DF Novices, Session 29 - Report by Eleanor

    Tonight we finished the "boss battle" with the rat-goblin leader. It was a gruelling battle which they only just won*. It cost them the life of an NPC companion. Here is a write-up from the player of Eleanor.

Session Date:    Tuesday 9 May 2023

Party roster:

Agis Keylar, wood elf cleric, 132 points (PC)
Eleanor Bayley, human thief, 132 points (PC)

Erizax Ofaris, human wizard, 132 points (PC)

Renaud Aymon, human holy warrior, 86 points (PC)
Ben, half-ogre barbarian, 65 points (PC)
Randall, human warrior, 125 points (NPC)
Cynric the Wild, human berserker, 62 points (NPC)

------

… Where do you start when an adventuring companion is gone?

Cynric was a brave man. Stupid but brave. He fought until he couldn't fight anymore. Hacking until he couldn't hack. I didn't know Cynric very well but he was insistent on defending me and going into a fight as bravely as he could.**

We fought the One-Eyed rat-monster-goblin. It is dead. At least that is something. We have defeated their champion, or leader. Erizax created a magical flame of such heat*** that I imagine even Ben would have fallen over if he had been hit by it. It was truly.. something. I am not poetic and neither is there much I want to say.

We'll move on. People always move on. It is horrifying. It is beyond stressful. I am angry. I am sad. I just want to cry. It is frustrating that I feel these things. We only knew each other for a few weeks and yet…

Anyways. We will probably go back into the caves for another run. We will see how that goes. At least this time there should be no more rat-monster-goblins, I hope.

- Eleanor

------

*Why was it so hard? Because the party were trapped and had to grind out the victory in lieu of an alternative. They might have run away, I suppose; however that would have meant abandoning a small chest of coins - their only sizable loot from the run.

**The Berserk disadvantage is what killed Cynric. The enemy was just the delivery mechanism. With +4 to his rolls, Cynric passed every stun check, every unconsciousness roll, every death save, until he finally reached -5 x max HP, and died automatically.

***12d6 Fireball spell for 42 burning damage. Enough to get through the leader's 10+ DR and drop him. Ben then hacked at the neck repeatedly until the head eventually came off.

MVP this session was Erizax. I think the vote was unanimous.