Dash of the Missive: Part Two

This past week brought us the exciting conclusion of the Dash of the Missive! Who would be the first to climb to the top of the tower and win the prize? Let's find out!

Eglan was doing fairly well to keep pace when we left off, getting closer to the front of the pack. He ended up getting jammed in the crowds until he came up with the scheme of buying his way through by offering gold coins. He offered a gold coin each to 10 people to pass. At this point in the race, the half-orc had dropped out, and he charged ahead on horseback to sabotage the other racers. He riled up the crowds, so Eglan climbed onto the poles of the merchant tents and jumped "nimbly bimbly, like a cat" over top the throngs of shoppers. He then called out a bluff that the butcher was having a sale on meats to clear another path. Finally, he intimidated his way through the last bit of stragglers to arrive at the tower base.

Corax began with a skipped turn for missing three attempts to escape the filthy water in the last round. Realizing swimming was clearly not his strong suit, he switched to the market bridge path using his knowledge of local streets. He then continued to use his smarts to emerge into the crowds and declare that, "Corax, hero of Bloodspot!" needed the pass (using an action point) to move an extra square. He then began calling out that there was an emergency to stop the crowds and wind through. He then found himself at the tower base.

Jamlamin relied on streetwise to slip through back allies at the beginning of the next area, the marketplace. He then used his chaos magic to blow up a cart as a distraction (intimidate with +2 arcana bonus in flavor for using an attack). He was fined 3 gold coins for damages but managed to squeak by. He then tried to avoid his fine by sneaking away, but failed, used an action point to reattempt, and failed again, which counted for 2 fails. The Bard, who was far behind, decided to drop out at this point. Jamlamin, however, was determined to carry on, and used diplomacy to convince a large man, Rodo, to let him ride on his shoulders the rest of the way. He paid the man a gold coin and found himself at the base of the tower.

Lex leapt to the next barge. She then used her insight to determine athletics was the easiest was across. She failed her next attempt to jump, but used an action point for a repeat attempt and success. She made it to the next phase and decided to switch to the rich roofs. When she climbed up, she noticed a thief in the distance trying to rob a house. She faced the moral dilemma of trying to stop the thief, or sneaking past. She attempted to knock him off the roof using Freezing Burst, but he saved, and he avoided her follow up Beguiling Flash. The thief then threw a dagger into her shoulder for an ongoing 5 damage. Lex decided to cut her losses and double moved to escape successfully. Lex is not a combat fighter, by nature. Lex was the first to arrive at the tower, and used her arcana powers to see the best path and begin climbing.

Crag powered his way across the remaining barges using athletics. He finds his way into a yard and sees 6 guard dogs. He attempts to run across the yard, but the dogs see him and attack, dog piling him. Crag does not want to hurt the dogs but has no choice, and uses Green Flame Hammer to knock them back. Two dogs are killed in the attack as Crag runs to the gate and uses his fire magic to break the lock and escape. It would seem Crag had much more of a moral dilemma harming the dogs than Lex had in ditching the thief. Crag fled the yards and found himself at the base of the tower.

Corax found Rodo, who was picking up unwilling peasants hoping for coins, and paid him to boost him onto the tower. Jamlamin struggled to climb, making three fails before even beginning his climb, which was a luck break, for three fails on the tower results in falling down and taking 10 points of damage for every success accumulated. Crag and Eglan found it smooth sailing to use their strength and athletics to climb with only minor delays. Lex, however, found herself stuck in the middle before falling down to the bottom, rendering her nearly knocked out with only 4 HP remaining. Corax, ever competitive, called down from the tower that he would heal her in exchange for a boost. Lex sent him a bonus +4 to his next roll, and he gave her a free healing surge, plus 12 HP.

Ultimately, Eglan reached the top first. However, in a display of modesty and sportsmanship, declared whomever reached the tower second would be the official winner. No one wanted it more than Corax, who powered his way to the top to clasp hands with Eglan, and the bells rand out. Corax raised his hand in Eglan's and declared victory for, "The heroes of Blood Spot!"

As the winner, Corax received a pair of Sure Foot Boots, 600 gold pieces, and free food and drink for the rest of the festivities. He immediately bought a second shield for Mary Bell Lou, and the poor pony was now at least balanced with burden.

Eglan sends out a message via pigeon and then mingles with the crowds, drumming up press for the Order of Seldrine. Corax mingled and bragged with the towns people and a very drunk Sir Reginald.

Crag was monitoring the bitter Gnome and Helf-Orc when Jamlamin approached and began to express concerns about Corax and whether he might split the prize. He says he has his own reasons for wanting the team, "well equipped," in the future. The two begin discussing fire magic and their past exploits when a guard approaches with an angry man in tow.

The man is the owner of the dogs, demanding Crag's arrest. Crag is faced with a 15 gold fine each for damages. An argument ensues as Crag tries to leave and the guard grabs him. He sets a fire when Lex steps from the shadows and used her powers of suggestion to convince the guard to, "let it go this time, everyone is just tired from the race." The guard relents for an apology, and Crag begrudgingly agrees and pays the fine.

Lex then goes to track down the drunken Reginald to question him about the Lords.

Play notes:

This was an interesting change of pace for us and the unpredictability of the mechanics kept everyone guessing as to who would win. Lex faced combat alone for the first time and I think her lack of experience as a fighter is a lot more apparent when she's alone, as is her ultimate lean to self preservation. While I enjoyed this skill challenge, and hope to see more in the future, it will be nice to at least be fighting as a team again soon. And I look forward to questioning Sir Reginald next week!

The Grove, Part One

After dispatching the rabbit blobs and mutated wolves, the team began to suspect something was very much wrong.

Quickroot began to examine the bodies as Crag burned them. Corax was anxious to continue into the grove, while Lex was feeling very unsure of herself, having never been so injured in battle till this point. They speculated about the nature of the mutated creatures and the fate of the Druid who was supposed to be protecting the grove.

Corax turned his attention to Jamlamin, who during the battle with the animals had become out of control and injured Crag with a Chaos Bolt. Corax wanted Jamlamin to leave the group because he saw him as a danger, and unable to control his chaos magic. Crag attempted to calm Corax by reminding him the damage wasn't severe. Lex, feeling an affinity with the mage as a fellow practicer of magic, offered to attempt to control him using her manipulation based magic. Jamlamin explained that he used to study controlled magic, but found chaos magic to be more powerful, and that he would strive harder to control it. Corax was convinced, and they continued onward.

As they traveled onward, suddenly the huge stars floating the trees above took root in their souls. Lex, Corax, and Quickroot became filled with a powerful hunger (10 ongoing psychic damage). Eglan and Jamlamin began to be driven mad with whispered secrets they couldn't quite comprehend (whenever player rolls initiative they are dominated). Crag faded until he became a being made of light (when rolls initiative, insubstantial and weakened, save ends all).

Beetles the size of small dogs scurried about the fauna. Eyeballs gazed at us from plants. Lizard tails shot from the ground like blades of grass. There was a bucket of liquid light on the ground and trees of pomegranate-like fruit, with snails climbing upon them.

Quickroot became overcome with hunger and ate dirt. Corax grabbed a nearby snail and ate it. Jamlamin was suddenly overtaken with madness and threw a bolt at Corax, who dodged it just in time by throwing a beetle at him.  Crag, who was still composed of light, could hear the snails whispering to him, but couldn't understand them no matter how close he got. He put one hand into the bucket of liquid light, but nothing happened. He poured it out onto the lizard grass, but, again, no effect. Lex could not wait any longer and eats one of the pomegranate-like fruits. When she did, she gained the insight that the garden they've wandered into used to be that of the druid. She also understood that the eyeballs she and the others who hunger are so repulsed by was the key to curing their hunger. Her hunger lessened slightly.

Eglan was overtaken with madness and took a swing at Lex, but missed when Crag switched places with her using his teleport technique. One of the stars descended closer to the trees. Corax decided to eat an eyeball and felt his hunger lessen, so Eglan and Crag also ate an eyeball. They began to realize a combination of these plants and creatures might cure their afflictions. Crag placed an eyeball in the bucket along with a snail, but, nothing happened.

The star was now 10 feet away, expanding and contracting. Corax used his magic to trade afflictions with Crag, so he was now made of light. As the star got closer, Corax was filled with malevolence. Eglan meditated to determine that the star was under the power of Khirad. She fed another eyeball to Corax, but, it did not cure him. Quickroot took a fruit, some lizard tail grass, and an eyeball, and ate all three. He was cured of his hunger completely, so the rest began eating combinations (or being fed in the case of Eglan and Jamlamin, who were stricken with memory loss by the stars) until they are all cured.

Corax attacked the descended star and it exploded, injuring the party in the blast. The rest of the stars began to come closer, so they moved onward to the center, where they found more stars surrounding a horrible bear covered in tentacles with light emitting eyeballs down its back.

"End my suffering!" it cried, and they realized the bear was Hongya, the druid.
"She is mine!" hissed an unknown voice.

Worm-like creatures covered in porcupine quills (shot by quill caused 5 ongoing damaged and player was slowed) attacked from amid aberrant mist (when in the mist, players took 10 ongoing psychic damage, got a +1 to attack and +5 to damage rolls).

Play notes:

This was an interesting night because it was the first time we actually stopped in the middle of a battle because we spent so much time trying to figure out the initiative based challenges in the garden. We did a lot of experimenting with the plants and bugs, but ultimately were assisted by the DM via Quickroot just due to time. That being said it was an interesting challenge and I'd be up for more puzzles in the future.

Unfortunately it wasn't a good night of combat for me, I didn't make very good use of my attacks (for example, I forgot Corax cannot take cold damage, so I could have used an ability to slide him out of the mist, but moved the enemy instead). My head wasn't in the game as much as it should have been, but, it was a learning experience.

I look forward to finding out what happened to Hongya in our next session!