AAR: Southshore 8/17/2024
Encounters on the Water
L: Elboron, Human cleric
H: Aildun, Elven fighter/magic user
A: Aragorn, Human nobleman
Gl: Glizzy, Elven fighter (withdrawn)
Gr: Gregg, Elven magic user/thief
Game time: May 31st. Beginning off the last post, the party continued to explore the Moose Eye Lake, and trying to find the Marquis’ son. The party initially splits the party into two, leaving two PCs behind (Glizzy and Greg) who were absent that day. The players at the table took their canoes and explored to the SW, looking for settlements on the shores of the lake, staying 1-2 miles from shore, afraid of land encounters. They spent a night away from the camp, and faced no encounters.
In the morning, they decided they wanted to explore around the Moose Eye, the island from which the lake is named. As they approached, they saw a single distant curl of smoke rising above the terrain. I allowed this due to the skies being clear and wind was minimal. The party took interest, and attempted to force their way through heavy forest. Instead, they found themselves turned around, and after a while came to a stop, and tried to work their way out. Disgruntled, they decided they’d just head home. Not quite sure I ran the lost rules right, will need to revisit.
Cutting back to the force left at the forestry camp, the two PCs were left with the instruction of doing foraging tasks, which was quite unfortunate when 19 giant wasps emerged. I had the players present RP the absentee players, who just barely managed to dash back inside, and barricaded themselves against the insects who futilely tried to break down the door for an hour, and this departed looking for easier prey.
The party decided to break the session for the night.
The following week the party regrouped with full force, and decided they wanted to try and get to the Moose Eye. Aragorn was certain there should be a dock somewhere. Their first course of action was to paddle straight out to the Eye, and tried to find some access. I rolled encounters and they encountered some men!
8 hard men in green were spotted and the party pursued them into the open water. The other party was standoffish, until Elboron said they were looking for the marquis’ son. They said they could get the letter to him, but the party refused. Instead they offered to take them back to their camp where their mistress would be able to direct them. The party spent the next 8 hours at full oar paddling to the far side of the island, and were then stuck up held up by the bandits, who were tired of pretending to nicety.
The party elected to fight their way out, and despite having fewer bows, managed to kill the 4 archers and evade returning fire, forcing the bandits on the water to retreat. Forced into a dire circumstance, the party escaped paddling north, but night was falling and they did not make it far, and tied their canoes together to sleep through the night. Their rests were uncomfortable, and the night cold with the mist delivering dew to every surface. They tried to paddle in a selected direction, but unable to navigate by moon or stars, found they had lost all points of reference. Come morning they continued to paddle and found a shore, the sun rising in the east.
They camped on shore for a cold breakfast, worried of pursuit and gloomily aware they are lost. They decided to work their way counterclockwise around the lake, and after their breakfast begin working their way along the shore, unfortunately for them the wind has picked up again and around noon the heavens open with another downpour. They drag their canoes onto shore and shelter underneath trees… or something… to wait out the storm.
While they are sheltering, I’ve rolled for an encounter! Around evening 11 giant toads emerge and begin approaching, hindered by the underbrush, but engage the party directly in 3 rounds. They don’t manage to kill a single one, and instead two of their party are knocked unconscious! Glizzy is knocked to -3, and Aragorn from 10 to -9 instantly! (death is at -10, anywhere between 0 and -9 is unconscious, and going to be out for a long time.) Aragorn’s half brother, Elboron casts sanctuary and scoops up his dead brother and the survivors retreat. Wet, wounded, and reduced in number, the party is left with a hard set of choices.
Thoughts
New problem:
What can player characters see in the world, in features and open terrain? A problem at the start of this mission was the beginning to use Foundry, a VTT resource. Completely new to me, but the whining about mapping kinda threw me over, and there are some legitimate use cases that would make figuring out how many hexes/miles traveled easier. The issue is, pre-fog of war, the party knew too much about the terrain. I’m weirdly specific about how I map my hexes, and the features around them. A grassland in the middle of a bunch of forest hexes is a sure sign of SOMETHING out there.
I’m also continuing to deal with the fallout of my adjustments of the map scale, and the juggling of subhex scale. My regional maps are at 6mi/hex. My travel maps are at 1mi/hex. And my exploration hexes are at tenth of a mile per hex, or 176yds or so across, (and restricted to DM eyes only.) The math is surprisingly clean, but the number is a bit… unwieldy. 1/10th of a mile units though are perhaps useful… maybe.
I’m not going to go back on the scale up, as there are some areas out in the wilderness I would like a few hundred miles of howling wilderness of remoteness, and a mental dissonance when I had it scaled down. However, there’s still going to be a lot of stuff tucked away, waiting for someone to stumble into things. Away from the highways, away from the rivers… There is a lot of emptiness, but then a lot of stuff. If you can find it. If you’re even looking for it in the right place.
Having worked as a surveyor tech for a year, bushwacking is hard, even with a GPS unit to tell you approximately where we think a property corner is going to be. And terrain obstructions are all the more annoying.
Modern people often forget this. Hell, I often forget it. But I suspect over time it will be overcome.
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