Wight-Box Play Report 3

Dragon Cults and Lizard Men

Life got in the way, but we are back with the Wight-Box campaign. These games aim to run Wight-Box, my 0e clone, with 1:1 time (or at least as best as I can manage) and in short sessions with 0e prep (generally a 2-hour game session). So far, the easiest way to maintain this 1:1 time aspect has been to end adventures in town, and so far, this has not been a problem. This afternoon, we started the campaign back up. In the last session, a massive battle was fought in the Razed Village. Orcs had taken over the village sometime back and slaughtered all the inhabitants.

Leo the Large and his Squire, Billy, were largely absent the last few sessions. During the time of the battle and other situations, we needed to determine what he had been doing. So we determined he remained in Black Tree due to concerns of the vampire being about and the orc raiding parties that have been raiding the area. I determined that a shadowy figure with glowing red eyes, most likely the vampire, had been seen on the outskirts of the village, but no sighting had been seen within.

A few other minor rumors were adjudicated. Such as the word of a minor orc raiding party seen crossing the bridge in hex 0.6.06. This intrigued the current party of Billy, Leo, and the elf Feyrith. With Feyrith’s ten footmen, it was decided to investigate this lead.

The party set out and inspected the area rumors spoken about. There, the party found old orc tracks heading northeast on the banks of the river after going over the bridge from the west. The tracks were a few weeks old but still somewhat evident. At least clear enough to determine direction.

The party traveled to 07.06 and saw slightly newer orc tracks mixed with other tracks. These different tracks were a bit larger than the average human’s tracks but had sharp, pointy-toe claws.

As they traveled further up the desert road, the landscape became more desolate, with trees and buildings with strange scorch marks. Not from a blast of fire, though. These marks seemed more concentrated on the stone, as if lightning had struck various places. This deeply concerned the players, who had seen a blue dragon flying over this desert twice in the past.

Going further into hex 07.05, the foot of the mountains continued with desolation with some trees and forest as well. The intermingling of orc tracks with these other tracks became even more prevalent and apparent. The party followed some tracks west from this hex down a mountain trail into the desert towards the village of Dune Peaks. These monstrous tracks were coming and going from this village, so the party made camp behind a dune to hide themselves and watched the village.

As dusk came, a group of five men were seen coming from the direction they (the party) came. These men wore red robes, and the one in front held a golden staff. On the end of the staff was a golden serpentine dragon. The party watched them approach the village. The village was mostly tents with some permanent stone structures in the center. The five red-robed men approached the village, and an old desert dweller of a man came out from one of the tents with a few more village elders. With them was a young woman dressed in provocative red clothing. Her hands were bound with cordage, and a rope was around her waste. This rope was offered to the hooded men, who left with the young woman.

The players immediately suspected something was foul. This was a human sacrifice or offering of some sort to cultists. And probably an offering to the dragon!

The party prepared for an ambush. Feyrith had previously equipped some of his footmen with bows, and they prepared them behind the dunes. As the robed men approached, the archers jumped up and fired, killing one robed man and injuring another. Feyrith appeared and cast sleep on the remaining ones; all fell asleep, including the woman. The party approached, and as they went to pull the hoods back to slit the throats of the cultists, they saw that these were strange-scaled reptilian humanoids. They reeked of that reptilian stench.

The party dispatched these creatures and tied up the leader with the staff. They awoke the girl, who wept when she saw what had happened.

“You have doomed my people to death!” she screamed.

Talking with her, they learned that she was to be given over to the dragon so the dragon would leave her village alone. This is an offering that has been made for at least a generation. She said her people lived to the southwest, no doubt in the ruins the party passed through at one point. But the dragon, Kurnax the Blue, had destroyed their town. They moved to this new location, and a deal with the dragon was made. Human sacrifices of young women in exchange for not being destroyed.

The party awoke the leader, Lizard-Man. They learned from him that this dragon was at least a century old. They started to try to concoct a way to make this blue dragon and a green dragon to the south fight one another. I’m sure this plan will be further fleshed out and attempted later. In the meantime, the party thought it best to evacuate the village of Dune Peaks and move them to the Razed Village to the west. That location is protected by the City of Zidon and the Church’s patriarch there.

With some lucky reaction rolls, the party convinced the elders to move. They stopped in Black Tree for the night and explained the situation to Father Stellios, the village priest with whom they have a good relationship. The next day, they continued down the road towards the razed village and resettled the people there under the protection of the garrison from Zidon, which is there.

The party took the staff of the lead Lizard-Man, but they didn’t know what it was or what to do with it. Father Stellios could not identify it but told them it was not mundane. He did not want the staff out of an overabundance of caution regarding spiritual things and artifacts taken from evil cultists.

So now there is a vampire on the loose, orc raiding parties with one group who may have joined a dragon after the battle, and that same dragon will be upset that his flow of young women has been disrupted. So it will be interesting to see how these things play out.