Session 16 Recap & Experience Points Awards

The venerable stairways and boardwalks rumbled and creaked.  A dire wind blew across the nameless hill as seven nervous adventurers made their way down.  They enjoyed a moment’s respite as a mystic fog lingered above them, obscuring their descent from their homicidal ogrillion pursuers.

The party used the opportunity to ignite a small grease fire in their wake.  Down another level, the gnome Schlemeel rigged a simple trip hazard that the elf Greyndalf concealed with a humble illusion.  They soon heard above them the angry shouts of the ogrillions struggling to beat out the grease fire, and descended still another platform where they placed a third trap—on this one removing a segment of wooden railing and conniving to pull an unfortunate chaser through the resulting gap. 

But the company did not linger to watch their handiwork in action.  So they did not see as the lead ogrillion tumbled fantastically over the tripwire (and took four points of damage).  And they did not behold the same unfortunate ogrillion’s astonishment as he plunged from the boardwalk, crashing through pine branches and rocky hillside (for nine points of damage).  The latter misfortune delayed the pursuit several more minutes as the wayward ogrillion’s comrades retrieved him; meanwhile the party members took up defensive positions at the edge of the forest clearing around the base of the jagged hill.   

Eventually the harried ogrillions reached the lowest rung of the boardwalk and the first of their number emerged cautiously into the clearing.  But the company’s arrows sent him fleeing back up the steps, and the cover of the first wooden landing.

By way of counterattack, the warrior Jowdain and Nomak turned their war axes on two of the main posts undergirding the platform.  Though they could not come close to actually chopping through those supports, the necessity of preventing this drew the ogrillions out and the party’s fighters charged swiftly up the steps to engage them.

The orgillions proved formidable foes almost instantly.  One of them hurled a dreadful javelin at the Gambol, its acicular tip ripping into the Cygnival man with great force and bringing the cleric to the very edge of death.  But the party slowly gained the upper-hand in the savage battle, until the mage Greyndalf rocked the hillside with a scorching fireball blast.

With the ogrillion pursuers dispatched, the company took shelter in the nearby woods for rest and recovery.  “There are more up there,” the sorcerer Onog warned, having briefly met the Galjenkito chieftain Mizlokk and laid eyes on a much larger force above.  But to return prematurely, in the company’s weakened condition, would amount to suicide.

Later that evening, the gnome Schlemeel heard the rolling rumble of horse hooves as he stood watch over the makeshift camp.  Soon the horsemen came into view—four human knights in fine metallic armor.  The gnome hailed them as they approached, and their leader raised the faceguard on his steel helm to bark his interrogatories.

Schlemeel tried his best to relate the condition of the clergyman Sil-Hurk, his hilltop shrine, and its occupation by marauding ogrillions.  But the knight captain grew quickly impatient with the rogue, and expressed hopes that the gnome’s companions—the half-orc sorcerer Onog and the elven wizard Greyndalf—might prove more efficient communicators as they stepped from the tree-line to greet the armored riders.

It being thoroughly explained that the shrine be now in the hands of powerful ogre-men more numerous than even the mages’ company of seven, the lead knight dismounted at last revealed his intentions.  “So it is true,” he uttered.  “Word had come to the manorhouse of a great terror upon the mount of Sil-Hurk.  So we rode through the night to reach it.  Markos Gramartini of the Gramartini Rangers, at your service.”

The conversation turned soon to tactics, as Greyndalf proposed various ideas for exploiting cover, surprise, and features of the local terrain.  But these were not the methods of the Gramartini Rangers.  “We must fight them fair and square on an open field of combat,” Markos Gramartini declared.  “We will not strike like cowards from the shadows.”

“My company is no stranger to battle,” the mage warned.  “And only at great difficulty did we overcome these ogrillions.  Those who remain at the shrine may be tougher still.”

But no word of caution could hope to prevail against the cavalier’s bravado.  “They will be no match for my armor,” Markos Gramartini insisted, knocking a hard knuckle on his polished steel breastplate.  “Or that of my men.”

The Gramartini Rangers did nonetheless agree to delay their ascent until the following day’s nightfall, on account of Greyndalf’s limitation.  The Rangers passed the time by practicing with their swords, until the tense placidity of the camp was broken by an ogrillion’s hurled rock. 

The rock landed some distance from the treeline, but close enough to see that some message was tied to the stone.  So the company retrieved it, and saw—scrawled in orcish on some torn scrap of paper, the question “Teg do Okak Aga?”

Onog promplty translated the question as “what do you want?” and a bizarre negotiation ensued, with the ranger Unagi directing his familiar, the hawk Tupac Shabird, to deliver the company’s own message—one demanding surrender of the Shrine and their hostage—to Mizlokk’s remaining band.  In delivering the message, however, the hawk spied through an open pane high on the shrine’s wooden walls that one ogrillion studied magic from the pages of an arcane text. 

The ogrillions did not take long to give their answer: “Der iak Nad” ::: “We will leave at nightfall,” delivered in the same manner as their opening message had been. 

The company had dealt with the likes of Mizlokk before, and grown slow to trust.  It occurred to Greyndalf that the significant advantage the party held over the ogrillions was the general impassability of the hillside other than on the wooden boardwalk—a structure that forced the foes through a series of difficult bottlenecks, should they attempt to approach the company.  Allowing the ogrillions to approach at nightfall—even if under the auspices of their departure—risked forfeiting this advantage and potentially facing the daunting Galjenkito force on terms more aligned with Markos Gramartini’s ignorant conceptions.  The company would attack them now.

So it was that, without further delay, the company charged back up the steps to the Shrine of Sil-Hurk with the Gramartini Rangers, naturally, at the vanguard.  When they reached the top, they found four ogrillion fighters waiting for them, with Mizlokk and another ogrillion spellcaster—the shaman Ryyu—in the rear. 

Now the ogrillions would exploit a tactical advantage, as the party’s fighters struggled to move past each other on the narrow stairways leading to the final platform—highlighted by Schlemeel’s failed effort to handspring his way over his comrades.  But the battle was joined nonetheless, and within moments the first of the Gramartini Rangers had fallen.  At that, the raging captain Markos Gramartini sunk his blade deep into an ogrillion badly weakened by the party’s attacks.  “You see!” the cavalier boasted.  “Do you see that!?”

Greyndalf, meanwhile, had employed a spider climb spell to maneuver himself to the flank, from there he unleased a gust of wind that howled across the face of the shrine—trapping several Galjenkito reinforcements inside the structure and denying them the use of their deadly javelins.  Soon the blows mounted on a second ogrillion, and the Ranger captain again landed the final strike.  “That’s two!” shouted Markos Gramartini.  “That’s two I’ve killed!”

Moments later, as the dwarf Jowdain bashed an ogrillion foe with his magical axe Blackhandle, he felt the sudden sting of metal ripping across his back.  One of the Gramartini Rangers, his mind enchanted by Mizlokk’s machinations, had come to serve the enemy.  Now Mizlokk unleashed a hail of magic missiles at the approaching company, as Ryyu called forth a mess of vines to entangle the ranger Unagi. 

Carefully pulling a narrow wisp of polished grey wood from his pack, Greyndalf—still at the orgillion spellcasters’ flank, extended his arm and aimed the wand of lightning the company and found deep in the Vault of Konykos.  With the stern utterance of its command word, a shock of blinding white energy surged forward and inflicted its withering damage on the two ogrillion magic users.  With the blast, the company seemed finally to have taken control in the battle for the Shrine of Sil-Hurk. 

Or, perhaps not.  Mizlokk clung to a far post and Ryyu took the healing of his god, Scaöl, as the first of the ogrillion reinforcements pushed through the continuing wind gust and forward into battle.

Adventure Notes:

·       Gramartini Rangers.  The company first heard the name “Gramartini” from an escaped debt slave hiding in the Old Druid’s Hut west of Horl.  He’d spoken of a “Gramartini Farmstead,” headed by a “Lady Gramartini” and worked by fellow debt slaves, and patrolled by the grandiloquent “Gramartini Rangers.”  This setting—here, at the base of the defiled Shrine of Sil-Hurk, was hardly the place the company would have expected for its first meeting with the Gramartini Rangers and their vainglorious captain, Markos Gramartini.  But they are here now, and to good effect!

·       Staff of Katchmyal.  The fallen Encrod cleric Katchmyal rewarded your promise to pass along tidings of the ancient vampire Tombasson with her enchanted wooden staff.  A day’s experimentation revealed the weapon to feature a modest enchantment (+1 weapon), coupled with the ability to function as a flame blade once per day.

·       Mizlokk. You have come to face the Galjenkito chieftain Mizlokk, and found him to wield magical spellcasting abilities in addition to his legendary strength.  He was unwise to have divided his force—an error for which he has already paid and for which he may endure a steeper toll yet. 

Experience Points & Inspiration 

DM’s experience award moderation note: In this campaign, experience points are awarded for overcoming obstacles, solving problems, and achieving goals.  Although experience points are typically awarded for defeating adversaries, note that an adversary need not necessarily be killed to earn those points if the adversary can be defeated in another way.  Experience points are earned collectively and then divided among the player-characters.  In addition to experience points, players can earn inspiration for creativity, superior tactics, and especially strong role-playing.

The company defeated a force of six ogrillions at the base of the Shrine of Sil-Hurk in this session, earning 1,500 XP to be divided among the seven player characters.  This equals 214.29 each, rounded up to 215 XP per character.

After the Gramartini Rangers arrived, the party initiated another battle with ogrillions, in which three have fallen so far.   These 750 XP are divided among the seven PCs and the three remaining Gramartini Rangers, for an easy 75 XP apiece. 

The company is also awarded experience for the following accomplishments:

• ·      Using small fire to delay ogrillion pursuit, 100 XP
• ·      Tripwire snare, concealed by illusion, injures ogrillion: 75 XP;
• ·      Concealed removed railing snare injures ogrillion and delays pursuit; 125 XP
• ·      Successful interactions with Markos Gramartini; 200 XP;
• ·      Not falling for Mizlokk’s negotiation ploy; 125 XP.

This portion of experience points is divided among the player characters only, with a half-share to Nomak (who is more-or-less an NPC at this point).  This comes out to 48.08 per half-share, which we can round up to 50 XP—meaning 50 XP for Nomak gets and 100 XP for each of the other PCs.

The adventure gods observed much compelling play in this particular occasion, a list that undoubtedly begins with the splendid accommodations and fine Väsen ale.  But Greyndalf’s subtle manipulation of the bombastic Markos Gramartini has put him and his men at the forefront of a fierce and desperate fight against the Galjenkito occupiers that rages on even still.  To the practical rewards of this device, the gods now add one point of inspiration.  

Final Session 16 totals:

·      Jowdain acquitted himself well in battle, garnering 390 XP.

·      Gambol pleased his deity and is rewarded with 390 XP.

·       Greyndalf remained a cunning and resourceful (and mostly naked) adversary, earning 390 XP and one point of inspiration.

·      Schlemeel still don’t give a f*k, but he picked up 390 XP.

·      Onog played it cold as ice, and acquired 390 XP.

·      Unagi looked fresh as ever and gained 390 XP.

·      Nomak contained his rage, and is enhanced by 340 XP.