Game log for 13 March 2016

Dramatis personae

Anêr, swashbuckler
Mayhem, barbarian
Caleb, wizard
Yémos, cleric

Quid occurit

After Kim's death, the rest of the gang slept through the night, then left the dungeon.

However, as they were almost to the tunnel out, they ran into five little children with bulging eyes and bloated heads, all bearing knives. The little doomchildren rushed at the heroes, and the heroes fought back. Nobody's blows struck true until Caleb shot one with a Sunbolt, and that little bugger blew up. Caleb, Mayhem, and the horse all took some of the blast. Everyone got up from the ground, then started fighting again, though Anêr tried grabbing at the leg of one of them instead, which he could not do. When they got up, another doomchild stabbed Anêr, who was still on the ground. Caleb, thinking that his spell made the first doomchild blow up, stepped forward and stabbed one, and …

Chain reaction. When the heroes looked up, they saw only the burnt husks of the doomchildren and their knives, which they took. They healed each other and their horse, then took off down the tunnel out. In the tunnel, they fought off six centipedes as big as men, killing four before the others ran off.
When they got out of the tunnel, they walked out to see a lovely sunny morning. They headed out of the woods, and after two days of no bother, they spent the night in Lúrās, in the home of Dergíā, a middle-aged widow with deep-set eyes. After breakfast the next morning, they walked towards Mīstássun, where maybe someone could resurrect Kim.

On the road, about midday, they saw some folks in the bushes along the side of the road, and both Mayhem and Caleb ducked away from their hail of arrows. Mayhem and Anêr rushed to fight the goons who came out, Caleb started casting an Explosive Fireball, and Yémos got his bow ready. Caleb singed three of the bandits before one bandit each shield rushed Mayhem and Anêr.

Anêr stabbed the bandit who had rushed him, and with a twitch of his sword, he gave him a good slash that the bandit could not block. The bandits then struck, and all either missed outright, saw their blows parried, or only hit armor. However, they did step aside so their bowmen could shoot Mayhem and Anêr, who took their arrows in their chests. Mayhem then killed the goon afore him with his axe, and Caleb lobbed a Fireball at one of the goons, who got out of the way.

Anêr stood fast, and both he and Mayhem parried the blows of two of the goons. The other four turned and fled. Mayhem knocked down one of the two goons left, while Yémos missed both him and Mayhem with a bow shot. Anêr gave a quick feint and a stab at the heart of the last one. Afterwards, the gang ransacked the bodies and found 201 copper farthings, 201 silver pennies, and 14 gold pieces. Yémos bound the wounds of the two goons who still breathed, and they went on to Mīstássun.

Once in Mīstássun, they went to the church of Saundīvós, where the midsummer Festival of Light was wrapping up. The guards went to fetch Bašêr, the high priest, while the heroes ate the last of the cheese with caraway seeds and crescent rolls with bacon and onions. Bašêr came and seemed glum, but after a two-hour ceremony with as many lay worshippers as he could find, he brought Kim back to life.

Since the heroes didn't have anywhere near the 6,000 copper farthings, Bašêr instead told them of a quest. As Bašêr wanted to make a bigger church but couldn't get the money for it from the main church in Gōkêsun, he thought having a holy relic would raise the worth of the church in Mīsarkênē. So, he told them of the Boots of Saint Hubbins, the patron saint of quality footwear, which were in the swamp.

That night, they went back to the Pantry, where there was only four folks. Arrūnús told them that the Princess of Gold, a bard from Kešūmménē, was in town, playing the town's taverns. Tonight she was at Wild Cats, a tavern in the Smelters Ward, so that is where the crowd was. One of the four folks in the Pantry was Ash, a young man who was well-armed and looking to link up with a group of heroes.

Meanwhile, the next day, Caleb went to the sage Prainêr, and looked through his books for anything about Saint Hubbins. He found that Saint Hubbins's last battle was against a big—like 100 ft. long big—snake with an eye on an eyestalk.

Res aliae

As bad as all the random encounter rolls were last session, this time they were good. Little happened. They made it back to town with few hitches, and they got a quest in the swamp.

The battle with the bandits was a random encounter, which took the place of the idea I had of running a mock battle so the players could try combat tricks without any problems. The bandits were weak enough, so John started trying things like Feints and Hit Locations. I don't think he'll have trouble remembering All-Out Defense as well. The more they remember this stuff, the more I can remember other things.

Game log for 28 February 2016

Dramatis personae:

Anêr, swashbuckler
Mayhem, short barbarian
Yémos, cleric
Caleb, wizard
Kim, thief

cum

Kúflaug, orc

Quid occurrit:

Yémos cast Watchdog near the door between the rooms, and the gang started healing themselves. Kim and Yémos checked out the altar, and Kim got the idea that it was giving off bad vibes and making folks hate each other.

They dined on frog, but after many hours, the door opened, and Watchdog went off. A gaggle of orcs came through, and one saw Kúflaug, and screamed, "Free the slave!" Yémos unlocked Kúflaug's slave collar, which made the orcs stop for a second. The orc yelled again, "Let him come with us and join the Biting Tooth Band."

Yémos asked Kúflaug what he thought, and Kúflaug sighed. "I will look for you wherever there are dead bodies." Yémos said Kúflaug was welcome back any time, and gave him the collar and key. The lead orc asked the gang if they were with the dwarves, and they told them of the dwarves's strike on them. Then, Kúflaug and the Biting Tooth Band went to look for the dwarves.

Then they went down the hall. First door on their right had a smell behind it, but it wasn't locked. When they opened the door, they saw the piles of rusted armor and the five holes carved into the seats in the back. It was an old latrine, and the orcs had used it before coming into the room. Kim saw a door on the left wall, and went through it. In there, she saw old workbenches and a man-sized box with two holes in it: one at eye-level, one at waist-level. She put some bones into the hole at the top and it did nothing. The heroes then left the latrine and the workshop.

They walked around a bend in the hallway, and saw that the floor was going down. Right after the bend, they saw a cabinet. Caleb smelled something odd about it, almost chlorine, and Kim wrapped a rope around a handle and Mayhem pulled open the cabinet. This was a good idea; a box at the top of the cabinet squirted acid about where a man's head would be. Inside the cabinet, there were 80 copper farthings and 10 silver pennies.

After this, they went down the hallway, and Kim sprinkled the dust of skeletons on the floor to show if anyone will have trod on it the next time they checked. They took a turn to the left, and walked up some stairs. At the top was another workshop that overlooked the stairs, and a hallway. On the left, right past the workshop, was a door. They opened it, and saw the bodies of four men and women, all clad in robes—dead wizards. The heroes searched the bodies, and found a brindled deacon blue potion. Caleb tasted it, and found it was a potion of Major Healing.

As they searched the bodies, Anêr's sword started to vibrate. There was a ghostly sphere on the wall behind a latrine seat, through which one could see the wall. Yémos looked through it, and saw the wall behind the sphere flicker, and that there was a box behind the wall. He prodded the box with one of the wizards' staves, and saw the box budge. He stood over the toilet and reached into the sphere and took the box. In the box was 100 copper farthings, 25 silver pennies, and 4 gold pieces.

They didn't have much time to enjoy their loot because a dwarf with oily hair and rotting skin stood in the doorway of the bathroom. He said nothing, but lifted his mace and struck. Kim parried his blow, and Anêr came to stab the dwarf. His sword made it past the dwarf's defenses, but the dwarf didn't seem to feel hurt from his blow. Kim and Mayhem tried striking, but missed, and Yémos cast Shield on Anêr.

Caleb started casting Sunbolt, while the dwarf stepped back, dropped his mace, and his hand glowed. Anêr tried to stab the dwarf in the face. The dwarf dodged, but his hand stopped glowing. Kim stabbed him, and hit, but her blow didn't hurt the dwarf. Yémos drew his bow, while Caleb let his Sunbolt fly; it hit the rim of the dwarf's shield.

The dwarf crouched, and reached for his mace. Anêr tried stabbing the dwarf's face again, but the dwarf caught his sword on the rim of his shield again. Kim also tried stabbing the dwarf; he dodged. Mayhem, however, landed a blow on the dwarf. He felt it go into the dwarf's rotting flesh, but no blood came out. Yémos loaded an arrow and aimed, while Caleb started casting another Sunbolt.

The dwarf grabbed his mace and stood. Both Anêr and Kim again tried stabbing the dwarf, but he dodged. Mayhem's axe flew behind the dwarf as he tried to hit him. Both Yémos and Caleb shot the dwarf, but Yémos's arrow hit the dwarf's shield and the dwarf got out of the way of Caleb's Sunbolt. The dwarf then turned and ran down the stairs. Caleb cast an Explosive Fireball and got off a last shot, but it didn't hurt the dwarf.

With that, they checked out the area nearby. They didn't bother to go up the stairs, but instead looked at the slot on the floor on the left side of the hall. It had a rounded bottom, and there was a stone ball, about as big as a man's fist, with one hole in it. The slot went into a hole in the wall but a bit bigger than the ball. Kim pushed the ball into the hole; it did not come out. Afterwards, she took some tinder from the wreckage of some bunk beds at the other end of the hall.

They made camp for the night, and pushed the dead bodies out of the room. Yémos cast Watchdog, and they went to sleep, taking watch. On Kim's watch, the door opened: it was the dwarf wraith again. She roused everyone, and the dwarf stepped into the room and smashed Kim's chest. She staggered back in pain, while everyone started to stand up. The wraith stepped forward again and smashed Kim's chest, and she slumped to the ground. Everyone else made it to his feet, and Anêr and Mayhem drew their weapons. The wraith rushed to strike Caleb, but he missed. Anêr tried stabbing the dwarf's face but missed, while Mayhem's blow on the wraith knocked it hard, making it drop its mace. The wraith turned to go, and Caleb's fireball missed.

The heroes went to see if Kim needed healing, but they found she was beyond healing.

Res aliae

Obviously, we discussed what would happen with Kim, and at this point, they plan on bringing her body back to town to see if someone could resurrect her. I told them the cost would be $6,000, which didn't seem too high at all, but they didn't have the money. It would likely cost a quest. John would play a new character while Kim rested, if the roll to resurrect her worked.

On my way home, I realized that in my worry about what tactics the wraith would use, I didn't tell John to use an All-Out Defense. Big whoops, since John is still a bit new to GURPS. I'm not sure how much it would have helped, as I don't remember what John rolled to defend.

The reaction for the orcs suggested an immediate strike—I rolled a 3, which went down to 0 after the penalty for the altar—but I re-rolled after Yémos unlocked Kúflaug's collar. The new roll was a 7, which was enough since combat hadn't started. I already had rolled Kúflaug's loyalty before the session and it failed, but I knew Kúflaug wouldn't let the orcs kill the heroes.

I wasn't happy about killing Kim, but at some point, somebody had to die. Overriding the dice would have been worse for the game than fudging things to let her live. I like the ongoing story, and like having characters flee, but no reward is worth it without risk. John was disappointed, however.