January 4, 2006

Hoody Hoo! Another HackMaster Session **Possible Spoilers**

As this blog is largely an accounting of my gaming I figure I should post about our recent HackMaster session.

Carolyn (my wife) had to work last weekend, but agreed to GM for us starting at 4 PM on Sunday a couple of hours after she got of work. We figured that we could get 4 hours or so in. I think the biggest reason we gamed was to help get the momentum back so we could get even more gaming in next weekend when she was off, and get back in the every-other-week cycle.


We left our PCs just barely inside the Mines of Chaos from Little Keep on the Borderlands. Our party consisted of Prince Poger, a Half-Ogre fighter specialized in the use of a huge battle-axe; Urd, a Grel Swashbuckler extrodinaire (a least in his mind); my DS Invoker Urddas and his sidekick cleric "Dude"; and Dusty's Halfling Thief whose name totally escapes me.....has a Scottish accent and keeps blabbering about "the Halfling Liberation Front". The Thief has decided to get a couple of halfling peons, ...er torchbearers, that he's promised a portion of the treasure (yeah, out of his share!). We had knocked about some kobolds and been set upon by some pretty big weasels. Poger just shrugs off damage and Urd is pretty darned good about not being hit. My mage is about useless....problem of being a one-trick pony (no matter how good the trick is!).

We clear out another room and then call it good for a night, thinking we will just check out a different cave. The GM forgot to tell us there was a door in the newly discovered hallway.
Hey guys! Look! I found a not-so-secret door!
Oh well, mistakes happen......I'm glad she just sucked it up and we continued on. The party poked around a bit and we found a larger room that was serving as some sort of bar. There had to be a good dozen kobolds in there with a still. Poger decides to be friendly and just saunters in, grabs a drink, and tries to chat up the locals. Never mind the fact that we've been slaughtering their brethren in the beginning of this complex....

I'm thinking this is gonna get ugly, but Poger is huge and these kobolds are a little tipsy. While I'm (Urddas) getting some spell components ready, Poger just walks up to the apparent "leader", pats the bastard on the head and tries to say "hi". This kobold slowly tries to go for his weapon and Poger just takes it from his hands, pats him on his (?) head, smiles and goes "cheers". Of course the kobolds have no clue what this massive, ugly, brute of a creature is saying.....

Eventually some others in the group try to brandish weapons and Urddas engulfs the room with a web spell. The roomisn't big enough to contain the spell and it spills out into the hallway, catching most of the party. Poger is big and strong enough that he doesn't have too many problems, so he extricates himself and those party members who need help and we continue on. We find a room or two, nothing special, and we eventually come to another door.

Poger steps up after the Thief does his thing (its good that the party is starting to develop standard tactics) and when he opens the door he finds some bedchamber with a much larger kobold ready to lay some smackdown. Poger just blocks the doorway and calls "dibs" on this guy (sure thing big guy.....). After the battle we get to ransack the room and find some goodies.
Hey guys...here's another door!

We open the door leading from this room and find a harem of kobold women dressed in finery and lounging about on fine pillows. We tell Poger that the "ladies" may be very gratefull that they are now free....and maybe those guys in the other room drinking may be looking for some "companionship". Poger and Urd corral the females into the still webbed room and Poger places them into the webbing next to the others, setting them up with drinks. When they return we loot the room. Aside from some jewelry, Urddas manages to snag a rather nice purple pillow!

We decide to go back and explore a path we passed by before. At the end of the hallway is a door covered in some of the cobwebs from Urddas' spell. Poger wrenches it open, after the obligitory trap check, to find an unusual dining hall. Half of the room looks normal, while the other half has a large pile of rubble. There is a clear demarcation line down the middle of the room where kobold and giant rat bodies have been piled up.

Finally, Urddas gets to help out some (he was kind of criticized by Poger for the excessive amount of webbing). He has the party back way up to the end of the hall and lets loose a fireball. He assumed that there'd be a large quantity of rats to contend with and he was right. The fireball took care of over a dozen and only two are left barely alive. Unfortunately the fireballs backlash ignited the remaining web and singed the large group of kobolds for around 16 damage (lots of penetration on that roll). The still fails a rather easy saving throw and explodes for another 5 or 6 points, almost killing some of the kobolds.....in the end that Fireball caused 496 points of damage, either directly or through secondary effects. Poger wasn't happy that Urddas nearly killed his "little buddies".

Once past the dining room we tried to enter the kitchen, but couldn't due to the massive number of kobolds crammed in there. Urd seems to be miffed that Poger is getting all of the action and stands in the doorway, declaring that he'll take care of the lot. Ulnar (the cleric also known as "Dude") decides that is a dumb move and casts Command on Urd, telling him to "retreat". Once Urd is out of the way Poger and the Thief move up and allow the kobolds to come out of the kitchen to fight us. The next round Dude manages to fall back some and Urd steps back to the "front". Urddas lets loose with some Magic Missiles and we slowly whittle the number of kobolds down to one. The Theif decides he wants some of that mano-y-kobold action and takes on the last kobold solo. He keeps trying to pull off a cricket-in-the-peapod & jugular swipe combo that is damned near possible with what he has to roll. Eventually he just gives up and stabs the kobold.....

We ended the session then...

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