Dramatis personae
Xorin, fox-man
Kim, thief
Mayhem, barbarian
Ash, squire
Caleb, wizard
Villûdē, guide (NPC)
Kôštē, cleric (NPC)
Quid occurrit
And, they were off. Xórin let out a roar, which fazed nobody. The goons in the fore kept rushing forward, and Kim shot one of them, a man with a bulbous nose. He tried to block her shot, but the strap on his shield broke and it went flying, and the arrow went into his side. Mayhem rushed forward and swung wildly at another bandit, this one with a flat nose. He missed.
The foe’s bowmen took their shots. One had a clean shot to Caleb, but he dodged it. The other shot Xórin, but was nowhere near. Ash stepped up and missed the middle warrior, a man with a nose ring, but this didn’t bother him. Villûdē and Kôštē ran to the horses, and Caleb lobbed a Fireball at the goon with the bulbous nose, but the goon dodged it.
Xórin yelled again, and rushed towards the bowmen. Mr. Flat Nose smacked Mayhem, cutting him and making him mad. Kim dropped her bow and pulled out her sword, while Mayhem swung wildly at the flat-nosed bandit, but on his anger, got nowhere. Ash’s sword went into the shield of the bandit with the nose ring, and Caleb cast another Fireball.
At last, Xórin made it to the bowmen, who were standing dumb. Xórin swung his swords at one of the bowmen, a man with bloodshot eyes, and took him down. The flat-nosed bandit hit Mayhem again, but the one with the nose ring swung his sword into Ash’s shield. Mr. Big Nose rushed up to Caleb and took him down. Kim tried to stab him back, but her sword didn’t get through his armor. Mayhem got a flawless swing into the side of the flat-nosed goon, and took him down. Mayhem snapped out of his anger, and watched Ash’s strikes miss or go into the shield of the bandit with the nose ring. Kôštē dropped the reins and rushed to Caleb.
Xórin made three swings at the other bowman, a man with tattooed arms, and took him down. The goon with the nose ring got a good blow on Ash, but it fell flat on his breastplate. The bandit with the bulbous nose took Kim down to the ground, and she tried to kick his crotch from the ground, but missed. Mayhem rushed to take the heat off Kim, while Kôštē cast Major Healing on Caleb, waking him.
Xórin rushed back to the goon with the nose ring, yelling, while that goon again put his sword into Ash’s body, doing nothing to him. The big-nosed goon’s blow hit the haft of Mayhem’s axe, and Kim sat up. Mayhem smashed Jimmy Durante, though he kept in the fight, and Ash lost his sword on the parry of the goon with the nose ring. Kôštē cast Major Healing on Kim, and Xórin took out the goon with the nose ring from behind. Mayhem parried the big-nosed goon, whose shield blocked Kim’s stab, but Mayhem’s hit took him down.
After the battle, the heroes found 55 copper farthings, 133 silver pennies, 4 gold pieces, and a silver bracelet with a black obsidian in the middle on the bandits. They stripped the bowman with the tattooed forearms, Mayhem bound his limbs, and Kôštē bound his wounds and roused him with a Minor Healing.
Ash put his sword to the bandit’s neck. The interrogation went like this:
Xórin: “Where are you from?”
Tattooed goon: “From the woods, bastard.”
Xórin put his sword to the bowman’s neck, and pressed the tip inward. “Now, who sent you?”
Tattooed goon, now much more willing to talk: “We pass off our loot to our boss, who sometimes comes out to the woods.”
Xórin: “Who is he?”
Tattooed goon: “He’s a rich nobleman. His name is Nokîtōr. He lives in Ōndrûnks.”
The heroes cut him loose, and threw the bodies of his fellows into a shallow grave.
As it happened, they heroes were a short walk from Ōndrûnks. They went to the Magog tavern, where Bîs the barkeep, a woman who looked like a pirate wench, said, “I can’t believe you guys keep showing up.” She did breathe a sigh of relief when finding out the heroes weren’t going back to Dībités Rock that time.
They tried to listen to the banter there, but most of it was about a fox-man who had just walked into the bar. While sitting at the bar, a dwarf woman who was missing a fore tooth offered to sell Xórin a cloth scroll of Charm. After taking a finder’s fee of 20 copper, he went to get Caleb, from whom he got a finder’s fee of 30 copper. Caleb bought the scroll for 220 copper, as the dwarf woman was happy to sell it. Kôštē cast Watchdog at the end of the evening and everyone went to bed, but oddly, nobody tried to steal from the gang. Maybe the fox guy scared them.
The next day, they went south, and met Gossūnús, a tall gnome with a grey and a blue eye who was looking to get into a fight with Nokîtōr’s men. Alas, they were going the wrong way, and let him go. They set up camp that night with the swamp in sight.
Res aliae
First session of GURPS in a month, helped greatly by John printing the combat cards. (Roman ran D&D Midnight two weeks ago since I was knee-deep in projects for grad school.) John and Roman suddenly understood a whole bunch of combat options for GURPS. Now to see if they can better grasp the benefits of striking hit locations.
We were late getting started since I forgot to grab the character sheets, and had to turn back after walking a few blocks to go get them. Then we had to deal with Chris’s meal time.
