Damn Elf Press

Day 1, 3rd week of early spring, in the town of Bree.

Beck and Lugan spend the day resting their wounds. Felix avails himself of the refreshments at the Dead Pony Inn. Odette makes a visit to Mother Patience at St George’s Church. [GM note ~ I made a couple rolls on the Mythic GM tables…Felix = valuable, conflict…Odette = dark, enemies. Oh, that sounds ominous. Question…Is Felix seeing a valuable opportunity? Result=no. Does someone talk to him of treasure? Result=no. I decide to roll again for clarification and get…leave, beautiful. Question…Does a beautiful person try to get Felix to leave on an adventure? Result…yes!]
Felix meets with a beautiful woman (it is the witch Brannog in disguise).

The woman is needing help to rescue her sister from a monster in the fens south of Bree. [GM note ~ I used the Knave 2e tables to get a result of…destroy monster. I rolled randomly and the monster is a manticore. That doesn’t bode well for our group.] Felix tells the woman that he needs to discuss this with the rest of his party.

Odette meets with Mother Patience. The holy mother speaks of dark enemies. Reports have come in about humanoids gathering in the woods near Bree. The dead are walking and omens abound, all bad. She wants Odette to spy on a travelling merchant. Mother Patience needs to know if this trader is connected to the traders they fought at Fort Halberd. Those men were dealing in weapons with the goblins. Mother Patience gives Odette her shield as a gift. Odette is unarmored and will need to gird herself for the dangers ahead. [GM note ~ the shield is magical, and in Mydwandr terms it gives a +1 bonus to death saves.]

Beck, Lugan, Odette, and Felix agree to help the woman. Beck first consults the wizard, Cornwall. He gives the young man a potion of speed on the condition that they give him the opportunity to examine any unsual items they might find. The group is not feeling that a direct assault of a manticore would be foolish. They intend to search for its lair and attempt to sneak into it while the creature is hunting.

Felix was told by the woman that she would be watching for him at the edge of the fens. She does indeed meet them and tells the party that to the south a group of hills lies just past the fens. It is there that the creature was last seen.

Beck and company search the area for the day but see no sign of it. They return to Bree and search again the next day. Fortune, if you call it that, favors them. The manticore is spotted flying over the hills. Felix tries to scout ahead while the rest of the party hides among some boulders. [Felix tries to hide…result=fail!] With a roar, the manticore circles around and dives at Felix as he runs back to the cover of the boulders.

The manticore has a shaggy human head, leathery bat wings, and a lion’s body. The most fearsome aspect of it is its tail comprised of iron spikes. It dives and unleashes two iron spikes at Felix and Odette! Felix ducks behind a boulder, but Odette is not quick enough! She takes 4 points of damage. [GM note ~ I decided the manticore will fire 1d6 spikes per round, each spike doing 1d6 pts of damage if the target fails to dodge it. The manticore has 24 spikes in total.]

Beck readies a sling stone and lets it fly…but misses. Lugan dives for cover, so does Odette and Felix. The manticore dives again firing just one spike this time at Odette. [GM note ~ I am allowing the PCs to roll triples to avoid damage while they are taking cover in the boulders.] Odette hunkers down and the spike misses her. Beck fires another sling stone and hits the beast for one point. Felix throws a dagger but misses.

The manticore dives again firing another spike at Odette! It must have a grudge against her. The spike misses. [4 spikes used, 20 remain]
Beck misses with his sling. Question…Does the manticore land? Result=no. It will continue to strafe the party for now.
It fires two spikes, one at Beck and one at Odette but both strike the boulders. [18 spikes left]

Beck fires another sling stone and hits for one point of damage. [The manticore has taken 2 points out of a total of 11]. Odette tries something different. She casts her spell, Fungi Pool. An assortment of fungi sprout behind the boulder.

The manticore fires three spikes this time at Beck, Lugan, and Odette. Beck and Lugan duck down, but Odette is hit for 3 points of damage! [Manticore has 15 spikes left. Odette is 8/15 for hit points.]
Beck fires again with his sling. Another hit for one point. [Manticore is at 8/11]. Odette looks at the fungi pool for something noxious and finds some nasty looking bright purple toadstools. She holds her breath and picks them.

The manticore roars and fires two spikes [13 remain] at Odette and Felix. Odette takes a bad hit for 6 points! Felix takes 5 points of damage! Odette is badly wounded, 2/15. Felix is at 10/15. Odette yells “Hold your breath!” and flings a handful of toadstools into the face of the diving manticore. A clould of fungi spores billow in the air. [I roll to see if the manticore makes a save…result=fail!] The creature gets a face full of the spores and is blinded for 6 rounds! Question…does it crash? Yes! It crumples to the ground taking 4 points of damage! 4/11 remain.]

Beck, Lugan, and Felix rush out to attack it. Felix clubs it for 1 point.
The manticore bites at Lugan but misses. Lugan and Felix both manage to hit the beast for 1 point each and it bites Lugan doing 1 point. Beck is having no luck hitting the creature. Odette takes a gamble and rushes forward to strike it, hitting it with her walking stick, doing 1 point. The manticore shudders and falls to the ground, dead!

Odette casts healing on herself, restoring her health by 10 points. She is now at 12/15. The party searches among the rocks in the hills and soon finds a nest. In a deep depression, a young woman sits imprisoned. They quickly rescue her and also find a cache of treasure.
They recover 480 sp, a piece of jewelry worth 125 sp, a 100sp gem, and a vial of silvery liquid.

They return to the fens to meet the mysterious woman that hired them. She is overjoyed that her sister has been rescued. She gives the party a potion of heroism and 6 gems worth 50sp each.

Beck and company return to the town of Bree after a hard fought victory.
[When I rolled a manticore as the monster, I thought the party was doomed. Some quick thinking by Odette helped win the day. Beck and company desperately need to get some missile weapons or they may not be so lucky next time.]

More to come…