Monday, October 10, 2016

West Marches: sessions 2 and 3

Woohoo! Two session in two days!

This Friday we played our second session and the players got more into the explorer and investigator mode. The new players are beginning to take a little more initiative in group decision making and character actions. They had a great time and asked for another session Saturday, and that too went well, including addition of another new player.

The party has not progressed in their tasks of finding the missing widow, and finding the chicken thief, however they have been involving themselves in other rumors. They went off to see what was happening at the Lonely Well and discovered a campsite nearby whose occupants were dead or missing. After deciding to postpone delving into the well itself, they returned to town and chose to look into the new bandit situation that cropped up along the east road.

Soundly defeating the small number of highwaymen, they dragged a captive back to the town jail for safe keeping and questioning. The information given by the bandit indicated that the highwaymen were also worshipers of something they call the Eyes in the Darkness, and each of them bears tattoos of red eyes above their eyebrows. The captive also informed the party that the hideout was 500 yards north of the road, in a cave down in a gully.

Along with two town guards and the merchant that first reported the robbery, the party sought out this cave. The cave entrance, was guarded by a vine that attacked them. Defeating that obstacle they carefully and very hesitantly began to explore the cave.

Inside the cave the found a dead bandit that may have been the one that escaped from the battle a few days earlier. They also heard some clicking which made them paranoid within the closed confines and they left the cave.

Setting camp not far from the gully they got some rest until three large scorpions assaulted the camp. The 2 foot long creatures managed to kill one of the town guards and very nearly kill Mira (the group's specialist). Mira remains confined to bed while being treated for the poison and her wounds. Camping by a suspicious cave has taught the party a couple of lessons about becoming potential monster dinner, and about how difficult it can be to fight in the darkness.

(House Rule - one use of a D30 per session by each player, for any of the following - attack roll, damage roll, or a saving throw.)

It was the spell casters (Wizard and two Elves) that allowed them to get through the fight without more casualties. Magic Missile, Faerie Fire, and Sleep spells turned the battle around just in time.

Overall results have been positive for this fledgling game group. Some of the new players have caught the role playing bug and have started buying dice, and planning to make dice bags, among other things.

As DM, I am pleased to finally have gotten back to a frequency of play that has been missing from my gaming for far too long. It is also wonderful seeing the reaction of the players as they discover the world with all of the danger and mystery.

Next week will be interesting. The addition of another rumor to the pile of unfinished threads should really have the players twisted in knots trying to decide what to pursue.


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