White Box: Fantasy Medieval Adventure Game character Sheet

I've become particularly enamoured with White Box: Fantasy Medieval Adventure Game in the last few weeks, and had some spare moments during a recent holiday to scrawl down a freehand character sheet. Still learning. 

Printable two to a sheet of A4.

Wretches & Riches - version 0.41

This is the homebrew game I've been putting friends and family through. It started off as a GLOG hack with gradually more and more Knave and Black Hack elements introduced, then cut out, then sewn back in again. Then Into The Odd reared its head, and apparently it's taken on some Savage Worlds developments too. I've never read Savage Worlds, so others will be in a better position to compare them.

I've never found reading rulebooks easy. The information just doesn't get absorbed efficiently, and I really struggle to translate what I read to what the process might look like in action at the (physical or virtual) table. I wanted to a game which might be a bit kinder to those of us less academically-inclined folks. Pictures, diagrams and examples aplenty. Minimal modifiers.

Old School Compatibility

I wanted to keep it compatible with all the D&D modules out there so it couldn't stray too far from that framework, but it certainly pushes the boundaries. It's various versions have been through the Tomb of the Serpent Kings, the Stygian Library, Fever Swamp and various Trilemma adventures, and its currently running through Against the Cult of the Reptile God. From a GM's perspective, I'd say it has been simple enough to convert things, particularly monsters, on the fly.

Key points:

• Attributes are dice, not modifiers - ranging from d4 to a max of d12. Roll 3+ to succeed a check. Don't roll if it's too easy or impossible. Roll with advantage or disadvantage if there needs to be an adjustment made for difficulty. Opposed rolls if another party is involved (traps and the like can be interpreted to be another party).
  
  This means there's a tactile element to go with a character's attribute improvement.
   
• Four attributes rather than six: Might, Nimbleness, Discipline and Wits. Two physical and two mental. No charisma stat - if a player wants to roll during a conversation, the attribute is determined by the character's approach to the conversation (Might for intimidating, Wits to be charming, etc).
   
• Luck which is also a die - the player can choose to roll it with any other attribute die. Essentially players can choose to roll with Advantage, but if the Luck die rolls 1-3, it drops down a size.
   
• Inventory as HP - the more you get hit, the less you can carry and the less effective you are. Characters have twice as many burden slots as their highest attribute die, and these are used for noting equipment, spells and archetypal abilities. Each point of damage taken fills up a slot with an Encumbrance - any contents must be dropped or rendered unusable. If all slots are filled with Encumbrances, the character rolls on the Death / Reprieve table.
   
• Opposed combat rolls with both participants rolling a single die depending on their weapon. Highest roll inflicts the difference in damage (except in ranged combat - if the defender wins, they've just avoided damage). Armour reduces this damage to a minimum of 1. Shields don't reduce damage, but reduce the size of the opponent's die. If a character uses a weapon die higher than their Might die, then they roll at disadvantage. Allies can roll their dice together and take the sum for their side.
   
• Powerful but dangerous and unreliable magic where the player chooses how many magic dice to roll (equal size to the character's Wits die), and the number that roll 4+ is the level at which the spell is cast. Doubles reduce the Wits die and trebles cause a magical mishap which permanently takes up a burden slot (until the character performs a quest for a wizard or something like that).
  
  I like the idea that a character could decide to go out with a bang and cast at a level which, while dooming themselves, might well eliminate an army of opponents.
   
• Die-based hirelings for simple book keeping - just need to record their die, inventory (equal to die size) and what they're good at. If they need to do anything, roll their die as the appropriate attribute. If it's an area of expertise, roll the next die size up (if they need to roll at all). Getting injured drops their die size down. Use their die for any morale rolls.

Format-wise, it prints nicely as an A5 booklet. The first half accounts for character creation, and the second half encompasses the basic rules. Open up the middle page spread and that's the start of the rules, covering the main points of controlling a character.

Art from W M Goodes' work in the public domain, taken from A Comic Guide to the English and A Comic Guide to the Greeks. It captures the sort of tone I like in my games, and there's a load of good stuff. Any spare white space in further Wretches & Riches work is definitely going to get filled.

PDF of the game book is available here.
Google Sheets version of the character sheet is available here.

Using OSR monsters in 5e, and simplifying 5e stat blocks

I typed out a pretty hot-aired response to someone on reddit, and it formalised a mental process I've been using which I'd like to get down on virtual paper. It's all very loosey-goosey, but it helps clarify my thinking.

---

Original Question:

Anyone have experience or tips for simplifying 5e monsters into a more OSR style? What are your favorite tips and tricks?

---

My First Response:

Alas, for I have forked out for the 5e Monster Manual, but I think it's probably easier just working from the older edition stat blocks - they're a heck of a lot easier to improv too.

I focus on working out a rough HD for the monster, from which I can get most of the important numbers.

AC = 10 + HD, unless you have a simple armour system, in which case use that.

Attack bonus = +HD
Attack damage for humanoids = nearest die to HD + 4 rounded down. Use the next highest die if the NPC is skilled at fighting.
Attack damage for monsters = [1/2 HD]d[HD] damage, can be split

# of hits until death = HD. If a damage roll is more than 10, count it as 2 hits. Ignore hits of less than 5 damage.

Target number for strong stat = 10 + HD
Target number for average stat = 10 + 1/2 HD
Target number for weak stat = 10

So a monster I used yesterday for four lvl 3 5e characters was a summoned rubbery monster. My entire notes for it, scrawled down a few minutes before the session, were:


Rubber/tar-demon - HD8

- Bludgeon x2 - +8, 2d8

- Spew boiling tar - Dex save or 4d8 damage

- For every slashing or piercing strike against it in melee, attacker takes d6 damage from spraying tar

- burnt rubber smell, gaping mouth, stretchy limbs & stomach expanding like a balloon before spewing


Kept the PCs going for a few rounds, bringing even the ridiculous AC20 raging half-damage-suffering Barbarian down to 5HP.

---

Original Poster's Response:

This is pretty great and I am stealing that monster; But I should have clarified that I meant how can I take an existing monsters stat block from the MM and boil it down into something like this. But it gives me some good insight on how to create my own monsters and I am sure it would be easy enough to adapt.

A few questions;

• How do you determine which die size to use for HD? Is it just arbitrary?
• I am terrible at math and don't understand this formula haha [1/2 HD]d[HD] ; can you clarify?
• I like the idea of number of hits before death, and that's a good formula and a way to let the players still roll damage, which is fun. I think I will adapt that but have you ever just used straight hp? Easy enough to roll up.
• Can you explain the target numbers for stats? Do you mean that if the monsters Strong Stat is it Strength, and it has an ability that requires a strength save from the player, the save is 10+HD?
• Do you bother with monsters having their own bonuses to Saving throws or Stats? Seems like no, and I agree really. You could follow the same formula from Strong/Average/Weak stat easy enough and even on the fly.
• Do you make your boss monsters the same way? Or make them more complicated?

Thanks for this! I am planning a werewolf encounter for tomorrow and I want to keep it fast and dramatic. It will write up my own stats based on this formula and the block from the MM.

---

My Incredibly Long-Winded Second Response:

Steal away!

• How do you determine which die size to use for HD? Is it just arbitrary?

I generally assume d8 as it averages out the big and small, but most of the time I don't actually used Hit Dice as dice at all. Especially so with 5e monsters, since they use so many more than the older editions.

• I am terrible at math and don't understand this formula haha [1/2 HD]d[HD] ; can you clarify?

I am certainly no mathematician either. I still have to stop and remember which way round > goes!

It simply means take the HD and halve it, and that's how many dice worth of damage the monster can do in a turn. The size of the damage die is roughly equivalent to whatever their HD is (so an HD8 monster would use d8, an HD11 monster would use d10 or d12 - usually d12 because 5e PCs are tough.)

Actually, I missed out extra damage on the formula - add half the HD in damage onto the roll, essentially accounting for the attribute bonus.

Split the dice as you wish, if you think the monster would have multiattack.

Another example: an HD6 monster would do 3d6 + 3 damage. This could be one attack using three dice, three attacks using one die, or two attacks using two dice in one and one die in the other.

• I like the idea of number of hits before death, and that's a good formula and a way to let the players still roll damage, which is fun. I think I will adapt that but have you ever just used straight hp? Easy enough to roll up.

I have done, and it probably works well enough with one or two monsters, but it can quickly get tricky keeping track of it all. Not difficult, necessarily, but you'll be scrawling down a lot of numbers which can make it harder to remember how well the monsters are each doing.

Using HD as number of hits, it meant that the session before I (as I say, not a mathematician and not great with numbers) felt pretty comfortable running a mass combat of four PCs and four of their NPC allies against some fifteen unique human foes each with a different spell. It just meant I used tallies rather than addition, which sped things up no end!

• Can you explain the target numbers for stats? Do you mean that if the monsters Strong Stat is it Strength, and it has an ability that requires a strength save from the player, the save is 10+HD?
• Do you bother with monsters having their own bonuses to Saving throws or Stats? Seems like no, and I agree really. You could follow the same formula from Strong/Average/Weak stat easy enough and even on the fly.

I don't sweat too much about all the different saves and treat most of them as strong - reasoning that HD is good stand in for 'how difficult is this monster?'. If the monster is forcing the PC to make a save, chances are it's using a 'strong' stat. So yeah, it's the Save DC, essentially.

I also find players don't worry so much about what a monster is weak at compared to what the PC is strong at. If they force the monster to make a save, it's d20 + HD. Mathematically it's the same (like Perception and Passive Perception).

If there is something obvious though, like a Wisdom save for an ogre, then I essentially roll with no modifier.

• Do you make your boss monsters the same way? Or make them more complicated?

Actually, that was the boss monster of sorts, albeit with a lot of those human enemies around. I probably would have put some more thought into it and its special abilities had it been alone, but the core numbers would have remained the same. Essentially, this HD system means I have a core base for monster onto which I can stick any special ability I like, which is what players actually remember from a fight.

• But I should have clarified that I meant how can I take an existing monsters stat block from the MM and boil it down into something like this. But it gives me some good insight on how to create my own monsters and I am sure it would be easy enough to adapt.

This has already become rather long-winded, and I might have to come back to it, but I'm pretty sure you could condense most of the monster stat blocks to something like the above. As I say, it's the special abilities which really make the monster, so take those and adjust things like DCs (and probably just summarise them - 5e is full of generally unnecessary legal-like clauses).

For a number to base the monsters around, I'd take the CR rating instead of HD, and just round up the fraction CRs to 1.

Let's try it. I've just leaned across, grabbed my monster manual and opened to a random page.

Barbed Devil - CR5

Okay, so let's work with that CR.

AC15

Attack bonus: +5

Damage: 2d6+3

Strong stat / DC: +5 / 15

Average stat / DC: +3 / 13

Weak stat / DC: +0 / 10

Not too far off the actual numbers. It doesn't do as much damage in the monster manual, but it's better against save effects.

Its special rules - Barbed Hide, Devils' Sight and Magic Resistance - can stay as they are. In fact so can the attacks.

So if I were to try and condense the stat block, I'd probably go for:

Barbed Devil - CR5

Attacks, either:

- claws and tail - 2 x +6, 1d6+3 ; 1 x +6, 2d6+3

or

- hurling flame - 2 x +5, 3d6 fire

Resistant to cold & mundane physical; immune to poison & fire; advantage against spells & magic

Barbed hide causes 1d10 damage to grapplers

Sees through the dark and magic dark (120ft)

To be honest, if you're looking to condense stat blocks down, just take the CR to guide you on stat DCs and the like, note down attacks and any abilities and resistances that differ from what you could work out in your head (for instance, do you need to write down that skeleton is immune to being poisoned and exhausted?). They won't perfectly match what's in the MM, but they'll be usable at the table.

It must be doable. A chap on the OSR subreddit condensed a whole load of Pathfinder monsters, and brilliantly so. His two-sentence summaries are excellent.

Sorry, quite a lot of hot air.

A Tale Of... Session Report 14

More XP bait dangled before the players. They nibbled at it, saving me some effort in typing up events. And so follows a modified Discord chat describing the party's first foray into The Stygian Library:

CAST:

Alexander Bucciarati (lvl 2 rogue)

A man with a boat and a mission. He tells everyone about one but not the other.

Giro Beanna (lvl 2 barbarian)

A huge mischia player made even angrier by the loss of his mother to a magical beast attack. Carries a wooden chest on his back.

Salazar Caltata (lvl 2 rogue)

The scrawny fourth son of a nobleman. Good at hiding in a crowd. A snitch and a sneak.

Vero Anzano (lvl 2 ranger)

An old hunter with a mysterious past. Swamped under an enormous bear cloak.

APOLOGIES FROM:

Arabella Volhollen (lvl 2 fighter)

An archer with societal ambitions. Highly suspicious of and condescending towards pretty much everybody.

Manius (level 2 barbarian)

Alexander's crewman, a large former pit fighter with all the wits of one.

IN THEIR (SLIGHTLY EDITED) OWN WORDS:

Giro:Well [I] got gummed by a flying book and got dumber.

Alexander: We went and bought supplies for the trip into the library, Salazar finally got into the black market, then we entered the library. We found an index that gave us various clues about the location of the garden and we then set off deeper into the library. Along the way we met a ghost who had died with his companions in the library - he told us that the librarians took ghosts to use for some purpose and that he was hiding from them. After that we met a skeletal historian doing research; he gave a little more insight into various things. We then ended up splitting off with all of the present players going off and getting attacked by flying books that sapped intelligence scores

Giro:Also the index gave a few people some clues on their own endeavors, of which afaik the only ones that are known by the whole group being Giro looking into raising the dead
And we found out about the various types of Librarians Orders of Librarians:
Red - look after Library itself
Yellow - Look after the books
Black - Maintain the doorways/layout of the library
White - Shepharding of souls
Grey - Experimenting on souls
And we found a skeleton man who liked researching tactics - Anaxarqxus.

Vero: And we found out that the layout of the library changes, despite the efforts of the black order. [I] also got [my] intellect leeched by one of the books so now [I'm] as smart as Giro. But [I] also found a magical glass eye that detects... something? So that's nice.

Salazar: And that something is around [me]. On top of all this, Alexander won't show me what he is after, Giro wants to revive his dead mother, we are trying to find out about the garden, there are killer bees somewhere and Giro kicked down a door that is going to end up hurting us. Also Zoriane is being a bitch like normal and magical man is loving it.

Vero: The flying books were glowing as well.

Salazar: Books chained to the walls as well.

Giro: I figure the aura around Salazar is probably the magic from his big boy rich man jacket.
And [I] found a spellbook and stashed it in [my] bag.

Sheets and Slots

Okay, character sheet v2.

The 'Big Six' attributes which, while not necessarily what I want to go with long term, allow for much easier conversions of other OSR-based games and modules. The thick border boxes are for the main attribute values, the thinner border boxes are to provide easy reference to attribute values reduced by injuries and other conditions.

I really like the simplicity of slot-based inventories, and there are some great ideas on embellishing the slot system (Knave's spells are as much a weigh-able item as regular weapons, and Michael Bacon's conditions also take up slots). I want to go the distance with them, and so pretty much everything takes up a slot: equipment, spells, special abilities, conditions, injuries, illnesses, etc. Inventory slots become Burden slots and represent how much a character can literally and / or figuratively bear. 

To offset the fact that the slots will very quickly fill up, the number of slots is equal to the highest attribute, so a character might be able to plough on under the weight of physical and mental burden through physical endurance (CON), strength of will (WIS), bloody-minded optimism (CHA), or however a player wants to describe it. If an attribute drops through injury, the next highest 'takes over', so it's in a character's interest to be well rounded! It also means that a character won't be penalised too much from not having a high attribute that they otherwise won't be looking to use.

Not going to win any beauty prizes, but at least I've got a new placeholder in the heartbreaker folder...

A Tale Of... Session Report 13

CAST:

Alexander Bucciarati (lvl 2 rogue)

A man with a boat and a mission. He tells everyone about one but not the other.

Arabella Volhollen (lvl 2 fighter)

An archer with societal ambitions. Highly suspicious of and condescending towards pretty much everybody.

Giro Beanna (lvl 2 barbarian)

A huge mischia player made even angrier by the loss of his mother to a magical beast attack. Carries a wooden chest on his back.

Manius (level 2 barbarian)

Alexander's crewman, a large former pit fighter with all the wits of one.

Salazar Caltata (lvl 2 rogue)

The scrawny fourth son of a nobleman. Good at hiding in a crowd. A snitch and a sneak.

APOLOGIES FROM:

Vero Anzano (lvl 2 ranger)

An old hunter with a mysterious past. Swamped under an enormous bear cloak.

The report that follows comes from Giro's player:

"The group that put a bounty on Zorriani and us is the Urrizmendi family. They've got some strong enforcer guy called Laurentzi chasing after us which is why they had their other lackeys fuck up our boat, so he could catch up. Salazar disguised himself and knocked out all 5 lackeys with a little bit of deception and a handful of sleeping potion-infused beers. We took the bodies upriver and hung them on some trees to serve as a warning to Laurentzi and other enforcers that we mean business. 

"We went back to Artisar and he told us about a magical Library that holds all knowledge that ever has been or will be written down, he says it's dangerous but time travels differently in there so while we'd likely spend days or weeks in there by the time we come out no time will have passed at all. He wants us to head inside and look for info on 'The Garden of Yin', he thinks it might be linked to the overgrowth we saw at the tower that had the Belu in it. During all of this, Vero went out to the woods for some 'alone time'.  

"We left off last session preparing food and other supplies, we haven't head inside yet."

I'm happy to keep that report as the record. Leaves me more time to convert the bestiary from The Stygian Library into 5e statblocks!

Magical Ripples

My heartbreaker magic system is currently a corruption of the GLOG dice pool. All characters have a Magic Chance Die size ranging from d4 to d12. The die size represents the level of control a character has over the figurative magical streams running through the world. However, characters can only cast spells if they have an arcane focus of some kind (wands, gems, etc) which grants them a number of Magic Chance Dice to play around with. Casting a spell at level 3 requires rolling 3 MCd.

Unless otherwise noted, the spell always goes off.

Every time a 1-3 is rolled, the magic die is downgraded to the next smallest die size. If the same number comes up on multiple dice, consult the table below. [Level] refers to the level at which the spell was cast. [You] refers to a 50% chance that the spell affects a random party member instead.

Magical Ripple / Splash
MCd	Doubles	Trebles	Quadruples	Quintuples
1	You cast a random spell at the target instead of the original spell.	The spell is twice as effective but you forget the spell. You must learn it again to be able to cast it.	You have lit a magical beacon - the number of unnatural creatures in this world will now increase substantially.	You explode.
2	A level [Level] monster pops into existence 10 x [Level] ft away.	Every Full Rest, [You] must make an INT test with difficulty = [Level]. On a failure, [you] transform into a domestic animal appropriate to [your] character for a day.	All trace of [you] is removed from the annals of history. Your party members must each pass an INT test - only those who pass have any memory of [you].	You and one other member of the party explode.
3	[You] and one random NPC take [Level]d6 magical damage.	[Your] attributes are mirrored. Swap STR with CHA, DEX with WIS and CON with INT.	[You] are immediately transported into the Gardens of Ynn or the Stygian Library. You must escape alone, or the party must rescue you.	You and all bar one of the party explode.
4	[Your] eyes turns a random colour.	[Level] NPCs from your past are instantly turned to stone.	An identical (but morally opposite) copy of [you] appears.	Everyone in the room explodes.
5	[Your] sweat corrodes metal.	[You] can regenerate lost limbs within a day, and have advantage on rolls to recover from injury. You take double damage from fire.	[Your] physical appearance switches with that of a random NPC.	Everyone in five miles explodes.
6	[You] age 5 x [Level] years.	[You] learn a new random spell.	All plant life within 10 x [Level] miles of you withers and dies.	Anyone the PCs have met explodes.
7	[You] get 5 x [Level] years younger.	Heavy snow falls in a two-mile radius for [Level] weeks.	The party finds themselves in a tiny pocket dimension.	The nation explodes.
8	[You] change gender.	All the metal [you] are carrying merges together to form a golem of level [Level]. This mindless construct is bound to [your] service. its size is dependent on the quantity of metal.	All ageing in a 10 mile radius around you halts for a year.	The continent explodes.
9	[Your] feet become hands.	[Your] hand vanishes. You can still feel and control it, but cannot see it.	Magic disappears from the world for a week.	The world explodes.
10  11  12	A character from the nearest book or picture comes to life.	You are suddenly aware of the location of a long-forgotten castle, and know the secret to getting in.	The earth in a 10 mile radius around you sinks 10 miles.	The universe explodes. A new one forms in the aftermath.

Inane Aphorisms

I am not the quickest thinker, nor the deepest. Generally this has not hampered me too much in life - and there have been times when being able to entirely clear one's mind of thoughts has been a wonderful safety mechanism.

It does not make for easy controlling of wise and intelligent characters, both NPC and otherwise. Fortunately my latest character for a new 5e campaign rolled a 6 for their intelligence, so I can resort to playing the fool. This will not do as a GM of another campaign, though.

I want to have a saying for every occasion. The relevance to the occasion need not be immediately obvious - and as anyone who has spent any time reading Literature (or, Fancy Books Which Value Vagueness Over Readability), the more less clear the sentence, the better it is regarded by the Right Sort.

I'm also playing around with random generators, leaning towards Inspiration Pad Pro because you can use it offline on your phone, but I wanted to give HTML buttons a go since some many other bloggers seem to have mastered it (and surely if lots of people use it, it must be good).

Trying it out now, I feel I may have to get a bit more specific with the table entries. At the moment there's just a single {noun} list which I splurged, so there's just a bit too much randomness.

Not perfect, but a simple click further to generate another quick phrase will be a handy crutch for some Wise One improv.

The generator is not quite as flexible as the Inspiration Pad Pro app (which also has a function to insert the right articles for vowel-beginning nouns), and I don't think I can insert tables into inline sublists, but if I can get to grips with it I think it will prove more visually accessible on a screen. I must toy further.

A Tale Of... Session Report 12

Various parties and holidays had us a few players down this week. A refreshing change to not have to worry about spreading the limelight out fairly, and it meant one player ended up typing up their session summary to keep the absent players updated, which I've used below.

CAST:

Arabella Volhollen (lvl 2 fighter)

An archer with societal ambitions. Highly suspicious of and condescending towards pretty much everybody.

Giro Beanna (lvl 2 barbarian)

A huge mischia player made even angrier by the loss of his mother to a magical beast attack. Carries a wooden chest on his back.

Vero Anzano (lvl 2 ranger)

An old hunter with a mysterious past. Swamped under an enormous bear cloak.

APOLOGIES FROM:

Alexander Bucciarati (lvl 2 rogue) - A man with a boat and a mission. He tells everyone about one but not the other.

Manius (level 2 barbarian) - Alexander's crewman, a large former pit fighter with all the wits of one.

Salazar Caltata (lvl 2 rogue) - The scrawny fourth son of a nobleman. Good at hiding in a crowd. A snitch an

SESSION:

• We decided to scope out the Star & For [where they'd followed the snooper earlier].
• We met a guy with some personal connections to the town/behind the scenes called Artizar.
• Apparently it's representatives of a higher-up family [the Urrizmendi family] that have a bounty on Zoriane, and by extension us for helping her.
• Artizar promised more help if we can help him clear out an old human outpost which may be inhabited by monsters now.
• We interrogated those [dock] night guards. They didn't see anything, not by being bribed or in on it, but by gross incompetence and uh...lady friends.
• We went to the outpost tower, finding it inhabited by an ogre type creature called a Belu.
• Killed the Belu via beartraps and Vero just happened to use some magic.

ADDENDUM

...because some things may come in handy later on in the campaign...

Artizar seemed to have put two and two together from various incoming bits of intel, and seemed to know an awful lot about the party.

As they approached the tower Vero, by way of his Gloomy Foreboding, was suddenly reminded of the aftermath of the monster attack all those weeks ago, where Salazar spotted a brick wall with the faint marking - or rather, absence of dust - showing the word YNN.

The tower itself was very overgrown, far more so than just a few month's worth of growing.

Vero cast a Control Plants spell in full view of Arabella and Giro to get some vines to coil up the belu's legs.

The fight with the belu, which had approached the party at the top of the tower entirely unaggressively, was more than just 'via beartraps' - the characters tried resetting and sliding beartraps under the creatures feet, tipping the massive creature through a hole in the floor (though it was too big even for Giro to do so), buckling its legs from behind, roping it down with ivy, darting just out of reach firing arrows, and finally some good ol' spine bashing with a large mace.

Taking into account the journey to and from the tower, this session covered a week's worth of adventuring.

A Tale Of... Session Report 11

Mostly an RP session this time round, and a very quick summary of events.

CAST:

Alexander Bucciarati (lvl 2 rogue)

A man with a boat and a mission. He tells everyone about one but not the other.

Arabella Volhollen (lvl 2 fighter)

An archer with societal ambitions. Highly suspicious of and condescending towards pretty much everybody.

Giro Beanna (lvl 2 barbarian)

A huge mischia player made even angrier by the loss of his mother to a magical beast attack. Carries a wooden chest on his back.

Manius (level 2 barbarian)

Alexander's crewman, a large former pit fighter with all the wits of one.

Salazar Caltata (lvl 2 rogue)

The scrawny fourth son of a nobleman. Good at hiding in a crowd. A snitch and a sneak.

Vero Anzano (lvl 2 ranger)

An old hunter with a mysterious past. Swamped under an enormous bear cloak.

SESSION:

With little further trouble, our party of heroes made their way into Loidatz. 

• Arabella found a very favourable deal with Markel, a rich merchant passing through on his way back to Drosas.
• Manius got staggeringly drunk and would feel quite a bit weak for the next week.
• Salazar reported the shipwreck to the Council, or at least left a message with a clerk to pass on to the Council.
• The party found that their boat had been sabotaged the night before. The dockmaster apologised profusely and would pay for our heroes' board and lodging until the Rolling Stoned could be repaired.
• As the group discussed their options in the Crimson Whale, Vero and Alexander spotted someone watching them from outside the inn window. They fled as the team filed out. The tracks led through the back alleys of the residential district eventually to the Star & Fork - a tavern near the Council Forum.

A Tale Of... Session Report 10

CAST:

Alexander Bucciarati (lvl 2 rogue)

A man with a boat and a mission. He tells everyone about one but not the other.

Arabella Volhollen (lvl 2 fighter)

An archer with societal ambitions. Highly suspicious of and condescending towards pretty much everybody.

Giro Beanna (lvl 2 barbarian)

A huge mischia player made even angrier by the loss of his mother to a magical beast attack. Carries a wooden chest on his back.

Manius (level 2 barbarian)

Alexander's crewman, a large former pit fighter with all the wits of one.

Salazar Caltata (lvl 2 rogue)

The scrawny fourth son of a nobleman. Good at hiding in a crowd. A snitch and a sneak.

Vero Anzano (lvl 2 ranger)

An old hunter with a mysterious past. Swamped under an enormous bear cloak.

SESSION:

Combat was met, the party emerging battered but victorious. They ended up with several prisoners whom they questioned and then either released or took along with them.

Highlights of the session included:

• Giro brushing aside all manner of attacks and dispatching a number of assailants single-handedly.
  
• Arabella shooting another ally by mistake, this time an enraged Manius who just about held it together instead of rounding upon the apologetic archer.
  
• Salazar, Vero and Alexander taking absolutely ages to dispatch the incredibly hardy undead, eventually using gravity and stairs to finish what their weapons could not.
  
• One attacker retreating and bringing in a blindfolded figure and forcing him to raise one of the fallen enemies as another zombie.
  
• The blindfolded figure turned out to be Atseden, a clerk with an affinity for raising the dead. He told the party that he'd been taught how to use magic by Kontxesi, a traveller who had passed through Gobea. The party decided to take him with them as far as his hometown.
  
• The two other prisoners, who referred to themselves as Lore and Paulio, bargained to answer the party's questions in written form so that they might be released. Lore acknowledged the party would probably be able to track them, and as a show of good faith said they could be found in Drosas.

A Tale Of... Session Report 9

A full complement of players this time - and boy, am I glad that some of them seem happy to take a back seat. Six is definitely my limit 

CAST:

Alexander Bucciarati (lvl 2 rogue)

A man with a boat and a mission. He tells everyone about one but not the other.

Arabella Volhollen (lvl 2 fighter)

An archer with societal ambitions. Highly suspicious of and condescending towards pretty much everybody.

Giro Beanna (lvl 2 barbarian)

A huge mischia player made even angrier by the loss of his mother to a magical beast attack. Carries a wooden chest on his back.

Manius (level 2 barbarian)

Alexander's crewman, a large former pit fighter with all the wits of one.

Salazar Caltata (lvl 2 rogue)

The scrawny fourth son of a nobleman. Good at hiding in a crowd. A snitch and a sneak.

Vero Anzano (lvl 2 ranger)

An old hunter with a mysterious past. Swamped under an enormous bear cloak.

SESSION:

Having waited for the sun to set, Alexander skillfully (critical successfully) piloted the boat onward by moonlight. Everyone kept their eyes peeled for both the suspicious boat that had passed them during the day and for the rumoured shipwreck. Spotting a dead human body beneath the surface of the river they knew they were getting close to one of them.

Highlights of the session included:

• Discovering and exploring the wreck of a small transport vessel. Several more bodies were found and searched for the discovery of coin and, on a one-eyed corpse, a dark ring. Alexander pocketed it without examining it too closely. Vero and Arabella looked for cause of death - nothing immediately obvious other than what looked like the faded signs of frostbite. Odd for such a humid climate...
  
• Salazar tried diving down into the captain's cabin to find anything of value or bearing information, but his non-athletic disposition hindered him. In the end Giro dove down and ripped the swollen door off its hinges, and he and Alexander proceeded to bring up the contents of the cabin's desk, finding some money, a naval traveller's well-used sabre and a fancy albeit soaked waistcoat. Salazar held onto it, and even being in close proximity to it gave him the air of having a somewhat more noble posture.
  
• There were tracks leading off from the wreck into the jungle. The party, much to Zoriane's annoyance, decided to investigate further, since tracks from any survivors would surely have followed the river to the nearest settlement.
  
• After trekking through the jungle for a few hours, ably led by Vero, they came across what appeared to be an ancient crypt with signs of movement to and from its doorway. Creeping down the stairs into the entrance, they spied some figures on the other side of a crudely-made door. They tried smoking the inhabitants out but, with a combination of lack of air flow and the fact that they were higher than the room they were trying to fill, they met with little success.
  
• It did attract the curiosity of one figure though, who came to the door. Giro very deftly subdued the surprised fellow and tied him up, and everyone charged into the crypt. Salazar enthusiastically burst into a room to the side and reeled back at the sight of several undead forms reaching for him. Another door opened off the main room and more (living) figures charged our heroes. Battle was met...

And we called it a night.

TREASURES FOUND:

Ring of Eye-Spy 

Ebony black ring with dark red ivy snaking around it. Causes one of the wearer's eyes to drop out. The wearer may still see out of that eye.

Waistcoat of Airs and Graces

A finely-sewn waistcoat of dark green with cream stitching and lacing. Causes the wearer to exude an overwhelming air of being from a noble family.