Trollopulous Adjusted Session 91 (Machodor #51); Durka Durka!

       

The Bora Tora locals love to give strangers a warm welcome, no strings attached

Timekeeping

This session took place on 24/10/2024, and the PCs adventured for 4 days.

Player Characters Present

Slippery Pete (Level 8 Thief, background unknown, wearer of the Hat of Disguise and wielder of the Black Dagger)

Sever (Level 8 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 the Dragonslayer and the Shield of Protection from Missiles) with henchmen Bishoy and Tawadros (F5)

Comfort Rod (Level 5 Cleric, Psionics user and wielder of the Hammer of Giant Influence)

Gurt the Green (Level 4 Paladin of Machodor, wielder of the Longsword+3) with henchman Solaire (P1) 

Downtime

• Slippery Pete had travelled to Schloss Ragnar and on his way back to Guarda witnessed the Pegasus Corps 6th Company attacking a force of "little blue men" encroaching from the desert.
• Gurt the Green had called his Holy Warhorse and succeeded in finding it in the city of Battra far to the south.
• Sever, riding Convess, was shot down by a strange spell or weapon near Bora Tora, thankfully the Pegasus was able to land safely.
• The players had prevailed upon the 6th Pegasus Company's cleric, Sixtus, to cast Know Alignment on their dragon cult prisoners; all of whom showed up as various flavours of Evil. However, the captured Talibandit prisoner from last session showed as Neutral.

Session Report

Discussion in the Guardan villa of Countess Echellet was interrupted by a knock at the door. Aston the butler had an urgent message for the adventurers: something had happened upstairs just now with the Talibandit prisoner Allo Howarya. The players rushed to the scene to find their two guards along with Saffira the maid laid out cold on the floor, and no sign of the prisoner; but there was a newly made man sized hole in the wall. 

Quick thinking Comfort Rod was able to save the fallen by casting Slow Poison, but, once they had regained consciousness, neither the guards nor Saffira could explain what had happened after she had brought breakfast in. Again Comfort Rod used his psychic powers the get a read on what had happened. In punctuated flashes he saw Saffira first coming into the room carrying a tray with food (roast beef sandwiches), then, after eating, the four collapsed to the floor,. Then a hole formed in the wall, large enough for Allo to fit, opened by no visible means, just that the blocks making up the wall were knocked inwards, and then then Talibandit could be seen simply 'floating' outside. 

Upon examination it appeared to Sever that a large, clawed creature had recently been on the roof of the building right above this spot; he found a couple of red scales found up there as well. The players were determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, and some time was spent before they narrowed it down to kitchen maid, Millie, who had framed another kitchen hand for poisoning the sandwiches. They locked her up, satisfied that they had explained the mystery; but without much to show for it. At least they had evidence that this was the work of the Dragon Cult, and not an attempt by Usama Loot Laden to rescue his man.

Meanwhile, having done his bit on the roof, and not one for intrigue, Sever had taken off on the recovered Convess to scout around in the hope of spotting the culprit leaving the area. This could have been completely uneventful but in fact he had a very near death experience. 

Out of the clouds, some miles to the to the north east, appeared two adult Blue Dragons; and they surprised the ranger for one segment. Their breath weapons were easily capable of wiping the Pegasus from the sky. It would all come down to encounter range, altitude, and how much the creatures could close in one segment.

 

I was adjudicating all this while the interrogation was going on with the other players: Range 6d4 (-1 for the surprise); max range for lightning breath: 100 yards, and in one segment they could travel 24 feet, double that if they were diving (they were). So, a roll of less than 12 and Sever was toast! I rolled 19, so the range at the end of the surprise segment was 164 yards; meaning Sever was safe, for now, but he needed to win initiative or the dragons would have another chance next round. The dice came up in the ranger's favour, and immediately he made to escape; with his greater speed and the cloud cover to pop in and out of, he was soon back safely in Guarda, none the worse for wear. 

He found that the mystery solving part of the session had concluded, and so the players' thoughts turned again to the Talibandit mountain base. At least they had been able to get Allo to draw them a map before he was taken.

incredible verisimilitude

The players poured over this map and compared it to what they had discovered last session, finding that it generally matched their memories. I started to feel a bit of a heel. Recall that Usama's player had provided me with a very detailed map, but I wasn't about to just hand it over; Allo Howarya was too clever for that. Instead he had drawn them a fake map, which I produced by googling "Tora Bora Mountain base" and running the result through a filter to make it look line drawn. The party would not discover the ruse until a future session.

Having approached the base from the west last time, the players decided to try coming up from the east this time, again without bringing their regular troops with them; but instead going for more of a commando mission to rescue the Countess. The trip, in the autumn rain, was almost uneventful; but Sever was on watch that night, near the Valley of Pillars, when he heard heavy footsteps stomping along not very far away. The party stayed quiet until the sound of footfalls had receded.

maybe next time.

Their approach to Bora Tora brought them close to the abandoned and destroyed village that Pegasus Patrols had surveyed previously. It had never been checked out on the ground though and they were tempted to do so; but in the end they held to the task and began the equally long and arduous climb of the east side of the mountain, first having secured their horses. All the horses that is but Giuseppe's Bonecrusher, whose magic horse shoes allowed him to make the climb fairly easily.

route of march

Some hours later they reached the top and began closing in on their best guess of the target location, which was to the north. Unknown to them, their approach was observed by the local inhabitants, the Durka Durka Tribesmen, who had taken up positions to cover this approach in five fox holes hidden under camouflage netting (provided as part of a deal with Usama).

Combat #1: 20 Durka Durka Tribesmen

Rounds: 5

Result: Part Victory

Highlights: The enemy possessed strange combat capabilities linked to magic acorns & pine cones projected from wooden poles, druid magic perhaps? The smaller projectiles were like bullets, and the larger like RPGs, when pushed the tribesmen had vests that could blow up everything around them.

When shots from some unknown form of attack ricocheted all around them and the air filled with yells of "DURKA DURKA!", Slippery Pete immediately changed his appearance to match what he had seen the Talibandits wearing last session; unknown to him, this was similar to but not the same garb as the Durka Durkas. He then started to circle around behind the enemy. Comfort Rod took cover and waited for someone to get injured. Everyone else charged in. They found the going much tougher than against the 0-level Talibandits last week, these guys were a full HD, and were armed with weapons that could fire multiple times a round.

While the battle raged on behind him Slippery Pete found a cave entrance ahead and moved to explore it. He snuck up and cautiously shone the light from his Continual Light gem inside, there he saw a strange sort a cage with three doors, it held a very large bull, lion, and eagle; they immediately start screaming and bellowing when his light shone on them. The resulting cacophony produced a very familiar sound!

The Gorgimera is a fake! I've got to tell the others!

By now the battle against the Durka Durka was won, although at great loss of hit points, but thankfully with no party kills. Gurt & Giuseppe used their Lay on Hands, while Comfort Rod used Cure Light Wounds liberally. Sever flew ahead and soon set his sights on a Talibandit he spied running out of a cave ahead and waving his arms madly; the figure transformed back into Slippery Pete just as the Ranger was getting lined up to impale him with his lance.

When the rest of the party had clambered up to the cave, or trotted up in the case of Bonecrusher, the thief showed them the strange set up of cages holding the three creatures: a bull, a lion, and an eagle. The eagle was in fact a young giant eagle, named Little Wing, the grandson of Big Wing who the party had met last session; when they freed him he informed them that the there were no entrances into the base from this cave; but that there was another nearby, that held a secret door within, that the magic-user who had trapped him here used to come and go. What a good piece of luck!

With their combined searching they were able to locate the secret door. Slippery Pete somewhat characteristically failed to identify the trap on it, which was an "Indiana Jones" style big rolling sphere of stone. To add insult to potential future injury, he failed to unlock the door as well, though he may have been correct in blaming magic for that. Sever and Co. attempted to use their strength to force the door open, which on a normal Wizard Locked door would have worked; but in this case (a massive stone block), only succeeded in activating the ball trap, which they manged to evade by running out of the cave. However, the manoeuvre left them stuck on the out side looking in. 

At this point they heard the shouts of many Durka Durka's approaching and decided, very reluctantly, to retreat pretty much empty handed. They grabbed up the fallen Durka Durka weapons (which they later found to be inert) as they did so, and returned to Guarda without any hostile encounters along they way.

Bonus Patron Info: Having finally realised that the true identity of his female prisoner was the sought after Countess Echellet, Usama Loot Laden first tried to intimidate her into cooperating. When this failed he had his magic-user henchwoman, the evil Ayliah of "surprise lightning bolt" fame, cast Charm Person on her. The Countess failed her save, and immediately she began answering all of Usama's questions about the various adventurers she knew; but, sadly for him, this wasn't all that helpful since quite a period of time had elapsed since she had last seen them (she had no idea they had been flopping in her villa the last few weeks). On the other hand, she also told him of her value to the Dragon Cult, and that may have sealed her fate.

Session Statistics: 

Wilderness travel: 38 Miles

Combats: 1

Combat rounds: 5

Treasure and XP

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 91 (Machodor #51)

Treasure & Items

"Magic" acorns and pine cones 0gp

Monsters

2 Adult Blue Dragons Evaded

1 Giant, of some kind, Evaded

20 Durka Durka Tribesmen 880 xp

880 XP & 0 GP Assignment

Slippery Pete (Level 8, E) 126 XP &  GP

Sever (Level 8, E) 126 XP &  GP

Giuseppe (Level 7, E)

  and Bishoy & Tawadros (Level 5,E) 63 XP & 0 GP

Comfort Rod (Level 5, E) 126  XP & 0 GP

Gurt the Green (Level 4, E) 126 XP & 0 GP

Graveyard

Domby (Henchman with Dex 5), double surprised and turned into a pin cushion in session #87

Luke (Half elf Fighter/Cleric level 1), tragically killed by a normal hydra while trying to cauterise one of its neck stumps in session  #86

Gurt the Green (Paladin level 3),  killed by a hydra bite in session  #86 RAISED FROM THE DEAD

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), wrong place, wrong time; 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 (Magic User level 1), 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