As I mentioned in my last post, my on-campus group has been playing in my Lacuna Locurae setting, and had recently become embroiled in a plot to pirate an Imperial treasure ship (the Hellbent).
At the time this session opened, the party had managed to infiltrate the crew, and was simply waiting to cast off. Their plans to take the ship were something like the following.
Wait until the ship had passed the Outer Islands, where Red Tarza and her band of cut-throats would be lying in wait.
Poison the crew
Kill everyone else who was still moving.
Wait for a prize crew to meet them.
Sail with the ship to where the gold and silver could be off-loaded
Profit!
The main part of the plan involved the party's thief, who had infiltrated as a cook's mate, to slip a powerful poison into the grog provided to the crew each evening. After taking their dram of "medicine" the poison would put the crew into a coma state, making it simple to slit their throats and steal their groats, so to speak. In practice, the plan worked out pretty well. Much of the crew was taken out, along with almost all of the Imperial marine contingent. They were left to face 4 marines, 16 crew members, the captain of the ship, Brother Jelal (2nd level cleric of Luz) and his two acolytes, and Lugaro (3rd level wizard).
At this point, since several players have had to step away from the game and two more have since joined it, the party consisted of a 2nd level thief, a 2nd level cleric, a 1st level thief, as 1st level cleric, a 2nd level warrior, a 2nd level wizard, and 4 zero-level characters (played by our newest player).
Things started off very well, the thieves got very sneaky indeed and then got extremely stabby on top of that. Backstabbing successfully removed several of the regular crew, including the Cook. Then the battle royal broke out topside. 3 marines manned watch stations in the rigging, and 12 sailors were also on deck, the captain was in his cabin. Below, the four zeroes faced four of the sailors and the wizard. I won't do a play-by-play, but here are some highlights.
One of the thieves aced the Captain very quickly.
The imperial marine on deck also went down.
Things were going very well for them up until one of the acolytes Charmed the party's 2nd level cleric, who then cast Word of Command on the 2nd level warrior. Then, the opposing cleric, Brother Jelal cast Holy Sanctuary with a result of 18, making it extremely difficult to attack him.
Then, the party's rolling started going to Hell. The wizard and the 1st level cleric were killed. The wizard was revived but immediately taken out again.
Eventually, they took out the main enemy cleric, but his acolytes proved very tough, and the sniping of the marines also took its toll. Much Luck was burned. By time the enemies on the deck had been accounted for, only the warrior and the 2nd level cleric were still alive. The cleric called for the marines to surrender, but then rolled a 1 on the Personality check, and only enraged them. The wounded party members didn't want to climb up to the marines, so they decided to go below deck to hide, and make them come down to fight.
In the meantime, the four zeroes had attacked the four sailors working below. The fight started off well enough, but then zeroes started to fall. They also woke the grumpy wizard, who was attempting to sleep in his cabin. He bellowed for them to "Stop that infernal racket!" Instead, Rachel (the player who was running the zeroes) began to cry out for help, as if the sailors were assaulting the winsome lasses who were her characters. The wizard bought the ruse, and began killing the sailors to protect her characters' collective virtue. After the last sailor went down, the the three remaining (though wounded) zeroes rushed over to thank him for his assistance, and promptly assaulted him, without any support (3rd level wizard with 16 hp and a +2 ring of protection). Another zero died, but with a bit of Luck burned, and a bit of help from the 2nd level thief, who had gone below to avoid sniper fire from the marines, they finally dispatched the wizard. To be sure, they were aided by my horrible, horrible spell check rolls. Honestly, I don't know how they avoided a TPK.
At that point, we'd gone 45 minutes over our allotted time, so I called it until next week. The remaining characters are all wounded severely, and the remaining cleric's disapproval range is 1-5. They still need to Recover the Body for their fallen comrades, but with the amount of Luck everyone burned, they likely are Dead-Dead, barring a miracle. They also will need to face the remaining marines.
At this point, there still could be a TPK in the offing, but only three foes remain. Should the cleric manage to actually heal some of them, they should be okay. Now, where are those pirates?
Showing posts with label Session Recap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Session Recap. Show all posts
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Friday, February 27, 2015
I can't complain
So, Johnson, you're supposed to be maintaining this blog, right? What happened?
Short answer is: Work. Man, I've been busy lately. Trying to finish a book proposal (with a bit of writer's block to work through), regular teaching, some committee and admin work, that sort of thing. All in all, I'm doing some pretty cool things. I can't complain about that.
Here's the latest thing I got involved in. Can you spot me?
It's been a while since my last play update from the Lacuna Locurae campaign, and I'll be taking care of that now, if only briefly. A lot has happened.
The students in my face-to-face group returned to the colony's main port (Magyaru) carrying 300 pounds of gold purloined from a transmuted standing stone. They left approximately 11 tons more of it behind. This fact was discovered shortly thereafter by an Imperial patrol. It had come to their attention because the local tribes whose sacred site had been defiled started getting pissed off and fighty. It's funny how a weird bit of mercurial magic can cause ripple effects, isn't it? I anticipate that a war may be brewing. Further, the gold being brought in from the hinterlands has had the effect of inflating the local economy somewhat, but the larger effects will be felt in the Empire itself, and will take a long while to manifest (as the Spanish discovered during their colonial period). This assumes that the gold actually reaches the Empire, which is not as certain as it could be. I'll explain in a moment.
In the meantime, the PCs have made contact with a faction of the local underworld. They think it's The Thieves' Guild, but my guy feeling tells me that the situation is far, far more complicated, and the power structure of the city more complex. They've made an alliance, and chosen a side. This may later have repercussions, once I determine what other powers might also be at play. They changed their gold for silver coin, and (of course) paid extravagantly for the service. Still, each PC was left with something like 5,500 sp. Several of them pooled resources to buy a piece of property. They propose to build an inn in the Low City, and call it the Red Lily. It's being constructed, and will be done in a few months. They will, however, need some more money.
Their underworld contact, Molo Kratz, mentioned offhandedly that the Empire's "black ship" would be arriving soon, to transport the many tons of fine gold back to Ur-Hadad. As I hoped they might, the players saw this as a great opportunity to sate their avarice, and began to hatch a plan.
It also became quite clear that they PCs would need help to pull this off. Molo Kratz provided some logistical help and advice (for a percentage of the take). He, of course, had been playing these fish, and knew he'd get his cut from the very start. The PCs are pretty green, and don't really understand how dangerous these people are. Later, one of the PCs, a thief, got a bit big for her britches and, while conversing with Molo, got from me one of the creepiest monologues I've ever delievered as a Judge. He let the PC know that the partnership was for HIS convenience, not theirs; that they were potentially partners, and not partners in fact, and still being tested; and that he could easily remove them from the board, should they disrespect him. Very menacing.
So, the plan is something like this. Wait for the Black Ship to arrive. Take out some of the sailors from the ship. Get on the rolls at the Seaman's Guild, and replace them. Being low-level jamokes, they couldn't do it without aid, and sought the help of Mr. Kratz and his associates. They also sought the help a wizard, one Amor Ba-Gish, a creepy little fucker whose "help" can only be bought for future obligations, not gold. They will owe him a favor, later. To ensure they don't take the ship, he has poisoned them with a toxin that will liquify their innards in exactly 10 days, if they don't return to him for the antidote. He provides them with arcane means to (a) slow time and (b) to make dense fog and (c) to Sleep a ship's crew.
Long story short, the Molo Kratz's guys demonstrated frightening efficiency in taking out the 12 sailors. The PCs managed to pass for competent replacements. Red Tarza, a notorious pirate, was asked to help out. She agreed, for a suitable cut. This negotiation was through Kratz. They also noticed that the Imperial legation included someone who appeared to maybe be a wizard. Hmm... perhaps this is going to be a bit more complicated than they thought... Also, the ship has a contingent of Imperial Marines. I really, really, hope that Sleep concoction the brought aboard is effective. It would be a shame if lots of their potential foes make saving throws, wouldn't it?
Next session: The Heist. If they pull it off, they'll be stupidly rich. They also will contribute to a ridiculously inflated local economy, become high-value criminals hunted by the Empire's thief catchers, be drawn into the machinations of Molo Kratz and Red Tarza, and owe a favor to a particularly nasty wizard. What could go wrong?
Short answer is: Work. Man, I've been busy lately. Trying to finish a book proposal (with a bit of writer's block to work through), regular teaching, some committee and admin work, that sort of thing. All in all, I'm doing some pretty cool things. I can't complain about that.
Here's the latest thing I got involved in. Can you spot me?
Someone thought I should be on this search committee. How could I say no?
It's been a while since my last play update from the Lacuna Locurae campaign, and I'll be taking care of that now, if only briefly. A lot has happened.
The students in my face-to-face group returned to the colony's main port (Magyaru) carrying 300 pounds of gold purloined from a transmuted standing stone. They left approximately 11 tons more of it behind. This fact was discovered shortly thereafter by an Imperial patrol. It had come to their attention because the local tribes whose sacred site had been defiled started getting pissed off and fighty. It's funny how a weird bit of mercurial magic can cause ripple effects, isn't it? I anticipate that a war may be brewing. Further, the gold being brought in from the hinterlands has had the effect of inflating the local economy somewhat, but the larger effects will be felt in the Empire itself, and will take a long while to manifest (as the Spanish discovered during their colonial period). This assumes that the gold actually reaches the Empire, which is not as certain as it could be. I'll explain in a moment.
In the meantime, the PCs have made contact with a faction of the local underworld. They think it's The Thieves' Guild, but my guy feeling tells me that the situation is far, far more complicated, and the power structure of the city more complex. They've made an alliance, and chosen a side. This may later have repercussions, once I determine what other powers might also be at play. They changed their gold for silver coin, and (of course) paid extravagantly for the service. Still, each PC was left with something like 5,500 sp. Several of them pooled resources to buy a piece of property. They propose to build an inn in the Low City, and call it the Red Lily. It's being constructed, and will be done in a few months. They will, however, need some more money.
Their underworld contact, Molo Kratz, mentioned offhandedly that the Empire's "black ship" would be arriving soon, to transport the many tons of fine gold back to Ur-Hadad. As I hoped they might, the players saw this as a great opportunity to sate their avarice, and began to hatch a plan.
It also became quite clear that they PCs would need help to pull this off. Molo Kratz provided some logistical help and advice (for a percentage of the take). He, of course, had been playing these fish, and knew he'd get his cut from the very start. The PCs are pretty green, and don't really understand how dangerous these people are. Later, one of the PCs, a thief, got a bit big for her britches and, while conversing with Molo, got from me one of the creepiest monologues I've ever delievered as a Judge. He let the PC know that the partnership was for HIS convenience, not theirs; that they were potentially partners, and not partners in fact, and still being tested; and that he could easily remove them from the board, should they disrespect him. Very menacing.
So, the plan is something like this. Wait for the Black Ship to arrive. Take out some of the sailors from the ship. Get on the rolls at the Seaman's Guild, and replace them. Being low-level jamokes, they couldn't do it without aid, and sought the help of Mr. Kratz and his associates. They also sought the help a wizard, one Amor Ba-Gish, a creepy little fucker whose "help" can only be bought for future obligations, not gold. They will owe him a favor, later. To ensure they don't take the ship, he has poisoned them with a toxin that will liquify their innards in exactly 10 days, if they don't return to him for the antidote. He provides them with arcane means to (a) slow time and (b) to make dense fog and (c) to Sleep a ship's crew.
Long story short, the Molo Kratz's guys demonstrated frightening efficiency in taking out the 12 sailors. The PCs managed to pass for competent replacements. Red Tarza, a notorious pirate, was asked to help out. She agreed, for a suitable cut. This negotiation was through Kratz. They also noticed that the Imperial legation included someone who appeared to maybe be a wizard. Hmm... perhaps this is going to be a bit more complicated than they thought... Also, the ship has a contingent of Imperial Marines. I really, really, hope that Sleep concoction the brought aboard is effective. It would be a shame if lots of their potential foes make saving throws, wouldn't it?
Next session: The Heist. If they pull it off, they'll be stupidly rich. They also will contribute to a ridiculously inflated local economy, become high-value criminals hunted by the Empire's thief catchers, be drawn into the machinations of Molo Kratz and Red Tarza, and owe a favor to a particularly nasty wizard. What could go wrong?
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Lacuna Locurae Play Session Report 6: We're gonna be rich, I tell ya! Rich!
Most of this session consisted of a very large battle with clay soldiers, their generals, and their warlord. The PCs concentrated on keeping the enemy forces bottled up in the main room, while some of their number retreated to the upper chamber to snipe at them through the newly opened hole in the ceiling, where the pool once had stood. It took some time, but they were, eventually, victorious. The two wizards wrangled over the crystal ball they found by the throne, and eventually decided who got it by die roll. Harris Patter, girl wizard, was disappointed. It may however, redound to her advantage, in the end.
They searched the room pretty thoroughly, and found a secret door. After some very careful dungeoneering, checking for all manner of perils, they went through. There, they discovered a room with what seemed to be both the contents of a warlord's field tent (camp chair, pallet,etc.) and an arcane circle with a bier in the center of it. Upon the bier rested the dessicated remains of the warlord in question. He was dead-dead, not un-dead, though some of the party feared he might rise to begin smiting them. Given how well they'd managed the previous encounter (awesome die rolling, despite a magic missile misfire almost killing the party's thief. Again.), I probably should have done something fun with the corpse, but it was approaching the end of the session, and both they and I were battle-weary.
The wizard with the crystal ball soon figured out that one might place said item in a concavity at the foot of the bier. Though there was some trepidation, they ultimately "pressed the Big Red Button" by inserting the crystal sphere. The result: A potential patron:
As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of Harris Patter's spells has the mercurial effect of turning one random item to lead and another one to gold. I altered the function a bit for dramatic license, and had it affect two standing stones of immense girth and heft. They clearly couldn't carry the whole thing, given their rickety cart, which conveyance they'd brought from Hirot. So, after emerging from the dungeon, they discussed what they might do, ultimately deciding to hack off chunks of gold from the former megalith. It is, of course, sacred to the native peoples of this land, whose shamans will, no doubt, attempt to trigger a holy war of some kind against this outrage. That should be fun. I may need some mass combat rules...
After some discussion, I allowed that they could probably carry (and still be able to hide) about three hundred pounds of gold (leaving some 21,700 pounds behind, unattended in the barrowlands, soon to be found by natives). I recon that the gold coins of this realm aren't particularly large, and run about 20 coins to the pound. They have, then, roughly 6,000 gold pieces, should the gold be minted into coinage. That's a lot of gold. However, given that this is a silver standard economy, it's a stupidly large amount of gold, and it's not already in coin or bar form. They will need to get someone to exchange it for credit, equivalent value, or to mint it into bars or coins. That could prove both tricky and dangerous, and might draw the attention of many, many people in Magyaru, some of them powerful, some dangerous, and some... both. It will be a miracle if the party manages to hold onto their booty, and their necks.
Further, it may soon be revealed what happened out in the barrowlands, and why the natives are restless. They may soon lay siege to the city, coming with their war chariots, painted in woad, ready to burn and pillage, their holy men primed for revenge against those who would trifle with the very spirits of the land and sky. It might get pretty tricky for a group of low-level adventurers caught up in a situation like that. It certainly might... We'll have to see how that works out, because they've decided it's time to make the final steps of their voyage to Magyaru. They're all free people now, with no records of slavery or indenture to bind those laboring under such things. They have plenty of wealth, and a lust for power and glory. We shall see what is possible in Magyaru. It certainly won't be what they expected, in the end, though it may seem so to begin with.
On top of it all, I'm actually running a new game on Sundays, with a whole different group of people. It's set in the same world, and I've decided that the different groups will have to live with the consequences of actions of both. It should prove most amusing to watch how the chips fall. Mua! Muaha! Muhahaha! MUAHAHAHAHA! <--That's supposed to be my evil laugh.
They searched the room pretty thoroughly, and found a secret door. After some very careful dungeoneering, checking for all manner of perils, they went through. There, they discovered a room with what seemed to be both the contents of a warlord's field tent (camp chair, pallet,etc.) and an arcane circle with a bier in the center of it. Upon the bier rested the dessicated remains of the warlord in question. He was dead-dead, not un-dead, though some of the party feared he might rise to begin smiting them. Given how well they'd managed the previous encounter (awesome die rolling, despite a magic missile misfire almost killing the party's thief. Again.), I probably should have done something fun with the corpse, but it was approaching the end of the session, and both they and I were battle-weary.
The wizard with the crystal ball soon figured out that one might place said item in a concavity at the foot of the bier. Though there was some trepidation, they ultimately "pressed the Big Red Button" by inserting the crystal sphere. The result: A potential patron:
Gazing into the crystal ball, you see an endless field of bright stars on a faint gray background. A ghostly image of the warwizard drifts in the star-strewn ether, perfectly still. Then a harsh goat-like face fills the full sphere, staring intently at you. “I have waited a long time for someone to take the warlord’s place,” says the strange goat-man in a deep voice. “His astral voyage was cut short before he could rekindle the spark of his mortal coil. I am still in need of an ally on your world. Fill this copper brazier with wood from a dryad’s tree and ignite it with the spark of a living fire. The blaze will reveal the location of the other half of the rulership rod. Find that for me, and you shall be rewarded.” Then the globe dims to mere crystal. (DCC Core Rulebook, p. 456)I believe they intend to follow through on this quest at some point, but first they had a golden monolith to deal with.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of Harris Patter's spells has the mercurial effect of turning one random item to lead and another one to gold. I altered the function a bit for dramatic license, and had it affect two standing stones of immense girth and heft. They clearly couldn't carry the whole thing, given their rickety cart, which conveyance they'd brought from Hirot. So, after emerging from the dungeon, they discussed what they might do, ultimately deciding to hack off chunks of gold from the former megalith. It is, of course, sacred to the native peoples of this land, whose shamans will, no doubt, attempt to trigger a holy war of some kind against this outrage. That should be fun. I may need some mass combat rules...
After some discussion, I allowed that they could probably carry (and still be able to hide) about three hundred pounds of gold (leaving some 21,700 pounds behind, unattended in the barrowlands, soon to be found by natives). I recon that the gold coins of this realm aren't particularly large, and run about 20 coins to the pound. They have, then, roughly 6,000 gold pieces, should the gold be minted into coinage. That's a lot of gold. However, given that this is a silver standard economy, it's a stupidly large amount of gold, and it's not already in coin or bar form. They will need to get someone to exchange it for credit, equivalent value, or to mint it into bars or coins. That could prove both tricky and dangerous, and might draw the attention of many, many people in Magyaru, some of them powerful, some dangerous, and some... both. It will be a miracle if the party manages to hold onto their booty, and their necks.
Further, it may soon be revealed what happened out in the barrowlands, and why the natives are restless. They may soon lay siege to the city, coming with their war chariots, painted in woad, ready to burn and pillage, their holy men primed for revenge against those who would trifle with the very spirits of the land and sky. It might get pretty tricky for a group of low-level adventurers caught up in a situation like that. It certainly might... We'll have to see how that works out, because they've decided it's time to make the final steps of their voyage to Magyaru. They're all free people now, with no records of slavery or indenture to bind those laboring under such things. They have plenty of wealth, and a lust for power and glory. We shall see what is possible in Magyaru. It certainly won't be what they expected, in the end, though it may seem so to begin with.
On top of it all, I'm actually running a new game on Sundays, with a whole different group of people. It's set in the same world, and I've decided that the different groups will have to live with the consequences of actions of both. It should prove most amusing to watch how the chips fall. Mua! Muaha! Muhahaha! MUAHAHAHAHA! <--That's supposed to be my evil laugh.
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Lacuna Locurae Play Session Reports (4 & 5): Things change, things stay the same
Sorry for the long delay between posts. Partly me being Dr. Lazybones and partly me being Dr. Lazybones because work's been kicking my ass. Will try to do better.
Anyhow, when last we left our adventurers, the town of Hirot was in an uproar. The peasants were revolting!
They entered the portal and found a short hallway and a door. They opened the door, leading to a room beyond. Four iron statues with spears attacked the doorway, but only one character was wounded. They gathered up the spears and stripped the statues of their elaborate, enameled scale mail (That shit looked pretty tight, ya see). Thus equipped, they entered the next room.
There, they found a large (30' tall) statue, its finger pointing toward the doorway (J'accuse!). Long story short, they figured out pretty quickly that attempting to leave the room meant getting doused with flaming oil. Several of them were thus attacked, but none died (much to my chagrin). Eventually, they bum-rushed the northern doorway and found a long room with a pool of water. They also found several weird humanoids, who approached their light sources, but otherwise seemed uninterested in them. They (wisely) did not attack.
One of the PCs noticed that the bottom of the pool was studded with "glowing" crystals. He decided to remove a few, and then a few more. At one point, the floor began to buckle, so he curtailed his activities. The party had found a door in the northeast, at that point, so they moved on. A stairway led downward, into a room with a big table with a host of martial figurines upon it, and in alcoves and on shelves in other parts of the room. A search revealed that several of these were made of solid silver, with a sheath of clay. They got a bit richer.
Then, they moved into the next room. There, they encountered an army of clay, a clay warlord, and seven clay generals. The host attacked! That's when things went haywire. Fucking wizards. Fucking mercurial magic. One PC wizard has a mercurial that causes terror. The warlord got skeered, and went to hide behind his throne. Much of the clay army had been degraded by the leaking ceiling (from the pool above, with its missing crystals), but there were far too many to fight. The party dropped back to use the doorway as a choke point. One of the PCs ran back up the stairs to attempt to collapse the ceiling/pool bottom into the clay army. Some good rolling ended in success, and about 30 of them were crushed outright. Others dissolved in the water. Still something like 26 of he statues managed to get out of the low area in which they stood. Their generals are still standing, and the warlord remains cowering behind his throne. Soon, though, he will recover, and then they will be fucked, well and truly.
That's where we ended last time.
Anyhow, when last we left our adventurers, the town of Hirot was in an uproar. The peasants were revolting!
The genius of Mel Brooks continues to astound.
The Yamash and his bodyguard had returned to the longhouse to armor up and 'get swole' in preparation for some good ol' fashion oppression (Iron Fist included!). The town's uppity merchants determined that three feet of steel through the brisket was not particular fun or healthy, so they decided it might be better to attempt negotiation. Accompanied by some of the PCs they held parley with the Yamash.
They had high hopes to instill some of this new "democracy" thing into Hirot's political order, but the Yamash was not having it. He explained, very succinctly, that it wouldn't be happening. First, he would go down fighting. Then, he explained, rumors would make their way to Magyaru. The Governor would be obliged to send troops to quell the uprising. The leaders would be found, and summarily executed for treason. A new yamash would be installed, and it would be one less reasonable than himself. So, whatcha gonna do? Cometh thou at me, bros!
Still, he allowed, he would be willing to take advice from the wisest of these elders, and consider their council. The Yamash permitted that three of them would be assigned to such a body. These selfless merchants, seeing how such an arrangement could benefit them (and, of course, 'trickle down' upon the peasantry--like a good piss), knuckled under and proclaimed his wisdom.
The PCs, of course, now found themselves on the outside of this arrangement. They also were not well rewarded for the killing of the Hound, having participated in the aborted rebellion. Tough luck, people. Tough luck. So, they decided to venture into the Barrowlands to seek fortune. They also hoped, perhaps, to find that scoundrel Sylle Ru, who had scarpered off to parts unknown when his political fortunes had gone pear-shaped. I have a feeling we'll be seeing him again...
First, though, they had a date with the witch Ymae. For honoring the agreement, one PC received a nifty, golden shirt (as chainmail with fire protection) before the old lass went and broke his heart. He will soldier on, somehow. That done, they did their best to arm up, provision themselves, and the players leveled their zeroes up.
Leveling up took a while (two wizards and a cleric), and the mercurial magics thus gained were more of the "annoying and funny" type than the "awesome" or "oh, hell no" varieties. One such case would prove consequential later, in the Barrowlands. Thus fortified, they marched out of Hirot, bound for gold and glory. Or at least gold, they hoped.
***
The PCs marched into the hills and mounds of the Barrowlands, bypassing one obvious adventure hook (the Tomb of the Ulfheomar), before finding a Shiny Red Button. The Button in question was found in a narrow defile leading up to the cliffline, well north of Hirot. A causeway led toward the cliffs, barrows on each side. At the cliffs themselves they found a circle of standing stones and an altar (most likely used for terrible rites by the demonic, pale-skinned devils who inhabit this land). Above the altar was a weird carving, embedded with seven colored stones, in various parts of the design. One of the PCs, an astrologer by trade, figured out that this represented a constellation. This particular configuration of the constellation in question didn't quite match what was in the sky. However, being far from the shores of the Empire proper, the stars were not quite the same. Nonetheless, he determined that the stars were not quite "right," in comparison to the design. However, by their colors, the stones were misplaced. They needed to be shifted in the design to match the constellation in question. So, of course, they fucked with it.
Pretty quickly they found that touching the stones resulted in a point of ability drain (five of them, one for each ability). They took turns. They also found one that drained 1d3 hit points. Then, feeling optimistic, the party's thief climbed to the top part of the design, to seize the final stone. It zapped him for 3d6 hit points (hehe, silly thief). Your humble Judge, naturally, given his proclivities with dice, completely failed to kill the erstwhile character, rolling only five damage and bringing him down to two hit points. Stones in hand, they reinserted them, arranged them in the proper order, and a magical portal opened in the cliffside.
Oh, I nearly forgot. One of the party's wizards, one Harris Patter, has this mercurial effect for one of her spells:
Accidental alchemist. Each time the spell is cast, one random item within 20 feet of the caster is turned to lead and another is turned to gold. Both objects probably weigh more than they previously did, and the gold object is worth twice its normal cost or 1gp, whichever is more.She decided to cast that spell (I forget exactly which). I determined that her spell had affected two of the standing stones, turning one to lead and one to gold. Some work with the calculator suggested that something in the order of 22,000 kg of gold, all of one piece, stuck way the fuck out in the hinterlands. Good luck getting that back to town. Good luck getting any more of it, once the natives discover you've been desecrating their sacred circles. Dickish? Nope (okay, maybe). Anyway, this is DCC RPG, and this is how we do that shit.
They entered the portal and found a short hallway and a door. They opened the door, leading to a room beyond. Four iron statues with spears attacked the doorway, but only one character was wounded. They gathered up the spears and stripped the statues of their elaborate, enameled scale mail (That shit looked pretty tight, ya see). Thus equipped, they entered the next room.
There, they found a large (30' tall) statue, its finger pointing toward the doorway (J'accuse!). Long story short, they figured out pretty quickly that attempting to leave the room meant getting doused with flaming oil. Several of them were thus attacked, but none died (much to my chagrin). Eventually, they bum-rushed the northern doorway and found a long room with a pool of water. They also found several weird humanoids, who approached their light sources, but otherwise seemed uninterested in them. They (wisely) did not attack.
One of the PCs noticed that the bottom of the pool was studded with "glowing" crystals. He decided to remove a few, and then a few more. At one point, the floor began to buckle, so he curtailed his activities. The party had found a door in the northeast, at that point, so they moved on. A stairway led downward, into a room with a big table with a host of martial figurines upon it, and in alcoves and on shelves in other parts of the room. A search revealed that several of these were made of solid silver, with a sheath of clay. They got a bit richer.
Then, they moved into the next room. There, they encountered an army of clay, a clay warlord, and seven clay generals. The host attacked! That's when things went haywire. Fucking wizards. Fucking mercurial magic. One PC wizard has a mercurial that causes terror. The warlord got skeered, and went to hide behind his throne. Much of the clay army had been degraded by the leaking ceiling (from the pool above, with its missing crystals), but there were far too many to fight. The party dropped back to use the doorway as a choke point. One of the PCs ran back up the stairs to attempt to collapse the ceiling/pool bottom into the clay army. Some good rolling ended in success, and about 30 of them were crushed outright. Others dissolved in the water. Still something like 26 of he statues managed to get out of the low area in which they stood. Their generals are still standing, and the warlord remains cowering behind his throne. Soon, though, he will recover, and then they will be fucked, well and truly.
That's where we ended last time.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Lacuna Locurae Play Session Report 3: Death of a Hound, and the Peasants are Revolting (You can say that again!)
Last session, Lilya Jormal, daughter of Uxo Jormal, and Harris Patter, wannabe wizard, were taken prisoner by the Yamash and his (presumably) evil councilor, Sylle Ru. Their inevitable fate will be to appease the fiendish Hound of Hirot, as the Yamash hopes to make up for the missed sacrifice of the day past.
The party needs a plan. They have a (supposedly) magical artifact, a rope of corpse hair. They've been told by the witch, Ymae, that it will be able to bind the Hound, making it vulnerable to their weaponry. Also, a now-friendly Beacon Duu of the Temple of Luz has offered to bless them, though he avers that his faith is weak, these days, and he may not be up to the task. Nonetheless, they will accept his blessing and ask him to make them some holy water, just in case that might help. He gives it his best shot.
The women are taken to the standing stones to be sacrificed, and a guard is left there to ensure that no one will free them prior to the arrival of the Hound. The adventurers decide that they will wait until just before dusk, and then try to scare the guards away before the Hound arrives at the standing stones. One of them, an animal trainer by trade, makes an attempt to mimic the terrifying howl of the Hound... and rolls a natural 20. The guards run away with alacrity, the scent of fresh piss in their wakes. Then, the party arrays itself in waiting. This part of the plan takes some time, as they are trying to figure out (1) if getting on top of the stones will help; (2) if the prisoners (now chained rather than tied) should be freed or left in place--they decide to leave them in place, for some reason; (3) who will mount the animal trainers' ponies for a 'cavalry charge' against the ravening Hound; (4) how best to deploy the holy water against the Hound; and (5) where everyone should stand to wait.
Eventually they work things out, and the Hound arrives from the north, and the barrowlands. Things do not go well. Though two characters are killed outright, and one more is wounded pretty badly, they are able to, through a combination of daring-do, pony charges, and shitty rolling on the part of the Hound (by Yours Truly), bind and slay the beast, which crumbles to ash before their very eyes. They free the prisoners and gather the ashes (They might come in handy, don't ya know), but decide to camp the night among the standing stones, hoping to return to Hirot in the morning. They slay one of the character's goat for purposes of a feast, build a fire, and eventually go to sleep. The night passes without further incident.
In the morning, they return to Hirot, claiming triumph over the Hound. Hearing the hubbub, the Yamash and Sylle Ru confront them, claiming that they lie. One of the characters (can't remember his name right now), has the gift of gab, and launches into a real stemwinder of an oration, displaying their dead and wounded (Nice job waving the bloody shirt, by the way, Chris), and even showing the ashes they carry with them. The crowd is impressed, by the Yamash persists in his shit-talking. Soon though, things begin to get a bit tense.
Uxo Jormal and some of the towns craftsmen and tradesmen have had enough of the Yamash and his councilor, and have decided this is the time for a coup. Uxo tells the Yamash to go stick it. He and the "town council" can do his job just fine without him, thank you very much. The crowd is impressed, and begins to make some noise about it. The party, though, is divided on this. Rebellion against the Yamash is tantamount to rebellion against the Empire, and could draw reprisal from Magyaru (and land them in a heap of trouble).
Sensing the tide turning against him, the Yamash turns to his councilor, Sylle Ru, but the reputed sorcerer is nowhere to be found. No one saw him go, and nobody is sure where he went. The Yamash is cowed by the revolting peasants, and flees back to his longhouse. He is trailed by two characters, who want to see what he is about, and maybe to find out what Sylle Ru might be doing, as well. They find the Yamash and his bodyguard arming themselves to take by force the power that is theirs by right, but no sign of Sylle Ru, who may sense a change in the winds of fortune, and may well have fled for more pacific climes. Either way, the Yamash and his men are well-armed, own warhorses, and are pissed right the hell off.
Next time: Will the party lead the rebellion, follow the Town Council, or get the hell out of Hirot? Tune in to find out!
The party needs a plan. They have a (supposedly) magical artifact, a rope of corpse hair. They've been told by the witch, Ymae, that it will be able to bind the Hound, making it vulnerable to their weaponry. Also, a now-friendly Beacon Duu of the Temple of Luz has offered to bless them, though he avers that his faith is weak, these days, and he may not be up to the task. Nonetheless, they will accept his blessing and ask him to make them some holy water, just in case that might help. He gives it his best shot.
The women are taken to the standing stones to be sacrificed, and a guard is left there to ensure that no one will free them prior to the arrival of the Hound. The adventurers decide that they will wait until just before dusk, and then try to scare the guards away before the Hound arrives at the standing stones. One of them, an animal trainer by trade, makes an attempt to mimic the terrifying howl of the Hound... and rolls a natural 20. The guards run away with alacrity, the scent of fresh piss in their wakes. Then, the party arrays itself in waiting. This part of the plan takes some time, as they are trying to figure out (1) if getting on top of the stones will help; (2) if the prisoners (now chained rather than tied) should be freed or left in place--they decide to leave them in place, for some reason; (3) who will mount the animal trainers' ponies for a 'cavalry charge' against the ravening Hound; (4) how best to deploy the holy water against the Hound; and (5) where everyone should stand to wait.
Eventually they work things out, and the Hound arrives from the north, and the barrowlands. Things do not go well. Though two characters are killed outright, and one more is wounded pretty badly, they are able to, through a combination of daring-do, pony charges, and shitty rolling on the part of the Hound (by Yours Truly), bind and slay the beast, which crumbles to ash before their very eyes. They free the prisoners and gather the ashes (They might come in handy, don't ya know), but decide to camp the night among the standing stones, hoping to return to Hirot in the morning. They slay one of the character's goat for purposes of a feast, build a fire, and eventually go to sleep. The night passes without further incident.
In the morning, they return to Hirot, claiming triumph over the Hound. Hearing the hubbub, the Yamash and Sylle Ru confront them, claiming that they lie. One of the characters (can't remember his name right now), has the gift of gab, and launches into a real stemwinder of an oration, displaying their dead and wounded (Nice job waving the bloody shirt, by the way, Chris), and even showing the ashes they carry with them. The crowd is impressed, by the Yamash persists in his shit-talking. Soon though, things begin to get a bit tense.
Uxo Jormal and some of the towns craftsmen and tradesmen have had enough of the Yamash and his councilor, and have decided this is the time for a coup. Uxo tells the Yamash to go stick it. He and the "town council" can do his job just fine without him, thank you very much. The crowd is impressed, and begins to make some noise about it. The party, though, is divided on this. Rebellion against the Yamash is tantamount to rebellion against the Empire, and could draw reprisal from Magyaru (and land them in a heap of trouble).
Sensing the tide turning against him, the Yamash turns to his councilor, Sylle Ru, but the reputed sorcerer is nowhere to be found. No one saw him go, and nobody is sure where he went. The Yamash is cowed by the revolting peasants, and flees back to his longhouse. He is trailed by two characters, who want to see what he is about, and maybe to find out what Sylle Ru might be doing, as well. They find the Yamash and his bodyguard arming themselves to take by force the power that is theirs by right, but no sign of Sylle Ru, who may sense a change in the winds of fortune, and may well have fled for more pacific climes. Either way, the Yamash and his men are well-armed, own warhorses, and are pissed right the hell off.
Next time: Will the party lead the rebellion, follow the Town Council, or get the hell out of Hirot? Tune in to find out!
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Lacuna Locurae Play Session Report 2: Fetch me my aura stretcher!
When last we left our zero-level schlubs, they had rescued Lilya Jormal, the Innkeep's daughter and snuck her back into town. Unfortunately, their heroics would bear gruesome fruit. Later that night, The Hound would strike the town. The victims were a fisherman and his family, all of whom were slaughtered. Their home had been ripped asunder. Some members of the party decided to investigate.
When they arrived on the scene, the found Sylle Ru, the Yamash's councilor already at work, attempting to discover more about the beast. Harris (the aspiring apprentice wizard, hereafter knows as "Harris Patter") decided she would seek wisdom from him. She inquired what he was about. He answered her gruffly, asking her who she was, and why she wanted to know. She volunteered her name, and desire to be a wizard. He seemed unimpressed. So, she continued to pester him. Soon, her incessant questioning annoyed him past all endurance. "You want something to do, then?" he asked. "Fetch me my aura stretcher!"
Harris, not knowing much about magic, and never having worked in the construction trades, did not realize that he had sent her on a wild goose chase. [Authorial aside: Similar to when I was asked, by one of the carpenters on a construction job, to fetch a "joist stretcher" from my uncle. My uncle, upon hearing my question, fetched a toilet plunger, attached an electrical junction box to it, and told me to, "Tell him I said to shove this up his ass."] In any case, she soon realized the ruse, but returned to find the councilor gone. However, she would not be forgotten, oh no...
Other members of the party, though, sought out the witch, Ymae. They arrived at her squalid hut to find an old woman weaving golden thread from the flames of her cooking fire. Surely she must be quite powerful, both to accomplish such a feat and to avoid the wrath of the Temple of Luz (which abhors sorcery and witchcraft). After speaking to Ymae for a bit, she offered that she might have a way to make the Hound vulnerable to mortal weaponry, but there would be a price: One of the characters would have to marry her. After some discussion, someone agreed to do it. She rewarded them with a rope made of corpse hair, all magicked up good, and (supposedly) what they needed to get the job done.
About this time, the Yamash, Sylle Ru, and the Yamash's body guard descended on the town square. Clearly, the Hound had taken its revenge on Hirot the night before, leading Sylle Ru to proclaim that the sacrifices had not been accepted for some reason. Investigation led to the truth of the matter. It would seem that, in the absence of the PCs, Lilya's presence in the inn had been discovered. So, her life would remain forfeit. Even worse, another sacrifice would be selected in the lottery. If there was any doubt whatsoever, at this point, that the lottery was rigged, it was dispelled. The Yamash selected a name (among which were all of the party's names). "Harris Potter!" he proclaimed, and Sylle Ru smiled nastily at the lass. Lilya and Harris were quickly corralled and led away until such time as they would be taken to the standing stones.
Also, in an act of kindness seemingly uncharacteristic of him, the priest, Beacon Duu, of the Temple of Luz, attempted to provide comfort to the party. He believes the Yamash's councilor to be a sorcerer, and wicked through-and-through, but feels powerless to gainsay him, lest the Yamash decide to dispense with him and his acolytes. Clearly, there are faultlines in the power structure of the town of Hirot.
Can the PCs rescue Harris? Will they be able to slay the Hound? Can they get to the bottom of Sylle Ru's fiendish plot? Tune in next time to find out.
When they arrived on the scene, the found Sylle Ru, the Yamash's councilor already at work, attempting to discover more about the beast. Harris (the aspiring apprentice wizard, hereafter knows as "Harris Patter") decided she would seek wisdom from him. She inquired what he was about. He answered her gruffly, asking her who she was, and why she wanted to know. She volunteered her name, and desire to be a wizard. He seemed unimpressed. So, she continued to pester him. Soon, her incessant questioning annoyed him past all endurance. "You want something to do, then?" he asked. "Fetch me my aura stretcher!"
Harris, not knowing much about magic, and never having worked in the construction trades, did not realize that he had sent her on a wild goose chase. [Authorial aside: Similar to when I was asked, by one of the carpenters on a construction job, to fetch a "joist stretcher" from my uncle. My uncle, upon hearing my question, fetched a toilet plunger, attached an electrical junction box to it, and told me to, "Tell him I said to shove this up his ass."] In any case, she soon realized the ruse, but returned to find the councilor gone. However, she would not be forgotten, oh no...
Other members of the party, though, sought out the witch, Ymae. They arrived at her squalid hut to find an old woman weaving golden thread from the flames of her cooking fire. Surely she must be quite powerful, both to accomplish such a feat and to avoid the wrath of the Temple of Luz (which abhors sorcery and witchcraft). After speaking to Ymae for a bit, she offered that she might have a way to make the Hound vulnerable to mortal weaponry, but there would be a price: One of the characters would have to marry her. After some discussion, someone agreed to do it. She rewarded them with a rope made of corpse hair, all magicked up good, and (supposedly) what they needed to get the job done.
About this time, the Yamash, Sylle Ru, and the Yamash's body guard descended on the town square. Clearly, the Hound had taken its revenge on Hirot the night before, leading Sylle Ru to proclaim that the sacrifices had not been accepted for some reason. Investigation led to the truth of the matter. It would seem that, in the absence of the PCs, Lilya's presence in the inn had been discovered. So, her life would remain forfeit. Even worse, another sacrifice would be selected in the lottery. If there was any doubt whatsoever, at this point, that the lottery was rigged, it was dispelled. The Yamash selected a name (among which were all of the party's names). "Harris Potter!" he proclaimed, and Sylle Ru smiled nastily at the lass. Lilya and Harris were quickly corralled and led away until such time as they would be taken to the standing stones.
Also, in an act of kindness seemingly uncharacteristic of him, the priest, Beacon Duu, of the Temple of Luz, attempted to provide comfort to the party. He believes the Yamash's councilor to be a sorcerer, and wicked through-and-through, but feels powerless to gainsay him, lest the Yamash decide to dispense with him and his acolytes. Clearly, there are faultlines in the power structure of the town of Hirot.
Can the PCs rescue Harris? Will they be able to slay the Hound? Can they get to the bottom of Sylle Ru's fiendish plot? Tune in next time to find out.
Monday, October 13, 2014
Lacuna Locurae Play Session Report 1: Shipwrecked on Magyaru, and Problems with Very Bad Doggies
My apologies for the long absence. Writing deadlines, wives with broken arms, day job, etc., have conspired to limit my time and energy. I've decided to get back into the swing of things by posting some reports of the sessions I've been running in my Lacuna Locurae setting, as part of the DCC RPG World Tour.
I've been running some DCC RPG World Tour sessions (three so far) on my campus, for members of our student gaming club, and others who are interested. It's been pretty great. I'm starting them off with a zero-level funnel version of Doom of the Savage Kings, with some of the encounters nerfed just a little bit. Though, as you shall see, this probably wasn't all that necessary.
I've had a fluctuating group of players. We game on Friday afternoons, but sometimes people can't make it, or show up a bit late, so we end up with somewhere between 4 and 7 players on any given day. Most of the players are veterans of various flavors of D&D and/or Pathfinder, so they know what they're doing. One even has played DCC with me before. They're playing smart, and they're very, very careful. So much so, that I sometimes have to force a decision by providing artificial time constraints on planning, if the planning takes too much time.
Here's what's happened so far.
Our party consisted of those whose lives had led them to leave the Great Empire--third sons and daughters, indentured servants, slaves, fortune-seekers, and whatnot. The were en route to Magyaru, a colonial port of the Empire. The Great Empire is, culturally, a bit like the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire, put in a blender. The native folk of the island are modeled on the Picts and Gaels of R. E. Howard's stories. So, in essence, I'm trying to mash up something like the Roman experience in Britain with the settlement of Colonial America.
The port city of Magyaru is on the southern coast of an island roughly the size of Texas. The island itself is a single, gigantic mountain, bigger than Everest by a long shot. Parts of it extend out into the surrounding sea, and manifest as various island chains, fertile fishing grounds for both honest fisherman and ruthless pirates. The island is home to savage tribes of pale-skinned, fair-haired folk. They tend to keep clear of the colonials, but there have been incidents. There will be more. I've also placed Magyaru and some of the surrounding settlements in the midst of ancient ruins and barrowlands. This could be consequential, later.
The party's ship ended up running aground on a reef when it got lost in the fog. The survivors made landfall about 80 miles west of Magyaru. The crew died in the wreck, and all record of the nature of the ship's passengers was lost. With no records of identity, indenture, or bondage, all of them are now free colonists. They need merely assume whatever identities please them, and start with a clean slate.
One passenger died as he jumped from the ship (fumbled), and broke his neck on the rocks. The rest made it to shore and found that the coastal road was not too far inland. They made camp and rested the night. When they reached the road the next morning, they spotted a native, who ran away from them. Two of the players decided to pursue him, but instead encountered a sounder of wild pigs. The boar managed to kill two zeroes before they killed it. They left the bodies and hauled away the fresh pork.
After walking the rest of the day, they found themselves on the outside of a fishing village, Hirot. Just outside of town, they stumbled upon a group of townsfolk leading a young woman to be sacrificed at a group of ancient standing stones. They didn't announce themselves, but watched and waited for a bit. After a while they approached and found out that the sacrifice was intended to appease some kind of demonic hound. The Yamash (a title for the ruler of this town) and his advisor (Sylle Ru) had concocted a scheme whereby sacrifices would be made. This time, it would be the innkeeper's only daughter, Lilya. Her father, Uxo, had gotten on the wrong side of them, it seems, and this was their revenge.
The source of conflict, as the players would find out later, was contention over governance of Hirot. The appointed rulers, the Yamash and his bodyguard of noble warriors, had come into conflict with the town's notable men of affairs. This tension between the old nobility and the rising merchant class will be a source of constant tension in this setting.
In any case, the party freed the girl and disguised her with a hooded cloak. They entered the town and made friends with her father, while she hid upstairs in her family's lodgings.
Later that night, the Hound of Hirot returned. Not finding a sacrifice to appease it, the beast leaped over the wall and ripped its way into a house. After eviscerating a family of five, it returned from whence it came.
Next Installment: The Day After
I've been running some DCC RPG World Tour sessions (three so far) on my campus, for members of our student gaming club, and others who are interested. It's been pretty great. I'm starting them off with a zero-level funnel version of Doom of the Savage Kings, with some of the encounters nerfed just a little bit. Though, as you shall see, this probably wasn't all that necessary.
I've had a fluctuating group of players. We game on Friday afternoons, but sometimes people can't make it, or show up a bit late, so we end up with somewhere between 4 and 7 players on any given day. Most of the players are veterans of various flavors of D&D and/or Pathfinder, so they know what they're doing. One even has played DCC with me before. They're playing smart, and they're very, very careful. So much so, that I sometimes have to force a decision by providing artificial time constraints on planning, if the planning takes too much time.
Here's what's happened so far.
Our party consisted of those whose lives had led them to leave the Great Empire--third sons and daughters, indentured servants, slaves, fortune-seekers, and whatnot. The were en route to Magyaru, a colonial port of the Empire. The Great Empire is, culturally, a bit like the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire, put in a blender. The native folk of the island are modeled on the Picts and Gaels of R. E. Howard's stories. So, in essence, I'm trying to mash up something like the Roman experience in Britain with the settlement of Colonial America.
The port city of Magyaru is on the southern coast of an island roughly the size of Texas. The island itself is a single, gigantic mountain, bigger than Everest by a long shot. Parts of it extend out into the surrounding sea, and manifest as various island chains, fertile fishing grounds for both honest fisherman and ruthless pirates. The island is home to savage tribes of pale-skinned, fair-haired folk. They tend to keep clear of the colonials, but there have been incidents. There will be more. I've also placed Magyaru and some of the surrounding settlements in the midst of ancient ruins and barrowlands. This could be consequential, later.
The party's ship ended up running aground on a reef when it got lost in the fog. The survivors made landfall about 80 miles west of Magyaru. The crew died in the wreck, and all record of the nature of the ship's passengers was lost. With no records of identity, indenture, or bondage, all of them are now free colonists. They need merely assume whatever identities please them, and start with a clean slate.
One passenger died as he jumped from the ship (fumbled), and broke his neck on the rocks. The rest made it to shore and found that the coastal road was not too far inland. They made camp and rested the night. When they reached the road the next morning, they spotted a native, who ran away from them. Two of the players decided to pursue him, but instead encountered a sounder of wild pigs. The boar managed to kill two zeroes before they killed it. They left the bodies and hauled away the fresh pork.
After walking the rest of the day, they found themselves on the outside of a fishing village, Hirot. Just outside of town, they stumbled upon a group of townsfolk leading a young woman to be sacrificed at a group of ancient standing stones. They didn't announce themselves, but watched and waited for a bit. After a while they approached and found out that the sacrifice was intended to appease some kind of demonic hound. The Yamash (a title for the ruler of this town) and his advisor (Sylle Ru) had concocted a scheme whereby sacrifices would be made. This time, it would be the innkeeper's only daughter, Lilya. Her father, Uxo, had gotten on the wrong side of them, it seems, and this was their revenge.
The source of conflict, as the players would find out later, was contention over governance of Hirot. The appointed rulers, the Yamash and his bodyguard of noble warriors, had come into conflict with the town's notable men of affairs. This tension between the old nobility and the rising merchant class will be a source of constant tension in this setting.
In any case, the party freed the girl and disguised her with a hooded cloak. They entered the town and made friends with her father, while she hid upstairs in her family's lodgings.
Later that night, the Hound of Hirot returned. Not finding a sacrifice to appease it, the beast leaped over the wall and ripped its way into a house. After eviscerating a family of five, it returned from whence it came.
Next Installment: The Day After
Monday, August 25, 2014
Alive!
I've been a participant in +Shawn Sanford's ongoing DCC RPG FLAILSNAILS campaign for probably something over a year, now. Shawn runs a great game, and his skills as a judge, combined with his reliability in running sessions, are things that have kept me coming back for more. This game also has given me a chance to play in a variety of published DCC RPG modules, which I really don't get to do as often as you might think, and certainly not as much as I would like to. He has hinted that he might be on the verge of exposing us to some original, sandbox play and Sanford-authored adventures, which I would love to try out, but we'll see what happens with that in a couple of weeks. For now, let me tell you about the last session.
At the last cliffhanger, the party (most of us below the recommended level) had killed two wizards, including Emirikol and his rival, Leotah (sp.?). I was pretty sure we'd die in that session, but not so. That put my cleric, Kormaki Lemmisson, right on the cusp of 4th level, a place I never thought to see. We still needed to survive one more session for him to make the jump, though.
We began by looting the wizard's bedroom/study. Found some pretty good stuff in there, including a lot of actual gold and gems. Mat's wizard gained a bitchin' cape of protection against magic, plus 2. Then we went through a portal to what seemed to be Emirikol's "panic room." It was chock full of iron golems and a black gem that zapped us repeatedly with harmful magics. Chris's Dyer Halfling managed to spider climb up to the ceiling, and dropped about 30 feet to double stab it. Double crits! He smashed the gem... and himself. Tried to heal him, but failed. Then, the tower started shaking. Self-destruct mode initiated, apparently. Time to bail! We fled to the previous room, presumably the top of the tower.
Once there, we had two options: Leap through the black portal that Leotah had used when she'd arrived, earlier; or, we could brave the non-Euclidean geometries of the tower, and not die in the process. There was a lot of falling stone happening, and I was not convinced that we could find our way out. That tower was confusing. Given that we didn't have any idea how long we had, I opted (along with Chris and one other person--Mat, I think) to leap into the black portal. It was... a mistake. We suddenly found ourselves 120 feet above the pavement. Shawn advised us to get ready to roll 12d6 damage. Instead, I called upon the Metal Gods, asking for for divine intervention. Chris burned his luck down to the minimum to aid the cause. I burned mine too, and the roll was a 37. Shawn allowed that I'd survived unscathed (as I most likely was aided by Robhal, the Metal God of flight, studded leather, and steel). Chris and (I think) Mat each took some damage, but not 12d6. They survived, barely. Chris's luck will heal, at least. That's excellent. That halfling has been a godsend to this party.
So, we survived. Believe me, no one saw that coming, least of all me.
Bad things:
Good things:
Now, all I have to do is avoid falling anvils and pianos. I have a feeling it won't be very easy, so wish me luck. It's not like I have any of my own.
At the last cliffhanger, the party (most of us below the recommended level) had killed two wizards, including Emirikol and his rival, Leotah (sp.?). I was pretty sure we'd die in that session, but not so. That put my cleric, Kormaki Lemmisson, right on the cusp of 4th level, a place I never thought to see. We still needed to survive one more session for him to make the jump, though.
We began by looting the wizard's bedroom/study. Found some pretty good stuff in there, including a lot of actual gold and gems. Mat's wizard gained a bitchin' cape of protection against magic, plus 2. Then we went through a portal to what seemed to be Emirikol's "panic room." It was chock full of iron golems and a black gem that zapped us repeatedly with harmful magics. Chris's Dyer Halfling managed to spider climb up to the ceiling, and dropped about 30 feet to double stab it. Double crits! He smashed the gem... and himself. Tried to heal him, but failed. Then, the tower started shaking. Self-destruct mode initiated, apparently. Time to bail! We fled to the previous room, presumably the top of the tower.
Once there, we had two options: Leap through the black portal that Leotah had used when she'd arrived, earlier; or, we could brave the non-Euclidean geometries of the tower, and not die in the process. There was a lot of falling stone happening, and I was not convinced that we could find our way out. That tower was confusing. Given that we didn't have any idea how long we had, I opted (along with Chris and one other person--Mat, I think) to leap into the black portal. It was... a mistake. We suddenly found ourselves 120 feet above the pavement. Shawn advised us to get ready to roll 12d6 damage. Instead, I called upon the Metal Gods, asking for for divine intervention. Chris burned his luck down to the minimum to aid the cause. I burned mine too, and the roll was a 37. Shawn allowed that I'd survived unscathed (as I most likely was aided by Robhal, the Metal God of flight, studded leather, and steel). Chris and (I think) Mat each took some damage, but not 12d6. They survived, barely. Chris's luck will heal, at least. That's excellent. That halfling has been a godsend to this party.
So, we survived. Believe me, no one saw that coming, least of all me.
Bad things:
- My disapproval is now going to need some serious repair. My cut of the treasure will be donated at the Iron Cathedral, when I am able. Maybe I'll blow it on Dave Filth's wake (see below).
- My luck mod is now -3, and that's not going away any time soon. I fear it may be the death of me.
- It's official: Barry's character, Dave Filth, is no more. When Emirikol died, we lost all hope of getting him out of that gem he got Magic Jarred into. I'll miss that guy. He was a mate to Kormaki, and we'd been through many an adventure together. I'll see that he is sent off properly at the Iron Cathedral. There will be many a tankard and bottle drained in his name, at the wake.
Good things:
- Kormaki is now 4th level, an Apostle. He gains one 1st and one 2nd level spell, and another hit die. He also gets a +1 bump to his Fort saves.
- The wizard tower is now a pile of rubble. Fuck you, wizards. Eat a bag of wangs. Oh, wait, you can't. You're dead. Fine, eat them in Hell.
- We are due some payment from the city guard for fulfilling our charge to deal with this wizard problem.
Now, all I have to do is avoid falling anvils and pianos. I have a feeling it won't be very easy, so wish me luck. It's not like I have any of my own.
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Godly Grace in a Mortal Shell
Yesterday, while playing in +Shawn Sanford's DCC FLAILSNAILS game, my longest-running DCC character, Kormaki Lemmisson, almost met his end, and at his own hand.
Here's what happened.
We'd gotten very nearly to the end of Michael Curtis's excellent adventure, DCC #77 The Croaking Fane. Only a couple more rooms to look at before heading back to Punjar to heal up and resupply before tackling Emirikol Was Framed. Surely, that wouldn't be a problem, right? It's just a couple rooms. We could handle it, right? Very nearly not, it would turn out.
The room at issue was behind a barred door. The door was barred to keep whatever was behind it, well, behind it. +Barry Blatt noticed that small fact, and advocated for a swift retreat with our ill-gotten loot. In our hubris, in our greed, we ignored his wisdom.
In part, I ignored him because of my success in casting a spell. After we removed the bar, revealing some kind of crypt behind it, Kormaki cast Divine Symbol, a spell that imbues the cleric's symbol with holiness. Here's the result of the casting (a natural 20, btw):
Dax, baby? Sing us out. Sing something about death.
Here's what happened.
We'd gotten very nearly to the end of Michael Curtis's excellent adventure, DCC #77 The Croaking Fane. Only a couple more rooms to look at before heading back to Punjar to heal up and resupply before tackling Emirikol Was Framed. Surely, that wouldn't be a problem, right? It's just a couple rooms. We could handle it, right? Very nearly not, it would turn out.
The room at issue was behind a barred door. The door was barred to keep whatever was behind it, well, behind it. +Barry Blatt noticed that small fact, and advocated for a swift retreat with our ill-gotten loot. In our hubris, in our greed, we ignored his wisdom.
In part, I ignored him because of my success in casting a spell. After we removed the bar, revealing some kind of crypt behind it, Kormaki cast Divine Symbol, a spell that imbues the cleric's symbol with holiness. Here's the result of the casting (a natural 20, btw):
For a duration of 3d6+CL rounds, the cleric can attack with his holy symbol as if it were a magical weapon of +2 enchantment. It deals 1d14+2 damage (modified by Str, as usual), with an additional +4 damage bonus against unholy creatures. In addition, as long as the cleric is visible to his allies and followers, they receive a +1 bonus to saving throws and morale checks. Finally, the cleric also receives a +4 bonus to all spell checks to turn unholy while using his holy symbol when under the influence of this spell. (DCC RPG Rulebook, p. 275)Time to kick some undead ass, right? Kormaki had Soul Power (for 19 rounds!), and, yes, was most assuredly feeling Superbad.
Unlike Kormaki, JB understands how things can go, sometimes: Super-badly.
In the end, Kormaki had only himself to fear. After initially having great success in dealing damage to his undead, amphibious foes (big-ass zombie frogs with like a million HD), and failing to turn unholy (because of those many, many hit dice), Kormaki lined one of those bastards up in his sights and swung mightily. He rolled a natural 1 (of course). Subsequent rolls on the fumble table (d16, because: Banded Mail) ended with him doing 12 points of damage... to himself. He was also (of course) the only cleric in the party, so no healing for him. There were some potions we found, but I had the feeling they wouldn't be very healing, so I gambled, and declined such aid.
I (Edgar, not Kormaki) suddenly found myself reflecting on the real possibility of the death of my oldest character. Kormaki has been around since the Metal Gods crew started playing together. +Adam Muszkiewicz doesn't exactly shower us in unwarranted XP, and he and I alternate judging duties, so it's taken me a long time to get him to 3rd level. He's a veteran of Fort Simian. He's met Space David Bowie, in his Ziggy Stardust aspect. He smoked the purple tentacle, for Lemm's sake! He's been through some shit, let me tell you. How could he die? Who might replace him? My mind pondered these possibilities as the rest of the party mopped up, and watched Kormaki bleed out, helpless to do anything about it.
But there was a possibility that he might still live--the "Recover the Body" rule:
Recovering the body: If the body of a dead ally can be recovered, there is a chance the ally may not be truly killed. He may have been knocked unconscious or simply stunned. If a character reaches a dead ally’s body within one hour, the dead character may make a Luck check when his body is rolled over. On a successful check, the dead character was badly injured but is not permanently killed... (DCC RPG Rulebook, p. 93)
Now at only 7 points of Luck, Kormaki's chances were a bit slim (35%) to "recover the body" as per the rules. The Metal Gods smiled upon him, and the Iron Fist of Lemm did shelter him from harm: I rolled a 2.
So, Kormaki lived. He's down (another) point of Stamina, reducing him to 8, and incurring a -1 penalty as a result. He suddenly feels like that cop who's three days from retirement, and "too old for this shit." He needs to go back to the chapter house, to heal up, to drink and whore, and to do all of those things a man of his stature ought, before things go pear-shaped for good.
Knowing how things go, though, he'll probably just go out adventuring again. His inevitable demise is only a matter of time. In the end, death waits for us all.
Dax, baby? Sing us out. Sing something about death.
Maybe you're dead and ya just don't know
A shadow dressed only in sorrow
Tomorrow might not exist and ya should've been dead
Friday, October 25, 2013
My Anniversary Present: Death, death, and more death
Last night marked the first anniversary for the Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad campaign. Let me begin by saying that gaming with +Adam Muszkiewicz, +Wayne Snyder, +Bear Wojtek, +Gabriel Perez Gallardi, +James MacGeorge, +phil spitzer, +Jason Hobbs, and (once or twice) +John Iverson has been a blast. I think we've managed to game about 50 weeks out of the last 52, which ain't a bad run.
Sadly, Bear and James were unable to join us last night. In Bear's honor, the whole game was nothing but a series of dick jokes. +Jason Hobbs' Roll20 token was a giant dildo, even. Maybe it wasn't so much a series of dick jokes as it was the Metal Gods version of The Aristocrats.
Sadly, Bear and James were unable to join us last night. In Bear's honor, the whole game was nothing but a series of dick jokes. +Jason Hobbs' Roll20 token was a giant dildo, even. Maybe it wasn't so much a series of dick jokes as it was the Metal Gods version of The Aristocrats.
And, yes, that's Bob Saget. A perfect choice don't you think?
Anyway, we each started off with two or three level zero guys. I made mine with the alternate level zero generator I posted recently (Note: There's been an update to how the dices rolls work, to make them a bit swingier. Fun!). I ended up with a Brewer who spent time as a soldier (Jeddak), a dwarven apothecary who fell in with a bad crowd (Gnarrly), and an acolyte who was the black sheep of his family (Thulan). All of them had their high and low points, but none had very many hit points. This would prove... consequential.
Adam ran an adventure from Brave Halfling, but altered for the Metal Gods universe. I don't think he ever mentioned what it was called. In any case, it was a lot of fun.
We started at a hole in the ground, at the top of a hill. I sent the brewer/soldier and the dwarf down first. They saw A SCARY SPIDER and were hauled back up out of reach. We got down there again, in numbers, and Jeddak the brewer/soldier nailed it with a thrown hammer. For once, I was rolling like a fuckin' beast. My guys just killed and killed and killed. We were filled with the spirit of Lemm the Killmaster, I think, for it was our mission to investigate this now-desecrated temple of Lemm.
Backstory: Lemm the Killmaster, whose aspect is the Iron Boar, Snaggletooth, is one of the Metal Gods. In our campaign, "metal" is both a thing (it can be forged into weapons whereby Man can cast off the chains of his elven oppressors--Fuck the elves!), an attitude (make it brudl), and how we find the Lost Hymns (the musical connection). The Metal Gods are incarnations of Man as pantheon. They were men, once, but now they are gods. We give them worship by being awesome, where "awesome" is defined as the sorts of things you find on finer album covers and wizard vans. It's got a lot more in common with Wizards (the movie) than with The Hobbit (the Rankin/Bass vehicle of the same era), and with the ancient times (the 1970s, or even... the early 1970s) than with the current age. Anyway...
Having trounced the spider, we began to explore the temple. Everywhere, we found evidence of great antiquity and of the foul desecration. We also found evidence of a schism among the Faithful. Lemm is patron of getting wasted, fucking, and killing things well. Also (and here's my contribution) regretting not the deeds done, but the grimness of the world which results from them. The schism broke the temple into two factions: Those focused on the fucking and getting wasted and those more interested in the stabby, smashing, rending thing. This temple was held by the fighty ones, but they'd been attacked in their stronghold by a demon, and defeated. The demon's presence had sullied the environs, making mock of Lemm's power. This could not stand. We would purify it.
Before we started tonight, Adam made very clear that no good could come of hanging back, or even of doign things in ways less than totally awesome. We needed to approach our work with gusto. We needed to make it metal. We needed make it worthy of an album cover. We were up to the task. I won't go into every encounter we had, but suffice it to say that we fucked up a bunch of skeltons, some giant bats, and a boss skeleton of some kind.
In the end, I was down to one character. Gnarrly the dwarf had died early on, from a spider bite. He made his save versus poison, but not versus mandible damage (3 points killed him). Thulan the acoloyte got stabbed by a skeleton, I think. I don't rightly remember. My last guy, Jeddak, charged into the boss fight, screaming like a Fury, mace raised high and swinging it with both hands. He faced a skeletal being wearing jeans, leather chaps, and a jean vest. He crushed that sonofabitch into oblivion. Boss... dead. It was appropriately Metal, I think.
Honestly, I couldn't help to try very, very hard to make every encounter as awesome as I could. I wanted that album cover! Even with one guy left, I just didn't care. So, filled with the spirit of the Killmaster, he smashed that fucker's head in. Then, even with the scavenged scale mail (AC 16), Adam rolled an 18, did 3 points of damage (I only had 2). He died, then, cut down like a dog. But that's as it should have been. It was a perfect ending for my guys. I regret nothing. For Jeddak, Thulan, and Gnarrly, I offer one of the Lost Hymns in honor of their sacrifices:
Mother earth, mother earth enfold you in her cold embrace
Sinking down, killing ground, worm crawling on your cold white face
Win or lose, nought to choose, all men are equal when their memory fades
No one knows, friends or foes, if Valhalla lies beyond the grave
Sinking down, killing ground, worm crawling on your cold white face
Win or lose, nought to choose, all men are equal when their memory fades
No one knows, friends or foes, if Valhalla lies beyond the grave
You died well, boys. Good on ya. You'll get your album covers. You will.
In the end, the remaining members of the party reclaimed the Axe of Lemm and used it to resanctify His temple. A herald of Lemm descended to thank them, granting them the weapon (among other things), and bade them go forth and bring glory to His name.
All my guys died, but it couldn't have been a better session. I have just one question: Is it Thursday yet? I'm ready to go again.
Awww, crap. I forgot. Next Thursday is Halloween. No game. *sigh* I guess I'm gonna have to dress up like a wizard and go frighten children and their parents. All in a day's work, I suppose. The next Thursday, though, that's gonna be glorious. How could it be anything but?
Friday, September 20, 2013
MGoU-H: Jewels of the Carnifex; Session 3
When last we left the Divine Order of the Purple Tentacle,
our heroes were caught between a rock (3 of them actually: The Jewels of the
Carnifex), and a hard place (the Swords of the Pious, led by Mr. Majestic). Kormaki
Lemmisson, 3rd (!) level cleric (who has turned to the forces of
Chaos) recounts what happened.
***
Yep, we were deep in the crypt, and things weren't looking
so good for us. Damned Swords of the Pious wanted us to bust up the Jewels, but
Denny Smeds had his eyes on 'em, his avarice running high, and we had just
determined that the Swords of the Pious do not care much for the Jewels, as
they emit some sort of Protection from Lawful aura. So, we could probably use
them later. The way they're positioned, though… obvious trap. We'd have to work out how to grab 'em.
We also probably would need that big-ass two-handed sword
that the Swords of the Pious had taken from the altar room. It might come in handy later,
depending on what went down. So how to get it? Formerly Ian the wizard has a
plan. When we was just lads, we'd plundered the Crypt of the Lizard King.
Formerly Ian found there a helm (now fully bonded to his skull) that belonged
to the Lizard King, a mighty warrior and sailor. This puissant helm makes it
easier for him to persuade people, among other things. So he decided to talk to
Mr. Majestic, to convince him that we needed it to smash the Jewels. [Meta Note: Formerly
Ian Persuades using Lizard King Helm ROLLS 28! Natural 20, plus Helm's +3, plus
1-time +5 bonus from the Invoke Patron thing he did at end of last session].
Sure enough, that glowing old codger coughs it up. Now we
have the Sword of the Carnifex. The Sword says "Executioner's Wand"—and
it's the same sword as they put in all those ritual beheading murals we found
around this place. Vane's the most chaotic mother's son in the Order, so he
takes the sword, at least for the moment. Formerly Ian tries to Detect Magic on
the weapon, but the Metal Gods did not smile upon him. The spell was lost. Oh,
well… could have been worse.
Armed now with the Sword, Denny Smeds checks out the Idol (
some kind of worm thing with rubies in its mouth and two claws) for traps. He
figures out that pulling the jewels will make it bite, probably. So, we start using
iron spikes to jam its articulations. The jaws were easy enough, but the claws
were maybe a little less successfully jammed. Moreover, I started havin' me a
VERY BAD feeling about these damned jewels. I told the guys, and (of course)
they ignored my premonition. Greedy fucks, the lot of 'em. Denny said,
"Okay. Let's do it. We just can't not
do it, right?" However, perhaps my misgivings made the thief a bit more
cautious than he woulda been. So, we don't do it immediately. I'll get back to
that.
In the meantime, Vane's weapon, the mighty Whore Whammer (whose
purpose is to slay Lawful beings) wants to kill the Swords of the Pious. Like
really bad, it wants to. We told him to hold off for just a minute, 'til we'd
figured out how we're gonna get the Jewels and skedaddle out of this place. So,
we went downstairs, instead.
There were no traps on the stairway, but it ended in a
flooded section of hallway, with a wax-sealed, and runed, door of some kind. We
also saw some old bones lying in the water, there. My first thought was,
"Nope. Ain't touchin' that door." The others kinda agreed. I figured
I'd at least try to Detect Magic on it. Yeah, the Metal Gods… strongly
disapproved of that. I spent the next hour chanting a hymn (Living After Midnight, which is sacred
to Obhal the Steel Eagle) to get right with the guys upstairs. Sometimes I
begin to wonder why I ever became a holy man. Maybe that's gotta change…
Denny Smeds has him an idea, though. With that weird
whistle, he raises up those old bones. They look to be the remains of two
members of the Swords of the Pious, and they have some holy symbols on chains
around their necks. He raises all three of 'em, and sends 'em upstairs to get
us the Jewels.
Adam the GM said, "So what's your plan here, pal?"
Phil the Player said, "I miss having a moustache to
twirl evilly."
Anyway, so Denny sends the skeletons to get jewels. Two get
fucked up pretty bad, losing their arms to the claw attacks. The other one is
okay, because we wedged the jaws open. We get the Jewels. Big fist-sized
numbers, red like blood. Denny picks up the Jewels, and puts 'em in a sack. They
make him feel… WARLIKE, like he wants to make a Snuggie® out of Mr. Majestic's
hide.
Then we try to figure out the runes on the sealed door (me and
Former Ian and Denny): They say, "Death Bound to the Pit by the Sacrifice
Of Four Noble Lives: Liaf, Bauherm, Magin & Azazel." What the hell
does that mean? No fuckin' clue. Now it looks like the only way back out is
through the Swords of the Pious. So, just to make it work, and to curry favor
with the Metal Gods, I drop trow' and piss all over those lawful holy symbols to tell the
Swords' gods to fuck off. It also helped me to fix my little disapproval problem.
Meanwhile, Grumble the dwarf is getting' a bit froggy, and hits
one of the Swords of the Pious with a javelin. About that time, we decide to
take Jewels upstairs. Denny keeps them in bag.
We tried to persuade him to distribute them to the rest of us, to spread
the anti-Law aura. It took a while, but eventually he saw reason.
I started marshalling the troops, trying to get ourselves
into a phalanx, with me and Formerly Ian in the middle, and to escape via the
narrower secret passage by the stairs instead of the big, central corridor with
the vines. Grumble says, "Let's maybe kill the wicker guy over there, the
guy what they been worshipping." "NO!"
we say, "Let's get the fuck out of here. Formerly Ian ain't looking so
good." So, we 'turtle' and move toward the secret passage.
Mr. Majestic makes a final plea for us to destroy the
Jewels. We not-so-politely decline. So, it's on.
Denny sent skeletons at Mr. Majestic and his bodyguards, killing
one and wounding the other, and then shoots a crossbow at Mr. Majestic, to no
avail. It just bounced right off his armor. "That armor may just be worth
something, once we kill the guy," I was thinking.
Grumble hurls another javelin. Nope.
Vane throws a Molotov way off line, and they easily dance
back from the burning oil.
Formerly Ian casts Sleep, and somehow manages to nod off
right in the middle. Fuck me! Now I gotta carry the fuckin'wizard? [Meta Note: Natural 1. Roll of 5 indicates a Misfire.
Gabriel Rolls 1. Goes to Sleep.] I try to slap him around a bit, to wake him
up. It'll take a bit for him to come to his senses, but he can stumble along if
I support him.
We continue to move in turtle formation.
They attack, but nobody gets hit. As they get closer to
Vane, they seem to wither and steam. They … are all fucked up by Whore Wammer
or maybe by the Jewel he's carrying, like turned, but with damage. Things are
lookin' up at this point, but we got a whole lot of these bastards to kill, and
Mr. Majestic is lookin' like a real handful.
We finally get to the hallway, and I carry the wizard.
Somebody suggests using some more of that holy water we found, but we're out.
We do have that other bottle with the crossed swords on it, and the pasty black
gel in it. Hmm… the texture isn't that of something made for drinking… Hey! I
got an idea! Smear some of that shit on the Whore Whammer, Vane! Vane smears
potion from Crossed Swords bottle. The Whore Whammer is now a very dirty hammer.
Vane ATTACKS. He had an Insight, which somehow helped a miss
became a hit! [Meta Note: Whore Whammer is now +3 against all enemies of the
Carnifex! Denny gets a bonus too, after smearing his weapon]. It's a hard hit! Mr. Majestic's all
pissed about it, like he can't believe how bad it hurt. He says, "What the
fuck?" in angelic language.
Mr. Majestic attacks Vane. Two attacks! No luck, though, because Vane's wearing the
Sea Dragon scale armor of the Lizard King.
Three of the mutants attack Vane, and take damage from
awesome Chaos aura given off by the Jewel he's carrying!
We get to the end of the secret passage, and Denny opens
other door. Bad guys there, lots of 'em.
He closes it again. Then it's my turn.
I decide to support Vane, while he holds off Mr. Majestic
and that crew of his. I cast a fire bomb at Mr. Majestic and his bodyguard, and
fuck 'em up pretty badly.
The other group of enemies to the south bash the secret door
in, so our guys down there need to fight. Formerly Ian casts Color Spray at Mr.
Majestic's Lieutenant. [Meta Note: He burns Luck to succeed. Plus mercurial
effect… Major Corruption! Formerly Ian's height changes by 1d20-10 inches.] The
damned wizard stretches 10 inches taller. What the hell? Maybe he needs to
rethink this whole wizard thing. He's turning into a fuckin' freak. Oh, well… I
guess he's OUR freak.
Grumble the Dwarf grabs the two-handed sword (Wand of the
Executioner) and fucking attacks the Lieutenant with with it. Badly. If our
lives weren't on the line, I probably woulda fallen out I was laughing so hard.
Denny brandishes a Carnifex gem. Some mutant dudes get badly burned
by Carnifex power. He gets to go again! Does the "turning" thing
again. One more is hurt.
I'm finding myself thinking that my neutrality is holding me
back. I'm tired of being such a shitty spell caster, and I've fucking had it
with neutrality. Time to pick one side or the other. No more fence-sitting. The
Metal Gods are a pantheon, after all, and I've got choices! I appeal to the powers of the Metal Gods of Chaos, and begin
to rend my flesh with Their runes, obliterating Neutral
ones already there. [Meta Note: Clerics can spellburn for things like this, in
our world.] I bless Vane. Spellburned to 14 from 11.
Continued burning from my firebomb kills one more bodyguard.
Grumble got hit pretty badly by the Lieutenant.
Grumble and Vane both attack and they miss.
Formerly Ian casts Chill Touch [Meta Note: result of 24! His
hands are charged with negative energy! For the next turn, the caster receives
a +4 to attack rolls, and every creature the caster attacks takes an additional
2d6 damage as well as 1d4 points of Strength loss. Un-dead creatures take an
additional +4 points of damage], and these guys appear to be fucked, now. He
badly damages the Lieutenant.
I try to heal Grumble. Shit! Not again! [Meta Note: A
"2" is in the disapproval range. Kormaki gets an immediate -1 to
heal. But now must go on quest to heal crippled, etc. before that effect goes
away]. Kormaki is really thinking about a change of career.
Denny attacks, and misses, but the Jewel's aura does damage.
Grumble hammers the Lieutenant.
I pick up 2-handed sword, but suddenly realize that, as a
now-Chaotic cleric, I can't use this thing. I need an axe or something.
Vane hits Mr. Majestic and socks him good.
Adam: "Tell me how you killed this guy."
Vane: "I smashed his head like a nut."
The other mutant dudes start flipping out. Some charge, but others are moving away toward statue, what we've been calling the Wicker Man.
Formerly Ian tries to Chill Touch the Lieutenant, and
succeeds! Killed that bastard by
grabbing his face and reverse microwaving his brains. Other guys' morale is
broken, and they start to run.
I move to support Vane. Me and Vane fail some Luck checks.
Three guys attacked. The Jewels fucked them up.
Denny attacks the other guys with firebomb.
Formerly Ian makes Luck check.
Grumble rifles the pockets of the dead dudes. Finds 14 very
old silver pieces, wants to loot the rest of them.
I say we should get the fuck out here, but they want to loot
Mr. Majestic. However, his corpse is decomposing quickly, and then the rest of
the Pious follow suit in short order.
We (of course) go back to desecrate the Wicker Man statue,
and burn it with fire.
We backtrack through the complex. The climb back up to the
sewer is difficult, but we manage it. We were smart enough to tie ourselves off
before climbing. We eventually get up there in the sewer pipe.
We each get a Luck point, and Kormaki reaches 3rd
level! Woo hoo!
So, now we gotta figure out what to do with the Jewels of
the Carnifex. Maybe we should go visit our old pal, Amor Ba'Gish, the wizard. He knows People. The guys kinda want to keep 'em as trophies, but I think that would only serve
to attract the worst kind of thieves. Also, possession of the Jewels would
provide proof that we'd fucked up the Swords of the Pious, and Ur-Hadad's
lawful do-gooders might not be too happy to find that out, if they manage to do
so. I say we sell 'em and spend a bit more money on our compound. Hell, with what
we get we might just be able to buy that whore house next door. It might also finance
some more improvements to turn our house into more of a defensible compound.
Things are unsettled in the First City, and we need to be ready for trouble.
For now, though, I could use a drink or ten.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
MGoU-H: Jewels of the Carnifex, Session 2
The Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad campaign continued the +Harley Stroh module, "Jewels of the Carnifex" on Thursday, and this is how it went down.
When last we left our heroes, the had recently defeated three mutant-looking dudes. Tough, ugly, and now very, very dead. Here's a report from Kormaki Lemmisson, 2nd level cleric of the Metal Gods (now only 3 XP away from 3rd level).
At this point we're trying to figure out where to go. There's a door with a chain and padlock (i.e., shiny red button) and there's a room that looks like the doors have been blown off their hinges. We went the "open" route, and found a corridor full of vines with a hole in the floor. Denny Smeds, our thief, went first. He found that the vines weren't dangerous, and that the hole in the floor went down to the first level (probably?). Then he discovered something weird. The vines on the other side of the hole kind of petered out, shriveled and dead. Beyond them Denny found a room with an overturned altar with a skull motif (very Metal). It also looks like there's a hollow under where it used to stand, in the shape of possibly a two-handed sword. The sword is long gone, though. I imagine we'll need to find it at some point, to kill the Big Bad (whatever it is).
On the wall behind the altar was a mosaic to some sort of death goddess. It seemed to be projecting some kind of mad juju, and that was killing the vines. Me, being the party cleric, went to check it out. It didn't seem to shrivel me, so good. I had an inspiration that the goddess might crave blood. The wizard, Formerly Ian, cut open his finger and flicked drops onto the mosaic, which sucked them up like parched soil. Nothing else really happened, though, as a result. It's a nice mural, though, and probably pretty valuable to the right collector, so we decided to maybe steal the mural by taking the panels off the walls. My thought was that we'd go ahead and kill off the vines with it, since it seemed to be killing them somehow. However, we then discovered a hole in the wall, or rather a recessed cylinder. Inside, there was some sort of pull-ring. We'd have to reach in to grab it. Dumb idea. Who has two thumbs and wants to keep 'em? This guy! Ain't no way I'm putting my hand in there. Nobody else wanted to either.
At this point, +Adam Muszkiewicz is all but laughing at us. This is probably the first time that words like "over-cautious" or "timid" would be good descriptions of us, we who style ourselves "The Divine Order of the Purple Tentacle." I mean, shit, we've had the sacred Purple Meat, and seen Muppets and Space Bowie, and smoked mushroom wizard brain. We've killed more apes and ver-men, and lizard people and serpent kin, and whatever else, than just about anybody. We ain't scared o' shit. This time, though, we're short a fighter, and our wizard has spellburned a LOT of stamina and agility. He ain't lookin' so good, at least what you can seen under all that hair. The goat hooves are kind of nifty, though. I wouldn't mind trading my one-leg-longer-than-the-other for a nice set o' trotters like that. They're pretty fuckin' Metal, you know? Hard to sneak around on, though. Maybe Formerly Ian the Wizard will need some special shoes to quiet them down. We could call 'em "sneakers" or something like that.
Anyhow, Crag Beerbeard has himself a hell of an idea. We jimmy up a combination of arrow, string, and rope. The arrow is used to get the string in the hole, the string gets fed through the ring and the other end dragged by out. Then we attach the rope to the string and everybody gets the hell out of the room. We give it a yank. No "BOOM!" So far, so good.
When we return, the mural has parted to reveal a reliquary, and some serious magic is coming off that thing, like the "stink lines" used in comic art to show that something smells awful. It projects a sense of dread. The reliquary is covered in gold and probably weighs about 500 pounds. No carrying that thing out, but maybe there's something inside. We hope so. There's also a shawl the color of dried blood. It's also magical. I can't remember exactly what happened, or how, but the mural or the reliquary, one of the two, fucked up three of the party members who failed a save, aging them magically. Denny Smeds, the thief, went from 21 to 42 years old in a moment's time. The two dwarves Crag and Grumble were also aged, though not nearly as much. Given Denny's advanced stage of decay, we decided the shawl was a fitting reward for him. Lucky bastard. It provides some protective magics.
Then we gotta figure out who's fool enough to touch that reliquary. So we stand around with our thumbs up our asses until Crag Beerbeard brings the awesome. He passes a very difficult Will Save to make this happen, and opens it. Inside, we find some vials (one of unknown properties, three of holy water) and a magical tome encased in a cundach (yeah, we had to look up the word, too). It's a metal case for a book, and this one was locked with three separate locks. After an inspection, Denny Smeds figures that each of them has to be triggered at the same time. Not sure what'd happen if that wasn't done, but nothing good, I'd wager. We decide to pack it along. I grab the holy water, that being my province, and we leave the room.
Next stop was the room next door, the one chained and padlocked. We dithered a bit, but eventually opened it up. Inside we found a mad hermit of some kind (yeah, this is like the third or fourth mad hermit we've encountered in our time, and none of 'em has been good news). Experience dictates that we treat this bastard with a high degree of suspicion. Crazy bastard keeps inviting us to sit down and eat with him. Nope. Ain't happening. We listen to his crazy rantings for a bit, which keep circling back to some guy named Azazel or something like that, then decide that we don't want to mess with him any more. When we try to leave, he follows. Grumble tries to fool him into staying while we go and take care of some things, but he proves resistant. Crag then tries to cold-cock him with a crowbar, but fumbles. Ooops! So, Grumble picks up the slack and Mighty Deeds him with the shield bash. Poor fucker flies across the chamber and slumps to the ground unconscious. "Down goes Frazier!" as the sage once said. I took some time to deface the runes in the room, for they were an affront to me. I felt a stirring in the Void as my actions were noted by Powers Unknown. I fear them not, for I walk with Lemm the Iron Boar and Obhal the Steel Eagle as my personal saints, and the Metal Gods will guard me. We then left the room and locked it behind us. Nope. No mad hermits for the likes of us. We know better.
So up we went, the place where the three mutant-looking guys were beating the drum and also trying to kill us. Their corpses lie there still. Beyond them is a wide corridor almost filled with the roots/vines or whatever they are. I ain't a druid. I'm a city boy, so don't ask me. There's some kind of purplish-white energy roiling around in there, too, so I'm not too keen about just wading in to that mess. So, we check around the area to see what else there was to see. There were more carved murals in the rock here, and we didn't find any indications of a secret door (We were wrong about that, we'd find to our regret, later). So, the vines it was.
Denny Smeds, I have failed to mention, is in control of a skeleton. He found this whistle thing on the body of a sorcerer he'd backstabbed a while back, and he can use it to control the undead. I'm not sure how powerful it is, like if he can raise an undead army, but it seems to work. The dead don't always understand what you want 'em to do, though, so don't expect any complicated tasks from them. This, though, was just the sort of thing they're good for. We sent it into the vines. No long after, it encountered what looked to be about 7 of those mutant guys. The skeleton quickly died. Again, I mean.
Well, nothing for it but to go on through. The vines didn't appear to be dangerous, and we probably... probably could take what destroyed the skeleton. So ahead we forged. What greeted us was not promising. There were seven mutant-looking guys (regular), on larger one with a two-handed sword, and one god-like, majestic guy. That guy's gonna be trouble, we can tell. There's also this Wicker Man thing made out of vines and whatnot. We're still not sure if it's just an idol or if it's dangerous. We engaged them with firebombs and the holy water we'd found in the reliquary. These guys are clearly Lawful, and I never much cared for judgmental types. I try to maintain balance, but these guys clearly are trouble, and if a chaotic goddess's gifts can help deal with them, I'm all for it. I hope the Metal Gods understand that their humble servant is in need. The holy water clearly damaged them, including Mr. Majestic, but not nearly enough. Then, things got fucked up. Back down the hallway, some secret doors opened up. Damn, we missed 'em. Out pours about 20 more mutant guys. They'll take a while to get to us, so we'd best deal with these guys in here, especially Mr. Majestic. We also need to kill that bastard with the 2-handed sword. I got a feeling that thing will be handy, later. Roll for initiative.
Formerly Ian the Wizard went first. He bled for his magic, and spellburned 10 Strength, but only rolled a 23. Four guys went down. We killed a couple more, and wounded some, too. We also spotted a staircase, leading down. I began to marshal my brothers into a better formation. If we could use the stairway as a choke point, and get the dwarves to form a shield wall, we might be able to hold out, at least for a while. Formerly Ian Invoked the Metal Gods (they are his patron), and They heard him. We all heard the music, then, haunting strains of one of the Lost Songs filled us with the power of the Metal Gods. I then blessed Grumble the Dwarf, who was even more filled with the Power of Metal. There was, then, a bit of a kerfuffle 'twinxt the dwarves and the mutant guys, and the mutant guys suffered for it.
Meanwhile, Denny has descended the stairs a bit, and there found what we believe to the Jewels of the Carnifex, the objects (I presume) of our quest. His chaotic ass decides he might do a little "shopping," instead of helping us poor bastards with the killing. I yelled at him a bit about that, but a thief's gotta do what thieves are known for doing.
At this point, Mr. Majestic starts to speak with us inside our heads. These guys are apparently the Swords of the Pious, and came down here to desecrate this here temple. They seem to have encountered difficulties, and couldn't approach the Jewels. So... we can go down these stairs, but they can't? Nice. We may live after all. Anyway, this guy (Azazel's, his name. The guy the mad hermit was muttering about. Thinks he's some kind of god, he does) wants a favor. He thanks us for joining his group, and some crap about us helping him to complete his mission by smashing the Jewels to dust, and releasing him and his merry band of mutant-looking bastards.
Umm... hmm.... Nope. Not gonna happen. These assholes were trying to kills us just a minute ago, and now he thinks we're gonna help his sorry ass? Oh, hellllll no. If they can't come down the stairs, then they can't kill us. Smashing the Jewels would probably make that effect go away. Nope. Sorry, guys.
Still, maybe there's benefit to aiding them. Maybe the obvious escape route is not as simple as it seems. A quandary, to be sure, but not one we have time for today.
That's the story up to this point. I'll tell you more later, after it happens.
When last we left our heroes, the had recently defeated three mutant-looking dudes. Tough, ugly, and now very, very dead. Here's a report from Kormaki Lemmisson, 2nd level cleric of the Metal Gods (now only 3 XP away from 3rd level).
At this point we're trying to figure out where to go. There's a door with a chain and padlock (i.e., shiny red button) and there's a room that looks like the doors have been blown off their hinges. We went the "open" route, and found a corridor full of vines with a hole in the floor. Denny Smeds, our thief, went first. He found that the vines weren't dangerous, and that the hole in the floor went down to the first level (probably?). Then he discovered something weird. The vines on the other side of the hole kind of petered out, shriveled and dead. Beyond them Denny found a room with an overturned altar with a skull motif (very Metal). It also looks like there's a hollow under where it used to stand, in the shape of possibly a two-handed sword. The sword is long gone, though. I imagine we'll need to find it at some point, to kill the Big Bad (whatever it is).
On the wall behind the altar was a mosaic to some sort of death goddess. It seemed to be projecting some kind of mad juju, and that was killing the vines. Me, being the party cleric, went to check it out. It didn't seem to shrivel me, so good. I had an inspiration that the goddess might crave blood. The wizard, Formerly Ian, cut open his finger and flicked drops onto the mosaic, which sucked them up like parched soil. Nothing else really happened, though, as a result. It's a nice mural, though, and probably pretty valuable to the right collector, so we decided to maybe steal the mural by taking the panels off the walls. My thought was that we'd go ahead and kill off the vines with it, since it seemed to be killing them somehow. However, we then discovered a hole in the wall, or rather a recessed cylinder. Inside, there was some sort of pull-ring. We'd have to reach in to grab it. Dumb idea. Who has two thumbs and wants to keep 'em? This guy! Ain't no way I'm putting my hand in there. Nobody else wanted to either.
At this point, +Adam Muszkiewicz is all but laughing at us. This is probably the first time that words like "over-cautious" or "timid" would be good descriptions of us, we who style ourselves "The Divine Order of the Purple Tentacle." I mean, shit, we've had the sacred Purple Meat, and seen Muppets and Space Bowie, and smoked mushroom wizard brain. We've killed more apes and ver-men, and lizard people and serpent kin, and whatever else, than just about anybody. We ain't scared o' shit. This time, though, we're short a fighter, and our wizard has spellburned a LOT of stamina and agility. He ain't lookin' so good, at least what you can seen under all that hair. The goat hooves are kind of nifty, though. I wouldn't mind trading my one-leg-longer-than-the-other for a nice set o' trotters like that. They're pretty fuckin' Metal, you know? Hard to sneak around on, though. Maybe Formerly Ian the Wizard will need some special shoes to quiet them down. We could call 'em "sneakers" or something like that.
Anyhow, Crag Beerbeard has himself a hell of an idea. We jimmy up a combination of arrow, string, and rope. The arrow is used to get the string in the hole, the string gets fed through the ring and the other end dragged by out. Then we attach the rope to the string and everybody gets the hell out of the room. We give it a yank. No "BOOM!" So far, so good.
When we return, the mural has parted to reveal a reliquary, and some serious magic is coming off that thing, like the "stink lines" used in comic art to show that something smells awful. It projects a sense of dread. The reliquary is covered in gold and probably weighs about 500 pounds. No carrying that thing out, but maybe there's something inside. We hope so. There's also a shawl the color of dried blood. It's also magical. I can't remember exactly what happened, or how, but the mural or the reliquary, one of the two, fucked up three of the party members who failed a save, aging them magically. Denny Smeds, the thief, went from 21 to 42 years old in a moment's time. The two dwarves Crag and Grumble were also aged, though not nearly as much. Given Denny's advanced stage of decay, we decided the shawl was a fitting reward for him. Lucky bastard. It provides some protective magics.
Then we gotta figure out who's fool enough to touch that reliquary. So we stand around with our thumbs up our asses until Crag Beerbeard brings the awesome. He passes a very difficult Will Save to make this happen, and opens it. Inside, we find some vials (one of unknown properties, three of holy water) and a magical tome encased in a cundach (yeah, we had to look up the word, too). It's a metal case for a book, and this one was locked with three separate locks. After an inspection, Denny Smeds figures that each of them has to be triggered at the same time. Not sure what'd happen if that wasn't done, but nothing good, I'd wager. We decide to pack it along. I grab the holy water, that being my province, and we leave the room.
Next stop was the room next door, the one chained and padlocked. We dithered a bit, but eventually opened it up. Inside we found a mad hermit of some kind (yeah, this is like the third or fourth mad hermit we've encountered in our time, and none of 'em has been good news). Experience dictates that we treat this bastard with a high degree of suspicion. Crazy bastard keeps inviting us to sit down and eat with him. Nope. Ain't happening. We listen to his crazy rantings for a bit, which keep circling back to some guy named Azazel or something like that, then decide that we don't want to mess with him any more. When we try to leave, he follows. Grumble tries to fool him into staying while we go and take care of some things, but he proves resistant. Crag then tries to cold-cock him with a crowbar, but fumbles. Ooops! So, Grumble picks up the slack and Mighty Deeds him with the shield bash. Poor fucker flies across the chamber and slumps to the ground unconscious. "Down goes Frazier!" as the sage once said. I took some time to deface the runes in the room, for they were an affront to me. I felt a stirring in the Void as my actions were noted by Powers Unknown. I fear them not, for I walk with Lemm the Iron Boar and Obhal the Steel Eagle as my personal saints, and the Metal Gods will guard me. We then left the room and locked it behind us. Nope. No mad hermits for the likes of us. We know better.
So up we went, the place where the three mutant-looking guys were beating the drum and also trying to kill us. Their corpses lie there still. Beyond them is a wide corridor almost filled with the roots/vines or whatever they are. I ain't a druid. I'm a city boy, so don't ask me. There's some kind of purplish-white energy roiling around in there, too, so I'm not too keen about just wading in to that mess. So, we check around the area to see what else there was to see. There were more carved murals in the rock here, and we didn't find any indications of a secret door (We were wrong about that, we'd find to our regret, later). So, the vines it was.
Denny Smeds, I have failed to mention, is in control of a skeleton. He found this whistle thing on the body of a sorcerer he'd backstabbed a while back, and he can use it to control the undead. I'm not sure how powerful it is, like if he can raise an undead army, but it seems to work. The dead don't always understand what you want 'em to do, though, so don't expect any complicated tasks from them. This, though, was just the sort of thing they're good for. We sent it into the vines. No long after, it encountered what looked to be about 7 of those mutant guys. The skeleton quickly died. Again, I mean.
Well, nothing for it but to go on through. The vines didn't appear to be dangerous, and we probably... probably could take what destroyed the skeleton. So ahead we forged. What greeted us was not promising. There were seven mutant-looking guys (regular), on larger one with a two-handed sword, and one god-like, majestic guy. That guy's gonna be trouble, we can tell. There's also this Wicker Man thing made out of vines and whatnot. We're still not sure if it's just an idol or if it's dangerous. We engaged them with firebombs and the holy water we'd found in the reliquary. These guys are clearly Lawful, and I never much cared for judgmental types. I try to maintain balance, but these guys clearly are trouble, and if a chaotic goddess's gifts can help deal with them, I'm all for it. I hope the Metal Gods understand that their humble servant is in need. The holy water clearly damaged them, including Mr. Majestic, but not nearly enough. Then, things got fucked up. Back down the hallway, some secret doors opened up. Damn, we missed 'em. Out pours about 20 more mutant guys. They'll take a while to get to us, so we'd best deal with these guys in here, especially Mr. Majestic. We also need to kill that bastard with the 2-handed sword. I got a feeling that thing will be handy, later. Roll for initiative.
Formerly Ian the Wizard went first. He bled for his magic, and spellburned 10 Strength, but only rolled a 23. Four guys went down. We killed a couple more, and wounded some, too. We also spotted a staircase, leading down. I began to marshal my brothers into a better formation. If we could use the stairway as a choke point, and get the dwarves to form a shield wall, we might be able to hold out, at least for a while. Formerly Ian Invoked the Metal Gods (they are his patron), and They heard him. We all heard the music, then, haunting strains of one of the Lost Songs filled us with the power of the Metal Gods. I then blessed Grumble the Dwarf, who was even more filled with the Power of Metal. There was, then, a bit of a kerfuffle 'twinxt the dwarves and the mutant guys, and the mutant guys suffered for it.
Meanwhile, Denny has descended the stairs a bit, and there found what we believe to the Jewels of the Carnifex, the objects (I presume) of our quest. His chaotic ass decides he might do a little "shopping," instead of helping us poor bastards with the killing. I yelled at him a bit about that, but a thief's gotta do what thieves are known for doing.
At this point, Mr. Majestic starts to speak with us inside our heads. These guys are apparently the Swords of the Pious, and came down here to desecrate this here temple. They seem to have encountered difficulties, and couldn't approach the Jewels. So... we can go down these stairs, but they can't? Nice. We may live after all. Anyway, this guy (Azazel's, his name. The guy the mad hermit was muttering about. Thinks he's some kind of god, he does) wants a favor. He thanks us for joining his group, and some crap about us helping him to complete his mission by smashing the Jewels to dust, and releasing him and his merry band of mutant-looking bastards.
Umm... hmm.... Nope. Not gonna happen. These assholes were trying to kills us just a minute ago, and now he thinks we're gonna help his sorry ass? Oh, hellllll no. If they can't come down the stairs, then they can't kill us. Smashing the Jewels would probably make that effect go away. Nope. Sorry, guys.
Still, maybe there's benefit to aiding them. Maybe the obvious escape route is not as simple as it seems. A quandary, to be sure, but not one we have time for today.
That's the story up to this point. I'll tell you more later, after it happens.
Friday, September 6, 2013
Jewels of the Carnifex, Session 1
It's been a while since I posted a play report, and some of you seem to like that sort of thing. Also, it's not really Adam's sort of gig, so I figure I might as well take a shot at it. Plus, it's a new adventure, and I'm having a lot of fun.
Last night, the Metal Gods crew started a module I've been wanting to play in for a while: +Harley Stroh's Jewels of the Carnifex. +Adam Muszkiewicz is our GM for the adventure, and warned us that it's pretty brutal: "Bring your highest level characters," he said. So we did, mostly. Then we discovered that we lacked both a thief and a wizard, and so switched a couple out. None of us is at 3rd level yet, so I'm sure we're all going to die.
The final group consisted of:
Kormaki Lemmisson (Cleric, 2nd level, but almost 3rd) played by me
Vane Barbute (Warrior, 2nd level, and used to be 3rd before a brush with a wight drained one) played by +Bear Wojtek
Formerly Ian (Wizard, 2nd level) played by +Gabriel Perez Gallardi
Denny (Thief, 2nd level) played by +Wayne Snyder
Grumble (Dwarf, 2nd level) played by +phil spitzer
+James MacGeorge was delayed by work obligations last night, but no doubt will be joining us next week, in the person of Crag Beerbeard (Dwarf, of course, 2nd level).
A couple points before we get into the meat of the matter. First, this is a 3rd level module, and nobody is even 3rd level (We're doomed). Also, our characters are a bit... beat up. Vane has died countless times, and has maybe 6 Stamina at this point. Formerly Ian is beginning to get a bit corrupted. Kormaki has 7 Luck now, down from his original 14, but up from the 5 Luck he had a while back. He's a shitty cleric, as far as spellcasting goes. I actually said last night (after rolling a natural "1" twice in a row), "Fuck this shit. I'm a warrior now." It was only 50.1% in jest.
Anyhow, Adam did a fine job of building on his civil war in Ur-Hadad storyline, where upstart elements of the former rulers (the paschas), seek to displace the current grand vizier, and bring back the old aristocracy. For all intents and purposes, this probably won't make much of a difference to the people of Ur-Hadad, most of whom live in squalor anyway. It certainly wouldn't make a difference to those who live in the areas outside the walls of the First City. Nonetheless, the Divine Order of the Purple Tentacle (our mercenary band) has done a lot to preserve the place of the Grand Vizier, and was recently successful in turning back a group of the Blood Successors, along with the abominable Kings Kong and Scoterrors with which they assaulted the 'hood in which the band's chapter house stands.
The guard captain who oversees the district was pleased, and sought to "reward" us. He told tales of how the recent fighting and upheavals have resulted in some destruction of the city, and revealed a long-lost abode of a bloody cult, a place reputed to be full of riches, but perhaps one best left forgotten.
When the party arrived on the scene, they found a set of stairs leading down into an underground section of the city (Ur-Hadad, in this case, not Punjar). Almost immediately, they encountered an obelisk topped with a skull, set in warning against trespassers. It also had been vandalized, its features chipped, and with graffiti of, oh, like maybe... dicks all over it (I'm guessing, here). We being who we are, gave zero shits about warnings. The call of riches was to strident. We pressed on down a pipe-like tunnel for a while, but the pipe ended over a deep, deep chasm. Across from us was another pipe gushing water and (one would presume) the kinds of things one finds in a sewer (e.g., turds, piss, the occasional rat and/or alligator). Below that pipe was a platform with some kind of door on it.
We tied a rope around the thief's waist and he took a running leap to reach it, burning a point of Luck to make it happen, and managed to hold on. Almost immediately, he noticed a GIANT MUTANT SPIDER! EEEEEEK! and warned us. The cleric Blessed the wizard, and was wildly successful, giving him a +4 to all rolls. The wizard tried to cast Sleep and (of course) rolled a 1. Of course. He then got hit with web and was snared. It looked like lunchtime was upon us, or at least upon Formerly Ian.
The rest of the party tried to get down to the other platform, better to deal with the foul creature. Vane nearly feel into the chasm, and would surely have died. He burned SIX points of Luck to avoid the outcome. By the end of the adventure, Vane would have only 1 point of Luck left. We will call him "Lucky." Hey, he's not dead, and should be, for this and a million other things. He's like one of those drunk people who manages to survive shit that clearly would have killed just about anyone else. And then doesn't even remember it. You know that guy? Yeah, that's Vane. Hehe.
Eventually, we managed to Sleep the spider-thing, cut off its head, and toss it in the chasm. Fuck you, spider.
The door on the platform was sealed with lead, so we covered it with flammables and lit it on fire to melt the lead. There was some Googling of various melting points and burning temps, as the party physics-lawyered the proceedings. Eventually, we got through into the area beyond. There, we found a spiral staircase leading up and a arched passage leading down some stairs. After inspecting the spiral staircase, we found a calcified humanoid body. We also determined the spiral stairs to be dangerously unstable. We went down the other stairs instead. Then we were immediately attacked by weird shadowy beings who sapped Strength and Stamina (but luckily no level-drain. Vane was pleased that was the case.) We managed to incapacitate several of them, and then killed the rest. The cleric tried turning them, and (miracle!) made an excellent roll. They ran the hell away.
We found a secret door in that chamber and three doors in the next one. The three doors seemed to represent some sort of dangerous puzzle, so we said, "Fuck it." and took the secret door. It ascended to the 2nd level. There, we were attacked again by some creepy gigantic humanoids with bags on their heads. They were up on a higher level than us, and had some cover. So, we charged them. They did us some damage, sure, but eventually Formerly Ian Slept them. Then (of course) we killed them.
We went back down the stairway without investigating that area, instead going through a doorway just to the left of the one by which we entered from the 1st level. That's where we called it a night.
Fun times! Next Thursday, we continue again.
Last night, the Metal Gods crew started a module I've been wanting to play in for a while: +Harley Stroh's Jewels of the Carnifex. +Adam Muszkiewicz is our GM for the adventure, and warned us that it's pretty brutal: "Bring your highest level characters," he said. So we did, mostly. Then we discovered that we lacked both a thief and a wizard, and so switched a couple out. None of us is at 3rd level yet, so I'm sure we're all going to die.
The final group consisted of:
Kormaki Lemmisson (Cleric, 2nd level, but almost 3rd) played by me
Vane Barbute (Warrior, 2nd level, and used to be 3rd before a brush with a wight drained one) played by +Bear Wojtek
Formerly Ian (Wizard, 2nd level) played by +Gabriel Perez Gallardi
Denny (Thief, 2nd level) played by +Wayne Snyder
Grumble (Dwarf, 2nd level) played by +phil spitzer
+James MacGeorge was delayed by work obligations last night, but no doubt will be joining us next week, in the person of Crag Beerbeard (Dwarf, of course, 2nd level).
A couple points before we get into the meat of the matter. First, this is a 3rd level module, and nobody is even 3rd level (We're doomed). Also, our characters are a bit... beat up. Vane has died countless times, and has maybe 6 Stamina at this point. Formerly Ian is beginning to get a bit corrupted. Kormaki has 7 Luck now, down from his original 14, but up from the 5 Luck he had a while back. He's a shitty cleric, as far as spellcasting goes. I actually said last night (after rolling a natural "1" twice in a row), "Fuck this shit. I'm a warrior now." It was only 50.1% in jest.
Anyhow, Adam did a fine job of building on his civil war in Ur-Hadad storyline, where upstart elements of the former rulers (the paschas), seek to displace the current grand vizier, and bring back the old aristocracy. For all intents and purposes, this probably won't make much of a difference to the people of Ur-Hadad, most of whom live in squalor anyway. It certainly wouldn't make a difference to those who live in the areas outside the walls of the First City. Nonetheless, the Divine Order of the Purple Tentacle (our mercenary band) has done a lot to preserve the place of the Grand Vizier, and was recently successful in turning back a group of the Blood Successors, along with the abominable Kings Kong and Scoterrors with which they assaulted the 'hood in which the band's chapter house stands.
The guard captain who oversees the district was pleased, and sought to "reward" us. He told tales of how the recent fighting and upheavals have resulted in some destruction of the city, and revealed a long-lost abode of a bloody cult, a place reputed to be full of riches, but perhaps one best left forgotten.
When the party arrived on the scene, they found a set of stairs leading down into an underground section of the city (Ur-Hadad, in this case, not Punjar). Almost immediately, they encountered an obelisk topped with a skull, set in warning against trespassers. It also had been vandalized, its features chipped, and with graffiti of, oh, like maybe... dicks all over it (I'm guessing, here). We being who we are, gave zero shits about warnings. The call of riches was to strident. We pressed on down a pipe-like tunnel for a while, but the pipe ended over a deep, deep chasm. Across from us was another pipe gushing water and (one would presume) the kinds of things one finds in a sewer (e.g., turds, piss, the occasional rat and/or alligator). Below that pipe was a platform with some kind of door on it.
We tied a rope around the thief's waist and he took a running leap to reach it, burning a point of Luck to make it happen, and managed to hold on. Almost immediately, he noticed a GIANT MUTANT SPIDER! EEEEEEK! and warned us. The cleric Blessed the wizard, and was wildly successful, giving him a +4 to all rolls. The wizard tried to cast Sleep and (of course) rolled a 1. Of course. He then got hit with web and was snared. It looked like lunchtime was upon us, or at least upon Formerly Ian.
The rest of the party tried to get down to the other platform, better to deal with the foul creature. Vane nearly feel into the chasm, and would surely have died. He burned SIX points of Luck to avoid the outcome. By the end of the adventure, Vane would have only 1 point of Luck left. We will call him "Lucky." Hey, he's not dead, and should be, for this and a million other things. He's like one of those drunk people who manages to survive shit that clearly would have killed just about anyone else. And then doesn't even remember it. You know that guy? Yeah, that's Vane. Hehe.
Eventually, we managed to Sleep the spider-thing, cut off its head, and toss it in the chasm. Fuck you, spider.
The door on the platform was sealed with lead, so we covered it with flammables and lit it on fire to melt the lead. There was some Googling of various melting points and burning temps, as the party physics-lawyered the proceedings. Eventually, we got through into the area beyond. There, we found a spiral staircase leading up and a arched passage leading down some stairs. After inspecting the spiral staircase, we found a calcified humanoid body. We also determined the spiral stairs to be dangerously unstable. We went down the other stairs instead. Then we were immediately attacked by weird shadowy beings who sapped Strength and Stamina (but luckily no level-drain. Vane was pleased that was the case.) We managed to incapacitate several of them, and then killed the rest. The cleric tried turning them, and (miracle!) made an excellent roll. They ran the hell away.
We found a secret door in that chamber and three doors in the next one. The three doors seemed to represent some sort of dangerous puzzle, so we said, "Fuck it." and took the secret door. It ascended to the 2nd level. There, we were attacked again by some creepy gigantic humanoids with bags on their heads. They were up on a higher level than us, and had some cover. So, we charged them. They did us some damage, sure, but eventually Formerly Ian Slept them. Then (of course) we killed them.
We went back down the stairway without investigating that area, instead going through a doorway just to the left of the one by which we entered from the 1st level. That's where we called it a night.
Fun times! Next Thursday, we continue again.
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