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Wednesday, November 2, 2022

GURPS Conan - Queen of the Black Coast playthrough - Session 3

Session 3 tonight . . . again, only a short play window. Here is Session 2 from Tuesday.

Current Time: Morning

Crew Morale: 0

Conan gets a +1 reaction from the crew.

We're in the city . . . it's gloomy, silent, and deserted. Belit laughs this off. Time for an IQ roll. Conan has a 13 . . . and I roll a 14. Oh well.

Belit sends me off with a picked team - up to 10 (with restrictions.) I take eight plus two subchiefs. It's unclear if I can take any of the named crewmen . . . so I don't in case one of them has some plot-related events.

We have four places to explore - the pyramid, one of the towers, the buildings, and the dockside area. I choose to start at the dockside area.

We find nothing . . . but Belit calls us over to examine what she thinks must have been the temple. More choices - examine the tower, pillars, slab, argue against disturbing it. I go with the slab.

It shows the marks of evil ancient rites. Conan needs to make an IQ+Alertness roll. I roll a 5 vs. 16. We find handholds that are "oddly ill-suited" to human hands. IQ roll for Belit; she has a 12. I roll a 6 for her. She calls Conan over to kill a snake in the grass. The others lift the slab and it shifts and the tower falls on them. (How many die here? No idea. All 10 guys I took? Two? Four? It simply doesn't say.)

Belit feared a trap. We clear the stones and bodies away, and find a cache of loot. How much? A pit "filled with jewels" - a "god's ransom." Belit jumps into the pit and swims around and comes out with a necklace of gold and rubies. It's estimated as being worth $5,000,000 or more. Crew Morale becomes 3.

After that, we can either search more or leave. I happen to know from a prior playthrough that you can literally just leave - no rolls, no nothing, sail off with $5,000,000. But Belit has Greed and it's fun to explore more, so let's explore more and risk horrible death!

We can explore more. This time I go for the pyramid. Conan climbs it with ease and looks for a way in. It's an odd roll - 2d, +1 if you have Alertness at all (regardless of level.) I roll 9, +1 for Alertness, equals 10. I flip to the "10 or more" entry and it reveals a door. I inspect it for traps . . . which defaults to IQ-5, so an 8 (Conan lacks the skill). I roll an 11. I try to force the door open and succeed.

It's narrow but I go in, at a crouch. It slants down. After a bit I get to roll agaonst IQ thanks to Danger Sense. 14. Oops.

I fall through a paper mache floor! Conan needs to make a DX roll, at -4 if he's carrying a weapon out (he probably is). So DX 15 - 4 = 11. I roll an 8 and catch on and haul myself out.

Inside I find a cache of $750,000 worth of gold bars. There is a plot word based page flip but I still have no plot words.

Back to searching. This time, the buildings. I go through one at random (it's roll-based) and find nothing. Last area - the towers.

Conan literally dices with N'Gora to pick a tower to search. 1d. I roll a 2.

We search and I made a roll vs. a 10. Made it by 1. We find a broadsword in a case and take it.

A plot word flip ensues. We see a winged shape fly off . . . and we hadn't left any guards on the Tigress (that was an easier blown IQ roll.) The thing smashed all of the water casks, so we don't have enough to sail off (Note: we're finally getting somewhere besides finding loot.) I can wait for the creature to come back, return to Belit, or leave my men behind to watch and return to Belit alone. I'll do that. I get the Plot Word GUARDED.

I can advise Belit to abandon the expedition, or not. Not. (Again, another easy chance to leave with loot.) N'Gora and 10 spearmen and Conan will go fill up waterskins.

It's time for a bunch of die-rolls and a tick-box entry to get through. I need to pause here, at entry 97.

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