Day 1
Valeros hated this assignment already. As though being a cop in times like these wasn't hard enough, the Magnimar chief of police had reassigned him to some village called Sandpoint. To top it all off, his new partner there was a rookie. The chief had mumbled something about Valeros' excessive drinking and chastised him for carrying around 4 swords and a spear at the same time. The chief obviously didn't understand that weapons tended to get stuck in things, and that drinking helped Valeros obtain information on the low-lifes in Magnimar. Whatever, he thought, how bad could Sandpoint be, anyway?
Starting Deck
Longsword x4 Longspear
Chainmail x3
Crowbar
Mattock
Crow
Standard Bearer
Blessing of the Gods x3
Lem chuckled to himself softly as he leaned back in Sheriff Hemlock's chair. This was going to be the sweetest job he could have imagined. Free room and board, free booze, yes sir, this was the life. Nothing ever happened in Sandpoint outside of the occasional fire or serial killing. Lem was in the lap of luxury, and he hadn't even met his new partner, some girl named Val. This was going to be sweet.
Starting DeckSling
Amulet of life
Caltrops
Sage
Burglar
Guide
Lightning touch
Cure
Inflict
Detect magic
Blessing of the gods x5
Suddenly, the door burst open, and Sheriff Hemlock stepped through, followed by a very surly-looking human carrying way too many weapons.
"Lem, I have told you a hundred times, don't sit in my chair!" Hemlock said, Glaring at the halfling. "I want you to meet your new partner, Valeros. There's been reports of robbers, out at the farmhouses on the edge of town, and I want you to go to investigate. Should be a good chance for you two to get to know each other, and you can show him around the city."
"Valeros?" Lem thought, "This isn't turning out like I thought at all." He sighed and led the way to the farmhouse. Valeros said nothing, and Lem wasn't going to push the issue. Anyone who needed to carry all that crap around was clearly compensating for something. As they approached the farmhouse, Lem could see shadows moving in the fields. He stopped and motioned to the fields, Valeros nodded. He too could see the movement. Lem crept closer.
Lem leapt back as the shadow emerged from the field and reached for him. What was this thing?! As Lem was frozen in horror, a sword emerged from the chest of the creature.
"Do something!" Valeros shouted, as the shadow wrenched itself free of the blade.
Lem instinctively incanted a very basic spell, closed his eyes, and reached for the creature. Sounds electricity filled the air, along with the stench of ozone. As Lem slowly opened his eyes, the creature was gone.
Turn 1 – Blessing of iomedae
Lem
Farmhouse
Explore: Shadow
Blessing + Lightning Touch + Valeros = 2d10+1+3D4 = 17 = success
Recharge lightning touch = success
Detect Magic – reveal locked passage
Recharge fail
Reset hand
Valeros had to admit it, this halfling wasn't completely useless. I mean, sure, he looked like he was going to wet himself when he saw that Shadow, but at least he managed to pull himself together in the end. What a Shadow was doing at a farm, Valeros had no idea, but his curiosity was piqued.
Turn 2 – Blessing of Torag
Valeros
Recharge mattock on Locked Passage
Strength + melee + Lem recharge blessing = D10 + 3 + 1d4 = 9 = success
Reveals dagger, puts it on the bottom
Discard blessing to explore – Sneak
Fail wisdom check – discard crow – buried due to farmhouse
Reveal and recharge longsword + melee = D10+3+D8+D6 = 13 = success
Reset hand
Valeros took long strides toward the nearby barn. It was locked, but fortunately, he was always prepared. He removed a Mattock from his pack and struck the lock, breaking it easily. Inside was a man in a dark cloak, who nearly fell over himself to get away from Valeros, dropping a dagger from his hand.
"Who are you?!" The man cried, as Valeros unsheathed his longsword and strode towards him.
"I'm your worst nightmare", Valeros said coldly, as he plunged his longsword into the man's stomach.
"Umm..." Lem said as he entered the barn, looking in horror at the man dying at his partners feet. "Shouldn't you have questioned him or arrested him or something?" Valeros laughed to himself and wiped his blade on the dead man's shirt. Rookies, he hated rookies.
Well, it wouldn't do to let this dead guy go to waste, Lem thought. He leaned over the man and found a couple vials of liquid in a pouch. Might come in handy, especially if it's booze, he thought to himself as he pocketed them. A noise behind him made him spin around. It was another man, dressed similarly to the one lying on the ground at Lem's hairy feet.
The man's eyes went wide as he surveyed the gruesome scene and he turned to run. Lem wasn't about to let that happen though, as he channeled the energy of the whiskey he had drank this morning and unleashed it as powerful dark energy. The man dropped lifelessly to the ground. Valeros grunted in satisfaction. Lem had had enough of this barn though, and walked through the doorway, stepping carefully over the freshly dead bandit. Sudden pain nearly knocked him unconscious as a powerful blow hit the back of his skull. As his vision slowly returned, Lem saw a truly strange creature shuffling away from the farm.
Turn 3 – Blessing of Irori
Lem
Potion of glibness –int = D6 = 5 = success
Discard blessing to explore again
Potion of vision – Int = D6 = 6 = success
Discard blessing to explore again
Archer – Diplomacy – D10+3 = 8 = success
Discard archer to explore again
Bandit
Recharge Pot of Glibness, draw Cure from Scenario ability
Cast inflict + Valeros power = D10+1+D6+D4 = 12 = success
Fail recharge
Attempt to close – fight random monster
Bunyip – fail wisdom check, difficulty D10
Stength + Valeros = 2D4 = 6 = fail = 3 damage
Reset hand
He turned to Valeros to see that he hadn't even noticed, he was too busy playing with some glasses he had found on the man Lem had killed. As the glasses broke easily in Valeros' hand, he frowned, and dropped them to the ground. Looking up at Lem, he said, "Cmon, stop sitting around. let's go see the owner of this place, he has some explaining to do."
Turn 4 – blessing of Torag
Lem cures himself = 1d4+1 = 4
Fail recharge
Valeros – Eyes of the eagle = Lem recharge + Wis = 2D4 = 4 = fail
Lem knocked on the door of the farm, and it swung open easily. Inside, there were obvious signs of a struggle. As he entered the doorway, he was hit in the side of the head from something foul, and on fire. Lem had had enough of this crap. He pulled out his trusty sling and fired a stone in the direction that the flaming projectile had come from. A cry of pain resulted, and a goblin fell from it's hiding spot in the kitchen.
Turn 5 – Blessing of the gods
Lem – Goblin commando deals 1 damage to Lem - reveal + discard Sling + Valeros = D8 + D6 + 2d4 = 9 = success
Reset hand
Valeros stepped over to the goblin. "Nice shot." he said as he reached down and took a dagger from the corpse. Could never have too many weapons. He looked up to see a very angry looking woman in the doorway. She began chanting and waving her arms around in patterns. Valeros was unimpressed. He walked towards her, longsword ready. He barely noticed the wounds opening on his flesh from invisible claws.
"That all you got, lady?" He said as he brought his sword down, cleaving her in two. Taking a deep, satisfying breath, Valeros turned to his partner. "This house...is clear."
Turn 6 – Blessing of Gorum
Valeros explore – Dagger = D8 = 6 = success
Summon and defeat monster
Echantress – bury armor to avoid damage – Melee + reveal and recharge longsword = D10+3+D6+D8 = 24 = success, takes one damage at the end
Location closed
Reset hand
The sun was setting, and Lem relaxed on the waterfront, watching it set. Today was probably the craziest day he could imagine. I mean, he had his first assignment, met his psychotic new partner, killed and looted some bandits, and got his butt kicked by some crazy seal shark creature that was mysteriously at a farm that had been taken over by a goblin and his magically powered human lover. Or something. It was wild, but at least he survived, he supposed. He turned and saw a small dog coming his way.
"C'mere boy!" He said, patting his knee. A dog could probably come in handy in their investigation! As it came closer though, Lem squinted his eyes against the setting sun. Something was wrong here, and this dog didn't look quite right. He began to run. As he did so, the dog began to chase him, spitting fire at Lem as he did so. Lem hated this assignment already.
Turn 7 – Blessing of Erastil
Lem moves to waterfront
Explore - Hellhound – gets ass kicked
Group runs away
Postgame Analysis
This was my first two-player session of the game. All of my other plays have been with a 6-person group. The game plays very differently based on the number of players, so I found myself learning some important lessons this game.
First and foremost is that you simply cannot burn cards to explore every turn. With two people, you have to make each deck last potentially 15 turns, and there's no way you can do that if you're burning cards every turn to explore. Patience is the name of the game here.
Secondly, combat is a lot harder without the backup I'm used to expecting from party members in the form of blessings, spells and powers.
At any rate, I hope you enjoyed this first session. I have a couple more to write up that I should be posting here soon. See you then!
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