The World of Weirth is a setting much like a Hyborian Age, with danger at every turn, Swords & Sorcery magic, demons and mad prophets.
Tribes Of Mipokop And Nomads roam the savanna, while peasants and hedge wizards hide behind the walls of even the meanest thorp. A powerful Ley Line crosses the land, creating transient Gateways to the Faerie Realm.
Meanwhile the influence of Demons And the Belowdark waxes, threatening to cover the world in darkness, a suffocating nightmare that wells up from horror-filled dungeons underground.
Check the World of Weirth (TM) tab above for more info, including a draft of the Player’s Guide.
This session report is going to be a little different. Usually I type up a summary of the session’s activities for the players to be able to refer to afterward, whether for hints on Lore Drops (I need to do a post on that, too…) or to remember the name of an NPC or what have you.
This week we took a little departure from the current activities in the ongoing campaign to introduce some new characters and lean into the 1:1 timekeeping philosophy, where each player has multiple characters spread out across the Campaign Setting.
1:1 Timekeeping
Players are encouraged to run multiple characters, in different places and times. 1:1 Timekeeping allows for extended travel, level training and other time-consuming activities while play continues, simply moving the focus from one group of characters to another.
This new batch of characters are refugees from a town that has just been razed by a dragon, the first dragon anyone can remember seeing in 500 years! I threw these characters together as guests of a kindly Wise Woman, in her cabin in the foothills of the Iron Mountains. I wanted something a little different from the “you meet in a tavern and decide to go risk your lives together”. This way, they’ve already risked their lives together, fleeing from the devastation of the dragon, and can begin by identifying as a team immediately.
Ideally this type of kick-off would increase the buy-in to the idea of running multiple parties concurrently.
After a brief introductory exposition (written out for the Character Creation phase), the party benefactor sends them on a simple yet vague mission, to go toward the ruined town, as there are people you can help, and can help you!
The party consists of five newly-generated characters and two characters from the original campaign start. The five new characters are traveling from the cabin of Artemisia, the mysterious woman who rescued and cared for them – Linos, a Marvana Salt-dwarf from Lemuria; Rook, a Xythian youth, recently moved to Zan’s Forge from Quann’s Landing; Finian, a Xythian Shepherd of Zan’s Forge; Antipatros, Lemurian protégé of Artemisia; and Pitophanrnakes, Xythian Vepitor of Zan’s Forge.
The others are Roinseach, a Vepitor (monster hunter) and her henchman, a Xythian Shepherd named Goloxir.
Roinseach sends Goloxir with both Blurglup to find the caravan and have them go on to Sunbridge instead of Zan’s Forge.
The party descends down through the foothills, they can see the Canyon Lands spread out before them, and, at the very edge, an enormous sinkhole. Closer investigation reveals it to be a cenote of some depth, the bottom is in darkness. The party considers fooling around with this, then decides to press on.
Later that day they find a stretch of straight-as-an-arrow paved road that runs for about three miles. At the end is a lone hovel, surrounded by cactus.
A brief investigation leads to a battle with three returners – cunningly trapped in the doorway to the hovel. Rook and Pitopharnakes suffer torso wounds. Linos crawls down into the hole in the floor of the hovel and finds the desiccated body of an explorer with a silver knife jammed in his chest. There is also a broken sword and an acacia wood case with garlic bulbs, 2 wooden stakes and a silver holy symbol of Bempusa.
The party camps overnight in a cave, there is a passage leading down, which they block with large stones!
12 Arkelos
This travel day is a bit less eventful, the party is able to flee from a trio of very large spiders, horse-sized spiders, and they encounter a group of scouts, a priest and a knight of a large patrol from Sunbridge Sorrow. They parley, the knight gives them a letter of introduction to pass the gate, and the priest instructs them to take shelter and succor in the Temple of Bempusa.
They have no trouble at the gate, and are welcomed kindly at the temple. Rook NS Pitopharnakes are treated by a Sister of the Raven, in full mask and regalia. They seem to be quite formal here.
Experience
Team B – XP for 10-11 Arkelos/26 AugustSession
Combat – 800
Liquid Treasure – 402
Loot – 1,343
total 2,545
Roinseach, Goloxir, Linos, Rook, Finnean, Antipatros, Pitopharnakes – earn 363 XP each – #EliteLevel play ratings: A for all
14 Arkelos
The group breaks their fast, deciding to go exploring and shopping. Rook is invited to lunch with the Justicar. (as he has been wearing his longsword openly, indicating his aristocratic status.) Rook is invited to stay at the Keep with his servant.
Some weapons are taken to be repaired, and supplies are gathered. Sell rug 170 SP/XP.
Rook gets to converse with the Justicar’s Under-Marshall, and then later is grilled by the Sorcerer about his knowledge of the dragon attack.
15 Arkelos
The party is called to the Keep. While Rook is out on a hunting trip with the Leftenant Vepitor, the Under-Marshall offers the party a Warrant to hunt and Capture/kill the bandits that have been plaguing the road between Sunbridge and Gaztelu Mugatik.
He tells them there were some villeins on black horses spotted last night, but they rode off to the west and were lost.
The party decides to go for a look at the ruins of Greywatch Castle, and find the bandits in their lair!
Defeated in combat:
5 Returners (skeleton (sealu))
8 Guards (0-level) Killed by a flung flask of poison!!
1 Guard Sgt (level 1)
4 Guards and a Sand-painter (Magic-User?) got away…
Liquid Treasure – 277 CP
191 SP
3 GP
Loot – 4 bottles of brown liquid, 1 pouch of whitish dust, a High Quality Dagger, a bronze helm, a silver Holy Symbol of Keuthonymos, 3 silver quill points
As the dust was settling from the battle in the courtyard, Rook and some guards joined up with the group in the ruins of Greywatch. They decided to pursue the sand-painting magic user. They explored the upstairs, found some weird stuff including a strange doll and a magic bowl. Linos grabbed the bowl and was nearly killed by a swarm of insects and beetles that poured out of it!
They found a grey stone shield, the face of which is covered in scratches and soot, scorched by an oily flame.
They followed footsteps and clues down to the basement.
In the basement they find a couple of young teens, who they decide to set free after they find the magic-user.
They go down a stair to find a metal door with a rune of Law upon it.
Going thru the door leads to an abandoned mine. Sadly, trying to get down the slope causes one of the guards to slip and fall, breaking his neck! The corporal stays with him, trying to ease his pain, as the rest of the party continues down, looking for the M-U.
The passages below lead on, deeper and deeper, until the party realizes they may not be able to get back out! They find a passage with fresh air and follow it to the end, where there is a rock fall, and a hole in the floor, leading far down into darkness. The fresh air comes from the rockfall, and from climbing to the top Linos can see daylight. It takes nearly an hour, and the last of the torches, but they clear a small hole they can wiggle through. It leads out into the canyon on the side of the bluff.
They wonder what has become of Rook…
Rook and Finean had a tough time of it, managing to push their past the rune of Law at long last, they enter the mine and encounter the magic user, attempting to flee with the young girl. There is a battle, and the M-U clearly has the upper hand, blasting both Rook and Finaean with poisonous slime. Only by the ultimate twists of Fate are the two able to overcome the magic user and rescue the girl.
They return to the surface, join the remaining guards, The guards have tibane and offered to go brew some in the kitchen, where they saw a hearth earlier. It takes 30 minutes to brew. After teh poultices are applied, they all return to the town, meeting up with the rest of the party on the way.
Experience
Team B – XP for 11-16 Arkelos/2 September Session
Combat – 300
Liquid Treasure – 244
Loot – 210
total 704 XP
Roinseach, Linos, Rook, Finnean, Antipatros, Pitopharnakes – earn 118 XP each – #EliteLevel play ratings: A for all (edited)
LFG Playtest Campaign 1 - The Shadow of Evil Chaos is an experiment with a new (to me) game system, Low Fantasy Gaming, and a new magic hack designed to bring the atmosphere of danger from the pulp novels of Swords & Sorcery. We are playing fully online over a Discord Voice server, using some home-brew maps, art and characters designed on the HeroForge 3D printing site.
Follow all of the posts here: LFG Playtest Campaign 1.
Long-form theorycrafting and rules presentations will appear at the free Substack channel – Memorium, so please go subscribe!
