Timekeeping
Participating PCs
Billy L6 Lawful Explorer with Pathfinder Template
Edelweiss: L5 Neutral Mage with Magical Scholar Template
Gront Coldsky: L5 Neutral Barbarian with Housecarl Template
Xanthos: L7 Lawful Cleric with Mendicant Template
Session Report
Between Session 85 and 86 Bluey the dragon attacked Forward Operating Base: Queen (FOB:Q), claiming that Billy and Tuck's bodies and possessions were his by right of conquest. Both PCs major magic items and a piece of their bodies were removed last session by one of the PCs who snuck back in and grabbed them. The finger or arm or whatever of each was used by Xanthos in downtime to bring them back to life with a Restore Life and Limb spell. While they and the rest of the party were still recuperating in Patron Barbarian Kyle's "FOB" near the Queens Rest Mountain dungeon, Kyle's hench vassal Robert Rambert was telling Bluey to kick rocks. He told Bluey that this base falls under the protection of WarChief Kyle O'Conner who will certainly hunt him down if the dragon survives an attack on Kyle's men or guests. The Artillerists stand ready for orders.". I rolled a Reaction Check and Bluey was not intimidated and attacked FOB:Q in downtime. Lightning shocked the FOB, killing men and cav hither and thither. Eventually, however, Rambert won but lost about 8 platoons of troops taking the dragon down.
In downtime Edelweiss went outside with her Chirugeon and carved up Bluey for magic item creation (monster parts) sometime after the battle. The massive dragon corpse had fallen from ballista shot and left a huge crater just outside FOB:Q. You can't say this mage isn't always looking for the angles!
Session play came around a couple days later and Edelweiss convinced the PCs to go into Queens Rest mountain and claim the now (presumably) abandoned dragon horde they saw Bluey resting upon last session. Rambert took no offense to this and sent the PCs with a couple platoons up to the mountain as a base camp while they climbed the volcano and went inside yet again.
Edelweiss and Billy were invisible as Xanthos and Gront led the group into the center stairs of the Zaharan temple inside the dormant (??) volcano. They cast the 24 hour duration Invisibility spell the day before and then Edelweiss slept and got her spells back. Essentially getting free spell slots. Elite play can be exploitive sometimes but now your PCs will do this if they read this blog. You're welcome!
Lava bubbled just 20' under them as they crossed the balcony into the place. In the first room there was a weird black and navy manta ray looking monster watching them from his resting point wrapped around a large statue the party had stolen the ruby eyes from a few months back. The monster did not appear hostile so the party chose to leave it alone. In the next room however they came across a beautiful woman with bat wings and vestigial horns who was crying over the statue of Nasga (a stone golem) the PCs had destroyed last week. This party is hard on statues. She claimed to come from the 9 Hells to mourn the loss of this beautiful work of art, when Gront asked her about it. She was wielding Billy's magic sword he lost last session when Bluey lightning breathed him in just this same location. She simply got more angry while discussing the destroyed artwork to Nasga and went on the attack.
If you check the #brosr #hashtag you'll see the #Trollopulous has been seeing alot of demon ladies these days as well. Seems the random encounter charts are telling us something about the #brosr multiverse.
Billy charged down the stairs at her and wrenched his sword from her hands. For her part she was whispering of prurient things that seemed to make a lot of sense to Gront who nodded his head ready to obey her order to attack Xanthos. Xanthos was priming to cast Dispel Evil which would likely have ran this demon lady off but before he could do so he too failed to her enchanting words! This was a big gamble on my part having the ability target Xanthos with his outstanding saving throws rather than one of the other PCs but I run Super Intelligent NPC/Monsters as being able to strategize how I myself might. And I knew that if Xanthos failed the save then the PCs were SOL. He was very likely to save but guess what. He didn't.
Instead of using the fifth level spell Dispel Evil on the demon lady, he was directed to drop a Flame Strike on the location an invisible Edelweiss had repositioned. This seemed like a really good idea to Xanthos at the time.
Edelweiss protested to me that the character was invisible to which I admitted the demon lady could see her. Xanthos couldn't but demon lady directed him to a general location for the Area of Effect spell. Flame Strike didn't kill Edelweiss but it did leave her vulnerable to Gront who charged and sliced her down. Soon after Billy became enchanted with this fascinating thotdemon and the players felt they had a TPK on their hands or, at least, would now be a party obeying a demon lady going forward.
I realized the spell-like effect was not permanent and would wear off soon so I tried to think of the most messed up thing the demon lady could do under the circumstances. She convinced Xanthos to take off all his armor and major magic items. Perhaps he thought something good was going to come from stripping down to his cassock and hair shirt? Poor Xanthos. He was not in his right mind of course.
The demonlady then ordered Gront and Billy to kill Xanthos and she herself ran deeper into the dungeon carrying Xanthos's magic items; giggling evilly. Xanthos for his part ran away towards the dungeon entrance to not get got by his ensorcelled pals and we fired up the Dungeon Chase rules again. Seems a common theme in Queen's Rest Mountain.
As he crossed the first doorway he failed his Save Vs Paralysis so tripped on the broken pieces of destroyed doorway that were there. Billy also failed and fell down. Gront did not and he buried his axe in Xanthos's back not killing him but certainly harming the cleric quite a bit. At this point the duration for the enchantments wore off or the PCs snapped out of it or something. Unclear! Gront apologized profusely.
The party went back to Edelweiss who kipped up since she had a Fate Point available; which can be spent to recover from falling without needing to make a Mortal Wounds check. I regret including Fate Points in my campaign. Edelweiss was, however, walking wounded. The party decided to push on and simply deal with Edelweiss barely being able to walk or function. Xanthos cast Silence on their lantern so if they saw the demonthot again they'd (hopefully) not be able to hear her dulcet tones. They lucked out and there were no random encounters or restocked rooms as they came to Bluey's horde. It was somewhat of a small horde despite Bluey's age and size but that was because he hadn't been there long enough to pile up the Gs (GPs). Gront was able to carry it all.
Inside the horde was a fancy sword with a gold dragon pommel with rubies for eyes. When Billy picked it up the mouth of the dragon pommel told him to drop his other magic blade saying "that's not a knife, I'm a knife!" with aussie accent.
Turns out the sword's name is Dragonlayer Dundee (I added "Dundee" just now) and his goal was to kill all dragons on this plane to free his soul from this blade. Also "those other dragons are so ugly, none could be as handsome as I!" Billy thought this all sounded like a great idea and felt compelled to give his old sword to Gront and to hear Dragonslayer Dundee out.
Dragonslayer Dundee was invented with random rolls after I used the 1e magic item charts to get the basic gist of what it's power level was. ACKS has rules on intelligent magic items of which swords are most likely to have this feature out of all other magic items. I randomly rolled if it was sentient. It was. I randomly rolled what it was all about; killing dragons. Since it had will/ego was determined if Billy would go full Gollum "my precious" with the thing and he did. I also quizzed the table in play about the personality of the sword and all the dumbest behavioral ticks and personality traits the players tossed out on the mic became part of the sword. So like everything else in Dubzaron my advice on making something up in real play is to make it up on the fly and use the brains at your table.
Xanthos cast Protect of Evil Sustained on the party or something before the party made their escape. Which turned out well since they were met by a ghost of a zaharan noble in fancy clothes as they left the volcano. Said ghost wasn't able to approach or bother them much. Phew.
They got back to FOB:Q and counted their dragon horde payout cash while Edelweiss rested for a day. Xanthos healed himself of the axe wound Gront left in his back. Gront gave his cut of the treasure to Rambert.
The next day the PCs set out with 1 Platoon of Gaius's Light Cavalry and like 5 horse archers as their only escort. The other 2 or 3 platoons Gaius gave them had been killed by Bluey in the dragon attack. I'd like to note here an interesting world in motion thing. Billy, thanks to the weirding rez he took last session, is unable to travel during the day. His soul is scarred like a vampire. But the Curse of Lamalla specifically outlines how the weird red misty rain from the Curse of Lamalla blocks out the holy power of the sun; allowing orcs, goblins, vampires and other creatures who don't like or are damaged by sunlight to move during the day. This would apply to Billy! Billy was planning to travel at night (dangerous!) before I made the players aware of this. Pretty cool.
Along the way the party came across some weird fey looking mini-centaurs who were laired in a palisade of cherry blossom trees (without blooms in winter) with fences built between them. The party discussed attacking but realized the centaurs had about 5 platoons of their number and fortified walls to defend. The party wasn't even sure they were evil or whatever. They made a note on their map of the location and kept it moving.
Near the end of the day they broke through a copse of trees and there were 15 ogres about 25 yards away. Uh oh. The ogres were hostile and fighting began. I ran this as DND combat instead of mass combat with Battle Rating(BR) since, with only 15 cavalrymen, the PCs numbers weren't too much for us to deal with in detailed combat.
I won't run through every round of the 8 round or so combat as I'm running out of steam. But the Ogres cleaved through the Light Cavalry quite quickly and closed on Billy and Gront's holding of the front line. The PCs did a pretty good job of killing Ogres, with Edelweiss dropping a fireball then a stinking cloud taking about 5 total ogres out of the mix. Billy did Fighting Withdrawal after taking a couple big hits but Xanthos wasn't able to escape before the Ogre Champions sliced him up with their big axes. Gront, for his part, quaffed a Potion of Gaseous Form to escape when he was about to fall to 4 ogres roxburying him. Edelweiss cast Conjure Stone Elemental off a scroll and decided it looked like Rocky from "Rocky". It smashed ogres well and gave Billy a fighting partner to put his back against when things started turning against the party a bit.
Eventually however the party won the battle, killing every single ogre since the creatures kept making morale checks all through the battle. The Ogres each carried sacks of gold with 1d6x100 gp so it was a solid treasure take as well.
Xanthos was triaged but of course there was no cleric to drop healing spells available when his Mortal Wounds check said he needed to be healed to 1 HP in 1 turn or die! Edelweiss's chirugeon tried her best but failed.
The party kept traveling until they made it to a safe place in the empire to "park" (cash out). End of session.
Class Grading Thoughts
Billy was bold and led a wilderness expedition. I didn't see him do anything less than bold (which is bad for a fighter sub-class) he was talking about fleeing the battle but never actually did so. He didn't do anything less than rangery (he tracked when he should, ran vanguard on the army across wilderness). So E.
Edelweiss did everything a mage should do. There were some things in Bluey's room which a mage maybe probably have checked out but at the time Edelweiss was walking wounded so I don't hold it against the characters grade. The rest of the session was played properly cowardly (good for mage) and not holding back on spellcasting (also good for mage). She was also curious about Dragonslayer Dundee and tried to Loremaster the sword (to no avail). Grade E.
Gront only had one less than bold moment of using the potion of gaseous form to escape. After the session he informed me he thought he could use it to escape and regroup to keep fighting but the spell doesn't apparently work like that. It's hard for me to grade on player intentions so I have to go on what actually happened, not intention. Or then I'd have to dock fighter grades every time the players joked/planned about fleeing but didn't. For the one less than bold moment Gront gets Grade S.
Xanthos would get an E this session but PCs who end a session dead don't apply session grade.
DM Self Grade!
I did alright but I took too long restocking the dungeon, generating random encounters, and parsing the demon lady's reaction checks. I also realized while writing this session report I should have had Xanthos's flaming strike destroy Edelweiss's spell book and scrolls or at least have the items make a saving throw. Lost opportunity! The demon lady could have also taken said items that didn't burn up. Also think she could have done something more painful to the charmed PC party than sic them on Xanthos. Grade: D
Deceased
Dama (L1 Venturer) played by RR. Current total xp: 75. DECEASED. Poison gas in Session 3.
Darius LeVay (L1 Assassin) played by JB. Current Total XP:451. DECEASED. Poison gas in Session 3.
Donald the Guardsman (L1 Fighter) played by MP. Current Total XP:570. DECEASED. Intra-party justice in Session 3.
Felix (L1 Thief) played by Nicholas. Current Total XP:431. DECEASED. Poison gas in Session 3.
Hektor (L1 Paladin) played by Moai. DECEASED. Cause of Death: goblin warg rider throat removal surgery in Session 2
Leonidas the Inquisitor (L1 Cleric) played by RR.Current Total XP:498 DECEASED. Frozen undead blistering cold aura left his skin frostbitten and broken in Session 6. Body not recovered.
Mard the Mage (L1 Mage) played by Nicholas. DECEASED. Frozen undead blistering cold aura left his skin frostbitten and broken in Session 6. Body not recovered.
Yolo Baggins "My friends call me Swaggins" (L1 Gnomish Trickster) played by J. DECEASED. Paralyzed and eaten by ghouls in Session 12. Body not recovered.
Jack Filcher (L1 Thief) played by C. DECEASED. Shot full of arrows by Inthorn's brigands in Session 12. Body not recovered.
Swoleous Maximus (L1 Paladin). DECEASED. Captured then drawn and quartered by Inthorn the Brigand warlord in Session 12. Posthumously named "Petty Hero of Turos Tem" by Legate Valerian. Ashes offered a place of pride in the Hospital.
Damianus (L1 Cleric). DECEASED. Captured and beheaded by Inthorn the Brigand warlord in Session 12. Posthumously named "Petty Hero of Turos Tem" by Legate Valerian. Ashes offered a place of pride in the Hospital.
Bucky (L1 Barbarian). DECEASED. Became a illegal pit fighter during his downtime. Had two bouts to the death, winning the first and losing the second. Was killed by Young Jack Sparrow who sashayed into the ring, drank rum, and mogged on Bucky before putting a dagger into his ribs, killing him. This happened during downtime between Session 17 and 18.
Broll Wolf-Eater (L1 Barbarian). Current total XP: 1079. DECEASED. Carried off by harpies after falling for their enchanting song in Session 19.
Brother Franklin (L1 Cleric). DECEASED. Decapitated by a mad cultist of a Lovecraftian slime thing in Session 19.
Felix the Elder (L1 Bard). Total XP 825. DECEASED. Captured by mad cultists and fed to a Lovecraftian slime monster in Session 19.
Templar Flavius Africanus (L1 Cleric). Total XP 7. Killed by the claws and beak of mad harpies in Session 19.
Xendi (L1 Explorer). Total XP 6. DECEASED. Carried off by harpies after falling for their enchanting song in Session 19.
Yllmeeton (L3 Shaman). Total XP 4,563. Bludgeoned by the corpse of a bowmen by Rosie Odonnel hag in Session 21.
Longinus (L2 Assassin). Total XP 2,036. Had his face ripped off by Rosie Odonnel hag in Session 21.
Mandonio (L3 Fighter). Total XP 4,779. Charred to a leprous crisp by diseased Dragon breath in Session 22.
Corydon (L1 Joker). Total XP: 0. Burnt to a crisp by chimera breath so thoroughly his corpse wasn't even fit for the crows. Died with a smile on his face and a song in his heart. that's life and as funny as it seems... some people get their kicks, stomping on a dream... In Session 25.
Donny Keebler (L1 Elven Spellsword). Total XP 2,238. Had his legs burned completely off by chimera fire breath in Session 25.
Marina (L2 Fighter). Total XP: 2,204. Burnt into ash by a chimera fire breath in Session 25.
Gundro (L2 Gnomish Trickster). Total XP: 2,575. Had his mouth and tongue bitten off by a lizardman ambusher in the dank sewers below Cyfaraun in Session 26.
Polydoros (L1 Fighter). Total XP: 0. Had his legs ripped off and eaten by Akira monsters in the dark canopy of the Viaspen Forest in Session 28.
Odrum (L1 Explorer). Total XP: 287. Javelin to the heart from the hands of weird vine goblins hidden in the walls of Ferigno's lair in Session 30.
Garvin the Nutless Wonder (L1 Mage). Total XP: 0. Fell off the side of Ferigno's lair 20 feet to his death in Session 30.
Blackmoon (L1 Assassin). Total XP: 768. Choked to death by BOB from Twin Peaks while stealing treasure from Ferigno's dragon horde in Session 30.
Xanthus (L2 Cleric). Total XP: 2,364. Choked to death by BOB from Twin Peaks while hanging out on the roof of Ferigno's lair in Session 30.
Lord Zyklon (L1 Elven Spellsword). Total XP: 0. LORD ZYKLON DISEMBOWLED LORD ZYKLON upon finding himself on the losing side of the Desolation of Turos Tem.
Turin (L1 Cleric). Total XP: 0. Eaten by Wargs in Session 32.
Rat Face (L2 Thief) Total XP: 1,577. Seemingly grabbed in the dark by a Xenomorph in Session 36. In a sinkhole your party can hear you scream!
Smarticus (L1 Mage) Total XP: 0. Captured by a Xenomorph in Session 36 for all the party to witness. Taken deep into a sinkhole.
Hearticus (L1 Cleric) Total XP: 0. Gored to death by giant horned beetles in Session 39 after projectile vomiting all over himself from the stink of sewer sludge.
Mickey Mouser (L1 Thief) Total XP: 0. Gored to death by giant horned beetles in Session 39 in the happiest place on earth: the Cyfaraun sewer!
Aenes (Level 1 Paladin) Total XP: 62. Swarmed by giant flies in the sewer beneath Cyfaraun in Session 40.
Acianus (Level 1 Mage) Total XP: 0. Chopped to pieces in Session 42 by a six armed demon statue from behind and quickly forgotten about by his compatriots who saved MadEye and lamented Hardar instead. But I'll never forget you Acinanu nanu...nanite... nananaa...
Hardar (Level 2 Mage) Total XP: 2,832. Chopped up in Session 42 by a six armed demon statue as he held his Darth Vader Choking Grip spell long enough for his compatriots to escape an unwinnable battle. His dream to become the most evil being in the universe suffers eternally the indignity of being remembered for self sacrifice and laying his life down for his friends.
Nubbs (Level 3 Thief) Total XP: 4,017. Swarmed by scarabs which bored into his ears and brain in Session 45.
Grummz (Level 1 Dwarven Vaultgard) Total XP: 0. Ripped limb from limb by a throng of skeletons and their undead golem leaders in Session 46.
Grommzs (Level 1 Dwarven Vaultguard) Total XP: 2,168. Torn to bits and eaten by trolls in session 48
Rapunzel (Level 4 Priestess) Total XP: 11,540. Torn to bits and eaten by trolls in Session 48.
Schizo (Level 1 Mage): Total XP: 0. Frozen to death by an assassin's guild ruffian bard wielding a Wand of Cold in session 54.
Marteen (Level 1 Thief): Total XP: 0. Fell to his death in Lamalla's Temple upon a pile of dragon horde gold. Corpse eaten by Sheila the Beautiful, an Ancient Blue Dragon in session 56.
Ambrose (Level 2 Cleric): Total XP: idk. Strangled to death by cursed octopi in a canoe on Lake Laman claiming the Sinister Stone of Sakkara for Law and eventual destruction in session 63.
Traiticus (Level 9 Fighter): Total XP: alot. Head split in half by Froggo's bronze magic "Fren Axe" during Operation Muscle Thunder on 08/09/22.
Alina (Level 7 Mage). Cut in half at her belt line by Froggo's bronze magic "Fren Axe" during Operation Muscle Thunder on 08/09/22.
Olgar McKenzie (Level 5ish Barbarian). Soul eaten by Stormbringer wielded by the Manson the mad assassin during Operation Muscle Thunder on 08/09/22.
Celeste (Level 7ish Witch). Soul eaten by Stormbringer wielded by the Manson the mad assassin during Operation Muscle Thunder on 08/09/22. Said Ancient Soul caused a backfire effect and blasted Manson's face off leaving him dead in the sea foam.
Allen A'Dulles (Level 1 Bard): Petrified by a basilisk in the Meniri Mountains in Session 66.
Cyfaraun (Level 1 Elven Spellsword): Eaten by basilisks in the Meniri Mountains in Session 66.
Tamryn (Level 1 Elven Spellsword): Petrified by a basilisk in the Meniri Mountains in Session 66
Allen the Bard (Level 1 Bard): Petrified by a basilisk in the Meniri Mountains in Session 66.
UnNamed Venturer (Level 1 Venturer): Killed by astral demons and sucked into the vacuum of spacetime in Session 66.
Major Garland Briggs (Level 1 Explorer): Killed by the crossbow bolt of an angry thracian in a dormant (?) volcano dungeon called Queens Rest Mountain. Then his body was eaten by giant chameleons as the rest of the party made their escape in Session 73.
Autumn Leaves (Level 1 Elven Spellsword): Died to lizardman crossbow bolts to the tears of her adventuring compatriots who tried to revive her after absconding with her corpse just outside Queens Rest Mountain in Session 73.
Xanthos (Level 6 Cleric): Cut down by a flaming blade by a very powerful thracian lizardman below Queens Rest Mountain in Session 74. Ressurected about two weeks later.
Stormin' Norman (Level 1 Gnomish Trickster): Captured by the lizardman tribe below Queens Rest Mountain whilst trying to use illusionist tricks to steal a magic spear. Was subsequently fed to their Giant Chameleons for being an annoying gnome in Session 74.
Kortes (Level 5ish Explorer): Captured and pickled by Blind Pew and the 4 purple dragons of Muppetlantis sometime during downtime in late October or early November.
Billy (L6 Explorer): Roasted to a crisp by Bluey the Blue Dragon's Lightning Bolt Breath in Session 85. Had "restore life and limb" cast on him a few days later.
Tuck Dragonborn (L3[4] Barbarian): Also roasted to a crisp by Bluey the Blue Dragon's Lightning Bolt breath in session 85. Also had restore life and limb cast on him a few days later.
Xanthos: (Level 7 Cleric): Cut down by ogre champions in Session 86.
Alexa this is so sad play "Tomorrow" by Silverchair
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