Date in Real Life: Thursday, 22 September, 2022
In Game Day: Shta’im, the 6th of Sawol (early summer)
Adventure Master: Player 3 ("William"), leading his 2nd Adventure
Format: Hexcrawl
Player Characters:
Cenbald the Cadet, on his 5th mission.
Dorei the Initiate, on her 3rd mission.
Gundo the Cadet, on his 4th mission.
Norvin the Cadet, on his 3rd mission.
Simeon approached the team at supper to inform them of a new mission.
“A mission? Awesome sauce!” Cenbald enthused.
“Yes,” Simeon nodded. “It’s a simple mission, and should be good experience for you. We need you to deliver these sacred scrolls to the Salt Warrior named Edmar in a small northern village. It’s the only village in a small valley, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find. We’ll expect you back in a few hours.”
“What, tonight? I was going to relax and go to bed!” Dorei whined.
“Yes, tonight. You leave immediately.”
“Okay, let’s go grab our stuff,” Norvin said, standing up.
“You’re supposed to have your weapons with you at all times, cadet,” Simeon chided.
Norvin reddened and looked away. “Yes, master,” he mumbled.
Several minutes later, the team emerged from a hollow tree somewhere in the Dragon Lands. They seemed to be in an apple orchard.
“What sorcery is this?” a voice exclaimed. They turned and saw a farmer gawking at them. Norvin was quick to try to calm him down, and transitioned naturally into sharing the Great Rescue. Gundo pitched in and helped explain as well. The farmer came to faith and they sent him to tell the rest of his family.
The team left the farm and followed the road for a couple of ticks. They passed an intersection, but they could see the village to the West, so they went west.
The village was walled, but there was no gate. Some guards greeted them, and let them in, satisfied that they didn’t seem suspicious.
They made their way into the town and stopped a random passer-by to ask for directions to Edmar’s house.
They made their way to the north end of town. Edmar’s brothers (Admar and Odmar) were there, but informed the team that Edmar had been taken by the evil snow giant. The team learned that the Snow Giant had been kidnapping people for a long time, one per day, and none of them were ever heard from again. The team left the Sacred Scrolls with the brothers, then made their way to the town hall (cutting through the market) to speak to the mayor. The Mayor seemed to think the situation was hopeless, and was unwilling to help. He was also worried about goblin attacks, so was not willing to spare any soldiers. The team volunteered to confront the monster themselves.
The team left town and followed the road back to the intersection. This time they headed East to an ominous snow-covered mountain. They saw a warning sign, which they ignored. They made it to the base of the mountain, and followed the path up the mountain side.
They arrived at the mouth of a cave.
Norvin readied his crossbow and Gundo nocked an arrow in his bow. Dorei got her sling ready, and Cenbald pulled out his warhammer.
As they peered inside, they saw four orcs, and a huge snowy creature, who was lying on a bed.
Cenbald ducked behind Gundo and started praying. The other three fired their missiles at the orcs. Norvin spun to safety out of the cave to reload. Gundo and Dorei continued to fight the orcs, who were now coming at them with swords. One of the orcs called to the snow giant to wake up. Norvin peeked around the corner to fire his bolts, then would duck out of sight again.
The giant was slow to get up, and two of the orcs were already dead by the time the beast was on its feet. Norvin started a fire at the cave opening and shot a flaming arrow at the table near the snow giant. The giant smacked the pitiful flame with his huge fist, extinguishing it. Cenbald wrapped the head of his warhammer in rags, ignited it, and threw it at the giant. The giant dodged.
The remaining orcs were dispatched by Dorei and Gundo. The giant threw a snowball at Gundo, knocking him down. He rolled to safety and was on his feet again.
The snow giant gave a low groan, and Gundo fell under a sin enchantment.
“Gundo, fall back!” Norvin called out. “I have fire back here, we can shoot flaming arrows!”
“I don’t need your help,” Gundo snarled. “I can take this guy by myself.”
“Are you crazy?” Norvin yelled. He wasn’t able to fire his crossbow, since Gundo had stepped into Norvin’s line of fire. “I don’t have a clear shot! Get out of the way!”
Too late. The giant smacked Gundo to the side. He was still moving, but was badly bruised.
As the giant turned its attention to Dorei, Cenbald moved in to retrieve his war hammer. Dorei seemed to be moving faster than normal after one of Cenbald’s battle prayers. She was firing rocks one after another at lightning speed.
Norvin thought his crossbow was taking too long to reload, so he attempted to throw his battle axe at the giant, but the weapon missed. He went back to his crossbow.
Cenbald prayed a battle prayer for Norvin, and Norvin found himself reloading faster than he thought possible. Meanwhile, the snow giant threw a huge snowball at Dorei, knocking her down.
Dorei called out counsel to Gundo, and he was rescued from his sin enchantment. The giant threw a snowball at Gundo, knocking him down. Gundo rolled to safety, hopped to his feet, then jumped up on the table and found some bottles of healing potion, of which he drank two. He stayed on the table as Cenbald scooped up his war hammer, since he was able to fire his bow over Cenbald’s head from this position.
“Dorei! Jump to the right!” Norvin called, his crossbow ready.
Dorei didn’t ask questions, but jumped right away. Norvin fired another flaming bolt at the snow creature just as Dorei rolled to her feet and slung another rock. Gundo shot an arrow, and Cenbald swung his warhammer with all of his might. With all four of them working together, the giant soon toppled, and was no more than a heap of snow.
Gundo found a key on the table. In the back of the cave was a cage, with Edmar in it. They set him free.
The cave also had a trap door. Upon opening it, they deduced it led to orc caverns. They closed the trap door and piled things on it from the cave: the book shelf, the cabinet, the bed, the table.
Norvin and Cenbald found several magic books, which they burned in the fire Norvin had made.
Satisfied, the team left the cave, descended from the mountain, and made their way back to the village. It was getting late by this point, so they made their way back to the farms. They managed to find the right farm, and one of them even remembered which tree was the correct one.
They were back well after bed time, but Simeon was waiting up for them, worried.
They told him all about their adventures.
“Good. Get some sleep, now. Regular weapons training first thing in the morning!”
“Oh, no!” Dorei groaned. “We don’t even get a day off?”
The next day, Dorei was promoted to Cadet.
Comments