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Majestic OD&D Campaign

Father Walker

Potato Ranger
Joined
Apr 13, 2011
Messages
1,282
Sessions 4 & 5 (Part 1)
Mysterious Strangers and Ruined Towers

We rejoin Penderton as he regains consciousness. To his surprise, he is in someone's dwelling, tended by the mysterious stranger and his servants. The man presents himself as Atrus. It turns out that he is living not far to the north-west from Krell. He expains that his servants have found Penderton, who has been robbed of his possessions and beaten sensless.

As the conversation continues, it turns out that the man is a religious figure of sorts. He titles himself as the Prophet of the Black Sun. Although his words are cryptic, Penderton realizes that he and this Atrus seem to have something in common. The prophet explains, that the Black Sun has revealed him the truth about the impending doom which is going to annihilate the humanity. Previous catastrophes were only a warning for man and true darkness is yet to descend. Followers of the Black Sun will be spared though, as they are the ones who have the insight into the sins of humanity.

Prophet inquires Penderton about strange things he was murmuring during the period when he lay senseless. It seems that the smith whispered about the artifact he intends to find. Atrus states that he might know the artifact and its nature. He warns Penderton that he should be careful, that he pursues something that might put him in grave danger. Prophet urges out hero to bring the pyramid to him, if it turns out to be made of green-veined obsidian.

Confident in the good will of Atrus, Penderton reveals that he and his friend Ivar had an encounter with a demon. He asks the prophet for help, though the man declares that he can't help unless he studies the runes which may be used to conjure the creature. Penderton agrees to bring Ivar to Atrus in order to learn something more.

Soon after, Penderton rejoins his comrades in Krell. The group analyzes the scroll delivered to Ivar by information broker Kane, though they fail to find anything unusual about it. After a while they decide to search the wild areas north of Krell a bit more throroughly. Disturbed by the Penderton's robbing, the party hires two sailors as bodyguards. They conclude that larger party should scare possible assailants or at least give the group a fighting chance.

Thus, the party follows the road to the north. Soon after they meet a group of armed guards from the temple of Hermes. Priests send fighting-men once in a while to scare off the boldest brigands and bandits who might be camping near the roads. Guards seem very friendly and reveal that nothing unusual happened on their patrol. After exchange of courtesies, both parties bid themselves farewell.

Soon the party decides to turn westwards from the road and search wilder places surrounding the outpost. They stumble upon ruins of the old Krell, but most of them are too derelicit too hide any secrets or pyramidal artifacts. A ruined tower, which our heroes spot among the trees, seems much more habitable though.

As the group approaches the tower, they notice bones of various shapes and sizes scaterred around the tower. They group decides to leave both sailors on watch, as the group enters the ruin. The space inside the building is pretty confined, its looks suggest that perhaps it was a defensive structure of sorts. The floor is littered with hefty amount of rubble, dust and rocks. Our heroes carefully check navigate towards the stairs which lead to the next floor. Thankfully, no traps or hazards were to be found on their way.

Upon checking the stairs, the party ascends to the first floor, which turns out to be similar to the one below. Sunlight coming from the staircase suggests, that they are nearing the top of the ruin. Upon examination, blood stains are to be found in one of the corners. Ivar stops to examine the stains and the party ascends to the second floor, which turns out to be the last one.

First thing they notice, is a badly rotten corpse of an unindentified man. It looks, as if the body exploded from the inside. Its ribcage is ripped open and shards of bone and other remains litter the floor. Scribonnius inspects the body with caution and finds out that the neck of the deceased man has been broken. Perhaps it was the reason of his death?

Also, a big pile of rubble covers northern part of the floor. The party decides to remove the fragments of rock one by one in order to check whether something is hidden underneath. Soon enough, Penderton notices movement among the rubble. Alert, but confident in their abilities, the group continues to remove the stones. As they remove the stones, they stumble upon a grey, worm-like creature. It is about half meter long and apart from a mouth filled with sharp teeth, no other sensory organs are to be seen. The creature raises its body as if to inspect the surroundings. It fails to do anything of note though, as the party converges upon it and hacks it to pieces in a matter of seconds.

Scribonnius secures what is left of the creature inside a bag and the rest of the rogues continue to search the rubble. They spot another worm, but it retreats deep under the stones as soon as it is noticed. The group decides to leave the creature be as it would be daunting to move the larger stones away. Since the dead man is very badly rotten, they decide that clearly, it's not the Lucas they are searching for. Deciding, that nothing more is to be found here, they leave the place. They plan to move south, cheking other areas and perhaps pay a visit to the Atrus, the man who saved the Penderton.
 

Skittles

He ruins the fun.
Joined
Apr 20, 2011
Messages
983
MAJESTIC ODD: Session Five, Pt. 2, and Session Six

Heading south from the ruined tower, the party discovers little of interest until it enters a ruined village. A quick survey turns up no signs of inhabitants in the ruins or much else of interest, so the party moves on. Im a field not far from the ruined town, they come across a squat obelisk, adorned with pictographs of combat. Inanna, Ivar and Scribonius all approach and each begins to hear distant, illusory signs of battle as he approaches. With characteristic verve for all things magical and foolish, Ivar decides to clamber to the top of the obelisk. At its summit, he pricks his hand and drips a single drop of blood upon the monument. For a brief moment, the area is flooded with sounds of battle, spooking the hirelings. The party decides to return when they have more information about the obelisk.

To that end, unraveling some of the numerous mysteries they've now collected, the party decides to stop for a mid-day rest at the home of Atrus, the sage responsible for bringing Penderton quickly back to health. Outside of the self-proclaimed prophet's home, they accidentally interrupt the end of a conversation between Atrus and a mysterious man, who rides away shortly after the party arrives. Atrus invites them inside to talk and graciously waters the hirelings for the party. The party peppers Atrus with questions. The worm, he does not specifically recognise, but he speculates based on the party's description that the worm is a larva specifically incubated in the corpse of the man found murdered in the ruined tower. He claims to have neither seen nor heard anything of Lucas, the man reputed to be lurking in the woods surrounding Atrus' home. He expresses his own interest in the obelisk, but claims ignorance of its purpose and function. Ivar copies out for Atrus the runes that "Loki" provided, with some minor revisions, so that the sage can consult study them at his leisure. Lastly, Ivar questions the sage about his beliefs. Atrus is evasive, but does invite Ivar--and the rest of the party--to a gathering of his cult the following night.

Setting out again from Atrus' hut, the party has a short discussion about how to handle the demon chicken. Penderton is resolute that it must be destroyed. Ivar believes that time is too short to find a way to dispatch the foul spirit and craves the power it offers in return for service. Inanna and Scribonius initially voice their reservations about working with it, but Ivar sways Inanna by claiming the demon offers wealth and changes Penderton's mind by pointing out that the demon could be used to destroy rich and corrupt merchants of Krell. Ivar does admit that having a contingency plan to do away with the demon would be wise, however, so the party resolves to complete the nightmare bird's task while simultaneously seeking a way to kill or banish it. Hopefully the service will bring them wealth and power while buying them time to work out a way of betraying it. In their hearts, Ivar and Scribonius nurture dreams of enslaving the demon for its power.

Moving south east, the party revisits the grove where Penderton was attacked the day before, as it seemed an ideal and hidden campsite for the elusive Lucas. They find the camp abandoned, with some refuse scattered around the site. Diligent searching does turn up what at first appeared to be the latrine--a patch of wet and muddy earth half a meter across. Ascertaining that it is not, in fact, a shit pit, the party begins investigating. The ground is wet with a mysteriously gelatinous substance, with a peculiar but unrecogniable odour. First they prod through the mud with a long branch, then attempt to ignite the substance (to no avail), but finally Penderton resolves to throw caution to the wind and dig through the muck with his hands. He finds the substance mildly acidic, but not enough to cause harm or even much discomfort. After searching for a while, he turns up a plain iron band.

The party studies the band, and finds no markings. Ivar attempts to heat the ring to see if that would reveal its secrets. It does not. Penderton encourages to Ivar to try it on and bleed on it a little--Ivar's preferred method of magical investigation--but for the first time since they met, Ivar shows reservations about playing with the occult. Inanna instead tries on the ring, but nothing happens. She decides to continue wearing it and the party moves on, bemused at the discovery of a completely unadorned and apparently functionless ring in a pool of mysterious gel.

Again walking south, the party encounters more ruins of the old city. Among the structures still standing are a temple and part of an old keep. The party investigates the temple first, finding it almost completely unadorned except for a rusting statue of the goddess of fate, Moira. For a lark, they attempt to put the iron ring around the statues fingers, only to discover that the statue is too large for the ring to fit upon. Finding nothing else of interest there, they move on, though not before Scribonius makes a quick prayer for guidance.

Apparently Moira heard, as the party's investigation of the old fort turns up a hiding spot in a ruined tower that once dominated the south eastern corner of the keep's walls. In that hole they find a purse, with a modest amount of gold and a silver token bearing the image of a crow. Penderton speculates that the token may be of significance to a certain 'businessman' in Krell who goes by the name of Crow--but of whether it's meant to be bartered for wealth, meant to identify his servants or meant to warn would be thieves against stealing the purse, Penderton is ignorant. Heartened by the modest success, the party turns its attention to the part of the fortress still standing. Two locked doors bar their way. After peering through the arrow slits and finding a thick layer of dust coating the inside of the building, the party concludes that entry is probably safe. Using a dagger, Penderton manages to break the lock of one of the doors.

The party lines up, weapons and lantern ready, and the door slowly swings open...
 

Father Walker

Potato Ranger
Joined
Apr 13, 2011
Messages
1,282
Kewl recap, Skittles.

Ivar copies out for Atrus the runes that "Loki" provided, with some minor revisions, so that the sage can consult study them at his leisure.

Just to make it clear for the readers. The runes Ivar provided Atrus with have been altered on purpose so that poor guy doesn't make anything out of them.

She decides to continue wearing it and the party moves on, bemused at the discovery of a completely unadorned and apparently functionless ring in a pool of mysterious gel.

:thumbsup:
 

Father Walker

Potato Ranger
Joined
Apr 13, 2011
Messages
1,282
Bros, today's game is cancelled unfortunatelly. I'm not able to run the game today and at least two players are not able to participate. So, sorry for not letting you know earlier and hopefully we can do some dungeon crawling next week.
 

Skittles

He ruins the fun.
Joined
Apr 20, 2011
Messages
983
No problem, let's set up the next one when we get the chance, though.
 

Father Walker

Potato Ranger
Joined
Apr 13, 2011
Messages
1,282
So, I was thinking about kinda rebooting the game. I've been rewriting my setting and house rules lately and want to run it again. Characters from previous campaign could be ported with all their stuff and experience (and perhaps some loyalty XP bonus). I was thinking about preserving the sandboxy nature of our sessions while introducing some kind of mega-dungeon, so that future games could be run even if the characters in the party change from session to session. Each game could be one self-contained visit in the dungeon or something like that. Anyone interested?

I would be able to run the thing within 2 weeks or so. I think that a party of up to 5 characters is ok, with old players having the priority. Sessions would be run at fridays or saturdays around 20:00 potato time.
 

Father Walker

Potato Ranger
Joined
Apr 13, 2011
Messages
1,282
Well, it kinda died. As you can see, I tried to restart the game, but no one was interested.
 

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