West Marches.new()

Intro

Jul 12 2022

Starting in the month of Correll (fantasy april). East is the livable side of the city, which is split against orcs/undead.

Mayor Dahgon - (of Guardholm?)
Sgt Allo - guard on the bridge

Denise🧌,
Rark🐦,
Skitters🐀,
Skitch🦊,
Bianka 🐈

Narrow road, bullwarks on the bridge. "Ted" the balista does the talking. Orcs come during the night, but otherwise attacks are not particular time.
Raven seems to be moving as a whole.

Passable road to the northwest, through busted up city.
Low slung fortress on top of hill, inclined path to (currently down) drawbridge.

Fortress

There is smoke coming from it, so there's maybe something living here.
??? is no more than ~5 miles away. Mist / cloud rolling over the area.

Continue to road, in a westward direction.

open square, with "Stars Fall Tavern"

We come across an open square (100ft across) with a toppled statue. In it a gallows with executed human soldiers. Humanoids using them as target practice.
L-shaped building guarded by iron fences to the south.

4 orcs, plus a summoner. tatoo of fake scar around eye

Loot:

125 5 -> Rark
heavy xbow, 20 bolts. -> Denise
Javelin x4 -> Denise

falchion x 4
Armor x 4
Spear x1
darts x ??
spell pouch
coins (105 , 5 ) plus 19 from orcs

Trap door - we drag a pot on top of the door. There are claw marks and 'low pitched squeeking' :|

Search the tavern.
The ledger stopped about 8 months ago.

Custom's House / Covered Market

Continue north, pass the fort to the right. About 1.5h hours later. We pass through archway / pass through building. Wreckage of wagon and stuff.
There are double doors, slightly ajar.

We find a "whispering lady" inside.
It goes not great.
We kill the skeletons, go back, murder the body, and get some weird bone paper magic item.

Sewers 2 Boogaloo

Sep 17 2022

"My shit dolphins and eagles... are really the useful part"
"The head is so soft and bulbous"

Team: Ella😇, Skitters🐭, Skitch🦊, Bianca🐱, Zeck👽

Day before: we sell a bunch of stuff to a cool vendor lady.
We leave around 8am
Leave via the Darry Bridge, wave to Sargent Allow
Eastern side has Balista.
Creepy birds on the bridge
Road to the northwest, past impassable rubble buildings.
Past "low slung fortress", ravaged by battle, inclined path up to drawbridge.
Road goes into "broad square" (where we killed the orcs)
Western and Southern road, L-shaped building is Inn

Start

😐 Shadows are not moving the right direction, near L-shaped building
Gate has a fear aura within 30'

Wait for an hour and feel better
Nothing on the human bodies

Down into sewers...

Toss a body on a rope, croc shows up and pulls Skitch down into the sewer.
Combat ensues, croc runs.
centipede appears ‼️. Skitters murders it.
We continue down the sewer, try and murder the croc, success!

Grate room

Slumped over body(corpse), with skeleton servant
We find some stuff in the room:

Alchemist supplies
We find a logbook with sewer readings and the phrase "in the water".
3 barrels: beer, wine, and "a viscous fluid with a red nucleus" which is poured into a basin... and attacks
a table and chair.
slumped over body that's been eaten a bit
There's a wax scroll case.

To the North

blue puffy face, sorta goblin ish, tiny body
it's work on a pulsing slime-mud "hut"
It dashes into the hut.
It seems to be guarded by a large rat

To the south

run off chanel down a waterfall into spacious cavern.
Pool is lined with walkways.
There are skittering things on the surface of the water
10 foot drop. and there's a ladder that goes down.
There's a walkway ring around the pond
very large water striders on the top of the pond

The 3rd-barrel-slime attacks and Skitch murders it.
We then attack Locke skeleton.
Blob stands back up, eats the dog.

Poor choices.jpg
We open the north door, and find a rat guarding the blue thing, and decide to close the door.
We check out the waterfall and start combat with the bug things....
... another large bug appears
Bianca runs... into the centipedes
... then the blue thing joins the fray
... then there are 5 rats.
... and 7 more blue things
...
... hold on, I'm adding this creature to initiative.

many deaths later

We leave the sewers and there is at least one orc running from the square.

Near hill, near death

Feb 9 2023

Out we go, raven ho!

People out on the bridge.

"There are no ravens today"
"The ravens kill you, half the bodies are placed there by them."
"Something is wispering through them"
"If you disturb them, they will come after you."

Road curves to northwest, about to an hourt to keep.

Ravens are some number of miles to the west.
Some figures milling about on the drawbridge... Skeletons!
Plus some random ravens on edges, which flew directly towards the square when they say Hoobert

Skitch gives a quick run down of the history of the square.

Approaching the keep

"wide blue rug, statuses blue and silver spears."

Apperars to be a former official fort of Marston

Kitchen

A large... it's, it looks like someone inflated a human around their bones. It looks like there's stuff inside it trying to get out.

... things got bad.

Re-keeping a rug

Jul 22 2023

Healing shop

Orthas the priest

Ascoria temple, towards the north west wall.

Priest would pay for items brough back from temple.
a book "recording of confessions"
began to suspect a cult was forming from the "very evil that (assaulted this place)"
"does the name Malika mean anything to you. I was told she was defeated and yet we find outselfs under her shadow"

Raven chat

A few ravens with "a general air of menace". Hoobert tries to talk to crow, but it caws and flies off.

Crow says "whooo!". ...."that joke probably doesn't translate in Raven" 🤣

Crows want to "not be weird". They are weird "when she comes". They "feel in mind". She comes "Many times many places". They have "no memory of weird stuff". It asks "you go deep? Deep down?".

Points in westerly direction. "you see building with shadows, she lives there, deep underground". Humans put other humans there (maybe graveyard or crypt). "you will die there." and "you will die faster with friends, whatever you bring with you, it brings back."

Time to get murdered!

We leave past "Jeffry" the ballista. Drawbridge is still down. Ravens bobbing about in front of the fortress.

A black creeper vine has appeared.

🐦‍⬛ Crows get taken over and chant "better together".

We murder them a bit and then Scatters blows a bunch of them.

🌹 Next up is fighting the corpse flower on the bridge, shockingly successfully!

it spits out a glowing thing.
plant appears to be a variant of dread-thistle, adapted for urban drawing energy from the ground.

We loot the entry way

Rug!
Broken chain shirt (8), melted chain shirt (3), long bow (5) , broken scimiatar (3)
90 arrows
Tapestry - Duke of Marson smiting an Orc
10' chain (5)
Lock & key

Back to town

Bridge captain grew up in keep.
Bird lives in belfree of "weird chain people building" in the northwest

Schedules and Conflicts

Nov 4 2023

General history

the day the tower shattered was "a dark day"
"silver spear of Marston" was lost
Gardholm is the western part, lost a battle with Mollerst
Pallentine empire is "defunct".

Lt. Aloe - on the subject of Hargrave Garrison

was a beacon, had to evacuate
Dead soldier -> "marchers"
The tower "shattered" physically. A sensation of darkness
commander was pinned to the roof of the garrison.
likely happened all throughout the city
after that day orcs, marchers, lizard men from the sewers
they tried to hold the garrison, but were attacked on all sides.
The square nearby "the shadows aren't right" (yaaawwwwwp)
Magistrate Addington - went there and never came back.
defenses: drawbridge
The garrison was maybe here before
the north tower was built on the ruins
kept out of the woods to the north - goblins and dark elves
There's a jail below, the garrison goes down into the hill

Getting into the keep from the back

Vericut square -> covered market -> Noble district
Oddly, the noble district seems untouched

Rark the raven shows up, there are lizards in the west

Keep

Rises ~20 feet up, with a flat roof

We enter without dying and find a magic ladle
open door to soldier garrison (uuuuhhhhhgggggggrrrrrrr), clawing against the door

Turns out it's lizards

Jan 21 2024

Skitch, Scatters, Denise, Ela, Alren

Temple book

"North through the gardens, which are north of Hargrave"

Aloe: drunk and angry

Denise talks to Halima
Mork the Orc, trying to be Headork of the Ork-anization
- back at "the tower, sitting on his ass"
Gortag - Big'orc
Overseer "Grindarg" - also an orc
Alla was the summoner
On why they don't go to Hargrave "marchers in places of power, repeating the things they do, over and over again"
"We concurred the rack spear(other orc tribe). We receive visions, dawn of shards, an open gateway... but no more visions. We can't get across the bridge."

Derry bridge
-> currently covered by dead orc bodies.
-> Road runs NW, then W.

We get to the keep

wide blue rug in entry
Long hallway with Raised dais
~Records room
3.1 Base of the ladder "impressive collection of skeletons"
Forge (ne corner)

"It's a succubus cult, I have to do these things... it's the law"

Meeting Aloe's Boss

Mar 7 2024

Father Orthin, the High Priest of Escoria Temple
Jaina, a dark-skinned older woman in the brown and green garb of the Office of High Guildmage

Sir Dagon Moorsland, Acting Mayor of Gardholme and Spear Captain First Class of the Silver Host"

Sergeant Accardi's badge

Aloe told you about her Lieutenant, who was pinned to the roof of Hargrave by a shard of the Jagged Tower on the Dawn of Shards

awakened from the crystalline slumber

"as for a militia, I've tried - they all desert - someone is paying a lot of money to ensure our defenses are weak"

if you want to help there, I suggest you go banging on doors in Rattail Row

Foundaries and Basements

May 5 2024

Skitch, Hoobert, Breadly, Scatters, Denise

The plan:

Us
Gimbleton and five bandits (Nigel Nilson)
- "Rounded the guys up from rat tail row"
Aloe
Kevin and not-Qevin
Caravik - Longbow
Marjoram - Witch

"Ferry - As close to the woods as possible."

Jaina shows up, head guild mage.
Offers Marjoram - a bit unorthodox. She's a witch.

Plan

We are in the center of the bridge, with Halima. Planning on tossing her in the river, with feet tied maybe.
Incompetent archers (Gimbleton and Five Bandits) on the far shore.
Maybe Caravik with the good archers.
Maybe Hoobert with the archers, since he can fly back.
Marjoram - up to her - prepare sleep.
Large Crossbow ?(plan unclear, maybe hire a shrub to carry ammunition)