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[WotMK: Hexcrawl] Session Thirty
2017-Oct-03, Tuesday 09:45Dramatis Personae:
Willow and Elaphe bore the brunt of the assault, with Willow being claws almost immediately but Elaphe fending off multiple blows and striking back with his vine-sword. Shining Star began casting a spell to enchant the group's weapons against the power of darkness, and Amos--who could see in the dark thanks to the crystal he bore--fired flaming arrows into the wraiths. After their initial assault, one wraith lost its footing and fell under Elaphe's blows, and the other took grievous wounds from Elaphe, Willow, and Amos's attacks. But before Willow could attack again, he felt icy fingers on his skull and then something violently shoved his awareness aside, rending him a passenger in his own body.
As Willow struggled with whatever was possessing him, the remaining wraith charged Father James, knocking him down and savagely mauling him. Elaphe backed away from the two wraiths, his keen chuzan hearing allowing him to nimbly block one of their attacks as he retreated and striking back before withdrawing to Father James' side. Another of Amos's arrows hit the standing wraith and destroyed it, causing it to flare up in a brief burst of flames before vanishing into shreds of plasm. As the remaining wraith got to its feet, Father James told Hundred Wings to pick up a torch and hold it in the air near Amos, who performed a trick shot and deflected an arrow off the torch into the wraith near Father James, lighting the torch and seriously injuring the wraith.
With the lights on once again, the battle turned decisively in favor of the party. Shining Star finished casting her spell and their weapons began glowing with a silver-white light, allowing Elaphe and Amos to destroy the wraith near Father James. The remaining wraith died quickly as Amos, Shining Star, and Elaphe all attacked it, leaving the party battered by alive. Willow shook of the possession and, quickly scooping up some moss from the wall, enchanted it and placed it on his wounds. Shining Star applied first aid to Father James, and Elaphe chanted a few words to ease the pain of his own cuts. After Willow told the others about the possession, they quickly decided that they had enough with the haunted ziggurat and decided to leave. They briefly debated questioning the mummified corpse of the kong they had found using one of the crystals from the necromancers' lair until Willow pointed out that none of them spoke the language of the Kong Imperium, then Father James sent Hundred Wings out to find an exit. The spirit returned and explained that there were stairs down but none up, but in the course of their travel to the stairs, they found a place where the wall had collapsed and they could faintly see sunlight, so they dug their way out.
They traveled through the pipe and back to the winter landscape of Fontina, overland to Rockfort, where they noticed there seemed to be fewer refugees in the streets, and back to B'rabt. After a night of rest, they rode down the Kintai to the town with the pipe to the Scarlet City, restocked on some alchemical supplies they were running low on--Elaphe bought hero's recovery to speed the healing of his wounds and godstriking oil, which would allow the party to attack dematerialized spirits if they rubbed it on their weapons--and they asked around until they found the location of the pipe from the Scarlet City to Tower Town. Once again they took a pipe, and they knew they were in the right location as they emerged and saw the enormous shape of Etemenanki, miles high, blocking out the setting sun.
This session was mostly combat against the wraiths, and was made significantly more dangerous by the darkness and Willow getting possessed. If Willow had resisted or if the party had more light sources so the wraiths couldn't destroy them so easily, it would have been easier. Then again, it was pretty easy already. Elaphe did something like 30 health levels of damage during the fight.
As usual, I put in treasure and danger and the party sees the danger and doesn't go after the treasure! But that's life--this is a game about what they decide to do, and they've decided they want to delve into Etemenanki and turn the game into a megadungeon crawl for a bit. They still have that map to the "safe" location in Etemenanki that they haven't used yet. Maybe now is the time?
- Shining Star, mandragora sorcerer-priestess of Nyahré.
- Father James, human disciple of the pidgit-folk.
- Hundred Wings, Father James' familiar spirit bound into a bodies of dozens of ravens.
- Willow, human treesinger raised in Taira.
- Amos Burnham, a human from Earth.
- Elaphe, a chuzan junior member of the Black Rose.
Willow and Elaphe bore the brunt of the assault, with Willow being claws almost immediately but Elaphe fending off multiple blows and striking back with his vine-sword. Shining Star began casting a spell to enchant the group's weapons against the power of darkness, and Amos--who could see in the dark thanks to the crystal he bore--fired flaming arrows into the wraiths. After their initial assault, one wraith lost its footing and fell under Elaphe's blows, and the other took grievous wounds from Elaphe, Willow, and Amos's attacks. But before Willow could attack again, he felt icy fingers on his skull and then something violently shoved his awareness aside, rending him a passenger in his own body.
As Willow struggled with whatever was possessing him, the remaining wraith charged Father James, knocking him down and savagely mauling him. Elaphe backed away from the two wraiths, his keen chuzan hearing allowing him to nimbly block one of their attacks as he retreated and striking back before withdrawing to Father James' side. Another of Amos's arrows hit the standing wraith and destroyed it, causing it to flare up in a brief burst of flames before vanishing into shreds of plasm. As the remaining wraith got to its feet, Father James told Hundred Wings to pick up a torch and hold it in the air near Amos, who performed a trick shot and deflected an arrow off the torch into the wraith near Father James, lighting the torch and seriously injuring the wraith.
With the lights on once again, the battle turned decisively in favor of the party. Shining Star finished casting her spell and their weapons began glowing with a silver-white light, allowing Elaphe and Amos to destroy the wraith near Father James. The remaining wraith died quickly as Amos, Shining Star, and Elaphe all attacked it, leaving the party battered by alive. Willow shook of the possession and, quickly scooping up some moss from the wall, enchanted it and placed it on his wounds. Shining Star applied first aid to Father James, and Elaphe chanted a few words to ease the pain of his own cuts. After Willow told the others about the possession, they quickly decided that they had enough with the haunted ziggurat and decided to leave. They briefly debated questioning the mummified corpse of the kong they had found using one of the crystals from the necromancers' lair until Willow pointed out that none of them spoke the language of the Kong Imperium, then Father James sent Hundred Wings out to find an exit. The spirit returned and explained that there were stairs down but none up, but in the course of their travel to the stairs, they found a place where the wall had collapsed and they could faintly see sunlight, so they dug their way out.
They traveled through the pipe and back to the winter landscape of Fontina, overland to Rockfort, where they noticed there seemed to be fewer refugees in the streets, and back to B'rabt. After a night of rest, they rode down the Kintai to the town with the pipe to the Scarlet City, restocked on some alchemical supplies they were running low on--Elaphe bought hero's recovery to speed the healing of his wounds and godstriking oil, which would allow the party to attack dematerialized spirits if they rubbed it on their weapons--and they asked around until they found the location of the pipe from the Scarlet City to Tower Town. Once again they took a pipe, and they knew they were in the right location as they emerged and saw the enormous shape of Etemenanki, miles high, blocking out the setting sun.
This session was mostly combat against the wraiths, and was made significantly more dangerous by the darkness and Willow getting possessed. If Willow had resisted or if the party had more light sources so the wraiths couldn't destroy them so easily, it would have been easier. Then again, it was pretty easy already. Elaphe did something like 30 health levels of damage during the fight.
As usual, I put in treasure and danger and the party sees the danger and doesn't go after the treasure! But that's life--this is a game about what they decide to do, and they've decided they want to delve into Etemenanki and turn the game into a megadungeon crawl for a bit. They still have that map to the "safe" location in Etemenanki that they haven't used yet. Maybe now is the time?
I'm not really planning on doing anything special in terms of studying. I get plenty of reading practice with playing games, reading friends' statuses on Facebook, reading 世界の中心で、愛を叫ぶ with Aya-sensei, and now following a blog. I get listening practice at Japanese class and listen to some podcasts, and I get vocab and kanji study in every weekday when I use