Thursday, April 14, 2011

S&W Sessions Journal: Agnal Bites the Dust

Agnal the Chaotic cleric died last night, which was sad to me for a number of reasons, one of which was simply because he was nearing 3rd level and everyone else is 1st or 2nd. The dice were just against him - after four of the seven party members entered a chamber, a giant spider dropped from the ceiling, surprising them. It managed to land directly on top of Agnal, quickly scoring 6 points of attack damage (he had 7) and though its poison was weak (+2 bonus to save) and though he was a cleric (+2 against poison per S&W), he failed his saving throw.

To add insult to mortal injury, Girard critically fumbled and chopped off Agnal's arm while he lay unconscious and dying from poison. The irony was not lost on Henri, who himself had lost an arm on their very last outing. Henri was the first to speak up, saying “I get his armor” following the awkward silence that had briefly descended once they’d dispatched the spider. Agnal was stripped of all possessions, right down to his skivvies, following his wishes and the rites of his deity - Corrno, God of Thieves...

So much for all my work in devising the mysteries of his order. I suppose they still might be used by Kitoth, the magic user turned cleric following his blinding, who was converted by Agnal not long before his death. Big shoes to fill there Kitoth, especially considering you’re blind and nearly worthless since you don’t get magic until second level and have practically no way to gain experience points since, oh yeah, you’re blind.

It was immediately clear that the party leader was assumed to be Wagstaff again. The thief will no doubt miss his long time traveling companion but seems more than happy to be running the show again.

5 comments:

Trey said...

Two limb losses? Main, those guys are an amputating bunch. Poor Agnal will be mourned by his chaotic brethren, I'm sure.

Unknown said...

We had a character die in our Ancient Academy game in almost exactly the same manner. It never sat quite right with me as it came down to a series of bad luck with the dice that wasn't really dependent on a bad decision from the player. It's all part of the game... but I did find it a bit unsatisfying. No more hidden spiders with save-or-die poison in my games anymore. :)

Anonymous said...

We were playing D&D when a game of Runequest broke out...

ze bulette said...

@Trey & Gratuitous: I know, it does seem a bit wack. Here’s how it went - Agnal was already down, with the spider on top of him, dead. That’s when Girard rolled a critical fumble. I looked for a fun critical fumble table I have, but I couldn’t quickly find it, so I thought - use a d6. For this I spot ruled: 1-2 hit yourself, 3-4 hit someone else, 5-6 weapon damaged. Rolled a 4. Ok, randomly roll to see which person he hit near him - bam, it was Agnal. Just for fun, I had him roll “to hit” - 20! A critical hit. I was definitely going to use this for comedic effect. Roll a d6 to see where you hit the dead cleric - arm. Arm goes off I say. I would have been very happy with a decapitation, but the arm was perfect - fitting, if you will. So when I say the dice were against him, they were really against him; even after he was already dead. ;)

@Stuart: Yep, I think I'm done with them too. "Out of nowhere, you die!"

christian said...

Man, those are limb choppin' fools. Giant spiders are such a pisser. The poison is always so hard to contend with!

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