DF Whiterock Session 16: Art!

Date:
2018-08-17


Weather:
Warm,  cloudy


Player Characters:
Elias (Wiggles), Wood Elf Cleric, 179 points
Garreth (Zuljita), Half-Orc Fighter, 224 points
Ibizaber (Demented Avenger), Human Thief, 212 points
Polly (Kalzazz), Wood Elf Archer, 200 points
Seépravir (Archon Shiva), High-Elf Wizard, 234 points


Significant NPCs:
Lord Granger Flitwick, noble and artist
Hugin, mercenary fighter
11 Orcs of the White Roc tribe
Green Slime


Four of the party met at the Inn of the Slumbering Drake in Cillamar. Polly was off in the woods somewhere, and Bernard was still out of town.

Ibizaber had spent part of the week carousing for rumors, and heard that the symbol of the swan is used by the local thieves' guild.

Elias had checked with the temple of Elyr, and found they were concerned about the poor refugees from the Warlands entering Cillamar.  He had also checked with the temple of Justicia to see if they had anyone available to help exorcise a temple, but all of their holy warriors were smiting other evil.

Seépravir had researched mining at the Hall of Worms, and was convinced that the tunnels that the White Roc orcs had dug were looking for something, rather than mining for minerals.  She asked if Chauntessa wanted to come to Castle Whiterock to see the murals of cloud giants and white birds, but Chauntessa was unable to leave her Inn. 

Seépravir then came up with the idea of hiring an artist to copy the murals for Chauntessa.  After some asking around, the group found that Lord Granger Flitwick, a local minor noble often found drinking in the Inn, had some artistic talent and was willing to go on a little adventure.  They also found that Hugin, a mercenary they had previously rescued from orcs, was available to go along as Flitwick's bodyguard.  The negotiated deal was that Flitwick would come along for free, owned the originals of anything he drew, but would be willing to make copies at a reasonable price.

Flitwick got his horse and his art supplies, everyone else got their gear, and the group traveled to Castle Whiterock.  They made it there unmolested, Flitwick left his horse in the castle's stable, and everyone proceeded down two levels.  Seépravir cast her full ensemble of scouting spells (Dark Vision, Invisibility, Mage-Stealth, Keen Vision) on Ibizaber, and he went off by himself for a while, making sure he knew the way to the tower, and that there were no hostile creatures around.

Ibizaber came back, and the group followed his voice (since he was invisible) to the tower.  Once they got there, Flitwick started sketching the mosaics on the bottom level.  Ibizaber got bored waiting, and was persuaded not to open the giant iron doors while the artist was working, so went exploring a bit more.  He eventually found a blue gem, with some green dripping slime on the ceiling above it.  He went back to get Seépravir, who followed Ibizaber back to that area and Apportated the gem away from the green slime.

Flitwick finished his drawings of the bottom level, and went up the ladder to the huge middle level of the tower, with its great spiral staircase surrounded by murals on the walls.  Hugin, Garreth, and Elias also came up, to guard him and watch.

Eventually, the art was all done, and the group was ready for Ibizaber to open the iron doors.  They were too heavy for him though, so Garreth helped.  They were also too heavy for Garreth, and Hugin also helped, and eventually they managed to open the doors.  Behind was just a blank stone wall, though.  It looked like the tower was somehow thrust into the ground here, and the current entrance to the tower was dug through the back wall, and the actual front door didn't lead to anything.

With Flitwick's work done, he and Hugin went back up to the stables at ground level, to rest and watch his horse and wait for the rest of the group.  Polly showed up, late as usual.  Everyone else went to the northwest corner of the level, where they thought there might be some places they hadn't explored.  They found the passage past the desecrated temple of Justicia continued south a bit, ending near door leading east and a stairway up to the west.

Ibizaber listened to the door, and heard sounds of humanoid conversation inside.  Everyone else was watching him, when suddenly a barrel came bouncing down the stairs.  First Garreth, then Seépravir (needing Luck), then Elias, and finally Ibizaber all heard it coming, and all managed to dodge it.  (Polly was a bit north of the others, out of the line of fire.)  The barrel crashed into the door, and some yelling in Orc came through the door.  It appeared the group was between enemies on both sides.

Polly charged up the stairs, fired an arrow into the darkness, and didn't hit anything.  Garreth and  Ibizaber and Elias set up an ambush next to the door.  Seépravir dropped 4 spells (leaving 7 on) and cast Smoke on an area centered on the door, including some unseen space on the other side.

Polly kept going up the stairs, saw an orc, and shot him, taking him down.  There were four more orcs up there, with crossbows and flails and barrels to roll down the steps.  Garreth decided to follow Polly upstairs, leaving the other three guarding the door.  An orc threw a barrel at Polly, but she saw it coming and jumped it, as did Garreth when it reached him.  This one stopped at the bottom of the stairs, before the other three had to dodge it.  The remaining three orcs upstairs all aimed crossbows at Polly.

Garreth threw a sai (with very bright Continual Light on it) at one of the orcs, and hit, but didn't do much damage.  Polly shot another orc.  All three orcs fired their crossbows at Polly.  Two missed (and the one that had Garreth behind Polly also missed Garreth), and one was an accurate shot that Polly acrobatically dodged.

The door opened, behind the smoke.  An orc ran through it, right next to Ibizaber, who was hiding behind the smoke waiting to backstab.  He stabbed the orc in the face, and the orc failed its stun roll by enough to be knocked out instantly.  Seépravir started casting Death Vision.

The orcs upstairs dropped their crossbows and readied their flails.  Polly shot at another one, but he dodged it.  Garreth fast-drew his katana and tried to chop off both of an orc's arms with a Rapid Strike, but the orc retreated and dodged both blows.  With a reach disadvantage, the orc needed a Committed Attack to do a two-hex step to get close enough to swing his flail at Garreth, but Garreth retreated and dodged in turn.  Another orc ran up behind Garreth, trying to surround him.

An Alchemist's Fire bomb that someone had flung blind came flying through the smoke and the open door, and didn't hit anyone, but left an area of floor in front of the door on fire.  Another orc came through the door, and Ibizaber stabbed him, missing his face but accidentally hitting his (well-armored) torso.  Seépravir stopped casting Death Vision and cast Stun on the orc instead, failing because of the penalty for lots of spells on.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Polly shot and dropped another orc.  And Garreth chopped the weapon off clean off another orc.  It fell into the well in the center of the room, with a loud splash.  Garreth suggested that the orc go get it.

Ibizaber tried stabbing the orc in the face again, and this this time hit the face and stunned him, also knocking him down and causing him to drop his flail.  Elias followed up with his morningstar, and the knocked out and stunned and weaponless orc failed to dodge and was knocked out.

The one-armed orc upstairs decided to keep fighting, by trying to kick a barrel at Polly.  He missed.  This made Garreth angry, and he said that would cost him that leg.   True to his word, Garreth attacked the leg that kicked the barrel.  Initially the orc rolled a critical success on his Dodge, causing Garreth to critically miss, but Garreth used Luck to make the orc reroll, and the dodge failed, and the leg was crippled.  At that point there were no armed orcs left upstairs, so Garreth decided to help out downstairs.

Seépravir decided to cast Shape Fire and used it to move the hex of Alchemist's Fire onto the unconscious orc that had foolishly come through the door.  Adding to the already severe wounds the orc had taken from Ibizaber and Elias, this killed it, probably Seépravir's first direct kill in this game.  (She has a ton of assists though.)

No other orcs came through the door, so Seépravir dropped the Smoke and continued using Shape Fire to move the fire into the room, trying to burn more orcs with it.  The others weren't unconscious on the ground, though, so they weren't such easy targets.  One was hit, but the fire damage wasn't enough to penetrate his armor.  Polly, having just reached the bottom of the stairs, fired an arrow at a recently revealed orc, initially missed badly, used her Luck, and then rolled a critical hit that knocked out the orc.

Ibizaber ran into the room to try to stab an orc, and a waiting orc with a crossbow shot him.  He failed his Dodge initally, used Luck, failed to dodge twice more (he chose not to Drop and Dodge), and took a solid crossbow shot that would have wrecked his day.  At that point his Bless came into play, turned the hit into a miss, and was dispelled.  The bolt kept going at Seépravir behind Ibizaber, who failed to dodge, but used her Luck and dodged.  The bolt then continued into a barrel, but nothing interesting came out of it.  (Ibizaber was hoping it was full of booze.)

Elias was in the room, and the remaining three orcs ganged up on him.  The first fired a crossbow bolt, which he blocked with his shield.  The second swung a flail, which he dodged.  The third swung a flail, which he parried with his morningstar, despite the penalty for parrying flails.  Seépravir cast another Smoke, covering all the orcs around Elias, but not Elias.

Polly shot and downed another orc.  Elias used Divine Grace to give himself +4 to DX for 9 seconds.  The last few of orcs swung flails at Seépravir and Polly and Elias, who dodged and dodged and was missed.  And then Divinely Graceful Elias killed one, and the final two surrendered.  Surprisingly, the last two were allowed to run away, after having their gear taken.  I guess Garreth and Polly, the Bloodlust twins, were too sleepy to argue this time.

We were out of time, so that was the end of the session.  The group returned to town.  They had gotten Flitwick to paint pictures of the mosaics and murals in the tower, and had cleared two more rooms of orcs and earned a small fortune in scale and mail armor, flails, and crossbows.  (Elias's Very Wealthy advantage means that he can sell loot at 100% of book value instead of the usual 40%.)


GM's Comments:

Hiring an artist to draw pictures was an interesting move.  We'll see next time what the pictures are worth.

Everyone has Luck, and almost everyone needed it this session.  Everyone also has Bless (Elias can cast it), and it saved Ibizaber from a nasty crossbow wound.  It's really hard for the orcs on this level to hit the PCs.

I thought the orcs throwing barrels down the stairs was amusing, but in practice the PCs dodged them all and then Garreth and Polly murdered the barrel-throwing orcs.

Smoke is a nasty spell.  Blocks all vision past one hex, plus causes rolls to avoid blindness and nausea.  Seépravir cast it on an area that spanned both sides of a door, which felt a bit wonky, but I don't think there's a rule against it, so I allowed it.  (She knew there were enemies on the other side, so it wasn't completely cheesy, just a question of whether a closed door should affect casting area spells through it)

Divine Grace is really good.  Elias used it kind of late in the fight, so only got to demolish one orc with it.  I suspect he'll get more use out of it in the future.  Weapon Master is also really good, but Garreth was already wrecking these orcs without it, so it didn't make a really obvious difference.

The PCs have now explored all of that level that they have found, so they'll probably have to go deeper next time.  Stay tuned.