Game log for 30 January 2017: It's booty time, booty time, 'cross the lands of Nandêmē

Dramatis personae

Xóran, fox-man ranger
Caleb, wizard
Mayhem, pint-sized barbarian
Ash, squire
Kim, thief

cum

Kôštē, cleric
Villûdē, guide

Quid occurrit

Caleb sensed the podium was magical. After some fretting, Xóran got curious about the podium, and touched it himself. It did nothing to him. Caleb put some paper on the lectern, and it fell into the podium. Same thing happened when Kim put the owl idol she stole from the other room on the lectern. Kim also prodded the lectern with a centipede's body and one of her arrows, and both came out. So, Caleb stuck his hand into the lectern, and it went past the top like it was air. He fished out his notes, Kim's owl idol, and a jar, which had 110 copper farthings and 7 gold pieces in it.

They went back into the altar room, then went through the other door. They walked through a banquet hall with old wooden benches and tables, then down a hall to a bedroom with a rotten four-poster bed, then from there down another hall. After walking about 20 feet down that hall, Villûdē, Mayhem, Caleb, and Xóran smelled an odd smell, and brought their hands to the faces, or at least weathered the gas that made the smell. Ash, Kim, and Kôštē, however, lost their sight as the gas hit their faces.

The sighted led the blind back to the banquet hall, and sat them down on the benches. They sat the blind on the floor when they found that the benches crumbled under their weight. Kôštē couldn't diagnose her own problem, though Caleb knew the gas was an alchemical gas. They chose to make camp. First, they tried going upstairs, but found that a rain storm was happening. So, they went back to the foyer to go to sleep. That night, Caleb had a nightmare about beavers striking him, but they kept away if he hewed near a wall. Kôštē couldn't see, but cast Watchdog right where she lay down to hopefully nab anything that got near. Luckily, nothing came.

(And the dice made sure of that. I have random encounters happening on a 7 or less on 3d, with a clue on an 8. For a long rest, I add +2, then the modifier from the Speed/Range Table, reading "yards" as "hours." Eight hours should be +6—+4 from 8-10 hours, and +2 from making 1 hour a zero rather than a -2. I suppose I should come up with a possibility of multiple encounters, like a second one for every 4 less rolled than the target number. Regardless, I rolled 18.)

The next day, they awoke, and found that the blind could now see. They went back to the room with the four-poster bed, and most everyone stayed there while Xóran and Mayhem went down the hall to see if they could find the gas. Xóran's fox nose smelled the gas, and once they stopped short, they easily found the flagstone that triggered the gas and pulled it up.

However, as they were doing this, the last few minutes of Kôštē's Watchdog spell caught some bother. Thus, nobody was surprised when three giant rats wandered towards them. The heroes made short work of two of the rats, while the third fled.

Kim ran after it.

The rat ran much faster than Kim, which didn't stop her. However, as she started to run out of the laboratory, she jumped back from a fuzzy pseudopod that lunged out at her. Hardly able to see, Kim shot three arrows at the jelly, stepping back as she did so. She drew her sword and missed with it before realizing that there was almost nothing she could do to the jelly, being as she could hardly see it. Thus, she ran back to the others.

The gang went forward, and walked down the hallway with the trap wrecked. After a turn, they walked into a room with a stone man, a dial and slot on a wall, a pillow below the slot, and a sword without a hilt. The stone man said to them, "Greetings. Would you like to play Swords and Ladders?"

The stone golem showed them how the game worked. The golem put the hilt-less sword into the slot, then started turning the dial. After three seconds, the slot let the sword go, falling onto the pillow. The one who made the sword fall straightest won, and the bet was a gem. If the player won, the golem said the game would twin the gem. If the golem won, it smashed the gem.

Kim tried three times. The first time was a tie, leading to nothing happening, while the next two times, the golem won. Both times it won, it smashed her gem. She chose to quit rather than spend her last gem, and gathered as much gem dust as she could.

From there, they went back to the foyer, and went into the privy that they had shut the other day. This time, Kim, Ash, and Mayhem lost their breakfast, and the rats started to fight them. However, the heroes made short work of the rats, even while Mayhem puked through the fight. Xóran took some damage, but Kôštē could not heal it at all, leaving the wound looking good but still hurting. After the fight, Kim opened a small box neared the toilet, and found 7 piece of gold.

Seeing no sign of the armor, they chose to look through rooms into which they had went the last time they were in the dungeon. When they got to the pantry, Kim looked into the cooking pot on the floor, and found a dial in it. After finding that they could not lift the pot, Kim turned the dial. The water pipes in the wall shifted, and when they met, everyone could see the door, which they could easily open. They walked down a short hall and found a room empty other than a rusted cage, then walked into a cave with a big chasm in the middle, a bridge athwart the chasm, a pool before the bridge, and a glimmer of light from their spell beyond the bridge.

They took a better look toward the glimmer. It was coming off metal. The metal of a breastplate.

Caleb talked about his dream, and they chose to give the pool a wide berth, sticking first near the wall then near the chasm as they made it to the bridge. Kim and Caleb checked out the bridge, and saw that it was rickety. Kim chose to try it, and slowly went over it. Ash and Mayhem tied together the ropes of the gang, and then around Ash's waist, and Ash started over the bridge when he saw that Kim was almost over the bridge.

When Ash made it to the end of the bridge, a wave of slowness hit him. As far as he could tell, Kim was moving fast as she walked towards the armor. She jumped like lightning as a spear shot out of the floor at her, and then gas flooded out and hid her from him.

Kim, however, saw Ash standing like an idiot, and walked towards the armor. She jumped away from a spear, then held her breath as the fumes from a gas started to pour out over her. She deftly leapt to the armor and back, grabbing it as she did so, then moved back through the gas towards the bridge, with only a lone spear going along the back of her armor. Kim waved to the others to pull Ash slowly over the bridge then, when he was over and out of the spell, she walked back over.

As they walked out, Caleb saw that the armor, which was a breastplate with a bit of beads along the edges, a painting of an ape roaring on the middle, and the faint smell of blood, was magical.

Res aliae

This was the first time that the random rolls for Weirdness Magnet worked in their favor. I had kept forgetting to use the results in game for many weeks, and almost forgot again, only telling them a bit after the dream. But it had always been the dream. Feels like cheating, truth be told, as the terrible dire demon beavers are nasty, though the trap was theoretically tough. The rolls were with them, however—Kim and Ash didn't make the bridge fall down, and Kim did well with the trap near the armor, resisting the fatigue damage from the gas that could have made her fall down. Kim and Caleb didn't make the Per-based Architecture roll, but I didn't hide that the bridge was rickety. Seemed like something that would be plain to me.

Breaking Bridge

Every time someone new steps on the old bridge, roll 1d. If the roll is less than or equal to the number of folks on the bridge, the bridge falls apart.

Detect: Per-based Architecture at +2.
Disarm: No.
Circumvent: No, unless someone finds another way over the chasm. The jump is 20 yards, making it unlikely.
Evade: The last fellow who got on the bridge can Dodge at +1, as can the first person if more than three folks are on the bridge.
Effects: 6d crushing from the 45-yard fall.
Shots: 1.
Rearm: No.
Steal: No.
Offensive Rating: 27.

Armor Trap

The armor is on a stand on the far side of the bridge. This trap activates once someone is on the side with the armor and no one is on the bridge (or the bridge has broken).

Detect: Per-based Thaumatology, or Per + Magery for mages, at -2.
Disarm: Dispel Magic (resists at skill 20).
Circumvent: Someone can stay on the bridge, if it still stands.
Evade: Dodge to get out of the way of the spears. Anyone who has Decreased Time Rate (see below) is at -2.
Effects: Resist Will or get Decreased Time Rate (p. B129) as long as you are on this side of the chasm. Everyone regardless must keep away from the spears that shoot up from the floor every 2 yards. Roll 1d each second for each person who moves at least 2 yards. On a 1-2, a spear comes out of the floor and does 1d+1 impaling damage unless he dodges as above. Once someone is within 2 yards of the armor, all hexes within 5 yards of the armor stand fill with gas. Resist HT or take 2d fatigue damage. Holding your breath can help; make a Smell roll at -4 to notice the gas fast enough to do so.
Shots: Infinite.
Rearm: Automatic.
Steal: No.
Offensive Rating: 54.

They don't know how much the armor is worth, but it is one of the first bits of magical treasure they have found. Whether they keep it or sell it is up to them, though a breastplate would only be a boon to one character, likely Ash. They need to get it out of the swamp, regardless.