Play Report: Rumbling Forest (Session 3)
This is a play report for the second session of my ongoing Mangayaw campaign and the second session playing The Rumbling Forest by Goobernuts, who is also the creator of Mangayaw; see previous posts for Sessions 1, Session 2, and Session 3.
This time we finished up The Rumbling Forest after taking a couple months off for summer travels. Having recovered in the village some from their fight with the boars, they decided to investigate the large crack in the earth they had first seen when traveling up river to reach the village. They knew some boar were hanging about there, and they decided the Cave of the Ancestors that had been described to them was less likely to have an ancient boar at it.
Arriving at the crack, they scoped around and found the curtain of glowing roots that fall down the cliff face (and cover up a secret hiding place for the Undying Crocodile at the bottom). The babaylan (healer) of the group investigated and figured out the glowing roots had healing properties. Since it's not specified in the adventure, I ruled the roots could cure 1d6 STR damage per use, which they immediately used to help the party member who was down to 2 STR after the boar fight the previous session. She then spent time to gather 8 more cuttings of the roots, but was surprised by a flood of bats flying up out of the crack (a most excellent entry on the random encounter table) and failed her DEX save to react, falling 50 ft. down into the water below.
When another party member climbed down to check, the two of them immediately ran into the Undying Crocodile (two tails, seven legs, nasty teeth, covered in glowing roots), who lashed out at them. But, thinking quickly, they decided to try talking to the crocodile, who surprised them by being open to conversation. They learned that the Ancient Boar was indeed in a deeper part of the crack dying, and that the Undying Crocodile wanted to eat its heart so that he could become a god.
They decided that sounded like an acceptable deal if it would end the earthquakes threatening the area, so they all rode on the crocodile's back and attacked the group of boar guarding their leader from a sandbar island. One player tried her mind control magic that had been so successful in the previous two sessions, but failed the WIL save to cast from the back of a moving crocodile and exposed herself to a moment of mind control from the boar, lashing out at a party member instead. It then quickly descended into a melee as one player shot his musket at the boar warrior leader (a massive boar with a moving, prehensile beard) but then got caught up in a tugging match over his musket before the leader was brought down by a lucky spear stab. From there, with the help of the crocodile, they killed half the boars, two party members getting crippled legs in the process, before the other half ran away scared.
They finally made it to the ancient boar, learning that he was ready to die, but that his death would set the boar horde loose to destroy everything in the area. But, they kept their deal and let the crocodile eat his heart and end the boar's suffering. Thinking quickly, the Babaylan prayed to the Kamagong Diwata (tree goddess) they had met previously, and asked her to save the village since they had fulfilled their part in the bargain to end the threat of the boar.
The crocodile indeed ascended to godhood, and they named him Hearty Croc. He healed their injuries in exchange for an agreement to work as his agents in the world when needed, hinting he might soon have a job for them (an inroad to running The Lorn Song of the Bachelor next).
When they returned to the village they found a number of new trees in the area with most of the villagers hiding out in them, safe but scared, while the leader of the village and his strongest supporter lied dead, having refused to abandon their spots. They agreed to spend time building boats and take everyone back to their home village to live there instead.
Reaching home, they had a big feast, the highlight being boar's eye soup from the massive ancient boar's eye they had taken from the ancient boar--which of course led to an inordinate amount of time looking up facts about the taste and texture of boar eyes at the end of the session.
All in all, I'm still a big fan of this adventure, and I'd highly recommend it. It really shines in the flavor of the setting between the random encounters, the natural cave dungeons, and the faction play. The crocodile waiting to eat the boar's heart is a great touch, and I love how it worked out at our table.
If I were to change anything, I think I would shift locations around in the jungle a bit. As it is, the three dungeons are clustered together, with the other points of interest off to the sides. In our game, the players got information about the dungeons from talking to the villagers and new where they were, so there wasn't as much of a reason to discover the other points of interest, and I think they'd be better placed along likely paths to the dungeons.
But, it is really very good, and a great introduction to Mangayaw, which I need to write more about in the future. The short version is that it's a very well executed Cairn hack. It adds important things to make the game work in the precolonial Philippines setting, but it doesn't change the core things that make the rules good, just builds on them, which I think a lot of hacks struggle with.
We'll be taking another couple weeks off, but I'll be back in the future with more play reports. Next I think we'll be spending a few sessions in Perils & Princesses playtesting the Beauty and the Beast/Grimm's Fairytales-inspired adventure I've been working on.