Shadowdark Thracia 9
Players: Zema Zafat (ZZ) Ebane Strabon Bomb Parthenios Epicaste (NPC ally)
Hirizin was re-named Parthenios.
Recap:
Session began as party discussed with their stationed warband if there was anything new to report. They gave a high level overview of their standing with the cult. Not friendly but not hostile. They are allowed to station at the entrance. Ebane tried to inspire them with a song. He inspired his friends but the militia were not particular moved.
Inside the caverns a group of cultists were sweeping the floor, tending to area 1-1 and 1-3. They let their dislike of the delvers be known without turning hostile. They particularly cursed (not literally) Parthenios for breaking with their brotherhood. All they did was tell their priest that the party was in the dungeon.
The party ventured East. The re-investigated the Gate of Death. The cultists had two guards stationed there. The guards claimed their Priest went in and did not come out. He told them to stand guard and no one has dismissed them. Ebane greated them with a cult gesture. They were immediately easy with his presence. Arete further investigated the Gate. She tied a rope to a crossbolt and fired one down the hallway. She tried pulling back the bolt but found that the rope was stuck. Parthenios dared to venture inside but stopped just short of crossing the threshold. The party decided not to explore the holiest of holies today.
They did however head towards level 2. On the way down the stairs in area 1-8, they came across some fleeing slaves who were being chased by a Gnoll patrol. The Gnolls had apparently breached the barrier down in 2-21. The cultists on level 1 dealt with the Gnolls. During the fight, the party moved into room 1-27 and saw the cultists dumping bodies below to be turned as undead servitors. The cult was ready for war against the Gnolls and with the help of the party descended from Level 1 and claimed the temple of Athena.
After the fight the party scouted the Gnoll fortress which was ready to meet them with crossbow fire. They decided against checking out the fort and instead choose to check out the cobwebbed cave behind the temple.
Luckily, Arete spotted the secret door to a storage compartment under the temple. Upon entering they found a room full of crates loaded with weapons and ammo, some of which were quite exotic. They found the weapons of Wing Tu and the 3 piece crossbow (I need to convert this to SD)
Looting what they could from that room they left the dungeon without incident.
9XP Total awarded.
Thoughts: Thracia is back! After a 4 week hiatus we have reached Delve 9. This one was action packed and had some fun rewards. I felt the rapport with this group was good. Everyone got along and running it felt chill. It felt great to get back into this campaign, I didn't realize I missed it this much.
I think Thracia's vibes feel cozy for me. This is not filled with anything particularly crazy, but it all ties together nicely and the potential for it to evolve is big. It grows from humble beginnings.
I really wanted to show how the cult might go to war with the beastmen and here we had a hype fight that involved controlled skeletons. Note to self: roll to cast for the skeletal summoning. Play with this mechanic more.
I also am very hyped they found the wuxia weapons. I don't love that I resolved the check for the door as a passive perception esque roll, but at the same time they were very close and it doesn't have good tells.
I think something I would be keen on changing is how initiative is approached. Right now it is side based and closely approximates SD combat initiative, which I realize I don't like that much. I would far rather have one person on the other team rolling, but re-roll each turn. Side initiative can otherwise feel stagnant. I want the element of swinginess to combat. I like when players can fall onto the backfoot of a fight and have luck swing back in their favor. Shadowdark can be brutal, but only if the enemies land an attack.
I also think that recently combats have been fights between large parties. Sleep has always been and continues to be OP, especially since so many of the combatants are beastmen hordes. I do want to bring back some tension into this campaign as so far fights have been a joke.