Tonight, we got a late start and, therefore, were at the bar a lot later than we intended and got a lot less (comparatively) done. The players did, however, walk out with a lot of loot and carrying the bodies of some pals. Here's how it all went down.
Doug was going to be significantly late, so Chris, Sean and I decided to use our time wise to (a) level up Sean's two fresh level ones and (b) hire some new level 0 canon fodder. Right, so, Sean's elven chandler ended up being sponsored by the Three Fates (so far, no one in the Game of Taps has bitten the Metal Gods bullet whereas everyone in the G+ game has) and his minstrel became a thief. Right away, Sean was pretty excited by the thief's luck-burning flexibility and knew that was going to come into play (it did).
The guys miraculously decided to investigate cave C in the Caves of Chaos (the Keep on Kickassistan version, mind you) which, luckily, I've been working on a little bit. I've been holding off posting it until after the players explored it just in case they decide to read their DM's blog. So, they headed off into cavern C, greedy for all of the gold they were sure was hidden inside. One of the fun things about this whole set up has been that we've been gradually introducing important elements of adventure gaming; today's lesson was in the application of light in the dungeon and how, sometimes, being able to see can also means that other things can now see you.
A short distance into the cave, the party's elves spotted a trap, so they sent in the newly-minted thief. Of course. Makes sense. He has something on his character sheet that says "disable traps." He's gotta be good at this stuff. Turns out, Sean's really good at rolling 1s, thereby triggering the trap and alerting the boar men (the Iron Tusk tribe; much better organized than the Gurgalur Tribe) to their presence. The PCs leaped into action and, through judicious use of some terribly powerful spells (I say as the guy who has to face the consequences of the spells when they actually work right), the group's elves managed to Color spray and Sleep a good half of the oncoming boarmen, which wasn't quite enough to prevent Sean's elf from getting dropped to zero hp (but, as a level 1, he was counting down the rounds to -10 hp) or Chris's alchemist from getting a javelin in the face, or even Doug's new level 1 warrior (the poorly-named "Tosser") from getting a fatal spear through the knee. After mopping up and several applications of Lay On Hands, the players moved forward, down a man.
Sean decided that his elf was going to try casting Animal summoning just to see what'd happen. What happened was the summoning of a dire wolf for an hour, accompanied by a huge thunderclap. The PCs bravely hid behind the dire wolf and uncovered the secret door to the Gurgalur tribe's chief (Snurk, son of Wheesquin, devourer of Wheesquin). They went for the obvious chest in the room (and added a valuable shortbow to their arsenal) but managed to do a great job of missing the room's hidden treasure. Would have been a great time to have a dwarf on staff. The party, realizing that the clock was ticking on their summoned doggy pal, moved forward to the Iron Tusks' chief's quarters.
The party burst through the door with the dire wolf in the lead. What followed was a pretty amazing clusterfuck. Sean's tax collector bit it and his elven chandler took a thrown axe to the chest and went down (causing the summoned dire wolf to disappear after it only got to attack once). Chris's cleric of Cthulhu dropped a Darkness spell on top of the Iron Tusk chief and one of his mates. Taking out this guy took awhile, mostly because of his full plate armor (and thus crazy high AC), but the guys accomplished it by letting Sean's thief get into position for a Backstab and a judicious application of Luck (Sean burned 4 points of Luck and turned a 10 on the Backstab into a 19).
After looting, it was last call in the bar, so we called it a night. The guys went carousing and spent a ton of the money they'd just earned, but Sean now has 3 1st levels (the armorer survived and will likely end up a warrior when all's said and done). I also asked the players to figure out which cavern they're going to explore next and they picked area G (but I don't think they saw area H, so they might change their minds), so next time it's jellies and owlbears!
With all of the reliance on rainbow magic (Color spray) that's happened, Chris decided that his elf, Tith, is a devotee of Doug Henning. There were also some jokes about the elves casting Sleep on the boarmen and exactly what they would sleep through. It sounds like Tith is developing a case of "What Would Doug Henning Do?" Don't answer that. Please, don't answer that.
Okay, too tired now... It's a bad idea to do recaps right after a session. I start added idiotic pictures and videos of Doug Henning.
Doug was going to be significantly late, so Chris, Sean and I decided to use our time wise to (a) level up Sean's two fresh level ones and (b) hire some new level 0 canon fodder. Right, so, Sean's elven chandler ended up being sponsored by the Three Fates (so far, no one in the Game of Taps has bitten the Metal Gods bullet whereas everyone in the G+ game has) and his minstrel became a thief. Right away, Sean was pretty excited by the thief's luck-burning flexibility and knew that was going to come into play (it did).
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| Search "Iron Tusk," Find this, Fail to figure it out, Post it anyway |
On the spot, I came up with a ruling that, at this point, to gain additional level 0s (and they could control no more than 4 characters at a time), they'd have to pay an "insurance benefit" of 10gp per head. Given the rate these guys are going through mooks, it's to be expected that the families of prospective hirelings would demand something in return from the loss of labor that they're causing in the neighborhood. So, basically, the guys pay 10gp for each index card for a level 0 that they can now "purchase" from me. Oh, and they are, of course, counting against the number of families in the region (as per last session's use of ACKS-inspired rules). Chris ended up hiring an alchemist and a farmer, Sean ended up with a tax collector and an armorer.
The guys miraculously decided to investigate cave C in the Caves of Chaos (the Keep on Kickassistan version, mind you) which, luckily, I've been working on a little bit. I've been holding off posting it until after the players explored it just in case they decide to read their DM's blog. So, they headed off into cavern C, greedy for all of the gold they were sure was hidden inside. One of the fun things about this whole set up has been that we've been gradually introducing important elements of adventure gaming; today's lesson was in the application of light in the dungeon and how, sometimes, being able to see can also means that other things can now see you.
| Doug names his PCs ... poorly |
Sean decided that his elf was going to try casting Animal summoning just to see what'd happen. What happened was the summoning of a dire wolf for an hour, accompanied by a huge thunderclap. The PCs bravely hid behind the dire wolf and uncovered the secret door to the Gurgalur tribe's chief (Snurk, son of Wheesquin, devourer of Wheesquin). They went for the obvious chest in the room (and added a valuable shortbow to their arsenal) but managed to do a great job of missing the room's hidden treasure. Would have been a great time to have a dwarf on staff. The party, realizing that the clock was ticking on their summoned doggy pal, moved forward to the Iron Tusks' chief's quarters.
After looting, it was last call in the bar, so we called it a night. The guys went carousing and spent a ton of the money they'd just earned, but Sean now has 3 1st levels (the armorer survived and will likely end up a warrior when all's said and done). I also asked the players to figure out which cavern they're going to explore next and they picked area G (but I don't think they saw area H, so they might change their minds), so next time it's jellies and owlbears!
With all of the reliance on rainbow magic (Color spray) that's happened, Chris decided that his elf, Tith, is a devotee of Doug Henning. There were also some jokes about the elves casting Sleep on the boarmen and exactly what they would sleep through. It sounds like Tith is developing a case of "What Would Doug Henning Do?" Don't answer that. Please, don't answer that.
Okay, too tired now... It's a bad idea to do recaps right after a session. I start added idiotic pictures and videos of Doug Henning.