Our playthrough of the start of the Cosmere RPG’s official Stonewalkers campaign.
After playing the Bridge 9 starter session, my group were keen to continue playing in the Cosmere universe. So I decided to link up the events in Bridge 9 into the Stonewalkers campaign as my characters were eager to continue on with their current characters.
As we continue through the Stonewalkers campaign, I’ll write up how things progress so you can get a feeling for the campaign and maybe some ideas for yourselves.
It probably goes without saying, but this article contains spoilers for both the Bridge 9 and Stonewalkers adventures for the Cosmere RPG.
Wrapping up Bridge 9 and a betrayal
We hadn’t quite finished the Bridge 9 adventure last time out so we wrapped things up as the players escaped the ruins. They opted to charge the parshendi, and while they got a bit battered, some brilliant rolls from the party surgeon kept everyone in the fight. The parshendi soon surrendered and the group headed back to Sadeas’ warcamp.
I wanted to tie things quickly to the Stonewalkers campaign so I adapted the beginning events a bit. I decided that Eliah Matal would not be happy with the party extorting her for the soulcaster, and that she would turn the group in for the ‘murder’ of Captain Selinar (an unfair accusation as Selinar was the antagonist).
They were quickly arrested and thrown in a cell. While they attempted to hatch an escape plan (and even managed to sweet talk a guard), Taszo appears with wine for the guards which had been mixed with a sleeping elixir. He grabs the key from the guards and offers it to the players if they’re willing to help him with a mission. He agrees a rendezvous point and leaves the players to make their own escape.
An endeavour in seduction
The party didn’t want to leave their gear behind so they decided to try and get past the guards downstairs. There didn’t appear to be a way to sneak past so they opted for the tools at their disposal; the half drunk bottle of sleeping wine, and a flirtatious scholar with a revealing dress.
It didn’t take the party scholar long to convince these guards to join her for a speed date with some wine. The flirtations were clumsy, but fortunately, these guards were superficial creatures and were quickly put to sleep by the elixir. The party managed to grab their gear, steal some marks from the sleeping guards and escape the prison.
Little honour in the Sadeas camp
It seems that the lack of honour among Sadeas’ men was a useful tool for the party. They were stopped by the guards at the gate who were a little baffled by their initial attempt at convincing them to let them leave, but were quickly enticed by the site of a bribe of marks. Their persuasion wasn’t quite enough for a small bribe, so the guards pushed their offer up, clearing out most of the marks they stole from the prison guards.
Thankfully, they were free from the clutches of Sadeas’ warcamp and could meet Taszo at the rendezvous point.
The athleticism of a surgeon
When the party met with Taszo, he tried to reveal very little about his mission. Unfortunately for him, the party scholar has read a lot of books and managed to deduce that the artefact he was collecting was indeed an honorblade. They agreed to aid him and travelled to Covenant Stone Crossroads.
There, they decided to split the party (what could possibly go wrong). 2 of them went to help Rebin with his stuck wagon while the other 3 went to see what they could find out from the Kholin soldier’s caravan.
The group helping the stuck merchant included the scrawny thief and the combat-shy surgeon, but somehow, they managed to roll phenomenal numbers and quickly drag the wagon out of the crem and flip the toppled chill. With the group split, I decided to have the bandits ambush the main caravan and leave these players to rejoin the group safely at Covenant Rock Crossroads.
Escape route foiled
The group that went to the Kholin soldier’s caravan quickly discovered that Taln was imprisoned in one of the wagons and that some artefact was in the other. While one of the party opted to cause a distraction, the other, surprisingly, decided to roll under the wagon with the Honorblade inside. A nat 20 ensured they discovered Kaiana’s escape route through the floor of the wagon.
A shocked Kaiana quickly noticed the person removing the wooden slat from below her and attempted to stamp on her. The contested ability check led to Kaiana rolling a nat 1 allowing the player to grab her leg and drag her under the wagon. But not before she managed to grab the Honorblade. A brief struggle led to Kaiana escaping with the Honorblade just as the rest of her bandits started to attack the caravans.
That was all we had time for so I opted to end on that cliffhanger.
A great hook and easy beginnings while players learn the mechanics
We had 2 new players with the group this time and everyone is still fairly new to the system so there was still a lot of learning when it came to combat. A lot of the players haven’t fully gotten to grips with their capabilities yet. But they really shone in the roleplay elements.
This remained a great introduction to the Cosmere RPG with players still learning the rules. I could see some players starting to think more tactically in combat (especially those that had played the last session). Everyone seemed to really engage with the roleplay elements and the world really well, despite 3 of the 5 being unfamiliar with the books.
They seemed intrigued by the hook, wondering who the good guys are and keen to get a hold of this Honorblade. And Stonewalkers does a good job of setting up that intrigued.
While the Bridge 9 adventure is a good starting point, it’s a very guided approach to a session. This first session of Stonewalkers is already starting to open things up a bit more while not overwhelming players with choice. I understand that it will open up as players progress, but for now, it guides players more nicely into how things work in the Cosmere RPG.
