Nightwick Abbey - Session 56 - Deja Vu

Previously, in Nightwick Abbey...

Session 56 - 18th of Youngers, 1392

This week's adventurers:

Blossom (Rogue 4)

Mayfly (Magician 4)

Liminal Space (Changeling 3)

Mechtilde (Fighter 3)

Verinka (Changeling 2)

Ulf (Magician 1)

Franz Croakenbell (Frogling 1)

Hirelings: Gerung Floating Disk (MU 1), Fredman (Fighter 1), Grumbletoe (Dwarf 1)

Downtime in the Village

For the second week in a row, a new joiner joins! A Frogling by the name of Franz Croakenbell (played by my actual brother) seeks to delve into the horrors of Nightwick with us! Mechtilde put out an ad, seeking to hire a dwarf to act as a scout for the party. One dwarf, named Grumbletoe, responds, and she agrees to pay him handsomely for his services. Ulf manages to buy a crossbow from a traveling merchant to give him a way to be useful once he has cast his only spell.

Ulf also spends the week researching arcane secrets from what he has learned in the abbey, studying the Pits of Hell and its denizens. Since he has begun this study, however, strange happenings have occurred in the house where much of the party dwells. Doors have been opening and shutting of their own accord, people have claimed to bump into large objects not visible to the eye, and strange, glowing eyes have been seen in the windows at night. Normal magician stuff, nothing to worry about.

Nightwick Abbey - Session 55 - Don't Go In Without a Plan

Previously in Nightwick Abbey...

Session 55 - 11th of Youngers, 1392

This week's adventurers:

Blossom (Rogue 4)

Mayfly (Magician 4)

Liminal Space (Changeling 3)

Yevegniy the Coward (Cleric 3)

Mechtilde (Fighter 3)

Ulf (Magician 1)

Duka (Fighter 1)

Hirelings: Gerung Floating Disk (MU 1), Elger, Fredman (Fighter 1), Guttural Noises

Downtime in the Village

Over the week, we've had a new player join the ranks of Nightwick! He rolled up Duka, a fighter from the island kingdom of Kars, a distant land where everybody has dumb names. While he was rolling up Duka, the rest of us discussed whether or not Froglings have souls and why would a chamber of commerce use a Dave & Busters business model. This week, we decide to forgo a trip to Lichgate to show Duka a proper Nightwick dungeon delve - we're going to level 2 to find our lost magic sword, Dhinron, and a giant ruby if we have time to spare.

Down Into The Abbey

Leaving the village, we take our well-worn path through the woods to the remains of the abbey, where two old towers still stick out above the ground. We descend through the western tower into level 1 and begin to make our way to the stairs down. Not far into level 1, we cross a room to find a previously open door stuck closed.

Nightwick Abbey - Session 54

Previously, in Nightwick Abbey...

Session 54 - 27th of Elders, 1392

This week's adventurers:

Blossom (Rogue 4)

Mayfly (Magician 4)

Cherwe (Cleric 4)

Liminal Space (Changeling 3)

Mechtilde (Fighter 3)

Verinka (Changeling 2)

Ulf (Magician 1)

Hirelings: Gerung Floating Disk (MU 1), Elger, Fredman (Fighter 1)

Downtime in the Village

Over the week, Mayfly made a silver cube reliquary with noble Sotar's teeth, to honor the fallen cleric. Liminal Space sells the cursed sword to Halfdan the Necromancer for 250sp, who is interested in it solely as an artiface from the cursed abbey. Blossom continues to gather information on the Blindfold of St. Candace of the Night, discovering that it is probably held in the sewers of the old city section of Lichgate.

Down in the Abbey

Last week, we made a deal with the Manimals for them to procure some plants from the underground garden of the abbey. We arrive at level 2, unsure if we'll find the plants or a trap there. At the food of the stairs we find....

Goats in the OSR (GoatSR)

I like goats. This is a well documented fact. I like table-top role playing games, as documented by the existence of this blog. Naturally, I'm going to combine the two.

Back in the summer of 2021, I ran some Knave for my friends. As I was preparing for the first session, what did my eye spy? Goats! For only 10 copper pieces, an aspiring adventurer could purchase a goat. I was intrigued.  Of course the players would have to obtain goats to ferry supplies to and from the dungeon. This led me into an hours long research delve into the viability of pack goats. 

The short of it: yes, people use goats to haul supplies! A well-conditioned goat can haul between 40 to 60 pounds of equipment. Naturally, I've wanted to include goats as pack animals in every game I've ran since. And I will.

This got me thinking about goats in RPGs and I started to notice when games included them and so I've compiled a list of various old-school and OSR games (and whatever else I have on my shelves) and what they have to say about goats, for your reference and mine. This isn't meant to be comprehensive, but I might come back and update it as I look through other systems.

Nightwick Abbey - Session 53 - Don't Thrown Your Only Torch

Previously, on the battlefield...

Session 53 - 20th of Elders, 1392

This week's adventurers:

Blossom (Rogue 4)

Mayfly (Magician 4)

Sotar (Cleric 4)

Liminal Space (Changeling 3)

Mechtild (Fighter 3)

Verinka (Changeling 2)

Hirelings: Gerung Floating Disk (MU 1), Elger, Guttural, Bero

Downtime in the Village

This week we took Halfdan's threats to heart and prepared to return to level 2 of Nightwick in search of its famed underground gardens. Mayfly spends the week interrogated his golden skull which contains the soul of the Master, creator of the gardens. The Master suggests we check the area where we previously fought plant-like monsters.

Liminal Space spent the week practicing with the Butcher's cleaver (which we retrieved two weeks ago) until Mayfly studied it and pointed out that the axe spreads the wasting disease Bishop's Evil whenever it is swung. Luckily, Liminal had been practicing outdoors thus far and wasn't harmed, but bringing the weapon into the dungeon seems like a non-starter for now. We briefly consider having a Sotar consecrate it or trying to sell it to Halfdan.

Mechtilde spent the week feasting (per the carousing rules) and came away with a tapeworm! She'll be at -1 CON for at least a month.

As we prepare to go into the dungeon, we give some of our spare armor to the hirelings and Blossom buys a spear for Bero.

Nightwick Abbey - Session 52 - CHAINMAIL

Previously, in Nightwick Abbey...

Session 52 - 13th of Elders, 1392

This week's adventurers:

Blossom (Rogue 4) 

Mayfly (Magician 4)

Cherwe (Cleric 4) 

Sotar (Cleric 4)

Liminal Space (Changeling 3)

Mechtild (Fighter 3)

Yevegniy the Coward (Cleric 2)

vs

The Hunting Knight (Played by Huth - Nightwick Abbey's own illustrator)

Preparing for Battle

There are no downtime activities this week as we prepare for battle. Lord Eckhard of Nightwick has given each of us a palfrey (riding horse) to use and has offered Mechtild a destrier (a warhorse) if she would like to be mounted for battle. The battle, we've decided, will be fought out using original Chainmail rules. Most of us have never played with it before, so we thought it would be a neat experience, to take things back to the start of our hobby.

A company of 60 knights led by Sir Albrecht of Lychgate and Sir Baltzer the Bold arrived in Nightwick to ask Lord Eckhard for troops to aid the Bishop. Delighted to find the mercenaries already preparing for battle, they offer to join us agains the White Lady.

As we parade out of Nightwick Village, our forces stand at:

• The Corbies - led by Sir. Guant of Fatstaff, a band of 100 medium cavalry clad in gold skull helmets

• The Brown Company - led by Frock, a group of 200 light infantry.
  

• The Company of the Goose - led by St. Gunther the Goose. 200 crossbowmen serve the Goose.
  

• The Middle Sons - a company of 200 heavy infantry led by Adolphus the Lesser.

• The Crossbowmen of Nightwick (Badder's Boys) - 20 crossbowmen total

• The Knights of Lychgate - 60 heavy cavalry led by Sir Albrecht and Sir Baltzer

Marching Orders

The weather is even nice today, clearly fate is on our side. We set off with the Knights of Lychgate and the Corbies in the vanguard, the Brown Company and Middle Sons in the main, and the Gooses and Badder's Boys in the rear as we head to the village of Vollage, where the White Lady's troops have lay siege to the towns remaining inhabitants.

We notice nothing untoward until noon along the road to Vollage, however, around midday, we notice that the autumnal forest of the Witchwood appears to have advanced south right up to the road. 

Nightwick Abbey - Session 51 - Picking Up After Ourselves

Previously in Nightwick Abbey...

Session 51 - 6th of Elders, 1392

This week's adventurers:

Blossom (Rogue 4) 

Mayfly (Magician 4)

Sotar (Cleric 4)

Liminal Space (Changeling 3)

Mechtild (Fighter 3)

Hirelings: Gerung Floating Disk (MU 1), Andre (Fighter 1), Heyno, Elger, Gutteral

Downtime in the Village

Blossom uses the week to search for rumors of ways to see in the dark. Through her various contacts, she finds out that the Blindfold of St. Candace of the Night, purported to bestow its wearer the ability to see in the dark, is in the hands of the Brotherhood of Thieves and Assassins. Where, exactly, they are holding it is still unknown to Blossom, but the expert rogue will be able to find that out in due time. Taking it from an assassin's guild may be foolhardy, but maybe they will want to strike a deal for her to obtain it.

The party clerics spend the week declaring their saintly devotion - a traditional practice for warring holy men that has been neglected in Nightwick until now. They each pick one saint to express their devotion to and, in turn, they are each blessed with holy knowledge. (Player's Note: this is a bit of extra role-playing potential, but this also gives each cleric a bonus 1st level spell that they always have memorized. Through saintly devotion, they even have the potential to learn spells not on the cleric spell list!)

Sotar devotes himself to The Lady, the first to hear from the God of Law and who founded the Church by sharing the God of Law's teachings.

Yevgeniy devotes himself to St. Gax the Lawgiver, who wrote down The Lady's teachings before her death and then added some bits to make it more "comprehensible, complete, and followable," according to him.

Cherwe devotes herself to St. Richard the Prior, the patron saint of truth tellers who died by immolation.

Sotar is interested in St. Gunther, the Goose (who leads the Company of the Goose), but must first decide if he aligns with the Eastern Church and then establish an enclave to him.

Liminal Space went carousing, but it went quite poorly. He got into a one-sided knife fight where he got badly stabbed (starting the week's session down 8hp - over half of his total). On the morning of our delve into Nightwick, he shows up, badly bandaged and still bleeding a little bit, but insisting that he is fine.

Mayfly studied the recently captured spellbook and learned Web from it.