The Affairs of Wizards (Campaign Log)

[Scrollreader]

"Man, those guys turned out to be untrustworthy! . . . Hey, you guys look trustworthy, want to guard me through Mirkwood?"

Baldor is a trusting soul.

Sounds like a great start.

Yeah. The PCs really seemed fond of Baldor and his son, and genuinely sorry they couldn't help him right now (with the trip). I played him as the book advises, a sort of once prosperous man, fallen on hard times, and on the edge of desperation, with one last throw of the dice in him. They even (see part 2 above) went out of their way to make sure he had enough spending cash to make it through the extra time he was spending in Laketown, what with festival pricing and all.

[Scrollreader]

All told, I really think the session went well. There were a couple of mechanical fumblings, as people got used to the system, and some bits I could have managed slightly better as a LM, but people seemed to enjoy themselves, and the general mood was pretty fun, and the players seemed to 'get' the tone of the game, even those who aren't very familiar with the written works.

Quotes of the Game:
*After rolling an Eye on an Awe attempt* "Stop or the ... pony? gets it!"
"You know what a scarecrow is, right? These are like ... distract crows!"
*As Aurel and Galion speak in Elvish* Dale Human: "I think that Elf is being condescending about us." Dwarf: "Of Course he is, he's an Elf" Woodsman "... and he probably understands Westron." Galion glares at them.

[Rue]

Sounds like fun, thanks for sharing!

[Majestic]

Yes, sounds like you're off to a great start. Thanks for sharing the details with us, Scrollreader!

[Tuska]

Enjoyed reading that. Be interesting if they follow up and help the trader or wander off on their own quest.

[Scrollreader]

I have another session to update this with, but work has been crazy lately. I'll see if I can get it up today or tomorrow.

[Scrollreader]

So I actually have two sessions to update (with another coming this Sunday).

Session 2: Wherein the Players (but not the characters) correctly identify Baldor as the Buttmonkey of Fate.

After taking care of their own personal business at the Festival (herbs for Radagast, meeting old friends, revisiting the Battlefield of the Five Armies, etc) our band of companions checks back in with Baldor. He has not been able to find anyone willing to brave Mirkwood, at least not until after the festival (and hence, spring, since no one is going through Mirkwood in winter). The company confers among themselves, and decides to accompany Baldor on his journey, along with his son, Belgo.

Herein also lies our first fellowship phase, and it is still a bit clunky, as we're not really used to it yet. The next one will go much more smoothly. Roderic, the Bard, trains his hound to defend him, Lonnie the Barding improves her dual-weilding virtue, Aurel the Elf takes Shadow-Bane, The Healer improves his knowledge of Healing Herbs to master poison remedies and picks up some skill with the bow, and Farmann, in a nice combination of some solid roleplaying and good rolls when it counts, manages to get a longsword Made On Anvil Way, at the cost of going slightly in debt (3T) to a noble at the court of King Bard.
AP gets spent on a few things, notably everyone with Travel 1 buys it up to 2, and Aurel buys hers up to Travel 3, which is fortuitous. The stalwart dwarf, Glabum has an absentee player, so he does not have a downtime, and while he accompanies the companions, he does nothing for them (besides guarding the ponies and Belgo at various points in the story). The PCs (besides Farmann, who has negative treasure) also decide to invest some of their treasure in trade goods for the Woodsmen, using the advice of Baldor and the Woodsmen PCs for what to buy.

So, along with Baldor's ponies, and a few of their own, the PCs set off in late summer, headed West through Mirkwood. Lonnie, having a way with boats, will be the guide up the river to the Elven Halls, Aurel will take over from there, replacing the dwarf, who is being the cardboard cutout of Inigo from the Princess Bride. The river travel is uneventful, except for the Healer failing a fatigue check. But they have boats and ponies, and will be fine.

Arriving at the Elvenking's Halls, the companions are a bit taken aback at the offer to stay in the Cellars, but gilded words and bright hearts manage to earn them a place in the Halls. (Not a single failure, and good trait usage by my PCs). With their travel fatigue mended, they are left at the Enchanted Stream, with strict instructions not to leave the path.
No sooner have the elves vanished into the trees, when Lonnie decides to bottle the water from the Enchanted Stream, with thoughts of burgling up to a Giant or Troll and erasing their memories by adding it to their drinks. Some of the wiser party members warn her, but she is athletic and clever enough to manage it without spilling or touching the stream herself. She marks the canteen, to avoid mistakes, and the party sets off in earnest.

(There are a bunch of travel checks, interspersed throughout, but no hazards for almost this whole session. The most noteworthy thing is that the Healer continues to fail fatigue checks. All of them. If he didn't have a pony, he'd have been in very serious trouble, and it still was no fun for him)

The party has a few nights to get immersed in the gloom of Mirkwood, and find out more about Baldor. At this point, during a break to smoke and order food, no less than three players approach me individually and identify Baldor as doomed.

Another week of traveling, and then Baldor has a conversation with Lonnie, who is on watch, regarding his son growing away from him (Belgo is taking writing lessons from Roderic, and mooning after the Elf, though she doesn't seem to notice). She tries to comfort him, but a rolled eye and some good RP from the player results in her bringing up his wife, and making him wracked with grief. While she tries to give him space, he reaches for a water skin, tears in his eyes ... And drinks out of the one filled with the water of the Enchanted Stream.

(To Be Continued .. )

[Scrollreader]

Session 2: Continued ...

The PCs set off after Baldor, and find evidence that he was attacked and dragged off by Spiders. Aurel, the Elf maiden reminds them that the Spiders often take prey alive, to hang and 'season'. Riven with Anguish (the player volunteered for some Shadow, ended up taking one point), Lonnie declared she was going after him, and after some discussion, the rest of the group agreed, leaving Glabum the dwarf with Belgo and the ponies.
The group tracked the missing man to a ruined tower, covered in webs, and again Lonnie volunteered herself to climb the tower and rescue the hanging bundle of webs they guessed to be Baldor. She made it to the top and freed him without incident, but on the way down became entrapped in the sticky webs. Meanwhile, the rest of the party took watch for the return of the Spiders. Aurel then scaled the wall to help free Lonnie, and get Baldor down safely. Lonnie, now free, then fell from the wall, taking some bruises (not least to her pride), ripping through the webbing on the way down. And now, the Spiders began to arrive, slowly at first, but then in greater numbers.

Their mission accomplished, the Companions let Baldor and the Bard, Roderic get a head start, and then fled from the onrushing horde of arachnids. It was touch and go (hope was spent), but they managed to stay ahead of their pursuers and reach the safety of the path. As the Spiders hissed and burbled in anger and rage, a volley of arrows convinced them to depart, and the party took stock of their situation.

After a few more days on the road, mostly recovered from their ordeal (though the Healer was beginning to be quite fatigued from all those failed travel checks) they found themselves in the path of a terrible storm. Ranging ahead, the Woodsmen scouts found signs of smoke, and lead the group to an ancient tree stump. They called out, but when they got no reply, the onrushing storm drove them inside for shelter. Inside, they found a meager home, with every wall covered in terrible leering faces. Somewhat I'll at ease, they tried to keep the lad Belgo from worry (as they had noticed the trip was beginning to weigh heavily on him) by telling funny stories and singing. Just then, a crazed man burst in, preceded by a wave of body odor, and began jabbering at them and waving a spear around. Some well chosen words (particularly from the Healer) and a general sense of empathy allowed them to gain permission to stay the night. In the morning, as they departed, he entrusted them with a broken axe head. Aurel recognized it as ancient dwarven work, and the Woodsmen as one of the missing trappings of the Warleader of the Woodsmen, lost for a generation or more. The company left some food near the stump, where he would be sure to find it, and continued onwards, relieved that even in the depths of Mirkwood, there was some hospitality, if no real hope for the mad hermit to recover.

As the days passed (and the Healer failed yet another travel check) the darkness and gloom began to weigh on the hearts of the companions, and the boy, Belgo. (The Healer and Farmann failed corruption checks). Lonnie tried to lift the spirits of the Healer with a prank involving mud to ward off the swarms of biting flies while he was sleeping, and while not particularly successful, he appreciated the attempt, and gave her his name.
Aurel and Baldor confirmed that the forest should be coming to an end in another week or two, and the party pressed on, as the weather had a brief warm spell, and the forest became a stifling, choking oven, filled with unmoving air and oppressive heat.

The Healer and Lonnie were both overcome with weariness (and the spell of the wicked trees in this section of the forest), and together with Belgo, persuaded the party to call a halt for the day, and wait for the weather to break. While the fellowship rested, the two of them each had a dream. The Healer dreamed that he knew where the remaining pieces of Wolfbiter, the Axe of Legend lay, and Lonnie dreamed again of Dain's Amulet, and that it had fallen from the grasp of the Lord of the Eagles, and lay nearby. While they were discussing their respective dreams, Farmann (through trait use and unforseen actions) noticed that the boy, Belgo, was on edge as well. The companions, Swift and Cunning, tackled the lad, and managed to restrain him through his fit of madness.

Aurel determined that the trees themselves were old and wicked here, and the party discussed why the path would bring them near such a place, and what might cause it. After long discussion, the party reluctantly decided that their task lay with Baldor, and escorting him to Woodland Hall. They left what warnings they may on the path, and also with the guards at the Forest Gate, as they finally left the forest of Mirkwood behind. A message was sent through them to Thranduil, but it was generally agreed that while he would eventually deal with the issue, or the path would avoid that place in time, it might not be soon enough to save other travellers.

Still, the party pressed on, now through the easier lands of the Beornings, though Farmann only narrowly avoided having to fight a Great Boar larger than one of their ponies while out hunting (Finally a hazard, and he spent hope). Even in this, not nearly as exhausting land, however, the long miles continued to wear on the Healer, as he grew more and more fatigued.
As the party arrived at the Old Ford, Roderic the Bard set his master plan in motion. Being a Cunning man, he had been gradually drawing out Baldor and Belgo on Belgo's mother throughout the journey. While the group enjoyed a roof over their head (even if only a shared barn) he spent treasure to put on a feast for the local folk and fellow travelers, and then revealed the song he had been secretly working on for the entire trip, the tale of Baldor's Bride. (He rolled a Gandalf, a Tengwar, and invoked a trait). A song of simple, but unquestioned love, and the joys of life, and perhaps, meeting once more beyond life's end. Propelled by the simple, but elegant folk tune and the beauty of his words, the song would spread with travellers all through the North in the coming years.
The miles flew quicker, after that, as Belgo and Baldor took heart, and the fellowship made their way to Woodland Hall, their task completed. They had passed through the perils of Mirkwood, and been true to their word, risking themselves and leaving the path to save their charge and friend.

[Scrollreader]

Loremaster Notes:

I was pleased to see how the party got into the spirit of things. Lonnie's player didn't even know what Anguish was, when she said she should take some Shadow for Baldor losing his memory and running off, and The Bard's song just blew me away. They also decided to skedaddle from the Spider Castle pretty quickly, and worked together to make sure it happened (and made sure Baldor got out first).
The Healer really did fail every. single. fatigue. check. By the end, when out of Mirkwood, he couldn't even have passed by spending Hope (I don't remember the first few, but at 1 fatigue each, he wasn't really concerned, at the time. He also rolled an Eye on both corruption checks, and in general did not have a great time. He's a veteran roleplayer (but first TOR game), but he still took it a bit hard, particularly the loss of AP. His luck would eventually turn, but it is something to keep in mind for the future, if AP gains trend in a very unbalanced direction over time.
On the flip side, good trait usage continues. It's something I was a bit worried about, as it is non-traditional, but the group has handled it very well, making smart decisions on autosucesses vs AP, and especially on invoking unexpected actions (Wary, Swift, Keen-Eyed, etc)
I'm still feeling my way towards an XP progression I'm happy with, since our sessions run about 5 and a half hours (with occasional breaks to order delivery or smoke, but still. A concentrated chunk of gaming.
The fellowship is also really working together, both in combat and in social encounters, and I am lucky enough to have players who can and will make poor decisions (as players) of it makes sense for the heroes, and who are willing to roleplay out their failures with almost as much gusto as their successes.
Thus far, everyone is full up on Hope, but it is via smart decisions, teamwork, and a willingness to accept failure, particularly when it is unpleasant but not a critical situation. And also, via the Marsh Bell and now the Spiders, a willingness to avoid fighting when it gains them nothing.
I'm still a bit slow on rulebook references for a few things (like the Hazard table, and going over a slightly clunky and artificial feeling fellowship phase, but I think on the whole, I did better as a LM this time than the last, and the players are, most importantly, having a great deal of fun.

[Majestic]

Great recaps, and it sounds like you're doing an excellent job, Scrollreader.

I really analyzed the recommended XP amounts, considering the suggested values and how long our longer sessions equated to (like you, we do about 5-6 hours, usually). For my group, I give out two values, depending on the type of session.

When it's one that ends "in the middle" of an adventure, they get 2 XP.

When they finish, and assuming they accomplished their goals and did well (which usually happens), they get 6 XP.