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Monday, September 11, 2023

Felltower Adjacent - Session 4 - Skeletons and Zombies and Draugr, oh my

The group did some stuff last time, and Hannari Ironhand and Handsome wandered up to join them.

They took pains to explain how we're not going to get a share of last session's loot because we weren't there, which is fine with Handsome. I plan to not split loot with people not there myself. We also had a discussion about how, if we happened to find a Very Fine Orichalcum Katana, instead of giving it to Hannari, who uses one, the smart move would be to sell it so everyone can upgrade their weapons and armor and Hannari could buy a not-as-good katana. Seriously. We spent time on this, like there is a VFOK out there and we need to pre-decide this. Or that Hannari won't just grab and use it because holy crap why would you sell that if you found it?

The we headed into the dungeon. They'd slaughtered everything on the upper level, and found three flights of stairs down. Handsome suggested going right down to the next level, slaughtering anyone or anything down there, then coming back up to deal with anything down there that chose to come upstairs.

So we did that. Heading down, we immediately found a bunch of sarcophagi. Naturally, as Handsome walked into the room, they opened and skeletons emerged. Handsome ran back loosing an arrow as he went, and then the skeletons engaged the fighters. They were destroyed pretty quickly, as all they had were sharp bony claws and that wasn't sufficient to bother our fighters. They trashed all of the skeletons.

We amused ourselves by hoping these were Sarcophagi of Infinite Undead but they weren't. We moved on, and found two alters to Bahumet, which is how they worship the Good God here. Meanwhile Handsome stood guard down the hallway to the side. Our bard prayed at the altars. There were double doors but Handsome said, "Listen! You smell something?" He smelled the rot, off an army of zombies!

Before we hit the doors, we headed after the zombies. The intersections were blocked with painted floors of evil runes. We basically jumped them once Walk on Air proved they didn't affect those who didn't touch them (low-rent traps.)

We eventually found the zombies, which came at us from both directions. Handsome was in the back, and missed one and wounded another of the ones from the back with a head shot as they closed in. Splurg or Splink or Spluck or whatever his name is, the goblin they picked up last time, decided to back off (Goblin Cowardice) and leave Handsome facing the zombies from the rear alone. The fighters up front fought the zombies, who used Move and Attack and got butchered.

But Splink was backing off even as Hannari moved up towards us and the zombies. Handsome said, "If you don't engage these zombies I'll shoot you with my next arrow." Someone described that as a threat. For Handsome, it was a statment of intent for next turn's actions. Splik decided to engage the zombies after all.

The zombies didn't last long after everyone was pulling their weight. We mopped up.

We explored more, and smelled more zombies. It was a dead end, though, so Handsome checked the wall . . . and it was an illusion. Thor jumped through, and found four zombies. Handsome and Hannari both rolled 17s and missed their targets but the fighters butchered the zombies in short order, although one destroyed itself by missing a slam and hitting a wall too hard. Handsome voted the wall MVP.

We found a largely empty armory. There was a plaque on the wall and it challenged us with a riddle. Handsome shouted out "Reputation!" to answer the riddle. It could have been your name or your honor, I suppose. Handsome wasn't paying attention (well, I wasn't) and didn't hear the whole riddle but it was an easy one. The success turned a ratty old suit of armor into a new, gleaming suit. Thor took it.

Handsome checked the walls behind the empty weapons racks and found a loose stone. It wasn't trapped, and he found a sack. He gently handled it and handed it over to the bard to check. It was a bottomless purse, with 500 gp in it ($10K). Nice.

We went back to the double doors and through. We met a draugr with a sword who was very chatty. We told him we were killing undead Orcus servants and eventually promised to fulfill the quest he failed. Turns out that the draugr had a job and blew it and killed his whole family as well. Even Handsome isn't that guilty. Anyway, the bard took his sword and gave it to Thor and made him promise to do the thing he'd do anyway.

We took our stuff and headed up to the level above, and found the stairs to the third level of this place. We'll stomp whatever is down there next time.

Notes:

- Yes, I'm going to link to that Lars Fredericksen song every time I smell the rot off an army of zombies. Deal with it.

- MVP was Handsome for finding $10K and other stuff.

- We got 7 xp, otherwise. The fights were all fodder fights. Zombies and skeletons aren't real threats.

- Handsome legitimately was going to kill that goblin for running. Pull your weight or else!

- Want to know what actually happened in detail? Probably read Doug's blog post since it writes it as we play.

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