Sixth Hydra Playtest Session – Attack of the Dandy Highwaymen!

Usual Preamble from your Hydra DM, DocFusion.

So, another play-test session last night at Wargames Heaven – the only RPG Club worth bothering with in Brighton. Only about 1.5hrs of actual play I would say once we took into account the late start for a variety of reasons. So this is what we managed to achieve in a short space of time. I’m definitely finding it hard to hold all the plot-threads together and slipped a couple of times, but used my usual DM tactic of – “oops, you’re right – that shouldn’t of happened – let’s rewind” it worked fine and that’s how it should be. So DM advice, don’t try to mangle the events after the fact – if a player catches you out in having got something obviously factually wrong – just acknowledge it and re-do it.

By the same token if a player notices they have made an obvious error with the mechanics they have learned or you do- immediately re-do that too. It’s a two-way street of being able to re-wind/re-do things when you are a DM – but the DM calls the shots with the rewinds. Although of course you want to avoid them altogether if you can help it. Be prepared if there is resistance to a re-wind/re-do  of a decision to point out a past re-do on both sides to help support the argument that it needs doing – plus remember that the DM in the end is the ultimate referee and this rule should be invoked if it is in the ‘best interest of the game’. That’s the DM’s priority – number one, not the players, not themselves, not the characters per se – but the ‘best interest of the game’. I’ll ramble on that topic later  in another post to unpack what I mean by that – meanwhile, let’s get back to the ranch!

My thanks to Vincent, Jordan and George my trio of Hydra play-testers to continuing to put up with my indie-mashed system. I’m still developing and tweaking in play-test and they are very tolerant of that. It’s an exciting process :).  My apologies if they felt I was a bit ‘killer DM’ in this session – and yes I was when I had a character with killer intent to play – although let me be clear about it. At times the DM is in a narrow sense out to kill characters if that subserves the NPC’s intentions. PC’s do the same to NPC’s/Monsters and some NPC’s/Monsters will be therefore be the same. That’s not imbalance or unfair in my book it’s how this world works.

It’s indiscriminate (don’t care who the player is) and fair, in  the sense that if it’s ok for a PC to polish off one of my monsters or NPC’s, then it’s as fair if the DM’s monsters/NPC try to do the same to you. See the events of the ‘Dandy Highwaymen Attack’ below to catch my drift and an episode of mutual re-winding. So, to re-cap -there is a difference between a DM’s character killing a character because that character is motivated to do so, and the DM doing it to spite a player.  Yes to the former, no to the latter. That can be a tough lesson to learn for DM’s and PC’s. There are no favourite players in my games, all are as much a potential victim or success as any other. I enjoyed all the characterizations and moments – better/worse that arose. And there were some doozys last night.

So let’s tune in to the ongoing adventures of (in no particular order) the group that comprises of:  Iswan ‘The lucky, lucky’ Bastard, Glenda ‘Dead-eye-shot’ of the Plaza and ‘Cool-Hand’ Antiva of Kutan. Apologies for any misspellings. They are my own. Again this recount is necessarily DM biased. I will add some DM after-thoughts  and in writing thoughts and tips as per usual, if you catch my drift. No major NPC’s or DMC’s were  harmed in the making of this session.  Some minor NPC’s were seriously harmed and it looks as if one is most definitely on his way off the mortal coil of the PC’s get their way. This was PC-only stuff with no bail out NPC’s available to influence the game, except for in some key non-combat story-telling moments. They are going it alone folks in this episode. May the Gods of Trouble look away now.

After the Ware House Investigation. (See Session Five)

I didn’t call for a re-cap and on reflection that was a mistake on my part. I recommend on asking everyone in the party to help contribute to a re-cap – ‘what do you remember happening last time?’ is a good cueing question to co-reconstruct as a group a recollection of where we were all at.  Then everyone can chip in, the DM can be reminded of events and embellish with some polish. Instead no, I piled into a bit of pre-game whilst I was waiting for Jordan/Antiva to be free to join in the game. So, things were a little fragmented. Bad DM. Naughty.

Antiva needed some healing, even after being given at a low-price thanks to his Trollkin Fan Riffkin, a cut-price potion of healing last session. He was moaning and groaning on his death-bed in the Cracked-Head in Iswann’s room about not being in the comfort of his quarters in Ulris’s School of Wizardry in the Northern Quarter. The others couldn’t risk moving him however because of all his harsh injuries, and Iswan selflessly went in search of the Hag during the week to ask her for more potion. He’d told her he’d be back and he meant what he’d said. She’d said not to, and she’d meant that as well. However, the hand of Chance, the highest of all orders in Nehwon swung in favour of Iswan.

The Hag wasn’t feeling herself and was distracted by apparent visions of the future during his visit. In this state of clairvoyant weakness she gifted him a strong potion of healing for the small matter of $200 Smerduks, and told him that ‘You will all meet an ugly fate…. In the darkness…. In a Tower…. In the Tower of Orton’. It wasn’t one of her happier moments let’s say that and Iswan was glad to be out of there with the dripping seething potion of the Overlord Knew What in his hands. My his pocket was getting lighter these days – adventuring was expensive and he may have to pay his cousins a visit soon unless they struck it big in this venture. Or Antiva grew cautious. Nevermind.

Glenda wanted to check out the value of her spoils and sort out LilyBlack her friend who also fenced stuff professionally for a living. During this week Antiva rested up and everybody caught some ‘downtime’. Glenda eventually found her in the Plaza leaning against the Dark Fountain. She appeared pleased to see her and the feeling was mutual. They chatted for a while and caught up and then LilyBlack checked out the gems Glenda had scavenged, and the swords. ‘Yeah $250-400 odd Smerduks I reckon. Give me 10% and I’ll do it for you. Give me a couple as a sample of quality and I’ll nail you an exact quote from my sources no problem. The swords – well I don’t deal in weapons. Sell them at the Caravanerserai maybe – although he is a bit squeaky clean that guy’.

Once again Lily tried to persuade Glenda to get her a job in the Guild and was put out to hear the usual ‘I’ll think about it’ retort. They went their separate ways.  Lily had said she would find Glenda when she had a buyer for the stones. Glenda headed to the Cracked Head for a meal and was relieved that Fillestro seemed well disposed towards her that afternoon. At the same time Iswan had come down to the bar, followed later by the recuperated Antiva who was feeling uncommonly better from the exspensive ministrations of the Hag’s foul but efficacious concoction. Darn that was a good potion – but gosh, it hurt buying it and using it! So unpleasant having everything knit back together so quickly. Weird.

They were joined momentarily by their friend the irrepressible Burli. He looked wiped out. He was uncommonly tired. He’d been up all night for several nights in a row doing what needed to be done in securing the release of Amberrh his barbarian princess side-kick.  She’d got caught up in some fight or other and ended up in Gaol again. Of course there was also the  matter of his lost wrestling match which perhaps interconnected with this. Burli quizzed the others on their latests exploits and whistled at the tales of the Bearfolk.

They had a name for them now – the Grungh. Tales of these were getting about the city – mostly written off as madness, but Iswann had a bear-skin cloak as proof. Glenda appeared to disapprove of this for some reason. The Grungh were fabled stories – a people who allegedly shifted from human to bear in their form, their origins lost in the midsts of people’s bad recollections. Glenda had heard of similar stories from talking to Lily earlier about the sacking of the minor temple of the Gods of Trouble in the Park District. Lily had also warned her to hide the Jade statue as the temple wanted it back, and it was stolen in the raid. No doubt these things connected. They’d found it on the bear-people these ‘Grungh’ if that’s what they were when they were at the Warehouse of Pilsbury.

Iswann also shared his tale of the Hag and her scrying of the future. Burli was for once deadly serious. He warned Iswann – “She told me my future to one day – unbidden years ago. I thought nowt of it at the time – she foresaw that I would be abandoned by Ulris. I’ve had the last 9 years as a toy-maker and a wrestler scraping buy on odd-jobs and can I get a favour from that Wizard? No. He shuns me. So, she was right. How did she knows this unless she has the eye to the future and the ears tuned to the voice of Fate? If you are destined to be in the Tower of Orton and suffer cruelly at it’s magicks so it will be. That’s a grand story of old from the Year of the Beleaguered Snake, many summers ago, beyond our combined life times. It’s a story passed from Elder to Elder. The Tower of the Beastmaster Wizard  or something like that I once read of or heard of somewhere – a lost place in knowing and in Nehwon too. It’s incredible – but if she says it will come to pass – then it shall, somehow. I don’t envy you – but you should find out all you can”.

Iswann had  already had it in mind to visit his distant second removed cousin the Sage – what was his name, ‘Finkbartel the Knowing’ or something like that he traded under, the respected guilded member of the ‘glorious and ancient order of the most esoteric Sages’ up in the posh parts of the city. He’d been thinking over the portent of the Hag even before he’d caught up with Burli over the supper table. Antiva was looking stoically at them both and agreed in his brief way that he would join in this trip and task. The thought of a Tower of Magic from times past intrigued him. They got Tom to order them a carriage to take them to the northern quarter. In the meantime Glenda popped to the Alchemists Workshop at the back of the Cracked Head near the market.

She spoke to Silver the smooth-tongued handsome devil of an immaculate young Alchemist in his disturbingly spotless front of house. She blinked at his superwhite teeth. He was a charming devil. He examined the strange brown crystal type powder and he said it was a component of several alchemical powders and mixtures. He said it could be made into a potion of Trollskin with the other components and that it was used in some other remedies unproven by the Guild of Alchemists and unsanctioned. A potion of Troll regeneration was in development but as of yet the results were umm, highly unsatisfactory. He offered to purchase the bag for $500 after weighing it.

Glenda thought she would hang on to it, which he shrugged off. He encouraged her to ask other Alchemists to give her quotes if she thought she was being hard done-by somehow. She wanted a poison and his suspicions aroused he pointed out that sale of Toxins and Poisons was handled on a special register. He wanted to know what it was for and she said that it was for pests, and then after that it needed to have the strength to kill a bear. Silver pointed out that he was good at forgetting things and for not writing everything down and so Glenda felt encouraged to reveal the latter piece of information. Silver joked about the size of her pests. He agreed to make two doses of contact poison, suitable for arrow use, basically forget the paperwork, for $150. Glenda wasn’t so keen at first on this so he suggested that if she give him a few ounces of the Alchemical substrate powder, he’d settle for that and discount her the poison. She agreed and he said she should come back in a couple of days.

Glenda found Tom scurrying up the alleyway to tell her there was a carriage ready and waiting for them. The driver drove the handsom-type cab, only half covered and open at the front northwards towards area of the city that was in the shadow of the infamous Overlord’s Castle. It was a tedious journey and a bone-shaking one. They fell into silence as the carriage shook it’s way around the corner into Pimp Road an hour or so later, and then from nowhere an arrow exploded into the side of the carriage. The driver panicked, the horse reared and he fell off as he brought the horse to a sudden judderring halt in his fear and dread. He failed to hear the commanding voice of Iswan to ‘Drive on! Drive on!’.

Masked brigands swarmed out of the topiary and underbrush of the immaculate street. They dressed as ruffians, but on closer inspection were very well armed, superiorly armoured and also had immaculate wax moustaches and were very well groomed. They were part of the infamous band of street banditoes called the ‘Dandy Highwaymen’. Not until later does this sink into the party’s consciousness. A vicious battle ensues. One of the bandits attempts to climb into the carriage and is warded off by Glenda with only her stilletto blade – straight to the neck! Antiva weaves his magic upon his cestus whilst he has the chance.

The Highwayman runs off clutching his near lethal wound, cowardice the better part of valour. The coachdriver dives and crawls under the suddenley halted carriage and goes to raise the alarm from the militia. He is running off in terror. This leaves two further brigands who advance with hatchet and broadsword. They are both masked. Iswan dismounts the carriage and takes on the swordsman, who shirks the fiorentine style in favour of the two-handed approach. The masked bandito uses a spinning strike to rattle the Bastard. The Bastard parries well, but feels it is just a testing blow. This opponent has mettle! As his combat proceeds one on one they trade blows. It is vicious. To begin Iswan has an upperhand by slicing his opponent deep in the thigh, but not deep enough for he is well armoured and also well-seasoned and uses the pain. He drops to the knee and cuts at Iswan with a scithing blow not in the text-book but practically murderous. Iswan takes hits from the masked Dandy swordsman.

They continue to evenly trade blows with each other but the Highwayman has the edge and Iswan realises that this man will kill him if he drops his guard. At one point he is so perilously close to being run through, but his armour just saves him from being stabbed to death. (DM Note – This is where we had a rewind as I’d nearly killed the PC, but then he recalled his armour profile – so that saved him – I don’t think Vincent enjoyed my NPC trying to kill him where he temporarily lay – he complained understandably of game imbalance but see my above opening comments). He cut viciously in riposte to the assaillant’s head and could not fathom how his blade was turned by so flimsy appearing a leather mask. However the Dandy keeps going in spite of the blows. He is strong, fit and well protected. The swordsman is meeting his match at this moment as the Dandy gives as good as he gets with strong cuts to Iswann’s abdomen and chest.

Meanwhile, Antiva jumps off the carriage and pounds his fists and stabbing cestii into the chest of the approaching Bandit who’d been hacking at the horses reins and tackle to prevent the carriage from being dragged off by the horse. It was a good blow, but his opponent is just too well armoured and steadfast to be overwhelmed by the audacious move but ill-timed moved. The bandit swings his hatchet unthinkingly and unflinchingly at Antiva who uses his standard practice of counterstriking. Antiva attempts to drive his opponent into the flailing hoofs of the panicking horse and nearly succeeds. His opponent is grunting under the force of his blows, but is standing and grimly determined to hack Antiva to bits. Simultaneously Glenda, fresh from stabbing the first assailant  has jumped to her feet, climbed up to a good vantage point with a knocked arrow even with the carriage shaking from the thrashing steed. She is about to help out Antiva, but hearing the wailing of Iswann intermixed with his opponent from their cutting injuries – which are getting potentially life-threatening, she circles precariously and shoots the Dandy at point-blank range in the face. It penetrates his left eye socket and he staggers away from the collapsing Iswann. Iswann is down but not out. He is badly cut up from the trading of fearsome blows. His opponent is down on the ground clutching the arrow in his eye – not unconscious but screaming from the pain and bound to bleed out from the atrocious wound.

End Notes.

In mid-combat that’s where we had to leave it as the gaming place was shutting up. This is someway gives me a chance to consider combat options as it does the players. I’m hoping they realise that Hydra is a lethal combat system! Also its not a system of level vs level either, it’s about advantage, skills, equipment, magical defenses and so forth. I’m thinking they get it :). They are no doubt getting tired of being hacked to bits and Jordan is resolved to getting some kind of armour for himself. They are definately appreciating the value of being best prepared and also best equipped for circumstances.

I’m happy with the plot-threads/themes emerging. Sowing the seeds of later adventures nice and early. If you are following the scenario write ups then hopefully you’ll see them come to fruition in later games. My other gamers are revving up to join in, so it will be good to get the group balanced up with more seasoned players and a wider variety of views and dynamics. People seem to be enjoying the game and its good to see character development coming out. Jordan had done some work on his character background which I shall be integrating into the game once I’ve had a chance to look it over. Got some skill development to do for the Mystic-Monk-Mage which will get covered in the next pre-game session. Roll on next Thursday! Comments as usual most welcome :)