Basements and Braunsteins

Session 128: Braggin Off in the Tent

This session was played on 10/17/25 and adventuring lasted until 10/28/25.

Roster

Downtime

No relevant downtime for this session.

Session Report

I am a few session reports behind, and I will simply just not no them. I will become unburdened by what has been.

Recently (Session 126), Osha was a member of an adventuring party that ran into some bandits/smugglers operating out of a vacant house (a bando) a few miles outside of town. The party, at that time, was investigating the house under rumors that it was haunted. They did not find anything supernatural that session, only the group of smugglers and their magic user leader. They were unable to kill the magic user -- he fled while he smoked out the kitchen and presumably told his leaders, or handlers, that the smuggling operation had been hit by some undercovers in plain clothes. That is where that session ended. This session starts off with our man Osha Mo looking for a group of adventurers to come back with him to survey the abandoned house one more time, and to finally condemn it to be demolished.

It has been about two weeks since our first (and only) adventure into this smuggler's den. Plenty of time for whoever was making it their hideout to pack up and completely flee the scene. Which in this case is exactly what happened. The party arrives to the vacant house without any encounters or problems.

Osha mentions there is one door they never entered the last time he was here and that is where he wants to start. The enter into a small storage room that holds a staircase leading down into a wine cellar. Unfortunately for the party, all of the wine bottles were shattered and their contents emptied on the floor.

While searching the room they noticed a blood trail that was smeared into the stone floor. While following where it led they found seven rot grubs feeding on the remaining blood and flesh. The party cautiously took them out without much problem, and continued to follow the blood trail.

It led them into another, larger, cellar. This one had been remodeled to be a living quarters for the smugglers. There were beds along the southern wall, all of them stripped, and each had a personal storage trunk, each one of them emptied. Also in this room was an ascending staircase with a trapdoor at the top, and two doors on the eastern wall.

The party goes to the doors first. The first one they enter is a bedroom, with one bed (stripped), a personal storage chest (emptied), and a dresser that is also empty of anything notable. They continue to the next room. This door is barred from the player's side with a heavy piece of wood. They move it to the side an open the door. It is pitch black. They hear some ruffling, shuffling, and the clinging of iron chains. Osha is not able to get any heat signature with his infravision.

"Come out now, peacefully, or we will assume you are undead monsters and deal with you accordingly!" Osha yells into the silent darkness. Brodo scans the room with his bullseye lantern. He sees six skeletons. He stays at the edge of the fight with his lantern to provide light for his partners. The other party members make easy work of the skeletons. In total I think only two hit points of damage were dealt to the party.

After the fight, Brodo scans the walls for any secret compartments or passages. He finds one, a false stone wall, and opens a door on the east side of the room. The other party members insist he scouts it out by himself...

He sees the silhouette of an old man at his desk. He rolls for move silently and approaches for a back stab. He stabs into the figure and the body crumbles into dust and bones. The old skeleton of some sort of magic user, or cleric. Who knows how long he was trapped inside, the initial door to this area was barred off -- maybe by the smugglers and were these skeletons the origins of the haunted house rumors?

Regardless, the Brodo loots the room. I was going to let him keep all of these items secret and let him solely get the XP but he decided to divulge his findings with the party. The total findings were two magic scrolls, some gold objects, and a book about the Philosopher's Stone.

The party wants to find a dock or loading area the smugglers were using but cannot find one, and don't see any docks on the shoreline (maybe they are hidden in an alcove nearby, or inside a cavern cutting into the side of the cliff).

The party sleeps in the garden overnight while they think of their next step.

They head back to Chestertonshire in the morning.

Back in Chestertonshire they have a large debate about what to do with the golden objects, and who they can trust to tell them more information about the book they found. The debate is centered around the fact the CCP has most magic items, including scrolls, on their list of controlled substances and unregulated trade of these could be illegal. They don't know who they can trust, essentially.

Osha recommends they visit the Drews. He doesn't know anything about them -- he doesn't exactly know where they live, he doesn't exactly know how to request a meeting with them, he doesn't even know if they are affiliated with the CCP or not (but he believes they aren't). All he knows is there are located somewhere "around" Shrewsbury. He convinces the rest of the party that it is a good idea to go Shrewsbury to start their look. Some other options included inquiring with Brodo's thieves guild but Osha would rather trust those that sacrifice humans and other humanoids, than those that steal from them.

The party decides to leave as soon as possible. They opt to use the Barbarian's healing ability instead of staying a night or two to get natural healing. What is the opportunity cost of them leaving, and not staying? Well, a day, or two, after they left locals asked around town looking for the group that "lifted the haunting, and drove out the thieves and smugglers." The town council would like to thank them, and want to ask them for more help. Help for what exactly? Maybe we will never know.

Now on the road, the party must endure nine days overland travel. Things start off pretty smoothly with zero encounters for the first few days. On the fourth day, they party finds a large group of humans traveling a few hundred yards in front of them. They are both going the same direction. The part takes a moment to discuss what to do. They can't decipher what kind of human troop is in front of them, merchants, bandits, pilgrims, etc. All they can really see is a few covered wagons and a few glints from metal they assume is armor or spears. Part of the party wants to approach them, hoping they are friendly merchants, and sell them the scrolls. Though, they fear if they do this the Barbarian will go berserk and attack everything and everyone if he isn't allowed to destroy all the magic items. Some of them may even want this to happen.

Regardless they decide it is best to wait for a watch, and then start up again.

They continue again without encounters for a few more days. On the seventh night Broj and Lart are on watch together. Lart is suspicious of Broj and believes he is harboring magical items. They start arguing, Lart seizes a oil flask that he believes is magical in nature and throws it against a tree. Behind the tree he sees numerous pairs of bright wolf eyes staring back at him.

The wolves charge in and attack Lart and Borj. Three wolves surround them, while 10 other wolves begin to prowl the campsite to prey on the others. This was easily the most deadly encounter of the night, and almost resulted in a total TPK. Some combats in AD&D become so intense just because of the way the dice roll, and build tension. It just takes one or two rolls, especially initiative rolls, for one side at the right time to really change the course of the fight. This was one of those fights. Unfortunately for Lart, he was attacked by multiple wolves on the same round -- knocking him down and killing him in the same. The next round nothing changed, and the wolves continued to eat at him.

Brodo notably spent most of the encounter hidden in his tent trying to recreate the growl (or hoot) of an owl-bear, attempting to frighten the wolves. He failed his first few attempts but eventually was successful. He also spent his time throwing some caltops in front of his tent, and throwing an oil flask on top of Lart's body while he was being eaten by wolves.

These caltrops proved to be resourceful. They did some passive damage every couple turns to the wolves as they danced around the campsite. The oil flask too did passive damage that finished off that last few HP of another couple of the wolves. Finally, Osha was knocked unconscious and his henchmen started to withdraw from the fight. Borj joined them.

Brodo was still in his tent, not fully aware this was happening. He saw one wolf pushing forward onto his party members are they continued a measured back step. Brodo again rolled for move silently and was able to get a backstab on the wolf as it was engaged with the party members.

After that last final wolf was slain, they stabilized Osha. He had dropped to -4 HP but would be able to make a full recovery when they reached Shrewsbury. They continued their journey in the morning. Luckily, there were no encounters on these final two days and the party arrived scathed, but alive.

Aftermath

Players able to start downtime in Shrewsbury 10/28/25.

Slain

Spoils

Score

#1e #brosr #chestertonshire #session report #shrewsbury #travel