We've had several weeks worth of breaks due to real life issues but we finally managed to continue! Our characters kept exploring the dwarven mines, the rogue leading and the barbarian and cleric following suit.
Its clear that having good explorer skills is a great advantage, especially in a place where random encounters are quite rare.
Creepy crawlies
In the case at hand the rogue heard discomforting clicking noises from the excavation ahead and scouted carefully. He then saw a group of giant beetle like creatures who apparently had made their lair there. They didn't spot or care about him, so he backtracked.
After some discussion the group opted to avoid the beetles and explore an alternative route, mainly due to the barbarians fear of bugs.
On that note the player of the barbarian is really getting the hang of the roleplaying aspect which is great fun! Mind she's never played roleplaying games before! I'm well pleased.
A place to rest
They had previously found a section of the mine that seemed to lead to more natural caves, and they went there now to explore. First off they found a natural cavern which had been deserted for a long time, a good place to rest.
Up ahead they heard water running, and as their waterskins were now empty they decided to try and fill them up. What they discovered was a natural cavern eroded by an underground river. The cavern was a pool, filled with dark running water, that although scary seemed well tasting and refreshing.
They also discovered another interesting thing: Up in the ceiling they saw what could only be the underside of a construction, a floor. Eroded by the moist it seemed to have an opening in it, and could provide an alternative way out of the mines and into some sort of nearing of the goal.
However, as they filled their skins something stirred in the waters...
The thing in the pool
The thing rose out of the water and crawled on numerous feet at surprising speed towards the characters! Sickly white in colour, with a small head and black mandibles dripping with venom it threw itself over the barbarian. The cleric stayed back flinging sling stones at it and the rogue swam out in the water to climb the cavern wall to find an escape route up in the construction they gleamed there.
Round 1
Our beloved cleric throws rocks against the wall.
The barbarian and the creature crash into each other, but the barbarian emerges victorious and rams her mace into its body. Greenish yelllow slime squirts out and covers her, and drips into the water.
The rogue climbs swiftly up to the hole above, and discovers that one can indeed go that way and that it ends up in an old abandoned jail cell. He also spots a goblin in the far end of the jail, fortunately with his back turned towards the rogue.
Round 2
The cleric seems to have taken a keen disliking to the cavern walls.
The barbarian and her foe exchange blows, feints and parries to no real effect.
The rogue lets the other know that it's possible to climb up, and that they should try and do so at the earliest possible convenience.
Round 3
The barbarian tries for a wild swing, but the creature retaliates. It's mandibles sinks into her arm, pumping venom into her system. However, her inhuman physique enables her to withstand the stunning poison, and she suffers no ill effects.
Meanwhile, the rogue and cleric again scales the rope up and through the hole.
Round 4
The barbarian retreats towards the rope, still fighting the monstrous beast. Again the monster outwitts her, sinking it's mandibles into her thigh, this time even the barbarian cannot withstand the poison, she freezes in place, unable to move or act...
The rogue, seeing how if she gets hit again she would be in very real danger of dying, comes up with a mad plan: Jump the six meters down, on to the back of the thing, and punch his dagger deep into it's head.
He rolls a Hard (difficulty 5) Jump roll to pull it off, and because of his jump skill he rolls two dice, and because of his agility die type he rolls D8s. He succeeds, and the impact of the fall alone is enough to kill the monster off.
Comments
This was a close call, and a fight against the toughest creature yet (the beast was level 3). The players also did two things at once, something that in the end paid off but which at points looked as if it was spreading them too thin.
The rogue played to his strengths (as did the barbarian) and choose to not directly engage the fight, a good call.
The use of other skills in battle is something that I try and encourage, and this time it worked well. I am unsure of the rules for falling though, I'm sure the rogue should have suffered some damage as well as the monster.
( N.B. The monster was undefined, although actually it was a Corpse eater, feeding off of the goblins waste disposal. )
Jailed
The adventurers all ascended the rope put in place by the rogue. As the snuck up the hole it became evident that the goblin had moved into the far room and closed the door to the former jail.
It was pitch black, so the cleric risked a torch. They oiled the hinges of the cell door before opening it (it was unlocked, the goblins use it for waste disposal ).
As the rogue kept watch at the door (he could hear the goblins playing dice on the other side) the others searched the room. They found random coins, and also a nicely crafted belt buckle inlaid with Rhodochroite crystal in a (mostly) empty potty. But three of the doors were locked.
The rogue and cleric switched places, although the cleric worried he was both deaf and blind compared to the rogue. The rogue picked one of the locks and found a small wooden box with some dried leaves in it. The other two locks turned out to be completely rusted shut, and could only be opened with force (and noise).
Suddenly the cleric came rushing back holding the fold of his robes to run faster. He dived behind a pile of rubble frantically whispering "They're coming, they're coming!!" over and over again. Everyone hid as the door swung open and the two goblins glared into the darkness...
The goblin scirmish
The players all rolled for hide, but only the rouge really succeeded.
The goblins each rolled for perception. One of them spotted both the cleric and the barbarian, the other just the barbarian. They both choose however to go for the barbarian, and rushed in.
Round 1
As they rush in the rogue tries a sneak attack. He doesn't have any rogue specialisations to back this up as of yet (such as Backstab or Sneak), so the only advantage of attacking an unaware opponent in this case is a fixed difficulty of three (Routine). He still manages to miss, and the goblin turns to face him the next round.
Meanwhile the other goblin and the barbarian engages. The barbarian has an interesting idea: To let the goblin come to her and then simply step aside to let him fall down the hole they'd just come up through. I would have allowed this, but she backtracked as she realised that she would have to use her Agility instead of Strength to pull it off (her Agility is D4, her strength is D10).
Instead she engages the goblin the more traditional way. The goblin manages to get the upper hand, doing one point of damage.
Round 2
Viggo hits the goblin engaged with the rogue with a sling stone and kills it.
The rogue instead runs towards the barbarian who is still engaged with her goblin.
The barbarian, meanwhile, sinks her mace into the face of her goblin, killing it instantly.
It was a battle of lost opportunities for the rogue, but nobody in the party took any significant damage.
Comments
This was a straightforward fight mostly. I was very pleased with the barbarians idea and it's a shame it didn't get implemented. What's impressive though is that she's now reflecting on the tactics of the game, meaning she's learning the rules!
Some final thoughts
This was a very exciting session! The fights felt really interesting and varied, and the players were innovative and all shiny.
I felt that the goblins were a little underpowered after my previous nerf (read about that here), but I don't really mind, because now the players can be more heroic as they take on larger numbers of them instead!
I introduced the Quality rule, and we also came up with a new optional rule, so read about them below:
As we played I started introducing the quality rule, asking the players to roll again if they succeeded and had more than one die. Unfortunately they didn't succeed with the second roll at any point so we have yet to try it out properly...
They seemed interested in the potential of doing more damage though, which bodes well.
It felt as if creativity in combat wasn't rewarded the same way it is in many other games. So one of the players suggested some rule for it. After some thought, here's my suggestion:
If a player is extra creative with how she uses her weapons to attack, increase damage type by one (so from D6 to D8 for instance).
Apart from that (and this is already covered in the rules), if a player uses the surroundings as attack (push a rock at a monster for example) use an appropriate skill roll and damage. In general damage type is decided by common sense, from D4 to D12.
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