Trollopulous Adjusted Session 149 (Machodor #100): Easy Looting, Hard Fighting

           

Introduction

Welcome to Machodor session 100. When the chance to DM in the Trollopulous campaign came my way back in 2023, I never imagined I'd reach triple figures. The ride isn't over yet — onwards to 200!

Having camped right next door, the party lost no time travelling to the dungeon this week, intending to spend the whole session clearing out the last of the defences in the treasure caverns of Lord Inferno's Lair. But someone, or something, was also interested in the treasure.

Timekeeping

This session began on 5 March 2026, with the player characters adventuring until the 6th. Downtime for these characters begins on 7 March.

Player Characters Present

Sever the Wrathful (Level 10 Pegasus Corps Ranger Lord of Machodor, wielder of Were'shbane and the Rod of Lordly Might, wearer of the Girdle of Cloud Giant Strength, rider of Mustang) with henchman Thomas (C7), Poindexter (M6), and Rabbit (FMT556)

Fluid the Druid (Level 9 Druid, "Scourge of Trollopulous", former wearer of the Ring of Kings, current wearer of the Cloak of Druidish Awesomeness)

Giuseppe (Level 8 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, wielder of Sanctus Draconis Interfector and the Shield of Protection from Missiles, rider of Bonecrusher) with henchmen Bishoy (F6), Tawadros (F6), Steelvein (F6), Rhoikos (M6)

Donny (Level 5 Monk of Machodor)

Downtime

Now wise to the "fool's gold" illusion cast over the coins and jewellery, the heroes made extensive use of Giuseppe's holy sword to dispel magic over their haul, working through it piece by piece until he finally scored a success. This allowed them to fill their sacks with the genuine treasure beneath. Poindexter found that the door to the Laboratory area had been forced open by some unknown means; unwilling to take the risk alone, he withdrew to report the discovery.

During this period a Blood Moon occurred. At the moment of the Blood Moon sacrifice, a tremor rolled through the lair, and an incantation echoed in every mind, over and over: "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthugha Fomalhaut n'gha-ghaa naf'l thagn!" The resulting psychic shock took some time to shake off.

Afterwards, all the cubes in area 1 were found sealed shut — presumably they were now filled with fresh sacrifices from Cthugarak. This posed a serious problem, since only Echellet had ever possessed the ability to open them, and the party's only known means of egress had been via the braziers of living flame inside each cube.

Session Report

They made their way through the treasure cavern, knowing that only two of the six sub-caverns were now still protected by the coin-golem magic. These were a central area and a northern area they had briefly explored but chosen to avoid after finding some sort of Sphere of Annihilation. Once again avoiding this area, they chose the other, and soon had the familiar sensation of something "alive" within the heaped coins. That was expected — Coin Golems — but there was something else moving within the treasure, and it was making loud chomping noises.

Combat#1: 4 Xorn

Rounds: 3

Result: Party win

Highlights: Fluid investigated the movement and noise and, suddenly finding himself looking into the maw of a strange creature, threw himself into the action. Having been alerted to the presence of one such creature buried in the treasure, the others stood out to the party, and so the adventurers piled in to smash them. The xorn responded with their powerful bites, trying to even the score a little; but, as is their fashion, when only one remained in round 3, it adjusted its molecular structure and passed down through the floor of the cavern to escape. To where exactly was an open question.

Without this they'd be stuck in the lair forever. 

Finding something alive in here since they had defeated Vyrathax was unprecedented, so they set about searching for where the xorn had come from. It didn't take long to find massive holes in the walls around the fire door leading back into area 3. These looked like the handiwork of umber hulks — which prompted some confusion, as I was thinking of when the party first encountered umber hulks long ago in the Cavern of Ithaqua, before remembering they had actually been chased down the lava tube by umber hulks just a few sessions back, on their first journey to Cthugarak. At any rate, there was no sign of them now, or any other interlopers, so the heroes returned to their task. (They would encounter the markers of these marks in a future session.)

A longsword-sized scabbard was found, followed by a box of strange stones, and then something matching the description of the item Za'rathul had enigmatically challenged them to find: a Crystal Ball — the key to travelling to his quasi-plane. The party positioned themselves for the inevitable fight that would follow any attempt to remove items from the area. They expected a coin-themed man-shaped golem, but what they got was something else entirely. This golem was the main defender of the entire cavern, and not only that — the heroes would soon find it was even tougher and had one particularly special feature: it could call for help.

Combat #2: Coin Golem Dragon

Rounds: 3

Result: Party win

Highlights: The dragon had a number of powerful area-of-effect abilities that pummelled the front rank, but the weaker casters had deployed themselves far enough back to stay out of its range. Fluid attempted to entangle the golem with no effect, then dropped back and tried a dispel magic. Sever popped his Wings of Flying and charged in. The golem could repair its damage by drawing huge piles of loose coins into its body; in fighting this foe the heroes were literally destroying treasure, but as there appeared to be no alternative they carried on regardless. 

A particularly fortunate combination of hits, targeting what the heroes took to be a weak spot, stunned the dragon, and the party piled on damage before it could recover. In its death throes, however, it let out a hideous screech of anger and pain — and the call was answered from the north.

The first thing the heroes saw was the Sphere of Annihilation drifting towards them, followed by a Platinum Coin Golem wearing a black circlet. The response was near panic.

Now, it's not really obvious at all how you'd actually weaponise one of these things in combat — it seemed to me that any interaction with it at all carried significant risk. So I was looking forward to seeing what would happen next.

The Circlet on the golem's head, which was obviously providing some means of controlling the sphere,  was a discoverable item back in sub-cavern two. I'd had a vision of someone reaching to grab it out of the coins and watching the golem's eyes light up in response, and the whole head turning towards the unlucky adventurer, but the party had never been brave enough to look for it, so that moment never came to pass. In the ensuing battle, the importance of the circlet was immediately recognised, prompting a number of attempts to pry it off the golem's head, but to no avail.

Combat #3: Platinum Coin Golem

Rounds: 8

Result: Party win

Highlights: Fluid responded by casting hallucinatory forest, hoping to confuse the golem and hinder its control of the sphere. This didn't achieve the desired effect, only serving to complicate everyone else's actions instead. Giuseppe used his sword's ability to taunt the golem and draw its attention. Sever pulled out his Rod of Cancellation and flew in to attack with it; though he struck several times, the luck of the rolls once again failed him (the same thing happened against the Iron Golem back in session 76). 

 

As soon as it was in range, the golem spewed out a gloopy spray of platinum that slowed anyone it touched, catching a few in the front rank. The rest had fanned out at the first sight of the sphere and turned invisible by various means.  Donny, by now knowing his spear was useless against golems, spent the fight frantically searching through treasure — at a very safe distance — for something more useful. 

Rhoikos tried a dispel magic on the golem with no success, then started a battle of wills to seize control of the sphere, with the result that it began drifting towards him instead. The hapless magic-user nearly lost his footing in the treacherous field of coins but managed to keep both his balance and his head.

Finally the golem was beaten down, but it wasn't finished — puddles of platinum re-formed into smaller versions of itself to keep fighting to the last. Everyone made Terminator 2 jokes but actually that comparison hadn't occurred to me at all, though of course I laughed along and pretended otherwise.  Fluid tried heat metal in response, but, like many druid spells that take a while to get going, the battle was over before it could do much. The fight lasted long enough for Bishoy's Longsword of Dancing to finally show what it could do.

Having again ended the session with two more dead golems to show for it, this time the aura of the whole treasure cavern seemed to shift as the magic that had animated the golems dissipated. The heroes left the Sphere of Annihilation where it had stopped and retreated once more into the safe area to rest, recuperate, and plot a way to escape with the loot.

Session Statistics: 

Wilderness travel: 0 Miles

Downtime begins on: 03/07/26
Combats: 3
Rooms mapped: 0
Combat rounds: 
Losses: 

Treasure & Items

Iuon stones * 6

Scabbard

Circlet of Insight

Sphere of Annihilation

Crystal Ball

Monsters

Coin Dragon golem 14,550xp

Platinum coin golem 14,550xp

XP &  GP Assignment N/A, carried into session #101

Sever (E)

and Thomas (E)  

and Poindexter (E) 

and Rabbit (E)

Fluid  (E) 

Giuseppe (E)

and Bishoy (E) 

and Tawadros (E)

and Steelvein (E)

and Rhoikos (E)

Donny (E)

Graveyard

Gurt the Green (Paladin Level 7), drew the Void card from the Deck of Many Things in downtime after session #147

Rhoikos (Henchman Magic-User Level 6), caught in the explosion of the dying gem coin golem in session #147 RAISED FROM THE DEAD

Marco Valtieri (Fighter Level 4), immolated and burnt to a crisp by Vyrathax in Lord Inferno's Lair in session #146

Oblate (Illusionist Level 3), killed and eaten by the Nathruk in the Skalrath in session #140

Eniac (Magic-User level 1), killed by a poisoned Grothak spear in session #137 

Rhoikos (Henchman Magic-User level 4), smashed by a Mummy fist in session #126. RAISED FROM THE DEAD

Thomas (Henchman Cleric level 6), Killed by a Symbol of Death in session #126. RAISED FROM THE DEAD

Josef Ironbeard (Dwarf Fighter level 1), Killed by a Symbol of Death in session #126.

Matthias Steelvein (Henchman Fighter level 4), Killed by a Symbol of Death in session #126. RAISED FROM THE DEAD

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 to 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