Last Saturday, we again ventured forth in the ruins of Ur, City of the Ten Cataclysms.
Justin DMed a fun little game, which was fairly rough on us. Jeremy played Noctis the Orc, Alexei was Maya the Elf, Dean was Venerable Carolus, and I was Thidrek the Sleestak. We had (NPCs) a hired sellsword, Webberan, a tag-along nerdy Orc Magi Mattaki Shiptu, and fussy butlerish shield-bearer Ghomondelay with us as well.
Carolus, learning of ancient Urish technology that might be able to regrow his lost hand the way orcs are grown in vats, was interested in exploring the installation below the harpies' thorn maze. On the way, when we got to the statue of the vulture-headed death goddess, Karl decided we should "consecrate" it (vandalize, in other words). So we knocked it down, loaded it up on Thidrek's triceratopsian-cart, and trucked it back to Fort Low and set it up in the rich part of town. We ignored the locals' talk of "curses."
We also heard of a local official's brother and his party who had gone missing in the ruins. Altering our plans, we headed to a new homestead north-east of the thorn maze. They seemed friendly enough, although we did wonder how they kept themselves safe in the middle of the ruins. They gave us directions to the temple the brother had been exploring.
Under the temple were of course some tunnels, and in them, a new tribe of black masked orcs. They were none too fond of us, and after a skirmish, we chased them and ended up in a trapped area with lots of rooms with levers to pull and various things to happen. Thinking he had the puzzle figured out, Thidrek tried a lever that Webberan had pulled several times, with nothing but a few coins lodged in the ceiling dislodged. One failed saving throw later and the ceiling was caving in on him. Negative hit point time!
As the party came to Thidrek's aid, the orcs attacked en masse. It was a pretty good scrum, but we managed to win in the end. Sorely wounded, however, we retreated and went back to the homestead to rest up.
Turns out, as night fell and we were brought in to see the leader, that the community are actually Ur Ogres (they look human, then shapeshift into monstrous forms, sorta lycanthropish) led by Harrkonn Spiderlegs, an old nemesis of ours.
End of session cliff hanger! I've updated by backup PC just in case Thidrek finally cashes in the last of his nine lives next session.
The Witch for ShadowDark - Esme Valethorne
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