Thirteenth Session (16 page pdf), “Mansion of Shadows, Part III” – The inevitable holocaust of violence descends on Staufen Manor. At the Asmodean funeral for the eldest son, the PCs decide it’s time to wipe out the whole family – but the priest is ready for them with summoned devils. Simultaneously, the pirates assault the island! The fledgling pirates carefully decide who to rape and kill and who to protect from the raping and killing. Who gets it? Read and find out!
This was a super-sized session, we went for about 8 hours, which was good because the players just had so much fun intriguing with the Staufens that it took us a while to get to the violence. Every time I’d try to advance the timeline they’d run off and do something else in some dark corner of the keep. Fair enough!
Then the fight in the chapel went pretty fast. The priest was 7th level but Sindawe used an Infamy Point to do him in – he pulled the mirror down on him and spent a point and we decided that it happened just as he was channeling to summon more critters and he went through the gate the other way, ending up in Hell! And there was much chortling.
They were happy to see most of the Staufens meet their brutal ends. Then, they kept complaining that I wouldn’t let them loot all the bodies with a bunch of Staufen guards standing around. “Surely they will leave us alone to molest the body of their dead lord soon!” Sigh.
We used my new Quickie Mass Combat Rules to handle the pirate attack. It went pretty fast and smooth. It seems like it lends itself well to handing out index cards with units on them to the players to have them pick up some of the slack too. The PCs were thinking fast, I was proud. Wogan laid a fog cloud on the parapet to disrupt the orc crossbowmen, which was good because they were going to get free attacks on the pirates till that gate got open. Then once the battle was joined, they even remembered about the other door in the inner wall and used it to flank the guards – that’s the kind of things PCs love to just forget about. And then Wogan used one of his Infamy Points to bullseye Jack from across the battle. “Yo ho ho, bitch!” he shouted as Jack crumpled. The other players really liked that.
I’m going to have to tighten up on the use of Infamy Points to autokill enemy leaders once I start getting some I want to stay around longer. These guys are just mooks so if they die, great; if they live I’ll level them and bring them back for later torment.
The looting sequence was fun; the PCs got to run rampant over all the color text they had seen before. They were sad that a) they weren’t supposed to keep whatever they looted, the pirates do fair shares and b) that the halfling alchemist wasn’t retarded, and when pirates attacked right after weirdo visitors paid her about a thousand gold for every weaponizable product she had, she took the money and ran. They were bemused but entertained by the huge pumpkin that they took as loot. My personal theory is that pirate (and orc) looting pretty much operates according to the Redneck Principle, which is that things are taken based on how good it feels to hold them up and scream “WOOOOOOOO!!!!!” at the top of your lungs. Some of that is gold and jewels – and in this case, some of it is 70 pound pumpkins and inn signs.
Next time, back to Riddleport. But first… <cue Mars, the Bringer of War>
Geek Related 