Run Date: August 13th, 2022
There is a simple rule when gambling: The house always wins. In today’s case, the players ran out of luck (figuratively and literally).
PCs
Thorin(Pa): Lv2 Magic User
Hallow(Sh): Lv2 Fighter
A Lesson In Moderation
Rebel was out again today, leaving Thorin and Hallow to decide how to approach the session. Over the week, they’d worked on a few side gigs with downtime; Hallow spent time working with the guard and Thorin continued to buddy up with his apprentice. Richard, the guard that works the graveyard shift, came in to update them on the situation over in Oldtown. The party received 100gp apiece and official letters giving them permission to enter the graveyard as desired (up until now, they’ve had to go through someone). It seems that reward was tasty enough to convince them to head back and see what treasure they missed out on.
There was a bit of discussion about whether or not to bring the whole crew (old henches included), and they settled on a “simple recon mission.” Quote, “If it ends up too dangerous, we’ll come get the others.” As they say, famous last words. At the very least, the pair invited Richard for the excursion, and off they went.
The mini-towers outside the graveyard were looking sturdier than last time, and the guards waved the party in with zero issue. As the gate locked, they surveyed the area and executed the plan: hit that central mausoleum and locate the EMU (Evil Magic User)’s lab. Up the paths they went until they realized they’d run straight through a small undead mob. Things being clear and sunny, the mob was spotted at some distance, and the party did a quick head count. The odds were not in their favor (1:4). They chose to take a longer, clearer route around while avoiding undue attention.
Upon the stone stairs they found themselves once again staring at the old doors and rusted rings. The plan was to peek in and check the situation before pressing forward. Thorin decided to take the lead and realized that opening the door was a bit harder than last time. As the light from outside spilled in, he noticed some broken and chewed corpses, including Merek (Hench) from last session. What he didn’t notice was the pile of not quite dead bones blocking the door! The torso of a skeleton reached around and grab Thorin’s face, but he broke free. Time for initiative.
The fight went on for a bit and I lost track of proper rounds, apologies. In the beginning, Thorin tried to smash the skeleton that grabbed at him and struck only the door. The skeleton lashed out and a stray hand animated to join in the assault. As the party tried to maneuver and work through a plan, Richard and Hallow struck down the skeleton. The following round Thorin destroyed the animated hand. At this point, the door was starting to get pushed closed again so Thorin and Richard fought against it and managed to widen the gap even more. This revealed Merek’s body marching toward the opening so Hallow engaged it. The next couple rounds involved the growing skele-zombie mass flooding through the opening and flopping to the ground like a giant slug.
The party took hits where they could (while getting chipped a few times themselves) before Thorin went for his Thunderous Invocation. Up until now, he’d been avoiding it so the outside hordes wouldn’t come, but his hand was forced. He blew back the entire mob, sending bone and sinew into the darkness and forcing an end to the door wars. Unfortunately, the timer started (4 minutes until the horde arrives). Hallow and Thorin considered falling back at this point, but decided to throw their hands in an all-in. So it goes, the zombie bits from the mausoleum marched back up the stairs. They were slow enough that they couldn’t just charge the party, but they had come back with a friend: Merek’s mute, but raging spirit. It rushed in for an attack and hit Richard (who had managed to end up in front after all the weird movements and rescue shenanigans). Incorporeal Undead, the bane of this party thus far.
Hallow busied herself fighting off the leftover zombies while Richard attempted to defend himself from Merek’s spirit. Meanwhile, Thorin threw a vial of holy water and missed. A few chips here, a couple zombie fists there, and some nearly-drained will; the party held the line. Richard took his own holy water and began coating his sword while Hallow cut down another zombie. Thorin hesitated, then threw a second vial, Hallow’s this time, and another miss. In an act of mercy, I gave the vial a 33% chance of not being consumed/broken (success) and it found its way underneath Merek’s transparent form.
At
this point, the zombies had been finished off and their only obstacle
was their former ally. Hallow could do little, but Richard managed to
strike the spirit for a few points with his holy water blade
(reminder: per previous ruling, still running holy water same as
poison: good for 1 minute or until hit). Thorin attempted a Major
Exploit to scramble and roll underneath the spirit, grab the vial,
and splash it, but failed. Another round of back and forth and the
party’s HP was thin, Richard nearly fallen (and killing his saves).
Though Thorin’s position was dire, he made another attempt at using
the holy water. Strike 3.
The all-in strategy was looking worse and worse, and the party’s abysmal dice rolls were not helping matters. They were now out of holy water, as well. Thorin thus far has been interesting: first session he murdered a guard (“accident”), last session he took a hit for an ally, and this one… “I’m going to blast this thing one last time. If it doesn’t die, just leave me and live.” Thunderous Invocation goes out, but the spirit succeeds on his save. Thorin is pointed upward as well, so I rule the force causes a residual explosion/collapse of the nearby stone. Hallow rescues Richard and they both avoid the blast, but Thorin is left underneath a bit of stone and dust. As said dust settled, however, he was face to face with Merek. One last silent cry and the spirit began to devour Thorin’s life essence.
With Thorin’s sacrifice, Hallow and Richard bolt back to the gates. They have some space this time since they didn’t linger, but a few creatures still peel off the primary host to tail them. The good news is that a majority of the creatures that were going for them were skeletons and zombies; slow enough for them to keep their lead. The bad news is that it was just the majority: 3 “dog-zombies” had started running the survivors down.
Hallow slowed for a few moments to pop off a shot from her crossbow, the bolt flying wide. She hollered at Richard to keep going. The two managed to make it in range of the gate’s sniper nests, but the “dogs” caught Hallow. Between sniper support and her own mix of luck, she managed to kill one. Unfortunately, the final two were tearing away what little HP she had left. In one last stand of desperation, Hallow attempted a Major Exploit. She pulled out both weapons and began swinging wildly, hoping to kill both creatures before she herself fell. Writing it out, perhaps I should have been more lenient with the success results. Nonetheless, I had her roll the damage on her weapons (I skipped the attack hit requirement) and she managed to drop the first one, but came up short on the second. To add salt to the wound, the “dog” landed a critical hit and went for the throat.
With the final deaths, I tallied up the valuables (for others who dare venture here): 200+ gp, a smattering of sp, a few coppers, and 3x Inferior Potions of Aegis. We still had an hour left to roll up some new characters so I took the time to pull back the curtain and explain to the players how all my dice rolls and rulings functioned. I tend to be pretty transparent about most things, and I think being open with newer players especially helps. I mean, I’m still learning the system as well and any chance to explain just reinforces it in my head.
Rewards
None
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