East Mark of the Vampire - An East Texas University Adventure

Its all in the Cards

Admittedly our last East Texas University session was a bit of a hot mess.  I believe I used the phrase "Wet Hot American Sweat Lodge" to describe the adventure, given some of my players' reaction to a campy college horror setting.  In hindsight, I think the "camp" factor comes more from my players than the original setting design.  Perhaps it didn't help that I described the campaign to my players as "True Blood meets Community."

Oh well, if you'd like to read our first adventure play report, here's the link!  I can promise that this session wasn't much better!

For our second adventure I had originally planned to run the second adventure out of the Degrees of Horror Plot Point Campaign.  Unfortunately the busyness of our Disney vacation (and all the game prep for the trip) took my attention away from ETU-reading.  The next thing I realized, it was Saturday morning, nine hours to game time, and I still didn't have an adventure prepped.

That's where the ETU Adventure Generator comes in!  

What an amazing Adventure Generator!

This wouldn't be my first time with the East Texas University Adventure Generator.  Back in August I ran a one-shot that I titled "Someone Banish Grandma", thrown together with less than twenty minutes of prep time.  But with the fun randomness of the generator, and the craziness of my home group, I had to be ready for anything.  

With my new Disney Haunted Mansion, glow-in-the-dark deck of playing cards in hand, I drew the following scenario:

• Who?  Ace of Diamonds - Supernatural
• Creature Table - Seven of Diamonds - Vampire
• What?  Two of Diamonds - Missing Person
• Victim Table - Two of Spades - Fellow ETU Student
• Why?  King of Clubs - Ritual
• Where?  Two of Clubs - Campus
• Complication?  Seven of Hearts - Heartbreak Hotel

My new cards

Overview 

From this collection of cards drawn I know that a fellow ETU student has gone missing and a vampire is involved.  The reason for the missing student is some kind of ritual linked to the vampire.  The adventure takes place on campus, and one of the player characters' significant others is involved… and that significant other is cheating… sort of...

Setup

Kara Tate is a thirty-year old goth townie well known for taking an interest in local ETU students.  An avid tabletop RPG gamer, Kara also runs vampire-themed LARPs (live-action role playing) during the fall.  In the early days of the semester, Kara runs "one-shot" adventures to figure out who would make for a good LARP'er… and who would make for a delicious treat.  

You see, Kara is a vampire!

Ezra's new girlfriend, Holly Dennison, is a fellow freshman, and a member of "Ravens for Bernie," the ETU student organization that rallies for democratic nominee Bernie Sanders.  Ezra, a political activist, enjoys spending time with Holly, but knows that she needs her own space.  Recently Ezra learned that Holly was spending a lot of time with Ms. Tate.  What he didn't know, was that she was learning to play a dark and gritty fantasy role-playing game… "Adventures in the East Mark"… as an initiation into the LARP'ing fold.  

After learning that two of Kara's players in a summer engagement end up missing (Laurie Squib and Dave Todd,) the expectation is that Ezra will try to crash one of Kara and Holly's meetings.  

For this adventure, I set the entire scenario in Lester Hughes Dormitory, an older dorm on the southern end of campus.  For the purpose of this adventure, each of the two floors has a small community room with a pair of washers and dryers and a couple small tables.  Although ETU is a non-smoking campus, years ago these were rooms were used as smoking lounges.  Ahh… Penn State Sproul Hall memories!  To add a bit of musical "tone" to the game, I thought I'd play some old, mid-2000's emo during this scene… perhaps some Coheed and Cambria!

Coheed 4 life!

When the players discover the Adventures in the East Mark game, they will learn that both Kara and Holly were expecting the player characters, and that there are East Mark characters ready for "the game".  

There is a weird look in both Holly and Kara's eyes.  

The Ritual

Holly is certainly "cheating" on Ezra, but not in a romantic way.  She has learned of Kara's power as a vampire, and is willingly going along with a ritual that will help turn her into the undead.  In exchange for the lives and blood of her fellow students, Holly can join Kara's LARP and also become a vampire.

It's a win-win.  

During the course of the Adventures in the East Mark adventure (The Mines in the Moorland,) a player character's player character will most likely "die."  When this happens, Kara will try to escort the player out of the room.  She will attempt to take them to a nearby dorm room, where she will try to kill them and feed.  This scene should be… interesting.  The players will most likely not be armed, and therefore will have to use their wits, and skills, to either flee the scene or thwart the vampire.  

A giant box of OSR goodness

A Game Within a Game

Adventures in the East Mark is a very real role-playing game, originally titled "Aventuras en la Marca del Este," and brought to the English-speaking world by Extra Dimensional Publishing.  Everyone at our gaming table, with the exception of my wife Jennifer, has played this terrific OD&D retro-clone, which is good since we'll be switching between two RPG systems…

… that's right… I'm going to run an RPG within an RPG…

OBLIGATORY INCEPTION "BWAHH!"  

No disintegrations!

Class of 2019

• Elle Woods (Jen), the party's "Legally Blonde" Pre-Law student
• Bruiser, Elle's chihuahua*
• Abigail (Emily), a nasally voiced Geek studying Psychology
• Chaz (Andy), the socially awkward Computer Science Major who loves to game
• Cordelia (Jeremy), an "easy" going Cheerleader and all around team player whose parents think she's at ETU to study Meteorology
• Ezra (Ethan), majoring in Cultural Studies this Activist was ready to fight the establishment

*Andy noted that according to the East Texas University Player's Guide the Edges "Beast Bond" and "Beast Master" were not allowed.  Good thing for Jen that the GM is her husband.  

Jen and Emily

Session Synopsis

I've already detailed out the basic plot of this adventure, so I'll spare you from a second play-by-play and instead give you a breakdown of how the players tackled the scenario.  Ezra was certainly concerned for his new girlfriend's wellbeing, and he led his study group over to Lester Hughes Dorm.  I asked Ezra's player, Ethan, to describe his new girlfriend and he gave me this:

• Medium length brown hair.
• Fairly modest.
• John Fetterman supporter.

Yeah, I was hoping for more too.

What were the players "studying" on a Saturday night?  I actually queried the table for a possible class that everyone would enjoy and the response was Intro to Anarchy.  How and why this course would be taught at East Texas University, I found it very amusing that the player characters would be so fervent in their study habits for a course rooted in chaos!  

Once at Lester Hughes Dorm, the ETU study group did a quick examination of the cars parked nearby.  It was late, around 9pm when we started, and I didn't want to have this part take too long, so I made Kara Tate's car be a hearse covered in Twilight bumper stickers.  By this point in the game the Hot Topic references were flowing quite freely.

I know, this was terribly cliche, and I apologize.  It certainly grabbed the player's attention, and they were able to examine the vehicle, discovering a list of names that included everyone in the group as well as "Kara" and "Holly."  There was also some dispute over "Team Jacob" or "Team Edward" between the players.

Chaz led the team into the dorm, and eventually they all found themselves on the second floor in front of Kara and Holly.  Kara invited everyone to sit down for a "tabletop role-playing game experience," and one by one the group agreed.  Elle demanded that her dog Bruiser be given a PC, and Kara was happy to oblige.  

Since Adventures in the East Mark comes with a set of pre-generated characters, I was ready to go with this part.  I even emailed Emily her own sheet prior to the game!

• Elle would play Greybold Grimbeard the Dwarf
• Bruiser would play Marvesh No Luck the Thief
• Abigail would play Maya the Warrior
• Cordelia would play Cordelia the Elf (she didn't like the pre-gen name)
• Ezra would play Jaem the Explorer
• Chaz would play Wein Everlast the Halfling

The table got loud when I threw the big, red, Adventures in the East Mark box on the table.  There was a lot of eye rolling, and a lot of laughter especially when the players realized that I was literally going to run an old-school RPG "inside" of a Savage Worlds game.  The only addition to the Adventures in the East Mark rules were that I allowed the players to use their bennies to reroll in both "systems."  

For about fifteen to twenty minutes the group's Savage Worlds characters played Adventures in the East Mark, all while in character.  Everything was moving along very well until Jen's character's character (Greybold Grimbeard) died from a wolf's bite.  Kara insisted that Elle leave the table, and she tried to take her into another room while Holly continued as the group's GM.  Here's where the game returned to Savage Worlds.

Kara tried to charm Elle at first and then overpower her, forcing her into a room that stank of old blood and gore.  Elle resisted and whistled for Bruiser who tried coming to the rescue.  When the rest of the study group realized that Elle could be in trouble, they all left the table and went looking for the group's blonde-pre-law major.  When they found Elle, she was on her knees, staring at a pool of her own vomit.  Kara was gone, having leapt through the window, but before she left, she whispered in Elle's ear.

"I'll finish you all before you leave this dorm."  

Abigail admitted that she felt a spirit "flee" through her just a moment earlier.  Knowing that there were other students in the dorm, Ezra quickly opened another door and found a dead student, her throat ripped out.  The party lost track of Holly during this scene.  She was there in the room with the players briefly, scolding them for leaving the table, but she'd eventually trip and break one of the nearby outlets, shutting off all of the power to the building.

This wasn't really the GM forcing the scene, rather I was reacting to Jeremy rolling a "1" on both his skill die and wild die.

Obviously the study group was short on weapons, although Chaz was serious about using the wrench from his toolkit to do some damage.  They used their smart phones to call campus security, who arrived and secured the building.  Strangely, the dead girl in the dorm disappeared, and the cops were not too concerned.  Perhaps this was the work of Holly!

For a few minutes the party used social media to banter back and forth with Kara, tossing threats, and nasty comments.  By this point in the evening, everyone was getting a little punchy, myself included.  For two hours there was quite a bit of off-topic, yet college-related game chat, and I realized we weren't going to get to a full conclusion.  So I decided that Kara Tate would make for an interesting recurring villain, and I moved the players along to their exams.  

Jeremy helps Evie with a little pre-game math

Quotes

(GM's Note:  If you happen to be one of the five players at this table you may notice that several very funny… yet completely inappropriate for most readers… quotes have been left out from this list.  Sorry.  There is certainly something about playing a game as college students that gives this group a case of the potty mouth.)  

"We need an oscillating laptop stand."  - Jen wishing that poor Emily was able to see the entire table and not just the GM.  Unfortunately Emily has to play via Skype.

"I heard she supports John Fetterman too… what a babe!" - Ethan got pretty excited about Holly being a Democrat.

Ethan - "Is it Kara with a 'c' or a 'k'?"
Jim - "K."
Ethan - "Good."

"Live civil war reenactments?" - Elle doesn't quite understand LARP'ing.

"Intro to Your Mom!" - Emily's suggestion for the class the party is taking.

"I'm Team Jacob!" - Cordelia exclaimed after seeing Ms. Tate's "Team Edward" bumper sticker.

"I feel like we need a 'bwaah!'" - Jen, after learning about the Adventures in the East Mark twist.

"Can I use a chemistry set to tell if this is human blood?" - Andy must have grown up with some incredible chemistry sets.

"Geez Holly, you're the worst!" - Elle must have spent time at Greendale Community College.

I let Evie set up her Barbie Savage Worlds game next to our table

#GetOutAndGame Too - The 2015 Season

Did You #GetOutAndGame in 2014?

Last year I put the call out to all you fantastic gamer-geeks to grab your card games, board games, and role-playing games, and head out into the world.  I believe that one of the best ways to pull more people into the gaming community is to showcase our favorite games out in public.  Sure, we do this whenever playing at a friendly local game store, or a gaming club, that's sort of a given.  

But there are a lot of other places where we can gather and game.  As my contribution to #GetOutAndGame last year I wanted to find these locations and and report back to you all.  So along with my daughters and a few great friends from the Norwin Game Knights, I explored some unconventional options for role-playing games!

As we prepare for the 2015 season of #GetOutAndGame, I'd like to recap our adventures from last Spring and Summer, to show you how much fun you can have gaming abroad!

Park Hopping

Not once, but TWICE I managed to pull some players together to try Numenera in a public park.  Our first game was at White Oak Park, and our second was at Oak Hollow Park, both in the Pittsburgh area.  We found that gaming in a park allowed us to combine two great activities:  biking, and role-playing!  Along with a packed lunch and lots of water, we got some exercise in and then ran Seedship, an adventure from the Numenera core book.  

The only downside to gaming out in "the wilderness" is the bugs… especially if you have a child that doesn't like bees or hornets!  Although we had a few close encounters, we're definitely going to try this again!

• 9th World Picnic in White Oak Park
• 9th World Picnic in Oak Hollow Park

Restaur-antics

Did you know that you can pretty much game in any restaurant so long as you ask permission first?  Alternatively, you can not ask for permission, and just show up to play!  We tried both methods as I ran Numenera: The Beale of Boregal between two sessions: one at Five Guys Burgers and Fries and the other at Panera.  We asked the manager at Five Guys if it would be a problem to roll some dice for an hour during a Sunday afternoon, and he gave us the green light!  We even scored a healthy extra dose of fries for our game!  I'd say the only downside to playing a game at Five Guys is the grease.  I'm pretty touchy about keeping my books free of marks and spots.  Take a look at that massive pile of fries above… it was next to impossible!  

Panera was easier on the books, but we took a risk trying to play without asking first.  There is a long table at our local Panera, typically used by other groups trying to hold meetings and gatherings.  Since it was open, we grabbed the table and started rolling dice after a club meeting.  No one came by to stop us, and it actually felled a lot like playing at home… possibly because I spend so much time at Panera!

We actually had a third restaurant session… one that was a bit more stressful as a GM!  When looking for local restaurants to host our gathering, Romano's in downtown Irwin offered us a table.  We happily made reservations for what seemed like their least busy evening, but when we arrived the restaurant was packed… and our table was right in the middle of the dining room!  Nervously I ran Sleeping Giants while several other diners watched my crazy group of gamers partake in a roleplaying game.  Of all our events, I would say that this one probably exposed the most "non-gamers" to our epic hobby.  Who knows, maybe we planted a few seeds?

• The "Meal" of Boregal
• Numenera at Panera
• Numenera at Romano's

Ever Game at a Ren Fest?

Classic old-school gaming meets the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival, as we concluded our 2014 #GetOutAndGame season with a little gaming surrounded by leather clad rogues and steaming, smoked turkey-legs.  Our choice of OSR titles was "Adventures in the East Mark", which I had just picked up at Gen Con 2014.  I still don't know how I talked Andy, Emily, and Jeremy into giving this a try, and to this day wish we had planned better.  Since we tried gaming during lunchtime, seating was very limited and we were stuck out in the open on a really, really hot day here in the 'Burgh!  

After gaming in two parks, and three restaurants, we figured that the absolute LAST place we would get heckled would be at a Renaissance Festival… we were wrong!  A staff member, doing surveys, questioned what we were doing, and asked why we would be playing a game in the middle of all of the other great events.  There were a few other chuckles from passersby, and several comments, but I didn't care.  I managed to score a TPK (total party kill!)

• Pittsburgh Ren Fest OSR

#GetOutAndGame 2015!  

Okay gamers, it's a new year and time for a new season of #GetOutAndGame!  And this year, I don't want to do this on my own!  I promise to pick some new, crazy locations for our group to play, as well as some new and exciting games, but I need you to do something in return:  I want you all to try this, at least once, and then report back on your event.  Use this as a reason to try that one special game that has been sitting on your shelf for months.  

What?  Your summer is full due to vacationing?  Well why not take your adventuring on the road!  We'll save that for another post, but get your thinking caps on now!  We're already planning to be RPG'ing at Disney World this fall for Disney Con 2015*!

*Disney Con 2015 is not an official, sanctioned gaming convention… yet.

Adventures in the East Mark - Tower of the Swamp - Session 2

First Time Dungeon Delvers

Back in November, I assembled some of the Norwin Game Knights for an exciting session of XD Publishing's Adventures in the East Mark.  The game was a blast, and I was really excited to showcase a great OSR title in our group.  Unfortunately, we could only get through the first half of Tower of the Swamp, one of the adventures provided in the Basic Rule Set.  So I brought the game to a thrilling conclusion, and just took comfort in a great session.

Imagine my delight when I found out that some of the players wanted to regroup to finish the adventure!  It took a few months to get back to the table, between the holidays and the flu.  Finally, last night some of the original players, as well as a couple new folks, gathered to slay the evil forces plaguing the Tower's dungeons.  

Dramatis Personae

Cheryl was back in action as Landiel "The Doe of Boceret", the party's Elf leader.

Ed returned to the table as Maya the Robledan Warrior.

Not wanting to be left out of the action, Michelle grabbed Kaela the Mage's character sheet, ready to hurl some spells. 

Craig, who played Adventures in the East Mark with us back at Gen Con 2014, chose the brave Paladin, Saddin Konnin, for this dungeon delve.  

Eric, a first-time RPG player, picked Khedron Dahl, a mace-wielding Cleric ready to purge the Tower of the Swamp of all evil.    

Entering the dungeon, Landiel scouts ahead with her elvish vision

Adventure Summary

With the Tower of the Swamp's upper level cleared of evil, Landiel spoke to her adventuring party and determined who would explore the dreaded passages below.  Maya, Saddin, and Kaela zealously gathered their weapons and gear, while the party's Cleric, Khedron Dahl,  grabbed his shield and followed his guard dog, Skinner.  The steps heading down into the crypts below were ancient, and in poor repair.  Saddin slung his shield and lit a torch for the group's humans, while Landiel carefully scouted ahead for threats with the aid of her infravision.

For the first half-hour or so the party didn't come across any significant threats.  The hallways throughout the dungeon may have been cold, but lit torches placed throughout the complex proved that someone, or something, had taken up residence.  A storeroom yielded proof that the Tower's inhabitants were in fact the culprits in local raids.  

There was also the drumming.

As the party moved deeper into the dungeon corridors, there was a soft, dull, drumming echoing throughout the halls.  Down the main corridor, the group saw several doors, and Landiel's sharp eyesight revealed a secret door on the western wall.  Choosing the first doorway to the east, Landiel moved forward and opened the door.  The source of the drumming was far more terrible than anyone could imagine.  Inside the chamber, in the middle of sparse furniture, three priests of the demon Orcus chanted fell secrets while pounding on a drum made out of hairy, human flesh.  

Since she was standing in the middle of the door, the three priests charged Landiel, slashing and stabbing with wicked daggers.  Landiel backed away, clutching a vicious wound, while Maya, Saddin, and Khedron filled the gap, blocking the priests from escaping.  Swords slashed and maces smashed, and one by one the evil minions of Orcus fell dead.  Maya felt pretty good about her prowess, and was grinning ear to ear as she valiantly destroyed the forces of darkness…

… and then the strong Robledan Warrior, realized that there was a crossbow bolt sticking out of her chest!  

Shocked by the possible treachery, Maya turned around, eyes wincing in agony.  Instead of a villain, the warrior only saw Landiel holding a hand over her mouth and shaking her head.  Apparently the elf was trying to contribute to combat by firing her crossbow into melee, but missed.  

Oops.

When the last evil priest was slain, the party moved into the chamber and started digging around.  Some dirty shoes and socks, ritual knives, and a silver dagger were among the riches recovered.  Maya stuck the silver dagger in her backpack, and the team reentered the main corridor.  Landiel approached the secret door to the west, and took a look through a small gap in the wall.  Inside was a terrible torture chamber, where a yellow robed high priest of Orcus was performing some kind of sick rite involving blood, snakes, and all kinds of random, fantastic awfulness.  

The high priest was alone, save for his snake participants, so the party decided to perform a surprise attack.  Looking at each other, the strongest, deadliest, and most capable party-member was chosen for the job.

"Skin 'em!" shouted Khedron to his trained guard dog Skinner.  

The dog sprung into action, and charged the high priest who was clearly taken aback. Despite Skinner's verve, the cultist managed to fend off the attack using his magic hammer.  The high priest then commanded his snakes to attack Skinner, and started preparing a spell.  The party realized that the dog was outmatched, so Maya, Landiel, Saddin, and Kaela entered the room with weapons drawn and spells ready.  

Even though the heroes outnumbered the high priest five-to-one, they were having a very difficult time harming the demon-worshiper.  Crossbow bolts and sling stones simply missed the high priest.  Even when Maya engaged in hand to hand combat, her bastard sword wasn't drawing blood.  Keep in mind that Saddin was nowhere to be found in this combat.  When the paladin charged the high priest, he was overcome with fear and fled the room screaming.  Kaela was trying to deal with the snakes during all this mess, but when she lobbed a torch at the the pile of venomous reptiles, she missed.

[GM's note: this was the absolute worst rolling I have seen in about a decade.  The party needed either a 15 or higher to hit the priest's AC 2, so about 25% of the attacks should have been getting through.  After twelve consecutive attacks, only one hit.  That's an 8.33% success rate.  Just terrible]

So... yeah… the battle was going very poorly…

But then Landiel started turning the tide with a well placed Magic Missile spell.  The next hit would come from Khedron, who smashed through the high priest's armor with his mace, completely rattling the demon-worshipper.  The high priest started to flee, but not before Khedron caught him again with some well-placed cudgeling.  The high priest fell dead!  After Kaela successfully dispersed the tiny snakes with the torch, the team believed that enough evil had been vanquished for the day.  Victorious yet tired, Landiel decided that there had been enough battle for the day, and led the team out of the dungeon.  

Quotes

Cheryl - "I have elvish vision."
Ed - "You can only see elves?"

"It's a non-echoing, heavy dripping." - Jim the GM describes dripping in exquisite detail.  

"I have my 'Cheeseburger of Battle', that should give me a +10!"  - Cheryl pleads with the GM for an unusual bonus.  

"I have totally changed my opinion.  Skinner leads the party." - Ed found out that Khedron's dog has 2 more hit points than the party's Warrior.  

"We would be defeated by Cookie Monster at this point." - Ed was totally disgusted with the group's rolling.  

Go get started!

Another exciting adventure in the East Mark, but if this little tidbit of OSR goodness seemed like fun, you have to check out the game!  

The PDF can be found on DrivethruRPG.com for under $10.  Just want to give it a look?  The Quick Start rules are FREE!

If you want a print copy it's available as a boxed set directly from XD Publishing.

Adventures in the East Mark - The Tower of the Swamp - Session 1

Old and New

I Feel Like We've Been Here Before

Gen Con 2014.  It was late Thursday night, the end of our first full day at the convention, and a bunch of Cypher System fans (my vote is that we call ourselves MCGeniuses, just FYI) were hanging out in the J.W. Marriott as some of the remaining games of Numenera and The Strange wound down.  Some of us had just come back from dinner, and all of us were looking for something to do.  Lucky for us that I had the Adventures in the East Mark PDF, and a printed copy of the first adventure: The Tower of the Swamp.  

Power gamers!

Our team included some powerhouse gamers:  Frank and Craig have been in my home group for over a decade, Lex hosts the podcast GM Intrusions, Andy GM's for the Ninth World Chronicles podcast, Jeremy is on the Editorial Board for Monte Cook Games, and Gray… well I had just met Gray that night and he has an amazing taste for hats!  

Everything was going fairly well with the adventure until one player character hit another with a missile weapon.  I can't remember exactly who hit who (I think Frank started it), and it was entirely by accident, but once the "PvP" began, it didn't stop.  It really didn't help that each character had random starting hit points, some as low as 1 or 2, so it didn't take much before players were crumpling or tearing up character sheets and grabbing for new ones.  Although they cleared the first level of the tower, we didn't get any further.

Later in August I got this kooky idea to play a tabletop role-playing game at the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival.  So I rustled up a few players, some of my #GetOutAndGame veterans, and we staked out tables at lunchtime.  It was hot.  Oh by the gods it was hotter than hell, and Andy, Jeremy, Emily, and I sweated profusely as we chose characters and started rolling dice while getting heckled by costumed Ren Fest folks.

HOT!

I'm pretty sure I sucked down two extra-large sweetened iced teas in less than five minutes, and I'm still not sure how Jeremy survived the game while wearing not one, but two shirts, including a long-sleeved undershirt.  The group made a decent attempt at getting through The Tower of the Swamp, but they never got past the first encounter.  Even though I maxed out each PC's hit points before starting the game, twelve kobolds and the evil cleric steamrolled that party in the first encounter.  

We game-masters call that a TPK: Total Party Kill.

No one warned Michael that we weren't doing a Chocobo cosplay

Norwin Game Knights

My fascination with OSR (Old School Revival) titles often spills over into my local game club, the Norwin Game Knights.  Although our club celebrates all kinds of games, from card games to board games, on an average month I'm in the corner running an RPG.  For instance, last month we ran Into the Violet Vale, a Numenera adventure, and both my daughter and I have GM'd Basic Fantasy RPG on separate occasions.  But for November's Open Game Night we had a request.  Ed, one of our regular tabletop board game players mentioned that he could be interested in playing some Dungeons and Dragons, like he did several years ago.  When I offered to put together an old-school game, he and his wife Cheryl both signed on.  Although there were several OSR systems to choose from, the lure of the Tower of the Swamp called to me.  

I wanted revenge.  

Andy planning

Dramatis Personae

Michael, one of our younger players, was initially looking at a different character, but ultimately selected Marvesh "No Luck", the party's Thief.

Cheryl had dabbled with D&D years ago, and she came to the table wanting to play an Elf.  Lucky for her that Landiel "The Doe of Boceret" was ready for adventure.  

Ed may prefer super-hero RPG's, but he's rolled his fair share of 20-siders, albeit a while back.  As Maya the Robledan Warrior, sword in hand, Ed would help lead the team to victory.  

Although Michelle didn't know it yet, her choice of Kaela the Mage would land her the MVP spot for the night, with some very clever spell usage.  

Andy was part of our last attempt at this quest, but played the halfling.  This time around he wanted the battle-ax wielding Dwarf named Greybold Grimbeard as his character.  

Our other "youngster" Jeremy liked the idea of playing a Paladin capable of confronting evil head on.  But Saddin Konnin, wasn't your ordinary knight in shining armor… his greed for treasure might get the better of him.  

Ethan regularly plays Swords and Wizardry, so being his first excursion into Adventures in the East Mark he picked one of the more unusually classes: Jaem the Warder the whip-wielding Explorer.  

Adventure Summary

Landiel was the daughter of a wealthy elven noble.  Correction, she was the ninth daughter of a wealthy elven noble.  So when she went to her father looking to finance a career of adventure, the elder wasn't too concerned about loosing one of his children.  After all, he had eight more.  

After collecting enough money to buy gear and take on a few hirelings, notably the dwarf Greybold, the warrior Maya, and the mage Kaela, the elf maiden traveled deep into the East Mark towards the city of Robleda.  All of the taverns in Robleda were abuzz with rumors of kobolds raiding the road between Swiftpass and the Pasture Moor Inn, and Landiel felt that this was her chance to make a name for herself and her crack team of adventurers.  Knowing that a few more hired hands could be useful, Landiel turned to Maya, a Robledan native, to find a few more swords.  Saddin the paladin and Jaem the explorer could both prove to be useful, as could the no good, dirty thief Marvesh "no Luck."  

But Landiel warned Marvesh, who tried picking her pocket on more than one occasion during their trek to the Great Swamp, that he was on probation.  

The Tower of the Swamp, suspected base of operations for the raids into the Pasture Moor, was mostly collapsed and the surrounding area was absolutely desolate.  A pair of double doors hung on the outside of the building, barely attached by old rusted hinges.  Marvesh wanted to prove himself to his employer quickly, so he carefully crept up to the doors and listened.  Voices, and they weren't speaking common.  Relating the information to the rest of the team, Greybold asked for the thief to repeat some of the words.  

When he heard guttural phrases the dwarf just grumbled, "kobolds."

The hallway leading into the tower's decaying structure was fairly dark, so Landiel offered to peer inside.  Using her infravision she informed the rest of her troupe that the next twenty meters were clear, and that several paths could possibly lead to the raiders.  Jaem, Marvesh, and Saddin offered to check the open passage on the right, and quickly shuffled into the tower.  The room was barren, but there was a fairly large hole in the roof.  Affixing a rope to a hook near the roof, both Jaem and Marvesh climbed up while Saddin kept a lookout.  But when Jaem tried to move across the old decaying structure he fell through the floor and crashed below.  

Note Andy's character hiding outside.  Can you tell that this was his second time with this adventure?

Landiel heard shouting coming from the end of the main hallway; the team's cover was blown.  The elf maiden's eyes widened when a small patrol of four kobolds, two archers and two warriors, started down the hall.  Well the swordsmen Saddin and Maya weren't about to let any little lizard folk ruin their day!  The soldiers unsheathed their blades and tore into the kobolds, slaying each with one hit.  The archers tried to pelt the humans with arrows, but one fell to Kaela's sling while the other was hacked apart by the paladin.  But the team's forward progress came to a standstill.  Not sure where to go next, whether they would allow Marvesh to stakeout the roof, or if they should charge in crossbows blazing, the party quarreled loudly until one of the kobolds lobbed a surprise down the hallway.

It was a herbal smoke bomb, and while Greybold, Maya, and Saddin were unaffected, Kaela started to cough and choke, and eventually pass out.  Maya dragged Kaela outside, and Greybeard followed while Landiel ordered Saddin into the next chamber on the right.  Landiel was fired at with an arrow as she rushed into the room, but saw that the kobolds had created a bunker on the opposite end of the hallway.  Jaem remained behind, still shaking his head after the bad fall while Marvesh crashed through the roof into the same room as the elf and paladin, expecting more than just a chamber full of trash and refuse.

Despite the room's apparent lack of importance, the paladin Saddin felt that something special might be in the garbage, so he started digging.  Landiel and Marvesh stared in disgust, but were absolutely shocked when the paladin came up with a pair of magic scrolls!  The elf took one scroll and then tossed the second to the mage outside, who was just coming to after nearly a minute of gagging.  Landiel headed back inside while Maya and Greybold circled the building.  On the northern edge was an open window leading to a kitchen… and four kobolds prepping food.  

The party started hatching another plan to coordinate an attack, but again took too long, and shouted too much to each other in common: a language that the kobold's captain obviously spoke.  The human voice ordered a charge, and four kobolds rushed the room that contained Landiel, Saddin, and Marvesh.  The elf pulled her dagger while the paladin swung away with his bastard sword, but when the two looked to the thief to assist, they watched as Marvesh climbed up and out of the room completely!  

Coward!

Not wanting the cooks, armed with ladles and cleavers, to enter the fray, both Greybold and Maya took turns firing their crossbows through the side window into the kitchen, pelting the kobold chefs with quarrels.  Jaem heard Landiel call after Marvesh, and after yanking his whip from its belt hook, the explorer came to the aid of his leader.  Outside the tower Kaela kept an eye on the main hallway, hoping that her spells could aid the party in some way.  Well the mage got her chance!  Although Saddin was able to pin down several of the kobolds, to his left from the end of a hallway four more kobolds appeared, the cooks.  Not wanting to lose any of his bandits to a dwarf's crossbow, the evil cleric of Orcus leading the raiders commanded his team to commit its entire effort on protecting the main hallway.  But Kaela wasn't about to let Saddin, Landiel, and Jaem get swarmed.  Pointing her palms down the hallway, the mage cast a Sleep spell knocking three of the kobolds and the evil cleric unconscious.

It was about that time that Greybold grabbed the poorly constructed kitchen window and just tore it straight from the wall.  The dwarf was so excited to continue the assault on the kobolds that he carried the window into the tower like a shield, but by the time he got to the battle, the only living kobolds left were asleep.  Even Marvesh got back into the fight, although his surprise attack on a kobold archer was met with failure, and Saddin had to bail the thief out.  

It was all coming together nicely for our team!

Jaem and Greybold took care of slaughtering the remaining kobolds who were still sleeping, and when the evil cleric awoke, Landiel was right there waiting to Charm him.  The cleric of Orcus introduced himself as Ganooshe, and told the party where all of the stolen treasure was on the main floor, before letting the cat out of the bag that there was a lower level, with even more danger, darkness, and peril awaiting.  

Landiel smiled… that's just what she was hoping to hear.

...To be continued at the next Norwin Game Knights Event in December!

Quotes

Jim:  "How much damage do you do?" 
Jeremy:  "Two-hundred and four!"
Ethan:  "Eh, no, that's 2d4."  

"What?  I thought he said 'beef!'" - Michelle misheard me say Michael's character class.

"I'm an Explorer, not a ballerina!" - Jaem to the rest of the party.  

"Do you know Jiggly-Puff's song?" - The Game Master describing to Michelle how her character's Sleep spell worked.

"This is how you rip down a wall!" - Greybold Grimmbeard felt it appropriate to trash talk Maya repeatedly while raiding the kitchen.

My Take on AitEM

There are three OSR titles that currently satisfy my classic fantasy interest right now:  Basic Fantasy RPG, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Adventures in the East Mark.  But of the three, I feel that AitEM is the closest to the rules out of the original red box or the Rules Cyclopedia that I grew up with, so it holds a special place in my heart.  I love my old red box rules, and AitEM does a great job tightening up some of details, while keeping virtually all of that flavorful goodness.  

Oh, and the artwork is freaking GORGEOUS!  

Did this little foray into the Eastmark interest you?  Well never fear, you too could have this crazy awesome game at your table!  

The PDF can be found on DrivethruRPG.com for under $10.  Just want to give it a look?  The Quick Start rules are FREE!

If you want a print copy it's available as a boxed set directly from XD Publishing.