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| what do these do? |
Welcome to session 3.
This session was played on 23/Sep/2021 and the PCs adventured for 1 day.
Session Report
Three players available for session three: Clyde Foot the Dubiously Strong (Half-Elf Fighter) and Dorf, just Dorf (Human fighter), and a new player: Kevin the 53rd (Dwarf Thief)
Between sessions Dorf and Clyde had spent their down time on their side jobs which incidentally turned up the following information;
Fishermen travel by cart daily from Castleport to Lake Vostorn to fish in boats there. At the south western tip of the Lake, the south eastern edger of Briar Village, is a tavern they use called the Carp'eel Tunnel
2 Travellers paid for a room at The Badger and Serpent for a whole week and asked not to be disturbed. Fineli has not seen them since; but he knows they are still there since he slides a tray of meagre food under the door for them daily, which he finds later slid back empty.
The Mercenaries Guild in the Old Quarter brokers contracts for well paying jobs that are posted by the city's luminaries.
Arlina's condition remained unchanged. Sometimes she tries to get up and walk out of the infirmary. Arlia spends most days and nights by her side.
While fixing tiles on the church roof, Clyde overheard a group of adventurers; two wizards and two fighters, come and ask questions of Thomias. It seems they had heard of the PC party's exploits and have also explored below Briar Mansion, or intend to.
The four farmers, cousins of Farmer Giles, thanked the party for finding his wife and daughter and explained that they must now return to their farms.
The four adventurers who the party rescued in session 2, who had now recuperated in the Church infirmary, offered to serve as henchmen.
Father Thomias and Arlia have been unable to do anything about Arlina's condition. Thomias thinks there is some evil force, still in the labyrinth under the ruins of Briar Mansion, that is influencing the amulet and through it, Arlina. He thinks if the thing is destroyed, she might be freed of its influence. He gives the party a vial of holy water for this purpose. Arlia is prepared to brave the dungeon once again to help her sister.
The players decided to continue exploring under Briar Mansion and take on the new henchmen; but, although they had weapons and shields, they had no armour for the new guys. Also, the party had two potions they wanted to identify, so they decided to spend the start of the day in the busy streets of Castleport, to deal with both of these issues.
This time they were recognised at the Eastern Gate by the sergeant there, who greeted them as "The party who had solved the case of the recent kidnappings in Briar Village." Fame, of a kind, at last! (yet, had they really solved it?)
They navigated the now more familiar streets of the East Quarter of the low city, and had a random encounter with a lost girl, Jenny, who asked to be taken to the nearest watch tower; but, after they accepted this and neared the inner gate, she ran off into a dark alley. The PCs are still very wary of the alleys in Castleport, as they should be, and so did not pursue.
They managed to remember the location of Alchemy to go on Eye of Newt St and returned to the shop and its proprietor, Myzarn, without getting lost. He offered to identify the two potions the party had obtained in session two; but, with a bit of a twist. He offered 50gp per potion, or, if they sold him the blue cloudy one for 300gp, he would identify both for free. The party was leery of this arrangement and ended up haggling for identifying both for 50gp. What they had was a Potion of Healing and a Potion of Water Breathing ("Not much use in a dungeon", Myzarn opined. Though what he wanted it for he did not say). When they went to pay Clyde realised he was missing 20gp!
Now, following Myzarn's directions, they made their way to the low city emporium to upgrade their armour and get additional armour for their new henchmen. Just as they had the stalls in sight two wagons, loaded with produce, collided, and (randomly, I swear) it was the the cabbage man again!
After this they spent freely from their recent earnings and then returned to Briar after spending half a day on this side trip again this session, and began to rustle up their supporters.
The new Henchmen looked impressive in their metal armour, more impressive than the farmers had in any case.
They climbed back up the hill and went down the stairwell, using much the same marching order as last session. Everything seemed to be the same as when they had last visited, the large entrance chamber filled with stone pillars and lit by a magic fire in the mouth of a giant toad statue, a rat skittered away from them as they entered.
This time the party chose to search the room at the end of a short corridor to the north. They found the door to be quite stuck, and even the dubiously strong Clyde foot could barely get it to budge (due entirely to bad rolls). But the noise invited a random encounter check and I rolled a 6!
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| Who wouldn't want these guys on their side? |
The party were very dubious about this turn of events, and somewhat jealous of the superior equipment in evidence; but, after being assured by Arlia that these were good guys, who Father Thomias vouched for, the PCs happily accepted their support. The party chose to communicate only with the leader, Burghast. Team Burghast made a formidable rear guard.
Resuming their exploration the party found the room behind the stuck door to be full of dust and silk-like strands, running from wall to wall, which disappeared into the high ceiling. They heedlessly explored anyway and soon had a Giant Spider in their laps or, I should say, on one of their new henchman's neck. Before they could do much of anything the poor guy had succumbed to poison and the spider attempted to lift him back up into the rafters. The was not going to happen on Clyde's watch though and he cut the arachnid down before it could get away. Alas, the henchman, whose name they had not gotten around to finding out, was dead.
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| Watch out Henchman One! |
The PCs felt that this turn of events was not a good look for their new companions, who pretended not to notice as they decided to leave their now former henchman where he was and get his body on the way out.
They returned to the main hall and exited via the eastern door and found themselves in a series of corridors. They rounded a corner and inexplicably decided to spend 30 in game minutes checking three consecutive ten foot sections of corridor for traps. I think this sort of thing can happen when you suddenly have a Thief in the party. They found no traps; but, all at once, the half-elf thought he found a secret door to the north and spotted goblins skulking just around the corner to the south.
Ignoring the secret door they charged into the room with goblin warriors and one shaman and routed them with missile weapons before the enemy knew what was happening. Immediately, the survivors turned and started slapping at a mosaic image of a dancing girl which was on the wall in the south of the room, and soon the wall pivoted like something out of scooby do. The remaining 4 goblins ran through the doorway, with the 2 wounded ones bringing up the rear.
The chase was on and the party piled through the secret door before it could close. They found themselves in a large room that their torches could not illuminate the entirety of. The section they could see was dominated by an ornate marble staircase going down into darkness, while on the western wall was a set of double doors and on the opposite side in the eastern wall was a corridor; one goblin could be seen going that way. They turned that poor goblin into a pin cushion with their ranged weapons and then ran up to its position and charged into the corridor. The other wounded goblin could be see rounding a corner going north again and he too became a pin cushion. They kept going and found around the next corner the last two fleeing goblins standing in front of a door and practically daring the PCs to come and get them; which they did, but only after they filled them with arrows and crossbow bolts.
The party advanced in single file to examine their front, relying on the NPC party to keep an eye on their rear. Kevin the 53rd lightly slid forward down the corridor, followed by the heavier step of Clyde which set off the pit trap the wily goblins had been leading them towards and whose plan was, posthumously, successful. I swear I heard Kevin chuckle.
Not for the first time, Clyde found himself down to 1 hit point after the fall, which, though softened by a strange layer of pulped mushrooms at the bottom, also inflicted some sort of poison/corrosion damage from the noxious fumes emanating from that pulp, which threatened to take his last hit point in another round or two. Dorf was going to lean down to grab Clyde's hand; but, thought better of it, and started rummaging for rope to lower lest he too take poison/corrosion damage.
Dorf managed to fish Clyde out, Kevin chuckled and jumped back over the pit trap, and Arlia healed up Clyde's wounds. While this was happening the party could hear some sort of commotion back the way they had come in and they soon found that the source of this noise was their NPC party rear guard getting jumped from behind by a force of goblins and giant rats.
Was some greater-than-goblin intelligence directing this series of events? Who knows.
Now Goblins and rats should not have been too much trouble; but, they achieved complete surprise for 2 segments, and had the luck of the dice. Before Team Burghast could respond two of their henchmen were down and their two plate clad fighters had been hit (with natural 20s!) and were close to collapse.
Now it was time for team PC (they need a name) to respond. Even with theatre of the mind going on, it was clear that staying where they were in the corridor and shooting would be impossible with all the friendlies between them and the smaller goblins, so they piled out and went left, resumed formation and flanked the goblin line, and then started shooting.
"How do you like fighting this many of us? Dumb humans!" Shouted a somewhat familiar looking goblin. And his buddy answered, "Hey! Those are the guys who captured us last week!"
Yes, the previously captured goblins were free somehow and bent on revenge. However, things turned bad for the little buggers almost immediately as they lost initiative in the next round and all but one were killed, causing the rats to scatter and the talkative goblin to flee west into the room with the double doors (which were now open). There was a chimney in there and he shot up it, though somewhat hampered by the arrow and cross bow bolt stuck in him, and fled through this alternate exit to the dungeon before anyone could catch him.
At end of the session everyone had made it back to the village with some meagre goblin loot that covered the burial costs of three henchmen.
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Treasure and Experience Total 705XP
Monsters 1 Giant Spider, 20 Goblins, 1 Goblin Shaman
Treasure
After splitting with the NPC Party and after paying for a decent burial for the 3 dead henchmen; 117 gp
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Session PCs
Clyde Foot (10% XP Bonus) Half Elven Fighter Level 1 132 XP Gained. Total 653
Dorf (10% XP Bonus) Human Fighter Level 1 XP 145 Gained. Total 684
Kevin the 53rd (10% XP Bonus) Dwarf Thief Level 1 XP 132Gained. Total 132
Supporting Characters
Arlia Human NPC (10% XP Bonus) Cleric level 1 66 XP Gained. Total 171
Team Burghast; Burghast & Glasses: Mages Level 2, Thigru & Danha: Fighters Level 2, 2 Henchmen
Garion Human Henchman (10% XP Bonus) Fighter level 1 66 XP Gained. Total 66
Flevion Human Henchman (10% XP Bonus) Fighter level 1 66 XP Gained. Total 66
Waxxion Human Henchman Fighter level 1 66 XP Gained. Total 66
Campaign Grave Yard
The Unnamed Henchman, Fighter level 1 DECEASED. Killed by spider poison in session 3.
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