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View Full Version : Campaign Log - Gritty GURPS Dungeon Crawling



thedanster7000
2017-05-23, 03:35 PM
I've written three of these so far on my Blogger site, but I thought I'd put them up here in case anyone here has any ideas I could use for future games. If you have any, they'd be very much appreciated! :smallsmile:

I'm going to be running a series of GURPS games based around sailing out to various towers in the middle of the ocean filled with traps, treasure, monsters, and impending doom. This will involve the PCs gathering a crew and occasionally fighting other crews.

Fantasy setting with gritty & realistic optional rules and 100-point characters, with each surviving character getting 10 points at the end of each session.

Session 1:

Flink - Goblin Hunter; archer and survivalist - 100 points
Vils Mageblood - Human Wizard - Necromancy, general magic, and falchion - 100 points

The northern elves have recently granted free passage into an area of ocean they'd previously guarded. Those who went to investigate discovered hundreds of stone towers that extend seemingly endlessly into the ocean. Inside these towers were elaborate traps, strange noises from further down, and obscene amounts of gold. Bands of sailors and adventurers have been since setting out in droves to try and conquer these dungeons, and a resultant boom in the weapons/dungeoneering economies have resulted in a whole market dedicated to selling equipment for the towers and buying the treasures found within.

Flink is a goblin hunter who occasionally comes down from the mountains and his tribe to live among men and gets by on pickpocketing and poaching. Vils 'Mageblood' is a budding necromancer obsessed with achieving immortality, and has a strong feeling he'll find it within these ocean structures. These two have come together after a fisherman offered to rent out his two-man boat to adventurers in exchange for a cut of whatever they find. They eventually agreed on a 10% cut for him, and headed to the markets to gather some equipment before heading off.

They both purchased a leather chestplate, Flink opting for a cap as well; goblin armour isn't overly common, even in these dungeoneering markets. Vils bought a backpack to carry treasure and a lantern, along with enough oil to last a few hours. Flink bought ten yards of rope and wrapped it around himself. They returned to the fisherman who informs them that two men are waiting for them with food at the tower he's sending them to, to get other potential looters to leave it for him, and they set off.

After a few hours of jolly rowing, the tower comes into view. Towering a solid 80 feet out of the water, it was made of thick stone and looked rather unfriendly. Moving a bit closer, they saw a large-ish ship docked against a 10x15 foot platform that jutted out of the tower, and gave access to an open double-door, leading into a corridor. Skeptical that the ship would be manned only the fisherman's two staff, the party docked and stepped to the platform with their hands on their weapons.
"Finally!" they were greeted by a man clad in rough rags and two hatchets tied at his belt. He told them the other man was inside the ship, preparing their equipment for them. Still cautious, they followed him on to the deck and Vils cast Sense Danger, informing the man he'd heard a funny noise. Vils detected 11 hostile men within the cabin, and proceeded to run for the platform. Flink drew an arrow before being grabbed by the man, who had drawn a hatchet, who yelled after Vils, "Come back or this one gets it! We've got a deal for you!" Vils stopped running, but drew his shortsword to parley with the man. Flink, who was not feeling quite as generous, decided to drive the arrow he was holding into the man's thigh. The man gritted his teeth, "Heh. Come now, we've a peaceful offer!" Vils started moving back towards them with the intention of bargaining, but Flink, still rather upset, brandished his aptly-named 'Large Knife' and proceeded to violently cripple the man's hand, which was enough encouragement for him to let go and collapse, screaming.

At this point, the noise of the fight had alerted the men in the cabin, who emerged with two respectably-clad sailors, presumably the fisherman's friends, at axe-point. They explained they were pirates who'd come here to find riches within the dungeon, but their captain and a group he'd taken with him had been last seen entering the double-door several hours ago. If the party delivered the captain and any treasure they find, they, and the two sailors, would be allowed to live. They complied, were handed the sailors (who were given shortswords), and pushed to the double doors.

The double door was open, leading to a dark corridor of descending steps. Fresh blood had been splattered on the door and around it; the sailors said a pirate had triggered some kind of trap when opening it. Vils cautiously began walking down the passage, Flink and the sailors close behind. There was a blood trail from the door leading to a severed arm and the rest of the corpse, bloody footprints led on. After about 20 feet, the stairs ended at a crossroads. The left passageway was blocked off by heavy rubble, the right went straight for 10 feet then turned left, and in front was a closed double-door, similar to that at the entrance. Not wishing to share the pirate's fate, they opted for the right passageway. After the turn, there was a spike-filled pit on the right, and another left turn after 20 feet. Vils' inspection of the pit revealed no apparent victims, and a passageway leading straight up from the pit, presumably for people to fall down. Leaving the pit and poking their heads around the next corner, they saw two pirates chatting 10 feet away on a T-junction. Vils confidently presenting himself as the crew's saviour proved to not be a particularly good move as the pirates drew their hatchets and rushed the intruder. The fight lasted a few seconds with Vils managing to avoid injury while Flink pressed his back to the opposite wall and shot down the two pirates. The sailors hadn't gone out of their way to contribute, which Flink found rather annoying.

A left turn led to the double-door they'd just bypassed so they headed right. After a couple of bends they came to a sheer drop into 15x15 foot room with passageways to the East and South. Two pirates and someone who was clearly the captain were inspecting a pit in the East passageway. Their was a piton driven in with rope tied around it, presumably put there by the pirates, so Flink stealthily and gracefully climbed down, before aiming at the closest pirate while he waited for Vils. Vils, unfortunately, is not an expert climber, and immediately fell down and crippled his leg, whilst also alerting the pirates to their presence. The pirates turned and readied hatchets, the captain wielding a finely-made throwing axe. Vils managed to heal himself and his leg with Major Healing while Flink dropped the pirate he'd been aiming at. Flink drew another arrow while Vils stood up to be greeted by a thrown hatchet, which he shot right back at the pirate with Return Missile, critically hitting him in the skull! The captain juimped into the pit to escape the inevitable bowshot. The two sailors had finally climbed down at this point, and they all had a look around. The South passage was a staircase filled with water, and the East was a pit that was about 15 feet across and 10 feet deep, with a gold statue on the floor, and a pile of gems at a dead end on the other side.

Vils managed to convince the captain of their good intentions, and climbed into the pit with him to fill his pack with the gems. He then climbed back up and prompted the captain to join them. The captain threw them the surprisingly heavy statue and grabbed on to the top of the ledge. The moment the captain's second foot left the pressure plated-floor, the entire block of ceiling above him fell into the pit, crushing him to paste with his arms poking out as the top of the pit. "He was 'armless anyway," commented Vils. They were going to investigate the stairs when they noticed the water from them was rising, so they all sped up the rope and out of the tower, only narrowly outrunning the water.

The pirate ship was gone when they emerged, so they sailed back to the docks with all their treasure in hand. The fisherman was upset that the dungeon had been flooded, but was less upset at his 10% cut. Flink started back for the mountains to gather some of his tribe for an expedition, while Vils headed to the docks to look for more opportunities to explore the towers...

I ran the second session of my GURPS campaign today, one of my players had chosen a new character, while the other had spent his points from last time on upping a couple of utility skills.

Session 2:

Arlong - Big scary fishman; Sai knife and crossbow enthusiast - 100 points
Vils Mageblood - Human Wizard; Necromancy and falchion - 110 points
[NPC] Rob - Human Ranger; Survival and longsword - ?

Arlong and Vils met on a ship that was granting cheap passage to a tropical island that had been discovered to have several of the strange stone towers built into it. They decided to hire Rob (who was also travelling on the boat) for $40 and a cut of the loot, in case they needed to do anything survival-y in the jungle. Upon arrival, they headed to a tower right on the beach that had been converted into a makeshift inn. Despite the large numbers of looters and pirates landing at the island, the inn had been left intact, as it was convenient for rest, trading, and recruiting for all the local delvers.

In exchange for their patronage and a few shekles (my world's currency; small gold coins), the innkeeper gave the party a blood-stained map that had been brought back by the only survivor of a previous adventuring party. He also told them that undead were commonly found on this island, and there was a man on the beach coating weapons in silver for a fee. Vils thanked him, and went to see the smith. Upon discovering that coating his falchion would cost over $7000, Arlong instead had 5 bolts coated for his crossbows.

After they'd finished shopping, they followed the map, heading for the nearest tower. A few pirates attempted to mug them while they were hiking, but decided better of it when the party advanced and fled. Arlong shot one in the leg before deciding that it was a waste of bolts, and so he strolled up to the limping man and ripped it out for later use. They reached the tower after a few hours and saw it was much like the one they'd been to in the ocean, but its door was smashed in, and there was another one a few hundred feet from it.

Inside was a trapdoor that had been jammed open with a spear (presumably by its last victim's party) with unsettling screams coming from within. They ignored it and headed to a passageway leading into the earth, that consisted of layers of decorated tiles, and a seemingly bottomless pit. A note was pinned to the wall that gave them clues as to what the marking meant and told them not to jump over any layers. They messed the patterns up at first, releasing several spring-powered blades from the walls and costing poor Rob his ability to walk for a few hours. Eventually they figured it out (after cursing my name for my poor clues), and figured out that bottomless pit was merely an illusion designed to trick them into jumping the layer it covered.

After getting through the corridor, they walked (well, Rob crawled) into a natural-looking cavernous ledge, with a river of green goo below on one side, a way to a lower platform on the other, a ladder going up at the far end, and three zombies. Arlong initially fired his crossbows at them, but his non-silvered bolts were loaded, so it wasn't very effective. Vils failed a Control Zombie spell before charging in with his falchion. Rob cheered them on enthusiastically from his puddle of blood on the floor. Arlong's impaling weapons weren't very effective and Vils was, frankly, embarrassing, so it took quite a few rounds to drop the zombies. Vils sliced one apart groin-first, and cut a crawling one's face off, and Arlong used his Wrestling skill to piledrive a zombie's head into the rock (well, his weapons weren't working, so he had to improvise).

They found some healing potions on the zombies, so they healed Rob up and Vils recovered some energy. The ladder turned out to lead up to the top of the other tower they'd seen, where there was a switch that caused a wooden platform to move across the goo. Arlong and Vils stood on the platform, Arlong loading his silver bolts, while Rob went up and pulled the lever, leaving Rob to guard the entrance until they called him to bring them back.

At the other side was another ledge, with a hundred foot drop at either side, and a huge pile of loot in the middle. It was a gigantic number of coins, with a strange-looking dagger sticking out of it. A skeleton was also leaning on the pile, an ornate greatsword next to it and plate armour almost burned onto it. Arlong decided that it must have been killed by the goo and Vils went to retrieve the dagger. When he touched it, a rune lit up on the side and the blade burst into flame. This was almost enough to distract him from the now-animate wight reaching for him, but he managed to hit it with the dagger, and Arlong hit it with a silver bolt. The wight then grabbed him, draining FP with its cold. The wight then stood up with the greatsword and Arlong shot it with all but one of his silver bolts before he and Vils both charged it, trying to smash it apart with the blunt ends of their weapons. After being pummeled for a couple of seconds, the wight proceeded to cut off Arlong's toes, causing him to fall to the ground. Vils then managed to shatter one of its arms, prompting it to smack Vils with the other one. He stayed standing though, and kicked its leg so hard that it smashed to pieces (soaking up the cold damage from the wight's touch). Arlong had managed to recover from stun at this point, and lined up his last silver bolt with the wight's neck and... blasted its head clean off!

They decided they were pretty worn down at this point and headed back for the inn. They gave Rob $200 and the magical dagger, but kept the greatsword (which was etched with ancient carvings of skulls and turned out to be worth $2000!).

We ended the session there, and Vils trained for some greatsword skill and invested in a staff (to make killing skeles easier), while Arlong boosted his weapon skills. They're going to rest at the inn and head back to the tower next session.

This was the third session of the campaign, with Vils and Arlong going back to explore the cluster of towers they found last session.

Session 3:

Arlong - Fishman/Low-Quality sharpshooter; Wrestling & Crossbows - 110 points
Vils Mageblood - Human Wizard; Necromancy & falchion - 120 points

The party are approached in the inn/tower by an elderly gentleman in a travelling cloak carrying a smooth metal staff. He informs them that he's an enchanter looking for artefacts like their greatsword and offers to come along on their next trip in exchange for any similar artefacts he finds. They agree. They decide to travel to the tower marked on the map as being in the river. They spot a couple of hunters on their journey, but leave them be.

They arrive at the river, which indeed has one of the familiar stone-brick towers in it. They wade over (the enchanter, Seam, instead walked across the water. Show off.) to the front door, which they proceed to violently demolish to reveal a descending spiral staircase. Vils goes down and the others follow. It leads into a large cavern, like the ones from their previous trip, with a 40-foot ledge leading to the only visible exit. Vils climbs up, and Seam casts Walk on Air on Arlong and himself until they reach the top. They're at the bottom of a huge ledge at a t-junction, with a green glow coming from the left. Curious, the party opt to go left. They emerge in another large cavern with a large drop at one side and a pool of the strange green goo surrounding a platform supporting a mass of strange crystals, that are producing the light. Despite hearing a roaring from below the ledge, Seam Walks over to the crystals and starts analysing them. Vils was less calm and cast Sense Danger; detecting some undead coming from the passage and something climbing up from the pit.

Arlong loaded his silver bolts and they waited for the first group of zombies to appear. There were five zombies in total, arriving in two groups of 2 and then a final one. Seam didn't participate as he was still analysing the crystals. The fight was fairly quick and the party won mostly unharmed thanks to poor zombie accuracy and their armour. Vils beat stuff with his staff and Arlong managed to pull off a piledriver. The noises from the pit were getting louder though, and a beefy-looking ghoul sprang up from the ledge. Arlong landed a brilliant leg shot, almost crippling it immediately. Vils proceeded to beat it ineffectually with his staff before Arlong managed to cripple its leg and it collapsed. At this point, Arlong ran up and started kicking it with his weaponised toes (from after he lost them to a wight last session). Vils then landed a 7-point staff swing to the groin, killing the ghoul and splitting one of its testicles in half.

Seam finished his analysis, took some of the crystals, and promptly took his leave, leaving the other two on their own.They decided they couldn't climb (and didn't particularly want to explore) the ledge the ghoul came from, and so headed up the other passageway. They were met with a long bridge over a river of the green goo, with a strange chalk line across across its beginning. Vils spotted something shiny on the other side. They threw a rock onto the bridge and as it crossed the chalk, it turned red. The objects on the other side of the bridge began to rise up and formed into an animated suit of armour wielding a mace, which began to walk across the bridge. Arlong placed himself at the edge of the chalk, ready to grapple the creature if it approached him. It kept walking closer, but stopped at the rocks and kicked them off the bridge, into the goo, before walking back to its original position and falling apart again.

Vils and Arlong eventually decided to lure it out and try to push it into the goo. They did this, but it was only damaged and crawled back up onto the edge, making sure not to cross the line. Vils told Arlong to pull it over the line, so Arlong grappled it and Vils hit it a bit before it was pulled over the line and fell apart. The plate was damaged and rusted, but the mace was usable and matched the greatsword that Seam wanted, so Arlong strapped it to his belt, before they headed across the bridge. They emerged in a huge cavern that headed in two directions, one a small drop, and one a couple of animated skeletons armed with rusted shortswords standing before a river of goo. Vils used Apportation to push one into the goo while Arlong attacked another with his new mace. Arlong killed his, but the other skeleton was unharmed by the goo, but had lost its sword. A few blows were then exchanged and Arlong eventually killed it with an immense blow to its foot. They could see no way across the goo, and so headed the other way.

The drop was only about 10 feet so they climbed down, and found a large pile of coins. There were about $800 and a powerstone that Vils identified. They then continued down and reached a 30-foot drop. About 20 feet away was a man in some ragged blue-striped clothes dragging a large chest towards a 5-foot ledge. Vils climbed down stealthily and approached the man, who seemed to be unarmed. Vils greeted the man, surprising him.

"Hello there," said Vils.
"Ah! I didn't notice you there... How'd you get into this passage?"
"From the tower in the river."
"I see. Anyone come with you?"
"No."
"Hmm. Well in that case I think I'll ask you for some of your loot; I'm a fellow delver in need, care to lend coin?"
"I'm afraid I've not much on me, friend."
"Well that's fine by me."
"Oh really, well you don't seem so well equipped to dictate that," commented Vils, gesturing at the pirate's empty belt.
"Oh believe me, I am."
"Why don't you show me?"

The pirate then extended his arms towards Vils and blasted him about 10 feet backwards with a magical blast of air. At this, Arlong fired the bolt he'd been aiming at the pirate, crippling his arm.

"Oh, so you do have a friend?"
"Hmm: many, many friends," Vils replied unconvincingly.

The pirate started moving towards Vils, so Arlong fired again, randomly hitting him in the same arm.

"See how skilled he is? You should be terrified that he's hitting you in the same arm twice on purpose," lied Vils.

The pirate then threw up a Wall of Wind and summoned a 3-yard Lightning Whip in his good arm. He stepped through the wind towards Vils, prompting another bolt from Arlong, who crippled his leg. Now prone, the pirate still managed to hit Vils, for a devastating groin-hit with the whip. "What a shocking blow," commented the now-infertile Vils. Arlong then landed a final bolt, finishing the pirate, his whip dissipating as he died.

After Vils had recovered from the enormous shock from the injury, he got up and opened the chest. There was about $300 and an ornate buckler in the same style as the weapons they had found. Down the ledge was the steps up to another tower, which they headed up.

On their journey back, they were approached by a group of bandits in the same garb as the mage from the caverns. They attempted to mug them, which Arlong responded to by going to hand them his mace before smashing one of their arms to bits. They begged for their lives, offering recommendation to their captain in exchange for mercy. Vils accepted this offer, and Arlong took a few shekels too for good measure. They reached the inn without further incident.

Vils upped his weapon skills with his points, and Arlong trained up his Wrestling.