No Quarter Sessions 5 & 6 - The Assault on the Creeper Cave

PCs:        Sir Durhum Lentilles (250 point Paladin of Saturn).

NPCs:     Trapper John (unknown) and 57 villagers (unknown).

The following day, Father Robert gathered up the villagers while Durhum did a little investigation into the whereabouts of the heart-shaped cave, and fortunately for him, Trapper John knew where it was. He talked John into attending Father Robert's meeting, where he was convinced to help out, finally. All in all, Durhum and Robert drummed up about 57 able-bodied men to go wipe out the creeper. They decided to leave the next day.

Come the morning, the mob of villagers, along with a number of others to haul supplies and help establish and maintain a camp trekked to Ashby without incident. They spent the night, not realizing that the creeper had sent a couple of sporbies to keep an eye on the town for trouble. The posted guards missed them, and Durhum awoke the following day fresh and rested. After a short prayer for luck conducted by Hilda, he asked her if she had anything to protect him against any spores that might be released during the upcoming battle. She took him to the abandoned temple at Ashby and made for him a balm he had to put in his nostrils and swallow, which he did despite its contents.

John led the group of men through the forest toward the cave, approaching it from above and behind. At the foot of the hill into which the cave is set, they encountered two dozen sporbies, some of whom were turned caprigors. A fierce battle ensued, and the 59 took casualties. Thankfully, their hero, Durhum, came out unscathed, thanks to smart use of his reach and his repeatedly removal of sporbie legs.

They continued their trek up the hill until they were nearly at the cave. John spent most of his time running ahead of the main group to scout for more sporbies, and just before reaching the cave, he found three more standing guard above the cave mouth. A brief war meeting between Durhum and John brought them to the conclusion that John would lead the bulk of the villagers around the front of the cave to create a distraction while Durhum and a three of the wounded men would enter the cave to destroy the creeper. The wounded would carry torches so Durhum could fight, and John would draw off the rest of the sporbies.

With confidence, the set out to execute their plan. Durhum waited for John and his men to give a signal, which came in the form of an arrow through one of the guard sporbies and a lot of panicked screaming. Durhum didn't hesitate. He appraoched the sporbies cautiously and de-legged one of them and sliced the other to pieces. He and his companions then seeing that the cave was unguarded, dropped down to the mouth. Entering, they found the creeper clinging to the ceiling and cave walls about 30 yards in. A few test chops from Durhum revealed how the creeper defended itself: swift vine thrusts and clouds of spores that stun those who inhale them. Thankfully, the balm Hilda provided kept Durhum immune to the spores, despite a lot of pain to his sinuses. The balm didn't protect against the enraged sporbie grizzly the creeper kept as a guardian, though.

Durhum took some time to kill the massive, beastly sporbie, and after downing it, finished it off by spilling its entrails all over the cave floor. Unfortunately, this made the floor rather slick. Still, he got to chopping at the creeper while parrying its vine attacks. The men remained stunned for most of the combat, but eventually, one came around and grabbed a torch. He began trying to set the creeper ablaze while Durhum sliced away at the largest mass of ivy. After a while, the vine still hadn't caught flame, still being green and supple with the blood of its victims, so Durhum thought hard. It came to him. His oil. He gave the man a bottle of oil to help ignite the mass of vines, and it worked! The vine quivered and shook in the heat, and the din of battle outside drew nearer.

Durhum continued hacking a maw-shaped tangle of ivy and vines while the other two torchbearers came out of the spore-induced haze. He gave each of them more oil and had them set about burning every bit of the vine. Pretty soon the vine was ablaze, but sporbies were starting to lurching toward the four of them and the battle raged at the cave's entrance. Durhum launched himself into combat against the sporbies, cutting them down, one after the other until he reached the cave mouth and what remained of John's militia. He helped hold the line, and together they held the cave while the creeper burned. After a few minutes, a loud rumbling thump echoed from the cave and the torchbearers rushed out yelling, "it is done!" The sporbies faltered and the villagers seized the opportunity to dispatch their foes. The creeper was no more.

Afterward, the men gathered up all of the sporbies and remaining bits of creeper in a great bonfire at the cave's mouth. They burned everything so that it could no longer reproduce, and ocne that was done, they traveled back to Ashby. There they slept before returning to Robston heroes. The innkeeper extended an open invitation to Durhum to stay there free of charge as long and as often as he desired. For now, Durhum is helping Father Robert finally put in that second story floor at the Church of Saturn. What adventures lie in wait for him he knows not, but Saturn will guide his way. He always does.

No Quarter Sessions 3 & 4 - Discoveries

PCs:        Sir Durhum Lentilles (250 point Paladin of Saturn).

NPCs:     Mirko (unknown), Father Robert (unknown).

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, we had to run our session a bit late last week and that shortened it considerably. That combined with the general lack of much happening during the session made me think I'd be best off combining its summary with this week's. So here you have it. Our intrepid paladin has finally learned what he is fighting!

Two weeks ago, we left off with Sir Durhum and Mirko approaching Ashby. As they approached, they felt eyes watching them, but no one was in sight. They passed by an abandoned farmstead on their way to the main hamlet. Ashby is a small, small community consisting of maybe about dozen and a half families. It had small buildings and wasn't much to look at. Especially since there weren't any people there. There weren't any at all. He two investigators poked around the hamlet a bit and stumbled on a partial track where someone was dragged into or out of the local temple. Otherwise, there was nothing – no signs of struggle, whatsoever. It was as if everyone just vanished.

Sir Durhum didn't want to spend the night in Ashby out of fear of a midnight ambush, so he and Mirko pitched a tent a bit outside the abandoned village. The night passed without incident, but when they awoke, they found footprints encircling their campsite. Human footprints. This unnerved Mirko a bit, but Sir Durhum remained calm and determined as always. Together they broke camp and began the journey back to Robston.

Along the way, they came on a pair of goatmen tracking something. He called to them from afar, but they didn't understand the human tongue. After some difficult long-distance signing, the two sides managed to communicate that they weren't looking for a fight and that Sir Durhum was going to just continue on his way to Robston. That's when the sporebies burst from some bushes. Half a dozen men with vines sprouting from their necks shambled out of some bushes. Sir Durhum shouted to Mirko and the goatmen to flee, which they did, but that only got the sporebies riled up. They began to chase Sir Durhum, but being slow were quickly lost after a moderate run. The rest of the trip back to Robston was uneventful.

Once back at Robston and Durhum having had fulfilled his obligation to get Mirko there safely, Durhum tracked down Father Robert and reported his findings. Robert confided in Durhum that some of the villagers had taken to talking to themselves and the miller had told Robert that he was hearing voices that told him to do terrible things. Over dinner, the two decided to exhume Will's body and burn it in the middle of the night. They also decided not to tell the people of Robston just yet, so they wouldn't go mob-with-pitchforks just yet.

After dinner and after making sure Mirko wasn't telling zombie tales, Durhum visited Hilda, who, in her usual colorful way, told him that the sporebies weren't true undead and that Saturn, the agriculture/plant/civilization god would probably have more to say on the subject. She also said she might be able to perform some scrying if she could get a piece of one of the zombies. Thanking her, Durhum left to go grave digging.

At the graveyard, Durhum and Robert found a strange vine beginning to grow out of Will's grave. Together, they exhumed the corpse and a rather long tendril of ivy that occasionally moved of its own accord. The collected the body and brought it to the outskirts of Robston, where the church groundskeeper had prepared a pyre and Hilda was already waiting with rabbit's-blood-soaked leeks for her scrying. She has a thing for leeks.  As they burned Will's body, Hilda tossed in pieces of the vine from his grave, which revealed four images: first, a shadowy figure standing before a heart-shaped cave with an ivy growing about it; second, a group of people feeding a man to thorn-toothed maw; third, Will being dragged to the creeper by sporebies and getting stabbed in the neck by the vine; and last, the visage of a beautiful farmer's daughter at a market stand. Finally, the pieces came together and Sir Durhum figured out what he was facing: a Yellow Musk Creeper. One that has eaten or enslaved an entire hamlet. One that has infected another village. Now he has to find the cave, destroy the yellow musk creeper there, and prevent any new ones from springing up in Robston.

No Quarter Session 2 - The Road to Ashby

PCs:        Sir Durhum Lentilles (250 point Paladin of Saturn)

NPCs:     Mirko (unknown)

We picked up today with Sir Durhum setting out on the road to Ashby. It was a nice day for a walk, and the scenery was bucolic initially and transitioned into peaceful scrublands. It progressed like that for a couple hours when he heard the din of combat. Upon cresting the next hill, he saw a boy fighting a pony-sized spider and generally getting driven back despite his agility. Being the courageous and selfless paladin he is, Sir Durhum joined the melee.

He approached the spider from behind and shouted for the boy to get behind him. As the boy made his way around the spider, it continued to try to intercept him. This somehow kept Sir Durhum behind the spider, despite the runaround attempt, which was fine. Durhum got one good stab to the gonads – first random hit location roll of the day, and it gives us gutter humor – which certainly got the spider's attention. It turned on him and barreled into him. Of course, this isn't particularly good for the person holding the Reach 2 polearm, so Sir Durhum was in trouble. The spider slashed him up good with its pedipalps, but eventually, the paladin managed to disengage and get enough distance to bring his mighty weapon to bare in a successful parry that lopped off one of the spider's pedipalps. The thing retreated a little in fear and surprise, so Durhum gave it a good thrust to the vitals and it fled to lick its wounds (do spiders have tongues?).

He then bandaged up his wounds and tended to the kid, who turned out to actually be a really short 15 yr old named Mirko. He had run away from a homestead he was helping at because nature was getting a little too close and unfriendly, and Durhum being the responsible adult he is, insisted on taking Mirko to Ashby with him. That way, the boy would at least be safe, even if Mirko was headed to Roberston to find a better life out east.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, as did the night. The next day, they continued their trek to Ashby, when they came on a jaundiced man shambling about the road with something growing from his neck. Durhum decided to detour wide around the man and approach Ashby with caution. He is pretty sure everyone in the town is dead, but he wants to be careful. He is injured and not in much shape for another serious fight.

Nest week: Ashby.

Bonus Creature: Monstrous Wolf Spider

Wolf spiders are robust and agile hunters with excellent eyesight.  They live mostly solitary lives and hunt alone.  Some are opportunistic hunters; while, others will chase prey or even ambush prey from burrows.  Despite being only mildly toxic, wolf spiders are the thing of nightmares, because they carry hordes of young on their backs.

Venom:  Wolf spider venom is not particularly lethal, although in large doses, it is quite painful.  Someone bitten by a wolf spider must roll against HT-5.  Failure results in pain dependent on his margin of failure:  1 or 2, Moderate Pain; 3 or 4, Severe Pain; 5 or more, Terrible Pain (see Incapacitating Conditions, p. B428).  Each level of pain lasts for a number of minutes equal to the victim's margin of failure, after which the degree of pain lessens by one step – from Terrible to Severe and then Severe to Moderate.  Each step lasts as long as the previous.

ST: 18                            HP: 18                                               Speed: 6.00

DX: 13                           Will: 10                                              Ground Move: 6

IQ: 1                               Per: 12                                               Climbing Move: 3

HT: 11                           FP: 11                                                SM: 0

Dodge: 9                        Parry: N/A                                        DR: 6

Fangs (15): 2d impaling + follow-up Venom (see above). Reach C.

Pedipalps (15): 2d cutting. Reach C.

Baby Spider Horde: This is a 3-yard-diameter horde of baby wolf spiders.  They take a Move maneuver to disembark their mother, and have Move 1.  They disperse after taking 100 HP of damage and will then regroup on their mother's back.  The horde inflicts 1d cutting damage per turn with Venom (see above) as a follow-up, but resisted at HT rather than HT-5.

Traits: Acute Hearing 2; Acute Sense (Vibration Sense) 2; Ambidexterity; Climbing Line; Clinging; Cutting Striker (Pedipalps; Cannot Parry; Limited Arc Front); Discriminatory Smell; Extra Legs (Eight Legs); Horizontal; Impaling Striker (Fangs; Cannot Parry; Limited Arc, Front); Injury Tolerance (No Neck); No Fine Manipulators; Payload 1; Peripheral Vision (No Depth Perception); Sensitive Touch; Silence 1; Ultravision; Vibration Sense (Air). 

Skills: Brawling-15; Climbing-13; Running-11; Stealth-15; Wrestling-15. 

Class: Giant Animal. 

Notes: Venom glands containing enough venom for 2d doses ($10 each).

No Quarter Session 1 - Roberston

First off, allow me to apologize for not keeping up with this blog. I was gearing up for a game I'm running with a friend. It is a fantasy game using GURPS 4th Edition, and Sir Durhum Lentilles is the lone PC. We had our first session this past Sunday, and so far, it is a blast.

No Quarter - Session 1

PCs:        Sir Durhum Lentilles (250 point Paladin of Saturn)

The session began with Sir Durhum arriving at a small town on a hill named after someone named Robert. Roberston may be poor, but they do have a Church of Saturn, patron god of farmers. And that is where Sir Durhum first went. There he met the groundskeeper, an elderly man and next door in the one room rectory, he met Father Robert (no connection to the hill). The priest invited Durhum to that night's service with the intention to talk the brawny paladin into helping fix up the church a bit – specifically, to add a second floor to the barn-like structure. Unfortunately, in the middle of the sermon, a young man named Will burst into the church coughing and clutching at his throat. Several of the townsfolk rushed over to help him; even Sir Durhum who was sitting at the front of the church was making his way toward him when Will dropped to his knees, looked up, and a long, plantlike stalk burst from his throat in a spray of pollen and spores. Everyone nearby began coughing but eventually it subsided. The paladin and the priest convinced everyone to leave while they took care of the body. Upon examination, the two uncovered a round puncture wound in the back of Will's neck They also collected the stalk to take to the local witch, a woman named Hilda.

The next morning, Durhum visited Hilda to see if she knew anything about the stalk. She didn't have much to say, and what she did was cryptic enough.  Durhum spoke with a few other townsfolk, including the Innkeeper, a grizzled middle-aged man. He learned that Will had recently visited Ashby, the next town over, to seek marriage with a girl from there. He also learned that Ashby's farmers had not been at the last market day. While at the inn, Durhum also met a local trapper named John, though he seems to have a few other names he sometimes goes by and a rather quiet monk from far to the south. It was suggested that he speak with the Hakraz, a local tribe that lives in the forests to the west, as well. Since they speak a different language, Durhum tried to hire John as a guide and translator, but his rates were too steep for the impoverished paladin At least he has a free room at the church as long as he needs it!

The session ended with Durhum scratching his head over Hilda's cryptic musings while gathering up supplies with the rest of the day's light. In the morning (next session), he plans to set out toward Ashby to see if anything happened to Will there.