[WotMK: Hexcrawl] Session Four
Dramatis Personae:
Amos can see in the dark due to a permanent crystal he has and Bonnie had a lantern, so the group went in to the first chamber. There were some murals on the back wall with writing that no one could read, though Bonnie copied the text down. While she was writing, Elaphe felt the ground vibrate slightly (though no one else noticed it) and then they went into another room. This room had four waist-high statues of meguroko and a broken stone table, as well as a corridor ending in a solid wall and another door outside the room. Elaphe inspected the statues, but found that they were banded in bronze and not gold, and then the ground vibrated again. This time Amos felt it too.
Elaphe went to inspect the closed-off passage and found that it wasn't a solid wall--there was a small gap between the wall and the ends of the passage. Wondering what this mean, they didn't have to wait very long. The ground rumbled again and the wall began moving, rotating open to reveal a passage further into the ruins, which the group took. The next room was mostly empty, though Shining Star heard a voice whispering I see you. No one else heard it and Amos couldn't see any spirits around, so after a moment they continued on.
The next room was an armory, with shields fallen on the floor and a few sword and mace heads as well as two suits of armor in excellent condition in two of the room's corners. As the Green Knight positioned himself near the armor, Shining Star and Elaphe examined the shields and found that, while the straps had long since rotted off, the metal was some sort of alloy neither of them were familiar with, causing Shining Star to wonder if this is what the stories meant when they said the trow "poisoned the soul of iron." They looked valuable, though, and Elaphe scooped up a few spearheads, causing the "armor" to animate and attack, as the players knew they would.
The battle was short and didn't go well for the automata. None of their attacks did any damage to the Green Knight, and while they had strong armor, they were outnumbered and faced with opponents who had enchanted weaponry. The real end of the battle came when Shining Star's player rolled five 10s while casting Chains of Searing Light and the undamaged automaton only rolled one success to resist, slapping it with 9 CP and instantly immobilizing it. The other automaton fell pretty quickly after that, and the group beheaded the immobilized automaton hoping that it would deactivated it. It did, and they figured they had enough loot, so they rigged up a sled using the shields and a bunch of rope to haul the almost-intact automaton out of the dungeon. As they were doing this, the ground vibrated, and this time, they could tell that they were moving.
There were no enemies waiting for them, though, so they waited for the rings to rotate back into position and left the trow ruins, slowly hauling the automaton through the hills all the way back to the nearest city. They arrived as dusk fell and we ended there.
Well. One of my goals for this was to reduce the legendary rocket tag lethality of Exalted and I certainly seem to have managed it. Five people all attacking one automaton and they took something like 25 ticks to kill it, and they beat the other automaton because of an extremely lucky spell from Shining Star. Heavy armor is now a good defense! That's progress! And heavy armor can be beaten by grappling, which, if nothing else, is historically accurate.
Amos's musket would have been the perfect weapon to do a bunch of damage to an automaton, but he missed his attack. That's partially my fault because I forgot to apply the defense penalty due to being surrounded to the automaton, with which he probably would have hit.
Now the party is planning to take the automaton and shields to the villages around Etemenanki and sell them there. Will they make it slowly dragging an automaton along the road through the forest? Will someone try to steal it? Will they get annoyed and disassemble it for scrap? Stay tuned!
- Shining Star, mandragora sorcerer-priestess of Nyarhé.
- The Green Knight, mandragora briarwitch.
- Bonnie, kong Auspicious Orator.
- Amos Burnham, a human from Earth.
- Elaphe, a chuzan junior member of the Black Rose.
Amos can see in the dark due to a permanent crystal he has and Bonnie had a lantern, so the group went in to the first chamber. There were some murals on the back wall with writing that no one could read, though Bonnie copied the text down. While she was writing, Elaphe felt the ground vibrate slightly (though no one else noticed it) and then they went into another room. This room had four waist-high statues of meguroko and a broken stone table, as well as a corridor ending in a solid wall and another door outside the room. Elaphe inspected the statues, but found that they were banded in bronze and not gold, and then the ground vibrated again. This time Amos felt it too.
Elaphe went to inspect the closed-off passage and found that it wasn't a solid wall--there was a small gap between the wall and the ends of the passage. Wondering what this mean, they didn't have to wait very long. The ground rumbled again and the wall began moving, rotating open to reveal a passage further into the ruins, which the group took. The next room was mostly empty, though Shining Star heard a voice whispering I see you. No one else heard it and Amos couldn't see any spirits around, so after a moment they continued on.
The next room was an armory, with shields fallen on the floor and a few sword and mace heads as well as two suits of armor in excellent condition in two of the room's corners. As the Green Knight positioned himself near the armor, Shining Star and Elaphe examined the shields and found that, while the straps had long since rotted off, the metal was some sort of alloy neither of them were familiar with, causing Shining Star to wonder if this is what the stories meant when they said the trow "poisoned the soul of iron." They looked valuable, though, and Elaphe scooped up a few spearheads, causing the "armor" to animate and attack, as the players knew they would.
The battle was short and didn't go well for the automata. None of their attacks did any damage to the Green Knight, and while they had strong armor, they were outnumbered and faced with opponents who had enchanted weaponry. The real end of the battle came when Shining Star's player rolled five 10s while casting Chains of Searing Light and the undamaged automaton only rolled one success to resist, slapping it with 9 CP and instantly immobilizing it. The other automaton fell pretty quickly after that, and the group beheaded the immobilized automaton hoping that it would deactivated it. It did, and they figured they had enough loot, so they rigged up a sled using the shields and a bunch of rope to haul the almost-intact automaton out of the dungeon. As they were doing this, the ground vibrated, and this time, they could tell that they were moving.
There were no enemies waiting for them, though, so they waited for the rings to rotate back into position and left the trow ruins, slowly hauling the automaton through the hills all the way back to the nearest city. They arrived as dusk fell and we ended there.
Well. One of my goals for this was to reduce the legendary rocket tag lethality of Exalted and I certainly seem to have managed it. Five people all attacking one automaton and they took something like 25 ticks to kill it, and they beat the other automaton because of an extremely lucky spell from Shining Star. Heavy armor is now a good defense! That's progress! And heavy armor can be beaten by grappling, which, if nothing else, is historically accurate.
Amos's musket would have been the perfect weapon to do a bunch of damage to an automaton, but he missed his attack. That's partially my fault because I forgot to apply the defense penalty due to being surrounded to the automaton, with which he probably would have hit.
Now the party is planning to take the automaton and shields to the villages around Etemenanki and sell them there. Will they make it slowly dragging an automaton along the road through the forest? Will someone try to steal it? Will they get annoyed and disassemble it for scrap? Stay tuned!