Session 42 - Fight in the Playground!

Mon 15th Mar 20:00 - 23:30

In-game timeline: Uktar 23 - Uktar 23 DR1489

Having descended the impressive stone stairs into the impressive circular stone room, complete with impressive bas-relief carvings, our "Heroes" are impressed. 

"Damn fine Dwarven work", says Drogan, still wrongly insisting that these whole ruins are Dwarven in nature.

Once the group have adjusted their eyes to the dark, Grarth lights a torch and they all need to adjust once more. They walk up to the stone door at the end of the tunnel. Drogan listens at the door and can hear some muffled voices from beyond but can't quite make out what they are saying. So he opens the door a little in order to hear better.

He does hear them better, but he cannot understand what they are saying. So he calls over Alwaith to see if he can make out what the language is.

At this point, and for the rest of the session, the DM spent much of his time putting himself into the minds of the creatures in the ruins, and working out how they would react to the antics of the group. So the session's blog will switch to their perspective…

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The lizardfolk in the room are a little confused. They are just finishing off a fine lunch of grilled fish and bread, when they hear the large stone door open a crack, and nothing more. Drissal calls out in his native draconic, expecting to get a reply from his colleagues who he assumes are for some reason behind the door, or at least accompanying visitors, but are refusing to enter. Then he hears some whispering in what he believes is the common tongue, though he never got around to learning it. He calls out again in draconic for the people outside the door to identify themselves and come in.

When he hears nothing but more whispering outside, he becomes suspicious. He tells his mates to grab their weapons and shields, and asks Brains, their nickname for the Render who was busy stuffing his face with grilled fish, bones and all, to go and open the door and see what is going on.

And they are faced by a band of adventurers, weapons drawn, ready for a fight! Brains takes a swipe at the dwarf behind the door, but in his haste he completely misses. He then, strangely, collapses on the ground, laughing manically. None of the others had ever seen Brains laugh - he was a miserable sod at the best of times, so they are a little taken aback by this, but recover enough to at least challenge the group, who seem to be coming in fighting.

Brains is no use at all, what with him lying on the ground, and Drissal and his two friends are not faring well. Drissal shouts to the other two to keep them busy, and runs off to fetch The Boss, Grodrith. Unfortunately for Drissal, he didn't bank on the group making fast work of his friends and the mad dwarf with the mohawk coming running after him and stopping him in his tracks, literally dead, before he could even get halfway to Grodrith's room.

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Grodrith is just finishing his fine meal alone in his room. He never liked eating with the other guards, especially that barbarian, Brains, who has no idea how to eat without spilling most of the food on the floor, which only encourages rats. As Grodrith rises from his chair he is a little surprised to see a great oaf burst in through the door, wielding a large maul!

Grodrith is intelligent enough to know that this giant is not friendly. And if it got to his room, it must have got past his Scaleshield guards. Luckily the oaf is quite slow. Grodrith manages to launch his Jaws of Semuanya in the direction of the great lump, hoping they will chomp down on the large target, but it doesn’t seem to do very much. Grodrith dodges the attack from the maul, and then Commands the half-ogre to run away. Luckily this seems to work, and he turns to run! Grodrith takes the opportunity to turn and run himself, hoping to get some help from the lower levels.

Unfortunately the mohawk dwarf is on his heels. As Grodrith runs, he sees a barbaric dwarf, hands covered in green blood that he is sure is of lizardfolk origin. He debates whether to turn and face this new foe, or continue to run, when suddenly the spectral form of one of his men appears right next to him and takes a swipe!

Grodrith does not last long. Under the onslaught of this strange and scary spectre, a mad dwarf, some arrows that seem to come out of nowhere, and some magical blasts of force that smash him into the wall, he stands no chance. Indeed, before long he is not standing at all.

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Meanwhile, Beryl is guarding the children. At least, she *thinks* she is Beryl. She is not sure. She hasn't been sure for quite some time. But thinking hurts her head, so she stops wondering who she is, and turns her attention to the children. Guard Them was the order, so that is what she is doing. She is sure she knows some of them - memories try to force their way into her brain, but again, that amounts to thinking, and that hurts.

The children are scared. She doesn't like that. She doesn't want to scare them. But they seem scared of her. She remains as still as she can to avoid worrying them. Some of the younger ones are playing in the middle of the room - they seem to have adapted well.

Suddenly the door opens. You turn to look out of the room and see a bloodied head of a Lizardfolk Render, on a stick, dripping all sorts of bodily fluids onto the ground in the corridor. You are unphased by this - you've seen worse. Indeed, part of you thinks that YOU are worse, but you are fairly sure a lizard head on a stick isn't normal. The children in the room, however, look up to see this scene and start to scream.

Children screaming. That is not a sound that Beryl likes to hear. It's a bad noise. Bad memories. Thinking. Pain. You revert to your command - Guard Them.

A little figure runs into the room. He has strange red hair cut in a weird style on his head. And he's wielding a big axe that you are sure exudes an air of enjoying the mayhem. An arrow out of nowhere flies into the room and buries itself in your shoulder. You feel nothing. You pull the arrow out and throw it to the floor. The children are still screaming.

Suddenly the axe pierces your body. That DID hurt. It puts you off, and your attempt to slam the dwarf into the wall fails. You try to defend yourself against an onslaught. The arrows don't bother you, but that axe definitely does. Some crossbow bolts fly past you and you worry that they may hit one of the children. You try to put yourself in the way of any projectiles, only to be faced by the strange glow of what seems to be the spirit of one of those lizard things. It's not something you've seen before. Whilst you consider what it may be, and how you can prevent it from harming the children, you are hit by blasts of force coming from outside the room.

As pain surges through your body you come to a realisation that your body cannot take much more of this. You feel a relief. You will be released at last. Free from this torment. You must still Guard Them but you relax into the thought that this will not last for much longer. However, whilst you welcome the idea of your death, your final thought as the clean, bloodthirsty axe cleaves you upwards from between your legs, is that you have failed in your duty to Guard Them. You have failed the children.

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Talfen Strong is 12 years old. It was his birthday only two weeks ago, and he was looking forward to being able to plough the fields with his father next year. Until the other night, that is. Now he is unsure if any of the children, himself included, will live to see the other side of winter. But his name is Strong. His father is Strong. And he must live up to his name for the sake of the other children - they need someone who can lead them.

He hears the young ones start to scream. Talfen looks up to see what is the matter and sees them staring towards the doorway, some screaming, others crying. He moves into the centre of the room to see what is frightening them and spies an open door. Beyond the door is a wooden pole and atop this pole is a large crocodile head, blood dripping down the staff, bits of flesh hanging from the severed head and its eyes rolled back in their sockets. He has to stifle his own scream before he regains a small amount of composure, unnatural in a 12 year old, and tries to usher the smaller children back in the room, away from this grizzly vision.

But then their Guard, a strange patchwork-figure who initially scared all the children with its cold stare and sewn-together flesh, but who they have come to realise is no threat to them, moves into the doorway, trying to stop the invaders. You see a dwarf, not one that you recognise, run into the room and start to hack away at your guard, seeming to take great pleasure with every hit. The children are all scared now, and you are too. You back away, pulling the young-uns back with you. There is nowhere for you to go. You are trapped.

And then the ghost appears. It flies through the walls - no, not through the walls, through the Guard herself, and appears in the room. A GHOST! A ghost of one of those lizardmen. This is too much for you. As you turn away you catch sight of another of the attackers. It's that big ogre! The one who was with those lizards when your guardians were attacked in the Town Hall. They have come to get you again. To kill you all. You cannot contain your fear any longer and you cover your eyes, waiting to be killed. Killed by a ghost. Or a mad dwarf. Or an ogre. Or a head-on-a-stick. Your hands cover your closed eyes. Waiting for the end.

And the fighting stops, though only briefly. You peer through a gap in your fingers. And see the Ogre pushing someone in the corridor. It looks like an elf. Sort of. But he is pale. A pale elf with a glowing sword and black armour. He is fighting with the Ogre. Maybe he is on your side? But then you hear him command the ghost and the ghost obeys him. No, he is not on your side. None of them are. They are fighting over which one gets to kill you. Of that you are certain.

As the shouting dies down you wait for the final blow. But someone is talking to you. Talking gruffly, but sounding kind. It's the dwarf. And he is standing next to a halfling. A halfling who looks a lot like that big statue of Milo The Great in your town square. Maybe you won't be killed after all. You look around - the kids are crying, wailing, hiding. They need someone to take charge. You need to be that leader. You move your hands away from your eyes and try to bravely look the dwarf in the eye. He seems nice, now his axe has been put away. And that halfling looks harmless. He's no taller than you are. And he has a big smile on his face. And his clothes are clean - he's not been anywhere near a fight, you're sure of that. Maybe you should talk to this dwarf and see why they are here. You ignore the strange elf, and the scary ogre who both seem to be glaring at each other out in the corridor…

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Greyson is relaxing with his family. The kids are all secure, Lispeth seems happy, all seems well. You can relax. It seems normal for you now to remain in your hybrid form - not really much point reverting to human form when in the ruins. It's warmer in hybrid form anyway. You chat with your wife, Glyness, and younger brother, Harcourt, as you warm yourself by the fire.

Suddenly the door to your room opens. Strange. You weren't expecting visitors. No one enters. Even stranger. You lean to the centre of the room to get a view of the now open door and see an empty corridor. Nothing there. Just an open door. This doesn't seem right. You look at Glyness and Harcourt and they seem similarly on edge.

All of a sudden something enters the room. But it is not someone you recognise. Worse, it is not even someTHING you recognise. A ghostly, spectral form in the shape of one of those mercenary guards who live upstairs. And it's floating straight towards you!

Leaping to action, you try to attack, before it gets a chance to harm you or your wife. Your attacks seem to have an effect and all three of you pile in on it, biting and scratching.

But it has attacks of its own. And it uses them, harming Glyness. But the three of you manage to overpower it and before long you get one last scratch on it and it fades into nothing. And then, silence.

You look at Glyness and Harcourt, wondering what is going to happen next. Nothing appears around the corner, and you do not want to go looking. You're not stupid. Anything that has got this far, will have got past the guards. There may be more ghosts, but then if there were, they can come through the walls, so you must stay alert.

When nothing happens for a while, you all decide to make a run for it. You hatch a plan. When you're ready, you bolt out of the far door, expecting attacks. But only a single arrow flies your way, and luckily it misses. All three of you make it to the other door and manage to escape the room. Now to the next part of your plan…