17-18 Adar, heavy rain. Only Jack and Anadalia were at the table this week, but we made the most of it.
They both sought out their patrons as the denouement from last session. Anadalia laid a tribute of sage flowers at her patron’s shrine, and Ha Arom communicated a sense of gratitude back, although Ha Arom, being a patron of The Wild, didn’t seem too pleased with Anadalia’s dalliance in a city. As they exit, here comes Gorah, who I am not too shy to admit may be the NPC of the campaign thus far. She’s tall, charismatic, arrogant, and venomous to her enemies, among which she counts the party as a rival to her own group coming up through the Yeshivat Ganav and now in the employ of Matan, their Ba’al. Kalev, the lanky, sullen boy skulking behind Gorah, happens to be Matan’s son. He spat at the party that if they want Matan for a father, they’re going to be disappointed. Jack immediately felt a ping from Ein Panim and knew that it’s Kalev who needs to be put in his place regarding his father.
Gorah proceeded to chide the party for having fallen backwards into a fortune after being captured in a cage worth a small fortune. But after some particularly cutting barbs from Anadalia, Gorah was left in apoplectic and foreboding silence. The party found lodging for the night, Jack grabbing a tent in the courtyard of a local Beit Malon and Anadalia kipping under the stars at the base of the plateau.
The rains appeared overnight, thoroughly soaking Anadalia, who met up with Jack halfway up the plateau at HaYad Shel Shesh, their former yeshivah cut into the rock. Matan was holding an impromptu ceremony to celebrate the party’s Ascension from mere graduates to 1st grade adventurers, thanks to paying down 1/3 of their debt (in record time, no less). This will grant them much more leeway over how and where they’re deployed to seek treasure, and will grant them the right to see maps and know more about the various expeditions in play at any given time. But for the moment, Matan was on his usual oratory, speaking at length about the history of his company and the place this party was carving out for itself in it, although seemingly everyone there was half-smirking at the idea that the party had had an unusually lucky first outing, especially when it started so disastrously. But Matan is a big believer in luck, saying it’s a sign that God’s countenance is turned to you, so he doesn’t discount it entirely.
After receiving their ceremonial pins and a nice nosh, Jack grabbed Kalev, who’d been having a soft-voiced but very intense argument with his father, and dragged him into a side room. He told him (untruthfully) that if he didn’t reconcile with his father, he wasn’t going to be there when Matan needed saving. Kalev was shocked to hear this, and left in a speechless huff. Ein Panim, who is the patron of both Concealment and Truth, was somewhat capriciously pleased that Jack had fulfilled his quest through the guise of a white lie, and bestowed patronly blessings upon him.
After the party was winding down, Gorah approached the party, all smiles and compliments, but got down to business: she challenged them to come with her crew through the “practice paths,” the test dungeon the yeshivah maintains carved into the body of the plateau, hundreds of feet deep. At the very back is a boarded-up passage, which every student has been warned to contain death. Gorah says she knows there’s something back there, and they’re going to have a competition to see who comes out with the most treasure. The party agrees.
They found several mummified snake people in coffins containing paltry treasure and poison gas, before reaching a barred door with a hammer trap in the ceiling. Perhaps none of them should be bragging about their dungeoneering skills considering they were hurt quite badly by it. Jack was able to use his blessing from Ein Panim to see through the door before the trap went off, and he can see more ornate coffins in the room beyond.
Referee notes and lessons learned
This was our smallest table yet, but it ended up being the session where I felt like the campaign really got its legs under it. I attribute this both the the NPC conflict play, which we hadn’t really been able to get to prior to now, as well as the dungeoneering. The eagle-eyed GMs out there might be able to tell that the dungeon is Skerples’ Tomb Of The Serpent Kings. I know my Tomb of Baal Shorim, with its single complete level, can’t hold a candle just yet to TOTSK, but I’d like to think they both have compelling reasons to visit. But honestly, my pride is secondary to what the party is seeking, and if they never go back to TBS, I’m fine with it. Although I do want to work it some more and post it at some point. I’m pretty proud of several of the rooms, including the giant metal cow skull with the skeletons dancing around it, which Jack was saying he desperately wants to steal. We’ll see how that goes!
Anyway I hope we can carry the momentum from last week into this week. I managed to schedule back-to-back, since it’s the last session of the semester, and we won’t meet again until late January. Woof. But if we can have a session as energized as this one after a month hiatus, I am sure we can come back swinging.
One last note: apparently the parents of the 3rd-5th grade group are saying their kids are interested playing as well. It’ll be a different campaign, and definitely geared down (90 minutes max, for instance), but I leapt at the opportunity. My current plan is to run this gem by Grant Howitt, which will simplify everything down and give me a ton of leeway to just roll randomly and go completely bonkers, the way kids that age love. My kids might even get in on this campaign. We’re going to trial-run the ruleset over Thanksgiving break to see how they like it.