Dust to Dust (Threads of Fate, Session X)

We started pretty much where we left off last time, the player's had killed the Werewolf of nameless village 13 and a mob had formed. The party  explained the situation and asked the local medicine woman for help with their mauled companion Hubble.

BTW we hit Session 10, here's to 10 more!

The Cast:

Aki Ashina, Fighter 3:
A young woman hailing from the far eastern lands of Japan. Wears a eyepatch, speaks broken english and is looking for something or someone...

Phantom Howard Specialist 1:

A Frenchmen. Speaks Japanese for some reason.

Cillian McCleary, Specialist 2:
Irishman in a hostile land.

Richard Islands, Fighter 1:
Ex-soldier, now poor mercenary. Looking for work.

Linehart Helsbert, Magic-User 1:
Landlocked pirate looking for treasure and secrets. Only kind of violent now.

Axel Hubble. Fighter 3:
A man who mourns his dead sister, also goes on adventures now I guess.

The Medicine Woman...

The mob begins to disperse and a few take the Innkeeper's wife(the werewolf) to bury her. The Innkeeper is inconsolable. Islands asks for medical help for his mauled comrade Hubble from the dispersing crowd but only one person stays, a middle-aged woman, modestly clothed with greying hair. She introduces herself as Abigail the local medicine woman and tells them to bring Hubble to her house a bit outside the hamlet. Linehart Helsbert an old party member somehow catches up to the group, some questions are raised but not many. (Ref Notes: Had an old player rejoin the campaign.) Meanwhile McCleary finally wakes having slept all day and shuffles his way to town after hearing some commotion. He finds the hamlet empty but see's some candle light coming from a bit further into the woods, he goes to investigate. The rest of the party gathers around the badly wounded Hubble as the medicine woman tends and sutures his wounds. She tells the party he may not make it through the night when door to the hut is violently kicked open with McCleary standing in the doorway. Some words are exchanged between the party then Abigail asks Aki for a lock of her hair for some medicine and she agrees. After the medicine woman kicks everyone out and the party sleeps outside the hut not willing to leave Hubble to his fate alone. That night Hubble dreams of chasing a young maiden through woods, stark naked. When he finally catches up to her he rips into her stomach and pulls her innards out. Then he wakes up. The party thanks Abigail for her help and the party hits the road.

On the Road Again...

They continue their journey east towards the infamous Transylvania, 11 days of travel remain....

The first day passes without incident and the party stops to camp off the road. A fire is set and the they begin their meal...

The Transformation...

Hubble notices his Iron Rations taste a bit off...then the clouds part in the sky and the Full Moon emerges. Islands who sits across from Hubble sees the man stare longingly towards the moon. Then Hubble starts sweating profusely and feels hot, really hot. He starts disrobing complaining of the heat, then when he's fully nude he crouches down to all fours and the party can hear bones creak and crack as Hubble's transforms into the beast.

The Death of Phantom Howard...

A fight breaks out as I have Hubble attack his party members randomly. Aki is first and takes a double claw and bite attack but lives, barely. The party attacks Wolf-Hubble and deals minor damage, Helsbert begins casting his prepared Sleep spell. Islands pulls the magic sword from it's scabbard. The Frenchmen Howard is mauled down to 0 HP, Helbert casts his Sleep Spell and causes Wolf-Hubble to fall into a deep slumber for two turns. McCleary takes a vial of blood from the beast, I roll to see if he wakes up and the party has a shitfit. Lucky Hubble stays asleep. Islands, McCleary and Herbert decide to ditch Aki, Howard who are most certainly cursed, and the man-wolf Hubble. They quickly pack their wagon and ride off into the night. Aki runs into the woods and hides behind a large boulder. It starts to pour and Hubble wakes up to find the unconscious Howard lying nearby. He saunters over, sniffs the nearly dead man and rips into his throat and tears his stomach open sending steaming innards onto the rapidly soaking grass. Aki sees this and runs further into the woods with Hubble following shortly after. A game of cat and mouse lasts the entire night but Aki barely manages to keep out of the wolf's maw. When dawn comes Hubble wakes completely nude and walks towards the road. Eventually he see's Aki shambling up further and catches up her. The two find the camp from the previous night and gather their belongings. They continue back to the nameless hamlet thinking maybe the medicine woman can help them. They also see Howard's mutilated remains but don't take the time to bury him.

Split the Party, Team Corn

Meanwhile the others traveled through the night, terrified, on horse drawn wagon and managed to stumble upon another small village. Islands prays to the dice gods that someone speaks english and finds one such man after asking around the hamlet. The man introduces himself as Dirk Dirkington. Islands asks him if there's a library. Dirk just laughs and tells them instead of his current plight. (Ref Note: Do I smell a quest?) Dirk says that every friday night the devil come to his cornfield and cuts down his corn. Despite Dirk's proclamation of "Devil, you get out ma corn!" the devil continues unperturbed. Islands, McCleary and Helberts say they will take care of the devil if Dirk takes them to the local church and translate for them. Dirk agrees. Islands speaks to Father Varnell and ask if he knows anything about Werewolves. He doesn't. They go back and stay at Dirk's place until Friday.

Split the Party, Team Teen Wolf

Aki and Hubble walk tired and defeated back to the nameless village of the attack. Luckily for them a kind vegetable salesman on horse drawn cart pulls over to give them a ride to the hamlet of which he's riding to. The party thanks the man and when they arrive back at the village they immediately head over to the Abigails hut but find no one at home. They ask around and find out the woman spends her day foraging in the woods. It takes a couple hours but eventually they find the woman. Aki pleads for her to help them but the woman says she can do nothing but mend their wounds. They spend the night at the local inn who's now run by younger woman after the widowed innkeeper disappeared. In the morning they ride back with the vegetable salesman to the next village.

The Devil in the Corn

Aki & Hubble thanks the vegetable salesman and the pair meets up with the rest of the party. Some trepidation is had about having two werewolves in the party but the next full moon isn't for another month. The party meets at Dirk's friday night and they make their way to the cornfield to hunt the devil. The party arrives, light their torches and split up into the corn. After an hour and close calls the party emerges with the culprit. A man wearing a red devil mask. The party brings the masked man to Dirk and they unmask him and surprise it's a man from a neighboring hamlet. When questioned the man explains he just wanted to help cull the field. Dirk gives the ok and the party kicks the crap out of the "devil".

...and that's where we ended for the night. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!

The Road Less Traveled (Threads of Fate, Session IX recap)

Session IX in my on-going online LotFP campaign. Start here with Session I. After witnessing Francesa Delamore become a saint by Heaven's will, the party receives their next assignment from The Night: travel to Amsterdam and meet the Magnificent Joop Van Ooms!

Sidenote*
With google hangouts going away soon. I decided to try Discord again and it went pretty well! Guess my internet was just shit the last time.

The Cast:

Aki Ashina (Fighter 3)

Richard Islands (Fighter 2)

Axel Hubble (Fighter 2)

Cillian McCleary (Specialist 1)

Phantom Howard (Specialist 1)

R&R, Rest & Rewards...

After Aki & Hubble fled the scene of the crime they met up with McCleary and Richards and unfortunately chose NOT to stay in the flea infested, plague ridden town of Pavia, after some sarcastic remarks from me(yes, I'm a nice guy). They instead chose to camp outside for three days & nights while Mr. Hubble recovered from his fight with the holy dead. Before that however they met with a scribe who appeared on behalf of their employer The Night to document their heavenly encounter. When finished, the scribe packed up his freshly minted report and was on his way, before he left earshot he said that their reward will arrive tonight after nightfall.

While camping in the wilderness they receive a mysterious package from their employer with no courier in sight, it just appeared when they weren't looking. The black ribboned, red-box held a letter and strange silver coin inside. The letter read: 

"Fine work gentlemen, witnessing Heaven's meddling is a rare encounter indeed. Your reward is one of  Judas' 30 pieces of silver. A rare item indeed, when given to a person it allows thou to make one suggestion that MUST be obeyed as long as it causes no harm to them. Now travel to the great city of Amsterdam & meet the man named Joop Van Ooms."

Sincerely, The Night

The Road less Traveled...

After resting up the party begins their long trek north across worn torn europe. They were lucky the first time traveling south to Milan but will their luck hold out again?! (Ref Notes: As I gidley get my wartime random encounters list out, the party begins talking about monster hunting. Oh no...)

"Yeah, we can totally hunt monster after we survived those zombies!" 

"Lets go to Transylvania!"

"The Night didn't give a timeframe to get to Amsterdam..."

And just like that the party turns right at a fork in the road and travels east towards Transylvania. According to some wack math and a quick google map check, I rule it'll take 24 days to get there from Venice, their first major stop to stock up before the journey. So after a barrage of random encounter checks(nothing much to my dismay) the party arrives in Venice, the city of love.

Venice, the City of Love and random encounters...

Source

Tired of rations they stop at one of the many restaurants(one near a canal) and eat some world famous cheese and wine. While eating they befriend a new party member named Phantom Howard, unfortunately for the party he only speaks French & Japanese(lol that Language check), so, a hilarious game of telephone unravels between Aki, Howard and the rest of the party.  A small poor boy approaches Phantom Howard and asks him for a single silver coin. "Just one for my sick sister mister" the boy says teary eyed. Howard, a big softie pulls a coin and hands it over. The boy thanks the man profusely and is on his way but not before a whisper is barely heard by the party. "Sucker..."

(Ref Notes: McCleary leveled up last Session and rolled on my specialist level up table, he got I SEE DEAD PEOPLE. lol of course he did.) While eating, McCleary sees a tall pale man dressed in all black and a long hat. The man seems a bit surprised Islands is watching him go by and tips his hat at him then disappears into the busy street.

(Ref Notes: I had recently watched Fantastic Dimension's Rogues to Riches campaign and loved how one of the random encounters from the Magnificent Joop Van Ooms played out so I used it here.)

They continue their meal and just as they finish and are preparing to leave a sailor approaches the party with sweat beading down his face. He asks them if they are interested in buying a rare treasure from the far lands of Egypt. Phantom Howard translates the French sailor's words. The party is intrigued and goes to the man's ship on the docks. They hesitantly go down(with Aki the HP sponge first of course) to the full cargo hold and the sailor weaves between stacked crates, lantern in hand, to the middle of the room. He sets down the lantern on a nearby crate and pulls a crowbar from beside a enormous custom crate, then using the tool, unseals the top. The party gathers and looks inside. "Just looks like a coffin me." someone remarks. "It is, a rare one with treasure inside." The sailor plants his feet and slowly pushes the stone lid aside revealing a feminine mummified corpse holding a golden rod in each hand and wearing a gold mask. "It's all yours, for 500 silver..." The party asks for a moment and discuss this amongst themselves. Unfortunately they don't have enough and wouldn't have a way to transport it so they decline. The sailor kicks them off the ship and curses them for wasting his time.

On the road again...

Alright so traveling long distances is kinda boring, kinda dangerous. I didn't just want to handwave it like I did when they went to Pavia so I just rolled a random encounter check once each day with a 2-in-6 chance of something happening.

The first 5 days pass with nothing happening, Richards messes with the puzzle box he stole from Francesca's husband's grave and eventually passes a INT check which lets him learn a single premutation towards solving it. On the sixth day one of their wheels break on their carriage so they send two up the road to a small village to try and find a new wheel or someone to fix it. After failing their language checks to learn Hungarian they return with someone who can, who happens to be Hubble. After some roleplay they pay a blacksmith to fix the wheel, costing them 30sp.

On the 11th day out their 24 day journey, a sudden torrential downpour bombardes the party and not wanting to get stuck on the road they backtrack to a small Inn a mile back. (Ref Notes: This would have been the perfect chance to run A Stranger Storm out of the Referee Book but one of my players has played it already and I don't think I could trick him again. lol)

Bad Moon Rising

They arrive at the Black Goose and are greeted to an empty tavern with a single man with some years on him cleaning the bar, he greets them in hungarian, ushers them in and starts a fire. They engage in small talk with Hubble translating and learn that the man lost his wife to a terrible accident two years prior. Eventually the party lets loose they're looking for monsters and the innkeep now named Garrett tells them that he used to be an adventurer like them and that the local town indeed has a monster problem. Intrigued they listen to the tale of a beast that comes to the town and kills one person this time of year, under a full moon. Wouldn't ya know it, tomorrow is a full moon!

The party pack in for the night and plan to talk to the townsfolk tomorrow.

McCleary hears a rapping on his bedroom door...he doesn't answer it and his player disappears from the game for the rest of the session. (Ref Notes: Later I learned he had to attend to some sudden personal matters but I thought the timing was hilarious.)

The next day the party heads to the town talk to some townsfolk. McCleary spends the entire day in his room. The town is a small dreary place, very Sleepy Hollow. Hubble is able to piece together from the very hesitant to talk townsfolk that the Innkeeper's wife didn't die in an accident, she died to the beast! The plot thickens. They also learn where she died and mark it on their map. Richards & Howard go the kill site and Hubble and Aki goes back to the Black Goose.
The newly minted self-proclaimed "investigators" integrate Garrette and he spills the beans saying that his wife IS the beast and was cursed to change into a beast like the one that hurt her. Hubble notices that between the sobs he constantly stares at a wall towards the back of the inn.

Meanwhile Richards and Howard find the "kill" site, a cleared field with an unusual amount of belladonna growing there. It's almost nightfall when it starts to rain. They start heading back and feel eyes watching them from the woods, they quicken their pace. When they get a few minutes from town they hear a blood curdling scream. They sprint to town and see all the buildings and houses are closed except for one. A two story house has it's first floor door broken inwards with such force it hangs off its hinges. They pull their weapons and make their way upstairs. A hysterical woman is on her knees sobbing uncontrollably in a child's room with hands outstretched towards a broken window, she just repeats "it took my baby!" The adventures return to ground level outside and see a quickly dissipating blood trail in the rain leading into the woods from the window. Hubble and Aki who had heard the scream all the way from the Black Goose run back to town and are greeted to the grisly spectacle. Instead of running headlong into danger the party decides to backtrack to the inn and interrogate Garrett some more.

Eventually Garret relents and tells them that he found a magic sword during his adventuring days and used it to save his life when he and his wife were attacked in the field outside town two years ago. He managed to slay the beast but his wife was bitten and then changed into the same beast the next night killing a local. He hid the blade swearing he could never harm his wife. After some convincing from the party he says that if they can put down his wife he will gift them the sword. The party agrees and they break the wall and find a secret compartment hiding a blade wrapped in cloth, when inspected it seems like just an average old sword. (Ref Notes: The players are long time LotFP players and are skeptical of any magic items I give them, as they should be)
Skeptical but not having any other plan AND wanting to be "monster hunters" the party returns to town. When they arrive Richards & Hubble begin arguing over who should wield the blade in battle. While bickering they heard another quick scream, then silence. A huge black furry figure jumps from the same shattered second floor window dragging the now limp mother behind it and quickly disappears into the woods. They give chase.

Eventually the catch up to the beast and they can hear the sickening sound of flesh pulled from bone. 30ft up ahead they can see the huge black wolf-like creature tearing into the woman's torso pulling steaming innards out with each tug that then fall lazily in the mud. The wolfthing turns and sees the party, it rises to its hind legs then howls at the moon. Initiative is rolled.

Round 1:

• Richards slashes at the beast, dealing a mere flesh wound that immediately starts to sizzle and heal.
• The Monster swipes at Richards with both its claws and tries to bite but misses all three attacks!
• Hubble draws the magic sword and slashes at the beast and  The creatures takes notice of the sword.
• Aki gracefully closes the distance and deals major damage with her katana, severing the creature's claw!
• Howard fires into melee barely missing Hubble who can feel the round wiz past his face.

Round 2:

• The wolfthing tears into Hubble with its claw and bite attack dealing major damage, Hubble drops the blade.
• Richards runs over picks up the blade and manages to decapitate the monster!

A mob can be heard forming in the distance. The party catches their breath and looks over at the monster but sees only the decapitated body of an gray haired, naked woman. Richards picks the head up and tosses it further into the woods? The first of the mob arrives at the battlefield.

"Oh my God." he says.

And that's where we ended it for the night. Thanks for reading!

Read Session X here!

Monkey Paws and Relics (Threads of Fate, Session II Recap)

Session II of my new ongoing Lamentations of the Flame Princess Campaign. See Session I here.

Boy oh boy was this Session a disaster. First the session failed to fire on the scheduled date due to peeps personal lives(understandable). Then after I managed to pity party everyone into playing the next day Discord managed to bite me in the ass. I don’t know if it was my internet connection or Discord being wack but the first half of the session was choppy and it was hard for me to hear and be heard. Finally out of frustration I moved the game over to Google Hangouts to try to salvage this session but by then the momentum was lost. Thankfully my players are awesome and bore through it. Once we moved to hangouts everything was working as it should and some laughs were had. If my players are reading this(as they should be since I post it in our group) thanks guys for being awesome! Anyways here’s what happened, bullet point style since it was a really short session.

The Cast

Cillian McCleary, Specialist 1:

Irishman in a hostile land.

Aki Ashina, Fighter 1:

A young woman hailing from the far eastern lands of Japan. Wears a eyepatch, speaks broken english and is looking for something or someone...

Otto Kuchin, Fighter 1:

Nobleman's son, turned sellsword, turned monster hunter. From Prussia.

Richard Islands, Fighter 1:
Ex-soldier, now poor mercenary. Looking for work.

Mildred Hubble, Magic-User 1: 

A horny 12 year old girl from a very secretive school for young spellcasters.

Linehart Helsbert, Magic-User 1:
Landlocked pirate looking for treasure and secrets. Extremely violent.

• Party plots to steal St.Margaret’s holy mummified monkey from the crypt under the church. No plans are made to steal the saint’s relic...
• They wait until nightfall then send the irishman Mcleary to scout out the church.
• During the day they had wandered around town and discovered other(old) Nonsbeck was home to a convent behind the church. Seems the nuns are guarding St.Margaret's remains.
• Mcleary rolls a successful stealth skill. He scopes out the area and memorizes the church grounds layout without being see by a nun sentry. Afterwards he returns to the inn and relays the information to his party members.
• Party convenes on church, Mcleary is chosen to open the church doors, due to his roguish skills.
• Mcleary checks for traps, then cracks the door halfway before hearing a voice from inside. A woman's voice. "H-hello?..." she says. "Is someone there?"
• The party begins to make various kinds of animal noises, for some reason?
• The party can hear the woman inside running further inside. Kuchin kicks the door open and sees a nun running towards the altar in the back of the church. He throws his detachable pommel and hurls it at the nun. He hits.
• The woman falls over and the thieves shuffle towards her and gag and bound her, the Islands hides her in the confessional. 
• They swabble a bit then search the church for the donation box. Mcleary finds it and gains +18sp.
• Helsbert finds a musket the nun must have been going for and Islands finds a small bronze bell. (Ref's Note: The bell is rung ever hour to alert the outside sentry's that everything is ok.)
• Mcleary & Ashina light torches and take the point and rear respectively in the marching order. The party descends into the crypt.
• The party sees a well kept crypt with the western wall filled with graves and offerings. They spend a turn searching for traps then hear a rattling of chains before Mcleary almost trips over them.
• More squabbling before Kuchin takes a torch and shines into the darkness revealing a young woman with a long chain tied to her ankle. "Please help me, the nuns keep me down here." she says.
• The girl explains the nuns took her away and believe her to be possessed. They keep her tied down here at night. 
• The party talks amongst themselves(more time wasted) then they free her when she says her parents will happily pay to have her back. She lives in London.
• (Ref's Notes: me when they freed her.)
• With nameless girl in tow the party continues down the crypt and comes across their prize, the holy monkey. 
  
• Mcleary checked for traps(MVP this session) and after confirming there were none, the glass case is removed and the monkey stolen.
• The party moves back upstairs into the church then waste more time squabbling before heading to the church door but the doors open to reveal three nuns with muskets standing before them.
• The head nun questions why they freed the nameless girl then they level their muskets.
• Kuchin quickly shoots the main nun then the other party members scatter behind pews while Islands retrieves the nun from the confessional and uses her as a human shield.
• I decided to simplify initiative by using the opposed d6 roll for each side rule. Turns out this is extremely deadly for the losing side. The party wins initiative and I roll morale to see if the remaining nuns stay to fight after seeing their leader killed. They do. (Ref's Notes: In hindsight I should have rolled a surprise check. Oh well.)
• The two remaining nuns are quickly dispatched brutally and efficiently.
• The party escapes into the night.

-After 3 days travel and no random encounters the party arrives at Nonsbeck.-

• They hide the monkey paws in the woods then return the pawless monkey to the quest giver Lonna. She looks a little disappointed but Kuchin assures her it was like that when they found it. She thanks them and hands them the deed to the manor.
• Ashina inquires about Lonna's younger sister.
• The party looks around and sees the nameless young woman from the church playing in the field with Lonna's younger sister Cremilia. The party is creeped out.
• The party talks to the blacksmith in Nonsbeck for a bit before returning to the woods to reclaim their monkey paws. 
• They gather around in a circle and begin making wishes of the monkey paws.

The Wishes

Each party member states their wish then breaks a finger on the paw.

Aki Ashina wishes to speak fluent english, then silence.

Otto Kuchin wishes to be a millionaire, then silence.

Richard Islands wishes for prosperity for his future brothel, then silence.

Mildred Hubble wishes for spellbook with all the spells, then silence.

Linehart Helsbert wishes for more guns, then silence.

The party waits a moment then concludes the wishes must have a delayed effect...

• Helsbert becomes furious and threatens to shoot people after realizing the wishes were a lie.
• They party argues for a bit, again.
• Then they decided to return to London to sell back the church woman to her parents and the monkey paws to Vespero.
• When they go to speak with the nameless church woman they notice she's gone.
• They shrug their shoulders and plan their trip to London. "I'm sure she'll turn up." Kuchin says.

Treasure gained: 18sp, A bronze bell, Two mummified monkey paws and feet.

Bonus XP: +100 for Session attendance, +5 to each character for the nuns.

Session III here.

Church of St.Margaret (Threads of Fate, Session I Recap)

Earlier in the week while walking my dog I was struck with the insatiable urge to run a Lamentations of the Flame Princess game. I contacted my regulars, asked if anyone was down and got a good response. I didn't want to disturb our bi-weekly home game (currently a Mutants & Mastermind game my sibling is running) so we decided on Discord to run LotFP on the off-week.  I'm using a official LotFP module mixed with some homebrew and Vacant Ritual Assembly #1, I would name said module here but my players are gonna read this and I feel it'll spoil too much so please bear with me.  I also promised I would starting writing up recaps again for my games since my players seem to enjoy them.

House Rules:

1. VAM/EC Rules, M-U's start with (1)1st level spell of choice & 1 randomly determined spell from the entire list.
2. Player's who sent me a vid of them rolling their character's stat gen(instead of using the online generator) got a special randomly determined bonus.

This new impromptu campaign shall hence be named "Threads of Fate". Set in spring of 1689, a group of vagabonds received a odd job from London antiquities dealer Vespero. The job entailed the descendants of St. Margaret of Nonsbeck requesting help resolving a "civil matter".

The Employer Vespero

The Cast

Cillian McCleary, Specialist 1:
Irishman in a hostile land.

Aki Ashina, Fighter 1:
A young woman hailing from the far eastern lands of Japan. Wears a eyepatch, speaks broken english and is looking for something or someone...

Otto Kuchin, Fighter 1:
Nobleman's son, turned sellsword, turned monster hunter. From Prussia.

Richard Islands, Fighter 1:
Ex-soldier, now poor mercenary. Looking for work.

Mildred Hubble, Magic-User 1: 

A horny 12 year old girl from a very secretive school for young spellcasters.

Our party arrived in scenic Nonsbeck after a week's journey from London. The chapel on the hill grew as the party made their way up the road towards the hamlet's smithy. The sound of hammer against metal echoed while seemingly matching their steps. Otto the pragmatic went to sponge some intel from the blacksmith and was greeted to a tall lanky young man appropriately named Tall Fridolin. Fridolin was the Smith's apprentice and was currently filling in for his master who was off reshoeing some horses for a local. Small talk was exchanged before Otto asked the boy the whereabouts of the saint's descendants using Vespero's job confirmation letter but unfortunately Fridolin is illiterate. Annoyed the party sets off to the local inn after questioning their employer's cognitive functions for not bestowing a address for the clients. (Ref's note: Vespero, the character's employer is an old quack. Think Professor Farnsworth from Futurama. No address was given for the clients just that they lived in a hamlet called Nonsbeck. For more on Vespero check out Vacant Ritual Assembly #1)

An old well sat ominously between some nearby stables and the inn. The stench of said stables mixed unpleasantly with the wafting aroma of freshly baked bread from the inn. As the group huddled in front they noted the worn plaque above the door, the Laughing Ox, and the sounds of merry making inside, then entered. They're greeted to a quaint inn, quite homely in fact. It smells of home cooked food and the straw underfoot is fresh and easy to walk on. Sunshine that radiates through glass windows near the ceiling keeps the inn well lit and cheery. The owner a German fellow named Boserd waves them in and calls to his wife; a portly woman named Mama Duretta to sit and serve the party. The party takes note of four farmers sitting at another table across from them, laughing at some inside joke between friends. They exchange nods before the farmers return to their jokes and drinks. The party is suspicious of them but seems to relax after they notice the farmers pay them no mind. Mama Duretta takes their orders, mostly alcohol, warm milk for little Mildred, and a meat pie for the strange foreign woman Aki who only pointed at the hand drawn menu art. (Ref's Note: Aki is Japanese, in 17th century England. I let her roll to see if she's fluent in English. She's not.) After finally taking everyone's order and being flirted with quite vicariously by the self proclaimed monster hunter Otto, Mama Duretta giggles politely and returns to the kitchen. If her husband notices the gaul and disrespect to his wife he does not show it. 

The party converses amongst themselves and are eventually told by the owner Boserd that the family they're looking for frequents the Laughing Ox and may make an appearance tonight but will not give out their address to strangers. Frustrated the party plans to march up the hill to the church and get these people's address no matter what. Some time passes and their food & drink is brought out by a eye catching young woman named Fraulein. She has jet black hair, pristine skin and vibrant blue eyes. She is set upon almost immediately by the womanizing Otto. Only after Boserd slammed his musket on the bar top does the relentless flirting cease. “Please, leave the child be” he says. Apologies are cast and Fraulein delicately places their orders on the table, red faced. Seeing the failure of her comrade, the child witch Mildred makes a pass at the teenager but her flattery is mistaken for female kinship and only a demeaning head pat is received. The party notices the waitress walks back to the kitchen with a pronounced limp(jokes at her expense are had) then eats, drinks, and leaves the 3sp bill with poor Aki. Our adventures begin their trek up the hill ignoring my attempts to lure them to the nearby stables to introduce my Stable Boy NPC.

The party makes it to the church on the hill and notes the cemetery surrounding it. They spend a turn searching the graves for anything weird but don’t find anything of note. They enter the church and meet Father Cristof a decently handsome man marred by a single hairy wart on his left cheek. (Austin Power jokes are dusted off) Little Mildred sits in one of the back pews and kicks her feet over the ground since they don’t quite reach while sitting, it's super creepy. Half the party admires the beautifully made stained glass that adorns the west & east walls. Each pane depicts the church’s patron Saint Margaret in different scenes and poses, under each is a chapter number from the bible. The other half of the party attempts to extract the location of Margaret’s descendents from the holy man. Only after explaining they were hired to perform a job and presenting the confirmation letter does the priest tell them where their client can be found, a farm a couple miles east of Nonsbeck. The party is relieved and eager to leave before Father Cristof offers to recant the tale of St.Margaret, they pass and quickly vacate the church.

(Ref's Note: If your like me and wondering what part Cillian & Richard play in this adventure, well you and me both. Though it's about now in the adventure that I'm reminded that Cillian is Irish. Not a good time to be an Irishman in England right now. Hopefully the next session those two will have more input but this was only a short test run with Discord so I put no pressure on anyone except poor Aki. Ha.)

After a short walk the characters arrive at their destination, a small farm east of Nonsbeck supposedly home to St. Margaret's descendants. The farm sits in the middle of a small forest, a dozen cows graze lazily in the cool spring sun. It's a little before 3pm. Playing amongst the cows is a small orange haired girl wearing a long white dress and sandals. She sees the party coming up the road and hides behind a cow. Aki slowly approaches the child and pulls a vibrant blue flower not native to this land from one of her flowing sleeves. The child gasps at its beauty and runs up to Aki who is now crouching at her level holding the flower for the girl to see. The girl comments on its beauty and Aki offers it to her, the girl gasps again and thanks the strange woman putting the flower in her hair to display. The party asks where an adult can be found and she points to the house up the road. They continue, unbelievably suspicious and on guard. They arrive at the house which has no strangeness to it. It's just a normal house for the time if not a little run down. They knock on the door. A muffled woman's voice answers a moment after, "who is it?" And sounds slightly annoyed as if interrupted. The party states they were hired for a job from this estate. Silence for moment, then "give me a minute!" A minute passes. A tallish petite woman maybe around 30 with long orange-red hair and dull green eyes opens the door. "A job? Oh right. Well, come on in." The party looks at one another with hesitation but enters.

The house is neat but doesn't have enough furniture for the whole party to sit comfortably so most stand. Introductions are exchanged and the woman now named Lonna explains that her Great, great, grandmother was St. Margaret of Nonsbeck and that their job is to retrieve her mummified talking monkey from the thieving folk of old Nonsbeck. The party is perplexed but a job is a job and the pay is discussed. "Oh, didn't your employer tell you? We have no coin but Nonsbeck has agreed to offer an old manor outside of town as compensation." (Ref's notes: I swore I could hear the creak of raised eyebrows over the player's near spontaneous moaning.) After tons of what's wrong with it questions the party agrees to take the job only after inspecting the manor for themselves. Lonna approves and returns to her chores outside after pointing the party to the estate's location. Lonna's younger sister Cremilia, the one given the flower earlier is nowhere to be found. The parties suspicion grows.


Once out of earshot of Lonna the party immediately discusses what kind of monsters the sisters are, vampires? Demons? "No way two young women can run a farm by themselves with no men", Otto says to the approval of his comrades. After about 20 minutes of walking the party arrives at the manor to find it A) actually exists and B) "Isn't that bad", my words. The party enters, tries to feel out if its haunted but nothing feels off. In fact once the curtains are opened the place is quite, and I've used this word alot tonight, homely. More raised eyebrows but the party is satisfied for now and returns to Lonna to inform her they've accepted the job and are off to old Nonsbeck to get their family heirloom back. She tells them it probably rests in old Nonsbeck's church crypt with St. Margaret's remains. When asked why St. Margaret is buried in old Nonsbeck and not new they're told she wished to be buried at her birthplace but new Nonsbeck only agreed if they got to keep the monkey. Somehow Old Nonsbeck took the monkey too. After being wished good luck they're off on the road again. 

A small nod to my favorite game

~3 days travel passes with no random encounters rolled to my disappointment.~

The party arrives at Old Nonsbeck and alarm bells are immediately raised. The town has a smith, stable, and church just not on a hill. They quickly try to pass the Smith and see who runs it expecting to see a doppelganger of the teenage apprentice from New Nonsbeck but are relieved to see an older bald gentlemen who greets them kindly. Some words and prices for goods are discussed and party heads to the inn named the Yawning Wolf. A burly Russian woman mans the bar and ushers them in. One thing the party notes is how seemingly dull and lifeless this hamlet compares to new Nonsbeck. The party attempts to get a free stay and succeeds after playing their trump cards, Aki the esoteric foreign woman with a +1 CHA mod and the adorable dough faced witch girl who the barkeep is immediately smitten with.

And that was where we ended it. The players told me they plan to scout out old Nonsbeck and learn the inhabitants routines before the next Session which I'll roll for. They want to gather enough info before they try and steal the mummified talking monkey. Which is fine, my players are the planning type and I want to start off the next Session with some action since now I'm more comfortable with Discord.

Oh and also they plan to cut off the monkey's paws which surely must have wishes to grant.

Treasure Gained: 0
Bonus XP: +100 for Session Attendance.

Read Session II here!