Lair Of The Orc Lord - Deep 2 (Part 4)

The PCs face off with a large Lugroki (Orc) who is blocking their way across the bridge to the gold. As soon as they had entered the room the trap was sprung and the party was surrounded by goblins.

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The first combat round saw the Lugroki throw his spear (javelin) at Cavell. It made little impact to the situation but Hanu thought it might be useful to throw back at the Lugroki as a diversion before she and Asmodeus rush forward to push the brute out of the way of the bridge so others can come through.

Before she could do anything, the Lugroki released a shout the likes of which none in the party had heard. With such ferocity behind the shout all the PCs felt the tingle of fear run down their spines. Most of the PCs were unaffected except for Hanu and Asmodeus who now suffer -50 to all their rolls. A round later and Hanu rallies herself sufficiently to break the effects of the shout just as she sees a hidden door to the right of the statue open and four goblin archers with short bows enter and take up firing positions.

Charging the orc seemed like a good idea at the time but the fearful Asmodeus failed to follow behind her to lend her his weight. Putting all her strength into moving the orc, Hanu was stopped dead in her tracks by an unmovable foe. Now she was toe to toe with the foul smelling creature, alone – not to mention she was also on the bridge above the fire chasm. She spots the sparkle of a sky blue diamond on a decorative chain hanging around the large orc's neck.

It took a few rounds to dispatch three of the goblins and in the process Kodos was injured, falling over as he was unsteady on his feet. The brave Cavell stands over Kodos to protect him and downs the third goblin.

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With no support Hanu was at a loss. Shouting out to Cavell, hopefully in a language the orc didn’t know, she managed to convince him to charge over the bridge and run into her and the orc. Surprising the orc right before he had the opportunity to attack, Cavell charged across the bridge and sandwiched Hanu who was prepared to push forward. The tactics were sound. The problem was Cavell failing to negotiate the rope bridge successfully (Cavell’s player failed an Agility Check roll) and tripped and fell into the back of Hanu at full speed. The combined strength roll of the two managed to push the orc back who landed on his back at the base of the statue. Cavell was now facedown on the bridge looking at the flames rising up from the chasm floor towards him.

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Xera moves to the edge of the fire chasm to throw her Chakram at the goblin archers.

Asmodeus tries to use a bit of positive self talk to break free of the grip of fear that still has hold of him. Not being good with words other than “that’s mine” or “I’ll take that”, he fails miserably and cannot try again for another seven rounds. He decides to move to the other side of the room to lend Xera his support with the attack on the goblin archers.

With Kodos back on his feet, Rikku suggests that they teleport over to the archers and attack them directly, so Rikku hops onto Kodos back ready for the ride of his life. Without much ado, Kodos is successful (1% chance of failure) in getting the two of them next to the goblin archers. There is only one small problem and that is that they are now both disoriented from the teleport (both Situational Awareness skill checks failed).

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Next round Cavell rises and supports Hanu. As she prepares to manoeuvre around to the left of the large orc she fumbles her weapon. To Cavell this looks like a weapon flourish (some players use the Swashbuckling skill to do fancy sword moves) and so he tells her to stop messing around and get on with the job of attacking the orc. Hanu moves to the left and the orc ignores her, concentrating instead on the shining armoured paladin.

The fight against the orc takes several rounds with Cavell fumbling his weapon early in the piece and having to parry the orc’s attacks for another two rounds after. Meanwhile Hanu, who is attacking from the orc’s right flank, gets a critical hit and her foe’s attention. With the orc facing Hanu, Cavell takes the opportunity to attack the orc from its left flank and also delivers a critical. Neither critical is severe enough to slay the creature, but he is bleeding badly.

Kodos and Rikku recover from their teleportation and fight and slay a goblin. Xera and Asmodeus continue to throw their weapons at the goblins on top of the statue.

Without touching it the orc keels over and dies as his life’s blood drains from his body. Hanu and Cavell pause for a photo opportunity.

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Hanu now turns to fight the remaining goblin archers. She tells Cavell to search the orc. Checking out the Lugroki, Cavell finds the large sky blue diamond around its neck. He promptly retrieves it.

Kodos gets "ganked" (as Cavell's player calls it) by the goblins and goes down, but not before another goblin has the opportunity to increase the severity of Kodos’ situation. A couple of rounds later and poor Kodos was bleeding at 5 hits per round and had only 1 hit point of health left. The next couple of rounds saw Kodos health move on down to -12 hits. Rikku kills another goblin in revenge as does Hanu beside him.

Only one goblin is left up on the statue and Asmodeus throws his Chegain from 25 feet away with Rikku acting as “soft cover”. It’s tense as Asmodeous’ player rolls spectacularly (well over 150) and his Chegain flies, curving over Rikku’s right shoulder, spinning in perfect timing and slaying the evil creature. I am pretty sure Rikku’s right ear is still intact!

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Xera crosses the bridge to access the dying Kodos. She applies some of her magical blue healing paste on him (her player makes a successful Use Prepared Herb skill check) and restores him to full health. Good on you girl!

With the Lugroki and goblins dead the party now tend to the wounded and search the room. Ignoring the gold, almost all the players are interested in the weapons rack near the hidden door. Rikku pulls on a shiny longsword and the hidden door closes shut. The weapons are found to be attached to the rack and of no use.

Asmodeus is first to put his hand into the pile of gold at the base of the statue. His hand passes through the treasure and he gets savagely bitten by a poisonous snake, that made its home under the statue, making him fall unconscious. Asmodeus' player fails the poison RR and so now Asmodeus' arms and legs are weakened and suffer a -25 modifier to their use. A healing check finds that it will take Asmodeus 4 days to recover. Xera and Cavell cast healing spells on Asmodeus to bring him to consciousness.

This is where the night ends and XP is distributed. Three characters' XP total rise above 30000 and so look forward to developing next session.

Lair Of The Orc Lord - Deep 2 (Part 3)

Three weeks have passed and the gaming session is not played due to the absence of two players. Another three weeks goes by and this time the same two players are absent again. What is a GM to do? The people who did turn up had fun coming together as friends none the less. Shashari's player decides that the party really does need a dedicated fighter and that she should let go of Shashari the character and create a new fighter-based character.

With this in mind, the player develops a pure fighter. This character will be the only non-spell user in the whole party. It takes another two weeks (about 5 socialising hours) to generate the fighter and be ready to play. As you can now see from the date of this blog it has been some time since we have had an actual playing session. Oh well, that is gaming life for you.

On with the game...

Having returned to the secret guard room and securing the door, the party rests and recuperates, meanwhile, Kodos carries the body of Shashari back to the temple.

"What am I doing here? This isn't the temple! ... Oh no." - Kodos.

Kodos, aiming to teleport back to the Temple of Eissa, loses his concentration on the temple as he prepares to teleport. The weight of Shashari's dead body on his shoulders reminds him of how close Rikku was to death when he had his eye plucked out by the forest spiders when the party first went searching for goblins. Unwittingly he now finds himself in the exact location and is immediately pounced upon by a new spider resident of the area.

Kodos immediately drops the body of Shashari on the ground and hears a definite and loud CRACK. OOPS. Something broke. With shivers running down his spine Kodos faces the spider and draws his sword. Kodos feels powerful as the rush of adrenaline courses through his veins and he realises that he has more experience in these kinds of life threatening situations. After two gruelling minutes (12 rounds) of highly ineffective swordplay Kodos gets a critical that slays his multi-legged foe.

"Only the one? Hmm. Time to get out of here." - Kodos.

Kodos struggles to get Shashari on his back. It is a lot harder with no one to help you. He doesn't make the same teleporting mistake a second time and appears in the Temple of Eissa totally exhausted. He collapses to the floor dropping Shashari's body and wonders if that was another cracking sound he heard as he drifts into unconsciousness.

A day and a half later Kodos awakens refreshed in a side room of the temple. Locating a priestess, he finds out that Shashari is not up and about but is in fact still in life-keeping stasis. He demands to see the High Priestess and an argument ensues.

"What can possibly be wrong? We have free healing for two weeks! What do you mean the High Priestess cannot perform her function? We need Shashari to find the Life Stone for the High Priestess' quest." - Kodos

Trying to distract him the Priestess says, "What happened to her body? I understand from my fellow priestesses the large facial injury that split open her skull occurred after she had died as evidenced by the lack of blood in the wound, and by the way, you managed to break her right arm and left wrist when you collapsed upon arrival. Do you always look after your friends so well?"

Overhearing the argument a woman walks up to Kodos who is watching the Priestess leave.

"Hello. I am Hanu and I overheard your discussion with the Priestess. I too found out the hard way that this temple is having trouble healing the injured. Just last week I was trampled by a horse riding idiot as a mob was chasing after him. The Prince has re-declared Sel-kai to be horse free. Why on Kulthea people insist riding horses in streets not designed for them? Anyway, I have been healing for the past week after being injured. It has been a very strange experience as the Priestesses' prayers to Eissa are not always being answered. It shouldn't take a week to heal my minor injuries."

"Huh? What? Who are you?" - Kodos.

"I am Hanu and overheard you are having trouble with the completion of a quest. I am a currently out of work fighter and will be willing to help out for a price."

Kodos looks at Hanu with glazed eyes, then, with a clarity of mind he had never experienced before, he responds, "Hey, you look strong, are you a fighter, would you be willing to help us out, one of our party members had died trying to get this Life Stone thing from a bunch of Lugroki [orcs - GM] and we need another person?"

"How much have you to offer for my assistance?" - Hanu.

"Here is a gold piece." - Kodos flings the coin to Hanu who deftly catches the gold greedily; it sparkles, reflecting the firelight of the torches in the temple.

Realising she has been hit with a small fortune, but not wanting to sound surprised or worse, poor, Hanu responds, "I suppose I could give you a month of service with this, but no more. Let me get my gear and we can be off ..."

A short time later and finishing his discussions with the High Priestess, Kodos finds out that Shashari's life hangs in the balance, though he is assured that, with the Life Stone returned to the temple, Shashari will make a full recovery.

Kodos asks Hanu to get ready for returning to the party that awaits them. He leans over and tells Hanu to hop on.

"I have to what?" - Hanu.

"You must get on my back if you are to come with me. I can only teleport myself and what I carry to our destination." - Kodos.

"Kodos, what did that Priestess mean when she asked 'Do you always look after you friends so well'?". Kodos feels the warmth of Hanu's body against his as he tries to concentrate on his teleporting ...

"You are not allowed to bring your own entertainment here, unless, of course, you are both here to pay for services rendered."

"Kodos, this hardly looks like the dangerous dungeon you mentioned." - Hanu.

A beautiful scantily-clad, lace-covered woman approaches and a Changramai warrior stands at the ready. "Dungeon? This is no dungeon. If you want a dungeon, I suggest you go to Marika's House of Pleasure. You'll find my women here at The Black Velvet are of the highest quality and with beauty beyond compare."

Kodos realises what he has done and quickly closes his eyes to concentrate on the party's location at Hightower Tor. Hanu feels the heat emanating from Kodos' face as his cheeks go red, "Umm, Kodos, why are we here? What are you thi ..." And with that Kodos successfully teleports Hanu and himself into the middle of the secret guard room.

Back at the camp, the last two days have been very quiet. No goblin activity or sounds at all. This is strange, but welcome. The respite gives all PCs a chance to fully recover from their injuries.

Towards the end of the second day of rest Kodos appears in the middle of the room with a strange woman on his back.

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The others are wondering where Shashari is and Kodos informs them of the fact that she is still in life-keeping due to healing problems at the temple. He fails to tell of his adventures and quickly introduces Hanu. A debate about money ensues as Rikku tries to buy Hanu's services as a bodyguard. But Kodos says he has paid Hanu money so that all the party will benefit.

Hanu informs the party that she is still recovering from injuries sustained from a hit and run incident with a horse rider and mob to which complaints are made to Kodos about bringing an injured person into the group. Hanu assures them that she will be right to go in an hour or so; it is to ensure she doesn't reopen her bleed wound.

After resting with a bit more discussion related to Hanu, the party leaves the secret room and heads back up the corridor where they encountered the spider bats. They reach a door that has a blue glow coming from the gap at its base and it is locked. Rikku performs his usual waste-of-time-because-his-player-rolls-so-low trap check. No traps are found (how surprising) and so he picks the lock on the door. This he manages to perform, however, he has a distinct feeling that he missed something. He informs the rest of the party of this who, after a brief discussion, head on into the room anyway.

"Through the doorway you see a large room, the floor in a state of disrepair. As you listen for the sounds of possible inhabitants you can hear the sound of running water. A large chest stands at the far end of the room. There does not appear to be any other exits from the room."

The PCs feel an immediate pull to the chest at the back of the room? Is the geas the High Priestess put them under trying to tell them they have found the stone and that they are not to turn away from this chest?

Cavell is suspicious of the situation and his player calls for a resistance roll to avoid moving toward the chest. Upon hearing this, other players call for the same thing. Only Rikku manages to pass the RR and hangs back at the fountain in the middle of the room. All other players move to the chest.

It is locked. The PCs call Rikku in to unlock the chest, but before he moves the party hears the door to the room close and lock behind them. "Ah, so that's what I missed.", thinks Rikku. "The lock was opened but not set to stay open." The chest has a yellow glow coming from inside. They try to see inside through the cracks but cannot make out anything.

Rikku moves to the chest and gets in front of it to open the lock. He checks for traps first - no traps, how surprising - NOT! The lock is opened easily and before the others get a chance to say something, Rikku opens the lid. Too late!

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down into the spike pit trap, but before he realises it, Hanu has grabbed his armour and manages to hold his weight, lift him out and save his life. Well done Hanu! The PCs push the heavy chest to the other side of the room and investigate the gleaming gold inside.

"Gold doesn't glow!" says someone.

Asmodeus is chomping at the bit wanting to get his grubby little hands on the gold. Rikku pokes the gold with his weapon. "It's real alright. I put my hand in and touch it."

"The golden gleam fades leaving behind a chest full of iron pieces." - GM.

Summarily unimpressed the PCs are informed by the GM they still feel that this is what they have come for. Asmodeus cannot stand it any longer and dives into the coins, throwing a handfull of coins behind him at a time. Five minutes later he has made a slight dent in the amount of coins but his progress is slow. The others can't wait any longer and so up-end the chest. The coins pour out onto the damaged floor. The sound of the iron pieces is very loud for a short time and all look to see sitting there a dull grey stone. Asmodeus grabs the stone. Others are asking: "Is this it? Isn't it supposed to be a diamond?" Rikku confirms their questions.

Asmodeus tries a Power Perception on the stone to see if it is magical. He doesn't have much skill in this, actually none, but tries nonetheless and fails unsurprisingly. He stashes the stone away in his pack. Everyone in the party feels satisfied that they have the Life Stone.

Meanwhile Xera has been playing with the blue glowing water and finds that her hands are clean from touching it. Others now investigate the fountain. The water is pure and crystal clear. Rikku drinks some and finds he feels great. In fact he feels so good that he can now use his own skill of Power Perception which was taken away from him for a month. This water is great. Others try out the water too and find that wherever it touches them the skin is cleaned and they feel healthy. Cavell comments that maybe they should have brought Shashari's body here, it may have revived her.

Well, there is nothing more to do in this room and so after grabbing some coins, they leave the room the way they came. Rikku unlocks the door again and they head back to the locked door to the west. (See map.)

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Not needing to go through the locked door to get out the PCs decide instead to head back the way they came. In the first room above they find another portcullis, for which they don't have the key, has blocked their exit. Xera, Hanu and Rikku try to lift the portcullis a few times but fail in all attempts. They decide using Kodos' teleporting ability to get across the barrier is too risky as they would be cut off from each other if they were to be attacked. The party heads back to the locked door.

Rikku tries to pick the lock. He fails and so Cavell, Rikku, Hanu and Xera argue about who is strongest to bash it down. The mighty Cavell loses the argument and Xera takes his place - she is stronger than Cavell! Xera's player points out to Cavell's player that her character has a higher Strength mod. Cavell decides to stand back, relax and watches as the other three bash the door down.

As GM I called for this situation to require a total combined Effort Roll of 300+ to bash the door down. Each player's individual Effort Roll was: D100 + 3 x Strength mod. It took several attempts to bash the door down, but it was quite an achievement and the PCs felt good, Cavell in particular because now his shoulder doesn't ache like the others'.

"Behind the locked door is a corridor leading off the left. It ends in a heavy, metal-bound door. As you move up the corridor you can feel heat emanating from the door. There is no lock on the door."

Hanu manages to push the door open after her second attempt.

"The door is hard to open, being so heavy. As you push it open you feel a blast of hot air from the room within. Pushing the door wide you can see flames dancing from a chasm stretching across the room. Spanning the middle of the chasm is a very poorly made bridge and at the far side of the room is a dragon statue with a pile of gold at its feet. Standing at the far end of the bridge is a big Orc, who is clearly expecting you."

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Here is where the session ended. See you next time...