Thursday, August 30, 2012

This was my response to an anti-3D6 straight down video

RPG Stats Are Guidelines Not Shackles (For Fun & Role-playing)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWAYEErj4Rg

Darves Hill August's Summary (DH#56 & #57)


Cyr’s Broken Coin  DH#56

Blevins the Halfling, Percival the Wizard, Francis the Magic-user, Martriss the Elf, Cyr the Thief, and Targ the Fighter remained in the dungeons.  The group did not challenge the moving crystal statue with 4 arms, and instead went around the long way to avoid the deadly looking adversary.  They traveled through the corpse tunnel of the Purple Wyrm, and talked with some of the Dark Dwarves (their current allies).  Some of the Dwarves came with the party to help them clear out some of the rooms in the Dark Elf territory. 

In the next room they explored they heard coughing, wheezing, and also the sound of liquid hitting the ground.  Some of the underground human slaves were there and they seemed very sick or infected with some magical ailment.  They had horribly pock-marked skin with puss leaking out of wounds.  A path of slime and phlegm was behind them.  The group fearing to get sick from the gross humans unleashed violence upon them.  When their weapons hit them, slime and gross blood splattered on the walls of the tunnel. 

Some of the adventuring crew got splattered with their rotten blood and felt horrible, that made it difficult to continue the fight.  They killed and torched the bodies of the fallen disgusting things like in John Carpenter’s The Thing.  Six more came around the bend, and these also died by fire after they were saying, “Take us to the surface, we’ve heard rumors about you!  We’re free!”  FLAMES!

They went back to Kergil the Dark Dwarf Highpriest to get healed of their strange disgusting illness.  On the way there they pass Bugbears that were allies of the Dark Dwarves, and they were permitted to pass because of their Dark Dwarf guide.  They then passed a magical spider when their guide showed them how to pass.

They saw a silver ringed fountain that had crystal clear water in a pool beneath it, and it was off to the right.  Kergil had a hippogriff with him, and when the party arrived the creature with a magical collar shrunk when the Dark Dwarf gave a command word.  He told them they looked like Hell.  He went around and cured them of their ailment.

Kergil told them that the fountain used to be in Dark Elf territory and they think it would be death to Dwarves if they drank it.  Martriss went over and tried to take a drink.  When he touched the surface of the water invisible coins appeared to him, but no one else saw them.  He grabbed them and showed them to the others.  He poured some water on the floor, and nothing happened.  He then quaffed a large cup of the water (and then I passed over a “Backstab Note” to him saying that he had gained a massive amount of XP). 

Kergil wanted a cut of the coins at the bottom of the water but he wouldn’t drink it.  Francis drank next (Backstab Note saying his stats increased and he also gained lots of XP).  Blevins then drank as well as his master Percival.

The group that wasn’t drinking from the pool heard strange Elven spellcasting, but they ignored it.  Cyr’s Coin started to release white mist and this mist was surrounding the nearby door.  Just after this the door started banging violently, and they guessed the door would have collapsed had the mist not been holding it in place.  White misty letters started to fill all the surface area on the ground, and it seemed to be some arcane lock to hold back something…  It was very strange almost three-dimensional writing.  Cyr and Targ also heard the whispers of little girls when this was happening.

Stinky began to wail, and Cyr thinks that it was bleeding on his back.  Then the bleeding Stinky fled into the dungeons in absolute terror from the white misty writing.  Targ thought that the writing was a powerful warding against Devils or Demons. 

Cyr’s Coin then broke and the spirits of the two twin girls inside of it then inhabited Cyr and Targ, but their possession of them was not violent, and instead they were just along for the ride only wanted to help eliminate Lekorh, whom they seem to have a huge grudge against.  The other members of the party could tell something had happened, but they weren’t sure what just happened.

((We took some time to level up characters)).

The girls possessing Targ and Cyr told them the spell broke the artifact, and that the mist around the door was holding one of Lekorh’s most powerful allies.  They told Targ that the things on the other side of the door were a distraction, and a waste of time.  They said that they were sent to kill or weaken the group.  They also said that their prison was not permanent, but that it would hold them for some time.  There was also a group of The Withered Legion on the other side (the intelligent skeleton army of the dungeon).  The Dark Dwarves were told about this, and they started to fill in the tunnel and room where this door was.  They hoped they could completely bury the things behind the door.

When the group walked under the giant evil spider… it turned into ashes.  It seemed the power of the artifact was made manifest in Cyr and Targ. 

The girls possessing Targ and Cyr told the group that Lekorh is both a Lich and that he is also a Demon.  He is essentially a very powerful creature that will be very hard to destroy.  The group loaded up on Holy Water.  The girls said that Lekorh may be unaffected by Holy Water.   


“The Annihilation of Nahm” DH#57


Cyr and Targ then showed the group the broken coin artifact, and explained what had happened to them.  A history of the coin was then revealed, about how it was dedicated to the primal two gods that are no longer worshipped.  The coin had proved to be a holy artifact that was also a bane vs. Demons.  Cyr and Targ then explained that they were possessed by little girl souls. 

They told the Dark Dwarves that they would most likely be exterminated if they remained in the dungeon.  Any allies of the adventuring party would most likely bring the wrath of Lekorh.  Some of the Dark Dwarves decided to come with the party, while the others fled into the upper levels of the dungeon, and perhaps they would flee to the mountains in the North.

The girls told the group that Lekorh is an Abomination.  They said that there was some connection between Lekorh and Darves Hill.  They don’t believe that Lekorh can leave his place.  The girls weren’t sure what the exact nature of this relationship between the two is, but they know there is one.  The girls renewed their dedication to help destroy Lekorh.

The Archmage from Larm appeared and seemed angry and disturbed.  “What did you guys do?!  Have you been to town lately?  It’s Gone!  There is a crater filled with smoldering ashes in a 50 mile radius around the town.  Did you piss someone off, did you break something, what did you do?”  The group told the mage that Lekorh is most likely behind it all.  He noticed that something was different about the group, and he seemed disturbed by the girls possessing Cyr and Targ.  He told them that Lekorh felt Cyr’s Coin breaking.  The girls told the mage to stay out of their business, and the mage took a few steps back.  The mage told them to keep him updated with the magical messenger birds, and then he left.

Back in town the group wondered what had happened to the one eyed Ogre with the Black Death sword, what happened to the goddess’ body in the Temple.  The girls felt that the Dragon was a distraction and unimportant.  They also said that the Giant Mystics who participated with the dragon parts might have been breeding dragons. 

The group remembered that many of the buildings on the surface of Darves Hill were built to keep things locked within the dungeon.  The girls told the group that if Lekorh is close they will be able to feel him.  On the surface of the hill they saw the plume from the town of Nahm.  Cyr warned Marnal the Dwarf on the surface of the Hill about all of the danger.  Marnal was a friend of Old Manx who sold them the maps.  Cyr told Marnal to flee.  He decided to move to Larm.  He gave them more maps since they warned him.

They then went to the Gnomes of Slurred Speech and warned them too.  The one they were talking to swore like crazy when they spoke of the danger, but they packed all of there statues onto wagons and left.  The girls told them that the statues were the souls of all of those that used to live on Darves Hill…

Then they went to warn the Green Dragon on the top of the Temple and woke him up.  The Dragon told them that it had destroyed Nahm before as well, he said that it was, “Nice work.”  The Dragon was appreciative of the warning, and then unceremoniously flew away.  It flew around the town of Nahm, and they assumed it was curious, and then it collapsed out of the air into the center of the town of Nahm.  They also noticed that the “dead zone” around the town seemed to have increased since the last time they looked at it.  They remembered that the sword Black Death did have a Demon trapped in it… and the one eyed Ogre did have it…  Francis the Frail and Martriss the Elf then went to see what happened to Nahm.  The Dragon’s corpse then exploded, and bloody chunks flew in all directions.
They noticed that there were runes that said “Death” and “Lekorh” written out in the dungeon.  They felt like Death referred to Mwerkef the God of Death.  Then they weren’t sure if Lekorh wrote those words in rooms, or if others had.  They also noticed the Hellfire pits on the maps.

When the group walked into one of the surface rooms four invisible spirits were destroyed by the girls possessing Cyr and Targ in a horrible fashion.  They dug out one of the hidden secret doors… but they found a magical circle on it.  They didn’t want to break any more seals keeping things in Darves Hill, so they didn’t open / break it.  The door was a warmer and warmer the deeper they dug. 

Martriss the Elf noticed that there was a Circle of Death surrounding the town of Nahm, and that it was slowly spreading outward (1 inch per hour). 

The group then planned a path through the dungeon levels going from stairway to stairway.

Martriss the Elf then stuck his sword over the threshold of the Circle of Death that was surrounding the town of Nahm… failed his save vs. death and then his body exploded in a gruesome display of gore.

I forgot to give out XP last time.  Main characters got 2,000 XP, and retainers got 1,000 XP.