Play Test Chagrinspire and a hireling tables

 

I had some ppl away in the group and two new players so we played my EMO retroclone in Chagrinspire. Testing my new character gen system with the zero level option built in as a quick start too for new players and you get a few buffs if you start at zero. Made starting to play faster. 

We had one player from last playtest with Nebos a 1st Lv Giant stonemason who had been hanging around Flatspur working on the church and shared a rent-free haunted house they cleaned up with a dog-man who guards the house (player away).

The three new characters starting at zero

We have:

Zarathustra the Sober, a former noble now drunk who had bottles of wine and had wrestling and drinking skills. Needs a drink and is interested in ancient lore. From a line of fire elemental sorcerers. No talent yet.

Yasmin Dixie, an ex millitary archer and hunter who is concerned that Chagrinspire is coming alive again. 

A nameless broke sneaky archer (aka bandit) fled failing desperate gangs and now in the wasteland.

Met on the road on the borderlands of the southern kingdom. Broke and hungry a merchant told them about the closer nicer Flatspur and the nasty further away Shankheim. Arrived in the village with a coin each and let in but warned when cash out they would be thrown out. Went to the tavern to eat roast turnips and Drunk got a cabbage beer and walked the tavern looking for work. Lucked out met the priest and was offered a job checking out cultists in a ruin. Just scout but if trouble and up to no good then bonus gold awarded. Intruduced to Nebos the Giant mason.

So followed the map and walked two hours through a ancient dead blasted forest through variegated hilly terrain. Saw shacks on a hill with a junk fence. The sneaky bandit got close and heard four men working, a which and some buzzing sounds he picked up. The archer crept over to join him and made a sloppy noise from falling in mud. The gates opened and four pale robed cultists came out. Two with staffs and two with small knives. 

So the archer and bandit shot a guy who fled and jumped sown a shaft in the courtyard with a rope and which. Zarathustra waiting by the gate grabbed one of the men in a lock and held against a wall. The giant splattered a mans brains and got a hit. The corpse had a big white worm pop out his brain like a giant tapeworm. While the drunk Zarathustra held the cultist he saw in his mouth a giant worm and so he was promptly finished.

The well was 30 foot down and all a bit scary. So they grabbed a crate of food and a chest of lead medalions and some paper wad ball and shot packets for quickloading a light musket. Threw junk and corpses on the pit, took the well which, spattered oil, started a fire and fled. There was a box with buzzing insects inside they there in the fire also.

Almost home a pack od mangy mutant mutts chased them in the gate where they turned and helped the guards drive them off. They got a dead dog for their efforts that sold with some scrap and rusty old weapons they found.

The priest was pleased and gave them a reward and told them to rest, eat and recover so they can return to finish them and get a bigger reward. Everyone got about 15gp! So got better armour, weapons, food and more cabbage beer.

The lead tokens were trinkets to give pilgrims and there were hundreds and a scroll in the bottom.

The party met some more locals and upset the scavenger's guilders. They paid member fees and were sworn in. Turns out they pay for scrap better than shops do and even buy old adventurer gear at good prices. Even though most armour here is scrappy and old. Yasmin's army leathers and bow stand out as above average here. They recruited a broke old drunk mercenary with a two-handed sword and a flintlock pistol. Yasmin also met an urchin who offered to be a guide. She gave him a weeks iron rations and he ran away. The next urch offering to be a guide got one days food and has not run away.

Spent several days preparing. Heard more stories of Chagrinspire and some other ruins and the rival village Shankhiem. Many locals feared undead or beastfolk or mutants will overrun them all. Nebo advised them to take oaths at the church but he got his +1 maul that way.

Yasmin the archer leveled up into a Lv1 Warrior and got some skills in cooking, fishing, survival and some fancier archery and other weapon skills. She got a field stove to help detox food with cooking in the waste. She took an oath to feed the hungry and received a +1 composite bow.

Zarathustra had his ancestral blood pact with the fire elementals and became a 1st Lv Sorcerer who started to learn about guns. He cleaned up a bit and you can see he has good manners, is a skilled chess player and carousing fiend. Currently does not want an oath or alignment.

The nameless wanderer and ex bandit is a 1st Lv rogue. He got a +1 small sword for  

The party was eventually ready and feeling they were a bit more experienced and with the mercenary and the boy set off to finish the worm cult.

On the way flaming skulls flew overhead screaming and lucky everyone lay flat and still.

Reached the hill apparently covering a ruin. Someone else had searched and looked some more and flies buzzed around unburned remains of the cultists (who were all lv1 wizards).

Found a trapdoor under a shack and went down a ladder into a small room with two sets of stairs going down. On the way down north heard buzzing so went back. The other found a blocked passage and then the corpse of the escaped wizard being eaten by giant maggots. The party went to stomp the worms and Zarathustra hung back to watch to new passage. He saw a silhouetted stumbling figure with a buzzing cloud around it. He got ready to blast it and the mercenary got ready to protect him after his huge sword couldn't get the maggots in the hail of party boots. So he used burning hands shrinking the swarm and blackening the rancid runny zombie flesh. The party stumbled around killing maggots, the undead and swarm. Nobos and the mercenary had their flesh pocked by bug bites. 

Smashed a cult idol, stole incense, found a weird potion and a golem wristwatch.

Returned home and even stole two tables for their haunted murder house in the village. The potion and scroll turned out to be quite weird and the golem watch can talk and set alarms and other uses and is a sentient clock basically.

Interested in seizing a outpost and trading with mutants and scavengers.

Worked well - the quickstart stuff helped.
I need Hardcopies of my own books sigh.

d12 Hirelings Want Work (offer daily rates)
1 Urchin offers to be a guide in the wastes (has survival skills), flees fights 1cp or food
2 Labourer offers to carry baggage, flees fights 1cp or food
3 Healer (knows first aid) offers to accompany adventurers if swear to protect them, 1gp per day in the field or 1cp for first aid in the village
4 Scout (apprentice thief can sneak or hide), flees fights 1sp or food 
5 Hungry thug, has a club 1cp or food, will fight as long as party winning
6 Servant will carry lamps and goods, help master grooming and serve food flees fights 1sp
7 Acolyte with club, holy symbol and first aid kit, fights evil zealously for glory 1sp
8 Squire lost his knight has leather, a sword, dagger, target shield, will support master and help them dress in armour and clean weapons and carry a pack 1gp per day
9 Deserter from army, has shortbow and dagger, pack, mess kit, weak iron rations, is a bit superior to local scum 1gp per day avoids melee  
10 Drunken mercenary has iron curious and helm, 2h sword or pole axe, a flintlock pistol and a small sword. Carries 2d4 bottles of wine to drink when bored like guarding or searching rubbish in dungeons. Wears floppy velvet hat and muddy velvet outfit with fashionable tears and rips.  Wants a half share of the treasure characters get to be renegotiated each expedition 
11 Scholar is an expert on the history, art and language of the ancients. Will dispense advice and opinions. Wears robes and carries a staff, sack and notebook. Flees fights mostly but charges 1gp plus wants documents and to copy inscriptions found. Might be tempted by eldritch lore  and knows lots of rumours
12 Scavenger is a survivor of the wastes who knows hazards of ruin and monsters. Wears filth bandages and muddy cloak made of garbage for hiding. Carries a club and shank and a light hunting musket and 10 shots. 1sp a day and a cut of loot. Knows some local ruins and rumours 

d12 Dodgy Hirelings Want Victims
When a party has recruited a few hirelings already
When any party rolls to scrutinise recruitment or carousing are terrible
1 Shifty Survivor joins adventurers as a scout to betray them to criminals, cannibals, slavers or even monsters for a cut of party loot. Carries shortbow, small sword, dagger with poison save or d4 after one round. Claims to know the wasteland and places to find loot 1sp
2 Hooded survivor joins adventurers to rob them and avoid danger. Carries a dagger and six darts. Good with locks and traps and sleigh-of-hand tricks like picking pockets and snatching loot. Will flee if caught in an actor when has enough loot. 1cp
3 Bandaged scavenger with septic wound, carries club with barbed wire and a shank. Wants money for medicine 1cp. Is really a plague-carrying necromutant under bandages and coughs frequently
4 Filthy-robed scavenger, hairy with a twitchy nose, carries light hunting musket with bayonet. It really a were rat but only wants 1sp to guide in the waste and underground  
5 Bandit scum, has a shortbow, hooded cloak dagger or club. 1cp but will if gets a chance thump someone unconscious and flee with valuables
6 Hooded scavenger from Shankheim where the village guild is also the crime guild. Serves the guildmaster and reports on adventurers. Leather, sword, light crossbow, hooded cloak, 1sp 
7 Filthy large scavenger, doesn't talk much, carries dagger and a club and throws rocks. Under voluminous robes mutations are developing and at some inconvenient moment or if they are killed, they burst open into a mass of flailing tentacles, mouths and eyes 
8 Old man in tattered robes and staff (apprentice necromancer) with a large silent man covered in bandages and wrappings with a sickle (a zombie). Looking for loot charges 1gp a day for both but they are slow
9 Grimacing street brawler in leather, loves to stab with dagger and loves blood. Also loves drugs and torture and defiling corpses 1cp
10 Old man with spectacles, a dagger and blunderbuss and a young 2HD pet owlbear that needs practice. Is a spy for the Black Sphere cult who wants to lure adventurers to certain locations to fight their enemies like enemy kobolds and orcs of the region 1sp
11 Bandaged wasteland nomad, lean and mean, carries scimitar and whip, likes drugs and captures slaves as personal property in battle. Has a rope and will tie monsters and herd them to the slave market in Shankheim or some slaver camp 1sp
12 Foriegn Duelist with small sword and flintlock pistol in a smart cloth uniform of the ancients "he found". Disciplined, punctual pedantic. Seems aristocratic and well-mannered even charming. Agent of the black sphere seeks to find certain relics and documents and will share some subway maps and golem train timetables. 1gp

d12 Common Trinkets
1 Coin purse with d4 1=d6cp 2=d6sp 3=d6ep 4=d6gp
2 Holy symbol of religion or cult value d4 1=1cp 2=1sp 3=1gp 4=30gp
3 Ammunition 2d6 rounds of d4 1=sling stones 2=arrows 3=lead shot 4=brass shell casings
4 Small idol under 1kg worth d6x5gp d4 1=god 2=demon 3=historic soldier figurine 4=bust of ancient forgotten dictator
5 Food for a d6 days d4 1=stale loaf of bread 2=wormy turnips 3=cabbages 4=slightly smelly dried meat
6 Steel flask with d4 1=tainted water (mutagen or poison) 2=cold tea 3=wine 4=brandy or a 4L skin of wine or water 
7 Ring of ancients often with a seal or coat of arms or cult insignia, may have engraving d4 1=brass 1sp 2=copper 1ep 3=silver 5gp 4=gold 30gp
8 Broken wristwatch worth 50gp fr parts
9 Knife from a crude shank made from scrap or well-made steel knife with a black sphere symbol 
10 Tinderbox with flammable shredded paper, steel and flint or a box of a d4 matches, a bundle of sticks
11 Tins of food with no labels 2d4 meals, d4 1=alchemical grey tasteless gruel 2=beans 3=peaches 4=meat stew
12 Bundle of 2d4 candles or d4 torches

d12 Fancy Trinkets
1 Fancy beer stien d4 1=wood 10cp 2=ceramic 1sp 3=pewter 1gp 4=silver 30gp
2 Cameo medalion in chain of silver 30gp d4 1=image of family 2=image of person 3=picture of Chagrinspire before it was covered in mud and filth 4=image of a deity, spirit or saint
4 Glass 1L bottles d4 intact and a d4 empty. Contents d8 1=water 2=urine 3=beer 4=wine 5=brady 6=preserved blood for hemovores 7=holy water 8=incendiaries
5 Steel dagger or bayonet with Black Sphere symbols and inscriptions
6 Swagger stick or riding crop, a fancy symbol of office for pointing, waving and slapping subordinates - increases command radius by 1
7 Ancient hat d6 1=bicorn 2=tricorn 3=bowler or derby 4=tophat 5=cap 6=steel army helmet
8 Telescope folds and fits in pocket, possibly binoculars, periscope or opera glasses instead
9 A well-read ancient book with some scrawled notes d6 1=novel 2=nullist philosophy 3=journal 4=heretical sad war poems 5=book about golem trains and rail lines 6=book showing advanced progress of the ancients with images of smoking mills and miserable workers 
10 Bag with a gas mask
11 Bag with a first aid kit with ten clean sealed dressings or if from more shabby source smelly used bandages, belt, hand saw, mallet and a bottle of rum
12 Addictive healing potions d4+1 doses, heals a d4 save or want more every day -2 all rolls until you get more or are treated with cure disease or cure poison or get a new save if you don't have any healing potions of any sort and rest a d4+1 days sweating