Murdicog's Manse Session 12: Sniper Elite
Players: Grappadora Hamaques, Swashbuckler (Jay_zer0), Osric II of Shophalbelath, Hero (EvilTables), Buster Diamantis, Blue Conjurer (Mistuh)
Summary
Since their last very successful delve into Murdicog's Manse, Osric and Buster had been focused on advancing their rank, while Grappadora poured his wealth into a fabulous multi-week fete for the people of Bar Udartophir.
Though Osric and Buster were curious about the peculiar multi-layered walls in Murdicog's Manse, Grappadora's eloquent argument in favor of an overland expedition won his compatriots over.
After consulting the hand-drawn map in their possession, they landed on the Tetrapolis as a general destination. Osric suggested that they explore the location marked "Tomb" on the way. Thus, they resolved to follow the road to Ux Quorath, then follow rivers to the tomb.
Before departing, Grappadora used the considerable good-will his party-hosting had accrued to get a good deal on three sturdy thoats.
On July 9th, they departed Bar Udartophir. The first village they encountered was Eld'yedith, where the quarrelsome populace harangued them about ontology, preferred gods (or, in Osric's case, lack thereof), hairstyles, and the fact that they were lingering to talk at all. Despite this reception, Buster lingered to pray at a temple to LUNE, and they camped in a pasture outside the village.
On the 10th, they passed Tov'pylos and chose not to linger at the urging of its raspy-voiced sheriff. In the polluted air of neighboring Baalmarath, however, they were welcomed in and offered lunch and generous portions of vodka distilled from strange, mutated tubers. Their host, Roxana of Baalmarath, explained that the ever-present purple haze lingering over the village emanated from some vents in the surrounding fields.
By the end of the day, they arrived in Ux Quorath. While shopping for trail rations in the marketplace, Buster and Grappadora saw a Green Martian selling radium rifles and became determined to buy one of their own. To that end, Grappadora offered up his Batrachian viol as collateral to secure a loan from the Portage Bank, overseen by Xolo of Bar Udartophir.
Rifle in hand, they departed Ux Quorath on the nominal "morning" of the 11th. Backtracking slightly, they followed the river knorth through some woodlands and up into the highlands of U. They camped within sight of a strange village built between a grid of 81 oolite pillars.
On the 12th, they bypassed the village and followed a tributary cataract along a strenuous trail through a steep gorge, unto a plateau overgrown with tamaracks and other montane trees. By midday on the 13th, they had followed the stream nearly to its source and found a series of stone steps leading knorth and a huge triangular prism of yellow concrete protruding from the trees to the psouth.
Surmising that the prism was likely the tomb marked on the map, they diverted psouth. On the way, they spotted a patrol of 8 Gnolls, oblivious to their presence. Quietly, they maneuvered to ambush the patrol. Grappadora took aim with the brand-new radium rifle, and place the head of the biggest Gnoll squarely in his sights. The radium bullet flew true, and, energized by the sun's rays, turned the Gnoll's head into a fine mist. Terrified, the rest of the patrol scattered into the woods.
Aftermath
Treasure Found: None.
Foes Encountered: 7 Gnolls (routed), 1 big Gnoll (sniped).
Rumors:
- The pollution in Baalmarath emanates from metal vents in the ground. There is also a door connected to them in some way.
- A Martian gunsmith named Arkas Diin has a workshop in eestern Lower U.
Deaths: None
XP Awarded: 300 base XP awarded for slaying the big Gnoll.
Notes
- EvilTables was signed up to referee Northern Strata but couldn't for schedule reasons, so Jay and I did a d6 roll-off to see who would run. This entire session was run using the notes in Zurth with no additional prep, which felt pretty good.
- I was glad to get to run some non-Murdicog hexes. Amusingly, most of the ground covered was a repeat of Mingkar's ill-fated sojourn in Session 2, but once they left Ux Quorath it was all new. Moreover, I had added a decent amount of content since that early session.
- Rulings:
- Thoats can cover 6 hexes/day, as a Medium Horse, adjusted for 6-mile hexes.
- Already fairly well established, but I'm waiving navigation rolls as long as there's a trail or river to follow.
- Since I'm using Troika!-esque damage tables, Martian radium weapons do +1 on the d6 in sunlight.
- Summer in the IRL northern hemisphere is also summer in Antarctica. Maybe the planet got turned upside-down at some point, or maybe everyone conveniently "forgot" to track six months during a past aeon...
- Check out this really nice writeup Mistuh did about the different Antarctica campaigns happening on Gay Beholder discord.