Talons of the Horned King part 7

Last night we played the seventh and final chapter in our Talons of the Horned King arc. My original plan was to put another night of encounters into this thing, but the air was rapidly escaping from the balloon of this story. Since we had all eight players in attendance, I just brought the boss monster out.

Text as always from Talons of the Horned King, from the Dungeon Crawl Classics line from Goodman Games, by Mike Ferguson. Hi, Mike! I just noticed we had some comments on the blog that are over a month old; my apologies for taking to long to notice. I guess I'm used to this blog being mostly a one way street.

Anyway, now that we're concluding, I want to thank the author for putting together a great adventure. We had a lot of fun with it! I picked Talons of the Horned King after a lot of pre-campaign research; it was the perfect way to establish the Thundarr the Barbarian vibe I wanted for this campaign. And I'm pissed as hell that my players didn't want to fight the awesome holographic dragon scene that was in the published adventure. For shame, players, for shame.

Ahem. We opened up in the WARDYN room, where the ship's computer had just revealed that the Cryolab had just woken a crew member, and would be bringing 11 more out of stasis. The vikings ran out of the room and charged into the nearby chamber!

A chill fills the air as you enter this huge circular chamber. It is lined by large white metal cylinders – 20 in all. Each cylinder measures 12 feet high and 6 feet in diameter. White mist billows forth from cracks in the side of two of the cylinders.

In the center of the room is a pyramid-like object, measuring 8 feet in height and 6 feet long at the base of each side. The pyramid, which is made from a bronze-colored metal, is covered with switches and red blinking lights. A small clear globe floats a few inches above the peak of the pyramid. Inside the globe crackles a cloud of electric-purple mist.

To one side of the pyramid is a small metallic platform. Many of the weapons used by the apelike inhabitants of this strange place rest on top of this platform. To the other side of the pyramid is one of these very same dragon-like creatures, operating parts of the pyramid. When it sees you, it begins to press various lights and witches on the pyramid at a hurried pace.

The cryo-chambers were in the back half of the room, with a computer console in the middle. Three figures worked feverishly at the controls: two dragonborn and a large blue robot. In the back a dragonborn specialist wandered around near his pod, still groggy from waking. Additionally, two slasher robots activated at the dragonborn's command and sped forward to attack!



The party took notice of the sparkling blue glode on the top of the computer and tried to break it! Bartix and Varin send shock spheres and dreadful words into the computer; while they failed to damage it, the attacks spent 1d6 lightning feedback damage into the three adjacent figures.


Rurik and Edgar charged one of the Slashers, and Rurik and Oddny charged the blue labor drone, with Oddny hitting with On Pain of Death to give damage now and for the next four rounds. Mendas hugged the far wall and waited for his chance. Finally, the second slasher charged Hermiad and Mendas on the flank of the battle.

The fighters hacked away at their robots, but they were playing conservatively. Most of the robots kept missing, except against Edgar... the Slasher got my first of many crits of the night against him. Erik and Varin kept shooting at the computer, zapping the three operators. Bartix did something cool by running around the console using Prestidigitation to cover the display screen with a glyph of a Blood Eagle, obscuring the operator's vision! The dragonborn cursed at the wizard but kept working, though with difficulty.


The newly awoken Dragonborn had grabbed a rifle, and he wheeled around to blast Bartix. He missed, but now he was exposed to Edgar's charge. Mendas also got engaged in the back of the robots, doing Bait and Switch to move the labor drone and give Oddny room to engage both bots. Eric charged forward and engaged the front-most Dragonborn operator, who had been taking potshots with his pistol. And in the back of the battlefield, another Dragonborn woke up!


But at this point, the momemntum of the battle was swinging against the Dragonborn and robots. Their ability to quickly rouse their companions was seriously hindered, despite the fact that one guy had let himself be bloodied while he continued to work. Bartix set up behind him and cast Thunderwave, damaging him through the electric feedback as well as the wave. Oddny used her Arcing Smite to hit two robots, and Hermiad used Twin Strike to hack away at the Drone.

The woken Dragonborn was in a tight spot: he had no weapons, and had to get to the locker between a wizard and a fighter! He tried it, and avoided Bartix's lunge, but Edgar hit him and locked him down. Then, the Dragonborn Specialist tried to gain some distance on Edgar to use his rifle, and it worked, although Edgar got another swipe at him. His challenges and other Fighter features were really locking down the battlefield.


From here it was a matter of moping up. Rurik came in and finished off the Dragonborn before he could get a weapon, and Edgar took out the Specialist. The last of the robots collapsed. Eric used the flat of his mace (uh, the handle) to hit the wounded comupter operator, and asked him to surrender. The dragonborn put up his hands, turned around, and then with his elbow hit a final button! From the back of the room, a third Dragonborn woke up! Rurik immediately tackeled him.


We ended combat and the vikings tried to determine what to do with the various captives. The computer operator, now completely surrendered, revealed that he was the only one still alive able to safely defrost the sleepers. There was some discussion about what to do... Edgar wanted to wake everybody, hide the weapons, and run around and kill them. Blatant XP farming. Anyway, killing the Dragonborn in their sleep lacked honor, but everyone agreed that they were evil and dangerous.

Bartix had an idea to get Krymath, the Dragonborn captured two sessions ago, to prove his loyalty. He was given a knife and told to kill the operator. That didn't work, he turned on Edgar, and was killed. That settled things: the two conscious prisoners were also summarily executed. The vikings then started to play around with the pods: they found that breaking the glass revealed a frozen body, which could be easily carved!

Next it was time to search the room. Six pistols, eight rifles, six vibro-swords, and eight combat knives were gathered between the storage locker and the bodies. The various cabinets contained 6 healing potions and some 300 gp of arcanic components. Now that Bartix can make potions, that's what I give out now, components instead of gold or pre-crafted potions.

Then, a voice boomed throughout the room:

"You are worthy opponents," it said, "but you have run rampant on my ship for long enough. I challenge you to come to my bridge, and we will finish this!"

Well, obviously, that was the Captain. No one was ready to finish this yet before exploring the rest of the ship. The party set out for the barracks and the mess hall, but found them both empty. Save some healing potions and components, there was nothing to be had.

Next they went to the bio-lab. This was also empty, but the center of the room contained four tubes, standing ten feet tall. In each floated a dragonborn suspended in a blue liquid. The dragonborn were unconscious, but seemed to be dressed in medieval scraps and not the hi-tech sivlery fabrics of the beings that they had been fighting. There was no immediate way to free them, however, so they moved on.

So with the rest of the ship explored, the party approached the bridge:

This chamber measures 50 feet across. It appears more ominous than many of the other chambers you’ve explored – the walls in this chamber are flat black, not bright silver, and the room is dimly lit with cold blue flickering lights.

In the center of this chamber, stretching from floor to ceiling, is a clear glass cylinder filled with sinister green gas. A sword floats inside this cylinder. Electric sparks fly and sizzle as the sword slowly moves up and down. At the far end of this room is a huge clear globe, with images flickering upon it like a giant crystal ball. You see images of figures attacking monsters with both swords and sorcery – after a moment, you are astonished to realize that the images are of yourselves and your recent exploits! A good half-dozen or so metal cabinets with blinking lights are located below the giant globe. Next to the globe is a metal cot and chest.

Standing before the globe and the cabinets is a shaggy ape-like creature. This one appears to be slightly larger than the others that you have encountered, and he wears some sort of curious metallic armor. He holds a glowing sword in one hand, and a bizarre-looking crossbow in the other.

The creature turns to face you. “I have studied your abilities,” it says in a harsh, growling voice. “You are worthy opponents. But I cannot allow you to take my power from me.” He raises his sword. “It is a pity that I must kill you all.”

The captain had brought some friends, including a giant crab robot, two hammerers, and two slashers. The captain himself hovered over one of the platforms in the back.

The vikings discussed what to do, weighing options like starving the captain out, or running in and grabbing the sword. The discussion went a little long, and the robots moved up to block the sword. At this point they just decided to rush 'em and pray.

This was a fun fight: Everyone knew that this was the end, so they pulled out all the stops, with whetstones, daily powers, action points, the whole bit. The party used a lot of group bonuses, juicing their AC, strike, and damage for the whole encounter. And the dice turned high-octane, with very few flubs and a huge number of crits!

The vikings mostly had the high initiative, so they rushed in to take out the little robots. Rurik, and Hermiad engaged one of the Slashers, with Varin and Bartix sending missile support; all this killed it before it could act! Edgar followed up on one of the Hammerers, backed by Erik and Oddny. The Captain's initiative came up in the midst of all this, but he held his action. Interesting...


The Crab-bot used an action point to shoot lightning at just about everybody. Edgar was critted, with Rurik and Hermiad taking non-significant damage. Then the second lightning blast hit Mendas, Varin, Erik, and Oddny. Its job done, the crab retreated a few steps behind the sword.


The robot left flank charged the party, with the slasher engaging Varin and Oddny, and the Hammerer getting Edgar. Both missed, though. Finally, the Captain shot forward and used his flamethrower, hitting Edgar, Hermiad, and Rurik, as well as one of his robots, a computer, a coil... there was medium damage traded all around. And this left the captain out in the open, which would prove to be fateful!


Half the party was faced with this slasher robot. Erik and Varin hit it, and Mendas moved in to back-stab. Oddny then attacked and critted, maximizing her extra-damage die rolls as well! That did it: there was a smoking pile of gears in the middle of the four party members.


The other half of the party had the Captain in front of them. Rurik went first, hitting with his daily and doing high damage. Then, he used an action point and did his second daily, critting! On his turn his greataxe dealt well over a hundred damage! Hermiad followed, using his action point to carve into the Captain four times and hitting each time (though it took Eleven Accuracy to do it). And Bartix followed up, with a demure Magic Missile. But the Captain was down to 15 hit points, and that finished him off! We paused and checked our math, but everything worked. The Captain was a level 10 elite, AC 23, with 206 hit points, and he had lasted one round in direct combat!


So, that left the crab-bot and two of the hammerers, one of which was bloodied from Edgar. The party worked over the turn to take the hammerers down and harass the crab.

The crab-bot shot and retreated to the platform, and I thought he could climb it while his main lightning attack recharged. Barix ahd a plan, though... he used Icy Terrain to knock it prone, which meant that it couldn't do opportunity attacks as people approached! Oddny, Rurik, and Mendas swarmed, with Varin and Erik providing artillery. Once Edgar joined the fight, he had combat advantage from three seperate effects!


The crab bot stood up and tried to fight his way out, but he was on borrowed time. Another round and his 200 HP was gone. Poor robot! And that was it for the dungeon!



The vikings wanted treasure, but the chamber didn't have much. Edgar removed the Captain's armor, and maybe it could be retooled for him. There was also the matter of the sword: it seemed to be a power source, but it was also treasure. What to do?

They made their way back to WARDYN, who answered more questions. The vikings could not access many of the ship's functions, even though the Captain was dead. The computer did provide a list of instructions to work the tubes in the bio-lab. We had a brief skill challenge, and the players puzzled through the controls to release the captured dragonborn. They woke without craziness, with fevered fractured memories of the past week.

Back in the bridge, Erik smashed the chamber and grabbed the sword. The lights went out around the ship, then came back on, with a vocal message that 30 minutes of power were left. The vikings left for the surface.

We'll pick up here in two weeks, emerging from the ship in the valley. Thanks to everyone for a great adventure!

CASUALTIES:

4 Dragonborn Recon
1 Dragonborn Specialist
9 sleeping Dragonborn
Captain Merykare Setep
4 Slasher robots
2 Hammerer robots
1 Labor Drone
1 Crab Robot

Hmm, we haven't recorded beer casualties in a while. Truth be told, I had a stomach flu the night in question, and had neither food nor fluid the whole day. Rebecca said my color turned from deathly pale to healthy pale at the two hour mark. DMing, the miracle cure!

Talons of the Horned King part 6

Last week we played the sixth chapter of our ongoing Talons of the Horned King saga! Hey, are the spiky things talons or horns? Well, Goodman Games, well? By the way, the descriptive text included here is from Goodman Games.

The adventurers woke up outside the strange metal cave and entered into a short discussion about what to do. Perhaps they could have gone to seek additional help from the nearby Lizardfolk tribes, but their captive Thargdar noted that to go through the mountains would be a half a day's walk. With a minimum day turnaround, the vikings decided to forge ahead immediately and go back into the dungeon.

After clearing through the poisonous gas, they immediately ran into the guard station. Here, several robots were stationed. Two dragonborn worked on a mysterious mechanism in the back of the room. Advance scouts Hermiad and Mendas recognized their labor as the reassembly of one of the crab robots they had met outside! Most likely the robot was too large to just walk into the room, and it was being built here... but was not built yet. The vikings did quick counsel and sprang on the automatic sentries!


Everyone with a ranged attack ran in and nailed the unluckiest Dragonborn technician in the world. Bartix used his Odin's Ball (like a fireball, but lightning damage) to hit the guy and nearly all the other robots, but only did damage to the tech and the walker. Hermaid put two arrows in the dude too. Oddny and Mendas came in to the room too, and got charged by one of the robots.

The combat progressed rather quickly. I used a new type of robot which was basically a Mad Slasher progressed to Level 5. He could attack everyone adjacent to him, and got the chance to hit three vikings once or twice. After that, though, the adventures cleared away, with Oddny keeping the Slasher in place, and Edgar doing the same for the Hammerer.


As soon as they were able to, the Dragonborn threw down their hydro-spanners and ran into the hallway. Hermiad gave chase on his turn and did the Ranger Buzzsaw. This dropped the damaged guy, but the other was stabbed but not killed. He risked an opportunity attack next turn to flee down the hallway. Hermiad let him go reluctantly and returned to fight the robots... who were quickly mopped up.


After a Short Rest, the group set out tracking the escaped dragonborn. There weren't tracks, per say, but Hermiad had stabbed the guy and he was leaking blood. The trail went to the mid-ship blast doors and stopped. The vikings got the code from their captive (the third one, the Dragonborn soldier) and opened the door! Beyond it the blood trail stopped after a few feat... it seemed as though he had been met by someone that had staunched the wound. It was difficult to tell where they had gone on this hard, unyielding metal floor. The vikings looked at their drawn map and decided to go to the Storage Center to Treasure Up!

This smaller circular room measures 30 feet in diameter. A raised metal dais 5 feet high and 15 feet in diameter fills most of the room. On top of the dais are a number of metal crates. Also on the dais are several grimy sacks, which look out of place in comparison to the many clean and shiny boxes.

Nigel looked over Mendas's shoulder, and exclaimed, "My precious sacks! So much more grimy then I remember!" He explained that he had kept his gear during his flight in these containers, and he expected to be much more useful with his Alchemist Wand. The party was a bit hesitant to give arms to an Albion, but Rurik had already given him a crossbow, so why not. They did, however, fail to reunite Nigel with his 2000 gold.

The rest of the boxes were filled with more treasure, mostly force-field type things mounted as collars. Of note were two Displacer collars, which could protect the user by teleporting them a short distance. Remember that, it could be important!

Next the party went next door into the Biogarden, as it looked pretty neat on the map.

As you enter this area, you see something quite unexpected – a forest! You can barely make out the presence of metal walls lining this huge circular chamber, which is completely filled with dark, sinister plants that hang ominously over you. Tall, wild black grass covers the ground you walk upon. A dirt path leads to a murky pond near the center of this dimly lit chamber, and then leads to another door on the other side. A grove of blackened trees surrounds the pond. Bizarre fruits hang from the branches, some dark purple, some orange, and some lavender in color.

The fruit was tentatively fed to the Dragonborn prisoner, who licked his lips and thanked them kindly. The rest of the party followed suit, and found:

The dark purple fruits stay fresh for months, and can be used as trail rations since they spoil so slowly.

The orange fruits provide a temporary one-hour bonus of +1 to Strength when eaten.

The lavender fruits provide a similar temporary +1 bonus to Constitution.

Eating additional fruits does not provide a cumulative effect.

The prisoner explained that the orange and lavender fruits would spoil in a day off the vine. Edgar therefore took 23 for his knapsack. Taking a load off, the party checked out their map and noticed they were near a place called WARDYN. "It's like the brain of the ship, you might think of it as the little god in your head," the prisoner tried to explain. This nearly got him killed for the crime of pretentiousness, but Hermiad staid his own hand. As the prisoner explained, destroying WARDYN would make the operation of the ship impossible, as well as many other higher functions. Also, he complained that WARDYN had been made a bit too user friendly, and would answer questions even from alien primitives. The group decided like it would be worth a look.

They saw a mammoth chamber before them, with the hulking mass of WARDYN in the back. Three sentry towers swept the ground in front of them with light, and platforms around the computer held Dragonborn troopers with rifles. The main door had a lot of ground to cover before reaching the computer, but several other doors on the side could offer easier access.

This rectangular chamber has four sliding doors and measures 70 feet long and 50 feet wide. At the center of the chamber is a huge crystal sphere 20 feet in diameter reaching almost to the ceiling. Murky orange-red gas swirls wildly inside the sphere. Holding the giant sphere stationary is a skeletal framework of metallic supports. This framework springs forth from a metal dais in the floor, which is covered with small flashing lights, switches, buttons, and knobs.

Three slender metal poles are spaced evenly in front of the sphere. Each of the
poles is 10 feet tall and has a great light fixed to its top. These lights sweep the floor, narrowing and widening their focus as they go.

The party hatched their plan:

Hermiad would come out the right-hand door and charge one of the sentry station. It would attack him and allow him to teleport up to the platform.


Edgar would do the same thing on the left-hand door and teleport up to the left platform.


Mendas would also be on the left, sneaking behind the platform and climbing up to help Edgar kill the dragonborn and robots.

Oddny would charge the right-most sentry station.

Bartix would attack the left-most sentry station, lying prone behind one of the computer stations along the wall.

Varin would cast Hunger of Hadar on the center sentry station, maintaining it throughout the battle. This would essentially shut it down... it couldn't move and wouldn't have line of site.


So that's several great moves, and SPOILERS, it pretty much worked. Hermiad and Edgar took down their opposing forces, two Dragonborn and a Hammerer-bot. It cost them, though, they were both low on hit points.





The dragonborn were designed to shoot from a distance, and the platforms didn't give them room to manuever. The hammerers tried to push the vikings off the platform, but could never get it to work. Mendas helped Edgar mop up, but Hermiad did pretty well on his own. At the end of the fight, Hermiad pushed the last remaining Dragonborn off the platform onto Edgar's blade. Well done!

As the last of your enemies falls, the gases inside the giant crystal sphere begin to flicker and swirl even more wildly than before. The lights flickering at the base of the crystal dim, then suddenly brighten, nearly blinding you. Almost impossibly, the crystal begins to speak to you in low, rumbling tones that echo throughout the chamber.

“I am WARDYN,” it says in the Dragonic tongue. “How may I be of service to you?”

We'll pick up from there next game!

CASUALTIES:
1 Walker Robot
3 Hammerer Robots
2 Slasher Robots
1 Dragonborn Recon
4 Dragonborn Specialists
3 Laser Platforms