Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Mord Mar - Session 3 at the Griffin's Rest

We were full up at ten players this week. Here's the roster:

The new characters:
Sylvester - Elven Thief
Holin Hammerback - Dwarven Cleric
Grumble - Human Magic-User

The established characters:
Red - Human Ranger
Tharum - Elf Thief/Magic-User
Firban Brighthand - Halfling Thief
Radovan - Human Cleric (of Odin?)
Khazgar Stonehand - Dwarf Fighter
Boris - Dwarf Fighter/Thief
Seed - Human Fighter

We started of in Var Nae, as always. Radovan had special ordered 2 healing potions, which were available. This took up a lot of the Mother Shena's (the alchemist) time, so only one was available for general sale (which was bought up.) The party spent gold on rumors, the most notable of which was "My grandfather worked in the castle, and always said there is a secret door behind the throne." Seed buys  a pick-axe. (Other equipment was bought, but this is notable.)
The bounty board had changed. Goblin ears went from 1 gp to 5 sp bounty. The owlbear was removed because the group was successful. Thora Silverbeard now needs more silver for her smithy, price based on quantity. Acidander has gained the attention of the Guild. The green dragon's head is worth 5000 gp, and a map to his lair is worth 1000. The Church of Blain Oreweaver has begun offering 500 gp for recovered religious texts.

After some discussion, they decided to head toward the Citadel again, taking the Transport Hallway toward the east end of Forge Road. Along the way, they encountered 19(!) goblins and their hobgoblin commander. Someone tossed a flaming oil to drop 1. Tharum cast a weak sleep spell, getting 4-5 of them as they moved up to encounter range. Then he casts another sleep from a scroll he had penned. This one knocked out around 13 more. Two goblins were left standing. The ranged attackers: Sylvester, Firban, Boris and Seed blasted the hobgoblin with projectiles. He dropped almost immediately. The two goblins turned to flee, and the archers dropped them too.
They looted the corpses finding: 38 cp, 7 sp, 10 gp, 2 pp, a longsword, shield and chainmail. 18 goblin ears were recovered, one set burning away in oil.

The rest of the trip to the Citadel was uneventful. Reaching the gate, they find that the Northeast Tower doesn't have doors like all of the other towers. (I think) Sylvester snuck ahead to the edge of the courtyard. He peered into the darkness to see . . . a decapitated 1-clawed owlbear hunched in the deepest shadows waiting for something to enter the courtyard.

Sneaking back, he describes the scene. The party decides to lob oil to the corner close to the owlbear, and throw a rock to trigger it. They threw a lot of oil. Khazgar arcs a torch high in the sky to land on the huge puddle of oil, then throws the rock and misses. Firban connects with the second rock, animating the owlbear. As this happens, a statue of a minotaur steps from around the other nearby corner. The owlbear charges through the fire, dying again before it reaches the party.
The minotaur statue communicates telepathically, telling them it wants the goblins out. A few seconds later it disappears, leaving a copper coin in its place, which Firban snatches up. The coin is "ancient, with a mountain on one side, and a dwarf on the other." Firban passes his save.

They find a broken wall into tower, scout it and are attacked by two red ants. Red takes a hit, but makes his save from the poison. The ants are dropped quickly. In the rubble they find a dwarven runestone: Protection. It is noted that the red ants were immediately aggressive, while the black ants met a week ago were not.

Finally entering the Citadel, the party finds their way blocked by a door. It isn't trapped or locked according to the theives, but they can't get it open. Seed uses his new pickaxe to break the door, and immediately falls prone on the far side. The 10 goblins in the room all attack him, bringing him to 0 hp.
The party, now in full recovery mode begin to move in to save their dying friend. Boris steps over Seed to protect him, while both clerics move up with Cure Wounds. The archers get into position to shoot any goblins that they can see through the door. The goblins move and all strike at Boris with 6 of them hitting, dropping him dead instantly. Seed stands up, rejuvinated from  Cure Wounds, and they make quick work of 9 of the goblins. The tenth goblin runs through a far door. Tharum moves up to see what happened while most of the other party members are scooping the pile of treasure in the corner or tending to Seed and Boris.
Tharum watches the goblin open a door, and several large mosquito-like creatures swarm out of it, killing the goblin. Tharum shuts the door. They bar the door haphazardly with some rubble, collect the rest of the treasure and Boris' body and head back to Var Nae.

So, we have an hour left of playtime at this point. We have a discussion about making one more delve. In the interest of time, I allow Boris to be Resurrected for 500 gp. Firban fails his save against evil, and is enthralled by the coin he picked up earlier. His face has replaced the dwarven face on the coin. They spend the night in town, paying 10 gp for curative magic as needed and head back to the Citadel the next day.

No random encounters to be had :(, they end up back where they were and pop the door open. Tharum goes down by the "bug door" and sees another door, but doesn't open it. Meanwhile, Firban is drawn in the opposite direction, going into a room with several statues. Most are kings, queens and heroes of Mord Mar, but one statue is faced toward the corner, its details hidden.This is the statue (Bashael Ashmouth) that Firban is enthralled by, and he stands in front of it, not moving. (At this point another character became enthralled by the statue as well, I just don't remember who.)
The dwarves of the party quickly notice that unlike the other statues, this one is not carved from the stone, but placed here instead. The tell Seed to take it down with hisy pick-axe, which he is happy to do. This breaks the curse on the characters and nets a 500 xp bonus.

They enter the throne room, to find 10 dead goblins and several dead mosquitoes there. A magical mirror hangs on the wall, and the fabled Throne of Mord Mar rests quietly. They grab the ears, find the secret door behind the throne (damn Tharum's elf nose.) and three more runestones: Treasure, Ore, Sun. They remove the mirror from the wall, and hide it in the room behind the secret door, piling rocks on top of it. (The room had a thick layer of dust and "hadn't been entered in several hundred years.")

The session is over, with Firban leveling up.


GM's notes:
I don't have a hard rule for Raising Dead people yet. That was a one-of because: 1. He sacrificed himself for another party member 2. We were late on time 3. They could return to town easily. I will work on it.

S&W is GREAT for a large table game. At no point did anyone feel like they didn't contribute or were part of the action! If they did, they didn't mention it to me (and I asked.)

I began using the Dwarven Forge tiles as 5' squares instead of 10'. I like it better this way. OD&D allowed 3 people across in a 10' section. This ups that to 4, but I think it will be good. It took all of us a little getting used to. The rule will be "no more than 3 characters on a tile." It may or may not work. We will see long-term.

The rumors are really helping the party. I have about 300 of them, with about 33% being false.

The Transportation Hallway is now "open." They have a few runes, but no idea what they do, or where they go. We will see what happens with that. PLAYERS: Var = Sun in the dwarven language. Nae = portal, opening, door, gate etc.

Bashael Ashmouth has shown up a couple of times. Was he a player in bringing down the Old City?

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