This week, we played a hacked together fantasy game combining elements of 1420 Beasts & Barrows by brine, 1400 Quest by James Lennox-Gordon, and 2400 Legends by Jason Tocci. We are a group of adventurers hired to rescue Favric, an acolyte of a local cult, from a bandit leader. We are Kaede the cat-folk Scout, Undyne the human Tinker, Raya the human Mage, and Logan the human-plant hybrid Mage.
We begin our search on the outskirts of town, but Undyne casts doubt on our mission. She believes it more likely that Favric was fleeing the cult and speculates that the bandit leader may have been his rescuer, or even his lover. Logan thinks we should fulfill our contract, no matter what. Kaede and Raya seek a middle ground, saying we should find Favric and ask him what he wants. But we can’t do anything until we find him. Kaede finds tracks in the woods that are likely the bandits’ trail. Raya decides to Scrye through the water and sees visions of a man she believes to be Favric, before a partially collapsed stone wall with a strange symbol on it. Logan believes the symbol may be magical, but Undyne says it’s related to the local mines,. She suggests we visit a friend of hers who owns one of these mines to ask him.
So, we go to the town of Abingdon to meet Undyne’s friend, Alan, who immediately suspects Undyne’s intentions, assuming she wants to borrow money. Raya draws the symbol she saw for Alan and asks if he knows anything about it. Alan says sure, its the sigil of the old Wizards Guild. They disbanded long ago after their tower exploded one night, bursting into flames. When pressed, he reveals the ruins of the tower are a days journey from Abingdon. Take the north road and head easterly into the hills. We thank him, buy him a drink, and leave for the north road.
We leave Logan in Abingdon to conduct his research and head north into the hills. We decide we need the answer to three questions: are the bandits at the collapsed Wizard’s Guild tower? Is Favric with them willingly or not? How do we rescue him, if necessary, or do next if it’s not. Kaede successfully sneaks into the camp setup at the tower but doesn’t return. After a few hours, Undyne and Raya decide they must investigate. Undyne is able to get close enough to determine that Kaede is still free but unable to get out without being seen. They decide they must mount a rescue.
Raya casts a spell to turn herself into an elephant, but can’t manage anything that large and settles for becoming a boar instead. The boar tears into the camp, causing havoc and mayhem that draws the attention of all those in the camp. Undyne is able to sneak in and meet up with Kaede, but they are spotted when they try to leave. Undyne attempts to convince one of the bandits that she’s friends with his sister. Although confused and delayed a bit, the bandit doesn’t believe her in the end, and a chase ensues. We each career through the woods until we’re able to find one another, and Raya casts a spell to mask us from the bandits perception. She can’t hold it for long, but long enough for us to find somewhere safer to hide.
We take this opportunity to compare notes. During his time in the camp, Kaede learned that these are definitely bandits, and probably the same bandits because one among them stands out as unlike the others, probably Favric, and Favric is definitely not their prisoner. He’s unfamiliar with their ways, but they’re all making an effort to include him. We decide we have to know for sure, so Undyne creates some colored powders and writes a note. Raya turns herself into a bird and delivers the note and two packets of powder to Favric. The note asks him to toss the blue one into the fire if he needs us to rescue him, and the red if he wants us to stop and leave him alone. Shortly thereafter, we see the red smoke and decide to leave this contract unfulfilled. We should probably avoid the town where they hired us to rescue Favric, but we can return to Abingdon to see how Logan has been getting on.
Story Games Club 