[December 10, 11, and 12 – Some minor business, classes, and the start of the second round of guild tryouts.]
[This game uses the Fifth Revised Edition of the Hero System rules along with the Fantasy Hero supplement. This session happened February 28, 2022.]
Player Characters:
Jala – human female – a person of discretion, studier of Pact Magic with a focus on shadows
Ozrel Runeweaver – human male – Pugilist and Rune Magician
Zarek the Red – fox male – Golem-mancer
Vorgand – human female – Guildmaster and Chief Combatant for the Delvers Guild
Ricky the Astrologer – human male – Newly-minted specialist in Magic Circles and Teleportation Gates
Non-Player Characters:
Torsten, Fish, Harek – ex-bandits, now The Torchbearers for the Delvers Guild
Lars – Chamberlain of the Delvers Guild
Unit: Z0-E – Zarek’s first golem, looks like a fox made of iron
Hernesday, December 10th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman
Morning
An announcement for the next round of try-out fights/exhibition fights was posted at the entrance to the guildhall. The actual sign-up sheets were just inside and presided over by Lars, the Guild Chamberlain. This was to keep the lists from being defaced or most other shenanigans from happening.
Vorgand spoke with Lars about the need for a Guild scribe and asked what other staff he might recommend. This led to a discussion as to whether the Guild would be putting in a kitchen to make meals available for the guildmembers, particularly senior staff. This had always been in Vorgand’s plans, so they started discussions on who and what they needed.
Jala also tasked her street urchins with locating Bear and Crow and reporting back.
Ricky started training Ozrel in the Research skill.
1:00 PM
Jala’s urchin network reported back in that Bear and Crow were performing day labor over in the Craftsman District. Jala paid her informants and then shadow walked over to where Bear and Crow were working. She observed them for a bit before approaching them and stating she wanted to speak with them about guild business. Bear quickly finished moving the crates they were working on, making it obvious to her that Bear was underplaying his strength so the job would last longer [and they could get paid more].
Once Bear and Crow were paid, the three of them went to a nearby tavern to talk. Over drinks, Jala worked out that Crow has a wide range of skills, including pickpocketing, lock picking, and a bit of forgery, but also Persuasion and Bureaucratics. Bear was clearly the strongman of the two and was also talented at wrestling. She warned them that the elves were after the Guild for “taking things they left lying around.” She was impressed with the two of them and felt they were her kind of people. Crow asked if the Guild did any business with the Barony of the Yellow Stone and was clearly relieved when Jala answered no.
Jala thought Crow might be a good apprentice to her style of magic and asked if he was interested in learning any. He seemed fairly non-committal. Jala offered a sample of magic by shadow walking him across the street and back. He clearly did not like the experience and fully declined afterwards.
2:00
Vorgand attended a fitting appointment for her new dress uniform coat. It fit nigh perfectly and would be available in two days after final adjustments were made.
Evening
Vorgand and Ozrel checked in on the exhibition sign-up sheets and were surprised to see them nearly full already. Vorgand was even more surprised to see that her rival, Fisk Greenling, had signed up to fight her.
Magusday, December 11th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman
Daytime
Vorgand arranged the rental of the weapons practice space for the Guild’s exhibition the following day (Cromsday) and then attended lessons and practice at The Blooded. Ricky continued teaching Ozrel how to research by researching what kinds of runes could be used to keep the elves out of the guildhall, a subject of interest to both of them. Jala spent the day learning things [no indications as to what] at the Dusk Academy.
Zarek instead made use of the gate in the basement of the Guildhall to go over to the dungeon under Moon Manor and survey the golemworks on the lowest level. He was looking to restore the facility and started a list of what was necessary to do that.
Evening
Ricky enchanted eight gate tokens for the Guild Founders, allowing them to access the gate without him needing to be there. He then resumed tutoring Jala in the elven language.
Cromsday, December 12th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman
In the morning, Vorgand collected the sign-up sheets from Lars and the Guild Founders set up the practice area for the exhibition bouts. Vorgand and Ozrel discussed the order they wanted to do the bouts. There would be 9 fights, switching between the weapons and non-weapons bouts. Once they settled on an order [by having the applicants draw lots], Ricky drew up a listing to post at the entrance with estimated times for each fight. The order would be:
- Vorgand vs. Lukyan of Rylsk
- Ozrel Runeweaver vs. Stefan the Wanderer
- Vorgand vs. Leopard
- Ozrel Runeweaver vs. Bear
- Vorgand vs. Yngvar Copperarrow
- Vorgand vs. Bork
- Vorgand vs. Erian Eldergold
- Ozrel Runeweaver vs. Tamara Greenshield
- Vorgand vs. Fisk Greenling
Ricky was then set on door duty, collecting the cover fee from the spectators [and the bookies]. There was a noticeably larger crowd this time and three different bookies taking odds on the fights. Like last time, two elves showed up to watch. Ricky noted they showed up early this time, as opposed to casually discovering the exhibition last time.
Vorgand was heavily favored to win her fights with the odds on a clean sweep by her only tempered by the number of combatants she would have to face. Ricky bet a gold coin on Vorgand and Ozrel to win each of their fights plus each to sweep. Jala did the same, except she bet on Bear to win his round.
Fight 1: Vorgand vs. Lukyan of Rylsk
Both combatants stepped into the arena inscribed on the ground, each holding a wooden practice sword, Vorgand’s shaped like a rapier, Lukyan’s like a shortsword.
Vorgand held back to get a feel for Lukyan’s speed and discovered he was very slow compared to her [Speed 2 versus her Speed of 3]. Once she realized this, she stretched her legs to advance on him [pushed her Run by 1”] and attacked. Lukyan aborted to a dodge, but was not able to get his arm out of the way [Vorgand hit him anyways, in the arm]. Vorgand then followed up immediately with another strike, hitting Lukyan in the stomach, knocking the air out of him and he dropped. He recovered almost immediately and the two combatants walked out of the fighting square to polite applause.
Fight 2: Ozrel Runeweaver vs. Stefan the Wanderer
Both combatants stepped into the arena inscribed on the ground, each with empty hands.
Ozrel activated the runes tattooed on his arms [Strength and Dexterity Aids] and then waited for Stefan to approach. Stefan obliged by stepping up to Ozrel and attacking. Ozrel blocked the attack and followed up with a trip attack, but Stefan was able to keep his feet [Acrobatics roll]. Stefan then performed a Vicious Dragon Chop on Ozrel, his flaming fist fracturing a bone in Ozrel’s arm [hit the arm and still did 1 Body of damage]. Ozrel held back his next attack, hoping to block Stefan again, but Stefan instead moved away from Ozrel as he has greater mobility [his Run is 7” to Ozrel’s 6”]. Ozrel pursued Stefan.
Deciding his block stratagem was not going to work, Ozrel went in for the attack, launching a Branding Strike at Stefan and landing a solid blow to Stefan’s chest. This both stunned and knocked-out Stefan, ending the fight. After a gasping on the ground for 4-5 seconds, Stefan kipped up and shook Ozrel’s hand. Ozrel then received some healing magic from Tamara while the crowd applauded more enthusiastically than after the first fight.
Fight 3: Vorgand vs. Leopard
Both combatants stepped into the arena inscribed on the ground, Vorgand holding a wooden practice sword shaped like a rapier, Leopard holding a wooden shortsword and dagger.
Slightly faster than her opponent, Leopard pounced forward and attempted to disarm Vorgand [Leopard had a Speed of 4 to Vorgand’s 3]. Vorgand dodged the disarm, causing Leopard to miss. Leopard held to let Vorgand react [and let the effects of the Martial Dodge end]. Vorgand attempted a Martial Strike with her rapier, but Leopard blocked the attack. Leopard attempted a legsweep on Vorgand and nearly pulled it off. Vorgand swung back with another strike but also missed. Leopard repeated the legsweep and succeeded this time, but with a combination of Acrobatics and Breakfall, Vorgand kept on her feet and minimized the damage from the strike. Vorgand performed another Martial Strike, hitting leopard squarely in the chest and stunning her.
Leopard shook off the effects of being stunned. When Vorgand came in for another Martial Strike, Leopard aborted to a dodge, but Vorgand hit anyway, landing a solid blow to Leopard’s stomach, knocking her out.
Vorgand was impressed with Leopard and helped her to her feet when she recovered her senses. The crowd was applauding heavily, entertained by the quick, dynamic fight.
End of Session
Guild Postings
[Good news! I didn’t get selected for Jury Duty this week! That means I can now try and catch up on my session postings. My goal is to have Sessions 5, 6, and 7 (Part 1 and Part 2) posted by May 6, 2022. If you are reading this, I clearly have the first step complete.]
[This was the first of several sessions where Vorgand or Ozrel dueled an NPC. It gave all of us a solid rundown on the 5th Edition Hero System. It also let me get a quick shakedown on creating NPCs, which I needed. At the end, the players had a good idea of the capabilities for most of the NPCs, excluding the two spellcasters who I still haven’t statted out yet (shame on me as the GM), and assigned them starting ranks in the Guild.]
Delvers Guild
Arc 1
Arc 1 Landing Page – Links to all Arc 1 sessions
Arc 2
Arc 2 Landing Page – Links to all Arc 2 sessions, as they post
Last Session: Arc 2, Session 4
Next Session: Arc 2, Session 6
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