Session 3: Fish-men and a Guardian Spirit

Bitter cold and howling winds did not keep us from playing.

The Party:
Batista, human thief, approximately 310 points
Orivileni, who is called Ori, Wood Elf scout, approximately 310 points
Aquinas, Dwarf cleric, approximately 310 points
William Von Cromberg, human knight, approximately 310 points
Drav Emberstrike, dwarf wizard, approximately 310 points
Aelwine, human wizard, approximately 300 points



The session started with the party in town doing research, gathering rumors, and trying to arrange for a wagon team to accompany them to Castle Falconflight.
 Drav spent time at the Academy researching the guardian spirit discovered near the end of the last session. He learned that the Otoroshi would leave the group unmolested, if they had good intentions when they entered the tomb.
The rumor mill was in full swing. The PCs learned that: 1. A dragon lives in the dungeon. 2. A man recently came into town with four gargoyle heads and a large number of gems. 3. A beautiful woman lives in the dungeon. 4. Some of the trees near the castle are sentient and will attack. 5. The dungeon leads to a lost dwarven city.
After several failed attempts to hire a wagon team, the owner of the White Wyvern Inn took pity on the adventurers. Arrangements were made for the party to take one of the Inn's wagons in exchange for a small portion of any loot returned to town.  The group also rigged up a large wooden crate with long wooden handles, a la the Ark of the Covenant, to transport treasure out of the dungeon.

Once again, the group set out in the predawn hours, over the river and through the woods to Castle Falconflight. They arrived at the edge of the clearing. Here the companions decided to head for the front gate instead of the side entrance they had been using. All was quiet as they neared the Castle gate. Batista made the gruesome discovery that the portcullis had crushed a man when it fell from its rails. Judging by the state of decay, the large number of insects feasting on the corpse and the foul smell, Aquinas came to the conclusion that the deceased had probably already had his last rites. Batista then searched the body, discovered a set of Delver's Webbing and 2 or 3 minor healing potions.

Some talk was made of sending Batista up the wall of the Castle to open the gate from the inside. This plan was quickly rejected by Batista. Instead they made their way around the castle to the larger section of broken wall. They had avoided this area previously because of the large number of footprints in and around the gap in the wall.

Batista was first in. The room, part of one of the cornet turrets, was well used as evidenced by many muddy foot prints tracked in and out of the room. On one wall a mustard colored cloak hung on a peg. Batista investigated, disturbing a large colony of yellow mold in the process. Everyone made their resistance rolls, and a pearl was found sewn into the hem of the cloak.

After getting their bearings the adventurers made some assumptions regarding the layout of the castle.Taking the first staircase they came across, they made their way to the roof.

Looking down into the courtyard Ori spied movement in the waist high grass.  Sadly he was unable to spot anything more. In an effort to lure out whatever was in the grass, Aelwine created an illusion of a weak, yet oddly chubby squirrel and set it limping through the grass. Nothing attacked the squirrel so after a minute the spell was dropped. Still concerned, the idea was struck upon to have Drav set the grass ablaze with a fire ball and then control the fire to force the creature to reveal itself. Soon a grass fire raced across the courtyard. Several chickens flapped out of the grass then into one of the arrow slots on the ground floor of the castle wall.

A quick exploration of the roof revealed four balistas, one on each corner turret, in various stages of assembly. Rather than remove the balistas, and put them in the wagon, the party destroyed the disassembled ones and sabotaged the two still in working order.

The sabotage completed, they headed for the dungeon below the castle. Taking a spiral staircase the group clomped and clanged their way down.  Rounding the last turn in the staircase, Batista narrowly avoided a spear thrust from around a corner.  A school of five Kuo-toa waited in ambush for the party. Batista leaped across the hall, back flipped off the far wall, then came down with a slash of his sword, but his opponent dodged.  Aelwine was the next one off the stairs, he immediately set to casting an illusion. Ori cleared the stairs but was unable to attack. The rest of the group stacked up behind Aquinas. Sadly this position  made them unable to navigating the few stairs to join the fight. Each of the fish-men made an attack, but either missed, or the target defended. Batista flipped and twisted his way through the fish-men to get behind them. Aelwine's spell activated which created thousands of illusory cockroaches flowing from his hands towards the fish-men. This was very unsettling for the Kuo-Toa. All failed the resistance roll so believed the illusion to be real.  As did William who had pushed past the dwarves on the spiral stairs. The Kuo-Toa made another set of ineffectual attacks. Batista took a swing at one of the fish-men sadly it was not injured. Aelwine set the mass of cockroaches to attack the Kuo-Toa. This action sent the Kuo-Toa retreating towards the open well behind Batista. A trio of fish men attempted to shoulder block Batista to knock him into the water. However, Batista was a nimble one so stayed on dry ground. The fish-men all made good their escape, but left 4 spears behind.

A bit of investigation allowed the group to complete the map of the dungeon. Once that was completed the group entered a trap door in the false jail cell to the library below. Once everyone descended the ladder they made a bee line for the room which contained the mausoleum. The room was quite large, measuring 30 by 21 feet. In the center stood a small mausoleum. The floor was covered in a random array of red and black tiles. An exception being  a path of black tiles which lead from one of the doors on a far wall to the small building.  The group dropped from a small balcony to the floor below, much as they had before. Aquinas and William elected to stay on the balcony.
Ori, Batista, Aelwine and Drav  all had to make 3 jumps to remain on the black tiles to make their way to the pathway. Drav jumped with all of his dwarven might but failed to clear the distance. He fell into a 10 foot pit, taking minor damage. The others helped Drav out of the pit then headed for the crypt. As they approached a sparkle of light revealed the spirit guardian on the roof once again. Batista,  failed to see the creature thus headed for the door of the crypt. As soon as he touched it, the Orotoshi jumped off the roof, slashed his claws at Batista then landed. Batista failed to dodge so was knocked below 0 HP in one shot. Ori loosed an arrow at the eye of the creature, but missed. Drav set loose a fireball which was easily dodged.  Here my memory begins to fade so my notes are incomplete.  I know that somehow the Otoroshi fell off  the trail and into one of the pit traps. Once he had fallen , Aelwine cast a Phantasm spell  of a large stone block that fell from the ceiling which also trapped the Guardian.  That gave Ori and Aelwine time to tend Batista's wounds and poured healing potions down his throat. Seeing how terribly hurt Batista was, William and Aquinas made their way to the floor of the room. Batista, Ori, Drav and Aelwine entered the tomb. William and Aquinas stood guard outside the open door. Aelwine was out of the fight because he was down to 1 FP. Batista was just barely above 0 HP. Aquinas had cast Armor on William upping his DR. As the Otoroshi leaped from the pit and onto the pathway, both Ori and Drav let loose with missiles from the open door way. One arrow  to the eye and a fireball, both struck home! Each doing a fair amount of damage. From here the fight turned into a slug fest. William and Aquinas  flanked the creature, while Ori and Drav took shots when they could. The creature fought well but the combined attacks were just too much. It managed to stay on its feet until it was all the way down to -5x HP

It didn't take long for the adventures to loot the grave. Hung on a rack near the head of the grave was a suit of scale armor. The armor definitely had some enchantments cast upon it so the group surmised it had been made by a master craftsman. Since Aelwine needed to rest, Drav used the time to cast analyse magic, which revealed  the armor was enchanted with deflect +1. The grave itself held no treasure.

It was late, so the party made their way out of the dungeon.  They arrived back to town with no problems.

Otoroshi (shrine protector)

ST	35	HP	35	Speed	6.25	Class	Divine Being
DX:	15	Will:	10	Move:	7	Source	GURPS 3rd ed Fantasy Bestiary p 49
IQ:	5	Per :	5	SM:	0
HT:	14	FP:	14	DR:	5
Dodge:	12	Parry:	12
Melee	Level	Damage
Claw	15	4d-1 cut
Tusk	15	4d-1 imp
Traits:	Sharp claws, tusks, does not eat, does not sleep, sense “inpiety” or lack of respect for the place it guards, healing (all HP healed after 24 hours)
Skill:	Brawling 15,
Notes:	Otoroshi will use stealth and pounce from the roof of the building it protects. Otoroshi will AOA if the opponent is unarmed. Otoroshi will fight to the death. If a Otoroshi is slain, a new one will replace it 24 hours later. There will never be more than one Otoroshi per building, but may be more than one if the location has more than one building.

 Notes.
A pretty fun night of gaming. Both fights went well.
I'm not sure why the group trashed the balistas. They could have added up to a nice chunk of change.
An entire floor of the castle walls remains unexplored.
The party is having a hard time deciding if keeping the armor is better than selling it.
They made a profit, and earned 5 xp for the night.

Superstition and Dice

Gamers are by nature a superstitious lot. Especially when it comes to dice. Many players have their favorite set of dice. Some have that one special d20 they roll only when it "really matters". They may have dice they only use during random character generation. Other players roll one color of dice for skill tests and a differing color for damage rolls. We have most likely all seen someone change dice after a series of bad rolls. While playing at my FLGS, I once saw a guy go purchase an entire new set of dice after a string of failed rolls. Most of us own more dice than we could ever really need in a game. Some players would rather give up a kidney then let someone borrow their beloved dice. Some groups have a big ol' bucket of communal dice that players dig through to find the one awesome d8 they once got a critical hit with.

My only dice superstition is that for each new game, I get new dice. Weather I am a player or the GM, every time the group starts a new campaign, changes rules systems, or tries a new setting, I buy a new set of dice.

This habit originally started as a way to discourage myself from changing characters too often.  When playing in a long running game I would get an idea for a new character and want to play it. Our group rule at the time was; all new characters start at beginning level.  I was always behind the power curve. To limit my character hopping, I instituted the personal rule; New character, New dice. At the time we were on a pretty tight budget.  The money aspect was a real deterrent to changing characters too often.  The mind game worked, and I learned the joys of playing a more long term character.

Then I started GMing on a regular basis, and my gamer ADD reared its head once again. I would get excited about a new system, or GURPS would release a shiny new source book, and I was off the the races. Often I would spring the new game on the players without warning and with too little prep. THis bad behavior caused many a game to crash and burn. So, I put the rule back in place. New game, New dice. While I can afford new dice more easily now, the effect has been the same. I take more time to plan and prepare for a new game. I give the players more warning when changing things up. In general it just slows the process down, preventing rash decision making.

There is an up side to this little quirk. Each set of dice is like a little souvenir.  I can look at a set of dice and, in most cases, remember what game or character they were attached to.

Although we are a couple of weeks into the new game, I have just now gotten my new dice set. The delay was accidental. I ordered some dice at my FLGS, but due to back orders and then discovering that they were no longer in production, they never arrived. I purchased a set from my next FLGS, and now I feel as if I am finally, completely, really and truly  ready for tonight's session.

Chessex Teal-White/black 16mm

my new dice (and my dollar store dice tray)

Session 2: Attack of the Gargoyles

Session 2:

We had five players in attendance on a very cold and blustery Thursday evening.

Batista, human thief, approximately 300 points
Orivileni, who is called Ori, Wood Elf scout, approximately 300 points
Aquinas, Dwarf cleric, approximately 300 points
William Von Cromberg, human knight, approximately 300 points
Drav Emberstrike, dwarf wizard, approximately 300 points


The session opened with the party at the Inn of the White Wyvern. The group spent some time gathering rumors. William learned of some very dangerous metal skeletons in the dungeon. Aquinas thought this odd, as he figured all metal skeletons would, indeed, be dangerous. Batista discovered that some of the locals believe that the tunnels in the dungeon sometimes rearranged themselves.

William tried to purchase a continual light stone, but was not able to afford it. He settled for a stone with a single casting of the spell, which was considerably cheaper, but only lasted 7 days. The rest of the gang made no purchases as they had not made a profit on the last trip into the dungeon.

Again the group set out in the predawn hours. Traveling over the river and through the woods they made their way to the valley of Castle Falcolnflight.  Upon entering the valley, the group discovered that the portcullis had fallen off of its tracks. The falling  appeared to have crushed someone or something, but they chose not to investigate more closely. The guild also spied a large pile of cut stone blocks near the Castle gate. Ori was sent to scout ahead, but found nothing worth noting in the ruined village. The party then joined him in the burnt out house that served as their rally point. Someone suggested that in the future, equipment could be hidden in the house to save time taking it back and forth to town.

From the ruined house the party scampered across the clearing towards the hole in the Castle wall they had used before.  Before they could make it across, a group of Gargoyles swooped down  from the crenelations atop the walls of the fortress. The Gargoyles made one swooping attack, then landed. There were as many gargoyles as party members. The gargoyles foolishly split up to fight the guild one on one. The first round of combat was pretty even. Batista used acrobatic dodges to keep from being hit. Aquinas blocked with his shield, and William parried with little effort.  The gargoyles were very efficient dodgers in that first round, although Drav was able to tag one with a two dice fireball and Ori hit one with a well placed arrow.
After that it went down hill for the gargoyles.  The stone beasts were able to wound both Ori and Drav, but William was able to kill one gargoyle and several others were wounded.  The gargoyles then fled, flying back up to the top of the wall. When the others asked the cleric to help heal them up, Aquinas replied " There are some clerics who can heal people, I am not one of those types of clerics."

Once inside the relative safety of the wall hallway, the delvers discussed options.  One option was to explore more of the castle. Another option was to head straight down into the lower level of the dungeon. Last session the explorers had discovered a passage in the jail cell.last session.  The majority wanted to go down, so down they went. Down the spiral staircase, through the jail cell entering the first real level of the dungeon

The passage went directly to another trap door. This door opened into a library where a bookcase made up the final few rungs of the ladder. William tied a rope to the last of the iron rungs in the passage, to help with climbing out. They also chose to leave the trap door within the ceiling open. When a quick assessment revealed no traps they exited through the only door out of the library.  The library lead into a scriptorium, which contained several tall desks and stools, some decayed parchment and dried ink jars. Another search exposed a door hidden behind a bookcase. Batista loudly announced that since the door was hidden, clearly there must be more treasure to be found behind it. Following his logic, the explorers headed into a long narrow passage. Soon they came upon a side passage, this one of natural stone rather than carved blocks. Without even so much as a "hey which way?" William led the party down the side passage. The natural cave twisted and turned, but always sloped upwards. At a sharp switchback the party stumbled on four giant cockroaches each at least 4 foot in length. Ori, let loose the arrow he had ready, striking one through the eye. William brandished his continual light stone at the insects. Startled the cockroaches fled up the passage. The adventurers followed right behind without attacking, herding the insects in front of them. Soon the bugs were able to find some smaller passages that would have been a tight fit for the group to follow. The group decided to allow the bugs to go. Moving forward the explorers unearthed a passageway.  It ended up being just to the east of the prison complex, down a hallway they had ignored before.

A bit discouraged, they returned to the scriptorium to exit via the only  door available to them.  They advanced down another hall way  into what appeared to be a receptionist area.  A large desk dominated the center while two rusty braziers sat in opposite corners of the room. One wall was painted with a mural, a sun being eclipsed by the moon.

Further exploring led them to a ransacked barracks.  On the wall hung a large tapestry which featured the eclipse design. The looters pulled the tapestry down, rolled it up for William to toss over his shoulder.  The group also located a small waiting room. The waiting room had two hallways that seemed to match up with the reception area. Batista was encouraged by William to pick one and make sure that it did indeed link up. A few steps into the hall, Batista stepped into something squishy. Shining his torch on it he discovered it to be a Reek. Batista made the roll to resist the daze effect of the reek then easily freed his foot before taking any damage.

The hall did indeed lead back to the reception area. At the urging of the player doing the mapping Batista headed down the second hall expected to link up with the waiting room. About half way through the passage a large gonging started to reverberate over and over again. Drav checked for magic and found the hallway to be enchanted. The group concluded it was an alarm spell so they ignored it until the cacophony stopped a minute later.

Beyond the waiting room the party found a one room apartment. From out of the darkness a pale semi solid figure appeared, pointed at the group then shouted "GET OUT" in a low gravely voice. Rather than leave, the party attacked. Ori sent an arrow towards the eye of the creature. The arrow struck home, paused for a split second, then continued through the target without injuring him.  Batista took off at a run for what appeared at first to be a charge at the creature.  He veered off at the last second, headed for a door on the opposite side of the room. Drav conjured a 2d fireball, unfortunately the attack did no damage. William yelled for Aquinas (the cleric) to turn the Wight. Aquinas instead blocked the Wight's attack on his shield then began concentrating on a spell.  William took a swing at the Wight, but it too was ineffectual. Aquinas completed his Affect Spirit spell on William's sword. The Wight simply touched William on the shoulder which paralyzed him. At this point, the delvers decided that discretion was the better part of valor so made a hasty exit out of the room following Batista. The Wight did not follow. William asked Aquinas why he didn't try to turn the Wight.  Aquinas replied, "There are some clerics who can turn undead, I am not one of those types of clerics."  William, upset and confused as to what the cleric was good for asked "What did you do for the Church?!!!" to which Aquinas replied " I passed the collection plate."

The next room proved to be a large kitchen and dining room. On the shelves were many dishes and pieces of cook wear. A quick tabulation estimated the value of the dishes to be  $300.00. Not wanting to be weighed down, the delvers left  most of the find behind. Aquinas and Ori  convinced William to take at least one cauldron with them.

Just off the kitchen in a hallway, a secret door was found.  Failing to disarm the Frost rune trap, Batista just barely dodged out of the geyser of frost which sprayed from the floor. Behind the door a stone staircase led down into the darkness. The party closed the door. Instead they focused on exploring more of the current level.

Through several twists and turns, with a bit of backtracking the adventurers found themselves back in the scriptorium. From here they returned to the hallway behind the bookcase. They passed the cave leading up to the castle.

The next room was rather strange. A steep, red tiled ramp slopped down the long narrow room. On either side of the ramp were several terraces. Each terrace contained a dining table and chairs. One of the terraces had a door behind the head of its table. Batista started down the ramp, but after only a couple of steps the tiles came loose. An avalanche of red tile and dust.thundered down the ramp.  Batista made a desperate leap for one of the terraces, narrowly making it to safety.
The rest of the group avoided the now bare stone ramp, climbed down the levels to the terrace with the door.
Behind the door was a small balcony. The floor 15 feet below them, the ceiling 15 feet above. In the center of the very large room was a mausoleum made of dark stone. On one wall a staircase led to the floor from a closed door. The floor was a random jumble of large red and black squares.   The exception being  a path of black squares that led from a far door to the grave in the center. Batista and Ori lowered themselves from the balcony to one of the black squares on the floor, and after several close jumps made it to the pathway. Just as they were about to enter the small building, Aquinas saw a small shimmer of light, that revealed what looked like a combination of a small bear and a large cat sitting crouched on the roof.  A successful check against his Hidden Lore skill led Aquinas to believe the creature was some sort of guardian spirit. After hearing this, Ori and Batista made their way back to the balcony, again avoiding any red squares. The party returned to town for a  time of rest and healing.  Aquinas felt more information on the guardian spirit was needed before going any further.


Notes

I may have been a bit strong in my encouragement to head down to the deeper levels.

Not taking the dishes, meant the party once again did not make a profit. This is going to make it tough to replace torches, arrows, and healing potions.

Overall a good session. I really need to make sure to take better notes. I got caught up in the exploration and combats so forgot to write anything down. Since it has been a week between playing and writing this post, I may have forgotten some things.

Aquinas really didn't do much in the fight with the gargoyles and I couldn't figure out why. His player is new to GURPS and was reading the character sheet wrong. He thought he only had 5 fatigue points. Once we figured that he really had 16 FP, he was quite a bit more active.

I updated the rumor chart, restocked the areas that have been explored, and in a effort to prevent the PCs from starving to death, upped the amount of treasure a fraction.

Did you hear that?

It's quiet, too quiet. With all of the extra time I had to prep and the limited scope of the campaign, the aftermath of the first play session has been very easy.

Normally I would be scrambling to figure out how  the NPCs would react to the actions of the PCs.  Instead, I am spending prep time focusing on small details, more creative traps, better way to describe settings and monsters. Books on my gaming shelf that haven't seen the light of day for a long time are getting pulled out and perused for ideas. IT has been quite liberating.

Procrastination is my enemy. Waiting until the PCs have gotten close to an area of the dungeon to write up descriptions and stock it will only lead to pain. Right now, I feel ahead of the game.However, in one session the players could take a direction I haven't planned and literally be in uncharted territory. Granted, I have been using quite a few randomly generated maps.  I even have a couple extras lying around, but they are not stocked. I don't want to improvise a new level of the dungeon. Oh, there are tricks to slow down a party's progress: I am not afraid to employ them. I just need to stay focused not resting on my laurels.

I have 3 above ground levels completed, 3 underground levels completed and 3 underground levels started. That feels like a lot, but considering how much time is really spent in the dungeon, it will get used up pretty quickly. Restocking helps this quite a bit, no level is ever truly cleared out.

I just need to stay focused.

Oh hey, the other day I was in my local super giant shopping place while a song was playing in the background. You can find the video here.  I am not Rick rolling you! When designing an NPC bad guy or dungeon level around the phrase "The King of Wishful Thinking" what would you build?

Session 1; Castle Falconflight

Despite an impending ice storm we finally got to kick off the game. I spent the day before, which I had off from work, planning, finishing a few more rooms, and printing character sheets. My printer started acting up, but was I was able to trouble shoot it and finish up with just a couple of minutes to spare before I had to make the after school run to pick up the kids.

Here is the first play report. I will be following a format similar to the one that +Peter V. Dell'Orto uses over at Dungeon Fantastic. I just really like the way it is laid out.


Characters
Batista; Human thief, 300 points
Ori; Wood elf scout, 300 points
Unnamed; Dwarf Cleric 300 points
William; Human knight 300 points
Drav; Dwarf wizard 300 points

The group started out at their residence, The Inn of the White Wyvern. This large inn has been the base of operations for different adventuring groups for years and years. William spent some time chatting up the locals for information about the Castle and dungeon below it. He was able to find out that "the dungeon is picked clean, and a waste of time," and " fire is especially dangerous in the dungeon." this last tidbit sent Drav, the fire mage into a bit of a tizzy. William also spent some time in town, looking for other adventuring groups, observing what equipment they were taking with them, and the injuries they had suffered when they returned. This information was all rather generic, though they did see that parties returned with a myriad of wounds.

The group started out for the castle in the early predawn hours. They traveled over the river, and through the woods. The party found the valley of Castle Falconflight with little trouble. They were a bit surprised to discover a ruined village to the east of the castle. Ori scouted into the village while the rest of the party stayed hidden among the trees. Ori unable to find any signs of recent activity in the village motioned for the group to join him.  After a close stealth roll or two, the group gathered in a broken down house.   The house provided a bit of cover from the castle. The group declared the house to be its "out of the dungeon" rally point. If the group gets separated, go to the house and wait for the rest of the party to come and get you.

From their vantage point the group could see that the portcullis, while still standing, was off of its rails. Vines and other plants had overgrown the lattice work of the gate preventing anyone from seeing inside. They could also see that in many places the walls of the three story structure were broken. In some places repairs had been made, but none recently.  Ori was sent to scout the parameter of the Castle walls. As he made his way from cover to cover, he discovered a tree that seemed to be dead, while all the others around it were in good health.  Investigating further he found the area around the tree to be quite cold. Just as he was about to return to the group to share this information he was hit by a blast of frost. A Frost snake had made its lair in the roots of the tree, for 5 damage. Ori turned and loosed the arrow he had knocked before setting out, hitting the six foot snake in the eye, killing it instantly.

He returned to the party and explained what happened. Drav wanted to take time to field dress the snake so he could harvest its organs for sale back in town but, the group disagreed. Drav eventually draped the carcass over a tree branch, out of the reach of any scavengers, to be picked up on the way home.

Ori once again set out to complete his circuit around the castle. On the corner turret furthest from the village he found a section of the wall that was completely broken obviously used as an entrance by many. There a large numbers of tracks were found going into and out of the castle.

While Ori was gone, the others discovered  a small opening in the wall, hidden in the shadow. It would be a squeeze, but they should all fit though.  Ori returned and told them of the entry way, the group decided that the less used gap in the wall was a safer way to go.

Using stealth the group made their way to the gap in the wall. All made the DX check to slither through. Once inside William lit up a torch. Ori finally remembered to first-aid himself, taking care of most of the damage he suffered in the snake attack.

In a long narrow hallway, arrow slits on either side, the group must make its first real decision, left or right? After investigating the arrow slits on the inside wall, discovering  a courtyard with a keep in the middle, the group heads back towards the front  gates of the Castle. The first door they discover is checked for traps, but finding none, Batista sets to picking the lock. Easily making his roll, he opens the door and finds a closet full of fine chairs, all rotted and moldy. Batista was quite discourage that the closet did not hold all the wealth of the castle. Continuing on to the south west corner turret,a skeleton is seen lying on the floor, in front of a door. While Batista set to disarming a poison trap, The unnamed Cleric checked to see if the body had been given proper burial rites.  It had not so he performed the rites claiming  a set of lock picks (found on the body) as his proper payment for the service of last rights. A loud drumming could be heard, but the group was unable to triangulate from where the sound was coming.
The room behind the trapped door proved to be empty, except for footprints and scat of a few small woodland creatures.

The corridor turned to the West, so the group followed it. Behind a door they discovered a set of spiral stairs leading both up and down. A discussion of whether to try to clear the level, or head down the stairs resulted in Drav being out voted so the group headed down the stairs.  Half way down, William lit a second torch to placed it in a wall sconce.  At this point, the group started marking the walls with chalk making it easier to track where they had been and the line of retreat.

Further exploration of the lower level brought them to a set of barracks. Across the  hallway the group found a passage blocked by a locked iron gate. Batista's tries to pick the lock were unsuccessful. A bit further down the hallway Batista finds a large key ring in the Jailer's quarters.  He attempted palming it so that no one else could see it.  He fooled every one except the Cleric.  Batista announced that he will give the lock on the iron gate a second try. Using slight of hand he opened the lock with the key. With a great flourish and loud announcement of his success, Batista lead them down the corridor into a jail. The cells are all locked, and empty. Batista makes quick work of the locks. In one cell they found that the door also had a key hole on the inside of the door.  Thorough searching discovered  the cell has trap doors in both the ceiling and floor.

Due to some good mapping by William's player, they realized that the jail was directly under the keep. Opening the ceiling trap door, they discovered a ladder of iron rungs set into the wall of narrow vertical passage. Seeing it as an opportunity to avoid crossing the open courtyard to get to they keep, they started up the ladder.  Batista went first, followed by the dwarves, who needed a boost to reach the first rungs of the ladder, then William, and Ori bringing up the rear.

At the top of the ladder, after opening another trap door, they discovered a chamber pot. Batista spent a long time examining the chamberpot, but in the end decided it was just a regular, old pot.  The room the chamberpot was housed in was quite small, really only room for two people. Exiting the room they found themselves in a a bed room. All of the furniture was smashed. Moving on, they explored a large sitting room with a spiral staircase leading down. From two small balconies  they discovered  they were on the highest level of the keep. A second bedroom was also located. Ori watched the outer walls of the castle while the others searched. Spying movement on top of the Southwest turret, he went to tell the others, but when they returned, whatever it was, was gone. Hearing the drums again, they failed to locate them, again.

The party continued down the levels of the keep.  The second level being servants quarters. The ground floor housed a great hall and a kitchen. A small bit of treasure in the form of spices was found in the larder just off the kitchen.  Ori was peering out the back door of the keep, trying to locate the source of the drumming, when an ork stepped up to the ledge of the Northwest turret.  It dropped its pants to urinate over the ledge.  The ork spotted Ori (after a critical stealth failure). The party retreated back up the keep to the second floor and waited to see what the orks would do.  They didn't have to wait long.  The orks crossed the courtyard to head up the stairs. As soon as the first ork was in view Ori loosed an arrow into the eye of the charging ork, killing it instantly. The second ork grabbed the falling body and threw it at Batista, who was waiting near the stairs with his saber in hand. The throw was short. In the melee that followed the party made pretty quick work of the orks, most falling in two or three attacks. Only one ork manged to survive as it surrendered.

It was getting late so the party stripped the armor and weapons off the orks. Gathered the few little things they had found and headed back to town.  They forced the remaining ork to carry the loot, then set it free before they arrived at the Inn.


Notes:
Overall, the night was a success. The adventure started out a bit slower than I would have liked, but that was entirely my fault.  Castle Falconflight is a well known dungeon.  It just made sense that a lot of the areas were already picked clean. The group established a good marching order, some rally points and discovered an entrance to the next level down. I awarded four experience points as the meager treasure was not enough to cover the party's expenses.

I have already restocked the rumor chart and explored areas of the castle. The next session is scheduled for just after the New Year.

Deja vu all over again

Two weeks ago I posted final prep for the game was in full swing. It was my turn to GM. I would be sending a group of adventurers to the Ruins of Castle Falcolnflight in search of treasure, fame and more treasure. Circumstances changed and we played a different game that night.

Now, once again I am beset with the "first night of a new campaign" jitters. This time my worries are all from a different source.  Two weeks ago it was the material of the game that was giving me butterflies. Thoughts of the party racing beyond the finished map, not having enough monsters, etc filled my head.

This time around I am more worried about the running of the game. Areas of concern include

• Having a large group
• having two new players
• working from minimal notes
• introducing new concepts to the players

Eight players is a lot. IT is a good problem to have.  I would rather have too many players than not enough. The challenge for me will be to establish control. Not of the characters or players, but of the room. I will need to establish leadership. Some of this leadership is already in place through out implied social contract. The rule being, the GM is in charge. However, with a group this large I will need to have a bit tighter control than usual. I don't want the night to be a shouting match of the players trying to get my attention. I do want all of the players to be involved and active. 

Two new players. Awesome! I don't know them, not as awesome. They are friends of friends, so I know they will be good guys. They have a long RPG history, that too is good. I don't need to spend time talking about the basics of  table top gaming. I don't know if they have any GURPS experience or not. Not an insurmountable problem, but it does take a while to get used to a new rule system. I am looking forward to them joining the group. New blood will bring new ideas, and hopefully some new jokes to the table.

With the scope of the megadungeon, I have kept my notes on each room pretty bare bones. I have all the stats for the doors etc and a one or two sentence description of the room. The plan is to expand the description at the table, making notes if I add things to the room. I need to spend some time re-reading my collection of GMing articles about describing locations and evoking responses from players.

Player mapping, a more adversarial GM, and open rolling are three things that will be different from my last campaign. None of these is a groundbreaking advancement in the world of gaming, but there are concepts that are a bit different than the group is used to. I am sure they are up to the tasks at hand. 

One of the Player Characters

Most of my playing group is not all that familiar with GURPS. because of this, I offer to build characters for the players. A two edged sword for sure. My building the characters for them doesn't really help them get to know GURPS better, but It does save time at the table.

When I build a character for a player, I try to offer them three variations on a theme, based on information they have given me about what they want to play. Sometimes this is just a couple of weapon choices, or a different spell list. It might be different perks and power-ups. Or maybe it is an added lens. This helps give the player a bit of ownership of the character.

Here are the options for a player looking for a barbarian character. I chose to go with added lenses. This was done to help separate the character from the knights in the group.

Name:
Race: Human

Attributes [190]
ST 18 [63] (ST includes +1 from 'Extra ST')
DX 13 [60]
IQ 10
HT 13 [30]

HP 27 [17]
Will 10
Per 12 [10]
FP 13

Basic Lift 72
Damage 1d+2/3d

Basic Speed 7 [10]
Basic Move 8 (Basic Move includes +1 from 'Gigantism')

Ground Move 8
Water Move 1

Social Background
TL: 2 [0]
Languages: Common (Native) [0].

Advantages [105]
Barbarian Damage Resistance (2) (Tough Skin) [6]
Barbarian Damage Resistance (Crushing) (2) (Limited (Crushing only); Tough Skin) [2]
Combat Reflexes [15]
Extra ST (1) (Affects displayed ST score; Size) [9]
Hard to Kill (2) [4]
High Pain Threshold [10]
Lifting ST (1) [3]
Outdoorsman (4) [40]
Trading Character points for Money ($1000) [2]
Very Fit [15]

Perks [2]
Weapon Bond (Two-Handed Sword) [1]

Disadvantages [-40]
Bloodlust (12 or less) [-10]
Gigantism [0]
Low TL (-1) [-5]
Overconfidence (12 or less) [-5]
Phobia (Machines) (12 or less) [-5]
Sense of Duty (Adventuring companions) [-5]
Social Stigma (Minority Group) [-10]

Quirks [-5]
_Unused Quirk 1 [-1]
_Unused Quirk 2 [-1]
_Unused Quirk 3 [-1]
_Unused Quirk 4 [-1]
_Unused Quirk 5 [-1]

Packages [0]
Barbarian (Dungeon Fantasy) [0]
Barbarian Advantages (Dungeon Fantasy) [0]

Skills [48]
Animal Handling (Dogs)  10 [2]
Brawling 13 [1]
Camouflage 14 [1]
includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'
Climbing 12 [1]
Disguise/TL3 (Animals)  8 [2]
includes: -2 from 'Gigantism'
Fishing 16 [1]
includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'
Forced Entry 13 [1]
Hiking 12 [1]
Intimidation 10 [2]
Lifting 12 [1]
Mimicry (Animal Sounds) 12 [1]
includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'
Naturalist (Earth) 12 [1]
includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'
Navigation/TL3 (Land) 14 [2]
includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'
Observation 11 [1]
Running 12 [1]
Stealth 13 [2]
Survival (Woodlands) 15 [1]
includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'
Swimming 13 [1]
Throwing 14 [4]
Tracking 15 [1]
includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'
Two-Handed Sword 17 [16]
Weather Sense 10 [2]
Wrestling 13 [2]

Stats [190] Ads [105] Disads [-40] Quirks [-5] Skills [48] = Total [300]

Hand Weapons
1  Greatsword  LC:4  $800  Wgt:7
    Swing  Dam:3d+3 cut  Reach:1,2  Parry:13
    Thrust  Dam:1d+4 cr  Reach:2  Parry:13

Armor & Possessions
1  Canteen  $10  Wgt:3
1  Double Mail Hauberk  $1040  Wgt:88
2  Iron Spike  $2  Wgt:1
1  Mail Coif  $55  Wgt:4
1  Torch  $3  Wgt:1

A nice solid barbarian, nothing fancy, but still effective.  I haven't done any background or chosen any quirks, leaving that for the player.  

The Second option is actually a swashbuckler, with a barbarian lens.I did this for the weapon master and the speed. While working through the Swashbuckler template, I made sure to keep the barabarian aspect of the character in mind.

Name: 

Race: Human

Attributes [160]

ST 13 [30]

DX 15 [100]

IQ 10

HT 13 [30]

HP 13

Will 10

Per 10

FP 13

Basic Lift 34

Damage 1d+1/2d+1

Basic Speed 7.5 (Basic Speed includes +0.5 from 'Extra Basic Speed')

Basic Move 8 (Basic Move includes +1 from 'Extra Basic Move')

Ground Move 8

Water Move 1

Social Background

TL: 3 [0]

Cultural Familiarities: 

Languages: Common (Native) [0].

Advantages [143]

Acute Vision (1) [2]

Ambidexterity [5]

Barbarian Damage Resistance (Crushing) (1) (Limited (Crushing only); Tough Skin) [1]

Combat Reflexes [15]

Extra Attack (1) [25]

Extra Basic Move (1) (Affects Move) [5]

Extra Basic Speed (+0.5) (Affects Speed) [10]

Extra Enhanced Parry (Broadsword) (2) [10]

High Pain Threshold [10]

Luck [15]

Outdoorsman (1) [10]

Signature Gear (Matched Broadswords) ($2,500) [5]

Striking ST (2) [10]

Weapon Master (Broadsword) (one specific weapon) [20]

Perks [3]

Dual Ready (Broadsword/Broadsword) [1]

Off-Hand Weapon Training (Broadsword) [1]

Weapon Bond (Broadsword) [1]

Disadvantages [-50]

Code of Honor (Pirate's) [-5]

Greed (12 or less) [-15]

Impulsiveness (12 or less) [-10]

Overconfidence (12 or less) [-5]

Sense of Duty (Adventuring companions) [-5]

Vow (Never refuse a challenge of combat.) [-10]

Quirks [-5]

_Unused Quirk 1 [-1]

_Unused Quirk 2 [-1]

_Unused Quirk 3 [-1]

_Unused Quirk 4 [-1]

_Unused Quirk 5 [-1]

Packages [0]

Barbarian Advantages (Dungeon Fantasy) [0]

Swashbuckler (Dungeon Fantasy) [0]

Swashbuckler Advantages (Dungeon Fantasy) [0]

Swashbuckler-Barbarian (Dungeon Fantasy) [0]

Skills [49]

Acrobatics 15 [4]

Brawling  16 [2]

Broadsword 20 [20]

includes: Extra Enhanced Parry (Broadsword)

Carousing 13 [1]

Climbing 14 [1]

Fast-Draw (Knife) 16 [1]

includes: +1 from 'Combat Reflexes'

Fast-Draw (Sword) 16 [1]

includes: +1 from 'Combat Reflexes'

First Aid/TL3 (Human) 10 [1]

Fishing  11 [1]

includes: +1 from 'Outdoorsman'

Gambling  9 [1]

Gesture 10 [1]

Intimidation 9 [1]

Jumping 15 [1]

Naturalist (Earth) 9 [1]

includes: +1 from 'Outdoorsman'

Scrounging 10 [1]

Search 9 [1]

Stealth 14 [1]

Streetwise 10 [2]

Survival (Woodlands)10 [1]

includes: +1 from 'Outdoorsman'

Swimming 13 [1]

Throwing  15 [2]

Tracking 10 [1]

includes: +1 from 'Outdoorsman'

Wrestling 15 [2]

Stats [160] Ads [143] Disads [-50] Quirks [-5] Skills [49] = Total [300]

Hand Weapons

2  Thrusting Broadsword  LC:4  $2400  Wgt:6  

    Swing  Dam:2d+6 cut  Reach:1  Parry:16 

    Thrust  Dam:1d+5 imp  Reach:1  Parry:16  

Armor & Possessions

1  Heavy Leather Leggings  $60  Wgt:4  Location:legs  

1  Heavy Leather Sleeves  $50  Wgt:2  Location:arms  

1  Legionary Helmet  $150  Wgt:6  Location:skull, face  

1  Lorica Segmentata  $680  Wgt:26  Location:torso  

Again, background and quirks are left for the player. The image of a duel wielding barbarian is pretty iconic. The swashbuckler template added a lot of dimension to the character.

The final option for the player is a barbarian from the far east.

Name: 

Race: Human

Attributes [162]

ST 17 [63]

DX 13 [60]

IQ 10

HT 13 [30]

HP 22 [9]

Will 10

Per 12 [10]

FP 13

Basic Lift 58

Damage 1d+2/3d-1

Basic Speed 6 [-10]

Basic Move 7 (Basic Move includes +1 from 'Gigantism')

Ground Move 7

Water Move 1

Social Background

TL: 3 [0]

Cultural Familiarities: 

Languages: Common (Native) [0].

Advantages [130]

Chi Mastery Damage Resistance (1) (Chi; Tough Skin) [3]

Chi Talent (1) [15]

High Pain Threshold [10]

Luck [15]

Outdoorsman (4) [40]

Rapid Healing [5]

Recovery [10]

Signature Gear (Poleaxe) ($1,000)
Trading CHaracter points for money ($500) [1]

Trained By A Master [30]

Perks [3]

Sacrificial Parry (Polearm) [1]

Weapon Bond (Polearm) [1]

Disadvantages [-50]

Disciplines of Faith (Chi Rituals) [-10]

Easy to Read [-10]

Gigantism [0]

Phobia (Crowds) (12 or less) [-15]

Sense of Duty (Adventuring companions) [-5]

Social Stigma (Minority Group) [-10]

Quirks [-5]

_Unused Quirk 1 [-1]

_Unused Quirk 2 [-1]

_Unused Quirk 3 [-1]

_Unused Quirk 4 [-1]

_Unused Quirk 5 [-1]

Packages [0]

Barbarian (Dungeon Fantasy) [0]

Barbarian-Martial Artist (Dungeon Fantasy) [0]

Skills [60]

Animal Handling (Dogs)10 [2]

Blind Fighting 10 [1]

includes: +1 from 'Chi Talent'

Body Control 11 [1]

includes: +1 from 'Chi Talent'

Breaking Blow 9 [1]

includes: +1 from 'Chi Talent'

Camouflage 14 [1]

includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'

Climbing 12 [1]

Disguise/TL3 (Animals) 8 [2]

includes: -2 from 'Gigantism'

First Aid/TL3 (Human) 10 [1]

Fishing16 [1]

includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'

Forced Entry 13 [1]

Hiking 12 [1]

Intimidation 10 [2]

Judo 13 [4]

Karate  13 [4]

Kiai 12 [1]

includes: +1 from 'Chi Talent'

Mimicry (Animal Sounds) 12 [1]

includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'

Naturalist (Earth) 12 [1]

includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'

Navigation/TL3 (Land) 14 [2]

includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'

Observation 11 [1]

Parry Missile Weapons 12 [1]

includes: +1 from 'Chi Talent'

Polearm  17 [16]

Power Blow 9 [1]

includes: +1 from 'Chi Talent'

Pressure Points (Human) 9 [1]

includes: +1 from 'Chi Talent'

Running 12 [1]

Stealth  13 [2]

Survival (Swampland) 15 [1]

includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'

Swimming 13 [1]

Throwing 14 [4]

Tracking 15 [1]

includes: +4 from 'Outdoorsman'

Weather Sense 10 [2]

Stats [162] Ads [130] Disads [-50] Quirks [-5] Skills [60] = Total [300]

Hand Weapons

1  Poleaxe  LC:4|4|4  $1087.5  Wgt:15  

    Swing/cut  Dam:3d+5 cut  Reach:2,3*  Parry:12U  

    Swing/cr  Dam:3d+5 cr  Reach:2,3*  Parry:12F  

    Hook  Dam:1d+2 cut  Reach:2,3*  Parry:9U  

Armor & Possessions

1  Cloth Armor Suit  $300  Wgt:24 

1  Light Scale Suit  $1230  Wgt:108 

This guy knows just enough about the power of chi to hurt himself. Given time he will be a force to be reckoned with.

I know which one I would want to play. Which one would you choose?