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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7049553" data-attributes="member: 42582">One answer to the question in the OP: this came up in a game I ran today.The principal characters: Jobe, a wizard who wants to redeem his brother possessed by a balrog, and learn the balrog's plans so as to stop the pending apocalypse; Joachim, the balrog-possed brother, lying unconscious and healing in the tower of Jabal, a powerful and socially prominent wizard,who is hoping that when Joachim recovers he will be able to serve as teacher of wizards; Alenihel, a Glorfindel-style elven warrior down on his luck, and so serving (ronin-style) as a bodyguard to Jabal; Halika, a wizard-assassin who was apprenticed to Joachim and treated very badly by him, and has now sworn to find him and flay him, then send his soul to . . . [a bad place]; Tru-leigh, a snake-handling oracle from the hills who is under the control of a dark naga, and has been tasked to bring Joachim to his master so that the naga can spill Joachim's blood and thereby bind the spirits of nature to it.The events (last session): while Jobe and Tru-leigh (both PCs) were recuperating and restocking in a dodgy inn, Halika (a former PC, now mostly NPC) scouted out Jabal's tower so as to learn how to break in and take vengeance on Joachim. Jobe and Tru-leigh were worried that Halika was about to strike before they could go and recover Joachim themselves, so they fed her a sleeping potion. But then, as they tried to sneak into Jabal's tower through the catacombs, they got lost. So Halika was able to wake from her coma and head off on her own, trying to preempt them.Halika broke into the tower (using her jumping spell) and went to the room where Joachim was recovering. Alenihel (another PC) tried to stop her, but was blasted to unconsciousness by her Emperor's Hand (force lightning-style) attack. Opposed checks were then made: could Halika decpaitate the unconscious Joachim before Jobe and Tru-leigh got there? Halika won the role, and so the answer was yes. The session ended with the head dropping to the floor and landing next to the body of the unconscious elf, just as Jabal entered from one doorway and Jobe from another with Tru-leigh behind him.The events (today's session): Jobe wants Joachim's body, so that (i) he can summon his dead spirit to learn (a) is he free from the balrog?, and (b) what the balrog's plans are; Halika wants Joachim's body, to (i) flay it, and (ii) make sure the soul goes to . . . [a bad place]; Tru-leigh wants Joachim's body and blood, to take them back to his master.Shocked by the decapitation, Jobe and Tru-leigh stand for a few seconds while Halika tries but fails to cut down Jabal so she can escape with the body. When they regain their senses, Tru-leigh rushes in to grab a chamber pot and place it under the neck of the body, to make sure no blood is lost. Jobe, meanwhile, tries but fails to grapple with Halika. Halika decides that discretion is the better part of valour and tries to cast a jump spell to escape past Joachim and out the window, but she fails and internalises the magic, falling unconscious.Jobe then grapples Jabal to stop him taking revenge upon Halika. Alenihel (an NPC this time, as the player has not yet arrived) regains consciousness and Jobe persuades him to take over the job of restraining Jabal while Jobe and Tru-leigh escape, Jobe carrying the unconscious Halika (who is the only summoner of the dead that Jobe knows) and the body of Joachim, Tru-leigh carrying a chamber pot and a jug full of Joachim's blood.They run out of the tower and through the town (Hardby, in the World of GH setting). Jobe is strong, but not that strong, and fails a check to endure the load. So the two of them are approached in the middle of town by the watch - 3 watchmen and a lieutentant.The watch call upon them to stop. They don't break their stride, and Jobe tries to order the watchmen to help them carry the bodies. This is a difficult check, to say the least, and fails. One of the watchmen, then, says "Hey! This one's decapitated!'And Tru-leigh replies, while lifting off the cloth covering the chamberpot he is carrying, "IT'S OK! I'VE GOT THE HEAD!"Tru-leigh then attempted to summon a spirt of the sky to distract the guards failed, and he was struck by lightning instead, although managed not only to survive but to not even spill his vessels. The session ended with the two of them being marched off to the watch-house.(For anyone who is interested: the system for this game is Burning Wheel. But I think the ideas and events are pretty typical of fantasy RPGing.)</blockquote>

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