AAR: [3M] We Happy Few(2021-07-02 2300)

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Xzandrate
Posts:382
Joined:Tue Apr 07, 2020 8:28 pm
Re: AAR: [3M] We Happy Few(2021-07-02 2300)

Post by Xzandrate » Sat Jul 03, 2021 3:02 pm

AAR: We Happy Few
GM: Xzandrate
ECR: 3
Difficulty: Medium

Player Rewards:
Z'mokki: 1400 lp, 275 sp, 3 TIPs
Caesar: 1400 LP 275 SP 3 TIP
Valteri: 1,400 LP, 275 SP, 3 TIPs, Questing for Thystonius
Garak: 1,400 LP, 275 sp, 3 TIPs
Sobelle: 1400 lp, 275 sp, 3 TIPs, Questing for Thystonius

Alternate Rewards: Quest for Thystonius

Journal Reward: +70 LP, +68.8 SP

GM Reward:Patrique 2200 LP 375 sp 3 TIP

Downtime:
Sobelle:
Animal Training


Summary: The Adepts have defeated the slavers, rescued the Rangers, as well as an initiate questor of Thystonius.

ChrisDDickey
Posts:1011
Joined:Sun Nov 27, 2016 10:02 pm

Re: AAR: [3M] We Happy Few(2021-07-02 2300)

Post by ChrisDDickey » Sun Jul 04, 2021 10:41 am

From the Journal of Caesar Bonaparte, Human Illusionist. On the occasion of my rise to the third circle. 

The Army of Throal posted notices that it was looking for a few low-circle Adepts. We inquired and found that a group of three rangers had been sent on a mapping mission, and failed to report back. The army did not seem all that concerned because they took the time to print up the flyers, and then when we answered, told us about the mission and told us to set out on the next Thursday. We had to prode them to provide us with a description of the route they were exploring more detailed than "to the east". We did a bit of equipment, I bought a climbing kit, some navigation charts, and a week of mine rations, and we set out on the day specified. Our group consisted of myself, plus a Troll Nethermancer named Valteri Tuoni, an Ork Archer named Garak, the Elf Beastmaster Sobelle Shagella, and a very flamboyant T'Skrang Thief named Z'mokki. 

We set out following the route we had been given, and after a few days were at the end of the known trails, however we could tell that the rangers had been following game trails and we knew where they were planning on exploring. We passed through a crack in a canyon wall and somebody dropped a net upon us. The net was covered in a sleeping poison, and we all fell asleep. When we awoke we were in a small settlement.  The leader was called All-Tusk, and he claimed that they were members of a cult of Thystonius, and lived by his ideals. He had 9 followers, a mix of Ork, Human, and Dwarf. They also had 5 slaves, including the three rangers. 

All-Tusk challenged us to a bet, our freedom against the freedom of his slaves. It was a challenge we were not free to refuse, since the obvious other choice was to fight the 10 of them then and there. To All-Tusks credit, the challenge was fair, on the one hand his three champions (two humans and a dwarf) were obviously very familiar with the course, and had practiced upon it. On the other hand we were 5 against 3 and the rules allowed for a fight to take flags from the other party. We were very confident of our eventual victory. 

The course was physically challenging and I contributed very little until the very end. The first set of obstacles was racing over some rough terrain that had patches of loose rock. We easily won that when Sobelle sent her pet falcon to fetch the flag, which it did amazingly quickly. I had barely done one fifth of the course before Sobelle had the flag in her hand. The next section involved either jumping a chasm, crossing a rope bridge over the chasm, or swimming a river in the chasm and then climbing a rope out of the chasm. We almost lost this challenge when the dwarf in the opposition managed to jump the chasm, but Garak, our Archer used a sling stone to literally knock the flag out of the dwarfs hands. The flag wrapped around the stone and Garak used his Call Arrow talent to call the stone back to him, with the flag still wrapped around it. The third challenge was a cave with a great bear inside. Our opponents waited outside inviting us to go first. Sobelle the Beastmaster saw that the bear had been beaten many times before. She quickly dominated the beast and had it hold still while she treated its wounds. In the meantime I cast Cloak upon our Thief Z'mokki, and he snuck up and took the flag. We gave all three flags to him and told him to wait for us on the far side of the chasm. I then cast cloak on everybody in turn and sent them  sneaking past the party waiting outside. This went well until there was only Sobelle and myself left. Despite her cloak, Sobelle made noise moving, and when spotted she marched right up to them and gave them an earful about mistreating the poor bear. They asked where everyone else was, and Sobelle said that we were all killed by the bear. They entered the cave (moving right past me) and Sobelle and I hurried to join the others on the far side of the chasm. We all made it back to the cults camp long before the other team.

All-Tusk proved to not be a man of his word. He accused us of cheating, saying that using the falcon in one of the tests was against the rules. He attacked one of us, and the others in my group ganged up and quickly subdued him. The members of his gang did not support him in this. I decided to assault his moral and authority. I turned my back on him and turned to his former slaves instructing them to pack up as we would all be leaving soon. I then launched into the famous Questor of Lochost speech from "Titan Liberace" about Lochost and the evils of slavery. At the very end of the fight Valteri Tuoni did something outrageously unnecessary and dangerous. All-Tusk was clearly on his last legs and defeated, when Valteri cast "Aspect of the Fog Ghost" upon Z'mokki, causing him to go berserk and keep attacking the nearest living thing. I decry this as outrageously reckless, in that while he did check to make sure that none of us were the nearest target and well away from Z'mokki, he did not check to make sure that none of the slaves we were in the process of liberating were. It seems to me that it was nothing but the wildest of luck (or maybe just that the 2/3 odds held) that Z'mokki attacked slavers instead of slaves. Careless and reckless.

Just as I was getting to the 2nd great part in my speech from "Titan Liberace", I heard one of the other slaves (not the rangers) introduce himself to Valteri as being named Zrinko and as real Questor of Thystonius and thank us for breaking up the false cult. Valteri and Sobelle ended up becoming Questors of Thystonius as well.

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