Words... what do they all mean?

Some fun and not-so-fun stuff has been happening in Game the last few weeks.

Our party is trekking through this vast underground complex (Moria, basically), looking for a "big shiny red rock" for a dragon. We are encountering _tons_ of undead. This makes me happy because my Cleric, Kember, gets to use turning and Searing Light and all kinds of fun stuff, and not just spend all her time running around and healing the other party members. It makes queleb less happy because his Rogue, Dane, can't Sneak Attack, and can't Finesse with the heavy mace that's the most effective weapon we have against skeletons and suchlike. Grendel Rages and smashes, no matter what, so nothing new there.

On one of the levels, there were three temples: of Kord, Heironeous, and Pelor. Everything is in a general state of disrepair, so when we come to Pelor's temple, Kember decides that His emblem above the altar is not blingy enough for the Shining One, so she climbs up to polish it, and ten or twelve undead pop out of nowhere. Kember had already used her Greater Turning for that day, so I rolled just for a regular Turn Undead, and it was so beautiful. The turning would have affected all of them (one was hiding behind the pillar, and thus escaped it for a while), and Kember is high enough level - or the baddies were _low_ enough level - that the turning outright destroyed them. Poof. Ten piles of dust on the ground, just like that. Two Searing Lights took care of the one hiding behind the pillar (who'd been being poked at in the meantime by Dane). It was just so poetic and fitting that Kember dished out such holy vengeance within her deity's temple. Got a suit of chain +3 out of it, too. Woot!

Last night we played in our new apartment, after I put Morgan down to bed (yay for her having her own bedroom!). We found another human down on the final level, and she joined the party. We finally faced the end boss, a gnome wizard who hurt _lots_. Dane died ('cause he had the crummiest Fort save); the wizard paralyzed him and there was nothing he could do against a coup de grâce. Suckiest way ever to die.

It was three in the morning by the time we finished that fight (which involved _lots_ of whiffing. I swear, if he or we could have actually managed to _hit_ each other, it would have taken like an hour off). ktbee's bed wasn't set up, so she went back to Jordan's, leaving the brand new place all to Morgan and myself. Took me a while to fall asleep because I kept waking up to all the new sounds. Ugh. And the coffee here at work is really weak.

None of the others had school or work today, and they all kept saying to me, "But you don't have to work until ten..." Yes, but I still have to wake up whenever Morgan does, which is generally around seven thirty. Mommy tired.

So I'm sitting here today, reading through D&D 3.5 in preparation to go down to Sac tomorrow and create my character for Jordan's new game. And I realized that I hadn't shared with y'all the resolution of the 7th Sea game. This session turned out much better for us than the last time we got into a fight.

Arright, so the whole purpose of the game was to investigate our father's murder. We followed a trail of breadcrumbs all across Theah and ended up in a dungeon. We managed to escape and discovered that we were in Eisen (hell and gone from where we thought we were), and presumably this castle is where the orchestrator(s)/main conspirators in our father's murder are all hanging out together. So we sneak back into the castle (not very heroic, but effective), and find our way to the dining room, where the Epic Last Battle is to take place. Sitting there are our stepmother, whom we had suspected and then discarded as being too obvious; our stepbrother, who had come with us on our quest for vengeance but who had curiously disappeared somewhere in Montaigne during, like, the third game session; and the two guys who punked us up and resulted in our imprisonment, along with eight brutes and two henchmen. Now, our three Heroes could not take out two of these Villains, so the odds are looking really really bad. ktbee suggests we run away. No Drama Dice for you.

So out come my pistols and I take two shots at the Villain whom I remember as having the most hit points, before he can close with us. I hit him, which is lovely, but now my guns are useless (other than as cudgels), so I'm left with just my dagger against all the brutes swarming down on us. For once my low-rolling dice do what they're supposed to do, and I am able to stab two of them before they can even swing at me. I am all about avoiding damage. ktbee takes out three or four, (sorry, queleb, I don't remember your body count) and between the three of us we Knock Out Reynaldo, the Villain who actually killed our father (with some help from lackeys, I'm sure). Woot! Devereaux, the Villain I shot, runs away, and queleb gives chase, leaving Katie and me to face our step-people.

Now, stepmom turns out to be a Fate Witch, which has the potential to be very nasty indeed. And our stepbrother is a more than capable swordsman (rapier and main gauche against my dagger). We know there's no good end to this fight. Constanzo looks at me and says, "You know you can't win this." This is very true, especially as I have only one action left in the round, and he has three. Coincidentally, I have three Dramatic Wounds left before I fall down.

"I have to try," I say (which earns me a Drama Die, yay!!!). ktbee bails on me. I don't remember if my attack even landed or not, as it doesn't much matter either way. Each of his next two attacks gives me another Dramatic Wound, then he pommel strikes me in the face and I fall down. *sigh*

I wake up slung over the back of his horse as he's returning me to my ship. Turns out someone (he couldn't see who, or just wouldn't tell me) shot his mother in the back, Devereaux escaped (but as he was mainly just the financier he was of secondary importance), and Constanzo himself finished off Reynaldo. "I am satisfied in my desire for revenge," he declares.

I just glare at him and say, "Would that I were."

And that's pretty much it. Certainly not a _happy_ ending, though queleb and ktbee find their way back to the ship, as well, whole and healthy, and we all head home. I and my character are very unsatisfied with the way things turned out, and I intend to find Constanzo and "help" him find whoever shot his mother and thus robbed Mairi (my character) of the ability to truly avenge her father. I figure either killing Constanzo or killing this mystery person will be the next best thing, but the failure will always haunt her.

So teh drama. But that's the point of 7th Sea, no?