Friday's session on the 15th started with a discussion and clarification of the experiece bonus rule I mentioned in my last post, written the day before. I'd settled on a bonus of 1% per 500 years of age, 2% for the presence of a World Heritage Site and 1% per 25,000 persons. This gave Budapest a total of 11% added experience to any encounter that would take place within a two week period of the characters having ventured there. The cut-off date was Jun 14, 1650.
A map of the player's progress is shown below:
Before leaving, a discussion was had regarding the players perhaps being more willing to enter into combats, perhaps dangerously, being induced to do so. This was particularly brought to the fore when it was discovered that seven vials holding an obscure pink liquid found among the dead at the owlbear combat turned out to be faerie blood, very possibly related to the events of the characters' first session. Deciding to sell the vials, which were treasure earned in battle, the party learned that not only were they stoked by their presence in Budapest to an additional 11% bonus to their experience, this came on top of their ordinary experience... so that at least one member of the party, Lexent, received a bonus of 23% for their share of the vials. Though this really only amounted to a bonus of perhaps 40 x.p., it mattered... and so, yes, the question about the effects of the rule were considered.
True to my post about travelling, I managed the party's intended journey from Budapest to the little river burg of Domos, where they were to be smuggled across the Danube into Hungary, to make a safe journey with their Croatian companions, Barica and Kornu, down to where they would attack the blockhouse. My intentions as a DM, however, were entirely arbitrary; I decided that the party had been betrayed, so that when they got to Domos, they learned that the two boatmen there had been caught and executed for smuggling. The party discussed alternatives; Barica suggested a safe house near Bodajk, at the bottom centre of the map, where a couple would be able to help them out of the Ottom an Empire and the Sanjak of Bakony, which they entered into by travelling first to Dag and then across the provincial border on what amounted to a wide "cart path."
And thus they travelled, wondering about the executions, wondering about the people they were headed to find (having something to think about helps enormously with travel), while I rolled random encounters for each hex, turning up none. The party reached the village of Csakvar, found it peacable and Ottoman free, and so discussed the best way to get to Bodajk. They decided to pass through the wilderness hex and not the type-5 hex directly west of Csakvar... and I rolled an encounter.
I'd decided before Thursday that if I rolled an encounter in a wilderness hex, I'd make it at least a small dungeon. Thus I rolled on this list of woodland creatures, turning up a cougar. Lexent the gnome, who has the sage ability olfactory acuity, took a sniff at the hole with his authority-status skill and smelled "cougar." The opening was a sink hole, which presumbly the cougar had used for it's lair; the party talked and agreed, without the Croatians descending with them, to check it out. Odsbottom, a servant, and Edvard, a man at arms, also remained outside the hole.
I did not want it to be a mere cougar lair, so I decided the sinkhole would reveal a cave, which then I rolled for again only to get the answer on a 1 in 40 chance, "cougar." Sometimes the dice are just silly. I took the option after cougar, assumed the option after couger would have logically eaten the cougar, so despite smelling one, the party never did find a cougar nor any sign of one.
Lexent did smell brimstone when they entered the cave. And they did find a strange piece of red glass, that was probably more like a red fingernail, but they made no connections. They chanced not to see the scoring of claw through rock, walking right over it having failed their checks (they didn't check, I told them to roll a wisdom check and they failed). Thereupon, Pandred decided to roar a fight song while they descended the 40-degree slope into the deeper cave.
At which time, having revealed themselves, the cave filled with fire breathed by a hatchling red dragon with 1 hit dice, 11 hit points, an armour class of -1 and a breath weapon causing 10 damage. Three (perhaps four, I don't remember exactly) of the crew made save. The rest didn't. Fenwick, a non-level with 7 hit points, nearly died, but as he's a soldier, he can be reduced to -3 and live. So he did.
The party sort of hesitated. Mikael decided not to stay. Pandred said that his 1st level druid henchfolk decided not to stay. The rest went down, fought the dragon and...
... it got a little bloody, but no one died. Baby dragon did almost 10 damage for every hit point it had. The party found it very hard to hit the AC, learned that between incidental damage and buffeting, along with an extra tail attack not found in the original Monster Manual, that even a weak version of this beast is fairly dangerous. It was over a thousand pounds but I ruled that the bite was only 2-16, the tail 1-10 and the talons 1-6. About 40% of full for the bite and 25% each for the tail and claws. It was, after all, only a baby.
The party did all right with treasure.
The table above shows the benefit from the "13%" add-on (Budapest and two fresh hexes, 1% each, entered in the last 24 hours) and their own natural bonus. Arduin got experience because he did suffer the breath weapon. Fenwick rolled morale and found the courage to join in, after Lexent restored his hit points with Aid.
Some discussion followed as to whether the party should have pressed on, or run away after the breath weapon, and if the x.p. bonus affected their opinion. My belief is that parties won't run anyway, x.p. bonus or no. I think the party came to the same conclusion. They set off for the safehouse in Bodajk, the encounter taking up about an hour and a bit of game time.
Not only did they find the house with their allies burned out, they also found a troop of hippogriff riders sitting around the house, seeing if someone showed up. The party made haste not to show themselves, retreating into the forest. Augury was employed, which provided them evidence that they had been "betrayed," and not by their two Croatians. On the fifth, they began travelling off road, first north, then west, avoiding encounters and steadily running out of food. This food issue became increasingly difficult. The question of how far the betrayal might go also came up. Eventually, reaching the river where the dotted black line on the map above ends, they spent two days catch fishing, demonstrating that with a large enough party committed to the task, 12 altogether, it was probable that more would be caught then needed to be eaten. Fishing is a low-effort activity, so persons only need 2 lbs. a day when fishing, as opposed to 4 lb. a day when travelling.
And that was it. The note I made on the map is there, as is Pandred's last comment about the new X.P. rule, which I used to title this post. What I like is that it's real, it's level-balanced, but it's not so much that it really makes more than a light benefit. It certainly isn't game breaking, and would still be useful for a 9th level character as it is for a 3rd. Those who doubt it's veracity, it's been game tested. I'll report on future elements of it if anyone shows interest, but for now it should be assumed I'm using the rule.
Each hex the party entered has a little blue dot. It needs a different coloured symbol, I just haven't determined one yet.
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