021 The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

Session 21
The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

Aug 20, 861-Aug 24, 861

Foreword
    This is the first session report written with the intent to be read outside of the group involved directly with the game. This is also the first session report written since Session 10, we'll see about working through the backlog in the coming weeks.

Session Report
    Half the players bailed on this session at the last minute, leaving a player running a brand new character (his others were in training, and dead respectively), and a brand new player running a Magic-User. Two players is plenty to run a session, especially with all the unemployed mercenaries lounging about Falkirk. However, with the sudden change in party composition, the players were unsure of what to do.
    This is a not uncommon occurrence. The last character to really tried to grab the reigns and drive the campaign in a clear direction died during downtime on Aug 10th. And no player or character has yet stepped forward to try and take the reigns.
    Eventually the party decided to talk to Eoddthrynn esq., Falkirk's resident Solicitor, Barrister, Notary, Clerk, etc. Eoddthrynn had put out a call on the 19th for maps. He was (and is) willing to pay dearly for maps of the Ruined Jungle. 100gp for a rough map of a 30-mile hex, and up to 800gp for a 30-mile hex beautifully and exhaustively rendered at the 1-mile hex level. The party was able to sell a copy of the world-map that the other players had put together so far for enough to outfit 2 short-bow-men (Gummo and Karl) for an expedition for the ~10 days it would take to chart 1 30-mile hex.
    Off they went, 15 miles South-West of Falkirk to the low line of hills that marks off the rim of the basin of the Ruined Jungle.
    Now, I should point out that to this point, I had not detailed every 1-mile hex of this or any other part of the Jungle. I'd rigged up some random tables on an index card based on what had already been established, swampy, marshy, there's Lizardmen. And so I was excited to generate the terrain as the party pushed through the mire and bracken, and discover together what lay there. I should also say I was excited for the party to encounter Dinosaurs and Red Apes. None came.
    The last part of Aug 20th, and all of Aug 21st, 22nd, and 23rd passed without a single encounter rolled. Here in the Jungle, with the very highest incidence rate of random encounters, every creature decided to stay well back from the 4 humanoids on horseback traipsing through their haunts. Dear Reader, I was crestfallen.
    Aug 24th dawned and the players were getting restless, mile after mile of ruined towers, towering pinnacles of rock, huge swathes of jungle floor thrust high into the air on mighty plateaus, mounds of jungle detritus had gone by. But the adventurers hadn't messed with anything, and nothing had messes with them. The next mile turned up another Lizardman mound, and finally Harlow, the Half-elf Runner and the Navigator for the session had had enough.
    "We're going to go investigate this Mound."
    Of course there's a small hole in the mound part-way up. The party dismounts, pickets the horses, and approaches the Mound, bows drawn, arrows nocked, knives drawn. Dear Reader, you know this story. Harlow puts one foot on the Mound and Jack Robinson out pops a Lizardman. Now these players weren't fools, they had bows ready to pincushion anything that came out of the mound, especially if they got surprise. (Uncle Gary [DMG pg 62] gives missile weapons *triple fire rate* if they're ready before a surprise segment). But it didn't matter. No-one could land an arrow, except in Harlow's back after the Lizardman came to grips with him. The Lizardman downed Harlow. The Hirelings still couldn't land a shot (shouldn't've named them after Marx brothers). And then Jute the Half-elf Prestidigitator ran out of darts. And then Jute the Half-elf Prestidigitator remembered she had a spell prepped. Burning Hands.
    Now, to those who pick their spells this may not seem like a big deal. But this is the 3rd Magic-User we've had since this game began, and the 1st to have rolled such an aggressive starting spell. Burning Hands took care of the Lizardman's last hit point, and (after throwing Harlow's body over his horse) Jute led the party on a hasty retreat back to Falkirk.
    Treasure Collected: Lizardman's Gold Necklace (1100gp)
    1-mile Hexes Mapped: 120/???
    
Afterword
    I had spent all week building castles in the clouds about show swell it would be if the party decided to map this hex. 10ish days in the Jungle would be tough, but doable if they kept their heads down. I knocked together an 11" x 17" PDF of a 30mile-1mile hex and was blown away by the tactical opportunities this information would present. Maybe there would be a fortuitous arrangement of ruined towers along which to establish supply lines for the people of Falkirk to open up a front in the Goblin Patron's back yard. Maybe... Maybe... Maybe... What I failed to consider is that mapping ~780 square miles in ~3 square mile increments would take a lot of table time. Perhaps it felt like a slog because it was a new Navigator and a new (to us) mapping procedure, and practice will yield better resultes. Perhaps it would be better as a downtime action for a couple of rangers or a Patron's army.
    
Dramatis Personae
    Harlow, Half-elf Runner, Level 1, Aug 24th, Lizarded by a Lizardman's Lizarder

    Jute, Half-elf Prestidigitator
    Gummo and Karl, Human Short-bow-men