This is a write up after two RPG session conducted by Google+Hangouts and Roll20. It uses a commercial scenario. If playing in a Solomon Kane Campaign with this adventure (Traveller’s Tales, the Uffington Dragon), do not read the write up below.
The Uffington Dragon is By Paul Wade-Williams of Triple Ace Games. If you like the sound of it and want some more of his excellent games, head to their website and buy them there.
Tamsyn was the wise woman Jayne (secondary thief Alice)
Paul T was the soldier Lancashire Jack (secondary the archer Olivia)
Matt was the closet Catholic Xavier (secondary soldier Robert Poldark)
Jayne has a dog, Mitchell, a terrier
Each (as far as we know, we are not sure about Mitchell) has had a life changing encounter with the Puritan swordsman Solomon Kane as on the start of a path to redeem past transgressions. Now a strange dark skinned man has reached out to them in their dreams and calls to them, for Kane is in trouble, and needs their help.
They did not start out together, but they have fallen in with each other on the road to Dover. Instinctively they found each other and are travelling together. That path has taken them through Berkshire, having travelled from darkest Swindon,
Cresting a ridge, they found a crowd gathered around a rough hewn log, so freshly chopped down and carried here that they skimped on removing branches etc. The log was placed at the head of a great chalk outline figure of a horse of dragon
Tied to the post was a girl, the crowd tried to get our heroes to just pass on, but they felt that their duty was there. Jack challenged the men, but while they were cowed, they did not back down.
The crowd insisted that the girl had to be sacrificed, to appease a dragon that had been seizing their animals and destroying their crops. And the night before, the local priest had gone to try and quieten the dragon. which legend said had been slain by a priest in Roman times, but had returned.
what happened next was a rising tension but not yet rising into violence, nor yet into making the men flee, but Jayne sent Mitchell to free the girl with sharp teeth, and the leader of the crowd was isolated.
Then the local Squire showed up, and the matter ended there for now. The freed girl explained that the leader was her father, and he was only doing what was right, and that lots had been drawn.
The party went down the hill to the village, finding big glops of blood on the chalk. And the fields at the edge of the village burned.
They went to the village, and it seemed again that they would be attacked by a mob, but promises to find the priest and maybe dispatch the dragon mollified them. They went into the inn where the learned the legend of the dragon having been slain by a sacred lance, and that the sheep were kept in an old hill fort, which is where the vicar went, thinking it was the most likely place for the dragon to attack.
That is where they plan to go in the morning ….
Having spend a night amazingly unmurdered at the Inn (it being the usual Innkeeper’s night off) the group set out into the wilder land south of the village looking for traces of the missing village priest or indeed of the mythical dragon.
The fields they passed through showed signs of scorching, but they did not investigate, going further along the road. They left the road, cutting through the ancient barrows and actually disappointed at the lack of undead rising bedecked in bronze.
They climbed up into the “castle”, an old Iron Age fort, that the locals fear as haunted, and looked around. Lancashire Jack patrolled the “walls” and spotted below him a patch of disturbed earth. The group headed that way, Mitchell romping on ahead, the group finding him worrying on an inadequately buried sleeve complete with arm, attached to the rest of the body. It was the missing priest, dead not much more than a day.
They covered the body with turfs to protect it and headed back to the village, via the cut dragon shape and the mound known as Dragon Hill.
They found dried in blood and it seemed to be dragging towards the depression known as the Manger. Mitchell ran ahead and seemed agitated, and some searching to find the corpse of a sheep, not much longer dead than the priest.
In the Dragon’s Hill there was much ground to cover. That’s didn’t bother Lancashire Jack as he quickly sketched a full relief map of the area complete with evidence from memory (excellent notice roll) findind hidden blood, most likely from the murder of the priest, and a button with some blood on it.
The button was recognised as bearing the heraldic crest of the local Squire, Squire Richards and it was remembered that his coat was missing a button when you met previously.
Back in the village, they told the villagers where to find their priest. They investigated the priests home and found the parish journal, mostly mundane matters of this sort
“Item: The said day the minister shew to the elderis present how that the last Saboathe, about the sun setting, Jhone Airthe, sone to Thomas Airthe in Tyninghame, had abused Alexander Davieson and his man in the said Alexander Davieson his hous, efter drinking…”
from the Churches of St Baldred, by Adam Inch Ritchie 1880
However, more recent entries, as well as worrying about the dragon and looking for legends of the lance that slew it. also worried about the character of the Squire. Rumlours of his debauchery had reached the priest, and there were signs he was lusting after Martha, daughter of the village smith, the most respected man in the village.
The group determined to investigate the Squire’s Manor at night, a view strengthened by gossip of the Squire’s cruelties
Lancashire Jack went to enlist the aid of Martha, only to find her missing and her father gone looking for her. Meanwhile riders left the manor bearing burning torches, This might be a good chance to investigate with the Squire’s thugs away.
They headed t the Manor, Grey Alice sneaking in to discover chanting coming from a room in the manor house. The group burst in, finding the Squire about to rape Martha to an A Capella accompaniment with satanic overtones
Xavier cast a fear spell, causing the two chanters to flee, stunning themselves in the process. The Squire was gibbering, even more so as Lancashire Jack and Robert Poldark put the frighteners on him
Mitchell rescued Martha again, and they turned the Squire over to the villagers, his plot to cow them into servile obedience with the dragon and his own vile perversions brought to light, the villagers planned to defend the village against the bullies and to bring the Squire to trial.
Our heroes leave, onward to aid Kane