Timekeeping
Player Characters Present
Introduction
Downtime
Session Report
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| You don't see that everyday |
Then the Black Knight spoke up, "Who will challenge me? He who wins may take my magic armour!"
I wasn't sure who, if any, of the PCs would take up this challenge; but, after a few repeats and taunts from the Black Knight, Giuseppe accepted his challenge and prepared Bonecrusher.
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| the venerable Jousting rules from Chainmail |
Once I dropped the Jousting rules in the chat the excitement soon ratcheted up; but I didn't expect the next development, Sheamus was certain there must be betting involved in such a contest, and announced 300gp on Giuseppe to win. Immediately Slippery Pete took that bet, and two of the Irish men-at-arms did too (I gave them a very low chance for this but the roll came up anyway).
We had a few practice goes at the rock-paper-scissors style of resolution, then started for real. Meanwhile Slippery Pete had offered to help Giuseppe prepare, but the latter's two henchmen shooed him away (and he tried to think of some other use for the Oil of Slipperiness he was trying to deploy to win the bet), probably earning their monthly pay right there.
Round 1: Giuseppe went for the top centre of the Black Knight's shield while leaning to the left. The Black Knight went for the middle left of Giuseppe's shield and kept a steady seat. This resulted in the Black Knight missing but Giuseppe broke his lance. As the two combatants passed each other on the way back to their starting places, the Knight offered to let the Paladin replace his broken lance with one of his own if needed. Giuseppe accepted the offer to replace his lance, but chose a spare one from the Irish men at arms instead.
Meanwhile, Slippery Pete was eyeing the mysterious tent; it flew a banner reminiscent of the one seen at Castle Von Necro.
Round 2: Giuseppe went for his opponent's helm while keeping a steady seat, the Black Knight repeated his first move and went for the middle left of Giuseppe's shield and kept a steady seat. This resulted in the Black Knight breaking his lance and having his helmet knocked off by Giuseppe, revealing a face underneath that appeared human, but was heavily drawn and whose eyes were startlingly red. There was a gasp from near Sheamus and one of the men-at-arms who had taken his bet blurted out, "That's Sir Gwayne, there's no mistaking it." It seemed that Sir Gwayne was a knight of Castle Irish who had recently gone missing.
As the Black Knight, who seemed oblivious to the discussion, again passed Giuseppe, he asked if the Paladin would return the favour of letting him replace his lance, and Giuseppe agreed. The knight rode back to the tent, went in, and shortly reappeared with a long lance, one that should have been longer than the tent could easily contain; was it a folding lance or something? Was there more to the tent than met the eye? Plans were soon hatched to find out. The slightly sketchy contingent of the party put their heads together and they decided that Bumblebore would cast Invisibility on Slippery Pete during the next round, hopefully when the knight was too distracted to notice.
Round 3: Although he had replaced his lance, the Black Knight had not replaced his helmet, and Giuseppe wasn't going to pass up that target. However, the creature that was once Sir Gwayne cheated somewhat and pulled a move that was only possible if he was wearing a helm! The manoeuvre caused Giuseppe's lance to miss, but the Black Knight was only able to again shatter his lance on the other's shield.
Giuseppe of the low rolls had won the joust!
Shaemus immediately started collecting his winnings while Slippery Pete, now invisible, snuck into the tent. The Black Knight congratulated Giuseppe and also went into the tent. A few moments passed as frantic words went back and forth over discord while I consulted the "Detection of Invisibility" table (DMG p60), then the Black Knight re-emerged holding another suit of black armour and shortly afterwards Slippery Pete reappeared. Even I don't know what he told the other characters about the inside the tent.
With that done the Black Knight left the armour with Giuseppe. His black steed transformed into a Nightmare and went ethereal. The tent then also disappeared. When the wonder of this has passed, since night was soon to fall, they decided to camp in this location and went on to Castle Irish the next day. Here they explained the situation to the patrons in charge, Connor McGregor and Sir Troland, and for once I think I pulled off a pretty good Irish accent (to be shure). In returned they learned that a large mercenary force was ahead of them on the road to the Valley of Fear, though no one knew what its purpose was.
Next morning they set off for the domain of the Robopriest, passing sure signs that the mercenary company, who they had been told flew the sign of a coin set on a sword, had gone ahead of them down a wider valley than the narrower route they intended to use. The party decided not to follow but to continue by the narrow way, passing the settlement of Ringo Star and his misfit cavemen, and making the Fortress, before which the mercenary company were now camped, in the late afternoon.
They were made welcome by the Robopriest himself and had dinner that night with him and his guest, the merchant trader Mangus. This fellow hailed from Minas Mandalf and had travelled to the area with a large mercenary guild force to negotiate a business deal. At the time the players weren't too interested but things got more development on this front in downtime (and later in the Battle Braunstein).
Having confirmed the truth of the rumours that the fear gas was now inert, the next morning the party set off accompanied by the Ed the Ranger, the Robopriest's henchman; who showed them the location in the dungeons below that lead to a vast natural cavern, at its end was a huge winding passage heading downwards. The ceiling here was covered in slow moving piercers and they were instructed to move swiftly to get past them and into the hole beyond; "You have thirty seconds to comply," Ed instructed.
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| Click to enlarge this incredible piece of art |
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| Fire Newt City |
However, other than the causeway, which was heavily patrolled, there was no obvious means to get to the city other than crossing the lava sea, which itself was patrolled by Fire Newts mounted on Giant Striders. They began working their way through the caverns to the east in the hope of finding something that might help. Here they encountered a (Hot) Water Weird and were very lucky not to lose someone to its embrace. The battle was a stalemate until Red, who had the magic hammer looted last session, smashed the thing so hard that it was disrupted long enough for them to loot some gems and coins that were sitting on a ledge just under the surface of the water. Now more than happy with the results of their recon, the party returned to the Gassy Fortress to make plans for another assault.
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