GURPS Free Cities Session 32: Back Into The Mines

Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (349 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (354 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (329 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (364 points)

Day 75 (Cont.):
Weather: Not a Cloud in the Sky
Date: Coreli 6th, 2526
With the battle over, Arc healed up the rest of the party, and Awakened Zaxod, who immediately fell unconscious again while trying to chase after the still-retreating orcs.  Mor'ath and Aurum searched the chief's hut, but only found a few coins.  Arc tried to heal one of the wounded ogres, but the ogre didn't let him come close, clearly not trusting his foul wizardry.  Another, particularly fat ogre, walked out of one of the animal hide huts carrying a crying orc baby, which it began to eat.

Thanks to Public Speaking, Arc managed to convince the ogres to not eat the babies, and they took their fill of the dead orcs instead.  He healed the bitten baby with the last of his FP, and then handed it off to a fleeing orc child before resting.  After a couple of minutes, a heavily-wounded orc berserker nearby woke up and started coughing up blood, and Arc went to help it, only for Mor'ath to try to finish it off.

Arc heroically jumped in front of Mor'ath's attack with a sacrificial dodge, and Mor'ath backed off.  10 minutes later, Zaxod woke up again (now at positive FP) and the argument over killing the orcs intensified.  Arc refused to back down, however, and Zaxod stormed off into the forest to rest and then head back to town on his own.

GURPS Free Cities Session 31: Battle At The Stone Axe Camp

Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (354 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (329 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (339 points)

Player Absent:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (349 points)

Day 74 (Cont.):
Weather: Sunny, No Wind
Date: Coreli 5th, 2526
After finishing off the last of the Stone Axe orcs, the party discussed what to do for several minutes, until Mor'ath got bored and started looting.  In addition to a pittance in coins, he also found Gili the dwarf, unconscious and bleeding out under a pile of bodies.  Arc stabilised her with Stop Bleeding, and they put her body onto the levitating disc.

Mor'ath went to find the horse that had ridden into town, Arc took Gili to the church to be healed, Zaxod held the western gate until reinforcements arrived, and Aurum went to the enchanter's shop to sell the lightning wand he had picked up in the mines near Carda several months ago.  In the town square, Mor'ath found the horse, but was unable to convince it to move.  As he struggled with default Animal Handling, Harthex arrived with a group of guards and asked him to gather the rest of the group to meet him in the square, and sent more guards out to reinforce the gates before heading north.

Once the team was assembled, Harthex informed them that they were going to have to "deal with" the orcs as soon as possible, and that the militia would now be raised indefinitely, halting construction of the town.  He threw a bag of coins containing their weekly pay to Arc, and returned to commanding guards.  The party returned to the mansion's dining room and discussed their options.

GURPS Free Cities Session 30: Battle With The Stone Axe Orcs

Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (329 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (329 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (339 points)

Player Absent:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (349 points)

Day 74 (Cont.):
Weather: Sunny, No Wind
Date: Coreli 5th, 2526
The orcs were arranged with the glaive-wielding cavalry and a shaman on the left flank, polearm-wielding footmen on the right, and archers protected by shieldbearers in the middle.  While the party debated what to do, the shaman cast several spells, and then the biggest orc, riding the biggest horse, blew a horn and the cavalry and flanking footmen began to charge while the archers nocked arrows.

The human guardsmen knelt down behind the 3' earthen wall to hide from the archers while waiting for orcs to come through the "gate", while the mounted orcs approached and strafed the wall, attacking Zaxod as they moved from left to right, breaking one of his axes in the process.  Aurum started casting Great Haste on Mor'ath, but took an arrow from the archers and lost concentration.

Arc cast Shield 4 on Zaxod, and then Major Healing after the big orc slashed the half-orc with his glaive.  Mor'ath moved to the right to deal with the footmen, two of whom tripped as they tried to jump over the wall, and parried and killed the third with his orichalcum saber before Aurum cast Panic, scaring one of the prone ones away.

GURPS Free Cities Session 29: Adventures in Bookkeeping

Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (349 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (329 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (339 points)

Player Absent:
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (329 points)

Day 73:
Weather: Slightly Cloudy, Light Winds
Date: Coreli 4th, 2526
The party paid Hue the Many-Coloured to send a Message to the Grand Library in Zerakim for more information on the "heyena", and slightly later decided to send another regarding Zaxod's sudden lack of hair.  While he was there, Zaxod got his new magical axe examined, and was informed that it could cast Continual Light if the dwarvish word "Lakhdan" ("light") was spoken.

Arc figured that they may as well go add some more stone to the wall keeping the ogres in, so he, Aurum, and Mor'ath headed west out of town after Zaxod repaired Aurum's staff.  Zaxod decided to stay in town to repair his gear and continue work on his meteoric morningstar.

An hour or so of walking later, Mor'ath spotted a group of orcs in front of the cave of the Blood Drinker ogres, and Arc, the only present party member who knows spoken Giant, listened in.  Apparently the orcs were supposed to be fetching the ogres, but were confused because they cave was supposed to be right here, by the crude drawing of the head drinking blood, but inside was just more stone.  After a while of arguing, they decided to head back to camp to trick some other orc into telling "Togdaz" about it.

GURPS Free Cities Session 28

Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (349 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (329 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (329 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (339 points)

Day 72 (Cont.):
Weather: Who Cares!  You're Two Miles Underground
Date: Coreli 3rd, 2526
After making sure the skeletons weren't coming back, the party finished their rest and then headed back to the black pudding room.  Mor'ath prodded the door with his trap-finding pole, and although the bottom half was bashed in, it was still able to mostly open.  Beyond the door was a hallway with two alcoves on either side containing stone statues of dwarves with glimmering red gems for eyes.  Further down, the hallway forked right.

They investigated the statues and noted what they were wielding, a maul, an axe and shield, a stone tablet, and hammer and chisel.  Aurum said that they should take the gems, but nobody else wanted to, and the party continued to the fork.  Straight ahead was a 2m wide 30ft deep pit with the cover melted off, which Arc tossed a loose stone down.  Near the bottom, the stone started slowly sliding through the air, revealing the hiding gelatinous cube, which Aurum then fried with many Fireballs.

While they debated how to cross, Mor'ath noticed another floor cover and hinge on the far side, and although he volunteered to scout solo (easy thanks to his Jumping), the party decided to head right.  The hallway continued off into darkness, with three exits each to the right and left.  As they approached, Arc and Mor'ath heard a chewing sound, and motioned for the group to stop.

Mor'ath headed off in Stealth mode, but Zaxod followed and the jingling of his mail armour gave them away as they turned the corner, revealing a small alcove lined with burial niches.  Two ghouls that had been eating a corpse stood and turned to attack, as Arc moved in to reinforce and Aurum charged a Fireball.

GURPS Free Cities Session 27: The Ride Never Ends

Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (343 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (329 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (329 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (339 points)

Day 72 (Cont.):
Weather: Who Cares!  You're Two Miles Underground
Date: Coreli 3rd, 2526
Mor'ath turned back to face the ooze and launched a series of attacks to little effect, while Zaxod continued running before looping back around to slam into it.  The slime didn't even try to dodge and melted through Zaxod's codpiece while taking almost no damage.  Zaxod followed Mor'ath's example, and the two managed to chop the ooze into a puddle before heading back to regroup.

Meanwhile, Aurum and Arc were still hiding, when they heard a scratching noise through the wall behind them.  Figuring it might be a secret door, they looked around, but were unable to find anything.  Mor'ath and Zaxod came back and informed them of their grand victory, and Aurum used Shape Earth to gouge a 1m deep "doorway" into the wall, but it didn't go all the way through.  The scratching stopped, and the party rested for a while.

They headed back to the sliding door that was spiked closed, and Mor'ath removed the piton, allowing it to open.  Beyond was a small burial chamber with two sarcophagi and several burial alcoves.  The first sarcophagus was decorated with a tree relief filled with silver, while the second had the design of a mountain.  Zaxod was unable to place the symbols, but was fairly certain that they were heraldic.  Aurum wanted to open them, but none of the others wanted to graverob, so they moved on.

Back in the room where the ooze had attacked, Mor'ath noticed that the "dead end" was actually a thinner portion of wall that could be broken through by tapping it with his trap-finding pole.  Zaxod tried to push it down, but when that failed he ran headlong into it, and managed to kool-aid man his way through.  On the other side was a four-way intersection of hallway, an open pit on the left with an iron door slightly further down, and a group of half a dozen skeletons on the right.

The skeletons attacked, some coming back into the ooze room before Arc used True Faith, while others surrounded Zaxod.  All of them were quickly dispatched quickly, and Arc noticed that there was a troll in the bottom of the open pit.  Aurum lit it on fire for a minute or so and it burned to ash.

The party retreated back into the ooze room and rested for a while, before hopping over the pit and opening the door, causing some water from behind to spill out and into the pit.  Beyond the door was a large room with an inch of water on the floor, which narrowed to a hallway with several closed doors on both sides.

Mor'ath noted a hidden panel with a hinge where water was flowing, and pushed it back, revealing a waist-high passage into a room with two beds, two unlabelled potions (one clear, one with red pigment that had separated), two ancient sets of stoneworker's tools, a sledgehammer, and 10m of (surprisingly intact) rope.  Aurum took the potions and they headed down the hallway to the first door on the left.

GURPS Free Cities Session 26: I Want To Get Off Of Mr. Ooze's Wild Ride

Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (343 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (329 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (329 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (339 points)

Day 72 (Cont.):
Weather: Who Cares!  You're Two Miles Underground
Date: Coreli 3rd, 2526
Zaxod lifted the portcullis on the far side of the room they were in to see if he could, and noted that there was an intact stone door and another doorway surrounded by stone rubble, but the party decided to go through the iron double doors in the first room instead.

Mor'ath opened one, and found a room with a large, vandalized statue of a dwarf, which Arc identified as the dwarven god Moradin thanks to Theology, four large stone pillars with empty vertical sarcophagi, and five "dwarves", four armoured but without gloves, and one in clerical robes, with deathly pale skin and milky white eyes clawing a troll that was lying on the ground.

Mor'ath, Zaxod, and Aurum moved into the room, and then Arc made spectacular use of his True Faith, forcing the "zombies" to the far side of the room, near another set of iron double doors.  Mor'ath moved up to engage the "cleric" while Zaxod bashed the troll's head in just to make sure it wasn't getting up any time soon.  Aurum started casting Great Haste for Zaxod, and Arc stepped slowly into the room while Concentrating.

The "zombies" opened one of the doors on the far side and started to retreat further from Arc, but Mor'ath approached the cleric, which tried to claw him but fell prone instead, and then stabbed it in the eye (to little effect) before it could escape.  Great Hasted, Zaxod drew a throwing axe, ran up to the cleric, and threw it at him before continuing after the retreating zombies.  Aurum started roasting the troll with a Flame Jet, to make double sure, while Arc continued walking and the "zombies" retreated further.

Zaxod drew his great axe and then followed the "zombies" into the new room.  It was roughly 50'x10', with 3 small alcoves on both the left and right sides.  He caught up to the zombies and cut one in the torso but barely managed to wound it, and, having overextended, Zaxod was encircled by the zombies, who moved into close combat to grab him.  The troll disintegrated into ash, and Aurum started charging a Fireball, while Mor'ath moved on to help Zaxod, and warned Arc and Aurum to be careful.

Noticing that the zombies' hands were unarmoured, Zaxod began severing them at the wrist despite penalties, though they seemed largely unaffected by this.  One managed to touch Zaxod (with a broken, but not dismembered, hand), and though it bounced off of his armour, he felt a chill and lost 1FP as it drew his life energy away.  Mor'ath arrived and started joining in the hand removal, which was suddenly far more effective once he remembered that his saber was silver-coated, while Aurum landed a Fireball and lit the cleric on fire, eventually causing it to burn to death.

Arc continued forward, and the rest of the "zombies" were defeated without issue.  The party returned to the statue room, where Aurum noticed that the statue's eyes were gems and Gizmo'd a dagger to pop them loose.  The party closed the door into the room that the "zombies" had retreated into and rested for a while.  After about thirty minutes, several pale dwarves with rotting flesh and long limbs opened up another door, but retreated away once Arc activated True Faith.  The party withdrew to the portcullis room, and Zaxod lifted it so they could rest behind it.

GURPS Free Cities Session 25: The Wall Just Got 10 Feet Thicker

Party:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (340 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (329 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (339 points)

Player Absent:
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (323 points)

Day 70 (Cont.):

Weather: Sunny, Light Clouds

Date: Coreli 1st, 2526

The party returned to Chryssa's Rest and noticed that there were short earthen walls around some of the town, as well as stakes with Continual Light cast on them lying 10, 20, and 30 meters out.  They refilled power items, and decided against trying to get the Skull Crusher ogres on their side, as they figured they would be too stupid to understand what the Blood Drinkers had done.

Eventually, they decided to go find where the Night Wolf orcs had their camp to the south.  After finding them, they'd come back with Jaron so that he could help patch their relationship.

Day 71:
Weather: Overcast
Date: Coreli 2nd, 2526
They picked up the trail to the southern plains and followed it for several hours, until Arc saw a group of orcs leading a mule off in the distance.  Mor'ath Camouflaged them under a fallen tree, and they watched as the orcs approached.  As they got closer, Arc was able to spot that they were wearing the same heavy dwarven armour with a crude symbol of a wolf howling at the moon as the Night Wolves who had come into town to trade.  As the orcs came closer, the lead orc spotted them and asked who was hiding there in Giant.

Arc stepped out, and explained that they were agents of Chryssa's Rest, and were trying to find the orcs and apologize so that they would come back to town.  Another, shorter orc responded that they were already on their way there, and then left, taking a wide berth around the party's cover.  Arc waited until the orcs were gone and then started following the new tracks, and a hour later the party lost the trail in an area of plains with a rock outcropping and a small copse of trees nearby.

After a quick look around, Arc noticed that part of the outcropping was loose, and with a bit of force from Zaxod, was shoved aside to reveal a tunnel down.  Content that they had found the Night Wolves' base, they headed back to Chryssa's Rest.

They arrived, and found that Jaron and Harthex were talking with the orcs in the middle of town.  Not one for talking to orcs, Zaxod went on a walk around town and ran into the swordswoman Vel.  They briefly discussed recent happenings before Zaxod left to go patrol away from the beautiful woman.

Meanwhile, Harthex, who couldn't speak Giant, left the negotiating to Jarron and informed Arc that the Night Wolves mostly wanted to trade old weapons and armour in exchange for food, and negotiations seemed to be going well.  Harthex went to go fetch a smith to examine the equipment to see if it would be worthwhile, and the party regrouped.

With a bit of spare time left in the day, but not enough to do anything about either of the remaining orc tribes, they decided to go back to the Blood Drinkers' cave and add some more stone to the wall.  Arc listened through Mor'aths spy horn and heard impacts through the stone, and Aurum added another 1.5 meters before they headed back.

Back at Chryssa's Rest, they found that the militia had been raised again, and were informed that trolls had emerged from the mine shortly after they had left, but had been repulsed without any casualties.  The party continued on to the mansion and discussed the attack with the other adventurers, where they found out that six trolls had attacked, and that Trugal the halfling was annoyed that he hadn't managed to kill any because he didn't have any fire sources.

GURPS Free Cities Session 24

Party:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (337 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (329 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (323 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (339 points)

Day 69:
Weather: Perfect
Date: Khalis 48th, 2525
The party ran towards the horn in the north while the other adventurers headed south, and any townsfolk that were still outside this late fled to the nearest building.  Arc cast Continual Light on a nearby rock to be able to see better ("Why didn't you just cast it on your holy symbol that you wear around your neck?" "...Right."), and Mor'ath, who is by far the fastest, arrived at the ditch at the edge of the town to see that five ogres had just killed the two guards stationed there.

Instead of attacking them, he crouched behind a pile of lumber to see what they did next, as there was still lots of distance between them and the nearest civilian.  Thanks to his elven eyes, he noted that they had symbols of cracked and/or split skulls on their armour.  The biggest ogre, and the only one wearing armour, pointed around and yelled at the others in some language that Mor'ath didn't know.

The ogres let out a battle cry and charged towards the town while splitting up into two groups.  Zaxod heard this, though he could not see them, and took up an ambush position behind a house, while Arc and Aurum tried to catch up.  The ogres saw Arc's brilliant light and fixated on it, letting out a scream of "Blood Drinkers kill you all!" in Giant as they charged.  Aurum tried to take cover behind a house while Arc cast Shield 5, threw his light-rock as far as he could, and then cast Continual Light on his holy symbol and readied his urgrosh.

Mor'ath quickly checked the guards to see the extent of their wounds and found that one was cut in half at the waist, and that the other's head had been crushed.  He charged after the smaller group of ogres while still being somewhat stealthy (-5 for going faster than Move 1 isn't a big deal when you have Stealth-18), and as the ogres passed Zaxod's hiding place he readied his great axe and did the same.  Whether due to dumb luck, or dumb ogres, he also wasn't noticed.

Arc charged the ogres, while Aurum continued hiding for a bit longer.  The big ogre lagged behind his less-encumbered fellows, and Zaxod ambushed him with a devastating swing to the skull.  The ogre, howling in pain, turned around and slammed his own great axe into Zaxod's torso, doing over 30 damage.  The two ogres tried to slam Arc, but he successfully dodged, and landed a hit to the back of one's head as they passed him.

Aurum came out of his hiding place and cast Panic on the flanking ogres, causing them to flee back out of town, screaming in terror.  Zaxod shattered the big ogre's right leg with two heavy swings, and turned to join Arc, while Mor'ath ran past the fleeing ogres and towards the others.

Arc finished one ogre off as the other moved to attack him, and the big ogre started crawling after Zaxod.  Aurum started charging a Fireball, but Mor'ath got to the last standing ogre first, and stabbed it through the eyes, directly into the brain, killing it.  Frustrated, he launched the fireball at the big ogre, but it still took another blow to the head from Zaxod to finish it off.

Arc healed up Zaxod, and the party moved to the North gate to hold it in case the two ogres came back.  One did, and was very quickly killed after it slammed past Zaxod and was attacked from four directions at once, but the other one seemed to be gone for good.  They held the perimeter until another guard came over to get an update for Harthex, and after briefly mourning the loss of his two fellow guardsmen, ran back towards the mansion.

Several minutes later, Harthex came back with two more guards and told the party that they could rest, as the militia would be raised and on alert for the rest of the night.  Zaxod went back to grab a chair and then spent the night out with the militia, while the rest of the group got a good night's sleep.

GURPS Free Cities Session 23: To Chryssa's Rest

Party:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (334 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (324 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (318 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (333 points)

Day 52 (Flashback):
Date: Khalis 31st, 2525
Weather: Perfect
Arc was in the infirmary of the arena, working on wounded competitors.  He had just finished stabilizing a noble with a missing arm when he heard a scream of rage from around the corner, where another fighter had woken up mid-surgery and begun strangling the surgeon working on him.  Arc asked the Berserk fighter to calm down, and he miraculously did.

Day 53 (Cont.):
Weather: Overcast, No Rain
Aurum and Zaxod watched the fight between Mor'ath and Roberto intently, as Aurum had bet 10 gold coins ($1,000) on Mor'ath to win.  Meanwhile, Arc was elbow-deep in a half-orc's chest in the infirmary.  The warrior had refused to yield until he had fallen unconscious, and his left arm and right leg were almost dismembered.  Despite this, Arc was able to stop the internal bleeding and repair the limbs, saving the half-orc's life.

In the arena, Mor'ath and Roberto continued their duel.  After dodging another stab to the eyes, Roberto foolishly exclaimed that he had seen through Mor'ath's trick in the earlier rounds, and wouldn't be blinded like the rest of his foes.  Mor'ath switched tactics and cut off Roberto's sword-hand, but instead of yielding, he continually attempted to grapple onto Mor'ath with his one remaining hand.  Roberto failed repeatedly, and yielded after taking another severe wound, winning Aurum $200.

During the last battle of the day, an older man approached Aurum in the stands and made pleasant conversation.  He claimed to be a scholar who was in-town to do research at the Grand Library, but was taking a break to watch the tournament.  Aurum decided to verify this by asking him obscure questions about the origins of the Grand Library, and was satisfied with the answers he gave.  The two watched the last fight, and Gauthak the Goliath won easily.

Day 54:
Weather: Overcast
The tournament was down to only four competitors.  The first fight, featuring the one-eyed High Elf Seriel and the swordswoman Alayne, lasted for quite some time until Alayne shield-rushed and knocked Seriel off her feet.  Shortly after, Mor'ath and Gauthak entered the arena for the last fight of the day.  Aurum was looking to continue his win streak and bet $1,000 on Mor'ath to win.

Mor'ath hung back and Evaluated while Gauthak closed the distance between them in a defensive stance.  After some more manoeuvering, Gauthak stepped in, Feinted, and then made two swings at Mor'ath's skull.  The first was parried with a little Luck, but the second was a critical, and knocked Mor'ath unconscious.  Meanwhile, Aurum tore his gambling ticket to shreds in the stands.

Arc healed Mor'ath's wounds with mundane healing in the infirmary, and with Major Healing once back at the Blue Pheasant Inn.

GURPS Free Cities Session 22: The Grand Tournament Begins

Party:
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (314 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (320 points)

Players Absent:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (330 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (322 points)

Day 50:
Weather: Sunny
The party went to the arena first thing in the morning, and Mor'ath, and Zaxod were ushered into a side-entrance along with several other combatants to join up with the rest of their team for the melees, Chimera.   Arc was lead to the infirmary, and Aurum went into the stands to watch.  As the rest of Team Chimera arrived, Zaxod recognized Roberto, a pirate from his mercenary days, and Mor'ath talked to a goliath saber-wielder, who turned out to also be a practitioner of Red Cloak style.  Several competitors from Team Gryphon came by to antagonize them, and Mor'ath told one that he would kill him tomorrow.

Shortly after, Team Chimera entered the arena to great fanfare, opposite Team Dragon.  Looking around, it seemed as if the arena floor had been restructured to resemble a village.  High above, in the Autarch's box, Chancellor Spiros announced the 253rd Khalisfall Tournament open to the cheering crowd, and the first melee began.

The two teams rushed towards each other, and somehow, two elves with spears managed to flank Zaxod and Mor'ath.  Zaxod took a big hit to the vitals and was knocked down, while Mor'ath parried his opponent and then stabbed him in the eye.  Zaxod defended himself and made it to his feet, but was then forced away by a pair of swordsmen.  Mor'ath picked another target and blinded him, while Zaxod forced his way through to the spear elf only to overextend himself.  Luckily, the elf stumbled and lost his balance before he could capitalize, and Zaxod took the elf down with a heavy blow from one of his axes.

The rest of their team had been equally successful, and only Zaxod and one other teammate, a half-orc wielding a maul, required medical attention.  In the wake of their success, Roberto suggested that they meet up tonight at the Blue Pheasant and party, as they would obviously win their second melee the next day.  Several combatants bought healing potions (25% off for the tournament!), and the team went into the stands to watch the second fight.

In the intermission, a group of wizards shaped the floor of the arena, dismantling the village into sand and ruins.  The second melee, between teams Gryphon and Manticore, lasted longer than the first, and left many injured, but ultimately went to the nobles of Gryphon.  Back at the Blue Pheasant, Zaxod got Arc to patch him up while most of the team celebrated their victory.  Mor'ath partied a bit too hard, and ended up losing some sleep.

GURPS Free Cities Session 21: The Third Asilos Raid

Party:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (330 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (322 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (308 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (320 points)

Day 47
Weather: Sunny
After Arc lamented missing the sunrise due to the party's escapades the night before, he set about healing the rest of the party and was eventually successful.  They decided to arrange for a meeting with the Grand Autarch to discuss the Asilos' plans to summon a war devil, but went to the Grand Library of Bazionax to make copies of the rituals they had discovered first.  Mor'ath hung around outside and heard a rumour from a group of guards that the Autarch's cousin, Morthos, was possessed by a war devil.

They met with the old clerk again, but after a while of searching discovered that all eight of the books they wanted were currently being viewed by someone else.  Aurum tried to do some Research on devils, but critically failed at Speed-Reading and wasted the next 8 hours, becoming crosseyed (-2 Perception, -2 to attacks) for the next day in the process.

Meanwhile, Zaxod and Mor'ath went to the Autarch's Palace on the western side of Zerakim to set up a meeting with the Autarch, and eventually made it past the heavily-armoured guards at the main gate.  With a two-man escort, they made their way up the hill, past the Game of Thrones betrayal garden, and into the palace proper.

The guards showed them to Chamberlain Wilt, and Zaxod made their claim that the Asilos were planning on summoning a devil.  While the chamberlain seemed to take their claim seriously, he also demanded evidence.  Sadly, without anything more than "a man was kidnapped but doesn't remember anything" and "we will have copies of the rituals later", Wilt declined to schedule an emergency meeting, and informed them that the earliest they could meet was in two weeks.  Zaxod and Mor'ath started back to the Grand Library, defeated.

Arc had been waiting patiently inside the Grand Library for several hours when the clerk finally informed him that the person who had their books was finished.  At the same time, a male tiefling in noble's clothes walked out the main entrance.  Arc, worried that this might be another ally of the man in blue decided to follow him after asking the clerk to hold the books.  Arc noticed that despite his noble bearing, the tiefling was built like a soldier (Zaxod: "So he's a beefling?"), and trailed him all the way across Zerakim, to a guardhouse on the outer wall of the Autarch's Palace.  Worried that they may be about to butt heads with a major conspiracy, he then headed back towards the Grand Library.

Zaxod and Mor'ath arrived at the Grand Library and were greeted by the clerk, who informed them that their books were available and that their mail-wearing friend had left.  They thanked him, and tried to find Aurum, but the library was huge and he clearly didn't want to be interrupted.  They argued about hiring a scribe to copy the information they needed, but realised that they didn't know what parts of the books were important, and that copying all 8 books in their entirety would take too long (though Mor'ath did suggest hiring 100 scribes to copy everything).  With nothing left to do but wait, Mor'ath grabbed a book of Elven poetry while Zaxod twiddled his thumbs.  Eventually, Arc arrived back at the Grand Library and informed them of the tiefling.

Several hours after sunset, Aurum finally emerged from his hidey-hole and came out to copy down the 5 pages they needed.  The party headed back to the Blue Pheasant to rest, and made plans to recruit Katerina's brother, whose name they forgot, to see if his noble rank would help speed things along.  After looking through their "notes" they eventually figured out that they had recorded his name as "Lizard-cus" (actually Photios Lezarios), and settled in for the night.

GURPS Free Cities Session 20: An Eventful Night

Party:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (326 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (318 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (298 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (316 points)
Aegert the Green - Human Apprentice (~125 points)

Day 46 (Cont.)
Weather: Cloudy, Rainy
Time: 1AM
Zaxod and Mor'ath regrouped with the rest of the party at the Lazy Dragon Inn nearby, and they planned when to make their next move.  After Arc healed up Zaxod and rested for a while, they took a look over at the Asilos estate and noticed that there were more guard patrols.  With the goal of extracting Leonidas Marinos, they went back to the rear wall of the estate to infiltrate it with the whole party (minus Aegert, who was incapable of stealth and unsuited to combat) this time.

Zaxod was Levitate'd by Aurum while he rode the levitating disc which was following Mor'ath.  Arc waited for Mor'ath to drop Aurum off inside of the wall, and then loop back over with the disc to pick him up.

However, the party got confused and after about 20 seconds of discussion, a pair of guards with halberds came around the corner, noticed Aurum and Zaxod floating just off the ground and 9' in the air, respectively, and sounded the alarm, calling for crossbows.  Zaxod responded by yelling out that he was a demon, here to eat their babies, hoping to distract the guards.  Aurum then moved Zaxod through an open second story window and cancelled his spell, while Mor'ath found a back door and tried to force it.

Zaxod jumped back out the window and landed on the ground beside Mor'ath, who was now picking the lock, and Aurum, who got off the disc.  The guards held their distance while calling out the party's movements ("There's one inside the second floor, no wait he jumped out, okay now they're opening the back door"), and Arc waited patiently, knowing that Mor'ath would quickly come back over the wall to bring him over.

Mor'ath finally got the back door open and they rushed into what was apparently the kitchen.  Aurum quickly locked the door behind them, and they moved through the first floor of the house to the basement, avoiding any more guards through a combination of luck, speed, and stealth.  They made their way down to the basement room where Leonidas was being kept, and Mor'ath picked the cell lock and Zaxod put the unconscious noble on the disc.  Meanwhile, Arc headed back to the Lazy Dragon to meet up with Aegert, having realized that the party had abandoned him.

GURPS Free Cities Session 19

Party:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (322 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (318 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (316 points)

Player Absent:
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (298 points)

Day 44 (Cont.)

Weather: Sunny

Aurum, suddenly and mysteriously back from the nega-zone, asked Andreas Spiros if there was anything he could do for the tournament.  After being told that there were already trusted people who would take care of refereeing and gambling, he got desperate and almost offered to sell snacks.  Thankfully, he remembered that he Hates Merchants and decided not to become one.

While they were walking around, Arc noticed a man in a blue robe, rudely (and obviously) ran through the crowd to catch up to him, and asked if he was, by chance, part of a group looking into large magical metal slabs.  The man replied nervously that, no, he wasn't, so Arc let him go and apologised.  

Just as shops were closing, Zaxod bought some raw silver to edge his axe, and with that done, the rest of the day was spent helping heal the injured in the streets/playing knife games in the Blue Pheasant inn.

Day 45

Weather: Cloudy, Windy

With 5 days to go until the tournament, the party lazed around.  Arc continued helping the downtrodden, while Zaxod and Aurum hung out in the inn.  Aurum tried to find out some local rumours, but everyone was too busy talking about the tournament.  Eventually, Zaxod was forced to leave out of embarrassment after some of the attractive female tournament competitors tried to talk to him.

Day 46

Weather: Cloudy, Rainy

With 4 more days until the tournament, and too many attractive women in the tavern (stupid sexy elves...), Zaxod badgered the rest of the party into getting some work.  They went to the local Adventurer's Guild, where Zaxod introduced himself as "the Leader of Team Chimera for the tournament" while proudly wearing his red tabard, and they accepted a job to find a missing nobleman named Leonidas Marinos for 20 gold coins ($2,000).

As the party made their way to the noble district, they noticed that the number of tieflings increased until they were about as common as humans.  There were also many more guards, though few on patrol, and nearly all wore the heraldry of some noble house or another.  Most of the noble estates were designed similarly: a 9' wall made from the same red stone as everything else, and an inner estate, with many open-air rooms.  Eventually, they made it to the Marinos estate, where they met Leonidas' wife, Katerina, and her brother, Photios Lezarios, who was comforting her. 

She explained that the guards had seen her husband leave the night before to play cards with some friends, including Photios, at the Emerald Alehouse, but  had never returned home.  They questioned Katerina (who turned out to be surprisingly accepting of half-orcs) about jealous rivals, disowned children seeking inheritance, and various other common reasons for someone to be kidnapped, but came up dry.

The party left, along with Photios, to investigate the Emerald Alehouse.  On the way, Photios told them that he knew where Leonidas had gone, but that he could not tell Katerina, because she had a tendency to over-react (such as putting out a $2,000 reward to find someone who had been missing for less than a day).  Lymia, an old mistress of Leonidas', had came to the Alehouse the night before and ran into him after years away from Zerakim.  The two left late into the night, and the rest of the group had been too drunk/focused on the cards to care.

At the Alehouse, Arc questioned the innkeeper, and then a serving girl about Lymia and Leonidas.  The girl mentioned that Lymia had rented a room here with a man in a blue robe, but that neither had been staying there.  After a description of the man in blue, it seemed likely that he was the same person they had run into near the arena two days prior.

The serving girl also mentioned that she had overheard Lymia and the man talking about work for "Asilos", which Zaxod figured probably meant the noble house of Asilos thanks to Heraldry.  Photios confirmed that house Asilos were trade rivals with house Marinos, but their relationship wasn't considered so negative as to warrant violence.

Arc successfully persuaded the girl to let them see the rented room, and the party found that there were indeed no signs of it being lived in for the last week.  With new intelligence, the party asked Photios to lead them to the Asilos estate, but he declined, explaining that if he went with him, they would be barred entry.

So, without noble influence, the group went to the Asilos estate, and managed to talk their way into a meeting with Lord Riffin Asilos, the lord of the house.  They were brought to a pleasant outdoor sitting room where a fat man, Lord Riffin, relaxed on a recliner drinking wine.  Arc was frustratingly Honest during their discussion, and upon hearing that they were here looking for Leonidas, Lord Riffin threw them out.  While the guards forced them towards the exit, Zaxod shouted "DO YOU KNOW ANYBODY NAMED LYMIA OR A GUY WHO WEARS A BLUE CLOAK?", but Riffin didn't react in any perceivable way.

With that botched, the party struggled to figure out what to do next.  They came up with a plan to get the Asilos guards drunk, and found out that a lot of guards drink at the Greasy Spigot after work, but shelved that for later.

Eventually, Arc realised that the man in blue had likely been on his way back from the Grand Library of Bazionax on the eastern side of town when they first came across him, and the party headed over there to ask around.  At the Grand Library, they found a hunched old clerk who had helped the man in blue find several books on "history and whatnot".  After complaining that more wizards these days should learn about that kind of thing, he lead them into the library to find the books the man in blue had requested.

Aurum began reading and quickly established a pattern connecting the books.  They all contained sections about the Athaeneum, an ancient group of wizards that devised many different summoning rituals for devils, one of whom had founded the Grand Library.  Of worrying frequency was a ritual to summon a War Devil, which required a human sacrifice and specific planetary alignment that would occur in two days.  With that knowledge, the party asked if the clerk knew of any diviners, and were directed to Aegert the Green, who they hired to help confirm Leonidas was being held hostage before they made their move.

With Aegert in tow, Arc returned to the Marinos estate near sunset to grab a personal object to aid in the scrying, and ended up taking Leonidas' signet ring.  Meanwhile Zaxod and Aurum found an inn near to the Asilos estate, and rented a room.  The party regrouped in the inn, and Aegert attempted to cast Seeker, but failed.  He then suggested waiting until slightly later at night, so that he could cast Wizard Eye with less chance of being noticed.

While the rest of the party waited, Mor'ath and Aurum went to the Greasy Spigot, where Mor'ath successfully chatted up some guards and confirmed that both Lymia and the man in blue were working for Lord Riffin on some "secret wizard bullshit".  Around midnight, Aurum and Mor'ath returned to the inn, and Aegert cast Wizard Eye and infiltrated the compound.  Through sheer luck, he managed to find his way through several open doors, and observed the man in blue and Lymia readying a ritual space in the basement, which matched those Aurum had seen in the books earlier.

To get a better look at the inside of the compound, Mor'ath went in, with Zaxod as backup.  Mor'ath easily scaled the walls and attached a rope, but Zaxod struggled, yelled at the wall due to his Bad Temper, and eventually made it over.  Mor'ath then stealthily avoided the guards, maneuvered into the main building, and found a guest room with various books full of arcane gobbledegook (later confirmed to match the rituals from the library), a closed door with three faint voices from the room beyond (an older male, a younger male, and a woman), and lastly, a locked room containing an unconscious man matching the appearance of Leonidas Marinos inside of a locked cell.

Mor'ath noticed that Leonidas had been drugged and put to sleep, and tried picking the lock several times, but eventually gave up and headed back out, again without incident.  Zaxod again struggled over the wall and this time attracted the attention of a halberd-wielding guard.  After two more failed attempts, the guard had closed and was yelling for backup and for Zaxod to stay down, but Mor'ath climbed back up and over the wall and grappled the guard before he could swing.

The guard broke free, but Mor'ath put him in a choke hold and Zaxod punched him unconscious, just as more guards were rounding the corner.  Zaxod ran around the estate, past a group of guards (one of whom hit him with a halberd), out the main gate, and off into the night.

Notes:

Another almost entirely roleplaying session, with only one combat, which doesn't even really count.

Aurum almost missed out on roleplaying XP by trying to get a job as a snack vendor (aka a merchant, which he hates) during the tournament.  His plan was to try to approach nobles to bankroll his dream of building a flying golden castle/wizard school while disguised.

The skill to gamble during the tournament is Games (Combat Sports) rather than Gambling.  Success picks out the likely winner, while Failure means you are unsure.  Crit Failure means I lie.

Detect Lies came up a lot today, but nobody has it.  Arc has Per 14, but even then he's rolling against 8.

Zaxod's Fear of Romance, negative Appearance, and Social Stigma all came up a lot today.

Mor'ath is the one who usually keeps notes, so the party had a fun time recording all the names and relationships.

A lot of the names are hard to remember, which lead to fun pronunciations.  People were referred to as "Brother-Man" or "The Assloads".

Clerics are not usually recognised in Zerakim, and when they are, they're frowned upon for causing more trouble than they solve.  Arc, however, has started to chisel out a positive reputation amongst the poor of the city.

Arc tried to figure out why an entire city might be Low Sanctity, but came up dry.  He took a sample of the red stone to see if it might be the culprit.

Aurum crit a Research roll, so they know almost exactly what they're going up against, and how much time they have left.

Aegert is a human wizard in his mid-twenties, as so many adventurers are. He wears green robes, is almost worthless in combat, and often says "I knew you'd say that!" while talking to people.

It took a lot of time to find exactly what spell they needed to cast in order to find Leonidas, and then it failed anyway.  Oh well.

Forgot the Choke Hold rules, but it didn't matter anyway.

Zaxod was actually a hindrance on the stealth mission due to his natural enemy: the slightly-too-high to climb with ST-based Climbing wall.  Meanwhile, Mor'ath has Climbing-18, and can easily climb just about anything.

A big part of the session was verifying that they had the right information, so Arc could be 100% certain that they were morally correct in attacking a noble house.

The halbardier did 11 damage after armour, but that's nothing to Zaxod.  It doesn't even cause a knockdown check.

XP:

1 for general progress

1 for roleplaying

0 for the hardest fight (2v1 against a terribly under-powered opponent)

0 for loot

0 for quests (they're not done yet)

MVP went to Arc for filling in as the face

GURPS Free Cities Session 18: Leaving Adusia

Party:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (318 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (298 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (304 points)
Farric - Elven Bard NPC (??? points)
Herral - Human Hunter NPC (??? points)

Player Absent (In The Nega-Zone):
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (303 points)

Day 29 (Cont.)
Weather: Rainy and Windy
After finishing off the demons, Arc healed everybody up to walking condition, and they continued on through the forest, with Farric riding the levitating disk.  Once Herral had set up camp, Arc then finished healing everyone, including himself, back up to full, and Zaxod's blinded eye successfully recovered.

Day 30-33
The rain continued and escalated into a heavy storm that lasted for three days.  On the second day, the strong winds unearthed a boulder, which rolled down a hill and hit Zaxod in the stomach, but fortunately the rest of the trip was uneventful.  By morning on the fourth day, the weather had cleared up, and shortly before sunset they made it back to Cosium.

The party took Herral to the Wench and Flail inn, where they met with the hunters Brim and Aldric, who were happy to see their companion alive.  They thanked the party, and sent the carrier pigeon back to the Adventurer's Guild in Adusia, marking the mission as complete.  While all this was happening, Farric apparently left the party, though nobody noticed until well after he was gone.

Mor'ath hung around the Wench and Flail and learned that some blue-robed strangers had been around, asking after some sort of magic artifact, and informed the rest of the party of his discovery.

Arc asked Herral if he would teach him some wilderness skills (in particular, Tracking and Survival (Woodland)), which the hunter agreed to.  They trained over the next two days, while Zaxod purchased some leather and began making some gloves.

Day 34
Weather: Sunny
After Arc finished up his training in the morning, the party travelled back to Adusia to see about travelling to Zerakim for the tournament they had heard about when last they were in town, and to destroy the unholy items they had gathered in their journey.

Mor'ath split off to sell the bronze necklace he had squirrelled away, but was disappointed when it was only worth $5, while Arc and Zaxod went to the church of Pelor and burned the hobgoblins' spear, necklace, and flail.  The high priest then informed them that the priests had continued research of the Nexus of Creation.  While they had not discovered how to use its powers, they confirmed that it was enchanted with many, many spells, and that it was made of pure adamantium.

Zaxod overheard this, and immediately asked to destroy the Nexus to use the raw metal to make weapons and armour, but was overruled by Arc and the high priest, who were against desecrating an artifact forged by the gods themselves ("What if destroying it releases hell or something?" "I'll hit it with my axe!").

The party then headed back to the Adventurer's Guild to pick up their pay, and Mor'ath asked the man working the desk about the blue-robed men.  The guilder had seen them several days ago, and recalled that they were apparently looking for a magical artifact and were likely wizards.  Mor'ath then went to a local enchanter and confirmed that the blue-robed men were indeed after an enchanted, blue metal slab.

With this new intel and their pay, the party then spent the night at the Crimson Boot tavern.

Day 35
Weather: Sunny
The party went to the church and got the Nexus back from the priests.  Arc promised to the high priest that he would not lose it, and they made their final purchases in Adusia.  Later in the day, they found passage to Zerakim aboard the merchant freighter "Trident" for a modest fee, and set sail that evening.

Mor'ath asked around the crew a bit and found out that the current grand champion of the arena for the last three years was a man named Morthos, cousin to the Autarch of Zerakim, who fights with a magical, flaming sword.

Day 36-43
The trip to Zerakim went smoothly, with no pirates or sea monsters attacking the Trident.

Day 44
Weather: Sunny
In the afternoon, the party arrived in the port of Zerakim, and upon stepping ashore, Arc noticed that the city was apparently entirely Low Sanctity.  This would would partially explain why the priests looked down on the city (and vice versa).  It was also immediately obvious that Zerakim had a higher-than-normal population of Tieflings, about one-in-ten instead of the usual one-in-two-hundred or less.

The party set about finding accommodations for the duration of the tournament, and settled on the Blue Pheasant inn, which was a popular spot for competitors due to its proximity to the arena.  Mor'ath met with several other fighters for brief introductions before heading off to the arena to sign up.

They arrived to a crowded square with a small line in front of a noble tiefling, and after waiting for a few minutes, Mor'ath and Zaxod were signed up to join Team Chimera, with the first of the melees beginning in six days.  The tiefling, named Andreas Spiros, explained the rules and layout of the tournament, as well as the prize: a chest full of 1,000 gold coins ($100,000).

Arc declined to fight, but asked about being a healer for the tournament, and was surprised when Spiros inquired as to what his experience was, given how clearly he displayed the trappings of the church of Pelor.  He explained that he was a talented surgeon, and also capable of healing magic, but was informed that such spells were forbidden during the tournament, even if it would mean losing a life that could otherwise be saved.

Notes:
Rolled no random encounters for 8 rolls straight, which made the trip back a tad boring.

Herral's skillset was quite useful, and managed to shorten their travel time by about 20%.

Arc has wanted to learn Tracking and Survival for weeks, but needed a trainer, as they weren't on his template.

It was noted that their rescue job actually cost them money, because of how much upkeep they'd have to spend.  They could have made more if they'd successfully identified and sold the "unholy" items, but burning them got them goods from the church instead.

Zaxod bought a loincloth to protect his unarmoured groin after discovering how easy it is to target.

Zerakim is primarily built of a muddy red-coloured stone.  The Autarch's Palace is built into a mountain to the west that overlooks the rest of the city.  The arena stands in the center of Zerakim, and its 50-foot walls are visible from almost anywhere in the city, as most buildings are only 1-2 stories.

Clerics are frowned upon in Zerakim because their powers become less reliable unless they're very powerful, which makes training initiates much harder.  Arc is one of few who can still cast more than half the time.

The other competitors they met in Zerakim were all Adventurer's Guild members.  A female high elf who wields a spear and wears an eye-patch, a female half-elf with a broadsword, and a male half-elf with a flail.

There are 4 teams in the tournament, each of which have a different-coloured tabard to identify them:
-Team Chimera is red, consists of Adventurer's Guilders, and typically performs very well
-Team Dragon is green, and its members are any fighters who are unassociated with the other groups
-Team Gryphon is blue, and consists of junior nobles, who are typically second-place after Chimera
-Team Manticore is yellow, and its members are mercenaries, whose performance varies greatly depending on which companies are willing to enter

Tournament competitors are expected to arrive for their matches.  If they don't, they are eliminated by default and charged a $500 fee.

The tournament lasts a week, and consists of:
Two rounds of melees, with three total battles over two days.  Two teams face off against each other in a 16v16 massed battle, with the last team standing moving on to the next round, and then the elimination fights.

Three elimination rounds, where the members of the team that won the melees fight each other one on one.  Each fighter will fight once per day for three days.

The final, another elimination round between the two best fighters of the tournament.  The winner of this fight is crowned champion, and moves on to fight in the grand final.

The grand final is an elimination round of the champion against the reigning grand champion, Morthos.  As reigning grand champion, Morthos does not need to participate in the earlier rounds.  The winner of this fight is crowned grand champion, and receives the 1,000 gold award, while the loser gets a still-reasonable 500.

I forgot to go over it, but there are special rules for both the melees and the elimination fights regarding use of Combart Art and some abstraction so we don't game out 16v16 fights.

XP:
1 for general progress
1 for roleplaying
0 for the easiest fight (there were none)
0 for loot (though it was pretty close)
1 for rescuing Herral
MVP went to Zaxod for agreeing not to destroy a sacred artifact

GURPS Free Cities Session 17: Hobgoblin Battle Part 3

Party:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (313 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (303 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (298 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (299 points)

Day 27 (Cont.)
Weather: Perfect
Mor'ath waded into the growing pile of corpses, but dropped his sword mid-swing, while Zaxod moved in to attack the cleric and took a flail to the groin for his efforts.  Arc missed a Sunbolt, and Aurum finally got Farric on the levitating disc, and started charging a Fireball.

Zaxod finally landed a killing blow on the cleric, and with only 6 spearmen left, the hobgoblins surrendered, with one of their shamans taking over as leader.  Arc healed their wounds, and the party asked them a few questions.  They found out that the prisoner was in a nearby chamber, that the hobgoblins had been kicked out of their old home by orcs, and that their old home was somewhere to the southwest, several days from a human city (though the shaman did not know the name).

Arc and Zaxod went and freed the hunter, Herral, who was quite grateful, and then the hobgoblins gathered up their women (though the hobgoblin may have meant "wounded") and children, and left.

Mor'ath Searched through the piles of hobgoblins, and found a couple hundred dollars worth of coins, while Aurum took a knife and started cutting off ears for the bounty.  Arc took the priest's magic flail and the leader's electric spear and put them in the quarantine sack to be "purified" by his church in Adusia, so Mor'ath pocketed the bronze chain the leader had, rather than risking Arc taking it.

Mor'ath and Arc then scouted out the rest of the caves and found dead, partially eaten gnolls and a bolt of fine cloth, but no other treasure.  They also came across an unlit area of the caves, and wished that they could have asked the hobgoblins about it.  After some debate, they ended up voting against exploring further, though it came down to Zaxod's veto power.

Mor'ath and Zaxod moved all the hobgoblin corpses further into the cave, and then Aurum cast Shape Earth to close the entrance to the unlit area, and then again at the bottleneck.  Aurum suggested calling their party "The Sack-Boyz", and Zaxod was on-board, but Mor'ath vetoed that.  Zaxod then suggested "The Tigers", but Aurum vetoed that because he Hates Animals.  Arc cast Major Healing a couple times to get everybody back up to full, and then the party rested in the cave mouth overnight.

Day 28
Weather: Good
Aurum elected to ride the disc, but Farric was poorly suited for long-range travel and slowed them down.  Luckily, Herral was an expert in the local environment and made up for some lost time.  He was also quite capable at picking campsites and setting up blinds, so the party was uninterrupted overnight.

Day 29
Weather: Rainy and Windy
The party made worse time due to the weather.  Around noon, Mor'ath spotted some large vulture-like creatures with large, bull-like horns flying overhead, and asked Arc and Aurum what they were.  Arc looked up, figured that they were demons, though he didn't know what kind, and then yelled "DEMONS!  COME DOWN HERE AND DIE YOU COWARDS!", thereby negating all possibility of stealth.

While the vulture demons soared down, the party readied their weapons and Arc cast Shield on himself.  One of the demons gored Farric for light damage, while the other flew by and bounced off of Arc's holy defences.  The party was slow to react to the demons' superior speed, and struggled to position themselves properly while Farric passed out from a failed HT check, and Aurum fell off of his disc thanks to failed DX.

Zaxod tried slamming the demon that had gored Farric, but failed and moved past it, exposing his back, while Mor'ath and Arc focused on dodging the other one, Aurum stood up and figured out where their brains and vitals were thanks to Physiology, and Herral ran off into the underbrush to hide.  The demon near Zaxod switched to hovering and clawed his skull from behind, but his helmet negated the blow, while the other continued flying around and attempting to gore Arc, who continued to shout taunts.

Zaxod made an All-Out Attack and ended up doing light damage to his demon, but it responded by goring him in the eye, for 56 damage, which knocked him past two death checks, blinded him in one eye, and used up his Bless, which negated the -10 knockdown check.  Meanwhile, the other demon went into hover mode and gouged a hole in Arc, while Mor'ath moved in to help.

Zaxod then dropped his greataxe behind him mid-swing and moved to grapple his demon, but was clawed in the arm instead, while Mor'ath stabbed the other one in the eye, and Aurum launched a 9d Fireball for just shy of 30 damage, which killed the demon.  Arc healed Farric back into the positives while Mor'ath ran over to assist Zaxod, who had just readied his dual axes.  The other demon was stabbed and chopped to death, though it took far longer than the other one.

Notes:
The hobgoblin battle is finally over.  The total hobgoblin death toll is 23.

Arc has Intolerance (Evil Religions) and Hates Demons, so he really loves burning (un)holy relics and yelling at demons to fight him like a man.

Aurum tried to argue that Physiology should let him know whether the demons were planning on flying back up and strafing the whole time.  No, that's Strategy (or maybe Psychology if I'm feeling generous).

Zaxod's dice are cursed.  Two critical failures in a row during the vulture demon fight.

The gore to the eye was actually also a crit, and the Bless negated the special effect (which was double damage, so that was lucky).  I forgot the -10 for knockdown during the gore to the eye completely, so I just wrote that off as being the Bless too.

Zaxod will probably never All-Out Attack ever again.  He also bought-up Axe/Mace mid-fight to increase his 2h Axe/Mace default by 1.

Mor'ath used his Luck to reroll on the critical table on an eye-stab on the second vulture demon.  Not sure if it's allowed RAW, but it wasn't a big deal.

Aurum spent the last 4-5 turns of the vulture demon fight slow-clapping.

A bunch of FP got spent on Mighty Blows, Giant Step, and Flurry of Blows, which is cool.

The party is pretty sure that the vulture demons were weak to fire, because the second one took way more damage to kill.

Nobody has spent XP in a while, though Arc wants to learn Survival and Navigation from Herral once they get back to Cosium.

XP:
1 for general progress
1 for roleplaying
3 for the hobgoblin fight (Worthy, Outnumbered 4:1)
0 for loot
0 for quests
MVP went to Zaxod for "taking that damage like a champ"

GURPS Free Cities Session 16: Hobgoblin Battle Part 2

Party:
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (303 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (298 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (299 points)

Player Absent:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (313 points)

Day 27 (Cont.)
Weather: Perfect
The hobgoblin leader got to his knees and hobbled backwards while 3 more spearmen moved in to block Zaxod's way.  Mor'ath turned backwards and started moving towards the lone hobgoblins that Arc and Aurum were still struggling with.

Zaxod attacked the hobgoblins holding the passage, and managed to land a grazing hit that almost killed one, but they held fast.  Further in the distance, the other hobgoblins rearranged, and some started unstrapping their shields.  Then, the hobgoblin cleric cast a spell and Zaxod was surrounded by darkness, unable to see anything, even with his Night Vision.  Two spear attacks missed him, and then he retreated.

Mor'ath finished off the spearman, and the party reevaluated their options.  The darkness made attacking impossible, but  Aurum figured he could dispel it.  Zaxod called the hobgoblins cowards, Mor'ath pointed out where the tripwire was so that nobody would step on it, and Aurum cast a minimal-strength Minor Healing, getting Mor'ath back above 1/3HP.  Once everyone was ready, Aurum cast Dispel Magic and revealed that the hobgoblins had fallen back into a shieldwall, with more fresh reinforcements at the end of the tunnel.

Zaxod tried "negotiating" ("Give us the prisoner or we'll kill all of you!"), but the hobgoblins refused to give up their new home, and readied to receive a charge.  After some deliberation, Aurum started casting Great Haste on Zaxod again, and once it was on, the half-orc charged back at the leader and 6 waiting spears, taking only minor damage thanks to Arc's Armor spell.

Mor'ath made sure to hold the choke point so no hobgoblins could make it through again, while Arc and Aurum started charging Sunbolt and Explosive Fireball.  Zaxod struggled to land a hit against the leader, and was attacked in his un-armoured groin multiple times, but managed to parry four or more attacks each round.

Mor'ath stepped into the room to provide a clear line of sight for the casters, but there wasn't much point.  Aurum missed, but still did some minor damage to the hobgoblins nearby with the explosion, and Arc's spell was blocked by one of the hobgoblins in the front rank.

Zaxod landed another attack and cut off the hobgoblin leader's foot, but he stayed in the fight, and landed a light hit to the torso, slightly shocking the half-orc through his mail.  Mor'ath moved into the fight proper, parried all the attacks directed at him, and then began eye-stabbing the lesser hobgoblins with ease.

Aurum grabbed Farric and started to move him to the levitating disc, while Arc cast Minor Healing to get him back into the positives.  Zaxod made to finish off the leader, but his main axe turned in his hand, and had to spend his second manoeuvre readying, while Mor'ath claimed another hobgoblin life.  The hobgoblin with the long spear overextended himself, crippled his arm in the process, and was effectively out of the fight.

Zaxod took a minor blow to the face from a second-rank hobgoblin, and then the leader stabbed him in the groin, and knocked him into the negatives.  Zaxod then struck back, but dropped both axes, and readied the great axe on his back.  Arc readied another Sunbolt while the fresh hobgoblins cycled in to replace their fallen comrades.

Even with the reinforcements, Mor'ath cut through the hobgoblins like butter.  Meanwhile, Zaxod swarmed the hobgoblin leader with attacks and killed him, nearly cutting him in half.  In spite of this, and the rapidly degrading situation, the remaining spearmen held steady.

Notes:
Another 3 hours of combat! Well, 2.5 hours.  Aurum was late.  Since entering the clearing at the very start of the battle, 31 seconds have passed in game time.  In that time, 19 hobgoblins and their leader have been killed.

Arc's out of town for the next couple weeks, but he wanted his character to help.  A good choice, as almost nobody has any healing.  Also, Mor'ath and Zaxod would both almost assuredly be dead without the Armor and Bless spells.

The hobgoblins were far, far more difficult to fight once they organized into ranks.  The front line All-Out Blocking, with another behind making All-Out Attacks, and a single hobgoblin with a long spear in the third line to add in just a few more attacks.

My dice were on fire tonight.  Multiple crits, tons of under-10 rolls made, etc.

Zaxod has no groin armour, so his crotch acted like a magnet for spears the entire fight (4+ attacks per round).  Thank the gods for High Pain Threshold, Parry 16, and having 23HP.

Mor'ath's new tactic is "Rapid Strike Feint -> Eye Thrust", and it's incredibly effective, at least against the mooks

The hobgoblin leader performed amazingly well, in spite of the -6 from Missing Legs and -2 from Kneeling the entire fight, and later -2 for Bad Footing from corpses.

The series of crits for/against Zaxod was unreal.  The Crit Block for the leader, then two Crit Fails for Zaxod the next turn.  Needless to say, he switched dice.

Zaxod refused to offer anything in exchange for their prisoner, even when the hobgoblins explicitly asked for something, and nobody else seemed interested in negotiating.  Oh well.

The hobgoblins rolled to break when they lost their leader, but made the morale roll entirely due to bonuses for defending their home and their militaristic culture.

XP:
0 for no progress
1 for roleplaying
0 for the hardest fight (still going strong!)
0 for loot
0 for quests
MVP hasn't been claimed yet, but it's probably going to Aurum for getting rid of the darkness.

GURPS Free Cities Session 15: Hobgoblin Battle Part 1

Party:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (313 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (294 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (298 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (299 points)

Day 27 (Cont.)
Weather: Perfect
The party finally introduced themselves to the bard ("I'm Zaxod the Axe-God"), and learned that his name was Farric.  Mor'ath choked out the tied-up hobgoblin prisoner (again), and Farric led them towards the hobgoblin camp.  Once they were close, Mor'ath, Zaxod, and Aurum decided to sneak closer and check out the hobgoblin defences.

The hobgoblin prisoner's intelligence turned out to be accurate; there was indeed a cave on the side of the hill, there were hobgoblins around the cave and on an elevated platform keeping watch, there was a 20m clearing that the hobgoblins were working on expanding, the sides of the hill had been collapsed to make climbing treacherous, and there were many large stakes around the perimeter which would make charging difficult.

In addition, Mor'ath noted several horns by the hobgoblins keeping watch and reasoned they would be used to sound an alarm, while Zaxod used his spyglass to see a human, probably the missing hunter, digging a pit further up the hill from the cave entrance.

The scouts retreated back to the party and they decided to begin their assault immediately.  Aurum cast Great Haste on Zaxod, then Mor'ath, losing Zaxod 3 seconds, and then Arc cast Armor 5 on both of them and they charged out of the forest.  The horns were sounded, and bows were readied, but both combatants had jumped the stakes and entered melee before a shot could be fired.  Arc, Aurum, and Farric moved out into the clearing as the last hobgoblin died, and Zaxod noticed that the human who had been digging wasn't there any more.

Mor'ath moved to the cave mouth and Zaxod ran to the hole the human had been digging to check for a body, while the rest of the party finished making it over the stakes.  Inside the cave, Mor'ath found a whole platoon of hobgoblins, lead by one wearing full bronze plate and wielding a spear that crackled with lightning, while Zaxod found that there was no body in the hole and suddenly lost 5FP as Great Haste wore off.

Mor'ath moved further into the cave to a bottleneck, and noticed a tripwire that would activate a net overhead, which he avoided as the new group of hobgoblins pushed past him.  Zaxod began moving at his normal pace (which suddenly seemed very slow) back to the cave mouth, which the rest of the party had just made it to, and the hobgoblin leader slowed down as one of his soldiers cast a series of spells on him.

Three of the new hobgoblins attacked Mor'ath, but he parried two attacks, absorbed one thanks to Arc's Armor 5, killed two, and moved to plug the gap, preventing any more from making it through.  Aurum charged a Fireball and killed one hobgoblin outright (his fourth kill of the campaign!), while the surviving hobgoblin who had made it through moved to attack the squishies, and the leader engaged Mor'ath.

Zaxod finally made it to the cave mouth and Slam'd through the hobgoblin attacking the rear guard to join Mor'ath against the leader, but the battle continued to be a stalemate, nobody able to land a hit.  Arc landed a light blow on the lone hobgoblin, while Farric caught up, and another hobgoblin spellcaster failed to cast a spell 5 times in a row.

Mor'ath was critically blocked twice, ended up dropping his weapon and took the leader's electric spear to the face, but made the stunning roll.  The lone hobgoblin landed a big hit on Aurum, knocking him down to 1HP, and then knocked Farric into the negatives.  The leader stepped back to allow more of his soldiers through, but luckily Zaxod was able to cripple one of his legs, knocking him to the ground and potentially ending the fight.

Notes:
Pretty much 3 hours of combat.

Fighting in the cave was terrible for everyone except for Zaxod thanks to the -3 for poor lighting.

If it hadn't been for Arc's spells, Mor'ath would have been knocked well into the negatives.

Forgot the hobgoblin leader had tactics rerolls, which it really should have used to avoid that nasty axe to the leg.  Oh well.

All the team's casters are either FP-empty or almost dead, so it's looking grim.

It's funny to me that one hobgoblin is actually a threat to three characters, even though 2/3 are better than it in melee combat, in addition to being spellcasters.

Used the wrong penalties for sustained spells (-3 instead of -1), which is part of why no more spells were cast beyond the initial buffs.

XP:
0 for no progress
1 for roleplaying
0 for the hardest fight (it wasn't over yet)
0 for loot
0 for quests
MVP went to Mor'ath for holding the line.

GURPS Free Cities Session 14

Party:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (303 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (294 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (298 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (299 points)

Day 24 (Cont.)
Weather: Good
Throughout the day, the weather improved, but due to Arc's poor Tracking (defaulting from Naturalist), the group lost the hobgoblin's trail.  Partway through the day, three six-legged lizards stumbled across their paths.  Arc correctly identified them as basilisks, warned the party that they could turn you to stone if you met their gaze, and the party tried to hide in nearby bushes but failed.

The basilisks turned and charged, ignoring Mor'ath, and gazed at Zaxod and Arc.  Aurum started casting Explosive Fireball and Zaxod cut one down, while Mor'ath threw a flash nageteppo to no effect.  The basilisks charged ineffectually at Zaxod, who killed another, while Mor'ath approached and attacked from behind.  Aurum loosed his spell on the last remaining basilisk, which Zaxod then decapitated.

After healing up and resting for a bit, they put the severed basilisk head on the levitating disc so they could extract some alchemy bits later.  The party made good time and arrived at the lake the hunters had told them about that afternoon.

Day 25
Weather: Good
The party followed the third river from the east as per the hunters' instructions, but made poor time due to the thicker forest and failed Hiking and Navigation rolls, despite the slowest person, Aurum, staying on the levitating disc.

Day 26
Weather: Good
Halfway through the day, Arc noticed that two trees in the forest were rigged to fall and warned the party quickly enough to allow them to dodge out of the way.  This was fortunate, as they were then charged by a group of dire beavers on both sides.  Zaxod and Mor'ath split to the left and right while Aurum cast Shield and then hacked some up with his urgrosh, and Arc prepped a Fireball from the safety of the disc.

The dire beavers proved resilient, their blubbery hide deflecting many weaker blows, but they were quickly killed by Mor'ath and Zaxod.  One managed to take a big chunk out of Arc's groin, and another jumped onto the disc with Aurum, but after some magical healing, everyone was fine.

Just before sunset they arrived at the hunters' camp and found that everything of value had been taken, leaving only a firepit behind.  They also noticed a large group of humanoid tracks, which they would follow the next day.

During his watch, Arc heard some loud, vulture-like noises from somewhere above but never saw what it was through the darkness.  Whatever it was, apparently it didn't see them either.

Day 27
Weather: Perfect
The weather took a turn for the better, and with the wind at their back, the party followed the tracks.  After several hours, they heard music (which Mor'ath identified as Elven) from somewhere off in the forest, so they decided to investigate, with Mor'ath and Aurum proceeding in Stealth mode.

Several minutes away, they found a small clearing with the elven troubadour they had seen playing in Kral Narthis apparently entertaining a group of 8 hobgoblins.  The elf saw some of the party but waved them off, and Aurum noticed that the hobgoblins were arranged in a formation such that they would all be affected by a 2m area spell.

After about 10 seconds, the music changed from soothing elven tones to dissonant, violent noise, and 7 of the hobgoblins ran screaming to the west in terror, leaving one very confused and looking around for threats.  Zaxod took this as the "go" signal and Slam'd the hobgoblin twice to knock him prone, and then Mor'ath grappled it with his cloak and choked it out.

The bard thanked the party for their timely appearance, and told them that he was out here trying to rescue the brother of his beloved, who had been kidnapped by the hobgoblins.  He admitted that he had gotten in over his head, and was glad to see someone more experienced was around.  The bard mentioned that he could show them where the hobgoblin camp was, which they agreed to.

The party then decided to see about interrogating the hobgoblin, and the bard mentioned that he might be able to coerce it through magic after some rest.  An hour later, the hobgoblin was woken up and its eyes glazed over as the bard played a hypnotic tune.  The party asked various questions (where is the camp, how is it defended, where are the entrances), but after a minute the bard lost control and the hobgoblin regained clarity and shut up.

Notes:
Lack of tools to means they're always at -5 to Navigation, which Aurum is already defaulting to from Cartography at -4, for a total of -9.

During the basilisk fight, Zaxod noted that he shouldn't even bother rolling weapon skill after a successful parry against unarmed skill because he will almost always hit, and then immediately rolled an 18.  Highlight of the session for me.

Aurum's Explosive Fireball hit a grand total of one basilisk, even though all three had been alive when he started casting, because Zaxod is just insanely strong in melee.

The dire beavers got the desired response of "are you shitting me?".

They didn't get attacked during Arc's watch was because the hunters' camp was well-positioned, which resulted in Mor'ath winning the Quick Contest by 1.

Nobody even asked the bard's name, which is why he's referred to as "the bard".

They got the following details about the hobgoblin camp:
-The camp is inside a cave in the side of a hill
-There are groups of hobgoblins watching outside on an elevated platform above the cave mouth as well as off to either side
-The hobgoblins have cleared 20m of treeline
-The hobgoblins have placed wooden stakes all along the perimeter, making charging difficult
-The hobgoblins have deliberately collapsed rock on the sides of the hill to make attacking from behind more difficult

The party's current plan for assaulting is called "Operation Sanic" and involves Aurum casting Great Haste on Zaxod and Mor'ath, who then sprint across the open terrain directly at the hobgoblins.

Nobody's sure if hobgoblins have Dark Vision or just good Night Vision.

XP:
2 for general success
1 for roleplaying
1 for the hardest fight
0 for loot
0 for quests
MVP went to Mor'ath because he racked up the most kills.

GURPS Free Cities Session 13: Hobgoblin Ambush

Party:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (303 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (291 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (298 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (298 points)

Day 23 (Cont.)
Weather: Stormy

While the rest of the party was scrambling out of their tents, Zaxod noticed that the hobgoblins had flanked them, and moved to attack the western group.  Mor'ath instantly readied his sword and acrobatically sprang to his feet to face the eastern group of hobgoblins while Aurum struggled to get out of his tent, due to the levitating disc being immediately above him.

Before Arc could exit his tent, one of the hobgoblin spearmen got in a quick jab for light damage, so he quickly readied his quarterstaff to defend.  Mor'ath noticed that there were also large numbers of archers on either side due to his Night Vision, and informed the rest of the party of this while eye-stabbing a spearman.  Zaxod rushed the hobgoblin who had attacked Arc but missed a punch, then dodged and readied The Axe while Aurum and Arc exited their tents and stood up.

The hobgoblin leader moved in slowly from the east and was blessed by an unholy cleric while the spearmen continued to encircle the group and the archers finished drawing their bows.  Mor'ath and Zaxod killed several more spearmen, but Aurum was stabbed, then shot with two arrows.  Arc cast Major Healing twice and got him out of the negatives, and Aurum finally readied his staff.

Several arrows bounced off of Zaxod, who continued carving a bloody path through the hobgoblins and switched to his greataxe, while Mor'ath moved to engage the hobgoblin leader but was unable to get a blow past his tower shield.  Arc and Aurum went back to back with Mor'ath and began casting Fireball and Dispel Magic.

Mor'ath managed a feint and landed an eye-stab on the leader, but the attack bounced off of the unholy force-field cast by the cleric.  Zaxod finished off the western spearmen and switched to the east, leaving the archers alive.  Aurum's fireball was blocked, but Arc successfully dispelled the force field from the leader, which was quickly followed with an eye-stab from Mor'ath.

Aurum was hit with several more arrows, and fell prone, hoping to dodge any more shots, while the hobgoblin leader stood back up and began attacking Mor'ath with renewed fury.  The cleric attacked with his longer spear but was repeatedly parried, and Arc cast Shield on himself.  Zaxod took out the rest of the spearmen, then Mor'ath finished off the leader, and the cleric yelled something in goblin while the archers began retreating to the west.  The cleric was killed by Mor'ath after a couple seconds of duelling, Arc and Zaxod took some arrows, though most were caught by their armour, and the battle was won.

3 hobgoblin archers managed to escape, while 1 was captured.  Zaxod wanted to torture it thanks to Bad Temper, while Arc demanded it be treated fairly due to Charitable.  After some arguing, Mor'ath stepped in due to Impatient and choked the hobgoblin out and tied it up.  Arc then cast Vigil on Zaxod so he could take the watch overnight, and another Major Healing on Aurum.

Day 24
Weather: Good
Arc cast Gift of Tongues and Compel Truth, but flubbed his attempt at Diplomacy, so the hobgoblin stayed silent.  After a quick huddle, and much complaining from Arc, Zaxod smashed one of the hobgoblin's hands and set him free.  The group planned to follow him to the hobgoblin base, and the missing hunter.

Notes:
Combat took 3.5 hours.  Likely due to both the number of characters involved, and the fact that all the spearmen were using tower shields.

Archers don't do any damage against even mail shirts 2/3 of the time with vanilla arrows.  Going to switch to bodkins in the future.  The better multiplier for impaling doesn't matter if the base is 0.

Aurum didn't really do anything this entire fight out of fear of running out of FP too early, and ended up only spending 2.  I think he's learned to never burn out so that he's able to contribute without rest.

Nobody actively tried to use cover, with "go back-to-back to prevent them from shooting us from behind" being the only defensive strategy.

Used campfire light as 0 lighting instead of -3.

Forgot to assign penalties for darkness almost entirely.  Need to check what the penalties are if something is attacking from a hex that's at a -3 penalty into a hex that's fully-lit.

Their idea to track the hobgoblin is good, though it would be better if one of them had actually taken Tracking, and they weren't relying on Arc's Naturalist-5.

XP:
2 for general success
1 for roleplaying
2 for the hardest fight
0 for loot
0 for quests
MVP went to Arc for the big heals.

Might reduce general success XP down to 1, because they basically get a guaranteed 3 unless they waste a ton of time.

GURPS Free Cities Session 12

Party:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (300 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (291 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (280 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (293 points)

Day 16 (Cont.)
Just as the bar fight ended, Gylium walked through the door to the inn and went about buying rooms for the evening, while the swordswoman moved Trugal over to a chair and thanked Zaxod for helping.  Mor'ath asked the innkeeper if there was any interesting news, and was informed that an artifact of the gods had been found near Carda.  He then asked the swordswoman to spar, and she agreed, so the pair went outside and practised for an hour or so.

Day 17
Weather: Good
The party woke up at sunrise, said goodbye to the other group, and then continued on the road north.  They made good time and arrived in Adusia in the afternoon.  Gylium paid them their $2,000 fee, and asked if they'd like to be recommended to the Merchant's Guild, as they are always in need of guards.  Zaxod asked if the jobs would be heroic, and agreed after being told they were potentially heroic.

They then found a locksmith to get a key made for the lockbox with over $20,000 in it, but Zaxod was kicked out of the store for being a half-orc, so Mor'ath had to negotiate instead.  Aurum had the idea to check for work at the Adventurer's Guild, but there were no jobs available.  The last one had been given out two days prior, and involved hunting hobgoblins in the Iron Forest around Kral Narthis.  They asked to be notified if any new work came up, Zaxod went and bought a bigger sack, and then the party went to the Crimson Boot and rested for the night.

Day 18
Weather: Good
In the morning, Zaxod asked the barkeep if there were any rumours, and was informed of an upcoming tournament in the city of Zerakim to the west, sponsored by the Grand Autarch himself, while the rest of the party debated about what to do with the Nexus.  Aurum decided against the Enchanter's Guild, because he didn't want those merchants getting their "plebby" hands all over his artifact, and Arc vouched for the priests of Pelor, so they went to the church with the Nexus in a sack, to hide it from any wizards who might be watching.

At the church, the High Priest offered to identify the purpose of the Nexus, but warned that it could well be cursed, with its obvious aura acting as bait.  They proceeded, with the help of Arc, while Aurum and Mor'ath waited outside.  Zaxod went out and bought a larger sack, then got a tailor to embroider it with a huge and elaborate version of the symbol of his old mercenary crew.  After that, he went to the docks and got a job as a labourer for the next couple days lifting crates.

After 4 hours, the priests emerged from their sanctified chambers and informed Aurum that they had figured out that the symbol on the surface of the Nexus meant "Air" in Supernal, the language of the gods, but had not been able to activate it in any way.  Given that it was a holy artifact, they offered to hold it for a time while continuing to research.  Aurum accepted, and he and Arc went on their way.

Back at the Crimson Boot, Aurum got swindled by a local gambler named Big Money Erik and lost $100.

Day 19-21
The party stayed in Adusia, and inquired about costs of travelling to Zerakim, with hopes of entering the tournament.  Aurum lost another $100 to Big Money Erik, who bought a mink winter coat with his winnings.

They were then contacted by the Adventurer's Guild, and hired to rescue a Cosium hunter, Herral, from hobgoblins in the nearby forest.

Day 22
Weather: Good
At dawn, the party set out to Cosium, and they arrived just before sunset.  They asked around and were directed to the Wench and Flail tavern to talk to Brim and Aldric, the hunters who had been with Herral when he was captured.  The very drunk hunters told the group that they had been returning to camp when they saw a group of eight hobgoblins interrogating Herral, and then ran away to go get help.

The party were given directions (up Hag's Hill, down to the lake to the west, then follow the third river from the east south), and then rested for the night.

Day 23
Weather: Stormy
The party set out early in the morning, but made poor progress due to the dense forest and worsening weather.  After a few short kilometers of travel, they set up camp for the night.  During Zaxod's watch, he heard something break a branch, and noticed a large group of hobgoblins ready to ambush.  He called out to the party, who were sleeping in their tents.

Notes:
Aurum used Luck to reroll one of his Gambling rolls, but still failed.

Mor'ath is going to look into martial arts schools, but he wants to do that during downtime so it isn't covered here.

Aurum got $1,000 worth of stuff from the church of Pelor, but he hasn't decided what yet.

Ocean travel isn't cheap.  Zerakim is a week away by ship, and with 6x Cost of Living for travelling, that comes out to $900 each if they get on a dedicated passenger ship, or $450 if they slum it on a cargo ship instead of the usual $150.

Essential Food was ruled to be equivalent to Dwarven Rations, as we don't generally track rations.

The weather got bad right as they needed it to be good.  They also failed their Navigation, and Arc, the slowest member, failed his Hiking.

They finally got their first random encounter!

XP:
1 for little success
1 for roleplaying
0 for the hardest fight
0 for loot
1 for quest completion
MVP went to Arc for getting the 50lbs metal slab into somebody else's hands.

GURPS Free Cities Session 11: Leaving Carda

Party:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (297 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (291 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (283 points)

Player Absent:
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (276 points)

Day 10 (Cont.)
Arc cast Suspend Animation on Aurum to keep him from bleeding out, while Zaxod cleared all the corpses in the room to one side.  Mor'ath took a look around and found a large maul, with a gold and silver inlay of a flaming hammer.  Zaxod took a look and confirmed that it was worth some money, so they chucked it and Aurum on the levitating disc, which they set to following Arc.

Arc took his blanket and wrapped up the lizardman wizard's tunic of darkness, to be destroyed later, and after a quick look around the room noticed that the altar was cursed and dedicated to the demon lord Orcus.  Zaxod and Mor'ath stood guard while Arc successfully Exorcised the altar, during which time Zaxod felt some magic effect start rotting him from the inside.

The party headed back up to the surface, this time without anybody trained in Navigation or Cartography, but made it just fine.  Along the way, Zaxod's right hand started to rot but was stopped by the Blessing he still had active.  Eventually, they made it back to Foreman Odwen's shack, where Zaxod unintentionally scared him by knocking on his door loudly and yelling "We killed them all!".  Arc asked if they could stay the night, but was refused, so Zaxod Intimidated the dwarf into letting them stay.  Arc cast Stop Bleeding followed by Remove Curse on Zaxod, to get him to full health and keep him from rotting from the inside out.

Day 11
Weather: Windy
Arc started the day with a bevy of healing spells on Aurum, cast Awaken to get him moving, and then the party headed back over the river, and through the south gate into Carda, taking a little more time than usual due to the heavy winds.  They sold some loot and resupplied, Aurum insulted the only enchanter/alchemist in town and then left a valuable magic item with him to be identified, and Arc ritually burned the tunic of darkness with his church.

With their coinpurses full, the party returned to the Jovial Unicorn, where they were handed a sealed letter from the same messenger they had sold the wyvern head to, who quickly left to go handle some other errand for the duke.

Zaxod read the letter aloud and discovered it was a summons to meet the duke the next day, and the proof they'd need to gain access to the ducal palace.  After being nagged by the innkeeper about the ungodly racket, Zaxod went out to the barn to work on modifying his greataxe, while Aurum outlined the basics of a spell to turn earth into gold, and Arc started brewing some potions using the valuable organs they had acquired.  A while later, Aurum went to go retrieve his wand from Bruno and was informed that it was a Wand of Lightning, but required the user to be able to speak the ancient dwarven runes carved into it before using it.

Day 12
Weather: Good
The party woke early and walked to the ducal district, past the 4 large churches to Avandra, Erathis, Melora, and Pelor and the many people there for morning prayer, and up the hill towards the ducal palace.  At the top, they were halted and debated about what to call themselves (The Sabretooths was turned down for being too "animal-y" and The Sons of The First Spell was turned down for being too "wizard-y") while more guards, as well as a paladin of Erathis, were gathered to escort them.

They continued on to the entrance to the main hall, were relieved of their weapons, and entered the hall.  A herald introduced them as "Adventuring Company, here to see Arthund Vynce, Duke of Carda and Baron of Vynce", and they walked to the base of the elevated seat of the duke.  To the left of the duke was a fat man with a large moustache, in a cloak apparently made of spun gold.

The duke gestured to the wall behind him, which was full of wonderful trophies from various animals, and explained that the wyvern head they had sold him (which was badly scorched, and missing both eyes and all the teeth) was clearly not up to snuff.  He explained that he would appreciate it if they would be willing to repay him half of the $1000 they had been given, for restoration of the trophy.

Aurum was against it, but Arc didn't care, and Zaxod eventually grew impatient and gave a servant 5 of the hexagonal gold pieces from the lockbox in the dwarven ruins.  Aurum then attempted to sell the duke the Nexus of Creation.  When asked what it did, Aurum claimed "it can create the universe!", and despite this obvious lie, the duke made an offer of $40,000 after conferring with the fat man.

Though it was tempting, Aurum turned this down, believing the artifact to be worth far more.  The party left the palace, was given their weapons, remembered to grab their payment from the Adventurer's Guild, and returned to the Jovial Unicorn.  Arc left partway through the day to go create food and water for the poor.

Day 13
Weather: Good
As the party ate breakfast in the Jovial Unicorn, they were approached by Gylium, the dwarven spice trader who had originally hired them as guards, who informed them that after some delays, he would be ready to leave the next morning, and would pay them the same fee ($2,000) as before to escort him on the same route (Carda->Kral Narthis->Cosium->Adusia).  The party agreed, and spent the rest of the day theorising, crafting, Blessing those who had used theirs, and purchasing some more supplies.

Day 14
Weather: Good
Gylium and the party loaded up and set out early in the morning, with Arc, Mor'ath, and Zaxod on foot, and Aurum riding on the disc behind Arc.  Around noon, they came across the mercenary group the Dragons of Carda, in the same spot as last time.  Their leader, Luccio, allowed the party passage, as they had already proven themselves worthy of respect.  As the party left, one of Luccio's lieutenants, a goliath, argued with him over whether he should keep letting people go.

As the sun became low in the sky, it became clear that they wouldn't quite make it to Kral Narthis that day, and decided to make camp slightly off the road.  Everyone had tents except for Zaxod, who ate the 1FP for sleeping without shelter.

Day 15
Weather: Good
Around noon, the party arrived in dwarven town of Kral Narthis, where they decided to spend the night in the Silver Axe tavern.  Aurum was challenged to dice games by Lucky Vismar, a dwarf who recognised him from his last stay, and won $100 over several hours while an elven troubadour sang dwarven folk-songs.

Day 16
Weather: Good
The party made better time on the well-maintained roads and arrived at Cosium several hours before nightfall.  Zaxod noticed that the palisade wall had grown by about 2 feet in height since they had last been here.  Gylium went to look after the horses while the rest of the party headed to the Wench and Flail inn to rest for the evening.  Inside, however, was a confrontation between the halfling guard they had passed on their way through town last time and a drunk farmer.

The halfling claimed the farmer had been "lookin' at him funny", while the farmer yelled nigh-incomprehensibly.  Zaxod took up a defensive position in case the halfling drew one of the morningstars on his belt while Mor'ath moved away from the crowd to a corner to brood.  After the halfling (apparently named Trugal) failed to be calmed by his friends, who were holding him back from tearing the farmer in half, Arc moved in and managed to persuade him to back down.

This worked, right up until the farmer called Trugal a little bitch, to which the halfling replied "Nobody calls me SHORT!", at which point he lunged at the farmer and grabbed him by the skull.  Zaxod moved to push Trugal off the farmer but the halfling kept his grip, while Arc tried to back off and Aurum debated helping.

Trugal slammed the farmer's head into the bar repeatedly, then tossed him over the bar, while Zaxod managed to grab hold of him and hold him over his head.  Arc was struck by another drunk farmer, and returned a blow, stunning the man.

Zaxod then threw Trugal into a nearby table to "calm" him, but the halfling landed nimbly and only managed to break the table.  Arc knocked out one of the farmers, while the other took a long swinging kick at Zaxod's groin, but luckily missed.

Trugal rushed Zaxod, but was turned aside, and then Zaxod overextended himself on a grab and was flung over the halfling and landed prone, while Arc took out the other drunkard and Aurum laughed.  Trugal jumped on Zaxod and tried punching him in the face but was parried, at which point the swordswoman tried to grab the halfling, but was also flipped, and landed partly on top of Zaxod.

After some more ground fighting, Zaxod finally managed to grab Trugal and throw him into a wall, knocking him out.  He then got up, dusted himself off, and paid the barkeep a gold piece for the table.

Notes:
Surprised Aurum didn't sell the Nexus.  Apparently he wants "quintillions".  Zaxod pointed out that for somebody who supposedly hates merchants, he's doing a lot of merchant-y things.

Arc has a bunch of spare time saved, but doesn't want to spend the 1k on a Backpack Alchemy Lab, so that might be wasted time.

Players who don't make it have two options.  Mor'ath chose the former.

1) Your character is played by me, their skills can be used by the party, they get a share of loot, but they are in danger

Or

2) Your character mysteriously disappears to the Nega-Zone!  They are completely invulnerable, but cannot be used in any way and don't get a share of the loot.

Random Encounter and Weather rolls were pretty good to them; only bad weather one day with a very short trip.

XP:
2 for success
1 for roleplaying
0 for the hardest fight
0 for loot (not enough to qualify for the bonus)
1 for quest completion
MVP went to Zaxod for successfully beating the Mad Halfling