The Gaming Den

Yay! Boss fight! I say diplomasise but stay battle ready, because although it’s brain may have rotted away and might not understand us, this is a game run by Ancient, so you never know when an undead monster will partake in a rap battle.

Shrapnel wrote: so you never know when an undead monster will partake in a rap battle.

Wouldn't it have to be a mummy for a wrap battle?


Sorry.

Never apologize for a pun! They make people happy. All people.

I kick myself for not making it myself. Ah, well.

I don't think it can communicate with us. Shout at Urlik to torch the sucker and charge it alongside him. I hope he likes his undead meat well done. (If not he can smoke the ashes in his pipe.)

Cold sweat beads Gorman's brow as he charges the figure still rising from the pedestal. Part of him is glad that the creature - he cannot think of it as human - does not draw the sword, the fumbling hands of the dead thing have an aura of cold to them that the dwarf can feel through his plate mail. With a yell, the dwarf smashes his sword into the dry torso, rending the aged finery...but the undead creature claws at him, black fingernails scraping against his plate mail, seeking the warmth of living flesh.

Urlik, bless his green hide, appears behind the critter and shoves the torch against its skull. Ancient silk combusts easily, and the flesh beneath begins to blacken, but some terrible force keeps the figure moving. Gorman hacks at it savagely, frantically, gorge rising at the flesh dripping off the bones, and feeling in his soul that one touch is all it would take to be the end of him...and that touch almost comes several times, though th figure be nearly chopped to pieces.

Only when a lucky strike by Gorman slices off the skull and sends it skittering onto the floor does the corpse shudder and cease to move...and only when Urlik's great green foot smashes down, rendering the skull to grey dust does the burning corpse finally begin to collapse in on itself, the dark force that animated the figure finally leaving for good.

Gorman nods to Urlik and delivers a gruff "thanks". He steals the undead creatures sword first, and strips the remaining undamaged finery from the corpse (along with any jewelry its wearing) if he can convince himself it has any value. Then he peers down the slot of each of the pots, trying to examine what they contain. If there are no obvious traps in the stonework around them, he'll loot them from most to least valuable.

There are no jewels or ornaments on the corpse of the wight, and the silk is no more than burnt ruins. But the sword lays where the corpse had dropped it in its scabbard.

The urn with a slot contains 1,000 silver pieces [+100 XP]
The urn with a cross-shaped slot contains 2,000 gold pieces [+2,000 XP]
The urn with a triangle-slot contains 4 gems, three the size of your fingernail (100 gp each) and one the size of your thumb (500 gp) [+800 XP]

Gorman has obtained sufficient experience to go up a level, and is now a Warrior.

All, wighty then. East door would be to the left.

Take fancy sword.

Wait, let's go back and claim that other urn, it could contain copper pieces and still potentially have enough in it to push us up another level. Let's do it before we claim the sword, so we have a better saving throw on the offchance it's cursed or whatever.

Did you want to haul the urns back to room 1 while you're at it?

Yeah, bring everything to room 1.

Do we know how much XP Gorman needs before reaching level 3? That would color my response as to whether we take the sword now or wait on it.

We didn't get a wrap battle...

Ah. We did go through a lot of trouble to get that sword, so we HAVE to take it. Also, is there an end-goal to the adventure, or is it just "acquire as much wealth as dwemerly possible?"

I mean, the satisfying ending is wait for the tables to produce something that could be a creditable quest goal (notable boss-caliber enemy, distinctive magic item) and having defeated/acquired it, declare that to have been your goal all along.

Personally, having leveled once is good enough for me.

Shrapnel wrote:We didn't get a wrap battle...

It was a wight. If Gorman wasn't wearing plate armor, he would be dead and the next hero in the conga line of death would be facing two wights.

Ah. We did go through a lot of trouble to get that sword, so we HAVE to take it. Also, is there an end-goal to the adventure, or is it just "acquire as much wealth as dwemerly possible?"

I can keep rolling until we run out of dungeon or interest.

With 3000 gold, we can make level 3 and retire as a merchant But we could maybe get that by selling our plate armor when we give up adventuring.

I guess if there's no real progression (save perhaps leaving a stash of treasure with the potions and scrolls by the dungeon entrance, for the adventurer that follows us), then this could get stale pretty fast. Maybe we should just count ourselves lucky to have done as well as we have, ending the threat of a spawn-producing undead and rescuing a captive troll.

Gorman should marry the troll in the end. I love stories where the girl gets the dwarf.

But I'm still having fun, so why not keep going? Drag our l00t to the entrance for easy retrieval.

Very well. With Urlik's help, Gorman drags the urns back to Room 1, to place along with the other one. They also bring along the sword, still in its scabbard.

To the west, the weasels have grown quiet.

Check the urn we left but didn't search, in case there's enough money to level up again.

The urn contains 1,000 sp and 1 gp (+101XP)

Is that enough to push us up another level? I figured 3000xp would be the next level up point.

The level-up to Swordsman (3rd level) is 4,000 XP.

Half vote for checking on the weasels and see if they are playing possum.

East door from the wight chamber. Have we equipped the sword and not suffered any terrible effect, yet?

Gorman has not unsheathed the sword or strapped it on yet.