The Foot of Blue Mountain

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A play report for the first session of Bear Witness, Chao’s open table OD&D game on the OSR Discord.

Players, Characters:

• Swanky McJay, Leoric Honis Bensim (Cleric 1)
• Conspite, Luther (Fighter 1)
• Aggie, Shako Eleganz (Thief 1)
• Alex, Gatsby (Fighter 1)
• Mr. Mann, Cordon Withrope (Magic User 1)

1 Month Ago, a red star crashed into this region. The Zone, as it came to be called, is now full of the star-shards, which are highly valuable in the rest of the world.

We set out from the front of Fort Ashrock, knowing that there is a ruin to the Northwest of the fort entrance and the following rumors:

• Old Man Oman from Arrendale lives in the Zone and studies the power of the star shards
• Once you see the river, stick to it. Don’t follow the road for too long.
• A long time ago, Fort Ashrock was owned by a manticore. It fell into disrepair before the star fell. After the star fell, people moved back in and repopulated the fort. Recently, someone’s seen the manticore moving in the zone...

We start at the entrance to the fort and make our way inside. A notary takes our names (Aggie gives a fake name, Grilled Cheese Long) and tells us to talk to Joey. Joey gives us an anomaly box and tells us not to touch the shards with our bare hands. “Or else you’ll turn into one of those pig fuckers!” After greasing his lips with 30gp, he tells us a rumor:

• Joey thinks there’s a race war in the zone between two groups of bandits, the Grey Badgers. Cyril is a human and Ezek is a dwarf and they are having some conflict. Maybe we could play them off each other?

He also throws in another:

• The Pig Fuckers tend to have star shards with them, but you can only damage them with silver weapons.

We ask Joey about the Manticore and he starts sweating. “that’s not true!” then he hits a tasteful stage whisper: “Don’t talk about the manticore around here, it’s a bit of a sore spot.” Alright Joey, we’ll listen to you! We decide to turn around and investigate Arrendale before we head out into THE ZONE.

On our trip to Arrendale, we met with Gifu from Gifu’s Ironworks. We learn about the following things:

• Grell, a man with rings and brown hair, and Priest of Atiel (Local Goddess of Nature) came and bought maces to Blacksmith. Left 2-3 Days Ago to the barrow with the goal of wiping out the undead that live there.
• Nadias has a personal vendetta against the Werebears (A.K.A. Pig Fuckers?) and is often found hunting them in the forest. He is a member of the Dornwall family, which is “Known for causing trouble.”
• There were some strange monks who rolled through town recently, wearing big orange gis and carrying their own weapons. The only companion they had with them was a black cat.

Finishing up that conversation, Gifu asks us if we’re gonna buy anything. We nope the fuck out before she gets too upset; Cordon Withrope promised her that he’d buy something when he returned.

We end the session after passing through the fort. Next time we’re going hexcrawling, baby!