In the last report of the events of the Cairn RPG, our vagabond, amoral Anti-Heroes had saved the town of Tiefenwalde only to be ordered to leave Tiefenwalde for good, exiled because of the bad death of Antonia, thought they defeated the demon H’thlux.
Our group of vagabonds, Yslen, the Human Ranger, Boroth, the young Dwarf and the Human Thief were making their way through the forests for two weeks. In the fortnite that our wandering adventurers were moving through the forests, the Thief got separated from the group (player left their character sheet at home and had to roll a new character for this adventure) and Yslen and Boroth pushed on eventually finding the town of Tannic.
Tannic was a much larger town between the forest and the ocean. Unlike Tiefenwalde, the city of Tannic was in the middle of a Summer Festival and things were very lively.
Before I go on, it’s a good idea to note a couple of things. While I love Cairn as an RPG there are some rules that were either not clear or just flat didn’t make any damn sense. So I house-ruled them.
Relax, Saul Goodman, it’s not time to present your case yet.
First, Armor (especially bulky armor) takes up two spaces in your backpack.
No.
It’s worn. It doesn’t go in your backpack. Same with your weapon. You’ll either wear it or carry it but not in the backpack. Right out the gate, between the last session and this one, it was my decision to do away with that and save everyone some space in their packs, mules and carts.
Secondly, Bows, Crossbows and Slingshots don’t have ammo listed at all. I ruled in the very first session that ranged weapons such as these would only start with 10 rounds of ammunition be it bolts, arrows or stones. More can be obtained without them affecting your pack, as there are no rules dictating how much ammo you even have much less, can carry.
Third, rather than use Cairn’s Virtue and Vice tables, I simply had the characters go through The Wretched Verses Issue #7: Sins & Virtues and select one, the other or both. What this does is give the character the archetype of being a hero, anti-hero or something more nuanced over the use of alignment.
So far, those are the only house rules that come to mind that have been enacted since the first adventure/first session.
The count is now up to six players, let’s meet the characters, only two are returning.
Boroth Sunderman – Dwarf (Sloth/Patience)
Yslen Dunswallow – Female Human Ranger (Sloth – Anti-Hero)
Elgile Crumaller – Female Elven Ranger (Gluttony/Temperance)
Emris Weaver – Human Outlaw (Sloth – Anti-Hero)
Canhoreal Smythe – Human Miner (Greed – Anti-Hero)
Borrid Cormick – Human Gambler (Patience – Hero)
Boroth and Yslen were still dirty and their rations were spent from spending several days in the forests and on the roads trying to avoid more brigands and highwaymen. Seeing the town of Tannic was a welcome relief.
Elgile, Emris and Canhoreal are local natives and where mingling about the town’s festivities while Borrid was someone who’d travelled to Tannic strictly for the festival. A crier near a makeshift fighting ring was calling for someone to come in and challenge a man by the name of Bruno, a wrestler who specialized in grappling.
Canhoreal, a miner by trade decided to test his own luck against Bruno. Borrid saw the crowd gathering to look and decided to go all-in on Canhoreal. Bruno taunted and laughed at Canhoreal until Canhoreal drew his sword. A few of the local armed guards stepped to the side of the ring, ordering Canhoreal to surrender the weapon with the referee trying to calm Canhoreal down, pointing out that this was an exhibition wrestling match, not a duel to the death.
With the weapon surrendered to the ring’s caretaker, the match began and Bruno, incensed that he had been threatened, bull-charged Canhoreal and Bruno’s advances were side-stepped and he was tripped sending him face-first into the turnbuckle in the corner. Bruno got up, shook it off and then turned, realizing Canhoreal wasn’t there to grapple but to fight. Bruno threw punches with Canhoreal moving, causing him to miss. Canhoreal stepped in with punches of his own, one landing square in the bridge of his nose, causing Bruno to bleed from a busted nose. Bruno saw red, charging Canhoreal.
Canhoreal unleashed a kick that took out one knee, kicked out the other knee when Bruno got up and then, Canhoreal unleashed a vicious uppercut causing Bruno to become knocked out, landing on his back, looking up at the sky.
Though this was only supposed to be a wrestling match, the crowd cheered Canhoreal as he was awarded Bruno’s former title. Borrid won his bet, receiving another five gold pieces and offering to take Canhoreal for a drink to celebrate their respective victories.
((To be fair, I didn’t present the wood-chopping or rope-slinging event. I rolled with the fight because the sword had been drawn. Gauntlet thrown, gauntlet picked up, yep, that happened.))
Some watched a boxer drunk on ale constantly leaning on a steer that didn’t want to be bothered until finally the steer head-butted the boxer, throwing him several feet into the muck where the local guard picked him up and dragged him off to get some type of medical attention. No one was there to take bets or wager on the boxer’s chances with the steer.
Not too far away from the fighting and the food, a clumsy stilt-walker was marching along and heading for a butter-sculpting competition where an argument had ensued over cheating. A random child rushed out from the crowd as she was being chased by friends, bumping into the walker and sending him toppling over, the butter statues being safe from harm and the argument continued.
The festival’s manager was arguing with a stage illusionist by the name of Larry The Mystical over the safety of the fireworks he’d brought along. Boroth used a wand that wielded fire improperly and set half of the fireworks off while Emris, thanks to his quick-thinking, soaked and hurled a large sponge at the conflagration, keeping the other half from setting off but rendering them useless until they’re dried. The festival Manager and Larry were now in a more heated (no pun intended) argument concerning his use of pyrotechnics on the Festival Stage.
As this chaos and series of events took place, a small army of cats were discovered in the fish kitchen. Yslen and Elgile sprung into action trying to help move the cats out of the kitchen while Emris attempted to aid the cats in their mission for fish. Eventually, the cats were repelled and the Festival Manager finally took the stage and called an end to festivities for the night while recovery efforts got underway.
Our group of disparate adventurers got together and discussed the rumors they had heard. One rumor was of strange harp music coming from the forest that seems oddly compelling. It’s usually heard when everything is quiet. Three of the local young adults took up The Tannic Trek into the woods four days ago for a camping trip that’s considered an honored tradition among the youth but haven’t returned. They also heard that, somewhere in the bog is a treasure that once belonged to Tannic’s former royals. Everyone turned in for the night and will reconvene soon and decide whether they’ll investigate the music, seek out the treasure or possibly try to find the Tannic Three that disappeared into the woods.
Okay so no big combat in this session and plenty of laughs coupled with chaos. This was a fun session with the players numbering from three to now six with a seventh possibly joining us. There’s still plenty more to come and we’re all hoping to make this a regular thing between us all. I’m also currently in the process of creating some laminated paper terrain tiles to be used in the game and just got a new Bag of Holding for my Mobile GM Kit. I also have some alterations to Tannic that I’ll be making, taking some things from The Wretched RPG, of course and seeing if they work. If they do, I’m going to be writing something for a cross-over between Cairn and The Wretched RPG.
I hope my players are ready to have their sanity in question.