Session Report of Violence for Votishal (DCCL#4) pt. 1
Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2020 5:10 pm
Welcome alley-bashers, scoundrels, and other unmentionables as I spin the tale of Cyclops Con's Violence for Votishal (Goodman Games DCCL #4) run of two 3-hour sessions. Twitch link: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/596360004
Our cast of seven Nehwonian heroes are the following:
1. The Mingol warrior Batu and his lucky battle axe Wound Licker played by Cody. Batu has tan skin, is bald, has a long mustache, and wears chainmail. Batu is an agent of Issek of the Jug.
2. Batu's soul-brother (their split-soul heroes) the white wizard Jumaash played by Jeff. Jumaash hails from the Land of the Eight Cities, and is dark-skinned, has a white mark on forehead that looks like a jug (marked by his patron Issek), sports a black-haired afro, wears dirty white robes, and uses a monocle.
3. The Lankhmart warrior Galo and his lucky longsword Coin Spinner played by Max. Galo has fair skin with blonde hair, but half of his face is disfigured. He wears chain and favors a shield. Galo is an agent of Mog the Spider God.
4. The black wizard Ozor played by Mike. Ozor hails from the Cold Waste, has fair skin, a short red mohawk, black robes, and carries a poppet in one hand. Ozor is an agent for Sheelba of the Eyeless Face.
5. Another northerner, the thief Ja'mar the Thirsty played by Ryan. Ja'mar wears armor of leather and furs. Ja'mar is an agent of the Gods of Trouble.
6. The thief Radomir played by Robert. Radomir is from the Eastern Lands. He has ruddy skin, black hair, a short pointy beard, a black hooded cloak, and leather armor. He favors the short sword. Radomir is an agent of Kos.
7. Last, but definitely not least, the war-dancing Mingol Bataar and his lucky short sword Khazdag played by Gary. Bataar is especially dexterous, has long black hair, tan skin, wears no armor, dresses like a sailor, and dual-wields longsword and short sword. Bataar serves no patron, and follows the path carved by Khazdag.
Be warned, my gentles, that the remainder of this tale is laden with SPOILERS!
We begin with our party leaving the Silver Eel. A robbed gagged man approaches who silently hands them a scroll and a pouch of silver smerduks, and then walks away. The scroll is from High Priest Valnov of the temple of Votishal; he asks for a meeting and sends them silver for their consideration. The party "considers" the silver by spending it at the Silver Eel gathering what information and libations they can before the meeting.
Arriving at the temple, the party is confronted by a strangely quiet crowd of 50 people gathered outside the temple's locked door. Most of them are gagged, and those that aren't are whispering. A lone gagged priest in an elevated pulpit silently collects alms using a bucket and rope. Bataar pushes through the muted mob shouting the heroes' arrival and letting the priest know that they are answering Balnov's summons. At the proclamation, five ruffians erupt from the throng with studded cudgels and attack the party!
Our heroes make short work of the second-rate toughs. Radomir, also hiding within the crowd, backstabs one who faints from the pain; Jumaash proclaims, "Please, violence is not the way," (hmm, we'll see about that) and incapacitates two with a blinding color spray; following his white wizard soul-brother, Batu decimates one with critical hit by Wound Licker. Ozor unfortunately loses magic missile on his first cast of the game but follows later with flaming hands, while Bataar, Galo, and Ja'mar take care of the remainder.
Once the melee clears, high priest Balnov (who sent the scroll to the PCs) emerges from the temple, removes his gag, and says, "Votishal allows me only a few minutes per hour to speak. Let us make the most of it." The priest flips over a 3-minute hour glass and quickly tells the PCs that troubles began after the previous high priest killed a lieutenant of the extortionist Basharat, who was shaking down the temple for cash. Days later, the high priest was found murdered, then every night thereafter an additional priest was found dead. Balnov offers 200 gold rilks per PC for them to catch the murderer. The priests are abandoning the temple and performing exit rites, but Valnov wants the group to break into the temple after sundown; all of the murders have occurred at night so he hopes the party can find the culprit then. The party thinks to hastily ask some pertinent questions and Balnov quickly sketches some maps of the temple. With the sand timer being empty, he retreats into the temple grounds.
Jumaash searches the bodies of the toughs (Jeff rolls a 1 on his Luck check! Fleeting luck is awarded. FEAR NO RULE!) and discovers that the toughs were hired by Basharat to prevent the Votishites from getting help. Jumaash (a servant of Issek) travels down to the other end of the Street of the Gods to visit Issek's temple an learns of another extortionist Pulg (dear Reader: if you haven't read Lean Times in Lankhmar, do yourself a favor and read it!). Then Jumaash reaches Pulg's crew to try to set them against their competition (Basharat); they reveal that Basharat "may have" approached the Slayers Brotherhood to deal with Votishite priest that killed his man. "Possibly" the Assassins' Order was contacted. By now, your poor judge is bleeding fleeting luck to his players, as this ENTIRE paragraph of investigation was off-script of the written adventure.
Full of information and liquid courage, the party returns to the temple at sundown. They decide to enter through the walled garden's locked door (easily picked by Ja'mar!) and are surprised by two jaguars from the jungles of Klesh! Galo does the jaguar's share (I'm here all week, Reader) of damage to one with a MDoA crit that thrusts Coin Spinner through the top of the beast's muzzle, through the mouth, and out the bottom of the jaw, craters the temple (the jaguar's, to be clear!), and blinds the beast with pain. The blade-dancing Bataar also crits and collapses the wounded cat in bloody mess. Meanwhile, Jumaash imbues his soul-brother Batu with strength (who gets a +10 MODIFIER (like, what Strength score is that?!?) for one round. Radomir puts the beast to sleep with a sleep dart from his blowgun, then Batu bursts into the garden Kool-Aid style (fleeting luck) and "curb-stomps" the feline (now ferociously fractured) and throws it back over the 30' wall, almost hitting Jumaash on the other side. Poor Ozor loses flaming hands in the skirmish. Bataar helps console Ozor with "Magic is extremely unreliable" to which Jumaash responds, "Turn to the white magic, that's more potent." Bataar shuts it down with, "Oh my god, it's like a buzzing noise". Your judge, in tears, weeps fleeting luck to the players.
Entering the temple via the temple, the party discovers the corpse of one of the murdered priests. Inspecting it, they cannot determine cause of death, although the skin has strange burns shaped like sword wounds but without blood. Bataar ponders in his thick Mingol accent, "Someone STOLE this man's big toe. I gotta tell you. I've been broke… I've been SUPER broke - but I've never been like, STEAL TOE broke." (fleeting luck!) Ju'mar (with a 19 Intelligence check) recalls that toes are often used in rituals by the rats of Lankhmar Below (where could this be leading?). So much fleeting luck is on the table, dear Reader, but don't worry. We'll get it back. Oh yessssss…
Entering the temple's dining room, the party disturbs a murderous swarm of insects (corrupted by the temple's new inhabitant… stay tuned!) that had been feeding on food left behind. The party wisely chooses to leave the room (smart!) to contain the swarm within by closing the doors. Battar, the bantering blade dancer, cannot just simply flee! No! He's inspired! He decides to use a mighty deed to employ the dining table itself as a weapon against the swarm (this is how a warrior gets an AoE attack, dear Reader). He gets a 6 on his mighty deed roll!
Wait for it…
Wait for it…
Then he fumbles! Nooooooooooo! (About 10 fleeting luck tokens come in. Yessssss.) His fumble manages to break his weapon (the table). Thankfully Ozor comes to the rescue! He crits with a scorching ray, turning swarm to ash but also significantly wounds Radomir. Oops.
This ends the tale of session 1, but our heroes' tale is far from over! Grab another pint of Lankhmar stout and I'll be here to tell you about session 2.
Our cast of seven Nehwonian heroes are the following:
1. The Mingol warrior Batu and his lucky battle axe Wound Licker played by Cody. Batu has tan skin, is bald, has a long mustache, and wears chainmail. Batu is an agent of Issek of the Jug.
2. Batu's soul-brother (their split-soul heroes) the white wizard Jumaash played by Jeff. Jumaash hails from the Land of the Eight Cities, and is dark-skinned, has a white mark on forehead that looks like a jug (marked by his patron Issek), sports a black-haired afro, wears dirty white robes, and uses a monocle.
3. The Lankhmart warrior Galo and his lucky longsword Coin Spinner played by Max. Galo has fair skin with blonde hair, but half of his face is disfigured. He wears chain and favors a shield. Galo is an agent of Mog the Spider God.
4. The black wizard Ozor played by Mike. Ozor hails from the Cold Waste, has fair skin, a short red mohawk, black robes, and carries a poppet in one hand. Ozor is an agent for Sheelba of the Eyeless Face.
5. Another northerner, the thief Ja'mar the Thirsty played by Ryan. Ja'mar wears armor of leather and furs. Ja'mar is an agent of the Gods of Trouble.
6. The thief Radomir played by Robert. Radomir is from the Eastern Lands. He has ruddy skin, black hair, a short pointy beard, a black hooded cloak, and leather armor. He favors the short sword. Radomir is an agent of Kos.
7. Last, but definitely not least, the war-dancing Mingol Bataar and his lucky short sword Khazdag played by Gary. Bataar is especially dexterous, has long black hair, tan skin, wears no armor, dresses like a sailor, and dual-wields longsword and short sword. Bataar serves no patron, and follows the path carved by Khazdag.
Be warned, my gentles, that the remainder of this tale is laden with SPOILERS!
We begin with our party leaving the Silver Eel. A robbed gagged man approaches who silently hands them a scroll and a pouch of silver smerduks, and then walks away. The scroll is from High Priest Valnov of the temple of Votishal; he asks for a meeting and sends them silver for their consideration. The party "considers" the silver by spending it at the Silver Eel gathering what information and libations they can before the meeting.
Arriving at the temple, the party is confronted by a strangely quiet crowd of 50 people gathered outside the temple's locked door. Most of them are gagged, and those that aren't are whispering. A lone gagged priest in an elevated pulpit silently collects alms using a bucket and rope. Bataar pushes through the muted mob shouting the heroes' arrival and letting the priest know that they are answering Balnov's summons. At the proclamation, five ruffians erupt from the throng with studded cudgels and attack the party!
Our heroes make short work of the second-rate toughs. Radomir, also hiding within the crowd, backstabs one who faints from the pain; Jumaash proclaims, "Please, violence is not the way," (hmm, we'll see about that) and incapacitates two with a blinding color spray; following his white wizard soul-brother, Batu decimates one with critical hit by Wound Licker. Ozor unfortunately loses magic missile on his first cast of the game but follows later with flaming hands, while Bataar, Galo, and Ja'mar take care of the remainder.
Once the melee clears, high priest Balnov (who sent the scroll to the PCs) emerges from the temple, removes his gag, and says, "Votishal allows me only a few minutes per hour to speak. Let us make the most of it." The priest flips over a 3-minute hour glass and quickly tells the PCs that troubles began after the previous high priest killed a lieutenant of the extortionist Basharat, who was shaking down the temple for cash. Days later, the high priest was found murdered, then every night thereafter an additional priest was found dead. Balnov offers 200 gold rilks per PC for them to catch the murderer. The priests are abandoning the temple and performing exit rites, but Valnov wants the group to break into the temple after sundown; all of the murders have occurred at night so he hopes the party can find the culprit then. The party thinks to hastily ask some pertinent questions and Balnov quickly sketches some maps of the temple. With the sand timer being empty, he retreats into the temple grounds.
Jumaash searches the bodies of the toughs (Jeff rolls a 1 on his Luck check! Fleeting luck is awarded. FEAR NO RULE!) and discovers that the toughs were hired by Basharat to prevent the Votishites from getting help. Jumaash (a servant of Issek) travels down to the other end of the Street of the Gods to visit Issek's temple an learns of another extortionist Pulg (dear Reader: if you haven't read Lean Times in Lankhmar, do yourself a favor and read it!). Then Jumaash reaches Pulg's crew to try to set them against their competition (Basharat); they reveal that Basharat "may have" approached the Slayers Brotherhood to deal with Votishite priest that killed his man. "Possibly" the Assassins' Order was contacted. By now, your poor judge is bleeding fleeting luck to his players, as this ENTIRE paragraph of investigation was off-script of the written adventure.
Full of information and liquid courage, the party returns to the temple at sundown. They decide to enter through the walled garden's locked door (easily picked by Ja'mar!) and are surprised by two jaguars from the jungles of Klesh! Galo does the jaguar's share (I'm here all week, Reader) of damage to one with a MDoA crit that thrusts Coin Spinner through the top of the beast's muzzle, through the mouth, and out the bottom of the jaw, craters the temple (the jaguar's, to be clear!), and blinds the beast with pain. The blade-dancing Bataar also crits and collapses the wounded cat in bloody mess. Meanwhile, Jumaash imbues his soul-brother Batu with strength (who gets a +10 MODIFIER (like, what Strength score is that?!?) for one round. Radomir puts the beast to sleep with a sleep dart from his blowgun, then Batu bursts into the garden Kool-Aid style (fleeting luck) and "curb-stomps" the feline (now ferociously fractured) and throws it back over the 30' wall, almost hitting Jumaash on the other side. Poor Ozor loses flaming hands in the skirmish. Bataar helps console Ozor with "Magic is extremely unreliable" to which Jumaash responds, "Turn to the white magic, that's more potent." Bataar shuts it down with, "Oh my god, it's like a buzzing noise". Your judge, in tears, weeps fleeting luck to the players.
Entering the temple via the temple, the party discovers the corpse of one of the murdered priests. Inspecting it, they cannot determine cause of death, although the skin has strange burns shaped like sword wounds but without blood. Bataar ponders in his thick Mingol accent, "Someone STOLE this man's big toe. I gotta tell you. I've been broke… I've been SUPER broke - but I've never been like, STEAL TOE broke." (fleeting luck!) Ju'mar (with a 19 Intelligence check) recalls that toes are often used in rituals by the rats of Lankhmar Below (where could this be leading?). So much fleeting luck is on the table, dear Reader, but don't worry. We'll get it back. Oh yessssss…
Entering the temple's dining room, the party disturbs a murderous swarm of insects (corrupted by the temple's new inhabitant… stay tuned!) that had been feeding on food left behind. The party wisely chooses to leave the room (smart!) to contain the swarm within by closing the doors. Battar, the bantering blade dancer, cannot just simply flee! No! He's inspired! He decides to use a mighty deed to employ the dining table itself as a weapon against the swarm (this is how a warrior gets an AoE attack, dear Reader). He gets a 6 on his mighty deed roll!
Wait for it…
Wait for it…
Then he fumbles! Nooooooooooo! (About 10 fleeting luck tokens come in. Yessssss.) His fumble manages to break his weapon (the table). Thankfully Ozor comes to the rescue! He crits with a scorching ray, turning swarm to ash but also significantly wounds Radomir. Oops.
This ends the tale of session 1, but our heroes' tale is far from over! Grab another pint of Lankhmar stout and I'll be here to tell you about session 2.