Rappan Athuk #7.5 - The White Death

My wife called me a freak, kind of.

Whenever a measurable amount of snow (an inch is sufficient) is reported to be on its way to this city, screams of “the white death is coming!” can be heard from everywhere.

Note: white death = snow in Cincinnati, while it probably means something entirely different in areas where the white man has come to “help”. I can’t help but wonder why missionaries aren’t killed on sight anymore. Or I’ve watched the Marklar episode of South Park one too many times.

But anyway, I don’t see 3” of snow as doom. It’s just another obstacle on the roadways (ice is another story). Therefore my wife has called me a freak, because I’m not like everyone else around here.

Dale is like everyone else around here when it comes to snow. He called off on game night the day before, when the “blizzard” was just a chance. He was probably right to though, his driving on a good weather day is scary enough.

Brian wasn’t going to make it anyway; he had work-related things to take care of.

Joy was out of town and somewhere in Texas. I assume she called her dad and teased him about how warm and sunny it was.

I was in no mood to cancel again, for the same reason. Justin had the same thought. Since we currently play at Aaron’s, so it’s not like it’s big problem for him.

So just the three of us played a toned down game session, hence the Session #7.5.

Both players had new characters to bring in, which made it easy for the DM to get the new PC’s involved.

Justin’s new PC – Spotted Dragon (nickname Spot), a half-orc fighter/monk

Aaron’s new PC – Gehei (nickname GI), a human knight/favored soul (of Nerull)

For this campaign I am sick and tired of killing PC’s, and so is Aaron since half of them are his PC’s. So I’ve decided to give new PC’s a little extra equipment than I have been; which was 200gp and maybe 600gp in bonus items like scrolls, masterwork items, potions, and wands.

I will probably keep doing this until the PC’s no longer need it, or when the players start treating each new PC as a potential source of money and equipment rather than a replacement PC.

Gehei had been given a diary which roughly stated the same things Aaron knew from the dungeon at the time. In other words, Aaron and Justin were able to metagame without feeling like they were cheating.

This allowed the game to get going with no need for introductions.

There was only one random encounter, a pair of giant bees, along the way. The bees were no match for these two.

Inside, thanks to the diary, they made it through the mausoleum and the half the first level of Rappan Athuk before half a dozen ghouls charged them.

The two of them cut down the ghouls with very little difficulty.

All was looking good so far.

They made it to level 2 and took the same route that Saver and Javier did last session, clockwise around the level. Spot and GI went on a tour of the mad-barbarian’s room, and the store rooms.

When the two of them came across 3 dead ogres in a store room, a pair of ogres caught them red-handed.

Oddly enough, they had a much rougher time dealing with these two ogres than Saver and Javier did with their three, but they did still win.

Continuing their path around the level, they found a room that Javier and Saver did not get to just yet; another pair of ogres in a room barely big enough to fit them.

Then there was the tiny detail that the leader of the ogres had a few levels in fighter.

Add another issue for the players, they couldn’t roll for squat but the DM started rolling good.

Due to small room size, the leader-ogre didn’t even get into melee; he just threw a few javelins at the two PC’s while the normal ogre beat the living daylights out of Spot and GI.

After they dropped the peon ogre, they ran for it.

The leader ogre followed, but couldn’t catch up, so the party got away.

After that we stopped. The two PC’s couldn’t get into another fight without having to make another couple of new PC’s, so even though it was an earlier stopping time than usual, I called it a night.