Compañeros part 5
General Summary
Grolm 13, 578
Thirty minutes after Pitch Noon!
Thirty minutes after Pitch Noon!
We pick up in the middle of the action. This is the final showdown on Sarsparilla Ranch!
Everybody recall what troubles you faced?
The Green Trail
Lee Chung, having thwarted the Cloven Princess in her preferred hooves-on method of Hell Herd Management, got smashed in the back with a Greater Curse: Descena Putrendis. He knows something terrible is happening all around him. He has a mild yet persistent thirst. Any plant within ten feet of him withers and wilts in a horrific fashion.
For now, the scholarly mind sees a way to turn this burden into a boon!
He may not be able to hide behind the vibrant thicket of Jesse's druidic plant growth spell, true. It all withers around him. But he can use it to defeat any remaining Blood-sucking Cabbage or Briarseed Child that threatens his guildmates!
Miro Teague heard the Baleful Moo of the Hell Herd Matriarch, found out that his guildmate Lee Chung is in danger, and came racing across the ash-strewn hills. He made it to the battle-bruised bunch near the spot where Bunkhouse wall gives way to Barn wall. Miro and Spiro see Chef and Liberata Pasquarella. They see the burnt remains of Tonto the faithful Burnt Cabbage and seven smashed, wilted Briarseed Children.
They see Lee -- of course that is Lee! No question about it! But a thin, nearly translucent green ichor creeps across the man's skin, under his garments, like a fast-spreading rash. Right now it peeks out just above his collar but well below his hairline. Has it spread elsewhere? The SNAFU Posse doesn't have time for Lee to strip and find out, not yet! The Cloven Princess could step outside again at any second. Miss Pasquarella has to be away to safety first!
War of Faith
BBruthazmus Kele has not yet made it to the edge of the thicket.
Or what was, just minutes ago, the edge of a thicket.
Something about the plant life screams "virulently toxic!" to ranger instincts!
Of course, he's got more immediate problems in the form of Hell Hand Faith Harrell right now!
Ruins at The Whistling Skull
Once upon a time in the West...
... This was the original site of the house on Sarsparilla Ranch.
Whoever first built Sarsparilla Ranch House has been lost to modern memory.
Which is a bit odd, really: What remains is a mighty fine, durable, glossy green stone that mostly keeps its huge square form all these years after the roof caved in and the plaster rotted away.
An explorer can still see the remnants of walls under all that brushweed and sarsparilla cactus. Suslik do not den here on account of all the predators.
It could assuredly be happenstance that the central oven and chimney of the original stonework has weathered away to form this hole-ridden boulder. It don't take much indulgence in intoxicatin' spirits to see the remaining stone as a gigantic, slightly elongated humanoid skull.
Someone must have brought this stone from far across the Longgrass Plains. That could not have been cheap! This is the kind of stone that would normally be used to construct a significant building like a palace. Or a temple.
Maybe placing it atop the hill was not such a great idea. Sure, the residents had a commanding view of their territory! But the building took the brunt of every weather front to roll across the Longgrass Plains.
Was Sarsparilla House originally a secret place of worship? Is that why it was sited at the top of this specific hill?
Naturally, Jesse Devonshire and Zhang Sephia found themselves heading this way. Why, the SNAFU Guild knows better than to leave wounded foes wandering about!
Wrong Way thinks the big skull-shaped boulder looks like a beehive, especially with all those tiny holes through it that create the whistling effect.
Build a Better Ewe!
inside Sarsparilla Bunkhouse....
... silence.
The long version of the Previouslies:
Rewards Granted
Summary:
- We are doing a single round of experience point award to cover the entire Sarsparilla Battle! All members of the SNAFU Posse, over the course of Chapters 15 and 16, each receive 5000 XP for the epic work of thwarting not one, not two, but three Big Bads.
- Everyone also gets personal XP awards. (See below)
Remember, we have worked out that your Animal Companions determine their levels off of their Chosen Person, so going forward we will not include them in XP calculations.
General note:
It is time to Ding!
By the conclusion of this campaign, everyone should have doubled the accumulated Experience Points that lived on their character sheet before the two-week hurricane began. In order to do the actual leveling up, you must work out with the Primary GM specifics regarding your training:
- What teacher or teachers will you seek out?
- Do those teachers require services in trade for their work?
- How much time does your training require?
- If you have a companion, follower, or other NPC assistant, how much time and resource must you expend for their own improvement, in addition to your training?
- What new resources do you need to acquire for your new abilities, in addition to repairs of your existing gear?
- ChefChef missed a lot of this battle due to his imprisonment and near-doom. However, in the course of this campaign he already earned enough to get from Warrior 3 to at least Warrior 5, and maybe multiclass into Culinarian! (There's no such thing. Chef's imagination is in overdrive right now.)
- Lee ChungLee Chung earned an additional 1500 XP for his honorable actions of stepping directly into danger to defend his teammates Bruthazmus, then Jesse, and finally for racing into the Sarsparilla Bunkhouse to rescue Liberata Pasquarella (and not only her, as it turned out! Two more women in that Bunkhouse needed rescuing!) while supporting Zhang Sephia. In the process, he worked with the team to remove several demons from the possessed souls.
Lee also earned 400 XP for rescuing his apprentice Chef from a fate worse than merely getting slaughtered! - Jesse DevonshireJesse Devonshire earned an additional 900 XP for his clever Problematic Compliance under the Will-Bound condition. He used a Woolly Rhinoceros' limited forward vision and overwhelming Charge attack to excellent purposes in the melee!
Jesse also earned 1200 XP when he spawned a gigantic thicket in the midst of a close-cropped prairie region, slowing down any enemies who tried to race at the rescuers or rescuees. - Bruthazmus KeleBruthazmus Kele earned an additional 2000 XP for saving so many souls, nearly at the expense of his own: Faith Harrell, Justice and Mystery Mullins, Ranger Horn, Miro Teague, the list goes on.
Bruthazmus parted company from the SNAFU Guild due to the time-sensitive issues in his ongoing To Do List, so he will experience more skill development in the near future! There's that Mysterious Book hidden in his pocket, there's the matter of bringing the banshee Yathue Ilphendurl home to her god's holy mountain before her spirit decays into chaos, there may be a demonic herd animal in a bottle or jar among his gear, and that is not getting into the abchanito situation at Braunvieh Farm. - Miro TeagueMiro Teague earned an additional 800 XP for stalling the Cloven Prince long enough that the rest of the Posse could handle an immediate problem on the other side of Sarsparilla Barn. He also earned 500 XP for his share of the melee against several Hell Bovines plus a bonus 700 XP for emptying out every healing spell he could access in his efforts to keep the Posse and the rescuees all alive.
- Zhang SephiaZhang Sephia earned an additional 1200 XP for coming up with an ingenious, risky plan to divert the entire Hell Stampede, thus significantly reducing the chances of a Total Party Wipe during the Final Showdown at Sarsparilla Ranch -- while giving the GM an excuse to still count them as a factor in the Challenge Rating for this entire Encounter.
She also earned an additional 400 XP for rescuing Dashi Opiatmasin, Faylene Tarntaise, and Enecone Vannucci as Sephia made her approach to the southern face of Sarsparilla Barn.
Top that off with a bonus 500 XP for the contributions to team efforts near Gate One, up past the Whistling Skull, and in the Rolling Cabbage attacks on the western fields.
Finally:
The players who answered my requests in Discord for behind-the-scenes assistance during the campaign should check their private messages. I really appreciate how much you made the game better for everyone, especially with the voice acting; and in return for your investment in the game, you get a modest experience point award from me.
