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2007-03-15 Killing Tatsuki

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< Last time ([[2007-02-28 Scouting for Morioka]]), the party was saved just in time from a {TPK Total Party Kill} by the appearance of _Umisachihiko_, the kitsune myobu _Myung_ had met in his very first adventure near Nikko. (Both race and class are from the [[Kitsunemori Campaign Setting]].) Umisachihiko had come together with the Hoori priest _Konoe_ who will be joining the party as an NPC. Konoe is a lousy fighter, but he's a great healer and will come in handy in future encounters.
< Umisachihiko healed the party using his Art of Healing myobu powers and led them to the little temple up on the ridge with the stone guardian, not knowing that it had been desecrated and covered by rubble. He suggested they continue to the kappa lair nearby, to rest and heal under their protection.
< The party has already killed two or three kappa, but none of the present party members had been involved, thus nobody objected. Opinions are divided regarding the kappa. On the one hand, they obviously kill innocent humans, on the other hand they seem to have a reason: Humans are slowly but surely destroying their rivers and caves, pushing them back further and further. For now, they felt like going along with Umisachihiko.
< Once they arrived, Umisachihiko translated for them and talked to _Masaru_, the kappa that had been guarding the dark lake to the north-east of Musashi's castle _Nijo_. Masaru didn't like the smell of Hitoshi's poultice emanating from the little box Myung had stolen from Musashi, but was unable to locate its source. He asked for a present before hosting them for the night, but the party had nothing of value they were willing to part with. Masaru then offered a deal: If the party could remove the terrible weapon lying at the bottom of the lake, he'd allow them to stay in his cave. The party agreed.
< When _Kyoshi_ took of all his armor and prepared to dive, he had the forethought of tying a rope around himself and telling _Kubo San_ to pull him out when he gave a certain signal. On his first dive, he found the corpse, pieces of armor, and something else -- a tentacle wound itself around his arm and pinned him down. Kyoshi gave the signal, Kubo San started pulling, and Myung jumped into the water to help Kubo San. Together, they effortlessly pulled Kyoshi, the octopus, and pieces of rotten armor out of the water.
< A second dive then revealed the corpse itself, and a magical cold steel naginata. The corpse must have been the demon hunter _Itagaki_ who had been boasting of his prowess and his weapon made of metal that had fallen from the sky. It seems that he fell victim to the kappas' traps.
< Myung managed to convince the kappa that the party should be allowed to rest in the cave even though Kubo San was unwilling to part from the cold steel weapon. Around the fire, the party, Umisachihiko, and five kappas started an uneasy discussion. It turns out that _Manabu_ had sent three clerics out to conquer the surrounding villages. One of them had been sent to Musashi's castle, one of them had been sent to Nikko, and the last one had been sent to Tobu. Umisachihiko said he would go and warn Nikko, where as the party decided to ignore the evil cleric in Musashi's castle and head for Tobu.
< The next day, the party took a detour, and watched the Tobu valley from a ridge. Undead were moving beneath the towering walls of Manabu's castle. In the evening, a group of half a dozen undead and a cleric returned from the swamps and walked towards the castle. The party decided to spend the night up there on the ridge.
< Morning broke and the party descended down to the swamps and headed for Tobu, got lost, and ended up at __Ueshiba’s Tomb__ where refugees from Tobu were hiding.
< Another day passed while the party observed what the evil cleric did, and in the evening an attack plan was drawn up. There were six bows amongst the surviving able bodied peasants of Tobu, and all three party characters had bows. The evil cleric crossed a bridge alone in the morning, looked for a fetid pool full of putrid corpses hundreds of years old, and animated them, returning in the evening.
< The party weakened the bridge so that it would break, hid themselves and the farmers in the early morning of the next day, and waited for the cleric. Soon enough he came, failed to spot them, did in fact fall into the water, got hit by several arrows including a sneak arrow by the rogue, and died in the surprise round.
< Awesome!
< An unholy yari and 24 small black onyxes each worth 25gp (Animate Dead materials) was found amongst the evil cleric's equipment.
< Notes:
< * Yes, the octopus is a salt-water denizen; but I'm always afraid of "tentacle monsters" in dark lakes, so they might as well exist in my world! :)
< * No XP for the beginning of the game because it was railroaded by Umisachihiko, and because the weapon found when diving is reward enough.
< * I really liked how the party sought out help, used the terrain to their advantage, and drew up a plan. They really went into this fight much better prepared than last time, and it paid off, big time. Not a single _Touch of Death_ was suffered! ;)
< * The players felt that their bridge manipulations were both unnoticeable and fool proof: The priest would fall into the river 100%. And yet none of them had a single rank in Disable Device. At the same time, ten people including six peasants were trying to hide themselves ("taking 20"). What was I supposed to do? Skipping all the rolls and have the plan work as intended was the speediest thing, but it would be devoid of any element of surprise. I decided to not do an opposed Hide vs. Spot roll because the cleric was overconfident; they were after all in complete control over the Tobu valley. And I decided that stepping onto a manipulated bridge and not falling was a DC 20 DEX check. The cleric rolled a 4, and thus the planned succeeded.
< * XP: Kubo San fought and killed the octopus, avg. party level 1, CR 1, XP gained 300 -> 300 XP for Kubo San. The party and six peasants (level 0) killed the cleric, avg. party level 1, CR 5, XP gained 1800, divided by 10 -> 180 XP for each player (and each peasant).
< * The beginning of the game lacked options for the players, requiring more railroading, clearer options. I urged them on to Tobu, urged them to go spy on the cleric, and encouraged them to stick to the plan of a surprised attack using ranged weapons only, avoiding the Touch of Death special ability of the clerical Death Domain, and avoiding the summoned Hellhound that was sure to come. It worked out in the end.
< * I asked the players whether they wanted to insert _Barrow of the Forgotten King_ into Ueshiba's tomb, but they preferred to return to the main plot, Onishi's castle.
< * The new cleric should start scribing Cure Light Wounds scrolls. Those cost 12.5 gp and 1 XP to make (+ buying the paper itself).
< Continued at [[2007-03-22 Killing Kazuki]].
< Tags: [[tag:Kitsunemori]] [[tag:MondayGroup]] [[tag:RPG]]

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