Game log 11 August 2024: The rain is cold, cold like cold rain

Personae dramatis

Tonfa Guy, doesn't speak or have a name but has a tonfa
Grignok, handsome orc druid
Augustus, human cleric

Nílde, elf archer (NPC)

Quid occurrit

About midday, it's raining. Hard. The gang see some movement in the bush ahead, and a pudgy man in heavy mail and a spear steps out. "Hail! Stop right there!" They can see there are about a half-dozen folks in the bushes with him. "Fork over all your stuff."

The gang doesn't do much, so the pudgy man says, "Fuck your dallying, wet boys. Brothers, sisters, get 'em!"

Nílde tries to quick ready her bow, but fumbles with it after a step. Tonfa Guy slips off the side of the road, and now can clearly see the other bandits in the bush. Augustus steps and readies his bow. Grignok steps and concentrates on Shapeshifting. Two bandits move towards Tonfa Guy, a man with wood sticks in his beard and a woman with a mohawk. A chubby woman joins the chubby man. The others also have spears.

Nílde steps and whips out an arrow and shoots Porky the Bandit with a bodkin arrow  that just sticks in his armor. Tonfa Guy tries to bop the bandit with the sticks in his beard, but Mr. Woodsticks just gets out of the way. Augustus pulls out an arrow and moves. Grignok steps and concentrates on Shapeshifting. The plump pair hold their ground. Mr. Woodsticks and Ms. T step and poke Tonfa Guy. Both miss as Tonfa Guy pulls back towards the road.

Again Nílde gets off a shot, and this time her arrow gets through and takes down a bandit. Tonfa Guy whips out his knife, and it goes into Mr. Woodsticks's side. Augustus shoots Porky the Bandit, who drops. Grignok casts Shapeshifting and steps, now a panther. Ms. T stabs at Tonfa Guy, who parries with his tonfa. Porkette lets loose a war cry, and starts running forwards. Three more bandits—flat nose, braided beard, and pony tail woman—rush forward

Nílde shoots a regular arrow at the chubby woman, dropping her. The Tonfa Guy changes grips and then steps into close range with Ms. T and rams home his tonfa. She drops, dazed, and lets go of her buckler and spear. Augustus steps and pulls out another arrow. Grignok pounces on Braided Beard, likewise stunning him, and making him drop his buckler and spear. Pony Tail and Flat Nose try to stab Grignok but both miss.

After reloading, Nílde shoots Flat Nose, but he catches the arrow on the rim of his shield. The Tonfa Guy has a cold murderous intent in his eyes, and he keeps jabbing Ms. T. Augustus shoots Flat Nose, who steps aside. Grignok bites Braided Beard as he tries to roll away, making him pass out. Ms. T rolls away. Pony Tail and Flat Nose go for Grignok again, and again both miss.

Nilde shoots Flat Nose again, and the arrow sticks deep in his side. The Tonfa Guy smashes Ms. T with his tonfa, and she passes out trying to get away. Augustus steps and pulls out an arrow. Grignok tries to grapple Pony Tail, but she gets her spear between them. She tries to stab him back, but likewise cannot hit him. Flat Nose rushes towards Augustus, but he steps away.

Flat Nose again gets his shield in the way of Nílde's shot. Tonfa Guy starts looting the bodies by him. Augustus also shoots Flat Nose, who catches the arrow on the rim of his shield. Grignok claws at Pony Tail, taking a big hunk out of her, but she keeps standing, then steps back. Flat Nose stabs Nílde, but her armor takes the blow. She shoots him back, and his shield blocks her arrow yet again.

Augustus reloads.  Grignok steps and claws Pony Tail again, dropping her. Flat Nose stabs Nílde, dropping her. Augustus shoots Flat Nose, missing him, but Grignok pounces on Flat Nose's back, getting his claws into his skull, dropping him.

Augustus casts Stop Bleeding on Nílde, and she awakes. "F-f-fuck, that h-hurt …" Then he casts Major Healing on her, which gives him a surge of holy might, fully healing her. "So, d-d-d-d-d-d-d—y'know, w-we-w-win?"

Augustus says, "M-messily."

They grab the loot, including the armor of the heavyset bandit. Augustus takes the armor, Nílde gets the two bracelets, Tonfa Guy steals the copper and silver, they split up the gold two each, and look to sell the sards.

They reach Rēláištiš near sundown. There, the guard says, "You should put your slave on a leash," pointing to Grignok.

They shrug it off. Nílde says, "W-w-we'll g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-fuck! D-dungeon to-m-m-morrow."

Game log 23 and 30 June 2024: He-Who-Cures-the-Whores

Personae dramatis

Tonfa Guy, doesn't speak or have a name but has a tonfa
Grignok, handsome orc druid
Augustus, human cleric

Quid occurrit

Once back in town, Tonfa Guy trains for five days. He takes a moment to just hang out in the Scarlet Harlot. After signaling for an ale he finds a seat and listens for jobs. 

Augustus starts looking for a town elder, listening around to hear if anyone important needs Cure Disease. He mostly hears about commoners with either influenza of the clap. Yengrátōr, the barkeep at the Scarlet Harlot, says that Rêkoros, the leader of the Reapers mercenary company, is usually around in the evening. Augustus asks Yengrátōr to point out Rêkoros, and Yengrátōr agrees.

Then, Augustus asks around the Scarlet Harlot to see if any of the working girls need, uh, help. Somehow, he doesn't piss them off. A young woman with bulging eyes sidles up to Augustus. "Hey, hun, I've had a run o' pain down there, and not just my Aunt Flo, either." He checks her out, and her ailments puzzle him. "It hurts when I whiz, Pastor."

Augustus casts Cure Disease on the hooker. She is cured! She even runs outside and whizzes on the side of the tavern to test it, and she's good! She gives him a smooch on the cheek. "Name is Atilíā, Pastor. I'll have to do you a favor some time." She winks at Augustus. "Hey, everyone! Reverend Moonbeam is the best!" Atilíā runs off, saying, "'Scuze me, but I gotta make my room for tonight."

Traffic is normal around town. That evening, the crowd thins out. The Scarlet Harlot has a light crowd, mostly drinkers. A woman wayfarer is babbles loudly about some flaming sword of legend. Augustus asks her about it. "Aw, you don't know the tale of Ženêtiš? He cut off a necromancer's finger and took his ring!" Augustus says he has no idea who Ženêtiš was. "He was amazing! He paid for the burial of some old woman he didn't know by selling off a gold necklace that he also took from the necromancer! I wonder what happened to his sword. That must have been a great sword. My husband could swing it, I bet." Augustus asks when this happened. "I don't know when it happened, Reverend. Not like I saw it. But I heard it from my dad when I was a little girl."

The barkeep Yengrátor tugs on Augustus's sleeve. "Hey, He-Who-Cures-the-Whores, you see the guy with the big tattoos on his forearms? Well, you were asking about him earlier."

A big man in his thirties with lots of tattoos on his forearms and a bushy black beard waves to Augustus, then clasps Augustus's hand. "How good it is to see you! I'm Rêkoros, leader of the Reapers. I hear you have been asking about me, friend?" Augustus says he is looking to cure the sick. Rêkoros pokes Augustus's belly and laughs. "So you're sucking up, Reverend? Well, don't worry, as it happens, I got a lieutenant with the illness. No, not from your girlfriend. The one that's been going around. We got him quarantined since we can't have him spreadin' it to everyone."

He leads Augustus outside of town, and outside the north gate. "Reverend, we normally don't see your goddess with us. Maybe we could use you to keep watch over camps." He shrugs. He leads Augustus to a tent, in which is a dwarf with a lot of snot on his beard, and Augustus thinks that it's the flu. He casts Cure Disease on the dwarf. He lifts his head, and smiles, then takes in a deep breath. "Now I can breathe easy, son."

Rêkoros nods and puts his hand on Augustus's shoulder. "What do you drink, Padre?" Augustus says he drinks dark ale. "A dark ale, eh? I'll take you back to the Scarlet Harlot before the gates shut and give you a big ol' mug. It'll put hair on your chest!" And with that he takes Augustus back to the Scarlet Harlot and buys him some of the actual good ale. It does not taste like cat piss, unlike most of the ale folks drink around here.

Rêkoros and Augustus chat about business. "Ah, you gotta pray to the dark lady for guidance, eh? Watching the stars? Well, we ain't got no wars a-brewin' with all the snifflin' and pukin'."

Augustus asks, "What better time to attack an opponent or sow discord than this time?"

Rêkoros shrugs. "Well, then we'll be at war for thirty years, and ravage the whole kingdom!"

Tonfa Guy hears from a patron about Batrežíā, a noblewoman of Mīštássun, who went north to Rēláištiš for a trip. She never came back. She left wearing three platinum buttons on her collar. Tonfa Guy tries to get when this happened from the drunken patron. "Couple o' years ago. Dems buttons, though, worth a lot."

Tonfa Guy goes looking for scum. Skeevy folks chuckle as Tonfa Guy tugs on their clothes, then point him to a bar on the other side of town from the Scarlet Harlot. It's a two-story wattle-and-daub building that looks pretty run down. This is the Vulgar Lizard.

The activity is moderate, with plenty of drinking and chatter in darkened alcoves. Tonfa Guy looks skeevy enough for this crowd to feel at-ease with. In one corner there's some gambling, with a really tall gnome woman winning. The gnome woman's voice cracks a lot and she has long, curly dark hair, going to her waist. A lot of folks shrug and ignore the game. She may or not be winning, but she's the key player.

The folks ignoring her know her. An elf woman looks at Tonfa Guy. "B-B-Bustoríā is winning again." She snorts and takes a sip. "Butchu aren't playing. Good move."

The Tonfa Guy gives a sign of acknowledgement. The short elf woman smiles and nods, and twiddles with her earrings. "Looking for a score?" Tonfa Guy signals that he is.

The elf woman laughs. "Not a, ah, um, a, you know, a talker." She smiles. "Not my strong suit either."

She leans down and looks from side to side. "Listen, hun, you sure aren't going to find a big score around here. Maybe in the spots where the Town Watch truly goes. They just come here when one of those homes gets robbed."

The Tonfa Guy smiles and gives a sign for acknowledgement. The signals for an ale for the lady before getting up to leave. The woman pulls out a scroll from under her cloak. The Tonfa Guy sits back down, suddenly interested.

Short elf woman goes on, "This map leads to a mine. It's my map and I'm not sharing this, but I need help if I'm gonna loot this mine. It's to the east of Rēláištiš a bit. You don't go into those kinds of places alone."

Tonfa Guy signals he has someone he'd like to bring along. The elf woman nods. "Oh, you wanna bring your buddy? Sure, the more the merrier. Equal shares, of course." The Tonfa Guy gives a sign for acknowledgement. "But none of this gets out, got it?" The Tonfa Guy acknowledges.

The big gnome woman and some guy are arguing about whether or not she cheated. He scowls and spits and throws down his coins and walks off. Game over.

"We can ah, um—aw, you know, take off tomorrow. I'm Nílde. But you don't know me." The Tonfa Guy acknowledges, then promptly and discreetly leaves.

The next morning, Tonfa Guy pushes Augustus awake. Once the two are awake, they get Felcanis to let them use bill, then head for the North Gate of town. There they make a fuss so Grignok will see and stop picking herbs. The three of them meet Nílde there. After getting her to agree to go north with Grignok, they set forth, storm clouds looming ahead.

Game log 2 June 2024: Pineapple salad

Personae dramatis

Tonfa Guy, doesn't speak or have a name but has a tonfa
Felcanis, elven cleric
Grignok, handsome orc druid
Augustus, human cleric

Dénnos, human sage (NPC)

Quid occurrit

Grignok smells something to the south by south east, with his whiskers feeling the motion. He thinks the smell is a spider. So he quickly moves towards the smell and motion, and sees the outline of a spider coming around the corner. He growls, which baffles everyone, but they all think he's growling for a reason, and turn toward the spider. Tonfa Guy moves back and draws his tonfa, and Augustus steps and casts Haste 2 on Tonfa Guy. Felcanis casts Sunbolt 3d.

The spider crawls into the room, and now everyone can see it. Grignok pounces at the spider, but lands without hitting it. Tonfa Guy moves through the webbing. The spider tries to bite Grignok but misses. Augustus steps and pulls out his broadsword but gets stuck in the web, while Felcanis aims at the spider.

Grignok jumps over the spider and turns around. Tonfa Guy moves towards spider. The spider turns towards Grignok and again tries to bite him, again missing. Felcanis steps and the webbing sticks to her, but she still tries to throw her Sunbolt anyways, missing. Grignok tries to claw the spider's face but misses as well, and Tonfa Guy moves toward the side, still getting near the spider slowly.

Augustus tries to cut his way out of the webbing but can't get a good hack. The spider bites Grignok and Grignok claws it right back. Felcanis casts Sunbolt 3d again, while Tonfa Guy keeps moving towards the spider. Augustus casts Might 2 on Tonfa Guy.

The spider bites Grignok again, and this time Grignok cannot land a blow back. Felcanis lobs her Sunbolt and misses the spider as well as Grignok and Tonfa Guy. Tonfa Guy glares over his shoulder at Felcanis before stepping into a web, which sticks lightly to him, but doesn't stop him from whacking the spider over the head, knocking it out. Grignok then rends the spider to death.

Felcanis casts Major Healing on Grignok after Augustus fails, bringing the smell of rotting flesh with his failure. Then they go through the nest, burning any eggs they find, and looting any bodies in the sacs. They not only get a lot of money—2,000 copper farthings—but Felcanis finds a magic bronze brazier.

They leave the nest, getting the thanks of the village of Bóllā. Felcanis and Augustus each pay Dénnos 100 copper out of their share, and Felcanis takes the brazier to the wizard Praidīvós and pays for the identification out of her share once in town. Praidīvós finds the brazier can grab specified items within 5 miles of it that weigh 10 lbs. or less if you speak the item loudly and put a rock in the pot within a half-hour of sundown.

Dénnos goes back to being a sage. Felcanis goes to work in the Temple of Saundīvós, and casts Bless 2 on Augustus, Grignok, and Tonfa Guy. She says she can renew the spell for a donation of 50 copper if needed. 

Res aliae

As a memorial to our late friend John, Felcanis gets a nice retirement, offering them Blesses.

Game log 17 March 2024: Spikes and sacks

Personae dramatis

Tonfa Guy, doesn't speak or have a name but has a tonfa
Felcanis, elven cleric
Grignok, handsome orc druid
Augustus, human cleric

Dénnos, human sage (NPC)

Quid occurrit

Tonfa Guy steals a torch and they get out of Bóllā. Honsou sticks around to do something to the cows. Nobody asks what.

They set forth for the spider lair. The day is mostly uneventful, albeit oddly slow-going for such a pleasant day. Around midday, though, they find a big spike of animal horn embedded in a tree. Tonfa Guy gives the whole tree a wide birth. Grignok looks at the spike, seeing as a manticore spike. "They're big and have spiked tails and are depicted in artwork that accompanies the songs of the bards Emerson, Lake, and Palmer!"

Augustus looks for tracks, but finds none. Things are much too scuffled around there to tell for sure. Nobody messes with the manticore spike and they move on.

Felcanis sets up camp, and casts Create Food to help Grignok out. The night is uneventful.

The next day, storm clouds are above. Aside from the downpour at midmorning, the day is uneventful. They make it to the tree a bit after midday. They climb the tree, though Tonfa Guy fails to lift the gear on the first try.

Once up top, Grignok casts Shapeshifting (Panther) on himself. After Felcanis and Augustus cast Lend Energy and some wait, they go into the spider lair. The webs inside are rewoven, and the ettercap bodies are husks.

Dénnos and Augustus burn the webbing, and they go down the hallway, past one branching right. At another branch, they keep to the left, and go into a chamber. The chamber is packed with web-filled sacks of many sizes, between one to ten feet long. Each sack has hidden outlines of its trapped victims, shrouded in shadow.

Augustus looks for the fungus, and does not find it. The rotting of the already dead gives off a nasty reek, and there's another smell that he can't place, vaguely musky. Grignok's whiskers cannot detect any movement. Not even shallow breathing, as best he can tell. 

Res aliae

I haven't posted this because I'm lazy, even though I had the post pretty well written the day after the game. However, there's been another development: John Mathern, who played Felcanis, was found dead in his apartment on Good Friday, and we heard about it a week later. He was 56 or 57. John had a number of health issues, many of which were visibly apparent and many of which were underlying, but still, this came all of the sudden. We're gonna miss him and his upbeat attitude, and his humor. As Roman, who plays Tonfa Guy (and about fifteen other characters over the years—can you stick to one, man?), said, John is the only player he ever had who said, "I'm shooting the dragon in his butthole with my laser rifle." (This was one of Roman's many Rifts games, if I remember right.)

Rest in peace, John. I'm glad at least that you got to live to get to Con of the North in February one last time.

Game log 28 January and 18 February 2024: Out and down

Personae dramatis

Honsou, thief and item smasher
Tonfa Guy, doesn't speak or have a name but has a tonfa
Felcanis, elven cleric
Grignok, handsome orc druid
Augustus, human cleric

Dénnos, human sage (NPC)

Quid occurrit

The spider on Grignok passes out. The spider on Tonfa Guy bites him, dropping him, and his breathing gets shallow. Honsou shoots the spider on Tonfa Guy, taking it down. Augustus casts Stop Bleeding on Tonfa Guy, stabilizing him.

A truly big spider takes a bite out of Grignok, paralyzing him. Felcanis wiggles out a little but cannot get free. Dénnos steps and burns webbing again. Honsou pulls out an arrow and aims. Augustus burns the webbing in front of Honsou.

The spider rears up and grapples Grignok. Felcanis wiggles free and steps back. Dénnos and Augustus keep burning webbing, while Honsou keeps aiming.

The spider starts dragging off Grignok. Felcanis steps and casts Sunbolt. Dénnos and Augustus burn more webbing. Honsou takes a step and then shoots the spider.

Felcanis steps and throws her Sunbolt, but misses, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Dénnos and Augustus keep up burning webbing, and Honsou readies his bow. The spider crushes Grignok with its forearms, then steps back.

Augustus drops his torch and pulls out his bow, and Honsou aims. Dénnos keeps burning webbing, while Felcanis steps back. The spider keeps moving back, and Augustus takes a parting shot. Honsou instead grabs Grignok, and they all go towards the opening. Once they have the sun on their faces, they heal up.

They start climbing down. Augustus takes off his gear and they lower it to the ground, then Tonfa Guy ties the rope around Augustus. Augustus starts going down, but he slips with the knot doing the same, and he lands on the ground, awake but hurting. Grignok, as a panther, climbs down, turns back into an orc, turns Augustus into a big log, heals the log, then turns Augustus back into a person, bewildering Bill, grazing by the tree. Then Tonfa Guy lowers Felcanis, who makes it down after some small mishaps. Both the Tonfa Guy and Honsou make it down, and they make camp there. Grignok gathers food, and Felcanis feeds herself with Create Food.

They wake up on a chilly morning, but nothing awful. The sky looks a bit cloudy. The set out slowly through the thick woods near the spiders' lair, but move faster once they get out of the thick woods just after noon.

In the late afternoon, Grignok points to a tree with curved branches in a copse of trees. "That one there is not right." The branches look almost sword-like, so Tonfa Guy walks away, and everyone else follows.

Felcanis makes camp that night, the first quarter of the moon. Felcanis again feeds herself with Create Food and Grignok gathers food.

In the middle of the night, the rain and winds pick up. Grignok, who is on watch, wakes up everyone. "Run! It's a twister!" Felcanis and Augustus get hurt from the debris, with Felcanis deaf for many minutes afterwards. They set up camp again under a lean-to, and get some more sleep.

The next morning is still wet, crappy, and cloudy, and they make it back to Bóllā in the middle of the morning.

Game log 14 January 2024: Stuck in the middle with you

Personae dramatis

Honsou, thief and item smasher
Tonfa Guy, doesn't speak or have a name but has a tonfa
Felcanis, elven cleric
Grignok, handsome orc druid
Augustus, human cleric

Dénnos, human sage (NPC)

Quid occurrit

The cat hears something behind him and suddenly three spiders dart into the light. Tonfa Guy moves towards the nearest spider. Honsou lets loose an arrow that goes past two spiders. Augustus and Dénnos burn webbing. Grignok starts to move warily towards the battle, but gets stuck in webbing.

Two spiders step back, and the third at the fore runs behind them. Tonfa Guy moves towards them but gets stuck in the webbing. Augustus and Dénnos keep burning webbing, while Felcanis steps in webbing that ensnares her. Grignok, however, gets free.

Tonfa Guy wiggles out a little, but only a little, while Honsou steps backwards. Augustus burns the webbing where Honsou was, and Dénnos burns more webbing. Felcanis breaks free of webbing, only to step into more webbing that ensnares her. Grignok keeps prowling towards the spiders.

Tonfa Guy gets free of the webbing and steps. Augustus and Dénnos keep burning webbing. Grignok smells where the spiders are, while Felcanis gets free of the webbing tangling her and steps towards a burned spot.

Augustus and Dénnos burn even more webbing. Tonfa Guy runs forward, mostly through burnt webbing, then switches from his long knife to one of his throwing knives. Augustus steps and casts Might 1 on Tonfa Guy, and the night might of Nemmagós makes the spell even mightier than Augustus tried. Grignok moves along the wall towards the spiders, while Felcanis steps aside. This gives Honsou a clear shot and he takes it, but the spider steps away from his arrow.

Honsou pulls out another arrow while the Tonfa Guy moves forward. Dénnos burns more webbing while Augustus moves over burnt webbing to do the same. Felcanis steps, as does Grignok before he pounces on a spider. However, he misses and falls to the ground.

Two of the three spiders try to Grignok, though neither wounds him. The third moves towards him. Grignok claws through the spider that missed his body, killing it. Augustus and Dénnos keep burning webbing while Felcanis fires up a Sunbolt.

The two spiders still standing bite Grignok in the face, stunning him. Honsou moves up, while Augustus and Dénnos burn more webbing. Felcanis aims for one of the spiders biting the face of the cat.

The spiders step back. Tonfa Guy moves forward and gets stuck. Honsou aims at a spider while Felcanis lobs her Sunbolt at it, but misses. As always, Augustus and Dénnos burn webbing.

Again the spiders step back. Tonfa Guy wiggles out a web but gets stuck as he steps again. Honsou keeps aiming. Augustus and Dénnos burn more webbing. Grignok comes to his wits while Felcanis gets stuck as she moves forward.

The big spiders pounce on Tonfa Guy's face, wounding him. Honsou shoots at a spider, but misses everyone. Grignok starts to stand, Felcanis tries to wiggle out but cannot, while Dénnos and Augustus burn webbing. Tonfa Guy grabs at the leg of one of the spiders, but it wiggles free.

The other bites Tonfa Guy in the face, paralyzing him. Honsou drops his arrow as he tries to pull it out. Augustus casts Major Healing on Tonfa Guy from a short gap away. Grignok stands, steps back, and gets stuck, while Felcanis just stays stuck, unable to wiggle free. Dénnos, as always, burns some webbing.

One spider bites Tonfa Guy while the other tries to bite Grignok but cannot get through his fur. Honsou aims at the spider that tried to bite Grignok, while Grignok claws the spider that bit Tonfa Guy, wounding it greatly. Augustus steps and casts Might on Felcanis, who breaks free, steps, and gets stuck again. And Dénnos, yet again, burns webbing.

Game log 17 September, 3 December, 31 December 2023: Sticky fingers

Personae dramatis

Honsou, thief and item smasher
Tonfa Guy, doesn't speak or have a name but has a tonfa
Felcanis, elven cleric
Grignok, handsome orc druid
Augustus, human cleric

Quid occurrit

Nothing happens that evening. Grignok leads them through the woods, getting thicker with each step. After a couple of hours, they find a bunch of bones from some kind of big animal, bigger than Bill. Felcanis tries to figure out what killed it. She cannot, though she realizes it has been dead awhile, and can still see some dried blood on nearby rocks. The skeleton is still intact. Grignok has no idea what kind of animals these are. Big quadruped of some kind.

They make it to the tree about midday. Dénnos looks up. "So, is that the nest? Good gravy!"

Grignok nods. "We went up there before, we can get up there again."

Felcanis tries to climb, gets midway up, then gets back down, as falling is almost assuredly fatal at this level. She makes it down safely. All others slowly make it to the top.

Now, up there, there is a woven wall of webbing They see where Mateo had burned a hole, and it has been webbed-over. Grignok casts Shapeshifting (Panther), then they rest about a half-hour before Grignok's nose leads them to where the smell of weird spidery stuff is greatest. Two branches split here, showing a hidden gap about 3 yards wide in the solid walls of webbing around the tree. Unlike most of the woven wall, this spot of the web is not sticky; dust and leaves are on the floor, making a path. It narrows inside, and after a few yards, the floor starts to get sticky again.

Grignok-cat points out the floor. For all anyone can tell, the kitty is probing at the floor. It's all sticky ahead when they look for a dusty path. Grignok finds the walls sticky. Honsou can lights a torch and starts burning the webbing

The webbing burns slowly. After burning a few yards of webbing, Honsou is amazed to see an ogre-like being with a spider's head and two bulbous black eyes. It has two long, slender arms that end in claws.

Tonfa Guy shoots the ettercap but misses, and the ettercap shoots webbing at Honsou!

Grignok moves towards Honsou, and Dénnos moves behind Grignok. Tonfa Guy whips out his knife and moves into position, but gets stuck on the webbing. The ettercap lobs its web at the nearby Tonfa Guy, who dodges.

Grignok moves into the webbing but doesn't get stuck. Dénnos is for some reason being brave, at least a bit, and carries the rear. Tonfa Guy tries to break free, and wiggles out a little, but is still stuck. Honsou shoots the ettercap, but misses. The ettercap lobs a web at Grignok, who steps aside, and the webbing goes flying past Dénnos.

Grignok steps towards the ettercap, but gets stuck in the webbing. Dénnos pulls out a torch. Tonfa Guy gets himself out of the webbing and he steps back to stand next to Dénnos. Honsou whips out an arrow and shoots the ettercap, who steps aside. The ettercap lobs its web at Honsou and steps back, and the webbing binds Honsou.

The panther tries to break free but does not. Dénnos lights a torch. Tonfa Guy gets out his knife. Honsou tries to get out but does not get out. The ettercap lobs his web at the Grignok, who dodges before breaking free and stepping forward.

Dénnos burns some webbing. Tonfa Guy steps back. Honsou tries to break free but again fails. The ettercap throws a web at Grignok, but it hits the wall. Grignok pounces at the ettercap, but it steps aside, and he lands right beside it.

Dénnos burns more webbing. Honsou wiggles a little out of the webbing, but still has it on him. The ettercap steps back. Grignok swipes a claw at the ettercap, but just misses

The sage steps and burns yet another hex, and the Tonfa Guy steps. Honsou keeps struggling against the webbing. The ettercap steps back again. Grignok steps and tries to claw the ettercap, but cannot touch it.

Dénnos burns even more webbing. The Tonfa Guy sheathes his tonfa and whips out his knife. Honsou cannot get out of the webbing. The ettercap steps back. Grignok steps and again tries to claw the ettercap, but cannot touch it.

Dénnos keeps burning webbing. The Tonfa Guy gets his knife out and starts to cut the webbing on Honsou. The ettercap steps back. Grignok steps and again tries to claw the ettercap, but cannot touch it, and Dénnos steps and burns more webbing.

The Tonfa Guy cuts the webbing off Honsou, who readies his bow. The ettercap turns a little and moves farther.

Grignok steps, still doesn't see anything, and Dénnos burns more webbing. The Tonfa Guy steps up and points at Honsou's coin purse as soon as he is freed from the webbing. Everybody but Grignok can see the ettercap fleeing through the gloaming. Grignok's whiskers sense the ettercap and pounces on the ettercap's back, clawing it and grappling it.

Dénnos keeps burning webbing while the Tonfa Guy steps back and keeps looking at Honsou's pouches. The ettercap tries to break free. It wiggles a little but still grappled. Grignok claws the ettercap again, but it still struggles onward while Dénnos again burns webbing.

Honsou sees the Tonfa Guy making a move on his pouches. The ettercap wiggles out, but  Grignok keeps clawing it from behind, dropping it so it oozes fluid all over the place.

After this, they wait almost an hour and a half.

Augustus is wandering through the woods, trying to learn how to be an alchemist or herbalist. The priest/druid telling him to do this has told him that a rare fungus grows from the bodies of those killed by giant spiders and he has to gather it, so therefore he went to Bóllā, hit by giant spiders, and is wandering through the woods from there.

Augustus makes it to a spot in the woods where there are ropes of spider webbing. He makes it to a tree with a big throng of spider webs about a hundred feet up in it, and there is an elf woman, obviously a cleric of Saundīvós from her rainment, standing at the base of it, kinda looking up. This, of course, is Felcanis.

Augustus and Felcanis banter about the fungus and Felcanis's inability to climb.

Augustus asks, "Why do you wanna climb a tree into a hive of giant spiders?"

Felcanis says, "To kill them?"

Augustus grabs some sticky webbing and starts to try to climb the tree, and Felcanis tells Augustus not to go up there! Someone drops Felcanis's rope to bring her up. She ties the rope around her, and Grignok pulls her up with his teeth.

Honsou grabs the rope, then goes down to meet Augustus. Honsou ties the rope around Augustus before climbing up himself, then Grignok pulls up Augustus.

Augustus looks around the bones in the den and cannot find the fungus. He realizes these bones have bite marks on them. Weird bite marks, not human. It could be the ettercap or it could be a giant spider. Who knows? Maybe the ettercap shared a snack with the giant spider.

Grignok moves into the darkness to the left of where they came into the den, as they hear a little din from there. Honsou steps out, then gets stuck. Augustus readies a torch. Dénnos burns some webbing. Felcanis pulls out her mace, which speaks ettercap.

Honsou wiggles out a little, but is still grappled, while Grignok keeps waiting. Felcanis moves to the edge of the burnt webbing. Dénnos steps and burns more webbing. Honsou tries to get out of the webbing but cannot. Felcanis moves but gets stuck in the webbing. After a short struggle, Augustus burns away the webbing on Honsou as Dénnos burns the webbing on the ground.

Grignok moves, but gets stuck. Felcanis tries to get out, and Dénnos burns the webbing to free her. Honsou steps and readies his bow. The Tonfa Guy sees the creature at the edge of the light and swings, giving the ettercap a good whack, knocking it down.

Felcanis moves but again gets stuck in the webbing. Augustus moves towards Felcanis. Dénnos steps and burns more webbing. Honsou steps. The Tonfa Guy swings at the downed ettercap. It tries to stop the blow with its claws, but instead the blow lands, and the ettercap passes out.

Castle Whiterock: Garreth speaks

Dungeon Fantasy Whiterock

by Zuljita, aka Garreth

In April of 2018, Dripton ran session 1 of Dungeon Fantasy Whiterock. A hundred sessions later, he ran his last session in on June 26, 2020. I meant to write a retrospective when that campaign ended, but my life changed radically around that time and my priorities had to change. A month or so later, Kalzazz decided he wasn’t done with the game and decided to run it primarily as a GM, but kept his character as a participant in the story, albeit much less active. I’m going to set out to do a two-part retrospective, first on Dripton's game and Kalzazz’s continuation, and another part on the content produced by Dungeon Crawl Classics. I’m going to try to keep spoilers to that last section. If you hope to play in this dungeon in future, I’d avoid reading that.

Dripton’s game

From the get-go Dripton was an attentive and intensely prepared GM, his preparation meant we (almost?) never ran off the edge of the map, and he was always ready to run. I don’t know that we missed even one scheduled game session in the 100 we played. He characterized the monsters and the NPCs very well and never gave us too much of an impression of being railroaded. The most heavy handed leading he did in the whole game was two points: session 1, when he used an NPC to get us started on the path to the dungeon, and session 98 or 99 when he had Chauntessa give us the final quest.  

We had a lot of back and forth over character points, which in the end, was part of what caused the game to break down. In retrospect, I think possibly the way to fix this would be to give just one point per session in terms of “attendance points” and put a much greater emphasis on milestones, e.g., “Level 1 cleared” being worth 10-15 points, “NPC rescued” 3 points, “Entered Secret Zone” 2 points.  Then the rewards for moving slow and finding every piece of treasure(which we absolutely did) are mitigated somewhat.

Wizards in GURPS are far more broad and consistent than their D20 counterparts, who are flashier and more explosive. That core difference makes a lot of other things change. That’s especially true with a wizard who’s comfortable taking a back seat in most combats to provide broad passive bonuses to the whole party.  

A few spells in particular stick out as problematic in conversion in their own ways: 

Bless does a whole lot.  The cost for keeping the whole party blessed is -1 per member to spellcasting.  We handled this pretty easily and the long term duration meant we kept the benefits between sessions even when the caster wasn’t around. I think I’d like to rewrite bless for DF to make it more immediate, less powerful, and less long lasting, with an eye towards how the spell works in D&D.

Great Haste is a force multiplier. It more than doubles the power of a melee fighter. It starts feeling powerful, and ends feeling insane. Dripton ended up capping players at 3 attacks per second. The players didn’t take that change very well. I think in hindsight, if we’d had that as a restriction from the get-go, or been allowed to adjust existing characters around the new speed limit, it would have gone over much better.  

Mass Daze ended up being absurdly powerful, both in terms of wrecking large groups of enemies and in terms of allowing a wizard to affect larger SM monsters. I think I’d adjust all the “mass” spells to have some caveats around that sort of scaling. Daze in particular ends up being “save or die” in GURPS because of how easy it is to take advantage of a defenseless opponent.

Buff spells that can be maintained indefinitely (Darkvision, Keen senses, Flight, Haste) feel overpowered.  I’d like to adjust that somehow as well. I fear that ends up looking like a complete overhaul of the magic system. I suspect that might be what’s required to make the two systems assumptions work well together. I feel like Incantation is almost there, but, needs a bit more tweaking and a much more robust list of available spells.

Dripton had a few “save for half damage” effects that he translated over unchanged, which I felt at the time wasn’t in the spirit of the system. Looking back, I’m increasingly comfortable with making sure players just take some damage, and communicating to players that they need to plan accordingly.

Kal’s continuation

Kalzazz took up the torch on 8/24/20 and ran for 70+ sessions. His approach to GMing is far more improvisational. Where Dripton took maps and stripped out square grids and added hexes, Kalzazz just told us to treat the squares more or less the same as hexes. Very few monsters had statblocks from this time forward.

Kal kept us on a pretty steady diet of 2 cp for attendance and 1 for a written recap, which Demented Avenger provided. We ended the game up 216 points from where Dripton left us, with Kal granting 100 more points as a reward for adventure conclusion. He also let us break the attack cap Dripton had set. If we keep using these characters, they are going to be even bigger and scarier than they were when they took on Sihouette and Benthos. Which is an interesting balance problem.  

On the balance front, both Zaber and I ended up continuing on mostly as a duo with occasional guest characters. This left some core competencies uncovered (spellcasting), so I took on a wizard ally to fill in the passive-ish spellcasting we were accustomed to with Seep. Zaber took on the wolverine we’d gotten from a bag of tricks as an ally who became a true combat monster, doing more raw damage per attack than Garreth by the end. Kal pulled no punches, if your active defenses fell through, you were probably going to take more than 50 damage. We had to resurrect Polly once, Bleu once and Logan was already Unkillable, but was reduced to recovering in his bag for a week once.

Kal kept trying to invite other players to the game who often lacked a lot of context for why we were still soldiering on with this game. Mostly, they seemed to struggle to find a place in the game or a place for the game in their schedule and drifted on. Sometimes the pacing struggled in terms of getting anything meaningful done in a 2 hour session, which I think was a shared issue between the players and the GM. There were also some interesting shifts in tone where Dripton had been much more serious and the game got a little sillier under Kalzazz’s direction.

Looking back on what Kal did, there are things I might have done differently, like preparing more of the monsters with stat blocks and changing the grid to a hex, but all of that would likely have kept me from running the game at the cadence that allowed us to finish in 3 years time. I’m glad we finished and I owe Kal a great debt for letting me see the end of this campaign.

To be continued …

Whiterock 16 October 2023: Last blast

The murderhoboes

Garreth, half-orc swordsman
    Bleu, droning elf wizard
Zaber, suave and debonaire man
    Logan, wolverine

Polly, cute and deadly elf archer

What they did

We find a fine, balanced, Dwarven naginata big enough for the lamia, so Hasna casts to end the Sleep of Ages. Garreth does a rousing concert. The sleeping man wakes with Chauntessa is cuddling and cooing over him. Sir Pennyworth scratches out the Pentagram, and the onlookers watch the lamia coil to strike us with baited breath.

Garreth shouts, stunning Hasna for a moment, then she snaps back, so he shouts again, stunning her again. He swings for her skull, but she parries the blow. Bleu casts Great Haste on Garreth. I step to grab Hasna, but she steps away into Logan grabbing her. Polly shoots her three times , but Hasna gets away.

Hasna gets her wits back, and pulls away from Logan. She swings at Garreth, but Bleu casts Blink Other to get him away. She looks at me and says, "Hey cutie, you should be on my side," with the most nauseating bat of her eyes, and I sneer back. She swats at Polly, but she steps back. And then, Hasna poofs, and we suddenly see her near the door, and a life-draining shadow in her stead.

Garreth yells and runs at her. "I can't see what the dragon saw in your raggedy catness."

Hasna scoffs. "You know that would have hurt if I still liked you. But you're a meanie, so no! I totally would have gone backstage with you if you didn't want to kill me, if you know what I mean."

Garreth swings at her head, but misses. Polly rushes over to shoot her Hasna, but misses. The shadow tries to touch Bleu, but she Blinks away. I rush at her with my knife out, but she gets out of the way. "I'm taking the high elf out afterwards because she's hotter, a better wizard, AND more exciting than you!" 

Hasna hisses back, "You have the worst taste in women, jerk!"

Logan slams into her, though he hurts almost as much as she does afterwards. He grabs her and tries to claw her, but she slips from his paws. Hasna sneers. "A magic mustelid? Seriously?" 

Garreth waves his sword. "You see, the wolverine is a living example of the power of friendship."

Hasna laughs. "He don't seem friendly to me!"

I recover from my swing. "He's not friendly to silicone lamia."

Garreth says, "He started as a little relatively normal wolverine, but with our constant friendship and attention, he grew into the magnificent specimen you see before you. Ain't he the cutest?" He looks down at Logan, who is foaming at the mouth. "Oh, and the magic of beer. Which is what he's foaming all over you." 

Hasna makes a fake smile at Logan. "Aw, what a cutesey wootsie widdle wolverinie!" Logan sticks out his middle talon, and Hasna runs towards the door. Suddenly, a shadow dragon shows up. "Pick on something more your own size!"

Garreth chucks a chora leaf throwing knife at the dragon, and as it hits, it vanishes. Then he focus his chi as Bleu casts Itch on Hasna, but it doesn't do much. I dash towards her and give her a good slash. Logan slams into her but bounces back after hitting. Then he steps forward again and slashes her. There is a blast of fire and a scream as the lamia leaves the Prime Material Plane.

Chauntessa looks up from her mate and breathes a sigh of relief. "I am glad that you didn't blow her up her inside the inn."

I look up. "Where do we go to have fun now?"

Post mortem

That was five years of my life I'll never get back and don't want to get back, because it was fun. Alex Prewett picked up the game after David Ripton dropped it, and embraced the power escalation.

In retrospect, we should have had a fixed rate of advancement. It started at 5 CP a session and went down to 1 CP a session, but when Alex took over it went to 2 CP since 1 CP a session is a really slow rate. It went up to 3 CP a session since I wrote a log after each session. (Did you really think these were all just for your literary enjoyment?) The solution should have been a fixed 2 CP a session at the get go, with maybe a bonus for a player-written log.

I picked playing a thief in part because John in my then-face-to-face game was playing Kim, and I was trying to see how to make the choice more effective. It was about a year into the game that David revealed that he hated the Stealth at the beginning of combat trick. I was wondering why he never let me pull that off. Anyways, I kept looking for ways to be more effective. At one point I was going for the feet all the time since they don't take much damage to cripple. From a build standpoint, the thief template in DFRPG needs to have the Craftiness talent, since they have to pay attention to eight thief skills. Also, a moderately-mighty wizard can take over most of these tasks, as Seépravir showed one session when I was away. I wound up with Danger Sense in part to have a trait that the wizard couldn't mimic.

Zaber's name comes from the Roger and the Muffins (to give you an insight as to how I see the eternal acrimony in my favorite band) song "Ibiza Bar," and he quickly became just "Zaber." I figure the aunt who raised him is the one person who calls him "Ibizaber." His personality is basically a curious frat boy: drunk and stoned all the time, chasing women ("Beer makes every woman look like an elf princess!"), shunning work, poking his head into wherever he gets an inkling that it might be interesting, and pulling back from whatever it is since he's a chickenshit. I kept away from branching into spellcasting since I feel that the study of magic doesn't befit a guy who finds his way to the bar for beer and wings if he has to bear a 10 lb. backpack to a class, but that's really the endpoint for this template.

The most notable thing off-template is Logan. He started life as a little magic item that David made to give us a little more oomph, and at some point, when Alex took over, I got the idea to turn him into an Ally. For personality, I based him off Hosehead.

Alex, Kyle, and I are talking about what to do next, though we're going to take a break of a few weeks for now. Kyle and I have been chatting about setting up hex crawl sandboxes, something about which I might know a thing or two. Things have to be more approachable for non-regular players; Garreth and Zaber have so many points that it's hard for someone to just make a casual player to make a character to just drop in, and we were the only players truly invested in the campaign storyline, having been around since the beginning.

Whiterock 9 October 2023: C'mon! I like looking at those!

The murderhoboes

Garreth, half-orc swordsman
    Bleu, droning elf wizard
Zaber, suave and debonaire man
    Logan, wolverine

Polly, cute and deadly elf archer

What they did

We ask Bleu about putting Hasna in a Pentagram and making her dispel Sleep of Ages, which she says Hasna could do, but she would get to resist the Pentagram. So, we bring the flask back to Cillamar.

We go into the Slumbering Drake and I put the flask on the bar. "Hey, Chauntessa, we need to chat."

Chauntessa says, "Yes, Zaber?"

I nod. "It involves your mate."

She grabs me by the collar and drags me to a private room. "Yes, Zaber?"

I hold up the flask. "OK, here's the scoop. The caster of Sleep of Ages is a lamia trapped in this flask. To get her to dispel her spell, it takes eight hours and losing the geas after an hour. Even if we somehow trap her in a Pentagram for eight hours to dispel the spell, and we might not be able to stuff her back inside."

Chauntessa sighs then growls, "Why does that matter? Who cares about the lamia if she frees my mate?" She clutches my shoulder and looks at me angrily.

My eyes widen at her unexpected aggression. "She has a Shadow Jump ability that lets her poof easily once the Pentagram is broken. She'll go somewhere and cause havoc, probably killing innocent people."

Chauntessa scoffs. "Fine, fine, I hire people to track her down and kill her afterwards. I still have some of my horde left."

Garreth, Bleu, and Logan come in the room, having followed us back. Garreth steps between Chauntessa and me, and I smooth my mail, making one step towards Bleu. He turns towards Chauntessa. "We're essentially going to have to make her cast this by choice. We're going to get it done, we want advice on how to best get it done. Do you have a good lead on how to get that done? We just need leverage to make sure we get everything we need done."

I pipe up. "If we somehow send her back to Whiterock, Scithia and her can fight things … what?"

Chauntessa sighs. "Oh, yes, fine, have Scithia kill her." She turns back towards Garreth. "I suppose we can leave her in a Pentagram until she awakens my love or starves?"

Garreth asks, "So, m'lady, can you cast Pentagram?"

Chauntessa nods. "I can cast Pentagram. Do you think that would help?"

I nod back. "Very much so. We should put the town on high alert, though if she gets out, she'll teleport somewhere else. We ready? I just want to have a good offer for her to cast the spell to have less fuss."

Garreth drinks a cup of whiskey like it's water. "We'd want the Pentagram to enclose the party, the sleeper and leave room for the lamia." Then he sits down to meditate while Chauntessa works. I sit next to Bleu and Polly, who has joined us, and smoke some incense.

Chauntessa casts the spell and is worn out, but recovers in an hour or so. "Well, let's get her out and put her to work."

Garreth gets up, and I step into the Pentagram, pull out the flask, and say, "By Almighty Benthos!"

Garreth smiles a wide, fake smile as Hasna shows up. "Hey there, did you miss us? We've got a proposal for you. And you're going to take it."

Hasna looks around her and scowls. "A Pentagram? No way! I'd rather die."

Garreth downs another whiskey. "That can be arranged."

Hasna sneers at Garreth. "You guys are being big meanies like Benthos! I'd rather die than be imprisoned again." 

I shake my head. "Chauntessa? She's too annoying. You can take her out.m There's no way she can pull this off anyways. Sorry."

Chauntessa clutches her fist. "Not until she frees my mate."

Hasna says, "I can! But you're not tricking me into doing it surrounded by a Pentagram." She looks around, seeing everyone around her, then shrugs. "Fine! Explain your deal."

Garreth says, "Step one, you undo the Sleep of Ages spell. Step two, we sing for you. Step three will be determined based on how steps one and two go. I promise you a live concert put on just for you if the spell is removed."

I sigh again. "Chauntessa, all she can do is whine for eight hours straight! It's an Anakin Skywalker-like feat, but doesn't come with cool armor."

Hasna sneers at me. "Kill me or give me a chance to get free. I am not casting the spell trapped in a Pentagram."

I eat a big barbecued rib outside the Pentagram. "Suit yourself! We can leave this Pentagram up forever. Chauntessa has been waiting for centuries. A few more weeks until you starve won't matter much."

Hasna hisses, "I guess I just starve, then."

I munch on the rib. "Suit yourself. It's not like you have any chance of getting this done anyways."

Hasna glares at Zaber. "Can too!"

Garreth says, "Starving to death is no chance at freedom. So long as you live, there's hope." Then he  clamps his jaws shut.

I put my arm around a bewildered Bleu. "If it wasn't your spell, I'd ask the high elf to do it. She'd get it done and is way, way hotter. You just can't do it."

Garreth shrugs. "I suppose she's just afraid of revealing her failure. She's nothing without Benthos."

I laugh. "Heck, she's less than Silhouette." I look at Bleu. "So, Bleu, babe, how long would it take for a silicone lamia to starve?" Bleu calculates this out in precise detail, and asks me to measure the lamia. I sigh and shake my head. "Bleu, she's big and totally not hot. Plus the silicone doesn't count."

Garreth says, "Actually, by casting the spell you gain a measure of freedom. Right now, the flask binds your will. Freeing your will is the first step."

Hasna says, "If I start casting the spell I can't stop without ruining any leverage I have. So I need to make a deal first, before I start casting."

I take a drink. "Why deal? You can't do it."

Garreth shrugs. "Agree to cast the spell and I'll vow that we won't use the flask on you again."

Hasna says, "So just going to kill me? I'd rather die without casting the spell to spite you meanies."

Garreth says, "You might win if we decide to kill you with free will or you might escape. Or you might convince us that you've got something to offer the world."

Hasna says, "Not if I'm stuck in a Pentagram."

I lean forward. "What would you want, anyways? I don't have a list of things I could offer a bumbling lamia with silicone sisters. They don't write that list up for public consumption."

Hasna says, "Well, I really wanted a night on the town and a concert and then to be free to go my own way. And these are all natural!"

I ask, "Who takes you out for that night?"

Hasna says, "Surely there are some cute guys who aren't utter jerks?"

I shrug. "Garreth is pretty darn cute."

Hasna says, "I haven't seen him without his helmet, but he is being such a jerk."

I tilt my head and look. "You might be interesting. I mean, I could swear off elves for a night …"

Hasna pipes up, "I am so hotter than an elf! I mean, meow!"

I ask, "When you say leave, where will you go? I mean, you might be the best date I'll have
And I'll have to look you up. I mean, if you're like a great date and all."

Hasna says, "The desert, totally!"

Polly says, "Maybe she could get a date with Flitwick."

Hasna asks, "Is Flitwick cute?"

I shake my head. "Flitwick isn't into sexy lamia. He's into camels."

Hasna winces, "Ewww! What a loser!"

Garreth says, "You're going to have to cast the spell inside the Pentagram regardless. We need to know it's done before we can risk your escape. Is that understood?"

Hasna says, "Fine, fine, I'll cast it inside the Pentagram. But you and the dragon have to agree I get to go after." She looks at Chauntessa. "Well, I assume she is a dragon, maybe she is just a really kinky elf."

Garreth says, "I agree to let you leave the Pentagram and perform at a concert in your honor once the spell is undone."

I lean up. "Oh, and a good meal at the Slumbering Drake. No sapients!"

Garreth says, "After that, it's catch as catch can? Sound at least interesting? If I kill you, you'll die a free lamia."

Hasna says, "Well. At least give me my stuff back first, but alright, I can agree to a fair chase."

Garreth holds up the bra. "The bra I can agree to. I was looking forward to learning the naginata."

I jerk upwards. "C'mon! I like looking at those!"

Hasna sighs. "Well, give me some decent weapon at least. You want it to be sporting."

Garreth says, "Sure. We'll get you a tricked out mundane one. Best I can commission on this short notice from the best craftsman in the region."

Hasna nods her head, "Fine, alright."

I wink at her. "You're on. And they're fabulous, way too nice to be fake."

Garreth nods. "Done."