We played another session yesterday - Fea-bella and Golin. As Fea-bella's player had been absent last session, we got a brief account of how she woke from her dream fugue in Megloss's house and rejoined Golin. And Golin chose a new Belief - that the Elves have too many secrets! (Which he will discover and reveal.)
The session started in town phase. Golin shared the information that he and Korvin had acquired in the previous session, and Fea-bella did some more research. I figured that with the information already discovered, she had a "Detailed description" of what she was researching, and and for Ob 4 could learn an interesting fact. The Scholar test succeeded, and the interesting fact was that Celedhring, after entering the Shadow Caves, had never left them! Golin's player conjectured a lich; and Fea-bella decided to purchase some holy water for battling the undead. I've been following the gear availability rules from the LMM pretty closely, which has limited what the PCs can buy in the Wizard's Tower without going to the black market (which in this context I'm construing as buying directly from townsfolk or peasants). Holy water is listed as availability 3, ie in Wizards' Towers, Religious Bastions and Forgotten Temple Complexes. I toyed with being a mean GM and saying that, for holy water, one of those is not like the other two. But then I reviewed my list of town facilities for a Wizard's Tower and allowed that there was a shrine, where holy water might be acquired. Golin offered help. But the Resources test (5 dice against Ob 3) failed - the shrine attendant sold Fea-bella the holy water, but only after berating her for her lack of regular attendance or offerings (ie her and Golin both had their Resources taxed down to 1).
Fea-bella also bought some wine, food and candles.
Golin used his 2nd level Outcast ability to haggle for free. The test failed, but the Failed Haggling Events roll didn't hurt him. He also bought some candles and food, but had some trouble with other purchases. He failed an attempt to buy rope, and I introduced a twist - a constable of the Tower, who wanted to learn more about Golin's involvement in an explosion at the hedge wizard's establishment, and its subsequent burning down. Golin decided to turn the gathered crowd against the constable and in his favour - opposed Oratory tests! Fea-bella helped with her Manipulator ("He's an innocent Dwarf, just trying to buy some rope!" called a heckler from the crowd), and Golin succeeded. So the constable backed off, but not without giving a look to the rope vendor that made it clear no rope was to be vended (ie the failed Resources test was to stand).
Golin then decided to buy a small shovel (pack 1 compared to the standard pack 2) - I asked whether he wanted wooden (Ob 1) or metal (Ob 2) and his player replied "Wooden, of course!" - it can also be used as fuel if necessary. But the three dice (Resources back up to 2 by this stage, plus +1D from a stimulated economy) yielded not a single success, and who should Golin see coming towards him once again but the constable! I told him to note down his new enemy, and that the town phase was now done. Both players succeeded on their Lifestyle checks, and so returned Fresh to Megloss's house to begin the adventure proper.
Megloss was not initially that happy - "Do you know anything about the papers missing from my bench downstairs?" - but a Manipulator vs Manipulator by Golin (helped by Fea-bella) persuaded him that Golin didn't know anything, and so he assumed the cinder imp must have burned them. The test failed, but I opted to have Megloss believe Golin, an Golin become Angry at having to justify himself all the time, as I didn't want another confrontation with Megloss at this point.
Megloss then showed them into his back room, where they had to break through the floor (which they knew to be weak and rotten) to get to the dungeon beneath. Golin used his instinct (to
Always look for weak points) and succeeded at an Ob 1 Labourer test, and they found the entrance shaft beneath it. Next to the shaft was a a strange statute (pack 1), an idol of an unknown religion, a muscled humanoid with a long tongue and painted in flaking red paint. Fea-bella tried to identify it, but failed the Ob 4 Theologian test (but did open Theologian skill, and also picked up a check for camp phase) and was distracted by the sight of a corpse candle in the cave below. This required an Ob 3 Will test to avoid being lured down - the test succeeded, but only after spending persona to reroll traitors (using Elven Lore-wise).
Golin - lamenting his lack of rope - then made a successful Ob 4 Dungeoneer test to get the two of them down into the cave, where they found a pool of water (revealed to be potable by a successful Survivalist test) and saw one of the walls to be worked rather than natural. Golin examined it with his Dwarven Nature and realised it was Dwarven work. He then searched it, which he found tiring (failed Ob 4 Scout test, leading to Exhaustion) but he did manage to open the cunningly wrought secret doors.
These led the characters through a wedge-shaped room with stairs down. At the bottom of the stairs was a dead, skeletal, body - they looted it for its leather armour and 2D of gold coins. Examination revealed these to be Elven coins (Ob 2 Scholar from Fea-bella); Fea-bella took them, and Golin donned the leather armour. (Which also answered the question
Was the body an Elf? - no, or else its armour wouldn't fit Golin!)
At the (narrow) end of the wedge room there were glowing symbols on the walls either side of the door out. Golin assisted Fea-bella in using Lore Master to read them, but the Ob 4 test failed, and so the PCs triggered the symbols of blinding! Both failed the Ob 4 Will test - 3 successes each - and so both were blinded (which I treated as mechanically equivalent to darkness). They retreated back up the stairs to the pond cave and camped. Being blind, they couldn't set a watch, but Fea-bella did manage the Ob 2 Survivalist check to light a fire, and Golin spent the check to attempt (and succeed) at a recovery test for Angry.
The camp event roll was a gentle 14, and at the end of the camp phase - which was when their blindness ended - they also got to pick one stem of glowing fungus, for use either as a candle or as cooking supplies.
After this pause in the action, they returned to the wedge room, averting their eyes from the symbols, and going through the door. This took them to an area where their candles provided only dim light, and dim light was darkness. They could see an alcove in the wall opposite, but when they went to explore it they awoke the aptrgangr resting there, as well as its friends.
Golin's player decided that they should extinguish their lights, to try and get the aptrgangr's to return to their rest. The rules say that only riddling or fleeing are possible in darkness; I decided that this was a trick that was in the neighbourhood of riddling, and so was also an acceptable conflict, pitting the PCs Manipulator and Lore Master against the aptrgangrs' Hunting Nature.
The players were defeated in the trickery contest, with only a minor compromise owed by the aptrgangrs. In retrospect I think I was a bit lenient here - I decided where, on my map, the aptrgangrs had led the PCs to, and it did have the potential to put the PCs at a disadvantage, but that ended up not mattering as after some discussion the PCs decided to remain in darkness (rather than pulling out their glowing fungus) and flee. And so they didn't suffer much consequence from their failed trickery. I now think the Afraid condition would have been appropriate, but didn't think of that at the time.
The pursuit was a close thing, but the aptrgangrs won with one hp left, and so I decided that they had caught up to the PCs, and forced a confrontation; but with a significant compromise owed, I determined that they had all moved to the other end of the map, where natural light fell though an open "window" in the cliff-side - looking out over the lower hills and the plain - which removed the light penalties.
At this point I made what could be considered a GMing error - I had in mind the episode in LotR where the Hobbits are caught in the Barrow Downs and awaken with a blade across their throats, and so I decided the aptrgangrs would try and capture the PCs. Only once I declared this to the players did I realise that, at Might 2 vs Might 3, the aptrgangrs can't actually do that! But I felt locked in by my declaration, and so the capture conflict was on!
This time around the PCs did well, and defeated the aptrgangrs with a half-compromise owed. The rules suggest, as possible compromises, "the adventurers are injured, weapons broken, or armour rent and torn". During the conflict, when Fea-bella used a vial of her holy water to good affect against an aptrgangr, I had decided that if they got the chance the aptrgangrs would smash her other vials if they got the chance - and given that she had been dropped to zero hp while Golin had lost none, I put that forward as the compromise. Fea-bella's player protested a little, but when I said perhaps she could be injured instead, the player was happy to lose the gear instead.
While the aptrgangrs cowered, the characters examined the room they'd been chased into: a semicircular hall with a domed roof, and a throne on a round dais in the centre; Cartographer’s tools (paper, ink, pen, brush) sit on the arm of the throne.
Further examination revealed that the throne could be rotated, but they would need a rod to fit into the mechanism. Golin didn't want to risk breaking his (really Glothfindel's) Elven sword Awakener of Dreams; and Fea-bella didn't want to risk breaking her half-moon glaive. So she decided to poke around for a rod. She failed the Ob 2 Scavenging test, and so was Angry and frustrated by the time she found something that would suit her purposes. Golin used it, successfully opening Labourer in the process; but turning the throne didn't reveal anything - it just rotated it a full 360 degrees.
There was speculation that it might be a magical viewing throne, and Golin - with his new Belief - decided to sit on it and find out. This was a fun sequence, which I adjudicated as per my prior write-up of the throne:
Whoever sits on the throne seems to travel out across the land: the floor, wall and arching roof vanish, replaced with clear visions of the land below, the horizon all around, and the sky above. The traveller always hovers at least 1,000' above the ground, and can rise up to an altitude of 9 miles. The traveller cannot see into enclosed areas such as building or caves or under forest canopies, but a forest can be made to appear stripped of leaves (requires Ob 2 Will test). The traveller cannot enter a settlement, nor pass through a maze of mist and shadows. Use requires making a Nature test, either against Ob equal to overland travel toll (and costing a turn), or against Ob 3 (if a turn is spent making a test; in this case, the Nature test does not require a turn). Margin of failure of the Nature test causes tax.
Golin spent two turns on the throne (and passed both Nature tests), "travelling" to the Tower of Stars, where he saw Telemere the Elven Ranger still encamped awaiting the return of his fellows (an allusion to their first session, which was the only one Telemere's player has attended), and back - I didn't have my world map with me (I'd left it at home) but deemed this two Toll each way. Golin's player remarked that he thought Megloss would be pretty happy with this discovery! This was the first time it really dawned on Fea-bella that they were down here at Megloss's behest, as his agents.
With the mystery of the throne unravelled, Golin wanted to return to the surface, where he would sell the aptrgangrs to the Wizard of the Tower! Fea-bella wanted to loot the alcoves first, but Golin was worried that if something went wrong the aptrgangrs could cease to be cowed, and turn on them. So they agreed that Golin would take the aptrgangrs out, and then Fea-bella would go back and loot the alcoves if it seemed safe to do so.
They returned to the pool cave, and I asked how they planned to get out - eg a "human" pyramid of aptrgangrs? Golin's player said that they would call for Megloss to lower a rope. So he tested Persuader 2 against Megloss's Manipulator 3. And failed. So (in a shocking twist) Megloss leaned over the edge of the hole and asked them how much they would pay for rope? He suggested 2D of coins (given that rope is Ob 2 Resources). This was a Negotiation contest, but not a long one - Megloss had 8 hp, while the PCs had 4, and in two actions they had been reduced to zero hp while Megloss had lost only 1. So they agreed to pay 2D of coins, although as well as the rope Megloss tossed in a loaf of Krystal's hardtack (Krystal is Megloss's housekeeper, and in the previous session if the PCs had lost their convince conflict with Megloss would have had to go into the dungeon with nothing but a bit of provisioning from Krystal). So the PCs got an extra portion of preserved rations along with a rope to pull them out.
We had to finish the session at that point. Fea-bella got a persona point for achieving her goal (
root out the undead!) and for MVP (she was the one who worked out there would be undead, and who packed holy water); while Golin got a fate for pursuing his Belief (he uncovered the secret of the Elven seeing throne) and for using his Instinct, and got a persona for Teamwork (he was the one who got them through the dungeon). Both characters have spent enough rewards to get to 3rd level in their next town phase, which will be a respite I think.
lol.
