Archer Arrowsmith - Human Scout (260 points)
Elana - Human Holy Warrior of Melora, goddess of the wilderness and sea (278 points)
"The" Lukas Zombanyi - Human Cleric of Bahamut, god of justice and protection (263 points)
Masha Deathfoot - Human Martial Artist (265 points)
Puddin' Noddington - Gnome Thief (292 points)
Mahk Strawngmussle - Human Labourer (72 points)
Vaelcor Treehippie - Human Druid (280 points)
Jahn the Bear - Bear (209 points)
NPCs:
Odo - Human Wizard, definitely not a necromancer (??? points)
Thrunvir - Dwarf Initiate, Crippled (??? points)
Amothius 46th 2546, Farmland Outside Isserno
Archer loosed an arrow into the eyeslits of the deformed warrior who had charged her, and he exploded into a cloud of acid. She managed to drop and dodge just in time, and shouted out a warning to the others. The armoured man launched a flurry of blows at Elana, the second as a Beat which put her at -11 to Parry, but she dodged the third, as well another trio of All-Out Attacks from deformed warriors in the Pollen Cloud. Another charged at Lukas with his maul, but he blocked it, and the wolf-spider missed a bite on Jahn.
Fresh from the nega-zone, Masha appeared on the enemies' flank, along with another deformed warrior, and took a halberd to the torso. She dropped her displacer beast pelts and kicked him again, but bounced off of his armour. Puddin' managed to Disappear, while Elana stabbed a warrior in the eye, killing him and causing another acid explosion; she dodged back and out of the way, but some of his friends standing too close started smoking slightly.
Jahn bashed the spider demon twice, while Vaelcor All-Out Defended, and a Defensive Attack from Lukas was dodged. While everyone else was distracted, Odo, having cast Flight, seized the opportunity and silently flew away from the battle. The big bad continued pressing Elana and made three Rapid Strikes with his greatsword; she parried the first, but the second and third were both crits. The third attack came up 3x damage on the crit table, and she was hit for 69 damage and instantly killed, cut cleanly in half at the waist.
Standing over Elana's bisected corpse, the leader shouted out "Give me the rod and the rest of you will live!". Mahk failed a Loyalty roll and started frantically digging through his pack with encouragement from Lukas, who suddenly found himself alone of the front line. The demon-spider crit-failed a bite, tearing its neck muscles, and Jahn responded by beating it to death with her bear-fists. Masha, on the far side of the smoke cloud, didn't know that they were surrendering and continued her fight with the warrior.
The party and enemy both stood, Waiting, until Mahk drew the rod segment, and gave it to the enemy leader. He took it, told them that they should have just given it over in the first place, and ordered the retreat. While this happened, Masha kicked her warrior in the face and Judo Threw him to the ground just as the smoke cloud cleared, and, seeing that the fight was over, spit on him. The party let them go, and, after giving Elana's pack and arms to Masha, Lukas set about burying Elana with his shovel, and, after resting for a while, cast Final Rest (Lukas: "Resurrection is Necromancy!").
They made it back to Isserno well after dark, though Archer and Vaelcor both stayed outside of town. The town-party dropped Thrunvir and the giant silver hammer and anvil symbol off at the Temple of Moradin. Thrunvir thanked them for their aid, and an elderly dwarf with a white beard reaching his knees told them that, in return for rescuing a priest and recovering the silver symbol, they would have free access to the temple's resources within reason. The party headed back to an inn to sleep.
Amothius 47th 2546, Isserno
The next morning, Lukas went to the temple of Bahamut and took out a bounty on the "Necromancer" Odo. While the party argued over how to split the loot, Mahk requested a bonus, as the party had made an insane amount of money, and he had personally carried home tens of thousands of dollars worth of treasure. They ultimately decided to give Mahk a bonus of twice his usual wage, and he agreed to continue adventuring with them.
The party decided to cut in Argua and Ruckus for full shares, and learned that Mahk had some sort of criminal past, after which a dwarven urchin entered the tavern and gave the "noble lady Argua" a sealed letter, which turned out to be a message from the sage Brunnhilda Bronzespire, claiming that she had tracked down another piece of the artifact. At the bottom of the tower which she used as her office, Brunnhilda explained that an old friend of hers, had pinpointed the location of the rod segment thought lost in the Bonestorm.
The Martel Company, a "completely above board" trade company operating out of the free city of Trugo, had apparently found a route through the Bonestorm about a month ago, and her friend, Old Will had gone through, to the Swordfish Islands. The Martel Company were charging an insane amount to get there, but apparently there'd be no issue making it back in the islands. They could find Old Will in Rand's Place in Swordfish Bay and ask him more there. The party decided to take a well-deserved rest first, but would set out to the islands once done.
Notes:
Masha missed the last session, but rather than have her sit out for an hour+, I just had her show up, and added one more enemy to even the numbers.
I'm going to change the Skulker Talent (for Thieves) alternate benefit to reduce encumbrance for Disappearing only rather than all Stealth. Puddin' will be able to swap out armour.
Archer was confident that she could have survived the encounter; Puddin' was also good, because she would stay Disappeared. Lukas and Vaelcor were pretty much doomed, and Jahn would probably not have lasted too long either.
There was a long discussion about crit-fishing being an unsatisfactory tactic. Understandably, Elana's player thinks that they should be removed from the game. On the other hand, it's pretty much the only tactic against super-defenses like Elana's this fight, and I think it reasonably reflects the "lucky break" needed to defeat a superior foe. I will, however, admit that the swinginess in the crit tables isn't great, and for now we're going with a houserule I proposed a while ago: crits other than a natural 3 just hit, natural 3s do max damage.
Also going to add in the Martial Arts rule of successive Dodges being at -1.
Mahk was at a penalty to keep adventuring with the party if they didn't give him some sort of bonus, but they paid more than enough to keep him around. The party is also willing to pay for him to get Shield training, so that he can better protect the loot.
Hilariously, Argua's player actually argued against getting a full cut, but got one anyway.
Masha's probably going to cash in her displacer beast pelts for a Cloak of Blur.
Loot still needs to be sold and purchases still need to be made, but as of right now, this game is going on hiatus while I run another game, where the players are Space Merchants in the Space Future.
1XP to Lukas for his Fanaticism causing him to burn HP while casting Final Rest.
1XP for bringing back the anvil, no MVP.
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