Play Report: The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford, Using The Forgotten Lands GLOG and an Open Table, Session 3
Introduction, And A Warning
MY PLAYERS DO NOT READ IT OR A HORRIBLE CURSE WILL BEFALL YOU(r characters).
Obviously, his contains spoilers for The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford.
Dramatis Personae
Lyra, The Mithraditist
A poisoner from the far-away land of Grease, seeking enlightenment and a way to become more than human. She is emotionally scarred from hearing (but not seeing) The Black Wyrm devour her friend, Rancoor.
Casandrina, The Bard
A fiddler who wants to find all the stories of the surrounding world and fights with an Eepe. Quick, but delicate.
Jalilah, The Giant Pretender
A collosus who craves glory and greatness, fighting with a giant claymore. She has armour of a tank, but is quite slow due to that.
Actual Play
Casandrina entered the town of Brandonsford just before dusk, coming from the South. She found lodging in the Golden Egg Tavern, where she met Lyra after waking up. Lyra was drinking beer for breakfast, trying to compose herself after the traumatic situation before. Casandrina struck up a conversation with her, and it was not long since Lyra was planning another escapade with her, this time to get the gold from the goblins. They went to the town Reeve, Eric, to tell him about the goblins and to ask for some money to resolve the problem.
After hearing about the goblins, Eric lamented his fate and asked "Why am I doing this to myself, trying to keep this village functioning". Casandrina asked him if maybe it's the time to give the role to somebody else then, but he reacted agressively; he was woodworking and so he raised his woodworking knife. She drew her Epee, before he dropped his knife and said that he didn't mean it that way. She hid her weapon, apologizing for the misunderstanding. They have explained the plan to get the goblins drunk and Afterwards, the Reeve has agreed to give them 2 GC to buy beer to poison. They went to the Clumsy Fox to get a barrel of beer, where they've met the rival adventurers.
They found that Malzazerick has several broken bones and is recuperating in the tavern. The rest of the adventurers hadn't suffered any long-term damage. The party talked with them about going out into the wilderness to get the goblins. Hilda agreed, as long as they split the loot per each person. Then, she wanted to check out Casadrina's fighting skills with a sparring. And so, they have walked in front of the tavern and prepared their blades; Hilda her shortsword and Casadrina her Epee.
Peasants have started betting on the two adventurers, with Hilda getting considerably more bets due to her armour. They were fighting but stopping their weapon before getting to actually hurt the other person; this placed Casadrina at an advantage. However, Hilda attacked ferociously and stopper her blade just an inch from Casadrina, terrifying her but also scoring her the first point. Same with the second. Only after Lyra distracted Hilda by playing a false note with the fiddle, has the bard managed to score. But by then it was too late; the wild cuts of the knight were simply too much for the bard to handle. That being said, Hilda has agreed to take her on. Then, another person has entered the village; an armour-clad woman, at over 3 m tall. Her armour was covered in both scrapes and runes, and yet was still completely solid. The villagers were terrified, and so was Hilda, but Jalilah has quickly introduced herself as a wandering knight and was accepted by Lyra and Casandrina into their party.
And so, the two parties went together, united by their love of gold and wanting to stop the goblins from invading.
The plan was that only Lyra and Casandrina would enter the old temple, carrying a barrel, saying that they bring a gift to the king to whom they want to swear fealty. In the meantime, the rest of the party would sneak up on the castle and storm it once the goblins are asleep.
They walked towards the Faun's Grove, only to meet a single goblin. They have prepared their weapons, only to find out that he was friendly; Hilda (who was trying to improvise now and not to blow their plan) said that they were a group of knights going to swear fealty to Hobgoon, the Goblin King. He has gladly agreed to lead the party there.
And so, they were introduced as "Travellers, who are carrying gifts and fealty for the Goblin King". They've knelt in front of the king and brought the barrel out, the bard playing music and the poisoner giving the beer to goblins. She then offered it to Hobgoon (who is, if I need to remind you, is a Fae creature). He wanted to drink it, but first ordered her to take some of it too, mostly as a way to mock her by "lowering himself to her level" but also to have her test it. She replied "of course, your abomination", believing that it is reversed in goblin habits. It is not, especially not in elven ones, and he is quite insecure about his boarish look, so she struck a nerve. He struck her in the face, spilling the poisoned beer.
The first goblin fell into sleep as Hobgoon sat, brooding. Casandrina tried to approach him with his chalice full of beer, but as he took it into his hand and wanted to drink it to calm himself, Hobgoon saw 5 goblins drop into sleep, then 5 more (leaving only 7 capable of combat, with one of them being incredibly drunk). He threw the chalice in Casandrina's face and called the party "Wicked Traitors!"
A crazed melee had started, with Hilda and Casandrina trying to take on the Lord as the rest focused on goblins. Lyra soon got stabbed in her hand, making her drop her dagger as well as forcing her to back down. She hid behind a barrel, only to get put into sleep by Hobgoon's spell (together with Hilda and Ned, with Hilda being almost immediately woken up by Squint), but not before releasing her cobra. Ned and Squint have already managed to kill a goblin, not even mentioning Jalilah cutting through two with one swoop strike. After she did that, however, the goblins continued to evade her strikes as they have learned that she is quite slow in her oversized armour.
Casandrina got stabbed into her hand, piercing it and making her lose control over it for a long time. Even Hilda's armour got pierced, but just slightly, nicking her with the stinking spear. But she continued to cut at Hobgoon, especially as the cobra bit right into his ankle, poisoning him as well as hurting him. He was bleeding blue blood, as Squint was waking up the various people. Ned (who only fell to the spell due to being weakened) immediately started to run, being overwhelmed by the fight. Lyra, however, has pushed her barrel right into the goblins, sending them to the ground. As they went up, the combined attacks onto Hobgoon made him call for retreat, making the goblins flee with him (4 left) leaving their unconscious companions behind.
The party has burned their wounds (as they didn't have enough bandages, using them on ned's leg and Casandrina's hand which were in the worst shape), mostly managing to avoid infection (through a mix of good rolls and quick action), and they dug out a pot full of gold. They've split it right there and there, in everyone's sight, and spent the night recovering in the old temple. The goblins have fled and spent their night recovering as well, their leader swearing revange upon everyone who has wronged him.
Later, the party returned undisturbed (outside of finding some weird tracks and not following them) to civilization. They were met by curious villagers as well as the village's priest, Father William. He talked with them about what happened and looked at their wounds, taking Ned under his winges (who was the only one who had an infected wound, and it was weak) and taking 10% of the party's gains for the church. Even so, they have escaped with enough money to live for over a year in comfort. The Town Reeve also gave the party a mule and a pair of gambesons in thanks for their help.
Post Scriptum
That was close to a TPK, but not quite. The game took about 2.5 hours due to scheduling issues. I think that the two adventuring parties will be much friendlier from now on.
"Damn, this system makes me feel mortal" said Lyra's player.
"That was really hard and dangerous, but at least now we're rich" said Casandrina's player.