Thu 08 Apr 2021, 08:09
I am playtesting the Adventure Site with my group now and will post the development so far as it happens. We have played 3 evenings for about 3 hours and will continue tomorrow.
Session 1: The group: the goblin wolfrider Hulmar;
his grandfather Des (a necromancer who dreams of a kingdom of the undead);
the elf hunter Alari, who is disguised as a goblin (the group is aware of this actually);
the orc shaman Gula (druid healer and shapechanger)
and the wolfing warrior and smith Senlin.
The five guys are hired by the orc peddlar and diplomat Karz in the Eye of the Rose. The peddlar wants them to investigate mystierous death and strange happenings in his home town, hightower. He is speaking in the name of his boss, general Archa, who lost his first wife and two sons in a short time and started to drink heavily.
Session1: The group arrived in hightower in the evening. They checked in the taverne " Archas Jug", where they get 3 chambers. They eat and talk with the crowd in the tavern, mostly with shok, who is Archas oldest son and tavernkeeper. 2 of the group, Senlin and Des, drink heavily with shok, the orkwoman Lamira brings Gula to bed. Shok tells the group when he is drunk that his oldest brother Skogrin had an questionable affair with his brother Gulgrog and Archas favoutie son Brakka was an sadistic asshole. Skogin and Brakka are dead know. Skogrin died on an hunting accident and Brakka had an mysterios illness. Gulgrok was beaten by Archa after the accident and lost his honor, being a slave by now.
The next day, the group is taken by the dwarven masterbuilder Bombar Steinklopfer who shows them the village. He is very autistic and gossips them a lot with his projects and plans. The slaves, mostly the dwarven slaves, loathe him very much. Des leaves the guiding and visits "Clays Home", the Temple site of the village. Here he speaks to the old and blind Necromancer Arine, who seems very unscroupulos about methods in fighting the demon hordes, including the use of blood magic.
After the guiding, the group meets Genaeral Archa in the tower. Archa is there with Karz, the Peddlar, and his second wife, Oscha. In the meeting, Archa starts drinking and Oscha makes out with Archa. Archa gives them the official briefing and order to investigate the death of his beloved wife Shaz, his oldest son Skogrin and his favourite son Brakka.
Then, an offical bankett starts. A halfelfen ministrelslave begins singing and playing lute, and the other guests arrive at the scene. The high shaman Hurgil, the shaman Grax (another son of Archa),the dwarf Bombar Steinklopfer, the chieftain of the allied goblins Gnoblar Hirschkrone, Archas only daughter Burzum and her lover, the commander of the guard Golkar Greattooth.
Des recognizes that the two shamans have strange auras and he makes the sense magic spell. He watches that in their magic Auras, Hurgil has no eyes, but black holes, and Grax has a black fire instead of eyes. Imeadetly after, everybody looks at Des and mumbles somethink. Des Head seems to explode, and his head fells on the desk. He fell to slepp, and his grandson brings him to bed in the taverne.
The rest of the group interacts with the audience. The goblin chief tells them that his shaman doesn´t come to the village anymore (the goblins live in a nearby cavesystem) because he thinks all shamans of hightower are cursed. Golkar Greattooth lets see through that he doesn´t like the way Archa develops since Shaz death and that he is very sad about the loss of his two most suitable sons. Actually, he only seens Archas daughter Burzum (his lover) as suitable heir of the roka tribe. After the bankuett, the rest of the group wents to bed.
In the last scene of the evenings, both player shamans had strange dreams while sleeping. Des dreams of being poisend in the morning in "Archas Jug". He dies, and his spirit sinks in the earth. He comes in a crypta, where a demon beheads him and gives him a wolfhead.
Gula dreams that the tower itself is animated, taking him up with big claws and then tossing him on the ground where he shatters to death. Both shamans waked up absolutly tired and with two damage points on wits.
With that dreams, the curse of the demon Brachios is also on the 2 shamans, but the group is actually unaware of this.