The Keep on the Borderlands 2025 - Session 4.5 Intermission

I didn't have a picture of
a gravestone,
so please pretend.

In the last session, the party lost two characters: Duskin the Elf and Pavel the Ranger, but also reunited both teams. 

This presents Rety and the gang with some problems. They took the bodies back to Rety's camp on the concept that Thomas the Cleric could do something. Sadly, he could not. 

This left Rety in a lurch. Her objection to the A Team's handling of injured people was the cause of the NPCs abandoning the party. Now that she has to deal with those people, she is obligated to treat them better. That and cover the theft of many items. 

She elects to go back to Keep, to ensure the Elf and Ranger receive proper burials. The B-Team forms a proper escort back to the Keep. Rety does not make any promises beyond a burial to her former employers so as not to disappoint. She pays for rooms at the inn, too. 

By mid-morning, they are on their way, smoke filling the valley behind them.

Let me tell you a bit of backstory on the name Rety. I encountered this name in a David Brin book called Brightness Reef. I've always liked this name despite the character being slightly unlikable at the start. She was a young Sooner woman, a tribe of people falling down the societial path. Her tribe is brutish and barbaric, but she knows there is a better way out there, some place in the 5 galaxies. 

She never really escapes her rustic roots, but becomes a force to be reckoned with. I like that sort of character and stole her. As a D&D character, she should properly be a Barbarian, but I made her a Thief due to the circumstances. 

Here is my link to DriveThruRPG for Keep on the Borderlands. I might be trying too hard. If you don't have this by now, you never will. 

Anyway, back to the Keep. 

Being a bit of a rustic sort, Rety had no problem accosting the Curate and demanded magic and rituals for the dead. She was very humble and honest, offering service, allegiance, and even money to care for the dead. While completely overboard, the Curate found it charming in a weird way. This also reinforces Lefty and Punch's loyalty to her as she has shown respect to a higher power. It also makes the rest of the A Team more amenable to her. That and she paid for proper rooms for all of them at the inn, plus food and drink to honor the fallen.  

She paid for the burials. She made an offering and hinted that Punch and Lefty should consider service to the Curate's congregation. She assisted the A Team with contacts to help them sell their treasures. 

There was a welcome but startling discovery as the party dispensed with their loot. The Curate's followers recognize the amulets as a hazard. They will pay for the privilege of destroying these evil devices. The Curate's men advise that not only do they make it hard to turn undead wearing them, but should a cleric hold or possess an amulet, the holder loses their ability to turn undead. This explains why Dorian couldn't turn undead at the end of Session 2 and why he received a couple of rolls when he should not have. This also makes the amulets slightly cursed.

Rety tries to purchase some magic items. This is not entirely accounted for in the module. I used OSR Solo to generate some answers to Rety's desire. 

First, she wants a bag of holding. The other characters are unwilling to sell theirs, so she approaches the Curate and the loan bank. The Curate has access to one but the price is too much. The loan bank has one but will only trade for the beak of an owlbear. Hmm. That was a bust for now. 

Rety knows the potions of healing saved the party, so she repeats the process for more potions. The Curate will not provide healing to anyone outside of his congregation, so that is not an option. Rety rolls a 6 when dealing with the loan bank. They will sell her 4 for 100 gps each. He does this because he really wants that owlbear beak. Rety has essentially doubled down on this objective. 

Despite making all the right moves, Rety gained 4 followers but lost 3. She proposed selling off the horses to adventure in the Caves. The remains of the A Team liked this idea and threw in with her. But Bela, Liz, and Simon are lifelong drovers; they hate this idea and said so. Rety was understanding and paid them to stay at the Keep, venturing out on Sundays to resupply the party. The drover family agreed to this as Rety gave them 300 gps to support the party's interest in town. One-third was salary, the next 100 was for supplies, and the last 100 was to hire an appropriate guard. This was way too much money to pass on, so the drovers agreed. 

Promises made, the party rested before heading back to the Valley of the Caves of Chaos. Rety learns of the gems in the cave of skeletons and wants them. However, she will need a good plan to secure their flanks and back before striking against the shrine. 

One of the nice things about this module is that you can make it a living place by implementing changes on the fly. I introduced the ruins, the fact that sometimes the kobolds, striges, and other monsters appear to operate together without seeming to conspire against the party unfairly. 

We need to head back to the Valley and the Caves of Chaos. 

The PCs left the body of an owlbear and a horse on display for all to see. It didn't take long for kobolds, goblins, and others to decide to butcher them. The kobolds are a thorn in everyone's side. The goblins chased them off. To add insult to injury, they cut down the kobolds' trees and burned them. This was the smoke the party saw on leaving. 

While the kobolds are the weakest creatures in the Caves, they are not helpless. To make up for their losses to the party, they adventured Cave G and herded the giant rats to their cave in the dead of night. Around the top of their cave, they dug warrens for the rats and camouflaged them. As a final step, the kobolds gathered broken branches for makeshift spears. They have no heads, but they fireharden the points. All of the kobolds will be armed from here on out. 

The Clerics in the Shrine suffered worse losses. They cannot replace their zombies, but they steal the kobold bodies for future animation. They send word of the losses to the Priest at the Keep. The priest networks and burns his platinum pieces in an attempt to hire 6 crossbowmen as reinforcing mercenaries for the shrine. 

I decided to use the book OSR Solo for this hiring task because the Priest needs to assure himself that the mercenaries are evil or at least amenable to his cause. OSR Solo provides a handy table for this sort of thing. With one die, you get results of "yes" and "no", "yes, but...", "yes and...", "no and...", and "complications". 

One crossbowman turns him down flat and is "disappeared". Two sign up right away, the third signs up but demands twice the money, a fourth accepts and brings his shieldbearer along. I also rolled two"complications". 

In this case, I decided to make the complication rather simple. The crossbowmen have a bad feeling and accept a competing offer... to guard Simon and his daughters. This handy book saved me a couple of die rolls.

I really like this tool. You can pick it up on DriveThruRPG. It is super short at 19 pages, but you don't read this sort of book. As an added bonus, the examples are from B2! 

Now, the Caves of Chaos are ready for the party to return.