped out by bandits and he then spends the next 2 and a half books travelling by himself and never meets any more bandits.

As for next time I have some ideas… we’ll see what catches their fancy.

NDT session 25: Old friends

 Xitaqa to Sukiskyn and beyond

I’ve got 20-odd flip mats so I’ve drawn blobs on a whiteboard

The group finished up in Xitaqa, with Xianti realising the the yellow robed mage was one of the slavers who had brought her to this region.

After a joyous reception at Sukiskyn, another feast was prepaared as Stephan touched one of the tapestries in the hall with the magic needle revealing a map that seemed to lead to… treasure? Somewhere in the mountains. Stephan was keen to join the group on their expedition.

It was decided that the group would finally take the white horses to Riflian to sell them to the elves. Droop decided to return to her tribe and bade the group farewell.

Surprisingly, the group were eager to leave early in the morning despite the late night. All apart from Aengus who was slightly worse for wear.

At the late Misha’s ferry they took several trips to ferry the 24 white horses and the ailing Aengus across. Misha’s bear appeared but shuffled off after peering at them for a bit.

Soon after the river was crossed, Loshad the horse Lord, appeared again asking for help to defeat a group of bandits who were holding horses and people captive a short distance away. They seemed to be captives from the homesteads that were being moved somewhere. The party quietly infiltrated the bandits camp using a distraction from Loshad to help them overwhelm the leaders - 2 humans and a bugbear. However, a group of bleary eyed hobgoblins had emerged from tents to join the fray.

To be continued…

NDT session 24: Golthar? More like Fallfar!

 The tower of Xitaqa

The fight continued. Rosie the bear smashed another painting, spotting a yellow-robed sorcerer hiding in the walls. As the statues were defeated the sorcerer tried to flee upstairs pursued by bear.

The group followed along so the sorcerer cast fly and attempted to flee the tower by blowing out a hole in the wall.

Unfortunately, for him, before he could make his escape Namfoodle’s magic missiles disrupted the man’s concentration and he landed on a ledge before feather falling to the ground.

Rosie recklessly dove off the tower, landing on the mage. The others attempted to engage from the ledge but were attacked by giant bats. Rurik attempted to climb down in ape form but damage from a bat caused him to return to dwarf form hanging precariously to the masonry. 

Namfoodle ran downstairs, the fasted gnome in the country. Aengus shot down a couple bats as Ham kept missing. Rosie swiftly killed the mage before the bats forced her back into human form. She eventually killed them as well. 

Regrouping at the top of the tower they could inspect the mage’s room. Stephan said he was called Golthar and was seeking a tapestry, possibly one of the ones at Sukiskyn. Golther’s room revealed him to be a man of poor taste but he did have several treasures including a needle and thread and an ancient scroll referring to a tapestry being a map to a hidden location.

DM notes: yeah… poor Golthar, I tried to save him without cheating but failed. Now to see what the party want to do next…

NDT session 23: The tower of Xitaqa - not to be confused with a mountain

 The party emerged from the library into the room at the base of the tower and were immediately engaged by 4 men. (These would later be identified by Namfoodle as the horsemen from a few sessions back).

Rosie’s spider form didn’t last long so she turned into a bear. As the men were being dispatched, an angry Minotaur emerged from upstairs and set about attacking the Rosie-bear and was soon grappled by her and everyone piled on. It finally destroyed her bear form so she slapped him a final indignity that cause it to die. Possibly of shame.

The group decided to proceed upstairs. A dormitory was discovered, presumably where the men slept. After a brief interlude as the party attempted to open a locker (solved by Xianti going downstairs to find a key on one of the men) they continued upstairs.

The next floor was apparently a large empty room but was soon discovered to have an invisibility effect. Ham walked into an invisible wall so the party conga-lined it around the room to get to the next stairs, which were luckily not invisible.

At this point they had been around what appeared to be a room in the centre of the tower so they decided to backtrack and discovered an unconscious body. Removing it from the room revealed it to be Stephan, at last. After being healed, he urged them to continue upstairs to defeat the wizard who was the ringleader.

After a brief debate, they decided to continue upstairs whilst send Stephan back downstairs to Droop.

Upstairs was revealed to be some king of gallery with a couple of pink jade statues of jackal headed men and a number of paintings. Unlike other statues in the tower these ones did animate as the party passed by and attacked. Meanwhile from behind one of the paintings a spell was fired at Rosie (who was a bear again).

The angry Roaie charged at the painting shredding it with her claws but the person behind it had moved. An electrical charge sizzled from the canvas but caused no damage. Ham noticed that the other painting were also sparking slightly.

The battle continues…

2025: Plans and what-not

Gronda Gronda, 2025! Sorry about the mess….

What’s going to happen next? Who knows but here’s the plan…

In the wonderful world of titterpigs, my Night’s Dark Terror game should reach a conclusion at some point. After that, something else… possibly pathfinder or 4e but I’ll probably be a player.

If my Monday group continue playing Space 1887 until April, we’ll have been playing the campaign for 10 years. However, we are likely to switch to Starfinder before then. Dr Who is likely to restart again (the GM has been recovering from an op since the summer).

If we can fit it in on Mondays then I’m going to try to run some more modern day horror stuff. Because that’s what the world needs at the moment, more horror. Anyway inspirations will include some, all or none of: Call/trail of Cthulhu, the esoterrorists, delta green, the avengers (the good 1960s avengers), pleasant green, sanction/the Cthulhu hack and folk horror such as https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/patchworkfez/this-blighted-isle-darkened-hill-and-dale. Other suggestions welcome.

My most anticipated upcoming ttrpg product is the Pleasant Green sourcebook for Trail of Cthulhu although I’m not holding my breath for it. 

I’m going to try to learn some crunchy games this year: pathfinder 2e and Warhammer 40k Imperium Maledictum with a view to possibly running them if I ever get time and a group willing to play them.

Other things to look forward to. Well my sister gave us a year subscription to National Theatre Live so I might actually get round to binning Netflix once Stranger Things is done.

I’ve got one of those birthdays with a zero at the end coming up. Lucky me… I’ve tried cancelling it but apparently it doesn’t work like that.

Depending upon my mental state, I may resume my OU maths degree in the autumn.

My New Year’s resolution is to read all the novels I’ve already got before buying any more. Yes… hilarious, I know. Caveat: I preordered at least one a while ago so that doesn’t count.

As for this blog, well after Night’s Dark Terror ends then I’ll probably not be posting so much (don’t cheer so loudly). I’ll try to post some more reviews - maybe some player-based reviews of things I’ve played.

Right then, that’s it for now: happy new year to everyone who isn’t a billionaire.