King of Kings Session 1 After Action Report

 Well one of the main reasons that I haven't been as active on this blog as of late (along with, of course, my semester of college drawing to a close with exams for all of my classes in the last week) was that I have been preparing to actually RUN King of Kings... which I did just yesterday!

For a bit of information regarding the setup of the game, I am running King of Kings as an open table game drawing from a pool of roughly 20 players, although this first session just had four of those players involved. We are playing over text chat in discord simply for ease of use for my players.

Also, this after action report/session synopsis is courtesy of my lovely girlfriend, a person who has been interested in King of Kings since I starting talking to her about it. The bulk of the text below is what she wrote following the end of the session, with little if any edits.

Dramatis Personae

Ghanum Babra, level one magic-user

Ishthyromeda the Small, level one amazon

Manchugo Coldeswain, level one cleric dedicated to Damir, a foreign god of the trade routes

Rohm'Daan, level one cleric dedicated to Anzhalar, a local chthonic god of subterranean flame

(by the way, as an aside, those two gods mentioned were both created by the players of those respective characters, I like having player-made elements form the basis of worldbuilding stuff... will probably write more about religion in King of Kings soon, with more on those deities and their cults.)

As the session opened, the group of four were discussing among themselves which of three rumors they had heard in the surrounding community to pursue. It took only a short time for a conclusion to be reached based on the knowledge they had on hand: the four of them would follow the road to the east to explore a traveler's way station built in what remains of an ancient tower. What in particular they heard of the way station was that in a blocked off level beneath its floor there is a cache of glittering gold.

While traveling on the road, they came upon a group of merchants, led by a woman named Behnam. She confirmed the rumors of gold in the tower, but also warned of the forest's warring factions of highwaymen, and that a den of boars resides near the tower. She also mentioned that her and her group had left a stash of salted meat for any travelers who stop there after them, as a courtesy.

The four arrived at the way-station, and thanks to Ishthyromeda's skill with the javelin, were able to ascend into an elevated entrance on the side of the tower. Investigating, they found that the upper levels were home to dangerous bees, and so elected to descend. The second level down contained a hyena, which the group was able to evade as it was distracted by feasting on the salted meats that Behnam had left behind.

The tower continued downward via a large spiral staircase, ending in a stout door engraved with a dinosaur. The group opened it, finding a chamber too large for their torchlight to reach the edge. They heard footsteps off to their left, which they followed, revealing the source to be a pair of dog-sized fuzzy brown caterpillars. Both clerics attempted to pet the creatures, but were paralyzed by their pale cyan mouth-tendrils. Babra fended one of them off by throwing a knife into the caterpillar's side, but after an ineffectual combat conjured a mystical floating disc to carry the two incapacitated men of the cloth away as they and Ishthyromeda beat a hasty retreat to the entry level, where they made camp and waited for the paralysis to wear off.

And well, this is where the session ended! No treasure was acquired, but the group did learn about the hazards beneath the way station... Normally I would require them to return to a town to end the session but I allowed them this as a bit of a special thing since the way station functions as a fine encampment for the night to allow them to wait for the paralysis to wear off and to regain a spell and whatnot. The group will venture down into the floors below to attempt to snag any treasure they can next week!

I'm really really glad that we finally started, and I actually will be running another session with some different people on Sunday! Really looking forward to more sessions!