Rune
Once A Fool
Session 6, part 2:
On the morning of the Rice-Cake Festival, we get up and head to the gong tower. There’s no one at the door, so I bang on it and a pissed off old ratling tells us to go away, or something to that effect. He doesn’t accept our money, but he agrees to let us in if we tell him what "information that we know." (Of course, we don’t really know anything, but he doesn’t know that we don’t know anything.) He lets us take a look at the innards of the tower and climb to the top and my brother slams himself into the gong. That thing is loud!
The old ratling really wants to know what we know, and is only getting meaner. The monkey doesn’t like him either. We go back down to the bottom floor and there are rats and ratlings in every shadow, watching us. Finally he gets mad and pushes me out the door. My brother is already out, and the halfling follows quickly. The doors slam shut.
DM note: actually, it was a very good bull rush attack.
He was hidin’ something. I know it. For one thing, he kept telling us that we’d be hunted down and killed if we talked to anyone about them. We were never there. Yep. Suspicious…
DM note: one must pause and reflect on the brilliant lucidity of the dwarf's observational powers.
We go to the Southern Ward (there’s hardly any celebration here—and I know why; this place is a slum! There aren’t even streets, only alleys.) We catch a guy and start asking him questions about murders and mutilations, and such, and he freaks out! Turns out there’s some giant worm-like thing that’s got translucent skin showing off its innards towering over a house about a hundred yards off. He’s smashing buildings and eating people, so the locals are kind of panicky. Bah. Who needs ‘em?
By my beard, here we go again!
It sees us (somehow) and starts heading for us. My brother and I both have repeating crossbows from our days in the Shugenja Temple. We lay into the thing, but the bolts aren’t doing much. The halfling starts making a fire (what is it with him and fire?) and then he catches a glimpse of some guy on a rooftop and sends his monkey after the figure. I keep firing at the thing (it sure does move slowly with all of those houses in the way) while my brother runs into a house to find some help. He finds some coward and drags him out and throws him toward the worm-thing. The halfling wants to send the guy away to get the town guard, but it’s too late, he’s running for his life. Bah. Who needs him?
DM note: what is it with the halfling and fire?
When the worm-thing gets closer, I get out my beautiful masterwork great-axe (I made it myself, as a matter of fact.) and get ready to charge the big creature. The halfling casts some magical armor spell on me and the Dream tries to get uppity, but it recognizes my superiority and backs down. Then the halfling picks up a long piece of burning wood and readies it behind the flame. I wish I had time to laugh, but I’m going into a rage.
I leap over the fire and drive my axe into the worm-thing, but my blade slides off it’s thick, slippery skin. Then the thing reaches over the fire to attack the halfling, but the halfling is ready for it and drives the flaming splinter into the monster. That hurt it. A little.
DM note: the dwarf's attack was a natural 20 on the leap roll, followed by a pitiful attack roll.
The halfling doesn’t get out unscathed, though. One of the worm-thing’s pincered tentacles takes a goodly chunk out of him. That hurt him. More than a little.
I taste the blood from my own tongue; I must have bitten myself in my rage. My vision becomes clear, like a hunting animal’s, and I see my brother moving behind the creature so that we flank it. Then he jumps on its back and starts chopping away with his dwarven war axe, while the halfling keeps grabbing flaming pieces of wood and stabbing the worm with them.
My vision becomes a narrow tunnel with only one thing at the end: something to kill. The worm-thing picks me up with all of its tentacles but I keep chopping away at its gaping mouth. The thing tries to stuff me in its mouth, but we all manage to attack it before it can pull off the deed. The combined might of the dwarven axes and the halfling’s stick obliterate the life-force within the creature, and the Dream’s reaction is powerful. We are all thrown through the air and drained of energy. We are victorious, but we have no token of our success, for the sky rips open and swallows the entire body of the worm-thing.
DM note: those dwarves sure are tough! I'll have to think of something more challenging or they might start to get too powerful!
The halfling and his monkey must share their brain, because the halfling says to us that the figure on the roof-top went to West Hill. We go there too; I’m not sure why. Apparently, we’re looking for some "twisted building" that doesn’t "fit." Whatever that means.
DM note: the halfling and his monkey do actually share a brain...sort of; the monkey has become his familiar.
We find a building in West Hill (which is apparently where all the scholar-snobs go to hang out). The halfling says, "This is the place," and in we go.
The inside blows our minds. The building on the outside is one story tall (and not at all twisted), but on the inside, it is huge! It has a twisting spiral staircase and the inside is filled with books. I pick one up and the spidery lettering seems to crawl around off the page and into my head. That is weird. I don’t like this place. Some scrawny human comes up. The halfling could probably beat him up. He asks us if we need help and notices the corrosive worm blood on my axe, which I never got around to peace-bonding again. Funny. I know I cleaned it, though. When we tell him we killed a big worm, he looks distant and blank for a moment and then tells us politely to leave when he snaps out of it. We could come back tomorrow, if we like and even meet "the Blessed," whatever that means.
We haven’t gone too far when we get the feeling that we’re being followed. The halfling sends the monkey out again. Turns out it’s a ratling.
DM note: what? Followed again! Couldn't be!
When we get to where the monkey is, we see that there’s an unconscious ratling on the ground with the monkey on top of him behind a vendor’s booth. The halfling’s ridiculously proud because he thinks the monkey is finally learning to fight. Sure. I shake the ratling awake and we manage to convince him to talk to us. He says that the ratlings have been hired to keep an eye on us by "the Blessed" because we know too much. (The joke’s on them! We know nothing!)
Then the ratling shifts shape into a dirty little rat and escapes our grasp, which is very strange, because everybody knows that ratlings can’t change into rats.
Oh well. At least there’s still time to enjoy the festival.
--Strong Dwarf Stands
DM note: notable moments--this was a pretty exciting session, despite the absence of Ocean Deeply Sleeps. None of my other players relish the opportunity to be the scribe, because the feel that in order to take notes sufficient for a log, they have to cut back on the role-playing. Nevertheless, Strong Dwarf Stands came off as obnoxious as ever!
Strong Dwarf Stands was once again a barbaric barbarian this session. It was good to have him back and I must congratulate the player on his ability to roleplay and take good notes at the same time. Also, the two dwarven brothers make an astoundingly good offensive team.
Drunken Dwarf Snores and his brother are both wonderfully played uncharismatic dwarves; both are distinct, and yet both play well off of each other and work together in tight cohesion.
Fighting Man Dances is funny. In this session in particular, he stands out as a tactician, because the two dwarves, while being played by seasoned gaming tacticians, are being played as straightforward charging type of guys. And nobody listens to halflings. The player of Fighting Man Dances, by the way, was extraordinarily pleased at the part where his monkey had apparently knocked out a ratling. He really wants that monkey to know martial arts!
On the morning of the Rice-Cake Festival, we get up and head to the gong tower. There’s no one at the door, so I bang on it and a pissed off old ratling tells us to go away, or something to that effect. He doesn’t accept our money, but he agrees to let us in if we tell him what "information that we know." (Of course, we don’t really know anything, but he doesn’t know that we don’t know anything.) He lets us take a look at the innards of the tower and climb to the top and my brother slams himself into the gong. That thing is loud!
The old ratling really wants to know what we know, and is only getting meaner. The monkey doesn’t like him either. We go back down to the bottom floor and there are rats and ratlings in every shadow, watching us. Finally he gets mad and pushes me out the door. My brother is already out, and the halfling follows quickly. The doors slam shut.
DM note: actually, it was a very good bull rush attack.
He was hidin’ something. I know it. For one thing, he kept telling us that we’d be hunted down and killed if we talked to anyone about them. We were never there. Yep. Suspicious…
DM note: one must pause and reflect on the brilliant lucidity of the dwarf's observational powers.
We go to the Southern Ward (there’s hardly any celebration here—and I know why; this place is a slum! There aren’t even streets, only alleys.) We catch a guy and start asking him questions about murders and mutilations, and such, and he freaks out! Turns out there’s some giant worm-like thing that’s got translucent skin showing off its innards towering over a house about a hundred yards off. He’s smashing buildings and eating people, so the locals are kind of panicky. Bah. Who needs ‘em?
By my beard, here we go again!
It sees us (somehow) and starts heading for us. My brother and I both have repeating crossbows from our days in the Shugenja Temple. We lay into the thing, but the bolts aren’t doing much. The halfling starts making a fire (what is it with him and fire?) and then he catches a glimpse of some guy on a rooftop and sends his monkey after the figure. I keep firing at the thing (it sure does move slowly with all of those houses in the way) while my brother runs into a house to find some help. He finds some coward and drags him out and throws him toward the worm-thing. The halfling wants to send the guy away to get the town guard, but it’s too late, he’s running for his life. Bah. Who needs him?
DM note: what is it with the halfling and fire?
When the worm-thing gets closer, I get out my beautiful masterwork great-axe (I made it myself, as a matter of fact.) and get ready to charge the big creature. The halfling casts some magical armor spell on me and the Dream tries to get uppity, but it recognizes my superiority and backs down. Then the halfling picks up a long piece of burning wood and readies it behind the flame. I wish I had time to laugh, but I’m going into a rage.
I leap over the fire and drive my axe into the worm-thing, but my blade slides off it’s thick, slippery skin. Then the thing reaches over the fire to attack the halfling, but the halfling is ready for it and drives the flaming splinter into the monster. That hurt it. A little.
DM note: the dwarf's attack was a natural 20 on the leap roll, followed by a pitiful attack roll.
The halfling doesn’t get out unscathed, though. One of the worm-thing’s pincered tentacles takes a goodly chunk out of him. That hurt him. More than a little.
I taste the blood from my own tongue; I must have bitten myself in my rage. My vision becomes clear, like a hunting animal’s, and I see my brother moving behind the creature so that we flank it. Then he jumps on its back and starts chopping away with his dwarven war axe, while the halfling keeps grabbing flaming pieces of wood and stabbing the worm with them.
My vision becomes a narrow tunnel with only one thing at the end: something to kill. The worm-thing picks me up with all of its tentacles but I keep chopping away at its gaping mouth. The thing tries to stuff me in its mouth, but we all manage to attack it before it can pull off the deed. The combined might of the dwarven axes and the halfling’s stick obliterate the life-force within the creature, and the Dream’s reaction is powerful. We are all thrown through the air and drained of energy. We are victorious, but we have no token of our success, for the sky rips open and swallows the entire body of the worm-thing.
DM note: those dwarves sure are tough! I'll have to think of something more challenging or they might start to get too powerful!
The halfling and his monkey must share their brain, because the halfling says to us that the figure on the roof-top went to West Hill. We go there too; I’m not sure why. Apparently, we’re looking for some "twisted building" that doesn’t "fit." Whatever that means.
DM note: the halfling and his monkey do actually share a brain...sort of; the monkey has become his familiar.
We find a building in West Hill (which is apparently where all the scholar-snobs go to hang out). The halfling says, "This is the place," and in we go.
The inside blows our minds. The building on the outside is one story tall (and not at all twisted), but on the inside, it is huge! It has a twisting spiral staircase and the inside is filled with books. I pick one up and the spidery lettering seems to crawl around off the page and into my head. That is weird. I don’t like this place. Some scrawny human comes up. The halfling could probably beat him up. He asks us if we need help and notices the corrosive worm blood on my axe, which I never got around to peace-bonding again. Funny. I know I cleaned it, though. When we tell him we killed a big worm, he looks distant and blank for a moment and then tells us politely to leave when he snaps out of it. We could come back tomorrow, if we like and even meet "the Blessed," whatever that means.
We haven’t gone too far when we get the feeling that we’re being followed. The halfling sends the monkey out again. Turns out it’s a ratling.
DM note: what? Followed again! Couldn't be!
When we get to where the monkey is, we see that there’s an unconscious ratling on the ground with the monkey on top of him behind a vendor’s booth. The halfling’s ridiculously proud because he thinks the monkey is finally learning to fight. Sure. I shake the ratling awake and we manage to convince him to talk to us. He says that the ratlings have been hired to keep an eye on us by "the Blessed" because we know too much. (The joke’s on them! We know nothing!)
Then the ratling shifts shape into a dirty little rat and escapes our grasp, which is very strange, because everybody knows that ratlings can’t change into rats.
Oh well. At least there’s still time to enjoy the festival.
--Strong Dwarf Stands
DM note: notable moments--this was a pretty exciting session, despite the absence of Ocean Deeply Sleeps. None of my other players relish the opportunity to be the scribe, because the feel that in order to take notes sufficient for a log, they have to cut back on the role-playing. Nevertheless, Strong Dwarf Stands came off as obnoxious as ever!
Strong Dwarf Stands was once again a barbaric barbarian this session. It was good to have him back and I must congratulate the player on his ability to roleplay and take good notes at the same time. Also, the two dwarven brothers make an astoundingly good offensive team.
Drunken Dwarf Snores and his brother are both wonderfully played uncharismatic dwarves; both are distinct, and yet both play well off of each other and work together in tight cohesion.
Fighting Man Dances is funny. In this session in particular, he stands out as a tactician, because the two dwarves, while being played by seasoned gaming tacticians, are being played as straightforward charging type of guys. And nobody listens to halflings. The player of Fighting Man Dances, by the way, was extraordinarily pleased at the part where his monkey had apparently knocked out a ratling. He really wants that monkey to know martial arts!
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