Play Report: Orestruck by Amanda P. (Cairn 2e) - Session 1
I've begun an in-person campaign of Cairn 2e with a couple pals and my partner! We're running on Sunday mornings until we get tired of it.
I went back and forth between a few adventures, but decided on Amanda P.'s excellent Orestruck. Spoilers for it will follow!
Session 1
Players/PCs present:
- Dennis - Brüm (she/her), a grizzled older Prowler
- Jesse - Creit Acke (he/him), a young money Outrider and his horse Seetha
- Jonny - Jarnathan (he/him), a middle-aged Fletchwind with his trusty falcon Freyja
The trio arrives at the trailhead above the Village of Pact, having heard tell that Count Cecilia was offering a sizeable sum to any adventurers willing to delve into the disaster-struck Capellia Mine to retrieve any missing miners and her missing geomancer, Irmgard.
They meet an old soldier named Agnise who gives them the lay of the land, including that a boatman named Symon has recently had his father's grave burgled. She shares a pull on her pipe with Creit, and they head down into the village.
They make their way straight to Count Cecilia's pavilion on the edge of town, and learn some more details of the mine disaster. Apparently, Irmgard was attempting to open a seam in the rock for further mining, and there was a massive explosion, loosing some sort of monstrosity from the depths of the cave. Cecilia offers 500gp per party member for the recovery of Irmgard (or his body) and any missing miners. She also expresses interest in his notebook, which she assumes is somewhere in the mine. Finally, after ascertaining the party's trustworthiness, she confides in them that she will also pay handsomely for any information they may discover as to the whereabouts of the notorious pirate Captain Enid, who is supposedly hiding in the nearby area.
The party heads to the Boarding House to question the mine foreperson, Lena, and are immediately accosted by a brute in a tricorn hat named Flint who is also looking for the pirate Captain Enid. His ill manners and aggressive questioning doesn't endear him to them, and they piss him off until he leaves.
They meet several other townsfolk: Matthias, the wizened bartender, a cousin of Cecilia, who tells them that as teenagers, Enid had a fling with the Count; Lena, the tough-as-nails mining foreperson, who tells them about a strange mural that they found in the mine, shortly before the disaster; and Symon, the salty old boatman.
The trio inquired after Symon's boat, but he refused to leave the village until the graverobber who desecrated his father's grave was brought to justice. He led them to the small graveyard at the edge of the town and pointed out the grave. Brüm searched the grass nearby and found some leather strands worked with beads.
They questioned several villagers, including Agnise, and discovered that a junk salesman named Oswert frequented the village, and that he sold trinkets like the ones they found near the gravesite. Agnise said that he typically stayed at the encampment across the river, though by this point it was getting late. Cecilia had offered cots in a tent at her camp, so the party returned to the pavilion and quickly fell asleep.
The night did not pass uneventfully. All three were visited by strange dreams of skeletal statues, wheeling stars, and strange rhizomes planted with blood. Brüm and Jarnathan awoke with a tug in their hearts to the southeast.
The party then set off to the east in search of Oswert. They came upon the bridge, ruined. A large troll who lived beneath it bemoaned the lack of assistance from the village in repairing the bridge, and convinced the party to assist him in putting it back together. Their new troll friend, Grork, informed them that a large monstrosity, with “many legs” destroyed the bridge, corroborating the description given by Lena and the miners.
After several hours of hard labor, the bridge was repaired, and the party rested underneath it in Grork’s small cave. The next morning, as rain poured through the trees, the party trudged across the river to the encampment. There they met Beatrice, the ranger in charge, who pointed out Oswert’s sad little tent, next to a fortune teller’s wagon.
Oswert took off running through the rain, though he was quickly routed by Creit and his horse Seetha, who drove him backwards… directly into Brüm‘s bear trap. Oswert, in exchange for removing the trap, confessed to burgling Symon’s father’s grave, and the trio collected the missing finger bones from his trinket box.
We ended the session with the party deciding that they were going to take Oswert to Grork to help him maintain the bridge.
Notes:
Overall, I think it was a successful first session! A lot of setup and gathering information, but now the world is in motion. We only had a couple rolls, which wasn’t too surprising. The players really enjoyed the NPCs and the dreary forest setting, and are eager to get to the dungeon.