Trollopulous Adjusted Session 70 (Machodor #34); Beetle Mania in the Pizza Slice of Doom

          

Not so boring after all

Timekeeping

This session took place on 16/05/2024, and the PCs adventured for 1 day.

Player Characters Present

Giuseppe (Level 6 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, wielder of a Dragonslayer, E) with henchmen Bishoy & Tawadros (F3)

Sever (Level 6 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, wielder of Were'shbane, E)

Comfort Rod (Level 1 Cleric, wielder of the Hammer of Giant Influence, E ) 

Slippery Pete (Level 6 Thief of unknown origins, wearer of the Hat of Disguise, E ) 

Gurt the Green (Level 2 Paladin of Machodor, E )

Sheamus (Level 6 Irish Fighter of Brovenloft, wielder of the Drewblade, E ) 

Introduction 

Rumours circulated of silver beasts eating farmers' fields far to the north, and to the east a certain crazed Elf claiming the throne of Trollopulous; but, having gotten a taste for a new/old dungeon last session, the party went back for more.

Session Report

Augmented by Sheamus, much the same party as last session set off back to the Pizza Slice of Doom. There was a bit of digression to describe the exact capacity of the Rocket Cycle, since the party was now too large for them all to travel on it while Sever flew on his Pegasus. There was much nodding at the presence of sacks of fungus, somehow well preserved long after they had been absent mindedly stashed in the one of the two storage sections, and then they set off for the extinct volcano.

Last time, while gathering up the loot, they noted a bored entrance hole in the far end of the room which must have been made by the beetles the had defeated there. The prospect of a lair of the creatures was foremost in everyone's minds and the party made a b-line for it. First, however, they were cautious enough to carefully examine the entrance door. This was just as well, as Slippery Pete found a strange light-emitting device wedged between the door and the door-frame. Once removed the door opened without further issue.

Now inside, the players decided to explore a few corridors to extend their map before heading back to the area of interest hidden behind a secret door. Once inside they found the decaying corpses of the beetles they had defeated last session, their metallic carapaces had dissolved into mush, and no one was prepared to mess with that. 

The hole in the wall lead to a narrow passage, so they continued on in single file. Giuseppe took the lead and made heavy use of Detect Evil, which usually guarantees no evil will be found and today was no different. The meandering passage was cut right through the guts of the sky city maintenance level, leaving exposed sharp pieces of metal, some of which glowed with what might be dangerous energy.

They followed the passage until it terminated in a hexagonal room 30' across, in the center of which, below a low ceiling of sod and fungus and such, were a dozen of the metallic boring beetles like those they had handily defeated last session. The creatures were in a circle surrounding a big pile of coins and other items and the party pretty much stumbled right into them (I think they were surprised for 1 segment). However, I got a 98% reaction roll from the beetles! I figured that, not knowing that the party killed three of their number previously, they would simply observe them in some sort of bug eyed fascination. The MM entry says that when in large numbers the intelligence of the group approaches that of an average human, so I had to put myself in those shoes (claws?).

Giuseppe slowly pulled out some silver pieces and threw them across the room. One beetle responded and collected them one by one, then returned to the circle. By now the PCs had noted the tell tale shine of platinum pieces in the treasure pile, and their blood was up.

They retreated to the secret room and made a plan. Unknown to them, the beetles had also made a plan, although it turned out to be countered by what the party did next; which was to cover the floor of a section of the narrow tunnel with oil, and then strategically place gold pieces on the floor every few feet, in the hopes of luring the beetles into it were they could then set them alight.

When the first beetle appeared around the corner it soon found an arrow embedded in its shell. This was an attempt to draw it to them across the oil. Rather than attack, the beetle returned to its friends (with the gold coin) and they discussed the matter amongst themselves. I again rolled a 98 reaction, so they didn't regard the arrow as a threat as such, they were more confused than upset, and were more interested in gaining additional gold pieces from these strange outsiders. They sent out another beetle, and when the cycle repeated itself and it too came back with a gold piece and an arrow in its side, finally, they decided to attack.

The next thing the party saw was yet another beetle, but this one was carrying a load of mould (brown) which it proceeded to dump into the oil on the ground, soon another appeared and did the same, and before long they had covered the area leading into the room the party was in. It was time for fight or flight, and the party's strongest moved to hold the entrance, and did so; but a round later scratching and scraping noises could be heard behind the other walls; the bugs were making another way in to attack! 

they were coming out of the walls

Before long the beetles had made two new entrances into the room and the party was busy holding on to two of them with Sever and Sheamus while three beetles ran amok in the middle of their ranks. It was touch and go but the dice favoured the players; when a beetle did hit it hit hard, but they did not hit often enough to seriously threaten the higher level characters (or Slippery Pete who chose this opportunity to swig the last portion of his invisibility potion) and the lower level ones managed to stay just in the realm of positive hit points.

Slippery Pete went forward via one of the newly dug tunnels and found it lead right back to the beetle's lair, where three of them were still guarding their treasure. He explored further from there and did nothing the could not be mentioned in a session report.

Giuseppe, at the fall of a beetle, noted the absence of Pete, and pushed forward with his henchmen to investigate, but he found the brown mould in that tunnel actually radiated freezing waves of cold, which froze him and nearly killed his henchmen, and he had to retreat back into the room. If the beetles had better deployed that mould the battle could have gone their way, however, as their numbers dropped so did their combined intelligence, and in the end the party pushed on into their lair and killed the remaining three there, nearly losing Gurt the Green to a last, desperate bite from the remaining boring beetle while Slippery Pete backstabbed a beetle trying to escape with treasure. 

Prologue

This was a long battle and, following a vigorous debriefing of Slippery Pete, the party was in the mood to collect the (vast amount of) treasure and run; but, while they were doing so, they uncovered a broadsword with a large gem embedded in its hilt. Not being so foolish as to experiment with it in the dungeon, they wrapped the sheathed blade in a cloak and then retreated back all the way to Castle Irish without further encounters; but, once there, Gurt announced he was going to draw the sword and see what it did! And that was going to be a problem for the Paladin, since it was an intelligent sword of a different alignment to his.

DMG page 167

Had he escaped death at the mandibles of giant beetles only to fall in the courtyard of Castle Irish?

This sent me scurrying to calculate the ego of the sword which, with it being drawn from Unearthed Arcana for reasons I now regretted, was not that easy to do. In the end the Ego was exactly the same number as Gurt's current hit points, so he collapsed unconscious and the party carefully covered the sword again after Sever kicked it away (which notably did no harm to him). Being back in town meant that this was not life threatening for Gurt, but it did mean that he forfeited a week of downtime activity while he recovered, which in my book is getting off lightly! 

Treasure and XP

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 69 (Machodor #34)

Treasure & Items

Potion of Levitation 250xp 

Potion of Invisibility 250xp 

Potion of Longevity sold for 1000gp

Potion of Healing 200xp

Potion of Invulnerability 350xp

Potion of Water Breathing 400xp

3800pp

11 Gems: Total Value 11,780gp

Intelligent Broadsword "Dunker" sold for 15,000gp

Total XP 48,230 & 46,780gp

Monsters

12 Boring Beetles 2400xp

Total  2400xp

50,630 XP &  46,780 GP Assignment weighted by level

Giuseppe (Level 6 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, E) 10,469 XP & 9,356 GP

  with henchmen Bishoy & Tawadros (F3) 1702 XP & 2339 GP

Sever (Level 6 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, E)  10,469 XP & 9,356 GP

Comfort Rod (Level 1 Cleric, E ) 2031 XP & 1559 GP

Slippery Pete (Level 6 Thief, E ) 10,469 XP & 9,356 GP

Gurt the Green (Level 2 Paladin, E ) 3718 XP & 3119 GP

Sheamus (Level 6 Irish Fighter, E )  10,469 XP & 9,356 GP

Graveyard

Red (Human 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