Up That Hill

It's kind of strange how things I intended to go quickly take a long time, and things I planned on being important end up being blazed right through. For example, I had expected "the party" to have a problem with me giving them 5 peasants to accompany them. At the very least they were going to cut into the profit margin...so I'd planned out a bit of interaction with the peasant bully boys and the party. But, they were cool with it.

So the party made their way across the plains. For flavor text (or was it?) a horseman appeared on a hilltop a couple miles away. The image I had in mind was of the American Plains along the Oregon trail, when suddenly a single Native American appears in the distance, watching the wagon train. Not moving to attack, but clearly not intimidated. Just...watching. It had the desired effect, forcing the party to halt and have a nice conversation about what to do. Even though "nothing happened" I think it was one of my more successful encounters for the group, and one of the earliest moments of them "getting into it." There was some genuine tension as they tried to figure out if this was a problem...but eventually decided there was nothing to be done and continued onwards. Yay!

I had 2 of the peasants run away the first chance they got...clearly their nerves weren't up to this. But I had came up with something more interesting for the remaining three (Tom, Dick, and Harry) so their nerves held. I pretended to roll dice (sorry Peredu, your awesome intimidate checks were window dressing) to mask this...but with 5 of them there's no way they were all going to pass a random selection by the dice. It's interesting how the dynamic of chance was already starting to interfere with my story...three botched rolls on my part (or three amazing ones on Peredu's) and the new plan I had in store for Tom, Dick, and Harry would have been out the window. But the odds prevailed and three peasants stayed (conveniently renamed Tom, Dick, and Harry...regardless of who rolled which). Again some interesting dynamics of the group started to emerge...Avyx was angry, demanding whose watch they'd slipped out on. Peredu was a little upset that after bonding with them (by yelling at them not to run) they'd betrayed him and ran off anyhow. Norge...well...Norge had decided they were useless anyhow, and good riddance to bad rubbish. Mairwen and Ember didn't say much in this exchange...I'm still trying to figure how to engage each person. What are they looking for? Is it their comfort level keeping them quiet? Do they feel this exchange isn't "tailored" for them? What are a warlock and rogue to say about peasants anyhow?

So remember when I said some things took way longer than expected? Well the party arrived at the hill where the bandits were said to be located. I described it, essentially, as a jumble of boulders inexplicably rising above the plain. Were I to enter science mode I'd probably say it was some sort of glacial kame, and that the plains likely were carved by some glaciation period in the past. I'd described it a little more like Iowa than Ohio...but I'm allowed to alter geomorphology...it's my world.

Anyhow, the hill. There's a copse of tree on the top, brush growing on the sides, and a small river a short ways away. I'd figured that there options were: wait for daylight (as I had them arrive at dusk), or go right up and planned accordingly. They managed somehow to both start and wait forever. They easily spotted the trail up the hill...but after falling into some brush and making a racket got spooked (oh those tricksy dice). And I could not convince them to go up the hill. Mairwen walked around the hill. Norge walked up to the base of the hill. They all walked around the hill. Peredu forced the peasants to walk up the back of the hill and back down. But dear lord were they reticent to go up the hill. Of course, had they simply gone up the trail they would have seen an entrance into the hill they'd missed before. But nothing is simple. (to the right: what a scary hill might look like)

Finally, peasants in front like a shield Peredu ventured up the hill. You know, I must disclose...I didn't get the feel that Peredu was doing the best roleplaying at this point (still our first night), but upon writing down the actions he was pretty active in everything. I've just got to get him more involved in some of the conversations. So finally...atop the hill. And into an abandoned necropolis. Shattered crypts and flecks of bone mark the location of an ancient burial ground...which was almost enough to send them right back down the hill. I'd had enough trouble getting them up the hill (note I didn't really want them on the hill...I wanted them halfway up the front...but they'd been avoiding that religiously since the first moment).

So they explored the hill. They poked the bones. The peasants threw small rocks down the hill. They stared back down the back of the hill. At this point I almost threw a *cough* look down the front *cough* but resisted. They perception checked, arcana checked, nature checked and religion checked all over the wazoo. I have to admit another failure...I wasn't quite as prepared as I should have been for some of their successes...but made enough up to sketch a bare bones reply (and pretend the difficulty was really high). In the future I'll 1) do more prep work (ugh, where will I find the time?) and 2) be more willing to make stuff up.

Finally they started to walk back down the hill...and someone looked down the front of the hill immediately seeing the entrance. At this point I broke "character" and expressed a little of the frustration I'd had "I just could not get you to walk up the front of that hill!" Subtext? "Get up that damn hill soldier!" There were some odd expressions, as the "duh...it was that simple" and "we didn't do that?" competed for space. On the one hand they learned something about what it's going to be like when they come across entirely unknown territory to the DM (and learn they're on the "wrong" track) and also how to make sure they've done everything they thought about doing. I, on the other hand, learned they're not going to do things the way I deem simple, and there is no "wrong" track, I just need to learn how to take that wrong track, and lay track desperately in front of the oncoming train...and hopefully smash my predicted path into the way.

The funny thing is, this was a very informative time...don't write stories so a bad roll will halt the party (a failed stealth check made them afraid of the hill), learn how to conceal directed story with the appearance of infinite choice, and the first inklings of roleplaying in my party. We'd probably spent an hour to this point and not had a single real encounter. The story so far?

Met. Got job to take out bandits. Walked to hill (saw scary horse guy, lost 2 peasants). Walked up hill. Saw cave. Decided to enter. Pretty basic stuff, yet somehow we'd spent over an hour getting there exploring nuances of the story and my mind (at this point...pretty empty and simple). Next entry...they'll enter the hill. And see what awaits them under the cemetery.