Machodor Sessions

Tuesday 20 August 2024

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 82 (Machodor #43); From Saint Raul to the Dungeon

The Machodorian City of Saint Raul

Timekeeping

This session took place on 15/08/2024, and the PCs adventured for 5 days.

Player Characters Present

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)

Gurt the Green (Level 3 Paladin, wielder of the Longsword+3)

Luke (Level 1 Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric)

Hawken (Level 1 Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric)

Introduction

For the first time in a long while the bulk of the players began the session outside of the Bandit Mountains and in Machodor proper; in the city of Saint Raul the Cyclopean, patron of the misborn. Founded in the aftermath of the nuclear attack on Minas Mandalf on the eve of Brovenloft 2022; the city of 12000 souls, lead by High Paladin Sir Lansabit, is largely populated by former Trollopulous residents who survived that attack in possession various mutations (via Gamma World 1e) and converted to lawful good and the true faith as a condition of citizenship. Since its founding the population has increased rapidly and now other mutants from the wastes to the south, as well as normal humans from the west, are present in roughly equal proportions. It was really fun for me to see this area come to life in a session; as downtime actions here and there have really fleshed it out since the party first passed through on the way to their first foray into the mountains in Machodor session #1.

Downtime

With only 2 days game time between sessions, and both of those days with bad weather, little downtime activity was possible for the players. Most of them rested in the "Ajax Inn" where they met a new adventurer, Luke, while Giuseppe managed to have his dead henchman raised from the dead by the High Priest of Saint Raul, Heliophon. This worthy had also indicated his amenability to casting Speak With Dead on the body the party had recovered in the dungeon last session. Such a thing could easily have been done in downtime as well, but it turned out to be a fun thing to do in session.

Session Report

As the party made their way to the Cathedral at the center of town, the booming voice of a town crier could be heard, his mutation giving his voice the power to carry like a bull horn: "Extray Extray, hear all about it: Saint Raul happenings! Inn of ill repute, the 'Denuded Clam', burnt down over night; the 'Society of Reformed Trollops' believed responsible!"

After some knowing looks, sadly, the players ignored this fantastic and totally original hook and proceeded on their way.

Passing a long line of mutants lined up to receive healing from lower level clerics, they were greeted by Heliophon's men and shown to his chapel. Because he is level 12, Speak With Dead would last 1 turn (10 minutes) and allow for 4 questions. I explained that I would start a timer when the spell was cast (1:1 time for reals). After a bit of discussion, Heliophon cast the spell, the dead man sat up, and Gurt lead the questioning:

"What is your name?" Gurt asked, followed by, "Do I wait for him to answer before asking my next question?" "Yes," I answered, not believing my luck, "You have two 2 questions left." Ha! What a hoot, anyway, I'm not actually that mean; the dead man's name was Verden. Gurt followed up with;
"Where are you from": Aboria (a place unknown the party);
"What were you doing in the PSoD": I was aiding my liege, Prince Barin the Ranger;
"How did you die?": I got separated, lost, and then eventually killed by spiders.

Sever's ears perked up with this information, it happened that the Pegasus Scout Regiment had tasked him with a mission to locate a certain high level ranger, but the details provided were few. I was pretty happy with these results as the players in the subsequent discussion were able to discern quite a bit from the answers.

There was one more thing the High Priest could do for them, he could read the writing on the magic plate mail the dead man was wearing. "Armati sumus, sed quid ante profuerunt arma ulla contra....armatura?" "We have arms, but what use are they without armour?" This was a common decoration of machodorian armour, and the players guessed that Verden must have picked it up somewhere since arriving in this world.

Gurt then paid to have Verden buried and the party resolved to return to Castle Irish and then on to the Pizza Slice of Doom. Giuseppe arranged to leave his henchman Bishoy to look after Tawdros (his other henchman) during the latter's recovery period from being dead, and the rest set off while it was still pretty early. As the day turned to night Sever spied up ahead what looked like a merchant company making camp. It flew a flag he did not recognise, so he decided not to approach them, but to make camp elsewhere. The night passed uneventfully and in the morning to merchants broke camp and moved off in the direction of Saint Raul. A couple more days travel later the party reached Castle Irish and after resting the night were ready for the Dungeon. I really love this aspect of AD&D play, the players have the agency to target what they want to do, but a few days of wilderness travel means virtually anything can happen on the way.

The Irish camp at the entrance to the Pizza Slice of Doom reported no unusual occurrences, so the party retraced their steps from last session into the maintenance level. They easily made it as far as the broken elevator room without any trouble, but then saw two large reptilian creatures slowly stalking towards them:

Combat #1: 2 Subterranean Lizards (MM)
Rounds 3: Party won, Monsters won, Tied Initiative
Result: Party victory
Highlights: The lizards rolled very well, but not so well that anyone was swallowed whole. These guys were so big that I consider having them try to over bear, but in the end decided to go with conventional bite attacks which certainly took a toll. Injuries were mitigated by party healing after the battle.

Once they reached the next level they went west and then north. Here they spent time clearing the vines at the north end of the passage, managing to do so without attracting the attention of wandering monsters. Clearing away the vines revealed a huge submerged area (A) that was filled with the water from the river they had mapped last session (north west). Experiments with a rope and grappling hook showed the opaque water to be 20 feet deep, accumulations of organic and non-organic debris had collected into little islands, some of which were able to float around freely. Fearing that exploring further in this direction would be a death trap, the party gave up on this area and instead went north west to explore the room (B), and here they found the remains of a camp fire and a secret door. In the corridor beyond the door the ceiling was damaged, with organic matter and rocky protrusions visible where they had pierced it in various places.

Undeterred by this, the party marched down the corridor and into the killing zone of a large family of Piercers. According to Appendix C, level 1 monsters like these on lower levels have their numbers augmented by a like number of the same sort of creatures for each level of the dungeon beneath that of the assigned level of the monster type encountered. So in this case six times the normal number were present. The monsters surprised the party and coordinated themselves so that each PC faced two or even three of them:

Hawken pictured
Combat #2: 11 Piercers (MM)
Rounds 3: Surprise 1 segment, Monsters Initiative, Party Initiative
Result: draw
Highlights: The monsters inflicted their damage and, thanks to their numbers, even with their 1" movement rate were able to get back up into the ceiling before the PCs could kill more than a few of them. Hawken was hit by a 3HD piercer and reduced to -3 hit points. Luckily for him, his hearty constitution of 17 prevent this from being a death blow, but he was not in a state for more combat.
Faced with the prospect of another volley of living stalactites, the part chose to withdraw by advancing down the corridor and finding that it joined with another section of the dungeon they had been to previously.

They got their breath back and readied to leave, but, deciding to explore a bit, first mapped out the corridors leading to the toxic waste room (C) and then opening both doors on the west side. Finding no easy way of reaching the exit to the room to the south (all the access ramps to the central platform had been destroyed or were missing) the party decided to retreat back to Castle Irish, which they managed without incident.

Delve 2. After a night of rest and a slight change in personnel, the party returned with what I was sure to be a plan to get past my cunning 'no ramps' puzzle; but I was wrong, instead they explored, and re-explored, other areas of the map. Apart from some repeated encounters with large numbers of Fire beetles (the chances for which were pretty damn low), this part of the session yielded little of direct benefit for the time invested and danger risked; but, by the end, their map was certainly more accurate and complete than ever before. And that will help in future delves.

Session Statistics:

Wilderness travel: 70 Miles

Mapped Dungeon area traversed: 1400/360 ft

New Dungeon corridor mapped: 180/80 ft

New rooms mapped: 2/2

Combats: 2

Combat rounds: 6

Total time in the Dungeon (approx): 11/17 Turns

Treasure and XP

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 82 (Machodor #43)

Treasure & Items

None

Monsters

2 Subterranean Lizards 702 XP

3 4HD Piercers 255 XP

Total 957 XP

957 XP & 0 GP Assignment (no longer weighted by level)

Sever (Level 7, E ) 191 XP & 0 GP

Giuseppe (Level 7, E) 191 XP & 0 GP

Luke (Level 1/1, E) 191 XP & 0 GP

Gurt the Green (Level 3, E) 191 XP & 0 GP

Hawken (Level 1/1, E) 191 XP & 0 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 RAISED FROM THE DEAD

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 RAISED FROM THE DEAD

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

Wednesday 14 August 2024

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 81 (Machodor #42); A tough day to be a henchman

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

Tuesday 6 August 2024

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 77 (Machodor #41); Shrine of the Dragon Cult

Timekeeping

This session took place on 11/07/2024, and the PCs adventured for 2 days.

Player Characters Present

Sever (Level 7 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, wielder of Were'shbane and wearer of the Girdle of Cloud Giant Strength)

Giuseppe (Level 6 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, wielder of a Dragonslayer and the Shield of Protection from Missiles) with henchmen Bishoy & Tawadros (F4)

Gurt the Green (Level 3 Paladin, wielder of the Longsword+3)

Comfort Rod (Level 4 Cleric, possessor of Psionic powers, and Hammer of Giant Command)

Introduction

In this session I returned to a map I had doodled months ago, with a monster and location I had workshopped with the Patron of the Dragon Cult. For fun I'll give details here so the reader will know what is happening before the characters did:

Lernaean Hydra Dragon abomination, same as a "normal" Lernaean Hydra, except each head is that of a different chromatic dragon and has the breath weapon type appropriate to the dragon (each head can breath only once per day).

I must admit that my map made a lot more sense to me than it did when I drew it, but luckily I had also made notes in my campaign log.

Soon to be available on DrivethruRPG, not.

Downtime

Giuseppe did a tour of the mountains, visiting village after village and depositing large sums with the religious authorities he found. He turned up a few rumours as well, but none that concern us here. However, his journey saw him to be stranded by a storm before he could reach the party at the appointed time.

Session Report

When the session began the there had been a major storm in the area the day before, followed by another on the actually day the PCs planned to meet up. With another set of ill timed storms effecting movement, play moved to Giuseppe. He made contact with people in Eigermatt and this turned into a fun little journey of discovery for both of us. Shortly he had acquired a guide who could lead him through the cave system said to connect the town with the valley to the west leading to Castle Irish. On the way he noted the area that they had previously (months ago in session #51) identified as containing a shrine of the dragon cult.

After a short discussion, the party decided to explore this area. They reached the entrance without incident, and found sure signs of passage through the main cave system, but once they left it into ever smaller tunnels, signs of usage were scarce.

At one point the cave narrowed greatly and Sever had to go ahead, crawling, through the gap. He had a nasty surprise of a number of dead beetles from which Rot Grubs jumped out and attacked, but with his many attacks per level he was able to easily squash them with his spear when he won initiative.

Finally they found a man made room in the cave system that matched what they were expecting. A statue of a multicoloured dragon was in the corner of the room, moulded in such a way that its outstretched claws seemed to be asking for something to be placed in them. Writing nearby resolved into understandable text when the players looked at it with the intention to read it:

"Bring a topaz for an escape into a new life, and Lord Inferno will grant you understanding."

Other writing was on the walls nearby but they showed no interest in this. Previously, a captured dragon cultist had revealed to them that the statue required a gift of a topaz, and, once Sever placed the topaz he had brought for this purpose into its clawed hands, they closed on the offering. Then the entire room sank down into the earth. This was no ordinary elevator trap, the room turned gently as it descended, and, after a few moments, they could see out through the archway that they were reaching a sub-level. Beyond a corridor of stark white alabaster lead away, curving as it went so that it was impossible to see its full length.

The room did not stop here, but kept descending, continuing to turn slowly, passing more sub levels as it did so. Each sub level had a single passage leading away: white, black, green, blue, & lastly red. Scripts of different kinds could be seen skilfully carved into the walls of each. Although the players could have opted to leave at any of these, they stayed aboard until the room had come to the end of its travels, level with the red corridor.

The two hirelings Gurt brought with him took one look at the corridor and refused to proceed further, they sensed that the area was too dangerous for the likes of them.

The rest of the party filed into the red corridor, it curved away to their left for a distance of 240 feet before stairs brought down them to a curved T-intersection. The area beyond was also worked stone, and the floor was strangely clean. At this point they heard a blood curdling roar. The creature, who's lair this was, upon hearing the arrival of the elevator room, had begun stalking around the area; I was randomly determining its movement as the players continued. My map began to take shape in the minds of the players, if not in the mapping tool they were using.

They found that the other coloured corridors also terminated at this level, but there were also corridors that led to a central area filled with skeletons of mostly human, or humanoid, creatures. This was the lair of the creature, but it was stomping around elsewhere at this point. After quite a bit of exploring, the party were finally cornered in a corridor that was decorated with a mix all of the colours, but led to a dead end. They turned to confront the gigantic creature, and one look told them that negotiation wasn't an option.

The Hydra began with 5 heads, it lost all but 1 in the first engagement. All the PCs were firing on full cylinders, Gurt held his place in the front rank, and Giuesppe's Dragonslayer sword was delivering extra damage; even though this wasn't a true dragon, but something cooked up by the Dragon Cult.

As each severed head would be replaced by 2 more in 1d4 rounds; I had to come up with an impromptu grid system to keep track of how many heads were going to regrow, and when. Once that was in place the fight moved smoothly. As more heads popped into life they were able to both bite and breath. The players were taking fire, acid, cold, electrical, and gas attacks along with bites, and this damage began to accumulate to dangerous levels even with Comfort Rod healing.

Finally the PCs got serious about using fire attacks to prevent the heads regrowing, and then the tide began to turn in their favour.

As I said, the creature started out with 5 heads; and that factor, plus loosing the first initiative, probably saved the party. If it had had a full 12 heads, or even 8, they would have had a very hard time reducing those numbers while still fighting off the other heads. As it was; the danger level kept ticking up, and hit points were dwindling, by the time they had burnt out the last neck stalk; at which point the body collapsed and died.

By the time all this had happened, the mechanism in the elevator room had reset and the men-at-arms there were holding it in place and shouting for the party to return; which they did, after collecting some items from the Hydra's lair, along with some hacked off heads that they hoped to experiment with later.

Had the party struck a telling blow against the Dragon Cult? Only time will tell.

Lair stats:

Mapped area traversed: 0

New corridor mapped: hundreds and hundreds of feet

New rooms mapped: 3

Combats: 1

Combat rounds: 12

Total time in the Lair (approx): 33 turns

Treasure and XP

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 77 (Machodor #41)

Treasure & Items

3 Jewellery:

800 gp Idol

500 gp Small Box

2700 gp Goblet

Total: 4000 gp

5 Gems:

8 gp Tiger Eye Agate.

10 gp Malachite.

50 gp Eye Agate.

5000 gp Jacinth.

50 gp Azurite.

Total: 5118 gp

1000 ep

Hydra body parts (these all dissolved into goo, but Professor Dorol was very interested in paying well for this goo) 1000gp

Total 10618 XP

Monsters

1 Lernaean Hydra Dragon abomination 7,626 XP

Total 7,626 XP

18,244 XP & 10618 GP Assignment weighted by level

Sever (Level 7, E ) 4622 XP & 3097 GP

Giuseppe (Level 6, E) 4180 XP & 2655 GP

with henchmen Bishoy & Tawadros (F4, E) 1647 XP & 885 GP

Comfort Rod (Level 4, E) 3295 XP & 1770 GP

Gurt the Green (Level 3, E) 2852 XP & 1327 GP

Graveyard

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

Wednesday 10 July 2024

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 76 (Machodor #40); A Random Encounter on a Dark and Stormy Night

Route of a Tornado

Timekeeping

This session took place on 27/06/2024, and the PCs adventured for 6 days.

Player Characters Present

Slippery Pete (Level 7 Thief, wearer of the Hat of Disguise and wielder of the Black Dagger)

Sever (Level 6 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, wielder of Were'shbane and wearer of the Girdle of Cloud Giant Strength)

Giuseppe (Level 6 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, wielder of a Dragonslayer and the Shield of Protection from Missiles) with henchmen Bishoy & Tawadros (F4)

Gurt the Green (Level 3 Paladin and entrepreneur of Machodor)

Deltacron (Level 1 Dwarf Fighter/Thief Cleric wielder of the Longsword+3)

Downtime

The players scattered to the four winds during downtime. Many began with only just enough time to get their errands done and be back for the rendezvous, but with multiple characters available this isn't a big problem. The action that had the main effect on this session was for Gurt The Green. He drew a wilderness encounter on the way back from St. Raul, 4 Vampires in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm. They got surprise. Should be a goner I thought. But how would the head Vampire respond? I rolled up some personality characteristics and no-prepped a bit about the lair. The head vampire was a sneaky bastard, and, instead of killing the Paladin outright, decided to charm him, warp his perceptions, and let him go; with the hope he would lead back and entire party for them to feast on. In other words, I sent some very misleading chats on discord. Would it work? Was it fair? I had a sleepless night wondering if this would be a TPK...

Session Report

When the session began the there had been a major storm in the area the day before, followed by a tornado on the actually day the PCs planned to meet up. This meant that several characters were stuck waiting for the storm to abate before they could go anywhere. One player wanted more detail on where the tornado actually went, so I took out my direction dice, started from where Gurt had been when I rolled the storm, and went from there (see the above map). It got close enough to the Pizza Slice of Doom that I rolled an item saving through for the Irish camp and lift platform there, and it was destroyed. Thankfully there were no casualties and the tornado turned south before it reached Castle Irish. Once the weather had settled, Sever, Slippery Pete and Gurt straggled in and then everyone discussed plans for the session based on who was available. I treated it like any other session and waited for Gurt to explain what he had seen.

I'm not sure if it wasn't just to have a change of pace from the PSoD, but the party figured the possibility of treasure a day's ride away was too good to pass up. They rode until nightfall, reached the cave, and went right in.

The place was a double cave, with a narrow connection allowing passage into the larger cave within. From here there was a passage that Gurt led them down, which soon reached the portcullis he had told them about. There was a niche on either side of the bars where a holy symbol could be placed. Gurt had explained that doing so would allow the portcullis to be lifted open. (I divulged later that although this was true, doing so would cause the holy symbols to be trapped within the niches and prevent them from being used against the vampires).

Giuseppe peered through the bars at the four sarcophagi beyond, finding them also just as Gurt had described. There was no sign of movement, but something felt off to the more experienced Paladin and he used his detect evil ability. "You detect VERY STRONG EVIL," I sent him in his character chat, then described that a cloud like mist started to pour out of the four stone sarcophagi and move in their direction. He passed this on to the rest of the party and they readied for battle. I messaged Gurt: "You are sure your party members must be mistaken, some evil has effected them!"

Holy symbols were raised and the mists parted, in response it or not it was impossible to tell; some swept out of sight on either side of the portcullis. In moments two branches of mist had blocked off either side of the tunnel the party of seven were standing in, and then they changed form into human like shapes.

This one stared at Giuseppe, who made his save vs charm

Now the Monster Manual entry for Vampires makes it very clear that they will not directly attack into the face of a holy symbol, and this party had a few (even Slippery Pete was waving a Cross about). This was a damn good thing for the party as a simple slug fest with four vampires was going to ruin everyone's day. I had to weigh this along with the presence of the Paladins' circles of protection. A round passed in a stand off, with some players averting their eyes to avoid charm; while the vampires summoned rats & bats, with the idea of using them to obscure the party's accursed holy symbols. Unknown to the party, these would take 2-12 rounds to arrive and I rolled quite high, so it was going to take some time.

Vampire Battle

It was at this moment that Sever decided that rather than wait and see the enemies' plan, whatever it was, reach fruition, he would attack the young looking male vampire in front of him; incidentally allowing that vampire to attack in return. Deltacron backed up the ranger with his favourite tactic, burning oil. It was on. The female called on Gurt to help in the fight, and the hapless paladin turned on his party members just as Giuseppe elected to try to turn undead.

Gurt tried to use his spetum to disarm Giuseppe, which I figured would have effected his turn undead attempt if he had managed to go first and cause him to drop his Cross, but the party won initiative. Sadly the Paladin from Brome was not high enough level and the young female vampire laughed off his attempt; but, never the less, she still did not attack in the face of the Holy Cross.

Were'shbane cried out in joy at finally being able to hit a shape changing creature and so deploy his full power. Sever struck a telling blow for around half the hit points of the vampire, while Deltacron missed with his oil and was missed in turn by the vampire's counter attack.

Another round against the male vampire and he was nearly out of hit points from another Sever(e) hit, but again it had a chance to swing at Deltacron and this time was rewarded with a solid hit; draining the life force from the dwarf until he was dead, falling to the floor as a lifeless husk. The brave dwarf had given his all and was now no more, you could cut the tension with a knife.

Slippery Pete had spent a round trying to get his hat to produce an effective disguise of Gurt, for what purpose I never learned. Now the charmed Paladin turned to overbear Giuseppe and the defence on that side turned into a wrestling match; the two henchmen joined in the weaponless combat, allowing the vampire to glide up and attack who ever she wanted. The thief was having none of that, he quaffed a draft of invisibility potion, impulsively snatched up Deltacron's fallen longsword, and darted around behind the enemy for a backstab next round.

The party won a crucial initiative, which might have been immaterial for the three on one wrestling match, but Slippery Pete got in a backstab with the borrowed Longsword+3 for maximum damage! It was one of those situations where a story gamer would have been tempted to ignore that the female vampire still had 3 hit points left, but that's not how we roll. She went for Giuseppe, who had just regained his feet from flipping Gurt on his back, extracting himself, and letting his henchman take over restraining operations.

There was a heated discussion of whether he still had use of his shield, but in the end the monster rolled badly and missed regardless. Sever finished off the vampire in front of him, but that was only to reduce it to zero hit points; it was not dead, rather it returned to gaseous form and passed back through the portcullis, only to be replaced by one of the two other vampires there.

Next round the party won initiative again and this time Giuseppe put the female vampire down with a solid slash, she also returned to gaseous form and passed back into the room with the sarcophagi. Bishoy and Tawdros finished choking out Gurt and got up to rejoin the fight. Sever exchanged blows with an older looking female vampire, fortunately avoiding the enemy's return attacks and keeping all his levels, for now.

It was now that a vast swarm of rats finally arrived. Another timely initiative win allowed Sever and company to finished off the vampire before it could get another life draining hit it. Giuseppe's henchmen stepped up to hold off the rats while the PCs faced off with the last vampire. An older looking male, clearly the head vampire, he was staring at them from within the room; safe, he thought, behind the portcullis. The PCs did not take the bait and averted their eyes from his gaze.

What would they do? It was certainly possible now for them to escape if they wanted. They had no other means of opening the portcullis that they knew of...except for brute strength.

yes I'm sure Slippery Pete joined in

The last vampire looked very put out as the super strong Sever, wearer of the Girdle of Cloud Giant Strength, simply lifted the portcullis, wrenching it through the gears that held it place, until it was well and truly jammed open. The party strode in to once again play Russian roulette with level drain. Slippery Pete had quaffed another draught of Invisibility potion and moved to backstab, but failed! The henchmen again proved their worth by holding off the horde of rats while Sever and Giuseppe half destroyed the head vampire with solid blows. It swung back at Giuseppe; but his shield took the blow and once more level drain was averted. Next round the party won initiative and removed the last of the vampire's hit points before it had another chance.

Puzzle Solving

At that moment the rats broke and fled. Victory was theirs! There was a collective sigh of relief from the three high level PCs, they saw to the fallen Deltacron, and checked on Gurt; he was still charmed. What with the unarmed combat this fight had taken a fair bit of real time, but now the session changed gear to problem solving; how could they finish off the vampires, who were probably even now recuperating?

The four sarcophagi had traps from Appendix G, but Slippery Pete only detected two of them. There was some fun problem solving to circumvent the traps before all four had been opened and looted. Still the question remained, how do you finish off a vampire that is not yet in corporeal form? The sun was still many hours from rising. The party decided seek the answer elsewhere. Sever went back out to the horses and flew his speedy Pegasus Convess to Castle Irish in order to ask the clerics there; surely they must know. In fact there were clerics of a number of stripes there, a Brovenloft Roman, a lawful neutral cleric from the Valley of Fear, the (N)PC Godleve, even Sir Troland's cleric from far away Saint Terese. The advice was conflicting to say the least. However they all agreed that Holy water was of use and were able to sell up to 20 flasks. Sever threw some gems at them before flying back with as many as he could carry.

There was still a while before dawn when Sever returned, and the party were concerned that the vampires might survived the holy water. So the ranger spent some time widening the passage between the inner cave and the out cave, chipping it out with a rock, then one by one pushed the sarcophagi all the way outside to where they would get a good dose of sun. Then they emptied out the holy water flasks to turn each sarcophagi into a sort of bath tub, and hammered in improvised wooden stakes into the spots where they vampire's hearts would be when they reformed.

As a proxy for this location, I looked up what time the sunrise would be in the summer and randomly came up with Seattle time, 5:30 something AM, which just happened to be pretty much exactly 8 hours after the vampires had started to recover. They party kept watch until a glimmer in the East became a sudden flood of light. The vampires began to stir; the effect was immediate, the combination of killing methods so devastating, that I switched my camera on and did an impression of their gruesome death throes.

Lair stats:

Mapped area traversed: 0

New corridor mapped: 60 feet

New rooms mapped: 3

Combats: 1

Combat rounds: 9

Total time in the Lair (approx): 9 Hours

Treasure and XP

Treasure & Items

8 Jewellry:

2000 gp Ring

500 gp Belt

700 gp Medal

2000 gp Tiara

1000 gp Silver pendant

800 gp Idol

500 gp Small Box

700 gp Statuette

Total: 8200 gp

12 Gems:

11 gp Malachite

140 gp Star Rose Quartz

200 gp Smoky Quartz

2000 gp Fire Opal

2000 gp Star Sapphire

400 gp Spinel

50 gp Banded Agate

50 gp Jasper

50 gp Tiger Eye Agate

500 gp Alexandrite

550 gp Jet

80 gp Turquoise

Total: 6031 gp

3000 ep

Total 15,731 xp

700gp spent on identification

Potion of Sweet Water 300 XP

Potion of Diminution 200 XP

Horseshoes of a Zephyr 1500 XP

Quaal's Feather Token, BIRD 500 XP

Total 18,231XP

Monsters

4 Vampires 16,168 XP

15 Rats 30 XP

Total 16,198 XP

34,439 XP & 15031 GP Assignment weighted by level

Slippery Pete (Level 7, E) 8958 XP & 4047 GP

Sever (Level 6, E ) 8247 XP & 3469 GP

Giuseppe (Level 6, E) 8257 XP & 3469 GP

with henchmen Bishoy & Tawadros (F4, E) 3427 XP & 1156 GP

Gurt the Green (Level 3,S) 2103 XP & 1734 GP

~~Deltacron (Level 1)~~