It's been a while since I posted a play report, and some of you seem to like that sort of thing. Also, it's not really Adam's sort of gig, so I figure I might as well take a shot at it. Plus, it's a new adventure, and I'm having a lot of fun.
Last night, the Metal Gods crew started a module I've been wanting to play in for a while: +Harley Stroh's Jewels of the Carnifex. +Adam Muszkiewicz is our GM for the adventure, and warned us that it's pretty brutal: "Bring your highest level characters," he said. So we did, mostly. Then we discovered that we lacked both a thief and a wizard, and so switched a couple out. None of us is at 3rd level yet, so I'm sure we're all going to die.
The final group consisted of:
Kormaki Lemmisson (Cleric, 2nd level, but almost 3rd) played by me
Vane Barbute (Warrior, 2nd level, and used to be 3rd before a brush with a wight drained one) played by +Bear Wojtek
Formerly Ian (Wizard, 2nd level) played by +Gabriel Perez Gallardi
Denny (Thief, 2nd level) played by +Wayne Snyder
Grumble (Dwarf, 2nd level) played by +phil spitzer
+James MacGeorge was delayed by work obligations last night, but no doubt will be joining us next week, in the person of Crag Beerbeard (Dwarf, of course, 2nd level).
A couple points before we get into the meat of the matter. First, this is a 3rd level module, and nobody is even 3rd level (We're doomed). Also, our characters are a bit... beat up. Vane has died countless times, and has maybe 6 Stamina at this point. Formerly Ian is beginning to get a bit corrupted. Kormaki has 7 Luck now, down from his original 14, but up from the 5 Luck he had a while back. He's a shitty cleric, as far as spellcasting goes. I actually said last night (after rolling a natural "1" twice in a row), "Fuck this shit. I'm a warrior now." It was only 50.1% in jest.
Anyhow, Adam did a fine job of building on his civil war in Ur-Hadad storyline, where upstart elements of the former rulers (the paschas), seek to displace the current grand vizier, and bring back the old aristocracy. For all intents and purposes, this probably won't make much of a difference to the people of Ur-Hadad, most of whom live in squalor anyway. It certainly wouldn't make a difference to those who live in the areas outside the walls of the First City. Nonetheless, the Divine Order of the Purple Tentacle (our mercenary band) has done a lot to preserve the place of the Grand Vizier, and was recently successful in turning back a group of the Blood Successors, along with the abominable Kings Kong and Scoterrors with which they assaulted the 'hood in which the band's chapter house stands.
The guard captain who oversees the district was pleased, and sought to "reward" us. He told tales of how the recent fighting and upheavals have resulted in some destruction of the city, and revealed a long-lost abode of a bloody cult, a place reputed to be full of riches, but perhaps one best left forgotten.
When the party arrived on the scene, they found a set of stairs leading down into an underground section of the city (Ur-Hadad, in this case, not Punjar). Almost immediately, they encountered an obelisk topped with a skull, set in warning against trespassers. It also had been vandalized, its features chipped, and with graffiti of, oh, like maybe... dicks all over it (I'm guessing, here). We being who we are, gave zero shits about warnings. The call of riches was to strident. We pressed on down a pipe-like tunnel for a while, but the pipe ended over a deep, deep chasm. Across from us was another pipe gushing water and (one would presume) the kinds of things one finds in a sewer (e.g., turds, piss, the occasional rat and/or alligator). Below that pipe was a platform with some kind of door on it.
We tied a rope around the thief's waist and he took a running leap to reach it, burning a point of Luck to make it happen, and managed to hold on. Almost immediately, he noticed a GIANT MUTANT SPIDER! EEEEEEK! and warned us. The cleric Blessed the wizard, and was wildly successful, giving him a +4 to all rolls. The wizard tried to cast Sleep and (of course) rolled a 1. Of course. He then got hit with web and was snared. It looked like lunchtime was upon us, or at least upon Formerly Ian.
The rest of the party tried to get down to the other platform, better to deal with the foul creature. Vane nearly feel into the chasm, and would surely have died. He burned SIX points of Luck to avoid the outcome. By the end of the adventure, Vane would have only 1 point of Luck left. We will call him "Lucky." Hey, he's not dead, and should be, for this and a million other things. He's like one of those drunk people who manages to survive shit that clearly would have killed just about anyone else. And then doesn't even remember it. You know that guy? Yeah, that's Vane. Hehe.
Eventually, we managed to Sleep the spider-thing, cut off its head, and toss it in the chasm. Fuck you, spider.
The door on the platform was sealed with lead, so we covered it with flammables and lit it on fire to melt the lead. There was some Googling of various melting points and burning temps, as the party physics-lawyered the proceedings. Eventually, we got through into the area beyond. There, we found a spiral staircase leading up and a arched passage leading down some stairs. After inspecting the spiral staircase, we found a calcified humanoid body. We also determined the spiral stairs to be dangerously unstable. We went down the other stairs instead. Then we were immediately attacked by weird shadowy beings who sapped Strength and Stamina (but luckily no level-drain. Vane was pleased that was the case.) We managed to incapacitate several of them, and then killed the rest. The cleric tried turning them, and (miracle!) made an excellent roll. They ran the hell away.
We found a secret door in that chamber and three doors in the next one. The three doors seemed to represent some sort of dangerous puzzle, so we said, "Fuck it." and took the secret door. It ascended to the 2nd level. There, we were attacked again by some creepy gigantic humanoids with bags on their heads. They were up on a higher level than us, and had some cover. So, we charged them. They did us some damage, sure, but eventually Formerly Ian Slept them. Then (of course) we killed them.
We went back down the stairway without investigating that area, instead going through a doorway just to the left of the one by which we entered from the 1st level. That's where we called it a night.
Fun times! Next Thursday, we continue again.
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