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Total Members Voted: 0

Voting closed: November 04, 2022, 09:24:51 am

[King Zultan]

Had to be some pretty brave and stealthy creature to sneak into our camp unnoticed by our watchmen, sounds like we need to keep an even closer watch of our surroundings from now on.

Don't have much to add to the battle as Burt was probably focusing on exploding the monsters balls with one kick trying not to die and helping keep the others from dying.

Damn that was a close one right there, we're lucky we didn't lose anyone, hopefully there are no other permanent injuries besides Grugni's missing arm. Hopefully there's a proper sword in the loot I can get and hopefully it'll serve me as well as the wooden one has.

Burt kicked out with his hoof at the naked monster and crushed the beast's testicles completely!

That's pretty metal right there.

Thank you for being our tank, King Zultan

A plesure to be of service, you've always gotta have at least one heavily armoured person in your party and I'm glad to be that person in this one.

[Maloy]

Now that the party can safely descend and plunder the lair you can now see the grisly sights of the monster's home.
Bones of dwarves, picked clean, scattered about treasures.

Loot:
2 Dwarven Silver Coins
1 Dwarven gold coin
One Dwarf-sized bronze mail shirt
5 small mittens
1 dwarf sized steel helm
1 waterskin
1 pig-tail bag decorated with groundhog bone
1 dwarf-sized bismuth bronze helm
1 elf sized birchen helm
2 normal sized glove covered in silver, tiger iron and dog bone
some rope reed thread
1 dwarf sized bronze helm
2 copper coin of a time of no rule
2 dwarf sized iron boots encrusted with silver
1 silver coin of a time of no rule
giant cave spider silk thread
1 dwarf sized cloak
1 regular sized mitten
1 dwarf sized hood
2 high quality elven sandals decorated with featherwood
2 dwarf sized giant olm mittens decorated with glass
1 dwarven copper coin
2 dwarf sized gloves
1 elven gold coin
and the heart of the tower(you can safely read the title on the slab without being exposed to it's dark magic)

Coins minted to commemorate a time of anarchy? This time in question is the brief period after humanity was almost wiped out, but the necromancers were killed by Kanil.
Do you have any specific thoughts? Even about the heart of the tower


Coin wise we can split it evenly all ways if that is more in character or we could just have a general group treasure if there is enough trust between everyone.

We finished the mission in 3 out of 14 days leaving us with a lot of wiggle room to haul our trophy back and claim the bounty. Now do we wish to carry the great artifact that is the tower heart back? That would certainly be proof enough of the beast's death! Or perhaps just it's body? The heart emanates dark and seductive power and calls for any to read it

(if you so choose to read it I might do it in-game at a later date. Controlling groups when there's one necromancer is hard because the necromancer always tries to raise corpses that attack his friends)



Grugni is deathly pale. Borderline grey actually. Mere seconds longer of bleeding would have killed him. Some part of his brain registered gratitude to his companions for coming after him although he truly did think he died in that field. He had seen the great mountain halls of the gods and it's holy gatekeepers calling him home. The shining jewels and gold everywhere beckoning him as much as legends of it's mighty booze. He wondered if his father was here. He took a step towards the beautiful gates the rainbow of colors bringing tears to his eyes, but as his foot landed he felt himself being pulled far away. A black abyss appeared before him and his great reward and then suddenly that color was replaced by the sight of gray skies as rain poured upon his face. He still lived although he would never be the same...

He will quietly accept any help with his one arm. He doesn't even recall putting the tourniquet on although it is certainly in his skill set. He doesn't even have enough presence to spit on the dead ettin as they pass it to enter the cave. He just silently follows and he sees what must be a dwarfish hell in his currently spiritually inclined mind. dwarven treasures laid to rest in filth amongst the disturbed bones of his kin.
His vocal chords are fried from screaming, but he is able to make just enough sound to say "How long have you all been in here? You can never return home as long as you're here..." He picks up one skull "I have to bury them so they can go home."

Later after completion he will ask for the two iron boots and the mail shirt. He had many nerves severed and can't rely on agility as much anymore so he needs some armor.


OOC:

Burt kicked out with his hoof at the naked monster and crushed the beast's testicles completely!

That's pretty metal right there.

Yeah it was such a tense fight for me to play out for real lol, but reading that line of him getting gelded made me laugh and was really great comedic timing

[TeaKing]

"Well done during the fight, Egem... Unfortunately, you didn't get the killing blow... So no Information about those elves for you!... However, I have two new tasks for you... Collect the ettin's Skull ,and also that 'heart of the tower'... Don't let anyone read from that slab... Take it to a volcano and throw it... The 'gods' of death won't have their way for as long as I am present..."

Not fond of necromancy, huh? Well I agree with you on that so I guess I'll follow along
But what are you gonna do with the skull though? Besides using it as a trophy for whatever reason?

"Once you get another target, I shall tell you more... Now go do what I ordered you to and have fun on your journey back to the castle..."


well, What a Fight! I Haven't encountered anything this tough before... Well i better go butcher his body to get the skull and maybe get some of my arrows back

After I'm done, I should go check on Hal and Grugni, those injuries of theirs were terrible.

[King Zultan]

Burt didn't really feel comfortable near such an evil artifact but he didn't feel any temptation to read the thing as the power it tempted people with was not the kind Burt wanted anything to do with.

He figured they could they could take one of the ettin's skulls as proof of death, then he realized that the slab of evil should also be taken so it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands, he was sure someone at the castle would know what to do with the thing.

And when no one is looking Burt sneaks over to the loot pile and pockets the single dwarven gold coin.

He'd also go over and look at the injured and help as much as he could even though he knew nothing about medicine.

[Salmeuk]

Glorg, Egem and Burt fought the rest after this with Glorg's head almost being crushed like a grape before everyone worked together to break the ettin's grip.
Glorg got the killing blow even after the ettin tore his shoulder out of it's socket with a flick of it's wrist.

Glorg clutches at his arm. "Glorg alive. . . thanks to thesse freends." Glorg was surprised such horrible beasts live in these lands, much much worse than even the most enraged caribou . Glorg regrets losing his spare throwing spears and vows to collect more at the earliest convenience.

Glorg would pick up these gloves to wear:

2 normal sized glove covered in silver, tiger iron and dog bone

As long as Glorg has a fighting hand, he will continue onward, encouraging the party to look for more strange beasts and hidden treasures.

"Party listen ok? New strategy: look for not trash and more treasure. Ettin droppings smell terrible... lets go! Hork hork!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

really liking the detail in these posts. thanks for the writeups.. this is all the fun of playing a character without actually pressing buttons

[Maloy]

really liking the detail in these posts. thanks for the writeups.. this is all the fun of playing a character without actually pressing buttons

That's great to hear! I'm glad to hear I'm pulling off because that is the feel I was going for plus with a group of players there's some more enjoyment from the shared rp!

Also I realized playing earlier that Grugni had all the nerves in his other arm severed and so it is totally dead  as well. He can't pick up anything anymore. Really wish dfhack had a "Partial heal" code lol. I might have to do a quiet training arc to teach him foot based kung-fu and biting.

Also if anyone reading wants to throw a character in we are approaching a point where new people could easily hop onto the team

[TheFlame52]

If you dive into a creature's data with gui/gm-editor, you can find the wound and remove the tags that mark the injury as severing nerves.

[King Zultan]

Couldn't he also edit the Raws to have nerve tissue able to heal to fix him?

[TheFlame52]

That would only allow a broken spine to heal. Severed nerves don't actually use a tissue. It's a tag in the muscle tissue that marks it as containing sensory and motor nerves.

[Maloy]

Hey I appreciate that! A part of me feels guilty even doing a partial heal, but I don't know how Grugni would survive even the most basic fights with two missing limbs!

Also I tried some suggested bug fixes on the glitched elven forest retreat and they didn't work, but I did have another idea. At some point after this adventure I'm gonna hit the raws to allow human embarks and basically I'll try to destroy the whole retreat through fortress. Enemies that die in off-site missions disappear completely, no dead bodies or anything to keep glitching.
Depending where the party is and if they survive this could also be a cool way to use them. Maybe the fort is an outpost that supplies and equips them? If the glitched population flees this will quickly turn into full scale elf genocide lol

[King Zultan]

If the glitched population flees this will quickly turn into full scale elf genocide

You say that as if it's a bad thing.

[Maloy]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Looking up artwork for deer people and I saw this and thought of Burt!


Source: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ykBR0J

With both heads and the tower heart in tow the party is ready to be done with this cave
In compliance with Grugni's wishes and the party's injuries they took a day and a half to properly bury the victims of the ettin. Most of the party was still able to move around just fine after their injuries, but it was noted that Grugni's was still unable to move his one remaining arm. It hung limply at his side until one of the party helped him with a sling.

Do you do anything else for the dead?

The party continues until sundown of the fifth day
What do you do as you walk?
We are now in the bamboo forests just south of the haunted forest we passed through.
As we stop to make camp through the clearing we see:


Deer people! Burt's very own although still living free and tribal rather than assimilated into elven culture.
They look at the party cautiously, but seeing the brutal condition they are still in you see compassion on the eyes of the man and woman.
What is your reaction?

They approach a few steps cautiously and the woman speaks "May we help you?"
What do you say? Do you ask for anything? Tell them about ourselves?

The man speaks to Burt, fully armored and intimidating as he is, "Are you...one of us? Why do you look this way?"
Burt?

The deer people are virtually naked themselves still living in the steeped traditions of their people. Historically the deer people allied with the elves to fight the many abominations originally present in what is now the haunted forests, but even the combined might mostly just held them at bay. Some deer were enamored with elven lifestyle and culture while others decided to remain in the nomadic lifestyle. Burt you have total artistic license on how you wanna interpret or add onto any of this and how it relates to you if at all by the way




Grugni prepared an extra casket and placed his severed arm in it. He won't say it, but he is genuinely afraid of his mortality. In dwarven custom the unburied and unhonored dead live trapped where they died for eternity, but being a deep delver the odds that he will die in some hole is extremely high. He hopes the dwarf gods will accept his arm's burial as adequate if the rest of him is unable to be buried later. He's not very religious, but the loss of his arm, or both arms possibly, has left him reeling with existential dread and grief.

He gets on his knees before the burial cairn the party built. Unable to lift a hand in prayer he just bows his head and wishes the poor souls the best on their journey and to be accepted into the mountainhome. "Were they travelers or others like us?" he asks "Does it even matter?" he turns to the party before we all leave "Thank you for taking the time to do this."

On the journey Grugni will not talk at all unless prompted

Grugni registers the deer people and finds them beautiful and graceful, but he's still too far gone to do much more.

When asked if the party wants help "I doubt there's much you can do about this madam" he says without even motioning to his stump or dead arm "But your forest is safer now"
"What do you mean safer? You look to be in such pain"
Grugni is too far gone emotionally to continue the conversation and motions his head to the party while he looks for a good spot to sit. He's too drained to continue this conversation.




OOC:
Couldn't figure out GM-editor for Grugni. Found the right menu, but none of the parts are listed as parts, but straight code and I realized I was spending time on the problem I could have used on advancing the party. Perhaps the deer woman will be able to heal it? Either way not trying to hold us up!
Character development moment for Burt the game decided to drop into our lap lol

[King Zultan]

Burt quietly says some words near the buried dead, and hopes they find their way to the afterlife of their religion.

He keeps an eye out for trouble as they walk as who knows what other evils may lurk in these woods.

He's excited to see other deer people as he hasn't seen any of his own kind since he left his home land, he's also confused as to why they're naked as the ones in his homeland wear clothing.

He'd say hello and maybe his name, but probably not much more than that unless prompted.

When the deer man directs questions at Burt he would remove his helmet to reveal that his is also a deer man and answer yes to the question, then to the second question he'd say that he wears the armour so he's less likely to die in a fight, he isn't sure why someone would ask a question like as he was under the impression the reason for armour would be obvious, but then again the he doesn't know what nomadic deer people do when it comes to fighting since they're naked all the time.

Burt doesn't really know much about the traditions of the nomadic deer men other than they have a deep and complex system of beliefs and a vast knowledge of wild edibles and medicinal herbs, but that is stuff he learned second hand from others as he has lived his entire life in civilized lands and so do all the other deer people he knows, not that he knows many other deer people as there were 7 of them where he came from and that's if he included himself.

[Maloy]

The deer man looks less concerned upon seeing Burt's face and nods towards his explanation "The elves wear this too, but it is made from the trees and sometimes goblins would come, but theirs looked much different." He laughs in a very friendly manner "You look like the metal giant that used to travel these lands. Very intimidating!"

The deer woman chimes in after talking with the others a bit "It is good to meet another of us who lives so differently. You enrich our eyes with new wonders"
They're an oddly poetic people, but this could be translational issues.

The deer woman stays the night to talk with us and learn and we have to sit through a light drizzle protected only by thick tree canopy.
Do we have anything we wish to discuss with her? We are due for a nice payment and also a job offer when we get back. What do you wanna do with your share of the payment?

If you stay awake late into the evening when the rest of the party quietens there is an almost imperceivable pulse coming from the tower heart that would draw your eye, but you can easily resist.

The deer woman bids us farewell the next day and we spend most of the sixth day with uneventful travel back the way we came. We reach the castle by the end of the day.

Our resident chef hostage Hal strides up and places the tower heart onto a pedestal


The soldiers look in awe at the very worn out party. One runs to quickly get the commander. He takes one glance at the heart and then back to you all and nods his head with respect "Impressive. You've accomplished much in half the time given to you and rid the world of a menace that has plagued it since before our people first landed on these shores."
He looks at Grugni's injuries in particular "Please, you should all rest for now. When the time has run out we will announce your victory officially and talk about what comes next. The baron shall see to your reward" the commander motions to a thin and sickly looking aristocrat.

Questions, comments or concerns for the commander?

The baron receives you with a forced smile "You have done us all a great service" he speaks with a whiny voice "Please accept the Notched Unions reward for such heroes: Two silver bars which would amount to 1000 silver coins" He rubs his sweaty temple "Which is very generous I might add" There is a momentary awkward silence after his attendant present the bars to us
Any desired actions?

After the silence the baron rubs his temple again "I apologize for my state there are beasts ravaging my lands currently and it's been a point of awful stress"
Response?



Grugni will be silent at the campfire unless prompted. His dreams for his return to the depths are mostly shattered by certain doom if he does descend.

He would briefly look the bars up and down his dwarfish eyes assessing the purity of the metal. He doesn't respond outwardly, but the wealth is acceptable.

Although he is up for questing and beast hunting Grugni definitely intends to use some of this time given to train and process his recent trauma.



The next part of the main quest will be starting soon! I'm kind of glad our travel was mostly uninterrupted. I've got our next quests ready.

Also expect a couple of lore posts in the next couple of weeks. They're always titled as such so you won't have to read them. Just gives more context for what is going on with every group currently.

[TeaKing]

I should ask the commander about the fate of the heart: "I believe such an artifact needs to be destroyed, otherwise fanatical cultists and criminals might steal it and unleash more undead horrors upon the world...
If there's a desire to potentially use it for future warfare however, then cultists and the like must be purged, So do you have any missions involving their extermination?"

If the state of my allies and team mates is brought up, i would tell them that i am perfectly fine working alone on getting rid of weak lowlifes while we wait for the rest of the team to heal up. All i need is arrows...


Now, regarding what the baron said, We're adventurers for a reason! So of course we should ask him about the monsters giving him a bad time, and probably deal with them