Nightwick Abbey Session 10

picture only tangentially related

Since my wife was away dealing with certain aspects of our lease -- we decided her character had been placed in the stocks for being a witch -- the party consisted of...

Mo'ongo -- an extremely dimwitted Fighter (dumber than most great apes)

Thign -- failed Magic-User

Slimey -- brother of Slick and expert Thief

and Barley Brownbeard -- craven (and drunken) Dwarf

We picked up immediately where we left off rather than use the 1 real time week = 1 game time week since Slimey wanted to burgle the Bishop's palace while he was engaged in the chevage ceremony.  He made preparations for that while the rest of the party looked for gainful employment.  They expected to be in the city for about a month while Almaric the Incontinent studied the Staff of Power in order to find it's key words.  Asking around Barley discovered that a group of Bandit's laired in the nearby swamp.  At first they sought to join a group of mercenaries (Bader's bo

ys) who were contracted to fight the bandits, but upon discovering their was a bounty of 5 gold per bandit head they decided to go freelance.

At that point the bulk of the party made their way to the cathedral square to watch the peasants perform chevage while Slimey got ready to pilfer the Bishop's valuables.  Slimey managed to sneak into the Bishop's chambers without attracting the attention of the guard.  Within it he found a chest containing too many copper pieces for him to carry and a silver ring bearing a star sapphire.  Sensing that the ring was not only valuable, but likely magical, he chose only to pilfer this one object.  He then urinated on the Bishop's bed and made ready to leave.  He was able to scamper down his rope undetected, but had to abandon it when a guard approached.  Seeing the rope (but not the thief) the guard alerted his fellow watch-mates and they scattered to raise the general alarm.

While this was transpiring, the rest of the party was listening to the Bishop's speech and being very glad they weren't serfs.  Mo'ongo especially expressed disdain for the ritual the peasants were forced to undergo.  Slick soon made his way to them and explained that they needed to leave the city ASAP.  Unfortunately at that point the bells of the town began to ring, sounding the general alarm.  Quite quickly all became chaos as guards rushed about and peasants began to riot.  The party decided just to play it cool and wait for things to cool down, but when they could not leave the city they realized this might be a sticker situation than they originally thought.

That night Slimey met with one of his guildmates and negotiated passage out of the wall through a secret method known only to the thieve's guild.  They then found themselves in the cold swamp that stretched for miles along the Dark River.  Instead of waiting until morning, they began looking for the bandits that night.  

This turned out to be a fateful (and fatal) decision.  They were soon ambushed by a huge number of ghouls.  Mo'ongo's player commented "This is the last time we do a wilderness adventure!"  to which Slimey's player responded "Well with this party anyway."  Despite the fatalism, Barley and Slimey were able to escape, though Mo'ongo and Thign met an unfortunate end.  Thign had been paralyzed during the surprise round, and Mo'ongo had lifted him up with the intent to carry him to safety.  Unfortunately that took his hole turn and he was now subject to the ghouls' attacks.  They managed to bring him to -2 hit points, at which point I told him that normally he would get to save vs. death, but since he was surrounded by ghouls both he and Thign were quickly, and unceremoniously, devoured.

Slimey and Barley now found themselves lost in the Swamp.  However, they were soon able to regain their bearings with the sunrise, and made their way to the farmland around Lichgate.  Unfortunately, the city was still locked up tight.  However, since the peasants from the countryside were in the city when it was locked up, their houses were all empty.  They then squat in a rather nondescript farmhouse while Slimey waited for Barley to recover from his injuries.  During the following days, a number of armed men came by and searched the neighboring farmland but where unable to find any sign of Barley or Slimey.  A few days after that, a Frogling caravan came by with a brightly colored carriage.  They seemed very confused by the lack of peasants to buy their goods, and they also did not find any sign of Slimey or Barley.  They moved on to the city gates, and at that point the session ended since it became clear that the two new characters would not be finished in time to continue play.

I suppose this as good a time as any to explain my "basic luck mechanic."  When a player asks me if something is present that I haven't decided on myself, I roll a d6.  If the result is a 1 they get exactly what they ask for, but the higher the number gets the worse off they are.  This is done within reason of course: for little things like the presence of a rope, the way a door swings, that sort of thing.  So there you have it.