Thursday, January 19, 2012

(Hackmaster) The Journey of Mutumbo #1 Backstory

I've been spending an inordinate amount of time trying to put together the Actual Play report for my last Call of Cthulhu game. It's outlined and day one of three is finished, but I'm just having a problem keeping the narrative tone of the session consistent. One day, it will be done, hopefully before the next session, but that's not even on the horizon.

So, for the time being, I'm stealing back my actual play reports of my original '01 Hackmaster game I had posted on rpg.net.

I figured it would be good to recollect the damage the Burning Trogs did to the world. But like every good story it has to deal with a girl, er, scratch that… You have to go years before and hundreds of miles away from the Trog’s first adventure, back to the steaming savannahs of Kufrik, to witness the Journey of Mutumbo. (I'll throw GM notes in green)
Mutumbo was not the finest warrior of the tribe. In fact, he was way closer to the bottom rung than the top rung. A portion of his family being slaughtered by berserkers nurtured his martial enthusiasm. Luckily he was not there when a large portion of the tribe’s warriors were slaughtered while hunting. All that was left of the attacker were strange tracks, a body of someone who looked like a beserker, and a strange object [A large indestructible hour-glass] When the object was brought to the elders, they decided that the object must be thrown off the edge of the world to appease the spirits. Mutumbo was given the quest by default.[Gotta love a player who wants to base his PC off The Gods Must be Crazy]
So Mutumbo traveled north, running like a scared gazelle from the beasts, avoiding the unscrupulous dwarves and feral Halflings , until he met “Prince” Clarence the gnome [NPC] . Clarence was a merchant from the far north. He befriended Mutumbo and invited him to join the caravan north. Upon examining the hourglass he found (a) it was magical and (b) it was property of the Red Mage of Anon-Maxis (it said so on a brass plate on the bottom). Clarence changed his caravan’s focus to far Anon-Maxis…for a supposed substantial reward. On the journey Clarence convinced Mutumbo that Anon-Maxis was the edge of the world (situated on three jagged cliffs above the ocean, it looked the part), while teaching him the Trade Khemmet (desert tongue), and Trade Prythax (imperial tongue).
When they arrived on the southern coast of Crosedes, a tavern brawl erupted and Mutumbo was separated from the group [Clarence & Co were all in jail] Mutumbo then met Dalmar Sworin, Magus Extraordinaire (Human Magic-User), who was even less scrupulous than Clarence. He saw the gullible, misguided bushman as a quick way to incredible wealth, hot chicks, and eventually magical power! Convincing Mutumbo of the same things Clarence did, he assembled a team.
*Dalmar Sworin, chronic lying, misguided, a-hole Human Magic-User.
*Mutumo gullible bushman with spear (and hourglass) Human Fighter
And the “hirelings”
*Arbeow Geniped Gnomeling Thief: hired as the guide through Crosedes and the duchy of Alois to Anon-Maxis. He had no clue about tracking, survival, or even about his own homeland (Alois) needless to say, they got lost often.
*Cecelia Darkspruce: Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric of Sif: hot half-elf chick with an eye patch who acted like a sorority girl! Sif had responded to her prayers when orcs attacked her father’s estate in the elven lands. [One great big boo-boo on my part: The campaign started BEFORE the GMG was released. When he rolled family weapon on the starting wealth chart I gave the player a chance to get a magic weapon on 99-100 percentile. He rolled a 99. I rolled up….a lucksword (using old magic item tables) with three wishes.]

So this is the group upon the first session, September, 2001. Arbeow had gotten the group lost for a week (12 days) before he found a ramshackle no-name town on the main road to Anon-Maxis….

Next:  #2 - The Scepter of Amun-Ra

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