Date:
Lunday 10th Ligarios, 2994 AE
Weather:
Warm, stormy
Player Characters:
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)
Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)
Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Lacrymosa, Elven mercenary archer (Archon Shiva)
Significant NPCs:
Craastonistorex, green dragon
Veridian, wyvern
Briar, wyvern
Basil, Right for Riches employee
Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist
2 invisible stalkers
Galeth, wight
Many ghouls
The Plan:
- Sneak up on Craastonistorex using Invisibility and flight magic
- Kill Craastonistorex
- Cut up his corpse
- Explore the surface ruins of Arden Vul
What Happened:
The group hired Lacrymosa for help kill the dragon. They gathered at their apartments in the Arcane Practitioners' Club to prepare for the assault.
They started casting buffing spells that they could maintain for a long time. Uvash Blessed Ioannes (using Contingency Casting) and Ioannes Blessed Lacrymosa. (The other three already had Blesses from Ioannes.) Vael cast Invisibility on everyone but himself, Levitation on himself, and Walk on Air on Uvash, Ioannes, and Lacrymosa. Vael cast See Invisible on Vallium. Ioannes cast See Secrets on himself. Lacrymosa cast Keen Vision on herself.
Everyone except Vael put on an Serpent Amulet to resist poison. Vael wore a Salamander Amulet because they didn't have a fifth Serpent Amulet. Vallium, as usual, wore Boots of Levitation.
The group left Gosterwick at dawn, with only Vael visible. Vael Levitated unchallenged over the future north wall of Gosterwick, toward Arden Vul. The other four followed him, all holding a rope to stay together, since three of them couldn't see each other. Like kindergartners on a field trip, except more heavily armed.
They reached the cliff west of the waterfall and started Levitating or Walking on Air right up. When they approached the top of the cliff, they paused to use their shorter-duration buffs. Vael used Larel's Cloak to turn himself invisible, and drank a Potion of Wisdom. Lacrymosa drank a Strength Potion, an Agility Potion, a Speed Potion, and a Perception Potion. Vallium drank an Agility Potion.
Finally, Ioannes gathered the group together and cast Bravery on everyone. This caused everyone to feel a bit like immediately charging the dragon, but they all kept it together and stayed with the stealthy plan. Everyone made it to the top of the wall, just east of Craas's tower in the southwest corner of Arden Vul.
They crept up quietly to the eastern door from the top of the wall to the tower. There was a stone door there, with a visible lock. Vael cast Lockmaster on the lock, and heard it click open. He then cast Great Haste on Vallium, while Lacrymosa cast Concussion. As Vael finished the spell, Uvash tried pushing the door open -- and it didn't budge. There was something else besides the lock holding it closed.
Vael didn't want to waste any more time, so he cast Shape Earth on the door, to basically shove it out of the way and make a hole in the tower. He critically failed, used Luck, then succeeded. The door went away, leaving a hole into the tower. Inside the tower was a wyvern (Veridian), playing with some coins on the floor. Veridian made a Perception check, so the PCs did not achieve surprise. She saw the hole appear and saw or heard or smelled the people standing outside and started howling in alarm so Craas and the other wyvern Briar would know that there was trouble. (Speech is a free action.)
I determined turn order (if nobody is surprised, it's Basic Speed first, with DX as a tiebreaker, and then you can roll dice as a second tiebreaker if needed). Vallium was fastest.
 |
| Just After Start of Turn 1, Vallium attacks Veridian |
Vallium immediately Moved into the room (first maneuver) then attacked Veridian (second maneuver).
Aside on Levitation: Levitation says that it requires Concentration to move the subject if the caster is not the subject, but requires no Concentration if the caster is the subject. So if the caster is the subject, they move 3 yards per second in any direction as a free action. So Levitation essentially gives a free 3-hex Move in any direction, which because it's free equates to a 3-hex Step in combat. This is ridiculously good for such a basic spell, though typical starting mages with Levitate at 15 or so can only afford to maintain Levitation on up to 160 lbs without burning FP every minute. (This may be where the stereotype of skinny, unarmored wizards comes from; if going on a diet and not carrying much let you fly all day, you'd do it too.) Anyway, the Boots of Levitation that Vallium usually wears are powerful enough to Levitate even a strong fighter with armor on, which make them an extremely powerful magic item. That said, Vallium started too far from Veridian for even his 3-hex Step to get him within attack range, so he used his first Maneuver on Move, and his second on Attack. (He could have done a Move and Attack with his first, but chose not to, since Move and Attack caps skill to 9.)
Vallium had Extra Attack 1, so an Attack maneuver gave him two swings. He had a base Broadsword-17 skill, plus his magical broadsword was balanced (+1 skill) and had Accuracy 1 (+1 skill) for an effective Broadsword-19. He has another +2 to almost everything from Bless, so Broadsword-21. He had Weapon Master, so the usual -6 penalty for Rapid Strike was halved to -3. Finally, he rolled +6 (max) on that Agility Potion he just drank, and got +2 to *that* for Bless +2 (Bless is broken), so he was currently at +8 to DX and DX-based skills like Broadsword, so effectively Broadsword-29. So if he took a Rapid Strike on one of the Swings on the Attack maneuver, those two swings turned into three swings, one of them unpenalized and two of them at -3 for Rapid Strike. The wyvern was SM +4, giving +4 to hit it, so he was rolling against 33 on the unpenalized attack and 30 on the Rapid Strikes. A final modified skill above 16 would be wasted (because 17 is always a failure and 18 always a critical failure, no matter how high your skill), so Vallium used the extra margin for 8 levels of Deceptive Attack: -16 to hit to give the target -8 to defend. After all the math, Vallium got 3 attacks, needing 16 or less to hit on the regular strike and 14 or less to hit on the 2 Rapid Strikes, and Veridian would defend at -8.
So Vallium got to try to hit Veridian up to 3 times. Veridian would try a Retreating Dodge against all of them, with Retreat giving a +3 bonus. (She got the +3 to all 3 Dodge attempts, since they were all against the same opponent.) Veridian's base Dodge was a 9, and so her retreating Dodge would succeed on 12 or less, pretty good. Except for the -8 from the Deceptive Attacks reduced that to 4 or less. Basically, Veridian needed to roll a 4 or less to Dodge. She failed all her Dodges. (Note: We didn't actually roll all the attacks first, then all the dodges, then all the damage, because the damage could stun or slow Veridian and reduce her future Dodges, or kill her and render further attacks moot. We rolled, attack, then defense, then damage, three times. I'm just grouping things together to make this recap shorter.)
Vallium had ST 17, giving 3d-1 basic swing damage. A swung broadsword does swing+1 cutting, so 3d-1+1 = 3d cutting. He had Weapon Master, adding +2 per die of base damage, so up to 3d+6 cut. The broadsword had fine, for +1 to damage, and Puissance 1, for another +1, so 3d+8 cut total. The sword also had Penetrating Weapon for an armor divisor of 2, so the wyvern's DR would be cut in half, rounded down (So its DR3 would become DR1). Finally, he had an extra 2 damage tacked onto the final damage from the Gauntlet of Flaming Fury he was wearing, which gave any weapon in that hand the Flaming Weapon spell, for 2 extra burn damage. Essentially, Vallium would roll 3d+8 and generate that much cutting damage, then I would subtract 1 from that for (reduced) DR, then I would multiply the final damage by 1.5 because it was cutting damage to the torso, and finally I'd tack 2 points of burn damage on at the end. (This all sounds very fiddly, and it is, but a lot of it is pretty much always the same for the same PC using the same weapon, so you compute it once and write it on your character sheet and then just reuse the calculation. Also, software like GCS (GURPS Character Assistant) and GGA (the GURPS Game Aid for Foundry) does a lot of the math for you.)
Vallium's first hit did 18 base damage. DR 1 (after Penetrating Weapon) made it 17, and then the 1.5 multiplier made it 25 and the Flaming Weapon made it 27 injury. Veridian had 18 HP, so the first hit put her at -9 HP. Once she got below 1/3 of her base HP (so down to 5) she was Reeling: half Move, half Dodge (not that it mattered because she already needed a 4 or less to Dodge and a 4 or less always succeeds). Once she reached zero HP, she needed to make a HT roll to stay conscious every turn that she tried to do anything. An attack that did more than half of her HP (so 9 or more, so basically any hit from Vallium) was also a Major Wound, requiring a HT check to avoid Stun and Knockdown. Finally, at every full multiple of negative HP (so -18, -36, -54, -72) Veridian had to make a HT roll to avoid dying. Veridian had 14 HT, making her very good at passing those HT checks for stun and consciousness and death. But no matter what, when she got to -5 * HP (-90 HP), she would be dead. No more rolls. Veridian made her stun check for the first hit.
Vallium's second hit did 21 -> (DR) -> 20 -> (cutting) -> 30 -> (flaming) -> 32, putting Veridian at -41 FP, so 2 death checks for passing -18 and -36. She made both, and also made the stun check. Still standing.
Vallium's third hit did 24 -> 23 -> 34 -> 36, putting Veridian at -77, so 2 more death checks at -54 at -72. She passed both death checks and the stun check. Veridian was pretty close to dead, but still standing.
It was then Lacrymosa's turn. She was holding a Concussion spell, and with her first Action made a ranged Attack and threw it at a hex on the far side of Veridian so that Veridian would be in the area of effect and Vallium would not. She got +4 to hit an entire hex (she would have also received +4 to hit Veridian because of Veridian's SM) and hit. Veridian had already used her Retreat for the turn so couldn't Retreat to try to get away from the Concussion. The Concussion did 10 points of damage, minus 3 for Veridian's DR, so 7. Concussion does crushing damage, no damage multiplier, so the final injury was 7. That put her at -79. Concussion also caused a stun check, at -3. (I have house ruled the Concussion spell so only large Concussions get the -3, but Lacrymosa made it big enough to get the maximum penalty.) Veridian made her stun check. Still standing. (7 points was less than half of Veridian's base HP, so the Concussion wasn't a Major Wound, so she didn't get another stun check for that. Just the one that Concussion inherently causes.)
Lacrymosa has Extra Attack 2, so after throwing the Concussion she had two Attacks left. She also has Heroic Archer, Fast-Draw (arrow) at a high level with the No Nuisance Rolls perk so she doesn't actually have to roll Fast-Draw skill for arrows, and Bow-24. Yeah, totally not Legolas. She put two arrows into Veridian, with the first one aimed at the Wing and the Second one aimed at a Leg. She was rolling against Bow-24, plus something for the Agility potion, +4 for SM, minus a bit of a range penalty, -2 for hit location, probably 16 or less. Both shots hit. Veridian was at half Dodge for her wounds, so 4 or less to Dodge. She didn't Dodge either. Both arrows rolled a lot of damage, but the blowthrough rule says that if you do more than HP/2 damage to an limb like an arm or leg or wing, the limb is crippled but excess damage is lost. So Veridian took 9 points to the wing (plus a crippling, which was an automatic major wound, so another stun check), putting her at -81. Then 9 more points to the leg (plus a crippling which was another major wound), putting her at -90, which was -5 * HP, so automatically dead, no more rolls. Veridian died and collapsed to the floor.
Uvash charged forward into the room, but had no opponents in sight. Ioannes stepped forward cautiously, All-Out Defending (Just In Case). Vael Concentrated on Great Haste (which takes him 3 turns to cast) and Levitated forward.
Meanwhile, outside the PCs' (and players') line of sight, the second wyvern on the roof, Briar, opened the trap door on the ceiling (Ready maneuver) and prepared to charge down the stairs to his sibling's aid. And, in the basement, Craas used a Wait maneuver to attack anyone coming into reach. (Craas was a genius with high-level Tactics skill, who had planned for an invasion of his tower for a long time, and had defeated a few such attempts, so had immediately figured from the sounds above that someone had destroyed the door, sprung into the tower, and hit Veridian with a melee weapon at least three times. So that person was likely magically hastened and could be in Craas's face very quickly. If there was only one super-fast fighter up there, Craas would rather stay in the cellar and fight him one-on-one than charge up the stairs and also fight the fighter's allies. Of which there was at least one, because Craas had heard a Concussion spell and two arrows striking home. And probably another, because he'd heard heavy footsteps. And quite likely more.)
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End of turn 1, Veridian dead, Briar and Craas offscreen
|
Vallium, under the effect of Great Haste, immediately sprinted down the spiral stairs to confront Craas in the cellar. (He didn't actually know Craas was there, but Craas had been there when Vael had scouted out the tower with an invisible Wizard Eye in a previous session, so he thought the dragon was likely down there guarding his hoard.) He used his first maneuver to Move, very quickly. He saw Craas, closed with him, and triggered Craas's Wait.
Craas had a lot of attacking options. He had breath weapons, spells, horns, claws, teeth, tail, and wings. He had Extra Attack 3, so he could use up to four of them. He chose horns, teeth, claws, and more claws. His first claws hit Vallium but Vallium rolled a 4 on his Dodge, a critical success, making Craas roll on the Critical Failure Table. Craas decided he didn't like that, and used his Luck to avoid the critical failure. Craas hit with another claw, but Vallium dodged. Craas critically hit with his horns, but Vallium used his Luck to avoid the crit and then dodged. (Note: if Vallium hadn't used Luck, this would have done 5d+6 cutting damage, probably severely wounding Vallium, even with all his armor. Luck is good.) Finally, Craas hit with his bite, but Vallium dodged it.
With Craas's Wait over, Vallium resumed his turn. His attack on Craas was very similar to his attack on Veridian: go for the torso with Rapid Strikes and 8 levels of Deceptive Attack. Craas was even bigger, SM +5 rather than +4, but the SM bonus for hitting something is capped at +4, so the attack rolls were the same.
Vallium's first attack hit and got past Craas's parry attempt with his horns, doing 18 basic damage, lowered to 14 by DR, then increased to 21 because of the cutting multiplier, then 23 after +2 for flaming weapon. Not quite a major wound, (Craas had 50 HP) but putting Craas at just over half HP.
Vallium's second attack was a Rapid Strike, hit, and Craas failed to Dodge it. (I made a tactical mistake choosing Craas's defenses here. He should have used a Blink spell, then a Parry with one claw, then a Parry with the other claw, as his Blink was 7 points better than his Dodge and his Parry was 1 point better than his Dodge, and he could parry once with each of his left claw, right claw, and horns before taking a -4 penalty for repeated parries with the same weapon. But the -8 from Deceptive Attack meant it didn't matter a whole lot; Craas was going to fail most of his defense rolls, no matter what defense he chose.) Craas took another 15 HP, putting him at 12. This was less than one third of his full HP, so his Move and Dodge were halved.
Vallium's third attack was the other Rapid Strike, a hit, and Craas failed again to Dodge. 23 more points of injury, putting Craas at -11. This meant that from now on Craas needed to make a consciousness check every turn that he did anything.
Lacrymosa followed Vallum down the stairs and fired arrows at Craas. (She didn't know he had Missile Shield running.) He "dodged" the first arrow. He "dodged" the second arrow and she started getting suspicious. She used a Meteoric arrow for her third shot, which ignored his Missile Shield. He failed to Dodge it and took 12 cutting to the wing. This was reduced by DR 9 to 3 cutting, then increased by cutting to 4. Craas at -15.
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Cellar, Turn 2, Vallium and Lacrymosa vs. Craas
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Upstairs, Uvash heard fighting below and a trap door opening above, but took a turn to Concentrate on Heroic Might and Heroic Grace, then stepped forward. (He can activate both at once with a single Concentrate maneuver.) He rolled +11 DX for 12 turns (obscene) but only +3 ST for 10 turns (merely mighty). Ioannes continued all-out defending himself (+2 bonus to Dodge) and moved forward a bit. Vael continued casting Great Haste, now 2/3 done, and also glided forward a bit.
Craas made his consciousness check. He realized he was beset by a very powerful fighter who was clearly cheating with magic and an archer with access to meteoric arrows, also totally cheating, and that they had severely wounded him in the first second of combat. He had prepared for this unlikely contingency, and used his Blink spell (which he had neglected to use as an active defense earlier) to Blink through the wall to the northeast. He made his Body Sense roll, so he did not lose his next turn recovering from teleportation.
The surviving wyvern, Briar, charged down through the trap door on the roof and down the spiral stairs. This Move maneuver only got him about halfway to Uvash and Vael and Ioannes, all of whom were still invisible as none of them had actually attacked yet.
Vallium, seeing Craas disappear, and having See Invisible so he knew the dragon was gone not just invisible, still had two maneuvers from Great Haste. For his first, he took a Move and ran back upstairs. He rolled Fast-Draw (Potion), succeeded, and so had the potion ready as a free action. He used his second maneuver to drink a Flight Potion. (He already had Levitation from his boots, but Levitation is Move 3 and Flight is Move 10.)
Lacrymosa took a Move and Attack maneuver, followed Vallium up the stairs, and saw Briar coming down. She fired a cutting arrow at one of his legs, rolling a 16, which was good enough to hit. He rolled a 14 and failed to dodge. The arrow did 20 points of damage, which was reduced to 17 by DR, still way more than Briar's HP/2, so the leg was crippled, Briar fell prone (-3 to dodge), and Briar took 9 HP of damage. He made his stun check. The second arrow was to a wing. Briar rolled a 10, failed to dodge, and 19 points of base damage because 16 after DR, which was again more than HP/2 so enough to blow through the wing, causing 9 HP of damage. Briar made his stun check again, but with one leg and one wing crippled, he would not be very mobile. He was also at 0 HP so he would be at half Move and Dodge from his wounds, on top of the effects of the crippled limbs, and would need to make a consciousness check every turn. But none of that mattered because the third arrow was to his skull. He failed to dodge again (at half dodge plus a penalty for being prone he needed a 4), and the 21 points to the skull got reduced a little bit by DR, but then multiplied by 4 for a skull hit. Briar was at about -80 HP, 4 death checks. He failed the first one, mercifully preventing any more dice rolls.
Seeing Briar die before he got a chance to hit him, Uvash ran after Vallium toward the destroyed door. Vael finished his Great Haste spell and targeted Lacrymosa. Ioannes cast Lend Energy, using his power item rather than his personal FP, and restored Vael's FP.
Craas made his consciousness check, concentrated on Invisibility, and disappeared. He started flying north away from the tower, over the swamp.
Vallium charged through the missing door and started looking around for a dragon. After a couple of seconds, he spotted Craas, flying away a bit to the north. Vallium started flying north after Craas. Craas had Air Move 21, but was slowed by his wounds so could currently only fly at Air Move 10. Vallium also had Air Move 10 from Flight, but was under the influence of Great Haste, so if he took two Move maneuvers he could achieve Air Move 20. Under the current circumstances, Vallium was faster, but his Great Haste would expire soon, and then they would be the same speed.
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Turn 3.
Craas flies away to the north, as PCs on the wall prepare to chase |
Vallium, still Great Hasted, took a Move maneuver followed by a Move and Attack. He flew 10 yards toward Craas, then 11 more yards (with the sprint bonus) toward Craas. He tried sneaking up behind Craas, but Craas had Peripheral Vision and rolled a critical success on his Perception check, so he totally saw Vallium coming. Move and Attack is skill -5, capped at 9. Vallium rolled a 9, hitting. Craas tried parrying with his hind claws, failed, and took 14 more injury. His second swing (from Extra Attack) missed.
Lacrymosa, Great Hasted and using Walk on Air, took a Move and Attack maneuvers to run on air after Craas while loosing arrows. She first fired a regular arrow and Missile Shield avoided it. She then stopped and took an Attack meneuver, using a meteoric arrow and shot Craas in the wing. He failed to dodge and took some damage, but it wasn't enough to cripple the wing. She shot another arrow using Extra Attack and winged him again, again doing some damage but not enough to cripple.
Craas Concentrated on Invisibility, and successfully cast it. (He had High Pain Threshold so he didn't have a penalty from all the damage he'd just taken.) Four out of five PCs could no longer see him. Vallium had See Invisible on, though, so Craas just looked a bit blurry to him. Normally Concentrate just allows a Step, but I decided that since Craas was flying he could have a couple of extra hexes of glide from his momentum. (I know there there are rules for this in GURPS Basic Set, and probably extra rules for it in some other GURPS book or Pyramid article, but I didn't look anything up. I just winged it and scooted him a few extra hexes, in addition to his Step. Don't waste time looking up rules in play unless it actually matters. Here, Vallium could still catch him, so it didn't, so I didn't waste time.)
Uvash and Ioannes, with Walk on Air, started running after Vallium. (They could no longer see Craas but figured Vallium was in the right area.) Vael cast Haste on Uvash, trying to give him some more Move so he could catch up, but failed the roll. (Vael had a lot of spells on and there was a range penalty, so his skill 20 was reduced to 13, and he rolled a 16.)
Vallium, still right behind Craas, kept swinging. Craas remembered to use Blink this time, and Blinked away, getting 3 hexes of free move. He also made his Body Sense roll. Vallium used his Boots of Levitation to close the 3 hexes and swung some more, doing more damage to the dragon.
Lacrymosa could not longer see Craas, so she just used Move and chased after Vallium.
Uvash and Ioannes and Vael followed, but without Great Haste or Haste were not fast enough to keep up with the others.
Craas didn't attack, not wanting to lose his Invisibility, and just Moved, trying to get away from his attackers.
Vallium attacked Craas again. Craas Blinked away, successfully, but critically failed his Body Sense roll. This meant he couldn't do anything on his next turn while he recovered his bearings. Vallium closed the range with Levitation and made the rest of his attacks. Craas failed to parry or dodge any.
On his next turn, Vallium realized Craas was too dizzy to fight back, and switched attack maneuvers to All-Out Attack (Double) to get even more attacks. He rolled a stupid number of attacks with a stupid level of Deceptive Attack. Once again Craas Blinked away from one attack (and made his Body Sense roll this time) but failed to parry or dodge the others, and took a lot of damage. He made all four of his death checks and all of his stun checks (it's good to have HT 15), but when he reached -250 HP (-5 times his starting 50 HP), the game was up. He splashed into the swamp.
Vallium landed behind him and immediately started cutting up the dead dragon, taking a bunch of his hide, his teeth, his claws, several vials of his blood, and his heart. This took a while (dragons are big), so Lacrymosa stood guard in case something snuck up on Vallium while he was busy butchering. Vallium also found a fancy necklace around one of the dragon's claws, and took it. Ioannes, Vael, and Uvash went back to the tower to loot it.
The floor where the wyvern had been playing only had a few copper and silver coins. The cellar had 14 chests, containing coins and gems and jewels of many kinds. Vael searched them all for traps, found none, then opened them all up and took out everything that looked valuable, except they left piles of coins in the chests because it would be easier to move the entire chests. After they finished looting they looked for secret doors but didn't find any, then went up to the roof and didn't find anything, then went back outside to see how Vallium's butchery was going. Ioannes contributed some surgery skill to help Vallium extract a couple of weird dragon organs. Eventually Vallium realized he had all the dragon parts he was going to get today. He carried them back to dry ground where they could place a Teleport Rug to take them back to the Beacon, then he put all the dragon parts in the refrigerated room to avoid fast spoilage. Vallium came back and they relocated the Rug to the cellar of the tower, so they could carry all the heavy chests full of coins back to the Beacon as well. There was also a huge statue of Vul's head there, which they left for the moment.
With no dragon patrolling the ruins of Arden Vul, they decided to spend some time looking for other treasure. From the swamp, Vael cast Seek Magic. The nearest magic was coming from just west of the city walls, so they went there and found the ruins of a villa. Another Seek Magic said something was in the basement, so he started digging with Shape Earth until he found some stairs down. They explored the ruined basement for a bit, until a couple of Invisible Stalkers on guard ambushed them and tried to kill them. Vallium got stabbed in the back, but kept fighting. Vael cast a couple of See Invisible spells to help the others see their targets, while the other four gradually wore down and killed the Stalkers.
Ioannes healed Vallium, then noticed a secret door. They went through it and found some ancient wine casks. Vael sampled the wine and declared it all rotten. They continued to search the basement and found a bunch of rotten books, plus a well-preserved book labeled Grimoire of Kel Bormol. They took that, and found some ancient silver pennies, a few scrolls, and a couple of wands.
Going back into the ruins, Vael cast Seek Magic again, which led him to the broken statue of Vul, missing its head and hands. They went back to the tower, used a Teleport Rug to teleport the head to the Beacon, then went back to the statue and carried the head through the Rug and placed it on top of the statue. It fit, but not well, so Vael cast a Repair spell to glue it in place. The spell didn't restore the statue's missing hands, though.
Another Seek Magic led them to an only mostly ruined long house, which smelled foul. Vael used Glass Wall, but it just showed an entry room and more doors. They went in, and eventually ran into some ghouls. Another fight ensued, and all the ghouls died. The ghouls were led by a wight, which also died. They searched the house, took some treasure, and left to escape the smell.
Everyone but Vael went back to the Beacon through a Teleport Rug. Vael picked up the Rug then cast Pol's Recall to teleport himself back to the bridge of the Beacon. Vallium, having spent several hours literally crawling inside a dead dragon trying to remove any valuable parts, was utterly filthy, while the others weren't that much better. Everyone needed a bath, and, not for the first time, regretted that the bridge section of the Beacon lacked the advanced Rudishva bathing facilities they had seen in the Bastion.
GM's Comments:
The Craas battle was pretty interesting, but I didn't think Craas had much of a chance if they used all their resources well, and they did. A fully buffed Vallium just had too many strong Deceptive Attacks for Craas to stop them all for long. His only real chance was to land a lucky and very hard hit on Vallium quickly. Which he almost did, but it was negated by Luck. He used Blink to escape the tower, and Missile Shield to not get shot by Lacrymosa (though meteoric arrows defeated that), and Invisibility to try to hide (though See Invisible defeated that). Craas also had a lot of DR and HP, but Vallium's Penetrating Weapon reduced the DR, and HP don't last forever if you keep getting hit. His fear and terror abilities were defeated by Ioannes's Bravery spell. His poison breath weapon was mostly made moot by the Serpent Amulets. Ultimately, Craas's only chance was probably to Blink out of the tower while he still had full Move and could outrun his persuers, but he wasn't going to surrender his hoard without a fight.
I started off trying to do a blow-by-blow account of the battle to do a decent demonstration of high-powered DFRPG fight, but it was just too many blows and would have taken hours and hours to finish at the level of detail I started with, so it got less detailed as I went. This is probably why you don't see a lot of high-level combat examples.
Achievements:
None
XP:
- Exploration: 4 new locations, 0 XP
- Loot: Lots, probably 2 XP, though as always it depends on what they keep versus sell
- Achievements: 0 XP
- Total: Probably 2 XP
Next Week:
They plan to try to demolish the Tower of Scrutiny, using some combination of GOAT's elephant drops, Shape Earth, pickaxes, and Rudishva devices. They will then try to get GOAT to speak to Tuftwillig the oak tree and explain that Craas is dead and the tower is smashed. They will try to put the hands back on the statue of Vul and figure out what it does. They will also start restoring the statue of Arden, though they don't know where all the parts are yet. They will explore the lake in the ruins some more to see if they missed any entrances, then go back down to the entrance at the base of the waterfall and explore that area more.
