Session date: Monday, February 5, 2018
Game date: Saturday, March 20, 210 and Saturday, April 10, 210
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 6, hp 37, xp 35901/70000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 17701/20000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 3, hp 11, xp 6561/8000
Adrien, Fighter 3, hp 9, xp 5883/8000
Orehoe, Elf 1, hp 3, xp 240/4000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 3, hp 17, xp 6050/8000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 2, hp 11, xp 2952/3000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 763/4000
Jack, Thief 2, hp 8, xp 1525/2400
The first half of this session was a flashback a few weeks of game time ago to play out the annual auction of magical and esoteric artifacts. The auction was held at the Runcible Trading House in the wealthy quarter of Idalium, as it had been the first year the party attended. That auction had been interrupted by one of the artifacts being stolen from the cellar vault by a ghoul that burrowed its way right through the wall, and now Lord Runcible announced that everyone could be assured that all of the cellar vaults had since been reinforced with iron bars along the walls.
All of the usual suspects were at the auction, a mix of Idalium's wealthiest aristocrats and businessmen with other scruffy adventurers like the party members. There was time to mingle before the start of the auction, and Gulleck and Caryatid made sure to talk up the finer points of the unusual tome that they had placed in the auction. They chatted up Vincent Patrenzi, the gaudy and tacky nouveau riche investor who collected ominous occult artifacts. His interest definitely seemed to be piqued, when they told him that the book had been taken from a coven of witches in some sort of other world.
The auction got underway. Moonpetal's Marauders bid aggressively and won a magical sword that could burst into flame on command, as well as a magical wand that could turn people into other forms. Vincent Patrenzi got into a bidding war for the party's book with Lady Mary Jameson, a young noblewoman fascinated with the occult, and the book finally sold for 66,000 silver shekels, far beyond the 10,000 shekel minimum bid. Father Jed and his band of merry bandits acquired two separate lots of magical potions, and another set of potions went to Sallies Forth, a party composed entirely of magical duplicates of "Psycho" Sally, an unhinged hobbit formerly with Shorty's Sirens. And Gulleck had set greedy eyes upon a pair of magical gauntlets said to bestow the strength of an ogre. Gulleck's player was quite excited to bypass Gulleck's absurd Strength score of 5, so the party bid most of their newly-acquired wealth of the gauntlets, and eventually outbid all the other adventuring parties to acquire the gauntlets for the low, low price of 59,500 silver shekels. (That actually is very low, given the presumed cost to craft such a magical item!)
Having finished with the auction, we jumped forward three weeks to the current date, and rejoined the party on another delve down to the third level of the dungeon below Idalium. They talked briefly to the lonely old stone pillar, and then headed west and north to assault the lair of the wererats. Coming to the door with a large rathole chewed in the bottom, they listened but heard nothing beyond it. The door would not open, so Simon the hobbit slipped on an invisibility ring and crawled through the ragged hole. On the other side he felt blindly in the dark and found a wooden bar holding the door shut. This he removed and let the party in, drawing his sword to provide light. Once some light was shed on the situation, they found that they were in a short hallway leading to another door, with a similar hole chewed near the bottom. A grotesque woven wicker effigy of a giant rat's head was mounted on the inner door. Gulleck strode up and smashed the wicker head to the floor. Apparently responding to the commotion at the door, a sinewy giant rat came angrily through the hole in the door. Gulleck, surprising herself with the unfamiliar strength flowing from her gauntlets, deftly beheaded the rat with the single slash of her axe.
They waited to see if any more rats would be forthcoming, but when no more emerged, Simon repeatd his trick with the invisibility ring and crawled under the door to unbar it from the other side. In the dark, he could hear the shuffling and squeaking of many other rats. I began to declare that he was immediately pounced upon by multiple rats, but was reminded that we had previously established that magical invisibility renders one invisible to all forms of sight, including infravision. Scent was a different story, and the rats grew agitated at the unfamiliar smell, but before they could react Simon had unbarred the door, let the rest of the party in, and drawn his sword for light. There were a couple dozen giant rats slinking around this defiled old temple. The walls were painted over crudely with dreadful images of rats cruelly dominating over cats, dogs, eagles, humans, etc. Filthy shredded nesting material was strewn around the room, and several pieces of expensive-looking jewelry glittered among the filth.
Orin and Caryatid both cast Sleep spells and sent most of the rats into slumber. Gulleck and Meat stepped forward to deal with the few that evaded the magic, and Adrien's demon ferret Norman tore into two of the rats with a horrible savagery that sent spouts of rats' blood fountaining into the air and drenching his mangy fur. While the adventurers were dealing with the giant rats, a door was thrown open at the north end of the room, and four bipedal ratmen burst in.
"How dare you invade the Temple of St. Rathmus!" the lead ratman hissed. "You shall surely die in pain and fear for your impertinence!"
Well, they lunged forward to bite and claw at the adventurers, but Orin read from his scroll of Sleep, and three of the wererats collapsed to the flagstones. Two more wererat reinforcements arrived at the north door and surrounded Meat, snapping at him with slavering jaws. But Adrien drew her magical sword with the hilt engraved with heads of rat and wolf, and it sang as it cut into the flesh of the ratmen. She killed two of them, and then Gulleck killed everyone, the surviving wererat as well as systematically dispatching all of the sleeping wererats and giant rats.
It was late and the party had taken some damage from the wererats, so they quickly gathered up the jewelry in the room, and Caryatid wizard-locked the north door, in hopes that any other treasure would not be plundered before they could return (having learned their lesson from the lost treasure of the Goblin Prince). Then they headed back to the surface with their plunder, which gave them enough experience points that Brother Chase made it to level 3, being promoted to Father Chase by his "supervisors" at his "temporary clerical staffing" chapel.
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Monday, May 7, 2018
Idalium Game 89: Siren Songs
Session date: Monday, January 22, 2018
Game date: Saturday, March 27, 210
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 6, hp 37, xp 35718/70000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 17472/20000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 3, hp 11, xp 6321/8000
Adrien, Fighter 3, hp 9, xp 5654/8000
Orehoe, Elf 1, hp 3, xp 0/4000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 3, hp 17, xp 5935/8000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 2, hp 11, xp 2831/3000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 648/4000
Jack, Thief 2, hp 8, xp 1404/2400
On the Spring Equinox of each year, an annual auction is held in Idalium, co-sponsored by the Adventurers' Guild, of which the party are members, and the Runcible Trading House, an importer of expensive artifacts, curios, and art objects. The players intended to sell the sinister spellbook they had somehow returned with from Castle Ravenloft. But, today we had a new player, a friend of the players of Simon and Adrien, and so rather than have her first session be a simulated auction, we thought it would be better to spend the session with a regular dungeon delve, and then do a flashback to the auction later.
Our new player was familiar with computer role playing games, but had never played a pencil and paper RPG before. She wanted to be an elf (regardless of their slow advancement) and named her elf "Orehoe". I suspect inspiration from the package of cookies on the table. For her single first level spell she chose Ventriloquism.
Down into the buried ruins of old Idalium they went, heading for the Temple of Fate on the second level so they could "haze" their new companion. They ran into some skeletons in the town square, but Brother Chase presented his holy symbol and they cowered away from him, and were easily dispatched by the rest of the party. While they were catching their breaths after the quick battle, a half dozen horrid stirges flapped into the town square. The adventurers wasted no time in running from from bloodsuckers, and fortunately they were not pursued into the tunnel leading south to the Street of Temples.
They made their way downstairs without incident. In the Temple of Fate, they heard the cruel laughter of eight hobgoblins, who were just finishing hazing one of their own company on the wheel, and egged on the party to take spin and spin on the great wheel of fortune. Adrien was blessed with good luck for the day, her giant ferret Norman did a nimble backflip upon being released after his spin, and Jack would have lost a level but luckily made his saving throw. Orehoe took a spin on the wheel in good humor, and she too was lucky to make a saving throw against some unknown curse.
Having had their fun with the wheel, they proceeded to the third level and explored some new areas towards the west. They found a long corridor stretching north and south far into the darkness, and the western wall of this corridor was ornamented with decorative architecture that gave the impression of an ornate palace wall. They came to a rather fancy door, and Simon used his mind-reading amulet, sensing the bored minds of several creatures on guard duty. Gulleck knocked tentatively at the door, and the eerie hooting voice of a bugbear echoed back to him.
"What business do you have with Her Majesty, the Queen of Nightmares?"
"None!" blurted Gulleck in a hurry, and they all continued along to the north. They found a much plainer door in the west wall, and Gulleck attempted to open it but somehow managed to fail (she only fails on a 1 in 6 due to her gauntlets of ogre strength). Simon was concerned that the pounding on the door might have drawn attention (they were still too close to the Queen of Nightmare's palace for comfort) so he used the amulet again, and sensed several creatures on the other side who were preparing to ambush anyone who came in.
There was some debate over whether they could bluff their way in, and Orehoe even cast her Ventriloquism spell to try to make a bugbear voice (which she had only heard once in her life!) call out "They're probably friendly, why not let them in?" But the bugbear guards were not fooled by this nonsense.
"You sound ridiculous! Go away and stop bothering us!"
So they did, continuing their exploration to the north, beyond the palace. They came to a place where the hall opened into a large room. They peered into a ruined and wrecked feast hall and caught a glimpse of many white bones strewn among the rubble covering the floor and table. Before they had time to react to this sight, a surreal vocal harmony floated forth from the darkness. Several feminine voices joined to create a wordless song that saturated the air, overwhelming the senses of the adventurers. All rolled saving throws versus magic, and only Simon and Orin made their saves. A blank, enraptured mask fell over the faces of the others in the party, and they staggered slowly forward into the feast hall, the better to hear the entrancing song. Simon and Orin followed in nervous fear, and the light from Simon's sword fell upon five hideous creatures, half woman and half giant eagle. Their hair was tangled and matted with filth, and their faces were pale and drawn with hunger. The beauty of the song that pervaded this room was bizarrely incongruous with the hideous appearance of the creatures. Their hands were outstretched in long claws, and the party members were sleepwalking directly towards them.
Orin began speaking the words of the Sleep spell, and several of the monsters launched themselves into the air, flapping towards him on heavy wings. He completed his spell, and three of the fiends fell asleep where they were. Two sprawled across the table and chairs, and one fell out of the air and landed heavily on the floor. But another one raked him with her claws, for three hit points of damage (out of only four hit points he had!).
Now, this called for some DM judgment. The Basic rules are rather vague about how the harpies' charm effect works. Presumably the charm wears off if the harpy stops singing (the general rules about charm attack say, "The death of the charming monster will usually break this type of charm"). But are the party members charmed by all of the harpies at once, or an individual one? My thought was that this looked like a TPK in the works if all of the harpies had to be silenced in order for the rest of the party to snap out of it, so I decided that each character is charmed by a specific harpy, and I rolled a d6 for each charmed character, to see if "their" harpy was one of the three that had fallen asleep and ceased singing. This worked out well for the party: Gulleck, Caryatid, and Adrien all came to their senses and Caryatid was able to use her own Sleep spell to deal with the remaining two harpies. Gulleck wasted no time in putting the sleeping monsters to the axe.
Harpies are kind of like ghouls in that they are potentially a TPK because they have the potential to remove PCs from the entire combat. I'm not sure my ruling was the best way to handle it (I'm not sure it's thematically convincing for the PCs to snap out of it while the other two harpies are still singing), but I'm not sure Simon and Orin could have defeated the remaining two harpies on their own. I'm open to suggestions on a better way of handling the harpies' singing.
Amongst the filth and bones and rubble, the adventurers found three valuable pieces of treasure: a jeweled necklace and bracelet, and a gold and silver goblet, worth over 2,000 gold darics altogether. They quickly collected the treasure and the group made their way back to the surface, satisfied with their harrowing escape.
Game date: Saturday, March 27, 210
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 6, hp 37, xp 35718/70000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 17472/20000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 3, hp 11, xp 6321/8000
Adrien, Fighter 3, hp 9, xp 5654/8000
Orehoe, Elf 1, hp 3, xp 0/4000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 3, hp 17, xp 5935/8000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 2, hp 11, xp 2831/3000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 648/4000
Jack, Thief 2, hp 8, xp 1404/2400
On the Spring Equinox of each year, an annual auction is held in Idalium, co-sponsored by the Adventurers' Guild, of which the party are members, and the Runcible Trading House, an importer of expensive artifacts, curios, and art objects. The players intended to sell the sinister spellbook they had somehow returned with from Castle Ravenloft. But, today we had a new player, a friend of the players of Simon and Adrien, and so rather than have her first session be a simulated auction, we thought it would be better to spend the session with a regular dungeon delve, and then do a flashback to the auction later.
Our new player was familiar with computer role playing games, but had never played a pencil and paper RPG before. She wanted to be an elf (regardless of their slow advancement) and named her elf "Orehoe". I suspect inspiration from the package of cookies on the table. For her single first level spell she chose Ventriloquism.
Down into the buried ruins of old Idalium they went, heading for the Temple of Fate on the second level so they could "haze" their new companion. They ran into some skeletons in the town square, but Brother Chase presented his holy symbol and they cowered away from him, and were easily dispatched by the rest of the party. While they were catching their breaths after the quick battle, a half dozen horrid stirges flapped into the town square. The adventurers wasted no time in running from from bloodsuckers, and fortunately they were not pursued into the tunnel leading south to the Street of Temples.
They made their way downstairs without incident. In the Temple of Fate, they heard the cruel laughter of eight hobgoblins, who were just finishing hazing one of their own company on the wheel, and egged on the party to take spin and spin on the great wheel of fortune. Adrien was blessed with good luck for the day, her giant ferret Norman did a nimble backflip upon being released after his spin, and Jack would have lost a level but luckily made his saving throw. Orehoe took a spin on the wheel in good humor, and she too was lucky to make a saving throw against some unknown curse.
Having had their fun with the wheel, they proceeded to the third level and explored some new areas towards the west. They found a long corridor stretching north and south far into the darkness, and the western wall of this corridor was ornamented with decorative architecture that gave the impression of an ornate palace wall. They came to a rather fancy door, and Simon used his mind-reading amulet, sensing the bored minds of several creatures on guard duty. Gulleck knocked tentatively at the door, and the eerie hooting voice of a bugbear echoed back to him.
"What business do you have with Her Majesty, the Queen of Nightmares?"
"None!" blurted Gulleck in a hurry, and they all continued along to the north. They found a much plainer door in the west wall, and Gulleck attempted to open it but somehow managed to fail (she only fails on a 1 in 6 due to her gauntlets of ogre strength). Simon was concerned that the pounding on the door might have drawn attention (they were still too close to the Queen of Nightmare's palace for comfort) so he used the amulet again, and sensed several creatures on the other side who were preparing to ambush anyone who came in.
There was some debate over whether they could bluff their way in, and Orehoe even cast her Ventriloquism spell to try to make a bugbear voice (which she had only heard once in her life!) call out "They're probably friendly, why not let them in?" But the bugbear guards were not fooled by this nonsense.
"You sound ridiculous! Go away and stop bothering us!"
So they did, continuing their exploration to the north, beyond the palace. They came to a place where the hall opened into a large room. They peered into a ruined and wrecked feast hall and caught a glimpse of many white bones strewn among the rubble covering the floor and table. Before they had time to react to this sight, a surreal vocal harmony floated forth from the darkness. Several feminine voices joined to create a wordless song that saturated the air, overwhelming the senses of the adventurers. All rolled saving throws versus magic, and only Simon and Orin made their saves. A blank, enraptured mask fell over the faces of the others in the party, and they staggered slowly forward into the feast hall, the better to hear the entrancing song. Simon and Orin followed in nervous fear, and the light from Simon's sword fell upon five hideous creatures, half woman and half giant eagle. Their hair was tangled and matted with filth, and their faces were pale and drawn with hunger. The beauty of the song that pervaded this room was bizarrely incongruous with the hideous appearance of the creatures. Their hands were outstretched in long claws, and the party members were sleepwalking directly towards them.
Orin began speaking the words of the Sleep spell, and several of the monsters launched themselves into the air, flapping towards him on heavy wings. He completed his spell, and three of the fiends fell asleep where they were. Two sprawled across the table and chairs, and one fell out of the air and landed heavily on the floor. But another one raked him with her claws, for three hit points of damage (out of only four hit points he had!).
Now, this called for some DM judgment. The Basic rules are rather vague about how the harpies' charm effect works. Presumably the charm wears off if the harpy stops singing (the general rules about charm attack say, "The death of the charming monster will usually break this type of charm"). But are the party members charmed by all of the harpies at once, or an individual one? My thought was that this looked like a TPK in the works if all of the harpies had to be silenced in order for the rest of the party to snap out of it, so I decided that each character is charmed by a specific harpy, and I rolled a d6 for each charmed character, to see if "their" harpy was one of the three that had fallen asleep and ceased singing. This worked out well for the party: Gulleck, Caryatid, and Adrien all came to their senses and Caryatid was able to use her own Sleep spell to deal with the remaining two harpies. Gulleck wasted no time in putting the sleeping monsters to the axe.
Harpies are kind of like ghouls in that they are potentially a TPK because they have the potential to remove PCs from the entire combat. I'm not sure my ruling was the best way to handle it (I'm not sure it's thematically convincing for the PCs to snap out of it while the other two harpies are still singing), but I'm not sure Simon and Orin could have defeated the remaining two harpies on their own. I'm open to suggestions on a better way of handling the harpies' singing.
Amongst the filth and bones and rubble, the adventurers found three valuable pieces of treasure: a jeweled necklace and bracelet, and a gold and silver goblet, worth over 2,000 gold darics altogether. They quickly collected the treasure and the group made their way back to the surface, satisfied with their harrowing escape.
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