Anomalous Subsurface Environment - Session #5
Players:
Nathan (me!) - Ascellus Tirimasu/Fighter L1 and Moid Belunky/Fighter L1
Jesus Milk - Sparkles Wit'tully/Cleric L1 and a Cleric retainer
Ags - Mauler/Doberman Fighter L1
My best friend and pet, Lil Grungler, has grown so small. From a baby grunkie to a manly grunkie. He is even standing up for himself! I am afraid that I may have been mistaken in trying to reshape this beautiful, dirty creature into my own image. He can hardly grow a moustache!
This time I recruited a pimply young lad named Moid Belunky to serve as squire. He is good with a bow, and will carry my spare helmets and other goods. Moid has no family, and will be treated as my son. Soon he will grow a moustache.
Last time we had found an ominous gate leading to the so-called "Anomalous Subsurface Environment." We believe that THIS must be where the real treasure is held. So we entered. The future-style-astro-machine hallways faded into worked stone and wooden doorways, like the dungeons of my youth in the Worthless North.
We moved cautiously and, eventually, came upon three creatures that looked like the Demogorgon dogs from hit TV series Stranger Things. They were feeding on a corpse, and did not even look our way. Quickly, I came up with a plan: bear trap in front of the door, lure the monsters in with a projectile attack, and then attack from all sides as they fall for the trap. The monsters fell easily. The corpse inside was swagged out with a gold necklace. Alas! Woe is me! This is the only treasure we would find on this expedition!
We soon found a large hall way. My friend the Doberman, the Clerical apprentice, and Lil Grungler scouted to the south. They found a big bone pile and, after screwing up his courage, Lil Grungler dashed across fearing danger beneath the bones. All was safe, so the scouting party traversed ahead. Wit'tully and I hung back. After a while, we heard a noise like an airhorn. Our companions burst into the room and slammed the door shut. Behind them, monsters were breaking down the door. I employed a version of the Chinese False Retreat, described here, and hid with Wit'tully around a corner. As the doors burst open, Moid and the Doberman used their ranged weapons to strike down two of the four pursuers! As the others charged ahead, Wit'tully and I leapt out to flank them. These were strange beings with airhorn like heads. They were loud and, thankfully, no other threats were drawn to use.
I cut off the head of one of these horn men and had Doberman lead me to their lair. As I entered, a squeezed the horn head and yelled at my foes to run in fear. And so they did. They were broke and had nothing of value in their lair. Pitiful cretins.
We went north and found four huge mushrooms with a bunch of legs. Doberman began shaking and said "t-t-they might h-h-h-have poison spores!" I put this theory to rest right quick!
"Nonsense! If they had poison spores, why would they have legs?"
And so I charged forth and cut into one. As the four mushrooms began rushing me, I moved back to ensure one of their number could not strike me. Another chop bisected the first while Wit'tully joined me in the front lines. Doberman used a Bardiche to strike from the second rank, while Moid took an angle and used his bow to lay low these towering fungal fiends (The Clerical assistant held the light, as usual). We clashed, bashed, and crashed our way through these towering tyrants. As they lay inert, I realized they look like Dolma. And so while Wit'tully dissected them carefully, I stood watch. Doberman found some arcane bullshit in this room, but I only think of war and bloodshed and leave that sort of puzzle solving to my companions.
We left 30 gold pieces and 8 mushroom Dolma richer.
And oh yes, oh yes my friends. I always neglect to think of and mention Wit'tully's donkey that follows us through thick and thin!
When I get back I felt something had changed. Yes... it had! I increased my level! I feel like I can take 71% more damage now and am 5% more likely to hit my foes.
Commentary:
Another great game! This time I got to use lots of Battle Tactics to tilt the odds in our favour.
In Mr.Mann's set of rules, Fighters deal a lot of damage. They deal d8+3 damage with any weapon. Because we have three Fighters, our damage output was very high. I think one of the issues here is that this rule uses 'class hit die as damage' and adds a +3 to damage. This is, essentially, dealing d6+4 damage with every attack in a game where foes have d6 hit die. That's about 2HD worth of damage per round (assuming the attacks hit). In terms of balance, I think it would probably be fine if the Fighter just dealt d8 damage but kept the attack bonus.
There's a few ways to fix this, but I'm sure Mr.Mann we will figure something out!