Monday 19 December 2022

Macho Mandalf vs the Tarrasque

 



Me vs a Tarrasque


-- From the notes of Macho Mandalf

Saturday 17th December 2022 9:06am

Not long after I had finished my daily breakfast of a Heroes' Feast, a report came in that a huge creature was rampaging across Machodor's northern border. Brave members of the Pegasus scouts were trying to slow it down, but this was proving to be a hopeless task. With a start I realised that such an event was just as Jeffro, an other-planner creature with whom I sometimes have occasion to converse, had prophesised.

By 9:15am I was equipped and Enlarged by 200% as well as Flying (among many other spells). I Teleported to the location and met with the leader of the Pegasus scout unit. At the sight of the creature I was forced to gather my courage (he made his save vs paralysation with a 16, but was immune to fear anyway thanks the to Heroes Feast - Ed.). I ordered them to withdraw to a safe distance.

At 9:16am I cast Legend Lore to learn about the creature. No surprise, it was, as the prophecy stated, the legendary Tarrasque.

At 9:36am I flew down and approached to within 200 yards (spell range). Immediately the creature bellowed up at me, but it could do nothing.


Oh Yeah, can't do nothing down there


At 9:37am I cast Slow, there is no save from this magic. The Tarrasque would now move and attack at 1/2 Speed.

At 9:38am I cast Slow. Slow is cumulative; the Tarrasque now moves and attacks at 1/4 Speed.

At 9:39am I cast Slow again. The Tarrasque now moves and attacks at 1/8 Speed.

At 9:40am I cast Slow again. The Tarrasque now moves and attacks at 1/16 Speed.

At 9:41am I flew right up to the creature and cast Polymorph Other on it. Normally it would need a 4 to save and prevent the magic having any effect; but my "Robe of the Archmagi" applies a penalty of -4 to such spells.

I had 4 Polymorph Other spells memorised, the odds were in my favour one of them would take effect; but, on the first try the Tarrasque rolled a 4. It turned into a fish and immediately started helplessly thrashing around (at 1/16 speed) on the ground.

At 9:42am I commenced a beat down on the "Fisharasque" with melee weapons and kept going until the creature was reduced to -40 hit points.

At 10:11am I used one precious charge from my Ring of Three Wishes to kill the Tarrasque.

10:12am; Now the creature was dead, I Dispelled the Polymorph and looted the body.


Machodor was safe once again, for now


Later the upper portion, treated with acid and then heated in a furnace, yielded 80 base 1000gp Gems.

Ragnar Dwarfs have been contracted to create 2 Shields of +5 magical power from the remains.


The gems broke down in this fashion:

  • 13  increased in value to 5000 Gold Machos, of these
    •    3 were worth10,000gp
      •       1 10-40% below -> 8,000
      •       1 20,000gp
      •       1 10-60% above -> 15,000
    •    1 10,000gp
    •    1 10-60%-> 6000
    •    3 10-40% below ->4000, 3000, 2000
  • 13 doubled in value to 2000gp
  • 7 increased in value by 10-60% -> 1200, 1300, 1600, 1300, 1500, 1600, 1500gp
  • 10 actually decreased in value by 10-40% -> 900*3, 700*2, 600*3 800*2
  • 35 were worth 1000gp
  • 5 were actually worth only 500gp

Total Gem treasure 137,600 gp

Kill XP = 37,500

Total XP = 175,100 

With my 10% Intelligence Bonus = 192,610 XP 


A surprisingly limited creature, given the reputation it has. Well, it's good to be the Macho King.

Wednesday 7 December 2022

Machodor Domain Report (June 2022)

Months have passed and I'm way behind on domain reports, so I'll try to get things up to date.  

While the players were going after a Vampire...

These were the results for the June period of encounters on the "Inhabited" table;

  • Week 1
    • Kenku (8)
    • Volt
    • Wolves
  • Week 2
    • Giant Skunk
    • Pilgrim (60)
    • Bandits (180)
  • Week 3
    • Volt 
    • Merchants (30k)
    • Giant Ant
  • Week 4
    • Merchants (40k)
    • Flumph
    • Wolf


Suitable Encounters

Merchants
Two groups of Merchants this month. With a total of 7 rolled that becomes 70,000gp in goods which breaks down to:
  • Duty at 2% = 1400
  • 10% Luxury Goods Tariff at 5% = 350
  • Sales tax of 10% = 7000
It occurred to me this month that the 'pay chest' every caravan carries would be subject to the money conversion fee of 10%. After all, the bulk of this is probably given to the caravan guards when the reach a city, so it would need to be converted for it to enter circulation. Unfortunately, the amounts in the pay chest are not directions related to the single 1d6 Roll, so I'm handling them like this, in proportion to that roll:

For gold it is easy to treat the 1d6 roll as a 1d3 and apply that to the 2000-4000gp range, in this case, a 4, becomes a 2 and the pay chest has 3000gp

Split the difference with platinum and have 1 be 100pp, 6 be 400pp, 2-3 be 200pp, and 4-5 be 300pp; so in this case the 4 resolved to 300pp (1500gp)
  • Currency conversion 10% of 4500gp = 450gp
For a total of 9,200 gp. 

Pilgrims

87 Lawful Good pilgrims on foot with 2 Psionics among them! The ranks of Psicorps grow stronger.

The pilgrims also carry coin, but in amounts too small to bother tracking the currency conversion. Big groups like Dervish can carry a lot of coin however...

Citizenship fees are a lean 870gp.




Unsuitable Encounters

The Kenku came up as the unsuitable encounter, and I rolled a maximum 8 for their numbers. According to the Fiend Folio entry, this means the most powerful of their kind are among the group. I really couldn't see these creatures taking to the way things work in Machodor, so they have since been kicking around causing issues for others without their identity yet being revealed. 

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