Underdark Monsters, Session One

I haven't been doing much with the blog, lately, and I'd like to change that.  I've got a couple of campaigns going, and these logs are useful to me if for no other reason than that they make me take decent notes.  Since I'm starting a new campaign with my in-person group, I can start from scratch with this one, and go back to keeping logs of my online campaigns as well.

The theme for the new campaign was "monsters," as in everyone needs Social Stigma (Monster) either from their race or as a personal Disadvantage.  I didn't pick this, the players wanted to have a common theme.  I have been wanting to run another campaign in the Underdark for a while, so this seemed like a good place to start this group off.

This is for the session played Sunday, August 14th.

The New Characters

Balint Kiss, mute Bale Sorceror with Body Control and Earth spells

Rhadamanthus the Minotaur, a Flail-wielding monster with a PK Shield wild talent

Sir Balor the Death Knight

Slob, Doppleganger Necromancer

and Snarl, a Gnoll Archer.

The Set-up

The PCs are the last survivors of a Drow slave ship that crashed on the shores of a sunless sea.  A couple of them were slaves, and the others were passengers.  At least two of the party have Intolerance (Drow)  so the lack of other survivors was guaranteed..

They equipped themselves from the stores that weren't destroyed in the crash, and were faced with a sea to the east, the lights of a settlement to the north, a cliff and fungal forest to the south, and the sheer rock face of a cavern wall to the west.  They approached the settlement, and encountered a stockade populated by a group of shabby male Drow and their Dwarf slave-miners.

The leader of the Drow spoke with the party members who approached, and they chatted a bit about the local area.  The party learned a nearby Drow city had been conquered by an alliance of no less than three foreign powers, one of which was an imperialistic empire of heretic Drow from the east of the sea.  Seeing the party as disposable, the leader offered the group a cash reward for a spellbook from a nearby abandoned wizards's lair.

Heading west, Balint was nearly captured by a Cave Fisher, but saw the trap before he was caught.  The spiderlike form moved away, and Slob tossed a Fireball at it, missing entirely and sending up an "eat us" sign to the local area.  This was answered by an Ettin and his Hill Giant slave, who attacked in short order.  Snarl tried a quick Camouflage to hide himself in a few seconds, but rolled an 18 and failed miserably, making him target #1.

Balint kept the giant and the ettin down with repeated use of Tanglefoot, which was very effective against the two relatively low-DX monsters.  The Hill Giant was able to impale Snarl with the first attack of the battle, tossing his spear, and Snarl took 30 points of injury in that single blow, taking him more or less out of the fight as he struggled not to pass out.

However, a properly made Death Knight and Minotaur can do a LOT of damage, and with opponents struggling just to regain their feet, it was a short fight.  Slob created a Zombie out of the Ettin's corpse (SM 2, so it cost 24 energy.)  The Hill Giant took two big crits to the skull so it was too damaged to raise.

From there, the party traveled to the caves.  Snarl used Tracking to determine that the two opponents had come from the first of the caves, marked with a primitive totem.  Balint, using Heraldry (Religious), was able to determine that the totem was the symbol of a cult of devil-worshippers.  The third cave, the wizard's lair,  was high (around 30') up, but Snarl was able to climb to it and send a rope down, and with the help of the ettin Zombie the party climbed up.  We called it there.

The Mulligan Rule

I allow players to redo their characters after the first session a character is played, retconning whatever I need to to make the new version or character make sense.  This is mostly because GURPS is a system where flaws in a character's design sometimes don't show up until well into play.  So, when I'm running a campaign where combat is a regular feature, like fantasy, I always have a semi-tough fight in the first session to shake the characters down.  This usually works well, and I seldom have more than one or two players make big changes.

Magical Style: The Way of the Rookery

Point-blank, this style is inspired heavily by the Dishonored series of games, and there are many bits that call back to it.  The character classes from the first few Elder Scrolls games (especially Daggerfall) are also a big inspiration.  I've always found the Nightblade mage/assassin class to be an interesting concept so this style is based around making that happen.

The Order of the Raven

The Imperial Nightblades of the Empire of Man, the Ravens are the Mage-assassins of the most powerful and wicked nation in the West.  The leader of the Order serves the Emperor directly as a left-hand man.  Legend and rumor has it that they have “retired” more than one Emperor whose reign became a burden to the Empire, the People, or the Order itself.

The Way of the Rookery                                                           13 points

Style Prerequisites: Magery 1, Callous, and either Duty (to the Empire, Extremely Hazardous, 12-) [-15] or Enemy (Order of the Raven, 6-) [-15].

Athletic ability is as necessary as mental acuity to the Ravens, and they have the right within the Empire to conscript those they think would make able members.

The style focuses on stealthy killing and combines the elements of a martial and magical style.  A damaging blow from behind is preferred to open battle, but an Imperial Nightblade is expected to hold his own when a fight can’t be avoided.  Wrestling grapples followed by precise strikes to the vitals are the standard methods of attack.  As an assassin's style, a student is expected to pick his battles wisely and avoid armored opponents by striking them at a time they're unarmored.

A favored magical tactic is to use Beast Summoning to summon a Swarm of rats or ravens and using them to dispose of or to mangle a corpse (see the Basic Set, page 461.)

Required Skills: Acrobatics, Body Sense, Climbing, Crossbow or Guns (Pistol) or Guns (Musket), Shortsword or Knife, Stealth, Wrestling.

Required Spells: Dark Vision, Great Haste, Haste, Scryguard, Sense Foes.

Techniques: Acrobatic Stand, Arm Lock, Breakfall (Acrobatics), Choke Hold (Wrestling), Disarming (Wrestling), Evade (Acrobatics), Feint (Knife or Shortsword), Ground Fighting (Knife, Shortsword, or Wrestling), Head Butt, Targeted Attack (Knife Thrust/Vitals), Targeted Attack (Shortsword Thrust/Vitals), Targeted Attack (Wrestling Grapple/Neck).

Spell Techniques: Long Step.

Cinematic Skills: Blind Fighting, Flying Leap, Invisibility Art, Light Walk, Mental Strength, Power Blow, Pressure Points, Pressure Secrets.

Cinematic Techniques: Pressure-Point Strike, Roll with Blow, Timed Defense.

Combat Perks: Acrobatic Feints, Improvised Weapons (Any), Special Exercises  1-3 (Striking ST), Sure-Footed (Slippery), Sure-Footed (Uneven).

Magic Perks: Knower of Names, Reduced Footprint (Dark Vision or Scryguard), Secret Knowledge (True Name of the Raven Lord), Secret Spell (Summon Rat Swarm, Summon Raven Swarm, Summon the Raven Lord), Unique Technique (Long Step).

Secret Spells: Summon the Raven Lord.

Optional Traits

Attributes: Increased DX and HT.

Advantages: Combat Reflexes, Enhanced Dodge, Enhanced Parry (Knife or Shortsword), Fearlessness, Fit or Very Fit, Hard to Kill, High Pain Threshold, Recover Energy, Trained by a Master.

Disadvantages: Bloodlust, Overconfidence.

Skills: Acting, Disguise, Garrote, Jumping, Knot-Tying, Lockpicking, Mind Block, Poisons, Ritual Magic (Ceremonial), Swimming, Symbol Drawing (Ceremonial), Thaumatology, Traps.

Fledgling

These are the basic spells the Ravens consider to be necessary for any assassin.

Dark Vision	Great Haste	Haste
Scryguard	Sense Foes

Raven

A Raven focuses on spells of intelligence, access, preparation, and defense. Advancing to Junior Nightblade requires knowledge of no less than eight of these spells.

Apportation	Aura	Beast Speech
Beast Summoning	Bird Control	Boost Strength
Command	Counterspell	Detect Magic
Grace	Lend Energy	Lockmaster
Mage Sight	Might	Persuasion
Scrywall	Seeker	Sense Life
Share Energy	Silence	Wallwalker
Ward	Mammal Control

Junior Nightblade

Junior Nightblades begin to learn the Order’s spells of assault and stealth.  It’s normally unlikely that a Junior Nightblade will get a single person kill-order issued to them until it’s time to advance in rank.  For the most part, they take part in group actions, or act in support of those of higher rank.  To advance to Nightblade requires learning eight of the following spells, and the prospect must have completed an official solo kill mission to the satisfaction of his superiors in the order.

Berserker	Darkness	Deathtouch
Dullness	Foolishness	Forgetfulness
Frailty	Mage-Stealth	No-Smell
Rooted Feet	Stench	Swim
Trace	Wall of Silence	Weakness

Nightblade

These are the true assassins of the order, and are capable of highly risky solo kill missions. To advance to Old Crow requires knowledge of four of the following spells, and the assent of the Left Hand of the Emperor.

Beast Possession	Dispel Magic	Invisibility
Magic Resistance	See Secrets	Shapeshifting (Great Pike)
Shapeshifting (Rat)	Shapeshifting (Raven)	Teleport

Old Crow

Old Crows are expert killers, and are also the leaders of the order.  Seldom are they seen in each other’s company, and they are considered some of the deadliest people in the Empire.  They have access to the greatest spells of the Order.  The Left Hand of the Emperor is chosen from among their number.

Alter Visage	Blink	Divert Teleport
Insignificance	Pentagram	Steelwraith
Summon the Raven Lord†	Teleport Shield	Trace Teleport

New Spell Techniques

Long Step                                                             Average

Prerequisite: Teleport at 20, Unique Technique (Long Step).

Default: Teleport-10, may not exceed base skill.
Additional Energy Cost: 3.

Long Step allows you to use your Teleport spell for a Step as part of an Attack Maneuver.  You may not move farther than 10 yards using this technique. It requires an immediate Body Sense roll for you to act after the Step, and if you fail this you Do Nothing.

Secret Spells

Summon the Raven Lord (VH)
Special

As Planar Summons, but it specifically summons the Animal Lord known as the Raven Lord.  You can attempt to control him with the spell as for Planar Summons or Summon Demon, but he is widely considered a powerful spirit to anger and has the ability to Plane Shift so a bargain is usually considered wiser.

The Order of the Raven has a longstanding agreement with him to provide them information, but anything beyond a simple question will cost you...

This is an Animal spell.

Duration: 1 hour.
Base Cost: 100.
Standard Prerequisites: Unknown.

Interesting Problems in GURPS: Bullywugs

I haven't posted in quite a while, but I had an interesting problem come up while I was working on something so I thought I would share.  I wanted to create a Frog-man racial package based on the AD&D Bullywugs, as I've always found them an interesting bunch of swamp-dwelling jerks since the days I was watching the old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon in the '80s.

The problem I encountered was that in making their racial package, I wanted to give them a froggy tongue for grappling.  Most of the elements of that made sense to me: Extra Arms with Temporary Disadvantage (Mute), Extra-Flexible, and Long.  The problem I came across is that Long is just too expensive as an enhancement when it's applied to a limb that can't grasp a weapon (that probably applies to Extra Legs, too, now that I think of it.)  It's +100% for each level, and for a frog tongue at SM 0 you need at least two levels, making the final cost for a grappling tongue 33 points.  That's a bit much.

I can always just handwave costs, but I usually prefer a more methodical approach.  It occurred to me that it didn't count as a fine manipulator, so I applied the limitation for that.  I also decided that NFM should reduce the cost for the Long enhancement, halving its value.  It's just not as useful when you can't use the limb to handle weapons.  That made the cost a more reasonable 21 points, which is still above my own gut reaction of its being worth about 10 points, but  I can live with it.

One of the things I like about GURPS is that there doesn't even have to be an absolutely correct way to approach this issue or any related costs.  There might be a half-dozen people ready to say that advantage should be 33 points, or others who say it shouldn't even be 10, and there's nothing wrong with that provided you're prepared to do it my way when I'm running.

Here's what I came up with, if you're interested in the work in progress. I still need to figure out how to model the whole drying out thing (Dependency seems obvious), though I may not use that, as well as trying to get a ballpark for how long they can stay underwater.  I know some frogs breathe through their skin but I don't know if they all do.  Sadly, our GURPS community buddy Pizard has never done frogs so I'm on my own on this one.

Frog-men (27 points so far)

Attributes: DX +1 [20], IQ -1 [-20].

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Per +1 [5], Will +1 [5].  SM 0.

Advantages: Amphibious [10], Extra Arms 1 (Tongue; Extra-Flexible +50%, Long 2 +100%, Not a Fine Manipulator -40%, Switchable +10%, Temporary Disadvantage (Cannot Speak) -15%) [21], Super Jump 1 [10].

Disadvantages: Appearance (Unattractive) [-4], Bully (12) [-10], Callous (Not towards other Bullywugs, -20%) [-4], Social Stigma (Barbarian) [-10].  I'm not sure if the Social Stigma shouldn't be upgraded to Monster.

Bibliography

GURPS Basic Set: Characters

AD&D 1st Edition Fiend Folio

AD&D 2nd Edition Complete Book of Humanoids

Magnificent Samurai - Session 10

I ran Session 10 of the Magnificent Samurai on Sunday the 9th.

Session 9 Log
Magnificent Samurai Campaign Logs

Characters

• Augustus Scitiori - dual-weapon master of shortswords
• Catonio - a Catfolk Swashbuckler
• Eliot de la Frau - A Saber-master and pirate.
• Erland - a Jotun wrestler.
• Markus - A Hobgoblin Paladin of the God of Chivalry.
• Melek - a Nephilim greatswordsman
• Tonokai - a Kazanjiman horse-archer

Companions

• Mother Helen - A priestess of the Goddess of Healing 
• Sister Marie - Her junior priestess
• Altan - A Meng guide

To Find the Cause

From the tower, the party traveled to the largest building nearby, a temple or civic structure of some sort.  As with the tower, they entered by climbing up a dune to a second story window.  Located inside was a goblin, working on something on a table made of various gears and of a metal similar to their Spirit of Order.  One of his arms was missing, replaced with a mechanical contrivance.  Half his face was replaced by metal in a similar fashion.  They decided to speak with him before attacking, and found out a few things.

They discovered the golden skull, the Spirit of Order, and the other goblin each held a piece of his soul.  He had to replace bits of his body because he's been cursed so that no Healing spells will work on him.  Finally, the whole reason that he did all this was that he wanted to "balance" his spirit, and instead of giving himself up to a lifetime of meditation and contemplation, he decided to use magic to split the imbalanced pieces from his spirit. It worked, but ultimately too well, as he was now totally without strong emotions of any sort and didn't care what the party did with him one way or another.  They also found out that while the angels were there out of choice, to keep the basement demons contained, the demons were working on how to permanently remain on the material world.  The group decided killing the devil they had met was preferable to trying to kill a milquetoast sorcerer.

Back to the Tower

They left the spirit-shard people with the wizard, and went back to the tower.  When they entered, they found it abandoned, and the upper and lower floors deserted and normal looking.  The "basement" level, which was actually the first floor, now had a basement.  Melek, Augustus, and Markus went down, as Markus had been told several times "He's waiting for you in the basement."  They found a golden monkey statue there.  The monkey represented was odd looking, having two faces on the same head.  As Markus approached, they heard an intensifying sound of jungle drums, and so they smashed the monkey.

Weirdness and Price Paid

The three of them were instantly transported elsewhere, to a steaming but oddly silent jungle.  The Dark Powers were so potent here Markus got a headache.  Noting they were in the bottom of a bowl shaped depression, they moved to the top of the ridge.  They saw a leathern hut with smoke coming out, and entered.  Inside was a barefoot woman in blood-red robes, stirring a pot, and a monkey in a cage.  Markus used Demon Lore and recognized her as an aspect of Demogorgon, often encountered in dreams.  Some say she represents the self-defeating insanity of the Prince of Demons, as she was the intellect of one head and the monkey that of the other.  She offered to send them home for the cost of one level of Will each, with the guarantee it would not be used against them.  After a long discussion and much soul-searching, they paid and were returned to the tower.

The Death of Melek

The party got the spirit fragments and returned to the tower.  Leaving them on the second floor, they went down and fought.  There were many demons slain, but in the course of the battle, Melek got separated from the rest of the group, two frog-demons managed to glue his legs to the ground with sticky spittle, and he couldn't retreat or turn.  The devil they sought stepped behind him and stabbed, stabbed, stabbed.  Melek decided to hit him by thrusting the sword through his own body, which I ruled was such a surprising maneuver the devil got no defense.  This was enough to effectively remove the devil from the fight, but Melek just kept getting hit.  By the time the party was able to come to his aid, he was down to 1 HP from being dead, dead, dead (down to -5xHP +1.)  He got healed by the healers, but was hit again, and died.  This even after Augustus stood astride him and All-Out Defended with bonuses to his Parry and the Sacrificial Parry Perk.

The party took his body to the Kingdom of Prester John for a proper Western burial.  Melek's sword became an enchanted object after his death, gaining Flaming Weapon (he used the fiery Imbuements, so I thought it appropriate.)  Markus decided to take it up in his honor.

Artifacts Located by the Scarlet Wizard

They stopped in on the Scarlet Wizard on the way and he gave them the locations of some magic items they had traded some Favors for.

THE BOW OF SU

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 6 - 40 Artifacts, p. 11.

Location: This bow is in the hands of Blue-Belly the Eater of Children, an Ogre Mage who hold a fortress several days' travel west.

THE BLADES OF THE NORTHERN SCHOLAR

This is a pair of excellent quality, large butterfly swords. They appear to be of silver, but are as hard as steel and don't tarnish or rust.  They were made by Gutye Zhu (Ancient Iron Master) for Beifang Xuezhe (Northern Scholar), the last of the Silken Robes school of martial artists.  He defeated the Nine Demons Sect single-handedly and disappeared from the martial world.

Properties

• Blade Quality: The Blades are a pair of Balanced, Very Fine large butterfly swords, giving a +1 to hit, +2 to damage, and -2 to breakage.
• Shatterproof: The weapons are enchanted to get a further -4 to breakage.
• Magical: The Blades count as magical weapons.
• Silver: The Blades count as silver, but without the penalty to breakage.
• Quick-spin Strike: For 2 FP, the wielder may make a Feint followed by a Dual-Weapon Attack as a single Attack maneuver, with no other penalties.

Weight: 6 lbs total.

Blades of the Northern Scholar

Damage	Reach	Parry	Wt	ST	Notes
sw+3 cut	1	0	3	10	+1 to Shortsword skill.
thr imp	1	0	-	10	-

Location: The Blades of the Northern Scholar are held in the martial academy of the Sons of the Nine Demons sect, an evil martial school.

THE BILESWORD

The Bilesword is a gladius, and drips yellow acid when drawn from its sheath.  It was brought to the East by the gladiator "Undefeated" Gaius Maximus, who traveled far after his retirement. He died fighting the Shell-Ghost Crab at Silver Lake.

• Blade Quality: The Bilesword is a Very Fine shortsord, giving it +2 to damage and -2 to breakage.
• Accurate and Puissant: The Bilesword gets +1 to hit and +1 to damage from its enchantments.
• Acid Weapon: The Bilesword deals an additional 2 corrosive damage with each attack.  As a free action the wielder may increase this to 1d until his next turn by paying 1 FP.

The Bilesword

Damage	Reach	Parry	Wt	ST	Notes
sw+3 cut	1	0	2	8	+1 to hit, +2 corrosive damage followup
thr+4 imp	1	0	-	8	-

Location: The Tomb of the Western Warrior, in the countryside well north of Shengdu City.

House of Conti - Session 4

I ran Session 4 of the House of Conti on Saturday the 8th.

House of Conti - Session 3
House of Conti logs

Cast of Characters

• Luca Conti - A swashbuckler
• Raphael - A capable wizardly spy
• JD - a Sorceror
• Baradiel - A half-fallen angel

Companions

• Goldie - Raphael's familiar, a special rat
• A Swarm of Fancy Rats - Raphael's other Allies

Out of the Sewers and Back In Again

Luca, having been Geased to leave, dropped his weapons and headed to the initial entrance.  Once they got upstairs, they looked for the mage they had tied up on the surface but she was gone, and also found a silver piece Raphael had dropped in her pocket as a Seeker target.  They went to her apartment nearby, and found a dead man on the bottom floor, as well as bloody boot-prints leading out of the building.  Searching the room upstairs, they found a room conspicuously free of treasured possessions, stray hairs, or anything else that could be used to Seeker her easily, like it had been swept clean by a woman with Paranoia...

Goldie, Raphael's rat familiar, tracked the boot-prints to a tavern across the street.  The Golden Rooster, famous locally for its high-quality pasta.  They asked the bartender if they had seen anyone suspicious, and he admitted a man went into the basement earlier, but that his bar didn't even use it for storage any longer, having moved everything to a shed outside as worms kept coming up from the sewers and spoiling the food.  At this point, the group was suspicious of the bartender, as he gave them lots of grief, but they went down anyway.  They found the very cultist meeting place they had just left.

An Unwitting Donkey Kong Reference

The cultists they had left sleeping were missing.  The dead ones were still here, so they started to search.  As they were walking north, a lit barrel of gunpowder was thrown at them by the stone ape statue, hidden in the prison cell. It didn't even occur to me that this was totally Rock Donkey Kong until the players pointed it out.  Baradiel and Luca both tried to cut the barrel in half as it flew past, but they had no such luck.  They wanted to cut the fuse, but it was too far inside the barrel at this point to even see.  Both Luca and Baradiel took considerable damage from the blast, Baradiel being taken down to a death check and Luca being taken below 0 HP.  As they were reeling, the missing cultists all came from the north, with the Berzerk spell active on them.

For a couple of turns, it looked really bad for the party, as the cultists were All-Out Attacking and landing hits because of the reduced defenses.  Baradiel also failed a Consciousness Check and passed out.  Raphael saved the day with a timely Terror, which all the cultists failed to resist.  This stunned them long enough for Baradiel to be healed and Awakened, whereupon he failed a Bloodlust Self-Control roll and started choppin' off heads.

In the midst of this, Raphael located another bomb, even bigger than the first, on the roof of the room.  He ducked back, then on the next turn Luca leapt up using Baradiel's back as a footstool, cut the fuse with a single stroke, and landed perfectly with a critical success on Acrobatics, and was promptly annoyed when he realized literally no one in the room saw that.

After the cultist were taken care of, JD used Telepathy to send a message to Sazano the Wizard to get him to contact the Inquisition.  They went back upstairs to check out the tavern and found it burning down.  Luca used Leadership to organize the people around to put out the fire and save whomever they could.  After all this Sazano and Inqusitor Fedduchi arrived.  Fedduchi was a man both Luca and Raphael had met in the affair of the Bishop's murder, and they remembered him as as a just and reasonable man from their prior dealings.

An Agent of the Inquisition?

Back in the cultist temple, Luca made such promises and boasts that it had Sazano worried; Raphael took the lead from Luca and used Diplomacy to convince the Inquisitor to make Luca an agent in this affair, so they might freely track the Gath cult down.  Fedduchi agreed, and promised to send a letter granting Luca authority in the matter complete with the local Bishop's seal.  The day being complete, the party rented out the top floor of a local inn and partied until dawn.  Or dusk, perhaps, as by the celebration's end they could only agree that in some way the sun was shifting positions with the moon.

Thoughts on Adapting Published Magical Styles, Part 2

I'm going to followup Thoughts on Adapting Published Magical Styles.  This one covers the styles from GURPS Magical Styles: Dungeon Magic.

The Fluidists

(GURPS Magical Styles: Dungeon Magic, p. 6)

This style fits without much tweaking for my gameworld.  I don't see anything in it which would forbid it from being a sanctioned Brotherhood style.  I could even see the fairly radical members of the school accepting female members in a direct violation of the Brotherhood tenets.  I already have style that's part of the Brotherhood, the Fraternity of Gideon, that does so.  It certainly wouldn't make them popular, and I imagine few Fluidists would hold office in any guilds.  It strikes me that the last thing a Fluidist would want that sort of responsibility, anyway.

The Guild of Iron Mages

(GURPS Magical Styles: Dungeon Magic, p. 10)

The Iron Mages fit in well, with few changes needed.  As a conservative style, I don't think they'd support female members, so they'd certainly be a Brotherhood school.  In my opinion they need Enchant and some Weapon and Armor Enchantments added to their spell list.  I don't run straight Dungeon Fantasy and those are spells it seems like they should have even if PCs never use them.

The Old School

(GURPS Magical Styles: Dungeon Magic, p. 13)

Necromancy is one of the big no-nos in my gameworld, and is illegal almost anywhere.  However, I think that unlike the Onyx Path the Old School could work as a Brotherhood school of licensed Necromancers, especially since is says in their description they fight that identification.  They wouldn't be able to wander around in public with a gaggle of Zombies but they could get away with a lot just from being official.

The Order of the Sun

(GURPS Magical Styles: Dungeon Magic, p. 17)

Straightforward boom-boom mages?  Sure, why not?  I don't see anything that makes me hesitate in throwing this bunch in.  It seems like the sort of group that wouldn't necessarily seek to be a part of the Brotherhood as a whole school.  Certain teachers might be, but there's room for those who aren't.  They don't teach anything that's treated as Black Magic and are often Impulsive and Overconfident, which says to me they're too erratic for the Brotherhood to try to control them all.  Plus, when an orphanage gets burned down by a misplaced Blast Ball the Brotherhood could then say "Not our fault!"

The Sisters and Brothers of Echoes

(GURPS Magical Styles: Dungeon Magic, p. 20)

I'd use this style as it is, and since it readily accepts women it's not a Brotherhood school.  They teach Mind-Search, which skirts the edges of Black Magic, so the Brotherhood might try to run them off on occasion, but they know enough useful spells, and they practice their magic in a public enough manner, that secular officials probably allow them to practice magic in spite of the Brotherhood's distaste.  The Brotherhood isn't absolutely powerful and I think it's a good thing for there to be reminders like this school scattered about.

The Tower of Pentacles

(GURPS Magical Styles: Dungeon Magic, p. 24)

Another school that fits right in.  This would definitely be a Brotherhood style.  They strike me as filling a need for judges and negotiators within the Brotherhood, and they are respected enough that their ties to the Echoists would be overlooked. For that matter the Pentaclists probably have enough pull that they're the reason the Echoists continue to exist outside the Brotherhood framework.

The Wizards of the Mirrored Gaze

(GURPS Magical Styles: Dungeon Magic, p. 29)

The Bene Gesserit... I mean the Wizards of the Mirrored Gaze fit in great with a few adjustments.  Firstly, they're now the Sisters of the Mirrored Gaze and are female-only.  They get around the legal prohibitions against female mages by claiming to be a religious sisterhood, they're just vague about the gods they serve.  They have a number of spells that politically powerful people would find useful, so I think they'd often be found among the connected, and could use this to guarantee their continued existence.  They definitely know spells that qualify as Black Magic on my gameworld but since they cast them for the right people they can probably get away with it.  For a while, anyway, as I could see a King Philip vs. the Templars situation happening if the Sisters aren't careful or get too rich too quickly.

Magnificent Samurai - Session 9

Session 9 of the Magnificent Samurai was held this past Sunday.

Session 8 Log
Magnificent Samurai Campaign Logs

Characters

Augustus Scitiori - dual-weapon master of shortswords
Catonio - a Catfolk Swashbuckler
Eliot de la Frau - A Saber-master and pirate.
Erland - a Jotun wrestler.
Markus - A Hobgoblin Paladin of the God of Chivalry.
Melek - a Nephilim greatswordsman
Tonokai - a Kazanjiman horse-archer

NPC Companions

Mother Helen and Sister Marie - NPC healer priestesses
Altan - A Meng guide

Rescuing the Scarlet Wizard

The party made its way to the enemy encampment in the Underdark.  They saw a set of three low, wooden buildings surrounded by fences.  An unusual stable was noted, with its currently empty berths too large for horses.

One of the buildings was smaller than the others and separated.  The three members of the group with an effective ability to use Stealth (Catonio, Eliot, and Tonokai) snuck up to this shed and climbed it, while the rest of the group "snuck" towards the gate, getting almost 70 yards from it before being spotted.  A dude in heavy plate with no Stealth skill, plus another who glows like a torch make sneaking up a bit difficult.

The serpent-folk guards saw the larger group, and two patrols of guards charged towards the fence to grab some muskets and fire on the party.  While they did this, the stealthy group looked in the shed thanks to a convenient knothole.  They saw a man who looked like the false Scarlet Wizard manacled and alone.  Catonio and Eliot dropped down on the two shed guards, hitting them with skull attacks and taking them down silently.  They found the keys, opened the door, and Eliot questioned the prisoner.  When he saw them, his appearance changed to the one they were familiar with.  Asking him some questions about how they knew each other, they were satisfied they had the right man.

When his manacles were unlocked, he cast an Area affect Glimpse of Hell (modified on the fly) that hit Catonio, who had climbed to the second building, and every opponent who hadn't been engaged yet.  Following this, he cast a huge Create Fire over their shrieking forms, and then a Create Gate to his tower, advising the party to follow.  The Create Gate finally forced a Calamity Check, which gave him a 10-point Disadvantage (which changed his Bad Temper from a 12 Self-Control to a 6 if you're curious.)

Finally, the group was able to ask the Wizard for his help in getting there and back.  He promised to make them a Universal Scroll of Create Gate and to Gate them to where they wanted to go.  In addition, he promised each party member an individual Favor as he felt their help had been invaluable.  Augustus immediately asked him to research the location of any enchanted shortswords he could find.  The group stayed at the pagoda of the irascible old coot for a month, and Catonio went and collected his Blue Demon's Hide armor.

The gate created, they went to the abandoned desert city.

Wierdness Increases

In the abandoned city, the party was faced with a number of buildings, partially buried in sand.  The main street of the city had seemingly been swept clean.  Knowing the regalia they were searching for were in a tower, the group headed towards the nearest.  They were ambushed by Sand Mummies, a form of desert undead that has the ability to Dehydrate anyone they can grab in both hands.  Erland and Melek both got hit, but other than that the fight was over quickly.  I sure write "the fight was over quickly" a lot about this campaign.  An entire party of 250+ point warriors are good at that.

They were able to enter the near tower by climbing dunes and entering a second story window.  This room was a charnel house mess, with a human corpse chopped up and the bits strewn around.  What was left of the corpse raised its head and said "He's waiting for you" as Markus entered the window.  The party noted that the door was barred from this side, and found a secret door on one of the walls.  That led to a storeroom with another secret exit.

In the main hallway around the stairs, a half dozen or so men with grey skin and pupil-less eyes stared at the group.  They moved to block the stairs.  After a couple of minutes they declared various members of the party "Balanced," "Lawful," or "Chaotic" (based on their Disadvantages and actions during the campaign.)  They didn't impede the Balanced group: Augustus, Catonio, and Eliot.  This group looked around and located a woman's bedroom, then next to that a much larger man's bedroom that contained normal bedroom furnishings and a golden skull in a Pentagram. The skull kept whining that it wanted to be picked up, and Augustus eventually did so.  Another room contained a nude goblin man washing himself and the final one a pyramid shaped Spirit of Order.  The goblin was Chaotic, and could be paroled, according to the grey-skins, by a Lawful person, and the other by a Chaotic.  Markus paroled the goblin, while Melek paroled the Order being.

The top floor was filled with a bright light that only Markus and Melek could see within.  A female spirit came up to Melek and gave him a hug, and they discussed things.  It seems that this tower had accidentally been caught in a magical experiment that unfortunately duplicated elements of a famous disaster (a spell research Critical Failure) that created the Blasted Plains in the West some 8000 years ago.

The lower floor, by contrast, had flesh-and-gore covered walls, with lidless eyes following the group, and a handsomely dressed Weishanese man (actually a Devil.)  In speaking with him, they gathered he held the regalia they were here for and that he'd be happy to give them over if the party gave a "violent resolution" to the life of the wizard who had trapped them there.  He also happily greeted Markus, standing at the top of the stairs.  The session ended here.

Magic Items

Blue Demon's Hide

Crafted in the Kingdom of Prester John for Catonio the Swashbuckler, this is made of the preserved hide of the Enslaver of the Flames of the Hearth, the Demon Lord Catonio defeated in revenge for his family's murder.

Properties
• Material: The Blue Demon's hide is a full suit of Heavy Leather of Quality (DR 4, -1 vs. imp.), but is very light weight (1/2).
• Quality: Being Masterfully Tailored, its weight is reduced by a further 30%.
• Corrosion Proof: The Blue Demon's Hide is undamaged by corrosive attacks, and its DR will not be reduced by such.
• Bascinet: The wearer has Hard of Hearing. He also has No Peripheral Vision with the visor down.  It comes with a spare Skullcap for when these are unacceptable.
• Ferocious Visage: The facemask is of a ferocious demonic visage. With it down, the wearer gets +2 to Intimidation checks and can use it against demons of less than Lord rank, regardless of any of their Indomitable or Unfazeable advantages.
• Nice Boots: The boots (alone) count as Ornate, and give +2 to Reaction Rolls from anyone who likes really good shoes.

Weight: 21 lbs.