Exploring the Chained Coffin
Welcome to Family Game Knights, our regular tour through of the Shudder Mountains and The Chained Coffin box set.
For those uninitiated with the Chained Coffin, creative lead +Michael Curtis and the rest of the Goodman Games crew have created a wonderful and vibrant fantasy campaign setting based on Appalachian myth and legend. As someone who spent nearly every summer vacationing at Hungry Mother State Park in western Virginia as a kid, with many day trips to the Great Smokey Mountains, coal mine tours, and outdoor theater at the Cherokee Reservation, the Shudder Mountains feel right at home.
It's my intention on running pretty much all of these Family Game Knights sessions in the Shudder Mountains as a campaign.
Here are our previously spun yarns:
- Session 1 - Sour Spring Hollow (from The Chained Coffin)
- Session 2 - Moonricket Bridge (from Tales of the Shudder Mountains)
For this play session, I'm adapting Doom of the Savage Kings by +Harley Stroh for the Shudder Mountains.
Also to note: I'm working on a Shudder Mountain soundtrack through a YouTube playlist. Any suggestions? Here's where I'm at.
The Adventuring Party
- Jen
- Wize Wizard McBride - Cleric
- Evie
- Jefff - Warrior (she plans to add another "f" after each gained level)
- Carrie
- P. Specs - Thief
- Andy
- Waldon - Thief
- Jeremy
- Sir Huey, Keeper of the Sacred Door - Warrior
- Melinda
- Kadabra - Wizard (name generated randomly with the DCC Rulebook)
- Frank
- Raylene - Elven Scavenger
- Damien - Elven Brewer
- Zzizzle Fenderbender - Dwarf Miner
Doom of the Savage Kings
After leaving the Moonricket Bridge, the adventuring party of Shudfolk make their way west, hopefully towards some kind of civilization. Along the way they discover an interesting trio: the dwarf Zzizzle Fenderbender, and a pair of elven lovers named Damian and Raylene. The three natives of a place called The World of Tomorrow, flew to the Shudder Mountains via a gliding contraption, and were on a quest to meet an ancient witch named Ymae, and give her an enchanted Dutch Oven.
[Judge's Note: Frank's 0-level characters were generated with the Crawling Under a Broken Moon 0-level occupation list. Hmm... what lurks in the World of Tomorrow, I wonder? The Dutch Oven was one of the randomly generated items for starting CUaBM characters, nothing more. I let Frank come up with the idea that they were delivering it somewhere in the Shudder Mountains, and I just filled in some details.]
After a few more hours of travel, the wanders come across a live, human sacrifice. Forty Vinlander villagers gathered near a standing stone alter, intent on sacrificing a young woman to a creature known as the Hound of Hirot. The Vinlanders, who the Shudfolk considered "outsiders" in their native land, claimed that the Hound had been terrorizing their village, and the only way to keep the supernatural creature at bay was to randomly select a sacrifice every three days. The adventurers offer to take the woman (named Morgan) to the alter and perform the sacrifice. The villagers take the party up on the offer and go home.
[Judge's Note: I didn't feel like reskinning all of the names in Doom of the Savage Kings into more American Folklore sounding names, so I just kept the names and titles from the original adventure. I made the "Vinlanders" a group of viking-like raiders who came to the Shudder Mountains just a few decades earlier and then decided to stay. I placed Hirot just north-west of the Sour Spring Hollow.]
Morgan claimed that the Hound was afraid of lambs blood, so P. Specs and Waldon set out to slaughter a lamb and collect it's blood. They infiltrated Hirot, distracted the children watching the town animals by throwing a live chicken in the opposite direction, and killed the lamb before anyone could catch on.
[Judge's Note: Frank had asked what a Pocket Fisherman was earlier in the game. Apparently this item was listed on Zzizzle's character sheet. I asked him what he wanted it to be, and he brought up the idea of it being a miniature human fisherman. This worked out so well in our Numenera campaign, so I went with the idea. Well at this point in the adventure, there had been much discussion about the Pocket Fisherman (named Alejandro) getting mounted on an arrow and shot into town with some matches to burn down houses as a distraction, just in case the party wanted to flee the area with Morgan safely in tow. Fortunately this plan did not go down.]
Once the thieves were back with the blood, there was a lot of infighting with regards to what the team would do next. During this bickering, the Hound of Hirot appeared! The fight was fairly quick, with Sir Huey fending the beast off with his Sacred Door. The Hound couldn't land a blow, but neither could and of the warriors or thieves. But Kadabra's spellcasting seemed more than a match for the infernal monstrosity. The wizard unleashed a flurry of murderous birds on the Hound, causing it to explode in a puff of swamp gas.
But was it defeated? The party did not know, so they accompanied Morgan to Hirot.
Upon entering the village, Morgan proclaimed the party heroes, especially Kadabra the Wizard. Morgan's father, the owner of the Sign of the Wolf-Spear (the local inn), offered the party free food, wine, ale, and housing in return for his daughter's safety. He had been heartbroken when she was selected for the sacrifice earlier in the day. Now he had hope. The party was told that Ymae, the village witch, may have more information about the Hound of Hirot. Since they were already delivering a Dutch Oven, the party headed towards the witch's hovel.
The ancient woman Ymae was very pleased to receive the Dutch Oven. She had long awaited this enchanted artifact from beyond the World of Tomorrow, and couldn't wait to put it to use. While the witch prepared a ritual, the Wize Wizard McBride kept asking of Ymae was a god. The former cleric really wanted some powers back, and just needed to figure out who to worship. Ymae completed the ritual by having Raylene open the Dutch Oven. A portal was created within the oven, sucking Raylene into the container. Screaming, Damien opened the lid, and he too was sucked in. Then Ymae opened the Dutch Oven, and made some alphabet stew.
When the Wize Wizard McBride asked about a deity again, Ymae showed him the letters in the stew: Cthulhu.
Ymae claimed that the item was the legendary Dutch Oven of the Elder Gods. But she was just going to use it to make some stew. But if the Wize Wizard wanted some power back, he could eat some stew, and then start worshipping Cthulhu. The Wize Wizard McBride took Ymae up on this offer.
Ymae then told the party that the Hound of Hirot was not dead, and would need to be bound first before being slain by a powerful, enchanted weapon. To capture the Hound, she offered strands of hair from her hut to be fashioned into powerful shackles... in exchange for Sir Huey's hand in marriage. After thinking long and hard, Sir Huey agreed.
... to be continued...
[Judge's Note: Frank's 0-level characters were generated with the Crawling Under a Broken Moon 0-level occupation list. Hmm... what lurks in the World of Tomorrow, I wonder? The Dutch Oven was one of the randomly generated items for starting CUaBM characters, nothing more. I let Frank come up with the idea that they were delivering it somewhere in the Shudder Mountains, and I just filled in some details.]
After a few more hours of travel, the wanders come across a live, human sacrifice. Forty Vinlander villagers gathered near a standing stone alter, intent on sacrificing a young woman to a creature known as the Hound of Hirot. The Vinlanders, who the Shudfolk considered "outsiders" in their native land, claimed that the Hound had been terrorizing their village, and the only way to keep the supernatural creature at bay was to randomly select a sacrifice every three days. The adventurers offer to take the woman (named Morgan) to the alter and perform the sacrifice. The villagers take the party up on the offer and go home.
[Judge's Note: I didn't feel like reskinning all of the names in Doom of the Savage Kings into more American Folklore sounding names, so I just kept the names and titles from the original adventure. I made the "Vinlanders" a group of viking-like raiders who came to the Shudder Mountains just a few decades earlier and then decided to stay. I placed Hirot just north-west of the Sour Spring Hollow.]
Morgan claimed that the Hound was afraid of lambs blood, so P. Specs and Waldon set out to slaughter a lamb and collect it's blood. They infiltrated Hirot, distracted the children watching the town animals by throwing a live chicken in the opposite direction, and killed the lamb before anyone could catch on.
[Judge's Note: Frank had asked what a Pocket Fisherman was earlier in the game. Apparently this item was listed on Zzizzle's character sheet. I asked him what he wanted it to be, and he brought up the idea of it being a miniature human fisherman. This worked out so well in our Numenera campaign, so I went with the idea. Well at this point in the adventure, there had been much discussion about the Pocket Fisherman (named Alejandro) getting mounted on an arrow and shot into town with some matches to burn down houses as a distraction, just in case the party wanted to flee the area with Morgan safely in tow. Fortunately this plan did not go down.]
Once the thieves were back with the blood, there was a lot of infighting with regards to what the team would do next. During this bickering, the Hound of Hirot appeared! The fight was fairly quick, with Sir Huey fending the beast off with his Sacred Door. The Hound couldn't land a blow, but neither could and of the warriors or thieves. But Kadabra's spellcasting seemed more than a match for the infernal monstrosity. The wizard unleashed a flurry of murderous birds on the Hound, causing it to explode in a puff of swamp gas.
But was it defeated? The party did not know, so they accompanied Morgan to Hirot.
Upon entering the village, Morgan proclaimed the party heroes, especially Kadabra the Wizard. Morgan's father, the owner of the Sign of the Wolf-Spear (the local inn), offered the party free food, wine, ale, and housing in return for his daughter's safety. He had been heartbroken when she was selected for the sacrifice earlier in the day. Now he had hope. The party was told that Ymae, the village witch, may have more information about the Hound of Hirot. Since they were already delivering a Dutch Oven, the party headed towards the witch's hovel.
The ancient woman Ymae was very pleased to receive the Dutch Oven. She had long awaited this enchanted artifact from beyond the World of Tomorrow, and couldn't wait to put it to use. While the witch prepared a ritual, the Wize Wizard McBride kept asking of Ymae was a god. The former cleric really wanted some powers back, and just needed to figure out who to worship. Ymae completed the ritual by having Raylene open the Dutch Oven. A portal was created within the oven, sucking Raylene into the container. Screaming, Damien opened the lid, and he too was sucked in. Then Ymae opened the Dutch Oven, and made some alphabet stew.
When the Wize Wizard McBride asked about a deity again, Ymae showed him the letters in the stew: Cthulhu.
Ymae claimed that the item was the legendary Dutch Oven of the Elder Gods. But she was just going to use it to make some stew. But if the Wize Wizard wanted some power back, he could eat some stew, and then start worshipping Cthulhu. The Wize Wizard McBride took Ymae up on this offer.
Ymae then told the party that the Hound of Hirot was not dead, and would need to be bound first before being slain by a powerful, enchanted weapon. To capture the Hound, she offered strands of hair from her hut to be fashioned into powerful shackles... in exchange for Sir Huey's hand in marriage. After thinking long and hard, Sir Huey agreed.
... to be continued...
(GM's Note: If I left out any great stories, I invite my players to let me know and I'll include them in the recap.)
A Fine Selection of Quotes from the Table
"It's like Pandora's Box." - Frank describes the Dutch Oven that Raylene carried.
"I volunteer as tribute!" - The Wize Wizard McBride offers to take Morgan's place as a sacrifice.
"Is the Hound a god?" - The Wize Wizard McBride really needed a new god.
"I get myself a girlfriend and a god on the same day!" - The Wize Wizard McBride has high hopes for Morgan and the Hound of Hirot.
"Wouldn't it be good to make her drink the booze first?" - Melinda's plan to force Morgan to drink two gallons of Thunderbird before the Hound of Hirot eats her, so that the beast gets drunk.
"She wants your brave Huey-babies." - Jen knows why Ymae wants to marry Huey.
"I can be your best man!" - Waldon offers to accompany Sir Huey to the alter.
"I volunteer as tribute!" - The Wize Wizard McBride offers to take Morgan's place as a sacrifice.
"Is the Hound a god?" - The Wize Wizard McBride really needed a new god.
"I get myself a girlfriend and a god on the same day!" - The Wize Wizard McBride has high hopes for Morgan and the Hound of Hirot.
"Wouldn't it be good to make her drink the booze first?" - Melinda's plan to force Morgan to drink two gallons of Thunderbird before the Hound of Hirot eats her, so that the beast gets drunk.
"She wants your brave Huey-babies." - Jen knows why Ymae wants to marry Huey.
"I can be your best man!" - Waldon offers to accompany Sir Huey to the alter.
 |
| Jen explaining what a Dutch Oven is |
Campaign Crematorium
- Raylene - Consumed by the Dutch Oven of the Elder Gods
- Damien - Consumed by the Dutch Oven of the Elder Gods
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