A second session of the Manor of the Giant Arminius, run a week after the first. Again using Begone, FOE.
The second session took place an in-game day after the first. The Rebels had seized the ground floor of the mansion, and carried off or destroyed all the treasure. The floor above was a battleground, Arminius' soldiers mounting a desperate last stand against the attacking Levelers. Smoke billowed from the second floor windows. If anyone was planning on robbing the place, this was their final opportunity to do so.
From The Ogre Gods by Hubert and Gatignol
I had the same players as last session. Thanks to the haul of treasure from the basement crypt, their characters were Level 5.
- Jack Fatherd, Sheep Handling Rogue
- Iren Benedek, Lock Picking Witch
- Aldrich Brisbane, Crusading Dwarfaboo and Ex Hoglord
Jack Fatherd entered the foyer ahead of the group. He was sneaky, but not sneaky enough to avoid a pack of ghouls scavenging under the kitchen door. He escaped a mauling by the whole pack, but one of the ghouls caught up to him, while the others attacked Aldrich and Iren. The "crusader" held his own, while Jack raised his holy symbol and called on the Earth Mother to drive away the undead creatures. Three of the ghouls were turned by the act, and the fourth ran away after the pack, apologizing profusely.
Floor 0 of the Manor
The players regrouped, but were interrupted before they could climb the giant stairs to the second floor by none other than the leader of the rebels herself, Hildred the Burned, and a strike team of eleven guerillas. She questioned the players' motives for being in the castle, but they convinced her that they'd fight alongside the rebellion, if given the opportunity. So together, they ascended to the next floor.
Floor 1
The second floor landing presented an immediate problem. Directly North of the staircase was a door to a bedroom. Underneath the door, where a human could normally have crawled through, was a barricade. Behind that barricade were soldiers, peering out through murder holes and aiming firearms. Iren came up with a plan to defeat the barricade. She cast Invisibility on herself, then asked the rest of the group to shoot at the barricade and distract the soldiers behind it. The soldiers predictably returned fire, which deafened them and obscured their vision with a cloud of black powder smoke. The invisible sorceress used this as cover to squeeze past the obstacles and into the bedroom, without being detected.
Inside the giant bedroom, twenty slaves stoked a massive bonfire of piled furniture - the source of the smoke from the second floor window. The giant Arminius lay dying in his massive bed, attended by two of his daughters. One looked smart and irritated, the other tired and disinterested. Iren noticed there were only six soldiers - few enough to ensorcel with a single Sleep spell. She hid under a giant dresser before casting, to avoid being stomped to death by giants once her invisibility broke. The soldiers passed out, the rebels pushed over the barricade under the door, and battle was joined
The lazy giantess (Laura) dropped to her knees and felt around under the cabinet for Iren. The smart giantess (Gita) stepped forward and swept the ground in front of the door with a giant chair, killing most of the incoming rebels. Hildred the Burned spent all her soul dice to save three of her fellow guerillas. Jack began confirmation-killing the sleeping soldiers and taking their money. Aldrich rushed in to engage Gita in hand to hand combat. With just one arm, he proved a formidable foe, avoiding her heavy overhand strikes and dealing serious damage with his backsword. Iren worked her way around the room to the dying giant's bed, where a number of his treasures lay unattended. The rebels fell back under the door to avoid another crushing blow, and commenced a withering fire with missile weapons through the gap. Their opening barrage of musket fire woke up the soldiers, who joined the fight alongside the giants. Arminius rolled out of bed and fell on the floor with an earth shattering kaboom. Gita was chased off by serious damage from Aldrich's blade and the rebels' hail of javelins and slingstones, fleeing through the door to the East. Laura followed soon after, laziness outweighing her love of her father.
Arminius pushed himself to his feet and entered the fray, nearly stomping Aldrich to death. A furious elbow drop left him prone on the floor, Aldrich and Jack piled on and struck him serious wounds while the soldiers tried to dislodge them. Iren pulled a dagger and desperately defended herself against a wounded soldier, who came at her sword in hand. Arminius thrashed and rolled around, almost killing Jack and Aldrich, and definitely killing his own soldiers. Pendergast the Wizard, house mage of the Giant Arminius, peered into the room under the giant door to the East and cast Sleep, temporarily removing the rebels and Aldrich from the fight. Iren kicked Aldrich awake and cast Hold Portal, sealing off the gap under the door. The wizard Hasted himself and cast Knock to open the door. The Giant Arminius crawled on his hands and knees, reaching under the bed to grab for Aldrich. Aldrich decapitated him.
The wizard ran away, at twice his normal movement speed. Aldrich woke up the rebels, to show them what a great job he did. The rebels cheered, and helped him roll Arminius' severed head to the staircase. Iren and Jack argued about what to do with the treasure in the room - Arminius' sceptre, broach and signet ring were up for grabs. The door to the East hung open where Pendergast Knocked it. Inside, Laura reclined naked, pampered by a handful of her surviving slaves. She was guarded by a handful of soldiers, but they fled down the dumbwaiter to the kitchen when they saw what became of Arminius. The adventurers ignored her and continued fussing over the treasure.
Meanwhile, Aldrich was given a hero's welcome downstairs, at the rebels' command center on the front dinner deck. He asked if any of them had seen the rebel squad leader they met yesterday, who had helped them clear out the basement. Someone saw him leading a squad back into the cellar, maybe he was still down there. Aldrich went to check.
Upstairs, Iren and Aldrich continued arguing. A group of rebels came back into the room, saw Laura in the adjacent bedroom, and rushed to attack her. The players finally decided to take the treasure out the balcony to the North and toss it down to the manor's back deck. They chased away a pair of soldiers guarding the deck, but were interrupted by another giantess and her retinue of soldiers arriving in the bedroom. This was Dora, the ten foot giantess who chased them away from the castle at the end of the previous adventuring day. She was very upset about her dad dying.
Jack tried to stealthily toss the treasure over the balcony, but got caught in the act. He pushed the load over the side and was ventilated with musket fire for his troubles. Only a quick prayer to the Earth Mother kept the volley from killing him. Iren fired back with one of her two guns, and both players dropped off the balcony before Dora could catch them. They hid under the overhang, Jack using his mastery of climbing and Iren using a pair of dwarven microspikes that Jack brought from his adventures in ANGUISHEDWIRES.
In the basement, Aldrich was chased by a wine pudding, which slithered after him into the freshly rededicated temple of the Liberator. A maenad stepped forward with a piece of wood from the bonfire and scared the wine blob off. Aldrich assumed (correctly) that the rebel he was looking for had been captured by the dwarves. The Liberator cultists had sealed off the dwarven tunnels leading into the temple, to avoid dealing with their bullshit. He asked if they had also sealed the dwarven tunnel in the crypt. They hadn't. The maenads decided they were going to hit the dwarves from all sides, kill them all and rescue their slaves. Aldrich couldn't dissuade them (they worshiped the Liberator, and the dwarves were slavers), and couldn't help them (he had an agreement with the dwarves, turning on them would have been a chaotic act). So he regretfully returned upstairs.
Meanwhile, Jack and Iren climbed down to the first floor deck, which looked out over the cliff edge. The overhang above screened them from the soldiers' muskets, but Dora the giantess leapt down from the balcony to confront them. Jack ran into the living room to the South, and Dora followed, unable to catch the fast moving human. She was stopped in her tracks by a party of rebels, who entered the parlor through the soldiers' sallyport from the South and opened fire with muskets and thrown objects. Aldrich, returned to the ground floor, heard the sounds of fighting and came running to assist. Iren finished loading one of her guns as Dora came running back onto the balcony, chased by the one armed fighter.
Aldrich caught up to Dora, but hesitated before striking her down. This allowed Pendergast the Wizard to descend from up above in gaseous form and interpose himself between the fighter and the giantess. He offered an alternate arrangement: let his daughter go, and he'd give Aldrich the command word to get into his secret lair on the roof. This baffled both Aldrich and Dora. His daughter? Pendergast explained that he used the spell Enlarge to bang Arminius' wife. It was why Dora was so short. The rebels caught up to them, but Pendergast blocked their progress with a wall of stone. Dora almost squashed the wizard, but decided not to kill her dad. The wizard gave Aldrich the password, Dora picked him up, and the pair fled around the corner of the house before the rebels could climb the stone wall. There was a flash of light as Pendergast dropped a polymorph-self, and a small Roc glided away from the bluff, the ten foot giantess hanging on to its ankles.
The rebels were disappointed that Aldrich didn't kill the giantess and the house wizard. They briefly suspected him of collaboration, but that didn't make any sense after the whole killing-Arminius thing. They didn't contest him when he retired from the battlefield. Jack and Iren waited for the guerrillas to leave, picked up the loot from the back deck, and followed Aldrich out of the manor. They didn't encounter any resistance on the way down the bluff, but they saw something distressing in the woods below: a 20 foot tall giant, accompanied by an entourage of mounted soldiers. A mile out, and fast approaching via the King's Road.
(I tried to find a medieval woodcut or something of a giantess, but the term "giantess" entered into a google image search just returns pornography).
The players hurried down the slope and into the woods, hiding from the approaching warband. The giantess Morwenna had arrived. The rebels turned out in large numbers to defend the freshly seized manor, but the soldiers cleared the position with a Scroll of Cloudkill. Morwenna entered her childhood home, followed by her entourage. The men at arms were equipped with arquebuses, to which they had attached blades, allowing them to be used as short spears. The players heard the sounds of battle from inside. Then the doors of the first floor balcony flew open. Morwenna emerged, carrying her sister Gita with a hand around her throat, and tossed her over the side, 40 feet down to the ground. The adventurers loaded up the wagon with treasure, unhobbled their mule, and left before Morwenna's cavalry dispersed into the woods to hunt down any surviving rebels.
I got to test a lot of system elements from Begone FOE that haven't gotten used in previous sessions. Soul Dice, turning undead, spellcasting at higher than first level. It turns out, HEART and MIND are better than I gave credit for. BODY scales both horizontally and vertically, because each point grants a new fighting art, but also upgrades your existing fighting arts that scale based on your BODY score. Aldrich was almost unhittable while using Defensive Tactics, which add AC equal to your BODY. And that's good! It makes "high level fighters" viable, instead of a sideshow to the casters. SKILL is still king, though. A single point can give you an ability that's always useful, like Climbing or Stealth. Which I also like, because it means dipping a single point into SKILL is rewarding, while still having an opportunity cost of the other ability scores that point could have bought.
I'll post the scenario folder for the Manor of the Giant Arminius soon.
Meanwhile, Aldrich was given a hero's welcome downstairs, at the rebels' command center on the front dinner deck. He asked if any of them had seen the rebel squad leader they met yesterday, who had helped them clear out the basement. Someone saw him leading a squad back into the cellar, maybe he was still down there. Aldrich went to check.
Upstairs, Iren and Aldrich continued arguing. A group of rebels came back into the room, saw Laura in the adjacent bedroom, and rushed to attack her. The players finally decided to take the treasure out the balcony to the North and toss it down to the manor's back deck. They chased away a pair of soldiers guarding the deck, but were interrupted by another giantess and her retinue of soldiers arriving in the bedroom. This was Dora, the ten foot giantess who chased them away from the castle at the end of the previous adventuring day. She was very upset about her dad dying.
Jack tried to stealthily toss the treasure over the balcony, but got caught in the act. He pushed the load over the side and was ventilated with musket fire for his troubles. Only a quick prayer to the Earth Mother kept the volley from killing him. Iren fired back with one of her two guns, and both players dropped off the balcony before Dora could catch them. They hid under the overhang, Jack using his mastery of climbing and Iren using a pair of dwarven microspikes that Jack brought from his adventures in ANGUISHEDWIRES.
Floor -1. The "appendix" is the dwarven hideout
Meanwhile, Jack and Iren climbed down to the first floor deck, which looked out over the cliff edge. The overhang above screened them from the soldiers' muskets, but Dora the giantess leapt down from the balcony to confront them. Jack ran into the living room to the South, and Dora followed, unable to catch the fast moving human. She was stopped in her tracks by a party of rebels, who entered the parlor through the soldiers' sallyport from the South and opened fire with muskets and thrown objects. Aldrich, returned to the ground floor, heard the sounds of fighting and came running to assist. Iren finished loading one of her guns as Dora came running back onto the balcony, chased by the one armed fighter.
Aldrich caught up to Dora, but hesitated before striking her down. This allowed Pendergast the Wizard to descend from up above in gaseous form and interpose himself between the fighter and the giantess. He offered an alternate arrangement: let his daughter go, and he'd give Aldrich the command word to get into his secret lair on the roof. This baffled both Aldrich and Dora. His daughter? Pendergast explained that he used the spell Enlarge to bang Arminius' wife. It was why Dora was so short. The rebels caught up to them, but Pendergast blocked their progress with a wall of stone. Dora almost squashed the wizard, but decided not to kill her dad. The wizard gave Aldrich the password, Dora picked him up, and the pair fled around the corner of the house before the rebels could climb the stone wall. There was a flash of light as Pendergast dropped a polymorph-self, and a small Roc glided away from the bluff, the ten foot giantess hanging on to its ankles.
The rebels were disappointed that Aldrich didn't kill the giantess and the house wizard. They briefly suspected him of collaboration, but that didn't make any sense after the whole killing-Arminius thing. They didn't contest him when he retired from the battlefield. Jack and Iren waited for the guerrillas to leave, picked up the loot from the back deck, and followed Aldrich out of the manor. They didn't encounter any resistance on the way down the bluff, but they saw something distressing in the woods below: a 20 foot tall giant, accompanied by an entourage of mounted soldiers. A mile out, and fast approaching via the King's Road.
(I tried to find a medieval woodcut or something of a giantess, but the term "giantess" entered into a google image search just returns pornography).
The players hurried down the slope and into the woods, hiding from the approaching warband. The giantess Morwenna had arrived. The rebels turned out in large numbers to defend the freshly seized manor, but the soldiers cleared the position with a Scroll of Cloudkill. Morwenna entered her childhood home, followed by her entourage. The men at arms were equipped with arquebuses, to which they had attached blades, allowing them to be used as short spears. The players heard the sounds of battle from inside. Then the doors of the first floor balcony flew open. Morwenna emerged, carrying her sister Gita with a hand around her throat, and tossed her over the side, 40 feet down to the ground. The adventurers loaded up the wagon with treasure, unhobbled their mule, and left before Morwenna's cavalry dispersed into the woods to hunt down any surviving rebels.
I got to test a lot of system elements from Begone FOE that haven't gotten used in previous sessions. Soul Dice, turning undead, spellcasting at higher than first level. It turns out, HEART and MIND are better than I gave credit for. BODY scales both horizontally and vertically, because each point grants a new fighting art, but also upgrades your existing fighting arts that scale based on your BODY score. Aldrich was almost unhittable while using Defensive Tactics, which add AC equal to your BODY. And that's good! It makes "high level fighters" viable, instead of a sideshow to the casters. SKILL is still king, though. A single point can give you an ability that's always useful, like Climbing or Stealth. Which I also like, because it means dipping a single point into SKILL is rewarding, while still having an opportunity cost of the other ability scores that point could have bought.
I'll post the scenario folder for the Manor of the Giant Arminius soon.
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