Introduction
In this session a new player is introduced to the joys of Brovenloft, while another returns after a long break and gets back in the swing of things right away. I give everyone a course on how to survive getting poisoned in AD&D 1e.
Timekeeping
This session began on November 6th, with the player characters adventuring in Brovenloft until the end of the 7th. Downtime for these characters begins on the 8th.
Player Characters Present
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) and Tawadros (F6)Sheamus (Level 8 Irish Fighter from Brovenloft, rider of the Rocket Cycle and wielder of the Drewblade)Gurt the Green (Level 6 Paladin of Machodor, wielder of the Liberator, bearer of the Fabled Ice Jewel of Frigia, rider of Artax) with henchman Cedric (C4)Connor (Level 3 Fighter)Eniac (Level 1 Magic-user, RIP)
Downtime
Session Report
The portal from Trollopulous opened again and through stepped Connor and Eniac. How would Brovenloft treat these new comers? After quick introductions all around, the party once again considered their best course of action, eventually they tried a repeat of the stealthy advance through the lines of the Frogman army outside, using Sheamus' invisibility bracer. Partway to the Skalrath the heroes could hear the sounds of chomping ahead of them.
Encounter#1: 10 Giant Beavers
Rounds: 0
Result: Party evadedHighlights: The party managed to find a way around the group of animals without anyone using the phrase "Nice beaver."
The adventurers pushed on and reached the approach to the Skalrath with no further encounters. The way was clear to head in using the same approach where they had been ambushed last week...so they advanced and hoped for the best.
Unbeknown to them, since their previous foray to this location, the Naga that they had encountered and evaded last week had also found their way to the Skalrath. The creatures had used their charm ability to get some of the frogmen working for them. They had set up three positions in the swamp water around the entrance, one on either side of the causeway, and one behind the ruined stone entrance, each with a naga and ten Grothak—all practically invisible in this environment. It was almost as if they had some inkling the adventurers would be coming to this place, but if so they were not entirely ready when they sprung their trap.
Combat #1: 30 Grothak and 3 Spirit Naga
Rounds: 2 Surprise segments and 9 rounds
Result: Costly Party victoryHighlights: The initial leaping attack by 10 Frogmen proved deadly, their spears were poisoned! One such spear tip found its way inside Eniac's defences, and the magic-user was down.
Hold Person came out of nowhere, well it came from somewhere on the party's left; and it got Sheamus, fortunately for him after the surprise attacks were resolved, but the Irishman was now a spectator in this fight to the death.
Three Magic Missiles launched from the swamp on their right, two of them fizzled as they hit Giuseppe's shield, but the last one hit home.
The engaged Grothak now utilised their go-to tactic of a fighting withdrawal back into the water; but, this time, with two paladins available who were not concerned with the nasties in that water, the monsters were pursued. As the pair plunged in, the water came up to their waists-—and then stopped there—it was not too deep to fight in. I probably should have applied a penalty to the human's attacks at this point though, next time.
Sheena (NPC Cleric level 5) cast Silence 15' Radius in the direction the Magic Missiles had come from; did it work? No one could tell.
Now a Naga appeared at the top of ruined stone entrance to the Skalrath ahead of the a party, she was flanked by 10 spear wielding Grothak. This confirmed the suspicions of the party members who had fought the naga before. The newcomer then cast Lightening Bolt and the dice came up in the party's favour here, as she let loose at the paladins rather than the lower level characters, and they were happy to absorb the damage.
Connor stepped in front of the held Sheamus and brandished his weapons at the frogmen ahead of him at the Skalrath entrance; he drew a round of thrown spears for his troubles, withstood them all, and returned a javelin of his own for good measure.
Gurt and Giuseppe mowed down the frogmen in front of them and then, not finding a naga there, split up; Gurt ran over and engaged the frogmen defending the Skalrath entrance with the visible naga; while Giuseppe ran back across the causeway and into the swamp on the other side in pursuit of the naga there. His magic armour's charging ability would give him a possible chance of catching her—if could just spot her in the drowned forest; but he could not manage to do so in the gloom.
Discretion brought him up short to try and Detect Evil, and this was just as well as 10 more Grothak lay in wait just under the surface of the water—spears set to receive any such charge as the paladin was contemplating. Even so, he was in a lot of danger, and Cedric bravely went in to help.
Sadly for Gurt's henchman, although Giuseppe's armour and shield proved superior to the amphibians' attacks, Cedric's were not; a spear nicked him—he gasped as the poison in his system took hold, and he went face down into the swamp. It was not over though, Sheena went in after him dragged him out, then cast a spell.
I had a bit of fun rubbing it in to a relived Gurt that an NPC had saved his henchman; but in hindsight I missed a trick by not describing first her pulling off Cedric's boots and socks and rubbing garlic on his feet.
It was a long and costly battle, Eniac was lost to a poisoned spear, but there was still a chance for Cedric. The workings of the Slow Poison are not really what you might expect, and take a while to get to grips with. In this case he had 5 hours before he would again succumb to the poison, unless it was neutralised first.
The problem was that no one with them had Neutralise Poison, those who might have it were back at the cave, two hours march—and another use of Sheamus' wrist band, with its now dwindling charges—away. But they had little choice than to try.
When they got back the adventurers found that Ramallo (NPC Cleric) had just used this spell and so could no do so again for the moment, bad luck there. Fortunately, Fluid was able to get up off his bed for long enough to cast it, and Cedric was saved!
The return trip used more precious invisibility charges, and again the party approached the entrance wearily, but nothing was left to stop them getting inside this time—perhaps the naga had given up?
The water logged stone-carved stairs descended into a natural passage that curved this way and that, before passing a worked alcove on the way down into a large triangular area. The water from swamp followed the path down, mostly filling the edges of the area with vegetation debris as it did so, and continued out the far points of a triangle shaped chamber. Here and there the walls were worked smooth, and had rows of niches carved into them.
They retraced steps from their previous delve, then followed the stream of swamp water to where it spilled out over a 20' tall waterfall into a larger chamber. From their vantage point at the top of the waterfall, it appeared that a more navigable entrance to the cavern was back in the other direction. They noted this down and returned to open another series of chambers, the last of which was clearly a tomb.
Combat #2: Mummy
Rounds: 5 rounds
Result: Party winHighlights: Even with the added difficulty of turning the creature in this evil tomb, Giuseppe stepped forth and brandished his crucifix—and the monster fled...only as far as the end of the room, where he was beaten down over the next few rounds. A sad end for the former great warrior and general.
They gathered up a small amount of loot and decided to set off for their home base in order to get there before nightfall. With another use of Sheamus's hawk man wrist device, they passed invisibly through the sunken ranks of the frogman army undetected, the adventurers made it safely back into the dervish cave by nightfall.
Session Statistics:
Combats: 2
Rooms mapped: 5
Combat rounds: 14
Losses: Eniac
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