Timekeeping
This session began on August 14th, 2025, with the player characters adventuring until August 15th. Downtime for these characters begins on the 16th.
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) Rhoikos (M4) Steelvein (F4)Fluid the Druid (Level 7 Druid, former wearer of the Ring of Kings)Bumblebore (Level 5 Magic User of Machodor, wielder of the Wand of Paralysation) and Firedrake Familiar O'MalfoyDribbledruid (Level 4 Half-elf Druid)Josef Ironbeard (Level 1 Dwarf Fighter from Schloss Ragnar)
Downtime
Session Report
Rounds: 1
Result: The Snake let them pass
Highlights: Fluid lost initiative but managed to get down into the round cavern and cast Speak with Animals as a gob full of poison sailed past his face.
The snake was initially barely civil, but when Fluid shared some of his food with it the beast soon came around. The party then joined the druid as the latter explained that to the snake that these guys were ok.
To the south from here was a passage that opened up into a large cavern. Here they found and easily avoided some likely piercers hiding among the stalagmites and beyond the cavern it opened out to the sky and a valley heading south west, the far side of which was about a mile away. Convinced that there was more to see inside the tunnels, they returned to the snake; this time Sever casting Speak with Animals and the thing was happy to eat some more food and continue to let them be.
They went east and the here-to-fore natural tunnel turned sharply south, and it was possible for Josef the dwarf to find that it had been squared off and partially smooth, but the workmanship of an unknown kind. The passage continued and looped around before continuing east again, and here it soon turned into a fully worked passage of stone. The passage ended in a large and sealed slab of stone. There was writing on it.
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| sadly no one had Comprehend Languages available |
The edging of the door was sealed with something that had become brittle over time, and the party were able to push the vast slab forwards into a cavity beyond. There they found themselves standing in the ten foot square entrance to larger room, with stone columns in the corners, and stairs ahead on the far wall going up to the north. As they took this in, the shadows cast from their Continual Light sources starting moving--of their own volition--and taking upon themselves the forms of men.
Combat #1: 10 Shadows
Rounds: 1
Result: Party VictoryHighlights: Bumblebore practically begged Sever to back everyone out of there and down the corridor, far enough that the magic user could use Fireball. They chose this risky maneuverer on the Shadows as they were forming up from whatever layer of hell they had come from. It worked.
With the shadows destroyed, the party searched the room and found that one of the pillars contained some gems in a hidden compartment, they bagged these and headed up the stairs.
Now, I had a pretty good idea what was in this area, how it differed from the tunnels outside etc; but, as usual, I was rounding things out with Appendix A. What happened next is a good case study of taking a roll and sticking with the result; because although it was very bad result, it fitted my idea of the area well, so I had to keep it; otherwise why roll at all? This discovery in turn reinforced my idea of what this place was all about.
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| They went up the stairs and... |
A roll of 20 on Appendix A table V.I just says: Symbol. So I checked on both the Magic-user and Cleric version of the spell, I was prepared to go for the latter as being more appropriate for a tomb, however I then realised that only the Magic-user version has unlimited duration, so switched back to that. I discussed this with the players as I was adjudicating, and you could cut the atmosphere with knife. There are eight possible manifestations of the Symbol spell, so I rolled a d8, and came up with a 1--Death, which has this effect:
"One or more creatures whose total hitpoints do not exceed 80 are slain."
Ok, but how does that effect a party going up the stairs and setting it off? First of all, Sever has more than 80 hit points, so he was unaffected--tough bastard. I was tempted to just go down the marching order from Sever, but then decided it would be more a case of a random result of who was looking up at the wrong moment. I would roll and apply the death effect, adding the hit points of the slain as I went--until I reached 80.
Sadly, Josef's number came up first, and the dwarf was gone; then Thomas and then Steelvein were the next unfortunates, before the remaining 3 hit points could not be applied to Dribbledruid (a close one for him!)
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| I described it as a "Mummy Clown Car" |
Highlights: The battle turned into a scrum with the characters all getting up into Giuseppe's Protection from Evil zone, but this also put them well into the "mummy swipe" zone. Before that though, Bumblebore set O'Malfoy on the highly flammable monsters and his familiar's breath weapon worked to great effect on them. He then wasted a charge from his Wand of Paralysis to learn that mummy's are immune to this attack form. Giuseppe himself may have been immune to the mummy rot-touch, but Fluid was not. Fortunately the Druid had Cure Disease memorised, because why wouldn't the "Scourge of Trollopulous" have that particular spell memorised? Rhoikos was extremely unlucky to be hit with exactly the right about of damage to kill him.Rounds: 4
Result: Party Victory
After wrapping up the fight with its occupants, the party found within the sarcophagus were a large quantity of ancient coins and, hidden among them, was an obviously valuable necklace. Now they were prepared to withdraw with their dead, and seek help back in civilisation. Their friend the snake gave them an inquiring look as they went past, but otherwise they were able to re-join Bishoy back with the horses, and then return to Guarda safely by the end of the day.
Session Statistics:
Downtime begins on: 16/Aug
Combats: 2
Rooms mapped: 4
Combat rounds: 6
Losses: Josef, Steelvein, Thomas, Rhoikos all killed
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