Up on the Mountain, After the Flood Session 4

18 Aug, 2026

Swamps & Smugglers

The party at level 1:

• Ama Ekström - Folklorist, Mage (Alchemy, Animism)
• Bugs - Mime, Rogue
• Nadine - Pilgrim, Priest of The Fates (Chronomancy, Divination)
• Vex Ire - Marine, Mage (Chronomancy, Shadowmancy)

This session starts immediately where the last left off, with the members of the Ravens militia scavenging the corpses of the defeated brigands. While they eagerly pocket any money they find, it's clear that what the militia are really after is food. Bugs also does some looting and grabs 2sp from the defeated foes.

One of the militia members, who introduces himself as Crayd, approaches the party to thank them and invite them along to Ravens. On the way to the city another militia member, Luc, surreptitiously approaches Nadine and warns that Crayd and several other militia members are members of the Eelspawn smuggling group that has historically run Ravens from the shadows but since the Enchantment their rule has become more open and more brutal. Lady-Mayor Cavilia either can't or won't do something about them. Luc leaves with a warning to be careful.

The party finds Ravens in the middle of a new swamp, caused by flooding from nearby Banner Lake. A small barge is tied up near a gallows tree and a bent, one-eyed old woman poles them into the city. They arrive at a hill that seems to be the least-waterlogged part of Ravens. Crayd invites the party to the Magpie's Folly tavern, but Nadine wants to give the Lady-Mayor the request for help from Crag Fields. They have to leave the message with the Lady-Mayor's household guards since she's apparently not taking visitors right now. The PCs decide not to stay at the Magpie's Folly, noting the line of mutilated unfortunates lined up on display outside, and elect instead to stay at the Cup & Cloak despite the floodwaters lapping at its sides.

Just in time for the party to complete a rest, bells start being rung throughout Ravens and fires ignite as the city comes under another attack by the Horned Devil Company. Unseen by the milita, a few rowboats of brigands quietly slide among the flooded buildings, leaving the PCs to fight them off from the rooftops.

With the message delivered, the party decides to finally bring the Citrine Clot to cleanse the dragon Sutomemnon Vituperation of the Enchantment's corruption. They pass through the village of Star's Cross and dispatch a pair of demons close to the mountain where the beast has taken up residence.

All that's left is to climb the mountain and confront the dragon.

One thing I asked myself when planning this session was: why make the brigands attacking Ravens something definite instead of giving it a random chance of happening? Part of the rationale behind this campaign was to see how well Shadow of the Weird Wizard works for running an OSR-type sandbox so shouldn't something like this be represented by a roll on a Ravens Events table? The first part of the answer is that giving the campaign ten defined goals means it's contrary to the ideal of a true sandbox from the start. I've already voided the warranty. The more interesting answer is that it's a fact of the world that Ravens is under threat from the brigands. For the players to understand the world, they need to understand that threat. The best way for them to understand the threat is to interact with it mechanically, and thus a fight. It's been said elsewhere¹ but expressing something mechanically in a TTRPG makes it 'real'. Plus it was a cool fight on rooftops above a swamp, which is more of a setpiece than I usually put in my games.

Mechanical note about the randomly-generated demon fight: 15 defense is much too high for 1st-level characters, especially with the demons' innate bane on being attacked by magic and one of the demon's Frightening trait².

#campaign #up-on-the-mountain #weird-wizard