So, actually got to start the play-through of AtCotRG this week, and while we did not get as far as I had hoped, we did have a lot of fun, and my group has done what they always do and go in directions I never could have anticipated.

As all good groups should, I believe.

In The Beginning

As I’ve laid out in the previous two posts (here and here), I am running this adventure in my own NSR ruleset Less is More, using an Ancient Greece setting, since that was the only thing this group and I had in common as far as settings. My look up tables for names and creatures have gone well and everyone is getting into their characters.

Speaking of characters, we have some interesting ones:

• Myles, a hoplite who actually grew up in Thalamos (Orlane) before joining the Athenian military. He had heard rumors of problems back home and has gone to see what is happening. His Goal was to speak with the Mayor. Note that, as part of his backstory, the player decided that he was briefly apprenticed to the blacksmith…. Yep. That went well.
• Xenophon, a mage who is seeking news of his elder brother who went missing during what seemed like an otherwise normal trading trip to Thalamos. He has a raven familiar which has already proven quite useful. His Goal was to find out a lead on his brother’s where-abouts.
• Hephitus, a hunter who has come to Thalamos after hearing rumors that some monstrous creature is prowling the nearby swamp. He has a loyal dog companion, and his Goal is find evidence of the creature.
• Finally, we have Phoebe, a templar of Athena who has come to Thalamos after having received a prophecy to seek out “the Hero who has fallen into Shadow” (the mayor, but she actually hasn’t figured that out yet), which is also her Goal.

So, as I had mentioned, I wanted to start things off with an encounter on the road with four cultists. It went well, with the mage spotting the ambush before they were jumped. After dispatching them, they found the medallions and the daggers, and both Xenophon and Phoebe were able to confirm that they belonged to no religious order they had ever heard of.

For some reason the party decided they wanted to carry the bodies to a nearby cave instead of burying them or just leaving them, so they did, since Myles knew of some caves nearby that he and his friends used to play in as kids. When they got there they found that this had actually been the base of operations for the cultists they had just taken out and inside they found a small statue of a blindfolded snake, which they decided to take (it was made of silver, after all).

Getting to Town

After they helped themselves to the food and wine in the cultists stores, they traveled on to town where Myles and Hephitus headed off to the mayor while Phoebe and Xenophon decided to check with the jeweler to get the statue appraised.

The mayor recognized Myles and invited him in where they could talk, and he and his wife and eldest daughter (who we determined had grown up with Myles) caught up on the happenings in the town, complete with the mayor mentioning that he was pretty sure that the blacksmith, the carpenter, and the shop keeper are all part of whatever is going on. His daughter then explains that both the carpenter’s children disappeared a few weeks before, allegedly having “gone to visit relatives.” When shown the medallion they found on the cultists, the mayor and his family all agree that they’ve never seen anything like it.

Hearing that his old mentor had been acting oddly Myles is determined to go check on the blacksmith next.

At the jeweler’s, however, things aren’t going quite as smoothly. The jeweler says he’s never seen anything like the statue, but says that it is real silver, solid through, and that it would be worth 1,000 silver pieces. Both Xenophon and Phoebe are convinced the jeweler is telling the truth and tell him they will consider the offer and get back to him. As they go to put away the statue, however the two night guards come in, and Iophon (the one who is a cultist) is a bit too obvious that he recognizes it. Managing to clam up when confronted, the players decide to go meet up with the others to discuss what they had found, sending the raven to find their friends.

On to the Blacksmith’s Shop

Meeting up just south of the mayor’s home, the party agrees that something strange is happening, and agree to check out the blacksmith together. Upon reaching the shop the blacksmith manages not to lose his cool. To play up the strangeness, I have him seem to be staring past them before going back to work. The eldest son, Gorgias, comes up to the party, obviously putting himself between his dad and the group. Recognizing his old friend Myles (he also grew up with Myles, after all) he tells Myles that the best thing for he and his friends to do is to leave town. Immediately.

Hurt by his friend’s words, and thinking he was more worried about Myles than threatening him, Myles pressed on, trying to get his friend to tell him what was wrong with his father and what had been happening in the village. Gorgias then informed him that he’s already done more than he should, and that he’s not going to get another warning. Get out now and don’t look back. He then turned his back to his friend and went back to work.

Xenophon, getting the distinct idea that these guys are cultists, decides to try and draw them out. He creates an illusion like in form to that of the statue, thinking that seeing the visage of their god would rattle them and maybe get them to give up some information. That one really made me have to think hard to figure out how to proceed.

What I decided, since the statue wasn’t so much in the form of the medusa that had proclaimed herself a goddess as it was a symbol of that medusa, was that the brothers would know that it wasn’t real and that Xenophon (or someone, at least) was trying to trick them. The father, however, I decided, had a 50% chance to not even notice it because of his mental state. Sure enough, the bothers realized it was Xenophon and the father didn’t even see it, giving a REALLY creepy moment where he just kept on working as this thing was thrashing about his workshop. When Myles approached to help (he wasn’t aware it was an illusion himself, Xenophon didn’t tell anyone his plan) then the blacksmith finally loses his cool and tries to attack him, screaming about how SHE was going to get them, and how they would never be able to relax again, because SHE wouldn’t rest until they paid the price for crossing her. Yeah…. that really struck some nerves. The blacksmith was already freaking the players out, lol.

The ruckus, however, I decided roused both the carpenter and Iophon (who had been following the PCs after his encounter in the jewelers) as well as the Ascalabos from the ruins of the Foaming Mug that is right beside the blacksmith’s shop, turning into a brawl in the street as the cultists decided that the player’s had to be dealt with immediately!

Myles decided he wasn’t going to kill any of his old friends, and so epicly boxed the blacksmith and his sons unconscious before disarming Iophon and smacking him with the broadside of the blade so hard it bent. The others also did well, but Myles was on FIRE. They managed to only kill the carpenter and two of the three askalabos, however, tying the others up and matching them to the mayor.

Aftermath

The mayor is shocked to see the askalabos, and says as much, declaring that he’s never seen such a creature before, revealing to everyone but Myles (who already knew) that he used to be an adventurer. He tells them that they would march them over to the constable to lock them up for questioning. Of course, the constable is shocked as well, but for a different reason. Only Xenophon picks up on the constable’s reaction though, and realizes that the constable is also a cultist. This is further cemented when the constable actually names the creature as an askalabos, since no one else, including the hunter, had ever even heard of one of them before, let alone knew the name.

Sensing that he might have given himself away, however, the constable decides to try and play some reverse psychology and tells the players that if they are planning to stay for the night, that he recommends the Slumbering Serpent Inn, hoping that he might push them towards the Golden Grain Inn instead.

And that is where we called it a night!

Conclusion

No plan ever survives contact with the players, and this is no exception. is definitely not an exception, however it also is going extremely well as far as the players getting into it. Judging by the rate they are going through this, though, I think this very well might take them as much as five sessions to complete. We’ll see though. We still have the Inn (hopefully) and the Temple of Demeter (almost certainly) before they are done in town, after all.

Hopefully next week I’ll have another update.