Blasted Birds
Mar. 2nd, 2003 06:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight was supposed to be Tom's Sunday D+D game, but again it was cancelled because of too many absentees. So, instead, the five of us that were there decided to play a quick game with new characters.
They let me DM, and I rushed to come up with an adventure while they made characters... then, a half hour later, I was done and they were still making characters. Sigh. It took 2 hours before they were all ready to play... then the game itself took about 3 hours. Silliness.
The game was a variant (sort of) of Loxley's interpretation of 'Belly of the Beast'. I guess 'inspired by' would be closer. The characters actually managed to run through it in a pretty straightforward manner.
The characters, who all knew each other by reputation but not personally, were sitting around in the tavern drinking and playing darts and generally waiting for work, when a distraught woman rushed in babbling about her precious Cindy being captured.
The party was unimpressed, especially when on further questioning they ferreted out that Cindy was an exotic bird and not a child. The woman offered 100 gold each for the rescue, though, so they decided to help her out.
She took them to what she claimed was her house, although the door was locked and she couldn't find the key. She told the party to look away while she got her secret key... which the genesai fighter nonchalantly revealed by moving the doormat aside.
The house seemed to be hers, or at least was owned by someone with the same name, and she showed them the room full of exotic 'art' where her precious bird had been kept and was now missing. Nothing else was gone, even though some of it had semi-precious metals and gems embedded.
The thief/barbarian climbed out the window and found the trail where the cage had been dragged, onto the roof and then on top of the wall between districts. Not wanting to follow it alone, he rejoined the party.
The party woke up her husband, who told them it was probably this gang of thugs who'd been giving him trouble, who hung out at the blood-something tavern (the placard: something impossible to make out under a coating of dried blood). He was a bit apalled that his wife had offered so much to hunt down her pet, but agreed to pay it if they'd also make sure the people who stole it never bothered him again.
So, down to the tavern. The party had a reasonably effective cover going, and were able to listen to the thugs whine about having to go back down there to meet their boss. The thugs finally decided to go home, and check in in the morning... and the entire party got up and left before they could.
They found this suspicious, and ran outside to take up sniping positions to intercept the party. The thief/barbarian had hung back to watch them, and managed to warn the party of the attack, but the thieves still got the drop on them, mostly, peppering them with arrows.
It wasn't a very long fight. The party took some arrows, but found the way up onto the roof (several ways, in fact), which was enough to rout the cowardly theives. They didn't run far. One tripped and was captured by the barbarian/wizard, one was pushed off the roof by the thief and finished off by the fighter, and one tripped and fell, nearly breaking his neck -- the cleric dragged his unconscious body back with the rest.
None of the enemy were dead, and one was still conscious, so they were intimidated and revealed that their hideout was in the sewers, and that the (dying) leader had a map in his boot. The map was cryptic, but the party managed to figure it out. They left the thugs tied up, drank some potions to heal their wounds, and headed into the sewers.
In the sewers they were forced to wade through ankle-deep stinky water, and were set upon by a school of zombie fish, which they managed to fight off without much trouble, although the theif was a bit amazed when the fish leaped up out of the water to flop across the slimy rocks and attack him.
Eventually they got to a stairway leading down. Suspicious, the thief checked for traps, and didn't find any. But there was a trap, and the rest of the party slid as the steps changed into a slippery slope, and got dumped in a pit, while the thief managed to control his descent and hop into one of the filtering pools in the middle of the passage.
This left him in position to watch the thieves remark on his not falling into the pit, from the far side of a locked grate, and to drop a rope to help out his companions. The thieves were alarmed, and rushed to drag the box-shaped cage through another door while one of them stood and shot arrows.
The barbarian/wizard valiently volunteered to block the arrows from hitting the rest of the party, and did so quite well, until he took one too many arrows in the chest and fell over, unconscious. The thief running interference laughed, until the theif in the party got the door open, and the fighter rushed through to cut him a new abdominal cavity.
Meanwhile, the two henchmen had hooked up a cable to the cage and yelled for someone to lift it up... and off popped the lid! And out popped the pet bird, a small arrowhawk! And ZAP went the arrowhawk's lightning ray, and one of the theives screamed and fell... the next turn, the same happened to the other.
The leader fled, trying to jump up onto the lid to be pulled to safety, but the party's thief followed close behind and cut him in two when he tried to push him off the lid. His lower half fell into the cage.
Realizing that the arrowhawk was still mostly in its cage (having been kept busy killing henchmen), the fighter sliced through the cable and dropped the lid back on the box. It didn't fit quite right, and he got zapped before he and the cleric managed to coax the bird back inside.
Meanwhile, the thief scrambled up the rope to find a bunch of clueless sailors looking confused. 10 gold was enough to convince them to help the party return the box to its rightful owners.
The lady was ecstatic to have her lovely arrowhawk back... the party watched in mild amusement as it tried to kill her from inside its faraday cage. The severed lower half of the head thug, still inside the cage, was enough to satisfy her husband.
So the party got paid, and in addition picked up a few useful magic items (the leader had a cloak and some armor that were mildly magical). Then, of course, they went their separate ways, unless fate were to somehow bring them back together...
They let me DM, and I rushed to come up with an adventure while they made characters... then, a half hour later, I was done and they were still making characters. Sigh. It took 2 hours before they were all ready to play... then the game itself took about 3 hours. Silliness.
The game was a variant (sort of) of Loxley's interpretation of 'Belly of the Beast'. I guess 'inspired by' would be closer. The characters actually managed to run through it in a pretty straightforward manner.
The characters, who all knew each other by reputation but not personally, were sitting around in the tavern drinking and playing darts and generally waiting for work, when a distraught woman rushed in babbling about her precious Cindy being captured.
The party was unimpressed, especially when on further questioning they ferreted out that Cindy was an exotic bird and not a child. The woman offered 100 gold each for the rescue, though, so they decided to help her out.
She took them to what she claimed was her house, although the door was locked and she couldn't find the key. She told the party to look away while she got her secret key... which the genesai fighter nonchalantly revealed by moving the doormat aside.
The house seemed to be hers, or at least was owned by someone with the same name, and she showed them the room full of exotic 'art' where her precious bird had been kept and was now missing. Nothing else was gone, even though some of it had semi-precious metals and gems embedded.
The thief/barbarian climbed out the window and found the trail where the cage had been dragged, onto the roof and then on top of the wall between districts. Not wanting to follow it alone, he rejoined the party.
The party woke up her husband, who told them it was probably this gang of thugs who'd been giving him trouble, who hung out at the blood-something tavern (the placard: something impossible to make out under a coating of dried blood). He was a bit apalled that his wife had offered so much to hunt down her pet, but agreed to pay it if they'd also make sure the people who stole it never bothered him again.
So, down to the tavern. The party had a reasonably effective cover going, and were able to listen to the thugs whine about having to go back down there to meet their boss. The thugs finally decided to go home, and check in in the morning... and the entire party got up and left before they could.
They found this suspicious, and ran outside to take up sniping positions to intercept the party. The thief/barbarian had hung back to watch them, and managed to warn the party of the attack, but the thieves still got the drop on them, mostly, peppering them with arrows.
It wasn't a very long fight. The party took some arrows, but found the way up onto the roof (several ways, in fact), which was enough to rout the cowardly theives. They didn't run far. One tripped and was captured by the barbarian/wizard, one was pushed off the roof by the thief and finished off by the fighter, and one tripped and fell, nearly breaking his neck -- the cleric dragged his unconscious body back with the rest.
None of the enemy were dead, and one was still conscious, so they were intimidated and revealed that their hideout was in the sewers, and that the (dying) leader had a map in his boot. The map was cryptic, but the party managed to figure it out. They left the thugs tied up, drank some potions to heal their wounds, and headed into the sewers.
In the sewers they were forced to wade through ankle-deep stinky water, and were set upon by a school of zombie fish, which they managed to fight off without much trouble, although the theif was a bit amazed when the fish leaped up out of the water to flop across the slimy rocks and attack him.
Eventually they got to a stairway leading down. Suspicious, the thief checked for traps, and didn't find any. But there was a trap, and the rest of the party slid as the steps changed into a slippery slope, and got dumped in a pit, while the thief managed to control his descent and hop into one of the filtering pools in the middle of the passage.
This left him in position to watch the thieves remark on his not falling into the pit, from the far side of a locked grate, and to drop a rope to help out his companions. The thieves were alarmed, and rushed to drag the box-shaped cage through another door while one of them stood and shot arrows.
The barbarian/wizard valiently volunteered to block the arrows from hitting the rest of the party, and did so quite well, until he took one too many arrows in the chest and fell over, unconscious. The thief running interference laughed, until the theif in the party got the door open, and the fighter rushed through to cut him a new abdominal cavity.
Meanwhile, the two henchmen had hooked up a cable to the cage and yelled for someone to lift it up... and off popped the lid! And out popped the pet bird, a small arrowhawk! And ZAP went the arrowhawk's lightning ray, and one of the theives screamed and fell... the next turn, the same happened to the other.
The leader fled, trying to jump up onto the lid to be pulled to safety, but the party's thief followed close behind and cut him in two when he tried to push him off the lid. His lower half fell into the cage.
Realizing that the arrowhawk was still mostly in its cage (having been kept busy killing henchmen), the fighter sliced through the cable and dropped the lid back on the box. It didn't fit quite right, and he got zapped before he and the cleric managed to coax the bird back inside.
Meanwhile, the thief scrambled up the rope to find a bunch of clueless sailors looking confused. 10 gold was enough to convince them to help the party return the box to its rightful owners.
The lady was ecstatic to have her lovely arrowhawk back... the party watched in mild amusement as it tried to kill her from inside its faraday cage. The severed lower half of the head thug, still inside the cage, was enough to satisfy her husband.
So the party got paid, and in addition picked up a few useful magic items (the leader had a cloak and some armor that were mildly magical). Then, of course, they went their separate ways, unless fate were to somehow bring them back together...
