The dressing dummy did not take kindly to Zephram’s mopping and kept hold of it. Brother Elian came to help, but he got stuck, too. After a bit of pummeling, it let go and stepped back into place. This usually bloodthirsty group let it go, unclear on what had just happened.
Meanwhile, on the stairs, Cel found a wasp nest. Not wanting to deal with a swarm, he wrapped it right up in an old shirt and brought it down to feed to the frogs on the balcony. Quite an amphibian vs. insect battle ensued, but the people decided it was best to leave them to it. Zephram, Killjoy, and Valara check out the big mirror in the corner, but short of ripping out a section of wall, they see no way to remove it and leave it be. Valara tosses a grappling hook down the pool, but getting no reaction, heads upstairs with the rest of the group.
On up to the kitchen, they found Bloody Toes in a fight with some giant birds trying to steal her butchered meats. Dandon closed the door on most of the party after some terrifying shrieks and unhealthy pheromones leaked off the birds. Valara, ever the optimist, tried to make friends with one, but Cel and Dandon quickly brought them low, chasing one out the window to end the tussle. Ushering the rest of the group into the kitchen, they have a quick conversation with a very flustered Bloody Toes, and learn that Bavlorna is upstairs with a guest. Bloody Toes doesn’t know any of her weaknesses, but is grateful that someone is going to do something about her, again.
Looking around, the group takes a cool box from the meat locker, forever dooming it to rot, but without looking inside. Next checking out the distillery, the less dexterous members of the party staying well out of there, they do no set off a catastrophic explosion. Those that went through, head next into the dining room, where friendly Valara meets a Lornling for the first time, giving him a wooden eye she found downstairs, in exchange for a dead fly.
The rest of the group heads out into the hall and around to Lorna’s bedroom, to find the door to let Zephram and Tormirr rejoin the group’s exploration. Cel unlocks and loots the chest in the bedroom, and they search through the rest of the cupboards and Lorna’s things. Discovering four twig blights incapacitated with thirst in overturned pots, sets off quite the excitement. Valara wants to revive them, others want to destroy them, some want to leave them alone, and Killjoy ponders whether they would make good firewood or spell components. He ends up burning them up like the kindling they are, which sets off another discussion about violence.
Cel and Dandon opt out of this quite loud discussion and creep up the stairs to listen in on Bavlorna and her guest, who, at this moment, are remarking on the loud visitors below them. The guest heads out a door and the room fell silent. When the discussion below ends and everyone gathers up, they head through the door and into the study to meet their host.
Bavlorna greets them as graciously as one can greet thieves and murderers who suddenly enter your own personal study, let alone your house, without invitation. Asking what she can do for them, but it quickly becomes clear that bargaining is not on their minds, as they confidently state they will kill her. Tossing a forcecage around as many as she can, Lorna flees out the window on her lilly pad. Calling a couple dozen Lornings to defend her retreat. True to their word, however, they chased her just as quickly and laid her low. But as her brittle body falls to the lake below, it disintegrates, leaving only her belongings behind. It took a while longer to deal with all of her minions, Dandon and Valara finally scaring the majority of them away in the end.
With naught else to do, the victors take the spoils. Looting everything they can find in the lake where she fell and in her home, discovering her main horde in the very next room.
Players Stay Out
Another two-post day, and another, I forgot to include the DM notes day.
I had fun with them facing different types of monsters in this one. Played with a mimic and reskinned some moths – except the moths’ abilities didn’t work on the undead and paladin group members who were the only ones who fought them. Ah well. It was still fun. This still haven’t annoyed the gelatinous cube enough to dislodge him, poor thing is gonna get blown up maybe.
Didn’t even open the cold box to find a still-beating heart inside I don’t believe. And they left half the town unexplored. We’re moving the traders to the next hag town so they can get another shot at that interaction.
Another boss fight ending too quickly. Sigh. I am working on that. Learning how to level them up and such. But I had fun with the Quicklings all attacking so much. Granny might be harder if I read up on the spells today before game. I also fixed a problem with on of my players’ items being too overpowered because I made it up and don’t know what I’m doing. We made it once a round instead of whenever he rolls an attack. So he can’t just ace everything in one round next time.
We almost had our first Powers Check, but it was due to a misunderstanding. So, we backed up, discussed what was going on, what a Powers Check was, and made a different decision. It’s a hard thing to balance when the game is explore, kill, and loot. If I wanted to be a hardass about it, they’d be making powers checks every time they kill something or steal something or attack someone who has not yet attacked them. I don’t want to do that, but picking up sentient creatures and putting them in your pocket for later experimentation seemed like a good opportunity for one.
We got so much loot, the wizard can’t even identify it all in one go. That’s a weird spell anyway. In 2nd, it takes 8 hours, drains your constitution, and can identify one item per caster level. At least the other wizard has finally learned it, too.
