Dramatis Personae

Previously . . .

After we last left off, the group had a large block blocking their staircase and closed in underground. Everyone has to make health checks with everyone doing well, except for Alabaster, who starts coughing on a success by zero. Rashi diagnoses Alabaster with magically accelerated Sewer-Rot and whacks Alabaster with his staff for ten minutes until he’s cured of the disease. In the meantime, Crow and Alabaster find a bottle under a brick full of silvery liquid that smells vaguely of cherries, a quick examination reveals it’s a Hero’s Brew potion that buffs the imbiber quite a bit.

Beneath Deadstone Keep

Alabaster, Crow, Keel-Breaker, and Rashi
Karsh (Ninth Month), 21st, 986 F.R., 9th Hour of the Sun (9:00 pm)
Redstone Keep, Northern Veneficia, Sicatra 

They decide that resting is going to take too long as Keel-Breaker decides to bash down the door, taking 3 points of damage to the leg as he triggers a trap. Apparently the goblins had time to set things up in the meantime. Mildly irritated, Keel-Breaker applies extra strength to his crowbar, popping the door’s hinges out of the wall, spotting several goblins laying in wait while Rashi is unable to see anything (Rolling a 15 on Observation) past Keel-breaker’s bulk. Apparently they’ve been laying in wait for the group.

A goblin emerges from the shadows and throws a shuriken that gets stuck in Keel-Breaker’s shield rather than his eye. Worrell moves forward, waiting for someone to get close enough to savage horribly with his bite. Keel-Breaker runs forwards to gore the Goblin Rogue with his horns tearing off an arm and knocking down his target (roll of 10 versus 3 on slam damage), the now five armed minotaur tells the goblin-y wizard that he’s next enacting his “Your Next!” perk and causing a Fright Check (Critical roll of 5 on Intimidation) stunning the wizard that is unable to break out of it. Rashi and Crow move up slightly while Alabaster preps an 4d Acid Ball to throw at goblins.

The prone goblin rogue attempts to stab Keel-Breaker in the vitals, but a parry later and the dagger turns to dust in the rogue’s hand (critical defense of 4 on Keel-Breaker, weapon breakage of 1 on long knife). Goblin warriors charge and attack the large barbarian, one from behind, but none can get through his defenses. Worrell waits for Rashi to cast Fast-Fire on him while Keel-Breaker finds the goblin in his back hex to be uncomfortably close to people that he cares about and smashes the goblin (roll of 4 causing a critical hit and causing maximum damage of 24 cutting) to his leg slicing through the armor like it was butter and taking out the second leg as well, though Keel-Breaker’s advisement that another warrior is going to be next isn’t believed.

Rashi finally casts Fast-Fire on the badger who immediately savages the legless Goblin, burning the head to a crisp before trying for another face but missing. Crow steps back, ready to stab anyone that tries to get past Worrell while Alabaster throws a large Acid Ball at the Goblin that refused to be intimidated, dealing 16 corrosive damage.

Two goblin rogues appear from behind the group, attacking Rashi from the side who barely manages to parry it while Keel-Breaker goes and river-dances on the face of the goblin rogue that tried to bite his legs. Worrell attempts to bite the goblin warrior’s leg, but instead gets parried to the face, dealing a 14 cutting damage  to the face which is shared with Rashi knocking them both out of the fight (Rashi has the Sympathy modifier on his ally, major-wound at -10 on Worrell’s part rolled a 12 versus 16 and failed by more than 5), but destroying the goblin’s broadsword in the process. Keel-Breaker, not happy, breaks the heck out of a goblin’s legs with a dual weapon attack.

The goblin arcane adept, having finally broke from stun, runs while Rashi lays unconscious. Crow steps back and attacks the goblin by Rashi with his new dagger that unfortunately gets parried while Alabaster slams the same goblin with an Acid Jet dealing 14 corrosion damage. The remaining goblin rogue attempts to stab Alabaster in the vitals but gets nothing but air. More goblin warriors attack Keel-Breaker, but they only go squish against his hide. A defense against his crowbar later and Keel-Breaker steps back from the doorway entrance to help shield Alabaster some more.

Crow stabs one of them, though it doesn’t get through his armor it does trigger one of the fancy effects on the dagger blinding the Goblin. Alabaster steps and tries to hit a warrior with an acid jet, dealing no damage with his dodge though the warrior does something stupid in trying to get to Alabaster and forgetting Worrell is a Fire Badger, touching the unconscious familiar and igniting with 21 burn. Keel-Breaker tramples a prone Goblin, breaking its neck and goring another in the chest while scaring the dickens out of the rest. Crow rips the throat out of the blinded goblin (managing a max roll of 9 cutting damage) before pivoting and moving back to the rest of the fight.

Another runs up and stabs at Keel-Breaker in the vitals, but parries the weapon. It’s surprising that his weapon doesn’t break from being parried with a 30 lb. weapon, but the next move may be their last as Keel-Breaker positions himself for smashing two goblins. One takes the crowbar to the vitals for 21 points of crushing damage, killing it, and severely damaging another with 19 points of cutting to the chest. Another goblin charges forwards to slash Keel-Breaker, but gets dodged. Several goblin wizards start casting while the slashed goblin gets parried and another is dodged.

Alabaster throws his Acid Ball at a goblin attacking Keel-Breaker, but misses two goblins to hit the gored goblin (which should be the name of an inn) in the face, killing him with 6 corrosion damage. Crow moves forwards and throws a dagger at a Goblin’s vitals, hitting it and killing it with max  damage (8 impaling damage). Two more goblins run up from behind while Keel-Breaker smashes through more legs and intimidates another. goblin arcane adept continue to cast their spell and another warrior attacks Keel-Breaker, but is unable to get past his DR even at a maximum roll.

Alabaster moves away from the goblins approaching from behind while Crow pivots on her heel and waits to stab some goblins in the vitals, rolling good damage and blinding him with her new dagger before parrying the attack of a different goblin. Alabaster attempts to throw Magical Bolts at the goblin mages but doesn’t manage to do any damage while Crow stabs another goblin and knocks them blind and dead. War Parties emerge from North and West and the mages throw two 9d Explosive Fireballs at Keel-Breaker, one of which misses Keel-Breaker and hits Alabaster instead. 33 burning damage sets his gown on fire and knocks him for a mortal wound (12 vs 11) but he takes more damage, barely managing to hold on. The sad fact is that Alabaster’s flesh is currently on fire.

Keel-Breaker, now berserk, attacks the goblin rogue with his Death Reaper but misses after the goblin dodges. Crow uses the ability of her new dagger to throw out a Blackout spell on a choke point while Keel-Breaker smashes into the goblin rogue with All-Out-Attack (Double) with one of them being a Dual Weapon Attack. The first strike, with the Death’s Reaper, causes a disembowelment while a boat anchor slices through its legs killing it instantly as it’s torn to pieces. Crow runs into the darkness and slashes into vitals, killing them. Alabaster still is on fire, barely managing to hang on while Keel-Breaker slashes his way through the goblin arcane adepts. Removing hands and legs, severing them from their life. Two more goblin arcane adepts come into play with another two 9d Explosive Fireballs causing 31 and 24 burning damage respectively. Crow continues to disembowel more goblins in the magical darkness.

Keel-Breaker charges forwards slicing into wizard’s legs removing both, killing him immediately from blood loss and then screaming into the group’s face. The goblins surround the minotaur and attack as one, though he’s not as far out of it to keep him from defending against their attacks, parrying one with his horns and another is blocked with his shield, two attacks make it past his defenses but not his tough skin. Crow continues to stab goblins in their vitals, killing them with a single strike.

A goblin runs over Worrell, burning himself and crippling his feet through mistake. Keel-Breaker, in the meantime, rips through several goblins, severing their legs and killing two more goblins before shaking off Panic being cast on him along with several strikes that just slide off of him. Two goblins try to attack Crow in the darkness but fail, which Crow counter attacks with another dead goblin and one with a hole in its guts. The charred goblin try to put out its feet while Keel-Breaker turns and attacks, slicing off another goblin’s arms and killing it before getting hit with Panic again, this time it works forcing him to run from the goblin arcane adept despite his berserk state and Crow stabs more vitals but still hasn’t killed it yet.

The charred goblin rogue throws some shuriken at Keel-Breaker, not managing to penetrate his skin as the minotaur runs from the caster. Keel-Breaker gets chased by a goblin warrior and stabbed in the leg while Crow rips out the last warrior’s guts. Keel-Breaker, still having to flee, tramples the charred goblin and jumps over a flaming badger pursued by a warrior. Crow, emerging from the magical darkness, charges down the remaining goblin mage and disembowels it with another hit to the vitals. With the panic over, Keel-breaker turns around and rips through the final warrior’s legs, killing it and snapping out of berserk and immediately moving to put out Alabaster and gives him a minor healing potion to help a bit out of the mortal wound.

They waste a major healing potion pouring it down Rashi’s throat as he didn’t have any damage taken and Keel-Breaker just can’t figure out what is going on. They aren’t sure what to do which leaves them having to wait fifteen minutes for them to wake up. Rashi proceeds to do his healbot duties casting Major Healing on Alabaster and Laying on Hands of Keel-Breaker. Crow, in the meantime, searches the area finding a broken sword. When she touches it, she identifies it as magical which brings it back to Alabaster who identifies it as being potently magical.

Aftermath

They also find two human and one dwarf prisoner, the dwarf is named Khugraek Redmane while the two humans are Jahnar Shestan and Qoh Chin Im Wia. Keel-Breaker lets them get dressed and armed. The dwarf is happy to help them haul everything back to town while the humans just want to get back on the road. The dwarf wonders why Keel-Breaker is away from the sea and is immediately regaled with poems (Keel-Breaker rolls a 7 on a 9 skill). The question now is whether they want to head back to town or go down the well where they discovered a ladder. Keel-Breaker uses his camouflage skill to disguise the entrances to keep them from being discovered. They move the bodies into a small room where he makes a Religious Ritual roll of 6 versus 16 to put the souls at rest and then casts Fast-Fire on Worrell to cremate the rest while Keel-Breaker Camouflages the entire ruins from additional adventurers managing a critical success of 5 versus 18.

After Action Report (GM)

Having nearly killed the PCs this session I feel like a terrible GM. I knocked out two PCs (the wizard and the cleric) and an ally (the fire badger). How? With goblins. Tactically minded goblins that used the dungeon terrain to their benefit. Once they trapped the PCs down below they really didn’t have much of anywhere to go. They had to either figure out how to move the giant stone blocking them in or go through the rest of the dungeon. I almost half-figured they’d use Alabaster’s Shape Earth and move the stone. Instead they decided to just clear the dungeon. When faced with overwhelming numbers and highly competent foes . . . they kept at it. It was the longest battle of any in Aersalus so far lasting 22 seconds/turns. Knocked out half the party and probably would have been worse if LOTS of lucky rolls hadn’t been made. That said, the players had fun and no one died – that counts for something.

Other Notes

None.