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| That's what its all about |
Introduction
The last couple of sessions have yielded little treasure or XP for the party; though they have learned much and gathered a surfeit of intelligence, none of this can quite make up for the lack of loot.
Timekeeping
This session took place on 21/July/2023, and the PCs adventured for 1 day.
Player Characters Present
Giuseppe (Level 5 Paladin from Rome, Brovenloft, E)
Sever (Level 5 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, E)
Sheamus (Level 4 Irish Fighter from Dublin, Brovenloft, E)
Bumblebore (Level 2 Magic User, E)
Dusty (Level 1 Dwarf Thief, DNF)
Slippery Pete (Level 4 Thief, E)
Paro the Effluvious (Level 1/1 Dwarf Fighter/Thief, E,S)
Downtime & News Summary
Nothing heard from the Osser Merchants of note. Slippery Pete and Dusty Angus pulled of a downtime heist that netted them 400 lbs of black powder from the Pegasus Corps 6th Company supply depot.
Bumblebore went to Minas Mandalf and learned a new spell, and had a city encounter which brought him face to face with a Dragon Cultist.
Session Report
The party retraced their path to the chamber deep in the centre of the dormant volcano to the north east of Castle Irish.
Now Slippery Pete decided to come clean and tell the rest of the party that he had stashed the 400 lbs of explosive black powder on the Rocket Cycle; good thing there were no dangerous encounters on the way! Anyhow, after some discussion, they decided to deploy this by piling up a huge mound of the glowing fungus to draw out the giant cave worm from its hole, lighting the fuse; then, BOOM!
The massive explosion more than did the trick, like a whale on an Oregon beach, and bits of cave worm were blown all around. But the shockwave didn't end there, it carried the force of the explosion all the way to the ceiling of the cave and dislodged massive amounts of the glowing fungus that grew there.
That fungus, which until now the PCs had been very careful not to let touch their skin, was landing in clumps all over the place. I asked everyone not in full armour to make a saving throw, and this was followed by a number of groans, a sure indicator of failure. The fungus immediately sank into any exposed skin; but, the only effect they could notice was a reduction in any surface abrasions they made have already had. Then the penny dropped, the fungus was healing them! It was by no means an efficient source of healing; they later calculated that a whole sack of the stuff could heal 1d4 damage and, possibly, may have other benefits. They would have to report to Professor Dorol that, somehow, exposure to the magical living fire had granted the fungus these unusual properties.
With the worm gone, the funnel like cavity that was its lair could be seen clearly. It descending far into the earth, many hundreds of yards, corkscrewing around and around and narrowing as it went. Eventually, the funnel terminated below the volcano itself in a wide volcanic cavity, formed untold aeons ago, that they had started to explore in a previous session.
Lava in the centre of the passage provided sufficient light to see by, and the party learned from last week that Continual Light had a downside in that it made them much easier to see. This week they opted to navigate by the light of the lava only. Choosing the right, or eastern, side of the passage; they continued on wearily.
After a few hundred yards the group halted when they spotted some obstacle ahead that blocked the way. Sever opted to glide in with Convess, using the radiating heat from the lava channel to provide lift, and this worked to his advantage; ahead he spotted a fortress, one that filled the passage completely from top to bottom. The fortress featured a huge portcullis 100' wide, and through this the lava stream passed unhindered from one side of the fort to the other. There were two rows of battlements stretching from wall to wall, one 40' off the ground and one 20' above that, and in the centre of this higher battlement was a fixed ballista emplacement, manned by Firenewts. The ranger got surprise and used it to swing around and return to the party, unseen by the enemy.
I'd gone to the trouble to work out exactly how bad a ballista strike on the Pegasus, or the Rocket Cycle, would be; and it would be bad let me tell you.
Slippery Pete quaffed a sip of invisibility potion and went to investigate the fort. He had considerable hope there would be a secret door some place along the wall on this side of the lava; but, no luck, he found himself reaching the portcullis without having found any such thing. Through the portcullis he could see a large squad of mounted Firenewts getting ready, their giant striders actually standing happily in the lava stream, waiting to get going. The thief scanned all over and found that the the fortress was about 100' deep, with a matching portcullis on its far side.
Soon the portcullis near him started to open, prompting concern that perhaps Sever had been spotted after all, Slippery Pete used the portcullis as a ride up to the lower battlements, and the patrol passed by the party without noticing them.
The session became the Slippery Pete show for a while, he made his way into the structure, exploring much of it, and I wondered if the rest of the party would aggressively exploit his penetration of the fort's defences; but, no. SP made his way through several levels of the place, killed a Firenewt grunt sleeping on a bunk, but made little headway other than being able to estimate the garrison numbered around 100.
While the rest of the party hunkered down, Paro chose to make himself useful by searching for secret doors in the walls of the lava tube. Eventually this paid dividends as, when a section of wall slid open, he was looking right at it...
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| and this is what was looking back at the Dwarf |
The others were ready to shoot first and ask questions later, but Paro blurted out, "I hate the Fire King!" or something like that, which was close enough to something these creatures agreed with, so a parley was possible. This was just as well, as the Lava People declared themselves to be enemies of the Firenewts, who, they helpfully pointed out, maintained forts every few miles along the lava tunnel route, all the way until it reached a Firenewt city directly below the active volcano; where they worshiped their "God" called Inferno.
Once Giuseppe had pinged these guys with "Detect Evil", and they came up negative, everyone was happy to trust them; even though the creatures then proceeded to chow down on the lava right in front of them.
Once they'd had their fill, the party's new friends offered to let them use the side passages they knew of to bypass the Firenewt Fort, and this they did; first, blindfolding the Pegasus, so it would enter the narrow space. The Rocket Cycle posed a different problem, it could barely fit; and they were forced to physically push it through some tight spaces as they went.
They avoided some encounters by staying quiet and keeping their lights dimmed, and, some hours later, emerged back in the main lava tunnel. It looked much the same as the section they had left; but the fort was out of sight to the south west.
They bid good bye to the leader of the Lava Eaters, Igneous, who wished them well and suggested that he had kin further up the lava tube who might aid them in getting past the next fort; a mile or so north. The party wished to reward them with a gift, but the dagger offered by Bumblebore passed right through the hand of the chuckling Lava Eater, who politely declined the offer.
As the party continued North East, they spied an oval shaped hole in the wall on the other side of the lava flow tunnel. It looked much like the one they had used to reach the tunnel some miles back; would this one lead back up to the cave with the giant worms? If so it could be a handy shortcut. There was only one way to find out; but, for now, they continued on.
Later, as they advanced, they heard the approach of heavy footsteps coming from directly ahead. Thanks to Ranger OP'ness, they got 3 segments of surprise; only to hide and watch as a trio of Fire Giants strode past. Moments stretched out as each resisted a little voice saying "Think of how much damage you could do to them in 3 surprise segments! Imagine the loot in those packs they are carrying!" (it was my voice, and they ignored it)
However, this did not mean that Giants weren't on the menu, Sever used is his OP tracking ability to follow their foot prints all the way back to the creatures' lair. This turned out to be several hundred yards north; but, eventually, a concealed side passage opened up on their side of the tunnel.
Bumblebore offered to send O'Malfoy in to scout. The party agreed and it turned out to be a wise move, for everyone but Bumblebore; for whom the death of the little familiar would just about mean death for him. After a short distance the Firedrake-let ran into a Fire Giant going to relieve himself. Fortunately, he was not noticed, and Bumblebore ordered him back before the aggressive little creature started a fight, "Master, I can take him!"
The narrow passage was tall, but not wide enough to accommodate the Rocket Cycle or Convess; the Giants themselves must have had to turn sideways to get in and out.
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| Luckily no hell hounds at home this time |
The party charged in, hoping for surprise, and they got 2 segments.
The fighter types went for the whittling Fire Giant, while Slippery Pete went to try and snuff out the sleeping one before he could awaken. As the giant was helpless, this gave the thief a roll on the Assassination table; but, sadly for him, his dagger was not enough to do the job, some few measly hit points were shaved off the giant's total. Pete knew life was going to be difficult next round.
Meanwhile the combined attack from the rest of the party killed that Giant during the surprise segments. The next initiative roll was going to be crucial, since the last remaining Fire Giant was glaring down at Slippery Pete with murder in his eyes.
The party lost initiative, and Slippery Pete said his prayers as the 11HD Giant swung at him, needing about a 7 to hit; and, he got a 3. With great relief the rest of the party descended on the Fire Giant and beat him down in one round.
UPDATE: This battle also saw Bumblebore deploy Macho Mandalf's Flying Elbow for the very first time in the campaign, he rolled exactly high enough to achieve a stun result!
They looted the place and returned to civilisation via the other ascending tunnel they had previously discovered; which did indeed take them, after a long journey of twists and turns, to the steamy cave above. There they quickly mastered the art of making a giant cave worm leave its hole, but from the opposite side this time.
Treasure and XP
Trollopulous Adjusted Session 32 (Machodor #13)
Monetary Treasure
6000sp
2000gp
100 gp Pearl.
10 gp Moss Agate.
80 gp Chrysoprase.
5000 gp Diamond.
Monsters
1 Giant cave worm 3100
1 Steam Mephit 240
2 Fire Giants 6936
1 Fire newt grunt 117
3 Blindheims 670
Items
2 Handed Sword with grinning wolf's jaw hilt 700XP (this turned out to be a real find)
Monsters Total: 11,973 XP
Treasure Total: 8190 XP & 7490GP
XP & GP Assignment Weighted by Level Shares & any bonuses
Giuseppe (Level 5 ) 3099 XP & 1783 GP
Sheamus (Level 4 ) 3099 XP & 1426 GP
Bumblebore (Level 2) 2029 XP & 713 GP
Sever (Level 5 ) 3799 XP & 1783 GP
Slippery Pete (Level 4 ) 5,950 XP & 1426 GP
Paro (Level 1) 1672 XP & 356 GP
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