Danger Chickens!? What next?
They shaped and wrought, and light they caught
Welcome back to our ongoing exploration of the Adventurer Conqueror King system and the adventures of our group of ACKSgrinders as part of my #OSRtober series. We last left our heroes off having recovered the signet ring from the manse and returning to the camp to pack up and return to Origin and Lady Smythe for their reward.
On the morning of the 15th they strike back out (starting with a navigation throw in the hills and with a 6 they have gotten lost) heading back in the direction of town. Deciding that the party has traveled this route a few times before and is heading in the same general direction I decide they will be heading generally in a Eastern / Southern route but add some variation to their travel outcomes.
On a 2 they are still heading in generally the right direction back into the plainsland, but with the blind dwarf the group is traveling at 1/2 speed, bringing them down to 6 miles (one hex) per day. The first day is uneventful and back in the grasslands the party is relatively out of the danger zone. The next day also goes by without issues and finally on the 17th as the group closes upon the city of origin an encounter is rolled.
Checking the inhabited table I come up with a flyer again, and this time it is the dreaded danger chicken, in its lair. Seven of them, and despite knowing that escape is probably the only sane option here, I’m also going to roll up their treasure to see if I get any additional ideas for loot. Actually, belay that as with monsters that turn victims to stone “Any treasure found in a cockatrice nest will be on petrified victims, and will only be accessible if the victims are restored to flesh.” means that there isn’t really a viable way for the ACKSgrinders to recover the loot even if they were to try some harebrained scheme.
(Editor’s Note: I know I said there was no point, but I did it anyway. It’s my blog, I can do what I want and I love rolling up treasure. Fight me. And it was none. Didn’t come up with anything on a Type I hoard, so not rolling was probably the right call.)
So let’s check distance and surprise now. Given the height differential between humans and cockatrices (roughly 1/3rd human height) I believe I would divide the typical encounter distance by three then. 720 / 3 = 240 yards. And the party is surprised. Because of course they can’t get come and have nice things without one last bad thing happening to them. A reaction roll of 5 has the cockatrices unhappy about the incursion near their lair and they begin running at the intruders in a furious display of aggression full of loud noises, feathers, and such. Advancing 90 yards (outdoor movement and ranges are treat typical dungeon foot scale movement in yards) toward the surprised party of adventurers.
As soon as surprise ends the party declares that it intends to evade as if their lives depend upon it. Initiative is rolled and actually, it looks like evasion is prior to initiative? Ok, so let’s take a look at what we’ve got. On the party’s side it has a party movement speed of 10’ (poor blind Carl), and 10 members (party of 6 plus 4 mercenaries). For our group of 7 angry danger roosters we’ve got a 2-8 (rolled a 3) chance of pursuit so they’re gonna chase the group. For a group of 10 we’ve got a base evasion throw of 14+ to get away, and with the pursuing group being 70% of their size (+3), but also more than double their speed (-5) that means our plucky adventurers are going to need a 16+ to get away cleanly. That’s not good. On a 17 though they actually manage to pull it off without leaving Carl behind. I did not expect that, I was certain he was going to end up as a strange dwarven statue in the middle of the farms outside of Origin like some kind of exotic scarecrow.
Trudging back into town exhausted from the day’s pursuit the party liquidates the treasure found (1495gp in assorted coin, valuables, and trade goods split 6 ways = 249 gp / xp each) and XP for monsters defeated (One 4+1 HD Bugbear champion = 140 XP split 6 ways = 23 XP each) So a total of 249gp and 272 xp for each of the ACKSgrinders for the adventure.
Finally the Baroness provides the group with 500 gp each (this reward is likely too high, but I assume she has the money still and intends to use the ring to press a claim) for the recovery of the signet ring. I do not believe that the PCs would gain experience from that as it is not treasure recovered nor monsters defeated. Loaded down with more money than sense the group splits up to go their separate ways, intending to reconvene at the capital within a year’s time.
At this time I’m going to move on from the Adventurer level of play and into the Campaigns chapter, which seems to cover what many other games would consider downtime activities. I’ll probably be reviewing a different one each day to get a better idea of how these systems interact.
Carl and Ian head off to try to find a healer that can take care of Carl’s blindness. Bill and Harald strike out to serve in an ongoing military conflict nearby. Finally, Elvis and Greg decide to pool their funds together and decide to undertake some perfectly legitimate business activities.
I can’t wait to find out what happens next. Thankfully I don’t have to, unfortunately you dear reader won’t get to know until tomorrow. If you have any ideas about other things that the boys should get up to between now and they come back together feel free to leave ‘em in the comments below. Thanks and have a good night.