Meatheads Play Report 2

 Meatheads Play Report 2, DM notes at bottom.

– Meatheads is a hack of OD&D; a fighter only playstyle with additional XP gained through feats of strength. –

Upon the stoney Sea Hill Tomb our meatheads stood, a meager pouch of 80 gp newly won from the subterranean rooms underfoot. A salty wind rose from the North Sea and with it was carried a new party member; Querma, broad shouldered and grizzled.

The sun shone through the grey clouded sky, a couple hours past noon, our party descended back down the trail into the village of Killnerd in search of hirelings to recruit. In the town square they spotted a brawny fellow with the gruff chutzpah of a fellow sailor. This human man working amongst the sons of hobbit dockmaster Norwold Seafoot possessed small, beady black eyes with hardly a thought behind them. George Puller, as he introduced himself, told how he got the metal plate embedded in his head after a sailing accident. Knocked overboard by the boom of a ship, after some time he was pulled up, yet remembered little of the accident or his life before. He was told by the crew his name was George, and that he pulled things aboard the ship. 

A quick stop by the dwarven brokers had the party purchasing new equipment while sharing a stiff drink with the affable Ardmoc Underbust, director of the dwarves. Feeling thirsty still and in need of more hirelings, the meatheads trudged to the local tavern, Danny’s Barrow, a wide hobbit structure of stacked slate with a pine green tile and sod roof. Inside it was vacant but hospitable, the meaty scent of peat wafted through the warm room of smooth wooden chairs and tables, stained dark and grooved by the bums of hobbits. Great basses, deep water eels and other sea fish line the walls mounted as trophies. Danny MigGlargon, the tavern’s owner, made no move from his comfy position, airing out his hairy feet atop the bar, smoking and chatting with the three oldest hobbits of the Killnerd. 

The Old Man Club, as they dub themselves, consists of Johno Carrabine, Burtie Blerggins, and Danny’s father, Bort MigGlargon.

A courteous nod was given, Danny directed the tallfolk to a special booth for people of their stature, yet the meatheads sat at the bar, their hulky frames creaking the tiny stools. They chatted until the evening time when the farmers and dockworkers arrive for a drink. Amongst them was Spynt Higgins, son of farmer Dundalk Higgins and strongest hobbit in the village, of whom they’ve made acquaintance with while taking turns lifting the famous pig, Brownie. 

The meatheads made merry among the hobbits, bubbly headed from round after round of bright crisp ale. A good bit of silver was given to Danny who grew fonder of the dungeoneers by the hour. Maxima and Querma spoke to Spynt and his inebriated young friends -Rodd Pearose, Kietho Carabine and Spanko Bolbo- about joining them in their dungeoneering efforts. The lads were promised massive gains and a bit of  gold, they were thoroughly cajoled into hire. 

It was then that a small calloused hand gripped the back of Querma. Dundalk Higgins grimaced up at her and issued a warning that his son is never to approach anywhere near the Sea Hill Tomb, and that only misfortune follows those who delve into its depths. With this one warning he departed, leaving Spynt red-faced with embarrassment. Maxima and Querma were not cowed by Dundalk's warning, they prodded Spynt if he was his own man. Steely eyed and spiteful, Spynt assured he was.

The party agreed to meet the next morning at the stone bridge west of Killnerd. Needing a place to pass the night, Spynt offered a cozy hay bale in the Higgins' pig pen. Stumbling into the stye, they came upon the peacefully sleeping Brownie. Spynt, in all his drunken adoration, babbled how much he loved Brownie and how he would carry him up as a piglet. Spynt attempted to lift Brownie like in the halcyon days, but slipped and fell face first into the muck, immediately passing out. Querma, however, lifted Brownie with ease clear above her head before gently setting down the snoring swine, and saving Spynt from suffocating in the mud, placed him next to Brownie dozing peacefully.

"I get what kind of game this is now." - Jert, player of Querma, after lifting Brownie.

Following morning our meatheads were eager for a breakfast raid! George Puller and Spynt Higgins awaited at the stone bridge dutifully. However, only Rodd and Spanko showed up, miserably hungover. The two remaining hobbit teens were made to wrestle one another by Maxima and Querma. The victor would have the honor of carrying a spear, the loser would carry the 10 foot pole. After a scuffle of crying, panting and barfing, Spanko emerged the greater grappler! 

The full party ascended the paths to the entrance, lit torches and lowered a rope into the dark pit of the earth. Treading familiar paths by torchlight, the party broke their way through the old oak and iron doors they found stuck the day before, pilfering the gold and silver within. In a chamber off the eastern wall of the altar room, the meatheads lifted the lid of a stone chest together only to find a hissing bladder bag inside. Within seconds, the contraption exploded, a fine powder coating the entire room. With his dwarven constitution the powder proved ineffective to Winslow, yet the two human meatheads Maxima and Querma began to break out in painfully itchy blisters and welts all over their arms, chest and face.

~Session End~

~GM notes~

~Meathead Players Halt~

The village of Killnerd was the meat of this session. I was pleased to introduce more villagers and give a peek into their own ethnography. When thinking about the hobbits of Killnerd there are a few main features. They worship no gods but believe in the guiding hand of Luck, of which sometimes you're simply dealt a bad hand. As so, they are superstitious, believing misfortune to be a terrible thing to bring into a household whether its through spirits, curses, boogens or what not. Like most hobbits, they want a pleasant, uninterrupted life.

Now where the dwarves of Drippindahl are concerned, they would most certainly upheave whatever pleasant life the hobbits have here in favor of the riches below. Having befriended Ardmoc and his crew, the party knows that the dwarves in Killnerd are there to discover what riches lay within the Sea Hill Tomb (again, Sea Hill Tomb is a placeholder name, but I can’t seem to come up with anything better for now). Currently, a six-dwarf dungeoneering squad is MIA within the dungeon.

What the players don’t know is that Ardmoc fully knows there are emeralds within the dungeon. Emeralds hold a particular significance to the hobbits of Killnerd, being considered symbols of luck, prosperity and fortune. They are prized above all other gemstones by the hobbits. Emeralds just so happen to be the driving wealth of House Drippindahl to the southern mountains. Ardmoc and his company are in truth not brokers but agents sent to destabilize Killnerd and assume control by whatever tenebrous means necessary. With the meatheads as an asset, it should be a cinch!

Being the social butterflies they were and finding retainers, I was eager to roll some loyalty scores. George Puller did quite well with 16 points, while Spynt started with 12. At one point, the players threatened to withhold any gold earned from Spynt, and making it very clear by his glowering silence that he did not like that, I was ready to lower his loyalty a smidge. Querma softened up though, assuring him he would be given a fair cut, to which he turned chipper again.

The loyalty of retainers is an interesting aspect to play with, along with reaction rolls I am finding they are all I need for when uncertainty arises in NPC interactions. I am intrigued to see how the two hungover teenage hobbit hirelings will fare in the dungeon. Speaking of them, they were actually the first instance where I got to try the OD&D method of grappling. In my opinion, it works as fine as it should. I may add the caveat that exceptionally strong characters may add a bonus to their roll if it needs a little juice.

I rolled to determine how many of the hobbit teens would actually show up (2) and decided to leave out Keitho Carabine. The Carabine family is a whole nother can of worms to open. Davo Carabine, brother of Keitho and son of Johno, is going to have a spitfire exchange of insults if the players ever come to his smithy.

Likewise, seeing Spynt had gone into the dungeon against his father’s word, and missing his morning chores, his scolding from Dundalk Higgins will be severe. Spynt truly doesn’t want to make his father angry,  but doesn't want to be a farmer either. So I plan that he will propose that he only join the party in the dungeon at night, when he can sneak away yet still do chores in the daytime. This proposition is obviously unmanageable, traveling anywhere outside of night has a strong chance of encountering some kind of boogen or beasty. Killnerd itself is safeguarded by the hounds of families to which goblins loathe with disgust and fear.

So! This session went well. The village of Killnerd is as dynamic and shifting as the dungeon, players actions affecting both simultaneously. Blah blah blah that much is obvious. Frankly, I am interested to see whether the party will turn Spynt against his father and align further with the dwarf agents. It being Session 2, I feel like good progress has been made in establishing the setting, picking up in the dungeon next session will have us returning to the joy of crawling. 

A quick note on the end trap. It could have easily killed the party if it were a poison gas or powder, but in the spirit of Hobbits I wanted to craft some traps that caused nuisances and misfortunes. The itching powder itself lasts 24 hours unless washed off with alcohol, then it subsides in 3 hours. Those affected suffer -2 to hit and add 1d6 when attempting Strength tests. So you can see, it could very well still lead to a nasty death 🙂.