Tales from Sirac's Point, Session 7

The weekly game was played last night. The group got through several tough encounters and (barely) survived 2 deadly traps. My dice went through a cold-hot-cold cycle through out the night as well. One constant that has been happenning thus far is the lack of wandering encounters - the dice seem to want the PCs to survive for a while longer I suppose. I'll post the details of the game in a couple of days (it may well be the longest post I've done to date).

Updated 3/8:

On the way to the game, Vendee's player commented about my post on Experience Points and how I was granting them. He likes more of a faster advancing game at lower levels, with a drop off at mid levels. Normally I would agree, I hate playing  low levels of more 'modern' games. But playing S&W and now WoO, I find I like low levels more than I have for a long time. The characters are alot more fragile and the players are more creative in keeping themselves alive. Since we are playing 3 weeks out of every month thus far I didn't want a fast advancing game, otherwise the players would just blow through the levels and this isn't WoW or WotC d20 (1st or 2nd Edition). With a good use of tactics though (and having 2 Clerics) the characters have been pacing about 2 sessions per level thus far and are taking most of the encounters they do have fairly well. So far things have been win/win I think (well I hope).

The session itself is too huge to post reasonably. The group, bolstered by the return of Rak'Shan dealt with several encounters, including a group of goblins, skeletons with skeletal hounds being commanded by a powerful green-eyed skeleton (while turning affected the lesser skeletons, the green-eyed skeleton negated this somehow and forced his 'troops' back into the fight).

Rak'Shan went down in this fight, as well as later in the night when a deadly trap was set off and he was squarely in it's path of destruction. He made his saving throw for only half damage, but it still did enough to him to take him down. This has been a slight issue over the past several gaming sessions, as Rak'Shan has been the primary door opener and trap-worker, with Galeena doing duty as his backup. Since he's in front so much, he takes the most damage usually in initial volleys if the monsters know the group is on the other side of the door or is coming their way. He has a decent AC as well, one of the highest in the group (we play with Ascending AC) but when you get attacked 3+ times after opening a door (sometimes with suprise), it wears you down. The player is frustrated (exclaiming "Monk's Suck!" after he went down for the second time near the end of the session), but it's not through any fault of his own (except for not letting either of the 2 clerics know he's walking dead sometimes), it's just the role the party needs him to take is one of the most dangerous. If he survives these low levels to about 4th or 5th level, I think he'll see his class differently, but I play to the dice and either the dice will get him (and the rest of the party) or they won't.

Another thing, interesting, that happened in the session is the party encountered three rusty, ancient servitor golems during their encounter with the above mentioned skeletons. One promptly chucked a grenade at Cregg (a dud, as randomly determined by the dice...they seem to like my players more than me sometimes) and another slammed the door to the room they were in. After the skeletons were dispatched Flambo, being a Cleric of the Forge and Sun God, used his wits to befriend the little floating golems, gain a safe place to rest and them to join the party and all for a pint of oil for each golem (must be his good looks). The servitor golems had a small cache of 5 more grenades they grabbed before leaving their workshop room, which they used later to destroy a swarm of scarab beetles (it was a bit of overkill, but the golems wanted to protect the first friendly people they've seen in a few thousand years). They are also a bit of comic relief for me as well, as i described them as floating sheres with a tracking cyclon red eye travelling across the 'front' of the thing. Cregg's player pulled up a sound bite on his phone that sounded like R2D2 on crack, and the group nicknamed them Huey, Dewey and Louie. It seems they can understand, read and write (archaic) common, but no one can understand 'machine code'.

Up til this point, I've kept the 'mekanical' and 'gunpowder' related things in the background. In Sirac's Point they saw a labor mek offloading a ship's cargo at the docks, and at the dig site, they encountered another (deactivated) one and in the Zuhn Regiment's Tomb saw a crumbling War Mek. Now they've encountered Servitor Golems and grenades. Some of the frescoes depicted rifle troops alongside a phalanx of warriors of the Zuhn Empire. Slowly they're being exposed to the less fantastical elements of Onn in small bits at a time. I hope they enjoy it playing in it as much as I have running games set in it over the years.

There was much gathering of treasure and exploration. The scarabs were the last event of the night and we ended the session in front of the door across the hallway after the group searched the room for shiny bits and baubles.

Campaign Date:
Solenus 19th-20th, 5231 A.C.

Dramatis Personae:

Character	Sex/Race	XP Given	XP Total	Next Level
Flambo, Adept of Vulknar	Male Endu	1,020	4,165	5,850 (+10%)
Vendee, Arcane Veteran	Male Elf	1,070	4,409	8,100 (+10%)
Galeena, Woman-at-Arms	Female Halfling	472	1,835	1,900 (+5%)
Cregg, Novice of Tymira	Male Human	1,020	3,090	3,150 (+10%)
Rak’Shan the Monk	Male Tigran	932	2,229	3,800 (+5%)
Autumn, Woman-at-Arms	Female Human	472	1,656	1,900 (+5%)

Flambo has reached 3rd level!
Vendee has reached 3rd level!
Rak'Shan has reached 2nd level!