This session was played on 08/11/21 wherein the PCs adventured for 4 days. Needing one day of rest afterwards as per ACKS rules the PCs can make downtime requests and play in sessions starting 08/16/21.
Foreword
Repent and believe in the Gospel.
Session Report
This session, due to time compression in the previous session, the Players were unable to play ANY of their main PCs. This thrust Laru (PC Thief Level 2) into the role as party leader; his player also ran as Caller for this session. Every other PC was level 1 and most were completely new as of this session.
This is the sort of thing that happens with Jeffrogaxian Time Keeping. Players are thrust out of their comfort zone of running one "spotlight" PC and given an opportunity to try different PCs and Classes. It also gives them more shots at rolling ability scores where they might come out with some really superlative numbers. Or not. I'll speak more to this in the Afterword.
The party started out of Turos Spen again and surprised me by having the goal of returning to the ACKS introductory dungeon The Sinister Stone of Sakkara. You can check out my review of the dungeon module here.
Why go back to a Level 1 Dungeon? Well for one, the main PCs were unavailable and every PC except Laru was level 1. Additionally, the Players were convinced the evil inside the dungeon was growing as they hadn't done anything to keep it in check or tamp it down since Session 22 back in mid June.
Real Time Gameplay gives NPC bad guys time to do things when the PCs are off on other missions and goals. It also has a weird bizarro effect of the Players feeling similarly to the PCs. When the PCs haven't addressed a threat for over a month that means the Players haven't either. This campaign approach makes it easier for the Player to get into the PC's mindset about the movement of the world.
Laru set off with Team C (or as some were calling it "Team B Minus") en route to Turos Tem. There was only one major random encounter along the way: some thugs who set up a "toll" for unfortunate travelers along the road. Well I rolled these thugs got surprised so their hiding spot to jump out and ambush the PCs was quite bad. The PCs used their surprise round to attack the thugs. Laru had the party launch arrows first then charge some of the horse riding PCs at the 3 thugs.
The PCs' rolls weren't great and there were alot of misses including Ashitaka (PC Elven Spellsword Level 1) who was going to get a big charging hit on the thugs with his lance from the back of his red elk. But missed. Groans all around the table.
No PCs were seriously wounded and the thugs were all killed. Kortes (PC Explorer Level 1) used tracking to figure out where the thugs' camp was. He found some tents a quarter mile or so away next to a small pond. PCs found some footlockers in the tents with 2,000 silver pieces total. The PCs stripped the thugs of their Plate Mail Armor (a pretty big score tbh) and outfitted some PCs and henchmen who couldn't find or afford Plate Mail back at town.
Team C passed through Turos Aster and shopped for military oil, horses, and armor with fair to middling success. It was interesting watching the Players return to the sort of scrounging for supplies with this low level party similarly to how their main PCs used to do early in the campaign.
The second leg to Turos Tem didn't include any random encounters. They quickly scoured the Market for adventuring supplies like military oil, horses etc, again but then set off into the Viaspen Forest towards the Buried Temple dungeon. Or what the Players call "The Blister of Doom".
It would take a little over a day for the party to reach the Dungeon and it was during the one night of camping where things went very very wrong. The random monster? AKIRA CREATURES!
I rolled a random encounter during the camp and the creatures rolled Hostile and got Surprise on the PCs who were on watch. I was sighing to myself that I was likely to kill multiple PCs before they even had a chance to wake up from their sleeping when I reviewed the PCs who were on watch.
Ashitaka, who was on watch, has a +1 to being surprised so he actually had time to warn SOME of the PCs and wake them up before the monsters converged on the PCs. This one little ability Elves get likely saved at least on PCs life.
The monsters were like bags of flesh with human and beastmen arms, eyes, teeth etc roiling around in the bag of skin and mush. They quickly rolled their way into the midst of the camp and chomped and slapped octopus style tentacles at Dolores (NPC Henchwoman to Laru Fighter L1) and Polydoros (PC Fighter Level 1). Both were knocked below zero hit points and possibly dead.
Ashitaka cast Protection from Evil and was right in assuming the monsters wouldn't be able to approach too closely to him due to them being Evil incarnate or summoned or whatever. All the sleeping PCs woke up and huddled close to Ashitaka to keep from getting attacked without their armor on. They went to stand over Dolores so the monsters couldn't approach while they attempted to bandage up her wounds.
The monsters instead ate Poloydoros, ripping his legs off and swallowing them whole while the party protected the henchman instead. The party debated if Ashitaka should drop the Protection from Evil shield and then they attack the monsters. The big heavy fighter types were putting their armor back on but it would take a while. Some PCs were certain the monsters could be defeated but, iirc, the Caller wasn't convinced. While they debated their options the monsters roiled around the camp and ate all their horses. Ashitaka's red elf was safe as he assured it was in the bubble of the Protection; clearing having more value to him than Polydoros.
The PCs eventually did kill one of the three monsters.
Once all the horses were eaten the two remaining monsters decided to roll off into the forest. Kortes and others took chase but the monsters succeeded at evading the PCs attempt to follow them into the viney forest at night.
Once they were safe from the disgusting beasts the PCs attempted to revive Dolores and realized if she wasn't healed up to 1 Hit Point within 24 hours she'd die. Her abdomen had a horrible wound and was bleeding out fast. Laru (the Caller) decided to double time the party back to Turos Tem at night and save his henchwoman. Polydoros's body was collected to be properly burned in a pyre back in Turos Tem as well.
Priestess Genelen (NPC Priestess Level ???) healed Dolores for free since she is Friendly with Laru. But Dolores would need 1 week of bed rest to adventure again. The Hospital at Turos Tem took her in until she could get back on her feet.
At this point we were only 2ish hours into my normally 3.5 hour sessions. I ruled it wasn't really feasible for the PCs to regroup and make another sortie to and into the Dungeon within a time frame for myself and others to get to bed at a reasonable time. A second sortie would likely take at least 2 hours, if not 3. So I informed Players they were free to log out for the night safely "parked" in Turos Tem. Other players who might be interested in shopping in the town or talking to NPCs could do that instead. We'd do that for an hour or so or until we ran out of steam.
My game dedicates too little time to dealing with NPCs during session time so I thought this might be a nice change of pace. IMO, it was indeed.
PCs went to the Travelers Inn to drown their sorrows on a failure to not only delve the Dungeon but to even ARRIVE at said dungeon. While there they met up with Centurion Animal Mother. He was in Turos Tem from Turos Spen for reasons I won't get into here. Let's just say the Patron of Turos Spen decided to sent help to the Patron of Turos Tem, unsolicited.
I honestly can't imagine me having this same thing happen if both Legates were simply NPCs. I'm seeing Patron bad guys played 1,000 times more deviously that I'd ever play them and Patron good guys played 1,000 times more honorable and action oriented than I would ever NPC them.
Get Patrons in your campaign NOW. It's worth it.
So anyway Ratface (PC Thief Level 1) decided to pick pocket Centurion Animal Mother. His first attempt went find and he grabbed a couple gold pieces and this fancy knit cap. But then he got greedy and wanted to attempt to steal Animal Mother's prized Magic Axe "Sickle Cell".
Ratface failed by more than 14 so he was caught. Animal Mother attemped to apprehend the thief until Laru calmed the Centurion down. Animal Mother likes Laru already for something the adventurer did back at his Keep. That didn't stop the Centurion from sucker punching Ratface in his rat face. He was knocked out cold and caught before hitting the floor by Lord Zyklon (PC Elven Spellsword Level 1) who decided to drag the thief outside and beat him more to a pulp. I never figured out why except for maybe Lord Zyklon is just a jerk? idk.
The Ashitaka tried to go rob the soldiers' payroll from the Turos Tem quartermaster. He stood outside the cage leading to the counting room and tried to convince the Quartermaster that the Legate wanted him to store his (Ashitaka's) hawk familiar. The Quartermaster wasn't really buying it. There's basically no elves in town but the Legate sends this guy with a hawk? Ashitaka decided he'd have his hawk fly through the bars and attack the quartermaster (maybe to get the key?). But, upon threatening the quartermaster, Ashitaka lost initiative and didn't surprise him. The elf decided not to press his luck and cast Jump to escape town across the rooftops. I used the wilderness evasion rules to decide if the town's guards mustered quickly enough and were able to run the elf down in combat and apprehend him,
The Patron of Turos Tem was pretty angry about all these hijinks and, during downtime, came to yell at Laru about the behavior of his party members. Real players then discussed what the punishments should be (if any). Real social wrangling was done by real humans about murderhobo behavior, in real time.
Get Patrons in your campaign NOW.
After Ashitaka's hijink it was getting late so I called the session.
Afterword
Do players enjoy being "forced" to play backup PCs? I got the feeling many of the players in this session were sort of phoning it in. "Who cares if this dumb backup dies?" mentality. Which is fine. The normal Caller stated outright he needed a break from Calling. He used this session to sort of decompress and play a new PC "with his id" and not worry so much about herding the cats of other PCs and gameplanning. Seems cool that my campaign can be approached multiple ways even by the same player.
Other players, however, do seem less interested in moving around from various PCs. I noticed players going through great pains to utilize downtime to assure they'd have their "main PC" ready for a session. Or skip a session if their "main PC" was unavailable for some reason.
Mr Wargaming doesn't call this a problem but an opportunity. Some players truly do enjoy having multiple PCs. I had a ball running multiple PCs in Jeffro's 1e Trollopulous campaign last summer.
Multiple PCs lets you try out different classes you wouldn't normally try and different aspects of pulp gameplay you'd never think to explore. Real DND is a pulp fantasy generator system. You can use your backup PC as an opportunity in this way and a pawn in your various goals.
If such an opportunity doesn't interest a player he is free to take sessions off to wait for their "main PC" to be ready. Or maybe play with less gusto if they are given "the opportunity" to run a backup PC. Players have the choice to approach the game in the ways that interest them.
I advise you the reader to DM with Real Time in such a way as to provide players a campaign world that necessitates and/or allows backup PCs. The players who don't like it will come around or not spoil the fun. And some players who never even considered it will have a great time indeed. As will you.
God bless.
Surviving PCs Present
Ashitaka (10% xp bonus) Elven Spellsword Level 1. 35 XP gained.
Kortes (0% XP bonus) Explorer Level 1. 32 xp gained. Total: 32
Laru (5% xp bonus) Thief Level 2. 34 XP gained. Total: 3,093
Ratface (0% XP bonus) Thief level 1. 41 XP gained. Total: 41
Temuulen (5% XP bonus) Barbarian Level 1. 34 XP gained. Total: 34
Lord Zyklon (10% XP bonus) Elven Spellword Level 1. 35 XP gained. Total: 35
Surviving Hench Presnet
Dolores (Laru) Fighter Level 1. 16 xp gained
Iresha (Laru) L0 hench. 16 XP gained.
Maro (Laru) L0 hench. 16 XP gained.
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.
Alexa this is so sad play "Footloose" by Kenny Loggins from the "Footloose" Official Motion Picture Soundtrack
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