Sigulf wrote:

So we played the "Bounty Hunters" adventure on 6-30 and 7-1.  It played out pretty well.  My wife's character didn't try to fight it out with the Bounty Hunters and negotiated with them successfully to allow her and her companion to go into the Charred Bogs and try to locate the Wizard who had bought the stolen gem from the thief.  The Bounty Hunters took custody of the thief and gave Anya seven days to return with the gem.

The trip through the bogs was an eventful day and a half journey.  They encountered a swamp dragon eight hours into the trip and then a swamp cat just outside the temple ruins.  In the ruins, they managed to avoid being swarmed by a rat swarm (running into a room and closing the door behind them and then emerging with a torch did the trick), then they took out a pair of ghouls, a poisonous snake (Anya made her Strength task roll to avoid the poisons effects), and eventually the main baddie - a Nightgaunt.

They located the dead wizard's body and found the gem in the Nightgaunt's lair.  Returning to Jalizar, they met up with the Bounty Hunters and traded the gem for the thief (Anya had to make a Mind task roll to overcome her "Greedy" flaw though).

Next up will be a short adventure detailing what has happened to Rykard.   I made a pre-gen character for my wife to play during this short adventure, a female Valk spear wielder.


We did take last week off from BoL to run some characters through the Fantasy Trip's Death Test - did not go well for the characters, they all died.   (There is a reason why they call it the Death Test...)

I've run characters through Death Test for decades.  They still die on me.

The last few weeks we returned to the Hyborian Age "Hammer of Æs" campaign.  I had converted the Signs & Portents adventure "Hunting the Falcon" and it turned out pretty good.  Then I ran an adventure called "Deadly Nights in Messantia" where the characters got involved in solving a string of prostitute murders.  (A necromancer had hired some thugs to kill some prostitutes and bring him back body parts for a ritual that he was going to perform.)  I have run this before in my Freeport campaign and like the storyline, some changes were made and it turned out good.  The PCs never encountered the necromancer, as they turned their findings over to the Patrol, who told them that they would take it from there.  Several days later - the PCs found out that the Patrol had gone out to arrest the necromancer and he had fled, while his large tulwar wielding Shemite bodyguard held them off.

The next week, I ran an adventure called "The Merchant's Crypt" the PCs were approached by a female who wanted them to find out what had happened to her husband.  He and an accomplice, decided to break into a wealthy merchant's crypt - thinking that he had been buried with some of his wealth.  They were missing for the last three days.

The PCs agreed to help the woman and after some legwork around the city of Messantia (where they learned that the dead merchant and his brother were suspected of being involved with magic), they headed east to the cemetery.   Using stealth, perception, and some athletics, they got into the walled off cemetery, avoiding the guards that patrol it.  Inside the cemetery they found the merchant's crypt and inside the crypt, they located a hidden wall that led to a chamber with a trap door.  They did see some recent sandaled footprints leading down.  Under the crypt, they found the dead thieves and the creature that killed them (a kind of flesh golem).  They destroyed the golem and after taking the dead thieves wedding band, set off to return to Messantia.  As they proceeded to leave the cemetery, they ran into a horde of undead!  (The cemetery stands ontop of a long buried Acheronian temple to some unnamed dark god...) A good battle ensued - several HP were needed to be used.  They finally returned to Messantia and the next day informed the woman of her husband's death.

After this, the PCs decided to get out of Messantia - they had enough of necromancers and their workings.  Now they are heading west and will find themselves along the Zingara/Argos border, where the next adventure "Bitter Oranges" (another adventure from Signs & Portents) takes place tonight or tomorrow.
 

Last edited by Sigulf (3/08/2024 6:13 am)

Over the last two weekends, we have continued on with our Hyborian Age campaign.  I ran the S&P adventure "Bitter Oranges" by Rodrigo Vilanova de Allende and the next week I ran "To Race the Thunder" from the Modephius 2d20 Quickstart rules.

First, "Bitter Oranges".  I did not think that my wife would go with the premise for her PC being hired at the start of this adventure, but she did.  And she went with it hook & sinker.  The story played out really well.  The final battle was epic, my wife was actually shocked at the end.  I had a back-up outline for the adventure, but didn't have to use it.  Pretty happy about that.

"To Race the Thunder" was awesome.   A non-stop running & fighting adventure.  Our PCs ended up killing 32 Picts and an Unnaturally Enhanced Black Panther.  They even managed to save some of the settlers.
My wife told me that it ran just like the Conan story.  (She's read Howard's original Conan stories.)

I did change it up a bit though, our characters where not employed as Scouts at the start but were passing through and came across an Aquilonian Scout being chased by a group of Picts.  

Next up this weekend is "Thunder's Bounty" by David Thomas.  It starts out in Velitrium, and is kind of a continuation of "To Race the Thunder".  Have the conversion done already, just have to get my maps in order.  Looks like a good story too.

After that I have "The Thousand Eyes of Aumeg-Bel" from Modephius Conan 2d20 and then "Heretics of Tarantia" from the Mongoose d20 Conan RPG.  I might take a break from this campaign before these two though, have some other stuff brewing.