Last updated June 4th, 2008.

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Game Summary

Previously...

mp080524

Previously, on Mediterranean Plotluck...

Overview

Episode 12

Date: May 31st, 2008

Ghamor swindles a local citizen by selling him some mephit slaves disguised with illusory magic. Once the spell wears off, Ghamor makes himself invisible and takes back the slaves so that he can repeat his trick with a new target. While Ghamor spends his ill-gotten gains on increasing his spell repertoire, Xiao Nan, his elf-slave, travels the city collecting local rumors. She learns of the general situation and the island's recent history.

The party is certain that the Itrix who's recently taken over the labyrinth's construction is an impostor, given that they witnessed Itrix's death at the hands of the flesh-eaters (clear back in the first episode mp080202). They take it upon themselves to investigate this "Itrix's" ships to see for themselves what he's bringing to the island.

With Ghamor's snake familiar in tow, Seikius makes his way over to one of Itrix's ships, moored in the harbor. He steals aboard the ship and looks around. Beneath the deck of the ship, he is dismayed to discover a horde of fiendish-looking kobolds and a demonic-looking overseer.

Demonic Overseer

Seikius returns to Ghamor and asks him for vials of acid and fire so he can attempt to destroy the ship and its foul crew. However, when he returns he is quickly seized by the ship's demonic overseer, who questions Seikius and his motives. When Seikius taunts the demon and tries to stun him, the demon crushes Ghamor's familiar and threatens to do the same to Seikius.

Seikius finally lands a good blow on the demon, temporarily stunning him, just long enough for Seikius to escape with the severely wounded familiar. Seikius swims back to Ghamor and the two quickly hatch a scheme to raise the alarm in the town and hopefully get the citizens to attack Itrix and his ships, laden with demonic creatures.

Ghamor sets about creating an illusion of an invading army of demonic kobolds, while Seikius runs to the temples to fetch aid from any powerful clerics or paladins. Failing to find anyone willing to aid in the fight after visiting first the temples of Hera, Aphrodite, and finally Ares, Seikius seeks aid from a shrine dedicated to Apollo.

Meanwhile, the fire set by Ghamor's slave quickly rages out of control, engulfing much of the city in flame. It seems that something is controlling the fire, directing it to cause greater destruction. Ghamor organizes a small team to fight the fires, and saves a dozen or so buildings around the docks while the crew of their ship rows the ship back into the bay.

The fire has thankfully died down by the morning, and Ghamor is toasting his success with his new "friends" (enchanted through liberal use of the charm person spell) and he is regarded as a local hero. Seikius sets out to investigate the temple of Ares once again. Ackrak and Ghamor briefly discuss the unusually destructive nature of the fire the previous night, and then set out themselves to recruit aid from the local gentry.

During his investigation, Seikius stumbles across a ceremony taking place around a sacrificial well beneath the temple of Ares. Though he doesn't comprehend the ritual (involving the sacrifice of a living being), he assumes the ceremony has a sinister nature, he watches on and tries to discern as much as he can about the ritual before leaving to warn his comrades.

Meanwhile, Ackrak and Ghamor journey to the estate of a local noble and "persuade" the guards to let them in. After a brief, annoying discussion with the complacent noble, Ackrak further "persuades" the noble to follow Ghamor's directions (to provide manpower for the clean-up effort and monetary aid to the city) and to grant his personal bodyguard for their use. Ghamor quickly charms the head of the body-guard and Ackrak "instills" a bit of "fighting spirit" in the lot of them.

The pair march the body-guard back to the city, where they run into Seikius, who warns them of the ritual and then joins them. The party, joined by the body-guard, board their ship and make ready to attack Itrix's ships with their combined force. Ackrak "convinces" Ghamor's lazy mephit slaves to boost the speed of the ship by using their powers, and Ghamor uses his magic to help "bolster" the warriors.

It's the party's ship against eight of Itrix's! The party's ship rams (and nearly destroys) the first of Itrix's ships before swinging around and ramming a second. Both sides prepare to board one another as the session comes to a close (cliff-hanger!).

Quotes

While this session didn't have tons of quotable lines, it did have a couple winners. On the whole, we had some pretty funny situational and character bits, which just aren't really as funny out of context. You really "needed to have been there" to get them. They were so situational, in fact, that I can't actually recall most of what made them funny, I just remember laughing at the time.

NICK

Gnomes are bad, bad men.

NICK

So, are you going to sneak over to the ship, or is the rogue?

BRIAN

I was thinking both of us since I'll need her for locks.

NICK

I knew you were only into the rogue for her locks.

NICK

Don, do you want to intimidate a couple of air mephits into powering the ship's sails?

ACKRAK

I'm intimidating EVERYONE!

Game Review

The game was broken up into three distinctly different portions or acts. The first "act" was all Jack, with Ghamor running around and messing with the locals. The second act, while shorter, involved Ghamor and Seikius investigating Itrix's ship. The third, and shortest act, began with Don's late, late arrival, and a couple side-treks that involved swindling a noble and launching a major naval assault against Itrix's ships.

EXP by Player

ACKRAK gets experience...

• For intimidating EVERYONE.
• For intimidating a couple of guards.
• For intimidating a noble.
• For intimidating 80 low-level warriors/bodyguards.
• For intimidating 6 air mephits.

ACKRAK and GHAMOR get experience...

• For swindling a noble out of his personal complement of bodyguards -- building an army 80-warriors strong.

GHAMOR gets experience...

• For swindling a local man out of money and then later "reacquiring" his merchandise.
• For breaking the special effects budget with an illusion of a balor leading an army of fiendish kobolds.
• For burning down half the city ... with the "LG" monk's CONSENT.
• For charming 20+ commoners to help fight fires.
• For becoming a local hero through lies, trickery, and deceit.

SEIKIUS gets experience...

• For finally failing some stealth checks (and nearly getting Ghamor's familiar crushed).
• For running around town during the fire, trying to get help.
• For finally getting the clue that he's not supposed to return the staff to Apollo.

(Jury's still out on this one.)

NICK gets experience...

• For the creation of several new mephit types: Candy, Mind Flayer, Minotaur, and Orc mephits.

(Jack made up some new ones, too. Cookie & Clown mephits)

EXP by GM

...

Next Session

Date: June 7th, 2008

Link: mp080607