Forlorn Skulk

Here's the notes from the session. Thanks to Magnus for recording! This ran from c.a. 20-25. The recruitung was understood to take a few days, and the players wanted their injuries and caousing disavantages to heal. Notes from me are italicised. Berghof session 22.7.26   We hired a fighter: Margerethe Unkerich Fighter. She has 40 arrows and a bard Simon Gans. - Retcon by the DM. Originally the ranger, Mariat gave us a 1,000gp bracelt . The bracelet is actually worth 8,000 (probably need to go to Chiswell to sell). This is because for AD&D monsters you get AD&D prices. - Cloak of protection +1 to Konrad Staff of striking – limited charges. One charge inflicts 2d6 damage. Giving it to Mads Roland left his Elven boots which Konrad will take Mads took the ring of protection?   Currently the 23rd of coldeven We have been chilling in Kusnia. Travelling to the villa we encounter three fishermen. Frank Fisher who is David Fisher’s son. Giving them a gold piece each, they ar...

I foolishly forgot to keep notes on the adventure I'm about to update on. So I'll just keep it very topline as a matter of record! The events are a little jumbled in my memory but here we go. It must have been around the 12th to 14 of Coldeven. A gloomy day. The party made their way into the Lakside Manor again. This time, they finally found the Skulks. Or rather the Skulks found them! The party had wisely spiked the two main gates before going to sleep. What they didn't know was that the skulks had a secret entrance via the "garbage" room that Mads had been so desperate to burn down eariler. They skulked in at night and strangled David to death before the party could respond. RIP David - he was so close to graduating from a torch bearer to a fully fledged retainer. In the ensuing battle, the party wounded one skulk and charmed the other. The wounded skulk got away but the charmed skulk told the party all about the villa, special entrances etc and told them that a...

>>>Sign up to the Forlorn Mailing List here<<<  It took me a while to get around to posting this. But I've published a an adventure: The Tiger Coast . It's a hex crawl, it's free and it's part of the incredible Antarctic Adventure Jam  by Idraluna Archives .  Writing this was huge for me. I spent a long time studying what people want from an OSR/Adventure game, listening to reviews, reading about dungeon design etc. and then I wrote this thing and honestly a lot of it went out of the window. It was just about writing something and pushing my imagination and output to a new level. Two things really contributed to that: it's a hexcrawl rather than a dungeon, and it's set in the campaign world of Antarctica  Antarctica is a map that Idraluna created which is essentially a hex-ified map of real world antarctica if it wasn't frozen over. Before the jam started, Idraluna had already begun populating the map with his campaign world Zurth, and by t...

It's been a while since I made a Play Report post - a number of game sessions have passed! So just to keep the ball rolling here's an update. Thanks to Keir for keeping notes.  3/6/26 Harassed the Rat – Fergus – released them with Bandits Followed information on the drug dealer connection. Took the civilians back to Town, Chiswell. Carousing. Decided to go to the Skulks. Travelled to Kusnir – got information about a weird Skulk with a glove that was writing on walls. Writing said free the power to combat evil… I am the Sentinal. Weird skulk was sometimes killing, sometimes sparing. Kusnir – walled town, couple of hundred people, mainly fisherman. We are welcomed there and can stay for free. Daybreak on 4th of Coldeven Suns out (Roland is wandering around in a singlet), light clouds in the sky David’s Dad – Klaus (Village Elder of Kusnir), Mum – Jeanette Left the shell out for the Mermedon (i.e. Cool). Foraged 4 lots of Kusnir Nettles. Spoke to the Village Guard (Uschi Sauer – g...

I'm just nutting this out as I go so excuse the stream of consciousness.   Someone on the  Dead Letters podcast  recently mentioned that carousing tables as written don't work very well in-game. For those not familiar with carousing: players can chose to roll a d6 (usually) and spend d6*100 gp partying. Like in real life, going out and partying gives you life experience. Unlike in real life that experience correlates to the amount of money spent (e.g. 600 gold = 600 XP). If the number on the d6 is above your character level, you suffer a consequence which you roll for. On most tables, these consequences are quite out there. The problem is RAW the consequences either routinely create a high volume of campaign altering events, or they just need to be essentially ignored to keep things moving. You got shot gun married? Maybe you just pay off the groom's family and never speak of it again. At that point, it's sort of just a weird side note that's eating into your game t...

In-game date : Earthday the 27th of Readying, Common Year 560.   I’m trying something a little different with this play report. On PigDog’s suggestion, I’m going to focus a bit more on player choices over in-world descriptions. I’ll still use character names though, just in the interest of folks’ privacy! What this means is that it may be a bit less narratively engaging but might give people a better idea of how the session actually went down (vs whatever head cannon we’re collectively building). I’d checked ahead of time whether the party made it from the Temple of Vecna back to Chiswell without complications. Because they did, the party got to start in Chiswell and get straight to the good stuff: distributing treasure and XP.  Treasure and XP complications Because the party had been away from a safe haven for three sessions in a row, I took it upon myself to update the treasure/coin they’d collected, and divide it up. This created a few hitches, because I’d made some as...

I'll keep this one so short. The Stone Smashers toasted the cultists of Vecna with their fireball wand. A decisive victory. Much XP was earned as this was a campaign goal (and we're awarding feats of exploration 3D6DTL-style). They made it back to Chiswell with no further interruptions.  The only question that remains is: how many charges are left on that Wand of Fireball?! 

In-game date: 23rd of Readying, Common Year 560.  (Because there was only one established player and three new players this week, I decided to start them off on a side quest rather than continuing the mainline story). The Ranger Sepp Wininger, the Hobbit Thief Max Dash, the Dwarf Konrad Stonebarrow, and the Flan Clanswoman Kalista Stein (technically a Barbarian) had formed a small adventuring party in Goldhafen, a small prospecting village (population of 49) on the Western outskirts of Berghof. Calling it a town almost gives it too much weight. Picture a couple of wooden houses around a fire, and a bunch of tents. The only reason Goldhafen hasn't fallen to monsters yet is because most of its citizens are armed, and tough. The watch that patrols the Keep on the Borderland doesn't make it out here often. On their way from a failed excursion encountered four Al-Miraj - rabbit-like animals with unicorn-like horns. And highly aggressive! The crew dispatched of them handily and sold ...

Evil Statues and their Gods In remote locations, far from the prying eyes of the city watch, cultists erect and worship statues dedicated to their unholy masters. Across the multiverse, wizard priests read profane secrets to their acolytes beneath Vecna’s watchful eye. In the deepest, darkest swamps of the Flanaess, Wastri’s toadies gather around his likeness and croak sermons of hatred. And in the remote steppes of the Arctic Circle, the mad followers of Rhamiel build evermore complex effigies in tribute to their unknowable god/dess. These evil statues form the central nodes of cultist networks that span entire regions. Any one such statue is likely to contain hints to the whereabouts of others - be it through a map, messages left behind for other cultists, or hissing magic mouths. And so, adventurers who stumble upon one such statue often end up pursuing leads that ultimately culminate in finding a fully fledged temple dedicated to the god in question. Running Evil Statues  Evil ...