Saltflats1929: November 2019

We played a continuation of our GURPS rpg campaign, featuring Francis and his Templar companion Philipe.
The photos are a bit out of order, but Francis himself provides an account of the action:

Save the Children Adventure Part 2

Graxel and Akbar went back with my woman Isabelle to a small tower to keep Lady Bisell and her daughter safe. While the rest of us contemplated our next move. The Templar Philip, a Warrior and Mentalist seemed to tire of Francis slow befuddled thinking, so he cast and maintained a Wisdom Spell on Francis, so for the rest of the adventure I had a 13 IQ, which was scary at first being granted new self-awareness, but then he discovered he liked being smart! I convinced young Prince Hans, scion of the local area and his stalwart companion Squire Harry to come with us, so he can learn what it means to protect the people of his realm. We followed up on the 3 Witches who kidnapped the children and had traded the Lady Bisell and her daughter to the dark evil in the cave which we had eliminated the day before when we rescued them. We came to the Fishing village, which was deserted of their 18 inhabitants. They, as you might have recalled, ferried us across to the island of the abandoned church where the 3 witches dwelled in their strange mystic painting. But then the cowardly Eel Fishermen Ludwig betrayed and marooned us. We were rescued by Prince Hans luckily.

The people of the village had not packed up anything, nor was there a sign of struggle, but only a mysterious very tasty smelling stew remained there, all 18 of the inhabitants had eaten the stew brought by a kindly old woman, who then had a host of Lizard Folk kidnap them when they passed out and were dragged deeper into the swamp. This Philip learned from his spells and I learned from tracking the beast. My skills in this regard heavily improved with my temporary Wisdom.

So I Francis Lord Protector of Ramagen, Sir Philip of The Templar, Sir Hannibal of the Flying Knights of Ramagen, Prince Hans Capon of the Eastern Territory and his trusted Squire Harry pursued them deeper into the swamps. We caught up to some little lizard folk pickets, chatting and drinking scum from a pond through lone reeds. Philip Dazed them, then we surrounded and tied up. Francis saw no reason to kill any of them, but we could not communicate with them, so we followed tracks into a cave that they were guarding. We ran into the outer guard and a shaman who was able to use sort of totem on a staff to communicate his hisses into intelligible speech. They would not give up the 12 'Pinkies' as they were gifts from the 3 Witches to their God.

This was clearly unacceptable, so Francis smashed bronze weapons, cut arms, and shoved the Shaman to the ground. My companions handily took care of the other Lizard Warriors, although we inflicted no lethal wounds. Their Shaman attempted a Stench Cloud, but Philip easily banished it. The Shaman agreed to take us to their Lizard God. We were brought down many twisting tunnels and into a chamber with a small horde of Lizard Warriors and their countless smaller Skink archers. The Shaman announced us and then with great pomp and circumstance the Lizard God, a bloated Frog like creature was brought out on a litter, along with his large blue skinned honor guard. Francis negotiated, but made it clear that the 12 humans, the Pinkies, were coming with us, and he was to tell us the whereabouts of the children. Francis even offered to ransom them with silver and gold.

The Lizard God decided he wanted entertainment instead, if I could best their champion, they would yield them up. There was a drum roll, and a small lizard man appeared. A Skink or Kobold! He fired arrows then moved in with claws. I was cautious and saved a defense, the creature appeared to be as puny as it was and was quickly killed. I was about to address the Lizard God, when the Skinks body shook, and metamorphosed into a Lizard Folk Shaman and attacked again. He too was quickly dispatched, but sensing the trend, the moment he went down, I took off the head of the Doppelgänger Lizard Folk. This ended the fight. They were impressed that Francis picked up on this so quickly and they yielded up 11 Pinkies, the one named Ludwig had already been eaten. The Lizard God had exchanged them for a small abandoned Monastery, not far from the Lizard Folk lair, which is where the 3 Witches and the rest of the children went.

Francis instructed Hans and Harry to bring the people back to their town, while we traveled to the abandoned Monastery. Inside were 4 well-armed Skeleton Warriors, and a gate slammed down separating Francis and Philip from Hanibal. Using our Fine Iron Maces we went to battle the undead. Francis got two critical hits in a row while all out attacking with a 17 sequence, and blasted one undead into pieces and pounded the other to within an inch of his un-life. That's when a big thud came from the far side of the room, and a huge duel wielding giant Skeleton entered. Philip tried to use Illusions of us to confuse it, but it could smell our souls! Luckily the brute missed his first swing, and Francis drew his sword ‘Holy Storm’ with his other hand reducing his magic shield to a buckler. Francis used Holy Storm to cleave off a couple of digits, and the creature dropped one of its two huge blades. Philip used more of his exotic magic, tossing explosive nuts at the creature inflicted great harm. Then he out flanked it, hammering the monster with his mace. The creatures poked me in the chest with a huge sword, it penetrated my thick magic corselet and I took 12 hits of damage, but such wounds only gave me incentive to slash and hammer it as well, hitting it hard enough that the giant finally toppled. We then cleaned up the rest of the Skeletons without issue.

They were guarding the pictured of the Three Witches with Many Legs, as I dubbed the evil painting. We were sure it was a magic portal, but we could not enter it, but Philip made careful note on how it was suspended as it was hung with ropes and twine in a complex pattern, then Francis carefully took it down. We brought it back to Master Lewin, who was not sure, but believed it used Lay Lines in a special place, he did not know how to enter it. So it was back to the Good Witch of the Eastern Forest who I had taken a blood oath to protect women in exchange for her help. She suggested three courses of action...

1. We could attract the 3 Hags by causing harm to a woman, and they might come and we could fight them here, but they would be prepared.

2. We could enter the picture using a potion called Tears of a Woman to disguise ourselves. For only women in distress may pass through the Portal. Then find them and kill them, although they are very, very dangerous... perhaps eve god like particularly on their home plane.

3. The Good Witch could lure out, and we could use the Tears to sneak into rescue the children!

This is where we left it, we considered burning it, but this dooms the children and she might find a way out!