The Black Campbell

We had a break of a week from the game, and were back tonight with the group deciding to head for Greece and the River Styx, site of the Shadow — the veil that Jupiter and Minerva created that cut off the world from the other planes of existence (save for the Underworld…that cannot be cut off from Earth.) Augustinian had learned from Jupiter’s statue (which spoke to him) that the Shadow was being sought by a demi-god, a “angel” from Icio’s Christianity named Sataniel (the Accuser.) The accuser was Yahweh’s angel that tested those whose faith seemed insincere, but when he sensed falsehood in his own lord, he called him on it and was cast to Earth with his followers. Seeking to return to heaven, Sataniel is looking to use the Shadow to get home. He thinks its a person or thing; they have that in their favor. If he can find and destroy the Shadow, Sataniel can return to heaven, which he hopes to do by freeing and recruiting some of the ancient things residing in Tartarus.

But first, they have a date with the imperial court in Mediolanum, which is on the way to the Via Postumia and the Mare Hadriatica. Their final day, the agent they had hired to organize, appraise, and sell their loot from the battle at Castra Stativa gave them their payout: split between the party, they are up 5200 soldi — enough to buy a large farm and home, in Icio’s case dedicate a small church, or set themselves out somewhere. That evening was a party in their honor with the rich and powerful of Augustus Vindelicorum. During the festivities, the bard — Calvinus — pursued one of the young and incredibly beautiful women and landed her easily. With only a few words, he was charmed (he blew his Charisma save.)

Back in his room, she absolutely shook his world…then she sucked the life out of him with a kiss. Making his save roll cut the damage from 32 to 18 and left him in the fight. Struggling with her, he used his shatter spell to blow open the door to his room and caught the attention of Icio next door. Calvinus was able to throw her off, at which point she revealed her true form — a succubus! She was promptly attacked by Icio who broke Calvinus’ lute over her head, then beat her with the ruined instrument. She broke free and launched herself out the window. Icio let his glowing aasimar wings loose and took off after her. His first time using his wings for flight, he plowed into a tree. (He rolled a 1.)

They learned, once Calvinus got his wits about him, that she had questioned him about the Shadow and he told her everything. They have to assume the adversary, the Lie, Sataniel, knows where the Shadow is now. The race is on!

They left quickly the left morning, before there would be time to even form up their cavalry unit, which was in town carousing. The party of six set off down the Via Claudia Augusta for Mediolanum in a fresh snowfall and broke the next evening in Cambodunum — the former capital of Raetia before it was sacked a century ago. While people have rebuild portions of the place due to the traffic on the road, It is a smallish town at the foot of one of the Alpine heights. With no place in the inn, they had the choice of the ominous ruins, or the home of a brewer/distiller. With a few coins, he put them up in the relative comfort of the distillery he had build in a large barn.

The night, they could hear shouts and the sounds of a fight outside. In the dim light of the distillery, lit only by the heating grates under the copper distilling flasks, they started getting on their gear while Icio raced to find out what was going on. He opened the to the massive figure of a troll — the creature they had bested weeks back. The troll roared that they were liars, that he was not dead and this “Troll Killer” was dishonest. Icio was struck dumb for a moment by the idiocy of the statement, then broke his quarterstaff on the creature’s knee. (1’s were a thing for Icio tonight.)

The troll threw him into one of the tanks, but the monk recovered quickly. Carona the satyr tried to use his attack on Icio to sneak up and attack him, but only made the troll mad. He used Icio as a bludgeon on Carona. Carrus (the Troll Killer, as Calvinus has been billing him) managed to chop an arm off of the creature. Augustinian lit him up with fairie fire and blessed Icio, Marcellus, and Carrus. We’ve been finding this combo is VERY useful in fights (d4 and an advantage on attacks.) Panicked by suddenly being engulfed in glowing fire, the troll snatched up one of the condenser tanks and tried to crush Carrus with it. Missing, he shattered the seams and flooded the floor of the place with strong alcohol.

Icio then hit the troll with one of the oil lamps, hoping to drive it off, and instead catching the place on fire. Now with the only ground-level door cut off by fire, the characters had to move fast. Carrus and Carona were able to get out just ahead of the flames. Icio slipped in the mash waste that had been knocked over in the battle, and slipped. His cassock caught fire and he left loose and escaped using his wings. The ret had to climb to the second story and escape out of the hay doors. During his climb, Marcellus was hit with one of the condenser tanks and knocked right through the side of the building.

The troll then went after Carrus, again, walking right through the fire to the front door.

Then the barn exploded for 5d6 damage (half if they made their constitution save.) Augustinian, Calvinus, and Carona (and the troll) all took 16; the rest 8HP. After a few moments to get their wits about them (allowing the troll to also regenerate 27HP), Carrus and the troll squared off. A few of them, however, noticed the strange shushing sound, loud, like water coming from the hill. The low cloud deck collapsed toward the ground as a wall of snow erupted toward them. Marcellus, Augustinian, and Calvinus ran for it, but the two latter men were overtaken. Carrus had struck the troll a mighty blow, only to be hit by the wave of snow. Icio used the last few seconds of his wings to get clear.

The avalanche took Augustinian straight to 0HP, and with Calvinus, Carona, and Carrus, were buried alive. Marcellus escaped into the farmer’s home, only to have the wave of snow half collapse the place around him. Icio found Calvinus quickly, and soon they had recovered the rest of their companions. Icio laid hands on Augustinian, bring him back up to 0HP and stabilizing him. While Carrus, Icio and Marcellus aided in looking for villagers injured or buried by the avalanche, Calvinus took care of Augustinian and Carona.

We knocked off for the night with the characters battered, their stuff blown all over the valley, and several of their companions near death.

We picked up our Dungeons & Dragons game with the aftermath of the Battle of Castrum Stativa. The victors went through the bodies of their Quadi enemies, looting corpses, tents, and moving the hundred of dead to a mass grave south of the town and fort. The characters made a beeline to the commander’s tent, where they found a bunch of loot, including the war mace of the original general, Brutharius. They also found the corpse of the tiefling warlock that the monk, Icio, took out. In his coffin, the body was wrapped in muslin treated to preserve the body. Also there were scrolls with the spells he knew (including several that he never got a chance to unleash on them…) Also found was his amulet — a Christian cross in a pentagram. Fascinated by all things religious, our cleric, Augustinian, picked up the amulet…which promptly hit him for 8d6 damage and nearly killed him instantly. The necrotic damage aged him prematurely, and even after Icio laid hands on him and did a lesser restoration, the cleric was sickly and felt cold for days.

After a night of revelry to celebrate their victory, Legate Marcellus decided to take the remains of the cavalry and head for Augusta Vindelicorum to report the engagement and  their win over the Quadi. To bolster the severely weakened garrison at the fortress, Marcellus was able to convince their Marcomanni reinforcements to remain for a few weeks until he could arrange for Roman troops. they leave the fortress with two dozen horses laden down with their loot from the battle.

A two day trip, across the stone bridge the Romans built over the Danube and through the snow-covered fields led them to the Roman capital of Raetia. The characters arrive to a massive turn out by the town — soldiers on parade, citizens shouting and throwing flower petals, and the Proconsul waiting to present them with a victory wreath. They are houses with the praetor urbanis of the town in a massive villa, and treated to a state dinner with the finest of the city.

While Marcellus and Carrus are playing politics with the proconsul — Marcellus attempting (successfully) to support Castrum Stativa with a full legion, and to get troops to go to Lenta and investigate that troublesome tribe. Calvinus the Bard and Carona, their satyr friend, entertained the guests. Meanwhile, Icio went to find the local church, and Augustinian visited the Temple of Jupiter and Minerva.

The church in the city turns out to be a massive stone ediface with stained glass, a beautiful statue of Mary and the divine child behind the altar, and a bible. The bishop, Asis, welcomes Icio — he’s never met a barukhim (blessed) one, one of Jesus’ brethren. (In the campaign, he was an aasimar.) They are discussing the situation in town, with the slow incursion of Christianity over the pagans when they are interrupted by a tall, beautiful figure they first think is a woman…but turns out to be a man. The very sight of him is strangely disturbing, and both Icio and the bishop fail their Wisdom saves. Terrified by the creature, which dismisses the bishop, Icio learns that this visitor was looking for him, the “little angel” that is causing so much trouble in Germania. Icio, son of Zaccharius the Faithful…or so he was led to believe.

The creature questions him — he is the faithful soldier of the One True God, but hasn’t he wondered at all about the nature of these gods he’s encountered? Or of his guardian angel? Why are angels all male? Why has he never met a female aasimar? Perhaps not everything he has been told by the church is true — the best lie is wrapped in the truth. He should know; they call him “the Lie.” That isn’t his mandate, however: he is “the Accuser”, he who calls to account those whose faith has wavered, or who have committed sins. But when he noted falsehood in that god he served, and called him to account, he was cast down to Earth. Icio is paralyzed by fear in face of the Enemy, himself! But before things can go any further, the angel Michael, burst through the door to drive Sataniel off.

Icio is staggered by the implications: Satan, himself, has taken an interest in the monk. He finds Augustinian in a similarly shocked state. He has also received a visitation — the statue of Jupiter spoke to him! It told him of this demi-god, Sataniel, and his search for “the Shadow” — not a person as they had thought, but a veil that separates the planes of existence. This Shadow was cast by Jupiter, with the help of Minerva and Prometheus, after the Trojan War. The gods had realized their continued involvement in the affairs of Man could spell disaster for not just the people of the world, but the world itself. The Shadow keeps them from manifesting physically, but they can see the events on Earth and occasionally speak with those special folks who can hear them…people like Augustinian. Sataniel hopes to break the Shadow and collect an army to overthrow the god that cast him out. There are those protecting this veil, the Guardians of the Shadow,.

After bringing the rest of the party up to speed, Augustinian tells them they have one advantage over Sataniel and his minion Aiton, however…Jupiter told Augustinian where the Shadow is: the only plane that could not be separated from Earth — the Underworld. They need to travel to the River Styx. But where is the Styx? Augustinian had an excellent Religion test — the Styx has its source on Mount Aroania in the Peloponnesus. They need to get to Greece. Carona, however, warns that the Guardians are not to be triffled with. She has never seen them, but some of the dryads he people treated with described them as creatures “elemental in nature”, powerful and capricious.

The night ended with the group realizing that someone was observing them through the curtains over their door. The chased the figure into the hall, only to find the spy was gone, apparently disappeared into the night…

This was a big push episode, finally filling in some of the metaplot that has been hinting at since the start of the campaign. One of the challenges was pulling together the Christian and Greco-Roman mythologies, and providing a unified danger. Satan’s desire to build an army, pulled from the ancient creatures inhabiting the pit of Tartarus in the Underworld.

We picked up again tonight with the party having repelled the first attack by the Quadi (hobgoblins) and their allies, the Vandals (goblins.) In a very one-sided fight, the Romans held out against catapult attacks from the south and Vandal attempts to get over the wall from the east. In the end, the Vandals on the right flank of the legion of bad guys broke and ran for it. Insult was added to injury when the heroes disguised their monk with an invisibility spell, allowing him to pour Greek Fire on the catapults behind enemy lines, which were then lit by incredibly lucky (and well buffed) archery tests by Legate Marcellus and Benarix the spy.

Two days pass with the Romans putting the fortress in order for a prolonged siege. Augustinian the cleric purified the food and water that had been despoiled by the rats loosed on the fortress by the Vandals, injured were tended to, and at the end of the second day, they were roused to the western wall by horn blasts in the snow frosted forests. Someone was getting reinforcements…but who?

Moments later, Titus Germanicus — one of their scouts who had been sent to contact Marco the Hammer in Heilbrunna and ask for his aid — arrived at the head of a small group of mounted Marcomanni. 300 Marcomanni were on the march and about to relieve the castrum! Outside and to the south, the Quadi started shifting their lines in anticipation of an attack, giving them the opportunity to coordinate with Marco’s people.

The plan was simple: the Marcomanni would attack the left front of the Quadi, while the Romans flanked their right and struck in. The attack was led by the turna (cavalry) under Carrus the dwarf, and augmented with Carona the satyress, Icio the monk, and Titus. They would harry and distract the Quadi and allow the Romans to close the distance and attack.

Using the Unearthed Arcana mass combat rules, the larger force of Quadi held against the cavalry, and gave the PCs in the group the chance to battle some of the individual bad guys. This led to Icio and Carona getting pretty chewed up, Carrus getting knocked about a bit — badly at first, then not so much as the fight went on. Icio, at one point, was knocked to 0HP, but healed by Augustinian, who ran to aid him. The initial exchange between armies and the early injury to PCs made it look like this could be a possible TPK sort of night, but they rallied.

The turna was reinforced a few rounds later by the two cohorts of Roman legionnaires, who hit the Quadi hard. The real damage, however, came from the bard, who laid into the hobgoblins with shatter, killing or incapacitating 40+ of the hobgoblins. Between all the characters, they took out almost 60 of the 180 in that particular group, breaking their morale and causing them to flee. The Marcomanni were better prepared and smashed through the other cohort of Quadi with ease. In “real world” time, the entire fight was about 15-20 minutes long, but ended with the last of the hobgoblins evacuating the field in half-decent order.

During the fray, Icio had attempted to pray for help from his guardian angel (as it were), Michael, but was healed by Augustinian at that moment. He puts the intervention down to God’s aid.

In the end, all the players did very well in experience points, and loot. The characters also realized that the solid victory of the Romans — and the new allies that Marcellus had signed a treaty with — had put Marcellus’ star, until then just a lark of the young caesar, into rapid ascendance. Rich, victorious over new and dangerous enemies while outnumbered, and having brokered a successful alliance, the characters are set to become heroes of the empire!

We had our next installment of our Dungeons & Dragons game this evening (with guest co-GM, my six-year old daughter rolling for the bad guys…) In this, the characters prepared for the one-on-one combat that Legate Marcellus had proposed to the general of the Quadi (or hobgoblins, in this world) forces. The PCs had never counted on a fair fight, of course — Roman notions of honor still maintained that fondness for craftiness that the Greeks had. The priest, Augustinian, had Carrus the Dwarf melt down a bit of platinum to craft a warding bond , and also cast Shield of the Faithful  to boost the legate to a ridiculous armor class, and allowed the cleric to slough some of the damage he would take to himself.

With ten cavalrymen in support, they rode out to meet Brutharius, the leader of the Quadi and his tiefling advisor, Raphael. Surrounded by hundreds of cheering Quadi and Vandals (goblins, in this world), Marcellus and Brutharius threw down in a contest of skill. Both characters were incredibly hard to hit, and after five rounds, I upped the ante by having the tiefling instigate Icio, the aasimar monk, into action. When he got close enough to the party, he cast Arms of Hadar and pummeled everyone for 16 necrotic damage, with only the monk managing to absorb some of this. He invoked armor of shadows, as well.

The monk got a hit in, only to be hit with hellish rebuke. Before Raphael could really lay into them with fireball, the monk got initiative and put him down with a flurry of solid hits. At this point the surrounding army moved in for the kill, all the while, Marcellus battling the Quadi general. Carrus, who realized they were severely outmatched, called in the cavalry to drag his friends to safety inside the castrum, then valiantly beat off a group of goblins and hobgoblins with his warhammer and axe.

Augustinian — who finally lost concentration on the spells he was using to protect the legate, Calvinus the bard, and Icio the monk all were pretty badly mauled in the fight, and finally withdrew. With a final shatter, Calvinus managed to kill Brutharius. The party fell back behind the walls of the fortress, while the Roman troops poured arrows and ballista bolts into their pursuers, then dumped hot oil on those that got too close to the gate.

Hit dice and healing spells pulled them all back to their max hit points, but this had proved to be a decent challenge for them. Now the question is — did their ploy to break the leadership of the Quadi and hopefully their will to fight work..?

The D&D game picked up with the characters in Heilbrunna — a new Alemanni settlement along the old Limes Germanicus, only a day or so away from Lenta, the seat of the Celts that have been stirring trouble in southern Germania Magna and Raetia; and Castrum Stativa, the last Roman garrison on this side of the Danube. Run by Marco the Hammer, a seven-foot tall barbarian, the people of Heilbrunna were open and gregarious. Marco knows their Celtic traveling companions, led by Cairc, and has heard of Carrus the Goblin Killer (whom Calvinus is trying to rebrand as Carrus the Troll Killer, even though they didn’t kill said troll…)

They spend two days in the town, telling stories of their exploits, but mostly trying to impress upon Marco the danger the Quadi tribe (hobgoblins) present to the people in the area. They are besieging Locoritum, one of the larger cities in the region, and have been ranging south tracking the party. (They left that last bit out…) With some help by Calvinus the Bard’s charisma, Legate Quintus Marcellus was able to negotiate a treaty with these Marcomanni, making them foederati of the Roman Empire. He’s started to realize exactly what his rank entails: as a legatus imperium — charged by the emperor with diplomatic powers — he is second only to a proconsul!

Their Celtic companions push south during the negotiations with Marco, to warn their king, and Marcellus dispatches their spy, Benarix, to tail them to Lenta and get the lay of the land. The party then turned southeast to Castum Stativa to see if they could find some assistance in their mission. Arriving at the fortress, they find it is light on personnel. Instead of a legion’s strength, there are 350 men — a century of archers, two of foot soldiers, half of whom are local volunteers — a troop of 30 or so cavalry, and a smattering of engineers and artillerymen for the ballistas and catapults. Led by 30-something Pannonian centurion with the rank of prefect castratus named Sextus Hadrianus, they are doing their best to keep the peace with the Marcomanni in Heilbrunna and the Lentienses — despite the latter’s hostility to Rome. With Marcellus turning up to pull rank and request troops for him mission, Hadrianus is a bit worried. This grows worse at the stories of the Quadi. They dispatch a rider to Augustus Vindelicorum, on the other side of the Danube, to request help from the army there.

That evening while out for his constitutional on the wall, Icio the monk catches sight of movement in the trees…lots of movement! On the road coming from the north, he can make out dark figures moving against the snow on the ground. Rousing the garrison, they use a light spell on a ballista bolt and shoot it at the road, where they can now see hundreds of Quadi and Vandals on dire wolves, moving siege equipment! There are more in the woods around them, encircling the fortress and the small Alemmani town to the south. There’s at least a legion’s worth of these creatures. While they are preparing for an assault, the Quadi send a pair of Vandals to call for parlay at dawn.

Marcellus and the party go out to meet the leader of Quadi here — a giant bugbear named Brutharius. He is advised by a tiefling named Raphael Tinirian who is taking a great interest in Icio… Instead of being actively intimidating, Brutharius is calm, haughty, and diplomatic. He is hear to collect the people that killed his soldiers near Wolfangel — them. He pretends he doesn’t realize he’s talking to them, but give the garrison the day to “find and turn over” the criminals he seeks. Marcellus takes a risk and challenges the Quadi leader to one-on-one combat, which is accepted. They will meet at twilight.

The bard continues to try and press Marcellus to launch a preemptive strike on the Quadi, but he realizes they are outnumbered three-to-one, the Quadi training is probably better, and they are better shutting up the castrum and waiting for reinforcements from the nearby Legion III Raetia.

That’s where we left it for the night.

The characters have reached 4th level already, and the characters seem much more powerful than their similarly ranked analogues would have been when I last played Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in the mid-80s. Each episode has required me to bump up the stakes and the challenges. They plowed through a platoon-strength of bad guys in the last big encounter…if they ‘re going to have a light legion’s strength, they needed to be met with proper opposition.

We’ll see how I balanced it next week.

Tonight’s Dungeons & Dragons session saw the characters leaving Wolfsangel for Lenta, the home of the Lentienses, the tribe of Celts (elves) that the 12 the party rescued from the Quadi (hobgoblins) after the festivals of Saturnalia. The group travelled south along the Neckar toward the Danube, following the old Limes Germanicus from over 100 years ago. The feeling of decay was exemplified by the sections of still standing wall, the empty or half standing guard towers, and the snow-covered, but solid Roman road still taking them south. Marcellus is particularly touched by the fact this barbarian land was once part of the empire.

A few times, they thought they glimpsed people tacking with them, but never got a good look. After stops in little towns graced with thermal springs (hot baths!), they moved into the hills and the Black Forest. Only a half hour or so out of Bad Neckar, as the sun was setting, they went to cross an old Roman bridge over the river, only to be jumped by a massive humanoid creature! Twelve feet tall, mottled, greenish skin, wearing clothes of bear pelts sewed together and a necklace of human ears, and wielding a small tree trunk club, the troll bashed Carrus the Dwarf right off of his pony, killing the animal, and nearly nearly killing their other tracker with one swing.

This encounter was designed by my six year old daughter after leafing through the Monster Manual with me. The previous week, she had gotten to roll for the bad guys, and had knocked the party around pretty handily.  She chose the creature, but only after a long argument about the nature of trolls, which a certain movie convinced her were herbivorous, friendly, and musically inclined. I had to explain the real legend to her.  Trolls it was.

The fight involved 12 elven archers, the characters, and a single troll. I played the rules to the hilt, and several characters got knocked about pretty handily, but finally they started to make a dent in the monster. Finally, Carrus used his menacing attack badly injuring the creature and frightening it enough that it slipped and fell off of the bridge while retreating. They saw it last floating downstream vowing revenge.

After a stop in Bad Neckar to heal and avail themselves of the hot springs, they pressed south toward Heilbrunna, a new Alemanni town of 5000 or so, led by a Marco the Hammer. They were jumped an hour outside by more Quadi, but this time led by a pair of giant versions of the creatures (bugbears) — this is a Quadi bloohound squad and they had been hunting the party for days.

The fight was short, only 5 rounds, but saw Legate Marcellus and Calvinus the Bard hit first, then the creatures concentrated their efforts on the monk and cleric. It didn’t help them. Calvinus’ shatter spell destroyed two of the Quadi soldiers, Carrus took out another, and the NPCs dealt a death volley to one of the bugbears. Augustinius took an arrow through his leg, but afterward was able to use bless to boost the other characters. Carona the satyress took out one with a surprise attack ram maneuver killing him instantly. Eventually, the bard drove the other bugbear off, giving Marcellus time to collect himself, give chase and kill it with a single blow.

With one hostage, they were able to learn that the Quadi use the larger, meaner versions of themselves as hunters, and that they have been tracking them. They learned about the characters, and which were magic users, from the people of Wolfsangel — which the Quadi destroyed after they raided the place and heard about the fight with their platoon of men a week ago. The town was raided, people taken as slaves, and the place raised, then bloodhound were sent looking for them.

We ended the night with the reaching Heilbrunna, where they were received with enthusiasm after Marco the Hammer recognized Carrus the Goblin Killer from stories about him. He’s even heard of his father, the master blacksmith! They were treated to baths, new clothes and a fine meal when we knocked off for the night.

The D&D gang started a fight with a bunch of Quadi (hobgoblins) — a tribe of folks moving into Germania Magna, and who had followed a band of Celts (elves) they had jumped and killed half their numbers to the shore of the Moenus River at Wolfsangel, where the characters had been staying for a few weeks after their run-in with the Dark Man creature.

After finding the warband of 30 or so, Marcellus had noted their discipline and skill at setting camp, but had underestimated their skill and professionalism. Their leader was highly confident, politick, but firm that they had the right to be in the forests near Wolfangel. After setting off a conflict with the Quadi, the characters and their 30 or so supporters (towns guard and a dozen of the Celts), the fight quickly went badly for the players. The Quadi was professional (I’m using the 5th ed version of the creatures, who are a martial race) and using their martial advantage and their heavy armor allowed them to quickly cut through the NPC support, and injure the monk, Icio — probably the group’s heaviest hitter.

We ended last night with the fight going downhill fast, but tonight the gang turned it around with judicious use of spells from the bard and cleric — the combination of bless and fairie fire really tipped the balance in their favor — and a rally by the monk and Carrus the dwarf allowed them to cut through their foes. The fight was only two miuntes, but took the whole session tonight to complete.

Afterward, the characters pressed the Celts on what happened. They claim to have been a hunting party (about a Roman century strong?) and found the Quadi camped near Locoritum, where they had either set up or were in the process, a siege of the Roman-friendly Vangiones there. The Celts were returning to Lenta and their king to tell him about the situation…the characters were leaning toward joining them and pressing south to Lenta instead of risking crossing a siege at Locoritum. They are hoping to win the troublesome King Priarius of the Lentienses over and craft a treaty with Rome.

I still am not a fan of d20, even the 5th ed. version, and the nostalgia factor is starting to wear off for the mechanics. The world and story are holding us all; I just find D&D a bit too wargamey and fiddly. I also need to start punching up the big bads and the main plotline.

The Dungeons & Dragons campaign picked back up with the characters being stuckin Wolfangel for three weeks due to inclement winter weather — bitter cold and heavy snow. The characters have been given the decamped blacksmith’s home to reside in as thanks for their efforts in destroying the Dark Man. During the stay, Carrus the Dwarf made money doing smithing, like his father…he’s both pleased and worried to find he’s good at it. Carona the satyr became a celebrity on the celebration of Faunus, playing guest of honor to the feast. The rest of the time, she and Calvinus the Bard have been playing music in the taverns. The monk, Icio, has been conducting Christian ritual for those interested, while Augustinian is aiding the local priest in getting ready for Saturnalia, and trying to pick through the writing and mind of Valdo, the former wizard who is now old and half-senile. Marcellus and the soldiers have nothing to do but wait, so they have been training the town guard.

Then one evening, the guard spot a man out on the frozen Moenus River, and there looks to be more people camped in the burned out buildings of the former town of Morhenburg that once occupied the opposite bank. When they’ve found is an injured party of Celts (elves) who have been attacked by some new foe they’ve never seen. They were man-sized, ugly, and tactically proficient. After questioning them, they learn that these creatures were camped near their next destination, the city of Locoritum — population 20,000 or so, with a guard of maybe 2,000-3,000. The camp the Celts saw was about a legion’s strength (1000-3000 men!) They also think they were being pursued by the creatures.

The next day, the party goes out with the elves — now healed by Augustinian — and 20 of the town guard under the mayor, Stellan Hanau. They find the creatures camped in the woods east of the river. Marcellus takes the elves and flanks the camp, setting up to use their bows on the grotesque, gray-skinned, red-eyed creatures. Their camp shows discipline and organization, with good walls of snow, and men paired for guard duty. they are wearing heavy metal plate armor, and when the town guard is stopped, they set up guard along the edges of their camp, using cover well. The Roman legionnaire was impressed with their professionalism.

The leader met Stellan, flanked by Carrus (who thought them goblin-like), Augustinian and Icio, and Calvinus. After a tense bit of talk, in which the leader was calm, polite, but also imposing and unafraid, they were told to — essentially — piss off back to their town. Marcellus then gave a fateful order to strike and the elves let fly…five of the 30 or so creatures were dropped, but their organized counterstrike dropped many of the elven archers (some lucky crits happened…)

This led to a full-scale attack by the creatures, who were slowed by Calvinus’ use of shatter, but which saw half the town guard mowed down in the first few rounds, and the elves all but destroyed. Even with their leader down, the creatures fought with precision and fervor, even managing to injure the previously nigh-untouchable monk, Icio, badly.

The blood bath was reaching a crescendo — Icio surrounded by assailants, Carrus trying to reach him, the mayor of Wolfangel down, half their forces destroyed and the rest ready to flee, and Marcellus isolated from the group and facing more of these creatures —  when we knocked off for the night, to pick it back up again next week.

We opened the evening with the town guard of Wolfsangel looking south toward a forest fire that was smudging the low gray overcast with black. Trees on fire spreading quickly to ward the river under a leaden sky. And trudging toward the town, beaten and tired, the party. When asked about the creature — if they’d seen it, if they’d killed it, if they seen the missing children — we had short flashbacks to remind the players what happened.

Then we jumped back to the fight with “the Dark Man”, a creature used by the locals to control their bratty kids…except this one was real and kidnapping/murdering them. The creature is black-skinned, black-eyed, and apparently can stretch itself out like a shadow. It hides in the dark and seems to use the water to move about. It also uses the dead children as a weapon, having the wee zombies lure the Dark Man’s victims.

They were setting fire to the trees to light the area, especially after it looked like the creature was sensitive to light. While doing this, the creature rose up and pushed the bard, Calvinus, and the cleric, Augustinian, into the water of the pond it seems to be inhabiting — a pool of black, still water that doesn’t even reflect the lights around it. Once in the water, the two were grabbed by the dead children that were taken here, and they tried to drag them deep to drown them.

Meanwhile, Carrus the Dwarf — a relatively local person, got an excellent roll on his Arcana — the legends of the Drak Man say it’s a person either evil and executed, or wrongly-accused and executed; ether way the spirit remains to seek vengeance. They are supposedly susceptible to silver. He warned the monk, Icio, who filled his fists with coins and fired up his radiant soul feat, flaring with holy light, wings and all…and actually seemed to do real damage. The creature slunk back into another puddle and disappeared.

Meanwhile, the light from radiant soul caused the dread children to release the others, who swan to shore and the party retreated to regroup and rethink their actions.

Back in the town, Carrus got to work in the blacksmith’s shop (the family having decamped) adding silver filigree to their weapons with the help of Steven, the Down’s Syndrome animal handler, and Carona, their satyress.

Marcellus, their nominal leader, met with the town elder and questioned him about the notion the creature might have been one of them, or someone they executed. A drifter came through a few months back — a rapist and murderer. They hung him, then dumped him in the refuse out near the barrows.

Icio, Calvinus, and Augustinian went to see Valdo, the old man who was once allegedly a wizard, and were surprised when he and his female caretaker were waiting for them. Screwed up, didn’t they — going in unprepared and not knowing what they were up against. The creature is stuck between life and death, the body dead, but the soul unable to go to its rest…and those souls are his, Valdo told them. The adversary of Icio’s god — and his — somehow trapped the spirit here, and it has been collecting them, denying him his rightful prize. With some prising, they realize they are talking to Pluto, who is not happy about the Dark Man situation.

The creature is, indeed, susceptible to silver, but that will only stop it for a while. To end it’s reign of terror, they must release the spirit. In the mountains of papers hoarded by Valdo is the answer, a spell to release the soul. Pluto gives them the ability to read the Nordic runes, so they can translate the spells into Greek. Instead of the spell disolving off of the page as D&D rules say, these simple become unintelligable again, once the INT check has been made (successfully or no) and the words transcribed. He also tells them that the demon, Aiton, that Icio is seeking may be the Adversary himself!

Pluto simply disappears, but the old caretaker gives Icio some suggestions for how to work together with his party to be more effective and reduce the chance anyone is hit by the creature. He realizes the kindly imposter — for Valdo and his caretaker are fast asleep in their beds — may have been Minerva!

After four hours of searching, they find the banishment spell, as well as one to detect good and evil, speak to the dead, and detect magic — all were successfully transcribed. Returning to the smithy, they started to work out their plan of attack. But everything was thrown into turmoil when in the midst of their dinner, the creature rises out of their water barrel to take one of their men! Suddenly, they are in a fight with the creature in the smithy.

This time, they kick ass — the silvered weapons do damage, use of radiant and fire-based spells wore it down and apparently destroyed it. Quickly, they formed up and raced out to put an end to the creature. They found the rope he was hung with, a necessary part of the spell, and Augustinian started the exorcism. The creature, once again, cmae for them, but they were easily able to fend it off. The spell completed, the creature disappeared.

Having ended the wave of murders, they were feted by the town and allowed to stay in the blacksmith’s shop while they recuperated and prepared to press on to Locoritum.

Overall, I was pretty happy with this one: the characters all got to do some of their schticks — Marcellus got to do stealthy stuff, Carrus used his family-learned blacksmith skills, Icio had a crisis of faith after meeting the gods which was reflected in shitty rolls for a while, Augustinian got to read a bunch of Norse stories of their gods. The atmosphere and story were appropriately horror-tinged and seemed to go over well with the players. Lastly, the idea that the fallen angels are not in Hell (Hades), but on Earth, and that they are playing around in the old gods’ affairs has started to flesh out the world.