The player took me up on that offer and now plays a Holmesian MU instead. They got to pick their spells from both the Holmes spell list and FEAST OF BUKAKO, which is completely free and worth picking up. Their character, Rodwulf, now knows the spells Sleep, Shield, Beacon of Terror, Enlargement, and Charm Person. Since Falbo is my version of Endon, the players know that Charm Person and similar spells are illegal. That's never stopped a player before, though.
The Session
Before heading down into the oak, the players get Halvar, the one-armed fighter from a few sessions ago, installed as the new innkeeper of The Golden Goose. The sheriff, Näsbjörn, accidentally reveals that the late innkeeper, Johannus, was found with a note stuffed in his tunic. The note read "snitches get stitches" because you gotta hit players across the head if you want them to figure shit out. The players are still not convinced that there's an evil spirit possessing a doll that did this, and instead invented a new miscreant; maybe the innkeeper had enemies?
(MAYBE HE DID! That's a great idea, actually. Maybe someone wants the inn for their own reason, and the murder of Johannus just coincided with an evil, child-killing doll that kills people talking shit about it?)
Halvar has no intention of letting the PCs stay for free, or cheaper, but would like investments. Not for shares or anything, though, but you know if you could help with the bills some? No, if there are strings attached to the money I guess I can just figure it out myself. No, you'd still pay the same for your room. What with this economy, you know...
The group also sits around for a week, letting Rodwulf create a Scroll of Sleep. Incidentally, this also meant that they were just in time for the meeting with the gnomes in the Oak.
The diplomatic meeting takes place in a fairy ring, where, according to the gnome, any oaths are made real. The PCs swear they won't attack the gnomes, the gnomes do likewise (I figure this is a lie from the gnomes' side). I'm not giving the players any indication that any oath in the ring has power over them. The gnome leader tries to get the PCs to agree to attack the ogre, but the PCs aren't biting. The PCs ask a few questions, but ultimately the meeting leads nowhere. The gnomes are satisfied that the PCs won't bother them, the players are satisfied that the gnomes won't bother them. They part ways.
The players figure they're running a bit low on inventory space, and pick up a failed farmer, Bartik to carry some stuff. Bartik is a simple man, with simple pleasures.
And so, they finally descend into the Oak proper.
The players have come up with a plan: to take the human meat from Ramius's place and lure the ghouls to the Troglodytes. They make their way to the meat, but get attacked by a Crab Spider on their way. It is dispatched, and they continue onward. They fetch the meat, and then return toward the ghoul area. When they reach the Teleportation Circle room (11), they need to take their mandated break on the hour. As they're taking that break, Bozurah the Imperishable happens upon them.
As the encounter distance was 60 feet, they can't see him but he can see them. The reaction roll is also extremely low, being a 3. He sleeps them, ties them up, and then wakes them up. He explains that he is Bozurah the Unholy, or so people call him and that he has the party in his power at the moment. He requires a thing from further inside the dungeon, and the party must help him with this.
The party protests, so he kicks Ardo into the teleportation circle. Ardo disappears (and ends up in room 47, the Lizard Beach. Goodbye, Ardo), and the party is a lot more interested in listening to what Bozurah has to say.
I had no plan for this at all. I just figured it'd be fun to sleep the players and that Bozurah could get through with posturing and bravado. I have no interest in killing the entire party, and doing so by a Sleep spell would be cheap. Shit. What do I do?
Bozurah explains that there's a room with sand that needs two skeletons killed, and that if the party assists him with this, they will live. Party asks him how they can trust him, and he tells them they have no choice. He will take two persons with him, and the others will stay here. Protesting that being bound would leave them all defenseless, Bozurah tells them that he can make them invisible, but incur his wrath and dangerous things will happen. The party agrees to this, and it's decided that Zordo and August-Wilhelm will go. While Bozurah begins casting the spell of invisibility, Zordo tries to tackle him into the teleportation circle, but misses and falls in himself! Oh no!
Bozurah explains that there's a room with sand that needs two skeletons killed, and that if the party assists him with this, they will live. Party asks him how they can trust him, and he tells them they have no choice. He will take two persons with him, and the others will stay here. Protesting that being bound would leave them all defenseless, Bozurah tells them that he can make them invisible, but incur his wrath and dangerous things will happen. The party agrees to this, and it's decided that Zordo and August-Wilhelm will go. While Bozurah begins casting the spell of invisibility, Zordo tries to tackle him into the teleportation circle, but misses and falls in himself! Oh no!
Zordo ends up at location 26, just before the strangling vines. In the meantime, the party is upset but eventually calms down and it's agreed that August-Wilhelm and Buffalo-Frans will go with Bozurah. Bozurah casts an invisibility spell over the remaining player (Rodwulf) and the three henches (Hök, a torchbearer, Bartik, also a torchbearer, and Gyig, a level 1 fighter). Good job, me; you've just split the group.
Zordo, meanwhile, has gotten free of his restraint and prodded with his polearm, which honestly shouldn't have come with him but oh well, ahead. He's figured out that he's near something that moves and so heads the other way and comes across something meaty and somewhat smelly (the dwarf corpse). He gets the door open and spots Bozurah, Buffalo-Frans, and August-Wilhelm walking toward the "sand room" (36). He follows them.
Rodwulf, meanwhile, gets free from his restraints and finds the henches and frees them too (by voice). They then jump into the Teleportation Circle. WHAT? Okay.
Rodwulf, meanwhile, gets free from his restraints and finds the henches and frees them too (by voice). They then jump into the Teleportation Circle. WHAT? Okay.
Rodwulf & Co end up, with a light, at the Ghoul beach. He's never been here before, and he doesn't like the look of this place. He spots the half-eaten ghoul/corpse and sprays some holy water on it. It wakes up and starts sniffing the air. It finds Gyig by smell (I figure a 1-in-6 roll would do for a search) and bites down hard on Gyig's foot. Gyig is paralyzed. Rodwulf smashes the bottle of holy water across the Ghoul's head, and it dies. More ghouls are showing up at the entrance to the beach, though, also sniffing the air and moving about.
Rodwulf drags Gyig's body away from them. Bartik follows. Hök is frozen with fear (I rolled a 12 on his Morale test, and figured he's terrified; perhaps a better ML failure table is needed?) and won't respond to whispers. We leave Rodwulf and his friends there, as a cliffhanger.
Zordo's following Bozurah and the two party members at a distance. Eventually, they reach the door to room 36. They open it, and the skeletons advance. Undead are never surprised, but the party wasn't surprised either, because they knew about the skeletons. Victory is never certain, however, and the first skeleton scores a massive hit on Buffalo-Frans (8 damage). Doused with Holy Water from August-Wilhelm (who just so happened to have a bottle with him), the skeleton crumbled from a strike from Buffalo-Frans. The other skeleton is also dispatched, eventually. Buffalo-Frans is wounded but still standing.
August-Wilhelm asks Bozurah, who's been standing outside, in the corridor, whether their deal is finished. Bozurah says, rather impatiently, yes. August-Wilhelm has promised to not hurt Bozurah, and he's bound by his word and clerical oath to this.
As August-Wilhelm and Buffalo-Frans makes their way out of the room with sand, Bozurah backs off, toward the other end of the cavern (35). He's well aware that they might try and attack him, and as the light from the lantern shifts, Buffalo-Frans slips out, into the darkness. Bozurah sees this, however, and shouts at him to stay away. This causes the bats to attack the group. Bozurah flees, Buffalo-Frans throws himself to the ground. Bozurah is gone, for now.
August-Wilhelm and Buffalo-Frans meet up with Zordo and they make their way to the hall of kings (22).
Meanwhile, Rodwulf and his friends are cornered. Bartik, rolling a cool 3 on his Morale test, offers to swim out and fetch the rowing boat. The ghouls have caught a trail, given that Gyig was dragged in the sand, and is moving toward the end of the beach, too. As Bartik approaches with the boat the ghouls rush forward, having caught the scent of Gyig. Rodwulf throws the last bottle of holy water in the front ghoul's face, causing it to shatter and spray the other ghouls; they stagger back in pain for a moment. Rodwulf, the MUSCLE WIZARD, throws Gyig into the boat and jumps in too. The last thing Rodwulf sees is a leather sack buried under some driftwood and bones. They let the current take them down-river.
They arrive at the Troglodyte fishing beach, which they recognize. They land and drag the boat to shore. They make their way back to the Teleportation Room. They meet up with Zordo, Buffalo-Frans, and August-Wilhelm in the hall of kings. Success!
The two groups bring each other up to speed, and decide that they'll try to save Hök because damn it, nobody wants to go adventuring with us any longer! And also, there might be a treasure.
Buffalo-Frans, being the strongest of them, rows upstream while Zordo and August-Wilhelm keep a lookout. They spot the ghouls, eating away on Hök. But, there's still treasures to be had. August-Wilhelm Turns Undead and fails. A brief discussion on whether or not a cleric can try to Turn the same undead in subsequent turns follows, and I rule at the table that they may (I might go back on this after this session, though). Buffalo-Frans is starting to weaken but keeps the boat steady. August-Wilhelm succeeds in turning the foul beasts and jumps ashore. They won't have time to pick up the sack this turn, though, so another turn is necessary. Zordo jumps ashore and grabs the sack, as the ghouls try to advance. August-Wilhelm rolls for Turn Undead again, and succeeds!
(A short aside: Ghouls require 11+ to be turned by a level 1 cleric. It's not impossible, but it is far-fetched that the cleric succeeds on both rolls. I don't particularly care whether a player cheats or not in a digital RPG session; the only one that's cheated in such a situation is the cheater.)
The sack safe, the party makes their way out of the Oak, and back to town.
Post-session stuff
Look, I don't know how invisibility works. It should probably have been broken earlier, but whatever. Story-wise, it was good.
I think I got away with how I played Bozurah. I had no real plan going into the encounter, but sleep + tied up adventurers is a good place to start.
Bozurah, as written, is a level 4 Magic-User. He's more powerful in my version. I figure he used Sleep, Illusion, and Invisibility. It's fine. Make the game into your own. Texts are not sacred. He successfully retrieved the items he was after. What's his plans with those? We don't know!
The ghoul at the beach doesn't have paralyze, as written. It does, did, now. That's fine, too.
I will change Turn Undead to not be a retry if you fail thing. If you fail, you get -1 to your next roll; your faith is wavering because of the failure. That seems fair.
The Baron, Guste von Platen, has realized that the adventurers are making money hand over fist. That's money he should have.
There's a third (or whatever, I've lost count) party that's after the inn. Not only that, but a letter to Johannus's relatives is also on its way. The Butler, nameless servant of Guste, is efficient. Incidentally, he's also the real power in Utböle.
The party gets 1124xp (324gp, 800gp ruby) from the treasure in the sack. They can't sell the ruby in Utböle, though; nobody can pay for it. I ruled that xp is rewarded on the safe return of treasure, not the safe conversion of treasure into coins. Rodwulf picked up the magical dagger, but since +1 daggers are fucking boring it's now a Tempered Legacy dagger:
Gyig leaves the party. Nearly being eaten by ghouls is too much, man.
I've finally gone through and read these - you write excellent session reports.
ReplyDeleteSorry that the group's collapsed, though.