Actual Date: 12/29/2024
Game Date: 12/12/2024
Weather: Cold, clear, dry.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (301 points)
Brother Quinn, human initiate (125 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (335 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (316 points)
Amlaric, human squire (125 points)
Persistance Montgomery (303 point knight)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (306 points)
Leon the Eye, human archer (125 points)
Aaron, Brandon, Cedric, Dortmund, Ernie, Ferd, Grunlark, and Hansel, human guards (62 points)
Bullworth and Oxford, human laborers (62 points)
Honest Charles LeGrand, human squire (125 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf martial artist (298 points)
We picked up where we left off - the PCs had retreated from the second level of the dungeon to the first level to regroup, and meet up with latecomers Percy and Duncan. The full crew assembled, they headed back in, looking for the robots they'd glimpsed the last time, hoping to stomp on the group of them and take whatever treasure they had, while using their hired goons to watch the door to the stairs in case the wizards came up from below to bother them.
Perhaps surprisingly, one of those things happened. The PCs went back to near where they'd unleashed the mold, moved forward, and spotted a mechanical knight - one of the robots.
They enagaged it as it moved up to attack them. Vlad pinged a few arrows off of it and into it, inflicting some damage but not disabling it. It was joined by three more identical robots. The mechanical knights are fast and well armored, but very noisy. Giving off hisses, clanks, and grinding metal noises, they charged the PCs.
In a close-in slugfest the PCs beat the robots down, but it took time - they bounced many attacks, blocked more, dodged many, and just refused to go down. The PCs tried mobility kills, but even taking out a leg left them pulling themselves along the floor in a seated position to attack. They couldn't be disarmed as their weapon and shield are built-in. The PCs tried chopping legs, arms, feet, smashing the head, piling up damage on the torso, and the occasional Lighting and Stone Missile spells, but it took time to put them down. Chop helped with Curse -1 on robot after robot. Honest Charlies held off Percy and Thor's flanks until he was badly wounded, healed, and then wounded again and knocked out. The PCs realized that maybe while they were "holding the line," so were the robots.
Just as the PCs were putting down the 3rd of the 4, more showed up . . . followed shortly by another 10-12 more. Leading the larger pack was a metallic woman with blonde hair, a red robe with a blue sash, and an orb and a wand. They recognized her from rumors heard before about an iron woman who was in charge, and most recognized her description as the infamous Iron Witch of Cornwood.
The PCs kept fighting as the enemy piled up close. Even after they'd put a couple down, they sat back up. Hannari spiked on with a Liquid Ice grenade and froze it pretty badly, after which it didn't seem inclined to get back up. Same with one that Thor decapitated. Otherwise, they generally kept fighting despite disabling-seeming strikes.
The Iron Witch attracted their attacks as soon as she showed up. Hannari tossed a Magebane grenade at her, and she just laughed after it detonated around her. Clearly, she didn't need to breathe and was thus immune. She put up a shimmering shield around herself. Vlad tested for Missile Shield with two arrows - which missed, of course. Duncan tossed a 14d Explosive Lighting into her hex at the floor, and she dove to the floor to get further from the impact point. She was stunned, but only briefly, and cast spells as soon as she was able to get back to position to do so - only a couple of seconds. She cast a couple of spells on Percy and Almaric but they resisted.
As the session drew to a close, Percy drew Agar's Wand and let it dance, the Iron Witch readied a Stone Missile, and the PCs braced for more battle.
Notes:
For those not keeping track, "Robot," often pronounced "Robut" in Cornwood, is Cornwoodian dialect for golem or construct. So naturally, a Cornwoodian Mechanical Knight is a robot. Amusingly, the players pretty much started to see them as tech-based, and tried lightning (to short out the wires), stabbing the heart (perhaps where the power comes from), looking on their backs for a switch, box, or other vulnerable point. I won't spoil it, but it's worth noting that while mechanical in nature, they're not high tech, they're magic and magic-based engineering. No one is going to pull wires and battery packs out of them. Also, shout out to Gort of the Shining Force, who also used to call golems robots.
MVP was Percy for at least 10 critical hits. He got at least 7 in the first 4-5 seconds of the fight, and only missed outright once. He was crit-fishing with a 16 net skill, but that doesn't explain why he was critting at well over the predicted 10%.
There was some discussion about sending Agar's Wand to attack the Iron Witch, but the sword is more defensive than offensive. It can't be sent like an attack dog, and besides, it will protect its owner and fight evil in that order, so "rush through a bunch of unaligned golems to try and kill a wizard while your wielder is getting mobbed" isn't likely. My ambivalence on giving out magic items with any kind of self-will is that this happens - people seem to assume or at leas hope they're like super-PCs that do whatever a player would want. They never are.
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