[Let's Play] Dragonsword of Lankhmar main thread

[Beroli]

With a three-way tie (all the ones with Dragon in the title), I've settled the tie in favor of:

Dragonsword of Lankhmar.jpg (15.9 KiB) Viewed 3376 times

The (in)famous independent thieves, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, have learned of the existence of the Dragonsword of Lankhmar, and Fafhrd wants it. The Thieves' Guild has had it with high-profile independent thieves operating on their territory. One player or team will play Fafhrd, the other will play the leader of the team of assassins sent after Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

The Death Chart

Resurrection magic is a fact of life in Lankhmar. If Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are killed by the Thieves' Guild, their bodies will be locked away to make sure no one resurrects them. Certain other circumstances may also make their bodies functionally irretrievable. Otherwise, their bodies will be retrieved and sold to whoever is willing to pay the highest price for them. The first four times, someone will pay to arrange for them to be resurrected to perform a service. If they die five times, the fifth time, the highest bidder will be the Thieves' Guild.

No one will bother to resurrect the Thieves' Guild assassins, but each time one pair of assassins dies, the Guildmaster will hire a new, more powerful pair of assassins. Should five pairs of assassins die, the Guild will be too frustrated and too close to bankruptcy to try yet again.

Win Conditions

The Fafhrd player or team wins if Fafhrd finds the Dragonsword and defeats whatever may be guarding it. The Thieves' Guild Assassins player or team wins if Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are dead. It is entirely possible for the Assassins player to be declared the victor despite all five pairs getting wiped out.

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser will act first in combat, unless there is a specific reason they would not. The Thieves' Guild Assassins will act first in combat, unless they are fighting Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser or there is another specific reason they would not.

So, who wants to play which team? Also feel free to ask any other questions here.

[Dogopolis]

I'll play either side, slight preference for the assassins.

[deaddmwalking]

I'll try as Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

[JourneymanN00b]

I will not have reliable access to the internet during the last 2 weeks of December since I will be out of town then.

If everyone is fine with this caveat, I will tentatively be in for the assassins.

P.S. My work and family obligations are making it extremely difficult for me to host any Let’s Plays this month. Would the community prefer that I start a thread this weekend, run it until I go out of town on December 23, and resume play in mid January? Or would it be better if I just started the thread in January?

[deaddmwalking]

I think starting when you're ready is best. Some people may forget and/or fail to check back after any lengthy hiatus.

[Beroli]

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
deaddmwalking

Thieves' Guild Assassins
Dogopolis
JourneymanN00b

Threads for the teams will go up sometime in the next twelve hours, barring unexpected delays. If you are on a team or are a nonparticipant who is considering joining a team, please do not read the other team's thread; that would be cheating.

[Thaluikhain]

I think starting when you're ready is best. Some people may forget and/or fail to check back after any lengthy hiatus.

I'd second that.

And though I won't be participating in this, I'll be spectating.

[Beroli]

Threads are up. If you're part of the Fafhrd team, read and vote (or choose, since there is currently only one member of that team) here. If you are part of the Assassins team, read and vote here.

[Dogopolis]

How does combat work? Our guys have an amount of damage they do and hit points, but nothing I can see resembling an attack strength or skill. Do they just autohit every round, or what?

[Beroli]

Each character does an individual fixed amount of damage with a physical attack, and may have other options (for example, a wizard character has a list of spells which they can cast once each in lieu of attacking physically in one round). In combat, one side goes first (nearly always the side that has a player on it, if it's one player fighting NPCs). To attack physically (or successfully cast a spell), I generate a random number from 1 to 20. On a 1 to 9, the character misses or the spell doesn't take effect. On a 10 to 17, the character hits or the spell does take effect. On an 18 or 19, a special event, which may be good or bad, takes place if the character I'm rolling for is a protagonist; any NPC instead simply misses unless they have special rules (for example, a cockatrice may have a beak attack that does trivial damage and also a note that on a "special" result one of their opponents turns to stone). Note that the Gray Mouser and Kissla count as NPCs here; only Fafhrd, Quarsh, and future Primary Player Characters get "special" results. On a 20, the character hits for double damage. Each character on that side takes an action (usually a physical attack), then each character on the other side does, until one is dead.

Each blow hits whomever the defender chooses for it to hit. Presumably, each player will choose for any extra allies to die first, then their secondary character, and finally their primary character. But it's up to them how low they want to risk, e.g., Fafhrd getting to keep a hireling alive.

[deaddmwalking]

Does everyone go back to full after a fight? Or does damage carry over?

[Beroli]

Damage carries over. You're only healed if something says you're healed.

[Dogopolis]

What happens if the NPC dies but not the PC? What if the PC dies but not the NPC?

[Beroli]

This is one of many things they were unfortunately sloppy about writing. I'm going to say that if the Primary Player Character dies, you automatically go to the Death Chart. (The Thieves' Guild will not honor an implied contract with someone who, in their books, worked for the person they had a contract with, and the Mouser will be focused on getting Fafhrd resurrected, not on the Dragonsword.) This does include that if the Gray Mouser is the last one standing after a fight with the Thieves' Guild (which would mean losing the game if Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser outright lost the fight), Fafhrd gets resurrected instead of staying dead. If the Gray Mouser, or the current assassin leader's companion, dies, Fafhrd or the assassin leader continues; their companion will be resurrected if they win the game.

[Beroli]

Fafhrd throws a dagger at one of the goons and misses. Then he swings his bastard sword twice, hitting both times for 12 damage to the goons and 12 damage to the woman, Kissla.

Grey Mouser slashes at both leaders, doing 11 damage to Quarsh with his rapier, and doing 9 damage to Kissla with his dagger.

Quarsh flings a poisoned hand axe at the Gray Mouser and hits for 12 damage. Then he slashes with his shortsword at Fafhrd and hits, doing 14 damage because of the poison on his shortsword.

Kissla slashes at the Gray Mouser with her rapier and hits for 6 damage, then slashes at Fafhrd with her rapier and misses.

The goons make a pathetic effort to hit Fafhrd and fail.


Fafhrd swings his bastard sword twice more, hitting Quarsh for 12 damage and somehow not finishing off the goons.
Grey Mouser's weapons flash out and suddenly Quarsh is fighting alone.
Quarsh slashes grimly at Fafhrd twice, hitting once for 7 damage.


Fafhrd chops Quarsh in half.

[Beroli]

Approaching the Temple of Mog, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are jumped once again by a group of scruffy-looking thieves, this time led by a huge man in red leather.

Fafhrd throws a dagger at one of the goons and hits for 8 damage. Then he grimly slashes the leader twice, doing 12 damage to him each time.

Gray Mouser slashes at the leader twice and misses both times.

The leader throws two daggers which hit both Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser for 5 damage each. Then a strange translucent entity flashes into existence next to Fafhrd and pummels him for 8 damage, trying unsuccessfully to hit Gray Mouser as well. The goons try and fail to hit the Mouser.

Fafhrd slashes twice, hitting the Guardian once for 12 damage. Renango flings another dagger, hitting the Gray Mouser for another 5 damage. Everyone else misses.

Here I pause for a decision by the Assassins.

[Beroli]

Fafhrd badly wounds Renango and cuts down the goons. The Gray Mouser slashes the Guardian's throat, but his dagger narrowly misses Renango, who is left fighting alone. Renango gets a Special result! A disembodied head floats down out of nowhere. Its ghastly expression frightens his enemies, such that they miss their next turn.

While Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are goggling at the head, Renango slashes again and misses.

Fafhrd gets a Special result. A body on the ground suddenly bursts into green flame. The noxious smoke rising from it prevents any spells from being cast this round or the next. Then Fafhrd cuts Renango, whom he vaguely remembers meeting before, down.

[Beroli]

Countess Kronia's Estate.jpg (30.5 KiB) Viewed 2852 times

[Beroli]

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are jumped by another scruffy-looking group of thieves, this time led by two beautiful young women with extremely ornate swords.

Fafhrd throws his dagger Heartseeker and hits, but one of the women, Alay, deflects it with the Silver Sword of Death.
Fafhrd misses twice with his bastard sword Graywand.
Gray Mouser misses with both his rapier Scalpel and his dagger Cat's Claw.

Yala slashes at Fafhrd with the Golden Sword of Death and misses.
Alay opens a coffer of dust and throws it in Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser's faces! They spend the next two rounds coughing and choking.
The goons futilely attempt to hit Gray Mouser.

Yala gets a Special result! Lightning strikes the ground near you. All magical spells cast by either side will miss this Combat Round and the next.
Alay hits Fafhrd for 10 damage.
The goons hit Gray Mouser for 6 damage.

Yala hits Gray Mouser for 15 damage.
Alay misses.
The goons miss.

Fafhrd gets a Special result. The noise of the battle disturbs a wizard studying. Angry, he turns Yala, Alay, and the goons into sparrows and turns Scalpel and Cat's Claw into rusty saws. The weapons will turn back fairly quickly, the assassins will not during the timeframe of this adventure.

[Beroli]

Fafhrd, the Gray Mouser, and a woman of about 18 with a longsword encounter what appear to be seven scruffy-looking thieves and a woman in her 20s with a shortsword and a dagger. But then two of the "thieves" change into monsters.

Fafhrd throws his dagger Heartseeker and misses. Then he gets a Special result with Graywand; the goons trip a spear trap and takes 12 damage. Finally, he hits with Graywand, doing 6 damage to Fang.
Gray Mouser misses with Scalpel and hits with Cat's Claw, doing 4 damage to Claw.
Alania scores a double damage result, for 10 damage to Claw.

Claw hits once for 13 damage to Fafhrd; the wound becomes infected. Claw misses.
Fang bites Gray Mouser for 17 damage; the wound becomes infected.
Alica misses.
The goons miss.

Fafhrd misses twice.
Gray Mouser hits with Scalpel for 5 damage to Fang, and misses with Cat's Claw.
Alania scores a double damage result, for 10 damage to Fang.

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser each take 2 damage from infected wounds.

Claw gets a Special result. A band of Thieves' Guild members rush out of the shadows and do a total of 10 damage to Fafhrd's group (assigned to Fafhrd). Claw misses.
Fang misses.
The goons miss.
Alica hits twice, for 5 damage to Fafhrd and 5 damage to Alania.

Fafhrd hits once with Graywand for 6 damage to Claw.
Gray Mouser hits with Cat's Claw for 4 damage to Claw.
Alania hits for 5 damage to Fang.
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser both take 2 damage each from infected wounds.
Claw misses twice.
Fang misses.
The goons score a double damage result for 12 damage to the Gray Mouser.
Alica hits for 7 damage to the Gray Mouser.

Fafhrd hits once for 12 damage to Alica.
The Gray Mouser misses twice.
Alania hits for 5 damage to Claw.

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser each take 2 damage from infected wounds.
Claw misses once and gets a Special result. The Gods of Trouble intervene against Claw, revising the results of this combat round to everyone on his opposed side hitting for normal damage and everyone on his side missing.
Fafhrd hits twice for 12 damage to Alica and 12 damage to the goons, finishing them off.
Gray Mouser hits with Scalpel for 5 damage to Claw, and hits with Cat's Claw for 9 damage to Alica, finishing her off.
Alania hits for 5 damage to Fang, finishing him off.

Fafhrd misses twice with Graywand.
Gray Mouser misses with Scalpel. Just when Claw is starting to think he might have a chance, Gray Mouser finishes him off with Cat's Claw.

The Thieves' Guild no longer has anyone willing to take the contract it's offering for Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser; Fafhrd and the Mouser will continue to see if they can gain the Dragonsword or this is destined to end in a draw, but everyone can now freely read both groups' threads.

[JourneymanN00b]

Ouch, did we get unlucky with the combat rolls. It was quite fun while it lasted for us, though.

[deaddmwalking]

I had no idea that the assassins were fighting their own battles. That explains why I only remember fighting 4 times. The first two times I was found were so close together that I thought the odds were much better than approximately 1/8 most of the time.

While there are some things that I'd do differently (mostly spreading out visits to the mentors to derive more benefit from healing) I'm not sure that would have really helped.

In the F/GM thread I suggested moving everything to here and welcomed team assassin to join me. Our team died once (luckily and deliberately) to come back at full strength. I know there are non-recoverable deaths so there’s a good chance I fail unless I can get a resurrection and come back at full strength.

[Dogopolis]

Thanks for running it Beroli. I guess I'm still hoping for Fafhrd to lose as I think you said that still counts as a win for the assassins even though we're all dead.

[Beroli]

The game has ended in a draw.

Anyone have thoughts to share?

[JourneymanN00b]

I thought the balance was okay, and the story was interesting enough to keep me engaged. The one thing that I did not like is that there were few opportunities to heal the assassins, since each side theoretically had 5 lives. I am guessing that the win conditions for Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were tighter to account for this.

In any case, thank you for running this, Beroli.