Session 15; Begun on the 29th of October continuing to 31st of October 2023.
The semi-successful raiders of the Grave of Fell Heroes now once more need money.
Civilius the Weak.
Arcanist 1st Level.
Gaias The Sleeper.
Arcanist 1st Level.
Bill The Silent.
Scout 1st Level.
(+2 hunting dogs and 1 mule.)
They are conveniently approached by the currently more successful Green Mountain Party, who wish to pay for the cremation of the bodies fallen just outside Blue Beard’s Hoard and they receive all salvage rights to any treasure still there discovered. They agree to do this for 100 gold, which is paid. They then purchase a second mule (20 of their gp) and try to hire henchmen.
They find a certain Magnificent Jack, currently out of work and hire him for the standard 12 gp a month.
‘X’ Terrance Lygurcasy. (Failed priest) 3 hp.
8 Strength -1
9 Intelligence 0
15 Wisdom +2
6 Dexterity -1
10 Constitution 0
9 Cha 0
Magnificent Jack. (Thief) 1 hp
12 Strength. 0
9 Intelligence. 0
8 Wisdom. -1
16 Dex. +2
11 Con. 0
14 Chr. +1
With the group thus together, the saddlebags are loaded with 2 gallons of oil. This is insufficient to do a full cremation, but it will be sufficient use the boat inside the hoard for a burning. Thus determined they set out. Due to Bill’s silent leadership, they are not immediately lost. Better yet, they quickly cross through the forest and into the mountains. They spend the night there quietly and in the morning go to the misshaped pyramid. The bodies are in a worse condition than originally described, but they have been outside for a while. They want to get this done quickly and the party ties the mules at a bit of a distance before entering the pyramid. Their lanterns reveal a sight indeed; three blue bearded captains dancing across the ship, pulling lines and waving arms, calling orders as though coming into port.
Magnificent Jack has a mad cap scheme and calls out as though a dock worker, suggesting that once the ship is docked, they could bring some cargo aboard. The blue bearded imitation captains give him the stink eye, as they continue docking across the ship and finally in an eery repeating triplicate voice say, “We might be convinced, but let’s see the color of your coin first! Silver will not be enough for this ship to move.”
They hold up 24 gold coins and Magnificent Jack regales them on the advantages of their cargo (this scores a 9+). The ship then ‘docks’ the coins are exchanged and the bodies of the fallen are brought onto the ship. When one of the blue bearded imitations suggests that the smell will make passengers harder to find, common oil is poured over the bodies on deck. Finally, the load of military oil is place among the bodies and the ‘cargo is loaded.’
Another doppelgänger, as always disguised as a blue beard, comes in from the countryside, though scars across his clothes and weapons somewhat ruin the description. He refuses to board and says that perhaps he must go and buy that farm he had always intended to have or become an adventurer on a distant island. The other doppelgängers seem amused by this and go about moving ropes and sails.
Civilius the Weak then gives the signal. The other mage begins to cast his spell, while the henchmen display weapons and the Bill the silent draws his bow to full.
Civilius lights and throws a flask of military oil from his belt. It bursts too soon to be a direct hit, but it does still splash in the correct direction to set the three Doppelgängers on fire, or at least one of them is immediately set on fire. The other oil is also set on fire and a gallon is 8 pints worth of military oil. So we have 16 pints of military oil right amongst the doppelgängers.
(The rules, as I see it, do not exactly cover this. Military oil poured on the ground is covered, but what happens when a container is closed? I believe it is not incorrect to treat this as a potential explosion. I present this as a ’non-magical fireball.’ That is, I have used the rules for fireball to simulate such an explosion, treating this explosion as though done by a 5th level mage. This seems roughly consistent with the amount of fuel and the rules.)
There is a massive blast of fire as the doppelgängers and the ship are hit with a wave of heat. All three of doppelgängers make their saves and take a ‘mere’ 10 damage.
Jack runs towards the one off the boat and coincidentally outside the improvised fireball boat, slashes with his knife, but misses. The two dogs, brave and loyal, rush over as well with savage growls. One does some damage (1). Gaias casts Protection from evil and then focuses on keeping it up as the blazing doppelgängers’ spring from the ship and come for the kill. They race forward and try to attack their primary attacker and his hated fire. Two land powerful bites, and the fire thrower drops to the ground with negative 16 hit points. With a silent snarl of rage, Bill uses his saber and long knife, but fails to get through their unnatural hides, be they ever so well cooked. (I forgot to use Terrance to initiative order so he was added to the last of the line) Terrance manages to strike with his mace and break the burned head of one of the doppelgängers.
In the next round, Bill the Silent goes first, and misses again. Gaias drops protection from evil (it was not the greatest for this situation) and casts sleep. One of the targets falls. Bill the Silent also gets dropped, because Gaias doesn’t do things well. One of the doppelgänger’s makes an attack at Gaias, but misses (somehow!) while the thief attacked his target, doing another 3 damage. Terrance strike at another target, using both hands on his mace, like he should have from the beginning, but he misses. The last doppelgänger attacks at the thief, brings him down -6 hit points. The dogs try to protect the fallen Jack, one of which gets a good grip on inhuman skin and gives it a savage yank. (3 damage.)
The third round begins with Gaias making a swing and a miss. Terrance does the same, only worse (natural 1). Their opposing force, the well cooked doppelgänger drops Terrance to negative 2 hp. The dogs shift targets as they notice that Bill the Silent is down and they rush forward to rescue him, but they cannot get a new bite in. The last doppelgänger, comes over, but he misses all targets in his rage.
The same doppelgänger tries again, and rips a dog to shreds this time. A dog tries to counter, but misses. Gaias misses. The other attacks, obliterating another dog.
Somehow both miss Gaias and give a chance for another attack, letting him score a full throttle blow with his staff. He drops one of the doppelgängers and shouts a war cry.
The doppelgänger does not run and instead kills the last of the party leaving the mage with -7 hit points. The ship burns in the background as the other sleeping doppelgänger awakens from unnatural slumber. They feed and pass into the wild at nightfall. The mules remain, sadly tied to their trees.
Reflections.
This fight almost ended very differently. How so? I was sick (likely with malaria) and tired at the time of first play through and got into the checking for injuries phase after finishing the two last doppelgängers with lucky hits, before noticing that the guy who had gotten the lucky hits had been down for two or three turns at the time of his good hitting. This resulted in those rounds having to be replayed and the current results.
Another thing that could have played out differently was the original plan. Civilius the Weak was going to shoot the stored oil with an elementalism fire flavored magic missile, theorizing that such a tool would work for this, however, magic missile per ACKs rules cannot target inanimate objects and the thrown flask of military oil seemed a better choice.
Otherwise this fight seems rather standard. Had the troops been better formed (fighter/explorers in the front, spell casters in the back) Civilius could have maybe lived long enough actually cast his magic missile.
In other news, theater of the mind if a way better gaming style, when the mind is not insanely clouded. Lesson learned.
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