Dubzaron Session 93: The Desperate Battle of Fight 93

they fought gnolls

Happy Friday, everyone. I continued my lazy approach to BROSR style DMing back on 01/28/23 by not even showing up to DM or PC or anything. Personal stuff got in the way and continues to get in the way. Though these days I am running some PCs now and then in Dubzaron and may do some PC Journal style session reports when those sessions come up. Can't wait! 

This session report is by DM JB who is the second (but not last!) co-DM to take the Dubzaron Dungeon Master reigns. I believe this meant DM Brigadine was able to be a PC. Isn't that cool? If you want the best and most effortless campaign, a campaign where players can DM or PC as the needs and moods strike, you need to use BROSR methods like 1:1 Jeffrogaxian time and Patrons. 

I hope you enjoy the session report. I know I did. 

-DM BDubs

Session Report

Hi. I'm JB, the player that runs Daria Vaylas. Since Dubs stepped away I wanted to step up. Daria found a treasure map, so I made a dungeon to explore. This adventure was a good example of patron action generating missions for lower level characters. In this particular case, the depredations of the sorceress queen created a refugee crisis, as Drakon wished to save the lives peasants in threatened domains by evacuating them. I created about 8 pages of rules for handling refugees. Many have landed in Daria's stronghold, Iannavale. Daria is busy curing disease as many have gotten sick from overcrowding. 

Recently, in solo play, Daria found a map to a treasure worth 5d6x1000 gp. Due to many factors, including the refugee crisis, Daria is short on gold, and put out word: adventures who bring the treasure to Iannavale may claim half of it.

On 1.28.23 a group of cleric Baldwinning plus a plus of level 1's took up Daria's offer. They began in Iannavale and spoke to Daria's majordomo, Abacus. (Daria was away on session 91 and 92.)  He loaned then a chain mail armor +2 (2 stone), plus Daria's old light warhose, and 1000 gp for expenses. 

They knew the map the old, but didn't really know why it would be valuable. No one in the party had a way to decipher the writing on it. They just knew it was old and lead to something old.

I was impressed with the shopping the PCs did, but I'll skip that. Travel had a lot of encounters which they easily avoided on light horses. There was one night encounter with 4 Black Dragons which they also managed to avoid. (The dragons were not actually hostile. If there was real charisma based character in the group I would dock him for not parleying. But there wasn't.)

When the PC's arrived at the hex with the lair they did some lair searching in the grasslands. I described this particular bit of grasslands being more like a really large rocky hill. The first thing they found was a pool of water surrounded by a circle of stone, like a miniature "stonehenge." The PCs elected not to approach.

The PCs eventually found the location the map was leading to. The path went up, up, up into a rocky hill and then down so that there were cliffs on either side of the trail. They emerged from the trail into an open valley, about 1/8th of a mile long. Looking northwest, at the far end were 2 sets of cliffs. The first had gentle slopes on the north and south sides. The second cliff was 100 feet sheer and had three stone faces on them with open mouths and tongues sticking out. The middle face was in front of a stone plaza (not visible to the players) with some kind of stone monument in front of it.

The PCs rode towards the first cliff and were surprised by 10 gnolls who fired bows at long range. Braxton the mage was killed in that volley. The PCs were spooked and took off. They spent another hour or two looking for an alternative approach to the valley. I treated this like a lair search with a random chance of finding a trail into the south, west, or north. (They originally entered from the east.) While I grabbed a snack the players planned. When they discovered a trail leading to the southern part of the upper cliff they were thrilled. They assaulted that area.

Unfortunately there were 7 gnolls up there at well. Battle ensured. The players did well with flaming oil and improvised fire arrows. They set a tent on fire which alerted the gnolls on the cliff face below, who begin climbing up a rope ladder while this battle occured. But it also did some extra damage. 

The PCs downed 2 gnolls while taking 1 or 2 losses themselves. The gnolls did a fighting withdrawal. The PCs persued and met the gnolls at the top of the rope ladder, in a semi-circle around the mouth of the stone head. By now the gnolls on the bottom of the cliff heard the commotion and climbed up to assist. There were one or two more rounds of combat. The PCs did well with summoned berserkers but by then half the party was down from arrow fire. 

I had planned that on round 1d8 the elf mage in the stone head would emerge. And so he did on round 7. He destroyed the berserkers with a spell and moved to parley. The PCs used the time to check their fallen comrades. 

Turns out the elf mage really didn't care about the loss of two gnolls. Edit: the PCs will remember after the fact that the gnolls were not happy about this. He asked why the PC's were there and how they found the place. The PCs showed him the map. He asked if anyone knew ancient lore. They did not. He offered the PCs 1000 gp if they would bring someone who did. He revealed there was treasure here because it was the location of an ancient "tollhouse." He did not elaborate further. 

The PC's took the deal and returned to Spen without further incident.

Grades

Baldwinning the Crusader Level 2 lawful cleric. Fought bad guys and healed friends: E.

Dante the level 1 Mystic. Used mystical powers to fight worthy enemies: E.

Silas the Infiltrator. Level 1 Neutral Assassin. Failed to infiltrate. When the party returned only an hour or two later, of course the gnolls who were positioned on the top cliff were ready. I gave both sides a bonus to surprise and rolled a 2 for each. I think he could have looked for a still-higher approach to observe the enemy's pattarns or waited to do a nighttime attack or snuck in by himself to assassinate someone or at least observe their patterns or just wait a few days to do give them a false sense of safety. Instead he used himself like a fighter against an opponent that knew he was coming. However, searching for the alternative approach was a good idea. Grade: S.

DM Grade A/F:  I knew the players would search for an alternative approach. I knew they would fight the gnolls. I knew they would take a deal. Does this mean I was really good at planning or does it mean I railroaded the players? I honestly don't know. (The elf mage had a reaction of 9 but I didn't factor prior violence. Looking the rules for diplomacy... if he didn't consider the gnolls to be his friends then his behavior was still within the rules.)

PCs involved:

Baldwinning the Crusader Level 2 lawful cleric.

Silas the Infiltrator. Level 1 Neutral Assassin.

Dante the level 1 Mystic. 

Crowbait level 1 fighter.

Braxton level 1 mage.

Waylon lvl 1 mage neutral.

XP Earned: 

2 Gnolls: 40 xp

0%  13xp      5%  14xp   10%   15xp

1.28.23 - 2.3.23 Total, including rest

1.28. Begin in Iannavale. Talk to Abacus about mission. Get map. Travel to Tem. Do some shopping. Copy map. Leave map in Tem. Travel to Aster. 

1.29. Begin in Aster. Travel to hex 28.37.

1.30. Begin in hex 28.37. Travel to hex 33.33

1.31. Begin in hex 33.33. Travel to hex 33.37. Lair search for 1 hour. Find miniature circle of stones around a small pool.

2.1. Hex 33.37. Lair search for two hours. Wander into gnoll camp. Retreat. Lair search for 2 hours for alternative approach. Attack gnoll camp again. Talk to evil elf wizard.

2.2. Force march to Spen.

2.3. Rest

Dubzaron Session 92: Return to Lamalla's Pool

does lamalla look like this?

This is the second session where I was not the DM. This was DM Brigadine once again from the world famous Brigadungeon! 

Time: 1/27/23 Delve 4 hours, 1/28-1/30 Travel, Rest 1/31, Active 2/1/23

PCs:

Tuck, Barbarian 4th level Pit Fighter

Daria Vaylas, Bladedancer, Lvl 8, Lawful, Bringer of Mercy  

Bob the Mariner L1 explorer. Lawful.

Vince McMaximus Pugilist L11 Lawful 

Neutralio Neutral Fighter guard Level 4 

Bulwark Adieu, L1 Paladin (Temple Guard)

Edelweiss Mage Magical Scholar lvl 6 

Hench:

Dina Fighter L5 Lawful

Torquemada Paladin L4

Julia Thief L5, Lawful 

Davian Cruise Neutral Dwarven Machinist Engineer lvl 2

Lily Lawful Bladedancer Bringer of Mercy lvl 1 

Azalea Neutral Shaman Druid lvl 2

This session the group was committed to continuing its attack on Lammala. After Session 91, they had camped topside with the troops and some of the loot that they had pulled off of the sharkotaurs. The PCs were fairly sure they were zeroing in on the target, they just weren’t exactly sure what the target might be.. Some of the PCs thought there was going to be an altar to destroy, some that they were going to kill Lammala herself. 

Vince was calling again. They got organized and went back into the portal, acting on intel acquired from a captured sharkotaur that the action seemed to be to the north in the dungeon. They carefully approached a large stone door carved with scenes of predatory ocean animals which Tuck eventually heaved open with his Power Suit. He stumbled into the room beyond with others of the front line to reveal a whole heap of fishlocks (morlocks with gills) and white apes.

Battle ensued with the enemy trying to keep them hemmed up in the hallway, but super high ac and some overruns and cleaves opened space for the boys. Daria in traditional Daria fashion cut a hole to the leader in the back while the rest did the work up front. Cleaving was designed for this fight and was on full display, the fighter-heavy group choppin’ and stabbin’ their way into the room and eventually winning the day. They found some meager loot, rested, and then carted it back to the portal. On their way back, the gently rolling ocean wave of the floor turned suddenly violent, disordering their march and tossing them all about, a few people taking damage from twisting ankles and such.

At this point Vince established a breaching formation for tackling doors. They followed a hallway off of the fishlock room and found a door to practice on. Bursting through, they were met with an opaque red mist and a much warmer environment than the cold, clammy rest of the dungeon. 

They backed out after hearing some snuffling sounds to discuss options. Edelweiss the mage cast invisibility on Vince and the high level pugilist crept along the walls in the room due to miserably poor visibility, eventually nearly tripping over some emaciated giant boars in one of the corners. Daria dropped a speak with animals spell and the PCs foolishly waited for me to affect a silly animal voice like they make Bdubs do. I live to disappoint.

After some discussion with the hungry animals, they led the boars back to the portal and out. There was an attempt made to corral them outside but the terrible weather and lack of enthusiasm from the mercs allowed them to escape. Vince thought they might have been his captured henchmen but it was just a hunch and they let them go.

Another rough storm surge tossed them about but they kept on, breaching the next door that led into a hallway beyond the fishlock room. There was a door to the left, hallway to the right, and another opening off of that hallway. They crept up and peeked the corner of the opening, revealing a large room with a crushed sand floor. Two excessively oiled cloud giants in neon green speedos were wrestling while a dark shadowy figure of some kind watched from the watery ceiling above them. They wore old school football leather helmets and had crazy sickly green magic over their eyes.

The party huddled up and discussed fighting, evading, or trying to dispel whatever was affecting the giants. Eventually they settled on dispel. Daria presented and Ianna was able to lift the magic veil from the giants’ eyes long enough for them to toss off the helmets. Unfortunately they also tore off the speedos, leaving the party faced with a couple of Dr. Manhattans.

Vince stepped up and let them know that he was kind of a big deal with the WGE and all, but a minimum roll on reaction made the giants pretty apathetic. They just brushed past and looked around, eventually asking where the exit was. The party escorted them out so that there wasn’t a bloody one-sided battle topside. The giants thanked them for freeing them and offered them ½ of their lair treasure at some hex number far to the south east. The party just had to go get it. Bob the Mariner tried to tag along with them, but another poor reaction roll meant that they just ignored him and left.

Back in the portal, back to the giant hallway and they continued north down a long corridor. Took another offshoot hallway leading further north and ending with an unoccupied guardroom. Tuck explored it first and eventually the crew stacked in, noting the awful smell but nothing else of note besides some boring low level government furniture. The large party piled into the next hallway, following it even further north until it started to curl in on itself.

The last branch of the corridor pointed south and sloped downwards, with clawed marks in the sand on the floor as though something or someone was dragged down and thrown into the gaping portal at the end of the hallway. It was the pitch black of squid’s ink and burbling with the same kinds of bone, gore, and screaming faces as the evil pool that the party had dispeled in session 91.

They talked a bit about how scary this looked until Daria started buffing herself and jumped in the portal. The braver members of the party followed, with Neutralio threatening to throw Edelweiss in again. They buffed and jumped in, where they were deposited in the air in front of 8 Aspects of Lammala, each different and representative of whatever Lammala looks like in other BROSR campaigns. They were all screaming into the void of a large dome overhead where scenes of the various tragedies caused minute to minute by the Curse flashed overhead.

Hard to see against the scenes were dozens and dozens of captives held in sickly green magic bubbles with strands of neon green fishing line stringing them together through their cheeks. As the party floated down they watched a handful of elves sacrifice themselves to the foremost aspect of Lammala, a giant sized humanoid with a too-large mouth full of shark teeth, leaving behind piles of offered treasure that were being slowly absorbed into the black volcanic sand of the floor.

Lammala lowered her head and fixated on the adventurers, materializing a shadowy flickering aspect of the demon blade Stormbringer and smiling. She tried to speak, but the party only heard the jarring static of an off-air TV channel.

Battle was joined, but the party’s high AC and my poor rolls put the enemy behind early. Her devastating attacks were likely one shots to most of the party between her poison bite that was save or die and Stormbringer’s massive damage mod in this form. She only connected once on a paladin henchmen, killing him with poison, before the uberbuffed party wore her down. The lighter/lower level members of the group were focused on rescuing captives rather than punch above their weight while the heavy hitters beat her down with their buffed attacks.

On the killing blow, she fell and exploded in a wave of crackling black lightning, dealing damage to everyone and I think knocking someone down. The large party split duties of rescuing as many captives as they could while securing what loot that they could, including quite a bit of magic items and gems but leaving a ton of coins behind due to weight and the fact that the entire complex was roiling ominously.

They rushed through some interesting rooms filled with loot on their way out but had no time to investigate, reaching the final portal as the entire realm collapsed. They were violently thrown outside to land in the blood-mud of the torrential downpour that had been happening for days. The pool itself turned into a geyser that went on for quite some time before petering out.

The group immediately noticed the mercs standing around staring at the sky where the ever present rain had stopped, leaving behind an ominous overcast of blood red clouds and heat lightning. They took stock of their situation, having recovered Vince’s missing henchmen and a few of the other captives, Lawful elves of the Istrith forest who had their Eamon Aure holy symbols nailed to their chests with iron stakes. They performed some triage and shared out the load for their stockpile of loot between all of the mercs who were happy to stow it just to get out of the creepy location.

Some uneventful travel back to Turos Spen followed, where they ended the session to lick their wounds. There are rewards on offer, but there’s also a war on and two of the primary entities offering rewards are leading bits of the army. 

Grading: Dubzaron runs a class grading system ported over from AD&D. I look for aberrant behavior from the class’s obvious role within the party.

PCs:

Tuck, Barbarian 4th level Pit Fighter Bold, frontline, aggressive E

Daria Vaylas, Bladedancer, Lvl 8, Lawful, Bringer of Mercy Versatile, proper application of spells, warrior. E

Bob the Mariner L1 explorer. Lawful. Bold, engaged with the fights, E

Vince McMaximus Pugilist L11 Lawful Bold, leader, E

Neutralio Neutral Fighter guard Level 4 Bold, engaged, E

Bulwark Adieu, L1 Paladin (Temple Guard) Perished, no grade.

Edelweiss Mage Magical Scholar lvl 6 Cautious, utilitarian use of spells, E

Musings: 

So ends my first dungeon run for Dubzaron and online. All in all I think it was a success, with solid feedback on the vibes of the place. I think I underestimated the power level of the party when generating it, but that’s part of it. I don’t particularly believe in “balance” in a BROSR dungeon. What’s there is what’s there. But I would have liked for it to be a little more challenging for the party for this once in a year, multi-campaign event. Ultimately it came down to the dice during the Lammala fight. It could have truly been devastating, so I’ll call it fair play and a win for the good guys. (edited)

Session 92

Xp from Kills:    6930

Xp from Loot:    67514

Total XP:    74444

Cuts:    18

PC:    0%    8,272    5%    8,685    10%    9,099

Hench:    0%    4,136    5%    4,343    10%    4,549

Dubzaron Session 91: Spontaneous Heroism

I have recently taken a break from DMing the Dubzaron Campaign. But that hasn't stopped the campaign itself from continuing. In fact, the number of sessions played each month has actually increased! How, you ask? Well, thanks to 1:1 Jeffrogaxian Timekeeping and Patrons, the campaign has the EZ Mode structure to allow for Co-DMs and a stable of fantastic Co-DMs waiting in the wings. 

Most of these DMs have been keeping excellent notes on our campaign d1scord during this time and I realized hey why not share these terrific and exciting session reports with you, the people. I'm going to have an accelerated release of these reports since there is quite the backlog.

This session was ran waaaaay back on 01/21/23 by the outstanding DM Brig of Brigadungeon; a campaign where I run Teutch the Alchemist as a Patron. He runs Prefect Drakon as a Patron in Dubzaron.

Brigadine wasted no time in taking the reigns upon hearing of my need for a DMing break. I'm going to cut and paste his report below without adding anything. His DM voice is quite unique and those who haven't checked out his blog are in for a treat. 

Enjoy and game on!

Time: Downtime travel started 1/21/23 to kick off session play 1/26/23 at Turos Spen. Delve 1/27/23 5 hours, rest overnight, aim to delve 1/28/23.

PCs: Bob Lawful Explorer 1 Mariner, Tuck Neutral Barb 4 pit fighter, Daria Lawful Bladedancer 8, Gront Coldsky neutral Barb Housecarl, Edelweiss Mage Magical Scholar lvl 6, Neutralio Neutral Fighter Level 2, Arminius Lawful level 4 Nobirian Champion, Vince McMaximus L11 Pugilist, lawful

Hench: Dina, L5 Fighter, lawful, Torquemada L5 Paladin lawful, Julia, L5 Thief lawful, Davian Cruise Dwarven Machinist Engineer lvl 2, Lily Bladedancer Bringer of Mercy lvl 1, Azalea Shaman Druid lvl 2

Hi. I’m Brigadine. Bdubs had to take a break for a bit due to IRL. He announced that this past weekend and had the Discord server all atwitter. He’s temporarily passed the reins off to a few subDMs for downtime shenanigans and keeping the game moving forward. Several of us split up the responsibilities to keep up with downtime while the chatter continued on the server.

Somehow, the boys got excited enough to jump into a spontaneous session to start on a Saturday evening. Buncha players and 2 or 3 DMs on hand so someone was gonna do somethin’ hell or high water. There were tons of hooks, but Bdubs had just recently dropped this nugget: 

Blood Rain Torrential Downpour: This morning began a massive downpour of Lamalla's blood rains down across the lands. During the entire day and through the weekend it doesn't let up. Lawful dreams are haunted by the watery cackles of Lamalla during this time. "Soon!" she laughs "Soon all will be under my sway across the multiverse!" 

This drew out the big guns. Vince (Patron Pugilist 11) went to his long-time best friend or exasperated ruler (depends on who you ask) Prefect Drakon (Patron Fighter ???) with a plan to strike at Lammala and hopefully rescue some of his captured henchmen from a botched delve a month or two ago. The Curse is nearing its end and no one knows what to expect when it’s over, but why be the nail when you can be the hammer?

Drakon used his Deck of BroSR Trumps (See: Nine Princes in Amber) to contact every single PC in the Campaign on what amounted to a Zoom call where Vince pitched the mission. A pool had been discovered in the wilderness a few weeks ago that had been corrupting any elves in the hex. The Legate that had discovered it was offering rewards to deal with it and Vince and Drakon piled on.

Players picked their PCs, among them some of the heavy hitters of the campaign that have been idle or doing domain stuff, and worked out logistics to be where they needed to be to kick off the adventure. They got with the Captain of the Guard at Turos Spen for intel and did a little shopping and off they went. Wilderness travel was miserable and a little slower than planned due to the rain and differences in mount speeds, but they got there with only a few wild animal encounters that were easily avoided. It was a big party with more than a company of mercs so the few encounters that they saw really didn’t want none o’ that smoke.

They arrived amidst the aforementioned downpour to find a company of Light Cav stationed on guard who were just as miserable or more than the party. Vince spoke to Sergeant Schlepo (memed into Schlepius Maximus because ACKS) who was a bit of a smart ass but accepted their purpose for being there and showed them the pool.

It was perfectly circular, 30 feet in diameter, and perfectly clear despite the heavy downpour of blood. After some tinkering and experimentation including Vince trying to lure a mermaid with an old pumpkin spice latte, Bob the Mariner displayed great 1st level courage, tied a rope to himself, and jumped in. The rope elongated and eventually lost connection and Bob was never seen again. OR WAS HE?! Cue dramatic scene break. 

The party was worried and discussed various other plans to try to cautiously enter the pool, settling on jumping in with water breathing potions handy just in case. The notoriously cowardly Edelweiss (mage) noped pretty hard on going in until Neutralio just shoved her in and dove in after. Eventually everyone made it through the portal and into the dungeon, Edelweiss hyperventilating until they proved that they could enter and exit at will.

They were in a long, narrow room where the ceiling, walls, and floor were the color of the deepest darkest ocean, the last of which was rolling gently in mimicry of the ocean’s surface. Two rows of columns made of pink coral stretched the length of the room, several of which held magnesium torches giving off a harsh green light and sickly fumes. Bob the Mariner realized after a while that the rolling of the floor actually tilted to the northwest, kind of like they were standing on a bit of a wave and not flat water. Vince and others shared out a bunch of loaner magic items. Lammala’s Curse makes watery critters immune to normal weapons.

While the party discussed the various exits to the room, Tuck the Barbarian in his power armor tried to pluck a few torches from the columns, getting two and passing them around for folks to hold. One of the paladin henchmen detected evil and reported everything was evil. The whole place. Fun. 

They settled on heading west down a passage close to the entry, arriving at a door made of sand and seashells with a white plastic door ring shortly thereafter. Not a lot of discussion was had about how to approach doors, their confidence swollen with the presence of mid to high level characters, and they served up a no-knock warrant on the underwater realm, piling into the room and immediately triggering a trap.

The room had dappled greenish light like just under the surface of a scummy pond. About half of the large party entered the room before the trap sprung, flooding the space with murky pond water and causing swimming checks for everyone. Except Tuck. Because power armor. Sigh.

The presence of the power armor trivialized the threat of this drowning trap and the party was eventually able to swim or be towed through the water to the clear hallway on the other side. They found a short passage that led into a large chamber with an 8 feet tall pile of sea snakes writhing in the middle of it. Some discussion about how to attack and kill the snakes led to eventually persuading Edelweiss to drop a fireball on it. She did and all the sneks exploded leaving behind a spirally coral column that they had been clinging to.

I’ve never seen a group so eager to smash an evil altar, with several PCs talking over themselves on mic and explaining to the newer players that chaotic altars give a bit of XP to lawful PCs that break them. PCs only ever want one thing, and it’s disgusting.

Some elbow grease and holy water later and there were cleansed altar fragments all about the place. As they dusted off their hands, two medusa burst into the room from the west wearing mottled green and blue robes and disposable paper slippers. Unfortunately for the monsters, no one was surprised and immediately turned to stone.

The combat that ensued was pretty one-sided, all of the adventurers having fought medusas and well-familiar with the averting your gaze mechanics. I don’t even think the enemy got a chance to act. They went into the room that the medusas came out of fully expecting to fight more of the same. What they actually found was a large circular room with a swirling whirlpool of gore, bones, and screaming faces in the center that made a loud roaring sound. The edge of the room was a ten foot band of sand with a few more exits.

They talked about what to do about the pool, eventually testing it out by throwing a vial of holy water in which burst and caused a massively loud ear-splitting shriek to echo throughout the complex. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to happen or respond to it. Shortly thereafter the walls seemed to absorb about half of the light emitted by the party’s stolen torches, but it didn’t appear to them that the two events were related.

They threw a couple more vials in, more shrieking, and the paladin cast Detect Evil. It was extremely evil in that pool. Daria the Bladedancer and OG dropped a Dispel Evil on it which caused its whirling motion to cease and stop, leaving just a pool of gore with bits floating in it. Cheers were had by all. The violently loud shrieking will definitely not come back to haunt them.

The party decided to rest here and let Daria meditate to recover her expended spell slot. A whole hour chillin’ in the dungeon, NBD. Turns out it was indeed NBD. The lights even corrected themselves.

So off they went, aiming at a northern door where they found a large square chamber filled floor, wall, and ceiling with weird veiny organic pods of some kind. They noped right out of there and kept poking around, finding a much more turbulent room where they could hear waterfall sounds coming from an angle that they couldn’t see without entering the room. Again, they backtracked, opting to check a hallway off of the whirlpool room that they were confident would lead them back to the entrance and out.

Along that hallway was another shell and sand door, so they stacked up and kicked it in, rushing into a confrontation with 7 Sharkotaurs. Yep, minotaurs with shark heads. They even had hooves. A bold charge by the front line of Gront, Tuck, and Neutralio set the battle’s tone, supported by the rest including the Summoned Hero Mandonio. A mix of high AC and poor rolling left the party with little damage received beyond a strike against Bob the Mariner which felled him to exactly 0 HPs. The medic hench jumped on it quick and a solid mortal wounds roll had him back on his feet. 

They captured and interrogated the last sharkotaur and learned some small or vague details about the dungeon. Ultimately they decided to kill it when it outlived its usefulness. The critters’ room had a bit of loot which they shared out between them and boogied for the exit. They still hadn’t achieved their primary objective and it was getting late so they determined that securing the loot then calling it was the best play. But they couldn’t shake the thought that maybe Vince’s lost henchmen were in the pod people room, so they jumped back in and risked another encounter to check it out. Fortunately they made it there without incident and tried to see what they could learn about the weird cocoons.

Some failed proficiency checks to try to surgically remove a whole pod left them with the choice to cut one open or just leave. They cut one open, revealing a motionless, hairless, featureless, smooth-bodied humanoid creature that either wasn’t alive or was in a coma or something. Tuck stepped up with his Axe of Galeforce and uttered the secret to Fryer Tuck’s franchise: “never fresh, always frozen” and touched it to the… thing… which froze over like a popsicle. A podsicle, if you will. They took the podsicle and a piece of one of the cocoons and destroyed the rest, resting up top in the torrential bloody rains with the intent to come back ASAP.

Grading: Dubzaron runs a class grading system ported over from AD&D. I look for aberrant behavior from the class’s obvious role within the party.

Bob Lawful Explorer 1 Mariner: Bold, direct, courageous, Lawful. Fighter archetype E.

Tuck Neutral Barb 4 pit fighter: Bold, direct, courageous, helpful. Fighter archetype E. 

Daria Lawful Bladedancer 8: Dropped spells in key points, healed when able, engaged in melee as Bladedancer. Martial Cleric archetype E.

Gront Coldsky neutral Barb Housecarl: Bold, direct, violent. Fighter archetype E.

Edelweiss Neutral Mage Magical Scholar lvl 6: Cautious, cast in key points. Mage E

Neutralio Neutral Fighter Level: Bold, direct, courageous, Fighter E.

Arminius Lawful level 4 Nobirian Champion: Bold, direct, courageous, flexible, Fighter archetype E.

Vince McMaximus L11 Pugilist, lawful: Bold, direct, courageous, leader, Fighter archetype E.

Musings: This was my first online session that I’ve run. I’ve got a handful of games under my belt as a Judge in person, so I’m not completely lost, but it’s a different dynamic for sure. The excitement throughout the day talking about it fed the session emotionally as much as anything that happened in the game I think. Had a freshman caller in Vince on the mic, which was fun. The legacy Dubzaron players really like to put callers on the spot. But it’s all done with love. Iron sharpens iron and the rising tide and all that.

I threw the dungeon together once it looked like I was on deck for the spontaneous session. I’m not as great working from absolutely nothing as some, so I like to at least have an outline. I’m sure the PCs will throw me as time goes on with some gotcha session plans, but that’s how we get better. Push that envelope! This one was easy due to all the lead-in conversation.

We paused time again. I don’t really care as long as the timeline matches up. I think it’s proven that it works fine. There is some concern over the spontaneous session leaving players out of the loop which is unfortunate. Could also FUBAR some assumed actions and contingencies with a game with this many moving pieces in 1:1 time. We’ll endeavor to be more considerate of that in the future, but hey strike when the iron’s hot, right?

Xp from Kills:    2730

Xp from Loot:    18832

Total XP:    21562

Cuts:    22

PC:    0%    1,960    5%    2,058    10%    2,156

Hench:    0%    980    5%    1,029    10%    1,078

Lawful Only

Xp from Kills:    1100

Xp from Loot:    0

Total XP:    1100

Cuts:    12

PC:    0%    183    5%    193    10%    202

Hench:    0%    92    5%    96    10%    101

Dubzaron Session 90: The Scales of Turas Part 3

 Foreword

There were ALOT of PC deaths this session so I'm going to list the PCs a bit different. With those who were starting/died up front. Then those who finished the session after.

Starting PCs

Adamus (Lawful L1 Bard, Beguiler)RIP

Arya Sorrowsong (Lawful syke she was Chaotic L3 Bladedancer)RIP

Billy (Lawful L6 Explorer, Pathfinder)[E] SURVIVED!, 

Bluetooth (Neutral L1 Barbarian, Sea Rover)RIP

Elfamis (Neutral L1 Elven Nightblade)[E] SURVIVED!

Hakon (Neutral L3 Shaman Runecaster)RIP 

Harrigan (Lawful L1 Thief, Tomb Raider)RIP 

John Cabot (Lawful L1 Explorer Mariner)RIP

Lockstep (Lawful L1 Fighter, Guardsman)RIP 

Paul Blart (Lawful L1 Fighter, Guardsman)RIP

Renert le Renard (Neutral L1 Thief, Tomb Raider)RIP

Mid Session Replacement PCs

Benedict (Lawful L1 Cleric, Undead Slayer) RIP

George of the Jungle (L1 Beastmaster)[E] SURVIVED!

Itto (Lawful L1 Mystic, Warrior Monk)[S] SURVIVED!

Mansha (Lawful L1 Shaman, Snake Handler)[E] SURVIVED!

Kaladin (L1 Dwarven Spore Caster) RIP

Renart (L1 Thief, Tomb Raider)[E] SURVIVED!

Session Report

The PCs began the session in Grand Mage JBP's Clockwork Tower in the hothouse jungle growing deep in a massive cavern inside the side of the Dark Wall cliffs. The only new PC to come on this session was Adamus the Bard who, having like 4 Wisdom, I decided was a bard who came along from Planes Unknown to entertain JBP but who the mage had become tired of hearing. So he said "take this bard". The party's goal tonight was to escape the jungle, the caverns, the cliffs, then the wilderness to get the Scales of Turas (secured last session) back to civilization to claim their reward and XP.  Sounds easy enough.

They decided to go back the way they came rather than look for a new exit within the ancient city just beyond the jungle, which JBP told them about last session. That meant doubling back through the jungle. While trudging through the jungle for about 30 minutes Arya bumped into a weirding plant of orange and neon green appearance which spit a poison gas at her doing about 9 damage. Some 30 minutes or so later, while skirting the southern side of Shark Fin Mountain, the Explorers heard weird sounds in the mushroom bushes and decided to try and evade any possible combat. The party was actually completely surprised but ACKS Explorers have a very low chance to be able to ATTEMPT evasion even with a full party surprise. It's like 19 or better on a d20 I believe. Well the party rolled that and there was much cheering on the mic. 

The cheering settled down when I then checked the rules for what d20 throw would need to be made to actually succeed at evasion. The party didn't even know what was chasing them they just rabbitted from the sounds in the bushes but it was a single creature that decided to pursue. With the large size of their part that made it more difficult to lose the pursuer and he did in fact catch up to him. Some 10 minutes later, despite successfully bolting into the jungle to evade, a hostile talking boa constrictor closed the distance with them and made some comment about new souls to eat and new men to raise as undead in his service. Weird.

Most of the party was surprised (again) but not the barbarians, explorers, and fighters with Guardsman template. So about half of the party acted on round 1 of combat. Billy I believe planted an arrow in the snake and the fighters and barbarians set long weapons for a charge. The snake necromancer didn't charge but instead made flashing eyes and summoned 2 wraiths of ancient zaharan noblemen to his service in round 1.

Round 2 is when the other shoe finally dropped on this party who had mostly been avoiding certain death for 2.1 sessions now. The snake necromancer dropped a lightning bolt in the left column of the party's marching order and killed everyone the bolt hit including: Arya, Hakon, Harrison, Adamus, and John Cabot. Ouch. The rest of the party fought hard and Paul Blart, Bluetooth, and Lockstep engaged with the snake necromancer, swinging to much effect. Blart got the killing blow on the boa constrictor lopping it's head off with his fancy halberd. Sadly on the exact same initiative one of the wraiths struck Blart and drained his life to the point of death. 

Arya had, by this point, already successfully turned undead on the other wraith. Bluetooth and Lockstep in the next round were swinging at the last wraith and realizing it could not be hit by normal weapons. Lockstep used an improvised weapon of his coinpurse full of silver coins somehow actually putting very minor 1 damage his on the wraith (modified in his favor by his fantastic strength and fighter damage bonus so still not bad). Billy, at this point, engaged in melee with the wraith realizing their best hope was for him to use his magic sword Dragonslayer Dundee to do full damage to the wraith. Adamus was being played by Macho Mandalf's player, making a first time session appearance in Dubzaron. This didn't stop me from requesting he voice the australian blade Dragonslayer Dundee with his own authentic accent because I'm an asshole.

Billy did finally down the wraith but not before it drained life and killed Lockstep and sucked one of Billy's levels away as well. Brutal and expensive combat. Some of the players who lost characters decided they'd call it a night and logged off. A few decided to roll back up PCs and wait until I said they could bring those PCs into play.

One new PC was George of the Jungle being played by Paul Blart's player (I'm seeing a theme to his character inspirations). He wanted to play a beastmaster which I normally wouldn't allow but hey I realized the party just escaped an ancient weirding jungle deep in a cavern and it's certainly possible a unique class essentially inspired by Tarzan could be found in such a jungle. My ruling on him joining the session is he'd have to escape the caverns with the remaining party, he couldn't be outside. So he ran up from behind them "hey wait for me!" 

The party traveled through a tiny crack in the side of the jungle cavern wall. Then they climbed down wall from 150 feet from a balcony in a room with a massive statue of a 6 armed goddess thing. Bluetooth explored around the room a bit looking for a way to make the statue's arms move but to no avail. Such a thing could possibly help them avoid climbing in the future. Some bronze golems with the heads of birds peered at them from a high place in the statue room so they decided to move along instead. This took them through a natural cavern room of natural platforms which they had to spelunk through, hearing the hisses of "The Descent" monsters on the edge of their darkness who never attacked. They went through yet another tiny squeezed hallway which popped them out to the balcony about 400 feet in the air on the side of the Dark Wall cliffside. Thankfully this was indeed outside and they could see red misty clouds of the Curse of Lamalla climb over hilltops. 

Benedict the cleric was a replacement character who was on the ground, apparently arriving with a few other replacement characters as they were ranging to this point or perhaps lost or something. It didn't matter too much.

The party asked about the body of Snorri from 2 sessions back who fell here but there was no sign of his body. Or their horses.

Without 500' of rope the party would need to climb down to the next lowest cave entrance, then down the next, then down to the ground. All the while I was making Reaction Checks for the half dozen or so wyverns which were nearby circling overhead. During the climb down, unfortunately, Bluetooth slipped off the rope. Then Renert slipped off the rope. Both splatted on the ground taking like 130 damage each. Benedict tried to triage them but realized they had no chance of being saved, bashing their head in as they bled out and then dragging their bodies some 100 yards away to attract the wyverns if they should go Hostile. They did and that saved the party one encounter with the wyverns, likely. 

As Billy and George reached the ground they greeted their new best pals whom they had never met; Benedict and a Baja Blast dwarven sporecaster class which can be found in the new ACKS Book "By This Axe" available on drivethrurpg now for a low low price. Buy it today! 

Among the new PCs was also a Shaman named Mansha, a Mystic named Itto, and a Thief named Renart (not to be confused with the nearly identical thief named Renert who just fell to his doom! I don't know that guy, pal!) The party tried to track their lost horses and realized they had been picked up off the ground likely by wyverns to be eaten at leisure somewhere high up in the cliffs. As the party discussed their options to get home the wyverns were presenting hostile and swooping lower so the party took off and Evaded into the wilderness.

The party camped some hours later and on the mics they began to discuss their strategy. Without horses they were in a really bad way to get home quickly. Some 18 or so miles on the other side of the Blood River was Kyle O'conner's Forward Operating Base Queen, which is a safe place to end a session and Billy had been there many times. But they were loathe to cross the river due to the Curse of Lamalla making water creatures hostile and immune to non-magic weapons.

During the night George was on watch and got his by a ranged attack from a manticore hiding far off in the distance at the end of its range. He woke up the party and Billy used his special darkvision ability (which is tied to a curse from his having Restore Life and Limb cast on him some month or so back) and saw there were two of the creatures at about 180 yards just launching these spiney dagger things from their tails. The party said heck with this and wilderness evaded. Billy made the Call the party wasn't going to rest at all because the wilderness was getting too dangerous and they were losing PCs hand over fist. He decided there was nothing for it but to cross the Blood River on a raft force march without rest to Kyle's domain. 

They got to the river's edge and chopped down some trees and built a makeshift raft. While the whole party was crossing on the raft at once a dozen angry cursed mermen popped out of the water ready to launch a bunch of spears at them. Someone on the mic said this would be a TPK since only Billy could hit the creatures, being the only one with a magic weapon. But instead the party decided to evade and we needed to break out the Wilderness Evasion rules while on water! The chance of the party evading the pretty fast swimming mermen on their barely mobile raft was very low indeed but Billy rolled the d20 roll with like a 17 or 18. I complained and hemmed and hawed about the logic of all this but the dice abide. 

Seems the party hit a rapid going downriver about a quarter mile and the mermen got hemmed up trying to climb over the rocks in the shallow part of the rapids. The party then maneuvered the raft to the bank and left their raft behind at a run. We probably won't see another Curse of Lamalla buffed sea creature again in session play since the curse is about to expire unless some evil patrons or PCs earn a bad boy point soon (hint hint).

So backtracking this a bit, around the time the party got outside of the Dark Wall they were contacted by Patron Drakon via magical means. It seems he had the Deck of Trumps from "9 Princes in Amber" fame and he was able to communicate with this via something like a facetime video call. In this call he informed them that their quest giver for acquiring the Scales of Turas, Legate Gaius, was no longer a legate and no longer alive. Drakon, in this conversation, named Gaius a traitor and revealed news that the former Legate was apparently assassinated recently. Drakon stated he didnt' want the Scales to fall in the "wrong hands" so he offered the party 1,000 gp each and choice of a magic item from his armory if they bring the Scales to him. The party had asked if Drakon could extract them from the wilderness because they were all scared about crossing the Blood River and Sepia Hills but Drakon said he couldn't do so until 01/21/23. Still 2 days off. Billy as Caller was basically like "yeah no thanks... maybe... we'll think about it" before the party then went on to travel and cross the river and such. Drakon called them again 2 days later but we'll get to this at the end.

After crossing the Blood River the party had to cross about 18 miles of dangerous hills and multiple encounters hit during all this. The first was a lone Frost Giant who knew about Tuck's lies of being half-giant some time back. Words has gotten around among giant kind that Tuck won the Emerald Keep via nefarious means. This giant recognized Billy as one of Tuck's compatriots and came running at them. The party successfully wilderness evaded at the Giant hollered something about "we will find you!"

Some few hours later they came upon 4 stone giants who didn't know or care about Tuck but were worked up the party passed through their "sacred holler" and attacked.

The combat happened too close to allow a Wilderness Evasion without disengaging from combat so players rolled initaitives and most stated they were running away. Most of the party beat the initiative number of the stone giants so ran off into the wilderness with Billy with no problem. A few others rolled quite poorly so were threatened with attacked before they could slip away. Benedict went full hero mode and put himself between the giants and some other party members, hemming two of them up from attacking Mansha and Kaladin. Unfortunely for Kaladin Benedict was dispatched quickly by two of the giants and hte other two kept charging and crushed him as well. Mansha was somehow ignored due to the providence of mine using dice to randomize targets and was able to slip away into Billy's Wilderness Evasion check after the first round of combat. George for some reason, despite having a high initiative, decided to hide in the wilderness nearby the battle. He succeeded. For you OSR folks the Beastmaster's wilderness hide ability is similar to the BX Halfling's. The Giants took chase for Billy, running off into the wilderness leaving George behind to get the amethyst's from the Baja Blast dwarven vault out of Benedict's pockets. Being a near wilderness expert himself he was able to find Billy and the party some hour or so later. The party eventually made it safely to Kyle Oconner's Forward Operating Base: Queen, now safe and able to end the session here to cash out XP if they wish.

So Drakon's player was playing Benedict in the session tonight and he asked the players if they wanted to wrap up their agreement (or non-agreement) with Drakon verbally in session before wrapping for the night. All agreed so the player took on the voice of Drakon and made his Deck of Trumps facetime call to the party on 01/21/23 after they had rested a day at FOB:Queen. Billy was the only one who really did any talking and the discussion was not the most pleasant. It seems Gaius promised Billy a Legature should he secure the Scales of Turas for him (Gaius). So Billy was not particularly pleased that Gaius had been named a traitor and was apparently dead. Drakon noted that Gaius would not have the ability to give a Legature because a Legate only controls one. What could this mean? 

In any case Billy found it a low reward indeed to receive a measley 1,000 gp and a +1 weapon, specifically saying "I don't need a +1 item" to which, if I hadn't been so tired, Dragonslayer Dundee would have agreed heartily and used stereotypical aussie slang. 

The rest of the party, being all level 1s at this point and honestly just happy to have survived and made it to safety, were perfectly happy with 1,000 gp and a +1 item from the Prefect. Drakon confirmed there were 3 open Legatures now that "The Traitor" had been deposed and the Sorceress Queen had assaulted and cleaned out Turos Erin and Turos Telle, killing the Legates of both by all accounts. So Drakon promised Billy could be "considered" during an "interview process" after the war with the Sorceress with completed. Billy's reaction was not ecstatic and I personally noted to mine self that this is not how things go down with Macho Mandalf!

At the end of the conversation, however, Billy had agreed to go along with the party's wishes and turn over the Scales of Turas. Drakon used the Deck of Trumps to open a big teleportation portal the party was able to walk through and join him at his massive army encampment about 12 miles south of the town of Siadanos. The Scales were turned over and Drakon's clerk gave each PC a writ of payment for 1,000 gp and similar writ for a claim of one magic item of +1 from his armory. We ended there and finally caught these PCs and this adventuring party back up with the real calendar (a few days in the future) with no need for further nu-skool style session pausing.

Class Grading Thoughts

Billy the Explorer was very on point with his Explorer wilderness calling and use of abilities this whole session. He did everything you'd expect a pathfinder sort of explorer/ranger type to do all session. So E. I'm a bit on the fence with Elfamis the Nightblade since it's like an assassin/mage hybrid class. He doesn't have any spells yet so there's no way he could be docked a grade for not using them. He didn't really try and assassinate or backstab anyone but there really weren't any opportunities for that. He was properly cowardly in a thief sort of way so that was good. So E. George of the Jungle the Beastmaster is a very odd class that is a hybrid explorer (ranger) and assassin (subclass of thief) so it will be difficult to get good grades with him. Because he didn't forget to use his Hide in Wilderness class skill, and because the name of the game this session was primarily get away from wilderness fights they couldn't win (where I can't dock him for being less than bold) he earned an E. Itto the Mystic is essentially a monk which I'm not sure how to classify for grading. Maybe a Fighter/Thief hybrid? Since Fighters must be bold and thieves must be cowardly for perfect grade, perfect grades are going to be hard to acquire. By Gygax design, imo, since what 1e would consider multi-class should probably level slower. Unlike George, Itto didn't use some unique class ability to distinguish himself (like George did) so mixed up mentality of bold/coward I'm deciding earned only an S. Mansha the Shaman played well and felt like a shaman. He has no healing spells yet where, if he failed to use them he'd be docked grading, but he has a Commune With Ancestors which he did remember to use before the end of the session. So E. Renart was a coward (good for a thief) so E.

DM Self Grade

I felt pretty good about this session overall since we knocked out a ton of travel, dungeoneering, and roleplay all in one session. I was happy with the way I handled Reaction checks and what the numbers meant to the personality of the monster/npcs the players came across. "Why does is this monster mad at them?" or "Why is this monster in a friendly mood?" are important questions and the DM needs to practice thinking on his feet to explain these things as they come up. The only serious mistake I made was that Lockstep's improvised weapon of silver coin pouch should have been doing half damage to the Wraith since wraiths only take half damage from silver. Having the Wraith live another round would have really changed the complexion of the session so missing that left us with a different story/session than we would have had if I ran it properly. Lastly I've since realized I made a mistake with the PC elves' surprise rules. I ruled it would not apply in the weirding jungle because they were not familiar with the terrain. Upon reading ACKS more closely I think they should have had the +1 in their favor. That could have really changed how things went down with the wizard boa constrictor fight. DM Self Grade: C

Dubzaron Session 89: The Scales of Turas, Part 2

Participating PCs

Arya Sorrowsong (Lawful L3 Temple Bladedancer)[S]

Important new npc!

Billy (Lawful L6 Explorer, Pathfinder)[E]

Bluetooth (Neutral L1 Barbarian, Sea Rover)[E]

Elfis (Neutral L1 Elven Nightblade)[E]

Hakon (Neutral L3 Shaman Runecaster)[E]

Harrigan (Lawful L1 Thief, Tomb Raider)[E]

John Cabot (Lawful L1 Explorer Mariner)[E]

Lockstep (Lawful L1 Fighter, Guardsman)[E]

Paul Blart (Lawful L1 Fighter, Guardsman)[E]

Renert le Renard (Neutral L1 Thief, Tomb Raider)[E] 

Session Report

Since we did a strange pause thing last week the party started right in the middle of the action. They were at a weirding hothouse jungle of mushrooms and such inside a massive cave within the Dark Wall mountain range itself. Inside the cave they found the two players who "spawned" this week who were Paul Blart and Renert the Thief. Since this is #BROSR gaming their backstory and reasons for being deep inside a dungeon when the party finds them was both stupid and humorous. Blart was "on his rounds" and comically fell into a moon pool that teleported him here. Jokes about the Paul Blart movie began and didn't end for the whole session. Renert was delving the place with another party who got killed by jungle denizens and Renert was in the middle of his escape, "hey want another thief in your party". Done.

The party surveyed their view across the hothouse jungle in the massive cavern noting two towers; a glass one far off to the north and a slightly closer one to the northwesterly direction. This one looked like a pile of metal and such haphazardly tossed together. It seemed a bit closer to the party began their trek in that direction, sliding through and past weirding bushes, mushrooms and huge podded plants that defied designation. They skirted along the southern base of a tall hill with a shark fin shaped jagged stone at the top which I eventually named shark mountain. To their south they walked along a deep cliffside where a geyser of purple water was spraying now and then. During their travels they come upon 2 giant angry looking venus mantrap plans. The things could walk but very slowly. They charged as best they could at the party but due to having enough space to maneuver and good planning, the party backed up as a group before launching various missiles round after round. The slow angry plant monsters never got within melee range of the party despite both of them being very tough and taking many many arrows before falling. Some time later the party was attacked by 8 giant carniverous flies which raided into some of the back ranks of the party, scaring the hench mage Arya brought along before he could disengage from melee  and let the party finish it off. Besides that I think only one PC (Billy iirc) took a hit from the giant flies.  The combats actually took quite a while due to a large table (just look at those participating PCS!) and quite a few monsters I had to rule on their actions.

After almost two hours of game play and perhaps about 4 or 5 hours of adventuring the party found themselves at a 30' wide canyon the went off to their left and right as far as they could see. On the other side was the tower they were looking to find.

They traveled to the west and south until they came to the wall of the massive cavern itself where Harrigan the thief could climb along the wall itself to bridge the canyon. After that they strung up some sort of rope bridge thing which allowed the other party members to Climb as per a thief of their level to cross the canyon. Paul Blart rigged up some kind of safety line where, if a crosser fell, they would hopefully just hang by the safety line and not fall to their doom. There were jokes made that we would make an intelligence check vs Blart's INT which brought on alot of laughs. It did in fact happen once (I've forgotten the PC who fell) but Blart's rigging and Lockleaf's strength to pull him up save him from certain death. Blart also mentioned he crossed the rope on his dwarven built segway because why not, it's funny. I rolled random encounter checks as they were crossing in the hopes I would hit one while the party was split and really get them out of sorts by attacking them at half strength. But the dice were really on the party's side tonight. 

After crossing the canyon the party approached the tower of twisted and haphazardly laid out metal tower. 15 little dudes made out of sewed up dead skin with unexpressive porcelain masks came filing out of the tower to greet them. Greet them might not be the right word since the things didn't talk or express themselves in any way at all. They just stood with their faces turned sideways in confusion or questionning (perhaps). Lockstep had some CHA so tried to bribe and talk to them to no avail. He eventually got impatient and walked into the tower. This didn't seem to phase the little guys.

Inside the tower on the ground floor was a mad wizard named Jordan Peterson. Lockstep closed the distance with him to fizzle his spells, should he cast, but JBP was generally friendly. He told them a bit about the ancient zaharan city the laid beyond the jungle saying there were many factions.

He didn't seem to care about any of the factions except the Optics. He was actually on this plane to study the Optics since they can live forever in their weird chthonic way. He wants to figure it out for himself so he'll have more time to tell young men to clean their room. Wizard JBP seemed particularly powerful to the point of not showing any fear at all about so many well armed men in his tower. He also mentioned having hung out with the deity Turas at one point. Despite his getup he confirmed he was never a Batman villain. 

The party convinced him to let them stay the night in his tower and the party slept in the dungeon, breaking another BROSR code for which I'm sure I will be roundly mocked by the other DMs. The next day Harrigan had a pretty good map to the trapezoidal shaped building and cloning vat chamber JBP told them held the Scales of Turas which they were after. His tower had a big periscope/telescope thing that he used to keep an eye on the city from afar and study the Optics. He advised they never look at the Giant Eye on the far side of the city either with his telescope or otherwise.

The building was about an hour or so through the jungle to the north and into the city. They set off and sadly I rolled no random encounters during the travel. It was not my night. Once at the street there were buildings everywhere but Mapping and planning helped Harrigan and the party know which way to go and they opened a door made of dried mushrooms into a cloning chamber. It looked about how you would expect with glass vats like "Alien" lining the center. Wires everywhere along the side walls. On the far side of the room was the Scales of Turas under a glass globe which throbbed with electricity and sparks of lightning. The two thieves began to cross the room but some clones rose out of the cloning chambers like nosferatu.

The party was not surprised so the thieves were not surrounded or anything. Speaking in Zaharan, the Optic soldiers demanded to know if the party served the eye. Harrigan played it off like "oh yeah big time" long enough to make his way back into the party's marching order with the other thief. Combat began when the party essentially said "psych we don't serve the eye". The combat went generally in the party's favor and the thieves and nightblade tried to sneak across the room and cop the Scales during the combat but kept failing their Hide checks and, in Harrigan's case, tripping on some wires when he tried to sprint across the room to the scales. 

The sneaky plans turned out to not be necessary as the martial members of the party did well to put the Optic soldiers down with the help of the 15 ik (the name of the little porcelain mask dolls who work for JBP) the wizard had loaned them for this task. The things were easily killed wherein they exploded with confetti, beans, popcorn kernels, and Chucky Cheese tokens (I just made that up now). But despite their little size and tiny fists they did a solid job of finishing off Optic soldiers the party had injuring. "Stealing our Cleaves" as one PC noted.

Now back to the Scales of Turas. Harrigan lassoed a rope around the glass dome they were inside with the PC (not player because he was roleplaying his middling to low INT) hoping it wouldn't conduct electricity. Well thank you google machine because it confirmed rope conducts big time. Harrigan's balls were shocked off. No joke, that was the result on his Mortal Wounds table when Hakon the shaman tried to help him back up. He needed a day of rest, after magical healing before he could adventure in any real capacity so the party headed back to JBP Tower to sleep a day. This is when my shame begins. I not only allowed the party to rest in the dungeon again but "pause" the game here and, assuming irl disaster doesn't strike me next week, run these players in this dungeon again next week. They're going to revoke my BROSR card.

Class Grading Thoughts

Arya Sorrowsong (Lawful L3 Temple Bladedancer)[S] didn't use up her healing spells that I saw, saw S. Billy (Lawful L6 Explorer, Pathfinder)[E] was old and helped leading the party through weirding jungle so E. Bluetooth (Neutral L1 Barbarian, Sea Rover)[RAN BY OTHER PLAYER][E] was bold, didn't hold back. Elfis was cowardly and sneaky as a nightblade should be so E. Hakon (Neutral L3 Shaman Runecaster)[E] used all his healing spells as far as I could tell and played up shaman stuff like interest in flora and fauna. Harrigan (Lawful L1 Thief, Tomb Raider)[E] was quintessitial cowardly thief in battle and bold when shiny things were up for grabs. John Cabot (Lawful L1 Explorer Mariner)[E] was bold and rangery again. Lockstep (Lawful L1 Fighter, Guardsman)[E] held the front line like a boss, very bold so E. Paul Blart (Lawful L1 Fighter, Guardsman)[E] was bold staying in the front or second line every fight. Renert le Renard (Neutral L1 Thief, Tomb Raider)[E] was a coward (a good thing) and did his best to use sneaky approach.

DM Self Grade

 I handled things fine but failed to notice the little Ik dudes don't actually do any damage so why would JBP have sent them with the party for help? Maybe I should have pulled the rug on the party like "yeah he sent these to help but they actually suck lolol" but I changed midstream that he makes a very limited number of combat Ik but primarily helper Ik. Decent recovery so the Ik army doesn't take over the underground city led by the PCs but it was still a blunder. My ruling last session of ignoring (or not understanding) the Mountaineering proficiency led to mine needing to allow the rope bridge this session despite no one having the proficiency. I don't like to pull the rug out of players with rulings mid session and since this was essentially the second part of a single long session, my bad ruling on this led to another easier handling of a terrain difficulty for PCs. Also the safety line rigging should need Mountaineering (or maybe Seafaring, which we do have available!) but should also need a Dungeon Bashing check (or Lift Weight over your head check in 1e parlance) to pull a dude up and/or catch him from falling. Grade: D

Timekeeping

The party used like 4 days with the intention of being caught up with the real calendar on 01/18/23. We paused the game again and my shame knows no limits.

Deceased

Dama (L1 Venturer) played by RR.  Current total xp: 75. DECEASED. Poison gas in Session 3.

Darius LeVay (L1 Assassin) played by JB. Current Total XP:451. DECEASED. Poison gas in Session 3.

Donald the Guardsman (L1 Fighter) played by MP. Current Total XP:570. DECEASED. Intra-party justice in Session 3.

Felix (L1 Thief) played by Nicholas. Current Total XP:431. DECEASED. Poison gas in Session 3.

Hektor (L1 Paladin) played by Moai. DECEASED. Cause of Death: goblin warg rider throat removal surgery in Session 2

Leonidas the Inquisitor (L1 Cleric) played by RR.Current Total XP:498  DECEASED. Frozen undead blistering cold aura left his skin frostbitten and broken in Session 6. Body not recovered.

Mard the Mage (L1 Mage) played by Nicholas. DECEASED. Frozen undead blistering cold aura left his skin frostbitten and broken in Session 6. Body not recovered.

Yolo Baggins "My friends call me Swaggins" (L1 Gnomish Trickster) played by J. DECEASED. Paralyzed and eaten by ghouls in Session 12. Body not recovered.

Jack Filcher (L1 Thief) played by C. DECEASED. Shot full of arrows by Inthorn's brigands in Session 12. Body not recovered.

Swoleous Maximus (L1 Paladin). DECEASED. Captured then drawn and quartered by Inthorn the Brigand warlord in Session 12. Posthumously named "Petty Hero of Turos Tem" by Legate Valerian. Ashes offered a place of pride in the Hospital.

Damianus (L1 Cleric). DECEASED. Captured and beheaded by Inthorn the Brigand warlord in Session 12. Posthumously named "Petty Hero of Turos Tem" by Legate Valerian. Ashes offered a place of pride in the Hospital.

Bucky (L1 Barbarian). DECEASED. Became a illegal pit fighter during his downtime. Had two bouts to the death, winning the first and losing the second. Was killed by Young Jack Sparrow who sashayed into the ring, drank rum, and mogged on Bucky before putting a dagger into his ribs, killing him. This happened during downtime between Session 17 and 18.

Broll Wolf-Eater (L1 Barbarian). Current total XP: 1079. DECEASED. Carried off by harpies after falling for their enchanting song in Session 19.

Brother Franklin (L1 Cleric). DECEASED. Decapitated by a mad cultist of a Lovecraftian slime thing in Session 19.

Felix the Elder (L1 Bard). Total XP 825. DECEASED. Captured by mad cultists and fed to a Lovecraftian slime monster in Session 19.

Templar Flavius Africanus (L1 Cleric). Total XP 7. Killed by the claws and beak of mad harpies in Session 19.

Xendi (L1 Explorer). Total XP 6. DECEASED. Carried off by harpies after falling for their enchanting song in Session 19.

Yllmeeton (L3 Shaman). Total XP 4,563. Bludgeoned by the corpse of a bowmen by Rosie Odonnel hag in Session 21.

Longinus (L2 Assassin). Total XP 2,036. Had his face ripped off by Rosie Odonnel hag in Session 21.

Mandonio (L3 Fighter). Total XP 4,779. Charred to a leprous crisp by diseased Dragon breath in Session 22.

Corydon (L1 Joker). Total XP: 0. Burnt to a crisp by chimera breath so thoroughly his corpse wasn't even fit for the crows. Died with a smile on his face and a song in his heart. that's life and as funny as it seems... some people get their kicks, stomping on a dream... In Session 25.

Donny Keebler (L1 Elven Spellsword). Total XP 2,238. Had his legs burned completely off by chimera fire breath in Session 25.

Marina (L2 Fighter). Total XP: 2,204. Burnt into ash by a chimera fire breath in Session 25.

Gundro (L2 Gnomish Trickster). Total XP: 2,575. Had his mouth and tongue bitten off by a lizardman ambusher in the dank sewers below Cyfaraun in Session 26.

Polydoros (L1 Fighter). Total XP: 0. Had his legs ripped off and eaten by Akira monsters in the dark canopy of the Viaspen Forest in Session 28.

Odrum (L1 Explorer). Total XP: 287. Javelin to the heart from the hands of weird vine goblins hidden in the walls of Ferigno's lair in Session 30.

Garvin the Nutless Wonder (L1 Mage). Total XP: 0. Fell off the side of Ferigno's lair 20 feet to his death in Session 30.

Blackmoon (L1 Assassin). Total XP: 768. Choked to death by BOB from Twin Peaks while stealing treasure from Ferigno's dragon horde in Session 30.

Xanthus (L2 Cleric). Total XP: 2,364. Choked to death by BOB from Twin Peaks while hanging out on the roof of Ferigno's lair in Session 30.

Lord Zyklon (L1 Elven Spellsword). Total XP: 0. LORD ZYKLON DISEMBOWLED LORD ZYKLON upon finding himself on the losing side of the Desolation of Turos Tem.

Turin (L1 Cleric). Total XP: 0. Eaten by Wargs in Session 32.

Rat Face (L2 Thief) Total XP: 1,577. Seemingly grabbed in the dark by a Xenomorph in Session 36. In a sinkhole your party can hear you scream! 

Smarticus (L1 Mage) Total XP: 0. Captured by a Xenomorph in Session 36 for all the party to witness. Taken deep into a sinkhole.

Hearticus (L1 Cleric) Total XP: 0. Gored to death by giant horned beetles in Session 39 after projectile vomiting all over himself from the stink of sewer sludge.

Mickey Mouser (L1 Thief) Total XP: 0. Gored to death by giant horned beetles in Session 39 in the happiest place on earth: the Cyfaraun sewer!

Aenes (Level 1 Paladin) Total XP: 62. Swarmed by giant flies in the sewer beneath Cyfaraun in Session 40.

Acianus (Level 1 Mage) Total XP: 0. Chopped to pieces in Session 42 by a six armed demon statue from behind and quickly forgotten about by his compatriots who saved MadEye and lamented Hardar instead. But I'll never forget you Acinanu nanu...nanite... nananaa...

Hardar (Level 2 Mage) Total XP: 2,832. Chopped up in Session 42 by a six armed demon statue as he held his Darth Vader Choking Grip spell long enough for his compatriots to escape an unwinnable battle. His dream to become the most evil being in the universe suffers eternally the indignity of being remembered for self sacrifice and laying his life down for his friends.

Nubbs (Level 3 Thief) Total XP: 4,017. Swarmed by scarabs which bored into his ears and brain in Session 45.

Grummz (Level 1 Dwarven Vaultgard) Total XP: 0. Ripped limb from limb by a throng of skeletons and their undead golem leaders in Session 46.

Grommzs (Level 1 Dwarven Vaultguard) Total XP: 2,168. Torn to bits and eaten by trolls in session 48

Rapunzel (Level 4 Priestess) Total XP: 11,540. Torn to bits and eaten by trolls in Session 48.

Schizo (Level 1 Mage): Total XP: 0. Frozen to death by an assassin's guild ruffian bard wielding a Wand of Cold in session 54.

Marteen (Level 1 Thief): Total XP: 0. Fell to his death in Lamalla's Temple upon a pile of dragon horde gold. Corpse eaten by Sheila the Beautiful, an Ancient Blue Dragon in session 56.

Ambrose (Level 2 Cleric): Total XP: idk. Strangled to death by cursed octopi in a canoe on Lake Laman claiming the Sinister Stone of Sakkara for Law and eventual destruction in session 63.

Traiticus (Level 9 Fighter): Total XP: alot. Head split in half by Froggo's bronze magic "Fren Axe" during Operation Muscle Thunder on 08/09/22.

Alina (Level 7 Mage). Cut in half at her belt line by Froggo's bronze magic "Fren Axe" during Operation Muscle Thunder on 08/09/22.

Olgar McKenzie (Level 5ish Barbarian). Soul eaten by Stormbringer wielded by the Manson the mad assassin during Operation Muscle Thunder on 08/09/22.

Celeste (Level 7ish Witch). Soul eaten by Stormbringer wielded by the Manson the mad assassin during Operation Muscle Thunder on 08/09/22. Said Ancient Soul caused a backfire effect and blasted Manson's face off leaving him dead in the sea foam.

Allen A'Dulles (Level 1 Bard): Petrified by a basilisk in the Meniri Mountains in Session 66.

Cyfaraun (Level 1 Elven Spellsword): Eaten by basilisks in the Meniri Mountains in Session 66.

Tamryn (Level 1 Elven Spellsword):  Petrified by a basilisk in the Meniri Mountains in Session 66

Allen the Bard (Level 1 Bard): Petrified by a basilisk in the Meniri Mountains in Session 66.

UnNamed Venturer (Level 1 Venturer): Killed by astral demons and sucked into the vacuum of spacetime in Session 66.

Major Garland Briggs (Level 1 Explorer): Killed by the crossbow bolt of an angry thracian in a dormant (?) volcano dungeon called Queens Rest Mountain. Then his body was eaten by giant chameleons as the rest of the party made their escape in Session 73.

Autumn Leaves (Level 1 Elven Spellsword): Died to lizardman crossbow bolts to the tears of her adventuring compatriots who tried to revive her after absconding with her corpse just outside Queens Rest Mountain in Session 73.

Xanthos (Level 6 Cleric): Cut down by a flaming blade by a very powerful thracian lizardman below Queens Rest Mountain in Session 74. Ressurected about two weeks later.

Stormin' Norman (Level 1 Gnomish Trickster): Captured by the lizardman tribe below Queens Rest Mountain whilst trying to use illusionist tricks to steal a magic spear. Was subsequently fed to their Giant Chameleons for being an annoying gnome in Session 74.

Kortes (Level 5ish Explorer): Captured and pickled by Blind Pew and the 4 purple dragons of Muppetlantis sometime during downtime in late October or early November.

Billy (L6 Explorer): Roasted to a crisp by Bluey the Blue Dragon's Lightning Bolt Breath in Session 85. Had "restore life and limb" cast on him a few days later.

Tuck Dragonborn (L3[4] Barbarian): Also roasted to a crisp by Bluey the Blue Dragon's Lightning Bolt breath in session 85. Also had restore life and limb cast on him a few days later.

Xanthos: (Level 7 Cleric): Cut down by ogre champions in Session 86.

Snorri Sljepyson the Watchful (Neutral L1 Dwarven Vaultgaurd): Fell to his death about 300 feet off the side of the Dark Wall and went splat on Session 88.

Alexa this is so sad play "Time after time" by Cyndi Lauper

Dubzaron Session 88: The Scales of Turas Part 1; how to pause time in a BROSR campaign!

Participating PCs

Arya Sorrowsong (Lawful L3 Temple Bladedancer)[S]

Billy (Lawful L6 Explorer, Pathfinder)[E]

Bluetooth (Neutral L1 Barbarian, Sea Rover)[E]

Hakon (Neutral L3 Shaman Runecaster)[E]

Harrigan (Lawful L1 Thief, Tomb Raider)[E]

John Cabot (Lawful L1 Explorer Mariner)[E]

Lockstep (Lawful L1 Fighter, Guardsman)[E]

Snorri Sljepyson the Watchful (Neutral L1 Dwarven Vaultgaurd) (RIP) 

Session Report

This session was played on 01/04/23. I'm going to enter the timekeeping details below. I took a week off and session 87 was ran by a Co-DM. 

The party set out from Dubzaron and traveled all the way out to New Cyfaraun. They were making solid time since Billy chose to buy everyone light ride horses so they could move with speed. In New Cyfaraun the party looked into a mission that Patron Gaius dropped a few weeks back about finding the Scales of Turas in an ancient Zaharan city deep somewhere along the Dark Wall. The Scales of Turas from the ACKS Auran Empire setting are the metaphysical scales the deity Turas measures your deeds with when your PC dies, sending you either to the ACKSy version of Valhalla or sending you back to the Prime reincarnated as something or someone else to try again (as a baybay, it's not like the Reincarnate spell). 

Pretty decent worldbuilding concept from Alex Macris of ACKS fame and the Dubzaron players and PCs have really ran with it. Turas himself has become a body builder bro type and the scales he uses, when he's seen during Commune castings and such by his many PC clerics, are actually kettle balls he lifts and poses to show off fiseek. 

Gaius was offering this quest due to some month or so back when he used a Miracle spell for some reason or another. Miracle is like Wish but, due to it being a lower level casting, it usually comes with some sort of Geas from the deity himself. Turas's Geas to Gaius (lol) was to personally go get the aspect of the Scales on this prime or outfit an adventuring party to do so. If Gaius were to ignore this Geas (lol) he'd start to take CON or WIS damage or something. I don't remember all the details there but he did in fact put the quest out there for PCs to tackle in session play.

It took a while but it seemed tonight was the night.

The PCs made the trek all the way out to New Cyfaraun, Gaius's Legature, with the assumption Gaius or his people would have some more info. They didn't. Seems the Legate has been so busy on the southern border chasing around the shadows of some beastmen (or whatever) army that he never had his people do research into the mission. . 

Luckily for the party they were approached by the NPC mage in charge of the Tower of Knowledge Mages in New Cyfaraun. While Gaius has no particular working relationship with his local Collegiate Wizards, this new fellow Jarrel is a put upon teacher of mages in NC. He moves around to various Turos's due to becoming disenchanted with his lot and put upon by the idiotic Legates he finds himself toiling under. But if he could score a big info win for the Tower perhaps his circumstances would improve! 

This was a bit of a gimme from me the DM since the party was struggling to meme up or come up with some solution to finding where the Scales even were. One problem was the fact the Patron player didn't go full Mandalf and just do all the recon work for them before the session. The other problem was we had a full house with like 2 brand new players (look above at that list of PCs, big table!). The mic crosstalk was alot and while Billy's player was Calling pretty well, no one was really stepping up with some solution to their lack of information. Perhaps they didn't have the right Class's to bridge this info gap (no mage PCs) or perhaps they just couldn't crack the code on how to find a random Point of Interest out in a massive wilderness where no Patron got it mapped. 

So as a DM I had two choices. I could shrug and let them twist in the wind and maybe see if they come up with some other goal for this group of PCs, after already having spent some game days traveling halfway across the region. Or just sit quietly while they figure out some solution to finding the location of the quest. I've done that sort of thing before. 

Second option was what I went with. One of the ACKS modules has a comment about how the Tower of Knowledge (Mage's Guild) has a modest standing quest of taking pitons with weird runes out to various points of interest, wherein the mages can use this pitons to scry on those spots for recon and to grow their arcane knowledge. It seemed possible the mid level head mage at the Chapterhouse in New Cyfaraun might want that done. It seemed possible he had heard of Gaius's quest and did some research for its location. I determined this by rolling a Reaction Check (2d6 with mods) and having him approach PCs if it was 9+ in their favor. It was.

It's possible this was a bit to in the players' favor but I made the judgement call this way since we were about an hour into the game with little story or game progress. The big table and helping new players with some chargen questions had slowed us down.

Karrell approached Arya's henchman Kallen about the party going to the Dark Wall to achieve a quest for him. In payment he will give the PCs the exact location (or so he thinks) of the place they're looking for. He simply wants the party to place 3 brass pitons with weirding runes on them at the front of the location, just inside, and somewhere interesting on the inside. He can then use those pitons for scrying and watching the location. Arya agrees!

I will note that Harrigan's player has a legacy PC that is consigliere for Gaius in downtime. What that meant for this session was instead of me perusing Gaius's notes and logs to give the PCs a "state of the legature" of what they saw, or how folks were acting, or new structures that were built etc; I just told Harrigan to take the mic and describe everything he thought might be of interest to PCs. The same happened in Turos Spen which is one of the Legatures controlled by Drakon, who was running Lockstep on this night. He had some very interesting information indeed that Spen had a new bridge (most knew this) but also a decent road that was pushing out into the wilderlands along the Blood River. 

Billy and John, both explorers, decided the best way to get out to that section of the Dark Wall was to go around to Turos Spen, across Drakon's bridge (named Valerian Bridge after the first Patron Legate who died to Ferigno the Green dragon way back when) then down Drakon's road along the Blood River. Billy stated he didn't want to cross the Blood River in the wilderness. With the Curse of Lamalla going on that may be a wise decision?

The above 20 minutes or so of game time were interesting for a very BROSR reason. Drakon's player was running a PC tonight and Gaius's consigliere player was running a PC tonight. Meaning I had two experts on the mic for the current state, description, army buildups, road/bridge improvement, important npcs and such for both New Cyfaraun and Turos Spen. So instead of me going to their Patron logs and scouring those for descriptions and flavor while everyone waited, I just turned the mic and "box text" type reading to the experts. So as the party traveled I could sit back and chill and what amounted to Co-DMs (who were also PCs tonight) were describing things the party saw. Amazing.

This sort of thing proves my theory that a new BROSR campaign could do a Session Zero type thing where he had no ideas at all but his players, who will PC in the campaign, make up Patron concepts during a session zero. This will give his 4 or 5 PCs serious buy-in for the campaign state, flavor, kingdoms, major bad guys and the like. 

At this point the session got very unique for Dubzaron. I went to my Random Wilderness Stocking tables AXIOMS 8 and about 3 of the hexes came up with "Dangerous Terrain". The first Dangerous Terrain was land which was worth nothing for domain play. Somehow the pond here was particularly effected by the Curse of Lamalla and all the nearby shrubbery was poisoned. The party got away from this hex as best they could. Next the hills the party was traveling through was sandstone with jagged gashes along them which their horses fell into a few times. In ACKS rules terms this meant that the day's travel was done completely when this entry hits and then the next day of travel is at half speed. It hit again the next day so the party got hung up pretty badly and lost some time in this section of travel; two or three days probably. With 1:1 time this is a very serious situation indeed.

The party left the hills to travel along the river instead. I kept hoping I'd roll a random encounter with a sea creature to take advantage of its increased power from my curse of Lamalla rules but no dice. Instead I rolled random terrain of Useful Herbs which was Wolfsbane. It was apparently naturally growing at an extreme rate along a bend in the Blood River. Since Wolfsbane is useful against lycanthropes I ruled to the Players that Lycanthropes avoid this area and I'd ignore any random encounters of such that hit here. They also discussed retreating back to this section of river if they encountered werewolves or whatever in another hex. 

The herbs were worth quite a bit of gp but farming it was a bit of a slow process so the party didn't want to spend the day or 2 it would take to farm it all for the GP. They farmed for about 10 minutes an grabbed enough to use in combat in case they came across werewolves and moved on with their travel.

Later the party broke through some trees in the sandstone hills and found a huge arch with heavy metal double doors. 20' high by 30' wide iirc. I memed up that the arch had a bit of a 1990s era extreme kind of look. Some players mentioned Mountain Dew Baja Blast font and package design so we went with that. This was a dwarf lair but thanks to the stupid in session memeing way we worldbuild, I have these noted as Baja Blast Dwarves. What does it mean? Do they act differently? Have different goals? Who knows. The party didn't actually parley with the dwarves.

Because I rolled that the party surprised the dwarves I interpreted that to mean the party arrived between shift changes for the front gate guards. That meant Harrigan the thief could mess around and rob the dwarves of the dozens of amethyst gems which were decorating the top section of the baja blast arch. We had some discussion that the thief could ignore this if he liked but it would most certainly mean he couldn't achieve the top session grade for thief. He went around the top of the hill with two of the brand new players who I think may have been getting bored of no combat or apparent danger. Also they were a decent fit for this side mission being an Explorer and swashbuckling Venturer. They helped tie off rope so Harrigan could climb down to the arch from the top and Harrigan went to chiseling baja blast amethysts out of the arch like the thief on the front of the 1e PHB.

I made some ruling about how many he could get out in the turn he was chiseling before the dwarves shift change finished and they'd hear the commotion and come out. The rest of the party ran away with a Wilderness Evasion before the two or three platoons of seemingly angry dwarves came marching out of their vault ready to go full napoleon complex on the party. I rolled a Listen check for the dwarves and a Move Silent check for the thief to see if they noticed him up on the hill behind them. They didn't so the robbery party had time to run away and wilderness evade too. I also made checks to see if the main party or the burgle party got lost trying to run into the hills in random directions and meet eachother back up later, as I normally do when party's split. Random encounter checks are made in such a case too. None of the dice went against the party in all these checks so they were back to traveling to the Dark Wall about 20 amethyst richer thanks to the wily thief.

The next day or something (i dont remember) the party finally got to the hex number they were given for the location of their main mission. We rain Lair Search checks to see if they could find it which is my house rule for when the party has map to a particular hex but still needs to find the "x marks the spot" on the location itself once they arrive. Much to my chagrin the party successfully found the point of interest on the first try and no random encounters during their search. This session was so strangely devoid of all combat. The chances of going this long without any dangerous random encounters (although the dwarves could have been dangerous if not surprised.. and also if they were angry) it was really going against the statistical likelihood of things since hill terrain is quite a bit more likely to have random encounters than plains or roads and such.

The point of interest itself was a 500 foot tall section of the Dark Wall which is a massive cliffside leading up to a table plateau and the party was at the bottom of it. The massive section of wall was pockmarked with like 8 visible caves like a vertical Caves of Chaos. In front of the cliff was a massive 100 foot tall statue of a snake woman or something which the party was informed the Zaharan's used as a spell focus to permanently prevent scrying of massive sections of the Dark Wall so grave robbers and Lawful's wouldn't go messing around their most important burial areas or hidden cities in this case. 

Hakan the shaman used his ability to Commune with his ancestors to divine which of the caves was most likely to lead into the earth and to the lost Zaharan city which the party was trying to find, which was said to have the Scales of Turas divine magic item; their goal. Seems the mostly likely and "safest" way to get to the lost city was the cave furthest to the left and some 500 feet up. Break out the ropes fellas!

The players didn't have 500 feet of rope so they chose to climb up 100 feet to one cave then another 200 to the next then up to the highest one etc etc. Between Harrigan the thief and the barbarian (and maybe someone else?) they succeeded at this and pulled up the non-climbers to each ledge. I've forgotten to tell you there was a flock of wyverns watching all this from a perch at the very top of the cliffside, sometimes circling around like angry vultures watching the party ominously. Luckily for the party the wyverns weren't hostile during their long ascent on the cliff. Unluckly for Snorri he was the only one which rolled a critical fail on any of the climb checks I called for during all this. He fell about 300 feet taking 125 damage and splatting on the ground below. The player began rolling up a new character who was found inexplicably in the cave room the party explored after reaching the cave they were aiming for. 

Inside this cave was a maze of cliffsides and natural rooms. A successful Find Secret Door check by someone in the party led to a small crack in the back which led into a massive chamber with a massive 6 armed lady statue. The party could barely squeeze through the crack and had to remove armor to do so. The giant statue appeared to be mechanical but the party couldn't work out how to get it moving so it might lift them up to the high ledges in this 200 foot tall or whatever room. They chose to just do the ol rope shuffle again and no one failed their Climb check in this case. They climbed up to a tiny cave behind the massive statue which, after some hundred or so feet opened up to a weirding jungle overgrowing an ancient city of geometric shaped buildings. Giant mushrooms here and there.

when jeffro reads about mine
allowing pause time

What the party did next might shock you. What the DM did next might truly shock you if you've been reading my session reports and the #BROSR hashtage. We paused the game! 

Please pray for Jeffro that he didn't break his hand punching holes in his walls upon reading this. Yes. After 2 years of calling everyone who pauses their game in the dungeon a bunch of fake dnd playing wimps, I allowed it! Am I a hypocrite? Probably. 

But you must understand the contingences in play. The party was about 10 days into the future. Which meant in the assumed next session to be played 7 days later they would be 3 days into the future. So by the next session the real calendar won't catch up to the party. I made a deal with the players of session 88 that if I was sick or had to skip DMing the session for IRL reasons then they'd be SOL and stuck in the dungeon standing still for at least 4 days to get us to the NEXT scheduled session 14 days later. Not a good chance of survival in such a case. So they basically locked in to playing these PCs next week even if the whole state of the campaign goes sideways and an easy score or something drops which they wish they could chase with their other PCs. They can't. Unless these want their session 88 pcs dead dead dead. Additionally, any new PCs in session 89 who weren't in session 88 would be newly rolled and "spawn" in this room of the dungeon for story reasons the player would ave to work out. Lastly, the session 88 players had to drop their stats into the d1scord chat in case they couldn't show for session 89 and the dm would have to get them killed running them as NPCs I mean so the dm could play them brilliantly as NPCs.

This is the first time Dubzaron has allowed session pausing and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens. I allowed it because it was about 1 am and I needed to work in the morning, as did most everyone else. I'm not going to offer this as a common option because there are better ways to deal with long travel using up a great deal of a session. It was a very special case indeed what with them 10 days into the future and us at what is essentially the entrance of a very unique dungeon which I didn't want to DM poorly by rushing through it in 10 minutes and didn't want the players to PC poorly for the same reason. 

Stay tuned to see how this bold DM Dubs decision pans out!

Class Grading Thoughts

Best to Worst Grades: E, S, F, P

Arya received an S for being a Lawful Bladedancer(cleric) for having no concern or interest in healing or helping a fallen compatriot. Billy the Explorer was bold (fighter trait) and led overland travel (ranger trait) so E. Bluetooth was as bold as the session allowed and used Climbing so E. Hakon did his shaman thing fine and used Commune to great effect so E. Harrigan was a devious sticky fingered sob which is good for a thief so E. John Cabot was an explorer who went overland (ranger trait) and was as bold as possible (fighter trait) so E. Lockstep the fighter was as bold as the session allowed so E.

DM Self Grade!

I allowed pause time in a BROSR campaign. DM Grade: F

Timekeeping

Session started on 01/04/23. The party traveled and adventured for 9 days and is partway through their 10th day. We paused the game with the assumption of PCs playing on 01/11/23 with the game world on 01/14/23.

Deceased

Dama (L1 Venturer) played by RR.  Current total xp: 75. DECEASED. Poison gas in Session 3.

Darius LeVay (L1 Assassin) played by JB. Current Total XP:451. DECEASED. Poison gas in Session 3.

Donald the Guardsman (L1 Fighter) played by MP. Current Total XP:570. DECEASED. Intra-party justice in Session 3.

Felix (L1 Thief) played by Nicholas. Current Total XP:431. DECEASED. Poison gas in Session 3.

Hektor (L1 Paladin) played by Moai. DECEASED. Cause of Death: goblin warg rider throat removal surgery in Session 2

Leonidas the Inquisitor (L1 Cleric) played by RR.Current Total XP:498  DECEASED. Frozen undead blistering cold aura left his skin frostbitten and broken in Session 6. Body not recovered.

Mard the Mage (L1 Mage) played by Nicholas. DECEASED. Frozen undead blistering cold aura left his skin frostbitten and broken in Session 6. Body not recovered.

Yolo Baggins "My friends call me Swaggins" (L1 Gnomish Trickster) played by J. DECEASED. Paralyzed and eaten by ghouls in Session 12. Body not recovered.

Jack Filcher (L1 Thief) played by C. DECEASED. Shot full of arrows by Inthorn's brigands in Session 12. Body not recovered.

Swoleous Maximus (L1 Paladin). DECEASED. Captured then drawn and quartered by Inthorn the Brigand warlord in Session 12. Posthumously named "Petty Hero of Turos Tem" by Legate Valerian. Ashes offered a place of pride in the Hospital.

Damianus (L1 Cleric). DECEASED. Captured and beheaded by Inthorn the Brigand warlord in Session 12. Posthumously named "Petty Hero of Turos Tem" by Legate Valerian. Ashes offered a place of pride in the Hospital.

Bucky (L1 Barbarian). DECEASED. Became a illegal pit fighter during his downtime. Had two bouts to the death, winning the first and losing the second. Was killed by Young Jack Sparrow who sashayed into the ring, drank rum, and mogged on Bucky before putting a dagger into his ribs, killing him. This happened during downtime between Session 17 and 18.

Broll Wolf-Eater (L1 Barbarian). Current total XP: 1079. DECEASED. Carried off by harpies after falling for their enchanting song in Session 19.

Brother Franklin (L1 Cleric). DECEASED. Decapitated by a mad cultist of a Lovecraftian slime thing in Session 19.

Felix the Elder (L1 Bard). Total XP 825. DECEASED. Captured by mad cultists and fed to a Lovecraftian slime monster in Session 19.

Templar Flavius Africanus (L1 Cleric). Total XP 7. Killed by the claws and beak of mad harpies in Session 19.

Xendi (L1 Explorer). Total XP 6. DECEASED. Carried off by harpies after falling for their enchanting song in Session 19.

Yllmeeton (L3 Shaman). Total XP 4,563. Bludgeoned by the corpse of a bowmen by Rosie Odonnel hag in Session 21.

Longinus (L2 Assassin). Total XP 2,036. Had his face ripped off by Rosie Odonnel hag in Session 21.

Mandonio (L3 Fighter). Total XP 4,779. Charred to a leprous crisp by diseased Dragon breath in Session 22.

Corydon (L1 Joker). Total XP: 0. Burnt to a crisp by chimera breath so thoroughly his corpse wasn't even fit for the crows. Died with a smile on his face and a song in his heart. that's life and as funny as it seems... some people get their kicks, stomping on a dream... In Session 25.

Donny Keebler (L1 Elven Spellsword). Total XP 2,238. Had his legs burned completely off by chimera fire breath in Session 25.

Marina (L2 Fighter). Total XP: 2,204. Burnt into ash by a chimera fire breath in Session 25.

Gundro (L2 Gnomish Trickster). Total XP: 2,575. Had his mouth and tongue bitten off by a lizardman ambusher in the dank sewers below Cyfaraun in Session 26.

Polydoros (L1 Fighter). Total XP: 0. Had his legs ripped off and eaten by Akira monsters in the dark canopy of the Viaspen Forest in Session 28.

Odrum (L1 Explorer). Total XP: 287. Javelin to the heart from the hands of weird vine goblins hidden in the walls of Ferigno's lair in Session 30.

Garvin the Nutless Wonder (L1 Mage). Total XP: 0. Fell off the side of Ferigno's lair 20 feet to his death in Session 30.

Blackmoon (L1 Assassin). Total XP: 768. Choked to death by BOB from Twin Peaks while stealing treasure from Ferigno's dragon horde in Session 30.

Xanthus (L2 Cleric). Total XP: 2,364. Choked to death by BOB from Twin Peaks while hanging out on the roof of Ferigno's lair in Session 30.

Lord Zyklon (L1 Elven Spellsword). Total XP: 0. LORD ZYKLON DISEMBOWLED LORD ZYKLON upon finding himself on the losing side of the Desolation of Turos Tem.

Turin (L1 Cleric). Total XP: 0. Eaten by Wargs in Session 32.

Rat Face (L2 Thief) Total XP: 1,577. Seemingly grabbed in the dark by a Xenomorph in Session 36. In a sinkhole your party can hear you scream! 

Smarticus (L1 Mage) Total XP: 0. Captured by a Xenomorph in Session 36 for all the party to witness. Taken deep into a sinkhole.

Hearticus (L1 Cleric) Total XP: 0. Gored to death by giant horned beetles in Session 39 after projectile vomiting all over himself from the stink of sewer sludge.

Mickey Mouser (L1 Thief) Total XP: 0. Gored to death by giant horned beetles in Session 39 in the happiest place on earth: the Cyfaraun sewer!

Aenes (Level 1 Paladin) Total XP: 62. Swarmed by giant flies in the sewer beneath Cyfaraun in Session 40.

Acianus (Level 1 Mage) Total XP: 0. Chopped to pieces in Session 42 by a six armed demon statue from behind and quickly forgotten about by his compatriots who saved MadEye and lamented Hardar instead. But I'll never forget you Acinanu nanu...nanite... nananaa...

Hardar (Level 2 Mage) Total XP: 2,832. Chopped up in Session 42 by a six armed demon statue as he held his Darth Vader Choking Grip spell long enough for his compatriots to escape an unwinnable battle. His dream to become the most evil being in the universe suffers eternally the indignity of being remembered for self sacrifice and laying his life down for his friends.

Nubbs (Level 3 Thief) Total XP: 4,017. Swarmed by scarabs which bored into his ears and brain in Session 45.

Grummz (Level 1 Dwarven Vaultgard) Total XP: 0. Ripped limb from limb by a throng of skeletons and their undead golem leaders in Session 46.

Grommzs (Level 1 Dwarven Vaultguard) Total XP: 2,168. Torn to bits and eaten by trolls in session 48

Rapunzel (Level 4 Priestess) Total XP: 11,540. Torn to bits and eaten by trolls in Session 48.

Schizo (Level 1 Mage): Total XP: 0. Frozen to death by an assassin's guild ruffian bard wielding a Wand of Cold in session 54.

Marteen (Level 1 Thief): Total XP: 0. Fell to his death in Lamalla's Temple upon a pile of dragon horde gold. Corpse eaten by Sheila the Beautiful, an Ancient Blue Dragon in session 56.

Ambrose (Level 2 Cleric): Total XP: idk. Strangled to death by cursed octopi in a canoe on Lake Laman claiming the Sinister Stone of Sakkara for Law and eventual destruction in session 63.

Traiticus (Level 9 Fighter): Total XP: alot. Head split in half by Froggo's bronze magic "Fren Axe" during Operation Muscle Thunder on 08/09/22.

Alina (Level 7 Mage). Cut in half at her belt line by Froggo's bronze magic "Fren Axe" during Operation Muscle Thunder on 08/09/22.

Olgar McKenzie (Level 5ish Barbarian). Soul eaten by Stormbringer wielded by the Manson the mad assassin during Operation Muscle Thunder on 08/09/22.

Celeste (Level 7ish Witch). Soul eaten by Stormbringer wielded by the Manson the mad assassin during Operation Muscle Thunder on 08/09/22. Said Ancient Soul caused a backfire effect and blasted Manson's face off leaving him dead in the sea foam.

Allen A'Dulles (Level 1 Bard): Petrified by a basilisk in the Meniri Mountains in Session 66.

Cyfaraun (Level 1 Elven Spellsword): Eaten by basilisks in the Meniri Mountains in Session 66.

Tamryn (Level 1 Elven Spellsword):  Petrified by a basilisk in the Meniri Mountains in Session 66

Allen the Bard (Level 1 Bard): Petrified by a basilisk in the Meniri Mountains in Session 66.

UnNamed Venturer (Level 1 Venturer): Killed by astral demons and sucked into the vacuum of spacetime in Session 66.

Major Garland Briggs (Level 1 Explorer): Killed by the crossbow bolt of an angry thracian in a dormant (?) volcano dungeon called Queens Rest Mountain. Then his body was eaten by giant chameleons as the rest of the party made their escape in Session 73.

Autumn Leaves (Level 1 Elven Spellsword): Died to lizardman crossbow bolts to the tears of her adventuring compatriots who tried to revive her after absconding with her corpse just outside Queens Rest Mountain in Session 73.

Xanthos (Level 6 Cleric): Cut down by a flaming blade by a very powerful thracian lizardman below Queens Rest Mountain in Session 74. Ressurected about two weeks later.

Stormin' Norman (Level 1 Gnomish Trickster): Captured by the lizardman tribe below Queens Rest Mountain whilst trying to use illusionist tricks to steal a magic spear. Was subsequently fed to their Giant Chameleons for being an annoying gnome in Session 74.

Kortes (Level 5ish Explorer): Captured and pickled by Blind Pew and the 4 purple dragons of Muppetlantis sometime during downtime in late October or early November.

Billy (L6 Explorer): Roasted to a crisp by Bluey the Blue Dragon's Lightning Bolt Breath in Session 85. Had "restore life and limb" cast on him a few days later.

Tuck Dragonborn (L3[4] Barbarian): Also roasted to a crisp by Bluey the Blue Dragon's Lightning Bolt breath in session 85. Also had restore life and limb cast on him a few days later.

Xanthos: (Level 7 Cleric): Cut down by ogre champions in Session 86.

Snorri Sljepyson the Watchful (Neutral L1 Dwarven Vaultgaurd): Fell to his death about 300 feet off the side of the Dark Wall and went splat on Session 88.

Alexa this is so sad play "Time" by Hootie and the Blowfish