Epic dragon fight last night

[PhilHibbs]

We had a great session last night.

The party were on a MSE warship travelling to Zistorwal to return a retrieved Zistorite grimoire. Last session the ship was attacked by a giant crab, which was pretty much dealt with single handed by the sorcerer's Wrack spell, so I and she were a little worried that she was going to dominate the game and leave little else for the others to do.

So, this time I threw a dragon and four tough Orlanthi against them.

Dramatis Personnae
Morticia Faucher, a Hrestolite sorcerer with an additional family grimoire and a Mastery grimoire picked up in a prior scenario.
Juan, a tracker in Bardan's Book
Maurice, a warrior of the Knights of Volanc
Benito, a trickster

The dragon is spotted ahead of the ship, and the four Orlanthi split up with one heading for the prow with the dragon, one goes to the crow's nest, and two to the rear of the ship. The party gather in the middle in a Protective Circle with Spell Resistance, and they "group hug" while Morticia casts Enhance INT, POW, and DEX on them all, then Maurice casts Enhance Damage on all their weapons apart from Juan's Naginata because it's too big.

When they get within range, Morticia casts Neutralise Magic on the four Orlanthi, taking down their Shield spells and their Coordinations, but not their Fly spells because those were cast on them with 100% and Extension. The Orlanthi heading for the crow's nest casts Lightning on the sailor up there and kills him. The dragon lands on the ship's figurehead and the Orlanthi lands.

The Orlanthi all re-cast their Shield spells, and the one above them lands in the crow's nest. Benito starts sneak-climbing the mast.

Morticia casts Dominate Human on the Orlanthi above and the two heading for the rear but it bounces off their Shields, so she then casts Wrack on the dragon but it resists.

Maurice heads up to the foredeck, and feels a strong wind in his face, and sees four soldiers being pushed back by a small gale and one dead on the deck. He fires an arrow at the Orlanthi but it bounces off.

The Orlanthi in the crow's nest looks over the edge and slings a Thunderstone at Morticia. She steps aside neatly as the stone punches a big hole in the deck of the ship right where she was standing. Juan takes aim at the crow's nest with his bow. The Orlanthi looks over again and takes an arrow in the face, killing him.

Morticia, feeling the breeze coming from the prow, jumps on some crates to get a better view, and casts Neutralise Magic on the wind, which cancels it. The soldiers struggling against it all fall flat on their faces, and Maurice runs up and hits the Orlanthi, knocking him back into the railing and to the ground, but he gets up again. So do the soldiers.

Benito climbs into the crow's nest, and starts looting the body. He finds a craclking piece of flint loaded into a slingshot. He fires it at the dragon (no sling skill, but his DEX is boosted) and hits it in the face giving it a Serious Wound. It roars and belches fire all over the front sail, and starts to fly off, as does the Orlanthi at the prow. Maurice casts Wrack on the dragon. "Blades of righteousness!"

Juan goes to the rear and engages one of the Orlanthi, who parries, outmanoeuvres and flies off. The other Orlanthi at the rear fails his Outmanoeuvre and is cornered under some rigging. Juan closes and cuts his head in half with his naginata.

As the Orlanthi fly off, Juan's player asks me how fast they are flying, so I check and it's not all that fast, 10m per round! He casts Boost Missile Range on four arrows and starts shooting, un-boosted arrows first. The one at the rear is out of all the useful spells that I had decided he had, but I gave him a random roll among the other spells and I roll Guided Teleportation! Pop, he's gone! Juan starts firing boosted arrows at the dragon.

The dragon takes damage to its head from the Wrack, but stays conscious. Juan shoots it in the head, his Damage Boosted bow does 8 points plus his d4 bonus, he rolls 4, so 1 point gets past its 11 point armour! It makes it's Resilience roll. Another arrow, same again! Another arrow, same again, but now it's at -11 and falls into the sea unconscious. With his last arrow, he shoots the Orlanthi who was with it, crits him in the head so down he goes with a splash. As the ship, slowed by the removal of the magical figurehead that controlled the sylphs and undines, approaches the sinking bodies, and the dragon is disappearing into the murk, Sir Tobor, the Zistorite construct that patrols the seas between Zistorela and Jrustela, rises up from the depths and lifts the bodies of the dragon and the Orlanthi to the surface where they are hauled on board the ship to the cheers of the crew. "YOU HAVE SERVED ZISTOR WELL".

[Loz]

Bloody God Learners.

[taxboy]

Bloody God Learners.

Why does everyone hate the God learners - my players do too!

and WOW!!, killing a dragon - scary - suspect my lower powered characters would poop (deck) themselves!

Great fight Phil and great use by your players of the intricacies of the Sorcery system!

[Dan True]

I have not realised magic was used THAT much in Glorantha... wow.

- Dan

[PhilHibbs]

WOW!!, killing a dragon - scary - suspect my lower powered characters would poop (deck) themselves!

Great fight Phil and great use by your players of the intricacies of the Sorcery system!

They aren't high powered, they are all 85 point stats (5 points more than the book, but no more than the randomly rolled character example), with 250 skill points and around 20 IRs from adventures.

[Mixster]

I love how your players use the sorcery system. Awesomely done of them, and awesome story.

[ThatGuy]

Awesome!

What's next?

4 Dragons!

[Loz]

Why does everyone hate the God learners - my players do too!

Scheming imperialistic meddlers with no respect for myth, gods or personal honour.

'Hey - Lightbringers. Cool myth. Now, how can we screw with it?'

[taxboy]

My guys are only 6 episodes in and have about 5IRs...also no mages!

[PhilHibbs]

My guys are only 6 episodes in and have about 5IRs...also no mages!

Episodes as in game sessions or scenarios? The guideline is three per "scenario", although in a campaign, the boundaries are vague. Last session they had one slightly violent encounter, a party, and a sea voyage with a crab attack, and as they had a few weeks to spare I gave them one or IRs for that session depending on how active they had been (some of them sat out the fracas at the start).

[Khamulcalle]

Really cool fight....but dont kill Orlanthi!!!! Grrrr!

/K

[taxboy]

It is a campaign so has some loose arcs, maybe two arcs (with XP awarded) - episode = session.

[languagegeek]

The party gather in the middle in a Protective Circle with Spell Resistance, and they "group hug" while Morticia casts Enhance INT, POW, and DEX on them all, then Maurice casts Enhance Damage on all their weapons apart from Juan's Naginata because it's too big.

Jeez! Them's a lot of Enhance.

It's funny reading about the fury of magic unleashed by Morticia, and then the other guy shoots an arrow. Kinda sad really. No wonder no one else has much to do most of the time.

[PhilHibbs]

Jeez! Them's a lot of Enhance.

There's nothing you can't do with a starting character. Admittedly, they would be a bit of a one-trick pony, Mort had to learn the other spells later, she started off with Enhance INT, Enhance POW, Animate Flesh & Bone, and Wrack.

It's funny reading about the fury of magic unleashed by Morticia, and then the other guy shoots an arrow. Kinda sad really. No wonder no one else has much to do most of the time.

"the other guy shoots an arrow", you mean, "the other guy kills someone instantly with an arrow, then kills a dragon with arrows"? When the tale is told, it's the bowman who will take centre stage, not the girl that made some strange gestures to no great obvious effect.

[languagegeek]

It's funny reading about the fury of magic unleashed by Morticia, and then the other guy shoots an arrow. Kinda sad really. No wonder no one else has much to do most of the time.

"the other guy shoots an arrow", you mean, "the other guy kills someone instantly with an arrow, then kills a dragon with arrows"? When the tale is told, it's the bowman who will take centre stage, not the girl that made some strange gestures to no great obvious effect.

Sorry, my comment reads more obnoxious than intended. The section I was referring to

Morticia casts (... a zillion things ...) Maurice heads up to the foredeck, and ... fires an arrow at the Orlanthi but it bounces off.

It just seemed so, well, small.

Your campaign seems really intense and exciting; what a battle! I hope you keep us up-to-date. I get the feeling I'll learn a lot about sorcery and other aspects of the game from people who know the rules way better than me.

[Mixster]

Jeez! Them's a lot of Enhance.

There's nothing you can't do with a starting character. Admittedly, they would be a bit of a one-trick pony, Mort had to learn the other spells later, she started off with Enhance INT, Enhance POW, Animate Flesh & Bone, and Wrack.

Those seem pretty all-round to me, they were pretty much the ones I chose untill my DM changed it, I had Regenerate instead of Animate, and Dex instead of POW. But basically the same tricks I had.

[PhilHibbs]

Morticia casts (... a zillion things ...) Maurice heads up to the foredeck, and ... fires an arrow at the Orlanthi but it bounces off.

It just seemed so, well, small.

Your campaign seems really intense and exciting; what a battle! I hope you keep us up-to-date. I get the feeling I'll learn a lot about sorcery and other aspects of the game from people who know the rules way better than me.

I see what you mean - Maurice did a couple of other things, I think I forgot to write that he Wracked the dragon as well, and got it in the hea, without whack it would have got away.

I won't promise to write up the whole thing! I will try to cover anything else really interesting or unusual.

[PhilHibbs]

Now, my challenge is to write up what loot they get from the Orlanthi. The dragon corpse is claimed as imperial property.

[simonh]

Now, my challenge is to write up what loot they get from the Orlanthi. The dragon corpse is claimed as imperial property.

Of course, but they should get a decent prize/bounty for it.

Simon Hibbs

[PhilHibbs]

Now, my challenge is to write up what loot they get from the Orlanthi. The dragon corpse is claimed as imperial property.

Of course, but they should get a decent prize/bounty for it.
Simon Hibbs

They seem to be taking it for granted that it's "their kill", what they seem to have forgotten is the 15 soldiers that held back the Orlanthi attackers, four of whom died doing so, while the party mostly picked off easy targets from a safe area.