Actual Play – Elfia’s Tower (7/1/2014)

torchbearer-rpgGM: Sean Nittner
Players: Mark Miller, Alex Miller, and Max Külshammer.
System: Torchbearer
Module: Under the House of the Three Squires

Back in Town. Elfia’s tower even! (Milton’s home town).

This game was a bit rough because Alex was still creating his character (hard to do while town phase is going on) and we had some latency issues. But adventurers are not thwarted so easily. We carried on.

Elfia’s Tower

Originally I was going to have the characters return to Skogenby because it was a named location in Middlemark, but Max really wanted to see his mentor in the Wizard’s Tower, so I thought it a good opportunity to flesh out a bit more of the world.

I went back and forth asking them questions and this is what his home town turned into.

Elfia’s tower is named after the grand wizard that built it, Elfia. She has fostered an entire community of alchemists, enchanters, apothecaries, jewelers, magicians, and other higher trades. There is a school attached and a dungeon beneath it. Because there are few natural resources here, but many amazing creations, considerable merchant traffic comes in and out of the town.

Elfia’s tower has gotten a bad name though, due to some merchants being ensorcled by enchanters, paid with fools gold, or otherwise being robbed by the residents.

When they arrived the town event I rolled was a new sumptuary law and it seemed very fitting to require all wizards must wear conical hats.  Elfia is clearly trying to improve the town’s reputation and hold wizards accountable for their actions!

I also rolled that the Goldsmiths were on watch at the time and so we detailed a few of them. Rastin and Juliet were at the gates. Two journeymen both trying to sound smarter than the other about the ideal temperature for working with gold alloys, and the best unctures to use in polishing gold, alloys to make it stronger and the like. They hardly paid mind to the people entering, except to tell them of the new laws. Neither of them wore hats. Susan the smith is the leader of the Goldsmiths. Maybe she knew Milton’s parents?

Torchbearing in Town on Air

Level up!

Both Milton and Cleg reached level two! Huzza. Milton got a new spell and Cleg gained the Shrewd benefit (able to make Haggler test during the town phase without raising lifestyle).

When it came time (after practicing with his mentor Paul) Milton was taught the spell Eldritch Darts!

Haggling

Cleg knows his stuff. He succeeded in his haggler check so had two options: Hard Bargain or Thriftiness!

Recovery

Milton stayed with his Mentor Paul.  Sleeping on his hard floor he still recovered from being exhausted. Cleg stayed in the inn and recovered from his conditions as well! On their way to being Fresh!

Personal Business

What to do with a locked chest when in town? Hit with a hammer and crack it open. Yay, silver!

To Market!

In search of a conical hat, and other rations, Milton and Cleg went to the market. A local vendor sold simple weaved hats offered simple bulap suited for apprentices, but a traveling merchant from the mountains named Pasang was selling leader caps with imprints of their owner’s initials. While haggling with the vendor Milton heard a man bellowing the name “PAUL!” [Resources Ob 2. Fail: Twist]. It turns out Paul had charmed a goldsmith’s wife and he wanted revenge. Mistaking Milton for Paul (because Milton was wearing Paul’s hat) he nearly took Milton’s head. When he realize his mistake Nieman, the goldsmith demanded to know where Paul was so he could go pulverize him. Milton and Cleg lied, claiming that Paul was on a walk about. Getting the better of Nieman (and spending a lifestyle check on personal business to keep him away from Paul) he earned his cap, twin M’s imprinted into it, with lightning bolts for the tines of the M.

Other items purchased with less fanfare were rations, torches, and a satchel.

Paying the Bills

On their way out of town, with the remaining coin in their purses, Milton and Cleg mustered enough to pay their bills and leave Fresh! (A pretty miraculous feat I’d say)

They also met up with Amos, a halfling down on his luck but with the promise of riches. Dragon’s Teeth that are supposed to be just rolling down the hill from the Stone Dragon Mountain!

Thoughts on this game

Google Hangouts (or any video conferencing for that matter) are terrible for trying to have two conversations at once. At a table, some players can talk to each other about one thing while some others talk about another. NOT SO ON HANGOUTS. Every time I tried to have Mark and Max talk about what to do in town while simultaneously doing character creation with Alex, it was a total dud.

Town phase was pretty smooth. We really just handled recover and purchasing goods as nobody wanted to spend lifestyle on anything else. I called all tests (dealing with Nieman or opening the chest) personal business, so it inclined folks to get out of town quick.

The jealous goldsmith was pretty fun to play. I was just waiting for Milton to fail the roll and gain an enemy, but he made it and evaded the grisly fate!

 

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