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.

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.

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]

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.

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.

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).

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 Upstanding Lockpicking 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.