Sunday, September 25, 2022

Castle Whiterock 19 September 2022: Mopping up turtle guts

The murderhoboes

Garreth, half-orc swordsman
    Bleu, droning elf wizard
Zaber, suave and debonaire man
    Logan, wolverine
Polly, cute and deadly elf archer
Thrognar, half-orc holy warrior

What they did

Garreth wails on the turtle, but only one blow hits, and only its shell. Polly shoots at its skull thrice. I keep flying away from it, clutching Bleu. "Don't think I do this for any elf woman!" When the dragon turtle sticks its head out to strike again, Garreth splits open its skull, and it falls to the ground, going faster than I am with Bleu.

We all get down and, after she snaps to reality again, gives Bleu eight swigs from the wineskin after taking one himself. Garreth and Polly start skinning the dragon turtle, while Bleu and I fly back to Cillamar to look for a surgeon, as we want to harvest the dragon turtle's organs. We meet a fetching woman named Angie, who agrees to help us for half the money. We agree, and Bleu casts Flight on her and we go to join the others. While the others do work, I look for the dragon turtle's lair, and find it underwater.

Bleu casts Water Breathing and Swimming on us, then we check out the lair. There are two scarabs there. Garreth asks Bleu about them, and she says, "Ah, yes, these are Guardian Scarabs, they are not actually gold, they are powerful golems with many sense effects but not invincible, they are not very valuable. They are very dumb." Hearing this, Garreth kites away the scarabs with a harpoon while the rest of us gather the treasure.

The treasure is a big pile of money, gems, and jewelry. Therein is also a gold bulette statue, a platinum scepter tipped with emeralds, a ring of force, a ring that can store one charged spell, a mighty magical dwarven greataxe, bracers of armor, a horn that can summon fog, and a sapphire that when crushed will summon a Dire Water Elemental.

Monday, September 19, 2022

Game log 18 September 2022: Ganging up

Personae dramatis

Grignok, orc druid often in panther shape
Felcanis, elf cleric
Honsou, larcenous bowman
Mēnévē, broken-nosed fighter (NPC)

Quid occurrit

The heroes walk through the balrog's lair and find there is no balrog therein. They go through the tunnels, past the well, and into the room with the carvings. They turn to the left to look at the pillars in the middle of the room, and see that beyond them there is a double door, and two folks with swords, shields, and armor. One of them yells, "Hey, who the hell are you?"

Grignok roars, and the two fighters start walking warily towards the gang. Grignok runs to the shadows, and gets a better look once nearer. One is a paunchy woman with a craggy face, wavy black hair over her ears, tattooed forearms, and a shortsword. The other is a barrel-chested man with short, bushy, dark brown hair, bulging blue eyes, an earlobe cut off, and a broadsword. The woman yells, "You're gonna regret being assholes, y'know!"

Everyone starts pulling out weapons and getting nearer, with Grignok moving behind the two. Felcanis tries to cast Command on the woman fighter, but she's too far away to get it to work, so he casts Armor on Honsou instead. Honsou steps around the pillar, aiming at the woman, and Mēnévē, once near enough, yells, "Fut du du dirbate sat o' shid!" and swings her warhammer into the woman's shield.

The woman sneers. "Imma get you, you know?" She steps and tries to stab Mēnévē in her face, but she steps away. The man walks towards Grignok. Honsou keeps aiming, as Mēnévē blocks his way, as she has stepped back to ready her warhammer. Grignok rushes towards the woman and claws her in the back of the skull.

Amazingly, the woman doesn't drop from the goring, and instead spins and stabs Grignok in his face. Mēnévē yells,  "Fuddin bitz!" as she puts her warhammer into the woman's flank from behind and pulls it back. Honsou shoots at the woman but misses, and Grignok bites her face, dropping her.

The man yells, "NOOOOOOO!" charges to hit Grignok's neck, but Grignok steps away. Honsou gets out another arrow while Mēnévē tries to put her warhammer in his side, but it gets caught in his shield. Grignok claws his sword arm twice, crippling it and making him drop his sword. Felcanis casts Command on him but it fails as she is too far away.

The man tries to kick Grignok in the face but Grignok steps back, and he falls down. Honsou steps and shoots him in the innards. Mēnévē steps up, leaving her pick in, tries to kick his balls but misses. Grignok bites him twice. The man starts to wiggle arm out of his shield. Honsou runs up to him, pulls out his sword, and tries to slash him but misses. Mēnévē kicks his face. "Dum muddafudda!" Grignok bites him twice, crippling his shield arm.

The man lies there, unable to do anything other than spit defiantly at the heroes, who aren't acting too heroic. Honsou keeps missing with his sword and Mēnévē keeps missing with her face stomps, falling. "Fud!" Grignok bites him again and again, killing him.

They loot the bodies. The man has heavy leather armor, a broadsword, a medium shield, and four javelins. The woman has the same other than her sword, which is a shortsword, which Felcanis feels is magical. She also has a potion. Felcanis casts Stop Bleeding on Grignok. Honsou kills the woman, who is still breathing until this.

Death Proof final scene
Three PCs beat up on a hapless foe.

They rest for a short time. They check the double doors, find they have no traps, and Honsou easily picks the lock. The smell is dusty there, no dampness in it. The hallway splits, so they walk left, and find alcoves with sarcophagi therein. Honsou pushes open the lid to a sarcophagus, and inside there's … dust. They walk down the other hallway and find more sarcophagi. Honsou thinks these all have nothing but dust, so they leave them alone and leave the dungeon.

They find themselves outside in the afternoon, so they start heading towards town. After hiking for an hour, Grignok coughs a little when he catches a sudden burst of perfume, akin to Chanel No. 5 but sweeter. Up ahead is a man-sized flower with waxy white petals. Honsou guesses the smell comes from the flower, so he starts walking towards it.

Grignok thinks the flower is a vampire blossom, which dulls its victims' feelings to sleep with its perfume, then moves over them and drains their blood, making its petals turn red. He casts Beast Speech and asks the plant, "Can you not please, master plant?"

The vampire blossom says back, "Must feed on beast blood."

Grignok says, "We can bring you something better to munch on"

The vampire blossom says again, "Must feed on beast blood."

All the while, Honsou, knife drawn, keeps walking towards the plant, even though he starts to feel dizzy. He makes it to the plant, and slashes its stem. Felcanis casts Sunbolt, getting an easy-to-guide one. She throws it at the plant, burning it greatly. The plant swats its petal and hurts him. It wraps its petal around him, starting to drain his blood. He tries to wiggle out, but cannot.

As the vampire blossom drains Honsou of blood and senses, making him pass out after a few seconds, Grignok casts Lightning and Felcanis casts a bigger Sunbolt. Alas, Grignok's Lightning bolt doesn't burn it as much as he hoped, while Felcanis's Sunbolt misses it wholly. Grignok tries to grab the plant but cannot, but it lets go of Honsou after Felcanis's next Sunbolt burns it greatly.

Castle Whiterock 12 September 2022: Ghost in the shell

The murderhoboes

Garreth, half-orc swordsman
    Bleu, droning elf wizard
Zaber, suave and debonaire man
    Logan, wolverine
Polly, cute and deadly elf archer
Thrognar, half-orc holy warrior

What they did

We fly over the lake shore and I hear something very quiet and stealthy trying to move up behind Garreth. "Man, Garreth, something is trying to sneak up on you and it's frigging lame."

Polly asks, "Oh, is this the return of Flitwick?"

Garreth spins and focuses on his speed, and Bleu is casts Great Haste on Garreth. Polly moves behind him. I hear a gentle dripping sound, like rainfall, and I put on my ring. 

Garreth spots the oncoming monster, which we can see is some kind of fast, blurry dragon turtle. We move away as it tries and fails to bite Garreth. It swats at Logan and Polly with its flipper foreclaws but misses both. It also tries to hit Logan and Thrognar with its rear flippers but they step back. A lightning bolt comes into being and misses Garreth. Bleu Blinks away from its tail.

It spins in place and tries to hit us again, and we get out of the way. It tries to claw Logan and misses, but it bites and grabs him in its maw. Its other foreflipper swings at Bleu but misses. Its other flippers try to hit Thrognar and Polly but he parries and she retreats, while its tail misses Garreth.

Thrognar channels godly might. Garreth asks his sword, "Alright, Scalemar, gimme the goods on how to party with the dragon turtle?" After a split second, he chops at its head, hitting it before it puts its head back in its shell, but it swats away his sword and makes it turn in his hand. Bleu casts Great Haste on herself and steps. Polly shoots three arrows at the dragon turtle but misses, and it ignores Logan flailing in its bite. I stab it in the eye and step upwards. It starts to strike back at us, but Garreth hits it in the skull twice before it can.

It flails about trying to smash everyone, and we get out of the way, with Bleu Blinking. It pushes Logan into its maw, but he suddenly disappears in a puff of smoke. I cringe, but I know he's alright and going to come back in the bag in a few days, angry at this. The dragon's tail and both back flippers swat at Garreth, but he batters it away, as well as the lightning bolt it shoots at him. It tries to bite and claw Thrognar, but he parries both of them. It tries to swat at Bleu but misses, and misses me when I step away.

It spins again with its spiked shell, and we all get out of the way. It shoots a lightning bolt at Garreth, hitting him, and he yells, "Dragon, you've merely increased my capacity for ale! I do dearly love ale." Then it whirls again, with all of us getting away other than Bleu, who clutches her belly. It tries to bite Garreth but he parries, tries to claw Thrognar but he retreats, misses Polly with its flipper, and Garreth parries its tail. Its flipper claws Bleu, but Thrognar activates the Protector's Run to keep her from hurting. It then shoots a lightning bolt at her, stunning her.

Thrognar hits its skull thrice before it can snap away, while Garreth hits it as well before he lands three more on the shell. He hisses at it, "Foolish dragon, you are doomed!" which stuns it. Polly shoots its skull, and she lands with her third shot. I fly towards Bleu to get her out of the way. Garreth whacks its shell again.

The dragon turtle flails around, missing all of us, then tries to hit Garreth with its back flippers and tail. Its tail instead misses Garreth and hits the water hard. It swats at me and misses, at Thrognar who parries, and bites at Polly and she gets out of the way. It shoots a big blast of water at Garreth, knocking him back. It swats at me again, hitting me and … no, wait, it misses somehow. It swats at both Garreth and Thrognar, who parry, and at me, and I move away. Its tail swats at Polly but misses, and a lightning bolt flies past Garreth. It gets blurrier, but Thrognar hits its shell anyways.

Monday, September 5, 2022

Castle Whiterock 29 August 2022: A short delve before cow-tipping

The murderhoboes

Garreth, half-orc swordsman
    Bleu, droning elf wizard
Zaber, suave and debonaire man
    Logan, wolverine
Polly, cute and deadly elf archer
Thrognar, half-orc holy warrior

What they did

We show the pixies the sword and they are happy we found the pixie that was lost hunting Nemoura. They cast water speech spells on us to keep us from going "Glub-glub" when we try to talk. Garreth and Logan sing, and the pixies tell us that their mad musical skills give us the right for the pixies not to eat us. We're not sure how they could eat us, especially Garreth, but every boon is a boon, right?

After leaving the pixies, we check out the stairs past the frond fiends and the wall. A winding staircase about 10 feet wide meanders down the cliff wall. We can barely see it owing to the piles of silt, a scum-like layer of algae, and the rock surface. I lead the others down the stairs, and spot a giant clam hiding in the silt, as well as the outlines of a door beyond it.

I try to get Polly to see the clam, but she cannot until she's almost standing on it. We spot a big pearl, and she and Garreth wheedle me into not killing the clam for its meat. Garreth says, "We can buy a cow with those pearls."

I shrug. "I already go cow tipping with other people's cows."

Garreth says, "We can buy beer with them, too. The ogre thing had a pry bar for this and some little rocks to make more pearls."

The clam is just chilling. Garreth walks up with the pry bar and attempts to wedge it the way the notches indicate.  Garreth is faster than the slam, he starts to put the crowbar in. He gets the pearl and put the pebble in its place. Garreth tosses it in the loot bag, then yanks the bar out. He spots another clam further down the stairs, and another one … ten in all. He does the same for all of them, and gets six dusky pearls, one white pearl, and three cream pearls.

Once Garreth has opened all the clams and swapped the pearls for little rocks, we check out the stairs. We find that the stairs lead to the ruined monastery where we fought the false monks, and the secret door goes back to where the lacedons almost ate me. Satisfied, we go back to Cillamar.