What have we learned?
For ancient king and elvish lord
Welcome back. If you’re here for the funeral, I’m pretty sure we were too poor to put one together for Andrew, Carl, and Frank. Tragic, I know, but thems the breaks in this heavy metal adventuring life style. Today we have gathered to talk about what really keeps us coming back for more. The rewards!
The only treasure brought back from the excursion is the fine wooden bust of Lord Smythe (probably) that was found in the upstairs dressing room. The value of the bust is a surprising 500gp from Lady Smythe, and with only three survivors that leaves 166 GP for each of them. In addition, with proof that the ACKSgrinders had traveled to the manse and returned, she recommends a few replacement adventurers to return with them to find her husband’s signet ring.
As with most OSR games, experience comes from a combination of treasure and monsters. For the 500gp bust the party receives 500xp, three brigands gives us (3 * 10) 30 xp, one stirge is worth (10 + 3 due to one special ability) 13 xp , and two bugbears (65*2) provide 130 xp. The total for this venture is 673xp split three ways (the rules actually explicitly state this “XP is divided only among characters alive when the party returns to civilization, even if other characters were alive when the monsters were slain or the treasure was first found.”) for a base of 224xp each.
The party spends evening resting in town, and then the next day (the 11th) doing some resupply work and meeting their new companions. Greg the Hood and his faithful hound Gus, Harald the aspiring Warrior, and Ian the acolyte of Odin. Ian will tend to Carl’s wounds this evening providing an additional 1d3 healing and combined Carl recovers 4 HP today
With the party having recovered and resupplied, with new recruits in tow they are ready to head back out. However Carl gets a bright idea that it may be better for them to travel in numbers and perhaps with a wagon to haul back all the loot (and maybe bodies) plus a few mercenaries to guard a camp near the dungeon. However being in a class VI market the availability of hirelings is, in a word, limited. There are currently only 4 soldiers available (1 light infantry, 1 heavy infantry, 1 crossbow, 1 bowman) available for hire at the moment. One major difference I see here between this and AD&D is that the mercenaries come with the equipment appropriate to their profession. Carl makes the same offer to each of the mercenaries available in town. 150% standard rates, one month term with one month pay in advance, relatively safe run with no expected opposition (not going out on a military campaign or battle). His Charisma modifier is -1, and +3 for terms, so overall I’d apply a +2 on the hiring reaction roll I think.
Lt. Infantry: 9 gp offered + 9gp advance, result: 12, Accept w/ elan (+1 morale rolls)
Hvy Infantry: 18 gp offered + 18 gp advance, result: 13, Accept w/ elan (+1 morale rolls)
Crossbowman: 18 gp offered + 18 gp advance, result: 12, Accept w/ elan (+1 morale rolls)
Bowman: 23 gp offered + 23 gp advance, result: 9, Accept
Total Gold Spent for Mercenaries: 136 GP.
In addition, he talks Elvis into investing into a cart. The gold cost for a small cart (25 gp) and two mules (40 gp) is 65gp total. Bill is also very impressed by Gus and decides to purchase a pair of war dogs for himself as well for 150gp. It is at this point that it dawns on me about the availability of items in the Class IV market beyond just the hirelings available. For items costing 11-100gp there is only a 10% chance of one such an item being available for sale in town each month. All of those plans for a cart (18), mules(42), and wardogs(63) is for naught as none are available in this town at this time.
Refreshed and with backup now the party prepares to head on back to the manse on the 12th. Speaking of time, by the time they return a week should have passed which means it’s time to do my dungeon restocking rolls. Sadly (or perhaps fortunately for the ACKSgrinders) no new monsters have wandered into the manse. This time is bound to go better than last time. Right? Only one way to find out and that’s to come back tomorrow for more! I know this was a bit shorter of an article than usual, but it did also include writing up three new characters.
Come talk to me on Grail Country!