Posted by:
Carl
on
7/19/2010 12:56:49 PM
Having arrived in Salernum, the party opted to catch the ship that left them stranded on Caepre (Capri) by attempting to cross the saddle of the shoe of Italia. The plan was to get to Herculaneum, hire a ship and try to intercept the wayard slave and his Greek cohort before they made it to Metropontum. Hopefully, Xenocrates spell books would still be on board.
It was a sound plan, but not immune from criticism. I mumbled a few words about how dangerous such a trek might be, considering they're getting into a part of Italia, specifically Lucania, that is still populated, and sparsely so, by early Iron-Age tribes and family groups. There were walking trails, but few roads and they were headed deep into the mountains.
The party responded in classic adventurer fashion, stocking up on food stuffs (30 pounds of bread!), buying a pretty good map with landmarks, discussing their route with locals -- all good stuff. Good preparation on their part for an overland journey, anticipation of getting lost and possibly starving. The local who sold them the map offered to guide them, but they opted to do it themselves. Guides are expensive after all, and you never know when one is just going to lead you to an ambush.
One day and one night after leaving the small hill town of Eburum, they encountered a terrifying creature lurking at the edge of their campfire. There was violence and screaming and death and un-death and running. There was a lot of running. The running was followed by hiding.
After a slow, and somewhat distracting start, we hit our game stride after about 2 hours. The session went pretty well overall, with thrills, spills and chills enough for everyone. Thom and Dave opted to roll new characters immediately, and I'm glad they did. Again, their gamesmanship was fantastic, taking character death in-stride and with good humor. Gn. Cenaeus and Aurelia opted to hoof it back to Rome, as they felt their fortunes would be better served there. And in the mountains of Lucania, there are two new Wights haunting the woods surrounding a set of ancient burial mounds.
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