On Top of the World: Session 5

This week was a chance to change things up for the characters and introduce some of the dreaded role playing to proceedings. It seemed to work quite well.

The party’s attempt to beat a hasty retreat from the Malboro Forest was thwarted by the arrival of a mysterious figure clad in armour as black as night and swathed in dark robes. He appeared to them stood in a tree and dropped down when spotted by Skurmesh and instantly began accusing the party of ‘transgressions’ by trespassing and awakening the huge Malboro (Malthulu?). The party were none too pleased about the possibility of going to prison for the prescribed 25 years and Du’nn’o snuck off into the long grass to take a shot at the ‘Judge’ with her new Blingtastic Crossbow (The first item in the campaign to get the much coveted +4 Enhancement bonus, largely because I felt guilty for losing her character sheet before the session).

Suffice to say there is a time to shoot and a time not to, specifically it is a poor idea to shoot a man in the head when he is in the middle of exposition, and even worse when he’s in the middle of delivering the DM’s railroad. Generally I try to avoid railroading the party, but this once I wanted them to be somewhere so that the work I had actually done wouldn’t be wasted. Suffice to say the Judge was struck squarely by a sneaky bolt and instantly disappeared.

Du’nn’o felt burning and cold and the distinct sensation of having been cut open. Twice. Frankly she took a ridiculous amount of damage, which was fine by me as it instantly made the party realise I wasn’t about to let them just run away, and begrudgingly they followed the judge through a rift to the Gaol Zendicon.

I pulled a couple of ‘dick moves’ here, intended solely to make the party’s life difficult. One was to remove all of their food and water, including their much coveted ‘Horn(s) of Plenty’. These items I didn’t rule out near the start of the campaign, but given that I want Zendicon to be tough for reasons other than monsters and the like, they had to go. Mercifully I concocted a reason that was acceptable to the internal mechanics of the world and yet wouldn’t rob them of their other precious magic items.

The party awoke to the sound of a lean looking elf by the name of Cael who seemed to act as their guide; letting them know where they were and what travails they would encounter within the walls of Zendicon. Caradoc was very upset to find out that he had lost his Horn of Plenty and 40 Waybread Rations, it would not be the last time he would be upset this night.

The party having recovered themselves began to get a general lay of the land; to the South lay Dust Market, there were the East and West wings and to the north was a hall where a temple of the Raven Queen was holed up. Additionally in the ceiling of this chamber were two portals set into the carved ceiling from which, at irregular intervals, food and water would be deposited. Cael mentioned it was a kind of control; the food and water was never enough to sustain all the inmates, forcing them to fight for what resources there are.

Caradoc instructed Katarakis and Skurmesh to stay in the main chamber whilst he and Du’nn’o (The two party members dedicated to the Raven Queen) went to check out the temple. I get the inkling that Caradoc was well aware of what would be going on when I said: ‘They administer the Raven Queen’s Blessing’ and I was not one to disappoint.

Within they found Taluil and his brother clerics with rows upon rows of the dead and it didn’t take long for Caradoc to go on the offensive as Taluil explained quite plainly about how he euthanized the poor souls who came here and justified his actions as a blessing granted by the Raven Queen.* The exhumation and consumption of the organs post mortem was treated quite matter of fact-ly by the cleric who claimed that the dead allowed the living to survive; but Caradoc saw this as a clear sign of murder and kicked the Cleric.

Caradoc is 2 feet 9 inches tall, the minimum size for a Halfling in Third Edition, we assumed he either got a stepladder or has an exceptionally strong boot.

Suffice to say that as Skurmesh and Katarakis arrived the entire place went crazy; the Dragonborn threatened everyone in the room whilst Skurmesh played good cop and squeezed some of the more terrified clerics for information before loaning his axe to Caradoc who tied up the now whimpering Taluil and lopped his hands off. Katarakis prevented him from dealing the fatal blow although Du’nn’o managed to kill a cleric before Skurmesh could stop her (by hitting her in the face with the haft of his axe) and the others including Taluil made a dash for it. Du’nn’o, apparently not enamoured with having her nose broken by an irate Dwarf ran after the fleeing cleric and into Dust Market.

The Dust Market is a market ostensibly for Dust, a kind of narcotic which represents the only ‘escape’ from the Gaol Zendicon. Here and there merchants were plying wares for trinkets, jerked rat meat and weapons made of sharpened pieces of metal. As a symbol of status those merchants who were particularly wealthy wore cloaks made out of strips of faded precious fabrics; the more gaudy the more up market they were and probably the closer affiliated with the gangs.

Du’nn’o didn’t find Taluil before the rest of the party tracked her down (with Cael’s help) and led her back to the area with the two ceiling hatches. Caradoc stated plainly his disgust for the place and his desire to be rid of it by the end of the day. His plan was simple and relied upon Du’nn’o’s skills of athletics and thievery to open one of ceiling hatches and find a route up into the higher reaches. Cael had warned them of the darkness clad warders he had heard about higher up the gaol and the beasts that existed in the lower reaches, but Caradoc felt confident they could at least assess the risk.

Du’nn’o shimmied up the wall and set to work hanging from the ceiling. Her Aevis Sandals she had gained a while back protected her from falling damage so she was a good candidate for the task at hand. It took her some time but eventually she managed to open the iris hatch and climb into the room above in which shafts of light caught the dust from the floor and a pair of tall wooden doors stood in the wall like proud guards.

Speaking of proud guards it was at this point Du’nn’o attempted a stealth check in an empty room and true to form rolled a 1.

We have an unspoken rule in these parts that when Rachel (Du’nn’o’s Player) rolls a stealth check on ‘anything but a critical failure’ she will instantly roll a 1 (Or 100 in her fabled Dark Heresy bork) and we are obliged to then hurt her character. Specifically at this juncture three wardens crept out of the shadows, immobilized her and began to wail on her. They had greatswords. They did extra damage when she was immobilized.

Now she could still teleport down the shaft that she had just come up and didn’t risk falling damage but Du’nn’o apparently wanted to cause as much damage as possible and being a trickster rogue managed to toss two of them down the shaft (and they had teleported by the time they reached the floor and Katarakis got to bat at them) although in the process was hit so hard she lost almost all of her Hit Points in 3 hits.

Eventually she beat a hasty retreat and teleported down the shaft, which was fortunate as one more roll probably would have killed her with no way for the party to get up there and save her. The hatch in the ceiling closed and the wedges Du’nn’o had put in to keep the hatch open were reduced to splinters.

The party were, at the end, reunited and currently have some much needed info; primarily don’t go up alone, and given it was midnight at this point we elected to reconvene in a fortnight and continue from there; possibly with a journey down into the depths of Gaol Zendicon.

*This is perhaps a point of contention, technically Taluil kills only those who seek him out and it was never stated nor implied that he went out into Gaol Zendicon and hunted people down. Certainly his other crimes are severe but we are talking about a place with little or no food or water and given that a corpse is rich in (or at least possesses) both, the dead can be considered to be one of the few resources that the Gaol has in rich supply. Currenlty the party see this as black or white and Caradoc was certainly not impressed with Taluil’s reasoning.