Lizard and Lunk

The continuing GURPS adventures of eight men who really should find better uses for their time.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Are You Sure There's No "Danger Magnet" Disad in the Rulebooks?

18 February 2007-

Before we went back to the orcs, we decided to try looking in the Great Library itself, where we met with their second in command, since the Grand High Librarian (or whatever his title is) was otherwise occupied. After intimating that the Mages' Guild was worried about the missing librarian possessing some sort of Dangerous Information (we were vague here, so as to let his imagination ponder that; and it wasn't an actual lie, exactly), we discovered that 1) the missing librarian was, in fact, missing; that 2) the Library was taking this pretty well; and that 3) they had been trying hard to let the whole demonic possession thing go, and not to dwell on it overmuch. Thanks for nothing.

We then decided to try to go back to the orcs, and present their captain with a pile of rocks, which our mage would illusion into gems. On our way to the ship, though, we were waylaid in a well-organized ambush. Things were bad at first, since their Concussion spell did to us what it usually does for us, and rendered most of us stunned and ineffective. They followed with a couple of crossbowmen, who spent most of their time pin-cushioning Kevin's mage, and a few footmen, who attacked those of us still on our feet. Craig's elven swordsman, eMike's ellyllon mage, and Jeff's half-giant cleaned them up, with an assist from eBill's elven archer. Bruce's centaur spent most of the time down, and Brian's bard never did make it off the dirt (Brian evidently used the dice he normally reserved for Jeff's damage rolls, and couldn't roll for beans the whole night).

Once we got control of the situation, and tortured... um, questioned... the survivors, we discovered that they had been hired to go after us by an apparent amateur conspirator, and they were more than happy to provide us with their meeting place. Once we got him, he sang like a canary all the way to a rundown old building, where an organization called "the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign" evidently meets. Next week, we intend to express our displeasure, which might reduce the number of brothers, and hopefully will reveal who wants us dead... this time.

Meet Our Ambassador of Orcish Affairs

8 February 2007-

More plot developments this week, as we got more a bit more involved in the meat of the investigation. It turns out that the (re)possessed librarian went missing between our acceptance of the job on the mainland and our arrival at Freeport, and now we are hoping to find him. Our librarian contact at the Great Library of Freeport took us to the missing librarian's house, which revealed little except a diary and a to-do list. The diary confirms that our man went missing five years ago, and then returned about 9 months ago, and the list seems to indicate that he's having problems again. On it is a directive to meet with the captain of an orcish pirate ship which we saw docked as we arrived, and that hardly sounds sanguine.

We decided to approach the ship, and try to talk to the captain ourselves. Reasoning that orcs would respect strength and martial prowess, and would be afraid of magic, we led with Jeff, a half-giant merc with more than a little in common with the orcs, and Kevin's fire mage. The brilliance of this selection became immediately clear when our chosen ambassadors approached the ship, and were greeted rudely by the guards at the bottom of the gangway. Jeff responded by punching the offending guard so hard in the face that it both knocked him out and knocked him back into first the hull of the ship, and thence into the water. The other guard proved more accommodating. Their captain, it seems, has recently heard from the librarian, but wouldn't give us the details without being handsomely rewarded for his trivial trouble. We, on the other hand, didn't want to pay out for useless information. We left the ship to contemplate how we could both rip off the orcs in such a way that they would come after us (so that our patently orcicidal wood elves would have an opportunity to slaughter them "in self defense"), and yet still get us the information we desired. Hmmm...

Monday, February 05, 2007

The Axel Foley School of Diplomacy

1 Feb. 2007 -- Another adventure, another arm-twist from the Mages' Guild to send us to some dangerous island. But it's not giant bugs on some bizarre lump of jungle -- no, this time it's a more civilized place, where an important librarian may or may not have become possessed by some unknown entity. Possessed again, that is, in some sort of demonological relapse. Re-possessed, if you will.

So we made it into port a bit behind schedule and started looking for our contact, only to find him being strong-armed toward the dock by a tough-looking press gang. My bard decided to earn his keep and create a distraction; he loudly and faux-drunkenly approached one of the press gang, borrowing heavily from Eddie Murphy's lines in the strip club in Beverly Hills Cop. Between this and a Mass Daze spell from Michael's ellyllon mage, the rest of the group were able to take position and strike pretty much all at once. Down went the press gang, and we suffered not so much as a single bruise. Not bad for an opening act.