Archiv für den Monat: Juni 2018

[Actual Play] Adventuria Open Table Chat Game, 2018-06-22

Four brave adventures delved into the underground beneath the ruins. None of them appreciated the amazing foundation that prevented the swamp flooding the dungeon level, though.

This week’s characters:

  • Tapio of Gareth, human fighter (lvl 3), 1488 XP
  • Dargoth the Daring, human fighter (lvl 3), 1563 XP
  • La Fleur (lvl 3), human wizard, 1001 XP
  • Roderick Clearwater (lvl 3), human rogue, 934 XP

Within the cellar, the air is stale, and the only breeze can be felt directly next to the entrance from the tower. Dargoth takes some parchments from a secretary in the room, afterwards the group presses on. A zig-zagging tunnel leads them north, at a T-crossing the group hears irregular sounds from the north.

Roderick sneaks ahead, passing three tunnels before finding the sound’s source: A ragged prisoner throwing pebbles out of his cell. When the group approaches him, he considers them just another ‘mind game’ by someone named Belgor, and only reluctantly gives his name (Ywain). Roderick attempts to free him, but finds that the door has no visible lock to pick. They learn that only the torturer can open the doors, but Ywain does not know how he does it.

The group sets off to find the torturer and get his keys.They find him a little to the west, in a archetypical torture chamber. He had noticed their coming, and awaited them ready for battle and with his latest victim’s head between the jaws of a wolf. Dargoth hopes the werewolf girl the group holds captive might be able to control the wolf, and thus the groups (angered by the torturer’s haughty behaviour) decides to attack. The captive is killed by the wolf in the first round, but otherwise, torturer and wolf do not pose a threat. Quickly, the group annihilated them, which ended with a dead wolf and an imploding torturer.

Somehow, half of the group thought torturer and wolf would be other werewolfs, and the other half thought they would be an ordinary wolf and a human. Both were wrong. Furthermore, I rolled very poorly, which is why I could not use any of the special abilities wolf and torturer had. Only Tapio was shortly afflicted with one of the special abilities, but at that time, the fight was almost over.

The group found a couple swords, three bone chips, and a smithing hammer, but not the keys they were looking for. La Fleur identified the bone chips and found them to be induced with painful magic, thus she decided to smash them, which succeeded.

Spoiler: The bone chips were the keys.

The group returned to the cells and investigated the doors a little further, La Fleur attempted to identify them as well and found the cells lock was somehow connected to excruciating pain. They decided not to smash the door though, and instead asked the werewolf to lead them to something interesting.

The werewolf lead them into a storage cellar and up a ramp. Dargoth opened the trap door at the top of the ramp, and they ended in the big storage room on the upper floor they had seen earlier. Directly in front of them, they saw a mirror floating in mid air. When investigating, they found a line protecting the mirror, which dissolved anything it came in contact with. Finally, the group decided that La Fleur and Dargoth will fire bolt the thing while the rest of the group hides back in the cellar.

This worked rather well. The line came rushing after them, though, and after some examination Roderick concluded it would be a transluscent Gelantinous Cube which ingested a mirror. The group decided to lure the Cube toward the tower, drop oil on it and set it aflame. On their way, La Fleur and Dargoth continued to harrass it with Firebolts and Rays of Cold, which finally brought the cube down.

It also made a lot of noise, which attracted the attention of other inhabitants: Just as the cube stopped moving, the shadows started to grow darker and almost substantial. A hideous laughter sounded through the tunnels.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/XaHEHlVMNyg

Most of the players are now convinced that their enemy is a wimpy illusionist, who pretends to be a dangerous monster. Still, they play it safe.

La Fleur and Roderick fled, Tapio had some success in thinning the shadows with a silver butter knife and Dargoth cast Protection from Evil to retrieve the mirror from the Cube before their opponent could appear. Alas, in the darkness, he could not see anything and found that his massive weapons were not good for such a task, as he accidently smashed the mirror.

I had the player roll an attack roll to retrieve the mirror unharmed, and he failed.

He did retrieve the mirror, but it was partly splintered and dented. Nonetheless, La Fleur attempted to identify it and learnt that it indeed was magical. When attempting to learn more, she heard countless rhymes overlapping each other, but any answers were lost in clinking.

With that, a somewhat frustrated group ended the session.

[Actual Play] Adventuria Open Table Chat Game, 2018-06-08

This week with complete cast again, including running away from bats and rats, as well as interrogating a werewolf.

This week’s characters:

  • Tapio of Gareth, human fighter (lvl 3), 1175 XP
  • Dargoth the Daring, human fighter (lvl 3), 1250 XP
  • La Fleur (lvl 2), human wizard, 688 XP
  • Roderick Clearwater (lvl 2), human rogue, 621 XP

The group rested a bit, but was disturbed by a hooded figure who conjures a swarm of bats and warns the group to leave before the next dusk. La Fleur annihilated the swarm with Flaming Hands, which caused the figure to disappear in a shower of sparkles. The spell also incinerated the wooden interieur of the room, filling it with smoke and heat. The group ran for their lives, through the tunnel, into the barn and the sowbug, which Dargoth scared of with Dancing Lights.

The courtyard was swarming with bats, the group ran toward the logway to the swamp, where more bats flew at them. Dargoth and La Fleur both cast Burning Hand, which incinerate the bats but also set the swamp gas aflame which causes an explosion that splatters the adventurer’s in mud and deafens them for some time.

On their way out, Dargoth attempts to drown the captured werewolf, fearing he might lead its vampire master to their position, but Tapio and Roderick stop him. They run a bit further into the swamp and rest there. The next morning, the three mercenaries take their leave from the group. Dargoth attempts to interrogate the werewolf, and determines that she is not a minion to a vampire master. He finds it difficult to ask questions that can be helpfully answered by ‘yes’ or ‘no’ though, and often gets seemingly contradictionary answers.

The players noticed that after an or question, and started making predictions what a specific answer might mean, finally coming up with a solution to the werewolf’s origins: She was bitten by a werewolf and later cursed by whoever lives in the ruins.

The group returns to the ruins, and investigates a little more. They find a stack with the werewolf’s clothes (turns out it is a she), a garden and that the north tower that is filled with guano of which a part has been dug out, and a deck chair with an empty bottle of wine on the tower’s roof. The west tower has a set of stairs filled with rubble, and the east tower a stuck door. When attempting to break the door open, Dargoth and Roderick collapse the ground beneath them and fall into a cellar with stairs leading up to the tower room. After unlatching the door, the rest of the group enters and looks around. Roderick finds a secret door that Tapio opens through sheer luck, and the group prepares to enter the cellar.

Nebenwirkungen für Heiltränke

Ich hatte neulich die Idee, dass Heiltränke nur für die Rasse, für die sie vorbereitet wurden, problemlos funktionieren. Wenn eine andere Rasse diese Heiltränke trinkt, gibt es nervige, aber nicht wirklich gefährliche Nebenwirkungen. (Die Idee wurde von einem Forenbeitrag inspiriert, den ich leider nicht mehr wiederfinde).

Orkische Heiltränke

  1. Lautes Aufstoßen (einmalig)
  2. Schmieriger Schnurrbart wächst (lässt sich abrasieren)
  3. Schluckauf für 1 Stunde
  4. Flatulenzen für 1 Stunde
  5. Überall am Körper wachsen drahtige Haare
  6. Heißhungerattacke
  7. Gefühl, die Haut sei zu eng
  8. Keine Nebenwirkung

Elfische Heiltränke

  1. Doppelstimmiges Reden
  2. Verlust aller Körperhaare
  3. Stärkere Anfälligkeit für Gestank
  4. Stärkere Anfälligkeit für Lärm
  5. Stärkere Anfälligkeit für unangenehme Berührungen
  6. Augenbrauen werden zu Moos
  7. Haut wird zu Rinde
  8. Keine Nebenwirkung

Zwergische Heiltränke

  1. Starker Bartwuchs
  2. Stimme wird tiefer
  3. Wertlose Metalle riechen unangenehm
  4. Bäume scheinen sich aggressiv zu bewegen
  5. Die Erinnerungen an Taten der Vorfahren überlagern eigenes Erleben
  6. Haut fühlt sich metallisch an
  7. Haarfarbe passt sich Farbe und Struktur des umliegenden Gesteins an
  8. Keine Nebenwirkung

[Actual Play] Adventuria Open Table Chat Game, 2018-05-29

Only two players played today, the other two had to cancel on short notice. Due to public demand, I ran a session nonetheless.

This week’s characters:

  • Tapio of Gareth, human fighter (lvl 2), 1155 XP
  • Dargoth the Daring, human fighter (lvl 3), 1230 XP

Roderick and La Fleur stood behind and attempted to identify a few of the recently looted potions, while Tapio and Dargoth explored further. Dargoth drank one of the Orcish healing potions they had gotten from Erbert Domian, and felt healed, but also grew a greasy moustache.

They had been warned that Orcish Healing potions had side effects, which are rolled for on a d10 table.

First, they entered a large paltry, with a lot of shelfs, buckets and barrels. On the far side of the paltry, Dargoth noted a glistening piece of jewelry hovering in the room, which he considered odd but decided not to investigate.

Next, they went into a large hall. They heard a clanking and banging, as if from wood hitting metal, but assumed it just a door. The hall was wide open, as large parts of the ceiling had collapsed. Dargoth still opened the large door to the outside courtyard, hoping to let some more light in (but not much did).

Afterwards, he opened a tapestry that was flapping in the wind and stared into the maw of a wolf! Tapio immediately jumped to attack, but despite them all hitting the wolf, their attacks seemed to cause no damage but superficial scraps. Tapio shouted ‘Werewolf, run for your life!’ and the three mercenaries Alrik, Torben and Perainos immediately fled.

Dargoth felt lucky though and grappled the wolf, assuming it would still need to breath air. Thanks to a potion of giant strength he had drunken earlier, he succeeded and, after some tussling, Tapio managed to bind the held wolf.

During interrogation, in which the wolf could only give signs for ‘yes’ and ‘no’, they figured out that this werewolf could no longer change into human form and decided to bring it to La Fleur for treatment. Tapio looked for silver cutlery, but only found a silver quill, with which Roderick was to keep the wolf in check.

Afterwards, they quickly glanced in the three remaining smaller chambers, which were probably servant dorms, and found an engraved piece of wood:

A red gift in a white case.
A white case with no hinge.
Made in the dark. Ah, what a delight.
To find, to hold, to open.
When the other gifts are gone.

They did not dawdle here, though, fearing that Dargoth strength potion would wear off. Instead, they rushed into the kitchen, which was a horrible mess and stank like hell. Large holes dotted the north wall. Both Tapio and Dargoth agreed this looked like the work of rats. Nonetheless, Tapio decided to search for valuables, and finally found the silver cutlery hidden in the stove!

Of course, this was not due to old adventures hiding their treasure in strange places, but because the cook attempted to forge a weapon against the werewolf. Ahem. Good that my players fill in the blanks whenever they show up.

Greedy, Tapio tried to find even more treasure, despite squeaks and trippling from the holes. Suddenly, he found himself facing eleven large rats! After a bloddy battle, the rats withdrew after their leader, the Nimble Rat, had recognized Tapio as the Slayer of Rats!

OK. This was a rather humouros intervention, as Tapio’s player had said his character would have a lot of experience with fighting rats, and slew seven of them with eight strikes, only missing the eight attack, which lead to the assumption that this must be some kind of rat champion.

Tapio wanted to investigate the well in the kitchen as well, trying to yank the bucket up. Something down in the well yanked harder though and almost drew Tapio in, if it had not been for Dargoth’s swift reaction and giant strength.

After securing the well with the stove, the group returned to La Fleur and Roderick to rest. Here, we stopped a little early, as I felt extremely tired. Both Tapio and Dargoth reached third level and I am curious to see what they will choose as additional power for their class.