Summary 42
In which our heroes prove themselves to be pretty
heroic (or should that be foolish) and manage to
lose various pieces of themselves...
An assault by the bipedal lizards was successfully beaten off due to some good co-ordination work, good use of spells and some serious heroism. Whys'Parr slew two creatures in one attack (actually, they both fumbled and fell back into the well!), you variously dropped barrels and acid bottles, and fought a serious combat as the creatures finally managed to emerge from the well. You threw back the assault with heavy casualties to your assailants. The only damage to the tower was the main door, which eventually fell in. However, spells and use of the murder holes reaped a heavy price too, and the inner door still holds.
The second wave of the attack occurred when the blocked off stairs were blown out (causing some serious shrapnel damage) and an attack via bipedal lizards caused more heavy combat on the stairs. However, the powerful lizards behind were badly destroyed by fireballs thrown by the Count and you were once again successful.
Descending the stairs you heard scurrying noises and emerged into a new level, which contained immense amounts of rubble, few walls and lots of gunpowder. The creatures were apparently determined to blow up the Tower if they could not capture it! Serious combat took place here too. Three particularly notable features:
Wolf lost his foot in combat, though was saved from death by the Count. [He has proven immensely useful with skills, healing potions and spells to the extent that we wonder why our valiant PCs are not this good! For the record, you have now had an array of 'magical' items in the form of potions]. Needless to say that the rules on the loss of a foot are utterly contradictory between Apocrypha Now, the Critical tables and the Warpstone piece on prosthetics. We will keep the current -2 M and 50% reduction in Initiative until some permanent treatment can be found. Wolf has already been whining for his foot back. A good prosthetic foot will restore Initiative and reduce movement by only -½M. In normal use this will be rounded up, but the ½ will make it clear that running movement is impeded.
Kara lost an eye in combat (Phil's decision to lose the eye, rather than spend a FP). Once again, the rules are contradictory here, since according to the Critical tables there is no loss to Fellowship, but in Apocrypha Now and the Warpstone piece on prosthetics there is. I am fairly ambivalent about this. I can see that losing an eye might increase Fellowship in the hard life of the Old World or alternatively might even allow use of the Intimidate ability. On the other hand, any form of disfigurement (it might be argued) makes one less attractive generally. My suggestion is that we simply keep the permanent -20 BS, but we can discuss any thoughts on this at the start of the game. In many ways, this is how Phil wishes to play it. Even if we did reduce Fel, then a glass eye minimises this anyway. In the meantime, although Kara's own eye was smeared to a pulp, she took both her opponent's as a memento to keep and show.
Thomas fought a new creature that suicidally charged the gunpowder with a lighted brand. A surgical call-down of a snow storm extinguished it, and Thomas slew the creature. It turned out to be a hobgoblin, although it looked rather unlike the normal hobgoblin according to the wizards. It was dressed oddly in leather robes edged in purple, and was wearing a tin medallion of an anvil rent asunder by a lightning bolt.
One other point of note is that the Count informed you that the gunpowder was not of Kislevan origin. Kislevans have developed 'corned' gunpowder, rather than the very fine gunpowder used elsewhere. This is less likely to turn into an incombustible lump in wet conditions. Whilst Kislev still relies on cheaper imports from the dwarfs and The Empire for much of its supplies, he thinks it unlikely that any is imported into the Colonies since it is a major export from here. By his estimate, it is pretty fresh too.
When we left the game discussions were taking place as to whether to chase the fled lizard creatures down an imposing set of stairs (the only exit) under an arch like a hawk's head, to make the gunpowder "safe" or anything else that you wish to consider.
We re-start with most of the PCs on the newly discovered level. The NPCs are positioned as follows:
Wolf is currently running away, and will join Jacob and Krzon as we restart, screaming "it's going to blow".
Experience (including carried over from last session)
Jakob 50
Wolf 100
Whys Parr 150
Kara 190
Morgan 140
Thomas 200