Grendel's Stepdad

Play Report Aug 19 2025 - DCC Keep on the Borderlands Open Table (IRL)

Introduction

Things become routine. No new players this session, but a solid core four has emerged!

This session was bliss. The table is embracing the campaign pitch with gusto, striking a balance of paranoid tactical panning with getting dangerous. Risks were taken, plans executed and thrown away, gold and blood flowed aplenty. On a few separate occasions I was able to just sit back while the party earnestly discussed plans and clearly relayed them to me. It's been a joy running this table.

Mylan's player is getting his PhD and will likely be dropping in the near future, which is a shame but such is life. He offered to move his classes around, which was very flattering but I told him I absolutely did not expect him to do so. Beauty of the open table is Mylan is just once cancelled class away from rejoining the fray.

This post was late as I am waist deep in preparation for the next session! Toward the end of this session, plans for an all out assault on the moathouse started to take shape. Lareth and company will be on high alert, with some reinforcements on the way. My plan is to use the Gongfarmer Militia supplement with the By This Poleaxe mass combat rules for a good old fashioned castle siege.

Report

In attendance:

Another expedition by boat to the moathouse to smash the burgeoning forces of Chaos and free the captive elf from its dungeons! Initial rumors and reconnaissance revealed that a handsome young man had been recruiting bandits and mercenaries from Hommlet and along the roads. The Ogre-whelming Force moored the boats further upriver for this time, hoping to regain the element of surprise and protect their boatmen from danger.

A fell wind had picked up in the region, making for slow going. The band dodged another group of giant frogs and marked many venomous snakes, but made it safely to the moathouse. From there, they made their way through the southeastern breach in the wall the bandits had used to retreat and began setting up a regroup point.

The band was soon interrupted by a giant water moccasin that had been disturbed by the goings-on. The mighty serpent struck again and again, and for a moment it appeared that both Carrick and Rudy would succumb to its fangs and venom! A skillful axe-blow at the last moment averted disaster. Already laid low by the water snake, the band beat a hasty retreat whence they came back to the boats. Three days were spent resting at the Keep and receiving physic for the venom. At the Keep’s Temple of Geometric Light, they met Father Armand, an old veteran and priest who had fought at Emridy Meadows some decades ago. He gave the party some salves for healing and offered to join them next they went to the Caves of Chaos.

The third venture into the moathouse saw further sentries posted, with gnoll archers stalking the battlements. The band quietly infiltrated through the southeast once more, using the reeds to great effect. They descended into the dungeons, past where Hornswoggle fell. Behind a barred door, they found three starving merchants, who had been taken and tortured by the master of the moathouse, then left to Hornswoggle as snacks.

The merchants confirmed that Ilmara, the missing elf scout, was still alive and held at the moathouse. Lareth the Beautiful, a cruel adherent of Chaos, was orchestrating the buildup of forces here and had seized Ilmara and the merchants for ransom and intelligence. All four had been tortured, but the merchants reported that Ilmara had it much worse than they.

With some grumbling on the merchants’ part, the Ogre-whelming Force carefully sealed them back in Hornswoggle’s larder with some rations and water, pledging to return. The band made their way to the torture chamber where Ilmara had last been seen. Restless dead accosted them in the jail, no doubt prisoners who had met their end during the first siege of the moathouse. The band delivered swift and brutal rest to the dozen zombies before investigating the torture chamber.

Fresh blood on rusting machines greeted them, with a trail leading from an iron maiden to a pillar to a wall. Rudy found a button hidden on the pillar, which opened a cramped tunnel to a false tomb. After wrenching the lid off the sarcophagus, the band came face to face with veterans of Emridy Meadows—Chaos’s own lancers, now turned ghouls.

Without their horses or lances, the ghouls nevertheless mounted a devastating charge, broken only by the shields of Carrick and the party’s brave torchbearer Manville. The ghouls fell one by one as the band pushed forward, though Rudy was paralyzed by the icy touch of the final ghoul.

With Rudy as still as stone, the party made the decision to pull back and seek aid for their comrade. As they made their way toward their southeastern exit, Lareth and a squad of gnolls appeared on the battlements, peppering the retreating band. With an invalid Rudy and three half-dead merchants in tow, the escape was nothing short of miraculous. A razor gale gnawed at the party on the grueling two mile trek back to the boats, though they were able to keep low enough to water to prevent the worst of it.

With Rudy and the merchants safe back at the Keep, the Ogre-whelming Force began hatching a plan to stop Lareth and the moathouse once and for all. With coffers now full from life debts paid by the guild, mercenaries have been chartered, maps have been drawn, and boasts have been made…

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