[December 13 and 14 – Last of the Advancement Guidelines set down and then back to Delving!]
[This game uses the Fifth Revised Edition of the Hero System rules along with the Fantasy Hero supplement. This session happened April 4, 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
Freysday, December 13th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman
Later the same day, the founders of the Delvers Guild [the player characters] finished setting out the Advancement Guidelines and some supplemental bylaws.
Advancement Guidelines (Conclusions)
Expert Delver to Master Delver
- Demonstrate proficiency in [60%] of Expedition Competencies [specified in game, but TBD out of game]
- Participate in a minimum of 20 expeditions as an Expert Delver
- Lead a minimum of 3 supervised expeditions with endorsement
- Each endorsement from a different Master Delver
Guildmaster
Guildmaster is an elected office, held for life or until relinquished. A No-Confidence vote by 80% of the current chapter Master Delvers may compel relinquishment.
To run for the office:
- Candidate must submit a Letter of Interest to the Grand Master
- Candidate must receive a Letter of Approval from the Grand Master
- Candidate must win an election by the chapter Master Delvers with the grand Master breaking ties.
Grand Master
To run for the office:
- Candidate must be a current or retired Guildmaster
- Candidate must win election by all current and retired Guildmasters with a simple majority
Torchbearer to Senior Torchbearer
- Minimum of two years in service as a Torchbearer
- Submit Letter of Interest to your assigned master Delver
- The Master Delver will take the letter to the Guildmaster
- The Guildmaster must approve the appointment
Random Bylaws
- Expert Delvers forming an expedition need a minimum of 3 Expert Delvers signed on before approval.
- The Guildhall the Grand Master works at does not need an additional Guild Master – the Grand Master meets that need.
- The Grand Master and all Guild Masters meet every 5 years to examine and adjust territory boundaries where needed.
- [New] Any candidate running for election to become either a Guildmaster or Grand Master may vote in the election they are running in.
- [New] If there is no majority in the Grand master election, the top two candidates participate in a run-off election.
Yggsday, December 14th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman
8:30 AM
The founding Delvers met at the gate in the Guildhall basement and used it to teleport to the receiving gate under the Moon Manor ruins. Vorgand went up to the surface and picked up Torsten, Fish, and Harek. When she returned to the corner office that was acting as the gate room under the ruins, they other Delvers put on the various elven magic items they were concealing from the elves back in Aegea City. Zarek played a prank on Ozrel, who had not used the magic earrings before, by barking loudly through the connection. It startled Ozrel but only for a moment. [I ran the prank as a Presence Attack to refresh the players memory on how those work.]
Zarek cast his Stoney Skin spell on himself, Vorgand, Ozrel, and Jala. [He could only place it on 4 people and Ricky specifically avoided getting into combat, so he was left out.] Zarek then handed out potions of speed to all the group. [In addition to being a wizard, the fox is also an alchemist and regularly keeps a stash of potions available: +1 Speed for 1 Minute, 4 doses.]
The group then spent the next 30 minutes carefully making their way down through the [mostly] empty dungeon to the Portal Room at the bottom. [See Arc 1, sessions 6 through 8 for the Portal Room’s location.] Once there, the Power Gem was placed on the console and the Portal activated. Vorgand set the control cubes to 5.2.2 and the portal blinked before showing the entry area of the Stone Halls [see Arc 1, Session 31].
Ricky cast Nightvision on himself and stepped through the Portal. The air on the other side was cold enough to make his breath visible. He put on the warm coat he brought and gave the all-clear signal to the rest of the Delvers. They put on the coats they brought and stepped through to join Ricky. Zarek, having no coat but his own fur, cast Cool Canine [Life Support: resist extreme heat and cold] on himself before following. [Zarek, despite being a fox, does not know the proper reference term, hence the inappropriate spell name.]
The Delvers made use of the safety ropes they left here back in November [Arc 1, Session 31] and eased their way down the sloped gallery to just past the second stone bracket supporting the ceiling. There hung the climbing ropes up into the small chimney-like passage in the ceiling. Zarek flew up through the chimney and the others followed by climbing the ropes.
At the top, the chimney opened as a small well in a 20-foot square room. The last time the delvers were here, Ricky had used a sledgehammer to smash through the immense granite slab that sealed the doorway to the next chamber. After 20 minutes of hard work, he had broken through enough for Zarek to squeeze through into the next chamber, see many blue flame skeletons, and flee. The slab was still missing the chunks Ricky had broken away and the chamber on the other side was dark.
Jala attempted to use her Shadow Veil spell to peer through the shadows in the chamber beyond, but all was darkness there and there were no shadows for her to peer through. [Her spell requires shadows, not darkness to work.] Ozrel lit a spare torch off the one Fish was carrying and popped it through the small opening in the slab, into the next chamber. This provided shadows for Jala to peer through.
The chamber was very large – larger than the 30-foot diameter the torch lit, with many pillars supporting the ceiling. The pillars were carved to resemble trees with the ceiling being covered by their branches, a stone forest. Jala saw no sign of the blue flame skeletons that had driven away Zarek the last time and reported this.
Zarek cast two triggered versions of his Lightning spell on himself. They would discharge as soon as he saw the first blue flame skeleton.
Once Zarek was ready, he squeezed through the gap in the granite slab and entered the Stone Forest. Ozrel and Ricky used their teleportation magics [Ricky Shadow Jumped, Ozrel Fire-Walked] to enter the Stone Forest while Jala Shadow Walked, bringing along Vorgand.
The Delvers looked around to see what there was to see and Ricky noticed a set of stairs at the edge of the light on the left wall, going down. Then the adventurers heard the distinctive sounds of skeletons approaching from the darkness, just before 10 skulls lit up with blue flame.
End of Session
Guild Postings
[We were running just long enough that after I set out the battle map, we realized there was no way we could start and finish the fight before it got very late. So we took a picture of it and called it a night. Next session starts with the combat, the one I really messed up.]
[I’ll update the Guild Organizational Document later this week with the roles and responsibilities, the Advancement Guidelines, and the associated bylaws. I should also be able to get Session 10 typed up and posted this week as it looks to be a slow week at the Dayjob.]
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 8
Next Session: Arc 2, Session 10
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