Tales of Escia

TALES OF ESCIA: Running an OSE Hexcrawl 04

Player Characters

Melora Kriss - Human Druid
Myr’tacae Malenia - Elf Fighter

The Premise

As explained in my previous article, we’re running a modified version of Old-School Essentials in a minimalist romantic fantasy setting, which will be fleshed out as we play.
We began with our first session of B2 - Keep on the Borderlands and decided on a bi-weekly rhythm every second wednesday evening, playing for 2 hours.

For the play report of the previous session, click here.

Session 04 - Tonight, we dine like kings!

TL’DR: The players arrived at the Caves of Chaos, only to find the goblins attacked by the harem of baboons they scattered a few days prior. A bloody battle ensued, that saw the bloody birth of “Baboon Butcher” Dandelion, the first goblin barbarian.

On the road again

After learning were the demihuman encampment is located last session, the party met up with Dandelion and headed west. The dice indicated the foreshadowing of a random encounter for this day, and that result was: baboons, again. I reasoned this made sense in the fiction, as they spend the day travelling through the same hex were they encoutered the harem and Dandelion a few days prior.
The group found what was supposedly the harems’ latest night camp, with leeftover food, feces and the like. The rest of the day was uneventful and they arrived at their destination in the next day’s afternoon.

Baboon Raid

Since foreshadowing a random encounter means predefining what the next encounter is going to be, I knew that they would see the baboons on the day of their arrival at the encampment. Rolling up how many there were this time and how they would react, the dice told me 30 and hostile. This led to being the same harem they scattered on their previous encounter, now being extremely pissed.
Since we were near the encampment full of malnourished goblins and monkeys being the assholes that they are, I ruled that the harem was there, in the goblin cave, raiding it for food and monkey-knows-what.

Into the Caves!

Visibly distressed after being mobbed by the baboons before, Dandelion feared for his clan, urging Melora and Myr’Tacae to help them. Before they entered the cave, Myr’Tacae gave Dandelion her Battle Axe for self-defense, and equipped her new sword and repaired shield. Together they entered, already hearing the shrieking sounds of the baboons and goblins alike, from deeper within.

A glorious Slaughter

Inside the cave was chaos. The baboons apparently were on their way to the storage chamber, attacking the weakened goblins left and right. The party first encountered a smaller group of six baboons, engaged with an equal group of goblins. Myr’Tacae felled the biggest baboon in one fell swoop, causing the other 5 to lose their morale and run for their lives through a hole in the wall. Relieved at seeing Dandelion return with bigger and stronger help, the goblins told them about the heading of the harem and ran of after them.
In the common room they found another 10 baboons in battle with goblins and the clans’ hired ogre bodyguard, defending a group of female goblins and their young. This battle took a little longer as the baboons succeded their morale checks and needed to be put down first, before moving on. Having no weapons on her, Melora started to collect stones in a blanket, ready to set it on fire and throw at the monkeys.
Until this point I forgot about usind Dandelion in the initiative order, declaring he needed to built up courage to act. Little did I know what the little guy had in store.

The first goblin Barbarian

Bolstered by more goblins and an ogre, the party made their way to the storage chamber, were they found the remaining 14 baboons engaged with the goblin king and his entourage. Outnumbered in the relatively small room and flanked from both sides, the baboons lost their morale check after the first casualty, but found themselves unable to escape.
Glad for the reinforcements and seeing the opportunity to restock the storage with baboon meat, the goblin king rallied his servants, promising them “Tonight, we feast like kings!” When it was Dandelions turn, something wonderful happened: he rolled a natural 20 and enough damage to kill two baboons with his attack. In contrast, Meloras plan to hurl her burning sack of stones was graced by a natural 1, misjudging her momentum and throwing it behind her.
The rest of the round saw many more monkeys slain, with they themselves having little to no effect on their enemies. When it was Dandelions turn again, emboldened by his last attack he rolled another natural 20, killing two more baboons, and proceeding to decapitate and present the heads of his four victims in triumph, covered in their blood.
After Myr’Tacae finished off the last of the monkeys, the other goblins cheered at Dandelions show of force, who took some time to cool off, due to all the adrenaline coursing in his body.
Meanwhile, Melora and Myr’Tacae conversed with the goblin king, learning valuable informations about the state of things at the demihuman encampment, including a possible location of the halfling merchants wife. There’s a chance she’s being held by the hobgoblin clan living in the caves right above the goblins.
Myr searched the storage chamber and discovered a secret door that wasn’t usable from inside, hinting at the way the food thieves could enter and leave without the goblins noticing. After he calmed down, Dandelion thanked the group and voiced his interest in joining them for more adventure, as the goblin king ordered the promised feast to be prepared.
That night, they truly dined like (goblin) kings.

Closing thoughts

What. a. BLAST! I had some thoughts about how the group may encounter the goblin clan this session and what they could do to earn their trust. But all of this went out of the window the moment I rolled up the baboon spoor. At first I thought “meh, again?”, but when I rolled up the exact same number and their attitude, I knew it had to be the harem from before, out for vengeance. I love how sometimes it’s so easy to interpret random table results in context of what happened before, leading to a coherent narrative.
I also love how Dandelion critted two times in a row, leading to the surrounding characters and even the players and myself cheering the little guy on. Without much planning or negotiating, they got themselves a trusty and loyal hireling. Here’s hoping he’ll live long and can bring much honor to his clan!

See you next time. =)