Archer Arrowsmith - Human Scout (260 points)
Elana - Human Holy Warrior of Melora, goddess of the wilderness and sea (262 points)
"The" Lukas Zombanyi - Human Cleric of Bahamut, god of justice and protection (260 points)
Masha Deathfoot - Human Martial Artist (265 points)
Puddin' Noddington - Gnome Thief (272 points)
Mahk Strawngmussle - Human Labourer (62 points)
Vaelcor Treehippie - Human Druid (271 points)
Jahn the Bear - Bear (201 points)
Amothius 37th 2546, Outside Kral Aklaz
Lukas showed back up, having changed his name (and religion). The party asked if he knew anything about "Giant Law", but he came up blank. They headed to the Observatory chute, looping north around the valley with the stone bridge. Masha was lowered first with the Lantern of Continual Light and confirmed the room was empty, save for the now-dead tree that Vaelcor had created last session. The others made it down without issue (though Lukas had to use Luck after failing a roll); Puddin' rediscovered her Laziness and demanded a 1cp ($1) fee to tie people off.
The party decided they wanted to investigate the crypts, now that they had a cleric with True Faith, and followed their map to loop around back to the staircase where the floor had been smashed away. Puddin' remembered that they'd never told Celebor that they had cancelled their plan from last night, so he was probably annoyed. They headed south, Puddin' scouting ahead (after removing her medium plate sabatons), and made it back to the 4-way intersection by the door down without seeing any giants. The giants had smashed the floor here in their last encounter, so they'd have to jump across a small gap above the floor below to actually get to the stairs.
They decided to check out some unexplored doors in the "fey" sector first instead, but the first two fairly large rooms, made of natural stone with crude wooden doors, both turned up empty except for some mundane vines and ferns. The next door had a 2' door built into the bottom of it, including a tiny doorknob. Puddin' opened that one, and looked through to see another plant-choked room, but with a pot of gold! She ran through (after failing a Will roll) and started shoving coins into her pockets, though the number in the pot never seemed to drop. Masha, hearing this, took a look through the door and (after also failing her roll) somehow managed to squeeze through it, and started filling her pockets too.
Lukas asked what was going on in there ("Look, there's no way we're all going to fall for the same trick and TPK!"), and opened the main door when Puddin' gleefully responded that there was a pot full of gold, then crit failed his Will roll. He, too, started filling his pack, and was followed by Mahk, who was ordered by Puddin' to get in there (and passed a Loyalty roll to do so). When the others refused to leave, Elana and Vaelcor ("I do have Will 14 and Luck...") became suspicious that something magic was going on (Archer was already suspicious because she's always suspicious), and decided not to go into the room.
After an ultimately fruitless digression involving summoning rats to test if Jahn would be affected, Archer made some blindfolds by tearing up her clothes, tied one around her head, and went inside (with her eyes closed for good measure). She felt around until she found someone else (Masha, as it turned out) and tried to put a blindfold on her, but failed to tie it properly. She then put her hands over Masha's eyes, but took them away when asked to. Archer drew an arrow, ready to gouge out everybody's eyes to "save them", but decided to try pushing the pot over first.
She successfully knocked it to the ground, which apparently broke the charm. It turned out that the pot had never contained anything, and though Puddin' frantically Searched under the plants for loose coins, she came up empty. Lukas confirmed that it wasn't the type of evil he could Exorcise, so they moved on. Puddin' went to check the next room, but backed off when her Danger Sense went off as she approached the door, which had several large holes in it. Lukas cast Sense Life to confirm that there was some different kind of plant life inside, and confirmed this by using the Tapestry of Glasswall to see that it was filled with lush vegetation, including some vines that were moving. They decided to leave it for now.
The last door in the area appeared to be made of living wood (including a wooden "lock"), with the bark grown and shaped, rather than carved, to resemble pixies playing. Vaelcor took a closer look and figured that the door had been magically created, but was not itself magical (Druidically magical, at least), and that the area past the door was high Sanctity for Druids. Puddin' popped the lock open and Elana opened it, revealing a porcelain fountain in the center of what at first glance seemed to be a forest clearing, though stone walls were just barely visible behind the trees.
The fountain had sculptures of elves resting under the spray, and a flowing script written in gold (Elvish, which nobody could read) around the rim. Vaelcor used Religious Ritual and confirmed it to be a supernatural fountain that was "probably good in some way". Elana took a drink and felt invigorated enough to gain +1 DX, which prompted everyone else, except for Archer (who claimed that the fey government was putting mind-control poison in magic fountains), to take a mouthful and gain a similar bonus. Puddin' and Masha both filled their canteens before leaving.
The party then headed to where they figured the second floor barracks would be, and sent Puddin' in to scout; she confirmed that it was indeed the barracks, and that the stairs down were still intact. The bridge that crossed to the south side of the second floor had been destroyed leaving a 6m gap, but some of them could probably jump it. Some more scouting confirmed that there were giants guarding both the main entrance and the west side of the pit in the main hall before returning to the party.
They doubled back to the 1m gap to the staircase down, and, after confirming that there were no giants waiting in the adjacent room, Archer jumped across... and failed her DX roll to jump (14 or less) by 1. She then rolled Climbing to grab a handhold (also 14 or less)... and failed. She then rolled for fall damage and got 8 (max damage) to the left leg, crippling it as her knee bent the wrong way, and failed a Will roll, causing her to scream out in pain. Facing the wrong way and lying on her back, she was able to see a grey pile of rotting flesh and bones flowing slowly down the hall towards her.
Archer got to her knees and scrambled towards the outer, non-lightning door that was still intact while calling out and describing what she was looking at. Masha jumped across the gap and down the stairs with ease, followed by Elana who was far slower. Vaelcor, Jahn, and Mahk all just kind of hung around upstairs while waiting for the blob to come into sight, and Lukas cast Light to illuminate the tunnel now that Masha and her lantern were gone. Archer made it through the door and into the staircase, and Masha ran out into the open in front of the ooze.
Elana leaned her spear on the wall and got ready to grab Archer and throw her back across the gap, while the ooze closed with Masha and suddenly swelled outwards, knocking her back 3m, though she managed to keep her feet. Lukas decided to try True Faith, unsure if it would work, but brandished his high holy symbol (a holy book written in platinum ink), rolled well, and the ooze moved away, towards Masha. She ran over to the doors at the end of the hall, and opened the northern door, which revealed a trio of acid lizards resting in a nest of melted armour (they seemed to have gone back from the forge) in the staircase landing. They hissed but didn't attack, and she went over to the southern door, to the forge, instead.
Archer finally reached the top of the staircase, and Elana threw her over to Vaelcor, who was standing ready (though he needed Luck to reroll a crit failure), and quickly cast Major Healing to get her back on her feet (turned out the backwards knee was only temporary!). Masha looped back around through the forge, slowing down and turning off the lantern when she noticed there was a gap in the wall on the far side into the main hall. Lukas continued turning, possibly driving the ooze away, but when Masha came back into the hallway, it turned right on back ("Oh no, it's beating god!"), and swelled out again, though she managed to retreat out of the way.
Masha made it back through the door to the stairs and got pushed one last time, leaving the door to close behind her. Having lost sight of its prey, the ooze went elsewhere in search of an easier meal. The party waited a few minutes for it to get further away, then decided to have Vaelcor try to get the acid lizards to let them pass and lowered people down (Lukas had to help Mahk, who came down last), avoiding the clearly treacherous 1m jump. Vaelcor went over and cast Beast-Soother 4, but rolled poorly on the reaction (a 4, turned into a 12), so the lizards wouldn't let them by.
After checking if there were any giants watching the main hall (there were), the party decided to head back upstairs and try to find the other staircase down to the crypts that the necromancer Odo had mentioned. Masha proposed that Lukas help them slay the ghost bothering the necromancer, but Lukas and Elana proposed slaying the "foul necromancer" instead. After Masha failed the vertical leap (on a 17), Archer climbed back upstairs, lifted Mahk, and he then pulled up everybody else without issue.
They headed south across the bridge to the other staircase, near the farm, and, after Puddin' confirmed the farm and tavern were dark, headed down. They checked out an unexplored room which turned out to be a small living space; Puddin' Searched it, finding only 5cp in an already-opened safe under a bed ("Damn Halflings, I hope they got turned into skeletons"). Elana's, Masha's, and Jahn's DX boost from the fountain wore off while they waited, so Masha drank some of the water in her canteen; one HT-6 roll later and she was down 7 HP.
Lukas healed her, so she drank some more ("Clearly now it will buff me again!"), took more damage, and got healed again ("Only because I'm Selfless" -Lukas), by both casters. Puddin' gave Mahk her canteen and told him to stash it, as it was poison, and Lukas gave him a Minor Healing Potion to store in the bandoleer. The party walked around to the Halfling Hallway and checked out the door in the eastern wall, which opened to reveal the stairs down!
Notes:
Lukas' player is back in the game after a hiatus. Originally, this was actually supposed to be a different character (hence the different names!), but I allowed them to remake the old character with the 10 points he had earned, and he chose to do so. 5 of those points were substituted for Quirks because he didn't want any.
I'm capping party size to 6 (unless we somehow have more than 6 players), so Ruckus stayed in camp.
Lowering/raising people/things with a rope now requires a Lifting ST roll for the lifter; failure just means the lifter loses 1FP, while a crit fail means they drop the rope. The liftee can either roll ST+2 - Encumbrance, and/or can have somebody else roll Knot-Tying. Failure on both means they fall half distance, crit fail on both means they fall the full height.
Masha's squeezing roll to get through the tiny door was DX-9 (-6 for default Escape, -3 for SM difference), and yet she still made it.
After this session, Control Hybrids will be required on any "not quite" animals (like displacer beasts and acid lizards).
I've ruled that tearing up clothes to make blindfolds and whatnot ruins them, resulting in a -2 Reaction penalty until replaced. Archer doesn't care about this, because she's already the murder-est hobo at -7 (from Paranoia, Social Stigma, No Sense of Humour, Incurious, Constant Muttering, and Callous). She does, however, now have an almost 50% chance of being attacked by random people on the street.
I have now ruled that jumping on somebody from on top of them (aka the "Dark Souls Plunging Attack") splits falling damage between the two parties.
Quote of the session: "If everyone was a Martial Artist bear, this would be so much easier".
Jahn is, apparently, a female bear.
The option of "submitting to Giant Law" keeps coming up. Lukas is for it, as his character believes in justice.
Masha's player's description of the finale of the first adventure, which Lukas' player missed: "There was something about a portal".
In some parts of the dungeon (mostly the fey sector), the party's maps are wildly incorrect; x and y axes are swapped, and sections of wall with multiple doors on them are depicted as being one grid space wide.
Minor falls have been the premier source of damage for the last several sessions.
XP was 1 for solving the pot o' gold trap, MVP went to Archer for just that.
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