Cauldron OSR Eurocon 2024 Day I

    

 

    Wonderfull news! Me and two players from the OSRIC campaign attended the European OSR convention known as Cauldron in Germany! I will cover on this post how I experienced this truly amazing convention! Bare in mind that some details might have be mistaken because I didn't expect to write a report about it but I am so fired up by the con that I really want to share as much as I can! Also there will be major spoilers for every module I was involved in so be warned that if you want to play them in the future, skip carefully that part! Let's go then!

THE TRIP

    I began the journey to Germany from Athens where I live. I met Nico, my only compatriot in this adventure, at the airport on Thursday morning, the first day of the convention. I must admit that in the beggining I was a little sceptical about this whole expedition. I didn't know any of the guys involved in person besides Nico, I hadn't been in Germany before so we were really delving into the unknown, unaware of what we might encounter! But still we decided to make a leap of faith and experience the con with our own eyes and dice!

    Our flight was smooth and in the airport we met our other ally, another player of the OSRIC campaign, Mitch! He is British so despite the fact that we were gaming together for almost two years, we didn't have the pleasure of meeting each other before! We didn't have much time however because we had to use 3 different trains before we reach the station where some guy of the convention would come to pick us up so we ran to get on board!

    Once we talked a little, the first game that we played on the convention took place before we could even reach there! You see Nico, knowing we had a lot of time to spend on the train, prepared a little adventure for us! Let's see what happened there!

KINGMAKER

    I am not sure about the name of the module or the system it was made for, but I think it was called Kingmaker. Me and Mitch we controlled four characters each. We were level 1 adventurers that were coming back from a failed expedition until we met a caravan that had two carts and a few guards and asked us to escort them to a town about 10 days from here. The reward was 5 gp for every day that no fighting took place and 10 gp for every day that we actually had to fight. We accepted and our journey began.

    In the first night a group of bandits attacked us. Despite being relatively weak, only wearing leather armor and being obviously level 0/1 opponents, our bad dice rolling almost caused a TPK, before a woman came out of one of the carts and used magic to defeat them. With that done, one of my thief characters went close to her cart the next morning to get some information about her and we heard her arguing with a boy inside, advising him to stay hidden.

    Our journey continued and we soon realised that we were followed by ravens that were spying on us. We threw a few arrows to send them away. Eventually we talked to the mysterious woman and she told us that she was the wife of a rich merchant and the boy was his nephew and also his heir, so she was afraid that her husbant's enemies were after us. She advised us to be more careful for the remaining of the journey.

    After a couple of days, we met a cart full of dead bodies. By getting closer we realised that they didn't have any wounds but they were obviously in pain in their last hours. Believing they had some illness that could affect us, we avoided them a continued our path. A few hours later however, a group of riders arrived and the woman told us that these must be the guys that want her and the boy dead. We prepared our selves to make a last stand but suddenly a swarm of insects appeared. We tied our selves on the carts so that they want be able to snatch us but the good news were that our opponents were forced to retreat!

    Since they were after us, we decided to not camp this night and make a forced march, to get as much away from them as possible! Unfortunately, the night we decided to do that, a blue dragon appeared! The woman, the boy and their guards fled but our 8 PCs decided to take the dragon on! Bare in mind that we were using Swords and Wizardry so we didn't have to make saving throws to see if we are afraid or not! 

    So we formed a cresent to be away from each other so that the dragon's breath can't hit all of us. We rained arrows on him, with only a few of them hitting while the dragon on the first turn snatched one of our mules. When he was hit however, he came back to attack us! We continued attacking him while he attempted to throw the mule on one of our PCs which he failed. He also tried to grab a few of us and he failed once again. Then he took flight, turned around and started descending on us, obviously getting ready to use his breath weapon against us! We needed to hit him more than once to kill him and because he was still starting his descent, we needed only natural 20s to do it! Here is what we rolled:

    Hell yeah! With four hits from flaming arrows added to those we scored in the previous turns, he falls down dead! Me and Mitch started cheering while we were on the train station, waiting for the guy from the convention to come pick us up! It's also worth mentioning that we almost lost our train station twice because of how absorved we were from the game. Once when we first had to change train, where everyone was out of the train, we had stopped moving but we were still playing and the second time when we had to come down to the station that was near the con and we had just encountered the dragon!

    This adventure was not over yet. The woman revealed us that since we have proven our strength and loyalty, she could admit that her husband was a king and this boy was the heir to the throne. The guys after them were some contestants that wanted to get the throne themselves. The guy from the con arrived however and the game would have to wait for out journey back home! Because now, we are almost on Cauldron!

THE HOUR OF THE JACKAL

    A very friendly participant of the convention named Ollie took us to our destination! It was about 20 minutes on car from the train station! It's worth mentioning that Ollie transfered every participant that came with the train, so he did all this at least three times! Cheers to that! Thank you Ollie!!!

    We reached the convention approximately at 8 pm, being almost 12 hours on the road. Mitch had to take two different planes so he was actually 16 hours on the road! However there is no rest for the wicked! We ate as fast as possible because the first game, the Braunstein session called The Hour Of The Jackal was about to take place!

    We settled up as fast as humanly possible and we arrived at the table just in time! Each one of us was handed a character with hidden goals and powers that was leading a faction of the city of Badwall and the DM Settembrini started explaining the situation we were in:

    "The mighty God Anubis was under the control of Wee-Jas, the new lord of the dead! The temple of Wee-Jas reigns supreme on the town of Badwall, that had participated in last years' epic wargaming table! However, an army of jackalwere arrived just outside the city saying: Give us the priests of Wee-Jas and control of the city RIGHT NOW or else...". The DM informed us that the numbers of jackals were far greater than these of the small town, however there was a castle nearby that was controlled by adventurers that could possibly help, there was a company of sellswords that could also join the fight and the city guard could enlist citizens to fight! In every round we had about half an hour to discuss among ourselves, we don't have to reveal our identiny except if you had one of the major factions that were known to everyone and after that we had to tell the DM our action. Once everyone declared his intention, Settembrini would gather us all to announce what happened during this round.    

    He gave us our role and when I read mine I couldn't believe it!!!

    YES! I am actually the leader of the jackals!! The freaking bad guy!!! WTF! I was ultra tired at this point but I was extremely excited. I quickly grabbed a beer to boost me and began!

    The good thing is that I don't even have to conquer the whole city. I have to kill the priests of Wee-Jas and free Anubis! The first part should be the easy one, the second I don't exactly how to do but I guess I would figure it out on the way. My armies at this point hadn't yet gotten close to the city. My main approach is this: I have greater numbers but they could gain allies from nearby towns who obviously don't want an army of jackalweres marching out of control. So the numbers are my ally and time is my enemy. I have to move fast and not give them time to organise! There was the possibility that they might had some strong magic users and clerics but if they were stronger than me then my mission was impossible anyway so I don't have to worry about that!

    I was walking around the table talking to people saying the same thing: I want only the priests of Wee-Jas and the destruction of his temple, if you do it yourselves then I will just leave. If not, I will invade and do it myself! There were many guys inside the city that were willing to cooperate with me because they didn't love the priests of Wee-Jas to the death and they certainly wouldn't sacrifise the city to protect them. But the main problem is how I could convince them that I would actually leave if they complied. That was the hard part for me. The city guard was willing to help, the painted men, a group of former slaves of Wee-Jas were also thinking about it but my greatest ally was the priest of Anubis, who wanted the same thing as I did. Unfortunately everyone was telling me the same thing. Give me a couple of rounds, just a few days to get other people on the same page and we will help you. This was increasing my fear of reinforcements coming to save them. So once I was done talking I said to the DM that I wanted to encircle the city, blocking of any road in or out of it and declare that they have to kill the Wee-Jas priests and destroy his temple, otherwise I will invade and do it myself!

    Once everyone declared their actions, Settembrini gathered us to inform us about what happened. He lets me encircle the city but then informs us of even more crazy stuff that took place!"Looks like someone looted the weapons of the city! Half the city guards are now unarmed, not knowing what to do and how to fight if it comes to that!"!!! WTF!!! Then the mayor says to the city that he is willing to risk his safety and come talk to me for the good of the town. Also the priest of Wee-Jas summons everyone on his temple to talk about the defence of the city!

Badwall incircled by the jackalweres

    The second round then begins. With everything that happened, people are less willing to talk to me now because they are afraid that I will destroy everything on my path. They gathered to talk on the temple, I shouldn't hear what they had to say so I grabbed a beer. This was getting too easy and I was starting to fear that they were luring me into a trap. What if they left the city guards unarmed on purpose to force me to invade and then ambush my forces, using burning oil, or some powerful spell? But again, if they could do something like that and beat me it means that I couldn't take the city and therefore I couldn't win. So I stopped thinking like that and continued my bullying. I was walking around asking people to do what I say and slaughter the Wee-Jas priests otherwise I will do it myself next round. The painted men told me that this could happen but the mayor was negative. If I could kill him however, the former mayor who was part of the merchant guild if I was not mistaken would help me. I spoke to him and he asked me to asked my armies to secure the trading routes of the city once he was mayor if this scheme was to take place. Again however, he asked a few rounds to bring more guys on our side. They are stalling obviously. Noone trusts that I will leave if the Wee-Jas priests die but it doesn't matter. It is a great time to attack and do it myself!

    For the remaining of the round people were taking me outside, or in dark corners telling me they would help if I just waited for a few rounds. I was getting worried. They obviously have something up their sleeve and they need time to do it. I couldn't wait. The priest of Anubis told me that he would accompany the mayor on the parlay and that I could kill the mayor if I wanted but he begged me to leave him alone. I wouldn't kill the priest of my God, my goal was to serve Anubis anyway but now I had the option to just kill the Mayor and hope that either the new mayor cooperates or that I could take advantage of the chaos and invade. However I decided not to. I needed to build some credibility and show that i wasn't there to butcher everyone.

    So I accepted the mayor and the priest with respect. Once again the mayor said that he could do what I wanted but he needed x number of rounds. I told him right away that I know you are waiting reinforcements and I am not willing to sit around and see them outflank me. Do it the easy way or I will do it the hard way! He didn't have much to say to that and I allowed them to leave in peace. Then I declared my actions to the DM. I would have all my forces invade and attack the temple of Wee-Jas declaring to everyone that we don't want to hurt anyone besides these priests.

   After everyone informed the DM about their actions, Settembrini gathered us once more. First he tells me that the men that I send to give the orders were attacked by jackalwere(!) and were forced to come back without actually giving the order of the invasion! WTF! "But wait", Settembrini says, "for more things are happening inside the city! The city guards incircle the temple of Wee-Jas and ask to enter and search it! Once that happens, they declare that the Wee-Jas priests are corrupted and stole the weapons of the town! They arrest every priest besides the head priest who is flying to escape the city right now!!!" WTF! "Then the city guards burns the temple of Wee-Jas and out of the flames Anubis briefly appears with a sattisfied face!" W  T   F! My invasion stopped by jackalweres? How is that possible? And the city actually did what I asked? Did my bullying worked out? Unbelievable! I have no idea what is happening at this point but victory within reach now! All I have to do is capture the priests and especially that one that flees and then see what I can do to free Anubis, perhaps the priest of Anubis could help with that.

    The next round begins. Now most of the guys tell me that they did what I asked, so now I should leave. I answered that they must surrender the arrested priests and help me capture the head priest otherwise victory is not complete. But things are getting more complicated than that. Mitch approaches me and asks me to invade the city! WHAT? Then he informs me that he has the city's weapons and he could sell them to me if I had the money, which I didn't. So he wants me to invade quick so that he can sell them on a higher price! That way he would get rich and I would attack when the city was at its weakest point! Crazy! Everyone is now thinking about handing over the priests. Nico however, who hasn't revealed his identity he tells me that he believes I am honest. "And people like that", he says," either become kings or die like heroes". Well, I don't have time for cryptic messages. I can see victory flying away as we speak! I declare my actions to Settembrini. The leader of the army moves personally and orders its forces to invade and then he goes to the gates where the head priest is with a group of jackalwere to kill him before he manages to escape! The rest of the army invades and demands the handing over of the Wee-Jas priests!

    So Settembrini gathers everyone once more! He informs us that a group of mercenaries is heading towards the gates that the head priest is fleeing from to help the city! Fuck! That's the worst possible scenario. But still I could move faster than them so I could win this thing! The Jackal King arrives at the gates and orders everyone to invade while he goes after the head priest with 10 jackals. But then one of the jackalweres refuses to comply and when I look at my belly I can see a poisoned dart. Nico looks at me and says sorry with a satisfying smile on his face. The jackal king kills him before he also succumbs to his poisonous wound! WHAT THE FUCK! Everyone is cheering and now the strongest character of my faction is dead. And that happened thanks to my only compatriot in the convention!!! DAMN YOU NICO!

    Then Settembrini says that two armed carts full of armed men and chests pass by my invading forces (ok, i stopped saying WTF a while now, this is completely out of hand) and when my jackals ask for the priests, the city guards hand them over and we devour them! Nice! "Then ", Settembrini says, "the priest of Anubis on top of the temple of his god completes the ritual and Anubis is finally free!!!" WTF!!! We can actually win this!!! All we have to do is capture the remaining priest that is flying away and we actually won. Unfortunately the backstab of Nico, who was actually the leader of a doppelganger gang gave him enough time to disappear. Damn it! 

    "But then", Settembrini continues, " the head priest of Wee-Jas reappears, returning to the same gate that he left from, still flying. At the same time, the mercenaries appear on the scene! Now everyone (the jackals that were after the priest alongside the jackal king, the mercenaries and the head priest) rolls a surprise roll to see if they notice each other!"         W     T      F!!!! We are still in the game! I don't know why but the priest returned!!! If we kill him, we complete our victory conditions! We roll and only my party succeeds! YES! I attack and I score a hit against the priest. I am not sure about the system we used for the battle but it was a variation of odnd+chainmail if I am not mistaken. The DM asks us to declare actions. The head priest casts darkness, I shoot with my arrows! The head priest is obviously badly hurt! Unfortunately he wins initiative! The darkness forces my jackals to roll 5 or more to hit! I ROLL A FIVE!!! The head priest falls down to his death!!! YES!!!

The chaotic end of the final fight, outside the bottom gate of the city 

     After all this chaos, in the next round the DM informs us that the city must have elections for a new mayor. Many candidates come forth and if I am not mistaken (I was ultra tired and also excited by the sudden victory that I didn't pay much attention to the elections) the former mayor who was the leader of the merchants won, replacing the reigning one.

CONCLUSION OF THE FIRST DAY

    Any doubt that I had about the convention is completely gone! After an amazing game of Braunstein that took almost 4 hours(!!!) we sat around for a couple of drinks on a really nice place with extra friendly and welcoming people and then we went to sleep! As we should, because it was way past 1 am and we had to wake up at 7:30 to take a bath because dinner is served at 8 o'clock and after that we have to enlist ourselves for a game of the first Friday Block that begins at 9! I shall cover these on future posts soon enough where we will see the great adventures of all these gamers in the picture (and many more who left before the ending ceremony) who played way beyond their physical and mental limits!!! 

    Fight on!