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 Accountant
Travis McTaggart - Cowardly IT Technician

Phil Powell - Stubborn Machinist

Kate Norman (Initially an NPC) - Curious Nurse

Darryl Johnston (NPC) - Trickster Unemployed Mechanic

Bonds

Travis is dating Beth
Beth 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, 2017
The 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.