Dramatis personae:
Anêr, swashbuckler
Mayhem, short barbarian
Yémos, cleric
Caleb, wizard
Kim, thief
cum
Kúflaug, orc
Quid occurrit:
Yémos cast Watchdog near the door between the rooms, and the gang started healing themselves. Kim and Yémos checked out the altar, and Kim got the idea that it was giving off bad vibes and making folks hate each other.
They dined on frog, but after many hours, the door opened, and Watchdog went off. A gaggle of orcs came through, and one saw Kúflaug, and screamed, "Free the slave!" Yémos unlocked Kúflaug's slave collar, which made the orcs stop for a second. The orc yelled again, "Let him come with us and join the Biting Tooth Band."
Yémos asked Kúflaug what he thought, and Kúflaug sighed. "I will look for you wherever there are dead bodies." Yémos said Kúflaug was welcome back any time, and gave him the collar and key. The lead orc asked the gang if they were with the dwarves, and they told them of the dwarves's strike on them. Then, Kúflaug and the Biting Tooth Band went to look for the dwarves.
Then they went down the hall. First door on their right had a smell behind it, but it wasn't locked. When they opened the door, they saw the piles of rusted armor and the five holes carved into the seats in the back. It was an old latrine, and the orcs had used it before coming into the room. Kim saw a door on the left wall, and went through it. In there, she saw old workbenches and a man-sized box with two holes in it: one at eye-level, one at waist-level. She put some bones into the hole at the top and it did nothing. The heroes then left the latrine and the workshop.
They walked around a bend in the hallway, and saw that the floor was going down. Right after the bend, they saw a cabinet. Caleb smelled something odd about it, almost chlorine, and Kim wrapped a rope around a handle and Mayhem pulled open the cabinet. This was a good idea; a box at the top of the cabinet squirted acid about where a man's head would be. Inside the cabinet, there were 80 copper farthings and 10 silver pennies.
After this, they went down the hallway, and Kim sprinkled the dust of skeletons on the floor to show if anyone will have trod on it the next time they checked. They took a turn to the left, and walked up some stairs. At the top was another workshop that overlooked the stairs, and a hallway. On the left, right past the workshop, was a door. They opened it, and saw the bodies of four men and women, all clad in robes—dead wizards. The heroes searched the bodies, and found a brindled deacon blue potion. Caleb tasted it, and found it was a potion of Major Healing.
As they searched the bodies, Anêr's sword started to vibrate. There was a ghostly sphere on the wall behind a latrine seat, through which one could see the wall. Yémos looked through it, and saw the wall behind the sphere flicker, and that there was a box behind the wall. He prodded the box with one of the wizards' staves, and saw the box budge. He stood over the toilet and reached into the sphere and took the box. In the box was 100 copper farthings, 25 silver pennies, and 4 gold pieces.
They didn't have much time to enjoy their loot because a dwarf with oily hair and rotting skin stood in the doorway of the bathroom. He said nothing, but lifted his mace and struck. Kim parried his blow, and Anêr came to stab the dwarf. His sword made it past the dwarf's defenses, but the dwarf didn't seem to feel hurt from his blow. Kim and Mayhem tried striking, but missed, and Yémos cast Shield on Anêr.
Caleb started casting Sunbolt, while the dwarf stepped back, dropped his mace, and his hand glowed. Anêr tried to stab the dwarf in the face. The dwarf dodged, but his hand stopped glowing. Kim stabbed him, and hit, but her blow didn't hurt the dwarf. Yémos drew his bow, while Caleb let his Sunbolt fly; it hit the rim of the dwarf's shield.
The dwarf crouched, and reached for his mace. Anêr tried stabbing the dwarf's face again, but the dwarf caught his sword on the rim of his shield again. Kim also tried stabbing the dwarf; he dodged. Mayhem, however, landed a blow on the dwarf. He felt it go into the dwarf's rotting flesh, but no blood came out. Yémos loaded an arrow and aimed, while Caleb started casting another Sunbolt.
The dwarf grabbed his mace and stood. Both Anêr and Kim again tried stabbing the dwarf, but he dodged. Mayhem's axe flew behind the dwarf as he tried to hit him. Both Yémos and Caleb shot the dwarf, but Yémos's arrow hit the dwarf's shield and the dwarf got out of the way of Caleb's Sunbolt. The dwarf then turned and ran down the stairs. Caleb cast an Explosive Fireball and got off a last shot, but it didn't hurt the dwarf.
With that, they checked out the area nearby. They didn't bother to go up the stairs, but instead looked at the slot on the floor on the left side of the hall. It had a rounded bottom, and there was a stone ball, about as big as a man's fist, with one hole in it. The slot went into a hole in the wall but a bit bigger than the ball. Kim pushed the ball into the hole; it did not come out. Afterwards, she took some tinder from the wreckage of some bunk beds at the other end of the hall.
They made camp for the night, and pushed the dead bodies out of the room. Yémos cast Watchdog, and they went to sleep, taking watch. On Kim's watch, the door opened: it was the dwarf wraith again. She roused everyone, and the dwarf stepped into the room and smashed Kim's chest. She staggered back in pain, while everyone started to stand up. The wraith stepped forward again and smashed Kim's chest, and she slumped to the ground. Everyone else made it to his feet, and Anêr and Mayhem drew their weapons. The wraith rushed to strike Caleb, but he missed. Anêr tried stabbing the dwarf's face but missed, while Mayhem's blow on the wraith knocked it hard, making it drop its mace. The wraith turned to go, and Caleb's fireball missed.
The heroes went to see if Kim needed healing, but they found she was beyond healing.
Res aliae
Obviously, we discussed what would happen with Kim, and at this point, they plan on bringing her body back to town to see if someone could resurrect her. I told them the cost would be $6,000, which didn't seem too high at all, but they didn't have the money. It would likely cost a quest. John would play a new character while Kim rested, if the roll to resurrect her worked.
On my way home, I realized that in my worry about what tactics the wraith would use, I didn't tell John to use an All-Out Defense. Big whoops, since John is still a bit new to GURPS. I'm not sure how much it would have helped, as I don't remember what John rolled to defend.
The reaction for the orcs suggested an immediate strike—I rolled a 3, which went down to 0 after the penalty for the altar—but I re-rolled after Yémos unlocked Kúflaug's collar. The new roll was a 7, which was enough since combat hadn't started. I already had rolled Kúflaug's loyalty before the session and it failed, but I knew Kúflaug wouldn't let the orcs kill the heroes.
I wasn't happy about killing Kim, but at some point, somebody had to die. Overriding the dice would have been worse for the game than fudging things to let her live. I like the ongoing story, and like having characters flee, but no reward is worth it without risk. John was disappointed, however.
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