Nighthaven Session 2 Report
The random encounter table giveth and taketh away
Session two was a smaller group than session one, but this was in no way detrimental to the party’s fun. One of the primary benefits to the BrOSR style of play is that it allows for a more open schedule where players can come and go as they need to. My players also got to experience some of the fallout that comes from using 1-to-1 time as they discovered that an enemy who had been knocked out in a bar fight took his misfortune personally and is currently on a tear through the underworld establishing a reputation for himself. This was both a blessing and a curse for the players as it gives them a new avenue for completing their current objective; capturing or killing Dietrich The Devil, an underboss in a gang called “The Headless.”
In pursuit of this objective, Flinder (gnome illusionist), Bracca (half-elf ranger), and our Druid whose name I haven’t learned how to spell (if you’re reading this, I’m sorry), set out to the city’s red light district to meet with a prostitute who Flinder knew from his somewhat sordid past. They were also joined by a new player, a human barbarian named Wulfgar who, under intense questioning, insists that he’s never read the Forgotten Realms novels. The players made a few discoveries during this session, notably that the random encounter table can radically change the way a session goes.
They had to cross through two hexes (roughly 1 mile each) to reach their destination meaning two rolls on the random encounter table. The first roll gave them a look at the institutional corruption in Nighthaven and served as an introduction to another major faction. The players witnessed the city guard releasing a prisoner with gang affiliation from their custody. Bracca followed him down an alley and listened as the prisoner was met and promptly murdered by his boss Mandrake Hawke, the leader of Hawke’s Talons. Despite a near miss with the authorities thanks to Wulfgar’s lack of tact, the party left the encounter unscathed but aware of more of the moving parts within Nighthaven.
The second roll had a much greater impact on them. As they approached the red light district, a group of miners ran up to them going on and on about a Kobold attack. After negotiating a fee of 10 gold a head for the Kobolds, the players entered the mines to hunt them. The players went into the fight with the right mindset. They tracked the Kobolds to a cavern with three passages. Their plan was solid, but their lack of scouting the area before enacting the plan made the fight more difficult. The three passages were connected to each other, but the party’s (justified) fear of traps made them apprehensive to explore any of them beyond the opening. The idea was to force all of the Kobolds into a bottleneck and then kill them. However, the Kobolds split up and came out through two different passages. There were a total of seven per a random roll. Five of them carried spears and two carried short bows. The split proved catastrophic to the party as the ranger chose not to bring his longbow for fear of it being confiscated by guards. This meant that the party was entirely without ranged combat save for a single-shot pistol which was looted from the dead prisoner. The party would have been wiped if it weren’t for the Dwarven miner who volunteered to be a torch-bearer for them. The party nicknamed him “Canary” thinking that he would eventually trigger a trap for them. However, it turned out that Canary was devastating with the dagger he carried. The party overcame the Kobolds, claiming their first treasure haul (70 GP) along with the reward of 10 GP per head. They gave Canary a share of the Kobold’s treasure and allowed him to collect the bounties for the two Kobolds he killed himself. As the party left Canary, he had quit his job as a miner and decided to try his luck as an adventurer. They’ll likely see him again.
The party was able to make it to the red light district and visited a brothel known as The Powder Keg. It is owned by Bette Blunderbuss, Madame Superior of The Scarlet Order and it is the workplace of Stiletto or “Stilly” to her friends. While Flinder chatted with Stilly, Wulfgar and the Druid worked their own angle with a member of The Headless downstairs in the bar area. While Flinder discovered that Dietrich was a regular client of Bette's, the Druid convinced The Headless in the bar that she was aroused by watching murders and wanted to watch Mugface (the menace of the players’ own creation) kill someone. She learned that The Headless have a hangout spot called The Chopping Block and that Mugface spent a lot of time there. The session concluded shortly afterwards.
All in all, it was a fun session. The players got their first taste of combat along with the realization that low-level Castles & Crusades doesn't pull punches. They're starting to get involved in faction play and their interest in the game remains high. I'm excited to see how things shake out.