The Upper Valley. Map by Amanda P.

Introduction

It has been too long, Gentle Reader, since I have updated everyone on the goings ons of the Cairn 2e West Marches playtest. It isn't that play isn't happening, mind you. The problem is that there is so much of it. There have been seven sessions so far in the online game, and two offline games that I myself have run (one of which I have already documented here. I write a barebones (for me, anyway) sessions logs after every game, then prose them up a bit for blog posts. It is more time intensive than I would like, and with my new job has proven unsustainable the way I was doing it previously.

So here's what I'm going to try. I'll put up my session log mostly unedited. Some of my thoughts are more fragmented, but still probably more elaborate than you would suspect. I can't help myself, clearly. I'll still have session reflections at the end, but I'm not going to bother with images unless they are awesome Zedeck ones or really important to illustrate something.

The truth is, I have no idea what those of you who read my session reports actually value: the story, the reflection, or both. If anyone wants to let me know in one of the venues where I post these things, I would greatly appreciate an indication of what you get out of these, if anything.

Anyway, let's get on to the main event. This session, we all nearly died. You could say mistakes were made.

Player Characters:

• Harrow (Derek/Me) - Fieldwarden Background
• Snowdrop (Bobby M.) - Foundling Background
• Cornelius - Mountebank Background
• Flint - Fletchwind Background

Journey Log (4th of Highwater, Year 7728

No new Omen rolled (Harrow remained the youngest PC)

Journey to the Misty Crater

The group took on the job The Lost Expedition, which promised to be quite lucrative (assuming they survived). The party headed out of Waterfall City and went South along the edge of White Tower Grove. Eventually arrived at Dunny Town, which surrounds a pyramid of unknown origin. Mostly constructed of tarps and other improvised shelters. Lots of dealing in illicit Relics and other things of interest at the Spine Market. Dunny Town is known for its disposal of waste, their own as well as that of Waterfall City, in the Sinkhole. They use a pulley system to go across the hole and dump things, but are also known for pulling valuable things out. The biggest Faction in Dunny Town is the Waste-Diggers Alliance. End of First Watch happened upon arriving at the Sinkhole, and signs of a storm forming could be seen on the horizon.

It was late afternoon by the time they reach the Southern valley, and the Southern Footpath became rockier and less maintained. As the party grew close to the first stop on their journey, the Misty Crater, they began to spot strange ships on The Scar: they were of an unfamiliar make and possessed sails of a gray, leather-like material. The individuals that manned the vessels, though too far to make out exact details, were clearly not of Waterfall City. Movement on the road drew the group's attention, as a figure in bright yellow regalia made their way towards them on the footpath ahead.

Harrow hailed the newcomer, while Flint nocked an arrow as a precautionary measure. The yellow-clad figure revealed himself to be a messenger for the The Southern Valley Coalition, but did not want to share the particulars of his mission. Snowdrop revealed that the party was also working for the SVC, and asked for the information to be revealed to them as a result: the messenger still refused and told them to speak to Junior Lector Yonn once they reached the camp. Snowdrop tried to pull rank, but the man was undeterred, and the group ultimately let him pass and continued on their way to the Misty Crater.

On one side of the Misty Crater was a plain, while the other side was covered in forest. The group found that as they trod the ground of the plain that it was covered in many bits of broken pottery. Flint picked up a few pieces to examine them and found a semi-circular marking, made as if digging nails through wet clay, on several fragments that he inspected. Continuing onward, they found a man tied to a post. Dark-skinned, but wearing clothing in the style of the denizens of Waterfall City. Though tied to the post, his hands were free and it appeared like he could easily free himself if he so chose. Harrow tried to speak to the man, but quickly realized they didn't speak the same language. Meanwhile, Snowdrop gestured his willingness to cut the man free, but the bound figure simply gestured towards the sky and returned to his silent vigil.

Upon arriving at the Misty Crater the party was greeted with the sight of a small encampment, large enough for twelve or so people, and a "distinguished-looking" fellow who could only be Junior Lector Yonn. The lector had a large mustache and jowls to match, a black-colored safari hat, and an insufferable manner that explained his currently being stationed in such a miserable corner of the Lower Valley. The party was told that the runner was sent to communicate about the incoming storm, and Junior Lector Yonn explained more about what prompted their group to be hired: Six days before, saw smoke coming up past the Misty Crater and the original expedition is long overdue for their return. When the party brought up the man tied to the post Yonn reacted with contempt. He explained that no one really understands the "Reed People" and implied that he wouldn't mind if the party found some way of "dealing" with them in the course of their mission (Yeah, we're definitely working for the Imperialist bad guys here).

Snowdrop asked about the mist of Misty Crater, which appeared to be absent at that time, and was told to wait for the morning. They were told that they would need to travel through Spiral Cave to make it to the Temple that the expedition was traveling to. They inquired about needed supplies and discovered that they lacked rope that would be necessary for traversal (this was my fault, because I forgot that Zedeck's character was the one with the nice rope). Junior Lector Yonn "graciously" offered to lend the party some rope in exchange for "bringing him something extra." The party made camp, shared a meal with the people at camp, and went to sleep.

Journey Through Spiral Cave

They awoke to a thick, soupy mist that completely obscured their vision. Misty Crater, indeed. The group departed the encampment and traveled to Spiral Cave. They found multiple bags of dirt outside the entrance, a long-dead campfire, and caked dirt at the entrance with footprints tracking through it. Flint lit a torch and the party entered the cave. They were greeted with the sight of a petroglyph of a winged figure, multiple footprints continuing on through the dirt scattered on the floor, and red spiral stalagmites spiraling up from the floor. On one of the stalagmites a yellow The Southern Valley Coalition ribbon was found. The group came to a room with stalactites hanging from the ceiling, a musty smell to the South, and the smell of dying animals to the East.

They decide to head South, where the ceiling quickly became shorter and droppings were found on the ground. Flint, being a Fletchwind, identified them as being bear droppings, and the party decided to backtrack and go East rather than risk an ursine encounter. The smell became more and more pronounced as they traveled further East, and they quickly came upon a corpse of a woman in bright yellow clothing (SVC-aligned, clearly), heavily mauled and clutching something in her hand.

Flint determined that the wounds weren't consistent with a bear attack, and she seemed more dehydrated and malnourished than someone who had been missing as long as she had should be. The object she clutched turned out to be a grapefruit-sized diamond-shaped glass object, which Flint promptly claimed. Cornelius claimed the SVC ribbon off the corpse in order to provide identification later, and the party continued onward. They continued East and then made their way South with the curve of the cave passage, coming to an area that had clearly been cut with human hands. A breeze to the East indicated a likely exit.

A Perilous Descent

The cave exited out to a sheer cliff face, a clear vista of mossy forest stretched out in the distance. A big glade could be seen before the tree line of the forest, a great, grass-covered mound situated within it. The party needed to travel 60 feet downward to reach the glade below, but only had 50 feet of rope.

Snowdrop used Control Plants to make a bed of moss to cushion his fall, but failed to jump correctly and ended up sliding most of the 10 feet (DEX fail, 3 STR damage). The Foundling tried to find something to make the descent easier, but could find nothing useful. Cornelius climbed down and used his body to make up the difference in feet, allowing Harrow to safely make his way to the bottom. However, upon Flint's descent, the rope snapped and the men found themselves in a heap, uninjured but short 15 feet of rope that now hung uselessly from the cliff face.

The party approached the Mound Temple, finding the remnants of another campfire that presumably was the source of the smoke previously seen by the individuals left behind at the Misty Crater. Cornelius found the remnants of a quick-burning agent within the ashes of the fire, which he recognized because of his background as a Mountebank. Flint lit his torch again and entered the mound, immediately finding two sconces where diamond-shaped objects were designed to sit, though one was clearly missing. The party recognized that this was the object they found with corpse of the expedition member found in Spiral Cave, and they decided to return it to its proper place. Dirt could be seen at the threshold of the mound, signs of multiple feet tracked through it. Out of curiosity, they turned back towards the cliff face to look for signs of where the original expedition might have made their descent and spotted ropes dangling from another part of the ridge.

A Mound Most Malodorous

Once inside, the party's eyes were drawn to four pedestals along the walls, each holding a statue save one: To the Northwest, a clawed hand holding tadpole balls, a mushroom-like spoor growing over a salt pillar to the Southwest, a veiny, webbed fungal spore in the shape of a fat egg to the Northeast, and a bare pedestal to the Southeast Each statue seemed to be screwed onto the pedestal somehow, but the party opted to not investigate further. Flint speculated that the statues correspond with the contents of the temple itself.

Continuing South, they saw a flash of movement and a blurred green shape down the corridor to the East. Torchlight revealed dark green, tiled walls and more sconces along the wall. The party decided that discretion was the better part of valor and opted to enter the opening to the South rather than investigate the flash of green to the East. The group entered a room with 4 distinct sections in each corner, all of them filled with urns of some sort. There was another hallway that led to the East where a giant mushroom was visible, and another pathway that went further South.

They opted to each take one corner of the room and investigate the urns. Flint found a lot of preserved organs in the urns, including a decidedly non-human heart, but also discovered a carefully-wrapped metallic rod which he opted to keep. Harrow found a bunch of empty urns in his corner, but one didn't budge to his careful prodding. Further examination revealed that it was screwed into the floor, much like the statues at the entrance to the Mound. He slowly turned the urn and the wall behind the urns popped open (Ah, yeah! Everyone loves a secret door!) The party went through, discovering a long hallway with two other sealed doors within. The Southern door smelled faintly of ozone, and the group opted to try that one.

On the other side, they found a flat, diamond-shaped board with some sort of dial on it. Near it was a soft gray pad placed directly upon the wall. In Eastern corner of the room a mural could be seen, though it was obscured by what looked to be blood. Piles of what looked to be bodies were scattered on the floor directly beneath the mural, and what seemed to be an enormous grey-green fungal growth was nearby as well. Out of an abundance of caution, Flint used his bow to turn the dial, which caused the diamond-shaped sconces that could be found throughout the Mound to illuminate the area. An immediate hissing sound issued from the fungal growth as the light touched it. Of more immediate concern, several large, bipedal reptilian creatures were revealed by the light: One immediately rushed into a hallway leading North, the other began tearing at the fungal growth near the mural, and the last stood facing them as if waiting for something. Flint pressed the gray pad, deactivating a barrier that the party didn't know was there (that explained why the third lizard didn't immediately try to eat us. Whoops!).

Where Things Go Wrong

The third lizard launched itself forward in an attack, but Cornelius turned the dial up further which dramatically increased the brightness of the lights. The lizards reeled back as the roomed brightened, clearly blinded by the increased illumination. Harrow, who had been bringing up the rear, quickly assessed the situation and shouted at Snowdrop to shoot the creatures while they were stunned. The Foundling did so, and the rest of the party joined in shortly thereafter.

Harrow's sling bullet seriously wounded the lizard that had first charged at them, but the creature managed to withstand the onslaught (Damn thing passed its Critical Damage Save). The wounded lizard charged forward, sprung upon Cornelius, and began dragging him back into the chamber (Combat is a fail-state, indeed). The one that had been tearing at the fungal growth turned its attention to Snowdrop, and after a brief tussle he was also overcome and drug deeper into the chamber.

Harrow, realizing that the party was no match for the lizards in open combat, tossed his Root-Tether at the uninjured lizard. The roots quickly bound the limbs of the creature, but failed to anchor it to the ground due to it not being able to find purchase on the stone floor. Flint fired an arrow at the injured lizard, hoping to finish it off so that the group could make their escape, but it glanced off the creature's thick scales. The injured one sprung forward, clawing at Flint, but the Fletchwind managed to narrowly avoid the raking blows. Snowdrop and Cornelius, though overcome, were left conscious and realized that the room is covered in a great deal of body parts. The large fungal growth seemed to have an even larger lizard trapped within. It made one wonder why exactly they were being kept alive.

Meanwhile, the missing third lizard appeared in the secret hallway behind them, blocking their escape. Harrow tossed Caltrops onto the ground between the party and this newest arrival, and they all attempt to flee. Flint, however, is captured and drug back into the corner of the room. The diamond-shaped lights in the sconces began to hum in a concerning fashion.

The party was torn between fleeing and abandoning Flint to his fate or continuing to fight and almost certainly dying with him. Cornelius opted to flee in an attempt to find a way out for the party, stumbling upon a room with many grates and nozzles. Meanwhile, Harrow and Snowdrop decide to stay behind and attempt to free Flint. They let fly their sling bullets and manage to finally fell the injured lizard, freeing Flint. The Caltrops slowed down the third lizard, the Root-Tether hindered the second, and Flint was able to successfully find his feet and escape (finally a successful DEX save!). Around this time the lights of the Mound Temple finally burned out, but luckily the group still had their light sources from when the place had been unlit.

The party fled to the North, skirting several fungal pods by the large mushroom that had previously spied at a distance. One larger fungal pod remained unburst, and the group decided it was very important to get out before that changed. They escaped into the sunlight and Snowdrop used Control Plants to uproot all of the grass on the mound and compact it onto the entrance, hopefully sealing the creatures inside forever.

They used the original expedition's ropes to escape back to the encampment, where they reported the fate of the expedition to Junior Lector Yonn. The ribbon they had found on the corpse in Spiral Cave proved to belong to Jhel-Frees, who Yonn was quite fond of. The Junior Lector considered the news of her passing to be payment for their borrowed rope.

On their way back to Waterfall City they found the post the man had been tied to surrounded by what looked like lightning strikes, but no sign of the mysterious man.

Thus ended the The Lost Expedition, and the party hoped never have to return to the Temple of the Fungal Lizards again.

Rewards

• 250 GP for each party member.
• Flint received an extra 50 GP for his find of the metallic rod, which ended up being a relic, the Watersnatch. He kept 20 GP for himself and distributed 10 GP to each of the other members.

Reflection

This was a sadly Zedeck-less session, so I don't have any amazing visual notes to share with you. This was also our first proper dungeoncrawl, and it went poorly. I really dislike shopping, and my haste to go, go go on this session resulted in me forgetting that Zedeck had the party's only rope. Luckily we managed to borrow one and suffered only minor complications from the mistake.

Combat in Cairn can be really brutal, and should always be the last result. We accidentally dropped ourselves into the most dangerous keyed encounter in the whole dungeon and then took down the force field that was protecting us. Luckily, we also blinded the creatures at the same time. Now, we should have probably used this opportunity to reactivate the force field and run away, but I feared that not fighting at this moment would result in the deck being stacked against us if we were cornered again in less favorable circumstances. I still think it was ultimately the right call, but boy did it almost result in a TPK.

My favorite thing about combat in Cairn is how fast it is, while still capturing a lot of the same tension and swinginess that you see in other systems. This combat was sort of the equivalent of when you just can't take out an enemy even when you have the right tools and they get really lucky with their return rolls. The difference is it took less than 30 minutes to resolve instead of two hours.

As much as I like to play Cairn as a Roguelike the first session, I do enjoy being able to prepare for things like having to run away from superior foes. While I dearly miss my character's Root Tether, the fact that I had it and Caltrops was the reason that we were able to all make it out alive in one piece. I do wish we had explored more of the dungeon before we got in over our heads. There were mysteries to be solved that we weren't even exposed to because of the rooms we visited first, I just know it.

That's all for now. I'll try to get the next few sessions up in short order so I can actually write blog posts that aren't session reports once in a while.