In the Throes of Melee
Last session ended with the party engaged in combat, but one player missed this session and another unfortunately could only arrive partway through.
An explosion rocked the street from the direction Lee ran off to. Luckpicker continued to grapple, gnaw, and mangle the policemen around it, as the other half of the enemy force pursued Lyra into the alley. At the far end, the Imperial samurai lowered his visor and charged Aeila with a blisteringly swift assault.
The two warriors found each other to be dangerous, difficult opponents. In but a handful of seconds, they exchanged blows, parries, shallow raking strikes against sturdy armor, an attempt by the Kain to stick Toshiro with a limpet mine, and finally a missile salvo in return as he launched himself into the air with a jetpack. Just as he rose, Lee ran around the corner but could not catch him in time. The ersatz aristocrat seemed shaken by a close encounter with the gangsters pursuing them, but was none the worse for wear. Thankfully, no pursuit followed.
Meanwhile, Cero continued to hurl bolts of necrotic energy at riflemen. Lyra scampered up the wall opposite his position, catching the police between the two. Agent Julie called a retreat, but a witty repartee from the catgirl rebel stunned her enough for the two to capture her alive.
She would spend the remainder of the session in Cero’s stolen hovercar, knocked out with Lee’s medical gear and guarded by Luckpicker.
Shoes Drop
In the distance, fire alarms blared. From Julia’s comms, Lyra caught part of a message that another target had escaped. At first, the group thought that the temple itself had been set alight, but they soon learned the fire lay a few blocks away.
The Domen Sefalina temple was in a frenzy of activity upon their arrival. In the main chamber, they came across Vance being treated for a deep torso injury by a Keleni healer from another temple down the street. He confessed to trailing them in the hopes of stealing Trinity away, but before he could an old woman the party recognized as Vienna Grey punched him in the face and then cut him down faster than even he could react. Nobody in the group was happy about this, but they left him there for now.
The priestess from before handed them a note Trinity left, containing a heartfelt thanks a drawing of a cat in the corner. Megara, the protestor from the evening before, came by and claimed to have been a classmate of Trinity. With clues from her and the note, they concluded Vienna must have lost Trinity in an Imperial attack and returned to her father’s home to hide.
Rescuing Trinity from Khalli, Again
Upon arrival, Aeila sensed the girl hiding within a cabinet on the ground floor. Cero helped beckon her out. However, before they could lead her to safety three Ranathim blocked the door. Two were clearly elite gladiators, a man in armor with a black razor khopesh in each hand and a salaciously clothed woman with a fiery whip and a wicked knife. In the lead strutted a handsome, richly clad man who introduced himself as Revalis Khalli and readied two ruddy psi-blades to fight.
A short, vicious scuffle ensued, but luck mainly favored the party. Focused fire from Aeila and Cero slew the Stygian fighter, while Lee fought fire with fire and scorched the gladiatrix’s arm with a flaming hand even while ensnared by her pyre whip. Revalis somehow sent Aeila into a terrified flashback of her first battle, but found himself outnumbered despite that.
Suddenly, his demeanor changed, speaking of the party as fine and noble figures whom he would be delighted to ally with. Cero, the only one familiar with Lithian culture, remembered this from his mother’s stories of the Mithanna, and suggested hearing him out.
Lessons Learned
There were a lot this time!
I already knew how terrifying Aeila is, but finding even a 450 point Perfected Body swordsman struggle with her made it all the more real to me. Neither Toshiro nor the khopesh-wielder did more than minor damage. Even Revalis’s trick only succeeded because I ruled that the Mithna Edict prevented Aeila’s player from using an Impulse Point to buy success at the opposed roll, a call than Lee’s player thought was out of line.
Speaking of, while the two combats went well, I did face a lot of dissent this time for having matters spiral out of the players’ control so rapidly. Lyra’s player felt that she did not have enough information to know what was going on. I told them that I felt they as a group had neglected some opportunities for further investigation, though had done very well at negotiating, fighting, and general adventuring. I think that when the party reaches Karangbesi, I will have to be a lot more transparent about what opportunities they have to find out more info.
Information in general has become an issue. One player said that they didn’t remember that Khalli and the Imperials are allied, which led to them misunderstanding what has been going on. Another complained that they thought the party’s plan last session was bad and expressed regret for going along with it. I happen to agree, but I try not to tell the players how to play. I’m not quite sure how to resolve either of these points, as mission planning and info retention are player responsibilities.
Rapier Wit strikes me as way too overpowered. It gives the character a chance to stun an enemy with a free action, and stuns in GURPS are practically fight-ending. It gives, at minimum, one turn of free attacks against -4 defenses with no retaliation. Both Lyra and Aeila have versions of this, and it has made challenging them a struggle.
On a more lighthearted note, Cero’s player learned that it is easy to be a blaster mage in GURPS. His turns are consistently the shortest, and he and I joked about him basically playing a warlock with his Eldritch Necrotic Blast.