[RPG] Swords Against Khyber
Feb. 8th, 2007 08:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stevekensonChapter 2: Blackhearth
The characters adjorn to their room in Olladra’s Inn to open the strongbox they retrieved from the Mror Holds. Inside, they find a map of Cyre and a letter from their old commander Captain Farrik, explaining that the map shows the location of a secret House Cannith forge but, since no one has entered the Mournland and returned, it might be useless. Of course, the characters know that’s no longer the case, as they survived the Mournland. Maester Namuras is eager to take the opportunity to study conditions in the Mournland.
Just then, the door bursts open and a pair of warforged rush in with crossbows. The heroes fight them off: Marik rushing and pinning one to the wall with a chair, Achon engaging another. Vandal slips in and finishes off the second with an underhand strike, while Corlan’s wolf companion attacks the other and tears its neck apart, killing it. The characters decide to leave the inn quickly rather than wait around to talk to the authorities. They go from the keep to Angwar village by the riverside, where they spend the night.
In the morning, they acquire some supplies and a small rowboart and set off down the Brey River to near where Blackhearth is shown on the map. They hike inland to some flint hills, where Marik finds a small cave entrance. A hatchway leads down to a four-spoked complex. In the large workshop the party encounters and fights a pair of iron hounds (dog-like metal constructs) and finds a dragonshard braclet. In the library they deal with a living whirlwind using some warding chalk found on a desk there, and in the barracks and the Maester’s quarters in the forge, they find the mummified bodies of the former House Cannith personnel, carefully tended by construct servants. In the quarters, they find some other enchanted dragonshards.
The sharp-eyed Marik uncovers a hidden entrance beneath the main hall of the complex, keyed to the dragonshard bracelet they found. The adventurers descend the deep shaft into darkness and the next level of Blackhearth below...
Game Play: Savage Worlds continues to perform well, being fairly transparent and easy to use. I figured out I’m doing initiative slightly wrong (I should be dealing out new cards each round) and I’m keeping my eye on how damage works (although my concerns might be due to using fairly high Toughness foes like armored warforged and such). None of the characters were more than shaken in the fights, and overcame their opponents in no more than four rounds or so. Again, however, all the creatures they faced in this chapter weren’t “wild card” characters in SW parlance, so a couple solid hits took them down. The system seems to be catching on with the players.
The characters adjorn to their room in Olladra’s Inn to open the strongbox they retrieved from the Mror Holds. Inside, they find a map of Cyre and a letter from their old commander Captain Farrik, explaining that the map shows the location of a secret House Cannith forge but, since no one has entered the Mournland and returned, it might be useless. Of course, the characters know that’s no longer the case, as they survived the Mournland. Maester Namuras is eager to take the opportunity to study conditions in the Mournland.
Just then, the door bursts open and a pair of warforged rush in with crossbows. The heroes fight them off: Marik rushing and pinning one to the wall with a chair, Achon engaging another. Vandal slips in and finishes off the second with an underhand strike, while Corlan’s wolf companion attacks the other and tears its neck apart, killing it. The characters decide to leave the inn quickly rather than wait around to talk to the authorities. They go from the keep to Angwar village by the riverside, where they spend the night.
In the morning, they acquire some supplies and a small rowboart and set off down the Brey River to near where Blackhearth is shown on the map. They hike inland to some flint hills, where Marik finds a small cave entrance. A hatchway leads down to a four-spoked complex. In the large workshop the party encounters and fights a pair of iron hounds (dog-like metal constructs) and finds a dragonshard braclet. In the library they deal with a living whirlwind using some warding chalk found on a desk there, and in the barracks and the Maester’s quarters in the forge, they find the mummified bodies of the former House Cannith personnel, carefully tended by construct servants. In the quarters, they find some other enchanted dragonshards.
The sharp-eyed Marik uncovers a hidden entrance beneath the main hall of the complex, keyed to the dragonshard bracelet they found. The adventurers descend the deep shaft into darkness and the next level of Blackhearth below...
Game Play: Savage Worlds continues to perform well, being fairly transparent and easy to use. I figured out I’m doing initiative slightly wrong (I should be dealing out new cards each round) and I’m keeping my eye on how damage works (although my concerns might be due to using fairly high Toughness foes like armored warforged and such). None of the characters were more than shaken in the fights, and overcame their opponents in no more than four rounds or so. Again, however, all the creatures they faced in this chapter weren’t “wild card” characters in SW parlance, so a couple solid hits took them down. The system seems to be catching on with the players.
