GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 42: Blood and The Void

Characters:

Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

 

Goddess of Blood

Baelynna swung her dozen swords at Theren in rapid succession while he observed her technique while nimbly deflecting all of her strikes.  He noticed that her many-jointed arms were made of liquid blood, but the joints themselves partially solidified the moment before she struck.  Curzo and Ulrich attacked while she was distracted, casting a barrage of dozens of magic missiles and flinging a weighted wooden scroll at her, but all of the projectiles harmlessly passed through her body.  In return, Baelynna turned and flung a gobbet of blood at Curzo.  The projectile crystalized midair into a cluster of daggers that gouged into his chest and then melted away.

 

While he was still reeling from the new holes in his torso, Baelynna held out two of her hands and squeezed them together, as though she were wringing out a cloth.  This spell caused Curzo's blood to erupt from his wounds, mouth, and eyes.  Theren forced her attention back to him with his own flurry of strikes which failed to wound but drove her further back and onto the dais of her throne.  As she moved, two of her arms swung out at Pomegranite, and he moved to block with his knives.  He had fallen for her feint, and realized too late that the true attack was from the tangle of shortswords she had instead of hair, which cut through his stone armour and deep into his skull.

 

As Pomegranite retreated clutching his temple, Halimath leapt forward into the gap to keep up the pressure.  Aginor cast a cloud of void magic that caught Baelynna by surprise, and in her haste to avoid it she fell over, then scrambled back to her feet, spinning wildly and striking at all those around her in a storm of blades.  Between all these acrobatics, she was left off-balance, which left her unable to defend against Theren.  He leaned down and struck with his sword, severing one of Baelynna's feet at the ankle, which splattered onto the stone when it landed.  She tumbled to the floor, then propped herself up on her many arms like a bladed spider.

 

Thicket finally hit one of her wrists with an earth spike, and one of her swords clattered to the tiles, followed by another after Halimath landed a blow of his own.  Baelynna spun wildly on her many arms, slashing at everyone around her before retreating so her back was to the wall.  Everyone was driven back except for Theren, who expertly stepped aside before lunging with perfect timing and and cut off her other foot.  Curzo was started to get woozy from blood loss, but his next barrage hit Baelynna on the solid part of one of her many wrists, and she lost another hand.

 

Halimath sundered the throne with a single mighty punch, which left an opening for Pomegranite to step in and keep up the pressure with his knives.  While still spinning, Baelynna reached out with her legs and squeezed Halimath like a ripe fruit, causing blood to spray out of his orifices and settle back onto her body.  As new feet flowed out from her ankles, Thicket dropped a stone pillar on Baelynna, splatting her momentarily.  In a flowing motion, she reformed on her feet and struck Thicket with a half-dozen blades, gouging a trench into his hardened stone armour.

 

Curzo finally succumbed to his wounds and collapsed, followed shortly by Pomegranite after he was struck by a blood dagger.  Barbena the dwarf, who had been badly wounded in the earlier fighting, filled his spot on the front line and crushed one of Baelynna's wrists with a boulder, but had the blood drained from her in retaliation.  Though she had just arrived, she onw fell to her knees, and collapsed.  Theren kept up the attack, and despite her best efforts, Baelynna's skin began to pale.  A thrust from Aginor's rapier shattered one ankle, and a weighted scroll from Ulrich took out the other.  Queen Baelynna Shanairla fell to the stone, unconscious, and was executed by Halimath with a dozen massive magic missiles.  No trace of her body remained.

 

God of Magic 

The group hunting Mindartis were having more trouble.  Unlike Baelynna, he was seemed willing to flee, and able to float out of their reach.  Granmarg managed to corner him into an alley, but this had all been part of the elf's plan.  With the black circle spell at his disposal and a natural chokepoint, there was no way to safely pursue him, and he took this as a chance to parlay.  He claimed to have no interest in fighting, and that all he had done that day was as a favour to an old friend.

 

He had behaved as a gentleman under the codes of war, and declined to pursue them with intent to kill, acting only in self-defence.  As such, Mindartis asked that they all just go their separate ways.  Granmarg refused these terms, and gave an alternative: Mindartis could surrender.  Granmarg assured him that no harm would come to him as a prisoner of war.  Predictably, this was refused, and the god flew over the dead end and into a plaza where the rest of the hunters were waiting to spring their trap.

 

Mindartis floated over a damaged fountain, water trickling out through the holes left by a pair of massive boulders.   Looking around, he repeated the offer he had made to "the man made of rocks", that they all simply go their separate ways.  Felosial the elf responded by loosing an arrow that passed over his shoulder, and Mindartis stated that he was discussing this with the rest of them.  The opinions of dwarves and elves would not count.  Granmarg, who had finished climbing over the wall, crashed to the ground and loudly refused again, decrying Mindartis as an Outsider.  The god heaved a sigh and replied "very well".

 

A spell blanketed the plaza in all kind of magic.  A helix of blood and water, a bolt of lightning, a block of iron, a pillar of flame, a stream of burgundy liquid, a swarm of bees, and a boulder flew out from the fountain.  While the attackers managed to avoid every projectile, a number of them had to dive to avoid them.  The barrage continued at a slower pace as they closed in on Mindartis, who conjured a blade of energy from one hand, then turn and impaled Hans Hessen before floating up and out of reach.  He then cast the black circle spell beneath him, and all of the attackers backed up.

 

Again, Mindartis suggested they could all just go their separate ways and all would be well.  He again stated that he had nothing against anyone present, and after a moment corrected himself by saying that he had nothing against most of them while glancing pointedly at Felosial.  Mielikki made to respond, but was interrupted by Morkral, who had climbed a boulder and now launched himself at Mindartis.  The god sidestepped the flying shield bash, and pointed his finger at the dwarf's back as he landed. 

 

 

Notes:

As intended, when Baelynna did her spinning cleave attack, someone said "let's beyblade".  Thank you Thicket's player.

 

Nobody ever takes the bait when offered the choice to All-Out attack.  One day...

 

Mielikki's player noted that, with Eva dead, it might actually be a good idea to try to cooperate with Mindartis.  As the God of Magic and the Void, there's a very good chance he'd be able to continue her work and deal with the Void Beast.

 

I believe this marks the second time a character has left their back exposed to a god in one of our campaigns.  Let's see if it works out better this time!