This delve ran off the rails.
After “our” (Eban’s) fight with the creepy undead we enjoyed some down time with the Kobolds, where we learned via rumors that our comrades/rivals the Ratters had left the area and decided to live with Orcs instead. Okay… no judgement.
Or at least, not much.
Our own next goal was unclear as yet:
Go against the undead again?
That felt unwise, given our acute lack of magical weapons, and our numbers. We were just five vets, Dr. Joebold, and a new comrade called Cairn.
Not wise indeed.
And thus, wise as we are, we chose instead to delve for magical weapons in the “normal” dungeon: on level three. Wisdom!
The Chair of Mystery
By now we know the way in our sleep, and we quickly trod the old halls of L3 again. We found a room with a single chair and spent several turns turning the thing upside down and scratching on its engravings, sitting on it and talking to it, but in the end we had to admit that sometimes a chair is just a chair.
Choosing between other doors and a corner we chose the open hall and came upon a crossroad, where we heard melodious songs from the north. And so our troop found a dead end with two open doorways:
- One revealing a floating boulder, hovering all alone in the center of an empty room,
- the other opening into the lair of six woman-vulture-creatures: Harpies!
The harpies were sitting upon a pile of bones and rubble, and wore plenty of jewels and gold around their arms, necks, and wherever else they could hang their hard-won treasure. Six of them, seven of us – long odds, thought Lencio, and was about to order a retreat, when the birds began to sing their sweet songs.
Sweet Songs
Jette, the brains of our operation, Donald the crossbowman and Eban the holy-man: those three managed to withstand the charming melodayes. The rest of us: Lencio, Obelix, Dr. Joebold and Cairn, fell for the pretty voices and became the willing instruments of their wrath.
- Jette and Eban tried diplomacy with the creatures.
- Donald tried to shoot one in the face.
- … and missed.
There is a lesson to be learned here:
If you try to shoot someone in the face … don’t miss.
As the harpies laughed about our puny efforts they sent Obelix and Lencio forth to slay us. Jette hurled a smoke bomb and filled the room with thick smoke, so Obelix ran against a wall. But Lencio stumbled out through the door and tried to dismember his pal Donald who was busy with reloading his crossbow.
Smoke and Boulders
Jette had a flash of genius and called out to Donald to run and hide behind the floating boulder. The brave lad followed that advice, and as Lencio bumbled after him he kept running: According to Lencio’s level of smarts, the duo now kept racing around the floating boulder in circles, taking them both out of the fight for now.
Eban got swarmed by charmed people in the smoke-filled room and fought them off, one against many, employing the old OD&D grappling rules, where Hit Dice + STR mod roll against collective Hit Dice + STR. The losing side gets pummeled, stunned or pinned.
Meanwhile, Jette stalked through the smoke to find harpies to murder. She found one and slit its throat, which set Dr. Joebold free from his thralldom.
Yet finally superior numbers prevailed and Cairn, Obelix and a Harpy managed to grab ahold of Eban together… which he escaped by zooming up through the ceiling, slamming his captors against it in the process. The impact rattled his assailants, and broke the harpies skinny neck. That freed Obelix! And Cairn got downed on impact as he fell back down to the floor, reduced to zero HP.
Jette faced off against a Harpy as the two met face to face in the smoke.
- They rolled the same Init!
- Reroll: And again the same Init!
- Reroll: In the third round the Harpy won.
Her claws raked across the armor, then she socked Jette on the chin with her sweet, but hard little fist.
One Harpy stepped into Donald’s path and ended his run. He dropped the crossbow in favour of his dagger to throw himself onto her and stab her in the guts, but there was also Lencio pummeling into them both and trying to strangle his loyal henchman.
Jette and Eban destroyed their Harpy while the other one and Lencio reduced Donald to 1 hit point. Donald stabbed his Harpy down to 2 hit points, when finally Eban and Jette came to the rescue and killed the last harpy. Feathers flew, the balance shifted, and even thick old Lencio blinked back into his own rough self. He loosed his pranks away from Donald’s neck and mumbled something to the effect that it was not his fault, the Harpies were to blame.
More constructive, Dr. Joebold acted quickly and saved Cairn’s life with magic; then also fed 1 HP back to poor Donald.
Floating Rocks
With a dreadful TPK narrowly avoided we looked through the Harpies’ stuff. And hit gold: Necklaces and Jewelry for 4×1600 and 2 times 1100 coin… we were loaded! Potentially ready to go home and rest. But there it happened: Random Encounter.
Luckily for the wounded, the distance rolled was far enough off to give us time, and we only heard the telltale giggling and shrieking of Gnolls, the obnoxious, hateful hyena-men.
None of either side was surprised, but the DM rolled maximum distance and ruled that they are still out of sight around some bends and corners, just aware of us, and their maniacal laughter served us as a timely warning in turn.
The group wondered how to transport all that bling. And so the idea was born to load it all onto the boulder. After all, the thing floated and was not fixed to the room. It might be able to take some load.
And it could. It was criss-crossed with ropes for hand-holds, the loot was loaded onto the boulder, and Cairn and Donald pulled it after them.
Unwise
The Gnolls far away and the Harpies dead, and loaded with gold and jewels, the party got cocky. “Let’s check out that one corridor before we go!”
So we ran face to face into the gnolls.
Howling like mad, the gnolls attacked in a wider corridor, and some tried to flank us for some extra heft. But Obelix did not hesitate: He circled even wider outside to counter-flank the flankers! And the load-bearers shook off the loot to use the giant floating boulder as a weapon — a magical weapon even: The Floating Mace of Doom! 3d6 damage on a hit at a flat target roll of 15, no matter against whom or what.
Chaos erupted as everyone missed ; the Gnolls, the party, and even the giant boulder sailed hopelessly past its target.
Only Obelix hit: His counterflank positioned him perfectly to cut the flanker down.
And that single kill did it: The gnolls’ morale broke and they ran, disappeared into the darkness.
Accidental Victory
The party saw a suspicious pool and Cairn cast Purify Food and Water on it – and so destroyed a dangerous creature hidden unseen in its murky waters before it could even get ready. The right choice at the right time!
As loot, we found the middle part of a mighty weapon. Excalibur, broken: a magical sword +3 against the undead. Part of it, at least.
We will find the missing parts we need to complete it.
But for now we had enough. Time to go home.
On the way we ran into a random encounter of two giant toads seething with hate.
This time we did pick the wise course: We ran from them – a useless encounter with no profit in it – and returned to Kobold corners safely;
safely and loaded.
Insane Treasure
- Part of Exclaibur,
- A Giant Floating Magical Mace of Doom
- And treasure worth 125000 coins ….
The Harpy Treasure was pure overkill, especially because in this game there was no rule to limit level-ups per delve. This money overshadowed everything else we had won so far. It pushed Lencio up from Level 4 to 5, and Obelix and Donald both from 2 to 4.
And most importantly: Cairn exploded from Level 1 right up to Level 4 in one go. This one adventure did for him what 10 delves had done for others.
Eban levelled up and reached 6th level as Paladin so he could break the curses ailing Hubbub and Gal; boosting our numbers back to full.
And we even have enough cash to hire goons:
- Brigands
- Kobolds
- Orc
- Lizardmen…
If we were free to leave this area, that would be the ticket to retire in comfort.
But as it stands, locked up behind the magical barrier, it may pay our way to overcome the marlocs and grimlocs who flood the valley above.
We will see…
…
This weeks downtime:
- Eban makes purifying touch
- Jette makes light
- Joebold makes super bandages
- Lencio carouses, throwing a party for 190 gold
- Hubbub almost makes remove curse
Rules-Corner:
Is it wise to allow a jump across multiple levels?
Is it better to stop characters 1 XP below the next level, as it is traditionally?
There are arguments for and against either method.
PAPIER UND SPIELE 