Tom and Juliette’s leaving do
Most of Warped have known for a while that Jules was moving down to London at some point to start a new job and the plan was to have a leaving do (i.e. go to the pub and get drunk) last Friday as part of her last weekend up North. Tom then managed to surprise us all by jumping the gun (so to speak) and finding a new job that started before Jules’ did, so it turned out to be a joint goodbye drinking session.
The original plan was for most of us to meet up in Kro before moving on to Fab when Lizzy got in on the train, but it turned out that Fab was already busy when Kate & Company got there so they decided to come and meet us in the pub instead. I think I actually enjoyed it more that way, seeing as it meant I was leaving at the same time as everyone else (if we’d been going to Fab I would have had to go before last orders to get the tram), and it was good to see everyone again. It was also the first time I’ve properly relaxed in ages—hurrah for the calming effects of beer.
Dungeons and Dragons
(This is a bit more detailed than usual, mainly in case Kate wants to catch up on what’s being going on).
This week was a bit more interesting than usual. As I’ve already mentioned, Tom has a new job so he wasn’t able to attend, and Kate wasn’t able to make it this week either so our numbers were somewhat diminished. However, all of our characters had gained enough experience to level up, which basically means we get a bit more powerful and harder to kill. Well, that’s the theory, but due to an appalling die roll I ended up only gaining one hit point, so I am still extremely vulnerable to any attacks. I did get some new spells though and can cast one more a day so I’m happy in that respect.
That didn’t stop us from continuing with our foray into the woods, until Tom’s ranger suddenly saw something on the ground, picked it up and then headed off quickly in a different direction (a plot twist to allow for Tom to go down South without losing his character indefinitely). I was tempted to blast a volley of magic missiles after him for abandoning us but calmed down quickly enough to reconsider that course of action.
Fortunately we weren’t abandoned completely as the ranger had helpfully pointed us in the right direction before doing a runner. However, as we got closer to our destination we could hear footsteps behind us and so a panic ensued which involved me diving into the middle of a thorn bush and Jules making a terrible attempt to hide behind a tree. We were all ready to unleash bolts, arrows and spells in the general direction of the footsteps until a familiar voice of “hello, it’s only me” identified the noise as being Lucy’s thief.
However, we couldn’t sit around and chat all day because within a couple of minutes we heard more footsteps approaching, and this time it turned out to be an Orc, with some others somewhere nearby. Frantic attempts to hide involved me diving back into the thorn bush and concealing myself and Lucy scrambling up a tree and (being a thief and therefore used to stealth movements) managed to more or less disappear. However, Jules decided instead to attempt to climb a tree, only to fall down with a thump and then her attempts to run into a bush and hide failed spectacularly when she ran straight into David and promptly tripped over.
Unsurprisingly, this amount of crashing and banging by the fighters alerted the Orcs to our presence, and they were quickly back in force (well, there were three of them, but that counts as a significant number when your party is as inept at combat as ours is). Unfortunately, they chose to stand right next to the bush where I was hiding, and as such I couldn’t do anything until they’d been engaged by the fighters. Thankfully, David didn’t disappoint and promptly charged in with a huge roar and started hacking away with his sword. This, combined with Jules’ similar engagement of the enemy, offered me the opportunity to jump out of the bush and shoot one of the Orcs in the back (I’ve decided that the laws of chivalry don’t apply to such creatures, so I was justified in this course of action).
After dispatching the Orcs, we rifled through their bodies to see what could be salvaged. The others didn’t have much luck, but I managed to pick up a decent long sword with someone’s name engraved onto it and a decent scabbard to place it in. Feeling rather pleased with myself, we headed off towards a nearby cave entrance where we presumed the Orcs had come from.
Given that venturing into the cave was our first experience of being anywhere other than outside or in a domestic building, we proceeded fairly slowly and on full alert. However, up to this point we appeared to have finished off all the occupants of the cave, only coming across three bedsheets which presumably belonged to the dead Orcs outside.
After a bit of wandering about we came across a room containing an altar which seemed to affect David and Jules (the markings on their foreheads started to glow when they approached it) and a wooden door at the back of the cavern. Although the door was padlocked, Lucy managed to pick the lock with relative ease and we headed forward, only to be faced with yet another door. David decided to do the obvious thing and try the handle, only to have a spike shoot out into his hand, causing a great deal of pain. Luckily, Lucy spotted the actual method of opening the door, though not before David had iineffectively smashed against it a few times with his sword.
The room behind looked fairly empty, other than a skeleton hung against the wall at one side. Unfortunately, as soon as one of us stepped foot into the room, the skeleton came to life and moved to attack us. Everyone drew their swords (yes, even me!) and prepared to cut the enemy to ribbons. Unfortunately, it turns out that swords aren’t too effective against skeletons and, beyond some superficial damage inflicted by David, it escaped unharmed and then took a huge chunk out of Jules’ torso in retaliation. I also managed to fumble my attack and get my sword entangled in the skeleton’s ribs, losing hold of it.
Before the skeleton could do any more damage, a door at the other end of the room opened and out came an Orc, presumably a wizard or cleric of some sort as he commanded the skeleton to stop. Lucy and I tried to engage the Orc in sufficient dialogue to come to some sort of amicable resolution, but alas, it was not to be and he disappeared, ordering the skeleton to continue its relentess attack.
At this point we all decided that the best course of action was to run away as fast as possible. We managed to get back to the altar room and slam the door shut, at which point I wanted to stay and observe whether the skeleton would break through – working on the theory that the range of the spell to animate it might not be very far – but as the others were fleeing with the only real source of light (Lucy’s lantern) and splinters from the door were shooting past me, I decided to run for the cave entrance as well.
We backed away far enough away from the entrance so that we could still see the skeleton but with sufficient distance so that it wasn’t a direct threat. I’m guessing it couldn’t see us as it just stood at the entrance moving its head from side to side, so we were safe, until Jules suddenly turned into a duck and headed for the entrance. Fortunately the skeleton decided not to attack, but I suspect that’s the last we’ve heard of her (a quick way to kill her character off, although we don’t know that in the game of course).
As I had to go and get the tram we called it a night at that point. According to Jon there are at least three ways that we could have defeated the skeleton, and it certainly wasn’t meant to be the challenge that it turned out to be. I suspect we’ll have to use non-bladed weapons, such as clubs, which will crush bones rather than try and slice them. There’s also the possibility of setting the cleric on it whilst turning undead, which will make the skeleton run away or cower so that we can attack at ease without it retaliating. The only flaw with that plan is that the cleric is still at the tavern in the village, so we’ll either have to go back and fetch her or figure out another way to defeat the skeleton. I get the feeling that dragging the cleric along is probably a good idea though, given that she is the only one with any healing capacity after David consumed my potion.
In a way it’s a shame that our group is now down to only four players as we’ll miss having Tom and Jules joining in, but we do still have a good mix – a fighter to attack enemies and defend the other adventurers, a thief to pick locks, disarm traps and scout ahead, a cleric to provide some extra fighting capacity and, most importantly, healing spells, and a sorceror to provide a magic arsenal. We’re also all getting used to the game mechanics now so a three hour gaming session involves quite a lot getting done, as you can probably see from the long account of last night that you’ve just read/scanned/almost completely ignored.
Rest of the week
Tomorrow I’m going out for the day somewhere (not sure where yet, depends on the weather more than anything), which means I’ll get a bit of peace and quiet away from my sisters, who have now finished for the summer. Thursday I’m not up to much, although hopefully the second series of Yes Prime Minister on DVD will have arrived so I’ll probably be watching that. Hopefully if everything goes well I’m off down to somewhere South of Birmingham on Friday where I will (hold your breath) be disconnected from the Internet for the best part of three days. I’m sure I’ll survive though, in fact it’ll be nice to be away from the pace of things and from these blasted computers that often cause me so much trouble (*cough* Compsoc servers cough).
Finally, the title for this entry comes from the song of the same name which has been on the music channels a lot recently and is now stuck in my head (not too bad as I quite like it). Just in case you were wondering.