Session 7; Starting from October 18th-22nd 2023.
Odysseus the Senior.
Bard 1st level. 1hp.
Brutalius the Fighter.
Fighter 1st level. 3 hp
Agamer Mon
Fighter 1st level. 5 hp.
Sickius the Fighter.
Fighter 1st Level. 1 hp.
Pious Leto Priest of the Storm.
Cleric 1st level. Hp 2.
Harmodius the Thug.
Assassin 1st level 2 hp.
Circe the Young Magestress.
Mage 1st level 3hp.
The party has arrived by ship from the eastern parts of the Silvanus empire, trying to avoid the war happening there. They have landed with some 24 families of their country of origin. These Sea Peoples will be settling in and trying to integrate with the local population (having believed the legate’s statements about claiming the countryside). The adventurer’s are known as the Companions, and with their spears and shields ready they speak to the locals, trying to see if they can get a lay of the land. Despite the local’s distrust of this wave of immigrants, the consistent death rates of adventurers encourages them to encourage these foreigners to go for one of the wizards towers that dot the island from ancient and darker times.
Odysseus the Senior marshals his fellow countrymen and playing happy music on an expensive instrument, sets out for Musk’s Monolith. At their marching speed, they shall be fortunate to get there in three days, barring unfortunate mistakes. Being new to the region they immediately get lost and end up going to the sea line before they realize their error. Giving up on the hills, they follow the coastline to avoid getting lost and move along till they stop for the night. The party rouses tries to go into the interior, but end up going back to the very same spot they woke up after a number of hours. Sickius the Fighter, who is serving as mapper is chastised verbally for his errors and they continue until night, well behind schedule. Having given up on the interior they successfully follow the sea watching the forest on the other-side of the strait for guidance. Mapping renders future confusion significantly less likely and they continue marching pleased to do this service for their new community. Towards evening they spot a band of Mermen, who observe them for a time and then leave. The party ponder on whether it is cannibalism to eat the upper half of a merman and their origins. The night passes safely.
They successfully leave the coastline and cut directly across the countryside on the morning of the fourth day, as they near the monolith. Nothing confronts them and the party begins to believe that the Legate has really begun to achieve his goal of pacifying the island. The Companions reach the Monolith and look it over.
The monolith appears to have been raised by either incredible labor or unnatural powers. Perhaps this Musk was someone formidable. Who can say. A previous name marks the stone, but now it is cut through with an X, it is inlaid with some shiny metal. At the base of the monolith is the entrance to the dungeon. The party advances as follows; the three fighters form a shield wall, the bard and the magestress move in the center, while the priest and the assassin guard the rear. Lanterns are lit, and the descent into darkness begins.
(Basic map pre-generation.)
As they come down they come across 11 Morlocks who seem to be preparing to come up. The Morlocks would have been surprised, but the lanterns of the party gave them away and the fight is on. They each at the far extent of the room and the Morlocks quickly prepare
Odysseus goes first, casting one of his javelins and it misses badly. Sickius the fighter tries to improve and throws but misses equally badly. Circe calls on a magic missile and aims for the Champion. With a mere 2 damage it is hardly impressive and she desperately wishes she had taken the more usual and useful sleep. The first Morlock spearman comes forward at a run (charging) and tries to spear Sickius the Fighter. He misses and wastes his charge. Brutalias holds. Agamar Mon holds and another spearman comes forward. Brutalis lashes out with his spear at this second attacker and easily kills him. He then cleaves towards the previous attacker but he misses. A Morlock swordsman rushes forward and makes a slash at Sickius, but his shield and armor break the force of the blow. Agamar Mon makes his own counter attack, but fails to hit anything and the rest of the Morlocks surge forward. Two spear-wielders come forward and miss as the armor comes in clutch. The next also comes successfully forward, but fails to get a hit through the line of shields. The next however (a chunky 6 hit point fellow) hits Sickius for 4 damage, putting him on the ground for -3. The Morlock’s cleave fails. A sword bearer gets a natural 20 which is good, but I am not sure how it is good for him. Regardless, his 6 damage cuts Brutalius down to -3 and he cleaves for Odysseus, but misses. Another 2 swordsmen come up and strike at Agamer Mon, but they fail miserably. The bleeding Champion comes up and measures himself against the mage who shot him, having run over his dead fellow and wounded foes. He cuts her down with a single blow and she is left with negative -7 hit points. The Pious Leto, having seen enough of this steps towards the Champion and strikes him with a dexterous blow, or so attempts. With a natural 1, it utterly fails (am I supposed to make it worse for him?). Harmodius tries to take the Morlock champion with his own short sword and dagger. He succeeds in injuring the killer, but that is all.
(Side note, unless I am reading it wrong magical missile is not saved for/against? If I am correctly understanding that correctly that is really cool. Not that it saved the user here)
(Note two, unsurprisingly, given my record, I got dual wielding wrong the first time I tried to use it. It should only improve attack throw by 1, not provide bonus damage.)
Odysseus goes first, stabbing the champion for 1 damage. A Morlock swordsman attacks Agamer Mons and then a spear bearer. They both miss. He retaliates by stabbing out with his spear… he misses. Pious Leto takes another attack for the Champion, and misses even harder. 2 swords attack Agamer Mon, one hits for 6 damage and he goes down with -1 health. The three spearmen who are next go for the wiley Odysseus and he dodges all strikes. The champion a creature of darkness stretches out against the priest and is resisted by heavy plate. Harmodius makes his attack at the champion’s flank and utterly rips him apart (11 damage I think?). He then cleaves or tries to and fails. (I think they cleave at the same rate as the fighter) That fighter comes over and casually brings him down to 0 hit points. The last spear wielder attacks Pious Leto but fails to even scratch his heavy armor.
Odysseus is cut down by a Morlock sword and the cleave fails towards Leto. Leto retaliates… or as rather as usual he misses. He weathers most of the blows and almost makes it through the round, before a sword finds a gap in his armor and he bleeds out.
The new communities most valued heroes are thus rendered dead and gone. Though… no one will know this in Punishment. Or if they do find out, they will likely be missing key details.
Reflections.
So… I really expected that group to better. Big sad that they all died. But it was also epic. The brave settlers and righteous colonizers don’t always triumph over evil.
A lot of mistakes in the battle. I shouldn’t have had the javelin throw at the beginning. That was not #eliteplaying. They should have readied their actions and tried to stab the morlocks as they charged. Choosing Sleep could have made this fight almost trivial or at least more manageable and shooting at the champion was probably too greedy. Given the charisma on some of these characters they should have tried to talk them down/wave them back and that was a mistake. Probably should have given more of the team arblasts or crossbows, not that it was relevant. Poor guys.
As my players, or at least one of them, reads my blog I will delay posting this until after the 19th when we do their session.
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