GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Session 164, Felltower 117 - Level 6?

Game Date: 12/19/21

Characters:
Aldwyn, human knight (360 points)
     Varmus the Hanged, human apprentice (180 points)
Crogar, human barbarian (350 points)
Galen Longtread, human scout (513 points)
Gerrald Tarrant, human wizard (420 points)
     3 skeletons (~25 points)
Wyatt Sorrel, human swashbuckler (378 points)
Ulf Sigurdson, human cleric (366 points)

We started off in town, with the PCs gathering rumors and purchasing consumables. They heard a number of rumors, including one about weird ghost noises being heard rom the towers of Felltower. So, they naturally slotted that into the number one slot of things to do for the day, and spent a fair bit of time discussing spells they need to take to deal with ghosts, discussing if Excorcism will force a ghost out of someone's body, etc.

They headed out to the ruins of Felltower.

They spent some time investigating the towers of the gatehouse and the one fully intact tower of the curtain wall, but found no sign of ghosts (and Sense Evil found nothing, either.)

They headed into the dungeon proper and then down to the GFS. There, they checked the second landing, with the door that wouldn't open. They used one of the six-fingered hands to check the door (they had it preserved with Preserve Food) but found that, just like with their own hands, it would shift very slightly and then stop, as if jammed up from behind. Swallowing a -16 to cast past the door (magic resistance, range, unseen target) is too much to deal with that, so they headed down.

At the bottom of the stairwell, they found the air to be close and tight. Ulf and Varmus felt the effects.

They made their way to the pit down to the next level, where they'd once spotted a sleeping dragon. Wyatt tried to guide them to the Jester Gate, but no takers.

They reached the pit, and sent down a Wizard Eye after putting Dark Vision on Gerry. He saw a dragon asleep in the middle of a huge cavern (a few hundred feet in length, maybe half that wide). The dragon's head was nestled into its wings so he could see little else. Gerry moved the eye around and found a side cavern full of bats with a deep chasm, and then headed back and to a side cavern connecting to the dragon's cavern. There, a giant man-like shape swiped his eye out of existence. They decided to leave the dragon alone.

As they decided to leave, Aldwyn suddenly was tapped from behind and his corselet disintigrated into dust! He turned to see a purple ooze (he fears purple, actually). It attacked him again, as they rushed up to attack it with wooden swords. They managed to beat on it badly as it rusted away Aldwyn's leg armor. Varmus hit nearly with am Explosive Fireball and then Gerry blew it apart with a 8d Explosive Skull Missile. Booooooom. It flew into non-salvageable bits.

Next, they headed to the second GFS. On the way, they passed an intersection. Galen spotted three orc scouts just as they saw him! He shot all three, killing two outright with vitals hits and wounding the second badly. He fell, stunned, but screaming. A second later three more arrows came in. As he fell one missed him, but the other two killed him. They moved up, Gerry used Mass Zombie to take them over, and then popped into a Sanctuary made by Ulf. In the Sanctuary, they rested for four hours to clear up the wooziness from the poor air on this level.

They left the Sanctuary and headed to the second GFS. They reached and pushed through the Will Wall. Once through (which took Luck from Wyatt to pass), they made it to the second landing on the second GFS. There, the right-handed hand held by Aldwyn . . . opened the door!

They moved through, and the door closed after them. They moved forward, and found a level very much like the one above (and below) in layout. So they headed right, seeing if they'd come out on the cavern they could see from the level above. They made a clockwise circle of rooms, all of which failed to give them any egress out. They found a single passage out of the circuit, plus another blocked off entirely by rubble. As they made their way back to the stairs, they heard a fluttering, squicking and squidging noise. They backed off, leaving Galen and Wyatt as their rear guard. Aldwyn and Varmus opened the door.

A weird ooze came down the hallway ceiling and plopped in from of Wyatt and Galen. It was bluish with white highlights. Galen shot it three times, but his arrows all disappeared on contact with it. Wyatt drew his wooden sword and whacked at it. Galen shot more arrows to no avail.

Gerry turned back and put Shield on Wyatt, but the ooze drained it away with a pseudopod even as Galen shot more arrows uselessly at it before drawing his magic sword.

They tried meleeing it - Crogar ran up and whacked it with his axe, cutting it - but the ooze drained the Puissance out of his axe! Galen saw this (no in-game reason how) and put his sword away.

Crogar kept after it, as did Wyatt. Ulf tried to Sunbolt it but it did nothing, ending on contact with the slime. Gerry had generated an Explosive Skull Missile but didn't get to throw it - Wyatt and Aldwyn (with a wooden sword) and Crogar (with his now non-magical axe) finished it off.

They heard a slower, louder fluttering, squishing, squidging noise. They opened the door - actually, it was still open, and fled. They moved 3/4 of a turn around the staircase and waiting until the door closed. Nothing came out, and the door had closed after about a minute since it was opened.

They moved back to the level above swiftly. They headed to the oracular pool, taking a "shortcut" through where they'd fought the Lord of Spite, pausing to put Resist Poison on everyone in case the giant centipede came out. Then, they moved out the other end of the caves. Crogar forced the door there, and was zapped by a paralyzing ray from a purple disk on the ceiling of the room beyond. Galen spotted the disk and shot it to pieces. Ulf used Sense Evil beyond the doors, and found nothing. They moved thorugh the elliptical hallways to the oracular pool room.

Ulf called out that he would pay in coin of the soul, and asked how to get past the doors by the crystal lenses/mirrors. He was given an answer that he related as "the doors know what you want" and that they'd need to hide that to enter. Or something like that. (He paid 1 xp for this.)

After that, they made their way back to town. There, they sold the equipment from the orc zombies, netting $35 each.

Notes:

- The results of failing the "bad air" roll is -1 to all stats (and thus all skills and secondary stats that fall off of those.) It takes 2 hours per -1 to recover, all o which needs to be proper rest.

- Gerry's player said that they should save the Jester Gate for a planned session, since it'll be fun. So they should let everyone know ahead of time, and pick a session everyone who wants to make it can make, and then just go right to the gate. I concur - it's going to be a) dangerous as f***, b) even more rewarding than the danger warrants, and c) a story you want to be part of. We told stories for at least a decade of Harada Takashi having a karate fight on the table of the Mad Hatter's tea party with the White Rabbit from our first GURPS game where they went to Dungeonland . . . no fair just rushing off to the Tavern Level (or whatever it may be) without everyone who'd like to be part of that.

- Wyatt's player has played since junior high school but hasn't fought a dragon. He almost did today. I got a token made for the dragon - I have minis for each and every one of the dragons in Felltower - but I didn't end up needing it. Too bad. The PCs really want to be able to take monsters one by one with no interference by anything around them - either as reinforcements or a second, dog-piling battle. It's getting harder and harder. Part of the challenge of Felltower is that fights aren't always room-by-room, monster-by-monster. It never has been. A few levels are very fiercely and actively defended and those are are not are still actively full of combatants packed in closely. Defending a "kill" might be an expected standard.

- no mapping today, as no one is equipped to map. They'll have to depend on memory.

- that rust ooze was mean, for sure. But HT-6 rolls to resist instant destruction are nice compared to rust monsters. They don't give a roll. The rust ooze is a more dangerous critter by speed and resistance. It probably would have done better to snipe the armor, then flee, then come back to feed. But IQ 0 is a disadvantage.

- the PCs really do get more use out of wooden swords than real ones, in a way. Musashi was right. (Also, off topic, this piece of artwork is amazing in person.)

- Felltower is a tough place, but I do give a lot of thought to how things are operating there. The PCs do, too, actually. Wyatt argued for not killing off the mana-draining oozes as it clearly is why the six-fingered guys (which Ulf voted they call "Gith," as it is "easiest") don't go there. At least according to Wyatt. Killing them off would open the space up to them. I won't say he's right but I won's say he's wrong.

- Does the oracular pool work multiple times per person? They're still not sure. The pool worked multiple times for different methods - Ulf tried a coin last time, then a coin again last time (no effect), and then 1 xp this time. That worked.

- the session ended with Crogar sending his axe off to be enchanted again and Aldwyn ordering replacement plate (Epic plate, this time). I'm not allowing plate to be ordered off the shelf - it's still sufficiently expensive that I can't see it being just laying around. Not for nothing, but I love that my changes to purchases of permanent magic items has meant that the PCs have money to spend. There was a time that the ooze attacks would have hamstrung the PCs for multiple sessions because of lack of funds to replace and fix items.

- Wyatts player made a ditty, "I'm just an oozing ooze" to the tune of Just a Giggolo. That should have been MVP right there.

- Loot was a few bucks as they sold all of the orcs' gear. XP was 1 each for exploration. MVP was tough as no one did anything truly outstanding, but in the end MVP was Wyatt for fighting the mana-eating ooze to a standstill even at the risk of his stuff. It was almost Crogar because he lost a $5K enchantment, so it would be a consolation prize. I can't veto it, but I did express my opinion that that seems like a poor explanation for MVP.