Game log 24 January 2021: Eyeing hippogriffs with bad intent

Dramatis personae

Poklov, crime-fighting dwarf
Angelista, undead-slayer
Felcanis, elven cleric

Quid occurrit

The gang goes back to its old camp. After two hours, Šanzbašar wakes up, still bound blindfolded and gagged. He struggles a bit and calls out, albeit gagged. However, he gives up after a few minutes. 

That night, Angelista is on watch when she sees a big figure flying from the northwest. She awakes the others, and it swoops towards the camp. There, they see it is a winged horse with the head and claws of an eagle: a hippogriff. Angelista hurls a javelin into its belly as it comes down, seeing the plump, tasty shape of Bill the mule.

Angelista grabs another javelin, while Poklov shoots his crossbow, but misses. Bill moves away, while Felcanis holds her ground. Šanzbašar lets out a muffled cry from inside the tent. Angelista hisses at him, "If you value your life, shut up and sit still!" The hippogriff, with bad intent, claws the side of the tent.

Angelista steps and lets her javelin loose from behind the hippogriff, but it stays up. Poklov drops his crossbow and pulls out an axe, which he smashes into the hippogriff. The hippogriff passes out from the shock.

Angelista pulls out a khopesh to help Poklov chop up the hippogriff into hippogriff steaks, but no sooner does she do so than she hears another muffled cry from inside the tent, like Charlie Brown's teacher gone berserk. She turns, and Šanzbašar, now standing and out of his rope bindings, rushes towards her. His slam doesn't jar her as he is still in shackles, and Poklov puts his boot in Šanzbašar's face, again knocking him out. Poklov then hog ties him.

Now with Šanzbašar once again out, the gang again starts chopping up the hippogriff, taking its pelt, feathers, and meat. Poklov gets the skull pelt to put atop his helmet once preserved.

The next day, they wake up, and have a breakfast of hippogriff. They set forth to get out of the swamp, and about midday, they see someone coming towards them from the northwest. As he comes nearer, they see he looks just like Šanzbašar, who is still knocked out and burdening Bill.

The heroes grab their weapons. Angelista hurls a javelin, but misses. Poklov gets off a shot with his crossbow, hitting the other Šanzbašar, but this doesn't stop him from coming nearer. He tries to bash Angelista with his shield, but she sees him shamble oddly and steps out of the way. She realizes that this Šanzbašar isn't alive.

Angelista draws the sword she got from the living Šanzbašar, and swings at the dead one's arm. However, he parries. Poklov likewise draws an axe, and likewise cannot land a blow. Dead Šanzbašar swings his sword at Angelista, and gives her a nasty gash on her chest, though she stays up.

Through her pain, Angelista strikes back, but again, dead Šanzbašar parries her blow. Poklov steps behind dead Šanzbašar and puts his axe into his skull, which cleaves it open. Felcanis, glad to not have been in combat, heals Angelista.

Res aliae

4 CP. Base of 1, disads played so 1, plus 2 for all the value of the parts of the hippogriff. No real exploration

Game log for 18 January 2015

Dramatis personae

Anêr, a swashbuckler who shares a name with an NPC bargeman

Yémos, a cleric of Dōsaútōr, goddess of wisdom and magic

Mayhem, a barbarian who is vertically challenged

Caleb, a wizard of the Order of the Sun

Quid occurrit

Anêr the bearded man set them forth on a fair spring day. He had four mules, which dragged the barge on the left side of the river. He steered and his two orc slaves pushed with poles from the barge. He knew of a few ideal camping sites, and wanted to reach them.

They passed by the village of Órkōn Wall. After this, they ran into ten soldiers wearing khaki tabards over their armor. They were leading an orc in chains towards Órkōn Wall and Rēlaístis. Yémos looked to Anêr the bargeman, and Anêr chuckled. The orc slaves cringed.

Yémos asked the soldiers what they are doing, and they told him, “We think he’s the leader of a slave insurrection. The others are all dead.” Both went on their merry way.

That evening, a man in mail and a shield showed up, and watched them from afar. Yémos asked Anêr the bargeman about him, and Anêr scoffed. “We’ve seen him before. We’re armed. He won’t do anything. Just ignore him.”

That evening, there is a light rain. The night passed with no issue.

21 Blôs went without issue. It again was a fair day with a light rain in the evening. In the middle of the night, a rainstorm hit, making the banks of the river muddy.

On the morning of 22 Blôs, the group spotted a hippogriff flying low. Anêr the bargeman says, “Oh shit! If it gets one of the mules, it’s coming out of your pay!” The hippogriff dove to claw the mule, then flew around for another pass as Yémos and Mayhem miss with their bows while Caleb misses with Sunbolt. It came around, and right after it got another swipe at the panicking mule, Yémos hit it with an arrow, then Caleb felled it with Sunbolt. Yémos healed the mule after Anêr the bargeman calmed her.

They made it to the landing of the river, and passed the night there after dining on hippogriff. The morning of the 23rd, Anêr the bargeman loaded the mules and the orcs with the grain, and they trekked until they came in sight of the mining camp. Once there, ogres took the grain, and other ogres went back to the barge to get the rest.

Pellê, the head slaver, greeted them. Thickset and craggy-mugged, she lisped as she gleefully met the new, strong men who came, especially Anêr the swordsman. A burly woman brought cinnamon buns and cookies to the newcomers while overseers passed out grain to the humanoid camps: orcs, goblins, kobolds, and ogres. Many chickens ran free in the sunny weather.

The next morning was also sunny. Pellê gave the heroes two orc slaves: Kuflaug, who had a big ring in his septum, Gaddurub, who had wet hair.

Kuflaug and Gaddurub led the gang into the mines. They walked past some miners, then a flock of bats flew into their hair before Caleb blasted them. After a few twists and turns, they came to a fork where the body of a man had started to crystalize. Some more bats flew out, and Kuflaug called the body a “landmark.”

After winding down a bit farther, they find another dead body, this one of a kobold. His lips still bore his last grin, and there was a big wound from a spear or a pick in his chest. As they were looking at the body, the baker and a kobold slave came from behind them, and offered breadstuffs. The kobold slave cringed upon seeing the body, which was only a few weeks or so old. The baker and her slave then left.

After going through a room with a small patch of small bell-shaped mushrooms, glowing emerald green that Kuflaug said they were edible, another passage came from above and back. This one was smaller, more kobold size. There is a mound of dirt against the wall opposite the passage, clearly from the surface. The dirt was not new. They marked the room and went back after Mayhem heard hubbub up the small tunnel.

Trivia

The gang wants a kobold slave for traps and small tunnels. No word if they’re going to put a red shirt on him.

I have an adventure I want to run in the mines: Caverns of Thracia. I’m adapting it to GURPS and my game world, which does mean no Dog Brothers. (Awww.) I’m putting it under some working mines, so I rolled up each encounter on the Location Crafter, since I have no yen to draw a bunch of mines that have lots of nooks and crannies and are mostly only dirt and slaves. I need to learn to use this thing better to get my three dollars worth.

I gave out three character points for the session before and two for this one.

Alia

I’m working on a few blog posts. One might wind up at the GURPS Repository, since it’s D&D dragon converted to GURPS. Right now, this is an Excel spreadsheet of the evil dragons, since there are loads of tables. Another has to do with dynamic lairs and lair detail in general. I might move that to April and make a series of lairs for the April blogging challenge. No, not A-to-Z monsters, but 26 from the original Monster Manual that I’ll convert to GURPS (or use existing GURPS stats), and write up a lair with notes for both D&D and GURPS.