ODND "Callastor" Campaign: Heroes and Villains
The gang gets involved on both sides of the law, more PCs die, and new cultures are met...and killed.
This session write-up will be a sort of broad overview to keep things updated - a lot happened, so I’ll keep things concise and tight.
I want to talk a bit about how I’ve been theming my encounter tables, as well as allowing the broader world to “emerge” as the players explore, and what the means mechanically for the campaign.
Ignoring how I’m labeling these, this is actually the beginning of the second sit down session (we’ve now had three - so I’m essentially staying one ahead here on the Substack).
These generally last from 4-5 hours and have between 4-6 players at the table.
I use colored pencils to keep track of which party has gone where and done what, and a standard blank calendar print-out to keep track of in-game time - we are currently several weeks ahead of “real world” time, as our PCs enter into the winter season.
This game began with rumors from the north that a major city in the Tirhold (the alliance of free merchant cities along this region of the campaign world’s major river, the Tirvallis), "Baten-Kaitos,” and its rival mountain city, “Grav,” home to the western Belenos peoples who dwell on this side of the mighty river, are going to war.
This means many mercenaries traveling north, and supplies being more expensive while this is ongoing, as well as many jobs opening up for the PCs little crew.
The PCs delving and mucking about in the ruins of Zhol-Tarath is also having in-game consequences - farmsteads are being attacked and burned by dead soldiers in the night, who then return to the dungeon, taking most of the dead with them on bone-steeds.
The first little leg of the game sees the PCs (this time led by one of the fighters, as our main magic users player had to miss the session, and he usually “leads the party”) investigate this situation, and kill a large group of undead back at the dungeon entrance.
They were extremely reticent to go into the dungeon itself, and opted for rock traps, rope and elevation to avoid big direct fights - this paid off in spades, and they were able to defeat the raiding party of undead but opted out of going deeper this session.
Back in the city of Vør, the PCs use their contact Alathor, a local likable thug they spared in session one, to contract out to a major criminal organization in the city.
The job is a heist of a merchant ship coming upriver from the soon-to-be-embattled city of Baten-Kaitos - owned by a large merchant conglomerate called The Balance and Scale.
The PCs plan and operate very well tactically, using initiative order and strategically placed missile troops to annihilate the opposition.
Delving Deeper v2’s very indulgent fighter attack rules also allowed the L2 fighters to do some very serious damage as all opponents were under 3HD.
This rule seems quite overpowered, but once the enemy has anyone involved in the fight over 3HD it goes away, so it’s not too bad, and we decided to keep it as is.
They earn a good deal of XP in coinage, and intelligently opt for a bonus in silks stolen from the ship instead of straight coin, as they know prices are up due to war rumors. They decide to hold onto this for a while as the goods will be very hot at the moment.
At some point in the city, one of the new players on this session (who will be unlikely to make it often) gets restless and tries to pickpocket a merchant in the upper ward, despite warnings of guards and the like. They fail miserably, are pursued by several guards - one of the other PCs runs with them, while the rest scatter and abandon them due to the player not heeding their admonishments.
Both PCs are eviscerated by an organized and tactical city guard. Sheets are added to the Wall of Death, and players learn that this game is unlikely to reward or punish, but that NPCs are not incapable idiots.
Consequences are real - death is around every corner, and the dice speak doom!
New L1 characters are swiftly made and the action continues. I don’t allow PCs to start higher than L1, but I do allow players to have and use multiple characters if they like, in order to have a stable of PCs that can gain levels in case one should die.
Starting PCs higher than L1 for dying seems like it takes away from players who have ground it out with their PCs and earned their levels the hard way - the higher levels of loot obtained by higher level parties will still level weaker PCs who are shrewd enough to stay alive with a more powerful group.
Meantime, a caravan guard offer to the city of Doro appeals to them, as the players all want to get out of the city and explore the world a bit, while staying mainly on the road, as they now know that true wilderness encounters are very potentially deadly.
A trip south with 5 wagons takes them on the borders of the lands of the Dessians, a Pict-inspired people who constantly raid the borders of the Tirhold due to extreme mobility, hit and run tactics, and de-centralized society. The players get nervous as a huge group of them shadow the caravan, knowing its only a matter of time before their superior speed allows them to cut off the wagons.
PCs use their expensive trained dogs “Chopper” and “Grendel” to keep an eye on the raiders, while they find a spot to circle the wagons.
A big fight ensues with a dozen of their forward runners, who are utterly decimated by the PCs due to bottlenecking, environment awareness and the like. When the big group arrives and sees the carnage, their leader grudgingly gives the PCs his respect and arm-ring, but demands at least one wagon as tax and to avoid fighting another few dozen men.
The PCs take the trade, and I inform them that Dessians are now a playable character type in the campaign.
(Dessians get a bonus to AC and thrown weapons only when not wearing armor, and have tattoos with magic properties like “spirit of the bull” which gives +1 initiative and +1 damage, etc.)
The rest of the trip is largely uneventful, but on the way back, a group of seven chaos cultists who worship Anesh approach and talk to the party’s evil cleric and say they will wait for him in the foothills leading to Zhol-Tarath.
I’m doing my best not to steer players, but giving them options and hints that domain play or big plans are not out of the question even at lower levels.
The PCs make it back to Vør, and make lots of plans for the week downtime between sessions…
Next time:
Delving deeper into Zhol-Tarath - level drain, paralysis and world lore on just why these dungeons are here!
Keep your blades sharp,
- CG
As always great stuff. Hope your players stick long enough for us to get a taste of mass combat in the future.
The battle maps are just great - no need for miniatures!