The Keep on Yeoldelands – Session 88 – There Could Have Been Snakes

A fortuitous haul after a holiday break.

Expedition 53a

18 Apr 2024

Alfredward (Dwarf 5)
Mandras (Dwarf 4)
Simon (Elf 1)

After resting and healing for a week in the Tower of Sylaire, the party departed for Ximes and search for more leads on the items mentioned in the note from Chateau d’Amber. Mostly they drew blanks, other than some vague knowledge of Gaspard du Nord being a feared pirate some years ago. Deciding that the city of Vyones, being on the coast, might be a better source of pirate-related intel the party collected their weapons from the Ximes garrison and headed south.

They skirted the woodland and kept to the river bank, looking to avoid the worst of the big creatures and negate the chance of getting lost. They found themselves unable to ignore the sound of dwarven battle cries up ahead, and hurriedly advancing revealed the sight of a pair of very large crocodiles chomping their way through a group of dwarf warriors.

With little hesitation, Alfredward, Mandras and the retainer Hats charged in themselves while Simon hung back (especially after seeing one croc chomp a dwarf in one go) with his sling at the ready. The crocodiles’ energy had evidently all gone on butchering the party of dwarves as they failed to land a single telling blow on any of the adventurers, and were both eventually dispatched.

The last surviving dwarf introduced himself as Sidebottomham, a hired guard for a merchant heading south beyond Vyones. At hearing the word ‘merchant’, Simon immediately started searching the bodies and unearthed a chest. Breathlessly, he pried it open to find it full of gems and jewellery. The dwarves estimated the contents to be worth some 20,000 gold pieces. The remaining guard just seemed happy to be alive, willingly entering into the adventurers’ service as a retainer with a substantial first payment.

The party stashed their loot in their mounts’ packs and continued to Vyones, quickly depositing their wealth with a money lender under the Four Shields Fort collective, pondering the nature of any interest if they had indeed travelled back in time to this region. A more drinks bought around the various taverns uncovered a relative of one of Cap’n Gaspard du Nord’s late crew, who indicated there at least used to be a hideout along the southern coast, but that the pirate himself had disappeared a decade or so ago, around the time of the Catastrophe.

The party spent the next few days traipsing along the southern cliffs until they came at last upon the wreckage of a dingy, noticeable at low tide and leading the way to an opening in the rock. Opting against a smaller, dryer entrance further along which was covered with copious amounts of guano, the adventurers chucked Mandras into the surf armed with a Ring of Water Breathing. Fumbling his way onwards, he pulled himself out of the water to find another boat in full repair inside, which ferried the rest of the party in. Seeing several tunnels and a doorway, the parties readied themselves for another delve.

GM Notes

The random name generator can throw out some silly results. Most of the output comes from Basque surnames and place names, but occasionally it spits out one of my Olde Fantasye names, which takes either an amusing-sounding English word or the name of an England cricketer past or present, and sticks a common place name suffix on the end. Thus we get retainers such as Dimplepool, Gurglebury and Rashidwood. Today we got Sidebottomham, which feels a nice Pratchettesque name for a dwarf.