In attendance were;
Thaddeus Whisperheart: Gnome Trickster
Kumak Morudall: Half-Orc Bloodrager
Along for a test run was a new player
Black Jack: Half Orc Fighter specializing in tripping with reach weapons
Tiberius: Human Paladin of Sarenrae
Susan: Human Universalist Wizard
Villster: Human Cleric
Were all away. I was a bit late arriving and found out I was the first one there. So late start followed by character creation for Black Jack led to a rather unimpressive time that was further squandered with yet another loot based issue but I digress.
Having killed chief Ripnugget and collected all the gear from the fallen goblins, Kumak begins searching the 3 adjoining rooms to the throne room while Tiberius, Thaddeus and Susan are discussing the way forward. The first room seems to be some sort of meeting room with papers that do not interest Kumak at all, the second is an armory filled with all manner of dogslicers, horsechoppers, and shortbows as well as a large pouch that appears to be magical. Taking the pouch out to have Susan identify it the door to the throne room opens admitting another half orc, leading a goblin by the scruff of the neck. The newcomer begins a long conversation with the 3 while Kumak finishes his inventory calling from the armory if anyone has asked the new comers name and if Kumak needs to hit him. The half orc identifies himself as Black Jack and Thaddeus calls that violence will not be needed for the moment. Black Jack enters the armory and claims that the magical pouch is his and Kumak hands it over. The final adjoining room appears to be the Chiefs bedchamber and Thaddeus finds both a holy symbol and a key ring there which he pockets.
Moving into the courtyard there are loud noises coming from a boarded up shed which Kumak ignores once it becomes clear that there is a beast of burden inside. Black Jack attempts to calm the beast while Thaddeus throws rocks at the shed to agitate it. Kumak searches the northern rooms and finds another set of stairs down, another meeting room and a privy. Hidden behind the privy he finds a large chest which is locked. Leaving the hidden door open for Thaddeus to work with Kumak heads south to clear out the final rooms before they move down. Thaddeus moves up to the chest and using the keys from Ripnuggets room opens the lid revealing a large quantity of money, a dress and some weapons and holy symbol. Having put most of the money and gems into his pack first, Black Jack follows into the room and declares that everything in here is actually his stolen by the goblins. When pressed by Thaddeus for a manifest of anything else that he might have lost Black Jack claims that he can't quite remember but he will continue with them and point out anything they find that might be his. Kumak meanwhile discovered 2 sleeping goblins in the last watchpost, killing one and taking the other prisoner. Bringing Thaddeus who speaks Goblin they conduct a quick interrogation and learning nothing of value Kumak tosses the goblin off the cliff. Shalelu, and Villister with Tiberius and Susans help meanwhile have managed to shoot a line attached to the bridge remnants across, and with Tiberius, Kumak and Thaddeus pulling they manage to reset the bridge for the moment, bringing Shalelu and Villister across. Black Jack is pleased that the bridge is repaired and suggests they leave, Kumak shrugs wishes him luck and points across the bridge telling the other half-orc to go then but they still have business here. Shalelu mentions that there are goblins mobilizing to reinforce Thistletop and as the best archer she can hold the bridge against them but the group had better hurry. Black Jack decides to come clean about the loot from the chest not being his and asks to stay with the group for an actual share of the spoils. There is grumbling at this but eventually an accord is reached.
Tiberius and Susan move to guard the northern stairway while Kumak, Thaddeus and Black Jack descend the southern stairs. Finding 3 doors in succession ahead, another to their left and 2 more to the right Kumak moves to the 3 doors and opens the left most entering into what could only be described by goblins as a nursery. With 3 feral goblin children in cages Kumak declines to murder them but seeing as the prevailing opinion is to let them starve to death he relents and swiftly executes them. The center door leads into a hallway that branches off to the right and following that leads to 5 doors, 2 on each side and one at the end of the hallway. The first room on the left is unoccupied and littered with birds feet but noise issues from its neighboring room. Trying the door finds it pushed back and a voice calls out for Bruthasmus to leave it alone, he is not in the mood for games. Recalling that Bruthasmus was the name of the local Bugbear giving Shalelu problems Kumak tries his best to approximate the timber of a Bugbears voice and loudly chuckles. Hearing something slide across the door Kumak fears the way barred but a solid shove proves it was only the occupant, a human male, pushing a dresser against the door. Entering the room the man taken aback glances to his armor and weapon on the nearby dresser and puts his hands up offering surrender. The trio agree for the moment taking all his belongings and interrogate Orik. Claiming to be done with this contract Orik agrees to aid them in exchange for his life, arms and armor, and the chance to convince another to join them as well. Quickly sketching out the rest of the level and revealing that there is another level below Orik mentions that the remaining 3 rooms belong to Tsuto, Lyrie, and Nualia respectively. Hearing that the half elf who fled from him earlier is near Kumak moves to his indicated room and quietly slips in, finding Tsuto sleeping. With one swing of the Earthbreaker Tsuto is rendered no more and Kumak claims a magical ring off the now corpses finger. Checking the remaining 2 rooms reveals the others are not around and after giving Orik his bastard sword and banded mail the group moves back to the main room.
The 3rd door opens into a disturbing scene. Evidently Bruthasmus has been passing the time in the company of several goblin whores, and given the relative size differences not to mention bursting in on the occupants the fight in flagrante delicto the combat leaves Kumak with both physical and emotional scars. According to Orik the rooms to the east are where a creature known as a Tentamort has claimed as its lair and up ahead is a chapel where the group might find Nualia, but he warns that she has some sort of devil dogs with her. With that the group steels themselves for the coming fight.
Thoughts:
Again with loot issues. I was actually rather annoyed when Black Jacks character claimed that all the loot found was his and pointed to his +7 bluff that it was believable. I had rolled a 16 vs his 17 and was hoping for the DM to impose even a -1 that literally all the things we had found were his and there might be more but he couldn't remember and would tell us as we went. DM later said he didn't want to get in the argument so I stepped out of character and offered the player one chance if he wanted to retcon anything, after that it, and any consequences from the lie being found out was going to stand and warning that with my loyalty drawback it was unlikely I would continue with him as a companion. The player at first stood by his initial call, but once Black Jack made his case that he wanted to leave and Kumak told him to take his wares and depart the player relented and I chose to interpret it as he never actually tried to take the things. Having not bothered to fight him on the magical bag of his equipment as conducting that in the midst of clearing the outpost didn't interest me as a player it was disappointing that I felt I had painted myself into a corner about not calling him out on items that may or may not be his in the interest of time. Had he just tried to claim one item from the pile I would have been quite happy allowing him his minor thievery but as he entered play with level 3 wealth, while I was still only 450 gold up from my starting wealth (400 of which encompasses the entirety of the Ranseur of which I would only get a share of 40 gold on selling)
No comments:
Post a Comment