Session 3 / Ruined Manor Part 3 Report

General Summary

At the start of Session 3, the party found themselves in the manor's courtyard, with Ðupyaf trapped by trumpet vines.

Haaða's player delivered the session prologue and removed a condition. Yum-yum's player was absent for the session.
Haaða's goal: Befriend the hag
Ðupyaf's goal: Make a cool potion
Diira's goal: Find the treasure that the Kingsmen sought

The Vines

Diira decided to try to force Ðupyaf out of the vines by doing a flying leap onto him. Ðupyaf helped by shouting advice about vegetable gardens. The leap did not work and Diira crashed into Ðupyaf, failing to free Ðupyaf and also getting himself trapped in the vines in the process.

Diira needed Fighter skill to make the move work, which he did not have. He instead used Beginner's Luck Health, which, due to his low Health, also did not work.

Haaða then had the idea of summoning her rat friends to assist with the vine removal. She cussed in Rat at the top of her lungs, and three rats appeared and began chewing at the vines.

The commotion caused by Haaða, Diira, and the trumpeting vines attracted the attention of a wolf-spider. Haaða suggested the party distract or trick the wolves into moving away from the two trapped adventurers, to give the rats time to chew through the vines. Ðupyaf managed to throw a trumpeting trumpet vine stem away from the party, which caused the wolf-spider to run after it, in the direction of the open marsh. The rats chewed through the vines, and the party was free.

Shouting Rat curse words was a Good Idea, but combined with all the other commotion summoned the wolf-spider. The GM initially thought distracting the wolf-spider should be a Trick Conflict, but the wolf-spider had such a low disposition it would have been more appropriate to use a vs. test.

The Wolf-Spider Lair

Since the wolf-spider ran in the direction opposite to its lair, the party decided to investigate the lair. Diira and Ðupyaf approached the lair with a torch while Haaða stood watch outside with the rats. Inside, the lair contained old shelves and junk, with a few treasures glinting in the spider silk. On closer inspection, the party found a sack of silver coins and a pair of sturdy boots. While the others were searching for treasure, Haaða took a wolf-spider egg and put it in her waterskin, so that she could hatch it and have a pet.

Diira donned the boots, and found that they had a piece of paper crumpled inside. The paper bore the symbol of a moth, the symbol of a fox, and the word "treasure". As a Chaos mage, Diira recognized the two symbols as the emblems of Hachra, Goddess of Chaos.

Based on this information, the party decided to go back to the library to see if there was any additional information left by the tinker.

Recognizing the symbol of the moth from character creation, and using Diira's background knowledge of Chaos magic to interpret the note, was a Good Idea. Players were allowed to "fast travel" back to the library despite not having a map, as it was a safe and short route.

The Library

Once in the library, the party noticed a shrine in the corner of the room, which they had seen previously, but ignored in favor of searching the books. Diira and Haaða decided to search the wall near the shrine for any more Chaos symbols. While doing so, they found a secret door with a pinhole lock. Diira used the Multitudinous Tool to open the lock, but the Gadget's mechanisms hit him in the eye as he was operating it.

Players rolled Scout while searching the room, as they did not describe actions that would automatically lead to the discovery of a secret door. Diira failed the Ritualist role to use the Gadget and gained the Injured condition.

The Workshop

The party opened the secret door and found a Tinker's workshop. The room was full of unfinished golem parts such as hands and feet. Ðupyaf realized that the room smelled of bomb-making ingredients. Diira threw a golem hand out the window to allow in more light, and then started searching the workbenches for usable scrap.

The party decided to try making a golem. The hat-book that Diira had previously taken from the library described two methods for golem creation: one would produce a malicious golem, and the other a persuasive golem. The party decided to make a malicious golem, for which they already had all the components (including trumpet vine flowers, a wolf-spider egg, and scrap).

The Kitchen

Haaða did not want to give up her pet wolf-spider egg, so the party decided to return to the lair to get another egg. On the way back through the kitchen, they encountered Vælrin the Hag again. As last time, Vælrin ate at the table with the rats, who appeared mesmerized. Haaða decided to join Vælrin at the table and attempt to befriend her. She took a bit of the Oat Corn porridge, and felt a presence calling to her mind. She resisted, and stopped eating the porridge.

Haaða rolled Will to overcome the mesmerizing effects of the hag.

Haaða attempted to talk to Vælrin. Vælrin called Haaða by the name "Ðiiva", which Haaða recognized as the name of her friend in Magehold. Vælrin grew frustrated at Haaða for not being Ðiiva, and ran through a list of names, none of which the party recognized except one, "Vælrin". Someone repeated "Vælrin" back to the hag, and she said "I am Vælrin". Vælrin questioned the party about "Lem", but no one knew who she meant. Vælrin grew increasingly frustrated, and finally threw a bowl of porridge. Ðupyaf was devestated by the waste of food.

Ðupyaf's belief that "all is well" was challenged by the waste of good cooking.

Diira decided to tell Vælrin that the person she was looking for ("Lem") was outside. The party followed Vælrin back out into the courtyard, and Diira tried to convince her to go into the wolf-spider lair. Vælrin refused, and ran off. The party made an uneventful return to the wolf-spider lair and collected a second egg.

The Golem

The party returned to the workshop to assemble the golem. Diira put the body together using the spider egg and the scraps he found, and Ðupyaf prepared the alchemic concoction that would activate the golem. Diira succeeded in assembling the golem, but Ðupyaf made a mistake in his Alchemy.

The concoction activated the golem, but also set it on fire. As the flaming golem came alive, the party realized that the "malicious" golem was not their ally. Diira muttered, "Praise the Chaos gods."

The party decided to flee. Just as they started to run, Diira threw a flask of lantern oil at the golem. It exploded, and the party ran through the burning manor back out into the courtyard, where the rats had also fled.

The Flee Conflict with the golem was cut short by Diira's improptu explosive. A Flee Conflict with the burning building as the antagonist could have worked instead, but was not used.

Rewards Granted

Character Rewards

Players earned Fate and Persona based on roleplay:

Goals completed:

• Ðupyaf: made a potion

Goals worked towards:

• Haaða: worked towards befriending the hag
• Diira: learned more about the great treasure

MVP

Diira

Teamworker

Ðupyaf

Treasures found

• Wolf-spider treasures
• Tinker scraps / gadget parts

Related Reports

• Session 1 / Ruined Manor Part 1 Report
• Session 2 / Ruined Manor Part 2 Report
• Session 3 / Ruined Manor Part 3 Report
• Session 4 / Ruined Manor Part 4 Report
• Session 5 / Magehold Report
• Session 6 / The Black Forest Report
• Session 7 / Tuuran Hill Part 1 Report
• Session 8: The Bone Witch Report
• Session 9 / Tuuran Hill Part 2 Report
• Session 11: Magehold Report
• Session 12: Sailing Expedition Report