We all have satchels except for Bo, I think.
No, Ashlam has a Backpack. The Dungeoneering factor for it was what stuck in my mind (and I haven’t had any Dungeoneer rolls yet, right?) so I hadn’t brought it up [EDTI:as a potential Fighter factor] during any Conflicts that involved Fighter. Mind you it likely didn’t matter much. With my Shield I tend to be on Defend a lot, and Maneuver for Drive Off too because of my rocking Will.
Today’s session ended somewhat prematurely, concluding our trial run of Torchbearer.
Prologue: no conditions or taxed nature to alleviate.
T1 - The party chooses to move the barrels from within the inn to a nearby cache outside… for safe-keeping, and to ensure the loot is not lost if the innkeeper is rescued. This is done without incident, but while returning, the tracks of a young human are spotted (Scout Ob2) leading from the cellar down toward the kobolds kitchen, where the innkeeper had been left behind. The wet footprints proved to have been dried out in the warmth of the kitchen and the trail was lost.
T2 - Carefully searching the kitchen for any signs of the (missing!) innkeep or his daughter (Scout Ob2), the party eventually finds signs of something which has left scrape marks along the ceiling. It is speculated to be some sort of giant spider, which may have carried off the innkeeper and whoever left the tracks.
T3 - Thinking that the spider may have thinned the ranks of the kobolds in the nearby camp, the party cautiously scouts the room (Scout Ob3), confirming that, no, all 20-someodd-plus kobolds are still there.
T4 - Durgan ascends the chimney to confirm if the creature went up that way (Dungeoneer Ob3), before returning to confirm that it is an exit to the outside, but no sign of spiders or humans having passed that way.
GRIND: Hungry
T5 - Ashlam eats, but Abelard and Durgan elect to wait for camp, hoping to stretch the last of the preserved rations to feed them both. Retracing their steps the the “throne room” / torture room, the party heads northwest. Discovering a group of “six to ten” kobolds tending some sort of leathery eggs in a room filled with burning charcoal braziers, the party throws an improvised explosive as a distraction, then charges to the attack. The cornered kobolds engage, and the fight quickly becomes bloody. Neither side survives the wounds inflicted in the brief but phyrric battle.
The disposition and scripting for the kill conflict was pretty brutal. Roland ended up with 7 kobolds in the fight (2 sitting out), against our 5 disposition. The script was AAD vs AAM, but we never got to the third action. The first action was 4 vs 3 (independent), and the second action wiped out the remaining disposition of both sides. TPK on both PCs and monsters.
Our trial run was intended to try out the game and system, but we weren’t initially planning to make it our primary campaign. At this point, the consensus is that we will not be continuing with TB for the time being. Instead, we will try a couple other options (Mong Traveller and BW ShadowRun) as our alpha and beta games.
We’ll probably provide a little more constructive feedback on our experience with the game once it’s had time to settle a bit more.