LFG Session 4: Graveyard Gamble

Run Date: August 6th, 2022

This session was predominately learning how to manage combat alongside many henchmen. Everyone expected a TPK, but the players’ Luck (both literal and mechanical) held out. Alternatively, I made some weird calls and oh well.

PCs

Rebel(Sa): Lv1 Monk

Thorin(Pa): Lv2 Magic User

Hallow(Sh): Lv2 Fighter

Graveyard Gamble

We opened the session with a summary of downtime and a discussion of the battle plan. Rebel spent her week interviewing and hiring henchmen to aid in the party’s investigation of the graveyard; then threw a party, complete with steak dinner, in honor of their potential demise. Partying went so hard she woke up with a leather-bound chain of human vertebrae with strange carvings. Meanwhile, Hallow trained with the city guard and met Instructor Doberman. Thorin’s research bore fruit as he learned more about the Lancaster history and the bracelet he was suspicious of. Finally, Arkin, the Artificer working in the background, finished the potions he was working on using the unicorn horn.

Arkin met the crew, dropped off a few of his potions, and headed back to the workshop while Rebel introduced the crew she hired: Vance (ex-pirate), Merek (mute bard), Iovis (Ex-Watch), and Tybalt (Thug). The last one was Richard, the guard that worked the graveyard shift (yes I will type that out every time). The group has been building a rapport with him for a couple sessions. For the sake of space, I won’t dig into all of their details. Suffice it to say, this was a pretty interesting mix of people with poor stats and interesting quirks (LFG Deluxe tables go!).

Next was the plan which ended up going from “maybe we should consider the details” to “we’ll just deal with it as we go.” The crew hit up the gate of the Graveyard in Oldtown where they found the makings of a shoddy pair of watch towers. The undead threat was growing and the concern for the situation with it, but as of yet nothing had pushed past the walls. Pleasantries done, gate entered, gate locked in that heavy thunk per usual, and the group saw their first obstacle.

Today’s weather was clear, a few clouds on top of the usual heat and humidity, so the party could see the myriad groups of undead. As luck would have it, none were near the gate they just came through. They discussed their strategy and decided to hit the old mausoleum in the center of the area. On the way up the hill, they came across a group of skeletons that appeared to be holding a town meeting. They were far enough away that the party decided to skirt around them and keep heading up the hill. They arrived at the mausoleum with little more than some lost time and a bit of sweat.

Entry was simple enough with Hallow taking point and Gaviel (did I mention their new torchbearer yet?) following suit. They peeked inside the old building and discovered another gathering of skeletons similar to the last. The group set up at the door with a few members heading down the stairs to the landing. The skeletons did not react to their presence (Reaction: Neutral) so Thorin, a pair of henchmen, and Rebel stepped into the room (Gaviel just behind). As the light ended in darkness to their sides, their front lead to a dais with a spirit. Said spirit seemed to be moving as if speaking with the skeletons, its voice mere whispers of air. Thorin attempted to speak with it, but got little more than some arm motions until he tried to hand it a parchment and pen. Upon seeing its hands pass through the items, the spirit went into an existential panic and rage. Thorin tried to hit the creature with his mace in response, and quickly realized it was useless. This shift triggered all the skeletons in the room and the fight was on.

Initiative went to (most) of the party. Those inside used the chance to fall back to the stairs and set up a defensive line for the oncoming horde. Their position prevented being surrounded and the skeletons crashed into the party’s wall with little effect. Some maneuvering let Thorin blast the mob away with a Thunderous Invocation, killing a third of them. Hallow shot a bolt from the doorway she and a couple more henchmen were parked at and took out another skeleton. The spirit, however, rushed into Merek and immediately tore out his soul (he got his death wish, kinda), exposing Rebel who was hiding behind him.

New round, new initiative, and one complication: The Thunderous Invocation from Thorin had echoed out of the mausoleum and alerted the horde. The door crew noticed the shift and warned everyone they would have company soon (about 10 minutes). There was a quick back and forth and the new(er) plan became pushing through and locking themselves behind the mausoleum’s heavy doors. This round was dominated by more Thunder, this time throwing the spirit to the back of the room and wiping out another chunk. By the end, there was only 3 skeletons and a spirit left with a few wounds on the party.

Horde coming from the outside, most of the mob dead on the inside, and only one burning question: “How do we even hit a spirit?” Lucky for them, they invested in some Holy Water last session. Round 3. The group worked their way into the room and picked off the skeletons while Thorin prepped Richard’s blade with the Holy Water. The spirit wiffs another attack (I rarely rolled above a 5 today) and Richard returns the blow!.. With 1 damage from the holy water. We took a moment to consider Holy Water’s actual details. It just deals 1d8 to undead (etc), but no real mention on length of usefulness. I went ahead and ruled it the same as poison: consumed on hit. Next question was whether or not the weapon damage should apply. It’s not something I’ve ever considered since the “syntax” is usually on-off (ie weapon damage included), and I took LFG’s writing at its literal word. In this instance, I split the difference and allowed the addition of the Strength mod per a normal melee blow. This wasn’t quite enough and forced Thorin to use one last spell slot.

After wiping out the last enemy, the party slammed the doors and took stock of the situation (short rest). A bit of searching resulted in a bunch of silvers and an old pearl ring. As they finished up, they noticed a wall of undead had started to form in the hallway behind the dais, and they saw a light moving toward them. The group was ready for another fight, but found that a robed man was rambling about “all this racket” and stepped through the mostly fleshless wall. Potential mistake for this session was skimmed over above so I’ll toss it here: Reaction Rolls where it may not be appropriate. The group held back as the person approached, and there was a back and forth about what was going on (Reaction: Positive, mildly helpful). He explained he was doing experiments and that the undead in the hall were his results thus far. They asked if he knew about the evil spreading into the graveyard to which he shrugged and said, “First I’ve heard of it.”

The man, who they quickly discovered was a Nüra, invited them back into his room. A wave of his hand and the wall of bodies parted (“like the dead sea”) and they followed him past another room (filled with collateral from the previous fight) into a hall and an embalming room. This man explained that he used to be a student at one of the Khana universities, and had taken an interest in necromancy. It being forbidden outside of Kahalanan (home of the Khana), and him being of a different race resulted in an argument and his eventual expulsion. He told the party he had intended on speaking with his late wife again, but had failed in his attempts thus far. As they described the actions of the undead they encountered, the man started taking quick and concise notes with lots of “Good, good,” and “I’m further than I thought.” They tried to explain the problem outside a second time, and he offered to help with it if they did him a favor. It’s around now that I ask the group to make some Insight checks (mixed) and some of them discover that he’s not entirely there.

As he described, “There’s a woman I used to go to the university with. I’d like you to bring her here. She’s from Riversmeet, and should have graduated by now so she should have some insight that I don’t about my research.” The group started piecing clues together while he rambled: fresh blood, some of the corpses were not rotted to bone despite there being no burials for a few weeks, let alone years in this mausoleum, and the subtle off-ness of their host.

Rebel interrupted with a blunt, “Are you going to kill her?” She began pointing out the fresh blood and the Nüra played dumb. As soon as it was clear the mask had fallen, the man’s eyes glowed red. Thorin, being a Magic User, could see the entity attached to this man; a large, horned shadow of absolute evil. The chanting began and another fight was on.

As a general reminder (to myself, mostly), Initiative is a pass or fail circumstance where the players go before or after the monsters. When a Boss is involved, a Great Success is required to beat it. This allows the group to coordinate their turn when possible (an old friend would have loved this). I also took zero notes this session so I’m running off of memory… Thorin beat out the EMU (Evil Magic User) and threw some Holy Water at him (it did nothing). The EMU then cast his Bound By the Black Spiral and hits both Thorin and Rebel; Thorin resists it while Rebel is held rigid for 5 rounds. Vance, the ex-pirate with a death wish, rushes the EMU and deals a significant chunk of damage to him. The henchmen in the hallway hold back the coming horde while Hallow tries to rush into the room and run this guy through. She lands a successful hit for solid damage except: Arcane Aegis (EMU version). The shattering of the Aegis negated her attack and splintered into a wave of necrotic goop. Rebel, being rigid, was a sitting duck. Thorin had already rolled a successful save, but realized Rebel’s situation. After a moment, Thorin’s player decided his MU would be the type to sacrifice himself for an ally, and so he attempted a rescue by diving into Rebel and dragging them both to the floor. Since he had already rolled a success on his save, I offered him a deal: He could succeed in protecting Rebel, but would take the full force of the blast. He committed, and lost half his HP in the exchange.

The EMU’s life was ended the following round with more chip damage on the party, and the possessing entity became visible to all as it floated through the wall. One target down, one horde to break. Thorin took the chance to tell Richard to grab Rebel,  and did a quick search of the EMU’s footlocker. He found a personal satchel and a book. The hallway crew continued to hold the line and Iovis, the former guard turned Laurenian faithful, held up his holy symbol to chase off a couple of the zombies. It was only a pittance, but every bit counted. As the round ended, the party took stock of the situation. The party decided to mount a Retreat. There was no time to roll everything out so we went over the details: Thorin would use his final spell to blast an opening in the horde so they could make it back to the entrance with the shield-bearers shoving and throwing everything left.

Phase 1, success. The group blasted through the small horde and found themselves at the closed exit. As Hallow started pulling open the doors, the reality dawned on them: Turns out their chat with the EMU was enough time for the real horde to show up. A few minutes left in the session, Rebel’s about a round from being able to move again, and we blitz through Phase 2: Throw, Shove, barrel, and pray they make it out alive. To be fair, there was a moment Thorin suggested just using the EMU’s supplies and camping for the week (the power of real time considerations) but was vetoed.

And so the rolls began. In hindsight, I probably should have just tossed out a percentile for the odds and called it one way or the other. I instead decided on a couple group checks, counting the overall successes and failures. I didn’t write down the results, but here’s the consequences: The party, tightly packed and ready to charge, barreled into the coming horde with all their strength. Their opening momentum tore through the initial group but they were slowly bogged down and surrounded. In the fray, Gaviel, the new torchbearer, was pulled out and mobbed to death in the usual zombie way. This distracted a chunk of the horde and allowed the party to continue their push. As they continued, the shield-bearers started to crack (3 shields, not just “splintered” but outright destroyed/lost). Once those fell, Tybalt was dragged into the mob and eaten. This was the end of their losses as the group arrived at the gate and the snipers started offering covering fire. With that, the group was out of breath, nearly out of life, and left to ponder their next step.

GM Note: Both of the above deaths were a result of d8 rolls as follows

1. Hallow 2. Rebel 3. Thorin 4. Vance 5. Iovis 6. Tybalt 7. Richard 8. Gaviel

Rewards

8xp

Pearl Ring (100gp)

60 silvers

Leather-bound book (Retaliatory Aegis, Bound by Black Spiral, Lash of Unerring Pain)

EMU Satchel (46 GP value in Nüra accessories and jewelry)

Downtime

Rebel: With today’s XP, she’s going to start her training to Lv2.

Hallow: Plans to hit up Instructor Doberman for some guard work

Thorin: Continue his exercises with Neeka, and to see if he knows anything about the EMU(both being Nüra).