Game log 17 July 2022: Who are you?

Personae dramatis

Tulip, elf bard
Grignok, orc druid
Felcanis, elf cleric
Honsou, larcenous bowman

Quid occurrit

They search the old bedroom, but find nothing. Felcanis casts Stop Bleeding on Mēnévē, Grignok, and herself, then Grignok turns Mēnévē into a tree with Plant Form Other and heals her with Heal Plant. "Piddy iddin hep wid my doze," says Mēnévē. They hole up there and rest for 10 hours, with Grignok casting Mystic Mist and Felcanis casting Watchdog. Grignok also turns Felcanis into a tree with Plant Form Other, casts Heal Plant to heal her, then turns her back so she can cast Major Healing on Grignok and Minor Healing on Honsou.

They go back to the hallway, and wind their way to the stairs up a level. From there, they walk past the stairs and the stub of the rope pointing upwards, through the door, past a broken holy symbol of Saundīvós, to the edge of the water. Honsou pulls out some rope and Grignok casts Body of Slime on himself and goes into the water, pulling the rope behind him. He goes into the flooded room to his right and sees the hole. In the hole, he finds a jar, which he takes and brings back to the others. They open it and find a bunch of coins.

Grignok goes back into the water. He goes farther inward then sees a hallway going left, which he takes. After a short jaunt through an empty room and some twists, he makes it into the big cavern, and sees a landing to his left. On the landing is a slim man in leather armor, with a broadsword at his side. The man peers at Grignok's slimy body. "What are you?"

Grignok asks him, "Who are you?"

The man sizes up Grignok. "My name is unimportant." Grignok puffs out his chest and asks why is whatever he his important. "You have no weapon. I've seen so many creatures of the water down here, but I've never seen one like you. Quit wasting my time and go away."

The man says nothing more although Grignok keeps trying to chat him up. So Grignok casts Lightning and slaps him in the back. This shocks him and makes him fall. Grignok tries to grab his sword but cannot, so the man jumps up. Grignok grabs him, and he wiggles away, "Go away, slimy cheater!"
Grignok gets a better grip. "I just wanted to talk! You had to be mean, like all the others. Now we're gonna hug it out."

The man cannot get out of his grasp. "What do you want to talk about, monster?"
Grignok asks, "What's your name?"

The man thinks, then shakes his head. "I don't remember anymore. It has been too long." Grignok asks why he's there, and he says, "To kill fight the best and kill cheaters." He asks Grignok to let him go, and instead Grignok squeezes tighter, cracking his ribs, and the man passes out. Grignok grabs his sword, and it burns his body.

After about five minutes since the last time everyone saw him, Grignok comes back, holding a sword. Grignok tosses the sword down. "Look what I found." Felcanis picks up the sword. It doesn't hurt her, and she puts it on the mule. 

Grignok casts Heal Plant on himself. After this, he rests for awhile, then casts Body of Slime again to go back in the water to check out the last bend past the first two happways. He takes the bend going right, then swims a little farther into a room. In there are two bunk beds nailed to the floor, made of a crude iron for some reason, thus rusting. He goes out, and goes right around the corner, which itself is a small room. There he sees old racks for scrolls in that bend, but doesn't check them out.

After turning right, he goes towards the room at the end of the hall, and sees some movement straight ahead. He sees there are two giant piranhas, but they swim past him since he's a plant. He gives a piranha a pat, and the piranha wiggles past the pond scum touching it. He goes into the room and checks out a marble pillar there. The piranhas swim in their room, waiting for more flesh.

Grignok goes back to room at the corner. There is an old wardrobe, the wood oddly not rotten. He opens the wardrobe, and finds himself in a thicket outdoors, among the rotten and withered trees from the area outside the keep. He casts Mystic Mist around himself and rests up for almost an hour. Once rested, he casts Shapeshifting on himself and turns into a panther.

Felcanis grows concerned about Grignok, so she leads the group out of the dungeon. They get out, and it's about midnight. No patrols outside that they can see. After about an hour for Felcanis and the party after leaving the dungeon or 90 minutes for Grignok after teleporting out, the group and the panther run into each other. Felcanis sets up camp.

Game logs for 25 November and 9 December 2019: Wow, do ogres hurt you!

Dramatis personae

Mayhem, short barbarian
Caleb, wizard
Ash, squire
Kim, procurement expert
Xoran, fox man
Grymalkus, not quite as whiny as usual cleric
Attikos, holy warrior
Uruk, orc soldier

Quid occurrit

The heroes awoke to a chilly day. Mayhem easily led them to the ogre's lair, which was a cave in the middle of a copse of trees. The ogres made the last bit easy, as they left a trail of copper coins leading up to the hole. The ogres likely thought the last touch was clever.

Nobody thought to ask them, however, even though there were two of them out on watch. Everyone easily spotted everyone else, and the ogres came out to greet them with their mauls.

Xoran and Mayhem waited for the attack, while Kim and Uruk drew their bows. Uruk, however, dropped his quiver while trying to load two arrows. Kim’s first shot hit but didn’t do much. Uruk’s first double shot missed.

Mayhem and Ash came up to fight the ogres when they got near. One ogre parried Mayhem's axe, but Ash did hit with a shield slam. Attikos also lobbed a javelin at an ogre and hit. The ogres chose to fight Ash and Xoran and missed. The spellcasters, Grymalkus and Caleb, got busy: Grymalkus tried to cast Haste but failed, while Caleb got a big Fireball ready.

Xoran tried to hit the legs of an ogre but he defended, as did another who got out of the way of Mayhem's axe. However, Ash gave an ogre a hard blow to his body, knocking him down, while Uruk cross-checked the other ogre with his spear, knocking him down, too. Grymalkus cast Might on Attikos, while Xoran, Mayhem, and Ash went to work on cutting off heads.

No sooner had they beheaded the ogres did eight more ogres show up. One had ugly fetishes around his neck, and the other, unlike all other ogres, had a sword and shield. The sword wasn't ogre-sized, but had a hawk on the blade. The ogre with the sword mumbled something as he stepped forward.

Mayhem started digging out oil. Xoran yelled at Grymalkus, “Go to work, whelp!” then told Uruk, “Handle the horde, Grymalkus and I will take on the leader.” Attikos threw a javelin at leader, which went into his shield. Grymalkus cast Might on himself.

Uruk shot an ogre in the kidneys. The ogre leader reached Attikos, who blocked his blow. Attikos drew his sword and shouted at Grymalkus,  “If Grymalkus dies, you die raccoon-boy!” The ogre shaman told Attikos to drop his sword, but Attikos's hand stayed on it. The rest of the ogres started smacking the heroes, but hit none of them, one of the ogres even pulling his shoulder muscle trying to hit Ash.

Caleb lobbed his Fireball at the shaman, burning him. Kim shot another ogre to little avail. Grymalkus and Attikos had their blows meet maul and shield, respectively. Xoran stunned an ogre by roaring at him but not only did the stunned ogre parry the blow, Xoran dropped his second sword, Mayhem at last got his oil lit.

The shaman again told Attikos to drop his sword, but Attikos's mind was too strong. Another ogre dropped his maul and tried to punch Ash, but Ash parried the ogre's arm with his sword, which wasn't a good time for the ogre. Two ogres went after Xoran; one missed, but the other smacked Xoran so hard that he went both down and back. The leader again tried to hit Attikos, who again blocked him.

Attikos and Grymalkus both failed to land blows on the lower half of the ogre, but Ash rammed his sword into an ogre's chest and Uruk shot the shaman twice, dropping him and the deputy. Xoran started to stand up, and Caleb cast Explosive Fireball. The ogres missed Grymalkus and Attikos right back.

Grymalkus crippled the foot of an ogre with his hammer. Caleb lobbed his Explosive Fireball at the shaman which burned him to death, and Kim’s arrow got into an ogre’s armor. Ash cut the jugular of an ogre, and Uruk shot one twice in the chest. On the down side, the ogre leader hit Attikos, sending him staggering back, Xoran, now standing, tried to roar and it came out like a puppy's yip, and Mayhem charged and missed.

One of the last two ogres started to pull out, while another missed Mayhem. The leader hit Attikos in the shield. Grymalkus tried to cripple the foot of another ogre but the ogre's parry was so strong that it smacked the hammer out of Grymalkus's hands. Caleb, now low on juice, pulled out his sword, worried that an ogre would draw nearer. Xoran stabbed an ogre in the chest, while Mayhem planted an axe in the ogre's side. Ash charged the leader but missed, while Uruk shot him in the skull, and Attikos cut his neck.

The ogre by Xoran and Mayhem had one more trick, which was smacking Xoran so hard that he passed out. That was his last trick, as Mayhem killed him as he watched Xoran fall. Grymalkus grabbed his hammer, though Ash told him to grab the sword from the leader. Kim shot the the fleeing ogre, and Caleb singed him with a little Fireball. Uruk, however, lost his footing and grip as he tried to shoot the runner.

Mayhem turned toward the leader and smacked him, and Grymalkus ended his life. Kim shot the running ogre again, dropping him. Grymalkus picked up the leader's sword, and it hummed in his hand.

They were badly hurt. Ash bound the wounds of Xoran and poured a healing potion down his throat. Mayhem bound the wounds of Grymalkus, who then cast healing spells on Attikos and Xoran until he was too weak to do more.

Mayhem spotted amber sap on a willow near the cave entrance as Uruk and Kim picked up coins. Mayhem saw that this tree was a goo tree, and told the others not to touch it. Kim started digging out the coins under the tree with a stick, and her hand got too near a branch. The branch smacked her hand, crippling it and coating it in sap. She fell back then kipped up away from the tree. Grymalkus looked at her hand, and it dawned on him that he needed acid to get the sap off her hand. So, Caleb cast Acid Jet on Kim's hand, getting the goo off and crippling her hand for the next six months. Grymalkus healed her hand damage, but it was still crippled, so he started praying for Restoration.

Ash and Uruk looked into the cave, and heard some faint sound inside. Thinking there were more ogres down there, they chose to smoke out them ogres, but Uruk wanted to look around first. After some wandering inside, Uruk found a secret door, and pushed it open. He found eight caskets in it, and opened one. Upon opening, a body in the casket punched Uruk, though not with enough strength to hurt him. Uruk grabbed his knife and buckler to fight, but the other caskets opened and Uruk ran. The dead bodies did not come after him, and slammed the door. As he scampered, a loud howl came from further down the cave.

Roman surveys the scene as the ogres show up near the cave opening.

After a few more minutes, six ogres showed up. Kim snuck off, knowing her hand wouldn't let her help much. Uruk shot an ogre and felled it. Caleb cast Explosive Fireball 4d as the others waited for the ogres to come nearer.

Uruk shot another ogre and misses, but hit the one behind him in the arm. Attikos hit another with a javelin. Caleb threw Explosive Fireball, but the ogre nearby dropped and dodged. Mayhem tried to rush and hit one in the legs but the ogre parried. Uruk again shot at an ogre and missed him but hit the ogre behind him. Twice.

One ogre missed Mayhem's head, while another moved towards Caleb and Attikos. The one on the ground started to stand, and the last rushed at Uruk. Uruk stepped out of the way and Ash got a swing at it, but the ogre smacked it aside.

Uruk took down an ogre with a bodkin shot to the head, but Kim's backstab with her off hand didn't get through. The ogres parried Mayhem's and Ash's blows. Attikos tried to grab and trip an ogre, but he pulled his leg out of the way. One ogre stood up, while the other two missed Attikos and Mayhem.

Caleb lobbed a fireball at an ogre. Again, Kim feebly stabbed the leg of another, and Mayhem hit the leg of a third, sending him to the ground. One ogre tried to bop Caleb on the skull but missed, while another tried to slam Uruk but failed.

Caleb, now worried, cast Acid Jet. Kim yet again feebly stabbed an ogre on the neck, Ash smacked one in the leg, Uruk kicked a another, trying to send him down into the cave, and Attikos get smacked a third in the leg. The ogre got revenge for his leg, bopping Attikos on the skull and knocking him out. The other two missed Ash and Kim

Seeing his friend Attikos fall, Grymalkus steeled himself and grabbed his axe. Caleb hit an ogre in the leg with a stream of acid but didn't do much damage. Kim tried to stab the eye of the downed ogre but missed but Mayhem smacked it in the neck. Ash cut one in the leg, and Uruk shot two arrows into the ogre on Caleb. Indeed, Mayhem, Ash, and Uruk each took down one of the last three ogres.

Res aliae

Two sessions, and those were intense fights. The latter fight wouldn't have been so tough had Xoran still been awake, so the group was left with two melee monkeys, two missile monkeys, and the tweeners who are Kim, Grymalkus, and Attikos.

Attikos's head blow took him to -3×HP, and Roman, running him in Joe's absence (Joe is having some school issues), made the first three HT checks, leaving Attikos alive. After those three, he failed the next one, so he fell down and passed out, but you'd rather fail that one than the first three. But that's why you wear helmets, kids: without one, Attikos's failed HT roll would have been on his fourth death check.

Unrelated to the game, but Pyramid magazine went kaput. I'm going to be posting some of my unpublished articles as blog posts. Some others I'll keep to see if I can't get a supplement or part of one out of them.

Smart swords

I'm thinking out loud with this post. I've been trying to come up with an angle on intelligent weapons to write as a Pyramid article, but I keep having trouble making them special, especially as the things they do in early Dungeons and Dragons or mythology are the Accuracy spell. This is my thinking on this as of the moment. I haven't playtested this.

There’s a spell in GURPS Magic called Weapon Spirit on page 64. In short, it gives a weapon an IQ score, and can communicate with empathy or, with the right spells, speech. That’s pretty much it. There can be other spells on the weapon, but you can always do that. The weapon could have some disadvantages, which would truly piss off a player.

Forgive me, but what a goddamn bother. Brains in a sword should give you a boon for wielding it, not just giving you a talking metal buddy that might not like you anyways.

So, these are two simple things any intelligent weapon can do that shows that it has a brain:

1. Anyone who has an intelligent weapon Ready can Dodge attacks from behind him (p. B391), at -2. For those attacks from the side hexes which he normally must defend at -2 (p. B390), he defends at -1.
2. If you hit when targeting chinks in armor (p. B400) with an intelligent weapon, you get through all DR, not just half DR.

The wielder must get a reaction of at least Neutral the first time he picks up the weapon to get these boons (or any others tied to the sword’s intellect). These boons show things the sword sees and understands and lets its wielder know.

Smart weapons are fickle. Remember, they need a reaction roll to use. Charisma and Born War Leader will always impress a weapon; Appearance and Voice do not. Status might; your call.

Let its Will be its IQ plus its highest level of Puissance or Accuracy. The wielder is -1 to Will checks against the weapon for every 1/4 HP or FP he is down. Control checks are a Quick Contest of Will. Check when:

• The wielder has a chance for another magic weapon
• One of its disadvantages comes up (see below)
• The wielder drops below 1/3 HP or FP
• Someone with a higher weapon skill is available to own the sword. Use skill plus maximum basic thrust or swing damage, as applicable.

If the sword wins the Quick Contest, it will make the wielder bypass the other weapon, abide by its disadvantage, keep fighting even if the wielder has lost most of his HP or FP, or drop his weapon to let the higher skilled fighter pick it up.

If a sword has a disadvantage, it expects its wielder to abide by it, and will try to control its wielder in case of any conflicts. The sword gets a bonus to its Will rolls to control its wielder regarding its disadvantage, and this bonus is equal to the penalty to Fright Checks for Phobias at each Self-Control Number, read as a positive. Thus, a sword with Honesty (15) gets a +1 to Will rolls to make sure its wielder behaves honestly, while a sword with Honesty (6) gets a +4 to the same rolls.

Game log for 31 January 2016

Dramatis personae:

Mayhem, a barbarian
Caleb, a wizard
Yémos, a cleric
Kim, a thief
Anêr, a swashbuckler
Kúflaug, an orc slave

Quid occurrit hoc in ludo:

Caleb got the pony to stop before it ran off the ledge.

Kim picked open the lock on the chest, but didn't see the trap, which squirted alchemical goo into her eye, burning it. In the chest was 12 copper farthings, 2 silver pennies, a bronze jewelry chain, a silver  jewelry chain, and an edged rapier that Caleb felt was magical and glowed when Anêr pulled it out of its scabbard. Yémos healed up Kim so she could see out of both eyes again, then the pony, Caleb, and himself.

From there they went deeper into the dungeon, away from the way where they had been before, which entailed a left turn. They passed by a lake, next to which was a shallow pit filled with glowing black goo.

The passage widened into a bigger cavern which had a stream cutting athwart it. Over the stream was a bridge, and standing next to the bridge were 17 dwarves. The dwarves did not take heed of the heroes until Caleb yelled at them, "Hail, all-mighty workers of the earth!"

One of the dwarves, who had a full head and beard of honey-blond hair and big forearms, greeted them back. "Hail, all-mighty moochers of our work!"

Dwarf: What brings you down here?
Caleb: A hole in the ground.
Dwarf: You would see the underground as that, wouldn't you? That's it? Only a hole?
Caleb: Admittedly we have yet to encounter any of the dwarven wonders that have been sculpted underground.
Kim: We're looking for some dwarven art, and to soak up its beauty and not take it.
Dwarf: If you find dwarven art down here, you'd be the first to find it. I think we'd do a better job of carving.

At this time, the heroes took stock of the heraldry of the dwarves, and guessed that they came from the northern lands of Mōr-Nembe.

Caleb: Do you know Likháfrikh?
Dwarf: Never heard of him. So, all you want down here are dwarven artifacts?
Caleb: No, no, no. I was just saying that if we find any, we'll admire the hell out of them, and let you know if we do.
Kim: Do you know of any bad things further in?
Dwarf: All we know is of a sword of amazing magic and might and it's ours. Ours, ours, ours.
Kim: Would you like help killing things on the way in?
The dwarf smiled: Well, m'lady, I think we would like that. I'm Gahfurúkhai.
After some introductions, Gahfurúkhai added, "As long as we find the sword, it's ours."
Caleb: What sword is this?
Gahfurúkhai: It's one that fights evil.
Kim: Cool!
Caleb: We don't like evil very much.

The now big gang went over the bridge, and into a cave that became paved and worked stone. They went down a short flight of stairs to a door. After listening at the door and finding it unlocked, Kim opened the door. Behind it were two big ochre puddles that seemed to shift forward a tad when she opened the door. Behind the jellies was a stone altar, and a hallway leading out.

Kim shut the door. Gahfurúkhai said, "You're all pussies," and opened the door. Kim and Caleb each took a shot—Kim with her bow, Caleb with a small Fireball—and then the jelly's pseudopod missed Kim. Anêr pulled out his new sword and went into the room, giving the jelly a slash, while Kúflaug missed with his smash.

Gahfurúkhai saw the flash of Anêr's new blade, and screamed, "You liars!" He rushed to strike Anêr, and smashed his mace into Anêr's back. Anêr fell forward into the room from the blow. Kim, however, dropped her bow and pulled out her sword, and lifted it to strike Gahfurúkhai. The dwarf, however, easily blocked her blow. Mayhem's blow, however, was true, and struck Gahfurúkhai in the back. The other dwarves, in the back of the hallway, started to pull away the heroes' pony, but she put up a fight.

Yémos rushed down the stairs and into the room to help Anêr, and Caleb fired up a Blast Ball, still eying the jellies. Anêr got on his hands and knees, while Kúflaug smashed the jelly. Gahfurúkhai, however, wasn't yet done with Anêr, and he dropped his mace and jumped on top of Anêr. This left Gahfurúkhai's back turned towards Kim, and she stabbed him in the neck twice. The dwarves at the top of the stairs, shocked, started to back away, and Mayhem turned around to look at them. Yémos moved Gahfurúkhai off Anêr, and Caleb lobbed his Blast Ball into the room to scorch the jellies. The jelly at the fore missed Kúflaug with its pseudopod, and Anêr started to crawl back. Kúflaug gave the jelly another whack.

Gahfurúkhai, now in pain, looked up at Yémos, and whispered, "We'll talk." Yémos instead healed Anêr. Mayhem grabbed the pony, while Caleb started casting another Blast Ball. Anêr again got on his hands and knees, and Kúflaug again hit the ochre jelly. Gahfurúkhai looked up at Yémos, and whispered, "Please." As he saw the dwarves holding back, Yémos cast Major Healing on Gahfurúkhai, staunching his wounds. Anêr stood up, Kúflaug kept wailing on the jelly, which went splat, and Caleb's next Blast Ball missed the jellies.

Gahfurúkhai at last passed out, and Kim glared at the dwarves, hoping to intimidate them with her blood-soaked body. Mayhem moved to smash the last jelly, but then the dwarves rushed to the top of the stairs. Yémos tied up Gahfurúkhai, and Caleb turned around and started casting another Blast Ball. The jelly missed Kúflaug. Anêr stepped towards the top of the stairs and missed a dwarf. Kim also stepped toward the top of the stairs to stab a dwarf, who blocked her blow. Mayhem turned around and started back up the stairs.

The dwarves swung at Kim, and one put his mace into Kim, who fell on her back. Another tried to hit Anêr, who parried the mace. Yémos grabbed Kim, and Caleb lobbed his Blast Ball at the dwarves in the back, scorching them. Anêr tried stabbing a dwarf in the face, but the dwarf blocked his blow. Kúflaug, with no jelly left alive, went back up the stairs.

Anêr, Kúflaug, and Mayhem made a wall at the top of the stairs and fought the dwarves. After a few seconds, Kúflaug took two blows that made him pull away. This let a dwarf move into the gap, but Yémos and Caleb, who had dragged Gahfurúkhai, pushed his sleeping body at that dwarf. "He's alive!" shouted the dwarf, and they pulled upstairs, while the gang went into the room and shut the door.

Yémos bandaged Kim, and started to work more on her wounds. However, from hallway into which the gang had not looked came nine skeletons—six with spears and spears, nine with swords and spears.

It was an odd battle, with many wild swings. Yémos not healing up Kúflaug came back to haunt him, as he had to heal Kúflaug once a skeleton downed him early. Later, Kúflaug went down again, and chose to play dead. It worked; the skeleton moved to fight Yémos. Caleb found that Acid Jet worked well against the skeletons, albeit slowly. Yémos, as he often did against skeletons, smashed them with his staff.

A skeleton who fought Anêr had a memorable (second) last stand. First, its spear broke. Then, it tried punching Anêr, who lobbed off its hand instead. Then, when Anêr tried to stab the skeleton, his new sword went flying. The skeleton then tried to bite Anêr, who quickly pulled out his old sword and lobbed off the skeleton's jaw. It still kept striking with its shield, though doing no harm. But in the end, it went down, along with the other skeletons.

Res aliae:

Boy, did I give rules I hadn't used much before a good workout. Grappling? Check, and I had an NPC start one. Lifting? Check, though moving the dwarf was mostly ad hoc. Since the one skeleton kept trying to bite and punch, those were unarmed attacks, and Anêr's killer Parry let him make attacks at its limbs. Shield bashes? Check; Biter (as the players dubbed it) didn't have many other choices left for attacks.

Not only for the sword, but also for the tactics do I wish Eric, Anêr's normal player, were available. He's willing to try Deceptive Attacks, which I had to point out to Chris, who runs Mayhem and Caleb. Striking the Face wasn't a bad idea against the dwarves, who had heavy armor, but not against the skeletons.

The three skeletons with swords were stone skeletons, which I rolled in the d30 DM Companion. Basically, they moved slower (Basic Speed 5.50 vs. Basic Speed 6.50) but with higher DR (DR 4 vs. DR 2).

The sword is indeed intelligent, though the characters don't know this. Its intelligence hasn't come into play, but I had always wanted to have one in a game. I might write a Pyramid article on these once I get some experience with these in play. Both the Weapon Spirit spell in GURPS Magic and GURPS Thaumatology have some advice, but both need some honing for Dungeon Fantasy. Obviously, I'm using rules I crafted from both Original D&D and Expert D&D. I feel I should remind everyone that Monsters & Treasure had swords as 20% of magic items, easily the most of any permanent item (scrolls were also 20%, and potions were 25%), which was intentional.

Peter V. Dell'Orto down at Dungeon Fantastic, the ur-blog for GURPS Dungeon Fantasy bloggers, had a discussion not long ago which touched on reaction rolls. As I said in the comments, I use them often. Today had many. So a tale of many reaction rolls:

The first reaction roll was 11: Neutral, when the gang met the dwarves. When Kim offered to help them in the dungeon, I made another roll, and I got 16: Very Good. That dropped a couple of levels back to Neutral when Kim shut the door to the room with the jellies. (There was something else going on which I shan't explain but had something to do with that spot in the dungeon.)

Let me back up a bit and explain something. Dropping a level, for a reaction roll, means -3. All the levels for reaction rolls are in groups of three. It's something to keep in mind when looking at penalties and winging it without rolls when that makes sense.

I didn't roll another reaction roll when Anêr pulled out the magic sword (and the players, incidentally, found it odd that dwarves would be looking for a rapier, which is odd when you think about it). He's a dwarf with Greed (12), so I made a self-control roll for him, which he failed. He wanted a magic sword, and someone else had one, maybe even the one for which he was looking. I thought it appropriate that he would go nuts.

The dwarves, worried for their leader, did have another reaction roll, and it was a 6: Bad. Their leader was in peril but quarters were close, so they started stealing the pony to start. (Unlike Caleb earlier, they didn't make Animal Handling (Equines) at default.) The dwarves failed a morale roll when they held back for a few seconds, but not by much (by 2), and they did outnumber the gang by almost 3:1, though they didn't have a spellcaster or missile weapons. When they got a good chance, they took revenge.

The last roll came when Caleb and Yémos threw their leader's body at them. It was another Neutral (I think a 10, but I didn't write it down), so I figured they would back off at that point, glad to know their leader still lived.