RPG Party Disaster Recovery Planning

In the last session of DFRPG Arden Vul, the Right for Riches company came pretty close to a total party kill.  (It would not have been the whole company, as Vael wasn't there.  But both Vallium and Uvash were out of the fight and at the mercy of undead, in a no-mana zone.)

Since then, the players have been reviewing the tactics that almost led to their defeat.  But they're also making plans for party continuity if they do get wiped out.

The Right for Riches company has three assets that many less experienced adventuring parties do not: money, allies, and communications.  So these ideas won't work for every group, but some of them might.

Money is great because it pays for things like Resurrection spells and bounties to recover your body.  If you have enough money, someone will probably be motivated by it.  Crucially, the money has to actually be available; if it's all on your body, and nobody knows where your body is, then it's not so useful.  Gosterwick has pretty solid banking services from three different merchant Factors, and each member of the Right for Riches company has substantial deposits at them, so they have this covered.

Money isn't enough though, as someone needs to coordinate paying it out.  That's where non-adventuring allies come in.  Right for Riches have three key allies to help with disaster recovery.  The first is Akla-Chah, the Rudishva AI in the Beacon, with whom they can communicate with their Rudishva Command Bracelet.  As long as they remember to call her often enough, she knows where a search should begin.  The second is Barnaby Goodbarrel, their lawyer in Gosterwick, who can write binding legal documents such as wills and contracts.  The third is Basil, their employee, who can travel between the Beacon and Gosterwick and coordinate rescue or recovery efforts.

Not every group has the ability to frequently communicate back to base, but next best is just telling someone your planned route before you leave, and then sticking to the plan as closely as possible.  Right for Riches designs a plan for every delve, and sharing it with Akla-Chah and Basil gives them a starting point for a search, even if they forget to call with updates.

While rescue is ideal and resurrection is second best, sometimes really bad things happen and nobody can ever find the bodies.  At that point you need a succession plan.  Right for Riches has a couple of levels of that.  First, the company is legally incorporated in Gosterwick and can own assets, so much of the group's property belongs to the company rather than its members, so if the party is wiped out, at least the property they own back at the Beacon still belongs to the company.  Second, they have a plan to allow Basil and Barnaby to hire new adventurers to reform the company if the current members are missing long enough.

Finally, for personal property, there are wills.  Does your personally owned stuff pass out of the game, or to your close friend or relative who just happens to be your next PC?  So far Uvash is the only PC with a designated successor, his son.

Ultimately this is all a meta play.  The GM has to decide what's too cheesy to allow.  But Right for Riches are at least making an attempt to spin things so that, if they get wiped out, their replacement PCs get to keep some of their stuff.  We'll see how it plays out, if things ever reach that point.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 47: The No Mana Zone

Date:

Tahsday, 28st of Molivios, 2994 AE

Weather: 

Warm, cloudy, rainy

Player Characters: 

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

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Coinbase, Elven Mercenary Bro (Archon Shiva)

Significant NPCs:

Wicktrimmer, Imperial Goblin merchant

Roger the Rapier, Leader of the Five Fingers of Destiny adventuring company

Bottleneck, sergeant in charge of Upper Goblintown

Many goblins

Yamki, 3-armed giant intelligent baboon

Many baboons

Construct spearman

Remagis un-petrified ancient priest of Thoth

Stamelis, Head of Thoth librarian

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Many ghouls

Many skeletons

Many zombies

The Plan:

• Warn the Five Fingers of Destiny away from the Beacon
• Deliver food to the baboons
• Explore the western part of the Well of Light level
• Explore the Howling Caves
• Pick up Temrin's map to the second Tablet of the Beacon

What Happened:

Wicktrimmer returned from Narsileon with some items.  Vallium and Ioannes met with the Five Fingers of Destiny, explained about the ankh-key puzzle and (just a bit about) the Beacon, and said their base was very dangerous and the Five Fingers should stay away.  Vallium then bought food for the baboons and took it through a Teleport Rug to the Beacon.

Everyone teleported through the Rug to the Beacon, then used a Rudishva Teleporter to go down to the Cloister level.  They propped the one-way door open.  They went through the Cloister then down a secret passage to the slime room, where Vallium and Coinbase Levitated up to the cave near the old Temple of Set, then the others came back through the Rug to join them.  From there they went east through the old Temple of Thoth to the Glory of Weskenim, briefly talked to Bottleneck, then went through the indoor pyramid teleporter to the Well of Light.

Everyone headed east to Yamki's room near the Howling Caves, and Vallium talked to Yamki.  They went into an empty room to set up a Rug to teleport all the baboon food out from the Beacon.  After giving the food to Yamki, they warned him that they would be exploring to the west.

The first newly discovered room contained a bunch of broken furniture and general trash, plus a fancy model of a raven on a perch.  When Coinbase approached it, it said something in Mithric.  That was interesting enough that they grabbed the bird and took it back to the Beacon.

Further south, they found a room containing many small wooden dormitory cubicles, plus a very detailed sculpture of a Thothian priest.  Coinbase suggested it might actually be a petrified priest.  Uvash tried Stone to Flesh, and it turned into an ancient Thothian priest named Remagis, who only spoke Mithric and was pretty confused about what was happening.  After some conversation in broken Mithric, Ioannes cast Gift of Tongues on Vallium so he could explain things more thoroughly.  Once Remagis calmed down a bit, they showed him how to use the Teleport Rug then took him back to the Beacon, where Stamelis could talk to him and Basil could take care of him.

Continuing north, they found a locked door.  Vallium and Uvash used Vallium's new portable battering ram to smash it.  Inside was an entire wizard's lab full of junk, plus a construct spearman with a huge black iron spear.  The construct attacked.  Vallium destroyed it.  They looted the lab of everything that looked valuable and portable.

They continued west to a closed portcullis.  There was a throbbling light from the west.  There was a lever on the wall that appeared designed to open it, but the lever was rusted.  They tried forcing the lever, which broke.  Not wanting to break the portcullis in case they needed to close it, they tried passing the Teleport Rug through it, then Ioannes could open it up with Apportation and Uvash could step through the Rug from the Beacon.  The rolled-up Rug fit between the bars, but the Apportation spell failed as soon as the Rug went through.  And then Uvash didn't come through the Rug.  Vallium managed to reach through the bars and grab the Rug back, and then it worked and Uvash came through.  Coinbase cast Silence, and Vallium and Uvash used the ram to break the portcullis.  They stepped into the room, their Continual Light rocks went dark, Vallium's Levitation boots stopped Levitating, and their magically lightened armor got heavier.  They stepped back out and had a long conversation about what to do next.

The conclusion was to send Vallium and Uvash in, while Coinbase and Ioannes stayed back with the mana.  Vallium found a torch, and they went forward into the room.  There was an ivory coffer in the center of the floor, with creepy tongues engraved on it.  Moving the box around did not seem to affect the mana level.  They took the box and brought it back to the Beacon, putting it in a Bag of Holding inside a chest for safekeeping.  There were doors north, west, and south.  A map they had found indicated only a single room north, so they went that way.  The door was locked, so they smashed it with the ram, without benefit of Silence this time.  As they started looking into the room to the north, the door to the south opened, and many skeletons, zombies, and ghouls started streaming out.

Vallium and Uvash headed back east toward the mana, but both were slower than usual without their Lighten spells.  The ghouls and skeletons mobbed them.  Vallium killed several of each, but then one ghoul hit Vallium's face, which was no longer protected by his magical Torc of Protection.  Neither was he Blessed.  Vallium was paralyzed!  Uvash activated his Heroic Might and Heroic Grace and tried to fight off all the undead.  Meanwhile, Ioannes started taunting the ghouls with religious rituals, trying to draw them out into the mana.  Some of them charged him.  (The skeletons and zombies didn't care.)

Three somewhat separate battles happened.  One was Ioannes versus some ghouls, with Coinbase contributing multiple buff spells.  One was Uvash versus ghouls and skeletons and zombies.  And one was skeletons and zombies that couldn't reach anyone else bashing on Vallium while he was paralyzed and (except for the heavy armor over most of his body) defenseless.

Uvash took down a lot of undead, almost winning the battle and saving Vallium, until one of the zombies landed a lucky critical hit and knocked him unconscious.  Meanwhile, Ioannes, not really strong enough to efficiently kill ghouls, focused on aiming at their feet and crippling them.  Coinbase cast Great Haste (twice), Haste, and Flight on Ioannes, and otherwise Levitated horizontally near the ceiling so the ghouls had to jump to try to lay a claw on him.

When Uvash went down, the last few skeletons and zombies ran out to get Ioannes, and he managed to cripple all of their feet.  Once no undead were left standing, they went into the No Mana zone and dragged the unconscious Uvash and paralyzed Vallium out, then Ioannes cast multiple healing spells on both of them.  Uvash woke up a few minutes later, and Vallium was able to move again.  Everyone staggered back to the east, then reversed their path to the Beacon.  They didn't run into anything hostile on the way, so they made it.  It had been very close though; with both Vallium and Uvash knocked out, a pack of undead in a no-mana zone had almost ended the Right for Riches company.

   

GM's Comments:

When Vallium went down I thought there was a decent chance of a total party kill.  Uvash, Ioannes, and Coinbase managed to win the fight, but it was close.  No mana zones are not a joke.

Achievements:

The Rescuers: 1 XP for un-petrifying and rescuing Remagis

XP:

• Exploration: 4 new locations: 0 XP
• Loot: a few magic items from the Wizard's Lab, plus the magic coffer: 1 XP
• Achievements: 1 XP
• Total: 2 XP

Next Week:

They're planning on heading right back to the western Well of Light area to finish exploring there.  They will then go down to the Goblin Market to get their Temrin map to the second Tablet of the Beacon.  They may then return to the Goblin Forum and try to clear more rooms on that level.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 46: The Arena Lord and the Inn of the Lost

Date:

Tahsday, 21st of Molivios, 2994 AE

Weather: 

Warm, rainy

Player Characters: 

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

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

The GOAT, Imperial Goblin Mercenary Druid (Archon Shiva)

Significant NPCs:

Tresti Iredell, Half-Elven wizard of the Rarities Factor

Temrin, Goblin Royal Artist

Gribble, Lord of the Goblin Forum

Many goblins

Dworm, human guard/merchant

Yoburra, Varumani ambassador

Several ogre guards

Many arena guards

Hal, Varumani bartender

Yerk, human gladiator

Basil, human gladiator

Nisdis, elven gladiator

6 giant beetles

The Arena Lord, Rudishva

Ida and Odile, twin gamblers

Razor Face, gambler

Varumani Lift operators

Virgoolian, goblin chemist

Swiddy, baker

Aebbe Long-Nose, cleric

Philippous, weapons dealer

Thegan White-Mane, Innkeeper, Inn of the Lost

Boots, Barkeeper, Inn of the Lost

Aethgrim, Entertainer, Inn of the Lost

Akla-Chah, hologram psychologist

Basil of Narsileon, Right for Riches company employee

Various summoned goats, bats, bears, and an elephant

The Plan:

• Sell food in the Goblin Forum
• Visit the Arena and learn things

What Happened:

After finding the Five Fingers of Destiny poking around above the Beacon, Vael got worried and started looking for a way to prevent them from scrying or teleporting in.  He asked Ioannes to help with the research, and Ioannes found a text suggesting lead-lined walls as a solution for both problems.  The party split up, with Vael, Vallium, Uvash, and Basil looking for large quantities of lead roofing tiles, while Ioannes would make the weekly food delivery to the Goblin Forum, then head down to the Arena to gather information on the Rudishva Command Bracelet that Temrin's map indicated was there.

Ioannes hired the goblin mercenary GOAT for help, then went down to the Grain Hall and bought a wheelbarrow load of assorted foods.  Without a Blink spell to easily get from the Beacon to the surface, they decided to just hike from Gosterwick to the Cliff Face, then walk up the Long Stair to the ruins.  GOAT summoned a goat to pull the wheelbarrow, a bat swarm for scouting, and a couple of cave bears for protection.

After trudging though the rain for ten miles then climbing the Long Stair, the duo walked north to the Pyramid of Thoth then went down through the Pyramid to Upper Goblintown.  There, Bottleneck greeted Ioannes and said the goats were fine but bears were not allowed in goblin territory.

They went west through the not-so-secret-anymore door to the ruined Temple of Thoth, then through the also ruined Temple of Set, then down the Sighing Stair to the Goblin Forum.  There Gribble greeted them, thanked them for bringing more food, and directed them to Dworm the Food Merchant.  Dworm repeated that he was a guard, not a merchant, but wrote down the food they brought and gave them a receipt, and paid them for their previously sold food.

Gribble mentioned that the Set animal statue in the center of the Forum was still  emitting some kind of weird gas that caused one of his guards to face plant after standing in the wrong place.  Ioannes and GOAT offered to take a look.  First GOAT cast Shape Earth to seal up the statue's nostrils and make the gas stop coming out.  Then he decided to go for a more complete solution, Levitated up to the ceiling, and summoned an Irthuin elephant.  The huge animal materialized in mid-air then crashed down onto the statue, causing extensive damage to both the statue and the elephant.  GOAT dismissed the wounded elephant as he and Ioannes looked at the wrecked statue.  The head had been knocked off the body, and gas was again coming out of a couple of small holes in the neck.  Not wanting to spend too much more time here, GOAT sealed off the holes.  A Varumani ambassador came out to check on the noise, saw it was just adventurers wrecking more Settite stuff, had a brief conversation with Ioannes, and went back to his room.

They went back up to Upper Goblintown, then down through the Wet Caves to the Goblin Market.  Ioannes went over to the Temrin, the Royal Artist, and asked if he knew the way to the Arena.  Temrin said it was down the stairs to the west, but he never went to the Arena himself because he didn't like violence.  He also noted that Vael's new map was ready.  Ioannes thanked Temrin, and he and the GOAT went east.  Ioannes asked an ogre guard a few questions about rooms nearby, then they went down the stairs to the arena level.

Ioannes talked to Hal, the bartender at the Arena Corner Bar.  Hal said that today was a Spectacle Day and they should get their drinks, place their bets, and take their seats for the show.  Ioannes tried to order milk, but Hal didn't have any.  Ioannes settled for water and a mushroom cake.  Meanwhile, GOAT cast Rider Within on a bat and had it explore the level with its dark vision and echolocation.  The bat found some large skeletons and goblin corpses across a small chasm to the west, then found a wall of fire with some kind of flaming nataraja dancer, which eventually threw a fireball at the bat, killing it.  He sent out another bat, which explored a chasm until it was surprised and eaten by a giant spider.

After finishing his mushroom cake, Ioannes led GOAT north and west to the arena bleachers.  The bleachers were mostly full of goblins.  The Arena Lord appeared in his box on the far side of the Arena and announced a Spectacle, three heroic gladiators against six ferocious giant beetles.  The Arena Lord was larger and thinner than a human, with two small horns on his head, and was wearing a purple jumpsuit, a white scarf, and a red bracelet.  After a while, three gladiators entered the arena sands from the south.  They strutted during their introductions, then the door on the north end opened and some arena wranglers pushed 6 giant beetles out onto the sand.  The beetles walked around sniffing and looking confused, while the gladiators slowly approached, showing off with spins and kicks and twirled weapons.  Then as they got to melee range, one of the gladiators stopped showing off and just brutally killed four of the beetles as fast as possible.  Each of the others killed one.

Ioannes talked to one of the goblins in the crowd, who said the gladiator who killed four beetles was Yerk, who was currently the #3 ranked gladiator in the arena, and a crowd favorite because he was "a total psycho."  The goblin also said he had bet on Yerk to get the most kills.

Ioannes and GOAT left the bleachers and west north east to where the gamblers were settling their bets.  Two of the gamblers were female and looked like twins, so Ioannes tried talking to them.  After a few minutes they got tired of answering his questions about the Lord of the Arena, so he talked to another gambler, a man with a scarred face with no nose or ears who compensated with a large beard.  Ioannes didn't get much good information from him either.

They headed north and west, then opened an unlocked door.  GOAT sent another summoned bat in to scout, and found rows of cages full of various monsters: more giant beetles, hell hounds, mephits, undead, a manticore, a chimera, and some owlbears.  They went west farther and found some old statues and a booming voice welcoming them to the Arena and telling them violence was not allowed outside the sands, then repeating (presumably) the same message in two languages they didn't know.

They reached the Varumani Lifts.  Ioannes asked the operators about the area nearby.  The varumani said the Inn was that way, the Arena was back the way they came, and that the Lifts could take them to the Floating Gardens or all the way across the Chasm.  Ioannes chose the Inn.  He saw a large door with a sign in Mithric saying "House of Isocorax" and another sign in Archontean saying it was the "Inn of the Lost."  There was a passage to the northeast.  Going that way, they found a Rudishva-architecture room with four merchant stalls set up: a chemist, a baker, a cleric, and a weapons dealer.  There was a passage leading north and a door to the east.  Ioannes asked what was to the north, and the chemist answered "death, don't go that way."  Ioannes asked what potions he had to sell.  He had the usual healing potions and such, plus Virgoolian's Special Brew, which he said would mess you up.  Ioannes declined to drink any, but bought one for GOAT.  GOAT drank it and was indeed messed up, as he started hallucinating.  GOAT decided to take a nap in the wheelbarrow, while Ioannes checked out the Inn.

The Inn door was unlocked.  Ioannes was greeted by the proprietor, an old white-haired man named Thegan.  Thegan said he had private rooms available, or a bed in a bunkroom, as well as good food and drink.  Ioannes went into the dining room, tipped the bard to play a song, and had another small mushroom-based snack.  There weren't any other guests in the common room; the barkeeper said it was a Spectacle day so they were probably at the Arena.

Vael finished looking for lead and went through the Teleport Rug to the Beacon looking for Ioannes.  Ioannes wasn't there and Basil said he hadn't been there, so Vael teleported back to Gosterwick and went to the Rarities Factor.  There he paid Tresti to cast a Message spell to Ioannes, asking him to meet at their room.  Ioannes left the Inn, went back to get the GOAT, and they went down some passages until they had some privacy to use a Teleport Rug.  GOAT stayed to watch the Rug while Ioannes went back to the Beacon and met Vael.  After bringing Vael up to date on the Arena Lord, they went to talk to Akla-Chah.  She confirmed that not all Beacon crew members were accounted for, and it was possible some were still alive, though the Beacon crashed a long time ago.  Ioannes went through the crew roster until he thought he recognized the Arena Lord as Entertainment Officer Crellik-Var.  Ioannes and Vael then went back through the Rug to rejoin GOAT in the Halls.

They followed a passage to the northeast, where they saw some corpses (six human, two varumani) stacked up near a chasm.  Suspecting a trap, GOAT sent a summoned bat to explore.  It flew over the chasm, down a passage, up another passage, and then was killed by a sword-swinging statue.  Still suspecting a trap, Vael asked GOAT to summon an animal to drag the bodies back for looting.  GOAT summoned two goats, who started dragging the bodies back.  One of the goats spotted a giant worm in the chasm, but dodged its attack and loyally kept dragging bodies back.  Vael and Ioannes looted the bodies of their armor (the only thing they had).  They decided not to venture toward the chasm today.

Instead, Ioannes led Vael back to the Inn so he could see it for himself and meet Thegan, then they went over to the merchants and Vael talked to all four.  They then went through the door to the east, which the merchants said led to a cave-in.  They found the cave-in, but Vael thought he heard some whispering in Rudishva there.  He tried a Glass Wall spell on the cave-in, but it was too thick to see through.  He dug a bit with Shape Earth and tried again, spying the passage continuing to the north, then a Rudishva-architecture room with a statue in it.

Vael asked the others to step through the Rug back to the Beacon, turned invisible with Larel's Cloak, then Blinked past the cave-in.  On the other side, he dropped the Rug so the others could join him.  They found a room with a statue that turned out to be a kaliyani, with four eyes that were amber gems.  The statue wasn't magical, so they took the eyes.  There were iris doors north and west, but Vael and Ioannes agreed that they'd pressed their luck enough for today, so they turned around and went back home.

GM's Comments:

We only had two out of five players due to the Easter holiday, so they decided to go on a low-danger information-gathering mission to the Arena.  They got a look at the Arena Lord and found the Inn of the Lost, and didn't engage in any fights (unless you include summoned bats getting killed).

Achievements:

• Arden Vul Iconic Location: Inn of the Lost (Ioannes only)

XP:

• Exploration: 19 new locations (for Ioannes and GOAT, fewer for Vael), 1 XP (for all)
• Loot: four suits of armor (one magical) and four gems, 1 XP
• Achievements: 1 XP (Ioannes only)
• Total: 3 XP for Ioannes, 2 XP for Vael

Next Week:

There should be more players next time, so they can explore more boldly.  The plan is to bring food to the baboons, then investigate the Ruby Throne and explore more of the Well of Light level.  If time permits they will also pick up their Temrin map to the second Tablet of the Beacon, and clear more rooms near the Goblin Forum.