Daemonium - Brave Surviver!! Session 17: North Ambern Hex Crawl Part 3

Characters:

Redmond Frionbarr - Level 4 Bard
Cadillac Monteau - Level 3 Ranger
Za'vak Al-Hadim - Level 4 Paladin/Level 1 Fighter

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This session introduces the player of Vamp's new character: Cadillac Monteau. He's a Ranger who comes all the way from the western land of Utahia.

While Gene and Za'vak were exploring in the last session, Monteau rolled up into the village of Homble on horseback looking for Vamp. Monteau is a bounty hunter, with a mission to find Vamp Testy. After introducing himself to the mayor of Homble, Harold Koomer, and his wife, Monteau learned that Vamp had went north into the Fae Woods. He went to the top floor of the tavern/inn, the Swan, and polished his guns while murmuring to them.

Note: Monteau's player uses the funniest character voice, with both a lisp and an underbite. Almost everything he said in his character voice caused me to laugh hard enough that I had to mute the mic.

Redmond, meanwhile, was tasked with transporting Vamp's body back to Homble using his Donkey. Upon arrival, he ran into Bean Chocken (A dude he saved way back in session 6) who delivered a message from Bike the Pirate. Bike's hideout in Flotsam Cove was discovered, so he and his crew are looking for a new hideout in the South Seas.

Redmond has been carrying a cursed dagger called the Wicked Chew which reduces his max HP by one every day unless he takes enough life with the dagger (1 medium or large creature will do it). At this point, the dagger has drained two HP. Feeling some anxiety about this, Redmond calls out to Boof Clarevoy, a Divination Wizard who may watching him, for help. It is unclear at this point if Boof heard him.

At the Swan, Redmond was told of Monteau's arrival. Redmond knocked on Monteau's door and Monteau told Redmond that he was a friend of Vamp. Redmond saw through this lie and left, very suspicious of the new arrival. Monteau spent the night watching the body of Vamp be transported and interred in the church on the hill, and snuck into the church once all was quiet.

Note: During this conversation, Redmond asked to roll an Insight check to see if Monteau was lying about being friends with the late Vamp. I wasn't exactly sure what to do in this scenario, as I usually don't allow players to "roll" social checks against each other. I let it happen, though, and Monteau's player later told me he wasn't too fond of that. It makes sense, as its a bit weird to be interacted with like a more abstract NPC. I would've been okay with just leaving it up to Redmond's player whether he saw through the lie or not. Obviously both players knew Monteau was lying, so it's kind of about figuring where they want interaction to go. Anyway, this is not a huge deal regardless.

Redmond figures that Monteau is after the body, so he hides in the church. Once Monteau walks in, Redmond uses Minor Illusion to make Vamp's face appear awake and uses Message to tell Monteau to stop. Monteau is a religious man, so he defers to this strange twist. After some back and forth, Redmond reveals himself and says he's an angel. Monteau tells Redmond that he must capture Vamp alive, and so he will look for a way to revive him. Redmond then bribes Monteau and says that, in the mean time, they can pay him for his talents. Monteau agrees, and gets 200 gold pieces for his trouble.

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The next day, the party sets off into the Fae Wood. Starting from Redmond's Fort on Hex 306, the party decided to explore the Western half of the map. Given that Monteau is an expert at navigating swamps, they figured they could explore the swamp area in the west and maybe find some hints about the Wood Elves.

They first went up to hex 304. As night was falling, they found a large beaver dam built into the river's bend. This beaver dam had a chimney, with smoke coming out! Monteau knocked on a door in the dam and a beaver man wearing a red wool sweater with a yellow 'B' on it poked his head out. Monteau immediately bashed his way in and held the furry creature at gun point. He robbed the place of some arts and crafts made by Mr. Beaver, they got some information about the Wood Elves, and then they tied him in rope and slept at his house overnight. Mr. Beaver's house is protected by numerous traps but the party avoided them through sheer luck.

The next day the party went northwest to hex 303. They found themselves facing large walls of brambles, and eventually found an opening into a maze of brambles. This was going to be resolved with a serious of navigation checks but Monteau's Ranger specialization in swamps allows him to navigate without getting lost. Thus, Redmond and Monteau avoided the perils of the bramble maze. At the centre of this maze, they found a huge dead tree with a large opening. They approached through the swamp, but two Zombie Ogres emerged from the muck. Due to terrain penalties, the party couldn't properly retreat. While Monteau moves unimpeded in swamps, Redmond suffered a movement penalty which makes movement difficult. 

The Ogres hit very hard, the two hits they landed knocked the two Braves down to about half HP. But! Za'vak's player hopped on the Discord and joined the fight! Za'vak easily turned the tide of battle with his Paladin powers. After their victory, the dead tree waited up ahead. In front, 2d20 zombies (22) milled about. Most of the zombies were Lizard Men. Za'vak used Turn Undead and escorted the others into the dead tree. 

Inside, the massive tree was hollowed out completely. The dim evening light poured inside. There was a small amount of solid ground to stand on, and otherwise there was a large pool of poison/acidic muck. Redmond diluted the water with an orb of water from a previous adventure he had on his person. After some discussion, Redmond used two daggers like pitons and stuck them into the old wood of the tree and climbed along the side of the wall over the poison.

Note: While definitely valid in 5e based on the typical culture of play, I regret allowing this skill check. It feels a bit silly to use daggers like this, if the tree was old and dead enough that you could easily drive the daggers in it wouldn't have enough structural integrity to support climbing along the side. This is one of the issue with the skill system in 5e... It encourages a type of gameplay I'm not overly fond of. Other solutions to the poison pool are: simply walk through it, try to construct a raft, build a bridge (Perhaps with materials from the brambles outside), use an appropriate spell or magic item, etc. I'm basically just not the biggest fan of traps/hazards being reduced to a skill check. The Crushing trap in Mirror Mountain is an example of a trap which I think went perfectly in play.

Redmond walked down a long, wide corridor and eventually found a massive treasure horde! Over 10000 gold pieces dazzled before his eye! There was also a large bed of furs, and various statues of lizard people. Redmond heard fighting erupt back in the main chamber of the tree. The Turn Undead spell ran out. He grabbed up all the most obvious treasure he could find: a staff, a sword of dwarven make, a shield, and an amulet. Once he grabbed the necklace, Redmond found it was another cursed item. When he put it on, he found himself in contact with a man who claims to be a Wizard named Roberto. The necklace, it seems, establishes a psychic link between the two. Roberto says that the necklace was made for his manservant, and that the necklace does not allow the reading of minds. Some smaller items in the hoards, such as potions and scrolls, were ignored in favour of collecting 2000 gold in a sack.

Za'vack and Monteau fought through 22 Zombies. The Zombie's had 12 HP each, and the Monteau's Hordebreaker ability and dual wielding allowed him to eliminate about 3 per turn. Things went well initially, but Za'vak had to change strategies to protect the party's donkey! So, Za'vak took a disengage action to run through the crowd and protect the donkey with his body. Redmond, from the other side of the poison goop, managed to run up and use the Shatter spell to eliminate a big group of zombies. Afterward, Monteau rolled a nat 20 on all three of his attacks in one turn, so we agreed that he killed the five remaining zombies by spinning around and ricocheting bullets off the wall. This also dealt 5 damage to Za'vak and the poor Donkey.

I realize now, looking back, that we hand-waved Redmond crossing back over the toxic goop. I probably shouldn't have done that, but the session had to wrap up at this point. The party successfully navigated their way out of the Bramble Maze with the help of Monteau and rested near Mr. Beaver's place. Redmond, while keeping watch, felt that the party was being stalked and called out to out the invisible assailants. A Wood Elf scout floated down from a tree, and asked the party what they were doing in the Dragon Rosgarth's home. The Wood Elf asked what the party found and Redmond showed them the staff. This staff, according to the Wood Elf, was stolen by Rosgarth long ago. In short, the party made a deal that in two days the party would meet with the Wood Elves on the hill on Hex 404 (Orc Hill) and would be able to meet with King Tulip in exchange for returning the Staff of the Woodland. Both groups kept their cards close to their chest, Redmond did not reveal that this is a diplomatic mission for Cashua, and the Wood Elf scout didn't reveal much of anything at all.

The items found in the hoard:
- Jade Necklace
- Adamantine Sword
- +1 Shield
- Staff of the Woodland

The sword is likely going to Gene because Za'vak decided to take the shield.

Notes:

- Za'vak was technically in two places at once, but I didn't say anything lmao. Za'vak wouldn't be back to Redmond's Fort (Palazzo Redmondo) until the next day. I tend to be pretty lenient with letting players into the game, so I just let him hop in. In a system with a simpler character creator, I'd simply have the player roll up a new character or take control of a hireling.

- The treasure horde for the dragon was not fully rolled up because I did not expect the player to go in haha. Without Monteau, the Bramble Maze would've been both annoying and super deadly. I had to stall for a few seconds and roll the remaining items. The Woodland Staff was initially the only item in there.

- Both the Gene/Za'vak party and the Redmond/Monteau party found different ways into the Wood Elf Kingdom, which is cool. There were a few ways to find the way to the Wood Elves, and both of these solutions surprised me. 

- Redmond is anxious about having found an empty dragon's hoard, and they've seen a Black Dragon within the Fae Woods. The dragon scenario is interesting, and I look forward to see how things transpire. Things may not be exactly as they appear!