Ai - Experienced Tech
Axe - Mutant Hulk
Cap'n Chang - Lucky Nomad
Chung O'Flannigan - NPC Smuggler
"Lieutenant" Vaolt - Mutant Trooper
Day 26 (Cont.):
While Chang gave chase to the armoured mystery Russian in the Golden Hare, somebody announced over all radio frequencies to head to their current coordinates if they were looking to have some "fun", and soon after, the party was joined by another 5 ships. Though initially they all seemed to be a single raider group, after a closer look, it was discovered that they were merely unimaginative, as their flags were all skull-oriented, but different (flaming skulls, inverted skulls, poison skulls, etc).
The raiders opened fire on everything in sight, including each other, while the Russian came to a sudden stop while running on the water and began to (slowly) sink. After trying some buckshot and a slug to little effect, Chang got on the harpoon gun and impaled the mystery man through the chest, and began dragging him around with the Golden Hare.
Axe, meanwhile, rammed his boat into the raiders', only for Vaolt to kill all of them with a single shot from his revolver due to a dropped SMG going off. The mystery Russian, now recovered from the initial shock of being impaled by a harpoon, stood up and began to water ski while laughing insanely, killing raiders while Chang tried to slam him into their boats.
Sunday, 31 December 2017
Friday, 22 December 2017
GURPS Waterworld Session 5: The Russian
Ai - Experienced Tech
Axe - Mutant Hulk
Cap'n Chang - Lucky Nomad
Chung O'Flannigan - NPC Smuggler
"Lieutenant" Vaolt - Mutant Trooper
Day 24:
The treeple needed an entire day to create the healing goo, so the party found ways to kill time. Ai turned some goggles into a scope for the harpoon gun, Chang relaxed on the Golden Hare, and Axe and Vaolt went hunting in the jungle. Neither were skilled at Tracking, however, so they kind of just randomly wandered around.
After some time, they came across a group of mutants with guns, but both groups decided to ignore the other and continue on their ways. Later, they discovered a pack/herd/flock of rabbits, but before they could celebrate, the rabbits turned around in perfect synch, revealing that instead of a normal face, they had a gaping, toothy maw.
Axe began to slowly back away, and the "rabbits" followed at the same pace, until Vaolt started climbing a tree, at which point they charged. A bunch of them bit Axe before he could get out of reach, but, thanks to his thick skin, he was mostly unharmed. Vaolt threw a lead pipe, but the rabbits ignored it. He then killed two with shots from his pistol, only for the rest to eat the dead in the blink of an eye and return to watching the tree.
Axe - Mutant Hulk
Cap'n Chang - Lucky Nomad
Chung O'Flannigan - NPC Smuggler
"Lieutenant" Vaolt - Mutant Trooper
Day 24:
The treeple needed an entire day to create the healing goo, so the party found ways to kill time. Ai turned some goggles into a scope for the harpoon gun, Chang relaxed on the Golden Hare, and Axe and Vaolt went hunting in the jungle. Neither were skilled at Tracking, however, so they kind of just randomly wandered around.
After some time, they came across a group of mutants with guns, but both groups decided to ignore the other and continue on their ways. Later, they discovered a pack/herd/flock of rabbits, but before they could celebrate, the rabbits turned around in perfect synch, revealing that instead of a normal face, they had a gaping, toothy maw.
Axe began to slowly back away, and the "rabbits" followed at the same pace, until Vaolt started climbing a tree, at which point they charged. A bunch of them bit Axe before he could get out of reach, but, thanks to his thick skin, he was mostly unharmed. Vaolt threw a lead pipe, but the rabbits ignored it. He then killed two with shots from his pistol, only for the rest to eat the dead in the blink of an eye and return to watching the tree.
Thursday, 14 December 2017
GURPS Waterworld Session 4: The Treeple
Ai - Experienced Tech
Axe - Mutant Hulk
Cap'n Chang - Lucky Nomad
Chung O'Flannigan - NPC Smuggler
"Lieutenant" Vaolt - Mutant Trooper
Day 20:
With Sharkticus' death, the weather improved, and the crew set sail. Chung informed everyone that the island chain they were entering contained more near-feral mutant gangs than usual, but he knew no specifics, as he had been shipwrecked for three years. Sure enough, the party came across two mutant-crewed ships engaged in a chase, while more mutants watched from the shore, cheering and occasionally firing a pistol in their general direction.
Fortunately, the mutants were entertained enough for Chang to "sneak" the Golden Hare past them, and they made camp slightly further up the coast. On Axe's watch, he noticed a 4' humanoid trying to steal stuff from their camp and killed the poor wretch instantly, before chucking him in the ship's blood drive.
Axe - Mutant Hulk
Cap'n Chang - Lucky Nomad
Chung O'Flannigan - NPC Smuggler
"Lieutenant" Vaolt - Mutant Trooper
Day 20:
With Sharkticus' death, the weather improved, and the crew set sail. Chung informed everyone that the island chain they were entering contained more near-feral mutant gangs than usual, but he knew no specifics, as he had been shipwrecked for three years. Sure enough, the party came across two mutant-crewed ships engaged in a chase, while more mutants watched from the shore, cheering and occasionally firing a pistol in their general direction.
Fortunately, the mutants were entertained enough for Chang to "sneak" the Golden Hare past them, and they made camp slightly further up the coast. On Axe's watch, he noticed a 4' humanoid trying to steal stuff from their camp and killed the poor wretch instantly, before chucking him in the ship's blood drive.
Saturday, 2 December 2017
GURPS Waterworld Session 3: Sharkticus
Ai - Experienced Tech
Axe - Mutant Hulk
Cap'n Chang - Lucky Nomad
"Lieutenant" Vaolt - Mutant Trooper
Day 14:
After another night at sea, the party awoke to find that there was a storm ahead, and Ai's Weather Sense figured that they'd end up going through the worst of it. Throughout the day's travel, Cap'n Chang had a general sense of foreboding thanks to Danger Sense, but nothing specific. They found an island with skulls on stakes left as a warning, but slept there anyway and were uninterrupted.
Day 15:
Despite the storm, the Golden Hare made good time, though everybody was completely drenched almost immediately. In the afternoon, something big attacked the boat from under the water several times while the Cap'n switched to blood drive to outrun whatever it was. Eventually, it was revealed to be a group of giant sharks, as one jumped out of the water to bite Axe and was quickly slain.
The blood drive was activated before any serious damage could be done, and the party sped away for several hours before arriving at a rocky island where Ai and Chang repaired the dents the sharks had made. Afterwards, Ai examined the mystery revolver that Vaolt had picked up in the Philippine village and determined that the gun itself was pretty much normal, though it had never been fired, and that the bullet was some kind of shrunk-down ultra-tech projectile that would activate on high-speed impact.
Axe - Mutant Hulk
Cap'n Chang - Lucky Nomad
"Lieutenant" Vaolt - Mutant Trooper
Day 14:
After another night at sea, the party awoke to find that there was a storm ahead, and Ai's Weather Sense figured that they'd end up going through the worst of it. Throughout the day's travel, Cap'n Chang had a general sense of foreboding thanks to Danger Sense, but nothing specific. They found an island with skulls on stakes left as a warning, but slept there anyway and were uninterrupted.
Day 15:
Despite the storm, the Golden Hare made good time, though everybody was completely drenched almost immediately. In the afternoon, something big attacked the boat from under the water several times while the Cap'n switched to blood drive to outrun whatever it was. Eventually, it was revealed to be a group of giant sharks, as one jumped out of the water to bite Axe and was quickly slain.
The blood drive was activated before any serious damage could be done, and the party sped away for several hours before arriving at a rocky island where Ai and Chang repaired the dents the sharks had made. Afterwards, Ai examined the mystery revolver that Vaolt had picked up in the Philippine village and determined that the gun itself was pretty much normal, though it had never been fired, and that the bullet was some kind of shrunk-down ultra-tech projectile that would activate on high-speed impact.
Sunday, 26 November 2017
GURPS Waterworld Session 2: The North Philippine Harshlands
Axe - Mutant Hulk
Cap'n Chang - Lucky Nomad
"Lieutenant" Vaolt - Mutant Trooper
Player Absent:
Ai - Experienced Tech
Day 3:
The party woke up on the rock (except for the Cap'n, who slept on the Golden Hare, a trend which would continue), scavenged the rifle, two harpoons, and some clothes from the Anti-Mutant League's corpses, and set sail under solar power. The trip was uneventful, and the next night was spent on a slightly more comfortable island. Vaolt smelled something during the night, but nothing attacked or presented itself, so it was ignored.
Day 4:
Around noon, the Axe spotted some unmoving ships off to port, but he also saw that there were people aboard, so the party continued on their way. The night was spent at a small inhabited island. The natives made their living repairing boats, and offered to trade with the party, but they had nothing of worth. Cap'n Chang, ever the socialite, heard some rumours about the Rainbow Warriors mobilizing for battle now that the Anti-Mutant League's leader was dead.
Day 5:
During the day, a pair of ski-doos appeared and started to follow the Golden Hare. Axe threw a harpoon as a "warning shot", and they sped off. That night, the party arrived at "Portland", a raider outpost, and they had to trade the harpoons for a place to sleep. The raiders were gathered around a small ring watching bloodsports, which Axe was disappointed to learn were not to the death.
Cap'n Chang found out that the Rainbow Warriors were definitely going to attack the AML soon, while Vaolt took some sort of blood/drug/paint thinner mix alternately called Absinthe and Ambrosia by the raiders, and found himself super stimulated and unable to sleep.
Cap'n Chang - Lucky Nomad
"Lieutenant" Vaolt - Mutant Trooper
Player Absent:
Ai - Experienced Tech
Day 3:
The party woke up on the rock (except for the Cap'n, who slept on the Golden Hare, a trend which would continue), scavenged the rifle, two harpoons, and some clothes from the Anti-Mutant League's corpses, and set sail under solar power. The trip was uneventful, and the next night was spent on a slightly more comfortable island. Vaolt smelled something during the night, but nothing attacked or presented itself, so it was ignored.
Day 4:
Around noon, the Axe spotted some unmoving ships off to port, but he also saw that there were people aboard, so the party continued on their way. The night was spent at a small inhabited island. The natives made their living repairing boats, and offered to trade with the party, but they had nothing of worth. Cap'n Chang, ever the socialite, heard some rumours about the Rainbow Warriors mobilizing for battle now that the Anti-Mutant League's leader was dead.
Day 5:
During the day, a pair of ski-doos appeared and started to follow the Golden Hare. Axe threw a harpoon as a "warning shot", and they sped off. That night, the party arrived at "Portland", a raider outpost, and they had to trade the harpoons for a place to sleep. The raiders were gathered around a small ring watching bloodsports, which Axe was disappointed to learn were not to the death.
Cap'n Chang found out that the Rainbow Warriors were definitely going to attack the AML soon, while Vaolt took some sort of blood/drug/paint thinner mix alternately called Absinthe and Ambrosia by the raiders, and found himself super stimulated and unable to sleep.
Thursday, 9 November 2017
GURPS Waterworld Session 1: New Hong Kong
Ai - Experienced Tech
Axe - Mutant Hulk
Cap'n Chang - Lucky Nomad
"Lieutenant" Vaolt - Mutant Trooper
Characters:
Ai grew up on New Hong Kong, and despite being only 15 years old, was one of the few skilled enough to work on the Takahashi Machine. She doesn't believe that they'll find a way to repair it in Japan, but wants to explore the world, and hopefully score some sweet pre-war ultra-tech along the way.
Axe is from the North Philippine "Harshlands", where he grew up fighting monsters and raiders. An 8' tall, ill-tempered mutant with stone-like skin and natural regeneration, he's in it for whatever the reward will be.
Cap'n Chang hails from New Shanghai, New Hong Kong's raider-infested sister-ark in the East China Sea to north; he claims to be the best captain in the world, and just might have the skills to back it up. A Chinese nationalist, he's happy to be on the mission simply because the Communist Party asked him to be.
Vaolt is an enigma. He speaks with a heavy Russian accent, is quick with a gun, and has smooth skin and webbed feet, enabling him to swim almost as fast as boats.
Axe - Mutant Hulk
Cap'n Chang - Lucky Nomad
"Lieutenant" Vaolt - Mutant Trooper
Characters:
Ai grew up on New Hong Kong, and despite being only 15 years old, was one of the few skilled enough to work on the Takahashi Machine. She doesn't believe that they'll find a way to repair it in Japan, but wants to explore the world, and hopefully score some sweet pre-war ultra-tech along the way.
Axe is from the North Philippine "Harshlands", where he grew up fighting monsters and raiders. An 8' tall, ill-tempered mutant with stone-like skin and natural regeneration, he's in it for whatever the reward will be.
Cap'n Chang hails from New Shanghai, New Hong Kong's raider-infested sister-ark in the East China Sea to north; he claims to be the best captain in the world, and just might have the skills to back it up. A Chinese nationalist, he's happy to be on the mission simply because the Communist Party asked him to be.
Vaolt is an enigma. He speaks with a heavy Russian accent, is quick with a gun, and has smooth skin and webbed feet, enabling him to swim almost as fast as boats.
Monday, 30 October 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 66a: The Final Battle Part V
Damien - Human Infernal Sorcerer (300 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (326 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (136 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (325 points)
Day 196 (Cont.):
Amothius 36th, 2526
Weather: Clear
Sindri stood his ground as Thrag eyed him down and circled slightly, while telling him that the strong deserved to rule, not to defend the weak. Sindri responded that defending the weak was the greatest kind of strength, and continued to wait for Thrag to make the first move. Damien tried to Dispel Magic on Thrag to get rid of Reverse Missiles, but failed, while Morgan moved to the edge of the roof to prepare a Mind Blast, and Boras flew over to heal Sindri.
The orcish soldiers moved to grab throwing spears out of the bodies behind them, while the wizard simply rested. Eventually, Thrag made his move, and Sindri interrupted him with a pair of blows, only to be parried, feinted, and hit twice in the skull and once in the torso, knocking him out and back into Boras. Damien tried, and failed, to Dispel Magic again, while Morgan failed to Mind Blast Thrag, and Boras failed to Awaken Sindri before being killed by Thrag.
Morgan tried to flee, but was hit by a throwing spear, passed out from his wounds mid-air soon after, and eventually bled out. Damien flew away to survey the situation, and, upon seeing that Thrag's men took Sindri prisoner, flew back down. Damien offered surrender, as he didn't care about the city, and was more interested in setting up a meeting with devils; something the orcs seemed more capable of doing. Thrag's wizard cast Sleep, and Damien did not resist.
Their greatest general defeated, the town of Carda soon fell, the duke surrendered and was taken prisoner, and Kyra, his daughter, married to Khagan Thrag the Immortal.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (326 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (136 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (325 points)
Day 196 (Cont.):
Amothius 36th, 2526
Weather: Clear
Sindri stood his ground as Thrag eyed him down and circled slightly, while telling him that the strong deserved to rule, not to defend the weak. Sindri responded that defending the weak was the greatest kind of strength, and continued to wait for Thrag to make the first move. Damien tried to Dispel Magic on Thrag to get rid of Reverse Missiles, but failed, while Morgan moved to the edge of the roof to prepare a Mind Blast, and Boras flew over to heal Sindri.
The orcish soldiers moved to grab throwing spears out of the bodies behind them, while the wizard simply rested. Eventually, Thrag made his move, and Sindri interrupted him with a pair of blows, only to be parried, feinted, and hit twice in the skull and once in the torso, knocking him out and back into Boras. Damien tried, and failed, to Dispel Magic again, while Morgan failed to Mind Blast Thrag, and Boras failed to Awaken Sindri before being killed by Thrag.
Morgan tried to flee, but was hit by a throwing spear, passed out from his wounds mid-air soon after, and eventually bled out. Damien flew away to survey the situation, and, upon seeing that Thrag's men took Sindri prisoner, flew back down. Damien offered surrender, as he didn't care about the city, and was more interested in setting up a meeting with devils; something the orcs seemed more capable of doing. Thrag's wizard cast Sleep, and Damien did not resist.
Their greatest general defeated, the town of Carda soon fell, the duke surrendered and was taken prisoner, and Kyra, his daughter, married to Khagan Thrag the Immortal.
GURPS Spooky Halloween One-Shot 2017
Premise
A group of 20-somethings all have a long weekend in autumn, and decide to go backcountry camping at Black Lake. What starts out as a fun trip soon turns into terror as something attacks and begins picking them off, one by one.Characters
Beth Henderson - Klutzy AccountantTravis McTaggart - Cowardly IT Technician
Phil Powell - Stubborn Machinist
Kate Norman (Initially an NPC) - Curious Nurse
Darryl Johnston (NPC) - Trickster Unemployed MechanicBonds
Travis is dating BethBeth is running buddies with Kate
Phil is secretly gay lovers with Travis
Kate is dating Darryl
Darryl is cousins with Phil
Summary
Saturday, October 7th, 2017The group of friends crammed into Darryl's old pickup and drove for 2 hours out of the city, and then another hour on a gravel road before arriving at the parking lot for Black Lake's backcountry campsite; far enough that nobody's cell phone had a signal. The leaves were already falling off the trees, but the weather was good, and still warm enough that nobody needed a jacket. Phil had been camping here a few times several years ago, and remembered that it was still about a 30 minute hike through the forest to the actual site.
Beth saw a sign at the trailhead warning about bears in the area, but they were a large group, and would be storing their food in a bear-bag suspended from trees, so they were likely to be left alone. Even so, Travis readied a can of bear mace, just in case. About 20 minutes down the trail, they noticed a disgusting smell, like a mix of rotting meat and skunk, and after a brief look around, Phil discovered the source: a half-rotted dear carcass, its intestines torn out, slightly off the trail. Travis clung tighter to his bear mace, and they continued on.
They arrived at the campsite, and by the time they were done setting everything up, it was almost sunset. Beth decided to head down to the lake, only a few minutes away, to take some pictures, and Kate went with her, while the guys stayed back at the camp and played some cards. Darryl eventually got bored and went off to smoke, leaving Travis and Phil alone to covertly make out before anyone came back.
Monday, 23 October 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 66: The Final Battle Part IV
Damien - Human Infernal Sorcerer (300 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (326 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (136 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (325 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (333 points)
Day 196 (Cont.):
Amothius 36th, 2526
Weather: Clear
Virgil feinted Agdug the Invincible but failed to land the follow-up, while Agdug landed a solid blow in return. Sidnri killed another orc soldier while Morgan used Madness to weaken Agdug and Damien cast Dispel Magic to get rid of whatever had reflected his Lightning. Just as it seemed as though the party were sure to win, a large group of orcish reinforcements showed up: six each shieldbearers and greatswords and a pair of archers, all led by an orc captain with a red horsehair crest atop his helm.
Agdug fell back, babbling that this was all pointless as the Lord of Iron would not let him lose, and Virgil moved to capitalize but dropped his sword, while Sindri braced for the charging orc reinforcements. Damien and Morgan hid from the orcish archers, while Boras flew forward in a flanking manoeuver to take out the (still-incapacitated) orcish wizard. The reinforcements split into three groups; the shieldbearers and archers went up the middle, while the greatswords split up and went down both flanks. Damien landed a Lightning bolt on Agdug, and another blow from Sindri knocked him out, thanks to a 17 on his consciousness check.
The flanking orcs lost several limbs to potshots from Morgan, while Damien fell prone to dodge arrows and then flew back to rest, out of FP. Virgil took some minor wounds from the orc captain, but he was rendered harmless (and armless) by Morgan soon afterwards. Boras finished off the wizards, then took an arrow while charging the archers, and the rest of the orcs were quickly either killed, disabled, or fleeing, and so the party returned to the command tent with Agdug (stripped of his weapons and armour) to rest.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (326 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (136 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (325 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (333 points)
Day 196 (Cont.):
Amothius 36th, 2526
Weather: Clear
Virgil feinted Agdug the Invincible but failed to land the follow-up, while Agdug landed a solid blow in return. Sidnri killed another orc soldier while Morgan used Madness to weaken Agdug and Damien cast Dispel Magic to get rid of whatever had reflected his Lightning. Just as it seemed as though the party were sure to win, a large group of orcish reinforcements showed up: six each shieldbearers and greatswords and a pair of archers, all led by an orc captain with a red horsehair crest atop his helm.
Agdug fell back, babbling that this was all pointless as the Lord of Iron would not let him lose, and Virgil moved to capitalize but dropped his sword, while Sindri braced for the charging orc reinforcements. Damien and Morgan hid from the orcish archers, while Boras flew forward in a flanking manoeuver to take out the (still-incapacitated) orcish wizard. The reinforcements split into three groups; the shieldbearers and archers went up the middle, while the greatswords split up and went down both flanks. Damien landed a Lightning bolt on Agdug, and another blow from Sindri knocked him out, thanks to a 17 on his consciousness check.
The flanking orcs lost several limbs to potshots from Morgan, while Damien fell prone to dodge arrows and then flew back to rest, out of FP. Virgil took some minor wounds from the orc captain, but he was rendered harmless (and armless) by Morgan soon afterwards. Boras finished off the wizards, then took an arrow while charging the archers, and the rest of the orcs were quickly either killed, disabled, or fleeing, and so the party returned to the command tent with Agdug (stripped of his weapons and armour) to rest.
Friday, 13 October 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 65: The Final Battle Part III
Damien - Human Infernal Sorcerer (300 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (326 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (136 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (325 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (333 points)
Day 196 (Cont.):
Amothius 36th, 2526
Weather: Clear
Thanks to Sindri's strategic genius, the orcs that had taken a section of wall were repulsed, though the drake-rider archers continued to rain arrows from above. Reports came in of a group of elementals controlled by orc shamans having pushed the defenders back off the walls, and the party moved to intercept. They arrived to find a pair each of fire spirits in the form of bears and water spirits in the form of fish, with a pair of shamans throwing lightning storms down on the defenders.
Damien gave everybody Armour, and then Sindri and Virgil charged in. The bears charged as well, but one of them was knocked out by Morgan's Mind Blast. One shaman smacked his mace on the ground, resulting in a cluster of arm-thick roots emerging from the ground, entangling Virgil and pulling Sindri prone, while the other threw in a lightning storm, lightly frying the warriors even through Damien's Armour.
One of the fish spat a gout of water at Virgil, knocking him off the wall, but he was able to grab hold of the edge instead of falling 10m, and Damien cast Hawk Flight on him to get him back in the fight. Sindri broke free of the roots, while Morgan knocked the other fire bear out with another Mind Blast. Another lightning storm shocked the party, except for Boras, while the other shaman was able to wake up one of the fire bears, which crawled on top of Sindri. He should have been badly burned but emerged unscathed thanks to his Tiefling fire resistance and Damien's Armour.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (326 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (136 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (325 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (333 points)
Day 196 (Cont.):
Amothius 36th, 2526
Weather: Clear
Thanks to Sindri's strategic genius, the orcs that had taken a section of wall were repulsed, though the drake-rider archers continued to rain arrows from above. Reports came in of a group of elementals controlled by orc shamans having pushed the defenders back off the walls, and the party moved to intercept. They arrived to find a pair each of fire spirits in the form of bears and water spirits in the form of fish, with a pair of shamans throwing lightning storms down on the defenders.
Damien gave everybody Armour, and then Sindri and Virgil charged in. The bears charged as well, but one of them was knocked out by Morgan's Mind Blast. One shaman smacked his mace on the ground, resulting in a cluster of arm-thick roots emerging from the ground, entangling Virgil and pulling Sindri prone, while the other threw in a lightning storm, lightly frying the warriors even through Damien's Armour.
One of the fish spat a gout of water at Virgil, knocking him off the wall, but he was able to grab hold of the edge instead of falling 10m, and Damien cast Hawk Flight on him to get him back in the fight. Sindri broke free of the roots, while Morgan knocked the other fire bear out with another Mind Blast. Another lightning storm shocked the party, except for Boras, while the other shaman was able to wake up one of the fire bears, which crawled on top of Sindri. He should have been badly burned but emerged unscathed thanks to his Tiefling fire resistance and Damien's Armour.
Friday, 6 October 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 64: The Final Battle Part II
Damien - Human Infernal Sorcerer (300 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (326 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (136 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (325 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (333 points)
Day 196 (Cont.):
Amothius 36th, 2526
Weather: Clear
Virgil held his ground in the middle and switched targets to the orcs, now that the giants had been momentarily stunned, and were open to pot-shots from Morgan and Damien. Sindri attacked the last giant standing and brought it down with a series of blows to the skull, and, though he turned his back on a pair of orcs, neither managed to inflict a serious wound.
The shielded orcs continued to protect the shaman, who threw out a bead which then exploded in a shower of lightning; Sindri and Virgil were badly burnt, but so were several orcs, and one of the giants was knocked out. Virgil took a pair of blows from a flail orc, which he then slew after dropping his sword and picking it back up, while Damien's Lightning was proving quite useful at taking out the arms of the giants, thanks to its ability to penetrate the iron plates welded to their already-tough skin.
The party seemed to have won, with all giants either dead, unconscious, or missing both arms. The surviving orcs began to retreat, but the shaman threw out another lightning storm, which burned Sindri badly enough to knock him out. Virgil finished off the last, berserk orc, but then passed out due to his injuries. Damien still had enough FP to cast Hawk Flight on Boras, who Awakened the wounded on the ground level. The party then went to the church of Erathis to have Sindri's foot fixed.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (326 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (136 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (325 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (333 points)
Day 196 (Cont.):
Amothius 36th, 2526
Weather: Clear
Virgil held his ground in the middle and switched targets to the orcs, now that the giants had been momentarily stunned, and were open to pot-shots from Morgan and Damien. Sindri attacked the last giant standing and brought it down with a series of blows to the skull, and, though he turned his back on a pair of orcs, neither managed to inflict a serious wound.
The shielded orcs continued to protect the shaman, who threw out a bead which then exploded in a shower of lightning; Sindri and Virgil were badly burnt, but so were several orcs, and one of the giants was knocked out. Virgil took a pair of blows from a flail orc, which he then slew after dropping his sword and picking it back up, while Damien's Lightning was proving quite useful at taking out the arms of the giants, thanks to its ability to penetrate the iron plates welded to their already-tough skin.
The party seemed to have won, with all giants either dead, unconscious, or missing both arms. The surviving orcs began to retreat, but the shaman threw out another lightning storm, which burned Sindri badly enough to knock him out. Virgil finished off the last, berserk orc, but then passed out due to his injuries. Damien still had enough FP to cast Hawk Flight on Boras, who Awakened the wounded on the ground level. The party then went to the church of Erathis to have Sindri's foot fixed.
Sunday, 24 September 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 63: The Final Battle Part I
Damien - Human Infernal Sorcerer (300 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (326 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (136 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (325 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (333 points)
Day 194 (Cont.):
Amothius 34th, 2526
Weather: Stormy
The party debated how to approach the orc camp until Damien realized that he could dig down to the tunnel (assuming they could figure out where it was) with magic. They snuck around the orc camp, Virgil crit the Navigation-8 roll to figure where the tunnel was, and Damien cast Shape Earth to dig down until he encountered the stone shell of the tunnel. He peeled that away as well, and the party alternately fell or had Hawk Flight cast on them. Once everyone was inside, Damien made sure to fill in the hole he had made so that they couldn't be tracked (which also resulted in a pillar of dirt filling the middle of the tunnel).
It was only once the tunnel was sealed and it was pitch black that they realized nobody had a light source ready. Luckily, Sindri had Dark Vision, and rustled through Boras' pack to find and light a torch. The party headed down the tunnel to Carda and climbed out of the fake well to meet Hestius, who wanted to take them to meet with the Duke. Before he could, the party asked if they had ever tried negotiating with the orcs. Hestius said that, no, they hadn't, because orcs are savages (to which Virgil took offense) and probably want to sack the town, and that the orcs had never made any attempt at diplomacy either.
With that done, they went to the Duke in a smaller chamber, where Dugald Ironheard and Oryn Thain, the noble who had wanted to sally forth with the cavalry during the first orcish assault. The Duke dismissed the others, and lamented that the party could not be paid while the city was starving. Instead, as a show of good faith, Sindri was made Baron of the Westlands. The land had once been properly settled, but had fallen to the wilderness centuries ago; still, it could yield great wealth if shepherded properly.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (326 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (136 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (325 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (333 points)
Day 194 (Cont.):
Amothius 34th, 2526
Weather: Stormy
The party debated how to approach the orc camp until Damien realized that he could dig down to the tunnel (assuming they could figure out where it was) with magic. They snuck around the orc camp, Virgil crit the Navigation-8 roll to figure where the tunnel was, and Damien cast Shape Earth to dig down until he encountered the stone shell of the tunnel. He peeled that away as well, and the party alternately fell or had Hawk Flight cast on them. Once everyone was inside, Damien made sure to fill in the hole he had made so that they couldn't be tracked (which also resulted in a pillar of dirt filling the middle of the tunnel).
It was only once the tunnel was sealed and it was pitch black that they realized nobody had a light source ready. Luckily, Sindri had Dark Vision, and rustled through Boras' pack to find and light a torch. The party headed down the tunnel to Carda and climbed out of the fake well to meet Hestius, who wanted to take them to meet with the Duke. Before he could, the party asked if they had ever tried negotiating with the orcs. Hestius said that, no, they hadn't, because orcs are savages (to which Virgil took offense) and probably want to sack the town, and that the orcs had never made any attempt at diplomacy either.
With that done, they went to the Duke in a smaller chamber, where Dugald Ironheard and Oryn Thain, the noble who had wanted to sally forth with the cavalry during the first orcish assault. The Duke dismissed the others, and lamented that the party could not be paid while the city was starving. Instead, as a show of good faith, Sindri was made Baron of the Westlands. The land had once been properly settled, but had fallen to the wilderness centuries ago; still, it could yield great wealth if shepherded properly.
Sunday, 17 September 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 62: Birds and Basilisks
Damien - Human Infernal Sorcerer (288 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (317 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (133 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (325 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (318 points)
Day 184 (Cont.):
Amothius 24th, 2526
Weather: Clear Skies
After Lyn's execution, the party debated what to do. Morgan wanted to stay at the temple and study under Evard for a bit, but they ultimately decided to go pay off Dakrolaen, the brass dragon, with the money they had just been given. Morgan Telesended Hestius to tell him of their plan and the reinforcements from the temple, and he told them they still had time, because there was still no sign of the orcs that had gone north to the swamps. Damien cast Hawk Flight on everybody to fly down the mountain in short bursts, rather than taking the long route spiralling around, and from there they continued on foot.
Day 185-186:
Weather: Rainy and Windy
The party made reasonable time, and encountered nothing of interest. Boras was in particularly good spirits due to the weather.
Day 187:
Weather: Slightly Smoky
Late in the day, the party arrived at Dakrolaen's overlook, where it was once again sunbathing, and noticed that the kobolds in the hills had built crude fortifications. They approached Dakrolaen, and it accepted their payment, making sure to count the gold before thanking them for their business and sending them on their way. They decided to take the long way back to Carda rather than sneaking through the orc lines, but made little progress with what little was left of the day.
That night, on Damien's watch, 6 dog-sized beetles came out of the forest, followed by one the size of an ox. Luckily, the party was woken before the beetles could come close; they only succeeded in partially melting Sindri's leg armour with their corrosive bites before the big one was slain with a PK Lash to the skull, which caused the little ones to scatter. Virgil tried out its meat, and discovered that it was edible, but not particularly tasty.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (317 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (133 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (325 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (318 points)
Day 184 (Cont.):
Amothius 24th, 2526
Weather: Clear Skies
After Lyn's execution, the party debated what to do. Morgan wanted to stay at the temple and study under Evard for a bit, but they ultimately decided to go pay off Dakrolaen, the brass dragon, with the money they had just been given. Morgan Telesended Hestius to tell him of their plan and the reinforcements from the temple, and he told them they still had time, because there was still no sign of the orcs that had gone north to the swamps. Damien cast Hawk Flight on everybody to fly down the mountain in short bursts, rather than taking the long route spiralling around, and from there they continued on foot.
Day 185-186:
Weather: Rainy and Windy
The party made reasonable time, and encountered nothing of interest. Boras was in particularly good spirits due to the weather.
Day 187:
Weather: Slightly Smoky
Late in the day, the party arrived at Dakrolaen's overlook, where it was once again sunbathing, and noticed that the kobolds in the hills had built crude fortifications. They approached Dakrolaen, and it accepted their payment, making sure to count the gold before thanking them for their business and sending them on their way. They decided to take the long way back to Carda rather than sneaking through the orc lines, but made little progress with what little was left of the day.
That night, on Damien's watch, 6 dog-sized beetles came out of the forest, followed by one the size of an ox. Luckily, the party was woken before the beetles could come close; they only succeeded in partially melting Sindri's leg armour with their corrosive bites before the big one was slain with a PK Lash to the skull, which caused the little ones to scatter. Virgil tried out its meat, and discovered that it was edible, but not particularly tasty.
Thursday, 7 September 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 61: Murder Mystery
Damien - Human (?) Sorcerer (288 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (317 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (132 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (325 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (318 points)
Day 183 (Cont.):
Amothius 23nd, 2526
Weather: Heavy Rain
The party sent Lyn away and brought Yong Han to the "interrogation room". He confirmed that the dagger found in the back of Master Fung belonged to him, but the only other thing the party discovered was that he thought very highly of himself, and wanted to leave the temple to explore the outside world. With all three suspects interviewed, they took the dagger to Master Evard to have him use Psychometry to get any useful info out of it.
Evard got nothing out of it, confirming that the dagger was not the murder weapon, so the party went to the kitchens to track down the source of the poisoned tea. Thanks to Morgan's Diplomacy, they were able to learn from a burly cook that Jung had come to take the tea to Master Fung last night, and was accompanied by Lyn when he left.
They next went to the gardens and spoke to a blind gardener who pointed them towards the red lotus plant, which Virgil noticed was missing enough buds to create Naga's Blood poison. They headed to the library to find a formulary for the poison, but discovered that the three pages detailing the recipe had been torn out. The party then had the idea to search the suspects' rooms, only to discover that each shared a bunkroom with 4 other acolytes.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (317 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (132 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (325 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (318 points)
Day 183 (Cont.):
Amothius 23nd, 2526
Weather: Heavy Rain
The party sent Lyn away and brought Yong Han to the "interrogation room". He confirmed that the dagger found in the back of Master Fung belonged to him, but the only other thing the party discovered was that he thought very highly of himself, and wanted to leave the temple to explore the outside world. With all three suspects interviewed, they took the dagger to Master Evard to have him use Psychometry to get any useful info out of it.
Evard got nothing out of it, confirming that the dagger was not the murder weapon, so the party went to the kitchens to track down the source of the poisoned tea. Thanks to Morgan's Diplomacy, they were able to learn from a burly cook that Jung had come to take the tea to Master Fung last night, and was accompanied by Lyn when he left.
They next went to the gardens and spoke to a blind gardener who pointed them towards the red lotus plant, which Virgil noticed was missing enough buds to create Naga's Blood poison. They headed to the library to find a formulary for the poison, but discovered that the three pages detailing the recipe had been torn out. The party then had the idea to search the suspects' rooms, only to discover that each shared a bunkroom with 4 other acolytes.
Sunday, 27 August 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 60: Stirges and Slayings
Damien - Human (?) Sorcerer (270 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (311 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (129 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (315 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (318 points)
Day 182 (Cont.):
Amothius 22nd, 2526
Weather: Raining, Smoky
After checking to make sure the devils to the south were gone, the party headed back to the Ducal Palace to tell Hestius that they were going to go to the Temple of the Jade Eye, and he gave them a letter to pass to whoever was in charge. Using Damien's Walk on Air spell, they walked up and over the walls, and saw the orcs below slowly extending their lines to fill the devils' place, and passed without issue.
Around noon, they arrived at the base of the mountain and sat down to rest, but were ambushed by bat-mosquitos, identified as stirges by Virgil shortly before they charged in. Damien found himself bitten by 5 and went down, while Boras took one to the face, Virgil one to each eye, and Sindri one to his good eye. Morgan, who had been given the Ring of Protection, was saved by the invisible force field, and remained unbitten.
Boras cut down one loose stirge, then the one on his face thanks to good rolls, and Sindri tried to follow suit but smashed himself in the face with his flail instead. Morgan set about burning everything near him, while Damien got off an Armour spell far too late for it to matter, as it couldn't stop the already-attached stirges draining his blood, and Virgil grappled the ones on his eyes and squeezed them to death.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (311 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (129 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (315 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (318 points)
Day 182 (Cont.):
Amothius 22nd, 2526
Weather: Raining, Smoky
After checking to make sure the devils to the south were gone, the party headed back to the Ducal Palace to tell Hestius that they were going to go to the Temple of the Jade Eye, and he gave them a letter to pass to whoever was in charge. Using Damien's Walk on Air spell, they walked up and over the walls, and saw the orcs below slowly extending their lines to fill the devils' place, and passed without issue.
Around noon, they arrived at the base of the mountain and sat down to rest, but were ambushed by bat-mosquitos, identified as stirges by Virgil shortly before they charged in. Damien found himself bitten by 5 and went down, while Boras took one to the face, Virgil one to each eye, and Sindri one to his good eye. Morgan, who had been given the Ring of Protection, was saved by the invisible force field, and remained unbitten.
Boras cut down one loose stirge, then the one on his face thanks to good rolls, and Sindri tried to follow suit but smashed himself in the face with his flail instead. Morgan set about burning everything near him, while Damien got off an Armour spell far too late for it to matter, as it couldn't stop the already-attached stirges draining his blood, and Virgil grappled the ones on his eyes and squeezed them to death.
Sunday, 20 August 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 59: Funeral for a Hero
Damien - Human (?) Sorcerer (270 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (311 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (315 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (318 points)
Day 180 (Cont.):
Amothius 20th, 2526
Weather: Smoky, Light Rain
Just when the party's situation seemed hopeless, Damien invented a new spell that would allow them to Walk on Air for 15 hours! Virgil shouldered Maurice's body, and Morgan passed his HT roll to regain consciousness, so the party set out. Only needing to land for rest, the party moved much faster, but were attacked by a flock of dire hawks at noon. Animal Handling failed, and the hawks flew around and surrounded the party, pecking them in the back, but none were able to land meaningful blows.
Morgan and Damien fried most of them, while Sindri batted the one that accidentally came within his reach, and Virgil, weaponless and unable to drop his two-handed sack, yelled at the birds to try to intimidate them into standing down but failed. Soon, there were only two hawks left, and they fled towards a nest which gleamed with two shiny objects. Morgan used Telekinesis to lift it towards them, only for one of the surviving hawks to try to grab it back. A PK Lash took the dire hawk down, and the party grabbed the loot: a bronze ring with a gem of ice, and a silver-tipped composite bow with a carving of a hawk, both of which detected as magical to Damien.
Later in the afternoon, the party arrived at the edge of the forest, and rested for a while before heading up and over the orc encampments in the countryside around Carda. Looking down, they noticed the orcs had built catapults and were launching rocks at the walls, but no orcs shot at them. Once inside the walls they headed to the Ducal District, however, the guards opened fire on the unidentified flying objects, stopping only after the party got within earshot. Fortunately, nobody was hit.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (311 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (315 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (318 points)
Day 180 (Cont.):
Amothius 20th, 2526
Weather: Smoky, Light Rain
Just when the party's situation seemed hopeless, Damien invented a new spell that would allow them to Walk on Air for 15 hours! Virgil shouldered Maurice's body, and Morgan passed his HT roll to regain consciousness, so the party set out. Only needing to land for rest, the party moved much faster, but were attacked by a flock of dire hawks at noon. Animal Handling failed, and the hawks flew around and surrounded the party, pecking them in the back, but none were able to land meaningful blows.
Morgan and Damien fried most of them, while Sindri batted the one that accidentally came within his reach, and Virgil, weaponless and unable to drop his two-handed sack, yelled at the birds to try to intimidate them into standing down but failed. Soon, there were only two hawks left, and they fled towards a nest which gleamed with two shiny objects. Morgan used Telekinesis to lift it towards them, only for one of the surviving hawks to try to grab it back. A PK Lash took the dire hawk down, and the party grabbed the loot: a bronze ring with a gem of ice, and a silver-tipped composite bow with a carving of a hawk, both of which detected as magical to Damien.
Later in the afternoon, the party arrived at the edge of the forest, and rested for a while before heading up and over the orc encampments in the countryside around Carda. Looking down, they noticed the orcs had built catapults and were launching rocks at the walls, but no orcs shot at them. Once inside the walls they headed to the Ducal District, however, the guards opened fire on the unidentified flying objects, stopping only after the party got within earshot. Fortunately, nobody was hit.
Sunday, 13 August 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 58: Acid Spiders and Assassin Vines
Damien - Human (?) Sorcerer (262 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (311 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (162 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (315 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (318 points)
Day 178 (Cont.):
Amothius 18th, 2526
Weather: Smoky
The spiders continued to bite Virgil and Sindri, dealing lots of damage to both, while Morgan alternated between Mind Blast and Madness to disable the rest of them. Damien fried the spider nearest him with lightning and it stopped moving, while Maurice broke free of a web to move down the trench towards Virgil so he could start healing.
One spiderman repeatedly stabbed Virgil in the vitals with his spear, while the other successfully webbed Damien, who broke free and, along with Morgan, burned it to death. Sindri managed to beat the spider biting him into unconsciousness and break free, and the spider pinning Virgil passed out. The last spiderman ran away up the tree, and the surviving spiders were slain, while Sindri and Virgil rested.
Maurice spent the next several hours resting and casting healing spells, and then had to set up camp (at default from Survival (Plains)), as the wounds they had sustained had halted their progress for the day. Vigil was cast on Sindri, who downed two healing potions and was back into the positives, and the rest of the party rested, though Healing Slumber was not cast on Virgil in case they needed him during a night attack. Luckily, nothing attacked.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (311 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (162 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (315 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (318 points)
Day 178 (Cont.):
Amothius 18th, 2526
Weather: Smoky
The spiders continued to bite Virgil and Sindri, dealing lots of damage to both, while Morgan alternated between Mind Blast and Madness to disable the rest of them. Damien fried the spider nearest him with lightning and it stopped moving, while Maurice broke free of a web to move down the trench towards Virgil so he could start healing.
One spiderman repeatedly stabbed Virgil in the vitals with his spear, while the other successfully webbed Damien, who broke free and, along with Morgan, burned it to death. Sindri managed to beat the spider biting him into unconsciousness and break free, and the spider pinning Virgil passed out. The last spiderman ran away up the tree, and the surviving spiders were slain, while Sindri and Virgil rested.
Maurice spent the next several hours resting and casting healing spells, and then had to set up camp (at default from Survival (Plains)), as the wounds they had sustained had halted their progress for the day. Vigil was cast on Sindri, who downed two healing potions and was back into the positives, and the rest of the party rested, though Healing Slumber was not cast on Virgil in case they needed him during a night attack. Luckily, nothing attacked.
Friday, 4 August 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 57: Deals and Dragons
Damien - Human (?) Sorcerer (262 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (311 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (161 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (312 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (318 points)
Day 176 (Cont.):
Amothius 16th, 2526
Weather: Clear
The Dire Wolves ran out of the undergrowth, and three bit into Sindri's limbs, grappling him but not doing any real damage. Virgil, now a Weapon Master, made a triple Rapid Strike and killed three wolves, including the pack leader, in a single turn, while Damien tried to get away and cast Armour on himself. Morgan took out another, and, with 1/4 of their number gone and leaderless, the wolves retreated into the forest.
By nightfall, the smoke from the forest fires had filled the air, but luckily the party was healthy enough that it didn't affect them much. Virgil continued to fail to find a campsite with shelter, and lost another FP.
Day 177:
Weather: Smoky
The air was poor, but Virgil crit on Weather Sense, so they avoided the worst of it. Late in the day, they arrived at a section of forest that had been completely burned, and saw the brass dragon's metallic scales gleaming in the red, dull sunlight as it rested on a rocky hillside. The party decided to drink their Potions of Fire Resistance before talking to the dragon, just in case, and then walked across the mostly open ground towards it.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (311 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (161 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (312 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (318 points)
Day 176 (Cont.):
Amothius 16th, 2526
Weather: Clear
The Dire Wolves ran out of the undergrowth, and three bit into Sindri's limbs, grappling him but not doing any real damage. Virgil, now a Weapon Master, made a triple Rapid Strike and killed three wolves, including the pack leader, in a single turn, while Damien tried to get away and cast Armour on himself. Morgan took out another, and, with 1/4 of their number gone and leaderless, the wolves retreated into the forest.
By nightfall, the smoke from the forest fires had filled the air, but luckily the party was healthy enough that it didn't affect them much. Virgil continued to fail to find a campsite with shelter, and lost another FP.
Day 177:
Weather: Smoky
The air was poor, but Virgil crit on Weather Sense, so they avoided the worst of it. Late in the day, they arrived at a section of forest that had been completely burned, and saw the brass dragon's metallic scales gleaming in the red, dull sunlight as it rested on a rocky hillside. The party decided to drink their Potions of Fire Resistance before talking to the dragon, just in case, and then walked across the mostly open ground towards it.
Wednesday, 26 July 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 56: The Long Way Around
Damien - Human (?) Sorcerer (250 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (311 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (159 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (302 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (298 points)
Day 171 (Cont.):
Amothius 11th, 2526
Weather: Clear
Virgil used some of their dragon-bribing money to buy fire resistance potions, while Sindri repurchased a bunch of his gear that had burned away in the Tower of the Iron Mage. Morgan tried finding somebody else to Research brass dragons using the book Hestius had given him, but failed, and spent the rest of his day figuring out that they wouldn't be instantly attacked, so long as they weren't overly aggressive.
Day 172:
Weather: Clear
The party set out in the morning, and planned to circle around the orc camps surrounding Carda by sticking to the Iron Forest, which was substantially slower but relatively orc-free. Just outside the secret tunnel, though, they overheard an orc patrol that was apparently following tracks. One of them complained that they should attack the city now, but another said they were waiting for the Khaghan Thrag, and now that the dragon had shown up, the battle would only be a couple weeks away.
The party went prone and started crawling away while an orc claimed that he had heard some shamans saying that Thrag was not a demigod, which another orc disagreed with, saying that only a divine being could unite the tribes. The first orc then said that "of course you'd say that, the Broken Swords are a weak tribe, and Agdug is a creator!", which resulted in a fistfight. Thanks to the distractions, the party made it away unnoticed.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (311 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (159 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (302 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (298 points)
Day 171 (Cont.):
Amothius 11th, 2526
Weather: Clear
Virgil used some of their dragon-bribing money to buy fire resistance potions, while Sindri repurchased a bunch of his gear that had burned away in the Tower of the Iron Mage. Morgan tried finding somebody else to Research brass dragons using the book Hestius had given him, but failed, and spent the rest of his day figuring out that they wouldn't be instantly attacked, so long as they weren't overly aggressive.
Day 172:
Weather: Clear
The party set out in the morning, and planned to circle around the orc camps surrounding Carda by sticking to the Iron Forest, which was substantially slower but relatively orc-free. Just outside the secret tunnel, though, they overheard an orc patrol that was apparently following tracks. One of them complained that they should attack the city now, but another said they were waiting for the Khaghan Thrag, and now that the dragon had shown up, the battle would only be a couple weeks away.
The party went prone and started crawling away while an orc claimed that he had heard some shamans saying that Thrag was not a demigod, which another orc disagreed with, saying that only a divine being could unite the tribes. The first orc then said that "of course you'd say that, the Broken Swords are a weak tribe, and Agdug is a creator!", which resulted in a fistfight. Thanks to the distractions, the party made it away unnoticed.
Sunday, 16 July 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 55: The Brass Dragon
Damien - Human (?) Sorcerer (250 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (311 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (156 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (298 points)
Player Absent:
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (302 points)
Characters:
Damien grew up an orphan in Zerakim, where he was bullied by humans due to his horns and red eyes, and Tieflings due to his lack of a tail. Eventually, he discovered that he had powerful magical abilities, and resolved to track down his parents. He visited an oracle, and (for a nominal fee), they told him that the path to his ancestors went through Carda, and he immediately set off.
Flashback: Day 169:
Damien met the Dragons of Carda mercenaries fighting some goblins on the road to the city. After he displayed his arcane might by frying some with lightning, they offered to help him get into the city if he would assist them with a rescue mission.
Day 170:
Amothius 10th, 2526
Weather: Clear
As the orcs at the camp opened fire, the elf wizard Sabriel put up a cloud of Darkness, blocking line of sight, and the party ran off towards the barn where they had stashed a pair of horses, followed by a troll, 4 fire elementals, the Dragons of Carda mercenaries, and Kayra. The idea was to get Kayra and somebody who could guard her onto the horses, while the rest of them fought the orcs.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (311 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (156 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (298 points)
Player Absent:
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (302 points)
Characters:
Damien grew up an orphan in Zerakim, where he was bullied by humans due to his horns and red eyes, and Tieflings due to his lack of a tail. Eventually, he discovered that he had powerful magical abilities, and resolved to track down his parents. He visited an oracle, and (for a nominal fee), they told him that the path to his ancestors went through Carda, and he immediately set off.
Flashback: Day 169:
Damien met the Dragons of Carda mercenaries fighting some goblins on the road to the city. After he displayed his arcane might by frying some with lightning, they offered to help him get into the city if he would assist them with a rescue mission.
Day 170:
Amothius 10th, 2526
Weather: Clear
As the orcs at the camp opened fire, the elf wizard Sabriel put up a cloud of Darkness, blocking line of sight, and the party ran off towards the barn where they had stashed a pair of horses, followed by a troll, 4 fire elementals, the Dragons of Carda mercenaries, and Kayra. The idea was to get Kayra and somebody who could guard her onto the horses, while the rest of them fought the orcs.
Sunday, 9 July 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 54: Crispy-Fried Bard
Locke Landen - Human Bard (294 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (299 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (155 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (302 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (298 points)
Day 169 (Cont.):
Amothius 9th, 2526
Weather: Clear
The iron golem finished off the drake with multiple staff-blows from within the darkness, while Morgan took down the last shield guardian and Virgil charged towards the darkness. The golem's staff struck out, hitting Virgil in the neck several times, before it retreated, while Sindri shouted out its location to the others. It then asked them why they were here, and Locke responded that they were looking for Kayra, a good friend of his. Sadly, this answer wasn't quite good enough for the golem to let them go, and it dispelled the Force Wall at the entrance before exiting and putting up another immediately.
Morgan also used Telesend to message Bruno the Crimson regarding their current situation, but would get no response. Now that it was safe, the golem continued with the conversation, and the darkness spell timed out. After a bit of semantics ("You killed my drake!" "Technically, you killed your drake." "Your actions led directly to the death of my drake!"), they struck a deal; if they brought a live adult dragon back for the golem's experiments, it would give them Kayra.
This wasn't to be, however, as Locke tried to Command and then Mind Control the golem, but failed, and suddenly found himself trapped in a Force Wall that was soon filled with Create Fire. After a bit of hesitation (not sure if he should risk annoying the golem further), Maurice tried to dispel it, but ran out of FP before he could succeed. Morgan tried Telesend to ask Hestius if there was anything to do to save Locke, but found out that the Message spell had a substantial travel time.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (299 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (155 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (302 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (298 points)
Day 169 (Cont.):
Amothius 9th, 2526
Weather: Clear
The iron golem finished off the drake with multiple staff-blows from within the darkness, while Morgan took down the last shield guardian and Virgil charged towards the darkness. The golem's staff struck out, hitting Virgil in the neck several times, before it retreated, while Sindri shouted out its location to the others. It then asked them why they were here, and Locke responded that they were looking for Kayra, a good friend of his. Sadly, this answer wasn't quite good enough for the golem to let them go, and it dispelled the Force Wall at the entrance before exiting and putting up another immediately.
Morgan also used Telesend to message Bruno the Crimson regarding their current situation, but would get no response. Now that it was safe, the golem continued with the conversation, and the darkness spell timed out. After a bit of semantics ("You killed my drake!" "Technically, you killed your drake." "Your actions led directly to the death of my drake!"), they struck a deal; if they brought a live adult dragon back for the golem's experiments, it would give them Kayra.
This wasn't to be, however, as Locke tried to Command and then Mind Control the golem, but failed, and suddenly found himself trapped in a Force Wall that was soon filled with Create Fire. After a bit of hesitation (not sure if he should risk annoying the golem further), Maurice tried to dispel it, but ran out of FP before he could succeed. Morgan tried Telesend to ask Hestius if there was anything to do to save Locke, but found out that the Message spell had a substantial travel time.
Thursday, 29 June 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 53: The Iron Golem
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (299 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (155 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (302 points)
Locke Landen - Human Bard (294 points)
Player Absent:
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (298 points)
Day 169 (Cont.):
Amothius 9th, 2526
Weather: Clear
Sindri and Morgan decided to look through the bookshelves for a little bit, and went back down to the library. They found books on a great many subjects, but not what they were looking for (lore about devils, and blueprints for the tower), though they didn't try any of the locked iron cabinets in case they were trapped, and headed back up to the atrium.
After some debate, they tried the door on the left, and found what seemed to be a torture chamber with a manacled and muzzled sleeping fire drake (identified thanks to Occultism), a similarly restrained and asleep troll, and a large purple force wall containing some men made of fire. There was also a bench with some surgical implements and buckets which Maurice figured were used to drain large amounts of blood, and closer looks at the drake and troll revealed heavy scarring.
Morgan tried communicating with the fire men, but they only spoke a strange language that sounded like crackling fire, and were ultimately left alone. The party didn't really have a way of freeing them anyway, so they headed over to the door on the right, and discovered an alchemy lab. There were some buckets that had clearly been full of blood, a rack of various herbs, and several unlabelled potions on a shelf.
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (155 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (302 points)
Locke Landen - Human Bard (294 points)
Player Absent:
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (298 points)
Amothius 9th, 2526
Weather: Clear
Sindri and Morgan decided to look through the bookshelves for a little bit, and went back down to the library. They found books on a great many subjects, but not what they were looking for (lore about devils, and blueprints for the tower), though they didn't try any of the locked iron cabinets in case they were trapped, and headed back up to the atrium.
After some debate, they tried the door on the left, and found what seemed to be a torture chamber with a manacled and muzzled sleeping fire drake (identified thanks to Occultism), a similarly restrained and asleep troll, and a large purple force wall containing some men made of fire. There was also a bench with some surgical implements and buckets which Maurice figured were used to drain large amounts of blood, and closer looks at the drake and troll revealed heavy scarring.
Morgan tried communicating with the fire men, but they only spoke a strange language that sounded like crackling fire, and were ultimately left alone. The party didn't really have a way of freeing them anyway, so they headed over to the door on the right, and discovered an alchemy lab. There were some buckets that had clearly been full of blood, a rack of various herbs, and several unlabelled potions on a shelf.
Thursday, 22 June 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 52: Exploding Sabatons
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (299 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (154 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (296 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (298 points)
Player Absent:
Locke Landen - Human Bard (294 points)
Day 169 (Cont.):
Amothius 9th, 2526
Weather: Clear
Locke cast Glasswall on the wall on the other side, and Morgan tried to confuse the arbalester there by dropping another tapestry on it with Telekinesis, and succeeded at distracting it long enough for Virgil to run around the corner and chop it in two. The rest of the party entered the spire, and Morgan tore down the rest of the tapestries on the ground floor before his Telekinesis ran out, revealing a raised bit of stone hidden behind the one closest to the stairs. A closer look also noticed a trap door at the base of the stairs.
Sindri and Virgil flipped the table and moved it over the trap door, and Sindri and Morgan headed up the stairs. They made it halfway up when the stairs converted to a slide, and Sindri clanged down to the bottom in his plate armour, while Morgan was able to Levitate. Morgan pressed the raised bit of stone, which turned the slide back into stairs, and Sindri headed back up, refusing to let any of the casters rest. Maurice was ordered to hang back and press the stone if the stairs turned back into a slide.
Unable to make anything out through the keyhole, Sindri opened the door to the second floor, and suddenly found himself surrounded by fire, so he stepped further into the chamber, at which point a Force Wall sprung up behind him. The room was hexagonal and slightly narrower than the first floor, with stairs on one side and five bunk beds on the others. Four orcs in plain robes with wooden staves stood halfway across the chamber, and an 8' metal humanoid statue wielding two tower shields stood on either side. Morgan identified the statues as Shield Golems, but was unable to recall anything about their weaknesses, as they activated and charged at Sindri.
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (154 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (296 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (298 points)
Player Absent:
Locke Landen - Human Bard (294 points)
Day 169 (Cont.):
Amothius 9th, 2526
Weather: Clear
Locke cast Glasswall on the wall on the other side, and Morgan tried to confuse the arbalester there by dropping another tapestry on it with Telekinesis, and succeeded at distracting it long enough for Virgil to run around the corner and chop it in two. The rest of the party entered the spire, and Morgan tore down the rest of the tapestries on the ground floor before his Telekinesis ran out, revealing a raised bit of stone hidden behind the one closest to the stairs. A closer look also noticed a trap door at the base of the stairs.
Sindri and Virgil flipped the table and moved it over the trap door, and Sindri and Morgan headed up the stairs. They made it halfway up when the stairs converted to a slide, and Sindri clanged down to the bottom in his plate armour, while Morgan was able to Levitate. Morgan pressed the raised bit of stone, which turned the slide back into stairs, and Sindri headed back up, refusing to let any of the casters rest. Maurice was ordered to hang back and press the stone if the stairs turned back into a slide.
Unable to make anything out through the keyhole, Sindri opened the door to the second floor, and suddenly found himself surrounded by fire, so he stepped further into the chamber, at which point a Force Wall sprung up behind him. The room was hexagonal and slightly narrower than the first floor, with stairs on one side and five bunk beds on the others. Four orcs in plain robes with wooden staves stood halfway across the chamber, and an 8' metal humanoid statue wielding two tower shields stood on either side. Morgan identified the statues as Shield Golems, but was unable to recall anything about their weaknesses, as they activated and charged at Sindri.
Sunday, 11 June 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 51: The Tower of Power
Locke Landen - Human Bard (294 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (282 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (154 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (292 points)
Player Absent:
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (298 points)
Day 167:
Date: Amothius 7th, 2526
Weather: Clear
The party tried to get some Blessings, but all of the churches were still busy dealing with the wounded, and Maurice was similarly unable to find any potions or paut to refill his potion belt. A messenger from the duke found them, and they walked up the hill to the Ducal Palace to receive another mission.
As a camp of devils had simply appeared to the south of Carda several nights ago, the duke had decided to give them the Tears of St. Carmine to buy them off. However, he had been unable to convince Dugald Ironheart, the Grandmaster of the Brotherhood of Divine Order and leader of the local church of Erathis, to part with the artifact. Thus, it fell to the party to try, though he would understand if they failed. As this was a simple and non-dangerous job, they would receive only 1/4 of their usual rate, to which the party agreed.
They travelled to the cathedral of Erathis, and were lead to Dugald through a maze of offices and living quarters. The discussion went poorly, with Locke failing to convince Dugald that it was worthwhile to give up the Tears to infernal forces, and the party returned to the duke to inform him of their failure. The duke was understanding, and offered them a choice between two jobs: the first, to track down a missing person outside of the town walls, and the second, to follow and investigate the movements of an orc tribe into the Iron Forest to the north.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (282 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (154 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (292 points)
Player Absent:
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (298 points)
Day 167:
Date: Amothius 7th, 2526
Weather: Clear
The party tried to get some Blessings, but all of the churches were still busy dealing with the wounded, and Maurice was similarly unable to find any potions or paut to refill his potion belt. A messenger from the duke found them, and they walked up the hill to the Ducal Palace to receive another mission.
As a camp of devils had simply appeared to the south of Carda several nights ago, the duke had decided to give them the Tears of St. Carmine to buy them off. However, he had been unable to convince Dugald Ironheart, the Grandmaster of the Brotherhood of Divine Order and leader of the local church of Erathis, to part with the artifact. Thus, it fell to the party to try, though he would understand if they failed. As this was a simple and non-dangerous job, they would receive only 1/4 of their usual rate, to which the party agreed.
They travelled to the cathedral of Erathis, and were lead to Dugald through a maze of offices and living quarters. The discussion went poorly, with Locke failing to convince Dugald that it was worthwhile to give up the Tears to infernal forces, and the party returned to the duke to inform him of their failure. The duke was understanding, and offered them a choice between two jobs: the first, to track down a missing person outside of the town walls, and the second, to follow and investigate the movements of an orc tribe into the Iron Forest to the north.
Sunday, 4 June 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 50: Ambushed in the Iron Forest
Locke Landen - Human Bard (294 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (273 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (150 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (298 points)
NPCs:
Gareth Conbert IV - Human Agent (~125 points)
Player Absent:
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (292 points)
Day 158 (Cont.):
Date: Peris 45th, 2526
Weather: Rainy
The imp relayed that its master, Hadriex, would either be given the Tears of St. Carmine or his forces would join the orcs, and then poofed away before Virgil could throw his sword again. Sensing confusion, Hestius, the overweight man in gold robes, informed those assembled that the Tears were a holy artifact owned by the church of Erathis. Deciding to deal with the task at hand first, the party, led by Hestius, climbed down the false well and started down the escape tunnel.
On the way, they asked the diplomat, Gareth Conbert IV, why he had accepted such a dangerous job, and were told that, as someone untrained in the ways of war, this was an excellent way of fulfilling his civic duty. They arrived at the dead end, and Hestius cast a spell to move the earth aside, cast another spell, and told them that he would be able to detect when they came back and would open the tunnel half an hour or so after that. Morgan cut a symbol into a nearby tree so they could find it later.
The party debated walking through the night, but decided to make camp instead, so they wouldn't have to deal with the superior night vision of any orc patrols. Instead, they were ambushed by a group of goblins in the middle of the night and surprised. Locke was on watch, and took two arrows to the back (luckily absorbed by his armour) before he realised what was happening.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (273 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (150 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (298 points)
NPCs:
Gareth Conbert IV - Human Agent (~125 points)
Player Absent:
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (292 points)
Day 158 (Cont.):
Date: Peris 45th, 2526
Weather: Rainy
The imp relayed that its master, Hadriex, would either be given the Tears of St. Carmine or his forces would join the orcs, and then poofed away before Virgil could throw his sword again. Sensing confusion, Hestius, the overweight man in gold robes, informed those assembled that the Tears were a holy artifact owned by the church of Erathis. Deciding to deal with the task at hand first, the party, led by Hestius, climbed down the false well and started down the escape tunnel.
On the way, they asked the diplomat, Gareth Conbert IV, why he had accepted such a dangerous job, and were told that, as someone untrained in the ways of war, this was an excellent way of fulfilling his civic duty. They arrived at the dead end, and Hestius cast a spell to move the earth aside, cast another spell, and told them that he would be able to detect when they came back and would open the tunnel half an hour or so after that. Morgan cut a symbol into a nearby tree so they could find it later.
The party debated walking through the night, but decided to make camp instead, so they wouldn't have to deal with the superior night vision of any orc patrols. Instead, they were ambushed by a group of goblins in the middle of the night and surprised. Locke was on watch, and took two arrows to the back (luckily absorbed by his armour) before he realised what was happening.
Friday, 26 May 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 49: Battle of Carda Part II
Locke Landen - Human Bard (274 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (270 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (144 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (292 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (293 points)
Day 156 (Cont.):
Date: Peris 43rd, 2526
Weather: Clear
As the orc leader hit the still-stunned Virgil with his greatsword a second time, Sindri Giant Stepped through the hole that Maurice had made in the magical purple force field and smashed the orc's torso with his flail three times thanks to Rapid Strike and Extra Attack. Locke played his Dissonant Strain again, but only stunned 1 orc out of 5, while Morgan finished off the orc sergeant with a Pyro Blast.
A shield rush and some grappling attacks by the orcs pushed Morgan and Locke further back, but didn't manage to inflict any wounds, and Maurice, now at 0FP, began readying a major healing potion for Virgil, who finally recovered from stun. The orc leader managed to make it to his knees before Sindri rained another 4 attacks on him, knocking him back down, and Locke Mind Controlled the orc that only had a shield and ordered him to defend, while Morgan provided more covering fire.
One of the orcs who had been harassing the back line took a good opportunity to bash Sindri's skull in from behind, knocking him down, while the black orc with the knife was grappled by the shield orc and took a greatsword to the back from the other one. The orc wizard finally recovered from stun, and Maurice unstoppered the healing potion only to collapse from exhaustion.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (270 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (144 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (292 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (293 points)
Day 156 (Cont.):
Date: Peris 43rd, 2526
Weather: Clear
As the orc leader hit the still-stunned Virgil with his greatsword a second time, Sindri Giant Stepped through the hole that Maurice had made in the magical purple force field and smashed the orc's torso with his flail three times thanks to Rapid Strike and Extra Attack. Locke played his Dissonant Strain again, but only stunned 1 orc out of 5, while Morgan finished off the orc sergeant with a Pyro Blast.
A shield rush and some grappling attacks by the orcs pushed Morgan and Locke further back, but didn't manage to inflict any wounds, and Maurice, now at 0FP, began readying a major healing potion for Virgil, who finally recovered from stun. The orc leader managed to make it to his knees before Sindri rained another 4 attacks on him, knocking him back down, and Locke Mind Controlled the orc that only had a shield and ordered him to defend, while Morgan provided more covering fire.
One of the orcs who had been harassing the back line took a good opportunity to bash Sindri's skull in from behind, knocking him down, while the black orc with the knife was grappled by the shield orc and took a greatsword to the back from the other one. The orc wizard finally recovered from stun, and Maurice unstoppered the healing potion only to collapse from exhaustion.
Friday, 19 May 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 48: Battle of Carda
Locke Landen - Human Bard (274 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (270 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (144 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (292 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (293 points)
Day 156 (Cont.):
Date: Peris 43rd, 2526
Weather: Clear
The orcish wizards continued their advance under covering fire from their horse archers, but the party hesitated to give orders to fire on them until the lead wizard cast a spell that shook the gate beneath them. Bolts flew and cut down many orcs, but another wizard made it into casting range and the door was smashed down by magical force, allowing the orcish army to charge through the gap, and the Brotherhood paladins were nowhere to be seen.
The party rushed down the stairs, though Virgil briefly considered jumping the 20 feet ("I have Acrobatics now, how bad could it be?"), and reinforced the peasant levies against the orcs, when they saw an orc in black plate with a plumed, horned greathelm stride through the ruined gate, barking orders in Giant. Realizing that things were going poorly, and that taking out the enemy leader was too good of an opportunity to turn up, the party pushed through the orcish line and into the open, taking some minor wounds on the way.
More orcs in black plate with greatswords rushed foward to meet them, followed by another orcish wizard, while a group of orcish soldiers disengaged from fighting the peasants and turned to face the party. Sindri and Virgil waited for the black orcs to come into range, but neither side was able to land a telling blow. The rest of the party repositioned slightly, and the orc soldiers charged in on their unprotected flank.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (270 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (144 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (292 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (293 points)
Day 156 (Cont.):
Date: Peris 43rd, 2526
Weather: Clear
The orcish wizards continued their advance under covering fire from their horse archers, but the party hesitated to give orders to fire on them until the lead wizard cast a spell that shook the gate beneath them. Bolts flew and cut down many orcs, but another wizard made it into casting range and the door was smashed down by magical force, allowing the orcish army to charge through the gap, and the Brotherhood paladins were nowhere to be seen.
The party rushed down the stairs, though Virgil briefly considered jumping the 20 feet ("I have Acrobatics now, how bad could it be?"), and reinforced the peasant levies against the orcs, when they saw an orc in black plate with a plumed, horned greathelm stride through the ruined gate, barking orders in Giant. Realizing that things were going poorly, and that taking out the enemy leader was too good of an opportunity to turn up, the party pushed through the orcish line and into the open, taking some minor wounds on the way.
More orcs in black plate with greatswords rushed foward to meet them, followed by another orcish wizard, while a group of orcish soldiers disengaged from fighting the peasants and turned to face the party. Sindri and Virgil waited for the black orcs to come into range, but neither side was able to land a telling blow. The rest of the party repositioned slightly, and the orc soldiers charged in on their unprotected flank.
Monday, 8 May 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 47: The Broken Swords
Locke Landen - Human Bard (274 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (270 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (141 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (267 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (283 points)
Day 137 (Cont.):
Weather: Rainy
Date: Peris 24th 2526
With some time left in the day, Morgan found an instructor to train him in how to notice and disarm Traps, while Sindri met with an old adventurer to learn Slayer Training (Skull). Virgil borrowed some money from Morgan, and went to find a smith to reforge his greatsword to be Very Fine. He ran into a bit of a problem when he asked if he could stay in the room while the work was happening, because he doesn't like being separated from his sword, but was denied to "protect guild secrets", and decided to loiter across the street for the next two weeks.
Day 138:
Weather: Clear
Morgan and Sindri completed their training while Virgil leaned against a wall for 8 hours, and they all returned to the Crimson Boot to rest. That night, a halfling wearing a cloak with a raven pin approached Sindri and Morgan, introduced himself as Albrecht, and sat down at their table. He asked if they, being adventurers, would be interested in finding a cloak that had gone missing from his possession. They would be paid $5,000, and any transgressions by the group who had taken it would be forgiven.
They realized that Albrecht was from the same faction as the man they had stolen the Nightmantle from, but before Morgan could negotiate, Sindri chastised the halfling for violating protocol; he should have gone to the Adventurer's Guild first, and then the Guild would have hired them.. Albrecht said that he would rather not involve the Guild, as that might lead to them discovering that the group who had taken the cloak had broken Guild rules by operating against "innocent" civilians in Adusia.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (270 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (141 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (267 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (283 points)
Day 137 (Cont.):
Weather: Rainy
Date: Peris 24th 2526
With some time left in the day, Morgan found an instructor to train him in how to notice and disarm Traps, while Sindri met with an old adventurer to learn Slayer Training (Skull). Virgil borrowed some money from Morgan, and went to find a smith to reforge his greatsword to be Very Fine. He ran into a bit of a problem when he asked if he could stay in the room while the work was happening, because he doesn't like being separated from his sword, but was denied to "protect guild secrets", and decided to loiter across the street for the next two weeks.
Day 138:
Weather: Clear
Morgan and Sindri completed their training while Virgil leaned against a wall for 8 hours, and they all returned to the Crimson Boot to rest. That night, a halfling wearing a cloak with a raven pin approached Sindri and Morgan, introduced himself as Albrecht, and sat down at their table. He asked if they, being adventurers, would be interested in finding a cloak that had gone missing from his possession. They would be paid $5,000, and any transgressions by the group who had taken it would be forgiven.
They realized that Albrecht was from the same faction as the man they had stolen the Nightmantle from, but before Morgan could negotiate, Sindri chastised the halfling for violating protocol; he should have gone to the Adventurer's Guild first, and then the Guild would have hired them.. Albrecht said that he would rather not involve the Guild, as that might lead to them discovering that the group who had taken the cloak had broken Guild rules by operating against "innocent" civilians in Adusia.
Sunday, 30 April 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 46: Demonslayers
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (270 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (141 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (267 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (283 points)
Player Absent:
Locke Landen - Human Bard (274 points)
Day 133 (Cont.):
Weather: Normal
Date: Peris 20th 2526
While the goristro demon charged towards the walls of Kral Narthis, the party readied themselves; Morgan removed everything but paut from his backpack, Sindri rallied the peasants, and Virgil took his gauntlets off, before they all headed out to meet the beast at the north gate.
Meanwhile, the Dragons of Carda mercenaries, led by Bertio, formed a rough three rank formation in front of the gate, with swordsmen in front, spears in the middle, and halberds in the rear. Luccio stood off to the side and limbered up in preparation to climb the demon, while the town guards and mercenary crossbowmen alike lined the wall and fired two volleys as the goristro approached, with minimal impact.
Sindri held back inside the walls with Maurice, while Locke, Morgan, and Virgil headed out to the right side of the mercenary formation. Virgil doused the elven blade Silmaris with holy water, and Morgan discovered that the Nightmantle's invisibility ended if he levitated and stayed on the ground instead. The 40' tall demon met the mercenaries head-on, eating another volley from the crossbows in the process.
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (141 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (267 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (283 points)
Player Absent:
Locke Landen - Human Bard (274 points)
Day 133 (Cont.):
Weather: Normal
Date: Peris 20th 2526
While the goristro demon charged towards the walls of Kral Narthis, the party readied themselves; Morgan removed everything but paut from his backpack, Sindri rallied the peasants, and Virgil took his gauntlets off, before they all headed out to meet the beast at the north gate.
Meanwhile, the Dragons of Carda mercenaries, led by Bertio, formed a rough three rank formation in front of the gate, with swordsmen in front, spears in the middle, and halberds in the rear. Luccio stood off to the side and limbered up in preparation to climb the demon, while the town guards and mercenary crossbowmen alike lined the wall and fired two volleys as the goristro approached, with minimal impact.
Sindri held back inside the walls with Maurice, while Locke, Morgan, and Virgil headed out to the right side of the mercenary formation. Virgil doused the elven blade Silmaris with holy water, and Morgan discovered that the Nightmantle's invisibility ended if he levitated and stayed on the ground instead. The 40' tall demon met the mercenaries head-on, eating another volley from the crossbows in the process.
Friday, 21 April 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 45: The Great Beast
Locke Landen - Human Bard (274 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (266 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (139 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (267 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (283 points)
Day 130 (Cont.):
Weather: Sunny and Warm
Date: Peris 17th 2526
The party went to the Merchant's Quarter and met with the dwarven merchant Gylium at his spice shop. He brought out some dwarven pastries and fine wine before they getting down to business: another merchant, an elf woman named Cathney, was three days late on her journey to Carda. Seeker spells cast by the Enchanter's Guild had found that she was in what looked like an inn, but that one of the horses was still on the road.
The party would be paid $500 plus 20% of whatever trade goods they could recover to rescue Cathney, and were supplied with a cart and drover, Eward, to haul the goods. They inquired about what kind of security she'd had (six guards, none well-known), whether there was any unusual bandit activity in the area (no more than usual), and if they knew which inns she might be in (probably either the Wench and Flail in Cosium or the Silver Axe in Kral Narthis, as those are the towns on the road to Carda) before heading back to the Crimson Boot to rest for the journey ahead.
Day 131:
Weather: Clear
With everyone but Virgil in the cart, the party made it to Cosium in about four and a half hours instead of the usual 8, and were given a hero's welcome in thanks for solving the wild animal problem (though Locke managed to convince the villagers that he was a new hire). On the way to the Wench and Flail inn, they noticed that the wall that had been destroyed by the cactus bear was still being repaired. Inside, the innkeep was able to tell them that Cathney had come through with six guards about a week ago, but that nobody else had come or gone along that road since.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (266 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (139 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (267 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (283 points)
Day 130 (Cont.):
Weather: Sunny and Warm
Date: Peris 17th 2526
The party went to the Merchant's Quarter and met with the dwarven merchant Gylium at his spice shop. He brought out some dwarven pastries and fine wine before they getting down to business: another merchant, an elf woman named Cathney, was three days late on her journey to Carda. Seeker spells cast by the Enchanter's Guild had found that she was in what looked like an inn, but that one of the horses was still on the road.
The party would be paid $500 plus 20% of whatever trade goods they could recover to rescue Cathney, and were supplied with a cart and drover, Eward, to haul the goods. They inquired about what kind of security she'd had (six guards, none well-known), whether there was any unusual bandit activity in the area (no more than usual), and if they knew which inns she might be in (probably either the Wench and Flail in Cosium or the Silver Axe in Kral Narthis, as those are the towns on the road to Carda) before heading back to the Crimson Boot to rest for the journey ahead.
Day 131:
Weather: Clear
With everyone but Virgil in the cart, the party made it to Cosium in about four and a half hours instead of the usual 8, and were given a hero's welcome in thanks for solving the wild animal problem (though Locke managed to convince the villagers that he was a new hire). On the way to the Wench and Flail inn, they noticed that the wall that had been destroyed by the cactus bear was still being repaired. Inside, the innkeep was able to tell them that Cathney had come through with six guards about a week ago, but that nobody else had come or gone along that road since.
Wednesday, 19 April 2017
Alternate Martial Artist Template
Attributes:
ST 11 [10]
DX 16 [120]
IQ 10 [0]
HT 12 [20]
Secondary Characteristics:
Damage 1d-1 thr/1+1 sw
Basic Lift 24lbs
HP 11 [0]
FP 12 [0]
Will 12 [10]
Per 10 [0]
Basic Speed 7.00 [0]
Basic Move 7 [0]
DX 16 [120]
IQ 10 [0]
HT 12 [20]
Secondary Characteristics:
Damage 1d-1 thr/1+1 sw
Basic Lift 24lbs
HP 11 [0]
FP 12 [0]
Will 12 [10]
Per 10 [0]
Basic Speed 7.00 [0]
Basic Move 7 [0]
Saturday, 15 April 2017
Buffing the Martial Artist: Alternate Trained by a Master and Weapon Master
Trained by a Master
Trained by a Master (or TbaM) has the following effects:- Rapid Strike penalty is reduced by half
- Multiple Parry penalty is reduced by half
- Unarmed attacks do not take damage from armed parries (this is a houserule)
These are almost the exact same bonuses as Weapon Master, but without the damage bonus. TbaM works with all melee weapon and unarmed skills, but this is needlessly broad, as most Martial Artists won't use more than 4 melee skills, assuming they invest points in all of Judo, Karate, and two melee weapon skills. Compare this to the Knight and Swashbuckler who start with Weapon Master (One Weapon), and are given the option to buy up to Weapon Master (All Weapons).
The 5-point brackets of Weapon Master are a good target to emulate, and the percentage Accessibility modifier from Powers can be used based on how many skills TbaM effects. To start, there are six unarmed skills, but because nobody is ever going to buy more than one striking skill (Boxing, Brawling, and Karate), and one grappling skill (Judo, Sumo Wrestling, and Wrestling), it's fair to reduce these to only two skills for the purpose of calculating the discount.
Friday, 14 April 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 44: Dynamic Entry
Locke Landen - Human Bard (274 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (266 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (137 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (267 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (268 points)
Day 129 (Cont.):
Weather: Definitely Spring
Date: Peris 16th 2526
The party came up with a plan to infiltrate the auction; Locke and Morgan would act as buyers, while Sindri, Virgil, and Maurice went up onto the roof of the Black Star Trading Company warehouse. Morgan would use Telesend to message the assault team once the flying carpet was brought out, and they would bash in the roof, jump down, and steal the rug, while Locke and Morgan escaped in the confusion.
Virgil and Sindri bought cloaks to hide their Adventurer's Guild shoulderpads and then bribed a worker at the adjacent Brassholm Trade and Storage warehouse to store a 20' ladder out back. Locke picked up a disguise kit, so that people would be unable to connect Morgan or himself to the heist (though they didn't end up disguising the far more conspicuous 8' tall barbarian or Tiefling).
Midnight arrived, and, after being patted down for hidden weapons, Locke and Morgan were led through the front office and into the Black Star warehouse. Stacks of crates had been moved to the side, freeing a roughly 20'x20' area for seating, and a small raised platform for the auctioneer had been brought in. A set of stairs down to a cellar lay to the northeast, while another set up to what looked like a second-floor office stood against the north wall.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (266 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (137 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (267 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (268 points)
Day 129 (Cont.):
Weather: Definitely Spring
Date: Peris 16th 2526
The party came up with a plan to infiltrate the auction; Locke and Morgan would act as buyers, while Sindri, Virgil, and Maurice went up onto the roof of the Black Star Trading Company warehouse. Morgan would use Telesend to message the assault team once the flying carpet was brought out, and they would bash in the roof, jump down, and steal the rug, while Locke and Morgan escaped in the confusion.
Virgil and Sindri bought cloaks to hide their Adventurer's Guild shoulderpads and then bribed a worker at the adjacent Brassholm Trade and Storage warehouse to store a 20' ladder out back. Locke picked up a disguise kit, so that people would be unable to connect Morgan or himself to the heist (though they didn't end up disguising the far more conspicuous 8' tall barbarian or Tiefling).
Midnight arrived, and, after being patted down for hidden weapons, Locke and Morgan were led through the front office and into the Black Star warehouse. Stacks of crates had been moved to the side, freeing a roughly 20'x20' area for seating, and a small raised platform for the auctioneer had been brought in. A set of stairs down to a cellar lay to the northeast, while another set up to what looked like a second-floor office stood against the north wall.
Thursday, 13 April 2017
Buffing the Martial Artist: Attributes and Skills
Attributes
16 DX is the highest in DF, and also the only good Attribute Martial Artists have, but they can't really afford to lower it. ST and HT are horrible for a frontline combatant, but can be bought up with advantage points, while IQ only really matters for two Chi Skills (Invisibility Art and Pressure Points). Meanwhile, Move 8 is a bit unnecessary, and Will is a tad low for the stereotypical "kung-fu master".
I'd suggest the following changes:
- Decrease Basic Move to 7 (+5)
- Increase Will to 12 (-5)
Skills
Martial Artists are supposed to fill the same niche as the Swashbuckler; a lightly-armoured combatant who can fight, jump pits, and climb walls, but is incapable of doing almost anything else. Despite this, they only put 8 points into weapon skills; tied for the second lowest out of all the templates with the Wizard, only beating out the Thief (which is borderline worthless, and needs to be entirely rewritten).Monday, 3 April 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 43: Black Star Trading Company
Locke Landen - Human Bard (265 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (260 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (127 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (267 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (268 points)
Day 125:
Weather: Warm, Light Clouds
Date: Peris 12th, 2526
In the morning, they dropped off the holy symbols of Melora at her statue near the lake, and a warm breeze caressed them, imparting a 10-point Bless. Brief discussion of how to monetize this ensued ("But guys, getting blessed at a temple in town is only $10!" -Brother Maurice "Exactly, we could save tons of money in the long-run!"-Virgil).
They spent the rest of the day travelling through the Iron Forest to Heyfield, and decided to spend the night in the abandoned tower across a stream. Sindri almost drowned crossing the stream, but was rescued and they made camp for the night. Locke got the feeling that something was nearby on his watch, but never saw it.
Day 126:
Weather: Clear and Sunny
Date: Peris 13th, 2526
The party made it to Adusia by midday, and dropped the lockbox off to be opened at Shady Slim's Completely Morally UpstandingLockpicking Locksmithing, then dropped off a bunch of items to be appraised/checked for magic, though Morgan and Virgil hung around to keep an eye on Slim.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (260 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (127 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (267 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (268 points)
Day 125:
Weather: Warm, Light Clouds
Date: Peris 12th, 2526
In the morning, they dropped off the holy symbols of Melora at her statue near the lake, and a warm breeze caressed them, imparting a 10-point Bless. Brief discussion of how to monetize this ensued ("But guys, getting blessed at a temple in town is only $10!" -Brother Maurice "Exactly, we could save tons of money in the long-run!"-Virgil).
They spent the rest of the day travelling through the Iron Forest to Heyfield, and decided to spend the night in the abandoned tower across a stream. Sindri almost drowned crossing the stream, but was rescued and they made camp for the night. Locke got the feeling that something was nearby on his watch, but never saw it.
Day 126:
Weather: Clear and Sunny
Date: Peris 13th, 2526
The party made it to Adusia by midday, and dropped the lockbox off to be opened at Shady Slim's Completely Morally Upstanding
Thursday, 30 March 2017
Buffing the Martial Artist: Alternate Blind Fighting
As mentioned in the post on Chi Skills, Blind Fighting is cool but annoying for DF Martial Artists because it involves rolling dice twice every time you want to attack or defend, and starts at a pathetically low level. Instead, let's build Blind Fighting as a Chi Ability.
The easiest option, and therefore the one that I'll use, is just Vibration Sense. It only requires one roll per foe per encounter instead of dozens, and the base price is less than it would take to get Blind Fighting up to a reasonable level.
On the downside, it requires a reasonably high Perception, which the Martial Artist doesn't have, but that's something I'm going to look into in the future. It also doesn't work in water, but that's pretty negligible.
It ends up looking like this:
Vibration Sense (Chi, -10%) [9]
If you want to offer a powered-up version that works in water and ignores penalties, you can use this:
Vibration Sense (Sense of Perception, +100%; Chi, -10%) [19]
The easiest option, and therefore the one that I'll use, is just Vibration Sense. It only requires one roll per foe per encounter instead of dozens, and the base price is less than it would take to get Blind Fighting up to a reasonable level.
On the downside, it requires a reasonably high Perception, which the Martial Artist doesn't have, but that's something I'm going to look into in the future. It also doesn't work in water, but that's pretty negligible.
It ends up looking like this:
Vibration Sense (Chi, -10%) [9]
If you want to offer a powered-up version that works in water and ignores penalties, you can use this:
Vibration Sense (Sense of Perception, +100%; Chi, -10%) [19]
Wednesday, 29 March 2017
Buffing the Martial Artist: Chi Skills
The vanilla Martial Artist, much like the Bard, suffers from being split across too many areas: mundane Attributes and Skills, mundane Advantages, Chi Abilities, and Chi Skills. Judging by their high DX, low ST, and Acrobatics, they are meant to fill the same niche as a Swashbuckler, but with some neat tricks from Chi Abilities and Chi Skills instead of pure martial skill.
Chi Abilities are pretty much fine, and 20 points doesn't dig too far into the rest of the budget. Chi Skills, however, are simultaneously a huge point dump (44 at least, when you count in Chi Talent), and many are nearly unusable due to low skill levels. Part of the problem is needless breadth; a 15-point Talent and 7 barely usable skills is far worse than a 5-point Talent and 5 consistently-useful skills. Further, many skills are based in IQ, Will, or Per, which are pathetically average. In addition, several of the skills are simply not very interesting or useful, leading to an unnecessarily bloated skill list.
My idea is to split the 15-point Chi Talent into three 5-point talents instead, encouraging specialization in a narrow group of actually usable (Skill-14+) chi skills. This will require paring down the list to only 15 Chi Skills from 20, and then splitting them into thematic groups. To start, let's go through the Chi Skills.
Chi Abilities are pretty much fine, and 20 points doesn't dig too far into the rest of the budget. Chi Skills, however, are simultaneously a huge point dump (44 at least, when you count in Chi Talent), and many are nearly unusable due to low skill levels. Part of the problem is needless breadth; a 15-point Talent and 7 barely usable skills is far worse than a 5-point Talent and 5 consistently-useful skills. Further, many skills are based in IQ, Will, or Per, which are pathetically average. In addition, several of the skills are simply not very interesting or useful, leading to an unnecessarily bloated skill list.
My idea is to split the 15-point Chi Talent into three 5-point talents instead, encouraging specialization in a narrow group of actually usable (Skill-14+) chi skills. This will require paring down the list to only 15 Chi Skills from 20, and then splitting them into thematic groups. To start, let's go through the Chi Skills.
Monday, 27 March 2017
Buffing the Martial Artist: Alternate Unarmed
Unarmed Martial Artists are an option in DF, but they're pretty terrible, for a number of reasons:
- Thrust damage is terrible, and while they can stack up many +1/die bonuses, those are all from power-ups (Claws (Blunt) and Seven Secret Kicks from DF11, and Fists of Power and Unarmed Master from Pyramid #61, if you use that), and on top of that they still need to buy ST up to 19 (17, if you take the maximum two levels of Striking ST allowed in vanilla DF1) to really start to get much use out of the bonuses.
- Weapons that parry unarmed attacks deal damage. This is somewhat fixed if you rule that Trained by a Master allows Martial Artists to ignore this as a special feature (which I do).
- The need to be at Reach C for punches and judo throws is a significant tactical hurdle.
- Karate and Judo are Hard skills, and Martial Artists only get starting skill levels of 17 and 16. Also worth noting is that they'll never get bonuses for Balanced weapons, Accurate enchantments (though this could be ruled to apply to gauntlets), or Weapon Bond.
Sunday, 26 March 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 42: The Temple of Baphomet
Locke Landen - Human Bard (265 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (260 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (127 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (260 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (268 points)
Day 121 (Cont.):
Weather: Perfect
Date: Peris 8th, 2526
Morgan, Sindri, and Maurice rested, but Locke and Virgil grew bored and decided to explore. Virgil boosted Locke up the north wall before climbing up himself, arriving in a cavernous room. To the west was a set of tarnished brass double doors blocked by collapsed stones, to the east a brass statue of a minotaur holding an axe overhead situated on a brass disc on the floor, and to the north a narrow passageway.
Virgil walked up to the statue to examine it, but when he set foot on the disc the weight of the statue shifted, and the axe slashed across his torso before he could dodge. Locke noticed that there was smoke coming from the "wall" behind the statue, and realised that it was illusory. He walked through and found a 30' long, 6' wide hallway, ending at a small circular chamber containing a broken pentagram.
In the center of the pentagram were an evistro demon and a six-armed woman with a snake tail instead of legs, but neither Locke nor Virgil got close enough to see exactly what they were doing. Not quite willing to engage the demon(s?), they walked back through the "wall" and returned to the party. After two healing potions, a bunch of healing, and two hours of rest, Sindri was back on his feet and Maurice had recovered enough FP to be somewhat useful.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (260 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (127 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (260 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (268 points)
Day 121 (Cont.):
Weather: Perfect
Date: Peris 8th, 2526
Morgan, Sindri, and Maurice rested, but Locke and Virgil grew bored and decided to explore. Virgil boosted Locke up the north wall before climbing up himself, arriving in a cavernous room. To the west was a set of tarnished brass double doors blocked by collapsed stones, to the east a brass statue of a minotaur holding an axe overhead situated on a brass disc on the floor, and to the north a narrow passageway.
Virgil walked up to the statue to examine it, but when he set foot on the disc the weight of the statue shifted, and the axe slashed across his torso before he could dodge. Locke noticed that there was smoke coming from the "wall" behind the statue, and realised that it was illusory. He walked through and found a 30' long, 6' wide hallway, ending at a small circular chamber containing a broken pentagram.
In the center of the pentagram were an evistro demon and a six-armed woman with a snake tail instead of legs, but neither Locke nor Virgil got close enough to see exactly what they were doing. Not quite willing to engage the demon(s?), they walked back through the "wall" and returned to the party. After two healing potions, a bunch of healing, and two hours of rest, Sindri was back on his feet and Maurice had recovered enough FP to be somewhat useful.
Friday, 17 March 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 41: Carnage Demons
Locke Landen - Human Bard (252 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (260 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (258 points)
Player Absent:
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (259 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (126 points)
Day 119 (Cont.):
Weather: Thunderstorm
Date: Peris 6th, 2526
The red men demons continued to maul each other on the floor as the Windstorm subsided, while the eagle pecked Morgan in the chest repeatedly. The party converged on Morgan to help him, but the storm elemental hit Virgil with a lightning bolt from behind, stunning him. Maurice healed Morgan, and Virgil and Sindri finished off the eagle before moving onto the demons.
Morgan failed to Mind Stab the (brainless) elemental, while Locke tried and failed to Mind Control it. The hostile demon was finished off, and Sindri began climbing one of the standing stones to get within range of the elemental while Morgan, the only person with a ranged attack, occasionally hit it for 2 damage hit Kinetic Lash. The elemental took more shots at Virgil's back, but missed most of them.
Sindri fell off, and, after about 10 more seconds of firing lightning at the party without a response, the elemental got bored and flew off. Locke ordered the mind-controlled dire wolf and demon to lie down and close their eyes, which resulted in their swift deaths. Sindri inspected the altar, which was covered in blood drawings of a minotaur surrounded by knee-high stickmen, but found nothing else of note.
Maurice noticed that the druid's brigandine was divinely enchanted, and upon closer inspection it was also Fine, had a nice fur trim, and a brass bull head in the center, so Locke took it to sell. After some healing, the party rested for the night.
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (260 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (258 points)
Player Absent:
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (259 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (126 points)
Day 119 (Cont.):
Weather: Thunderstorm
Date: Peris 6th, 2526
The red men demons continued to maul each other on the floor as the Windstorm subsided, while the eagle pecked Morgan in the chest repeatedly. The party converged on Morgan to help him, but the storm elemental hit Virgil with a lightning bolt from behind, stunning him. Maurice healed Morgan, and Virgil and Sindri finished off the eagle before moving onto the demons.
Morgan failed to Mind Stab the (brainless) elemental, while Locke tried and failed to Mind Control it. The hostile demon was finished off, and Sindri began climbing one of the standing stones to get within range of the elemental while Morgan, the only person with a ranged attack, occasionally hit it for 2 damage hit Kinetic Lash. The elemental took more shots at Virgil's back, but missed most of them.
Sindri fell off, and, after about 10 more seconds of firing lightning at the party without a response, the elemental got bored and flew off. Locke ordered the mind-controlled dire wolf and demon to lie down and close their eyes, which resulted in their swift deaths. Sindri inspected the altar, which was covered in blood drawings of a minotaur surrounded by knee-high stickmen, but found nothing else of note.
Maurice noticed that the druid's brigandine was divinely enchanted, and upon closer inspection it was also Fine, had a nice fur trim, and a brass bull head in the center, so Locke took it to sell. After some healing, the party rested for the night.
Friday, 10 March 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 40: The Mystery of the Druids
Locke Landen - Human Bard (252 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (259 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (126 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (258 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (258 points)
Day 117:
Weather: Rainy
Date: Peris 4th, 2526
The group decided to head back to Heyfield, as from there they could follow one of the streams from the lake on their map, and wouldn't risk getting lost. They made good time, and, after passing by a very familiar glade with a giant tree, arrived in view of the lake by nightfall. Virgil didn't have a tent, so he lost 1FP for sleeping in the open. Fortunately, they weren't attacked.
Day 118:
Weather: Rainy
Date: Peris 5th, 2526
The rain continued as they travelled west around the lake. Around noon they found a marble statue of a woman wearing a crown, and whose legs were replaced with swirling water. Brother Maurice identified this as Melora, the goddess of the wilderness and oceans, and suggested that he could probably sanctify it if given an hour.
The rest of the party agreed to rest, and, once the hour was up, a warm breeze gently caressed them and gave them a level 2 Bless. Now slightly faster (thanks to boosted Hiking from the Bless), they continued on, and passed by a pool of crystal clear water, where Virgil washed his face, and the others filled their canteens, though nobody drank any.
They camped for the night just shy of where they suspected the druids were. This time, Virgil found a good campsite, and didn't lose any more FP.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (259 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (126 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (258 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (258 points)
Day 117:
Weather: Rainy
Date: Peris 4th, 2526
The group decided to head back to Heyfield, as from there they could follow one of the streams from the lake on their map, and wouldn't risk getting lost. They made good time, and, after passing by a very familiar glade with a giant tree, arrived in view of the lake by nightfall. Virgil didn't have a tent, so he lost 1FP for sleeping in the open. Fortunately, they weren't attacked.
Day 118:
Weather: Rainy
Date: Peris 5th, 2526
The rain continued as they travelled west around the lake. Around noon they found a marble statue of a woman wearing a crown, and whose legs were replaced with swirling water. Brother Maurice identified this as Melora, the goddess of the wilderness and oceans, and suggested that he could probably sanctify it if given an hour.
The rest of the party agreed to rest, and, once the hour was up, a warm breeze gently caressed them and gave them a level 2 Bless. Now slightly faster (thanks to boosted Hiking from the Bless), they continued on, and passed by a pool of crystal clear water, where Virgil washed his face, and the others filled their canteens, though nobody drank any.
They camped for the night just shy of where they suspected the druids were. This time, Virgil found a good campsite, and didn't lose any more FP.
Sunday, 26 February 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 39: The New New Party
Locke Landen - Human Bard (250 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (258 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (126 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (250 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (250 points)
Characters:
Locke Landen aka Davis Connors aka Landen Locke is a totally trustworthy bard who would never tell a lie. He started adventuring at age 3, slew his first dragon at age 4, and single-handedly stopped the demonic invasion of 2519, but those damned historians covered it all up.
Sindri Blackshield is the son of a Zerakim noble house who had fallen on hard times. He seeks to enrich his families coffers through adventuring, and to improve public opinion on Tieflings by upholding a chivalric oath and slaying the devils of the Nine Hells.
Virgil the Grim was born in Hell as a slave to the ruling devils, but managed to escape with his brother after he stole a magical sword that could open portals. Once they had escaped, his brother stole the sword. Virgil wants to find him and take it back.
Day 114:
Weather: Clear and Warm
Date: Peris 1st, 2526
The party arrived in the city of Adusia, having met on the boat ride there, and decided to look for work with the local branch of the Adventurer's Guild. While everybody else got a job to put a stop to unusually frequent wild animal attacks that were occurring around trade road near the Iron Forest in the south, Locke went to go "find some accommodations" at the Crimson Boot inn across the street.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (258 points)
Brother Maurice- Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (126 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (250 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian (250 points)
Characters:
Locke Landen aka Davis Connors aka Landen Locke is a totally trustworthy bard who would never tell a lie. He started adventuring at age 3, slew his first dragon at age 4, and single-handedly stopped the demonic invasion of 2519, but those damned historians covered it all up.
Sindri Blackshield is the son of a Zerakim noble house who had fallen on hard times. He seeks to enrich his families coffers through adventuring, and to improve public opinion on Tieflings by upholding a chivalric oath and slaying the devils of the Nine Hells.
Virgil the Grim was born in Hell as a slave to the ruling devils, but managed to escape with his brother after he stole a magical sword that could open portals. Once they had escaped, his brother stole the sword. Virgil wants to find him and take it back.
Day 114:
Weather: Clear and Warm
Date: Peris 1st, 2526
The party arrived in the city of Adusia, having met on the boat ride there, and decided to look for work with the local branch of the Adventurer's Guild. While everybody else got a job to put a stop to unusually frequent wild animal attacks that were occurring around trade road near the Iron Forest in the south, Locke went to go "find some accommodations" at the Crimson Boot inn across the street.
Monday, 20 February 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 38: Battle of the Alchemy Lab
Darrude - Human Wizard (252 points)
Grohk - Goliath Barbarian (253 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (252 points)
Brother Horace - Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (128 points)
Sado Con - Human Martial Artist (257 points)
Day 86 (Cont.):
Weather: Strong Wind
Date: Coreli 17th, 2526
Grohk continued to be pummelled on the ground while he tried to rip the winged Forsaken's legs off, and Sado started crippling hands and feet like a madman. Darrude smacked the flying one with a Shocking Touch, but was grappled in reutrn. In an effort to get the big one away from the unconscious Brother Horace, Morgan fired a Kinetic Lash at it.
This worked, and it charged at him instead. Morgan managed to parry and started backing up the stairs while firing off more Kinetic Lashes, hoping to cripple its legs. The swollen one, already crippled and on the ground, decided to crawl up the stairs after Morgan as well.
The winged Forsaken switched its grab and started to snap Darrude's neck, stunning him, and Grohk returned the favour by wrenching (and crippling) its leg some more. Sado took the one he was fighting down, crippling both feet and the weapon hand, but was too late to stop the other Forsaken smashing Grohk with its club just as his Stone Skin ran out, killing him.
Morgan continued to block and retreated up into the scroll room on the second floor, and managed to cripple the big one's weapon hand after several attempts. Sado knocked the other Forsaken down by crippling both its feet, and it dropped its weapon while trying to attack him, giving him an opening, and Darrude managed to cast Spark Storm, despite casting out of his HP.
The winged Forsaken was stunned and lost its grip, but Sado failed a consciousness check with a 17 and fell over, and Darrude followed after a failed death check while casting another spell out of HP. Morgan crippled the big one's leg, and ran away, leaving the rest of his party to die.
Notes:
This was a long combat, but by the end we still had about 2 hours of game time left. The players decided they'd want their new characters to go elsewhere, as they were tired of exploring the dwarven ruins. There were complaints that they were too big, which is fair.
I pointed out that, much like the slimes in the dwarven tomb, dumb luck made them run into a series of big tough dudes, which was unfortunate, and monotonous. A lot of the blame here lies on me, because I made it so that such routes were possible. I'll have to be more careful in the future.
The players asked what else they could have done to win that battle, and, other than things like "listen when I tell you that attacking its skull has no special effect", it came down to mostly meta-decisions. Taking more useful spells, unarmed martial artists getting buffed up, not being a berserker, etc.
We discussed Berserk, and came to the conclusion that without somebody to help back him up, a berserker is going to die.
Morgan will join up with the new guys in Adusia, sometime later.
XP:
0 due to nothing being accomplished, no loot being cashed (Grohk had it all), and a bunch of people dying without recovering the bodies.
Grohk - Goliath Barbarian (253 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (252 points)
Brother Horace - Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (128 points)
Sado Con - Human Martial Artist (257 points)
Day 86 (Cont.):
Weather: Strong Wind
Date: Coreli 17th, 2526
Grohk continued to be pummelled on the ground while he tried to rip the winged Forsaken's legs off, and Sado started crippling hands and feet like a madman. Darrude smacked the flying one with a Shocking Touch, but was grappled in reutrn. In an effort to get the big one away from the unconscious Brother Horace, Morgan fired a Kinetic Lash at it.
This worked, and it charged at him instead. Morgan managed to parry and started backing up the stairs while firing off more Kinetic Lashes, hoping to cripple its legs. The swollen one, already crippled and on the ground, decided to crawl up the stairs after Morgan as well.
The winged Forsaken switched its grab and started to snap Darrude's neck, stunning him, and Grohk returned the favour by wrenching (and crippling) its leg some more. Sado took the one he was fighting down, crippling both feet and the weapon hand, but was too late to stop the other Forsaken smashing Grohk with its club just as his Stone Skin ran out, killing him.
Morgan continued to block and retreated up into the scroll room on the second floor, and managed to cripple the big one's weapon hand after several attempts. Sado knocked the other Forsaken down by crippling both its feet, and it dropped its weapon while trying to attack him, giving him an opening, and Darrude managed to cast Spark Storm, despite casting out of his HP.
The winged Forsaken was stunned and lost its grip, but Sado failed a consciousness check with a 17 and fell over, and Darrude followed after a failed death check while casting another spell out of HP. Morgan crippled the big one's leg, and ran away, leaving the rest of his party to die.
Notes:
This was a long combat, but by the end we still had about 2 hours of game time left. The players decided they'd want their new characters to go elsewhere, as they were tired of exploring the dwarven ruins. There were complaints that they were too big, which is fair.
I pointed out that, much like the slimes in the dwarven tomb, dumb luck made them run into a series of big tough dudes, which was unfortunate, and monotonous. A lot of the blame here lies on me, because I made it so that such routes were possible. I'll have to be more careful in the future.
The players asked what else they could have done to win that battle, and, other than things like "listen when I tell you that attacking its skull has no special effect", it came down to mostly meta-decisions. Taking more useful spells, unarmed martial artists getting buffed up, not being a berserker, etc.
We discussed Berserk, and came to the conclusion that without somebody to help back him up, a berserker is going to die.
Morgan will join up with the new guys in Adusia, sometime later.
XP:
0 due to nothing being accomplished, no loot being cashed (Grohk had it all), and a bunch of people dying without recovering the bodies.
Friday, 10 February 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 37: Into The Ruins
Darrude - Human Wizard (252 points)
Grohk - Goliath Barbarian (253 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (252 points)
Brother Horace - Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (128 points)
Sado Con - Human Martial Artist (257 points)
Day 85:
Weather: Light Breeze, Clear
Date: Coreli 16th, 2526
Darrude and Morgan went to talk to Hue the Many-Coloured about the things they had seen in the dwarven ruins. With a bit of help, Morgan figured out that the green light was probably a psionic portal, possibly leading to the Far Realm. Hue told them that several subspecies of troll had been observed before, though anything psionic was probably due to Far Realm radiation, and he wasn't sure what to make of the glowing stone in the ceiling. Sadly "we saw a flying blob-thing way off in the distance" wasn't enough to go on.
Meanwhile, Grohk challenged Sado to a drinking contest, which Sado (surprisingly) won. They then went to the orcs to try to ask for help, but the guards wouldn't let them in to talk to Gordag, so they turned around and headed back to the rest of the party. Despite Sado's urging that he was fine, they decided to postpone their adventuring by a day so nobody would be drunk.
Darrude used Speed-Reading and Research to find out some things about trolls (nothing they didn't already know) and the ancient dwarven empire Thael Ruthak (for fun), while Morgan tried to find something on the area around them specifically. Sadly, very few records of Thael Ruthak survived, especially in a small private library in a newly-funded town, and he was unable to find anything of note.
Grohk - Goliath Barbarian (253 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (252 points)
Brother Horace - Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (128 points)
Sado Con - Human Martial Artist (257 points)
Day 85:
Weather: Light Breeze, Clear
Date: Coreli 16th, 2526
Darrude and Morgan went to talk to Hue the Many-Coloured about the things they had seen in the dwarven ruins. With a bit of help, Morgan figured out that the green light was probably a psionic portal, possibly leading to the Far Realm. Hue told them that several subspecies of troll had been observed before, though anything psionic was probably due to Far Realm radiation, and he wasn't sure what to make of the glowing stone in the ceiling. Sadly "we saw a flying blob-thing way off in the distance" wasn't enough to go on.
Meanwhile, Grohk challenged Sado to a drinking contest, which Sado (surprisingly) won. They then went to the orcs to try to ask for help, but the guards wouldn't let them in to talk to Gordag, so they turned around and headed back to the rest of the party. Despite Sado's urging that he was fine, they decided to postpone their adventuring by a day so nobody would be drunk.
Darrude used Speed-Reading and Research to find out some things about trolls (nothing they didn't already know) and the ancient dwarven empire Thael Ruthak (for fun), while Morgan tried to find something on the area around them specifically. Sadly, very few records of Thael Ruthak survived, especially in a small private library in a newly-funded town, and he was unable to find anything of note.
Friday, 3 February 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 36: Troll Hunters
Darrude - Human Wizard (252 points)
Grohk - Goliath Barbarian (250 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (252 points)
Brother Horace - Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (125 points)
Sado Con - Human Martial Artist (254 points)
Characters:
Grohk (aka Gronk) is a goliath berserker who loves booze and food. After one too many blackouts, he no longer knows why he started adventuring, and all that matters now is that he has a good time.
Day 84:
Weather: Light Rain
Date: Coreli 15th, 2526
Sado realised he'd be unable to convince Gordag and the orcs to offer more help, took back the backpack full of acid flasks from Brag, and jogged back to the south to rejoin the party at the entrance to the Night Wolves' camp. On the way, he passed by the hole where they had buried a troll, which was now empty.
Now that there was some time to kill, Brother Horace cast Continual Light on Morgan's left glove and Grohk's helmet to provide them with more than one light source. Once Sado returned several hours later, the party headed back down into the ruins. Shortly past the stone gate where they had fought the trolls, they found a cluster of half a dozen orcish huts. There were also various tools and utensils that were likely dropped as the orcs fled.
Morgan searched the camp but found nothing of note, the orcs clearly having taken everything of value. After a failure to find a 10' pole in the camp, the party continued to a second stone gate, with a broken iron portcullis that had been bent open from the far side. Past the gate, their light sources revealed that the tunnel opened up on either side, and that there was a stone handrail about 10' away, with sheer darkness beyond.
Grohk - Goliath Barbarian (250 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (252 points)
Brother Horace - Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (125 points)
Sado Con - Human Martial Artist (254 points)
Characters:
Grohk (aka Gronk) is a goliath berserker who loves booze and food. After one too many blackouts, he no longer knows why he started adventuring, and all that matters now is that he has a good time.
Day 84:
Weather: Light Rain
Date: Coreli 15th, 2526
Sado realised he'd be unable to convince Gordag and the orcs to offer more help, took back the backpack full of acid flasks from Brag, and jogged back to the south to rejoin the party at the entrance to the Night Wolves' camp. On the way, he passed by the hole where they had buried a troll, which was now empty.
Now that there was some time to kill, Brother Horace cast Continual Light on Morgan's left glove and Grohk's helmet to provide them with more than one light source. Once Sado returned several hours later, the party headed back down into the ruins. Shortly past the stone gate where they had fought the trolls, they found a cluster of half a dozen orcish huts. There were also various tools and utensils that were likely dropped as the orcs fled.
Morgan searched the camp but found nothing of note, the orcs clearly having taken everything of value. After a failure to find a 10' pole in the camp, the party continued to a second stone gate, with a broken iron portcullis that had been bent open from the far side. Past the gate, their light sources revealed that the tunnel opened up on either side, and that there was a stone handrail about 10' away, with sheer darkness beyond.
Monday, 23 January 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 35: The New Party
Darrude - Human Wizard (250 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (250 points)
Brother Horace - Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (125 points)
Sado Con - Human Martial Artist (250 points)
Player Absent (In The Nega-Zone):
Grohk - Goliath Barbarian (250 points)
Characters:
Darrude is an archaeologist/earth wizard who left his homeland on the eastern continent due to war breaking out. He has since become obsessed with finding the lost capital city of the ancient dwarven empire of Thael Ruthak.
Morgan Merkle, Mentalist Mastermind is a humourless psion who believes that he must become incredibly powerful to destroy the aberrants that (he claims) cause all the worlds' problems.
Sado Con is a fourteen year old martial artist who is looking for his master so that he can continue his training, and become the greatest fighter of all time. He loves competition, and doesn't get why old people are so boring.
Background:
The party had accepted a job to help a new settlement, Chryssa's Rest, deal with the local orc and ogre tribes for $800/wk plus $150 cost of living expenses each. Travelling in wagons along with another 10 mercenaries and some miscellaneous supplies, they left the free city of Trugo and headed south to the great plains. The journey was uneventful until the fourth day.
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (250 points)
Brother Horace - Human Initiate of Avandra, the goddess of freedom and luck (125 points)
Sado Con - Human Martial Artist (250 points)
Player Absent (In The Nega-Zone):
Grohk - Goliath Barbarian (250 points)
Characters:
Darrude is an archaeologist/earth wizard who left his homeland on the eastern continent due to war breaking out. He has since become obsessed with finding the lost capital city of the ancient dwarven empire of Thael Ruthak.
Morgan Merkle, Mentalist Mastermind is a humourless psion who believes that he must become incredibly powerful to destroy the aberrants that (he claims) cause all the worlds' problems.
Sado Con is a fourteen year old martial artist who is looking for his master so that he can continue his training, and become the greatest fighter of all time. He loves competition, and doesn't get why old people are so boring.
Background:
The party had accepted a job to help a new settlement, Chryssa's Rest, deal with the local orc and ogre tribes for $800/wk plus $150 cost of living expenses each. Travelling in wagons along with another 10 mercenaries and some miscellaneous supplies, they left the free city of Trugo and headed south to the great plains. The journey was uneventful until the fourth day.
Monday, 16 January 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 34a: The Great Skeleton Battle Part II
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (329 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (368 points)
Mor'ath fell back to guard Aurum, but Zaxod failed to break free from the skeletons holding him. Meanwhile, the kung-fu skeletons sliced Arc's neck open, mortally wounding, then killing him, and continuing on until they tore him completely to shreds. The stone dwarf statues took advantage of the gap left by Mor'ath's movement, and began to encircle them while more kung-fu skeletons charged into close combat.
One of the skeletons grappling Zaxod was killed by Mor'ath, and Zaxod finished off the other himsel before taking a Giant Step and falling back beside Mor'ath. The statues finished encircling the duo, and there was nowhere left to retreat. Their backs to the wall, Mor'ath and Zaxod fought on.
There were simply too many enemies. While they were both capable warriors, Mor'ath and Zaxod were each engaged by six foes, and attacked twelve times per second. Zaxod struggled to damage the kung-fu skeletons, which seemed to take less damage from him than from Mor'ath, while Mor'ath stopped attacking and focused on defence, just so he could stay alive. Zaxod continued fighting until he died on his feet two seconds later.
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (368 points)
Mor'ath fell back to guard Aurum, but Zaxod failed to break free from the skeletons holding him. Meanwhile, the kung-fu skeletons sliced Arc's neck open, mortally wounding, then killing him, and continuing on until they tore him completely to shreds. The stone dwarf statues took advantage of the gap left by Mor'ath's movement, and began to encircle them while more kung-fu skeletons charged into close combat.
One of the skeletons grappling Zaxod was killed by Mor'ath, and Zaxod finished off the other himsel before taking a Giant Step and falling back beside Mor'ath. The statues finished encircling the duo, and there was nowhere left to retreat. Their backs to the wall, Mor'ath and Zaxod fought on.
There were simply too many enemies. While they were both capable warriors, Mor'ath and Zaxod were each engaged by six foes, and attacked twelve times per second. Zaxod struggled to damage the kung-fu skeletons, which seemed to take less damage from him than from Mor'ath, while Mor'ath stopped attacking and focused on defence, just so he could stay alive. Zaxod continued fighting until he died on his feet two seconds later.
GURPS Free Cities Session 34: The Great Skeleton Battle
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (358 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (354 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (329 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (364 points)
Day 76 (Cont.):
Weather: Underground
Date: Coreli 7th, 2526
The pale, rotting dwarves (which everybody correctly called "ghouls") advanced from the north towards the party, while four more appeared in the hallway to the south, across the false floor trap. Zaxod and Mor'ath started on the ghouls in front of them, Arc turned to face the southern ghouls, and Aurum cast Flaming Weapon on Mor'ath's saber.
The ghouls noticed and tried to jump over the trap, but two failed and only managed to cling to the close side of a pit, but the others landed and attacked Arc, who then channelled his True Faith. Zaxod finished the ghouls to the north, the two hanging on to the sides of the pit let go and fell in to escape, one was killed by Mor'ath, and the fourth jumped the pit and fled to the south. They killed the ghouls in the (15', water-filled) pit, by throwing Fireballs and then metal slabs at them.
They continued into the northern hallway, and found three doors. The first was locked, and the room beyond contained several skeletons lying upright in burial alcoves. Arc activated True Faith, but nothing happened, so Mor'ath Searched the skeletons and found some jewellery, which Aurum figured was worth some money. The second door was ajar, and contained more skeletons. Again, Arc used True Faith, and this time the skeletons proved animate and tried to flee, but were hopelessly destroyed.
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (354 points)
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (329 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (364 points)
Day 76 (Cont.):
Weather: Underground
Date: Coreli 7th, 2526
The pale, rotting dwarves (which everybody correctly called "ghouls") advanced from the north towards the party, while four more appeared in the hallway to the south, across the false floor trap. Zaxod and Mor'ath started on the ghouls in front of them, Arc turned to face the southern ghouls, and Aurum cast Flaming Weapon on Mor'ath's saber.
The ghouls noticed and tried to jump over the trap, but two failed and only managed to cling to the close side of a pit, but the others landed and attacked Arc, who then channelled his True Faith. Zaxod finished the ghouls to the north, the two hanging on to the sides of the pit let go and fell in to escape, one was killed by Mor'ath, and the fourth jumped the pit and fled to the south. They killed the ghouls in the (15', water-filled) pit, by throwing Fireballs and then metal slabs at them.
They continued into the northern hallway, and found three doors. The first was locked, and the room beyond contained several skeletons lying upright in burial alcoves. Arc activated True Faith, but nothing happened, so Mor'ath Searched the skeletons and found some jewellery, which Aurum figured was worth some money. The second door was ajar, and contained more skeletons. Again, Arc used True Faith, and this time the skeletons proved animate and tried to flee, but were hopelessly destroyed.
Friday, 6 January 2017
GURPS Free Cities Session 33
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (355 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (354 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (364 points)
Player Absent:
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (329 points)
Day 76 (Cont.):
Weather: Underground
Date: Coreli 7th, 2526
Everybody dropped their backpacks and shoved in their earplugs as one of the nothics began to laugh, and the other shot a sickly green beam of energy at Zaxod. Mor'ath ran into the library, while Zaxod drew his axes and Aurum and Arc readied weapons in the hall outside. Both of the nothics jumped on top of the 8' tall bookshelves, and one hit Zaxod with another necrotic beam.
Mor'ath stepped up to one of the shelves and, despite the huge difference in height, managed to stab the nothic in the eye, while Zaxod climbed up the other bookshelf. Arc cancelled Gift of Letters and cast Shield 4 on Aurum, who then ran into the room. The unblinded nothic jumped to another book shelf, away from Zaxod, and swept its necrotic gaze over Mor'ath, who dodged, and attacked the blinded nothic's neck.
Zaxod switched to his great axe, and launched a fatal flurry of attacks at the still-standing nothic, while Aurum cast Flaming Weapon on Mor'ath and Arc entered the room. Mor'ath jumped up next to the blinded nothic to finish it off with multiple slashes at the neck, while Zaxod cut the other one into pieces.
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (354 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (364 points)
Player Absent:
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (329 points)
Day 76 (Cont.):
Weather: Underground
Date: Coreli 7th, 2526
Everybody dropped their backpacks and shoved in their earplugs as one of the nothics began to laugh, and the other shot a sickly green beam of energy at Zaxod. Mor'ath ran into the library, while Zaxod drew his axes and Aurum and Arc readied weapons in the hall outside. Both of the nothics jumped on top of the 8' tall bookshelves, and one hit Zaxod with another necrotic beam.
Mor'ath stepped up to one of the shelves and, despite the huge difference in height, managed to stab the nothic in the eye, while Zaxod climbed up the other bookshelf. Arc cancelled Gift of Letters and cast Shield 4 on Aurum, who then ran into the room. The unblinded nothic jumped to another book shelf, away from Zaxod, and swept its necrotic gaze over Mor'ath, who dodged, and attacked the blinded nothic's neck.
Zaxod switched to his great axe, and launched a fatal flurry of attacks at the still-standing nothic, while Aurum cast Flaming Weapon on Mor'ath and Arc entered the room. Mor'ath jumped up next to the blinded nothic to finish it off with multiple slashes at the neck, while Zaxod cut the other one into pieces.
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