No Quarter Session 2 - The Road to Ashby

PCs:        Sir Durhum Lentilles (250 point Paladin of Saturn)

NPCs:     Mirko (unknown)

We picked up today with Sir Durhum setting out on the road to Ashby. It was a nice day for a walk, and the scenery was bucolic initially and transitioned into peaceful scrublands. It progressed like that for a couple hours when he heard the din of combat. Upon cresting the next hill, he saw a boy fighting a pony-sized spider and generally getting driven back despite his agility. Being the courageous and selfless paladin he is, Sir Durhum joined the melee.

He approached the spider from behind and shouted for the boy to get behind him. As the boy made his way around the spider, it continued to try to intercept him. This somehow kept Sir Durhum behind the spider, despite the runaround attempt, which was fine. Durhum got one good stab to the gonads – first random hit location roll of the day, and it gives us gutter humor – which certainly got the spider's attention. It turned on him and barreled into him. Of course, this isn't particularly good for the person holding the Reach 2 polearm, so Sir Durhum was in trouble. The spider slashed him up good with its pedipalps, but eventually, the paladin managed to disengage and get enough distance to bring his mighty weapon to bare in a successful parry that lopped off one of the spider's pedipalps. The thing retreated a little in fear and surprise, so Durhum gave it a good thrust to the vitals and it fled to lick its wounds (do spiders have tongues?).

He then bandaged up his wounds and tended to the kid, who turned out to actually be a really short 15 yr old named Mirko. He had run away from a homestead he was helping at because nature was getting a little too close and unfriendly, and Durhum being the responsible adult he is, insisted on taking Mirko to Ashby with him. That way, the boy would at least be safe, even if Mirko was headed to Roberston to find a better life out east.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, as did the night. The next day, they continued their trek to Ashby, when they came on a jaundiced man shambling about the road with something growing from his neck. Durhum decided to detour wide around the man and approach Ashby with caution. He is pretty sure everyone in the town is dead, but he wants to be careful. He is injured and not in much shape for another serious fight.

Nest week: Ashby.

Bonus Creature: Monstrous Wolf Spider

Wolf spiders are robust and agile hunters with excellent eyesight.  They live mostly solitary lives and hunt alone.  Some are opportunistic hunters; while, others will chase prey or even ambush prey from burrows.  Despite being only mildly toxic, wolf spiders are the thing of nightmares, because they carry hordes of young on their backs.

Venom:  Wolf spider venom is not particularly lethal, although in large doses, it is quite painful.  Someone bitten by a wolf spider must roll against HT-5.  Failure results in pain dependent on his margin of failure:  1 or 2, Moderate Pain; 3 or 4, Severe Pain; 5 or more, Terrible Pain (see Incapacitating Conditions, p. B428).  Each level of pain lasts for a number of minutes equal to the victim's margin of failure, after which the degree of pain lessens by one step – from Terrible to Severe and then Severe to Moderate.  Each step lasts as long as the previous.

ST: 18                            HP: 18                                               Speed: 6.00

DX: 13                           Will: 10                                              Ground Move: 6

IQ: 1                               Per: 12                                               Climbing Move: 3

HT: 11                           FP: 11                                                SM: 0

Dodge: 9                        Parry: N/A                                        DR: 6

Fangs (15): 2d impaling + follow-up Venom (see above). Reach C.

Pedipalps (15): 2d cutting. Reach C.

Baby Spider Horde: This is a 3-yard-diameter horde of baby wolf spiders.  They take a Move maneuver to disembark their mother, and have Move 1.  They disperse after taking 100 HP of damage and will then regroup on their mother's back.  The horde inflicts 1d cutting damage per turn with Venom (see above) as a follow-up, but resisted at HT rather than HT-5.

Traits: Acute Hearing 2; Acute Sense (Vibration Sense) 2; Ambidexterity; Climbing Line; Clinging; Cutting Striker (Pedipalps; Cannot Parry; Limited Arc Front); Discriminatory Smell; Extra Legs (Eight Legs); Horizontal; Impaling Striker (Fangs; Cannot Parry; Limited Arc, Front); Injury Tolerance (No Neck); No Fine Manipulators; Payload 1; Peripheral Vision (No Depth Perception); Sensitive Touch; Silence 1; Ultravision; Vibration Sense (Air). 

Skills: Brawling-15; Climbing-13; Running-11; Stealth-15; Wrestling-15. 

Class: Giant Animal. 

Notes: Venom glands containing enough venom for 2d doses ($10 each).

No Quarter Session 1 - Roberston

First off, allow me to apologize for not keeping up with this blog. I was gearing up for a game I'm running with a friend. It is a fantasy game using GURPS 4th Edition, and Sir Durhum Lentilles is the lone PC. We had our first session this past Sunday, and so far, it is a blast.

No Quarter - Session 1

PCs:        Sir Durhum Lentilles (250 point Paladin of Saturn)

The session began with Sir Durhum arriving at a small town on a hill named after someone named Robert. Roberston may be poor, but they do have a Church of Saturn, patron god of farmers. And that is where Sir Durhum first went. There he met the groundskeeper, an elderly man and next door in the one room rectory, he met Father Robert (no connection to the hill). The priest invited Durhum to that night's service with the intention to talk the brawny paladin into helping fix up the church a bit – specifically, to add a second floor to the barn-like structure. Unfortunately, in the middle of the sermon, a young man named Will burst into the church coughing and clutching at his throat. Several of the townsfolk rushed over to help him; even Sir Durhum who was sitting at the front of the church was making his way toward him when Will dropped to his knees, looked up, and a long, plantlike stalk burst from his throat in a spray of pollen and spores. Everyone nearby began coughing but eventually it subsided. The paladin and the priest convinced everyone to leave while they took care of the body. Upon examination, the two uncovered a round puncture wound in the back of Will's neck They also collected the stalk to take to the local witch, a woman named Hilda.

The next morning, Durhum visited Hilda to see if she knew anything about the stalk. She didn't have much to say, and what she did was cryptic enough.  Durhum spoke with a few other townsfolk, including the Innkeeper, a grizzled middle-aged man. He learned that Will had recently visited Ashby, the next town over, to seek marriage with a girl from there. He also learned that Ashby's farmers had not been at the last market day. While at the inn, Durhum also met a local trapper named John, though he seems to have a few other names he sometimes goes by and a rather quiet monk from far to the south. It was suggested that he speak with the Hakraz, a local tribe that lives in the forests to the west, as well. Since they speak a different language, Durhum tried to hire John as a guide and translator, but his rates were too steep for the impoverished paladin At least he has a free room at the church as long as he needs it!

The session ended with Durhum scratching his head over Hilda's cryptic musings while gathering up supplies with the rest of the day's light. In the morning (next session), he plans to set out toward Ashby to see if anything happened to Will there.