Saturday, April 11, 2015

GURPS: The Queen in waiting

For the erudite, another installment of the brave achievements of Sir Joshua Hiffin.


 The weapons of Azog in hand, our intrepid party now ventured forth to find their target.  We learned from Brother Piroutte that the King Harold's Queen was being held in their summer estate at Castle Keep in the South East.
Sir Hiffin planned to move his forces by river down to Minch where they would outflank the besiegers of Derog and then travel south to Castle Keep.



As they passed the hills north of Castle Keep a force of orcs was spotted atop a nearby knoll controlling the road.
The Frisian king Oswall put his men in battle line and went up the hill to meet them.
Mugabe picked off many of their archers and the crossbows did the rest.
Out of missile troops, the orcs charged down the hill at the Frisians.
The newly equipped Frisians had the better end of the combat and turned the orcs back, running down those that fled.  140 casualties to 5.
The Orc screening force eliminated, the army then set up siege outside the Castle Keep.  While the orcs were distracted by this, Hiffin and his party entered the castle via a shaped portal made by Goldfinger the earth elemental.
Sadly, King Harold's royal guard had all been slain and given a new guard duty as undead minions.
Putting them to death a second time, Sir Hiffin and company moved deeper into the castle...
...where they found a grotesque display of torture in the main hall.
Rushing in to save the tortured priest, Father Wolfgang raised his holy lantern, bathing the undead in it's light (that is holy...).
Two of the skeleton warriors fled, but the others closed in for combat, including the now dead form of Sir Brendan, a grand knight of the Keep.

As several of our heroes engaged Sir unBrendan, the captured priest ran up behind Sir Hiffin and...

...revealed his true colors,  our old nemesis the Arch Cabalist!  The cowardly undead creature attacked Hiffin from behind, but the blow glanced off Hiffin's shield.
"You should have chosen a weaker victim!"  Shouts Sir Hiffin, shaking off the foul beasts spells.  He tips the brazier over in an attempt to burn it, but it leaps out of the way.
Knowing that the Cabalist's Tome is part of its powers, Hiffin snatches it out of his hands.
The Frisian King and Father Wolfgang finally dispatch Sir unBrendan...
...and join the final assault on the Arch Cabalist, while Hiffin spirits its powerful book away.
The bridge to the Keep itself is finally reached.
"Water bad!"   Goldfinger will not cross the moat.  He stays behind.
Entering the Keep, Sir Hiffin hears the cries of distress of ladies above, he heads up to save the Queen, when suddenly he hears Mugabe cry out an alarm behind him.
"Very bad thing, my Lord Hiffin!"
The six armed Gorgon slithers out of a concealed passage.

The group engages the demon.  Two blades pierce King Oswall's breastplate, putting him on the edge of death.  All our attacks are deftly parried by the wicked thing's swords.
Finally Sir Hiffin lands a cut on it's nubile belly and Father Wolfgang uses the Lord's Flash to disorient it.  It backs into a corner but a combination of blows cuts it down.


Upstairs,the Queen is rescued along with her ladies in waiting.  Fortunately the have refreshments ready!
The group heads out,  the confrontation with the army from the Red Pit still ahead of them.