Lair Of The Orc Lord - Deep 3 (Part 5) & Down The Rabbit Hole

This session saw the collection of treasure from the last cave/room and the grand finale of returning the Life Stone to the Temple of Eissa which was a drama in itself.

The treasure collecting was fairly uneventful with the only excitement occurring when Rikku set off a trap attached to the chest containing the last amulet piece of the Life Stone. The anticlimax was that he subsequently passed the Poison RR easily. The party was very pleased with the treasure hoard they collected, especially the +15 magical short bow that nobody really wanted but was worth almost 5000 gp. Finally some worthwhile treasure! Just one note to add to this – Rikku was NOT given the short bow to look after – for those of you who have kept up with this campaign, I’m sure you understand. 

The PCs leave the orc lair and rest outside and recoup some health for the night knowing that there are no more orcs to contend with in this area, or at least none willing to take them on in a fight. The next day they listen to the GM’s (that’s me) suggestion that, if they want, they can take a detour to look for the pine cones (Melenar herb) that they can sell for gold in Sel-kai. They figure that they need only travel south east rather than straight east to the city – a small detour for sure.

After one and a bit days of travel they come across a clearing in which a large garden and some crops are being grown. In the distance they can see a house but there is no obvious path to the structure. Skirting the garden, not being willing to simply ride through it, the PCs find a narrow path to the house and so dismount.

Rikku takes the initiative and walks the path while the rest of the party rest in the woods with their horses. Rikku doesn’t return after more than 20 minutes and so the other members decide to investigate as a group, leaving their horses behind.

Getting closer to the house, the party members find it difficult to stick to the ever narrowing and increasingly winding path and so are asked to make Agility checks to see if they lose their balance and step onto the garden. Two PCs do fail and after a short time an old ranting mage comes out of the house, waves his wand and everyone loses consciousness.

The PCs wake up in unfamiliar surroundings; everything is a blur as they cannot focus on anything with their eyes. They have no memories at all and do not know anything – it is as if they were just born.

The PCs’ only concern is for food of which they suckle milk greedily from a furry creature. As time progresses they realise they are underground and can see dim light coming from a tunnel. Over time they begin to identify other furry creatures and gradually build up their mobility within underground surroundings. More time progresses and “mother” eventually pushes them out of the warm, secure tunnels into the morning light of day.

A field of grass lies not too far from their location which is a hidden entrance in a briar patch. Mother teaches them many things, the most important of which is how to live as a Rabbit around their home call the Warren. Yes, you did read correctly, the PCs are now young rabbits. (I got this idea from the GURPS book Bunnies & Burrows.)

The following are the transformations the PCs underwent:

Rikku

Sprig

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Kodos

Stripe

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Asmodeus

Oakroot

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Cavell

Chamomile

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Hanu

Raspberry

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Xera

Comfrey

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On their “first birthday” each PC rabbit have the same dream. It is a dream of awakening – a beautiful “light” calling them forth to find their true selves. They are called to leave the Warren and adventure forth to find a senile old mage who is keeping a glowing purple potion they must drink to “become”. They don’t really understand this, but they each instinctually feel that it is what they must do at this time.

For those of you following this campaign, this is the geas they have on them from the High Priestess of Eissa, through it Eissa is calling them to return the Life Stone to her temple. The PCs know nothing of this of course, because they are merely rabbits.

Leaving the safety of all they know, the rabbits, I mean PCs, head off in a direction they all feel they need to travel. After a few days they come across a pack of wolves. The rabbits immediately scatter to find a good hiding place. All but Chamomile are successful and the wolves don’t locate them. Chamomile, however, is cornered by a wolf when he tries to hide in an old hollow tree trunk. Acting on instinct alone, Chamomile bares his teeth and leaps for the throat of the unsuspecting wolf. Suffice to say Chamomile’s player rolls over 200 and gets an E severity critical to boot, severing the head of the wolf from its body. It is at this point the players find out they are not just ordinary rabbits but are in fact killer rabbits.

[Aside: one player in particular found this part of the game difficult to enjoy. They didn’t want to be a rabbit and reminded me constantly. Another player said that they should get used to this type of game as the GM likes using unexpected twists to the game. I don’t think I have ever turned any PCs into another animal before, certainly their consciousness got transplanted into another body, but that was in a sci-fi campaign. The player in question did have an enjoyable session, considering the numerous fits of laughter they underwent.]

Eventually the rabbits do find the mage’s house and the surrounding garden. Two of the rabbits, Raspberry and one other can’t resist the temptation of all the yummy plants in the garden and so dig in and eat. They are immediately assailed by the mage who comes out of his house and shoots a fireball at them. The rabbits scatter back to the forest with only minor injuries. They try again with similar results and decide to give it a rest for some time.

Upon returning the rabbits sit on an old log and look at the clearing. They notice the angry mage is out in his field of crops and so they decide to risk entry. They still can’t help themselves and have to stop and eat every now and then as they make their way to the house. Climbing in through the open widow a laboratory is found and the purple potion is spotted high on a shelf.

A series of jumping attempts are made to get to the potion and it is eventually knocked down without attracting the mage’s attention (due to my very poor Awareness•Alertness skill rolls on the mage’s behalf). The rabbits immediately begin to drink the spilled potion and they each turn back into their original selves without memory of what happened. Six pine cones that look like the ones they are after are also discovered on a shelf in the mages laboratory – these were taken when Cavell was not present in the room.

Finding their horses out in the barn next to the house the PCs make a run for it and gallop over the top of the garden, at the same time wondering how the hell the mage got the horses into the barn without ruining his garden. As the PCs try to attain the relative safety of the forest, the mage is alerted by all the noise and Cavell notices him waving his large hoe high in the air above himself, then sees a bright white mass of electricity make a bee-line straight for Xera. Slowing his horse Cavell bravely puts himself between the danger and Xera.

The ball of electricity explodes on his shield and all about him, frying him in an instant and fusing all his metal armour. In his dying breaths Cavell tells the party to continue into the forest – “keep going, don’t stop”.

More worried for Cavell then about the mad mage, the PCs do eventually stop. Seeing how badly his armour is melted, Xera immediately grabs her blue paste ready to spread onto Cavell and save his life. The only problem is that they can’t find access to Cavell and so start searching his armour for any possible entry points. Three weak points are found and a couple of sections are removed, but it is too late, Cavell is dead. “Not if I can help it” thinks Xera. She grabs one of her Lifekeeping herbs and gives it to Cavell in the hopes that they can get his body back to the Temple of Eissa and obtain some of that free healing they were promised.

Another day’s travel and the PCs see the city of Sel-kai appear before them. Getting Cavell to the temple is their immediate priority, which they achieve quickly with the assistance of a city guard and a wheelbarrow.

Getting healing for the injured Paladin of Kuor was drama in itself. You see a month had past since they left Sel-kai the last time (it is now the 29th of Spring), but to the party members it was only a couple of days. The argument from Xera became “We are not handing over the Life Stone until you heal him!”, however, the High Priestess said she needs the Life Stone to heal Cavell. A catch-22 if I ever saw one!

The professor of the Nalandar College of the University was called in to validate the Life Stone they had in their possession and an armourer was hired to open the can encasing Cavell so that the priestesses could get to him in order to heal him. After the professor convinces Xera to allow him to handle the pieces, he puts the Life Stone together and is beaming with joy that he has had the chance to hold the artefact. The professor hands it over to the High Priestess to Xera’s annoyance. Cavell’s magical armour is ruined and he will need to buy a new set! Discussion about the mad old mage in the forest is brought to the attention of the professor and it is found out that the mage is probably Andraax, a powerful Loremaster gone mad, but that is only rumour and not proven.

The High Priestess immediately goes to work on the now unarmoured Cavell, casting her cleric spells that transfer the wounds of the injured onto the healer. As the party watches, Cavell is healed while the High Priestess takes on the cooked visage of the brave paladin. The priestesses usher out the group of adventurers to allow the High Priestess time to heal.

Cavell explains to the rest of the party that clerics heal by transferring the wounds of the injured onto themselves and then their body automatically heals the wounds by subconsciously casting the appropriate spells. This is different to Xera, a lay healer, who casts the appropriate healing spells on the injured whose wounds heal over time.

At this point in the game experience points are awarded and it is ascertained that a few PCs can once again level up. This will be performed next time, however, due to Christmas time commitments, the next gaming session will only be for developing and some different gaming in the form of a board game will be played rather than role-playing.

This campaign blog will continue once the next session runs…

Lair Of The Orc Lord - Deep 3 (Part 4)

Game day: 3rd November 2007 - I am a little slow getting this blog written.

Several hours go by as the players, all except Kodos, develop their character to the next level. Now most characters are level five and looking forward to using their new found skills. Only Kodos and Hanu remain at level four. Channeling magic users are the only ones who are permitted to develop their spells, which means Cavell has to fork over 10 % of his cash earnings as a tithe and he is happy to do so. Even though the tithing occurs at his god’s temple, it is carried out now so I don’t forget to ask for it later. Other spell users spend their development points on spell lists but do not have access to them until they do their training when they return to Sel-kai.

And now we return to the PCs who are preparing to go into a curtained-off part of the caves.

Standing with Cavell at the curtain just about to open and enter the room beyond, Hanu realises she is aching all over from the injuries she had received in the previous fight. She decides to move back and let Xera work her magic. Rikku moves up to take her place. Not thinking straight Xera considers casting a spell that heals one hit point per minute. I reminded her player that it will take almost two hours at that rate. Xera decides to use her blue healing paste and rubs it on, which instantly cures all injuries on Hanu.

Rikku, upon moving into Hanu’s position at the front of the party, look at Cavell then brushes aside the curtain. These two at the front are immediately assailed by several arrows as the orc archers at the rear of the cave let loose their bow strings. Cavell and Rikku can see the numerous orcs before them and wonder if this was a good idea.

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After the arrows were fired the two closest orcs moved in to fight with swords. A third orc from the group at the rear of the cave failed his Self Discipline check and ran forward to bring death to the invaders. He was immediately taken out of action as the orc archers continued to rain fire upon the PCs – instead of all the arrows hitting the PCs they shot their own comrades in the back for the most part. (GM’s, my, poor rolling I’m afraid!)

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After the front three orcs are taken care of, Cavell leads the charge into the orc archers, closely followed by Rikku and Hanu. The other orc swordsmen move into combat at this time. With such a tightly packed group of fighters, Asmodeus takes the opportunity to prepare his area of effect spell – the deadly Vacuum spell, centred on Cavell! Xera’s chakram stays holstered and instead prepares her healing spell as she has no clean line of sight on the enemy. Kodos is too scared to move, just in case he reopens his bleed wound again.

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The three lead PCs manage to take out only one orc before Asmodeus causes the air around them to disappear and then rush back in with a vengeance to fill the void. Cavell immediately goes down with a broken neck along with three of the five orcs attacking them. Rikku is injured badly enough that he disengages from combat (his foe is down anyway) and moves back to Xera who is prepared to heal him. Only the tough Hanu is left to fight the remaining two orcs. Asmodeus is extremely pleased with himself and his player makes an evil smile.

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I must admit, this is my fault. It was I who encouraged Asmodeus’s player to take advantage of the situation with the crowding orcs around the three PCs. I showed him that it was best to centre his spell on Cavell. It was I who continued to give him the thumbs up even when the others where arguing with (begging) him not to do it. Ahhh! I relish in the power I have as GM over these puny humans, mwahahahaha!

Actually, it didn’t take much convincing on my part at all. Asmodeus’ player saw a unique opportunity to eliminate many of the orcs troubling them [“yeah and to kill another one of Cavell’s player characters!” – Xera’s player]. This was a very dangerous situation and they still had not come up against Gorgut.

Players now talk frantically about how best they can save Cavell. He has a broken neck with only 12 rounds (5 minutes) of life left. All eyes move to Kodos’ player because Kodos has the ability to teleport him on his back to the Temple of Eissa where they can get free healing. More discussion ensues regarding just how unreliable that healing actually is and how Shashari, their former party member, is still waiting in the temple to be fully healed. Kodos is reluctant to get involved as it means he has to move into the combat zone. I remind Xera of her blue paste and that it will instantly heal any and all injuries a person is suffering. Xera doesn’t hesitate and moves to Cavell, giving him a nice rub down with the blue paste.

Meanwhile, Cavell’s player’s worst nightmare manifests itself in the shape of an immense orc, Gorgut, coming through a secret door hidden under the furs on the floor. Only Hanu is there and she already has two orcs attacking her. She decides to face the huge orc leader and moves into combat.

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[Aside: This is not the first time Kodos has been reluctant to help out the group and it is quickly becoming a problem for them as he is unreliable – something an adventuring party can’t have if they are to survive into the future. Someone in the party needs to talk to him and that should fall to the leader, Rikku, however, he doesn’t appear willing or even truly aware of the dire circumstances they can be in if they cannot count on Kodos when he is needed.]

Hanu’s player character puts her attack efforts into the Snap combat phase hoping to get first strike on Gorgut. As GM I elect Gorgut to attack in the Normal phase. This is done secretly of course and is revealed as the combat progresses.

When combat starts I ask for Snap phase actions first. Hanu is the only one acting in this phase with all the orcs acting in the normal phase. Hanu swings her mighty flail, surprisingly getting past his defences and critically hitting Gorgut (Hanu’s player rolled very well indeed). Hanu is a level 4 PC while Gorgut is level 10 so this result was the best she could have hoped for. Gorgut does not go down but he takes a chunk of damage is stunned for one round. Hanu thinks she can breathe easy now but she doesn’t know what Gorgut has in store.

Gorgut, now stunned, attempts a Self Control•Stun Removal skill check in order to break the effects of the stun. He fails (oh bugger! – GM) and so cannot attack Hanu this round; this also gives Hanu further opportunity next combat round if she can hit him quickly enough. The next round does not see as much damage being done to the orc leader, however, Hanu does manage to stun him again for one round with a No Parry result included. This means that the orc cannot try to parry any attacks and so has limited defence options. While attacking Gorgut, Hanu has been lucky that the other two orcs have done very little in the way of damage against her. Only one orc truly concentrated its attacks on Hanu, the other was shooting at Rikku who eventually went down to only 7 hits of health remaining at the end of the combat.

Xera backs away from Cavell and uses her chakram on an orc, killing it over a couple of rounds. Cavell manages to stand after being incapacitated for a couple of rounds while Xera assisted him. He immediately places his attention on the orc attacking Hanu from the flank.

An enemy not having any defence is a really good thing for a PC. Hanu tries to take full advantage of Gorgut’s run of bad luck and while she doesn’t do a great deal of damage, manages to get a Stun + No Parry result for three rounds! This is the beginning of the end for poor old Gorgut. He can’t attack and is now trapped in his own cave. “Sweet” thinks Hanu.

Cavell dispatches the last remaining orc archer, turns to assist Hanu defeat the large brute, Gorgut and sees that she gets the mightiest blow on the doomed orc slaying him.

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More interested now than ever, the PCs search the orcs and in particular Gorgut, for the third amulet piece of the Life Stone they have been trying to find these couple of weeks. Some other good treasure is found, but … Nothing! What???! Where can it be?

The game is stopped here and will resume in four weeks time due to player commitments.

Progression of the Deep 3 map:

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