Blood Sword Campaign 1: The Battlepits of Kraarth

[kieran]

Talking to demons is rarely a good idea. Attack!

[a moderator]

Nov 10, 2015 10:15:11 GMT kieran said:

Talking to demons is rarely a good idea.

I can think of at least one Blood Sword instance in which it is.

SPOILER: Click to show

Pick the right one, and that's one of the easier and safer ways of getting into Spyte in book 5.

If Echidna is 'the most deadly', fighting her may prove extremely hazardous to our health. Talk, in the hope that there's some reasonable way to resolve this encounter without creating a corpse or three.

[thealmightymudworm]

I think I'll go with talking. For one thing we know that shameless flattery can work on females with no souls.

(I'll take the knife shall I?)

[champskees]

408

Her narrow slits of eyes glow with green-gold light. Shadows seem to dance around you as she whispers: 'Take the knife. Sacrifice your blood.'

Every player must attempt to roll equal to or under his or her Awareness on two dice in order to resist her command. If anyone fails to (or chooses not to!) resist, turn to 496. If all players resist, you can fight her - but you will have to keep your eyes averted from her gaze now, so reduce your Combat Prowess by one for the duration of this combat (turn to 129).

[kieran]

Roll 7 = Oh crap - 496

[thealmightymudworm]

(Not sure if it makes any difference now, but...)
Roll 6 (pass)

[a moderator]

Sorry, Kieran.
Roll 8 (pass).

[champskees]

496

The following applies to players who failed to resist Echidna's gaze.

You feel a irresistible urge to put the sacrificial knife to your own wrist. You tremble with the effort of trying to prevent yourself, but you have no choice. Her power is overwhelming. A few drops of your blood spill into the urn on the altar. Lose one Endurance point. If you are still alive, you suddenly snap out of your mesmeric trance. Wisps of red vapour are snaking up around you. For a moment Echidna's face shines like a paper lantern through the haze. 'Nothing is entirely evil,' she murmurs to you. 'Nor entirely good...' 

The image of the temple dissolves around you. You (and your companions, if you are not alone) are being teleported, to where...? Turn to 78.

78

You materialise within the broken walls of an old shrine. You can see the temple where the hags live, about two hundred metres away atop another pinnacle.

Examining your surroundings, you notice a golden dish that glimmers like in the sporadic light of the volcanic geysers outside. Grey stone gargoyles cling to the walls, the dancing shadows making them seem to grin. Beyond an exit at the rear of the shrine, a narrow path leads along the top of a knife-edge precipice.

If you wish to leave the shrine, turn to 92. If you would rather examine the gold dish first, turn to 507.

[kieran]

Phew, that was less fatal than I was expecting.

Let's have a closer look at that dish - 507.

[a moderator]

Nov 12, 2015 12:09:09 GMT kieran said:

Phew, that was less fatal than I was expecting.

And probably a lot less painful than fighting Echidna. That may have been the best course of action. Unless we've missed out on some important loot that could have been found in the temple.

Talking of loot, I see something shiny.

[thealmightymudworm]

Yes let's go for gold. (I doubt it's important, but what does it glimmer like?)

Just for the heck of it I'll gamble 1END to try healing kieran's scratch...

*Rolls 1*

Dammit.

[champskees]

507

Picking your way between the shattered and tilted flagstones, you reach into the dish and bring out a large gold talisman shaped like a stylised flame and with a large fire opal at its centre (Record this Talisman of Flame on your adventure sheet if you wish to take it).

Pebbles fall down the steps outside, sending a skittering echo through the hollow shell of the shrine. You look about, noticing at once that one of the gargoyles is no longer where it was. It now stands blocking the exit, and its rock talons flex like scythes. The other gargoyles are also slowly coming to life and slipping down from the walls. Fortunately they only move one square per round, so you have a chance to fight your way past the one blocking the exit before you are overwhelmed.



Gargoyles

Fighting Prowess: 5
Psychic Ability: 5
Armour Rating: 2
Damage per blow: 1 Die+2
Awareness: 4
Endurance: 7

If you manage to fight your way out, turn to 92.

As the Trickster is the first in the party order, he gets first dibs on the Talisman of Flame. IIRC the Enchanter is in second spot, the Sage in third. I believe the Enchanter did have a spell to mind, was it Swordthrust? Anyway, this should be a simple combat... but we'll see!

[kieran]

I'm going to cast Swordthrust on the gargoyle blocking the exit (unless the Trickster takes him out before it's my turn, in which case I'll fire at the gargoyle two spaces above the Sage).

Roll 6 - it worked! Roll 12 = 13 damage.

[a moderator]

If I'm able to move to the exit and strike at the Gargoyle blocking it, I'll do so. If I'm not allowed to move through the squares with the Sage and Enchanter on, and can't move adjacent to a Gargoyle without being engaged in combat with it, I'm probably toast, but I'll go south and try to take out the one that's delaying my retreat.

12 - utterly useless.

Might as well update my Character Sheet while I still have a character.

RANK: 2nd

Experience: 250

Fighting Prowess: 7 (8 with Magic Sword)
Psychic Ability: 6
Awareness: 8
Endurance: 13
Damage: 1 Die

Items
1 Magic Sword (2d6 damage against giants)
2 Studded leather armour (Armour Rating 2)
3 Money pouch (53 gold pieces)
4 Bow
5 Talisman of Flame
6 Dagger of Vislet
7 Healing scroll
8 Opal medallion
9-10 Food

[champskees]

Nov 13, 2015 21:37:51 GMT a moderator said:

If I'm able to move to the exit and strike at the Gargoyle blocking it, I'll do so. If I'm not allowed to move through the squares with the Sage and Enchanter on, and can't move adjacent to a Gargoyle without being engaged in combat with it, I'm probably toast, but I'll go south and try to take out the one that's delaying my retreat.

The rules state that you cannot move through hero/enemy squares unless they are dead, however it doesn't say that you have to stop if you move next to an enemy. Because your awareness score is higher than the gargoyles, the two gargoyles you have to walk past do not get attacks of opportunity against you. So yeah, you are now adjacent to the gargoyle blocking the exit.

Just to confirm with the swordthrust spell, do you have 9 Psychic Ability Kieran? If so, you only just made it (9-2 Difficulty-1 spell to mind = 6)!

The Sage will also be able to move wherever he wants to because the Awareness score of these Gargoyles is ridiculously low.

SPOILER: Click to show

Hint: you probably want to move next to the Trickster!

[thealmightymudworm]

I'm slightly at sea here with the combat rules. Can I move all the way over to the gargoyle by the exit without engaging any others? And can I roll to bop it with my staff now? Or has Kieran already reduced it to sand?

Anyway that's the way I'm moving, and I'll have a roll just in case I have time to hit something.

SPOILER: Click to show

*Rolls 7 on 2 dice* Yay!
*Rolls 1 on 1 die* Meh.

[kieran]

Yes, I increased my score to 9 with the adjust spell.

[a moderator]

I don't think any of the Gargoyles can move fast enough to harm any of us. Leg it.

[champskees]

Round I: Gargoyles!

The Trickster swiftly moves straight for the exit, taking a swing at the only Gargoyle blocking their path, but misses.

The Enchanter manages to unleash his Swordthrust spell at the Gargoyle. Any other enemy would have been eviscerated, but the stony Gargoyle simply breaks apart into tiny blocks of stone. Gargoyle is defeated!

The Sage moves next to the Trickster to get out of harms way.

Each Gargoyle shuffles towards the heroes, the Enchanter one step away from being completely surrounded...

Fortunately their enemies are too slow to stop them, and the party all move to the exit, fleeing safely.

I do note however that both the Sage and Enchanter are short of 1 Endurance point.

92

You wend your way along a narrow ridge rising like a sharp backbone out of the cavern floor. A murky sea of mist sits in the hollows below, illuminated now and then by the red lightning gouts of fire. The path brings you to a high-walled crater with a tall stone pylon built in the centre. The pylon has an entrance that is clearly visible, and there may be many treasure-laden chambers within. But you have to put aside such thoughts, because the pylon is completely cut off by a moat of boiling lava and there is no way you could hope to reach it.

The path divides and snakes along the crater rim. You skirt the bubbling lava pit, slowly making your way towards an incline that leads off into the far end of the cavern.

Suddenly two shabby Adventurers appear from behind a boulder near the lip of the crater. They look eerie in the glowering light thrown about by the lava below, clutching their swords like fiends out of the Pit. One of them grins crookedly, displaying rotten teeth. 'Your money,' he says, 'and your life.'

Turn to 198.

I'm going to stop there as I haven't given you an opportunity to heal/bring spells to mind etc. before the next fight. I will post the next para soon.

[kieran]

I shall dismiss the Dallas theme tune from my mind and call the spell Nighthowl to there instead.

[thealmightymudworm]

I'll try chucking another END point into the ether for healing purposes...

*Rolls 5*
Success!

Right, that's Kieran and myself fully restored and ready to knock out some rotten teeth.
Battle face: 

[champskees]

198

Balanced on the narrow circular ledge overlooking the lava pool, you are about to fight a deadly battle with two desperate Adventurers.



Adventurers
Fighting Prowess: 8
Psychic Ability: 6
Armour Rating: 3
Damage: 2 Dice
Awareness: 6
Armour Rating: 3
Endurance:
Adventurer One: 22
Adventurer Two: 23

You can flee either by fighting your way past them or by running the other way around the crater rim. If you do this, turn to 197. If you kill them, turn to 308.

Probably want to talk strategy before you wade in here.

[kieran]

Bloody hell, these guys seem tough, not sure if we're up to the challenge. I could use the invisibilty scroll and we could flee unscathed, if people are up for that. But if the consensus is to fight, I guess I'll cast Nighthowl.

Roll 5 - It works, but guess they get to roll to resist.

[thealmightymudworm]

Yes, on reflection I'd like to adjust my battle face to 

I could absolutely be persuaded to run away here. If we stay I'll be defending rather than attacking, at least initially.
We could try it round by round and split as soon as one of us takes a serious hit I suppose?

I'm happy to follow whatever people think.

[a moderator]

Apologies for the delay in replying.

This is not a fight I have any pressing desire to get into. Out with the boot polish, and let's show them a few clean pairs of heels.

[thealmightymudworm]

[kieran]

Lol yes, let us scarper. I shall use my invisibility scroll

[champskees]

...you cowards. There were only two of them and three of you, clearly giving you a distinct advantage! Fine...you use the Invisibility Scroll and egress in the first round of combat.

197

As you race around the narrow ledge above the lava pit your feet dislodge a few stones which go rattling down the crater slope and fall with dull plops in the molten rock below. Great bubbles of volcanic gas rise and break on the surface. Then you see heads like burning Halloween effigies rising from the pool of lava. They are Skiapyrs, malevolent monsters of living flame whose claws melt through steel and rock as a knife passes through paper.

If you wish to use a Talisman of Flame, turn to 131. If you wish to use an Ice Jewel, turn to 411. If you have neither of these items (or do not wish to use them), turn to 429.

[kieran]

Guess it's up to Ed as he has the talisman.

[sylas]

(Just like how Deathtrap Dungeon has a May month, the land of Legend has Halloween.)