Game log for 26 January 2014

Present:

Caleb, human wizard (125 points) (Nate)
Yémos, human cleric of Dōsaútōr (goddess of knowledge and magic) (125 points) (Eric)
Anêr, human swashbuckler (125 points) (Rett)

Absent:

Mayhem, human midget (er ...) barbarian (125 points) (Chris)

The game starts on the morning of 9 Žnēâns 2852, after Caleb’s and Mayhem’s night at the Scarlet Harlot. Being murder-hoboes, er, wanderers, they spent the night on the floor. The weather is a lovely spring day.

Kôštē, a young female human wizard with cross eyes, starts the day by kicking Caleb (“Kêleb,” in my phonetic spelling, but “Caleb” on the player’s sheet) awake as he sleeps in on the floor of the common room of the Scarlet Harlot. She isn’t thrilled with his discussion of perpetual motion, and is upset that Praidīvós took him as an apprentice even after his spell mishap.

After her pushing, screaming and swearing (mostly swearing), Kôštē tells Caleb that she’ll show how to “do it right” and lobs a fireball at him. Caleb takes the full force of the fireball and falls down (critical failure on his Dodge roll), then crawls behind a table as Kôštē taunts him a second time. Yengrátōr, the barkeep at the Scarlet Harlot, screams out “No blasters!” after all this. Anêr, a young swordsman, gets out of the way.

Yémos comes into the tavern while this is happening, and, after sitting down, stands up again and asks Kôštē if she is a disciple of Dōsaútōr. She tells him she is (“How the fuck can I not follow the goddess?” she says after blowing off her smoking fingers), so he casts Shield on her. While he is casting, Caleb gets to his feet and admits that Kôštē is the better wizard. She walks off after a few more swear words with a smug smile on her face, as Yengrátōr, the barkeep, has his hand on the crossbow mounted under the bar.

Caleb goes up to the bar, and Yengrátōr points out to him and Yémos that Praidīvós wants the other to meet each other. Yémos tells Caleb of the plan to go to Dībités Rock and get the blood of a demon, and has a vessel that Praidīvós gave him for this, a small hollow statue of a balrog that seals at the neck. The two hire Anêr as a guard, and let Mayhem sleep on the floor (his player didn’t show up). The barkeep tells them Dībités Rock is well to the east of Bóllā, in the Eldalîvā Woods.

And they are off with those directions. The only thing of note that happened on this first day was that they passed through the village of Lûtē Downs. This village is a short walk (read: in the next hex) from Mīstássun, and when they got there, the men were out in the field. They ran into a woman with a lip ring who often dropped in a word of some other tongue—nobody knew which one—who didn't know anything about Dībités Rock, but warned them that the folk of Ōndrûnks, a market village on their way, was filled with nothing but thieves.

They camp the night on the road. The next day, the weather is also pleasant, and they pass through the tiny village of Lúrās, notable only for its temple to Rōripermónē, an onto Ōndrûnks, a run-down market village that smells like apples. There, in the dark tavern Magog (how did I miss cracking a "Supper's Ready" reference in play?), Bîs the barkeep, a woman in dangling earrings and speaking in a whisper, smiled when Yémos asked about Dībités Rock, but instead bade them to get a drink. Caleb bought a cider for a silver penny, but not much more came out of her. They went on to Bóllā, where nothing happened other than Caleb buying dried fish for rations.

Were you there to watch the earth be scorched?
Did you stand beside the spectral torch? 

They try going east, but when they set up camp, they learn that they went too far south. Still, the night is safe, and the next day is also the same weather as the last. They go east and a bit north to make up for their wandering the day before, and heard a loud rumbling in a glen. Anêr snuck up, and saw that it was a big sleeping quadruped with spikes on its tail. They chose to sneak away, but Yémos stepped on a branch and the manticore woke up and charged at them.

Luckily, they were far enough away to buff themselves up, so the battle went smoothly. Yémos cast Shield on Anêr, who also got a Haste spell from Caleb. The manticore's spikes flew but didn't hit Caleb, while Yémos smacked it a couple of times with his staff when it got near. Caleb smoked it with a fireball he had been readying as the manticore neared, and Anêr got the killing blow with a stab.

Metagame notes

I gotta get my GURPS legs again after playing so many D&D retroclones as of late. I can remember the basics, but little things like how much extra smack you can get out of an All-Out Attack isn't something I want to have to look up. Only two of us present had GURPS experience, and we were both rusty, though I'm glad Eric remembered to use All-Out Defense and All-Out Attack. I was using Defensive Attack from memory with the manticore when he was hurt; I didn't bring along Martial Arts, and don't plan on it for awhile, if ever.

Everyone got 3 character points. There was no treasure (the manticore wasn't anywhere near its lair), but there was good interaction with NPCs, which is my strong point as a GM. Improv is my weakness, so that's part of why I'm getting rid of plots, at least at first.

While Chris's barbarian, Mayhem (or Mêhem, I guess) being stuck back in Mīstássun is an issue, a barbarian is the easiest to have wander into the woods without much harm. Besides, they had an easy time of it, so he would too, following behind.

None of the characters (or players) knows where Dībités Rock is, so I expect some wandering. I think a dungeon would be good to find in this. And there are many monsters in the woods.

The manticore was more of a pushover than I thought, though they only found one of them and he didn't pull out after his first time taking damage, which was a fatal mistake on his part. He was pissed about being awoken from his nap, so he got a permanent one.

The hexcrawl rules seem to work, though there hasn't been any bad weather yet. I'm glad the rainy season is still a few weeks away, since this lets me work out some kinks. The terrain has been all plains or light forest, neither of which will do much to movement. The game stopped after the fight with the manticore, and the group still has two hexes it can trek for the day.