Friday 9 December 2016

GURPS Free Cities Session 29: Adventures in Bookkeeping

Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (349 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (329 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (339 points)

Player Absent:
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (329 points)

Day 73:
Weather: Slightly Cloudy, Light Winds
Date: Coreli 4th, 2526
The party paid Hue the Many-Coloured to send a Message to the Grand Library in Zerakim for more information on the "heyena", and slightly later decided to send another regarding Zaxod's sudden lack of hair.  While he was there, Zaxod got his new magical axe examined, and was informed that it could cast Continual Light if the dwarvish word "Lakhdan" ("light") was spoken.

Arc figured that they may as well go add some more stone to the wall keeping the ogres in, so he, Aurum, and Mor'ath headed west out of town after Zaxod repaired Aurum's staff.  Zaxod decided to stay in town to repair his gear and continue work on his meteoric morningstar.

An hour or so of walking later, Mor'ath spotted a group of orcs in front of the cave of the Blood Drinker ogres, and Arc, the only present party member who knows spoken Giant, listened in.  Apparently the orcs were supposed to be fetching the ogres, but were confused because they cave was supposed to be right here, by the crude drawing of the head drinking blood, but inside was just more stone.  After a while of arguing, they decided to head back to camp to trick some other orc into telling "Togdaz" about it.

The party waited for the orcs to leave, and then Aurum added another metre of stone to the wall before heading back.  As they journeyed through the plains, Arc spotted movement in the long grass nearby, and determined there were five things stalking them.  Two of the five broke off to flank and the party accelerated, but they kept pace.  The party decided to stop, and Arc started casting a Sunbolt, when one of the flanking things stood up.

It looked somewhat like a leopard, but with a tall mane of fur down running down its spine.  As it stood, the skin on its face peeled back, revealing exposed bone and muscle, and it let out a blood-curdling wail.  The party stood fast as another of the cluster of three did the same, while the others charged in.  Thanks to Occultism, Aurum identified the beasts as krenshar, and Mor'ath began stabbing eyes with reckless abandon, quickly killing two.

Aurum cast Panic twice to drive off another two, and the last krenshar retreated.  Arc was curious if krenshar had any alchemical ingredients, and Aurum confirmed that their livers were magical with Physiology (Magical Beasts).  They piled the bodies onto the levitating disc and headed back to Chryssa's Rest.

As they returned, they found that another cart of settlers, supplies, and replacement guards had just arrived, and after greeting them, turned in for the night.

Day 74:
Weather: Sunny, No Wind
Date: Coreli 5th, 2526
Despite Harthex noting that they were being paid handsomely to deal with the surrounding area, the party decided to wait for the Grand Library to respond and spent the day working on their own projects.  Arc worked in Hue's alchemy lab to make some healing potions, Aurum gambled with Harthex, and Zaxod continued work on his morningstar, and helped the blacksmith to make some mundane tools (horseshoes, plows, etc).

Later in the day, three horns sounded, from the north, west, and south simultaneously.  The party headed out to the town square, where they found the high elf Cirth running to the north.  He relayed that he was going to meet Vel at the north gate and then ran off, and the party decided to go south.

They arrived, and found a pair of guards watching a group of 15 orcs, including 5 on horseback, about 20m away, all with weapons drawn.  Zaxod gave Arc his spyglass and he noticed a group of 5 more orcs on horseback much further away.  Though they couldn't make out the heraldry on the distant orcs, the closer ones were definitely from the Stone Axe tribe.

Notes:
This was a short session (only 2 hours and 15 minutes) due to a late start and early end.  The orcs showed up with less than half an hour left, so we just took care of some outstanding bookkeeping and ended there.

Aurum was casting Panic at 17, as though it were a spell he knows, when it should be 15, as it is from an item.  It probably wouldn't have made a difference, as Mor'ath would have easily killed the krenshar on his own.

The krenshar's face peeling back caused a fright check at -3, but everybody made it with no problem.

Harthex told the party outright that there was other work to do and they did nothing instead.

The blacksmith thanked Zaxod for the help by saying that he was alright as far as half-orcs go.

There was about a 5 minute discussion over which of the three orc tribes they've met with and which they haven't.  Tribes that were discussed were:
-Tricky Orcs
-Dick Orcs
-Mystery Orcs
-Nice Orcs
-Trade Orcs

Zaxod still wants to kill all of the orcs, even especially the friendly/nice/trade orcs.

Aurum has almost 30 points saved up because of computer issues.

XP:
0 for partial failure (even though they were directly informed that there was work to do other than clearing the tomb, they just spent the day(s) crafting)
1 for good roleplaying
0 for combat (the krenshar were fodder, and didn't outnumber the party by enough)
1 to Aurum only for loot (he sold the gems and 1/2 pound of silver from the tomb and made some decent money)
MVP went to Aurum for his knowledge skills and Panic

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