Griffin Mountain: Part Six (session two).
Roll call this week: Daranth (Played by Oldhawkeyes) a Storm Bull warrior; Grundle (Played by N.) a native Balazaring tribesman guide; Olyander (played by Oly) a Lhankor Mhy Scholar; and Rosrolar (Played by Strozek). Two players decided not to return; so we had two extra NPC's Ulia, an Issaries merchant; and Bronir, a Humakt swordsman. This session began with a recap by me of last session. (I'm going to refer you to Griffin Mountain: Part five) We began with the group putting out a fire on their Caravan's wagon, and then grabbing what they could from it. When I told the group that the fire was surrounding them they decided that the new NPC's, Ulia and Bronir would pull the wagon out of the fire. Their new allies the Black Dog tribe (of Elkoi) decided they wanted to travel all night to Elkoi, and their tribal stomping grounds. When the group got within a few miles of the Citadel of Elkoi the Black Dog tribesmen started to say goodbye when another group of Balazaring tribespeople approached them. The new group were The Tiger tribe of the Citadel of Elkoi. The leader of the Tiger tribe was a large, powerful woman, Kills With One Hand. The party wanted the Tiger tribesman to pull the wagon to Elkoi, but Kills- wanted too much they decided. Olyander tried to sweet talk Kills With One Hand into a better deal, she made a pass at him. The Tiger tribe had sent out out two runners while they were negotiating, and shortly the group found out why. Two Guardsman from Elkoi rode up on iron shod horses. The guards told the party they owed a fee for entry to Elkoi (I occasionally mentioned that the sun was setting). The party decided they didn't want to spend a night outside of the Citadel. Daranth paid his fee (plus a little extra) and asked the guards if he could teach the Trader they had Caravanned with a lesson. While Daranth put pro-wrassling moves on the Trader, the others talked. They decided to offer a crossbow in payment. That was readily accepted by the greedy guardsman as a deal, and the whole group PCs, and Tigers, and guards (oh my!) made their way to the front gate at Elkoi. Once they arrived they were met by the Local Lunar commander who asked them the same questions, and asked them to pay the fee to enter the Citadel again. Daranth squared his debt by explaining he had already paid the guard, and the fee for entry for the others was covered by the crossbow. The Lunar commander got Daranth's money from the guard, and told the party that Daranth's payment would cover an one other entry fee. Daranth offered to cover Grundle with the his extra. The other two character's tried fast-talking the Lunar but to no avail. Kills With One Hand offered to let the Olyander and Rosrolar join the Tigers outside the walls for the night. Daranth and Grundle decided to stay at a cheap Inn. They paid for nice accomodations and a whole wine cask for the bar to drink. Olyander and Rosrolar joined the Tiger tribe for a much more rustic experience (including a horrible fermented milk drink). Lessons for me as a GM: One, the players seemed to like the fast pace I used (this was all in Two hours); Two, the players were comfortable asking for time to discuss things and no one seemed bored; Three, Glorantha background knowledge was a sticking point for only a person or two; Four, the fast pace of the game created a sense of action for me (and there were no complaints about a lack of combat); Five, our play mode (Discord voice only) made the players hungry for images so when I provided a drawing of Elkoi (from the game) they asked questions based on it; Six, a group of four people seemed to me to be a sweet spot for engaging most of the players the whole game; Seven, the one bad night encounter with the Broo left the players with the sense that travel overland was dangerous (they really wanted into Elkoi, or some safe space for night time); Eight, my preparation for this session was writing out a brief flow chart of a couple of sentences that I could refer to time and again for events; Nine, having a defined goal for travel (to Elkoi) really made a great short term goal for the session. Shout out to Jenx (again) for game best practices, and to all the Players of Griffin Mountain.