Experience: Wow. What can I say? Misplayed by you or overdone by me, who knows? Certainly there were a lot of bad rolls going against the party and I got a few good ones. I'm giving a straight 504xp in total across the board to be split evenly for the hunting expedition (wolverine and stags). The logic for this is that those who did not do combat used NWPs, and those who did not use NWPs role-played. The party also gets 120xp to split evenly (but none for the bear who was not there) for the Green Slime. There is no experience for anyone for the ghoul lair because I had to use so much Deux ex Machina to save your little asses. I imagine that since there are 4 longswords now lost in the room, that the party will be going back loaded for bear (sorry A'Ha) and they could quite possibly earn that lost experience at that time.
Roleplayer of the week:
Player's Choice (60xp): One vote for Snf'L so far. One vote for Daranel, who we have discovered is remarkably disimilar to A'ha. And one vote for elf'ross, "...not necessarily for his role playing ability, but I certainly don't want to minimize the chance that he'll still save my ass next time." (Three way tie unless we get a vote from the other player. No experience given out for player's choice yet.)
DM's Choice (30xp): Daranel, because his player played him properly regardless of the danger the player knew the character was in. Well played, Mur!
No experience for Player's Choice as of yet - voting still open!
El'Fross - 36 F, 36 T, 36 MU - updated!
Snf'L - 36 F, 36 T, 36 MU - not yet updated
X'Ylo - 108 CL - not yet updated (don't forget he only gets 70% of this!)
L'Wehn - 108 F - not yet updated
Daradel - 138 F - updated!
A'Ha the bear- 84 B - not yet updated - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party
3rd Goodmonth (con't...)
The party heads back to the castle to rest and recuperate. They get back without further mishap and bed down for the night. Food is becoming a real problem becasue THERE ISN'T ANY!
4th Goodmonth
The party is "Goin' huntin' gonna kill somethin'...". A wolverine appears and growls at Snf'L, who leads the party. Snf'L reacts by pulling out his bow and aiming it at the beast. Does this provoke the ill-tempered semi-intellignet animal? You be the judge! It attacks visciously but Snf'L and Daranel slay it before it can sink its teeth into Snf'L. El'Fross berates Snf'L for his behaviour as of late. Any of the creatures of the forest that Snf'L kills could be some of Sehanine's reincarnations.
Later on two stags are discovered and Snf'L fires at one. They quickly scamper away as Snf'L uselessly fires arrows at their fleeing forms.
The party manages to bag a deer. They rig up a pole to hang the deer from and carry it back to the castle.
5th Goodmonth
Party goes to the lower level of the castle to look again at the statues which seem to guard the stairs going down. Neither seems magic, but the party could have sworn they were magic before. Very odd. As they start down the stairs it becomes obvious the statues are indeed magic as one calls out, "Bware! For the stairs you tread lead to certain doom!" and as they continue the other shouts, "Death awaits you! Fly this place!".
There is a huge fight with ghouls and S'Rang ends up saving the party. Daranel goes down, Snf'L and L'Wehn are paralyzed, then A'Ha the bear jumps in to save L'Wehn, but is almost instantly paralyzed by a ghoul.
Now from the diary of El'Fross:
I awoke this morning feeling a little cocky about my ability to fight my way out of most any
situation. Little did I know that I would be humbled in just a few hours. We learned a very
dangerous lesson about underestimating an opponent (again).
We decided to check out the basement while we smoked the meat from a stag that we managed to
bring down the day before. As we passed the statues at the top of the stair an ominous warning
came from one of them, obviously through some wizard's spell. Backing up, the other gave a
similar warning. It was a little disconcerting, however after some experimentation we
discovered that the statues had been enchanted to repeat these phrases over and over again as
wanderers passed by. Clearly meant to deter anyone from entering the lower level of the castle
with the threat of bodily harm. X'Ylo had mentioned that he could cast a similar spell, so I
wasn't too worried. After all, if X'Ylo could cast the spell........
At the bottom of the stairs we noticed an oozy slimy pool on the walls and ceiling. Below the
slime were some bones of long dead beings, which gave us pause, After some investigation,
Snf'L discovered that the slime was somehow alive and moved as he probed it with an arrow.
Even more alarming was the fact that the slime seemed to dissolve his arrow point as he poked
it into the slime.
L'Wehn suggested that we might be able to harm it with fire. X'Ylo may have said something
about that earlier, but I hadn't really been paying attention to him. Of course as soon as
L'Wehn mentioned fire I couldn't resist and summoned the magical fire of "Burning Hands". The
slime was obviously damaged by the flames, though not destroyed. Little X'ylo finished off the
creature with a similar spell. He needed a boost to reach the slime, and Daranel obliged in
his eager way.
After defeating the slime so easily we strode into the room stupid with bravery, sensing that
we had defeated the immediate danger. Suddenly from all around as, ghoulish creatures started
appearing from coffins, and under debris. The party seemed less reluctant today to kill undead
monstrosities, and rather than falling back to the stairway to fight the monsters a few at a
time we "bravely" held our ground and engaged the ugly creatures. The fight went well at the
beginning, then suddenly more appeared, and though X'Ylo managed to turn a few, we were
terribly outnumbered at least 4 to 1. Soon Daranel was down, then L'Wehn. The odds were
getting worse instead of better. I fought my way back to where L'Wehn was lying in a heap. As
I reached her, Snf'L went down. A'ha came bounding into the room to apparently save his sister
and was immediately felled (turns out he doesn't fight any better as a bear).
Apparently these creatures had the power to paralyze adversaries. It was painfully obvious
that X'Ylo and I would not be able to defeat the remaining creatures fast enough as they
prepared to feast on our fallen comrades. I put up a mist cloud over Snf'L hoping that the
creatures would become confused or lost or, at least temporarily lose their appetite. After
picking up L'Wehn I whispered into her ear, hoping she could still hear and use her K'Needian
powers, asking her to mist cloud Daranel. Sehanine must have a special affinity for the
stupidly brave, for L'Wehn was able to comply. After taking L'Wehn up the stairs I returned
for Snf'L as X'Ylo went for help. After battling a monster in the cloud, I finally found Snf'L
and took him up the stairs. During my search I heard S'Rang enter the room. As I started back
down the stairs for Daranel, S'Rang came up with the prone High Elf over his shoulder. We took
our friends back to the safety of Pall's lair.
We should have known better. Had we been a little more cautious, Daranel and myself could have
probably held the monsters at bay at the foot of the stairs, battling one or two at a time,
rather than all of them. Stupid, stupid, stupid. This is the second time in this castle that
I have had the opportunity to hold a hallway or stairway and didn't. I expect we'll have a
chance to test this theory, as all the wounded had left their swords on the floor where they
had fallen.
S'Rang started complaining about having to save us again which I, of course, took exception to.
In fact it was I who saved my fellow K'Needians, not S'Rang. S'Rang did save the High Elf in
the party and while [it was] noble of him to do so, the last time I checked, High Elves were in no danger of becoming extinct. If S'Rang doesn't start putting his brother's sword to use soon,
for the cause of K'Nee, I am going to take it from him, no matter what A'Ha thinks. Brave
words from a stupidly brave elf. We'll see how brave or stupid I am when the time comes.
At least L'Wehn seemed pleased with my efforts to save her. There may be hope for me yet.
Although I suppose I would be suitably pleased by anyone who prevented me from being eaten by
ghoulish undead creatures in the lower level of a castle............time for a nap.