I have a group of friends I see on the regular, and we realized we hadn't gamed much in the last while. As I'm running a decent number of other games, I decided to try something a bit easier on the mind and break my unwritten rule and run a prewritten module. Specifically, I will be running the 5E version of Chamomile's Strangers in Ramshorn.
Cast
Roland
- Race: Variant Human (Polearm Master)
- Class & Background: Battlemaster Fighter & Soldier
- Boons: Beak’s Defense, Got Gud
Victor
- Race: Variant Human (Warcaster)
- Class & Background: Hexblade Warlock & Criminal (Spy)
- Boons: Beak’s Defense, Got Gud
Bridgitte
- Race: Hill Dwarf
- Class & Background: Forge Cleric & Guild Artisan
- Boons: Spiderproof, Martial Advantage Advantage
Session I
I read highlights from a separate piece of material, called the Primer to Vintaria, to the party; the Warlock got a natural 20 on History and chose to be a politically-minded criminal. We describe that as the three of them conversing with each other over what they know about Ramshorn and the Help Wanted ad that Goldblum had left hanging around.
After getting an idea that maybe 5sp/head is overly high for a toll from the Order of the Bear, Victor throws some Persuasion around to lower the price and gets a receipt along with it. Approaching the city of Ramshorn, they see a small trail of smoke, hear some distant sounds of combat. They don’t take kindly to the gruff Bear soldiers, and take out all but the archer, who flees while Bridgitte takes a couple rounds to stabilize the “survivors”.
The rest of the raid on Ramshorn is dealt with with surprising ease. Andie dies due to a natural one on the death save on the first round, but otherwise, every possible villager who’s interested in joining attaches to the party; the player for Rolan being the only one willing to run their stats, and feels like a warlord of tiny men. He's particularly proud of Ront's performance. They put in the effort to stabilize two of Harlequin’s people while otherwise assisting with taking on the Order of the Bear, and were certainly wide-eyed at her own martial prowess.
Once the raid is taken care of, they have some pleasant conversation with Harlequin (surprised to learn the Lunatic Queen herself was there) before she leaves. Upon realizing how expensive it will be to stay in Ramshorn, they go back to loot every single fallen member of the Order of the Bear. They’re mildly frustrated at how little they can sell the armor and swords, but very high Persuasion gets them able to sell their bolts and arrows for some proper fraction of their worth (the module cites that the NPC mentions making arrowheads from the scrap metal, so those are obviously a desired piece). They ultimately stay at the Accidental Gryphon for the discount offered.
The next day, after chatting with Goldblum about the need to find the Bears’ hideout, they head out in search. They continue to debate which faction they should curry favour with with this valuable information once found. They run into three encounters before I have to end the session. One of them, the three giant spiders they run into successfully flee once reaching their end condition and Victor throws down a 24 Persuasion at the sahuagin patrol to gesture a lack of hostility as they back away from the river. Next session, they will be ambushed by hobgoblins.
Takeaway
The warlock loves his Armor of Agathys, though he also gave a couple petty remarks about how I “nerf-hammered” the Celestial Warlock by revoking its access to Cure Wounds (in light of separate material written for Cham's variant rest mechanic); but that’s par for the course for him. The remarkably few times the cleric did get in range to contribute before the others killed the enemy, poor rolls stood in the way. The fighter looks forward to next level when he can stop enemies from using the disengage action, which has instigated at least a couple shaken fists of impotent rage.
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