Murderous GM?

[luke]

So last night was "the big fight."

Now this is in our secondary campaign, the one we play when we can't get our main campaign together. It's designed to be imitative of old school DnD with the BW twists laid in. (Deadly hacknslash vs smedley hacknslash).

So I had laid the leads for this "big fight" a couple of years ago, but the party never picked up on them. Last year I dropped another big hint and only last month did they actually decide to get it together and follow up some leads and check it out.

So using some contacts with gypsies, pilgrims and ladies' gossip the group: 4 knights, 3 squires, 6 men at arms, a foppish sorcerer, a samagosian shaman, and a gyspy all walk into a tomb (sounds like the beginning of a bad medieval joke).

Last session we did the leg work, the mood setting and the getting there. This time I planned for a full session fight. I even drew a battle map, which my players complained about, but they loved it. In order to simulate the limited light available I took a piece of craft paper and laid it on top of the map then cut out a 10 cm circle above the party to represent their torch light. This was great! While a little cumbersome on the table, it freaked the hell out of them and NO ONE would leave the circle of light. When they threw a torch ahead of them i just slid the "light circle" forward to reveal more of the chamber -- and a horde of zombies (of course!). Anyway, it wasn't until one of the knights, an aspiring paladin, pulled off a minor miracle and light the place with holy light that I let them see all.

The place was literally packed with baddies -- one sorcerous necromancer with rod, one martial necromancer with magic hammer and rod, one orc Lash Bearer (a friend of the family there on business!), a couple of goblins in attendance on the orc, about a dozen walking dead men, and a pit dug out in the center of the room from which was rising a massive rotten flesh-covered hand -- a giant undead demon summoned forth from the earth by the necromancer. (Oh yeah, the party had already given wounds to the spider and wolf guardians of the tomb, they were hiding out for the fight.)

I'm not going to describe the whole fight in gorey detail, but it was brutal. I knew it was going to be an all nighter (4 hours? Not so bad!). After the initial push inward I declared that I was "out for blood! If I don't kill tonight I am going to be so pissed!"

We did two pushes of "simplified melee". One for the party to force their way in, and another as two knights held off a zombie counter attack. The party won both, and both exchanges were resolved in about five minutes of table time. The rest of the action we scripted out. Let me state that MOST fought smart, some did not.

One of the more experienced squires got picked up by the giant demon and tossed into the pool of oil whence the demon came. He's a gonner. One of the knights charged headlong into very tight single combat with the martial necromancer. Combat went a couple of exchanges before they both had simultaneously strikes scripted -- I for the head and he for my leg. We both got superb shots and we both failed our armor tests. He took a mortal wound (and was immediately fallen upon by a zombie -- yuck!) and the necromancer took a severe wound. He was hesitating for three actions afterwards, and was quickly dispatched by another knight.

So that's two deaths on the PC-side so far. Finally, the lead knight -- the famous justiciar -- was swatted by the hand of the demon. I did a called shot to the chest, he failed his armor roll (twice), and took a B10 -- a Traumatic wound for him.

So three PCs down (out of 8 PCs present, everyone else was NPC). Of course, the players managed to pull off a win. The other necromancer knocked himself cold with Tax. (Sorry, Dro you got hit with a Fear spell and hesitated. No eye-gouging for you.)

And the demon was taken down by holy water, Emperor's Hand and then finally one of the squire's firebombs. Boom! Everyone covered in necromancer's oil! Yay! Everyone's going to turn into a zombie!

The wounded justiciar was saved by the gyspy who has some seriously hot herbalism skills. The mortally wounded knight -- Sir Ulrich -- succumbed to his wounds. Even the gypsy's 7 successes (!) couldn't stave off that MW.

So am I wrong for doing called shots with a demon who has a G10 Power (but no Hands of Stone trait)? That was probably the single toughest monster i've laid out against a player in BW to date. Funny thing is, he's not as nasty as it can get! The ritual wasn't done, so he didn't have all his traits (or all his arms!)

-abzu

[Catalyst]

Wow, sounds like handfuls of fun, but the bad guys weren't quite well enough armed. Maybe if the demon had been summoned completely, the demon would have stood head and shoulders above the puny PCs, leaving them under its thumb, but all the hand was able to really accomplish was giving some PCs the finger. I guess it did nail a few of them, though. The baddies shouldn't have knuckled under that easily though, in my opinion. Maybe if the demon had totally spawned, it could have toed the line, won by a nose, been handed a victory by successfully facing all the PCs.

Ok, I'll stop now. Seriously, it sounds like a heck of a fight, and probably a good matchup of power against the PCs. Out of curiosity, though, if you'd really wanted blood, which would have been more effective, do you think?

a) Beef up the zombies.
b) Beef up The Hand.
c) Beef up the significant NPCs.

My thought would be a), giving them a touch of extra speed and damage resistance to overwhelm the PCs, but that may not work out the way it sounds like the combat went...

[Drozdal]

It always nice to now that Gm screwed you after you've left for damn subway :P - btw that charge was a well laid action (with a character who lacked combat skills no armour and no weaepons - only bare hands). Charging sarmagossian shaman should for sure looked quite distracting.
Maybe if the demon had totally spawned, it could have toed the line, won by a nose, been handed a victory by successfully facing all the PCs.
From Abzu's description demon would be around 10 feet tall, and celling was like 4 so that didin't matter - besides chamber was soo packed that there wasn't enough place for him to came out of the pool (that's why he tossed squire and some zombies inside). And i loved that ork, who was soo bloodthirsty that he even cut his way thru zombies to get to players.

That was a real fun (and do not forget fridge incident).

Drozdal

[luke]

um, if you must know my secrets, I would have thrown in more zombies. not tougher, just more. numbers almost always win. As it was, during the "big fight" each player had a single zombie to deal with and that was more than enough trouble!

However, the room was PACKED wall to wall with bodies --PC and bad guy. There really was no room to fit more.

Another thing I guess I could've done was let the necromancer start with more spells up. Damn, I should have done that. He started casting as the combat began. Oh wait, I know why I couldn't do that! He was finishing up summoning his giant zombie demon! He was a little preocuppied as the party came storming in!

Actually, though, the match up was pretty even, but probably weighted on my side. It was a really tough fight! And the players only barely managed to pull it off.

-abzu

[eruditus]

that combat would have gone so much better if the Justicar had brought along his trusty new Huntsman - Greggor - tha man capable of taking out a noble and his bodyguard with nigh a hardship (other than them skewering his grippled foot).

;)

[luke]

that combat would have gone so much better if the Justicar had brought along his trusty new Huntsman - Greggor - tha man capable of taking out a noble and his bodyguard with nigh a hardship (other than them skewering his grippled foot).

undoubtedly.
of course, greggor would also be a zombie right about now, but he would have saved the justiciar in his valiant effort!

[eruditus]

that combat would have gone so much better if the Justicar had brought along his trusty new Huntsman - Greggor - tha man capable of taking out a noble and his bodyguard with nigh a hardship (other than them skewering his grippled foot).

undoubtedly.
of course, greggor would also be a zombie right about now, but he would have saved the justiciar in his valiant effort!

I find this particulary funny. greggor was a reduex of a character from an Ars Magica campaign (a game this campaign reminded me of) and in that game Greggor was turned into a vampire. Seems Greggor is just destined to be undead. :lol:

[eruditus]

Interestingly we wrapped up a storyline in my first BW campaign ( YAY! :D Update soon ) and the only "zombie" they have come across is a compatriot zombified by the group houdoun/sorcerer (see Dark Virtues journals for more info). At first I thought "well, gee zombies won't frighten the group 'cause they are so used to having Roar [the zombie] around." however, I only hope that if - read when - the time "arises" that they DO meet the walking dead they are reminded of how horribly powerful their own compatriot is.... x10

:twisted:

[Catalyst]

Zombies are underrated in most FRPGs, IMO :D

Good to shock the players once in a while with things like necromancers finding "new" methods of creating more powerful zombies... heheh.

[luke]

hence my giant zombie demon!

actually, i don't really have "zombies" per se in my game. there are just many shades of living death and undeath. many shades that my players haven't discovered yet!

but they are soon to!

Oh Ulrich... you shall be more powerful in this parody of life than you were in the true thing.

[Kublai]

I don't think the enemies needed any beefing up at all! :shock:

These zombies are no suckers! Very insidious! I am terrified of them each time! And the Demon zombie was horrifying! My character refused to go anywhere near it!

I think the PCs were at their limits with this fight. Anything more and no one would've lived!

And I think doing a Called Shot to the justicar's chest was quite unnecessary! :evil: As it was, the hand had a VA of 2 and a high enough Power to kill anyone with a Mark wound. It was also massive - something like 5 feet long! And, our best wounds were only doing Superficials and Lights to the beast! Thank God for Emperor's Hand and some lucky rolling!

[Catalyst]

Oh, I wasn't saying they NEEDED beefing up, just wondering where Abzu would go if he wanted to do so :D

[Fourth Horseman]

>>So am I wrong for doing called shots with a demon who has a G10 Power (but no Hands of Stone trait)?<<

F*** Yes. But only because it was the first instinctive thing that the hand did upon popping out of the hole. Otherwise, let her rip.

[luke]

oh ho, look who rears his ugly head one year later. It's the aggrieved party!

Isn't there some statute of limitations on your complaining?

And it was not the first thing the giant zombie hand did out of the pit -- it was well after you were hacking it to pieces. An act of undead desperation, pure and simple.

Besides, that which does not kill Tristam, makes him stronger.

-L