We've had a few deaths, then a TPK, and a WHOLE lot of close calls in this game. My ideal is that whenever a PC dies the player response is "yeah that makes sense" and no one is surprised. A little upset is fine, heck I sometimes think I get more upset when their PCs die, but I always want it to feel fair.
The first death happened within the first few sessions. Two PCs went to talk to a sleeping dragon, one ignored warnings about not asking to ride the dragon, and the dragon killed her. Everyone on the same page with that one. It also helped to set the stakes for the game early one, which I appreciated.
Next two PC deaths were much later, due to a battle with some naked bandits. This one was a little more random but I think (hope?) fit in with the general potential danger of the setting. I'm also very intentional with trying to make encounters be more than "enemy kill!"
How do these deaths get handled from a play perspective? I have a standing policy of "immediate integration" for new PCs which means the new character shows up, everyone is groovy, and play continues.
The first death was real close to them landing their pod so we just handwaved it "oh yeah new PC was just walking slow." For the next two, the party was way out from their drop pod so I said that the Fulton shoots down new cryo pods because it can detect that someone from the Expedition Party has died. This does not stand up to scrutiny AT ALL because it can be exploited in all kinds of ways by my (very clever) players but we all agreed that it was a cool, hand wavey convenience and not meant to introduce new tools or resources for them. Highlights the importance of everyone being on the same page.
Great so random individual deaths are covered. What happened with the TPK? The party attempted a very bold plan of action to steal an airship from an island of pirates. It was not going well. After two PCs went down Gucci triggered the party's suitcase nuke and that was it, Total Party Kill and Total Pirate Kill. The one downside was that two of the players were not in attendance but I tried and failed to come up with some kind of rationale for how they might have survived the nuke that leveled the island they were on (no refrigerators). I really couldn't think of another way to handle it, and the players were sad but okay, but it still broke the general rule of "if you're not here then your PC is safe." It was a pretty extreme situation, at least.
All the best TPKs are player-driven.
In a more standard fantasy game a TPK might just mean you roll up a new party and pick a town to start in but the STS Fulton has an in game method and logic for where new PCs come from. That logic, as represented by the station AI H3LENE, dictated that there would not be a new party thawed out of cryo right away. In fact, 200 years passed in game before H3LENE woke up the next set of PCs. This gave the world a chance to progress and in turn gave the players a new, but still familiar, situation to deal with.
How do you handle TPKs in your game? I liked (and the players liked) the time jump so much that I think I'd go for it in a more fantasy type game as well.
Camp Setup: Horses in the barn, party split between the barn and the church, ratfolk out in the woods.
Last time the party picked up some stray rats, met people (!), learned about King Thessel XV, and arrived at the entrance to the "well."
They planned for their descent into Guillaume's well, deciding who would stay topside and who would go down. After Tenkos briefly floated a plan involving ropes and horses being lowered down a pit of indeterminate depth they settled on the following:
Topside Barn
Agatha (archer)
Joseph (archer)
Timothy (axe, cook)
Tinslee & Therese (teamsters)
Horses (so many)
Topside Church
Sgt Teake
Yvonne (spear)
Rosaline (polearm)
Percival the Ratfolk
Viggo donned his magical boots! Yay! He ate his "I'm so hangry" ration for putting it on and was ready to roll. Philip lit up a torch, Indira grabbed another in one hand with her axe at the ready and took point.
They descended the low, flat, wide stairs somewhat awkwardly. Once they cleared the initial passage the wall on their right dropped away completely and each person got hit by a flash of vertigo. They couldn't see the bottom, they couldn't see the other side, and the path was narrow.
Viggo chucked a rock to see if he could hit the other side in the dark and it got a foot past the stairs and dropped straight down! They heard it clatter very quickly but were shocked at the unexpected trajectory. Viggo threw another rock and the ratfolk started to copy him, throwing a pebble or two and then a whole handful. They all clattered below.
Barthelm was worried that even though they could hear the rocks hitting that this stairwell might still be some kind of direct portal to the island of Wilhelm the Wily. He repositioned himself behind Claus so he could immediately grab him if/when Claus tried to go into it.
Claus meanwhile tried an experiment with his cane, slowly extending it over the edge. If he hadn't been prepared for it the force would have ripped the cane right out of his hands.
Claus: "You think we can leave if we keep going down? If we keep going down the stairs do you think there's a point where we won't be able to go back up the stairs?"
Tenkos pointed out that if they did get stuck they could always pursue the exit that was supposed to be at the bottom that linked up with the ratfolk village.
As they descended further they caught a glimpse of a statue perched upon a pedestal in the middle of the 40' wide stairwell. It was maybe twice the size of a person but incredibly gaunt, emaciated even. It's head was tilted back and it looked like it's mouth was open in a silent plea. It's arms were spread, palms up, plaintive. An array of sculpted stone food lay at its feet, lifelike but for the grey granite color.
The rocks got pulled down, the cane got pulled down, maybe food would work? Maybe you need to do an offering so you don't end up like the statue? They also wondered if Wilhelm the Wily / Guillaume le Galapiat would expect that reaction and arrange a terrible fate for anyone trifling with the statue. It basically turned into the "battle of wits" scene from The Princess Bride.
Viggo threw a ration over the edge but it went straight down with a splat. He caught a glimpse of something reflective towards the head and they continued around the stairs, trying to get a better look. It turned out to be a thick golden tongue in the statue's mouth.
Barthelm wanted to try and shoot an arrow really high up so that the horizontal momentum of the arrow might still enough to hit the statue's mouth despite the intense gravity. Miracle of miracles (the first of several this session), it hit!
The arrow chipped out a chunk of the gold, it popped up into the air, and then back down into the mouth. As soon as it did they heard a clicking sound as the legs on the roast turkey rotated to point straight up at the ceiling. They tried to see the chunk and chip inside the mouth from the stairs again but the tongue appeared whole as far as they could tell.
Barthelm: "You saw that the gold itself wasn't affected by this grave-it-y well, maybe the pedestal is immune." Viggo tossed another rock to test if the gravity had turned off but it dropped straight down again.
As soon as the torch illuminated the bottom of the stairs the ratfolk went down to check it out. Eye-van ate the gooped up ration off the ground and they generally poked about.
Claus wanted to experiment to see if the ultra gravity had a height requirement so he bodily Freddard (who was not happy about this), and plopped him into Barthelm's shoulders. Other than vocal annoyance the ratfolk was unharmed but the damage to Barthelm was already done; he acquired an instant layer of filth and grime in his hair. Ewww.
They found a big metal door with a thin slot and knocker centered. Barthelm gave it a check, looking for nozzles, needles, or lock bars but didn't discover anything. He noticed some writing above the slot but Claus shouted out a warning not to read it. Viggo, noticing the reaction, immediately backed away.
Sidebar: Last time they found something they thought were explosive runes Viggo almost died. LINK Afterward James and Vegas both chided themselves for not calling out what they figured were certainly Explosive Runes. Lesson learned!
Instead of directly reading it, Barthelm approached with his silver mirror and read the writing on the door backwards. He recognized the language as Cronov, from the eastern lands. It said:
GUESTS ONLY
INVITATION REQUIRED
Claus: "What if I summon a demon through the slot, then there's a demon though there?"
Everyone: "That's a terrible idea."
Barthelm wanted Edward to go through into the room, said there was a lot more food in there and mimed eating. Edward squeaked a demand, made his own chewing motions, and repeatedly held out his hand. Barthelm took out some saltfish but then chucked it into the room! While Edward was busy admiring Barthelm's cleverness Eye-Van rushed past him into the room and started to devour the fish. Barthelm encouraged him to still go in and Edward goaded Freddard into going too.
They didn't get very far.
A few moments after they entered the room a giant stone hand swiped towards Edward. Another reached out for Freddard. Fortunately for them, both grabs missed. Initiative happened, everyone basically ran away (and up the stairs), but poor Eye-Van was too far into the room to get out in one round. They grabbed him on his way past.
The whole group could hear his frantic squeaky screams suddenly get caught off, followed by softer squelching and squishing sounds.
Barthelm: "RIP Eye-Van."
The other two rats were GONE, all the way up the stairs crawling in the darkness. Sergeant Teake managed to shoo them back downstairs after a shouted conversationw with Barthelm. Barthelm in turn snuck over to close the door but didn't encounter any trouble doing so.
They had a theory that the shield is what kept the golems in the room and that if they pulled the shield out of the room then the golems would follow them out and they could push them off the stairs and let the gravity well kill them.
Tenkos: "Not-it to get the shield."
Viggo actually volunteered to dash in, grab the shield, and dash back out. His super speedy hungry boots meant that he could do it before the golems fully activated. He picked it up, noting the shiny reflective center portion was ringed by a dull, heavy matte iron.
He turned and saw in the shadows that the two golems were starting to move again. He went a few steps back towards the door and heard an awful wrench as the hinges ripped out of the metal door that Barthelm was holding. The hinges flew towards him and the door started to follow suite. Lucien, who was closest, had his shield ripped out of his hands as well. It all arced straight towards Viggo!
The hinges hit the shield first and vanished completely! Lucien's shield followed suit, colliding with the metal and disappearing. Viggo hadn't been affected by the shield's power because he had eschewed all metal since his resurrection. The heavy entry door wasn't quite as quick and Viggo hit upon a plan to use his speedy boots to keep enough distance from the door that he could get the golems between him and the door to have the door crash into them.
That's right, Viggo's plan was to stay in the room with the four smashy crushy murder golems and get a door to crash into them. He actually found it to be pretty effective! He didn't take out any of the golems but he definitely caused some damage.
Sidenote: The players raised the question of "well where does all this metal go?" I love the way their brains work, I have the best crew.
Viggo somehow narrowly avoided Eye-Van's fate. He was running back and forth and out of maybe 8 grab attempts the golems only landed two and he was able to break out of them at his first opportunity (partially thanks to advantage on the roll because of his boots). Maybe he will wear his dancing shoes more often.
Sidenote: Peanut Butter also noted that he had been playing Viggo this way before his transformation as well, somehow avoiding all kinds of horrible injuries before dying to a pair of guards that rolled crits. If they could kill him with two stabs then might as well go all in, I suppose.
Barthelm initially tried to shoot at the golems but his arrow just got pulled straight to Viggo's new toy and the arrowhead disappeared. He stepped across the door's threshold and blew his whistle, drawing attention (and a grab!) from two of the four golems. Claus' immediate reaction was to grab Barthelm and help him break the grapple and the two tumbled backward across the threshold, retreating with Lucien and the rest of their retainers in tow.
Sidenote: This was probably a direct contributor to Viggo not getting squashed. He distracted two golems for two rounds, four more attacks and it would have been enough to get Viggo I bet.
The party had a problem though because while everyone else seemed to be safe outside of the room Viggo was still stuck inside. He didn't want to bring his new shield back the way he came because it would decimate everyone else's equipment. He also wasn't sure how long he could keep up the back and forth of using the big metal door and his incredible speed to continue bashing the golems.
"What if you run out the other door?"
"Let's find out!"
He took one more swipe at the golems by standing by the other side's door (this time made out of wood with stone hinges) but rolled really low on damage. The golems all missed as well. Claus double fired his pistols into the room, relying on the metallic attraction of Viggo's shield to pull them into one of the golems. It worked!
Everyone started looking for other things they could hurl into the room and we discovered that Barthelm had one of every "weightless" thing in the equipment list! He rolled on 1 for damage with his Bag o' Nails, so it balanced out. The Teeth wanted to help but weren't sure how to proceed without crippling themselves.
Viggo decided to go for the door. It was unlocked! He popped through, closed it, and stood in the pitch black for a moment before pulling out an unlit torch with his free hand.
But that's not all! Peanut Butter reminded me about the big metal door that Viggo had been dragging about. Since he wasn't using super speed anymore it would have caught up, but did it happen before or after he closed the door? I had him roll for it, it came up as "after." He thought that was better but a big heavy sheet of metal flying relentlessly towards you isn't going to stop for a wooden door. It crashed through, creating dangerous splinters that could have done a lot of damage but somehow Viggo made his save, even with his -1 Wisdom mod. Bonkers!
Sidenote: If I had been paying enough attention I would have remembered for him to take half damage on a save but oh well, I am happy that we did it at all. And no door now.
So Viggo was across the golem room from the rest of the party but momentarily safe (albeit in the dark). The rest of the crew observed the golems heading back to their little cubbies and we ended the session. They'll have two weeks to figure out where they want to go from here.
Expedition Day; Season Day; Weather; Hexes; Expenditures; Notes
Expedition 7; Fall 59; Flash Flood; 0426; no rations spent; Cloudy but warm
Expedition 8; Fall 60; Rain; 0426; 1ea ration/feed; rain effects but didn't go anywhere
Sidenote: I've already removed the rations/feed listed out above (1ea) from all character inventories.
Next Watch Sequence
Night 8: DABC
Marching Order
Ashley 30+ feet ahead
1/2 of Teake's Teeth
PCs + teamsters
1/2 of Teake's Teeth
Watches
A. Tenkos, Timothee (I1), Indira (I2)
B. Viggo, Yvonne (I3), Basile (I4)
C. Barthelm, Joseph (A1), Sacha (I6)
D. Lucien (for Claus), Rosaline (P1), Cyril (P2)
Camp Setup: Horses in the barn, party split between the barn and the church, ratfolk out in the woods.
Last time the party had a mostly uneventful journey through the woods trailing behind their ratfolk guide until they encountered a tree with bright red fruit that jumped around and blew up with magic fireworks when they shot it with a flaming arrow.
We jumped back into things with a bunch of ratfolk running and pointing and yelling at Ashley in their language. As they got closer the party could see that the seven ratfolk were collectively dragging an old woman and the front-runner was shouting "Help!" As they got even closer they could tell that the woman appeared to be quite dead.
The ratfolk started shouting at Ashley and she started shouting back, not seeming very pleased. She managed to tell the party that Edward was not the brightest and that he was in some kind of trouble before they saw a half dozen people come running through the trees after the ratfolks. The lead runner shouted "Stop them!" in Ghallian and then they themselves skidded to a halt. It was something like this:
Teake's Teeth, Party || ratfolk with corpse || Blonde smoothies
Sidenote: "Blonde smoothies" is what Ashley called them and it's as good a name as any.
A middle-aged man called out from the group of newcomers and said that his name was Léon and thanked the party for stopping the ratlings. They stole his auntie on their way to perform the funerary ceremony! But also oh my what a large group you have and have you come from across the river?
Edmond answered that yes, they had come from Lenticot and asked if that meant that they came from this side of the river. Indeed they did! Léon and his family were on their way to the river so that their dear auntie might be close to the promised land in death.
Party had a lot of questions now about the river, and the "promised land", and what these people were doing out here. They lived here, they were loyal to the king, and dearly hoped to be able to one day cross the river and live in the promised land. The PCs also privately wondered if these people were actually the same kind of creatures that they had fought before.
Léon in turn was curious what such a large group was doing across the river. Normally their former countrymen across the river only burn the lands, never venturing into the wood.
Sidenote: There was a lot of talking here, it was really wonderful. I'm late on this one and tired so cliff notes is that Léon wanted the "ratlings" to execute them for taking his auntie's corpse, the party wondered if these folks were the monsters they had previously fought, and the smoothies were very excited to meet the party and learn more about them.
"Why do you want help the ratlings anyway, they're just dirty meat."
Claus indignantly exclaimed that these were sentient (sapient?) creatures and they were NOT food!!
This time it was Léon's turn to be disgusted. "Food? Food?! They are not food!"
"You just said they were!"
"I said MEAT, they are not food. How revolting!"
Jehan was a young man when Ghallia fell but he was from the south and so familiar with these lands. His mind was racing, trying to figure out if any of what they were saying made sense. He had never heard of a king in Ghallia. When they told him that their ruler was King Thessel the XV he became even more confused. The XV? And why did they seem to reverse the sun?
Jehan: "And what lineage does King Thessel the XV hail from? What house?"
The blonde smoothies seemed genuinely confused. "What's a lineage?" Jehan explained a bit but they still didn't grasp it. King Thessel was king and the kings and queens of his family always were.
Eventually the smoothies left after a veiled implication from Barthelm that these ratfolk would have a "cultural misunderstanding" of their own with the party. Niala and her cousins took their auntie and carried her back the way they came while Léon called out a final farewell and a promise to tell King Thessel of their visit, that he might welcome them in the capital! Of course Barthelm gave his name as "Polde from Lenticot" so we'll see.
The party had no desire to stay in this spot so they decided they wanted to push on. Ashley refued to lead them anywhere however until the party had extracted something from Edward and his crew. "You promise food, safety, don't get anything. Half barter is no barter, not right, have to finish the barter."
The party generally settled on the idea of meatshields (because of course). They were able to convince all but one of Edward's party to accompany them into Guillaume le Galapiat's "well". Percival, the holdout, was too scared to go into the place that "Crazy Brian" went into so instead he volunteered to serve as an advance scout through the woods.
Satisfied that a complete barter was executed Ashley took up her position ahead of the horses and led the group the next five or six miles through a rapidly darkening wood. They arrive at a small group of dilapidated wooden buildings with a stone church in the center. They could smell the rain on the air so quickly moved forward to investigate.
Most of the buildings surprisingly had intact rooves, despite the general decripitude and overgrown nature of the site. They scouted a barn where they could house their horses and made their way to the church. It was squat, a single room, but made of stone. There didn't seem to be much in side but the door was intact and there was still some wood from the pews.
Satisfied that they weren't in immediate danger they packed all their horses in the dilapidated barn and split the posse between there and the church. They sent Edward and his crew out into the woods to keep a perimeter. It was moderately effective.
Barthelm and Jehan took turns posting up in the top of the barn to keep and ear out for anything suspicious. They heard terrible animal noises followed by ratfolk screeching during one of their watches. Realizing that the commotion wasn't getting any closer, Barthelm tried to go back to sleep and suggested that eveyone else do the same. Shortly the sounds faded to gurgles and then quieted altogether.
Sidebar: The little goobers didn't even have names yet but they still count for a death tag all the same.
Later the three surviving ratfolk (Edward, "eye-goober", and Percival) came knocking on the dor of the church. They didn't use the special knock that Tenkos had established but they let the drenched, terrified rats in anyway. Ashley scolded them in their language (or at least it sounded that way) and everyone again tried to rest.
In the morning the rain was going full bore, heavy and fat. Viggo (or Tenkos) noticed the ratfolk eating some kind of meat to which Ashley confirmed "Yep, we still taste best."
She showed them how to move the church's altar and asked if there was anything else she could tell them. Barthelm asked if Ashley wouldn't come with them into the well but didn't get very far.
"I'm an old lady! Smart, not dead! Not going to be dead either. Our barter was for information and I give you all I know. Even gave you where we live! But not going down there like Edward, he's not smart, won't be old man. Maybe you get old though, try not to die in that hole."
And with that she left, quickly disappearing into the rain. One of them remarked that she was "the most trustworthy rat." The players were geniunely sorry to see her go and at least one said that they'd better see her again! Since I follow Papers and Pencils encounter table design it's certainly possible if that 7 comes up.
Ended the session late morning on the 8th day of their expedition, poised to head into what they believe to be the laboratory of Guillaume le Galapiat, aka Wilhelm the Wily.
Travel Summary Expedition Day; Season Day; Weather; Hexes; Expenditures; Notes
Expedition 4; Fall 56; Incredible Winds ; 0821, 0722; 1ea ration/feed; half speed from wind
Sidenote: I've already removed the rations/feed listed out above (1ea) from all character inventories. Additionally removed 1 ammo from Joseph (A1), Agatha (A2), Claus, Tenkos, and Barthelm.
Next Watch Sequence
Finish Expedition 4 night: D A B C
Expedition 5 nigh: A B C D
Marching Order
1/2 of Teake's Teeth
PCs + teamsters
1/2 of Teake's Teeth Watches
A. Tenkos, Timothee (I1), Indira (I2)
B. Viggo, Yvonne (I3), Basile (I4)
C. Barthelm, Joseph (A1), Sacha (I6)
D. Lucien (for Claus), Rosaline (P1), Cyril (P2)
Camp Setup: Horses gathered in the center, tied to trees or stakes. Rest of camp arrayed in a circle around them. Light discipline, no campfires or other lights.
Last time the party began their expedition into Ghallia-That-Fell with a large entourage, declined to be tempted away from their path, got passed in the night, and lost a bunch of food (but no people!) to an awful thunderstorm.
Two players had to run a little late today which meant that the party direction was swapped decidedly around from last session. With Tenkos and Claus in control there was no telling what buttons they'd push and levers they'd pull! Unfortunately Barthelm came back before they could really start poking...
(-_-)
They were getting set to pack up for the day after long hard progress through the wind hammered woods when the rearguard sent up a shout of warning. Four thick, muscled creatures came bounding out of the woods behind them on all fours. Their jaws were extended and full of teeth and their blood vessels nearly burst from their flesh. Muscles bulged and strained as the four hurled themselves towards the nearest members of the expedition.
roar claws and teeth and veins and horns
They were close despite the party's vigilance because of the press of trees all around. After a quick look at the creatures, Barthelm asked if Edmond was yelling in recognition. He surely was!
Sidenote: I initially said they'd have to ask Edmond's player, then figured they'd just confirm after the fact so gave the immediate players the info. This was wrong because it assumed that Edmond's player would definitely have shared that information. Shouldn't have done that. Sorry :(
Normally we'd do initiative by sides and re-roll every round but with 20+ in the PCs party that was a little unwieldy. We did by group with no re-roll and came up with:
All four went after Margot and her horse as the closest of the three rearguard infantry, killing her immediately in their initial assault and severely wounding her horse. Teake's Teeth collectively roared in hurt but Margot's partner Cyril was utterly consumed by rage and devastation.
Phillip immediately lost his shit and bolted for the woods. He would have been lost to the party if not for Claus' timely warning that the creatures were hunters and would chase him down if he were alone. Score one for quick thinking. Lucien on the other hand went in swinging, albeit unsuccessfully.
Claus exploded one of the creatures with a tremendous magic missile, pink rays arcing from his hands to blast a hole through its torso. Where it landed the fluids leaked out and sizzled the leaf litter. Tenkos tossed some holy water, hoping to get lucky, but couldn't connect. Barthelm was hesitant to fire into the melee given the high potential for allied collateral damage.
Sidenote: James described the creature to Viggo's player, who had just joined the session, as "lickers from Resident Evil but with a Venom symbiote and acid blood."
LICKATUNG
When the Teeth got their turn they swarmed, killing another of the creatures and wounding a third. One of the remaining ones grabbed Margot's corpse and started running. The other bit her horse's neck clean through, dropping the head on the ground and chewing what it could. Almost everyone bum-rushed the closest one and whoever was left took pot shots at the fleeing monster (two 1s for damage), including a shot from Claus' pistol that erupted with a crack and scared off all the birds for half a mile. Finally they caught it on their horses and finished it off.
Sidenote: I screwed up when I rolled this and only rolled 1 HD of HP. They should have had more. This may have gone quite differently if that were the case, so fair warning to the players it should have been harder.
Barthelm mused that at this point he was probably the most responsible party member and that fact gave the party pause. They discussed how prior to dying Viggo was probably the most practical and responsible but now? They don't quite know what to make of him yet.
"Original Viggo very trustworthy, new Viggo oh my god." - Claus
They regrouped. They considered pressing on but the dark was coming fast. The Teeth gathered up bodies and Viggo started building a pair of pyres. No one who was still alive had been injured so they were still unsure what effect the creatures might have.
Tenkos approached the most intact creature and began to methodically cut into its flesh. It's bones were sturdy, thick, and wrapped in powerful muscles. None of the cuts into the flesh produced any acidic sizzle but his dagger did get blunted a bit in the creature's mouth.
Someone asked if it had teeth like a baboon and you know what? Baboons have awesome teeth. Kind of like that, but way more canines.
OMNOMNOMNOM
When Tenkos got to the creature's abdomen he started having problems with his makeshift autopsy tool. It looked like there was some kind of caustic, viscous liquid in a sack connected to it's throat. The faceless doctor's dagger was useless at this point, pitted and dull.
Sidenote: Vegas (Claus' player) shared his theory during combat that these creatures (and Edmond) are dnd-ified versions of the Abomination from Darkest Dungeon. The autopsy apparently only made him believe it more. As a rule I do not comment on player theories but it always brings me joy when they have them.
Tenkos gave Sergeant Teake the go ahead after he had finished his examination (Claus furiously scribbling notes over his shoulder) and she solemnly began removing canines from the creatures and distributing one to each of her soldiers.
They reverently placed Margot's body on her pyre and dumped the creatures onto the other one (with Margot's horse). Barthelm was concerned about the noise they made and the light of a funeral pyre but they figured anything and everything would already know they were there. He tried to find somewhere they could be a little more concealed but had a hard time in darkness so they setup camp a bit away from the pyres.
Cyril kept a vigil over Margot's pyre from the moment it was lit. Viggo appreciated the massive flames from both pyres at a respectful distance. The heavy winds and wet wood combined to create an awful lot of smoke, obscuring visibility.
D. Lucien (for Claus), Rosaline (P1), Sgt Teake
A. Tenkos, Timothee (I1), Indira (I2)
B. Viggo, Yvonne (I3), Basile (I4)
C. Barthelm, Joseph (A1), Sacha (I6)
It was during the third watch that Viggo heard a rustle in the bushes beyond his sight followed by hushed whispers in an unknown tongue. LINK went about it waking everyone up while LINK kept their bow at the ready. Viggo waited, unsure of what to expect, when a high-pitched voice issued hesitantly out of the woods in Ghallian:
"P-p-parley? No hurting, no murder yes?"
Viggo did his best to assure the voice that yes, there need not be any murder or hurting. It said it was going to approach and once more entreated Viggo to "no murder". Viggo could hear it rustling closer but also caught several flashes of eye shine as the being moved between trees.
Finally it came into the light, a half-size humanoid covered in fur, its whiskers twitching side to side and its hands all the way up. Yup, ratfolk. Claus and Barthelm exchanged a knowing glance, "Here we go again."
suffer my mediocre sketch after not having time for ms paint
Sidenote: There was a brief debate about which character would know Brian the Ratman from way back. That was the adventure that Heidi and Helga both died in way back in Session 6-7, a full THIRTY-THREE sessions ago. So yup, just Barthelm and Claus left. Mad love to Brian the Ratman's player for the two hour conversation we had hashing out their culture and motivations.
Last time Tenkos, Viggo, and Claus returned to the horrific basement of Cooper Thornhill's Stilton cheesemaking operation, slew (and dissected) the über muscle cow, and began investigating the library.
Barthelm rejoined the party! After getting his construction projects rolling back in Hommlet and making sure Polde was not in any danger after his return, Barthelm set out to catch up to his friends.
During his time in Hommlet he learned that there has been far more traffic through the southern mountain pass due to an increase in disappearances along the northern roads. No bodies were found, just ransacked wagons. Even for folks who eventually needed to head back north there were still many opting to take the long way around through Hommlet and the southern pass.
On the way after them Barthelm passed through the Crossroads. His companions asked if he had seen any giant wandering armies of the undead but the only thing he noted was a number of folks who had fled without explanation, especially after being seen with the party. It was hard to tell if the rest of the group was relieved or disappointed about the lack of skeletons.
They talked about how they could delay discovery of the barn's basement while they tried to remove as much of the library as possible. Idea to have the faceless doctor (plague doctor) quarantine the building to give them time to clear things out. Debate about whether to notify the authorities or not.
"Are we concerned about the arch at all?"
"It does seem pretty powerful, but we do like to run away from incredibly powerful things and just leave them."
What if we just holed up in the basement for the day? Would we just have a ton of people looking for Cooper later? Let's have a rotation for anyone that comes down. If they come down into the basement, they are definitely guilty, so we can kill them with no remorse. What do we do with our wagon? What about your drug dealer friend? He would definitely betray us. Let's just go kill him and stay at his house!
Started to come up with a plan where Barthelm impersonates a plague / faceless doctor and all this stuff but then just decided for Barthelm to get a room at the inn with the party's cart. On the way out he encountered someone claiming to be the night watchman for the barn but was able to avoid confrontation.
The "night watchman" made their way down the stairs but fortunately Viggo was waiting for him. The bounty hunter immediately recognized Stephen Miller, the town's miller and pusher of various illicit and addictive substances.
"See if he'll walk through the arch!"
Viggo got as much info as he could from Stephen Miller the drug dealer before showing him all of the horrible things in the basement. Miller threw up everywhere and begged to just go tell the captain of the guard about this place. Viggo dumped him in the corner with a threat to be quiet.
Barthelm met Cooper's wife, Mary, and procured some breakfast and a room after some incredibly difficult conversation. He was initially concerned but decided to sleep in case shit went down, propping a chair against the door for security.
Then Tenkos stabbed Stephen Miller! This was predicated by shouts and bangs from above as the sounds of a search party filtered down and it became clear that someone was going to be coming down into the basement. Tenkos' original plan was to setup Miller and Cooper like they had killed each other, so he started to drag him deeper into the basement but stopped when he started bleeding all over the place. Viggo took his manacles and they both retreated to the archway room, setting up some beartraps at the entrance just in case the guards were in on the whole operation.
Well and how! Captain Cuthill was calling out for Cooper the whole time but didn't get any response. His two lackeys seemed disturbed but the captain was not, and he rallied them. Cuthill began to call out for anyone else down here, saying that there didn't need to be bloodshed, until he got to the pens. Once he saw that all of the cow / human creatures were dead, especially Cooper's daughter Heather, he changed his tone. He sent one of his men ahead to check out the archway room and then
OH GOD THE SPIKES
Guard failed his saving throw and took the full force of fancy spikey bear trap and regular toothy beartrap. He died pretty quickly. Viggo leapt out to get the drop on Cuthill but wasn't able to connect. Tenkos tried the same to no effect (after realizing he didn't want to shoot into melee), and everyone spent a round swinging around and not hitting anything. Tenkos and Viggo backed off to give Tenkos room for a sticky fire bomb but Viggo hung back to put himself in between the faceless doctor and the attacking guards, shouting "Light 'em up!" back to his comrade.
It was unfortunately the last thing he would do. Cuthill and his remaining croney rushed up and BOTH hit crits on our poor bounty hunter. 20 damage later and Viggo was no more.
Sidebar: What are the fucking odds here!? Peanut Butter was surprisingly okay about it, opining that it was better than getting murdered by a murderous meat pyscho cow. We chatted after the session about some intriguing next PC ideas and both got pretty pumped about it.
Tenkos switched from sticky molotovs to one of his two remaining blackfyre bombs and blew them up with purple fire... and rolled TWO damage. Luckily he got it to burn for four rounds, so some potential for them to get burned up. Viggo's sliced up body was also engulfed in the burning purple flames.
Tenkos won initiative again (players opted for "roll every round" as opposed to roll once and alternate) and fled out. He ran up the stairs, got the drop on the hungover guard at the top (the one from the jail earlier that evening), and dispatched him in one blow. The remaining guard burned to a crisp before he could even give chase and Cuthill died horrifically from blackfire just steps away from Tenkos.
Barthelm meanwhile was awoken from his early morning sleep by a strong feeling of something being wrong. It broke him out of the dream he was having, full of a terrible sadness and longing to somehow bring his mother back from her early grave. He rushed out of the inn in the same moment that Tenkos came running out of the barn. Seeing Tenkos come out of the barn, Barthelm quickly started shouting about how there was a plague inside and how everyone needed to stay clear!
Tenkos' plague mask and their presence in Ghallia was enough to convince most of the crowd that at least something horrible was going on but Cooper's son James was not deterred. He ran up to Tenkos, cowbell still around his neck, and asked (in his stilted fashion) about his father and sister. Once he realized they were inside still, he bolted into the barn. Tenkos and Barthelm followed him, dashing through the now burning barn into the basement (taking some heat from the flames as they went).
Their primary goal was to destroy the arch. James was fully occupied in grieving over his dead sister, giving Tenkos and Barthelm the opportunity to pull down the arch with a rope they had set up earlier. The magic went out with a bright purple flash as all of the human/cow hybrids and the über cow reverted to their natural forms. Now, instead of disgusting mutants, each stall was occupied by a human woman chained to the wall, and James' cries reached a new height as his sister returned to how she used to be.
The duo took the opportunity to secure their second objective, the chest of silver, and retreat to the library with some bear traps for security. James ignored them both, dragging his sister's corpse back towards the stairs and throwing down the cowbell he had been so protective of previously.
Their position momentarily secure while the fire raged, Tenkos wrote up a letter to Prince Fabian detailing what had happened and Barthelm (I'm guessing) spent some time counting silver pieces in the chest. They also had the time for a couple of hours of proper planning. It was late, so we cut the session there.
Last time the party finished looting the tombs, found some potentially useful stuff, didn't get anybody killed, saw a bunch more skeletons, and lost another torch. This time they had a slightly diminished party because of real life stuff. They spent a bit discussing their options, vehemently decided against giving the skeletons the bodies from the tombs, and ended up with their one plan to carry the turn undead casting cleric so they could concentrate. Sidebar: There was originally a pretty detailed write-up for this session. I accidentally erased it all due to some malarkey with the blogger app which apparently hasn't been supported for years. Oops. Wouldn't even be writing a summary if not for some particular events, but consider this abridged. The party hemmed and hawed about giving over the corpses to ole staggy, decided against it, asked real nice and stag-head let them leave. Bunch of skeletons waited for them and followed them in front of wherever they walked, eventually all the way to the elevator. Some of the skeletons ended up behind the party, such that the general arrangement was: Behind
Stag-head skeleton
Skeleton wielding its own arm as a club
Skeleton wearing a spiked helm
Ahead (and on the elevator)
Large quadruped with sharp claws and beak
Skeleton with a carved, wooden leg
Skeleton with a shield on its back
Skeleton covered in wax
Skeleton with blackened charcoal for bones
The party was sandwiched in between. They had hoped they could just push past but stag-head tired of negotiating now that it knew of the elevator and shit went down. Initiative was a big deal. Rolled for sides and party got to go first, Tenkos immediately busted out his turn undead. Rolled pretty well, all of the skeletons except large quadruped and wooden leg are affected. Rest of the party got to go. Caleb ran up to the beaked quadrepedal beast and chopped with his massive greatsword. True to form, Just Yolks rolled a massive damage die (9 or 10) and, unfortunately, an equivalent number to hit. Strongest whiff you ever saw. Karl ran up next, charging the skeleton with the wooden leg. At this point I honestly cannot recall whether Karl hit the thing or not. Soon it would not matter. Viggo decided to sit tight next to Tenkos, within the ten foot radius of the turn undead. Skeletons got to go next. The three behind fled down the hall, including stag-head. The three affected skeletons on the elevator immediately started scrambling up the rope and out of the well! The two unaffected skeletons acted next. The quadruped, possibly by now identified as an owlbear skeleton, went in on Caleb with the old claw claw bite. His plate mail, though mighty, could not stop a critical on the bite and he took some serious hurt. At the same time, the skeleton with the wooden leg was growing! It grew so tall it broke through the wooden ceiling on the elevator! It grabbed one of the large timbers used to rotate the elevator and brought it down crashing into Karl! *crunch* The damage of the timber, together with Karl's prior hurt from the flame trap, was enough to bring him down to -3, the awful sweet spot in LotFP where you are guaranteed to die but you've got 1d10 minutes of living left to do. Sidebar: This was the same amount that Helga died at, way back when in the Sleeping Place of the Feathered Swine. Everyone was pretty stunned, honestly. Helpful Waffle's first character (ever!), first dungeon foray almost at an end, and then it all came crashing down. Next round came and Tenkos rolled his turn undead check again, not only succeeding but getting high enough to affect the last two skeletons. Now, come their turn, they would all be running away. Viggo and Caleb sat tight. I double checked the rules about 0 / negative hit points and decided that Karl could trade 1 minute of (slowly dying) life for 1 round of full action. He chose to spend them in action! First Karl took off his house sigil necklace, gave it to Caleb, and told him this (approximately): "Find Jahan, give this to him. It is the emblem of lost Altdorf. And beware the Duvan'ku!" Then the Exiled Prince grabbed one of the jelly bomb / Molotov cocktails that they found in the tomb of Emil the Sapper and raced with a battle yell back down the hallway towards the stag-head skeleton. The corridor was illuminated by a blast of fire and some additional, unnatural white light as the explosion filled the hallway with jelly and flames. The rest of the party stared for a moment, gave a few more moments to let the skeletons run farther away, and then Viggo and Caleb hoisted up their concentrating comrade and carried him to the elevator. Think they struggled a bit, trying to turn the central shaft (it's meant for at least three) but they wanted the skeletons to keep running away. Sidebar: The carrying idea was a clever little strategy based around the fact that even if an undead is not turned it still can't approach within 10 feet of a cleric concentrating on turn undead. We realized after that moving into the elevator would have meant approaching the five that fled that way, meaning they wouldn't be turned, but this was fine as is and we'll play it that way next time. None of the skeletons failed their climb checks (which would have been hilarious and awesome) so they eventually made it up without further incident. Suzie was still tied to the tree, completely unaffected, and there were no skeletons in sight. The party had emerged with a ton of loot from their delve into the tombs but not without paying a great cost. Sidebar: It can be hard losing a character, especially your first one, but Helpful Waffle took it in stride. He's got some ideas for his next PC already, so he'll be all right. We also decided that from now on anyone whose character dies gets to name the summary so "YOLO" goes out to him. Extra special thanks to Ian Reilly for writing an inspiring set of skeleton descriptions and Beloch Shrike for the nugget of an idea that made a memorable moment in this session and set up something extra special for next session. Finally, this little pitstop never would have happened without the excellent doggy rumor provided by Arnold K. And of course this would all be a whole lot of "lonely fun" without my lovely players, who I appreciate a whole mess. Thanks everyone!
Claus, Magic-User 4 (Vegas) Wiebke Bott, linklady & burgeoning apprentice Jewel, Really Good Dog 3 (Rudy) Buddy, ratter dog
Karl Gelt, Exiled Prince 1 (Helpful Waffle) Tenkos, Cleric 3 [plague doctor kit] (Sugarplum)
Viggo Marklund, Specialist 3 [bounty hunter kit] (Peanut Butter)
Long hiatus! Too much work, no time for games. Last time (a long time ago) the party explored an underground... something. They burned some torches, saw and were ignored by some skeletons, stole a bag of silverware, and swiped a bunch of fancy rolled up tapestries.
Sidebar: Shoutout and thanks to Ian Reilly for the awesome d100 skeleton table that is starting to become very relevant to the party.
When we came back they were loaded down with the rugs and across the large atrium from the seemingly excavating skeletons. They debated as to whether to take what they got and leave or investigate further. Either character or player curiosity (or fear of leaving whatever was happening to progress) ended in a decision to keep going after stashing the tapestries and silverware back in the elevator. Viggo specifically made note that he was dumping out the silverware and keeping the sack with him.
Alas, while they were doing all this the torch they had left in one of the statues in the elevator hallway went out. Karl and Tenkos' torches were still burning brightly though so they weren't too worried.
Their aim was to explore more of the underground while still avoiding the industrious skeletons as much as possible. They skirted the leftward side of the atrium and heading towards the top hallway since they hadn't seen any skeletons going in there yet.
From 1 clockwise round to 4.
Partway down the hallway an arch descended from the ceiling. The writing was Old Teutonic but Karl was still able to make it out. It read:
"Let the rest of the honored dead never be disturbed."
As they approached they saw that the archway descended down the walls as well, with an inch of stone coming out of the wall covered in iconography holy to the Church. Think that Karl went thru first and when he didn't get zapped or disintegrate then everyone else came thru as well.
The hallways split into five different alcoves that they eventually found to all contain doors. Each doorway had its own descended arch above it bearing the name of the one presumably entombed inside. They went clockwise around in this order:
Karoline the Stout
Marleen the Mendicant
Emil the Sapper
Saskia the Bookish
Adelmar the Forthwith
Karoline the Stout's door was thick solid wood, reinforced with iron bands, with a knob and lock right in the center. Viggo checked around the perimeter of the door and inside the lock looking for needles or blades or anything else out of the ordinary. All he found was the glint of what looked like hinges on the right side of the door. Quick work with a set of thieves' tools and Viggo had the door open.
The tomb itself was dominated by a large stone sarcophagus, carved in the image of a large, muscular woman in full plate, greatsword held in her hands. On the far wall was a mural showing an idealized version of the woman carved on the sarcophagus standing triumphant on a field of battle. It looked very much like one of the tapestries they took from the feast hall (maybe exactly, hard to tell since they left the tapestries in the elevator).
Everyone except for Jewel (and Buddy) went inside the room. The very good dog and her ratter companion held back, wary of "disturbing the rest of the honored dead."
They lit the candles that were left in the candleabras and very quickly decided to open the sarcophagus. Claus covered his mouth with his ascot, Wiebke and Viggo got out their crowbars, and they heaved just enough to crack the opening and look inside. Big puff of dust and then they saw a skeleton in some plate mail with a big sword.
Sidebar: I love that Claus has a froofy ascot that he is also willing to use for practical purposes. I also love that this party kind of hits the spread on respectability, with a seemingly higher class dandy or academic (in reality a depraved magic-user) and well-mannered noble (lost prince!) traveling around with two potentially scary, grimy, but ultimately effective and respected professionals (plague doctor and bounty hunter). I guess Caleb kind of fits in between them depending on how much he pretends to be a knight. Jewel opens up a whole 'nother avenue of options all by herself.
First reaction was "Why isn't this skeleton moving rocks?" Their opinion was split between the lid being heavy and the archway denoting some kind of holy area that was blocking whatever was animating the skeletons. Not wanting to take any (more?) chances they finished opening the lid all the way and quickly took the greatsword out.
They wanted to grab the plate mail too so we talked about how one could save time by not taking care for the bones and just smashing them to get the armor out without having to undo straps and whatnot. In the end they decided to leave the armor there since Caleb wasn't around and left leave the greatsword in the hall.
At this point they took stock of the general area behind the descended arch, which is when they found that all five branches led to doors and that they all had engraved arches above them. Karl also checked the back side of the entry arch and saw another inscription:
"Let the rest of the damned never come."
This made them all a bit uneasy and seemed to reinforce their theory that this area was special somehow.
They kept going round the doors, clockwise. Jewel took Buddy and posted up on their side of the arch, in the darkness. She didn't seem to want any part of looting the tombs so she stood guard, using her doggy hearing and super good doggy nose (Scent the Ineffable - smell undead within 30') to watch their back.
The next door belonged to Marleen the Mendicant: simple, metal, and no obvious way to interact apart from a small slot directly in the middle. Viggo dropped a silver piece through the slot. He heard it slide in and hit some metal but nothing else. Tenkos tried a copper piece and heard a lot more moving parts as some mechanism behind the door clicked and the whole thing lost tension and swung out.
Marleen's tomb was even more sparse than Karoline's: only a single candelabra was there to be lit and the carving on her sarcophagus was much rougher and simpler. The mural showed a humbly dressed woman leaning down and comforting wounded soldiers, again reminiscent of one of the tapestries the party took down.
There was nothing inside her sarcophagus apart from some moldy robes and a wooden cross on a steel chain. Karl, the most religious out of the party, took the cross in the hopes that it might have some power against the undead they had seen.
Sidebar: While Tenkos is a cleric, and that might make one think he is the most religious, the faceless doctors from Ghallia are a bit more practical in their application of faith and caring for the souls of humanity. If they hadn't been so effective at keeping back the plague that ravaged Ghallia the Church probably would have burned them all as heretics long ago.
Two doors down, three to go. They tackled Emil the Sapper next. His door was big, stone, and featureless. Inspecting the door came up with nothing but then Viggo widened the search to the stones around the door. That revealed a loose stone that was quickly pried out, leaving a cavity that went back a bit and ended in a t-bar extending out from the dirt. Viggo reached in and started to pull. As he did, he heard two clicks.
While this was happening, Jewel heard some shuffling and grinding of bone approaching, different from the normal excavatory sounds she had been monitoring of the skeletons working. She raced back towards the torchlight with Buddy...
... as it suddenly got a lot brighter. The first click Viggo heard was the door opening but the second one was the fire bomb that was also hooked up to the t-bar and oil and fire shot out into the hallway near the door (per p60 of LotFP Rules & Magic). Oil & fire as written isn't really that bad, just a d4, but if it hits 4 then it can cascade. Everyone mostly got just scorched, except Wiebke.
Wiebke rolled a 4. We didn't have stats for her yet so I had Vegas roll her HP and Con score. HP came up 1. Not looking great. Con 16 gave her 3 total HP, which was better, but now she had to make a save or take more damage. Had to get better than a 15 on a d20, and she did not. Don't remember what the next damage roll was, but it was more than enough.
Wiebke Bott, former linklady, had been burned to death. Viggo was really upset to be exploded TWICE by fire traps. After they realized Weibke couldn't be saved Viggo checked into the mechanism more and saw a metal wire attached to the back of the t-bar, separate from the main pull line.
Sidebar: In retrospect just a simple oil & fire trap is not really that deadly, especially for something to guard a sapper's tomb. I should have made it stronger! I was thinking the threat of catching on fire was a good danger but practically speaking it's not terribly likely (roll max damage, fail a save, then roll max damage again). I also should have probably just rolled damage once but here we are.
Side sidebar: I may be the most upset out of everyone that Wiebke died. Definitely top 3 of my favorite NPCs so far and I was really curious to see where her relationship with Claus went. T_T Claus picked up the smoldering body of Wiebke and put it in the sarcophagus of Marlene the Mendicant. Karl said a prayer over her and everyone agreed that Marleen would probably have been okay with this.
Meanwhile Tenkos took his torch with Jewel back towards the arch and found themselves staring at the hollow eye sockets of a skeleton, garbed in tagged northman's clothing. It didn't move, just stared at them from the atrium room with its head cocked.
The rest of the party continued, undeterred, to the tomb of Saskia the Bookish. The door again had no obvious holes or handles but this time they did not find anything on the wall around it. The door was smooth and was made out of a single sheet of some kind of dark green, almost black stone.
Someone made the obvious "speak friend and enter" joke but to no effect. They guessed that "the Bookish" meant that this person was probably a magic user and so they wanted to cast some magic on the door to try and get it to open. They did a quick inventory of Claus's spell slots and came up with two magic missiles, a free 2nd level slot (usually used for comprehend languages for Jewel) and a scroll of Summon that Claus had prepared back during his downtime in Bremmlecht as a nuclear option if all else failed.
Sidebar: YAAAASSSS.
They went with magic missile and four shining pink bolts of eldritch energy slammed into the door, each one causing more and more of the rock to chip off in large chunks.
Sidebar: I tried really really hard to describe a slate blackboard without calling it a slate blackboard. In retrospect I could have said it was like shale or slate and it wouldn't have given too much away. Trying to describe things in qualitative terms without being super obvious is a challenge I really enjoy as a referee but I can see the potential to go too far as well.
The four bolts punched a sizable hole in the middle of the door but also made quite a significant amount of noise. Jewel began to bark as she smelled more undead approaching and a number of skeletons appeared out of the darkness to join the decayed northman:
Skeleton wielding its own arm as a club
Skeleton wearing a spiked helm
Skeleton covered in wax
Skeleton with charcoal burned bones
Skeleton with a shield on its back
Large quadrupedal skeleton with sharp claws and a terrible beak
Skeleton with the head of a large, many-pointed stag
The stag-headed skeleton took a step forward from the group up to the edge of the boundary between the corridor and the atrium.A raspy voice hissed out from its skull and slithered down the hall for all to hear: "Who are you? Whaa-t do you wan-t here?"
Continuing the MS paint streak, it's too fun. Is this remotely recognizable?
Jewel kind of whimper growled (if I recall) and Tenkos mumbled something non-committal. The stag-headed creature's voice slid down the hallway again, repeating its question. Tenkos called back over his shoulder to the rest of the group, "Hey I think we're going to have to fight this guy soon!" and we ended the session.
Sidebar: End time was a little earlier than usual but it was a great break point and some of the players thought it might be better if Caleb was present. You know, just in case.
Barthelm Schade, Specialist 4 (James)
Caleb, Fighter 2 [farmer kit] (Just Yolks) Suzie, a stubborn but loyal mule
Claus Drexol, Magic-User 4 (Vegas) Wiebke Bott, linklady from Bremmlecht Sandra Schöll, guard from Bremmlecht
Jewel, Really Good Dog 2 (Rudy) Buddy, ratter dog Grizzle / Shado, grizzled mongrel Wimpy / Cpt. Foofamaloo, escaped housedog
Tenkos, Cleric 1 [plague doctor kit] (Sugarplum)
Viggo Marklund, Specialist 2 [bounty hunter kit] (Peanut Butter)
Full house tonight! Ended off last session with the party discovering a secret room in the corner of a room with a bunch of skeletons and spellbooks in footlockers. The door handle that opened the secret door was in the bottom of a screaming chest, in a false bottom. They opened the door and peered carefully inside. There was a luxurious rug; a desk and chair; and a basket with some tubes in the back.
Jewel picked Grizzle to go in. She definitely liked him the least but also happened to be his turn. They figured odds were high of awfulness. She told the mangy cur to enjoy himself and he did, rolling about and jumping up and down on the finely embroidered rug. It was really nice and looked like a ton of fun until he got closer to the chair. That's when they heard the snickt sound as a large metal spike shot thru the rug, into the dog, and right on out the top. He was transfixed, twitching in his death throes.
Barthelm traced a safe path to the dog and put him out of his misery with an axe. He lifted the desk off the rug so that Viggo could pull it out of the room, Grizzle still impaled by a trap and a second, still untriggered trap over in front of the basket. Barthelm's trained eye identified a really fancy bear trap!
Barthelm: "Did you just give us the greatest treasure of all? As far as Barthelm's concerned we can probably leave now." Choice quote from Barthelm but in general they are all so fucking pumped.
Viggo: "What would someone be doing in here with a secret door and traps and secret rooms?"
Barthelm: "Probably experimenting with awful worm creatures in bottles."
Once the "OMG more bear traps!" exuberance had subsided they examined the desk a bit more. It looked to be of exquisite construction with more ebony inlay on the top surface. There was a single drawer slung underneath the desktop with a pair of handles and a large arc of ebony on the bottom middle.
Desk, front view. Circle things are handles, ebony wood in the curve at the bottom.
Viggo attached his chain to one of the handles and pulled slowly, keeping his distance. The ebony portion of the drawer stayed put while the lighter wood of the drawer pulled out. They could see the dark wood in the back of the desk, full of papers. The light wood of the drawer that got pulled out had some writing on it but they couldn't read it from this distance.
Viggo went up to the desk to try and puzzle out the writing. As he read them he could feel himself getting sucked in for a moment, transfixed, before they exploded in his face and lit the desk on fire! Viggo stumbled back, nearly dead (2hp) while Claus rushed forward to try to save the papers. Unfortunately the wizard was not quick enough and ended up with some scorched hands for his trouble.
Sidebar: Explosive runes! I have encouraged my players to use their knowledge however they can because the game is hard and unforgiving. After Viggo almost died both Claus and Barthelm's players said "Oh yeah I totally thought that was explosive runes, why did you we say anything?" I don't know, but since Viggo didn't die it probably didn't weigh too heavily on their minds. I'm thinking Claus' player is probably more upset about losing the papers and they should all be upset about losing all these very fine and expensive furnishings.
Once they had healed up Viggo a bit (hey they've got a cleric now!) they got to theorizing. "If this person was a great wizard, why was the secret room in the apprentice area? Was this a secret apprentice who was way more powerful? WTF is the wizard floor going to be guarded by?!" They all cast a meaningful sidelong glance at the remaining dogs (the henchdogs not Jewel, probably).
The only thing they had left in the room was a trio of scroll cases in the corner basket. Two were normal sized but one was around three feet long. They opened the first regular one and it was full of strange and intricate drawings, even more impressive than the ones that were found in the other chests. Sandra seemed ready to kill Claus if need be based on how excited he was about the possibility of new magic (what is obviously an evil thing) but Barthelm got up in her face with a threatening stare.
The second case had a small bottle, a dropper, and what looked to Tenkos' trained eye to be a dosing chart. They just couldn't tell exactly what the dosage was for. Jewel growled at the long case so they avoided opening it for the moment. She also nudged one of the party members to give Foofamaloo a bit of meat to shore up the dandy dog's motivation a bit.
Barthelm went to one of the other rooms and peeked out the window get a sense of time. They'd been in the tower for a full two hours already (maybe more? I dropped the ball on accurate time records) and had a few more to go before dawn. They decided to press on, continuing up the stairs to the next landing. On the way they found three more corpses in chain mail, scrounging what silvers they could from the bodies.
At the landing they all stared at the door. They knew from their outside observation that this was the top floor; the stairs up past this led to the roof. Claus, after a moment, continued on up the stairs around the corner to wait for everyone else to open the door.
Jewel, hoping to put Sandra more at ease after the confrontation, told Foofamaloo to go lick her hand. When she rebuffed the dog the party decided that she would be the one to open the door. Barthelm checked it for traps without finding anything, Foofamaloo ran up to Claus, and Sandra opened the door.
Bodies, a bunch of bodies. Eight tossed around the room, with one all by itself at the other end of what looked like a highway. Four of the bodies were all burned up, clustered around a charred metal door. The other four didn't have obvious wounds from where the party stood.
Sandra moved into the room and the rest of the party followed. The floor was covered almost completely by another thick rug with intricate geometric designs, similar to the one from the secret room. The hallway straight ahead led to an open door blocked by curtains.
The most impressive feature of the room was the giant statue of a naked, incredibly muscular man standing next to the door. It was posed like a wrestler or a body builder might be and had an incredibly level of detail for a sculpture, similar to the cowled figure near the tower entrance.
"Get the big key! Check alllll the spots"
Sidebar:Hey, HEY, it's another dick joke. This is apparently the kind of game I run. I'm okay with that.
Obce they determined that the statue wasn't going to come to life and murder them in the immediate future they commenced their usual rummaging around the bodies, taking what they could find. Most of the corpses seemed like normal soldiers but the one closest to the doors had much nicer equipment, including a metal helmet that was completely bashed in and crushing the skull.
They also grabbed a bunch of money, a fancy greatsword, and an intricate eyeglass shaped in the likeness of a yellow cat's eye. Claus immediately put on the monacle and thought it's awesome!
Sidebar: I had been describing all of the corpses as skeletons up to this point when Vegas, Claus' player, started asking me about states if decomposition and skin and evidence of bugs and all sorts of stuff. He thought there would be sunken skin or something if there was no bug evidence (my mistake) and I said nah man been here a long time, just bones. (MAYBE DON'T CLICK THESE) A couple hours of bubblybodyresearch (bodyfarms!) and I feel fairly confident that a tower with open windows would have skeleton corpses instead of mummy corpses. Maybe there would still be bug evidence but I bet even that stuff decomposes after long enough.
As soon as they opened the curtain Claus started to hear a voice in his head. He didn't share this with anyone but went forward in the room, holding a torch and moving towards the large brazier. Barthelm was close behind, and Jewel was near Weibke. Both Claus and Weibke were talking about lighting the brazier to try and make it easier to see. In addition the the brazier there were some bookshelves in disarray, a desk, a chest, and a robed corpse half covering a large summoning circle.
Even a summoning circle was not enough to draw attention away from this brazier, however. Claus got to the brazier and tried to light it.
Sidebar: I think Vegas said something like "Well if no one stops Claus then I am definitely lighting this up." Bless your heart Vegas.
Barthelm stopped Claus from putting the torch in, Weibke tried to throw hers in but Jewel beat her out at initiative, grabbed her, stopped her from throwing. Viggo jumped in and grabbed the torch, put some manacles on her. All this time the voice was trying to convince Claus to light the brazier.
Then Barthelm dumped the brazier contents on the floor. This didn't stop the voice. It started talking to Jewel but she growled. Started trying to get Caleb too, he seemed tempted by whatever it was saying to him but couldn't quite push him over the edge in that moment.
Sidebar: Managing all of these mental communications with instant messaging instead of just telling them out loud was really cool but became unmanageable the more people I added to talk to individually.
Barthelm exploded further into the room after they had secured the torches from Weibke and Claus. He noted a cell with some kind of child-sized skeletons seemingly fused together. The robe on the corpse on top of the symbol was very fine and Claus confirmed once again that the summoning circle was an intricate, powerful one. All this time the voices continued to Weibke and Claus. Oh and Barthelm threatened to brutally kill Weibke if she even so much as looked at a torch in this room.
"Maybe we can research some way to consecrate the ashes." I don't remember who said this but my response was something along the lines of: "Hey, research! That's a really interesting word that you all have never said before." I need bigger things to hit them on the head with, I guess.
They grabbed a chest in the back of the brazier room, Claus snagged some books off the shelf, and they all got the hell out of dodge as quickly as they could.
