Fabula Ultima 3 - Dire Dire Mire

OK, so I skipped a week of recaps because they had a small main mission of helping a village that was being attacked by monsters. They did that, made it back to the port town of Molo, got paid, and were tasked with carrying a stack of order forms. They needed to make it to Baia del Sol, which is just Bay of the Sun or something similar. In honor of the developer being Italian, and not wanting to rip off a different language, I just use either mauled or direct translations of words into Italian.

Such as the otterfolk little guys of the game being called Nutria.

More on them later.

Between the port and Baia del Sol lies the Toval Mire, a swamp that sits on the leyline of dark magic. Navigating this swamp was my first crack at dungeons and it went… well? I think.

Two branching paths to start, an eastern branch and a southern one. The party went south, and found a Nutria trapped in the mud, unable to get out. They tried to pull him out, but something was fighting back, pulling him further away. They all grabbed the rope that was to the nutria, and all managed to pull him free. His name is Osmund and is a merchant that got separated from his party and got turned around in the swamp. They offered to take him to Baia del Sol, where he said he could hook up with someone from his company again. Near where they rescued him, they found a moldy body with a pair of shapechanging gloves (Max’s weapon type), as well as 2 potions that I rolled up using the Tinkerer’s Alchemist rules. They got a group heal for 30 HP and a potion that deals 20 Bolt damage.

From this area, the path went either north back to the entrance area, or south. They followed the path south, and found a large opening in the swamp, where they encountered a ghostly wolf guarding a wide, short, door carved from a purple stone. They got the wolf down to 25% health before it surrendered and told them they were worthy. He stood aside and told them that this was the Arcanum of the Gate. Nobody is an Arcanist so they couldn’t do anything with it, but they can come back later for it.

They backtracked to the entrance and went east, where they encountered a pond of fetid water. This was a 6 step clock to traverse the portion of the swamp. Two people tried to wade/swim across and attach a rope to the opposite side, which started OK, but then fell apart. Max then spent some IP to get a tool to get a grappling hook across the water. They were able to get across before something in the water reached them.

Here, they missed a path to the south west, but that’s going to be important later, now that I have my bearings about me more. That’ll be the leyline core that’ll be important for the story.

In the south, they found the exit, but also, the black Tigrowth wolfy creature that they saw at the end of the first session. This was an Elite Minor Villain, level 10. Party was level 6 going into this. The Tigrowth was flanked by two White Howlers, smaller natural wolf creatures who could take the Protect action to take a shot for the boss. When the Tigrowth got to Crisis , it would change it’s type at the start of it’s turn, and it would modify it’s signature spell (that the Chimerist managed to learn all parts of). It moved between an Earth, Bolt, and Ice form, shifting it’s weaknesses and resistances as the fight went on. They burned it down, and made it to Baia del Sol without any other issues.

One major thing I learned from this session actually happened the day after, when I double checked the Rewards section of the book. I had shorted the party a good 1000g based on the recommended rewards. Well, around 1k total throughout the 3 sessions. I can make that up pretty easily.

The party’s tactics don’t bother me right now, since they’re mostly Funny As Hell, plus I have ways to counter them if I really wanted to. With Quintus joining Morgan in debuffing, enemies are often at a dice disadvantage, which means, hey, I have opportunities to buff things. Max keeps jumping in front of attacks and making them miss? Well shoot I just need to target magic defense, since you’re big bad armor doesn’t help that. Fights are too straightforward? Well, let me reintroduce my friend, the Objective action.

My current options are to manufacture a way to keep them in this resort town a bit longer, or to get them to Yuventus, Max’s home city, and have shit go down there. Leaning the latter, but we’ll see where I end up as I prep.