We open the session by resolving Sir Goldborn's Mud Fight to Freedom. We use the Non-Lethal and Weaponless Combat system, which gives options to pummel, grapple, and overbear. This will be a Grappling contest in the mud pit at the Witches' Sorority, where Sir Goldborn is put up against a mason from Borgogazze. Apart from the two, the other captives are Temaukel, Pocco, and a fisher from Trilo. Sir puts his opponent in an hand lock, and the mason frees himself and bear-hugs Sir. Sir answers by freeing himself and putting the mason in a stranglehold, at which point the mason taps out. Sir Goldborn wins and is released!
At the same time, Green Gary uses his previously-memorized Entangle spell to escape, waiting for a moment where a witch freed him from his magic bond to allow him to do something, at which point Gary Entangles her with the strange roots and herbs that are lying around and flees the scene. He and Sir make their way back to Trilo.
On the way, they encounter a previously-unseeen settlement: a Hobbit/Halfling village in the soft rolling hills. It's called Hobbiton. The Hobbit leader speaks the human language and talks to Sir. But Sir and Gary don't make a good impression as they are muddy from the swamp and also, not Hobbits. So they don't get let in and must go on.
There are no other encounters and Sir and Gary arrive in Trilo, where they rest a few days. Then, it is today (Feb 23). Sir meets with Zelda and Kai the druid in the inn. Zelda was able to recruit three mercenary light footwomen (Sheeana, Steffanie, and Sandy) and equips them with basic equipment. They make a plan to kidnap one of the witches and use that as a bargaining chip to release their friends.
The party makes their way to the swamp bringing Sir's Light Horse, stopping by Hobbitville. The hobbits still don't let them in. The party continues and arrives at the swamp in the evening. They traverse the muddy waters and pull themselves up the wooden platform. Sheeana knocks on the door while the rest of the party hides, attached to the wall of the hut. A witch, Milnara, opens the door immediately likes Sheeana, who makes up an excuse for the witch to step out of the hut for a moment.
As soon as she does so, the entire party descends upon the witch. We use the Non-Lethal and Weaponless Combat system to adjudicate what happens. The party got surprise (1-3 on a d6 due to circumstances), but what should this mean with the Non-Lethal system? I rule that this means that the various attemps to grapple and overbear are unopposed, i.e. there are no negative modifiers due to opponent Strength or Dexterity. This makes the fistfight easy to win. One of Zelda's soldiers overbears the witch and knocks her prone. Sir Goldborn grapples the witch and puts her in a headlock. Zelda quickly ties her down with the 5 ropes that Kai brought. They also gag her for good measure, load her on the horse, and get on the way back.
The way back is difficult since it's soon almost dark. The party takes a rest in the nearby forested hills and prepares to spend the night there, rather than forcing another 10 hr march through the night. In they night, they have a friendly encounter with Maraké's Tribesmen. He is there with them, and helps translate. The tribe and the party agree to fight the Orcs in the West together when the time comes.
The second nightly encounter (d12, 1 = normal encounter, 12 = the witches find the party) is not so friendly. The party fight against 9 hungry giant ticks. They suffer severe damage since the ticks are so hard to hit. Several of them attach themselves to the party members and to the witch who was tied to a tree. It's highly unpleasant and may bring disease. But the party is numerous enough to destroy the ones that are still flying and I rule that since the ticks are immobile while attached, whoever spends a round trying to remove them can just kill them.
There are no other encounters in the night or on the way back, and the party hastens back to Trilo. They bring the witch to Giorno, who holds her in his jail and sends a Message Magpie to the swamp to arrange a prisoners exchange with the witches. The exchange should take place in a few days in the neutral grounds of Hobbitville, and the witches should bring a ransom, Giorno taking 10% of it for his heroic deeds.
But the situation for our party is dire. The ticks have a high chance of transmitting a fatal disease, which two party members actually catch. We also rolled a lot of times for diseases/parasites due to crossing the swamp several times. The latter rolls bring no diseases. Sir Goldborn uses his Cure Disease ability to cure Steffanie. But since it won't be available again until next week, Zelda takes the other sick light footwoman and Sir's horse and speeds to Borgogazze to find a clerical healer. The fee is exhorbitant but Zelda takes a loan from a moneylender and gets the cleric to Cure Disease. Crisis averted! They go back to Trilo.
Some days after that, the prisoners exchange actually takes place in Hobbitville. Giorno and his army keep in check the witches with their spells, and the exchange takes place peacefully. Pocco, Temaukel, Soldier #2, and the other two guys are free! The Boy Abduction Department gives up their magic item as ransom, some strange dust that reveals invisible things. It gets immediately sold for 4000 GP and split up (minus 10%) three ways. Now Zelda, Goldborn, and Kai can level up! They will go train to do so.
The events of this session covered 5 days from Feb 23 to Feb 27. Our three adventurers will travel to Borgogazze and begin training on Feb 29. Everyone will have to do extra service time with their trainers to cover for the whole of the training costs. Zelda will be occupied for 13 days (2 days hp recovery, 1 week training, 4 days service). Sir Goldborn will be occupied for 31 days (14 days service and the rest training). Kai will be occupied for 10 days (3 days service).
Downtime Results
Soldier Number One has finished his training in B'Gazze with his old commander. He used the occasion to taste-test the three potions he had gained.
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