DFRPG Arden Vul Session 72: Shadows

Date:

Tothsday 16th Jelenios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Cool, light rain

Player Characters:

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Lasselanta "Chrysalis" Ashcroft, Half-Elven mercenary martial artist (ArchonShiva)

Significant NPCs:

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist

Kaliyani scout

2 Off-white runny slimes

Rust-colored jelly-like slime

Unknown man with crossbow

Ecath, Varumani lift operator

2 Bestial Varumani lift assistants

Many shadows

Many vorantes demons

Greater vorantes demon

3 skeletal wights

Nalgi, Varumani hunter

The Plan:

• Cast Seeker and Trace on Klibo
• Find and kill the Bad Neighbors
• Search the nearby area

What Happened:

The Right for Riches company hired Chrysalis to help them hunt down the Bad Neighbors, the group that had ambushed them and forced them to flee.

Using a blood samples from Kerbog Khan's blood bank, Vael cast Seeker on Klibo, the alleged leader of the Bad Neighbors.  He saw Klibo and several other people they recognized in a cavern they didn't recognize, as some men in green berets tried to pull a dead body off a meat hook.  He followed up the Seeker with a Trace, so he could home in on Klibo's location.  From the Beacon, Vael felt like Klibo was below him.

From the Beacon, they used the Rudishva teleporter to teleport to the Bastion, off the bottom of the Great Chasm.  Vael felt like Klibo was above him and southeast.  Next they teleported to the Rudishva prison area.  From there, Vael thought Klibo was about the sample level, and southeast.  They teleported again to the Rudishva area where they'd killed the black goo, and Vael said Klibo was down and east. They teleported to the garden island floating in the Great Chasm, and Vael felt Klibo was down and southeast.

After all that teleporting, they decided to just fly down the Chasm.  Vael cast Levitation on himself and Walk on Air on everyone except Vallium (who had his Boots of Levitation) and then the group descended until Vael thought they were on the same level as Klibo.  At that point they started exploring along the edge of the Great Chasm, starting at the southeast.  They found a natural passage into the rock.  There was a sloping passage down, which they felt went too deep, so came back up.  There was a concealed door heading north.  Vael cast Glass Wall and saw a room with some of the small round Vorantes Demons, so they didn't go that way.

Doubling back, they flew up a ledge, where Vael's See Invisible spell spotted a kaliyani hiding on the floor.  He didn't respond to anything they said, except by throwing a javelin at Vael.  Chrysalis parried it.  Vael cast Wall of Lightning around the kaliyani, who tried throwing more javelins through it.  Eventually they tired of the kaliyani and Vael cast Shape Air to blow it through the Wall of Lightning, doing damage.  Vallium then killed it.  They took its fangs, javelins, and silver jewelry.

They went back out to the Great Chasm and kept exploring along the walls, when they were ambushed by three slimes.  Two of them were off-white and running, while the other was rust-colored and jelly-like in consistency.  Vallium killed two of the slimes, Chrysalis killed the other, and they continued exploring the Chasm.  Eventually they found an offshoot of the Chasm to the east, which ended at an arrow slit.  Looking within, Vael spotted a man with a crossbow, looking south through a different arrow slit.  The man didn't look like a Bad Neighbor, so they decided to keep exploring.

They went south and found a landing, with graffiti on the walls.  They read one, which said "The First Adept will

pay for specimens of plants and animals" in Varumani.  They heard conversation in Varumani to the south, and went that way and found the bottom terminus of the Varumani Lifts.  The operator there was named Ecath.  He asked how they got down there without taking the Lift, and they said they flew.  Vael asked if he had seen their "friends" and he said he had not.  They asked him for information, and he said there was an old temple to the north, and they had better bring good lights if they went east.

They went east. down some stairs, and then through a room with columns down the center and raised areas north and south.  The room was brightly lit with orangish Perpetual Light.  The raised areas contained eight circles of rose quartz.  They powered past the room, ignoring the circles.  On the far side, some stairs down led to a statue of Anubis, holding an ebony staff in one hand and a magical golden torch in the other.  Beyond the torch's light, the room beyond was pitch black.  As they approached the darkness, the light from their Continual Light stones didn't penetrate the darkness.  Vael cast Dark Vision on everyone, and then they could see into the darkness.  He then grabbed the torch, which welded itself to his hand.  It was another one of those cursed blacklight torches.  As he took the torch, another one appeared in the statue's hand.

In the darkness they saw some shadows moving around, staying back from the torch.  Vallium readied his Ghost Weapon broadsword, while Ioannes cast Affect Spirits on several other weapons.  Vallium threw the Returning Javelin at a shadow, wounding it.  When the javelin returned, all the shadows fled to the edges of the room.

Deciding they could not just kill all the shadows from range, the group advanced into the darkness.  The shadows charged them.  The blacklight torch in Vael's hand didn't work in the darkness.  A long fight ensued, but the combination of Dark Vision and Affect Spirits negated the shadows' main advantages, and they were defeated.  However, as the last shadowsl, some skeletal wights entered the room from the east, along with some vorantes demons from the south.  The battle continued, and as the wights and demons fell, some more shadows attacked.  Finally, some more of the small vorantes demons poured in, along with one larger vorantes demon.  When those were defeated, the attacks stopped.

Vallium led the group back to the light of the statue to rest and recover.  While they were there, they heard the call of a varumani from the west.  It was Nalgi, one of the hunters, and he was looking for kaliyani.  Vael informed him of the kaliyani scout they had killed to the south, and Nalgi offered to buy the kaliyani's fangs and save them a trip to varumani territory.

After Nalgi went back to the Lift, the group decided to temporarily suspend their search for the Bad Neighbors to search and loot the area.  They didn't find any more enemies.  They did find a dozen rooms, including two secret rooms.  There were a bunch of mundane weapons and armor, a couple of suits of magic armor, a magic broadsword that shocked both Vallium and Vael when they picked it up, a magic crossbow missing its string, a pile of gold coins, a few gems, some potions and scrolls, some rugs and furniture, and an odd book called The Honey Project about raising giant bees.  They also found a Thothian Teleportation Circle, which Vallium found in their book of teleportation circle addresses, so they could return to it.

After thoroughly looting the area, everyone but Vael went through a Teleportation Rug back to the Beacon, then Vael turned off all his spells, picked up the Rug, and cast Pol's Recall to join them.  They had failed to find the Bad Neighbors.  However, they had found, cleared, and looted a new area.

GM's Comments:

I think this combat had the most groups of reinforcements since the PCs took down the Forum of Set.  It's amusing when the players think they're about to win, but then it's time for More Shadows.  It wasn't that hard a combat, though, because of the ability to spam Dark Vision and Affect Spirits.  Without those spells, it would have been brutal.  (But the shadows didn't want to get too close to the statue, so retreat would have been an option.)

The way I interpret the Trace spell, it gives a direction but not a distance.  So it helps a lot to find someone, but doesn't make it completely trivial, if the local terrain is complicated enough.

Achievements:

None

XP:

• Exploration: 21 new locations, 2 XP
• Loot: A decent amount, 1-2 XP depending on how much they sell
• Achievements: 0 XP
• Total: 3-4 XP

Next Week:

No game; GM on vacation.

In Two Weeks:

They're planning to resume their pursuit of the Bad Neighbors.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 71: Exploring the Rudishva Teleportation Network

Date:

Tothsday 9th Jelenios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Cool, mostly sunny

Player Characters:

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Significant NPCs:

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist

Rudishva dust ionizer

Black goo creature

2 black goo skeletons

Several chasm cephalopods

Stone nataraja

2 Rudishva point defense arrays

Several heqeti slime zombies

Many baindara

2 giant rudishva skeletons

2 wraiths

Ghost of Paimu the Chanter

Fire nataraja

Many goblins

Ichthelon, Ptoh-Ristus of Thoth

Remagis, priest of Thoth

2 Guardians of Thoth

Many ogre guards

Many varumani

Otyugh

The Plan:

• Explore as much as possible of the Rudishva teleportation network
• Search for non-Rudishva loot

What Happened:

Uvash had church business.  The rest of the Right for Riches company decided to explore the Rudishva teleporters.  Vallium compiled their maps and noted teleporters that they had not yet taken.

First they used the teleporter from the Beacon to the Bastion.  They used Salamander Amulets to bypass the fire trap, then recovered the dust ionizer bot, which they had brought to the Bastion to charge.  They also brought a palm-locked chest to try opening it with the hands of Rudishva corpses in the Bastion, but this failed.

Next, they took the eastern teleporter in the Bastion, which took them to a teleport nook near the a prison facility.  They went through the other teleporter there, which led to a previously unexplored area full of destroyed Rudishva technology.  While there, a creature made of black goo animated two skeletons with some of its goo, then both the primary blob of goo and its two skeletons attacked.  Vallium stabbed them a lot, while Vael lobbed Magical Bolts from a wand at them, until they were destroyed.

Ioannes and Vael searched a large pile of debris nearby and found several minor treasures and Rudishva artifacts, while Vallium stood guard, facing a nearby small chasm.  Some chasm cephalopods rushed Vallium from the chasm, but he was alert, and rushed forward to stab the largest one.  This knocked it out and caused it to fall into the chasm, and then all the smaller cephalopods fled.  Vallium Levitated back up using his magic boots.  When Vael and Ioannes declared that they were done searching, they all flew across the chasm, and on the western side of the chasm found some stairs leading up.  They led to an iris door.

When Vael opened the door using his yellow Rudishva identity plaque, a stone nataraja on the other side jumped at them, ignoring the plaque, and attacked Vael with its scimitar.  Vael Blinked away, while Vallium chopped it to bits.  On the far side of the door was a Rudishva room containing a Nutri-vore food dispenser, a couple of non-functional entertainment consoles, and a Rudishva board game.  They grabbed some Desert Avian Flavored nutrient cakes from the Nutri-vore, then explored the rest of the complex.  There were five more rooms.  One was a laboratory, with some destroyed consoles and some intact futuristic lab equipment.  One was a bedroom, with a video recorder and a few data crystals.  One of the crystals indicated that they had found the correct chemical reaction to fuel a shuttle for interstellar flight.  One was a bunkroom, with a couple of bulky green sealed suits.  One was a control room, with a destroyed console, some Rudishva and Kaliyani bodies, and some kind of one-person high-tech vehicle with skis mounted on brackets to the wall.  Vallium was able to lift the vehicle, and carried it through a Teleport Rug back to the beacon.  The final room was an entry corridor with a couple of point defense arrays.  They tracked the group but did not fire.  Vallium cautiously backed out of the room, drank a Potion of Fire Resistance, put on his Amulet of Missile Shield, then entered the room alone.  The arrays fired many small projectiles at him, which all missed thanks to the amulet.  Vael then saw the arrays on his Command Bracelet, and told them to stand down.  He then reprogrammed them to not fire at anyone holding a Rudishva identity plaque.  There were some stairs out of the entry corridor, but they decided not to go that way.

With the Rudishva area explored and looted, they went back down the stairs.  They took another set of stairs up, which led to an area they had explored, near the Rudishva Cloister.  They went back down and took the last teleporter in the area, which led to a dark room containing two teleporters and an iris door.  They opened the iris door and found that they were on a floating island in the center of the Great Chasm.  There were a few of the baindara (small creatures that looked like a cross between monkeys and flying squirrels).  A couple of the other hills on the island also had iris doors.

They opened the northern one and entered a Rudishva room and were immediately attacked by some slime zombies.  After dispatching the zombies with sword and fire, they removed a few Rudishva artifacts from the room, and found that one of the consoles still worked.  It showed an image of an underground ziggarut, with several creatures that looked like heqeti moving on it.  Some Rudishva glyphs on the screen gave a direction and distance reading.  With Akla-Chah's help, they were able to translate it to about 100 yards south-southwest.

They opened the southern door and found another Rudishva room, this one with no zombies or working consoles, just a few minor Rudishva items to take.  They went back to the central hill and went through the other teleporter.  It led to a Rudishva room with two teleporters and a pool full of sparkly opalescent liquid.  Nearby was an iris door.  Vael opened it with the yellow Rudishva identity plaque.  Inside were two giant Rudishva skeletons on stone thrones, who whirled and barked a challenge.  Vael brandished the yellow ID at them, while Vallium and Ioannes showed them silver IDs.  The skeletons sat back down.  On the far side of the skeletons was a large vertical shaft.  Having seen a Rudishva video describing the transit shaft, Vael explained that you needed to fully coat and object in the sparkly liquid from the fountain, and then it could levitate up and down in the shaft.  Vael submerged himself in the fountain then dove into the shaft, with his Levitation spell ready in case the video lied.  He was able to Levitate without his spell.  Ioannes then also covered himself with the liquid.  Vallium declined and said he preferred his Levitation Boots.  All three levitated up to the top of the shaft.

The room at the top contained another fountain full of the sparkly liquid, plus iris doors west and southwest.  They chose the west door.  After opening it, they saw the desiccated corpses of three men in Thothian robes on the floor.  They also saw two wraiths rushing to attack them, while a ghost yelled in Mithric to run away from the wraiths.  Vallium fast-drew his new Ghost Weapon sword and started hacking the closer wraith.  Both wraiths used their ranged Drink Life attack on Vael, and failed to damage him.  They switched targets to Vallium, and mostly failed to hurt him as well.  Vallium started taunting the wraiths to attack him instead, as he thought he had the best resistance.  Vallium kept chasing the first wraith, which kept dodging him, until he got one good hit in and slowed it, then it didn't last much longer.  The second wraith was similar, except Ioannes came up to help, and the surrounded wraith could no longer retreat.  When both wraiths were destroyed, the ghost thanked them for their help.  He said the three of them had been priests of Thoth, but in death the others had become evil wraiths, while he had been cursed to haunt the hallway until his ring was taken to the Temple of Thoth.  He pointed to his corpse and asked the group to take his ring.  They did, and also looted the other corpses.

From there they visited a couple of storage closets and took a few items.  They also found the Rudishva forge that Vael had seen a video about, and looked at a lot of lava, but didn't try to manipulate any controls.  They continued west to the fire nataraja, which was dismissed when Vael waved his yellow identity plaque at it.  They stepped through the hole into the transport nexus room and took the teleporter that led to the Cloister.  From there they took the well-known path past the slime pit, through a hole in the ceiling up to the Temple of Set, then over to the Temple of Thoth.  There they gave the ghost's ring to Ichthelon, who told Remagis to hold onto it for him.

With the ghost's task complete, Vallium suggested going to the Varumani level to get a reward for all the kaliyani fangs they'd just found.  They went east past the Glory of Weskenim to the room with the Thothian teleportation circle, then used the correct sequence of glass activation tiles to teleport to the former vampire lair.  From there they went southeast through the Varumani caves to the Varumani court.  One of the ogre guards checked their passport.  They spoke with a Varumani courtier, who said that Trijax, the overseer of the Varumani Lifts, could take the fangs and give them their reward.  They went over to the lift and showed the fangs to Trijax.  He said he didn't quite have enough gold on him for 32 fangs, but sent an ogre running to another part of the complex to get more.  The ogre returned a few minutes later with a pouch containing the rest of their reward.

They Levitated off the Varumani Lift platform into the Great Chasm, exploring southeast.  Vael's See Secrets spell spotted a concealed door on the edge of the Chasm.  This led to a rough passage, ending in a secret door.  Opening it, they reached the quarters of the Varumani Hunters.  Several hunters confronted them.  Surprisingly, the hunters forgave their trespassing and apologized for not being allowed to hunt kaliyani near the Goblin Forum, due to the Thegn's new peace treaty with the goblins.

They left the hunter's room and went back to the Chasm, and contined exploring east.  They found another cave leading south off the Chasm.  The cave smelled awful.  While they were complaining about the smell, a many-tentacled creature dropped from the ceiling and ambushed Ioannes from behind.  Fortunately for Ioannes, its attack failed to penetrate his armor.  Ioannes yelled and healed himself, while Vallium whirled around and stabbed the creature to death.  Ioannes thought it was an otyugh.  Vallium decided to dissect it in case it had any valuables inside, but it smelled even worse on the inside, and he eventually agreed it wasn't worth it.

Vael didn't want to put their Teleport Rug on the disgusting floor of the cave, so he used a Create Fire spell to scorch a section of the floor with fire for a few minutes, and a Purify Air spell to clear the air.  After the floor cooled enough to not set their Rug on fire, they put the Rug there.  Vael picked up the Rug and cast Pol's Recall to teleport back to the Beacon.  After arriving at the Beacon, he tried a Seeker spell to find the legendary dwarf Zhorek, but the spell failed.

GM's Comments:

That was a lot of exploration.  They went through several unexplored teleporters, explored several new areas, and made some new connections on their map.

Achievements:

None

XP:

• Exploration: 25 new locations, 2 XP
• Loot: A lot of Rudishva stuff, which they don't like to sell.  A few other things.  1 XP
• Achievements: 0 XP
• Total: 3 XP

Next Week:

They plan to go after the Bad Neighbors.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 70: Shopping in Archontos

Date:

Tothsday 2nd Jelenios, 2994 AE

Weather (Gosterwick):

Cool, overcast

Weather (Archontos):

Cool, rainy

Player Characters:

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Significant NPCs:

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist

Stone Nataraja

Basil Choumnos, Castellan of Pol

Several librarians and clerks at the Royal Library

Many Imperial Guards

Cosmas, mapmaker

Niketas, guide

Baris, half-elven magic seller

Tychios, weapons and armor seller

Leto, shoemaker

Hypatia, alchemist

Bellicus, professor, College of Macrina

Baldwin Greenore, dwarven priest of Zodarrim

Craster, dwarven metal worker

The Plan:

• Go to the Tower of Pol in the Drowned Canyon
• Give a Longevity Potion for Basil Choumnos for the use of his gate to Archontos
• Explore Archontos and go shopping
• Use a Bead of Rescue to teleport to Narsileon and get a reward for Kerbog Khan's head
• Return using the Mirror of Life Trapping and the Pol's Recall spell

What Happened:

Everyone gathered at the Beacon, then went through the Rudishva teleporter to the Secure Vault.  From there they took the teleporter to near the Engine Room.  Vael brandished the yellow Rudishva identify plaque to keep the Stone Nataraja from attacking, and they went north through the engine room they west through the former vampire lair.  Vael cast Levitation on himself and Walk on Air on the others so they could all cross the small chasm, leading to a passage down to near the Tower of Pol.

As they neared the Tower, Vael sent a Message spell to Basil Choumnos telling him they were nearby.  They dropped a Teleport Rug and took turns going back to the Beacon and changing into their travelling gear, leaving anything they didn't want to bring to Archontos.  When properly equipped, they went down to the cavern near the Tower of Pol.  Choumnos was on the roof, and yelled down, asking if everyone was able to fly up.  They were.  Vallium gave Choumnos the agreed Potion of Longevity.  Choumnos magically opened the trap door into the tower, then led everyone down the stairs to the level with the gates.  He pointed at the southeastern gate and said that one led to Archontos.  He handed Vael two books and asked him to return them to the Royal Library.  He said that if the librarians gave him a hard time, to just say he found them, but if the librarians were happy to have them returned, he should say they were being returned by Basil the Wizard, his "library name."

Vael used a Scry Gate, but the other side was featureless, with no differences in heat discernable with infravision.  They went on through, entering a dark basement.  Vael cast The Bracteros Effect on his Continual Light rock to make it less noticable.  They searched until Uvash found some a door.  Vael used Glass Door to look through it, and saw stairs up.  They went up, Vael used Glass Wall again, and found another basement room, holding some boxes of rotten old books and some cleaning supplies.  They went in, then up some more stairs to another door.  Glass Wall on that one revealed a better-lit room with library stacks.  Vael cast Invisibility on everyone, then they all snuck in.

They walked around the library for a while, all holding hands because they couldn't see each other and didn't want to make noise.  After finding the front entrance and information desk, they went back to an empty area and formulated a plan.  Vael would dismiss the Invisibility on the others and they would just act like library patrons, asking questions and reading books.  Meanwhile Vael would try to sneak out invisibly, holding the Mirror of Life Trapping that he didn't want anyone to see.

The first part of the plan worked.  Uvash and Ioannes asked questions about various books and got shown to the right part of the stacks.  Vallium said he needed to step out for some air, and opened the door for Vael.  Once outside, Vael and Valllium headed for the bridge connecting the island that was the Emperor's Palace to the main city.

There was a guard gate before the bridge, and at first the guards just watched Vallium with routine boredom.  But then a guard wizard came running up, blowing a whistle and yelling "invisible!"  Suddenly about a dozen guards appeared, surrounding Vallium and (still invisible) Vael.  Realizing he was caught, Vael dispelled his invisibility and started apologizing.  He was just carrying this mirror and didn't want to get in trouble, but it was his, not stolen or anything.  Also it was magical and dangerous and if he removed the sheet covering it, someone might get hurt.  The guard sergeant summoned an officer, who asked more questions, but eventually they let Vael and Vallium go.  They went across the bridge, through another gatehouse, then asked a guard where a hotel was.  He pointed to a nearby building and said "that's the Golden Horn, if they let you in."

Vael and Vallium went to the Golden Horn, a very ornate building featuring a lot of marble and glass.  When they entered, a snooty clerk asked who they were and if they were representing someone better.  They were not.  He informed them that no rooms were currently available, but he could recommend another hotel.  He gave them directions to the Hippo House, two fora east then a bit north, near the Arena of Ferricus, funny animal on the sign.

Vallium and Vael walked through the city following the directions to the Hippo House.  Vael indicated that they needed a room for four people with good security.  The clerk recommended the Imperial Suite on the top floor, at a rather high price, but said they could only have it for three days as it was reserved afterward.  Vael agreed and dropped a bunch of platinum coins on the desk.  They went up to their room, where Vael set down the huge mirror and then sent a Message spell to Ioannes telling him where they were.  He tried contacting Basil on the Rudishva command bracelet, but got no answer.

Ioannes and Uvash finished their reading and followed the directions over to the Hippo House.  The group went downstairs and asked the clerk if a guide was available.  He said he would contact one for them.  A bit later, an older man named Cosmas came in.  He said he was a mapmaker and could sell them maps of the city, if they agreed not to resell them or make copies.  Or he could provide the services of one of his sons as a tour guide.  (Cosmas regretted that he was no longer a fast enough walker to make a very good tour guide.)  Vael indicated that he would like both a map and a tour guide.  Cosmas asked if he wanted a fancy map suitable for framing, like the one that he had given to the Emperor, or a plain paper map that he didn't mind getting rain on.  Vael said he would take one of each.  Cosmas thanked Vael for his purchase and said that his son the tour guide would arrive in a few minutes with his maps.

The tour guide was named Niketas.  He said that he knew every part of the city and would take them wherever they wanted to go.  What did they want to see?  A discussion ensued, but they mostly wanted to go shopping.  They wanted a magic item store, a shoe store, an alchemist, a fish market, and a source of seagull feathers.  Niketas led them through the wide streets and narrow alleys while pointing at various buildings.

At the shop of Baris, a half-elven magic broker, they found a Ring of Free Action and a Ghost Weapon broadsword,  They paid cash for both, as they didn't like the price Baris offered for the magic shortsword and sling they wanted to trade.  Baris gave them a tip that they might find a magic belt at the shop of Tychios.

At the shop of Tychios, they indeed found a magic belt, a huge gaudy Belt of the Ogre that fit both Vallium and Uvash.  He also had some dwarf-sized magic scale armor, but it wasn't light enough for Uvash's taste.  Once again, they paid cash as Tychois didn't offer enough for their items.

At the shop of Leto, a humble working-class shoemaker, Ioannes found a pair of shoes for his girlfriend Pelteon.  Leto then talked him up to three pairs.

Niketas took them over to the Galeta Grand Harbor and Fish Market, where there were a lot of seagulls.  He said he could find them some feathers, or a whole seagull if they preferred.  They bought some salted fish snacks, and a fishmonger told them that if they wanted the freshest fish they should buy first thing in the morning when the boats came in.

Eventually they wandered over to the Great Library (different from the Royal Library), and spent most of the rest of the day doing research.  Vael researched Vul and the Bridge of Wisdom and found something about supplicants spending three days on the bridge reciting Vul's Insight every quarter hour, but failed to find the words to Vul's Insight.  Uvash researched Zhorak and his Forge and found that the great smith Zhorak had indeed moved to the human city of Arden Vul and established his Forge there, for some dumb reason, and had never returned to dwarven civilization, so he was presumed to have died there.  Ioannes researched bringing dead constructs back to life, and found that it was not possible.  Vallium looked up the Ligareon family, and found that they were one of the Five Families of the Empire, and that they had an estate here in Archontos.

As sunset neared, a clerk carried a sign around saying that the Library would close soon.  Vael used the Copy spell to copy a few pages from books, then they left and went back toward their hotel.  Niketas asked if they were ready for bed or wanted any evening entertainment.  They decided to watch the Arena show.  Tickets were sold out, but Niketas said the Hippo House probably had some for guests, and was correct.  Their tickets in an upper-middle-class box let them see three different bouts.

The first was two teams of gladiators, red versus green, in a fight to the third serious wound.  Eventually the third green gladiator went down, red was declared the winner, and red- and green-robed healers ran out to treat the wounded.

The second bout was one blue-clad gladiator against six large wild cats.  He easily and showily defeated all of them.

The final fight was Braticles, the champion of the purple team and the number three ranked gladiator in the whole arena, against a dozen captured bandits, in a trial by combat.  Any bandits who defeated Braticles would be declared innocent of their crimes by the gods, and released.  Braticles dispatched three of the bandits at range with javelins, then closed in and killed the rest with his spear, then his sword.  Guilty as charged.

After the fights, the group went back to thier hotel.  Vael sent a Message spell to Basil, then another one to Pelteon for Ioannes.  He used extra mana to make the Messages travel faster, since they were so far from Gosterwick.

The next morning, they met Niketas again after breakfast.  He took them back to Leto's shop to pick up the shoes, then over to the College of Macrina.  The students at the door said that entry before noon required bringing food, so they sent Niketas out to get some food.  A student then took them to Professor Bellicus, who taught a course on constructs.  Bellicus mocked them a lot for being from Narsileon (though they were not actually from there.)  They showed him Kerbog Khan's petrified head, and he pulled out a wanted flier for a rogue wizard named Cerbactos and some stolen highly classified magical books, and told them they could get a reward back in Narsileon for that head and the books.  He opined that the reward would be cows or sheep, though, since that's all there was in Narsileon.  Vael and Ioannes tried to get information about reviving a dead construct, and Bellicus said that was impossible, or at least dangerous and illegal, because dead constructs tended to go crazy and kill people if revived.  It was better to start over and make a new one.  They talked about the Emperor's re-acquisition of the book The Art of Becoming (found by the Archon of Narsileon, after it was given to him by some minor noblewoman, after it was given to her by some goblin, who presumably found it under a sheep) and the possibility that the Emperor might hire the College to make Imperial Stone Guardians for him.

Giving up on Bellicus, they went over to Dwarftown, where Vael managed to eat some spicy mushrooms and drink the chunky beer without obvious stomach upset, impressing the dwarves.  Uvash talked to Priest Baldwin in the Temple of Zodirrim, who referred him to a metal worker named Craster, who Uvash hired to make a bronze statue for his future temple.  Vael went looking for a trap-finding kit but offended a dwarf with limited comprehension of Archontean, who told him to stay away from his daughter.

They went back to the fish market, where Niketas gathered large numbers of seagull feathers like his tip depended on it, while Ioannes bought a large piece of a huge tuna.  They went to Hypatia the Alchemist and purchased recipes for a couple of potions, while dropping off three more potions for her to attempt to reverse-engineer.

Finally they went back to the Hippo House, paid Niketas, and went up to their room.  Everyone but Vael stripped down and put all their clothing and gear into their various magical bags, then looked at the Mirror of Life Trapping until they were sucked inside.  Vael picked up all the bags and the Mirror, then, while straining under the weight, cast Pol's Recall, and was teleported back to the bridge of the Beacon.  He released everyone from the mirror, as Basil burst onto the bridge, brandishing a laser rifle and reminding them to call him on the communication bracelet before teleporting in, to avoid scaring Akla-Chah.

Vael cast a Seeker spell, looking for the corpse of Zhorak, but didn't get a hit.

GM's Comments:

That was an exhausting session.  Mostly improvising a city for four hours is much harder than running a detailed megadungeon.

Despite it being a mostly safe trip, Vael almost managed to get himself in deep trouble by trying to invisibly sneak past Imperial Guards.  He was saved by some very good die rolls.  

Achievements:

None

XP:

• Exploration: 0 XP (Being led around a peaceful city by a tour guide doesn't count)
• Loot: 0 XP (Shopping doesn't count)
• Achievements: 0 XP
• Total: 0 XP

Next Week:

They're planning to explore more of the Rudishva teleporter network.

Exploration XP Complexity

As any economist will tell you, people respond to rewards.  So reward the behavior you want.  As a game designer or GM, XP are one of the primary rewards, so you should carefully choose what to award them for.  Don't want people murdering baby kobolds?  Then don't give XP for murdering baby kobolds.  Don't want murderhobo behavior in general?  Don't give XP for killing anything.  Don't want loot goblins?  Don't give XP for treasure.  Want PCs to explore more?  Give XP for exploration.  Want them to solve your precious little story quests rather than thinking up goals for themselves?  Only give XP for solving your quests, nothing else.  (Train whistle sound effect.)

(There is, as always, a tradeoff between not railroading and not letting the campaign devolve into "let's do nothing and get free XP."  Ask any manager who let their employees set their own goals, there's always that one guy with the goal of doing no work and getting promoted for it.  So you have to have some standards for what's XP-worthy, to keep the game interesting.  In DF Whiterock I got kinda lazy and just handed out fixed XP for showing up, and the players responded by exploring as slowly as possible and never taking a risk and then getting overpowered for the level they were on to the point where the dungeon was no longer a challenge and then whining when I reduced XP awards.  So, again, award XP to encourage the behavior you want, but in a way that hopefully intersects with behavior the players are also okay with.)

Exploration XP is pretty popular among both players and GMs.  Players like to explore (though perhaps maybe not as boldly as the GM would like), and GMs want players to actually engage with more of the adventure, so it's a win for everyone.  In DFRPG Arden Vul it's one of the two main sources of XP, along with loot.  (Yes, my players are loot goblins.  You should see their spreadsheet.)  Exploration XP is easier to calculate than loot XP though.  You just decide on what counts as a new location, what counts as exploring, and then count how many new locations they explored each session, and then give the appropriate amount of XP for that number of locations.

GURPS/DFRPG has "big" XP, where 1 XP is enough to buy one level in a new skill.  Improving a skill may take up to 4 XP, and buying a new advantage might be 5 or 10 or 15 or even more.  But contrast with games with "small" XP where you need thousands of XP to "level up" and get a prefab pile of bonuses.  So, basically, I'm awarding 1 or 2 XP at a time, not hundreds or thousands.  Human-scale, not pinball-score-scale.

Here's the chart I've been using for DFRPG Arden Vul:

New locations	XP
0-4	0
5-19	1
20+	2

Pretty simple.  The first question is what counts as a location.  I've mostly just deferred to the Arden Vul adventure.  The adventure has keyed room locations, so I use those.  Sometimes there are edge cases, like there might be a 1-1A and a 1-1B right on top of each other and I might decide that together they only count as one location.  But for the most part, the locations on the map are the locations I track.  And I use the actual room numbers from the adventure rather than adding my own set of labels.

The second question is what counts as exploration.  This is trickier.  If the PCs merely glimpse the location from far away (like with scrying), that's not good enough.  I've seen Los Angeles on TV many times, but I've never actually been to LA.  No XP for me.  So the first threshold is that they need to actually personally enter the location.  No crystal balls, no Wizard Eyes, no possessed scout bats.  (Those are all useful for gathering information, but they don't count for XP.)

Now, does just running through count?  I've changed planes in Detroit Airport, but does that mean I've actually been to Detroit?  I think not.  And I'm not talking about technicalities of whether the airport is actually within city limits.  I mean, if you've only seen the inside of the airport, you haven't actually seen enough of the city to tell it apart from the hundreds of other cities with large airports.  Exploration means actually exploring an area, not just sticking a toe into it.  You should have heard the full room description and probably interacted with most of the interesting things in the room.

Now, some rooms are just barren, so no matter how much you interact with them you don't get much.  There aren't a lot of those in Arden Vul; modern dungeon design (even modern dungeon design for ancient games like AD&D 1E) discourages too many empty rooms.  If you've found whatever there is to find, sure, you've explored enough.

On the other hand, some rooms are complicated.  They contain monsters and treasure and secrets and features to interact with.  Do you have to completely experience everything in the room to have explored it?  I don't think so.  But you need to have at least interacted with the room a reasonable amount.  Maybe you haven't fully solved the 13 clocks puzzle, but you need to have at least noticed that there were 13 clocks.  If you were too busy fleeing from rabid weasels to see the clocks, you haven't actually explored that room yet.  Come back later after you've had your shots.

Finally, I'll mention long-term tracking of explored rooms over the course of a long campaign.  A feature of a megadungeon is that PCs tend to revisit the same areas over and over.  But you don't want to credit them for exploring the same room more than once, or they'll notice and stop exploring and start hiking back and forth over safe territory for XP instead.  As the PCs explore, I note each room they explore in a text file, along with other notes like who they meet or what they take.  I have a simple Python script containing a dictionary of session number to set of room numbers explored, and after each session I update the dictionary with the explored locations for that session.  Something like:

"s1": {

        "EX-2",

        "EX-8",

        "EX-9",

        "EX-10",

        "AV-1",

        "AV-5",

        "AV-6",

        "AV-7",

        "AV-8",

        "AV-14",

        "AV-15",

        "TS-12",

        "TS-13",

    },

So in session 1 ("s1"), the PCs explored 13 locations, good for 1 exploration XP.

The value of using code for this rather than just tracking on a piece of paper is that the script puts all the previously explored rooms into a set, to avoid double counting.  So if they visit TS-12 again in session 45 and I've forgotten they've already explored it, the script should avoid giving double credit for the location.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 69: Clearing the Path to the Forum

Date:

Tothsday 25th Ligarios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Warm, mostly sunny

Player Characters:

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Lasselanta "Chrysalis" Ashcroft, Half-Elven mercenary martial artist (ArchonShiva)

Significant NPCs:

Mariposa, Chyrsalis's monkey familiar

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist

Many goblins

2 Guardians of Thoth

Ichthelon, mummy high priest of Thoth

Remagis, priest of Thoth

Bottleneck, goblin sergeant

Killik, goblin chief

4 stone constructs

Many varumani

Many ogre guards

Sir Prudence, Sun-Scarred Knight

Livod, varumani hunter

Palestrim, goblin majordomo

Weskenim, King of the United Goblin Tribes

Gribble, goblin prince

Several chasm cephalopods

Many shadows

Roger the Rapier, leader of the Five Fingers of Destiny adventuring party

Lucrotus, Jenks, Tressa, Adelrod, Hixonius: Five Fingers of Destiny adventurers

2 flesh golems

4 giant boring beetles

The Plan:

• Meet with the Varumani Hunters
• Bring the Varumani Hunters to hunt the kaliyani near the Forum of Set

What Happened:

Vael was late and the others got tired of waiting for him, so Ioannes grabbed the yellow Rudishva identity plaque and they took the Rudishva teleporter from the Beacon down to the Secure Vault, then walked over to the Cloister and then through the secret door to the hole in the ceiling.  There, they remembered that not all of them could fly.  At that point Vael sent a Message spell saying that he was in the Beacon and asking why they left without him.  They dropped a Teleport Rug so Vael could join them, and he cast Levitation on himself and Walk on Air on Ioannes and Uvash, and Chrysalis went through the Rug to grab the Levitation Boots that Vallium had left in the Beacon.  (Basil apologized for not having gotten around to cleaning them, so they still smelled like Vallium's feet.)

With flight enabled, everyone flew up the hole to the Dripping Chamber near the Temple of Set, then over to the Temple of Set, then Vael guided them south and east to the Temple of Thoth.  As they entered the temple, the two Guardians of Thoth started stirring, but before the Right for Riches company could even pull out their Thothian holy symbols, Ichthelon the High Priest waved at the Guardians and they went back to their niches.  Vael and Ioannes had a brief disucssion with Ichthelon, then went south and east to the Glory of Weskenim.

Bottleneck spotted them in the Glory of Weskenim and approached with questions.  He had heard that Craastonistorex was dead, but rumors had attributed the slaying to both Right for Riches and Dalton's Darlings.  Which was true?  Vael assured Bottleneck that they had killed the dragon, while Ioannes was laughing too hard to get his insults about Dalton's Darlings straight.

The group continued east through the portcullis then south over the barricade, then down the sloping passage to the Wet Caves.  There they met Killik, who told them about a new treaty between King Weskenim and the Varumani, and mentioned that King Weskenim had gotten married, again.  He also reminded them that if they were going to the Sundered Span, they should not dawdle in the room with the statues.

They went north to the statue room, then east across the Sundered Span, then past the suspiciously high quality statue of a varumani to the upper Varumani Lifts.  There the operator told them that it was 10 silver per leg to go down, and they each had 2 legs, so 100 silver total.  Chrysalis said that her monkey actually didn't have any legs; they were all arms.  Mariposa helpfully picked up cloaks in all four of her limbs to demonstrate that all were equally dextrous.  Vael, having recently read Spindledor's classic anatomy text Locomotion in Animals and Humanoids, piled on with some magesplaining about the technical distinction between arms and legs.  The varumani relented and said the legless monkey could travel for free and it would be 80 silver for the other four.

When the Lift reached the level below, they paid another 40 silver for the Lift across to the west side of the Great Chasm, then 40 more silver for the Lift down to the Varumani level.  There Vael complained to the operator that the guy two levels up had overcharged them.  He then asked for the best way to reach the Varumani Hunters.  The supervisor said the hunters lived in a restricted area, but, if they had a passport, he could sent a messenger to ask the hunters to meet them in the Court of the Thegn.  Vael showed their passport, and the lift supervisor sent one of the ogre guards through the door to the south.

The company went west into the Court of the Thegn, and started a conversation with the Sun-Scarred Knight Sir Prudence.  A varumani interrupted their conversation and said he was Livod the hunter.  Vael explained that they were here to hunt kaliyani.  Livod said that sounded fun and asked where the kaliyani were.  Vael said they were near the Goblin Forum, and Livod said that, due to the new peace treaty with the goblins, varumani could no longer visit the Goblin Forum.  Vael said that he would talk to King Weskenim about that, then send a Message spell to Livod.  Vael sent a Message spell to Palestrum, saying that they were on their way to Goblintown and would like an audience with King Weskenim.

The group went back up the Lifts, then down from the Wet Caves to Goblintown, then over to the Goblin Court.  Palestrim was sitting in his chair in front of the Royal Quarters, and asked how Vael had put his voice in his head, and how one could stop that from happening in the future if it got annoying.  Vael said it was a Message spell, and he didn't know of a countermeasure, and asked if any of the goblin wizards knew it.  Palestrim said he wasn't sure but nobody had ever used that spell on him before, and while he could see its uses, it was also terrifying.  He said that the King had granted them an audience, and opened the door.

King Weskenim was waiting, and said he had heard rumors about the death of the dragon, and wondered if Right for Riches had killed it, or if it had been Five Fingers of Destiny.  Ioannes almost fell over on the floor laughing at the idea of Five Fingers of Destiny killing the dragon, and started repeating line items of all the tribute they had paid, without even needing to pull out the dragon's ledger.  Vael interrupted Ioannes's gloating to ask about the new peace treaty, and tried to get permission for Livod the hunter to peacefully transit the Forum on the way to kill some kaliyani.  The King said that, while he might work out a passport system in the future to allow varumani to visit the Forum, he didn't want to allow exceptions yet, because he wanted to make sure the varumani took the terms of the treaty seriously.  Vael failed to change the King's mind on this.  Changing the subject, Vael handed Weskenim a very large and gaudy piece of jewelry, and said this was a gift for the Queen, and also they would like permission to commission a map from Royal Artist Temrin.  Weskenim said that if the Queen liked the jewelry, perhaps Temrin could take a short break from updating all the Official Harem Portraits with his newest wife to do a map.

After leaving the Royal Quarters, Vael sent a Message spell to Livod saying sorry, King Weskenim would not budge.  The group then conferred and decided not to hunt kaliyani today.  Instead, they would go to the Goblin Forum then work their way south to the basket on the cliff face, trying to ensure a safe path for commerce.  The group walked back up to the Wet Caves, then back up to the Glory of Weskenim, then back west to the Temple of Set, then down the stairs to the Forum.  After a brief conversation with Gribble, they headed south.

While they crossed the Bridge of Set, a large group of chasm cephalopods rose up from the chasm to ambush them.  Vael cast Pummeling fists of Arak-Zhorr on the cephalopods, doing serious damage.  Chrysalis lashed out with her staff a couple of times, knocking a couple of the closer cephalopods out of the sky and sending them tumbling down.  That was enough to make the others flee.

They continued south, where Ioannes, who had a See Secrets spell up, spotted a secret door to the west.  Vael figured out how to open it, then magically unlocked it with a Lockmaster spell.  Behind the secret door was a spiral stairway, which went up about 600 feet.  At the top was another door, this one heavy and metal.  It was also locked.  Vael cast Lockmaster, and as the lock started opening, a strong stream of water came out.  Vael quickly indicated that nobody should open the door, and cast Lockmaster again to re-lock it.  They went back down the stairs.  At the bottom, Vael wrote in chalk "Door above dangerous do not go."

As they came back out the secret door, and Vael re-locked it, Ioannes spotted another secret door to the east.  This one was not locked, and opened when Vael kicked the correct brick, at floor level on the right.  It led to a featureless ten-foot-square room.  Vael and Ioannes, both with See Secrets spells, raced to find the secret door that had to be there, and both pointed at it simultaneously.  Vael again found which brick to kick to open it (it was the same design as the previous door, but the lever-brick was to the left).  Uvash led them through the secret door.  Some stairs down to the south led into some kind of small temple, where at least a dozen shadows were stirring and starting to rush toward them.  Uvash screamed a warning, unfortunately in Dwarvish.  The gist was understood, and Vael cast Wall of Lightning across the top of the stairs, to keep the shadows off them while they retreated.  There was another door to the east, though, so with the shadows contained behind the lightning, they decided to explore it.

On the other side of the door were some stairs down leading to a cave-in, but Ioannes discovered another secret door on the south wall.  Vael figured out how to open it, and it led down some narrow stairs to a room, containing a smal wooden table.  On the table was a bowl of liquid metal, with a couple of eyeballs floating in it.  Vael had seen this item before: the Eyes of Pol, which were connected to Pol's Book of Scrying, which had once ripped his eyes out.  He dropped a Teleport Rug on the floor and carried the Eyes of Pol through to the Beacon, then returned.

When he got back, Ioannes was pointing at yet another secret door, on the north wall.  Vael figured out where the hidden switch was an opened it.  This led to a room that they had previously looted, with the sarcophagus that had once contained Ichthelon.  With their maps connected, and not wanting to go back near the shadows, the group went east, then north through a lot of sarcophagi, then west past some once-zombified corpses, until they were back on the main north-south Stair of Commerce.  Ioannes carefully looked for more secret doors the whole way, but didn't spot any.

They went south over the Bridge of Set again, but this time no chasm cephalopods rose to attack them.  They continued south to the room with the soggy Set statues, and heard someone coming.  Everyone tried to hide, then another adventuring party approached from the south.  It was the Five Fingers of Destiny.  Roger the Rapier congratulated them for defeating Craas, and said that he had been formulating a plan to do that himself, but they had beat him to the punch.  Ioannes laughed at him.  Roger asked if they had found a pair of golden Thothian statues of an ibis and a baboon in the hoard.  Vael said no.  Roger wondered if maybe the dragon had traded them for something else.

Saying goodbye to the Five Fingers, they continued south.  Ioannes flew up onto a large rock, that he remembered had had some adventuring gear on top.  It was still there.  They took it all, including a couple of eleven-foot poles.  They kept going south until they reached the cliff face.  The basket and its long ropes were still there.  They then worked their way east, looking for any more threats to commerce.  They heard some rats, but didn't see them.  They found an ancient corpse wearing damaged Imperial Field Plate armor, which they took.  Finally, they spotted a hole in the floor, which they had never explored before.  Holding a Continual Light rock next to the hole revealed that there was a large room, about 30 feet down.

Vael cast Wizard Eye, and they sent the eye down to explore.  It was dark below and the eye couldn't see anything.  Vael cast Dark Vision, and then the eye could see a large room containing two large fleshy constructs, a golden throne, and several giant beetles nibbling on purple fungus.  One of the constructs noticed the eye and started chasing it, but the eye was faster and outran its pursuer, until it ducked into a small niche on the eastern side of the room, where the large construct would not fit.  Vael dismissed the eye.  The golden throne sounded interesting, so they decided to go down.  Vael cast Invisibility on everybody, and they all Levitated or Air-Walked down into the room.  One of the giant beetles heard or smelled someone, despite their invisibility, and approached them.  Uvash stabbed it with his pick, becoming visible.  This drew the attention of both flesh golems and two more giant beetles.  (The final beetle kept eating purple fungus.)

A battle begun, where everyone attacked Uvash because he was the only one visible, but Chrysalis kept parrying for him.  Uvash got his pick stuck in one beetle, then gave up on it and pulled out his mace.  He used his Divine Might and Divine Grace then started smacking beetles and golems around with his mace.  Chrysalis eventually decided that just parrying for Uvash was boring and used her Uninterrupted Flurry, then started smacking beetles and golems with her staff.  Ioannes and Vael and Mariposa the monkey stayed invisible and let the other two fight.  Vael tried a Great Haste on Uvash, but if failed, and all the opponents were down before his second attempt finished.  The final beetle just ignored them and kept eating purple fungus, so they let it live.

Vael decided that the chair was actually made of gold.  Uvash could just barely lift it by himself, so they put the Teleport Rug on the floor and Uvash picked up the chair and stepped on the Rug and said the command word to take it back to the Beacon.  There was also a skeletal corpse on the floor with a magical headband (with Khumus writing) and a magical backpack (pink, with a unicorn on the back), which they looted.  After searching the room and not finding anything else of interest, they flew back up.

They explored a passage to the northeast, marked by a skull on a spear, with some bone darts shoved into it for good measure.  The See Secrets spell revealed three different pit traps in the passage, which then sloped down to another level.  Vael cast Wizard Eye and Dark Vision and sent the eye down the passage to explore.  It found several caves, one of which contained some kind of amphibian humanoid.  That was enough for Vael to declare that level as a place of future interest, but there wasn't time to explore it today.

They went back north to the Forum.  Greeting Gribble, they said the route to the Cliff Face was mostly clear, and they could show some goblins the way.  Gribble picked a half-dozen goblin guards and told them to follow Vael.  They led them to the basket and back.  One of the goblins said something to Gribble, who announced that the basket looked a bit heavy, so he would ask his brother for a couple of ogres to help lift it up and down.  Vael warned him that there might still be minor dangers like chasm cephaolpods or giant rats, and to stay on the path rather than exploring off to the sides.  Gribble said that maybe they should get some chalk or string to mark the path.  Vael suggested paint.  Gribble went over to the merchants to see if any of them had any paint, but they did not.

Tired from the day's exertions, the group retired to their room across from the Varumani embassy.  They put the Teleport Rug on the floor, everyone but Vael went through, then Vael picked up the Rug and cast Pol's Recall to join them in the Beacon.

GM's Comments:

Vallium's player is their usual navigator, but wasn't there this week.  Vael has Absolute Direction, which means the PC gets navigational hints from the GM even if the players are lost, but he wasn't there at the start of the session, and then his player had limited Foundry access.  So Ioannes was handling party navigation for the first time.  The downside of this is that routing around the map was a bit slower than usual.  The upside was that Ioannes and Vael both had See Secrets spells going, and Ioannes carefully explored around the edges of the map, so they found a bunch of stuff (secret doors, some magic armor, the hole in the floor leading to treasure) that they had missed on multiple previous visits to the area.

Of course some of the stuff they found could have killed them, but it didn't, so it was a successful session.

Also, for any GMs using Foundry, the Crunch My Party! module is great.  I have been manually switching between a single PCs token for map navigation and individual tokens for combat or other scenarios where detailed placement matters.  Crunch My Party! automates this.  You put the included macro in your hotbar and then it's one click to toggle between one PCs token and individual tokens.  Now, the individual token placement is kinda random when you explode the PC token, so you need to give players a bit of a grace period to fix their formation, but otherwise it's exactly what I wanted.

Achievements:

None

XP:

• Exploration: 9 new locations, 1 XP
• Loot: A golden chair and some interesting magic items on a corpse, probably 1 XP
• Achievements: 0 XP
• Total: Probably 2 XP

Next Week:

They plan to borrow Basil Choumnos's teleporter in the Tower of Pol to visit the Imperial capital, Archontos, and go shopping.  From there they plan to use a Bead of Escape to visit Narsileon, the capital of the Exarchate, and try to get the reward for Kerbog Khan's head.  They plan to return to Gosterwick using Vael's Pol's Recall spell, with everyone else riding in a Mirror of Life Trapping.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 68: Ambushed!

Date:

Tothsday 18th Ligarios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Warm, cloudy

Player Characters:

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)

Significant NPCs:

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist

Basil Choumnos, Archontean wizard and Castellan of Pol

Unknown halfling with Rudishva laser rifle

Unknown human cleric with a handlebar mustache

Unknown muscular Wiskin warrior with sword and Rudishva laser rifle

Unknown Khumus spear fighter

Unknown female wizard with purple eye patch

Unknown bald Khumus wizard

Unknown cleric with skeletal face paint 

Unknown warrior with sword and crossbow

Yamki, 3-armed intelligent giant baboon

Many baboons

Ichthelon, mummy high priest of Thoth

Remagis, priest of Thoth

Many goblins

Several chasm cephalopods

Erist Ellagelsson, elf wizard

Sir Prudence, Sun-Scarred Knight

Many ogre guards

Many varumani

Hallar Ellagelsson, half-elf scribe

Verboka, Thegn of the varumani

Hak, varumani brewer

The Plan:

• Take the Arden-vator up to Arden Vul.
• Sing the Song of Arden to the statue of Arden
• Use Scry Gate to look at the Lady's Asylum and see if the snow has melted
• Contact Basil Choumnos via Message spell about using his teleporter.
• Visit Choumnos in person if needed
• Explore the Drowned Canyon

What Happened:

Three members of the Right for Riches company met in Gosterwick.  Uvash had church and no members of the Grudge Brigade were available.  They decided to travel overland from Gosterwick to Arden Vul and try the Arden-vator up the Cliff Face.  They left at dawn, didn't encounter anyone on the way, flew up to the lowered hand of the statue of Arden, and correctly pronounced the command word "Ardensia".  Arden's hand starting grinding upward.  When they reached the level of Arden's head, Vallium Levitated off the hand and tried singing the Song of Arden to the statue, but this had no noticable effect.  He Levitated up after the others.

The group walked through the ruins of Arden Vul looking for any increased traffic after the death of Craas, but didn't really notice a difference.  Vael sent a Message spell to Basil Choumnos, saying they wanted to meet.  Choumnos sent a Message back, nothing that it was important to state that they were only visiting and did not want to challenge him.  They went over to the Thothian teleportation circle in the ruined palace, where Vallium placed the teleportation tiles in the correct order for the Lady's Asylum, and Vael cast Scry Gate.  He saw the Lady's Asylum, but with all the snow and ice melted.

Deciding to re-explore that area with the snow gone, they went through the teleporter.  They started heading up the passage to the north.  Vael, with See Invisible on, noticed an invisible halfling hiding in a side passage, pointing a Rudishva laser rifle at Vallium's head.  He quickly cast Blink Other on Vallium to move him behind the halfling, as the halfling fired the weapon and burned a hole in the wall.  Firing the weapon spoiled the halfling's invisibility, and Vallium fast-drew his sword and attacked -- but the halfling somehow dodged all his blows.  Vael followed up with a Daze spell, which the halfling failed to resist, and he started into space in a stupor.

However, the halfling wasn't alone.  Several of his friends, also invisible, started charging from the north and east.  Vael saw some of them coming.  The others just heard running.  Vael cast See Invisible on Vallium, which let him start fighting, but he was outnumbered.  Not liking the laser rifle, Vallium chugged a Resist Fire potion.  Ioannes moved up to protect Vael.

Vallium eventually crippled the sword arm of a muscular warrior, causing him to drop his sword and attempt to draw and fire a laser rifle one-handed with his left hand.  The Right for Riches company got pushed back.  Vael cast Pummelling Fists of Arak-Zhorr into the east-leading hallway where he thought most of the enemy were, causing some minor damage and destruction and a couple of dropped items.  As the retreat continued, he cast Grease on the floor in the main hallway, slowing the pursuit.  Finally, when Vallium was fighting two warriors and the rest were caught behind by the other spells, Vael cast Wall of Lightning around the two, effectively closing the north-south hallway unless someone was willing to risk lightning damage.

The spearman switched his spear to a long grip and tried stabbling Vallium through the lightning, but didn't connect.  The other fighter dropped his sword and unslung a loaded crossbow from a crossbow sling on his back, then started aiming at Vallium.  Behind the Grease and the Lightning Wall, two wizards started plunking with Magical Bolt, with one of them slightly wounding Ioannes.  The warrior with the laser rifle kept trying one-handed aimed shots, but never managed to do any damage.  Both clerics tried Dispel Magic to get rid of all the spells, but failed.

Eventually, everyone went around the corner to get out of line of sight.  Vael tried reaching into Larel's Sack on Vallium to try to find the Teleport Rug, but the Sack's magical ability to always find the right object didn't work for him.  Vallium reached in, grabbed the Rug, and threw it on the ground behind him.  Vael hopped onto the Rug then activated Larel's Cloak to turn invisible, pretending he'd teleported away.  He then moved back and kneeleed next to the Rug, ready to grab it.  Ioannes ran onto the Rug, said the command word, and teleported to the Beacon.  Vallium teleported out next.  As soon as Vallium was gone, Vael grabbed the Rug, Levitated back a few feet, then cast Pol's Recall to teleport himself to the Beacon.

Back in the Beacon, Ioannes healed himself, then the group discussed the ambush and their options.  It had been eight on three, not great odds, so they decided not to go back to the Lady's Asylum today.  Instead they would go visit Basil Choumnos.  Vallium pulled out his map and found a roundabout route through several teleporters and stairways that would eventually reach the Drowned Canyon.  The trip led through the Rudishva Bastion, so they grabbed the inert Rudishva dust ionizer, planning to drop it off at its charger on the way.  About halfway through the trip, Vallium remembered that today was the day that they needed to feed the baboons per the terms of their treaty, so they should modify their route.

Vael called Basil on the Command Bracelet and asked him to prepare a wheelbarrow full of baboon chow.  They changed their route to teleport to the Well of Light level, and then used a Teleport Rug to go get the wheelbarrow.  They passed the Ruby Chair, and asked Ioannes if he'd found anything about the Ruby Chair in the Thothian book he'd recently read, but he had not.  They delivered the food to Yamki, who noted that other baboons had told him of a large gathering of crocodiles in the swamp.  They told Yamki that the crocodiles were eating a dead dragon.

With the baboons fed, they resumed their trip to the Drowned Canyon.  This took them past the Temple of Thoth, where they briefly talked to Ichthelon and Remagis and the nearby goblins.  None of them recognized the description of the group that had ambushed them, though one of the goblins noted that if there was a halfling it was probably one of Plumthorn's evil gang.

They went through a couple of secret doors, down a long staircase, and through a portcullis to reach the Drowned Canyon.  While flying over the underground river, they were beset by a pack of chasm cephalpods, but Vael cast Pummelling Fists of Arak-Zhorr on them, and they decided to flee and chase some easier prey.  Going west to the area with the statues flanking a magic circle, they noticed that the statue of Kerbog Khan was gone and the statue of Erist Ellagelsson was back.  After some discussion about how and why this had happened, they stood in the magic circle and Vael cast a spell.  This teleported them to the cavern outside the Tower of Pol.  Choumnos was standing on top of the tower.  He said some ritualistic words about who came to challenge him, and Vael yelled that it was not a challenge and they were just here to talk.

Choumnos switched to a less formal tone of voice and asked what they wanted.  Vael said they wanted to borrow his teleporter to Archontos in a couple of weeks.  Choumnos pointed out that it was a one-way teleporter and asked if they had a way back.  Vael said that was fine.  Choumnos asked how many people wanted to use his teleporter, and Vael said the three of them, plus their dwarven friend Uvash.  Choumnos said that he was willing to let them use his teleporter but he needed a couple of things in return.  One, he had a couple of overdue library books from the Royal Library that he would like them to return, in case he ever wanted to visit the library again.  Ioannes told him that librarians mostly weren't that vindictive about overdue books and he should be fine, but they'd be happy to return the books.  Two, his Rudishva sleeping chamber was showing a glyph that his magic deciphered as "low battery" and he wanted them to give him a new Greater Power Supply for it.  Vael said they would let him know if they found a new Greater Power Supply.  Vallium said he had a Longevity Potion, and Choumnos could have that, as a stopgap in case his bed was out of order for a while.  Choumnos agreed, but was sad that Vallium didn't have the potion on him.

Vael asked if they could use the magic circle on this side to teleport back, and Choumnos said yes.  They did so.  After more discussion, Ioannes cast Stone to Flesh on the statue of Erist.  It turned back into the elf, who blinked then started asking questions.  What year was it, who was currently Castellan of Pol, who had taken out that woman Gemma who had killed him and was now a statue, and was there any news about Lady Ellagel the queen of the elves?  They told him the year, that a half-elf named Hallar was looking for him, and that as far as they knew Lady Ellagel was fine.   They asked Erist to accompany them to the Varumani Market to see Hellar.  Erist agreed.  They didn't fully trust him not to do anything stupid, so they stayed close for the trip, Levitating across the underground river then going through a Thothian teleportation circle then crossing from the former vampire territory through some caverns to the Varumani territory.  Ioannes, with See Secrets on, thought he spotted a secret door in a rock wall on the south side of the underground river, but they didn't stop to investigate it.

In the Varumani halls, they ran into Sir Prudence the Sun-Scarred Knight, but didn't have time to converse before an ogre guard came up and asked to see their passports.  They showed their passports to the ogre, then went over to the Varumani Market, where Hallar was excited to see Erist, who turned out to be his half-brother.  Hallar told Erist that they had to go back home to see Mom right now, that she'd been looking for him for decades, but that first he had to let the varumani know that he was leaving.  The Right for Riches company left Hallar's stall to go looking for the varumani hunters.  They asked a varumani guard, who wasn't very helpful, but then a higher-ranking varumani came over and said that the Thegn himself wanted to meet with these visitors, and to please follow him to the Thegn's meeting room.

Leaving the guard apologizing in their wake, they followed the courtier to the outer guard room, where some ogre guards took their weapons.  They then went into the meeting room, where some varumani guards told them to sit and wait for the Thegn.  He came in a few minutes later, and had questions about the dead dragon.  After they told him that, yes, they had killed Craas, he said it didn't really matter for him as the varumani never went to the surface, but he'd be interested if it increased trade.  He asked if they had any kaliyani teeth for his bounty.  They handed over the teeth, and he sent a guard to get them some gold.  Thegn Varboka asked if they had actually managed to charge his power supply.  Vallium fished a power supply out of his bag, and the Thegn gave it to another guard with instructions to have the court wizard test it.  The guard returned a few minutes later, saying the power supply was indeed full, and Varboka asked if they could charge more power supplies.  Vael said they could swap some fully power supplies for his empty ones if that was easier, and the Thegn agreed.  He sent a guard off to fetch some empty power supplies, then gave the company the conference room to themselves so they could do whatever they wanted to do in private.  Once everyone was gone, Vallium put down a Teleport Rug and went back to the Beacon and grabbed some full power supplies from a chest on the bridge.  The Thegn did not return, but when a guard knocked, they gave him the power supplies and he gave them some gold.  They asked to meet with one of the varumani hunters, and the guard said that the Thegn had not ordered that, but he'd see if any of the hunters wanted to see them.  A few minutes later, a hunter came over.  They told him that they had killed some kaliyani, but had given their teeth to the thegn.  They said they knew where more kaliyani were and asked if the hunters wanted to help kill them.  The hunter said yes, come back next week and we'll go hunting with you.

With Erist restored to his half-brother and varumani business concluded, they decided to explore the caverns west of the varumani halls.  One corner of the largest cavern contained a brewing operation, where a varumani named Hak was making ale.  He tried to sell them some kegs, but they said they were in a hurry, but might be back later.  Then explored many small caves, some of which were varumani living quarters where they intruded on some private matters, but apologized and avoided conflict.  They found a connection across an underground pond back to the former vampire area to the northwest, and from there teleported back to the Beacon, with Ioannes and Vallium using the Teleport Rug then Vael picking up the Rug can casting Pol's Recall.

GM's Comments:

That was a nasty ambush.  Eight-on-three, against competent opponents with some spellcasters and high-tech equipment.  Fortunately for the Right for Riches Company, Vael had See Invisible on, and spotted the invisible halfling sniper before he shot Vallium.  And they figured out a way to teleport out.

Achievements:

• The Resuers: 1 XP for un-petrifying Erist and taking him to his half-brother

XP:

• Exploration: 6 new locations, 1 XP
• Loot: Not much, just some bounties for kaliyani fangs and payment for charging power supplies, 0 XP
• Achievements: 1 XP
• Total: 2 XP

Next Week:

Vallium is unavailable, so plans are unclear, but they mentioned they would like to hunt the kaliyani they found in a secret room near the Forum of Weskenim.