Gorefest Gazette by Richard Sharpe Volume 1, Issue 4 Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017 Sorry for the late edition! Writing recaps is a bit grueling and requires long blocks of time, so I tend to procrastinate. Not only that, but I previously wrote more than 1,700 words about an upcoming change to the way we're going to handle advancement here in Gorefest Dungeon, but I scrapped it. Turns out we're not going to use hardly any of the "kill point" system presented in the new Pyramid titled "What Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Stronger." Instead, I'm going to figure out all the monsters' and traps' "Combat Effectiveness Ratings" (CER) using the "It's a Threat" article from Pyramid #3/77 . That, in turn, will give us each monster or challenge's "kill point" (KP) value. By default, KP is awarded immediately to the single character that lands the killing blow, and 200 KP equals one character point. However, that would mean hardly any character points have been awarded thus far. Neither Wall Masters nor gargodemons are even worth a full character point. The Spellwight may have been, but working out his CER is going to be a beast and I've not done it yet. So, we're not going to use the system at default. If I had to guess, I'd say we'll set 100 KP to equal 1 CP and everyone will share the reward equally. I'll probably continue to give out 1 CP for each session as well. Regardless, we're not going to change the system in time for the game tomorrow. If I forget to mention it, not tomorrow's session, but the one after that—I might have trouble making it. My girlfriend insists that we travel a long distance to a city and have an all-night party in honor of my birthday, so it's going to be rough. If I wake up at noon hung over, then I'll text Chris on the phone. My birthday is actually Saturday the 25th, so the session on Sunday, the 26th isn't going to be much easier to make, but I should be home, not far away, so I'm not too worried about that. I'll just be plain ol' hung over then, and I've GM'ed that way a number of times. On to the long overdue recap of our Jan. 29, 2017 session. End of the third session (right-click, "Open image in new tab" for full-size) Third Session Recap Razine screamed in terror as she leaped head-first into the moat of searing, irradient green sludge. Archie—who, with a mischievous giggle, had gleefully volunteered to take over Allen's character as soon as he left the table—laughed maniacally. The other player characters stood at the edge and watched as the Cleric's flesh melted from bone the instant her body struck the viscous goop's surface. One would think the horrific sight of their comrade's insane, horrific suicide would have caused gasps of shock and disgust, but no. Instead, they all laughed heartily. As the GM, I tried my best to talk Archie out of killing Allen's character, but the rest of the players voted unanimously that what happens, happens. Just kidding, Allen. Gorefest Dungeon characters and their respective players include: Archie playing Elmer F. Rhubarb the half-elf Scout, 252 points; Chris playing Legitimate Hobbes the human Holy Warrior, 252 points, and his 252-point ally, Culain; Luke playing Zeth the human Swashbuckler, 252 points; Naryar playing Merideth the high elf Wizard, 252 points; Allen playing Razine D'Tor the human cleric, 252 points. With a deafening thud, the Wall Master's giant two-handed maul crashed into Razine's shield, sending her flying back two hexes into her comrade, the high elf Wizard Merideth played by Naryar. Hobbes the Holy Warrior, played by Chris, then ducked behind his shield and pressed forward in the Cleric's stead, blocking the stone golem's next shield-splintering blow. At that same moment, from atop the raised platform at the chamber's heart, a crackling magical bolt sprang from the black-robed Spellwight's skeletal fingertips, narrowly missing Elmer the half-elven Scout, played by Archie, who feverishly dodged to the side. The evil undead caster seemed to abandon its ebon staff as lost; it levitated slowly through the air, floating above the deep moat of glowing green goo far below, closer and closer to Merideth's waiting clutches. Despite having her shield nearly torn in two, Razine, priestess of the war god Lokithor, charged heroically back into the melee with a mighty swing of her mace. It smashed into the towering animated statue's torso sending chips of brittle stone flying. However, it was Merideth's spell that caused the hulking stone monster to stagger back, blinded. I'll note that I designed Wall Masters a couple years before I even joined Roll20 and had never updated their sheet until after this session. They were missing a whole host of standard golem Injury Tolerances such as "No Eyes." That has since been corrected. During the session, I also toyed with the idea of giving them partially Semi-Ablative DR. I think we'll continue that. Next session, Wall Masters will have DR 5 and Semi-Ablative DR 5, as they were at the end of this session. They will also have 40 HP instead of 45 HP. After Merideth cast her spell, Hobbes then took his turn at the blinded Wall Master, unleashing a scything dual-weapon sickle-and-shield attack. The sickle struck its mark, sending a shower of stone bits skittering to the green slate tiles, but his shield swung wide as the golem continued to blindly stumble backwards (while making a critical success on its dodge). Razine, played by Allen, didn't cease her assault, either. Again, she smashed her mace down on the stone warrior and again broke chunks off its alabaster hide. Elmer stood apart from the raging melee, but continued his ranged dual with the Spellwight across the moat. The half-elf drew two blunt arrows and knocked them to string simultaneously, the loosed them in a ranged dual-weapon attack. Both struck the skeleton square in its empty rib cage, shattering through its sternum and snapping its fossilized spine. A green flame erupted from its gaping mouth and hollow eye sockets as it shrieked and collapsed into a pile of smoking bones. Without its staff to provide the Return Missile Blocking spell, it only took the Scout a single attack to destroy the undead caster. I'll note that it was a charged spell ( Pyramid #3/36 ), but while making treasure for the lottery table this week, I just noticed that blocking spells can't be added to Spell Stones, and thus, can't be charged items. That means the staff just got upgraded to a permanent, $8,000 enchantment. It also means I'm taking the second enchantment off it, but Merideth had that spell anyway. Wasting no time, the half-elven Scout knocked two more blunt arrows and dealt the same fate to the only skeleton archer standing on the platform that still had a bow. That leaves one lonely little skeleton archer left standing there to ponder his sad fate after seeing his two skeleton brothers slaughtered right before his hollow eye sockets. He has a sword, but it's unlikely to do him a shred of good if the players figure out how to lower the drawbridge and cross the moat in order to get to the golden chest sitting in the middle of the platform. Maybe he'll just end it all and swan dive off the platform. On the other side of the massive octagonal chamber, the swashbuckler Zeth, played by Luke, and Hobbes' four-legged ally, Culain, continued to seek out anything useful while dodging jets of the flying gargodemon's fiery breath. After seeing that he couldn't tear through the vault-like jail cell door containing the cat-folk female, Culain decided to head back to his master and jumped over the slide trap Zeth triggered in the first session. Zeth made it to the far side of the chamber and rounded the corner to the south. With a roaring crescendo as if the curtain of space-time was being torn apart, a magical gateway opened before him. The swirling, elliptical portal's rim looked like a surging lightning bolt, arching and snapping. Inside its shimmering border was an impenetrable cyclonic mist of blue and purple hues like an opaque whirl pool standing vertically its end. It was wide and tall enough for even a giant to step through, but where it led, Zeth could not see. The gargodemons decided to give up their attack on the lucky acrobatic Swashbuckler and focus instead on the wizard, who had stepped out into the open. Razine's fog from the first session remained a concealment, but the gargodemons had a direct line of sight. Both took a shot, breathing a jet of flame at the wizard, who had taken an All-Out Defense (Dodge) as her previous maneuver. The first spout, she feverishly dodged and sidestepped into the nearby fog. As she had moved only one yard into the fog, the second gargodemon knew her location but couldn't see her, giving it a -4 to attack (see p. B394). It did, she barely failed her dodge, and her right leg took 4 burning damage, the first injury on a PC scored in three sessions. Looking back, the gargodemons just flat need more skill to balance the FP use for each attack and the lackluster wounding modifier. One lucky hit in three sessions isn't acceptable considering I only missed my roll a total of once. Most of the attacks were against a dodge-or-die Swashbuckler, but even Culain and very nearly Meridith were able to dodge effectively. They now have their attack upgraded from 16 to 18, but the good news is that raises their CER (and thus, KP value) from 71 to 73! This is normally where I mention the next session's time and date, but it's tomorrow in just over 12 hours! Hope to see everyone there!
