Dungeon Fantasy Aersalus – B-Team – Session 12

Dramatis Personae

  • Fyadhiel, Elven Scout (386 points) (played by +Douglas Cole): An elvish warmaster sent on a quest to be more humane. It’s not working. Tagline: “Just Damn Better than you.”
  • Gaffer, Gremian Artificer (428 points) (played by +Christopher D.): Boom Squirrel. Tagline: “Stop damaging your gear! I’m the one that has to repair it.”
  • Galen Fallowhide, Halfling Scholar (Physick)/Cleric of Healing (385 points) (player by +Christian G.): He’s a doctor (but not a cannibal) that can heal with steel. He’s small, but deadly and a bit crazy. Tagline: “How many times have I healed you? Let me count the holes.”
  • Ryeleah Lopek, Human Wizard (358 points) (played by +Merlin A.): TBA. Tagline: “TBA”
  • Waraxe Mandrake, Dwarven Knight (350 points) (played by +Rob K.): A solid dwarf with miscellaneous scars and a long red beard. Usually seen in well-maintained (ahem) dwarven armor, and with Lydia, a rather large dwarven waraxe. Tagline: “Pass the beer and look out for the axe.”
  • Amara Aritis, Elven Wizard (??? points) (NPC): A magnificent, if mysterious woman the PCs rescued from being stoned by the medusa in the Mirror Dimension that serves as the lich Ghanz’s prison.
  • Maxion “Twerp” Lopek, Human Cultist (Wizard) (84 points) (NPC): Twerp is a human boy (about 11, he’s not sure since his mother didn’t keep track) who dreams of one day becoming an auric knight and finally making his mother proud. Son of Ryeleah. Tagline: “Gee, I don’t know if that’s a good idea, mom.”
  • Moon Moon, Dire Wolf (156 points) (NPC): Not too bright, but strong. Sometimes forgets how to doge, such dignity, wowe. Tagline: “Woof.”

Previously . . .

We’re in this mirror portal realm. Approaching a platform with lots of spider.

Amara is with us.

Trying to decide what to do. Fly over? Rush through? Try to kill them all. Ryeleah charges a laser. She casts a blocking spell to give Waraxe DB+2, and casts Blur on him to give enemies a -2 to attack; he gives the same buffs to Fyadhiel.

Inside The Tower of Ghanz, The Mirror Dimension

Fyadhiel, Gaffer, Galen Fallowhide, Ryeleah Lopek, and Waraxe Mandrake
Anner (Fourth Month), 3rd, 981 F.R., 10th Hour of the Sun (5:00 pm)
Taskar, Dancorra Bay, Abolethe (“The Span”)

The PCs advance and Waraxe yells a massive battle cry. A spider appears; it’s really really really big (SM +3). It tries to bite and grapple Waraxe; he blocks the bite, and parries with Lydia, but unfortunately it’s big and heavy so that’s bad (it gets to use its full ST for the purposes of parrying heavy weapons); it takes a use of Luck to keep Lydia from breaking. No more parrying. Fyadhiel fires arrows at it. The spider Dodges both a torso shot and an arrow shot, as it phases out. Ryelaeh blasts at it with her readied lazer; it dodges. Waraxe swings his axe with a deceptive attack, but the spider still manages to phase out at just the right time and move out of the way. Amara moves the Lightning Wall she’d summoned earlier on top of the big-ass spider; it fails to Dodge this one. Galen gets ready to block with his dancing shield. Gaffer insta-makes some jamming glues and fires some at the spider; thanks to the spider being stunned, it doesn’t dodge.

The spider stays stunned. Fyadhiel fires two bodkin arrows to the vitals; it manages to dodge one despite being stunned. Ryeleah turns invisible. Waraxe chops off a leg. Amara zaps it some more with her lightning wall. It dies. Waraxe picks up the severed leg and throws it forward to see if there’s another spider. No response. Ryeleah sits down for some brief beauty rest (and also to recover fatigue). Gaffer gathers bits from the spider. The other PCs think he’s gross. The PCs go to the next spiral staircase; this one is normal. The PCs see the next platform; there’s a lot of bones on the platform. There’s a big red glowing orb. Fyadhiel throws a rock at it. It bounces off.

We go down the stairs to the platform. Nothing happens; the bones don’t animate. Ryeleah can see that the orb has overwhelming necromantic magic. There are letters written on the orb. “It is in the rock, but not in the stone. It is in the marrow, but not in the bone. It is in the bolster, but not in the bed. It is not in the living, nor yet in the dead.” Ryeleah moves forward and presses the letter “R.” The orb stops glowing, and the PCs hear grinding stone in the distance. There are two ways out. Max flips the Diviner’s Coin. They go straight ahead. Another spiral staircase. There’s a small, 2.5-yard wide platform about 10 or 12 yards long to another staircase. There is a big pile of bones. Ryeleah does Sense Foes, but does not sense them as foes. Fyadhiel throws a handaxe; nothing happens. He also doesn’t think it’s magic. They cross it. Nothing happens. They take the spiral stairs . . . and we’re back at the base of the stairs where the PCs were after the orb room. They try going back up the spiral staircase . . . and we’re somewhere else (GM Quote: “You’re annoying! That would have been at least 30 minutes of pure fun watching you try to figure it out!”) Stairs go down to a platform full of mirrors. Ryeleah can see that the mirrors are seriously magic.

Ryeleah calls out the name of the wizard we’re looking for (Ghanz). Nothing happens. She apports a mirror over to her . . . and looks into it. She gets a death vision (she’s in a place of swirling energies and stones; she is hit by a spell and feels herself crumble to dust) . . . and is stunned. The mirror shatters outward; a shadow Ryeleah (looks like her, but the colors are “washed out,” and her eyes are glowing red) steps out of the mirror; she takes a piece of the mirror and stabs the stunned Ryeleah in the throat with it. Waraxe chops at shadow Ryeleah, but she parries with Iron Arm. Galen uses his dancing shield to shield bash at shadow Ryeleah’s face; she dodges. Fyadhiel shoots shadow Ryeleah in the foot, but she moves her foot out of the way. He shoots again, and misses.

Shadow Ryeleah throws a concussion spell at us; the PCs all manage to resist the effects with an HT roll. Actual Ryeleah bops shadow Ryeleah with her staff; “knock it off!” Shadow Ryeleah parries it. Waraxe chops at her legs. The first one breaks into mirror shards cascading down; after the second one, the whole shadow Ryeleah falls into a pile of mirror shards. Ryeleah felt like she was being drawn into the mirror herself. Galen has an idea. He asks Fyadhiel to shoot an arrow into a spot in the center of the room. Galen blindfolds himself and walks forward, trying to find the arrow… but he’s curious, and can’t resist peeking. Fortunately, he doesn’t see anything. This method gets us through, on to another spiral staircase.

Inside The Tower of Ghanz, The Shards of Imprisonment

Fyadhiel, Gaffer, Galen Fallowhide, Ryeleah Lopek, and Waraxe Mandrake
Anner (Fourth Month), 3rd, 981 F.R., 11th Hour of the Sun (6:00 pm)
Taskar, Dancorra Bay, Abolethe (“The Span”)

The PCs end up at another extradimensional space, floating rocks connected by bigass chains . . . and the PCs are all on different rocks. There’s a skeletal man in robes sitting in a solid onyx throne; his bones are plated in steel. He’s got a couple of golems on either side of him. He casts Great Haste, Annihilation,  and throws the latter at Amara. She dies turning to dust as the lich screams about how the PCs can’t be here. Fyadhiel jumps toward the center platform.

Ghanz casts a spell, and starts moving faster. He casts another Spirit Incursion, and there’s a whirlwind of spirits around him, at a radius of 8 yards. Ryeleah casts up a Spell Wall to block Ghanz’s spells, but through which she can still cast. Waraxe jumps from his platform towards the center one (requiring Luck to succeed). Galen moves in behind Ryeleah’s wall. Gaffer pulls out a Magic Resistance potion and drinks it. Max charges, and makes the jump. Fyadhiel shoots at the lich’s torso, but does not hit.

Gems on the golems’ foreheads flash, and they start moving very fast (GM note: Spellstones holding Great Haste, Might, and Haste spells). A golem charges Ryeleah, but she dodges. It swings a sword at Galen, but doesn’t hit. The second golem charges in, and does three attacks each on Ryeleah and Galen, all of which hit. Ryeleah blocks the first hit with an Iron Arm, and dodges the other two. Galen blocks the first two hits with his dancing shield, but fails to dodge the last blow… using luck, he does manage to dodge. Waraxe charges towards the wizard, charging into the sphere of spirits. (They do 1 HP of damage each turn.) Galen moves back. Gaffer shoots the chair with his clockwork crossbow, just in case that will somehow hurt the lich. Two hits. Nothing happens. Fyadhiel shoots at the gems on the golems’ foreheads. Both bodkin arrows hit. The gem breaks; nothing happens.

Ghanz casts a spell, and Twerp turns to dust. (Nooooo!!!!!!!) He turns and tries to disintegrate Waraxe, but Waraxe resists; he still takes 21 injury. Ryeleah puts on the ring she found earlier, hoping it’s something useful. She turns purple . . . The golems close in on her, and makes six attacks (three attacks each). She takes huge damage to her legs, and both of them are gone from the knees down. Waraxe moves in and chops at the wizard (move and attack), who blocks with an Iron Arm despite a massive deceptive attack (-4 to Active Defenses).

Gaffer fires his clockwork crossbow, but misses. Fyadhiel shoots for the head . . . and the arrow comes screaming back at him. (GM Note: The lich has Return Missiles on him.) The arrow thwacks into Fyadhiel, with a bodkin arrow doing 14 piercing damage to the shoulder. He turns and shoots at a golem. Ghanz moves closer to his chair and tries to disintegrate Waraxe. Again. It doesn’t kill him, but it reduces him to below -1xHP.

Ryeleah casts invisibility upon herself. The golems, no longer seeing the wizard, move over a bit to smack on Galen. Waraxe steps in and makes a pair of attacks; the wizard retreats and dodges twice. He’s a zippy little lich. Galen moves to heal Stumpy (aka Ryeleah), giving her a couple of hit points back. Galen shoots one of the golems with Jamming Glue. Fyadhiel shoots at a golem twice, and manages to hit. Ghanz takes a step in the direction of Fyadhiel and Gaffer and throws an Improved Explosive Fireball at Fyadhiel. Both of them Dodge; at a distance, Ryeleah takes yet more damage.

Ryeleah casts a Shield spell on Galen, who is promptly attacked by the two golems. WMD chops at the lich, who parries with his staff…. and it explodes in a truly massive explosion doing 226 burning damage.

Aftermath

The lich explodes and dies . . . but immediately reforms screaming in obvious pain (his staff reforming as well). Meanwhile,  all the PCs get sucked into another dimension . . .

After Action Report (GM)

The PCs finally finished the dungeon and . . . they didn’t kill the lich. Whoops. Sorry. They did very well against a massive 50d6 explosion and even better at a insane lich chucking Annihilation spells like they were going out of business. The players were aghast to hear there was 10 other liches on the island of Taskar . . . and Ghanz was only the 7th most dangerous of them.

I also asked the players if they would be interested in a different group of characters – I want to do some playtesting for something I want to write and I want to see what lower-point delvers look like. Everyone was down with a new group of paper men and we’ll likely be using Eric B. Smith’s Dungeon Fantasy on the Cheap (150 points + 25 points from this adventure)

Footnotes

None.

 

 

 

Posted in Session Recap and tagged , , , .

One Comment

  1. Pingback: Hall of GURPSDay Summary June 15, 2018 – June 21, 2018 - Gaming Ballistic

Leave a Reply