GURPS Dungeon Fantasy: Session 166, Felltower 120 - Draugr Do-or-Die (Part I)

Game Date: 2/6/2022

Characters:
Aldwyn, human knight (360 points)
     Varmus the Hanged, human apprentice (180 points)
Gerrald Tarrant, human wizard (420 points)
     3 skeletons (~35 points)
     1 tough skeleton (105 points)
"Mild" Bruce McTavish, human barbarian (340 points)
Sir Bunny Wigglesworth, human holy warrior (281 points)
Wyatt Sorrel, human swashbuckler (378 points)
Ulf Sigurdson, human cleric (366 points)

The PCs started out in town, gathering rumors. One old man warned Aldwyn to heed the name of Frenzy's last owner - Asif Kinslayer - and stay away from the axe he seeks. They got a rumor about how you can't heal anyone at the greater depths in Felltower.

They spent a bit of time (see below) organizing for the draugr. Once that was done, they headed to the dungeon with some litters, sacks, a couple of wheelbarrows, and other implements of loot-carrying. They headed to the second level via the main door as the trap door isn't big enough for wheelbarrows to fit down easily (nevermind back up!)

Once near the draugr crypts, they ducked into a side room to stash the wheelbarrows, etc. and discuss tactics. They were very concerned with getting the draugr to engage, and with how to deal with their spears. They were pretty sure they'd either take them by surprise, and could initiate a fight with alchemist's fire on some open sarcophagi, or they'd have to exchange fireballs vs. spears to wear them down. There was a lot of if/then discussing (always amusing to a GM, since 9 out of 10 none of them every come up as discussed.)

Eventually they made it down to the crypts, clearing out the smoke with Purify Air and then downing potions at the bottom of the stairs. Waiting for them were the draugr.

The PCs advanced slowly and the draugr threw some spears, getting in a solid hit on Crogar and a near one on Aldwyn, whose armor just managed to defeat the incoming spear. The PCs kept advancing in a line - the skeletons and casters in the back, and a line of Wyatt-Crogar-Aldwyn-Sir Bunny-Bruce left to right in front. Ulf healed Crogar after moving up a bit.

But then the draugr charged with a rush - a half-dozen of them used shield rushes to knock down Aldwyn (who'd dropped his shield on a critical failure earlier) and Wyatt. More rushed in to take advantage. The PCs did their best to fight, but inadvertantly retreated and stepped and left a gap. The draugr didn't hesitate, and five of them ran through. They kept pouring through even as the PCs tried to close off the gap.

The draugr that penetrated were slowed down by the tough skeleton, but two of the other three were easily knocked over and then destroyed - and the other just destroyed - with blows from the flats of their swords. One draug joked, "Hey, these guys are even more dead than we are!" Bruce was slammed and knocked down, after first taking a sword blow to the groin. He managed to stand back up, fending off more attacks, as Varmus chucked a 3d Explosive Fireball only to mildly scorch a well-armored draug.

As the draugr swarmed through, Wyatt sliced one twice in the skull and exposed some rotting brains. He turned - now Great Hasted - and blinded one of the guys who broke through. A similarly Great Hasted Aldwyn killed that one as he tried to crawl away (Calling to his buddies fairly casually that he was blinded), and then finished off another one from the flank. Wyatt took another one out of the ones that had broken through.

The PCs managed to semi-solidify their line, driving back yet another half-blinded draug as more poured in. Only about half of the draug are engaged, but the others are waiting within useful reach.

We called it there as it was getting late and we went in expecting a two-parter.

Notes:

Two players were expected but couldn't make it - Galen's player is sick, and Heyden's couldn't get into Forge/Foundry VTT due to an aging computer. We didn't know the second bit until this morning, so it was too late to pivot back to Roll20 for the day. Sucks, but we'll figure it out. We did get Sir Bunny, who we hadn't expected, so that was a plus.

Best laid plans . . . we were hoping to get an early start. We did not - it was 12:30 (90 minutes in) before people were done buying consumables and getting ready. Then it was 1 pm before they got into the dungeon and started their actual combat planning. So we did get an extra hour of combat (we break for lunch at 2 pm), but that could have been more. . . and around 1:15 before they actually headed into the draugr's crypt. They did spend a long time planning on when to drink potions (the very last seconds, nevermind that they last an hour, aka 3,600 combat turns), how to deal with multiple contingencies . . . they were very, very focused on avoiding getting swamped, and forcing the enemy to come to them. Add in the time it took to then modify every single guy's skills and ST and damage right before the fight in FoundryVTT, and we ended up breaking for lunch at 2:10, just as the draugr took their first action.

Ironically, they were very prepared for spears and not prepared for slams, despite really wanting to goad the draugr into rushing them. Oops. It didn't cost them as Aldwyn and Wyatt took matters in hand, but they aren't free from trouble.

I'll give a report on Foundry tomorrow, but overall, it was good. The GURPS module is useful. We only played ~7 seconds of combat (GURPS accurately represents the speed of short exchanges but not of big fights, IMO.) But still, by the end we were ticking along very smoothly, even given the issues of clicking a lot to open and close modifier buckets, character sheets, the combat tracker, etc. Yes, even as pop-outs - we don't all have a lot of screen acreage. I'm on a gaming laptop, but really need a pair of large monitors.

Bladeturning - the PCs were looking at using Bladeturning. The spell is kind of a b.s. spell - it's attacker's DX vs. the Bladeturning skill; failure causes the weapon to be unready. That's really nonsensical with big, strong foes. So I made it DX or ST on the spot. Most of them chose not to go for it after all. I'm glad - it causes an extra contest of skills every single combat interaction and I'd need to keep track of ready/unready weapons over and over. A big nightmare, and again, "realistically," it doesn't make sense that it sucks against high-DX foes but is exceptional against very high strength foes. So, nerfed. And for the players' own good, too, as if Bladeturning becomes a common tactic I'm likely to deploy monsters that use it. I probably should just ditch the spell entirely. It's useful, but annoying in play and to GM and I don't think it's writing. Even so, someone used it in play today. It hasn't come up, as we only apply it on a hit, not an attack successfully defended.

They learned two things about the Girdle of Savage Might - strength potions don't seem to stack with it, and it provided its DR 2 to Bruce even on top of his Shirtless Savage DR. No, those aren't listed powers, but even stuff I make up gets modified for the flavor of Felltower.

The PCs are liberally buffed. Bruce with Blur -5 and Shield 6, Crogar with Bladeturning and Shield 4, Aldwyn Blur -5, Sir Bunny Haste 2, Blur -5, and Shield 4, and Wyatt Blur -5. That's cut down on the amout of Deceptive Attack they need to face.

MVP is Wyatt for essentially turning the back-rank disaster into a managable fight, and dispelling the "okay, let's find a way to grab a body to loot and leave" crowd's power. :)