Magnificent Samurai - Session 8

Session 8 of the Magnificent Samurai was held on Sunday September 11th.

Characters

Augustus Scitiori - dual-weapon master of shortswords
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 hired in the Kingdom of Prester John

Altan - A Meng guide the party hired in the Kingdom of Prester John

Not Present

Catonio - a Catfolk Swashbuckler

Post-Combat Healing and Another Battle

After killing the Enslaver of the Flames of the Hearth, the party had to rest as they had several very injured people.  Markus had to handle all the healing as their healing priest had been killed during the last battle.  They also used up their entire supply of healing potions.  They had time to heal, and got a brief half-hour rest when they were attacked by three chainsaw wielding demons and six flaming skulls coming from a secret room they had missed.

This was a nasty fight, made even worse by the fact that Melek was already at half Move and Dodge from the earlier fight.  The chainsaw demons ended up being little to no threat, but the flaming skulls were All-Out Attacking for two attacks and were slowly chewing up the folks engaged with them.  By the time it was all said and done, the party won with no deaths, but Markus had to rest for a day just so he could heal the others without penalties.

Return to the Kingdom of Prester John

The group returned to Prester John's settlement, and discussed what to do next.  They decided they wanted to investigate why there are so many more demons than normal showing up lately, but wanted to gear up first so they could fight them properly.  A friendly sage told them he suspected that at least two items of a Demonhunter's regalia remained in the lost city of Diushi. This city had long ago been conquered by Orcs and had then been lost beneath the sands of the Tamadere desert, but had been recently exposed by a savage windstorm.

To save time, the party chose to return to the Scarlet Wizard to ask him to create a Gate to the city, to prevent them from dying in the desert having no appreciable survival skills.  They hired a local guide, and two western priestesses of the Goddess of Healing before they left on a continuing, monthly basis.

The Wrong Wizard

When they arrived at the Scarlet Wizard's pagoda, they noted that the hobgoblin guards who had been here before had been replaced by Imperial soldiers.  The soldiers didn't recognize the group, and allowed them in.

The "Scarlet Wizard" they met wasn't the same man they had worked for before, and didn't recognize them.  When challenged, he said he had always been the Scarlet Wizard and the party attacked.  Three of the PCs held the doors shut while the rest of the party attacked the wizard.  After he was defeated, they discovered he was one of the Serpent Folk, and they had kidnapped the actual wizard.  Interrogation backed up by complementary Intimidation revealed his location, a nearby stronghold in the underdark.  The party went to the rescue...

Magnificent Samurai Campaign Logs

New Spell: Fire Darts

I've been working on my campaigns so I haven't done as much rules-tinkering or worldbuilding as I normally do, but here's a spell I wrote to add a high rate of fire option to a mage's arsenal.

Fire Darts

Missile

College of Fire

Creates a collection of darts of flame that can be shot in rapid succession.  Each dart does 1d burning, and should the caster also know Essential Fire he may double the base casting cost for darts that do 1d+2 burning.  The caster may create up to his Magery darts each turn, for up to three turns.  The darts have 1/2D 15, Max 30, RoF=number of darts, and Rcl 2.

Cost to Cast: 1 per dart created.
Time to Cast: 1 to 3 seconds.
Prerequisites: Magery 1, Create Fire, and Haste.

Notes

I'd change the prerequisites to Great Haste instead of Haste, but I really don't want to give a spellcaster any more excuses to take it...

The House of Conti - Session 1 and 2

In addition to my tabletop campaign, I've also started running a Roll20 campaign for a couple of my friends who used to play GURPS with me back in the day, and a couple of other friends who are new to GURPS.  I ran the second session on Saturday the 27th of August.

Cast of Characters

• Luca Conti - swashbuckler and member of the merchant House of Conti in the Northern Thorinian Kingdom
• Raphael - Luca's companion and friend, a capable wizardly spy
• JD - a Sorceror and master of spells that skirt the fringes of legality
• Baradiel - an angel cast down to the mortal world for his failure to protect Luca's uncle

Session One

This campaign actually started last year, in a week of gaming some of my old gaming buddies get together each year to do.  In that campaign, the party investigated the death of Luca's uncle, a powerful Archbishop of the Storm God.  They discovered he had ties to the Underdark, buying Black Lotus from the Drow to sell on the surface.  He had helped them kill off a rival family but was murdered when he protested them raising their prices.  Luca and Raphael returned to their home city of Sparra, and were joined at Luca's ancestral home (the Green Palace) by JD and Baradiel.

For the first session, Raphael was absent.

JD had been accused of several magical crimes by the Brotherhood*, but the head wizard of House Conti, Sazano, imposed his veto in the trial and invited JD to join him in Conti service. JD agreed, since House Conti wasn't going to bind his actions with magical Oaths...

At around the same time, Baradiel had been exiled to the mortal realm to aid the Conti family, since he'd failed to protect the Archbishop.  Luca found him being theologically grilled by the household Chaplain.

The three of them (Luca, JD, and Baradiel) were instructed to follow up on a couple of house guards who were sent to check on a break-in at the house's spice warehouse.  Lord Conti suggested that Luca take some time to familiarize himself with his new companions, but Luca hotly objected, insisting he would check on the household guards immediately, while also berating his father for his opportunism in JD's case and ranting about the ridiculous Brotherhood laws.

When they arrived at the warehouse, they discovered three dead bodies, one of which was no member or servant of the Conti.  Searching further, they opened a door and a pulsating green heart, bound in brass, rose from the floor and sent beams of green to each body, which materialized into Demon Jesters, a powerful type of minor demon (Baradiel classified them as "Type III level.").  Baradiel, a soldier angel, succeeded on both Demon Lore and Physiology (Demons), so he knew what they were and that their weakpoint was the heart.  A battle ensued, and Baradiel was heavily injured, while JD spent much of the fight mentally stunned by a Rapier Wit attack by one of the demons.  (This was unlikely, as his IQ is 14 but he failed four turns in a row.)  They also managed to break the heart, which JD used Magic Item Lore to identify as a "Soul Trap," an evil artifact from the remote ages of the ancient demon-worshipping Catfolk, around 9,000 years ago. Soul Traps were used to trap the soul of anyone who died near them and allowed a spellcaster to use the souls therein to power magical effects, like an extremely naughty Powerstone.

They took the bodies and the remains of the heart back to the Green Palace.  They noted a tattoo of the face of a raging ape on the unknown man.  This is a known symbol of the demon lord Gath, the White Ape, a demon lord rumored to be physically present on the Material World. He has a sizable and dangerous cult.

Session Two

While the rest of the party was away, Raphael was using his (Ally Group) rats to sneak into a local office and steal some love letters written by Lord Conti.  He used his rats to chew them open and read what was inside.  He noted that they'd been sealed with the House Conti seal, or a good fake, so he had the rats mar that as well, then delivered the notes as instructed.  A Streetwise roll led him to suspect the Red Eagle House, House Conti's most heated rival merchant family, as the most likely group to have stolen the letters.

Luca was called to speak with his mother, who chided him for his thoughtless berating of his father, especially in the view of the servants of the house.  Luca defended himself but promised to be more careful.

The whole party returned to the warehouse, since Raphael has both the Mage Sight and See Secrets spells so he's capable of spotting things the others might have missed.  He found a second secret compartment in the chest the heart had arrived in, sealed with a poison trap.  In the compartment, they found a bundle of letters bound and sealed by magic.  Raphael used a Dispel Magic scroll to dispel the seal (Delay-Sense Life-Disintegrate if you're curious.  Even the minimum damage would have reduced the bundle to dust.)  The papers were written in a demon language, and the very letters were so disturbing that seeing it required a Fright Check from everyone but Baradiel (he's an Angel, he's seen it before.)

They used Raphael's familiar, Goldie (a special rat,) to track another person who had been present.  The trail led to an alleyway, where the party heard cries of "Help!" from a woman overtaken in the alley by thugs.  A fight ensued, the thugs were all disabled early by a critical success on a Mass Sleep from JD, and "sewer worms" and bronze spiders joined the fight as it progressed. Someone cast an Awaken spell on the thugs, then the "victim" slipped away during the fighting, but in a rather sneaky way that led the party to track her down.  They entered a kitchen, and faced a woman cutting into a joint of beef.  When challenged, she told the group she'd been paid a silver coin to cover a strange woman's escape.  Raphael, having Mage Sight active, asked if the cook was a mage (she was.)

Luca knocked her unconscious from behind (I use the "kayo" rules in my fantasy campaigns.)  JD then used Mind Search to discover that she was a guard for a group using the sewers as a base, she didn't know if they were demon worshipers, but she knew that they had just received a "necessary shipment."  We left it there.

*Brotherhood Charges Against JD

JD was charged with Witchcraft, Unsanctioned Spellcasting, and Uncontrolled Sorcery. Witchcraft being the casting of spells in secret, Unsanctioned Spellcasting is not being a member of the Brotherhood, and Uncontrolled Sorcery is casting a spell as a Sorceror that leads to a Calamity Check.

Magnificent Samurai Session 7

We had a session of Magnificent Samurai on Sunday August 21st.

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

Zui Shushu - A drunkard priest the party's hired as a healer

The Cave of the Enslaver of the Flames of the Hearth

Catonio got over his hairballs and the party traveled to the lair of the blue demon, the Enslaver of the Flames of the Hearth.  They arrived without any trouble on the way, and entered a short tunnel.  Near the entrance they found a glowing glyph carved into the floor and avoided it.  As they entered the midpoint, a digging device filled the tunnel behind them and moved forward.  As the fastest members of the group got near the end a Link went off and a Glue spell triggered, trapping Eliot and Melek.  Catonio, noting a gap between the digger and the ceiling, used Flying Leap and Acrobatics to squeeze through the gap and land on the back of the digger, facing a cigarette smoking Imp in the driver's seat and a pair of oxen on treadmills providing the motive force.  On his next turn, he stabbed at the Imp, who Blinked away from that, but who also didn't notice Catonio's Main-gauche in the off-hand and got skewered on the follow up (I roll direction randomly for Blink and he ended up in one of Catonio's other front hexes.)

The control panel was simple enough for an 8 IQ imp to understand, so Catonio had no problem figuring out how to stop the thing.  The party then found a secret door in the tunnel and entered a side chamber.

The Goblin Prisoner

The party saw a room packed with building and mechanical supplies, a big blackboard with plans for the digger on it, and a goblin trapped in a crow's cage.  He begged the party to get him out.  After some back-and-forth talking Catonio succeeded on Detect Lies and realized he was lying about something.  When this was found out, he grew to nine feet tall and summoned up a pack of three frog demons to attack the party.  The first party member to attack him discovered he was surrounded by an aura that drained their FP 2d per turn.  When he died, he exploded and did 6d FP to anyone within a couple of hexes, knocking several party members out.  This forced the party to rest for a couple of hours to get their energy back.

While they were down, Erland opened a chest in the room that they had been warned to leave alone and took a 12d Explosive Fireball to the face.  Ouch.  He went unconscious and the party healer dressed him down after bringing him back up.

The Final Battle

They found a key in the room, and went back to the tunnel and travelled to its end.  They found a magical field that could only be crossed one at a time with the key in hand (the key could also be passed back through.)  They found an angel in a Pentagram who looked exactly like Melek's grandmother.  They decided in short order she was a demon and Melek entered the Pentagram and cut her head off.

The party entered the room and a Darkness spell dropped.  The area just outside the room wasn't darkened, so they were able to retreat but Zui Shushu was murdered in the dark by someone saying "I hate priests."  Catonio tried to taunt the demon into attacking but just got the poor healer's head hurled at him in response.

After the Darkness fled, the party entered again, and advanced slowly.  Eliot leapt over an obstruction but smashed into it with his face (Flying Leap success but an Acrobatics critical failure.)  The party saw two Bearded Devils in the room and moved to engage.  While everyone else was doing this, Eliot noticed an altar below and used Power Blow and Breaking Blow to smash it.  This caused all the demon's spells to drop and prevented him from casting any further spells.  There had been two statues in the far corner.  Both were then shown to be illusory, with one of them being the blue demon.  His plan had been for the party to enter the room far from the exit, at which point he'd just murder them all in the dark.  This failing, he entered combat.

He was a tough opponent, bringing several party members below 0 HP and knocking Tonokai out.  Eliot found the demon's trophies hidden in the altar and started smashing them, doing damage to the demon with each one.  Catonio, though, was able to deliver the death blow and swore to make armor out of the demon's blue behind.  I let his player buy off the Enemy Disadvantage at half price for finishing the quest, and we ended there, with half the party reduced to less than 0 HP and a strange warning about mechanism-armed demons that had so far failed to materialize...

Thoughts on Adapting Published Magical Styles

Since the first publication of GURPS Thaumatology: Magical Styles there have been a number of styles published in Pyramid and other books, and many of those fit into my gameworld, though many need revising.  Here's are my thoughts on how to make them fit.  (I'll cover the styles from Dungeon Magic in another post.)

The Onyx Path

(GURPS Thaumatology: Magical Styles, p. 34)

This school fits right in with no mechanical adjustments needed.  The Onyx Path isn't good for PCs, in most cases, because it's essentially a College of Necromancy style.  As alluded to in my last post, Necromancy is considered a Dark Art in most civilized areas, and knowing spells from that college normally means a character qualifies for a -20 point Secret.  However, I did have one PC recently who knew the style, so it's not forbidden, it just normally comes with some serious complications.

Six Strengths of Siegecraft

(Pyramid #3/4: Magic on the Battlefield, p. 4)

The style of the Society of Siege Sorcerors, a group of mercenary mages, this one fits right in to my gameworld.  There are a number of established mercenary organizations running around, and lots of wars, so it makes perfect sense that there would be a company of "sell-spells" to go with the sell-swords.

Yellow Goblin Magic

(Pyramid #3/28: Thaumatology II, p. 11)

I use the Yrth version of goblins in my own gameworld, mostly because they were in GURPS Fantasy Folk.  Their spells and philosophy are a bit odd, even for goblins, but it works.  The notion of Colors as the major groupings of magic, instead of the College structure, is also one I find interesting.  I've seen the existing college structure as a fundamental aspect of magic, but it doesn't have to be the Only Truth, and it makes me think that maybe the college divisions could be more of a matter of habit and tradition.

Oa 

(Pyramid #3/43: Thaumatology III, p. 4)

"Wine Magic" is a great idea, but unfortunately for me Dionysus as a god isn't appropriate.  To use this style, I need to rewrite it a good bit and change Dionysus to another God of the Grapevine, and I've never written one up.  It's still a good style, so I'll do that the moment a player shows interest.  I have no real reason to put in the work otherwise.

The Way of the Keepers

(Pyramid #3/48: Secret Magic, p. 10)

This is a modern-day style, and there are some juicy bits to swipe, but I'd need to revise it a lot to get it to fit.   Plus, magic is anything but a secret in my gameworld. 

Perfecting Rites of the Shaded Woodlands

(Pyramid #3/68: Natural Magic, p. 8)

I don't use the Yrth-style Dark Elves any longer, so this style isn't an obvious fit, but I do have Druids who are themselves mages, and so I can certainly make it fit.  It would work as the signature style of a Druidic Crusader-type order (that's an idea worth thinking about.) The only other thing I should do with this one is add some spells from GURPS Magic: Plant Spells to its spell list.

Also, I've been considering writing up an Animal College and Plant College based set of styles for Druids, and this could work as the (or maybe a) Plant-style.

Bibliography

GURPS Thaumatology: Magical Styles by Sean Punch

Pyramid #3/4: Magic on the Battlefield, "The Society of Siege Sorcerors," by Sean Punch

Pyramid #3/28: Thaumatology II, "Yellow Goblin Magic," by Mark Gellis

Pyramid #3/43: Thaumatology III, "Adelphos Dionysos," by Sean Punch
Pyramid #3/48: Secret Magic, "The Way of the Keepers," by Michele Armellini

Pyramid #3/68: Natural Magic, "Magic of the Shaded Woodlands," by Paul Stefko

The Brotherhood of Mages

In my gameworld, there's a culture-wide mage's organization most legitimate mages are supposed to belong to, The Ancient and Just Order of the Brethren Magical. It's normally known as the Brotherhood of Mages or just "the Brotherhood" for short.The Brotherhood has official status and judicial authority over magical affairs in most nations of the West, but there are exceptions.

It's strictly limited to men, and the Brotherhood opposes the approval of female wizards in most cases. There are, of course, female mages anyway, but they usually qualify for a Social Stigma.

Members of the Brotherhood are required to wear Hat, Robe, and bear their Mystic Tool (wand, staff, or rod) at all times in public. A roll vs. Heraldry (Magical) can tell you what colleges a Brotherhood Mage knows when you see his regalia.  Their official rules are below, and it counts as a 10-point Code of Honor.  Mages fall under canon law rather than secular law in most cases, so a member in good standing can buy Legal Immunity at the 5-point level.

As far as PCs are concerned, I think about half of the mages that have been played are official members.  For all the rules and legal standing, it's not usually that difficult for a clever PC to avoid them unless he's using Necromancy, which is a big no-no in any case in the civilzed West.

The Law of the Brotherhood

1. You shall not attempt to disguise who you are. Wear the Hat and the Robe, and carry the Staff(a) that are the symbols of your office.
2. You shall not use magic to rule.
3. You shall not cast spells upon others without their assent(b) except in defense. When requested by the proper authorities, claims of defense shall be judged by the Brotherhood using spells of truth. Attempting to resist such spells shall be taken as proof of guilt.
4. You shall not attempt to cast any spell forbidden by the Brotherhood.(c)
5. You shall not attempt to cast any spell forbidden by the authorities of the land you currently occupy.(d)
6. You shall obey your superiors in the Brotherhood in all good things.
7. You shall fight Necromancy when you encounter it, or shall report it to the Brotherhood if you find yourself unable to fight it.

(a) Staff, wand, or rod as appropriate for the Wizard in question.(b) "Assent" is normally interpreted broadly. For example, anyone who steps foot into your home or place of business is considered to have assented.(c) Licenses for forbideen spells are available to members in good standing.(d) Being licensed for a spell by the Brotherhood is good enough for local law as well.

Magnificent Samurai Session 6

Magnificent Samurai was yesterday.  It's been a busy couple of months, so I didn't post logs of two sessions.  If I posted a recap now, I think they'd be kind of incoherent, so I'll just skip Session 4 and 5 and move on to yesterday's Session 6.

Gortak's player has dropped out of the campaign, so we have seven characters now.

Characters

• Augustus Scitiori - dual-weapon master of shortswords
• 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

• Zui Shushu - A drunkard priest the party's hired as a healer

Not Present

• Catonio - a Catfolk Swashbuckler

The Hidden Kingdom

The party has located the Hidden Kingdom of Prester John, a missionary from the West who's occupied a mountain valley with a small force.  They had planned an assault on the Enslaver of the Flames of the Hearth, a demon from the West who is lately active in the Jade Empire and was the actual six-fingered man who killed Catonio's parents. Sadly, Catonio came down with a bad case of hairballs and had to get some bed rest (his player missed the session, and I'm not about to run his personal quest without him.)  Asking around the city, they found out that the Serpent Folk had a local outpost that Prester John wanted removed, so they struck out for that, instead.

The Ambush in the Woods and the Outpost

The party scouted out the area near the outpost, but they ran right into a strong patrol of Sepent Folk (a race based on the Yuan-ti from D&D if you're curious.)  I had the party and the NPCs roll a Quick Contest of Tactics to determine position, and unfortunately Augustus rolled an 18.  So, the fight started with the party out of position and their priest surrounded, alone, by a knot of enemies.  

However, this is an all-fighters game, so EVERYONE (but the NPC) has Combat Reflexes, and surprise is essentially something that happens to other people.  A short fight ensued, Augustus was the victim of an enemy's critical success on a Strike Blind in the first round of combat, and a couple of PCs took some damage, but the enemies were still wrecked.  Surrounded by four warriors, Zui Shushu managed to fall prone but still totally avoid damage through some lucky rolls and All-Out Defenses.

The party discovered that the enemy spellcaster wore an amulet with an icon of a two-headed monkey, which Markus identified as a symbol of Demogorgon, making these Serpent Folk obvious demon worshippers.

Eliot Interrogated one of the survivors with Erland providing complementary Intimidation, so the party was able to discover that the outpost, hidden in a cave, had three surface entries, a locked gate to the Underdark, and a air vent above.  The party blocked off all the exits, closed off the vent, and set a smoky fire to drive the Serpent Folk into an ambush.

When 250+ point warriors get the total drop on their foes, bad stuff happens to those foes quickly.  The fight ended with no PC taking more than two actions, and the survivors submitted.

In the cave, the party discovered a shrine to Demogorgon, which Melek smashed.  They also found an elaborate amulet to Demogorgon, consisting of a silver necklace and carnelian cameo.  Melek grabbed this to smash it (Impulsiveness strikes again!) but was turned into a statue for his pains, due to a Delay and Flesh to Stone.  I gave the underlying spell a big bonus to represent the anger of the demon prince.  Luckily, there was a cart in the cave so the party was able to take the poor half-angel with them, instead of leaving him to be smashed...

My Notes

This ended up being a short session, but the fights were engaging, even if they were totally one-sided.  That's OK; PC plans should work out from time to time.  Melek failed an Impulsiveness self-control roll three times in this session, which caused some funny results.