Cyfandil Session 5

GAME DATE: March 27 2023
CAMPAIGN DATE: March 27 998 PY

This update talks about Session 5 which happened on Monday, March 27, 2023 at the library. Alyson and I were there early so she bent my ear about what Bob wants to know: the identity of that weird priest she heard about from Hoogan he Peddler.

Bob got all up in the mug of Sgt Shanks over beating on some drunkards. Then Bob went into the Church of Aluvia and spoke with Father Gobault. Gobault sent him to the Church of Aubereon.

The several characters were astonished by the literal poofing in of a new man, a Cleric whose name I forget. That cleric did us a solid by scanning Grimm the pet ogre for evilness, and finding none.

I think the most likely outcome for the townsfolk is to shun the powerful Athena, but we will let the dice tell me and I'll roll with it as it comes up on a NPC-by-NPC basis. 

Grimm's luxurious back hair

There's a lot more lore coming. We learned a lot. 

Then they all

•        went into the dungeon,
•        fought a slime,
•        lit some stuff on fire,
•        learned that Grimm sneaks out of the dungeon at night and eats children,
•        got hit by a spell of weakness so-called, and
•        found a golden key.

Next week they say they want to explore the cave section, but also check the room where they torched the slime.

Some other things they want:

•        Orc Hand wants to learn about orcs
•        Athena wants to learn about her magic mirror
•        Bob wants to learn about the pirates and this mysterious priest and wants a lot of other     things
•       Nathan wants to buy rations and a house (he should have played a hobbit)
•       This new guy wants to fit in and be good.

PROPS: Don for managing Emmy and keeping track of all the lore

PROPS: Don again for the amazing map

SLOPS: Scott for leaving his dice at home, that dingus

ADDITIONAL PROPS: The library for letting us act like goofballs

The Merlin (Bird)

MERLIN

#Enc. 1 (stag or brace), AL N, MV 6"/36", AC 2, HD 1, #AT 1 (talons), dam 1d4, ML 9, TREASURE nil, XP 100

Birds of prey sympathetic to being trained with falconer's commands. Merlins have a wingspan of not more than three feet. Females of the species are slightly larger and less-colorful than the males, but both hunt. There are between three and nine subspecies and their taxonomy is unclear, however they are visibly related to the larger falcons. All kinds are diurnal and will hunt for their own prey. A well-trained merlin will fly up to 36 miles away in a day to deliver a note or for other reasons, and then return within a day and a night to his master's arm.

A merlin is black, grey, brown, russet, or blue on its back feathers and the tip of its beak, and carries a herringbone or seersucker black-and-white underbelly. Its tail is stripèd crosswise black in three or more bands.  Like other birds of prey, they have eye sight four times that of a man's. Likewise their hearing is keener than a hound's, both in tonal extremity and in acuity.

They are well-suited to striking and killing other birds on the wing. As prey, they will kill any bird up to half their size, but they can be trained to strike birds larger than they.

Each type of bird mates for at least one breeding season and usually more. Females are fertile more or less throughout their lifespans. None live longer than about 13 breeding seasons.

Blueback Merlin (male.)

 

Henchmen Seeds

 This article originally appeared on February 23, 2018.

When someone plays D for the first time, they don't know what they don't know. This is a Really Good Thing.

Our friend Caty joined us for her maiden voyage into RPGs. She cast charm person on a goblin and bam! She had a very stupid henchman, but moderately useful because he could navigate through the other goblins. His name was Snotrocker. Sadly, he died (it was the best day of his life.) Caty's character kept his decrepit rusty short sword as a souvenir of the several Turns they spent as best friends.

Later, they fought a bugbear and his goblin minions. I do the pumpkin-headed long and stringy bugbears. I showed them this picture.

To their credit, they attempted parley, but they got a terrible reaction check. So it was a fight! And Caty's wizard threw the Sleep bomb. SHWAZOM! Dead!

So after they killed it, Caty says, "I'm going to take the seeds."

"..."

"..."

"...what seeds?"

"From his head. I'm going to take the seeds from his pumpkin head and use them in my magic."

THIS IS AWESOME.

So I have decided they are Henchman Seeds. 

 Henchman Seeds:

Bugbear's heads are filled with seeds. They look like pinkish pumpkin seeds. If you take 2 Turns to vivisect it, you can grab out a few big handfuls of seeds weighing 1 lb. 

If you plant these in your lab or a hothouse, 1d4 bugbear henchmen grow in 3 months. 

Or you can sell them for 500 GP if there is another wizard or something that wants henchmen. 

 ###

I awarded the party 500 XP for the awesome idea. And forever after, wizards who are In The Know will hunt bugbears for their seeds, just as people hunt dragons and rocs for their eggs today.