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What could be inside? |
Timekeeping
This session took place on 08/08/2024, and the PCs adventured for 5 days.
Player Characters Present
Slippery Pete (Level 8 Thief, wearer of the Hat of Disguise and wielder of the Black Dagger)
Sever (Level 7 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, wielder of Were'shbane and wearer of the Girdle of Cloud Giant Strength)
Giuseppe (Level 7 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, wielder of a Dragonslayer and the Shield of Protection from Missiles) with henchmen Bishoy & Tawadros (F4)
Sheamus (Level 6 Irish Fighter of Brovenloft, Rocket Cycle rider and wielder of the Drewblade)
Gurt the Green (Level 3 Paladin, wielder of the Longsword+3) with henchman Siegward (F1)
Comfort Rod (Level 4 Cleric, possessor of Psionic powers, and Hammer of Giant Command)
Hawken (Level 1 Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric)
Introduction
After a few weeks of sessions in Fenrir, the players return to Machodor.
Downtime
Several weeks ago a "sonic boom" was reported emanating from the south of Castle Irish. A week or so later came word that a merchant company, the "Lilac Leaf" had disappeared on its way from Eigermatt to Guarda, a route that would have also taken it to the south of Castle Irish.
Session Report
The players were interested in the events above, but chose to return once more to the Pizza Slice of Doom. The hassle of not being able to use their Hawk man technology such as the Rocket Cycle is being felt.
Once there they found that things had changed a little, the main entrance tunnel, once filled with water, could now be seen to have emptied. This meant that they could now enter the place with a minimum of fuss.
They found the maintenance level had been scoured clean by the rush of water as its weight had broken through the previously jammed shut entrance door. Making their way to the elevator that led to the next level, they saw one corner of the tunnels, which led to the thruster tube room, was still filled with water; they realised that had they come through this way instead, the water would have flooded into the room with them, so they had unknowing avoided this risk.
Soon they encountered a single Boobrie mourning the loss of its partner to a pit trap, a trap that could have easily claimed the lives of the party several sessions back; but had been thwarted by Bumblebore's use of O'Malfoy to negate it (by flying through and picking up the treasure that was there as bait). They left some food for the remaining Boobrie and carried on into the next level.
Once they reached the approximate area that they had got to last delve, near the toxic waste room, the party chose to explore some other corridors in the opposite direction, and this decision would dominate the remainder of the session. They heard the sound of breaking glass ahead and around the corner, and then saw an eight legged reptilian creature slowly stalking towards them:
Combat #1: Basilisk (MM)
Rounds 3: Tied Initiative, Tied Initiative, Party Initiative
Result: Flawless party victory
Highlights: The party immediately identified the danger and retreated down the corridor, their eyes tightly closed as they thrust their weapons before them blindly. Slippery Pete hid around a corner, waited for the creature to lumber past in pursuit of the others, and then sprang out, thrusting a mirror in its reptilian face. In the brightly lit corridor, this action had the desired effect of drawing the attention of the monster and its gaze attack, but it made its save versus petrification (by rolling the required number exactly). Although his gambit failed, the attempt allowed the other party members to open their eyes and attack from the flank and soon victory was theirs. They peeled out the monster's eyes for later experimentation.
The party now really wanted to see what was beyond the Basilisk, and they found a four way corridor, in the centre of which was a broken glass cylinder; of the like they had found before, that McScales had explained contained monsters the former Hawkman King, Vultan, had collected during his travels but which now were under control of the Eldritch Horror(s) that lived in the PSoD.
Of the other three directions, to the north east was a 20 foot wide corridor soon crossed by a river, a door 30 feet away to the north west, and another door 30 feet to the south west. There was some discussion of exploring the water; but, given the likelihood of hidden nasties, they explored to the north west, finding they the door there opened automatically as they approached. Beyond was revealed a large room choked with huge spider webs. The party responded immediately by setting the webs on fire, so I used the rules for the Web spell to determine the damage for this to the creatures in the webs. Said creatures were not happy.
Combat #2: Phase Spiders (MM)
Rounds 3: Tied Initiative, Monsters Initiative, Party Initiative
Result: Very costly party victory
Highlights: The MM description says "When attacking or being attacked the phase spider is able to shift out of phase with its surroundings, bringing itself back only when it is ready to deliver its poisonous bite." How does this actually work in combat? I allowed them to engage and move about essentially at will; but I wondered if maybe PCs can only attack them if the party wins initiative, since the spider could attack first and then jump out of phase. Of course that would make them a lot more deadly!
To add to the difficulty, Giuseppe is now level 7 and so has three attacks every two rounds, attacking first every time he gets those two attacks... As it was the monsters bypassed the front ranks to wreak havoc among the others. The -2 penalty to poison saving throws saw two henchmen and a footman (who should not have been allowed to travel to this level, my bad there) soon killed, but Hawken managed to shrug it off at least once.
They got their breath back and readied to leave, first searching the room and finding some loot, including a desiccated body within magical plate mail armour. The body was unidentifiable, but the armour did have religious symbols upon it and the writing: "Armati sumus, sed quid ante profuerunt arma ulla contra....armatura."
Licking their wounds the party decided to take their fallen comrades, and the body they had found, and pull out; but things would not be so easy. As the group returned to the 4-way crossing, a bizarre creature rolled out of the nearby water and surprised* them as they were going past.
*I figured this was due to Sever's Ranger senses being dulled by carrying three bodies on his back.
Combat #3: Amphisbaena Snake (MM)
Rounds 2: Party Surprise 1 segment, Tied Initiative
Result: Costly party victory
Highlights: Comfort Rod's other man-at-arms, Patria, was bitten and died; re-enforcing the idea that he never should have been on this level of the dungeon. Hawken made another save vs poison, his luck streak still going. Fortunately the party managed to dispatch the snake before it could do more damage.
Although it was an arduous climb back out of the PSoD access tunnel all the way up to the outside, what was worse were the jokes by the Irish troops up there when they saw the party struggle out with their burden.
"I haven't seen so many guys get carried out of a pizza place since Paddy's bucks night, to be shure to be shure."
The distraught party allowed such barbs to pass without incident and, after collecting their mounts, returned to Castle Irish. Here they had the armour identified and found it to be +1 Plate mail.
With time available able and Giuseppe intent on trying to get his henchman revived in Minas Mandalf, the party rested over night and made for St. Raul in the morning. However, once again the random encounter dice were not kind to them. On the second night, around midnight, Sheamus was on watch when he saw some flickering lights off in the nearby mountains side, he thought he perceived gold there and started off to investigate (McScales followed him uncertainly, "Meesa not shure this is a good idea").
Fortunately, Slippery Pete, who I had randomly determined was awake at this time (I'm sure for innocent purposes!) had witnessed this and he warned the remainder of the party, who soon took off after the Irish Fighter. (Note: I forgot to stipulate that they were not in armour when they were sleeping)
Combat #4: Will o Wisp (MM)
Rounds 5: Monsters Initiative, Tied Initiative, Monsters Initiative, Monsters Initiative, Monsters Initiative
Result: Flawless (though perhaps lucky) party victory
Highlights: "10% of the time 1-3 are encountered, and in these cases the creatures’ lair will be nearby 90% of the time. If brought to 5 or fewer remaining hit points a will-o-wisp will reveal its lair and give over its treasure."
Adapting this monster to the mountains instead of a swamp, I had it that they led Sheamus into a rock fall pit trap, when the party caught up he was already stuck in it. Soon the brave Gurt joined him when he went in to help to fighter. This left Hawken to try and fish them out with a rope while Sever fought the three electrical entities, alone initially, but with help from Giuseppe and Comfort Rod later. Slippery Pete tried to help with the last of his Oil of Slipperiness but his throw went wide.
Very fortunately, the first Will o Wisp Sever hit had below average hit points and he killed it in one blow. I was expecting the -8 armour class to be very difficult; but, Sever, and the AD&D attack matrix, showed that this wasn't so bad after all. In more good fortune, Hawken managed to mostly dodge one Will o Wisp that stuck to him through out the battle.
Dramatically, Comfort Rod declared that he was going to attack the creatures with Psionic Attack mode B; but , sadly, they were completely unaffected by this (worth a try though!) When one of the surviving Will o Wisps was brought below 5 hit points, the pair pulled back and gave up their lair, and suddenly Sheamus' rashness was revealed to all involved to be brilliance.
Speaking of rashness, Slippery Pete had become invisible with a sip of his potion, too late to effect the battle, but not too late to get into the cleft in the wall which the Will o Wisps had revealed held their treasure. He soon realised the chances of getting away with shenanigans were slim, so he declared that he would dangle a big gold chain in front of Sever while going, "Woooo...Woooo!" In no surprise to anyone, Sever attacked, and initiative came up as: tied, again! Fortunately for the Thief, the Ranger's attack did no more than slice the chain in half, while a startled Slippery Pete became visible and quickly dropped the pieces to the ground.
After that, the remainder of the trip to St Raul was uneventful.
Session Statistics:
Mapped Dungeon area traversed: 700 ft (both ways)
New Dungeon corridor mapped: 180 ft
New rooms mapped: 1
Combats: 4
Combat rounds: 13
Total time in the Dungeon (approx):17 turns
Treasure and XP
Treasure & Items
Jewellery:
600 gp Headband
100 gp Necklace
1800 gp Pendant
4600 gp Statuette
1000 gp Arm Band
2000 gp Collar
900 gp Belt
1500 gp Diadem
2000 gp Ring
1000 gp Locket
1000 gp Half a Gold Chain
1000 gp Other Half of a Gold Chain
1100 gp Sceptre
1200 gp Coffer
3200 gp Decanter
1200 gp Earring
Total 24,200
600 pp
Items
Platemail +1 800 XP
Spear +2, Throwing 2000 XP
10 Arrows +1 200 XP
Total 30200 XP
Monsters
1 Basilisk 1188 XP
3 Phase Spiders 2544 XP
1 Amphisbaena Snake 652 XP
1 Will-O-Wisp 1464 XP
Total 5848 XP
36048 XP & 27,200 GP Assignment weighted by level
Slippery Pete (Level 8, E) 7137 XP & 5726 GP
Sever (Level 7, E ) 6343XP & 5011 GP
Giuseppe (Level 7, E) 6343 XP & 5011 GP
with henchmen Bishoy (F4, E) 1979 XP & 1432 GP
Shaemus (Level 6, E) 5548 XP & 4295 GP
Comfort Rod (Level 4, E) 3959 XP & 2863 GP
Gurt the Green (Level 3, E) 3164 XP & 2147 GP
Hawken (Level 1/1, E) 1575 XP & 716 GP
Graveyard
Pleasance (Footman level 0), killed by a phase spider bite in session #81
Siegward (Henchman Fighter Level 1), killed by a phase spider bite in session #81
Tawadros (Henchman Fighter Level 4), killed by a phase spider bite in session #81
Patria (Footman level 0), killed by a two headed snake bite in session #81
Deltacron (Dwarf Fighter/Thief level 1/1), threw his last flask of oil at, and was level drained to death by, a Vampire in session #76
Petrov the Prestidigitator (Magic-user level 1), killed again by the toxic gas of an Achaierai in session #72
Petrov the Prestidigitator (Magic-user level 1), killed by Sever the Ranger in session #72
Red (Paladin Level 1), always popular with the ladies, he was eaten up by a female Roc in the Pizza Slice of Doom during session #67
Jacques Ocular (Level 1 Magic User), a fat green worm burrowed into his head and turned him into a Son Of Kyuss in Brovenloft in Session #43
Pino (Dwarf Footman level 0), Killed by a Frost Giant axe in the head in session #39
Paro (Dwarf Fighter/Thief level 2/2) Killed by Winter Wolves and frozen in session #39
Zabib (1/2 Elf Fighter/Magic User level 1/1), Killed by Frost Giant rocks in downtime prior to session #39