BY THESE WOLVES I RULE #1: From the Eyes of a Painted Bird
Players: Mfree (Adem), Osim (Tuath), Ace (Turgann), Sammy (Ajmi).
Sing, O Goddess, of the Dawning of Brotherhood,
As the sun dawns on the new year...
From the eyes of a Painted bird1 we are guided to the North Kamkoz Valley, a place of low hills and high peaks, a place of high adventure and the ruins of empires, a place of baleful beasts and sinister sorcery.
We come, specifically, to a Caravanserai's gates, in which four wanderers, weary and inebriated, lie in the dry, ochre-toned grass.
The first to state his name to the heavens was Adem, an older man of gold and sword. A member of the city-dwelling Chanu's warrior caste, dressed in raggedy attire of said caste: frayed cloak-shield, a battered belt and a worn-through tunic.
The second member of the band was Tuath, a tall and well-built hunter. Himself drunk on sour wines, he and his Hunting-Lizard "Speck" were farther away from the group, paranoid at the other drunkards that lay outside the doors of the Caravanserai.
The third of them was a man called Turgann, short of height yet strong of build. He carried with him a heavy club and a young Drake by the name of "Scalebeard". The son of slaves from the far western lands of "Mongaad", he left his father's band to seek fame and glory eastward.
The final of the 4 was a taut and lithe woman by the name of Ajmi. A member of the nomadic drake-riders called the Akjusi, she fled her clan at an early age due to it's destruction, selling her services as a mercenary across the valley.
With the final cry of "-AND STAY OUT!" from the Caravanserai's owner, the group had been plopped down into the wilderness. Knowing of a city to the north by the name of Cha-Jornookir, Tuath planned to follow the road leading there. Seeing no other option, the rest of the band planned to take the half-a-day's journey there.
As the Sun began to fall and the Twin-Moons began to rise, the party spotted a herd of 20 Wild Drochs grazing in the distance. Hungry from their travel, the Group forged a plan: Turgann was to scare of the rest of the herd, while Tuath and Speck where to lead one to the rest of the group.
While successful in the first half of their plan, Speck unfortunately drew the attention of a Male Droch, the group prepared for a fight as Speck dodged out the way of it's charge.
Moving from the greater herd, Turgann pincers out on the raging beast as Tuath sets his spear and Adem attempts to grab the beast by the head. A failed a endeavor, unfortunately, as Adem ended up falling on the grass, blown away by the speed of the Droch.
As the Droch rages at Tuath, the huntsman attempts to drive his spear into neck, yet he is not fast enough, and ends up being hammered away by the force, sent flying as a result of the butt. Dexterous Ajmi attempts to drive her spear into the beast's leg, but misses as she is sent sliding on her knees into the dirt. As Turgann readies his club, Adem manages to get up and snag a hold of the beast, wrapping its arms around it's mighty neck.
Striking with the Force of 2 Men, Turgann slams his club over the beast's skull, causing it to be stunned from the sheer force of the impact. Seizing the opportunity, Tuath nails it in the leg, disabling it, as Speck misses his chance at the beast. Adem too makes a strike, jamming his sword into the beast's chest and shattering its sternum, and with a final jab to the side, Ajmi causes the Droch to fall over, dead.
Unwounded, the group butchers the Droch for it's flesh, dividing it evenly amongst themselves and setting forth towards the city once more.
Arriving at the city gates, they are halted by the clanking and thudding of spears against the ground. A squad of 11 Guardsmen, double the usual size of a regular Guard squadron, stop them. Their Lieutenant, unnerved by the blood on their clothes, asks to see their packs. Upon further inspection and dialogue, the weary guards reveal information as the party reveals what they carry: The City is understaffed on Guards due to recent and feverish raids by the Akjusi, which led to the paranoia amongst the people and the Death of the City's Lords.
Entering in, Turgann2 and Tuath book it for the Guest-Home, a common site in Chanu Cities (effectively a small campsite for wayfarers). Adem and Ajmi, meanwhile, seek to find something to wash down their throats and filled their stomachs.
Meeting with an Alewife, Adem began to fall into his usual drunken stupor, as Ajmi listened to the chatter amongst the patrons, learning of the bad harvests and the rage of the local Harvest-God3. With this information, she realized she could upsell her droch meat as a premium for more quality goods.
After a while, the Alewife came to collect her payment, with Adem paying up in 3 decent chunks of Droch meat. Slinging him over her arm, Ajmi and Adem returned to Guest-Home to spend the night amongst 9 other strangers, finding Tuath converting the Droch's meat into Pemmican.
On the Dawn of the Second Day, the group heads to the market to sell off their meat. Tuath meets with a smith, of whom he exchanges droch meat for a knife. Heading back from there, he bumps into a young man. Paranoid as ever, he checks his pockets, finding luckily that the man was no thief. The young man, noticing tuath's spear and meat, offers him Arrowheads. Unfortunately, Tuath was unskilled with a Bow, and left to find more things to buy.
Ajmi, meanwhile, had spent her time looking for a cooking pot. Finding a Ceramicist, offering 2 pieces of meat for one. The ceramicist adds in a clause: if given 3, she'd be willing to part with the cooking pot and a small cup. Accepting the deal, Ajmi went off with her cookware.
Following Adem, we find him looking for camp supplies. Stumbling upon a Weaver's stall, she offers him a bedroll, reliable if a bit rough, for 3 Droch Meat. Adem obliges with her offer.
We return to Tuath, looking for medicine in case of injuries. Stumbling upon an older Midwife, he asks for a bundle of Herbs. Asking for 2 Pemmican and 7 Meat, Tuath settles instead on 2 Pemmican. This leads to the Midwife upping the price to 3 pieces, of which Tuath reluctantly obliges.
Looking now for bandages, Tuath finds the same weaver-girl that Adem found. Offering up 1 day's worth of bandages for scrap-cloth, the weaver girl accepts, with Tuath gaining a bundle of the stuff.
After their shopping spree, the group settles on their next goal: Finding Work.
And that was session 1! Overall, my players were satisfied with the sprawling Weird-Iron Age world I’d set up for them, although I personally had a couple takeaways for myself
The first is to Prep Things as I make them instead of leaving it for later. This is how I got to the nameless harvest god, although that does sound cool as fuck.
Thing 2 is to Roll Encounters and such in advance instead of in the moment to have more time to play.
Speak of play-time, take 3 is to have more “Meat” moments thought out: having more tangible events and beats to have PCs develop instead of just going “okay roleplaying NOW GO!”.
Keeping a Bestiary Here: A painted bird is a thing that's like a cross between a peacock and pheasant, big plumes and crests. A hunting lizard's like a faster iguana with a neck-frill it releases when it senses danger. Drakes are effectively reptilian horses, with some being capable of flight. Drochs are distant cousins of Drakes with a bison-like build, bearing shaggy fur, short necks and wide tails.↩
Turgann's player, Ace, had to leave early so he just handwaved it as his character looking for shelter.↩
of whom I had no name other than "Scythe-God", because I didn't have time to roll a name up.↩