I’m not planning on going anywhere, and this game (and sharing it) is a bright spot in my week. I may eventually move it to its own blog, but I would have to figure out how a blog works first, so that won’t be anytime soon.
We had a game this weekend. I should have time to write it up tomorrow.
Session 24
Fall: Months 10, 11, and 12
Aella increases the taxes by 1 gold per peasant family ... then pays off the last loan from Chlodomer (the money just mysteriously showed up!), then revokes the tax. Chlodomer is not displeased, however: he'd given up on the loan in the first place.The Grim Fist clears out a few more nearby lairs, focusing their efforts on areas near the highway. Nothing exceptional … until they receive news of a purple worm sighting in the deep wilderness to the south, heading north toward Galaufabonne. A quick flight and reconnaissance confirms the presence of several surfacing points. They choose to not take a closer look and instead retreat to plan.
At the worm’s expected travel rate of 12 miles per day, they expect it to arrive in three days, so they send messages to their captains to get their soldiers to the border in three days time. Then they plan to scout out the terrain and think of a way to stop a creature that can burrow under any defenses …
And they might have had a chance to think of something, if purple worms only spent part of the day traveling …
As the party is examining the layout of a river, erupts from the earth and swallows Chlodomer whole, then curves back and begins diving back into the earth to bring its stinger to bear on the party. And then two more worms erupt from the earth, narrowly missing Shadagrunde and Galswintha before uncoiling from the earth and preparing to fight above the surface.
Deep within the belly of the worm, Chlodomer abandons his shield, draws a pair of daggers, and begins grimly scaling the inside of the worm’s gullet using the knives as climbing picks. Unfortunately, the worm deals more damage per round and has more hit points to spare, so things look grim.
On the surface, Galswintha jockeys for position, dodging worms to get to a point where her dragon’s breath can have maximum effect; Vulfelind savages the worm holding Chlodomer; and Shadagrunde summons a spiritual weapon to attack the worms.
The worms sting Galswintha twice … and she shakes off the poison both times. Vulfelind and Shadagrunde are both bitten, but avoid Death’s invitation.
Chlodomer continues his horrible, grinding climb; Vulfelind switches to her crossbow; and Galswintha breathes dragonfire, catching all three worms in its blast.
And then Chlodomer stabs the worm in a major nerve cluster and it thrashes briefly, then stops. Without the stomach muscles grinding, he sighs and starts carving his way out.
Meanwhile, on the surface, Shadagrunde continues to layer spiritual weapons, and Vulfelind switches targets.
And then Galswintha breathes dragon’s fire again, and the second worm turns to crisp … and the third worm is not in particularly good shape. It stings her (she beats the odds again!) and then swallows the diminutive magi whole. Amazingly, she retains consciousness (OOC: well, having fighter-like hp is helpful, I suppose).
And then a shrieking werefox pounces on its head and everything - for the worm - goes dark.
After everyone is dug out and assistance is acquired in hauling the corpses out of their tunnels … the Grim Fist finds, lodged widthwise in one of the worms, a statue of what appears to be elven royalty.
Sadly, the statue’s head was wedged into a different part of the beast than the rest of it, so the attempt at surviving the worm’s guts by means of self-petrification failed. But a stone to flesh treatment later yields a fresh corpse (which is given a proper cremation with an attempt at “elven ritual”) … and some serious treasure.
- Two small sacks with three thousand platinum, and a third sack filled with gold.
- Four amethyst seal cylinders showing a period of elven history thought long-since lost.
- A flawless diamond tooth.
- A royal crown of electrum, studded with star rubies and pearls.
- A royal sceptre of platinum, studded with emeralds the color of deepest ocean.
- Delicate elven plate armor of the finest craftsmanship.
- An actual broadleaf enchanted to hardness and carried as a shield.
- A leaf-themed ebon bow.
- An elven sword layered with platinum, silver, and emeralds.
- A protective scarab.
- And magical lenses of some sort.
Almost all of it aside from the coins and jewels is magical in some fashion or another. With careful expenditures, the magic items turn out to be:
- Plate armor +1, weighs 3 stone, grants +30 movement speed, and acts as boots of striding and springing.
- Shield +1, grants hide in shadows and move silently as thief in wilderness.
- Wyrmtooth (sentient shortsword, Neutral)
- Composite Bow +3
- Scarab of Protection
- Eyes of Petrification, beneficial
(OOC: With no NPC assistance at all, Chlodomer hit level 10 and Shadagrunde hit level 11; Galswintha is still a long ways from level 10; and Vulfelind can’t even see level 11 from here, thanks to the werefox thing.)
Shadagrunde can’t strip out of his chainmail fast enough for the plate armor. Vulfelind takes Wyrmtooth and pairs it with her unwilling sword of luck, who is a bit put out …
Wordthief: Well, my life is over.
Wyrmtooth: Wordthief, is that you?
Vulfelind: You know this sword?
Wordthief: As if I would associate with such a plebian weapon.
Wyrmtooth: You still have all of your wishes?
Vulfelind: Oh. My. Goddess. Wyrmtooth, I want ALL of the embarrassing stories.
Wordthief: Well, my life is over.On the plus side, they now have a name for the sword of no wishes for you.
Chlodomer - voted most likely to get caught with a deathtouch by a hot necromantic witch - gets the scarab. Galswintha gets the lenses. The remainder gets passed down to henches.
Hex Management
By the end of Fall, everything is borderlands except for those areas that are civilized: Red Meadow, Pegasus Mountain, Utena's Shadow, Bugbear Forest Lake, Ugly Hill, Torn Tree Hill, and Azure Hot Springs. (Oak Circle remains "unpopulated" wilderness, of course.) This does wonders for the income, despite Chlodomer still hanging on to a grossly oversized army.(OOC: For XP, since Galaufabonne is a group effort, I divided the total GP earned among the group, then awarded XP where that exceeds their GP threshold. This has meant … not a lot of XP. Heh.)
Highway: The completed highway is 10 feet wide and paved for 150 miles (75,000 gold) with a stone townhouse every 12 miles (12 of them, 14,400 gold).
Maintenance: 375 gold/month.
Garrison: 100 light infantry; 300 gold per month.
Income: 600 gold/month.The garrison costs will go down as the area is civilized, however, and in the meanwhile, the income between Orléans and Atanung essentially allows the extra infantry for only 75 gold per month.
Once the highway is completed, Vulfelind talks Chlodomer into putting Adela and Genofeva in charge of the highway hexes. As they are lair-free, the entire 26-hex length is only a pair of strongholds away from being part of a Galaufabonne realm … and Adela and Genofeva both operate cavalry with the capacity to cover half the highway’s length in a single day, making power projection (at least along the highway) a non-issue.
By the time strongholds begin construction, it looks like they will be done by the end of Year 6.
Once that starts, though … Vulfelind argues that it is time to build “her” city: Bone Temple (in Bone Temple Hill, squarely in the midpoint of the highway, and at the midpoint of three domains-to-be). And since it is the worst hex (Land Value 5 with the efreet wish), a city is one of the few ways it can be profitable.
The city is constructed; peasants are moved in from all over Galaufabonne, and Vulfelind immediately begins building further infrastructure (no one bothers asking whether she’s riddling the city with secret passages).
By the end of the year, Bone Temple has amazingly managed (if barely) Class IV status.
Atanung's representative arrives on the first day of Winter, concerned by the two fortress constructions going up along the highway, and implies that "concerned parties" beyond just Atanung itself might get involved.Hench Spotlight: Sir Merideth le ChocolatChlodomer smiles, claps the representative on the shoulder, and says, ever so softly, “The good news is, I don’t believe in killing the messenger. Take your men and go home. Sit by a warm hearth, eat a fine meal, enjoy the company of those you love. Then tell Atanung or whoever it is you are trying to imply you actually represent: No.”
The representative is sent back with Adela’s cavalry as guard, and deposited at the entrance to Atanung, safe, snug, and shaken.
As part of this session, we explored the current affairs of one of Shadagrunde's henchmen: Merideth le Chocolat, whom Shadagrunde sponsored for knighthood in the Lady's Church. A small, dark-skinned woman with ankle-length platinum hair and a constant, ready grin. WIS and CHA +3! Bears the lady's cane (mace +2 which can cure disease once per day).Currently leading a small cavalry force chosen for their elite skill, loyalty, and gender; and despite the best efforts of Adela and Genofeva, they have made a name for themselves as the premier cavalry in Galaufabonne … and the Church has approached Shadagrunde on a few occasions to try to borrow them (Shadagrunde has argued, thus far successfully, that they are doing the Lady’s work in Galaufabonne, and that keeping Galaufabonne is an important, long-term strategic goal).
Merideth’s cavalry is composed primarily of six church knights of varying ability, plus her squire and their squires:
- Squire Tescelina de Galaufabonne
- Sir Airsenda de Galaufabonne and Squire Sibilla de Galaufabonne
- Sir Ermingardis d'Orléans and Squire Nicholaa de Paris
- Sir Alia d'Orléans and Squire Racilda d'Orléans
- Sir Aliberta d'Atanung and Squire Cecilibrunde d'Atanung
- Sir Sigebald de Paris and Squire Bertaswind de Galaufabonne
- Sir Vuit d'Atanung and Squire Hathvidis de Galaufabonne
All serve the Lady and can bring the Lady’s grace to the battlefield; all are armed and armored with the best and most expensive gear available; all ride only the finest heavy war horses, and string along seconds for great need. What they lack in numbers, they make up for with seeming invincibility.
In addition to the core group, each of Merideth’s companions have supporting employees of various sorts. Beyond their squires, most have employed the services of 2-3 devout but non-casting warriors (also functioning as cavalry), horse handler, lantern bearer, and scroll bearer. Sir Alia has also acquired the services of two devout wizards who serve the Lady with their arcane might; Sir Airsenda and Sir Vuit both employ the services of a trap-finder; and Sir Sigebald employs a wilderness guide.
Recent rumors have placed a new troup of bandits in hex #1605, Mistwood Springs, where they prey on travelers and hide from the highway’s protectors. At the request of Shadagrunde, they have come to cleanse the springs.
Mistwood Springs is mostly valley, with a multitude of small, warm springs and resulting streams heading north. With little information, they hunt for trailsign and camp sign, until Sigebald’s tracker finally spots signs that the bandits were recently nearby.
Very recently! The ambush of arrows is brutal, and the rogues remain unseen in woods filled with the mist of warm springs hitting snow.
The bandits, however, are not as prepared as they think for the prey they have caught. Detect evil and locate object (for quivers of arrows!) quickly reveals the location of the primary groups of bandits, and they cannot melt away fast enough to escape the devoted cavalry.
Moments later, the bandits are tied up and given first aid … and the first regains consciousness, only to see Merideth’s teeth in a broad smile.
“You will live to see the inside of a court if you tell me where you camp. If you do not, we will see if the gentleman next to you will live to see the inside of a court.”
They can’t talk fast enough.
At the bandit camp, four flame strikes and a cavalry charge end all hope for the bandits before they realize they had hope to lose. First aid and rope is parceled out, strays are hunted down, and almost two hundred brigands, less those who died, are lectured on the folly of opposing the Lady in matters of faith and war.
They are then marched to the outskirts of Galaufabonne, where Merideth speaks to Shadagrunde, who speaks to Chlodomer … and Chlodomer and Merideth together interview the brigands to determine what drove them outlaw.
For many, it is entirely too obvious that a weak character and greed brought about their sorry state; these are charged and convicted of assault and theft, whipped and fined, and then sent to one of the larger temples near Orléans to work off their penance - as they lack the funds to pay the fines.
For some, it is equally obvious that they are simply evil, and bear no one good will. These are charged and convicted of robbery, fined (mostly for show), and beheaded.
But most have a sufficiently persuasive sob story, and swear under oath most prettily that they, themselves, have never murdered, that Merideth asks Chlodomer to stay his hand. They are charged only with theft, placed in the stocks rather than whipped, and fined the minimum amount … and then offered a place to work off their penance in Galaufabonne, where they can become citizens if they behave loyally for three years (the time required for “basic service” to pay off 150 gold in fines), without further stigma.
Of great interest to everyone, quite beyond the normal treasures of the bandits, is an artifact of the Lady: a necklace of platinum, with two diamonds upon it. Each diamond is said to be a mortal lifespan, which can be sacrificed to resurrect a cleric of the Church (both may be sacrificed for anyone else).
Merideth gifts the necklace to Shadagrunde as the divine patriarch of Galaufabonne; who gifts it to Chlodomer as the ruler of Galaufabonne; who gifts it to Galswintha as “most likely person in Galaufabonne to find the right use for it.”
Marvelous! I love reading about your campaign.
Two notes of specific praise:
1) Having a mage self-petrify to survive inside a purple worm was an ingenious way of providing a nice treasure haul in the gullet.
2) This was awesome:
Wordthief: Well, my life is over.
Wyrmtooth: Wordthief, is that you?
Vulfelind: You know this sword?
Wordthief: As if I would associate with such a plebian weapon.
Wyrmtooth: You still have all of your wishes?
Vulfelind: Oh. My. Goddess. Wyrmtooth, I want ALL of the embarrassing stories.
Wordthief: Well, my life is over.
Thanks! Gonna make me blush!
Wordthief is - against all bets I would have taken - my most popular NPC. I apparently do an excellent “bitter, whiny sword” impression … and I try not to think too hard about what that says about me.
Bonus OOC: Bone Temple Hill
I have index cards and lists and spreadsheets and text files and hex maps to keep track of the six-mile domains within Galaufabonne, and I’m still figuring out a good way to do that. As a result, a lot of stuff gets swept under the rug when I’m writing up a description of a session - all of the disorganized crap I don’t want visitors to see!
However, since Year 6 marked a full one-year anniversary (in-game) for the founding of Galaufabonne, I took some time to break out ONE of the six-mile hexes and its development over Year 5: Bone Temple Hill.
I chose Bone Temple Hill for a few reasons: it has a low Value, but is placed well for the highway; it ended the year with a city on it; and the party has been discussing it more than most of the others (Azure Hot Springs a notable exception), so I have more notes on it.
Bone Temple Hill is dominated by a semi-barren hilltop with ancient temple ruins on it. The highest point of the temple is high enough to be visible from about 9 miles away, or twice that if the other point is on a similarly high hill (or a mountain).
Land Value 6 0102: Rocky, flat area; stream from #0203. 0103: Ridge running SW. 0201: Small hill. 0202: Crest, sloping away from #0302. 0203: Ridge and mini-hill. Weak stream runs to #0102. 0204: Hill. 0301: Northernmost ridge running from the peak in #0302. 0302: Peak of highest hill; elven temple ruins. An elven temple to the Lady - or the elven conception of the Lady - with shattered statuary, slender columnar obelisks (most broken in half, but some simply knocked over), and seven attractively placed, large flat rocks with smooth surfaces. A few steps are carved into a narrow cavern cleft, which is not very deep - inside are wondrous wall paintings of frolicking elves and animals (including, yes, pegasi). There were skeletons scattered across the temple, but these were cleaned up and given to a funeral pyre before the hex was declared "clean."The peak is fairly flat and a quarter-mile across before sloping off into the rest of the Bone Temple Hill hex.
0303: Southernmost ridge running from the peak in #0302.
0304: End of ridge in #0303. Small cliff at southernmost end.
0401: Gentle slope N; meadowed with light trees.
0402: Gentle slope NE; meadowed.
0403: Sharp valley crease between the hill in #0502 and the ridge in #0303.
0404: High hill with an empty bear cave.
0502: Hill.
0503: High hill.
Accounting for the first month:
Land: +140 gold (20 x 6, +20 due to Morale +4). Service: +100 gold (20 x 4, +20 due to Morale +4). Tax: +40 gold (20 x 2). Tithes: -28 gold. Winter Festival: -100 gold (20 x 5).4.65% of OVERALL domain accounting:
Starting Treasury: +26,050 gold.
Fortress Construction: -24,650 gold.
Stronghold Maintenance: -115 gold.
Garrison: -500 gold.NET: +937 gold … but only because of the party chipping in.
Over the next 11 months, the population grew substantially. The Grim Fist adventured regularly and the Morale couldn’t budge from +4, so the growth looked like this:
01 > 02 > 03 > 04 > 05 > 06 > 07 > 008 > 009* > 010** > 011 > 012
20 > 27 > 35 > 44 > 55 > 69 > 86 > 109 > 131* > 148** > 181 > 219
That growth is the result of pop x1.25 for adventuring (x1.2 months 9-12; x1.15 after month 12); then +4d10 families (+21 on average). The +1d10-1d10 balanced out on average.
By the end of the year, roughly 60 families each are in sub-hexes 1401 and 1402; and 3-10 families each in all of the other sub-hexes.
In month 10, Vulfelind constructed “her” city, Bone Temple. Predictably enough, she chose the central hilltop. Also, the player agreed to let me reproduce this section:
Bone Temple
V: Okay, a straight path north to the highway runs along a ridge - can we flatten the top of the ridge for a highway? A 3-mile, 12-feet wide dwarven highway at 3,600gp is too sweet to pass up.C: Clearing rock first is more expensive. Call it 4,500 gold.
V: Done.
V: I would also like to renovate the elven temple. Or make Shad do it - that’s what the tithes are, right?
C: Without statuary: 3,000. With: 13,000. Shad can spend tithes how he wants, but you could sweeten the pot by making a land grant. It looks like the first month’s tithe for the region with be about 3,000, so that may be the way to start.
V: Done. Will email Shad.
V: The city will grow, but I want a wall to start with. I think I’ll have 1,000 fams pretty fast, so I’ll start with that. MDME says that’s 0.13 square miles. I want a hexagon, but you do the math.
C: The hex is 2,000 feet across; each side is 1,200 feet long. Six sides is 7,200 feet long. Pick a wall and go. Will NOT count toward infrastructure, but WILL count toward defensive structures if Galaufabonne Castle falls.
V. Ugh. Okay, no wall. We’ll make walls when I’m swimming in platinum.
V: How much do I have to define the “infrastructure”?
C: As much as you want. Anything you don’t define, if it comes up, we’ll just use something basic and standard and easy.
V: No no no. My city has to be the best.
C: I think that answers your question of how much you want to define, then.
V: You are so mean LOL. Okay. What is the starting point?
C: 1,000 families is 3.5 million square feet and needs 40,000 gold in wells, administrative buildings (including a town square), streets, fees paid to draw up the city charter, flattened areas suitable for erecting wooden buildings on, and any small extras your city is known for.
V: Sewers?
C: Not standard. Hm. Good sewers will let a city pack the same people into a smaller area. You still needs the same number of wells, administrative buildings, and fees, but the streets and flattened areas are halved. So 40K + ??? - ??? for savings?
C: I’m going to rule this as a construction-like problem. Rather than price the sewers per se, I’ll just say that you can halve the area of the settlement with “improvements” worth +50% gold, or quarter the area for +100% gold. So 60,000 gold and 80,000 gold, respectively. In both cases, the extra gold halves the area, but does not count toward allowing a higher population.
V: Will it count for the extra family growth rate?
C: Hmm… yes. That seems sensible.
V: What about secret passages?
C: Heh.
C: Okay, revised rule: +50% per “city improvement.” Improvements include:
- Density: halve area required. Gain bonus families when built. Aquaducts, sewers, raised streets, building complexes, grid design, etc.
- Secret Passages: Grants +1 to relevant thief guild tasks. No other benefit.
- Feng Shui: Grants +1 on arcane Magic Research rolls. No other benefit.
- Religious Shui: Grants +1 on divine MR rolls. No other benefit.
C: Each can be taken twice. You will also have to keep them up when the city expands, if you want to keep the benefits.
V: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmkay. I want sewers. Annnnnnd secret passages. So starting out, the city will cost 20,000gp for a 10,000gp settlement; and for my purposes, the initial expansion will be 60,000gp for +30,000gp in settlement value. Can I add density improvements later?
C: Yes and yes.
V: And if I quarter the size of the city, the walls cost…?
C: If area is quartered, lines are halved. You know this
V: Ugh. Not enough.
V: So no walls and highway brings the total to… ugh. 84,500gp. Well, that’s my allowance for a while.
C: Don’t forget that your first month might not be profitable.
V: Well, I’ll burn that bridge when it comes. Maybe I can wheedle some cash out of Chlod.
Bone Temple grew rapidly: starting with 250 peasants in month 10, it grew to 433 in month 11 (helped along by Vulfelind’s investments), and 628 by the end of the year. It is now a Class IV large town!
Demand modifiers:
Modifiers: age 0-20; water source none; climate deciduous forest; elevation hills; land value 6; within 144 miles of Atanung and Orléans (which are, themselves, not QUITE within 144 miles of each other).Both are Class II, so I just averaged them for Bone Temple’s modifiers, with Orléans winning on 0.5 values for being slightly larger. After rolling 2d3-4 for each and modifying the values appropriately:
-3: wine & spirits, fine textiles.
-2: beer & ale, arms, cloth, silk
-1: gems, semiprecious stones, preserved meats, common metals, precious metals, salt, wood, and rare woods.
+1: monster parts.
+3: spices.And since Vulfelind is planning to build it into a Class I megalopolis, I’m keeping the original scores for when the tables are turned on Atanung and Orléans:
-3: wine & spirits, semiprecious stones, common metals, precious metals, salt, cloth, fine textiles.
-2: ivory, silk, wood, and rare woods.
-1: animals, arms, common furs, tools.
+1: mounts, pottery, glassware, tea and coffee.
+2: spices.Obviously, trade demand between the two larger cities has warped the local demands!
Accounting for month 12:
Land: +1,533 gold (219 x 6, +219 due to Morale +4). Service: +1,095 gold (219 x 4, +219 due to Morale +4). Tax: +438 gold (219 x 2). Tithes: -310 gold.5.59% of OVERALL domain accounting:
Vassalage: -460 gold.
Stronghold Maintenance: -140 gold.
Garrison: -600 gold.Bone Temple City:
Revenue: 5,970 gold.
Garrison: -1,260 gold.
Upkeep: -940 gold (repairs, city officials, and similar).
Defensive Structure Upkeep: -45 gold.
Tithes: -600 gold.
Vassalage: -1,200 gold.NET: +3,241 gold.
Vulfelind’s chosen garrison is fairly simple: 50 heavy infantry and 30 longbowmen, equipped with decent gear and a badge showing a rearing sphinx.
Session 25
Year 6, Months 1, 2, and 3 (Winter)
By the end of Winter, the entire domain (sans the Oak Circle, which remains a preserve) is Civilized, and Chlodomer has reduced the tax rate to 10 silver per family … despite the now-maxed vassal tax he is paying Aella.
This also marks the first season in which the garrison has needed to expand. Chlodomer spends some time recruiting, and some of those bandits Sir Merideth found last year find themselves with warm beds, hot meals, better gear, and proper paying work.
Bone Temple City hits 1,000 families … and keeps growing as Vulfelind pumps money into infrastructure!
Shadagrunde also finishes one of his major projects with Galaufabonne’s religious tithes: a temple (30x30 wooden bldg.) in every hex! He begins hiring clerics, aiming for a priest and two acolytes for each of the 23 temples, with sufficient salary to provide healing for free.
At the end of the season, we total everything up: the kingdom’s coffers are fat with almost 100,000 gold … but it’s not nearly enough to provide anyone with XP, and it’s still less than they started the domain with.
OOC: And sadly, that’s all we managed this session, because the rest of the session was taken up with planning and discussion. This was helpful - knowing the party’s long-term plans lets me set up some stuff in advance - but it’s difficult to put into a narrative. And we didn’t even manage run through the monster lairs I’d set up, so those will be rolling into this weekend’s game.
This weekend’s game was short, and I should have plenty of time to write it up tomorrow. But it was much fun: Galswintha almost TPK’d the party dropping a fireball at ground zero.
As she stated just after dropping 9d6 on the table, “AUGH, no, no, that’s too many sixes!”
Thanks for all these campaign updates. I love reading them! It's great to see your adventurers' domains develop.
Can I second this? I love this thread.
Session 26
Year 6, Months, 1, 2, and 3 (Winter) continued
Hex #1306: Fungal Forest. The rust-colored mushrooms in the Red Meadow extended there from here, where their larger (or perhaps just older?) cousins have larger overtaken the cave-strewn hills. Viewed from high in the sky, the area resembles a semi-circular grove of giant mushrooms . . . with a fattened tendril snaking into Red Meadow. Based on this horrifying visual alone, the Grim Fist decides to explore.
Thanks to Shadagrunde’s foresight, each party member is equipped with a potion of cure poison, and enough clerics are brought along for additional possible issues, such as any need for cure disease.
Another aerial scouting turns up a few minor details visible from the sky:
(Vulfelind: “Five gold says we’ll be fighting a fungus before nightfall.” Everyone else: “No bet.”)
They decide to nibble at the edges first rather than tackle any of the visible-from-air horrors. Rumors say that some sort of large, wolf-like pack of creatures has been haunting the borders of Red Meadow, so they start with those rumors, establish a two-square mile zone where the wolves or dire wolves might be, and then grid and march into the bloom of tree-sized mushrooms.
What they don’t do is consult any sages about forests of giant rust-colored mushrooms …
So when a pack of fungus-encrusted dire wolves - their eyes glowing a faint, bioluminescent green - erupt from foam-like cysts in the ground, they have very little in the way of intel or planned responses.
The lead wolves use their surprise to breathe some sort of choking cloud which causes the majority of low- or no-level hirelings to drop to the ground choking, and causes several party members and henches to suffer (but fight through) a hacking fit as well. The remainder simply dive in and start attacking those who are already down.
Galswintha, seeing this (perhaps rightly) as do or die, and noting that almost every low-level NPC is already dead, drops a fireball at ground zero. Perhaps it is an issue of adrenaline or desperation, but the fireball that results is intense, and brings all but Chlodomer near death.
The three remaining monsters then tackle Galswintha to the ground, one of them tearing off her left arm before Chlodomer, Shadagrunde, and Vulfelind manage to kill them and drag them off the sorceress.
While Chlodomer and Shadagrunde guard the pile of ally corpses, Vulfelind sprints home to requisition soldiers to help carry them home, and by nightfall, everyone is holed up in one of Shadagrunde’s newly constructed temples.
Shadagrunde restores Galswintha and key henches, then cures disease on each “just in case.” Galswintha returns … somewhat changed.
The torn off arm has become the arm of a treant, looking exactly like her previous arm, but the color and hardness of stained oak.
The next day … those who were not cured of disease, even the corpses, come to life as fungal monstrosities. Who breathe clouds of choking infection and then attack to kill. The temple is evacuated as Chlodomer holds the door against the rising tide of horror until Galswintha can cast sufficient webs into place.
And then one fireball after another until the wooden temple burns down, taking the fungal creatures with it. Priests from all over the realm are gathered and brought in to cure disease on everything in the temple, the remaining corpses are given cremation rites …
Then they consult sages about forests of giant rust-colored mushrooms.
Fungal Breath (1/day): 10' x 10' cloud adjacent to fungal creature. Victims with less than 4 HD are incapacitated by choking for 1d6 rounds; higher-HD victims save vs. Poison or suffer a -2 on attack throws for the same time period. One day after breathing in the airborne spores, all victims must save vs. Disease or become a fungal creature. Corpses do not get a save - they are automatically transformed.Fungal creatures have the base HD for the creature plus +2 HD (humans and demihuman fungal creatures have 3 HD as fungal creatures). They are immune to gas, poison, sleep, charm, and hold spells, and are unintelligent (they lose all class and supernatural abilities, but not natural attacks or movement). The lack of internal organs grants +2 AC, and unnatural strength improves weapon damage by +1 or increases natural weapon die size by a small amount. Fungal creatures can use fungal breath once per day.
They back off from the fungal forest … for about another two days, long enough to prepare a fungal forest bonfire. That fails to work, however: live mushroom just isn’t all that flammable.
Wordthief: “Pfffft. Dwarves used to destroy fungal forests all the time. That’s not epic.”
Vulfelind: “How?”
Wordthief: “They had a machine or something.”
Vulfelind: “Wyrmtooth?”
Wyrmtooth: “Afraid not.”
Wordthief: “Yeah, like you’d know anything.”
Wyrmtooth: “I do know the dwarves hated the stuff. It ate iron veins or something.”
Vulfelind: “…”
Which is how Vulfelind ended up talking the others into helping her capture a family of rust monsters. That took the better part of month 2, but once she had them firmly in hand (or rather, once Chlodomer stripped down to cloth armor and grappled them into submission), the party flew in to the center of the fungal forest at the beginning of month 3 … and dropped the rust monsters on a soft-looking bloom.
And when the mushroom began falling apart into blackened organics and oxidized rust powder, the Grim Fist cackled and fled. Behind them, in the rapidly increasing distance, rust monsters feasted as they had never feasted before.
Shadagrunde was briefly morose: “You know those things are going to breed.”
Maaan… one problem with introducing my players to this thread is that now I can’t steal things from it 
Keep up the good work!
Session 27
Spring, Month 4
Hex Management
The population of Galaufabonne tops 8,400 (including the 1,400 in Bone Temple City). The income after the spring festival tops 20,000 (including the -2,700 in Bone Temple City after urban investments).Shadagrunde’s divine power available for magical research tops 32,000 gp-equivalents. He begins researching Harvest (which will use up 2,000 gp per month) … and assigns the remainder to the temples scattered around Galaufabonne for healing potion manufacture.
Galswintha envies at the ritual magic, then spends much of the month working out a deal with the fairies to produce semi-magical clothing:
Pixie Clothing: x100 cost. Changes color and appearance with the seasons, always fits and flatters, and grants a +1 reaction bonus in haute couture circumstances.Gnome Clothing: x100 cost. Sturdy and resistant to all kinds of mud, weather, grit, dust, stains, and all manner of other abuse. May grant a +1 on relevant saves and proficiency throws (gnome boots, for example, might grant a bonus on saves against stepped-on foot hazards); usually grants a +1 reaction bonus in survival and some military circumstances.
… does it even need to be said that her wardrobe expands?Aella Sappheiros sends Chlodomer a gift for his hard work:
Oscar: This bronze, 13.5-inch-tall, humanoid statuette is a HD 1* construct. It can spit fire for 1d3 damage against a target within 5'; this requires an attack throw. It has the usual construct immunities, and Move 30. It's main use, however, is as a watchdog - it never sleeps, it is small and reasonably quiet, and it can clap its hands to produce a bell-like tone if it sees someone who isn't on its approved list.With 1,400 families in Bone Temple City (class IV), Vulfelind begins construction on a hideout, which will be completed on the following month. The hideout is constructed underground with a tavern on the surface, and tied into the hidden passages secreted throughout the city.
Near the beginning of the month, the party examines the damage the rust monsters are doing … and it isn’t much. It’s not that they aren’t doing heinous amounts of property damage for their mass, but there are only four rust monsters.
Good news, there is now a clear patch to land in near the middle of the fungal forest.
Bad news, the fungal forest has begun growing faster in the area where the wolves were killed and is expanding into Red Meadow. So the party races to the rust monster’s new lair, re-captures them, transports them to Red Meadow, and drops them into the largest encroachment.
Four fat, disgruntled rust monsters wave their antennae lazily, then waddle to a good spot and flop down for a nap.
Galswintha spends a fair amount of time trying to “persuade” them to eat the yummy, yummy iron mushrooms. One of them takes a tiny, indolent nibble, burps, goes back to sleep.
No one wants to spend the time and energy hunting down more rust monsters, so they decide to finally tackle individual lairs … starting with the giant bee colony.
Fungal bees are a poor match against Galswintha’s fireballs, but even with hit-and-run tactics and lots of poison antidote, it takes the party four days of concentrated effort to finish off the last roving groups of angrily buzzing mushrooms.
… and four days after that, a brief check of the area reveals that fungal bee honey is essentially “stored iron” for the fungal growth as a whole - the whole area has re-bloomed and the giant honey-comb has begun to fill in with aggressive fungal forest.
The Grim Fist retreats once again.
Spring, Month 5
Hex Management
The population of Galaufabonne tops 9,400 (including the 1,800 in Bone Temple City). With no new construction in Bone Temple City, no festivals, and no sudden castle-constructing urges ...Oh, wait, Aella is requesting a 10,000 gold loan.
And Red Meadow is requesting military aid to chop down and clear back mushroom growth.
And Iamanu sent out a call to vassals to provide military support for a campaign he is waging … and Aella has passed that call down the line to Chlodomer.
And a Royal Messenger for the King of Greuthungi (the kingdom of which Atanung is a part) bears a message informing Chlodomer know that King Chilperic II lost a lot of money when trade shifted from highways controlled by His Majesty to a podunk little barony in the middle of nowhere … and lost more money when several caravans owned by His Majesty discovered that the goods they were bringing to market were already there, thanks to a recently opened shortcut.
His Majesty graciously offers to overlook Chlodomer’s rage-inducing failure to inform His Majesty, in return for becoming a vassal of Greuthungi.
The party huddles. They discuss relative military power (Greuthungi, Tervingi, and Iamanu all have around a hundred times Galaufabonne’s military might); who they can ally with; whether shattering part of the highway’s protection to unleash mushroom doom on Atanung would be worth it; and so on.
And then they craft a message, and Chlodomer gives it to the Royal Messenger:
"Your Majesty, we extend our most sincere sympathies for your under-performing caravan. It is almost inconcievable to us that Atanung's mayor, who has been plying our highway for the past year, would not have informed you of the shifting trade situation. Had we known he was so derelict in his duties, we would of course have sent a messenger to those countries affected. Perhaps we should check to make sure that Orléans is more responsible, and possibly send a missive to King Dagobert III, as well?"“In the hopes that your Royal Messenger is immune to whatever politics lead Atanung to misinform you, we have included a packet of what we know of the situation there. Given that we are foreigners, however, perhaps it would be better if you simply asked them directly for better information.”
“Regarding your offer of vassalage, we must regretfully decline. King Iamanu would frown upon it, and we would honestly rather not start a war between two such lovely countries.”
The rust mushroom forest beckons. This time, they decide to tackle the former storm giant castle.
It goes poorly. Fungal storm giants lack the spell-like abilities of their breathing brethren, but are substantially harder to kill … and fungal griffons, it turns out, are a force to be reckoned with. Properly chastised, the party flees for their lives, with few hit points and little pride remaining.
Shadagrunde: “We can’t leave it alone and we can’t burn it and we can’t kill it at any reasonable speed. I really hope there’s a central heart we can kill.”
Party: …!
A few days of rest later, Vulfelind drags out her flying canoe and then changes into fox form so three more folks can fit; Galswintha and Chlodomer mount their pegasi (and take one passenger each); and a small crew of henches are selected for optimal killing. Ropes are looped between everyone, Invisibility 10’ Radius is cast, and the crew soars out, looking for anything heart- or center-like.
A vaguely tower-shaped mushroom, tall and conical, surrounded by broad umbrella mushrooms a hundred feet across each, looks promising. After some preliminary discussion, Galswintha casts Invisibility on Vulfelind, and Shadagrunde casts Silence 15’ radius on the fox and himself.
They land, silent and invisible, amid the mushrooms. Vaguely humanoid fungi march in orderly columns in a vigilant watch, and the party is careful to not get too close. They find a good spot to hole up for a while, communicating with rope tugs, shoulder taps, and arrows drawn in the dirt. Once they find the spot and settle in, Vulfelind heads out and searches the area … until she finds the mining entrance. This she explores briefly, then returns. With no way to communicate what she found, however, she simply finds Galswintha’s ankle, tail-swishes for pick-up, is deposited in the canoe, and begins slowly directing it forward, leading the party.
She didn’t find the heart (although she is certain the heart is somewhere in the mine) … she found an old hoard, now largely unguarded.
The Grim Fist crams everything they can into saddlebags and canoe, calls it a day, and flees once again.
Once safely home, Chlodomer grins, “Well, I didn’t get what I wanted, but I wanted what I got.”
They decide to tackle the mine again the following month. For now, they focus on selling the extra magic items they just acquired … and Galswintha levels, and fills out her spell repertoire, scoring wall of fire and transmute rock to mud.
Thanksgiving family stuff means the next three weekends we won’t have any face-to-face. I hate to leave the players hanging with the whole mushroom thing, but everyone’s schedules are too different to put together a single block of time.
Christmas is likely to have a similar effect, but we should be able to get a couple games together in December.
Stupid seasonal joy.
On the plus side, I’ll have time to prep the war that’s coming …
Just popping in to say that I LOVE these chronicles! Very well-written, and your game is probably VERY FUN.
By the way, I’d love to see the maps of your setting as well as some background information on it.
I agree, if you ever think about trying to run a google hangout game sign me up, this games sounds amazing!
Warder
Thank you! I’m afraid my maps are not on the artistic side, and consist more of scribbled notes on a hex map, text files with hex numbers and short descriptions, and the occasional (horribly crude) sketch.
For background information … hm. I may see if I can put together something readable.
I don’t think I’m quite ready for an online game, but thank you for the kind words. If I do ever do something like that, I will keep you in mind.
Session 28
OOC: This was from two weeks ago. Last weekend will be up next.
Spring, Months 6, 7, and 8
Hex Management
The population of Galaufabonne tops 12,500 (including 3,600 in Bone Temple City). This was a fast-growing season!Aella pays back her loan. She also sends Chlodomer two sets of extremely realistic and attractive statues. When he asks about them … some vassal of Aella’s did something that merited punishment, so she took away the vassal’s harem. She also writes that he is free to keep them as statuary or a harem - she doesn’t care.
The Grim Fist realize at this point that they are committed to breaking free of Iamanu’s realm.
Shadagrunde continues his Harvest research until he doesn’t. Merideth begins researching the Lady’s Cane magical weapon Shadagrunde gave her.
Research: Mace +2, cure disease once per day. Base costs are 15,000/15,000 gp, research time 75/75 days, throw 11+/11+ (Merideth has a +3 workshop and sufficient divine power to provide another +3). Final roll 5+/5+. Because she has a sample, the actual cost and time is 7,500/7,500 gp and 38/38 days.
Galswintha begins researching a horrible thing: a choker necklace that grants the wearer the ability to breathe dragon’s fire three times per day.
Research: Base cost 30,000 gold, research time 250 days, throw 12+ (Galswintha has +2 INT and +3 workshop). Galswintha had a platinum torc (twin dragon heads with flawless facet-cut black sapphire eyes) worth 30,000gp, which grants another +3 on the roll, for a final roll of 4+. Half of the research will be required before she can distill the magical essences.
Vulfelind petitions for more funds to keep up with the city’s growth, and continues to lavish design love on “her” city, and initiates some hijinks to spy on other kingdoms.
The rust monsters continue to hold back the mushroom forest in Red Meadow, but the larger problem remains. Lacking a better option, the party loads up the canoe and returns for further invisible scouting.
… and manage to ignore at least two signs of an impending horrible monster before blundering face-first into a central domed room with a sponge-like, fungus-festooned brain-thing floating over a large, open pit with a scattering of corpses impaled on spikes below.
Fungal Brain
Fungal Brain: AC 6, Move fly 30', HD 20 (90 hp), attack smash 3d6, cast as mage-10, telepathy as helm of telepathy, SV F10, ML +2, AL C. Immune to gas, poison, sleep, charm, and hold. Has 1d12 stalks growing from it (below).Fungal Stalk: AC 2, Move 0’, HD 2 (9 hp), attack one spell, SV F1, ML +4, AL C. Immune to gas, poison, sleep, charm, and hold. Can cast a single spell (determine randomly as for a scroll) at the minimum caster level for the spell. The stalk can cast the spell with a frequency determined by spell level: 1 (once per round), 2 (once every 1d6 rounds), 3 (once per hour), 4+ (once per day). A stalk glows when it casts, and can be interrupted just like a mage.
A non-fungal mage who casts a spell within 30’ of the fungal brain must make a save vs. Death or suffer 3d6 damage. If a caster drops below 0 hp from this damage, a new stalk grows on the fungal brain based on the spell that killed the caster. The fungal brain heals an amount equal to the damage dealt (a healthy fungal brain gains no further benefit).
The party’s invisibility is dispelled as they enter the room, and a telepathic voice resonates in their minds: SHALL WE PARLEY?
Galswintha recovers her voice first, “Yes, please?”
YOU WISH TO PROTECT YOUR LANDS. BUT YOU LACK STRENGTH.
Chlodomer: “We do wish to protect them. We would rather you went elsewhere.”
YOUR LANDS ARE RICHER. MAGIC FEEDS THEM. I WANT THEM.
Vulfelind: (sotto) “Friggin’ efreet wish …”
Chlodomer: “Our lands will be a lot costlier for you to acquire than others.”
I THINK NOT. YOU ARE WEAK. I COULD DESTROY YOU NOW.
Shadagrunde: “Then why aren’t you? Why parley?”
TO BUY TIME.
And with that, the telepathically-contacted storm giant down the hall reaches the dome and attacks.
Vulfelind, suspicious of the technicolor stalks sprouting off the fungal brain, decides to put a flaming crossbow bolt through one of them. It makes a hissing, screaming noise as it burns and falls off, and the remaining six stalks pulse like a neon rave party.
Vulfelind shakes off three simultaneous charm attempts; the brain splits into three identical images; and a web spell engulfs the party (missing Chlodomer).
Shadagrunde casts true seeing on Chlodomer, who spots the non-illusory brain and charges, leaping across the pit, cleaving through four glowing stalks … and then falls short of the other lip of the pit and tumbles into the pit, barely avoiding impalement on the spikes.
The storm giant puts the hurt on Vulfelind, and Galswintha conjures a wall of stone, shaped to provide a spiral staircase from the bottom of the pit to the top of the dome. … and blood begins running freely from her nose, as the spell opens her life force to draining by the brain.
Vulfelind casually and methodically ignites the web, loads her crossbow, and fires into each visible fungal brain, destroying the illusory duplicates.
Webbing catches Chlodomer in the pit, and the brain hits the main party with Confusion and Vulfelind with another Charm. She resists the charm, but not the confusion, and she stares blankly for a round.
Meanwhile, Shadagrunde tries to get the storm giant’s attention off Vulfelind by wailing away at its knees with his hammer. It works: and the returning axe blow very nearly kills Shadagrunde.
Galswintha, ignoring the pain, casts Dragonbreath and suffers another bout of drain. Still, she smiles, if bloodily - once cast, dragon’s breath lets her deal damage without further casting.
Vulfelind, confused, still manages a coherent realization: the brain’s stalks are casting spells, but so is the brain itself! When a moment of clarity arrives, she shoots the brain’s central mass, ruining whatever spell it was planning … and steps sideways just enough to prevent another area spell from catching most of the party.
She manages coherent thought long enough to interrupt it once more, and then avoids it when it attempts to smash her in person … and Chlodomer finally manages to make his way up the stairs, where he chops the remaining fungal stalks off.
Shadagrunde heals himself in time to barely survive the next axe chop … And Galswintha unleashes flaming draconic death at the storm giant. Then Shadagrunde gives one final chop before the giant takes him down, and Galswintha ends the fungal collosus’ life with a second blast of breath.
And then, while Vulfelind and Chlodomer tag-team the brain, Galswintha removes a diamond from her necklace of resurrection and shatters it next to Shadagrunde’s mangled, chopped corpse. Once he stands up, blinking in confusion, she breathes her last dragon fire at the brain, and the Grim Fist dog-pile and stomp into pieces the enemy brain.
… and the fungal bloom does not shudder, wither, or die. They can hear more monsters responding to its telepathic distress call in the halls outside. They are no longer invisible, and no one has much in the way of hit points.
They flee for their lives, although Chlodomer wists tearfully in the direction of the pit of dead adventurers and their gear and treasure.
Unfortunately, Shadagrunde did not make it out unscathed … his heart beats and blood flows, but something is not quite right (OOC: WIS -4, CON -4, and dropping total hp to 16.).
The impact on his Lady-granted intuition is too much for him, and he decides to retire. After some heartfelt discussion, he asks Chlodomer to take on Merideth le Chocolat as Matriarch of Galaufabonne, and with that agreed to: Galswintha provides Merideth with a full membership Grim Fist ring; Shadagrunde leaves her the gear he no longer needs; and Chlodomer presides over a small, informal initiation.
Shadagrunde leaves for the Thervingi Great Library, where his frail health and reduced wisdom will not impact his duties as severely: the Lady’s Church accepts his presence there as the immense boon that it is. (OOC: Indeed, he eventually becomes the primary ruler of the library sanctum, as its needs are more political than physical or spiritual.)
After the fungal brain was killed, the fungal forest ceased its outward growth, but did not die … and some additional research has yielded a possible answer: it is expending its growth to produce a new fungal brain, to direct its actions.
So they stage a series of raids and searches in the fungal cavern complex. And rather than make one major assault per month (OOC: stringing it out for the population boost of adventuring each month, heh), they murder their way across the entire hex, wiping out all of the fungus-infected animals the fungal bloom is using to defend itself. They also hit upon the idea of wearing masks to protect them from the fungal breath weapon, and it works!
With that in hand, they target and kill the remaining storm giants, wipe out the fungal roc’s hideout, kill off a series of deer herds, wolf packs, horrible zombie-fungus rabbits, a flight of hawks, and a fungus-infected bandit camp. (They also grab the pit adventurer loot, dig through twenty feet of mushroom flesh to find the roc’s treasure, and search high and low until they dig out the storm giant’s treasure room. Let it not be said that they forgot priorities.)
One interesting bit of treasure is a platinum skullcap with a black sapphire “third eye,” which turns out to be a helm of language comprehension. Galswintha begins wearing her hair in a braid.
Without protectors, and facing fat rust monsters along its southern border, the fungal bloom begins to constrict inward somewhat.
And then Vulfelind takes her canoe up into the sky with a surveyor and mapper … to identify the center toward which it is shrinking.
With a decent idea of where the center of the mushroom forest was, the party piled onto pegasuses and canoe … and hovering high above it, Galswintha summons an earth elemental to begin rending the earth looking for entrances to a deeper cavern, and once that is found, has it spend some time shattering tree-sized mushrooms in an orgy of destruction.
And then they retreat and amass their army … for next session.
Session 29
Summer, Month 8, Continued, and Month 9
The problem: the party wants to bring a small army of henches to the center of the fungal forest, which exceeds what an invisible canoe and two pegasi can carry.
The solution: Gear up a significant portion of the Galaufabonne army and march through the fungal forest, chopping it down as they go, to inject the smaller army of party members and henches into the center of the hex. In addition, they buy as much sulfur (a medieval/alchemical purifying agent and, amusingly enough, a real-world fungicide) as they can get their hands on.
Fortunately, they’ve cleared out most of the large predators and monsters, leaving only infected songbirds, rodents, and the like. Which are a pain, but not a serious threat.
I decide to treat it as a construction project, as if clearing a dirt road. They need it to be three miles long, and after some discussion, we settle on 100 feet wide, for a total cost of 1,875 gp.
The entire army is given careful instruction in the use of moist cloths over the mouth, and staying away from cute cloud-breathing bunnies.
Chlodomer has an army of 850 (labor 85 gp per day) for a total of 22 days of labor (shading into month 9). On day 11, the new fungal brain has grown, and it arrives to stomp down the enemy … armed with three fungal purple worms that the forest had in reserve.
A fungal purple worm is a horrible, horrible thing, unless you have a dragon-fire-breathing sorceress on the back of a pegasus. Galswintha finds her three-point position in the first round and begins layering hellfire on giant worm heads. She fails to kill any of them, but she costs them so much mass and life that Chlodomer, Vulfelind, and their henches manage to finish them off quickly.
Which leaves Merideth and her loyal knights fighting the brain by themselves.
Fortunately, this brain has more limited spellcasting abilities. It paralyzes several of Merideth’s knights’ horses and fireballs Merideth … who laughs it off and flame strikes the brain in return. This tit-for-tat goes around twice, and then the mounted knights arrive with their charge.
The brain explodes on the ends of their lances.
Now alert for tremors in the earth, the army continues its slash-and-burn across the three miles of giant mushrooms until they reach the heart unearthed by Galswintha’s earth elemental weeks prior.
Leaving the army at the entrance, the Grim Fist … manages a fairly anticlimactic conclusion. A few token fungal soldiers are all that are left guarding the center, a vast mycelium-encysted cavern. And here they dump sulfur everywhere that looks even vaguely lumpish, wait a few days to let the sulfur do its work, then throw fireballs and flame strikes down the tunnel, and then transport and unleash the rust monsters in the heart of the fungus.
Already, the giant fungal blooms are beginning to wilt and die back.
By the end of month 9, the entire hex resembles a hilly desert of rust-colored grit, and all of the loot they can find has been found.
Month 9’s OOC Administrative Stuff
The population of Galaufabonne tops 14,000 (4,700 in Bone Temple City). Aella adds a 1 gp/family tax (i.e., 14,000 gp) "just for a little while." Despite this, the domain produces just enough money for the party to get a little XP out of it.No magical research is accomplished: the PCs were in the Fungal Forest for an entire month!
We do a laundry list of characters, henches, and hench-henches, and make sure everything is up to date. Of interest:
Chlodomer and Merideth both level (11th and 10th, respectively). Chlodomer is now the highest-level member of the party.(Also amusing to me: every member of the core party has died at least once.)
Galswintha’s falcon familiar (“Petite”) exceeds the HD and hit points of a giant hawk … so we go ahead and say she’s been growing. Galswintha commissions some chainmail barding, saddle, specialized saddle bags, and silvered talon tips. Petite: AC 7, Move fly 450’, HD 10 (23 hp), attack 2x talons 1d4+1 (silvered, throw 5+), SV mage-10, AL L. Can carry 40 stone at full speed or 80 stone at half speed.
Galswintha’s and Vulfelind’s growing zoo of arctic foxes, war dogs, tigers, wolves, giant hawks, pegasi, and cave bears … finally get a permanent home other than the nearby forest.
A vague discussion Galswintha and Vulfelind had about a giant hawk military unit is concretized, and part of Bone Temple City’s garrison becomes the Flying Cataphract Cavalry:
Flying Cataphract Cavalry: Morale +2. 125 gold per month. Chain-barded giant hawk; plate armor, composite bow, shield and lance, shield and sword. Training time 20 months, requires a marshal with Manual of Arms x2, Riding (Giant Hawk), and Weapon Focus (Bows and Crossbows).The marshal costs 500 gp/month. Since the hawks, marshal, available troops, and gold has been available for a long stretch of time, and since the reason it didn’t happen earlier was because I (th Judge) didn’t find time to discuss it, we retcon slightly and say that they’ve been training “all along.”
Given their resources, Galswintha and Vulfelind end up with 24 flying cataphract cavalry, which eats up 3,000 gp of garrison; the remainder of the garrison is 100 longbowmen and 300 heavy infantry. Chlodomer envies (Of course, he has no room to talk: he has a thousand-strong military … and he’s getting the bulk of the pegasi eggs to build another airborne cavalry unit.)
Some magic items are commissioned, and some magic item horse trading occurs between the players, and then some re-organization of which items are being loaned to which henches, and then some outright trades and gifts with the henches. It’s a good thing I took notes, because I no longer have any working memory of who has what.
Merideth’s cavalry unit is flat-out terrifying, and thankfully costs 35,000 gold per month to maintain: 7 cleric-8, 6 cleric-6, 12 fighter-4, plus Merideth herself (cleric-10), and the non-fighting support staff. The main issue - discovered in the second fight against the fungal brain - is that the mounts are fragile, and they’re trying to hink of ways around that.
I really like the highway construction project approach to clearing the fungal forest.
