Dramatis personae
Anêr, a swashbuckler (John, running for Eric)
Yémos, a cleric (John, running for Eric)
Kim, a thief (John)
Mayhem, a barbarian (Chris)
Caleb, a wizard (Chris)
NPCs
Likháfrikh, a dwarf engineer
Kúflaug, an orc miner
Quid occurrit
Back to the fight.
Anêr took a stab at the face of the hobgoblin with a bulbous nose, but the hobgoblin parried. Then Kúflaug took a step and swung at the other hobgoblin with a halberd, with plates in his earlobes, but missed, as is his wont. Mayhem, still on the ground, grabbed the leg of the hobgoblin with plates in his earlobes, who tried to swat him away with his halberd, but could not. Likháfrikh stepped next to Anêr and swung his axe at the bulbous-nosed hobgoblin, who got out of the way.
The two hobgoblin bowmen nocked arrows, while the hobgoblin with a little man on his leg changed the grip on his halberd. The big-nosed hobgoblin stepped back and took a swing at Likháfrikh, who got out of the way.
Yémos stepped over and cast a Major Healing spell on Caleb, whose eyes fluttered open to hear Yémos whisper, "Whammy." Caleb rolled onto his butt and looked up the stairs, wondering which hobgoblin to zap with a spell. At the top of the stairs, Anêr again missed the big nose on the hobgoblin. However, Kúflaug at last hit the hobgoblin with the plates in his earlobes, and when he fell to the ground, Mayhem wrenched the hobgoblin's leg. Likháfrikh took a step toward the big-nosed hobgoblin, who couldn't parry the blow, and fell down.
The big-nosed hobgoblin sat up and looked, while the one with a Mayhem on his legs tried to stop being a hobgoblin with a Mayhem on his leg, but couldn't get him off. Yémos stepped back to Kim and cast a Minor Healing on her, but she still lay still. Caleb cast a Fireball, still looking up the stairs for a target. Anêr, however, took out the target at his feet with a stab, while Kúflaug did the same to the one at his feet. Mayhem grabbed his axe, and Likháfrikh rushed towards the scrawny hobgoblin bowman in the corner, and whacked him with his axe. The two hobgoblin bowmen saw how the score had changed, and pulled away. Mayhem came to his senses, and Yémos healed some of his wounds.
The gang chose to get out, with Kim still knocked out. They made it up the stairs, with Kúflaug bearing Kim over his shoulder. At the top of the stairs, they heard a man's voice down the hall call out, "Hey, who goes there?" There was a soft light a ways away.
Mayhem yelled back, "Who you?"
The man said, "We are with the tribe."
Anêr boldly said, "I am Anêr the swordsman!"
The man said back, "I do not know you in our tribe. We shall beat you!"
Anêr, however, had a plan that wasn't as dumb as his statement. As the hidden door to the room with the statue and the pillars was but around the corner, he hid Yémos's light, and everyone moved around the corner and opened the door. The light came nearer, and Anêr yelled, "Go down the stairs!" before shutting the door with everyone in the hall. The gang heard the footsteps go around the corner and down the stairs.
In the narrow hall leading to the big chamber, everyone rested 45 minutes until Yémos's strength came back. Once back, he healed Kim again, and she stood up. Caleb held back from the yen to look at the flaming statue again, and then, everyone went back to camp.
Back at camp, they told Péllē the slaver about the flaming statue, and she said, "Well, there's some odd stuff down there. Was it made of copper?" Caleb thought it was made of some kind of metal, while Likháfrikh shrugged. Everyone spent the rest of the day and the next doing light work and looking over the slaves.
Scio neminem ex uobis hoc legere posse, ergo aliquid scribo iocosum
I gave out 10 character points for the last four sessions together, as I hadn't given any for some time.
I'll fess up: I thought about going easy on them with the hobgoblins to keep away a total party kill, but I chose to keep the hobgoblins fighting. (My plan to wuss out was to have the bowmen withdraw to get help.) I'm glad I didn't go easy on them, and, lucky for them, the dice went their way this time, and they rolled well for the NPCs, too. (The players pick most of what the NPCs do in a fight.) Then again, they had been making critical miss after critical miss the last time we played, and the hobgoblins no longer had the boon of surprise. (And the bowmen had to reload.)
Paying more heed to the lighting and the other little bits and bobs has made for a better dungeon crawl. The lighting played well with the tribesmen. Neither group was near enough to the other that it knew anything about the other because the edge of the lights didn't get near. Thus, the players chose the trick of ducking behind the hidden door (to 27A, for those playing at home) after the two groups parleyed for a few seconds.
One thing that keeps getting to me is I never can recall wrestling rules, and they came into play today. I should do a mock combat or three to make myself learn them better.
We broke off early. The buses held up Chris so we were late starting, and John was half-asleep the whole game so he couldn't go much longer.
No comments:
Post a Comment