Trollopulous Adjusted Session 126 (Machodor #77): Guardan variety adventures

  

 

Timekeeping

This session began on August 7th, 2025, with the player characters adventuring until August 8th. Downtime for these characters begins on the 9th.

Player Characters Present

Sever the Wrathful (Level 9 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, wielder of Were'shbane and wearer of the Girdle of Cloud Giant Strength, rider of Mustang) 

with henchman Thomas (C6)

Giuseppe (Level 8 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, wielder of the Dragonslayer and the Shield of Protection from Missiles, rider of Bonecrusher)

with henchmen Bishoy (F6) Tawadros (F6)

Fluid the Druid (Level 7 Druid, former wearer of the Ring of Kings)

Marty O'Tool (Level 5 Cleric, wielder of the Mace of Saint Patrick)

Gorfag (Level 4 Half-orc fighter, formerly known as Fagor)

Downtime

The players decided that the Ice Castle was no longer worth the trouble and risk of occupying, they packed up and move out, heading to Guarda where their troops would go their separate ways. Steelvein was on the lookout for getting work for Giuseppe's mounted crossbowmen from one of the merchant companies in the area.

Session Report

The players' force reached Guarda with no problem during downtime, they deposited Giuseppe to rest from his near death experience last session, and dispersed their troops in town. The question was, what to do? Recently, Giuseppe and his henchmen had defeated a group of ogres near the Valley of Pillars, which was less than a day's ride east. They had then tracked the monsters to a narrow gorge leading deeper into mountains to the south from the valley. 

I'd forgotten all about it.

Instead I was working on all the information on recent events in Guarda. Pegasus Corps 6th Company had pulled out, leaving Machodor officially represented by an embassy mostly staffed by a small Pegasus Express contingent. The town was booming with trade, and traders, from the cities to the south; Battra, Biblos, Sidon, & Tyre by name. With this trade had come some disruption to the usually more peaceful town.

The party set off on a lovely clear summer's day, and made it to the Valley of Pillars with a few hours before night fall. There was some reminiscing on events that had occurred in the valley previously, this is where Giuseppe first obtains his holy warhorse Bonecrusher, while Sever scouted the way forward from the air. Starting from the spot Giuseppe had helpfully marked by placing ogre heads on spikes, the ranger found that the rising gorge levelled out about 200' up. From there the gorge continued into the mountain side, at times visible and an other times returning to the embrace of the mountain; no telling what was in there. 

Even with rope it looked too difficult for the horses to get up there, so Tawadros was detailed to look after the mounts while the rest climbed up to adventure on. By the time they had made it up the sun was setting, and the clearing at the top of the rise looked like the best place to camp. The nearly full moon gave them plenty of light. Sever was on watch at 1am when he heard the sound of voices from the path ahead to the south. It sounded like two men conversing; but, as he waited, whoever--or whatever--was making the sounds failed to appear.

Sever woke the rest of the party, using his familiar Fury to do so quietly while he appeared unmoving. They set about getting their armour on while Fluid transformed into an Owl and went forward to check it out.

Encounter #1: ?

          Rounds: N/A

Result: Monsters withdraw

Highlights: Silently the Fluid-Owl glided over behind an overhanging piece of rock down the trail. Looking back he saw four, 4-legged creatures. They had hooves and ugly, badger-like heads. Whatever they were playing at, they soon gave up when the party chose to put on their armour and get ready. They raced past Fluid unawares, heading south. 

 

The Druid reported back to the party and then intended to return to owl form, but someone remembered that the druidic shape-change ability is more restricted than that. He can become a "reptile, bird or mammal" and each type can only be assumed once per day. There was some speculation that he could become a bat and continue scouting, but at any rate the party decided to move forward together.

Sever was unable to actually find the creatures tracks, a rare failure, but since there were few directions for the monsters to go the party opted to move forward, for once keeping their Continual Light sources hidden and relying on the bright moonlight to see by. After passing in and out of overhangs, the path ahead finally plunged into darkness, beyond this they eventually found a round-ish cave with 3 exits; two narrow and one wider, all had passages that either switched back or soon curved out of sight.

A more thorough search failed to turn up anything, except for a random encounter, something was coming towards them from eastern exit, clucking as it approached.

Encounter #2: 2 Cockatrice

Rounds: N/A

Result: Monsters withdraw

Highlights: Sever managed to impress the creatures that today was not the day to mess with him, and they backed up the way they had come. Would they return at the worst possible time? The party were willing to take that chance.

Fury confirmed that the smell of what ever it was they were following was still detectible here, and it seemed strongest near the wider south west exit, so they went that way. The curving natural passage spilled out into an oval cavern with three tiers, at the floor level were the four creatures they had been tracking, but that wasn't all. 

It was a trap!

Combat #1: NPC Party

Rounds: 13

Result: Party Victory

Highlights: The four Leucrota charged, one impaling itself on Sever's spear, and then there were three. Gorfag came forward to augment the front rank, and then a magic-user appeared on the upper ledge and cast Slow on them, and then a cleric appeared nearby and cast Silence. The players immediately grasped that they were taking on an enemy with powers much like themselves.

The party was made of of adventurers from Sidon, and they weren't interested in negotiating. 

Next round the enemy cleric cast Hold Person, snagging the hapless Gorfag and also the cleric Marty, fortunately Fluid shrugged off the effects. 

So, after two rounds of enemy action: all of our heroes were Slowed, two of them were Held, one was Silenced. A leader type among the enemy, and his lieutenant, scrambled down from the ledge to engage in melee, leaving the casters with five men-at-arms to protect them. It was a bad start to say the least. I found myself contemplating the post TPK situation; it could have been fun having survivors taken back to Sidon to be sold as slaves, maybe sent for a stint rowing a trireme. I could see it now; this would be no story-game-theatre-kid-spotlight-party thing, those characters would be stuck there and maybe not played for weeks, it might be the end for them, who knew?

These thoughts were shelved as the party gradually began to claw their way back out of trouble.

Rhoikos managed to get far enough away to for everyone to realise that he was the one with the Silence spell on him. From where he had moved to he could see the Wall of Ice the enemy magic-user had used to trap them here and prevent any escape; but the St. Raulian couldn't tell anyone!

After this came one of the swingiest combats I can remember, my d20 was coming up 19s & 20s or 1s & 2, and hardly anything in between. Fluid, having saved against the Hold Person, managed to get out of the silence effect and cast Summon Insects on the enemy cleric. Marty's player wanted to cast Command on the magic-user; could he do that while under a Hold Person spell? Well it requires verbal component only, and Hold Person doesn't stop you breathing, so I ruled he could cast it as long as he could say the word without moving his lips. 

So what did he say? "Fawl!"

The enemy magic user had high enough intelligence (and level) to get a save, but he failed! Following the command, he toppled over the side of the higher ledge, landed on the one below, then continued off that to land with a splat on the cavern floor. As he had no control to brace himself, I applied double normal falling damage; he also lost the spell he was planning to cast. Not at all bad work from Marty there, but the purple clad adventurer was struggling to rise, though it wasn't clear if he could still do so.

The clash between the Leucrotas and the two fighters against Sever and Bishoy was a titanic affair, with Sever going shield up to really lower his AC, making him very very hard to hit, but even so with my dice rolling he was losing hit points and dishing out damage in equal measure, even with the Slow happening. 

Dorrinal kindly reminded me that the party should be automatically losing initiative because of that, at least according to the PHB (page 104), but the monsters had been winning it most of the time anyway. Later I argued that the initiative procedure in the PHB is trumped by that of the DMG (page 63), which does not say this about Slow. We'll probably sort this out again next time.

Fluid now went spear out and charged the enemy magic-user, this brave act was rewarded with ten arrows from the men at arms; but they all missed! The charging druid impaled the magic-user before he could do what ever he was planning to do, and next round the druid returned to the main melee under the hail of another 10 arrows; and somehow only 1 out of 20 actually hit him. Don't ask me how, but I suspect he messed with the discord dice roller.

Meanwhile on the ledge the Insect Swarm was nipping hit points away from the cleric while she batted at them ineffectually. Finally some of the men at arms came over with torches to try and shoo the little flying bugs away, would this work?

The enemy leader had been taunting away at Sever from the moment the fight was out of the field of the Silence spell, and now several rounds passed with little more than harsh language being exchanged. Somehow the bad luck rolls had extended to the remaining Leucrota. As the battle stretched on the duration of both Slow and Hold Person was actually coming in to play.

The enemy cleric was reduced to a desperate action; she had the men-at-arms douse her in oil and set it on fire! "It was going to hurt," they said, "Do IT!" she answered. This would definitely drive off the bugs, but it also caused 4d6 damage; I rolled a total of 22, and she only had 20 left! Down she went in a similar manner to the magic user, she did not rise again.

First the Slow, the the Hold Person, and finally the Silence expired, they party was back to their full number and no one had been killed.

During the war of words in the melee it became clear that these Sidonian adventurers had a particular problem with Machodorians, but they were both finally cut down before they could give their reasons.

With the last of the adventurers dead, the men-at-arms threw down their weapons and surrendered. It turned out they had been hired on in Guarda, and didn't even speak the same language as the adventurers. All the loot, a considerable pile of coin, was then packed up, along with the bodies for later magical interrogation, and they returned to Guarda safely (after waiting for the Wall of Ice spell to expire).

Session Statistics: 

Wilderness travel:  22 Miles
Downtime begins on: 09/Aug
Combats: 2
Rooms mapped: 3
Combat rounds: 13
Losses:  none somehow

Treasure & Items

6000gp

12 gems: 8,166gp

Scroll of Protection from Undead 1,500xp

Magical: Mace, Longsword*2, Staff, Bracers 4050xp

testing of these shows the weapons are better than normal weapons, one longsword is better than the other, the Bracers provide some form of extra protection to AC.

Spell Books 1st: Magic Missile, Message, Shield, Read Magic; 2nd: Invisibility, Web; 3rd: Fireball, Slow; 4th: Wall of Ice. 100xp per spell per spell level to Rhoikos (for those he doesn't already have)

Greater Identify * 2 = -1200 gp

Cursed Dagger 0gp

Dagger+2 1500gp

Monsters

4 Leucrota  2964 xp

NPC Party Shadow Talons 4010 xp

28,190 XP & 14,466 GP  Assignment

Sever (E) 4906  xp & 2411 gp 

Giuseppe (E)  4906  xp & 2411 gp 

and Tawadros^  (E) 1,206  xp & 1,206 gp

and Bishoy (E) 2453 xp & 2411 gp 

Marty O'Tool (E) 4906  xp & 2411 gp 

Fluid (E) 4906  xp & 2411 gp 

Gorfag (E) 4906  xp & 2411 gp 

^minding horses

Graveyard

Sever the Wrathful (Ranger level 9), Killed by two pains in the Annis in session #122. RAISED FROM THE DEAD

Anri (Henchman Magic-User level 4), found dead with a ghastly chest wound in the Ice Castle, with her heart missing she was unable to be revived, in downtime after session #122 

Symeon (Henchman Cleric level 2), Only strong enough to wear studded leather, he was torn to shreds by Troglodytes in session #121

Paul (Henchman Paladin level 3) Effected by the Imprisonment spell touch attack from a Styx Devil in session #117. Might not be dead, but is definitely at least six feet under for all intents and purposes.

Gurt the Green (Paladin level 6) killed by a poison needle trap in session #114 RAISED FROM THE DEAD (with a roll of 94!)

Solaire the Fallen (Henchman Fighter (paladin) level 3) killed by Stone Giants acting as catapults in session #114

Paul (Henchman Paladin level 1), reduced to 0 hit points by white dragon breath when climbing down a rope ladder in session #108. Killed not by the fall; but by the sudden stop at the bottom. RAISED FROM THE DEAD

Ignatius the Smiter (Cleric level 1), horrifically mutilated and killed by double hit from a Shoggoth in session #106

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), wrong place, wrong time; killed by Sever the Ranger in session #72 RAISED FROM THE DEAD

Petrov the Prestidigitator (Magic-user level 1), killed again by the toxic gas of an Achaierai 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 (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