Originally I had planned to use one of several possible intro adventures covering the journey to Hommlet but as the session approached I decided to chuck that and just jump right into it - enough with the delays and prologues, we know how to play D&D here. So we did. I made the players talk about why their character would be coming to Hommlet and dropped some leads/rumors for them that they might have heard prior to their arrival. Most of these involved rumors of banditry and a possible stirring of the old cult and this would come back to bite me right in this first session.
Starting out they all met at the inn - Hommlet only has the one - then realized they shared some common goals and so decided to work together. Smartly they divided up to check out the village and talk to some of the more notable establishments and inhabitants. Our Heroes are:
- Malice (Bard 1)
- Braeden (Ranger 1)
- Sir Kentor (Paladin 2)
- Sir Lantor (Fighter 2)
- Xyzzifax (Wizard 2)
- Samson (Halfling Mechanist 1)
- Jaric (Cleric of Trithereon 1)
Jaric went to the local temple - Hommlet only has the one - to touch base with the local Priest of St. Cuthbert. He got some basic information out of the assistant priest and then came back the next day for an appointment with the main man. It turns out that the priests of orderly, obedient society for the common man aren;t super-thrilled to find a cleric of the rebel rabble-rouser Trithereon in town asking questions but Variable Dave rolled badly on his insight check and left the place thinking he might have a new best friend.
Xyz went to talk to his fellow wizard - Hommlet only has the one - named Burne, a semi-retired adventurer and learned a few details among which that they are willing to pay a 5gp bounty on Bandits.
Braeden met Jaroo, the Druid of Hommlet - as Hommlet has only the one Druid - and learned that in addition to bandits gnolls have been seen in the local woods. Jaroo also offered his assistance with local nature and magical questions if needed, and that his apprentice, one Conn Shaunnery, is missing.
Malice and Samson decided to talk to the village elder, the mayor, effectively, of Hommlet. In a bit of a rambling conversation they learned about the bandit troubles, temple troubles, the village of Nulb, a nice halfling family that used to live nearby, merchant traffic, and the local militia.
Kentor and Lantor decided to spend their time getting to know the inn - the Inn of the Welcome Wench. Buying several rounds for the house they hear tales of bandit raids, lights at the Moathouse, and strange creatures seen in the countryside - including a griffon spotted flying over the Gnarley Forest.
Gathering back at the inn a plan comes together to attack some bandits involving a wagon, some mules, and deception. Deals are made and the next day the party heads out disguised as merchants with several members using stealth to escort the bait while staying out of sight.
After several hours this does pay off as a group of bandits emerges both in front of and behind the wagon and demands the "merchants" dismount. As they do this a fight breaks out, crossbows twang, and magic words are uttered as our team of seven heroes takes on twelve well-armed brigands. By the time it's over the heroes are all still standing (Malice was dropped once and Braeden was in rough shape for most of it) and all but one of the bandits are deceased. This leaves them a potential prisoner and after some debate - and some interrogation - they decide to take him back to town to face justice.
Lordy lordy lordy this went in a different direction than I was expecting which is both entertaining and challenging. Lots of exploring Hommlet - sure, that's natural. Then they got stuck on the bandit thing despite my attempts to connect that to the Moathouse and the Temple and spent a bunch of time and energy on that. Don't we just go to the Moathouse? Doesn't everyone? If you play Village of Hommlet and know anything about it isn't the first stop the Moathouse? For about 45 years now? Also every time I myself have run or played in it over the years that's been the next thing after establishing yourself in the village. It's nice to know I can still be surprised after all this time but the creeping realization that they were not going to the Moathouse meant that I had to throw together a decent bandit encounter on the fly. This isn't hard in itself but there is some effort to balance "well these bandits are getting pretty brazen" versus "most of my party is still 1st level" means thinking up a band that could reasonably pull off a small caravan holdup while trying not to make a TPK a foregone conclusion. It worked out so the old instincts are still working but that time I spent re-reviewing the Moathouse and its dungeon beforehand was kind of wasted.
It was fun watching them come up with their scheme though.
Another disappointment was knowing that I have 3 different cart/wagon miniatures and could not find a single one of them as this plan was taking shape. So many miniatures but I didn't have these ready so we ended up improvising. This was a problem back in the Isle of Dread campaign a few years ag so I went out and picked up a few just to avoid this same situation. Ah well.
The prisoner thing is another unexpected development. The wizard and the bard both have Sleep spells and both fired them off, taking out part of the front group and the back group - preventing a lot of crossbow shots at the least. This lasted long enough to keep several of the bandits out for the whole thing and after a burst of executions they realized it might be smart to keep one alive. Now we aren't playing with alignment in this campaign so there aren't some of the traditional D&D arguments here but people who have settled on some morals for their character had some differences of opinion regardless. No one was coming to blows over it but it was a discussion. With multiple casters in the group and one of them being a bard - even a more murderous bard than I typically see - and a lot of human & humanoid opposition, I suspect prisoners will be a recurring thing so I'm going to have to examine what kind of jail accommodations Hommlet has. My suspicion is "not enough" Down the road though this could lead to interesting developments as Verbobonc might send an representative to find out who is taking all of these poisoners and either admonish or reward them. It could also lead to a dedicated interrogator being sent down. We will have to see but that was one thought that I had on long term impacts if it continues.
Finally it is challenging to manage a 7-player table at times, mainly in the sense of giving everyone some spotlight time. Sure, when it's your turn in combat you get a chance to shine but outside of that it's important to give everyone some time and I am very conscious of that. Combat also takes quite a bit longer than it did with 4 as in addition to more player actions there will usually be more enemy actions and it just eats up the available time. Not a problem yet but it's something I will have to watch.
Rules-wise Tales of the Valiant continues to shine as far as character abilities and general running of the game. The index continues to fail us regularly (things not in the index from this session: cover, hiding, stealth, darkness) but that's really the worst I can say.
As a final final note we have set up an Obsidian Portal site for this campaign so if you'd like to see more details and a session recap from my players' point of view here is a link to session 3.
Stay tuned for "Session 4 - Maybe Now They Will Go to the Damn Moathouse".
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