Mortaine’s Blog

Dreamed that the devil was trying to tempt me into going to Hell. He was trying the seven Deadlies– classics. At one point (when arguing that I should go to Heaven, at least for a visit, so I’d know what I was missing), I mentioned that I didn’t believe in the devil before, either. *snicker*

Anyway, he was trying the seven deadlies, starting with lust, so of course I walked around completely horny for the first day, and it didn’t exactly dissapate the second day (at least, not in the devil’s presence). Cause, damn, he was one fine satanic entity! [Played, more or less, by Scott Cohen.] Day 2 was covetousness and envy.

Muis was there fairly early, playing flute (perhaps some kind of Pan-like representation? I dunno).

I wanted to talk it over with someone who would be a little more…. objective. The devil offered, of course, to chat it up with me, but I (wisely) realized that would just have me tearing my clothes off and throwing myself at him. Interestingly, I asked to speak with Copernicus, who was not in Hell. I had to check the records in Heaven to see if I could visit him there (this is also when I wanted to go there for a visit, realizing that part of the resistance was that they didn’t have a Copernicus costume).

And at one point during the dream, I stepped out of “the room” and ran into Anisha. We discussed the “game” that was going on (the whole thing being, of course, a fantasy game and not real) before I went to check Heaven’s records. Interestingly, I checked the soul balance on some of the inhabitants– there were only about eight whose souls were in the negative balance there– four of them were young Quidditch players. I didn’t recognize the others, but I presumed they had also died too young to be properly damned.

In unrelated news, I ran my game last night. Fun, entertaining, at least for me. Early in the game, the party decided to return to the surface. On the way into town, Cardea told Fred that she wasn’t really there, and she was going to leave now (Fred’s been hallucinating this character for weeks now– she brought it up last game, and we decided it was time for Cardea to make her graceful exit). This was not unexpected, though Chris was having another bad ADD night, so it was hard for her to focus on what she was supposed to say to her at this parting.

The highlight of the evening (for me) was when the party was fighting the evil wererats, just after having descended to the lower level of the mine. The party had blocked the exit grate shut for two days, so I’m figuring everything in there has gotten pretty desperate (though, I suppose most things inside can shapeshift into rat form, small enough to slip out of the grate).

Fred was hanging from a ladder, about 10 feet up from the floor. A wererat climbed the wall and crawled over to her to bite at her, hanging from the wall, about 10 feet up from Aloysius (who has shapeshifters like wererats as his Favored Enemy). On the first bite, he missed. The next round, Fred was debating what to do– drop to the floor (taking damage)? Climb down (getting a free attack against her)? Draw her sword to defend herself, but be unable to take action? Cast a spell (again, a free attack against her)?

I suggested that she use the “Fist of Listening.” See, Fred has these unreliable mental talents that have recently woken up. Most of the time, she uses them to see if she can “hear” anything on the other side of a door (like thoughts). For a while there, they were very strong, but they’ve since tapered off. She has used them offensively in the past, though with unpredictable results (frequently, they just backfire on her because she lacks any control over them, so they kind of feed back on her).

So, she said, oh, yeah– I’ll do that…..

I made her roll her psi attack roll (first time she’s done that herself– really, the first time she’s used this in combat). She rolled a 17. Her particular offensive ability is extremely powerful in that it affects multiple targets and is very effective against non-psi creatures (most non-psi’s have extra resistance to psi attacks).

I had those in her area of effect roll their saving throws. The non-psis needed a 21 (17 +4 modifier for non-psi) to beat her. On a d20 die system, a 21 is kind of hard– not impossible with modifiers, but not a cakewalk.

The Bad Guy rolled a 1, so he was Definitely Affected, but he’s psi, so his effect is mainly to lose ability score points. Unfortunately, Fred’s control is very weak, and she didn’t really know this would be an area effect assault– she also hit two of her friends, both of whom were affected in the non-psi ways.

So, Fred issues the mental blast, and promptly falls off the ladder (I forgot to have her take the d6 of damage from falling), unconscious. Fortunately, she doesn’t get that free attack against her, as her opponent falls off the wall (I also forgot his damage, but it quickly ceased to matter). Aloysius was brought down by the falling wererat, and was stunned for 3 rounds, while he clutched his head and screamed. Same with their NPC fighter, Jake.

Meanwhile, Orva was the only one left standing and in the room (because, of course, Kemen was still up the ladder on the previous level– I should’ve had something attack her, but she just would have run away into the rest of the dungeon). Orva’s a paladin and very brave. For 3 rounds, she beat up the last wererat and slaughtered the dire rats who were making lunch out of the prone Aloysius. After 3 rounds, Fred started coming to (she’s at -2 on everything until she rests, though– she used waaay more psi points than she has total), and Aloysius stopped being stunned. Jake recovered another round later. Obviously, the wererat never recovered, since Orva dispatched him in the next round.