Session 2 - Group 2 Report

Picking up where the last session left off, the party completed their brief rest to regain stamina before setting off to explore the rest of the ground floor level of the main Academy building. With their Visitor Badges worn around their necks, the animated armor guards did not obstruct their passage into the corridors beyond the entry hall.

Their first stop was at a set of double doors, each bearing a tarnished bronze plaque in the shape of what the group presumed to be the front view of the Academy Hall. In the center of each plaque was an enameled symbol: a red circle with a yellow tongue of flame in its center. After struggling against the hundreds of years of rust that had frozen the hinges, they forced open the doors to reveal what they surmised was a lecture hall. A passage between two raied areas of "stadium seating" led to the front of the room where a stone pedestal sat facing rotting piles of wood that were once student desks and seats. Behind the podium, the wall facing the students was a smooth, dark gray surface that looked like one giant sheet of slate.

Slanesh began investigating the podium, but found nothing of interest. Standing up, and resting his hand on the podium, he announced to the group that there was nothing hidden within it. But as he did so, a piece of chalk appeared out of nowhere and began to write symbols on the slate wall behind him. The other party members were astonished as they realized that they were seeing Slanesh's words transcribed exactly. Even more fascinating, though, was the realization that while Leopold and Matryx were seeing the words writtin in Commonspeech, Nosgoth was seeing Orcish script and Orcish words. And when Slanesh looked over his shoulder, he found himself reading his words in his native Taxlatl tongue and his native, ancient Taxlatl script. The party experimented a bit with this before deciding to move on, noticing that as soon as Slanesh let go of the podium, the magical floating chalk disappeared, and within 5 minutes, the words on the slate wall faded away.

Moving to the door in the corner of the wall with the slate surface, the party found it securely locked with a mechanism that, while apparently not magical, had nonetheless withstood the passage of time without corrosion or decay. A few blows of Nosgoth's great maul, however, reduced the door to splinters. They entered a room that looked like a sitting room/study. A desk had collapsed from rot, spilling books and papers onto the ground. Most of these materials crumbled to dust upon handling, but a few scraps of parchment and three books were sufficiently stable as to be placed into a backpack.

The adjoining room was a bedroom, where they found a skeleton lying peacefully on the rotted remnants of a bed. An empty glass vial was clutched in the fingers of one of the hands folded gracefully over the skeleton's chest. Rotted tatters of fine silk robes partially shrouded the skeleton, but there seemed to be a missing piece as if an area of cloth on the chest had been cut or torn away long ago. The skull was adorned with a silver medallion held in place with a silk headband; neither silk nor silver showing the slightest signs of aging or decay. But when they attempted to remove this artifact, the group found it was held fast to the skull. Not to be deterred, Slanesh simply removed skull and all and handed it off to Matryx. Finally, a piece of parchemtn with what amounted to a suicide note was found - a simple goodbye, and apparently a name for this long-dead individual: Master Spangrove.

The party left the chambers and lecture hall of Master Spangrove and continued to explore the corridors. Eventually, they approached another set of large double doors with the bronze plaques on each. This time, enameled circle in the center of these plaques was quartered into color fields of white, red, brown, and blue, with the image of a gold-colored flask emblazoned over the center. They entered another lecture hall quite similar to the first - except for the debris of a rotted table and piles of glass shards to the left of the podium at the room's front. Examining the debris, they realized they were looking at the shattered glass and porcelain remnants of alchemical flasks, vials, tubes, and vessels, with the odd bit of highly oxidized copper thrown in. Nothing was salvageable. Quick experimentation with the podium revealed it worked the same way as the one in the first lecture hall. They also noticed that there was a stone block with three small steps set behind this podium, suggesting that it's intended user was of quite short stature.

Again breaking open the door to the teacher's study, they found a small room with furnishings clearly intended for one no taller than a halfling (and perhaps even a bit smaller than that!) More alchemical glassware - this time intact, but nothing of particular note adorned a stone table.

The bedroom held another surprise, for this time, instead of a skeleton, they found what they at first assumed was a statue - an intricately detailed stone effigy of a very old Gnome. They then remembered that this was what happened to Gnomes at the end of their life - they petrified rather than decay. This "statue" had another of the silk and silver talismen firmly affixed to its forehead - only removable after Nosgoth picked up the gnome's stony remains and literally smashed it to pieces by hurling it to the stone floor. Another note identified this former Gnome as "Billwilliken Snertblevin, Master of Alchemy". No other treasure was uncovered.

The party returned to the entry hall and ascended the great staircases to the balcony overlooking the entrance. They found two huge wooden doors slightly ajar that led into a banquet hall of sorts. Remnants of long tables and benches rotted away on either side of a central space leading to a raised dais and much more ornate (and intact) table at the far end of the huge room. This table held four large candle holders with enough gold in them to have started Leopold's Treasure Sense tingling. These were quickly collected. A door in the corner of the back wall, marked "Faculty Only", resisted all attempts at opening, so the party left the way they had come in.

The passages on either side of the great hall ended in openings to the outside world - with the wall of another building visible just beyond. Closer examination suggested there used to be wooden bridge structures connecting the two, but these were long gone. While the wall across the gap had a similar opening, it appeared that this other building was lacking much of its roof (based on the ample sunlight visible through the wall opening. Nosgoth considered attempting to jump the gap, but there was no visible floor on the far side, so he thought better of this.

Even stranger was the passage that connected the two long halls that ran along either side of the dining hall. Invisible barriers prevented the group from entering this space. The barriersr also apparently prevented other creatures from accessing the space; there were no cobwebs to be seen anywhere, though there was still a layer of dust. The floor of this passage seemed to have been decorated with twelve intricate inlays of gold, silver, and enamel. Two had parts that resembled the symbols on the lecture room doors. They could also see the door they surmised was the "Faculty Only" door inside the hall.

With nothing left to reach here, the group returned to the balcony around the entry hall. A doorway in to the turret room above the Visitor's Reception area led them into what appeared to be a Custodian's closet. Rusted and decayed remains of buckets, brooms, and mops lay amid the debris of collapsed shelves. A small wooden box lay intact on the floor, though. Nosgoth's hammer made short work of it, and the party discovererd three black iron keys inside - keys that showed no signs of rust or decay. They quickly tested the keys on the Faculty Door in the gathering hall, and on another door marked "Staff Only" in one of the side passages, but they could not get either door to move.

At this point, the group realized they had little room left to carry any more goods if they should come across anything more. They decided to return to the Base Camp with their first day's haul, planning to be more careful with how they packed for their next foray into the Academy, The return trip to Base Camp was uneventful. Details of their return and their activities in camp will be played out in between-session forums.

The session ended here.

Playtesting Notes / Things to Address

FoundryVTT Issues

The Forgotten Academy scene map for the second level of the main hall does not have its walls and doors in place.

There is a need for a master switch indicating when a party is "Adventuring" and when they are "at home base". this switch should control, among other things, whether or not items dropped onto a character sheet go to Possessions or directly to Inventory. This is not a critical item at this time, but it's a bit more than just a "nice to have".

There is a need for a way to easily drop things on the ground (i.e. remove from inventory without deleting the item entirely). Also, passing an item from one party member to another would be useful. This is not a critical item at this time, but it's a bit more than just a "nice to have".

Rules Issues

Changes to rules regarding damage from Ranged Weapons were discussed. While not exercised yet, playtesters were receptive to the changes, and the reasons behind their necessity.

We had a discussion on the "Laurels" part of Laurels and Loot, and how to implement game play around the concept of increasing fame as a party progresses. Two lines of thought were discussed: acquisition of hirelings/henchmen/apprentices/sidekicks, and some sort of "fame/infamy" point system.

The first was discussed at length, with some interesting ideas raised about sidekicks and their progression alongside a main player character. These will be developed and discussed further.

The fame/infamy concept was brought up, but not discussed at length. But I've got some ideas - some with potentially "concrete" rules, others with more flexible framework that might just be "advice to the Game Master". More thought and development is needed here.

Overall Impressions

The playtest session was all "exploration". Player reception was good. There were very few game mechanics employed - except for the party running into the inventory limitation concept, which prompted their decision to return to base after the session. (A good thing!)