DF Soaring Phoenix, Session 105 - Violetta's Thoughts

    Here we have our first session summary from the player of Violetta, the human "barbarian" from another world. This picks up from partway through the previous session, as Violetta recaps from when they (re-)encountered the slime. 

    Note that these thoughts represent something like an inner monologue for our female warrior. Violetta sounds nowhere as intelligible as this when speaking to other people; having not long arrived in this land, her mastery of Low Vycenaean (the language commonly spoken by the humans here), is quite limited. 

    As always, I am giving out an Impulse Point to any player who writes a summary for the blog.

Session Date:    Tuesday 10 December 2024

Party roster:

Ben, half-ogre barbarian, 233 points (PC)
Erizax Ofaris, human wizard, 292 points (PC)
Merrill Tangled Tail, cat-folk monk (martial artist), 234 points (PC)
Violetta, human warrior (barbarian), 161 points (PC)
Randall, human veteran (knight), 173 points (NPC Ally) 
Dagne Timar, human priestess of Metallys (cleric), 147 points (NPC) 
Hartwin Bertelot, human monster-hunter (knight), 128 points (PC) 
Maximilian "Stout" Grupher III, goblin cleric of Ishtanna, 199 points (PC)

Campaign Date:    15 February, Year 647 of the Vycenaean Empire. 

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Violetta’s Thoughts (translated from her original language)

    Here we are again in this ruined keep, having returned so we can help our newfound friend, Hartwin. I like this new fellow. A man of few words, but meaningful ones. He really has gone through a lot, I can’t imagine what it would feel like having to “kill” again my dead companions’ risen bodies… (Though I have an idea of what it feels like to suddenly lose everyone you have ever known…) I am really glad we were able to help him get his weapon back. Not to mention I really want to see him in action with it. He was already capable enough of fighting and holding his own with nothing but a sharp stick, let’s see what this man can do with a real weapon… exciting.

And just about anything is gonna be more exciting than this last fight, at least for me! Why did I forget about the strength potion again? Ugh, I missed virtually ALL of the action!… At least it wasn’t much of a waste, I guess, since the damn thing only boosted me by a tiny bit, just a tiny bit!

My bad luck began with that ridiculous slime situation… We had all just walked our way back to the keep, after having met this Stout character. What a strange little creature! He sure looks a lot like a goblin but… something is off, I can’t quite place it. Goblins usually have to deal with the other end of my trusty morning star, but… he is everyone’s friend and so far, he hasn’t done ME any wrong so, he is a friend of mine too. Also I loved his beer! I really need to get him to provide me with more of that stuff, because that tiny cup just isn’t it, it just wont do! But back to the adventure.

As soon as we decided we are going to enter the keep the same way as before, Merrill, Hartwin and me rushed into the entrance of the corner tower and well, like always, I just went for it. How could I have imagined that disgusting blob of a creature had grown so large?! It was right there, first thing we stepped on as we entered! I didn’t even know what happened at first, I just lost it for a few moments… But then the burning pain in my foot alerted me aright. I can’t believe I had to toss my lovely leather boots, it was one of the few things I have left from my old life too! I had to take them off and watch as they sadly turned into a hissing mess. I guess it’s gonna be walking barefoot for me from now on. Not that I am new to walking barefoot but it sure as hell is NOT my preference. Ugh, ANY feeling on the feet of my soles that isn’t my trusty old boots is just ICKY.  I guess I’ll just have to get new boots eventually.

The others were way quicker to react than me, and once we got ourselves away from that wretched green goo, Stout did in fact heal us all. The little guy really has some talent! Looks like he is going to be a valuable companion. Hope he sticks around!

We now needed to find a new way in, and we eventually did after walking around a little bit. We walked past the gatehouse but the portcullis was down so we could not really enter from that point. Ben tried to lead us to where he had previously seen a ladder, but someone had taken it away. Pah, bastards. All that remained where the ladder had once been was some partially repaired wall*.

Seeing that he is just about the only one agile enough, Merrill climbed up the repaired wall, using the sticks that had been used to reinforce it. He did find the ladder and hauled it over for us to use, but as he did so he was attacked by not one, not two but THREE zombies!!! Not again with the undead… I sure hate those reanimated pieces of scum, what’s the fun of fighting enemies that wont even BLEED when you crush them?!

Anyway, Merrill was AH-MAZING with them, as I found out later when I made it up there. I still can’t believe this dude is an actual cat! And he certainly fights like one too. But my bad luck strikes again. Here I was trying to think about how the hell am I going to afford new boots, that I probably will have to replace the hobnails on them and everything and that no matter what, they wont feel as amazing as my old boots anyway, when I realized everyone had already rushed to Merrill’s aid! I was left behind and was the last one to make it to the ladder!… By the time I got up there, Ben, Erizax and apparently mostly Merrill had already dealt with the threat. Being lost in thought sure has its downsides.

Nevertheless, we finally made it into the courtyard. It hadn’t changed much, there was rubble everywhere, especially in the middle of it, where a building had apparently once been. Not much remained of that anymore though. The most pressing matter at hand was where exactly the zombies came from, because we sure needed to find out if there are more enemies around. According to Merrill they came from the tower in the other end of the courtyard, directly opposite to where we were now standing. Merrill pointed out we can’t let him escape if we encounter him again, so me and Ben offered to help with that. Then the others had a brief discussion about how they think the half-orc was probably the one that killed Corian, which also sparked a conversation with Stout about who is Corian and why his death is important to us. Erizax explained everything to him quite eloquently. At least I THINK that’s what they were talking about because… let’s face it. I can’t say I always understand what they are talking about. Quite annoying but I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it eventually.

While they were talking, Stout suddenly shushed us all and signalled that he heard something. Then he excitedly exclaimed something about fighting and RAN OFF! He tried to get to the source of the noise, around the crumbled building in the middle of the courtyard. Not that he can run very fast being the tiny little runt that he is, hehe!… Merrill took off right away too, but towards the opposite direction, around the other side of the ruined building. I did NOT like that idea, I can’t run after both of them… But Erizax pointed out attacking from both sides is actually beneficial and, you know what, I think he was right. I ran after Stout and so did everyone else, apart from Ben who followed Merrill.

Once we were at the other side of the rubble, we were greeted with a very peculiar sight. Some dwarves were fighting… well who else, the undead. There was a huge undead ogre and some undead orcs. I guess it didn’t matter all that much that our party split. As soon as I saw that big undead ogre, I finally remembered about drinking a strength potion and … oh why did I go for it? As if I don’t know it will in fact set me back several steps. I really thought this ogre was a too big of a threat… but I guess I underestimated everyone’s ability, including the dwarves’. Welp, what’s done is done. The others got there way before me. Stout stayed behind with me and at some point I am SURE he said something to me but… yea never mind that. I was just too focused on getting done with that stupid potion. Merrill did his usual awesome stabbing, Erizax cast some spells and at one point I am sure he whacked the ogre with his flaming staff… Well something caught on fire anyway. Hartwin also helped a lot by hitting the undead orcs. The dwarves were surprisingly good with axing that ogre, despite their short height, I was sort of impressed. One of them didn’t do all too well though, he seemed quite injured. Ben did some serious damage as well but almost had the falling ogre crush him! After I finally finished drinking my potion, I ran towards them and I could hear Stout shouting something to me… but I wasn’t too concerned with that. By the time I got to them, everything was… dead again? Well not moving in any case, except that one orc nearest to me. I whacked that thing and felled it, but that just about summed up my contribution to the fight… sadly. Also Erizax got hit by an arrow to the leg, which meant there was a shooter someplace.

Erizax yelled that the archer is on the wall, and the necromancer we have been after must be in the shrine next to us. While Ben and Erizax went to investigate the shrine, the rest of us were trying to locate the archer. Merrill and Stout were trying to tell the dwarves that they need to go inside for cover but they don’t seem to listen… They didn’t seem very friendly or polite at all. Hartwin said he saw the archer on the wall so the both of us go to check it out. I began walking up the northern stairs but then Hartwin shouted at me that he heard a noise from the other side, so we walked past the graves and onto the stairs that also lead up the wall. Once on top of the wall, I was greeted with a nearly destroyed collapsed wall on one side, and I noticed that there is a rope grappled there. Could it be that the archer we were looking for went down the rope and escaped? Or maybe that is the way he got up here to begin with. On the other side behind me there was the corner tower and the door leading into it was left slightly opened. He could have also in went there. Hartwin went to look over the collapsed wall and did notice some movement, but wasn’t sure about it.

At that point I heard Erizax exclaiming loudly that the temple was empty. I guess the necromancer was nowhere to be seen. As I was trying to decide what to do, the company of dwarves suddenly made their appearance right on top of the stairs I came from. Then they started shouting something at me, but damn me if I understood anything! I started thinking maybe I wasn’t as good with the new language as I thought, or maybe they were just speaking a different language altogether. It sure sounded like that to me! Whatever they were saying, I sure didn’t like their attitude. I tried to ask what they wanted but it suddenly occurred to me that I was, in fact, blocking their way so I moved away. I guess they just wanted to leave because they proceeded to all walk past me and go for the grappling hook and rope. I then realized the rope was probably theirs, not the archer’s… Not that he couldn’t have also used it of course.

Hartwin suddenly starts what looks like an argument with one of them. At first I didn’t quite understand but… then I thought I heard something about a weapon that belongs to him? Then I noticed he is talking to the dwarf holding this beautiful halberd and I realize, that must be Hartwin’s weapon! At first I thought the dwarf wasn’t gonna hand it over, it certainly looked like he didn’t like what Hartwin had to say. As I was getting ready to rough the dwarf up though, he handed the halberd right over! Finally Hartwin has his weapon back, I could certainly tell how happy he was about that, although also really surprised at the ease with which he acquired it.

Suddenly we heard Erizax shouting something about meeting in the tower, so we obliged. Hartwin ran past me with such a gleeful expression on his face, that I became even more pumped up for seeing him in action! The dwarves were being noisy behind us but, who cares about them. But alas… as we entered the tower through the half opened door we saw… nothing much. Just the big old hole on the ground and that horrendous slime on the bottom level. The door that leads outside was, however, slightly open and we certainly didn’t leave it that way, so it was quite possible the archer did escape through that. We decided to end our search for him and regroup.

I went back out to the wall to check on the noisy dwarves but there was no sign of them. They’d left and they’d taken the rope with them too. We meet with the others outside the shrine, where Dagne, Stout and Merrill are resting. Merrill in particular looks rather exhausted. I learned that Ben didn’t find anything in the shrine, apart from that orc corpse rotting away on the top floor. Erizax informs us that he found what I understood to be a trapdoor in the gatehouse leading to the ground floor. We are all talking about what to do next, deciding we definitely need to search the remaining towers of the keep. I am definitely interested in the one with the spiders. I need to do some crushing to compensate for all the missed fights! And no one is gonna be sad over some dead monster spiders… It looks like no one is gonna be sad about a dead necromancer either though. Merrill is usually rather reluctant to kill, something I’ve had some difficulty coming to terms with. but not when it comes to this half orc, oh no, I could see it in his eyes, he wants him DEAD, and I couldn’t agree more. As for which tower we start with… I did suggest going to the one with the spiders but Randall cleverly pointed out I don’t quite know which one is that, so I guess a coin toss is as good a way to decide as any. I cant wait to crush those spiders though! Let’s hope that slimy little bugger that told us about it wasn’t lying… that remains to be seen. 

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* GM note: The fallen wall had been repaired with earthworks topped with a wooden palisade.