Trollopulous Adjusted Session 49 (Machodor #25); Return to the River Dungeon

      

Machodor

Timekeeping

This session took place on 30/11/2023, and the PCs adventured for 4 days. 

Player Characters Present

Lance Errant (Level 1 Paladin of Minas Mandalf, E)

Marty O'Tool (Level 1 Cleric of Dublin, Brovenloft, E)

Larrinod "Larry" Blackmantle (Level 1 Magic User/Cleric, bastard son of an elf, E)

Slapp Dashington (Level 1 Blue skinned Monk from outer space, E ) 

Introduction 

After the madness of Brovenloft the River dungeon has been a welcome change of pace. In this session I experienced how having a Special room (a result on 18 on Appendix A table V. F) ready can transform a session.

Session Report

Rowan the rower (as the party had renamed him) pointed out that using the sail would allow the barge to return to the River Dungeon twice as fast as last time, which met with nods of approval.  Apart from other water borne traffic the party had no encounters until sunset on the second day, when some wild cattle could be seen off to the west of the river (something to keep the lions fed I guess).

Next morning they continued on and soon reached the river lock. The men-at-arms/bargemen reminded them that the river worked its way right through the mountains via locks such as these; built by unknown parties in the distant past, they were largely automated, although occasionally the merchant guild sponsored craftsmen to maintain them.

Having gained about 50 feet in altitude, they continued on up river, following the path many long years of weathering had carved between the mighty walls of the mountains on either side.

They reached the place of openings in the cliff wall to their right; and picked the same spot as last time to beach their craft, then assigned two of the men at arms to guard the vessel.

River Dungeon Level 1

The corridor, carved out of the stone but long weathered to remove any but its most basic features, went west, branching off to the north west after 10', and continuing on 50' before opening into a 40' square chamber. They went north west and found the room there, which previously some fire beetles had taken refuge in, was now empty.

They went west out of this room and soon found another chamber with packing crates stacked up in the middle of it. As they examined these, oil spilled out from somewhere in the ceiling, followed by goblin laughter. A dropped cinder then set fire to Lance and to the crates as well; which continued to burn even after they had seen to Lance. 

The party continued on into a fresh corridor going west, at the end of which were a pair of skeletons in front of a door. I was very tempted to say "something has just come through the door" before I rolled what it was; I'm glad I didn't as the skeletons might have been guarding this spot for years as far as the PCs knew.

The first round was decisive, with one skeleton getting turned by Marty O'Tool and the other was smashed by Lance (although, as he used an edged weapon, the damage was half normal). Follow up attacks finished the wounded skeleton and then the other one, having pushed open the door behind it, was off running (I think it picked up a hit as it did so). It raced through the next room and continued west, down a short corridor, into another room, then south. 

Slapp Dashinton caught up to it here and gave it the coup de grace (see the x). As the corridor they were in continued south out of the range of their light, they decided to go back and examine the two rooms they had run through. In one were pallets of shipping material, apparently for tools; in the other was a large and dilapidated tapestry that ran all the way along a 30' wall. The image was faded; but appeared to show very large human looking creatures moving about these very same halls.

They pulled down the tapestry (which fell into rotten pieces) and searched the wall behind for secret doors, finding none. Having used up a fair bit of time here and having to light new torches (and a negative encounter check) they continued exploring down a southern exit, which lead to a long corridor. 

Click to Enlarge

Incidentally, I've been applying the dungeon time rules as strictly as possible, using spindown dice as a counter for rounds and turns. As I get better I will be even more accurate with tracking the passage of time. One effect of these rules is that mapping even a small room is likely to tick over to a turn divisible by 3 and trigger an random encounter check. For a large room it is practically guaranteed.

After bypassing a side passage and noting another, they chose to investigate the latter and came upon...goblins! This was the special room. Within the 30' by 40' area, and only 10' from where the party were standing, was to the top of a well. Six goblins, stripped of their armour but still armed, were sitting around the rim of the well; apparently they were getting ready to jump in. Just past them were six more goblins still in their disgusting, smelly but quite effective armour.

Neither side were surprised and the party chose to move up and attack (since they were within 10' of the enemy this can be done without needing to charge), focussing on the naked goblins, who in turn engaged them while they armoured fellows closed from around the well. It was a free for all, goblins and PCs slashing left and right. The party had the benefit of Lance's 10' Protection from Evil, but that wasn't enough save Slapp from getting hit with a morning star for 2 hp. 

One of the goblins fell in the well as he was killed, shortly followed by the sound of a splash and the disgruntled chatter of more goblins from below. As the enemy casualties hit 25% they narrowly failed their morale in the range of 1% to 15% "fall back, fighting". What does this actually mean? I ruled that they spent a round stepping back 10 feet to regroup, after which they could continue fighting.

The party advanced and re-engaged, as they passed the well they caught a glimpse of water and the movements and sounds of goblins down there. For two rounds they exchanged blows, with some minor damage taken on the party's side; though not minor for Slap who had only one hit point left and was hit by a 1d6 short sword, he again was hit for 1hp and lucky to be only knocked unconscious. 

Even with the monk down, the goblins had lost more of their number which this time triggered a rout. Out of that rout only one got away, racing down the passage to the east which linked up with the beach.

Lance wasn't going to let that one get away; but as he finished him off, and Marty O'Tool was force feeding Slapp some whiskey, the voice of one of the bargemen rang out with a warning that Goblins were attacking the barge, "They're coming up out of the water!"

This was the cue to withdraw, but as they left the room they spotted a tell-tale glint of coins in some open crates near the exit. There was no time to collect it!

Once the party got back to the barge they could see what the man at arms was referring too; about thirty goblins were treading water around the barge and jeering obscenities, working themselves up to attack. There must have been some connection between the well and underground access to the river that the little buggers were using to swim out; maybe this was their method of stealing things from passing traffic?

Now there was a stand off as the the Paladin's intimidation kept the goblins at bay, but the party were loathe push off and leave without the treasure. Larry volunteered to return and get it, relying on his speed and luck to get in and out. So he ran back to the "well room", noted the gold and platinum coins in the crate, and got out a large sack.  Now, as the only player this week that had not experienced my amazing "poisoned treasure" gambit from last session (and apparently not having poured over the session report where I went over it in detail) he then began scooping them into a bag, causing some disquiet among the other players whose characters couldn't do a thing about it.

Yes, just like last session, this treasure too was poisoned, with the same crude sticky contact stuff that had nearly done for Slapp; but, where as Slapp had noticed to poison, Larry missed his 80% change to detect it and so had to make a saving throw. To preserve the suspense I made these rolls for him and merely described was happened next over the 2-5 rounds onset time. 

While this was going on, some of the goblins had reached the shore, untied leather strips they were wearing around their waists, and began to collect stones from the shore; clearly something had to be done.

Lance and Rowan went down on to the beach and dealt with four goblins that were just fitting stones to their slings. The others were fast learners and stayed in the water where they were safe, but if reinforcements arrived they would be able to join in with them.

The moments stretched out. With the luck of the Elves in his blood, Larry survived the poison and made it back in time for his comrades to urge him to wash his hands post haste.

Then they pushed out into the river until they could move past the goblins and set off for home, making it back to Minas Mandalf without incident to fight another day.

Treasure and XP

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 49 (Machodor #25)

Monetary Treasure

250gp

100pp

Treasure Total: 750 GP/XP

Items

8 Goblin ears (collected by Rowan the Man-at-arms and given to the merchant guild) and his testimony of 8 more: 16 GP. 

Rowan has an odd habit of calling out the number of Goblins getting killed in the language used by the Weeb Army.

Monsters

16 Goblins 256XP

2 Skeletons 40XP

Monsters Total: 296 XP

XP & GP Assignment 1046 XP, 766 GP

Lance Errant (Level 1, E) 262 XP & 191.5 GP

Marty O'Tool (Level 1, E) 262 XP & 191.5 GP

Larry (Level 1/1 , E ) 262 XP & 191.5 GP

Slap Dashington (Level 1, E ) 262 XP & 191.5 GP

Graveyard

Jacques Ocular (Level 1 Magic User), 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

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 46 (Machodor #23); Brovlenloft '23 Climax

    

The great Tomb of Kangsta Wrapper, (aka KV5)

Timekeeping

This session took place on 03/11/2023, and the PCs adventured for 15 days. All Brovenloft '23 PCs will be available again on 18/11/2023

Player Characters Present

Giuseppe (Level 6 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, E)

Sever (Level 6 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, E)

Deltacron (Level 1 Fighter/Thief, E ) 

Sheamus, Verdana, Godleve, Slippery Peter, and Bumblebore remained in the Amber Light

Introduction 

When the players missed a session and spent a week extra within the protective Amber light, events outside of the light continued to transpire. The extra dimensional creatures, known as the Githro, completed their unknown but surely nefarious raid on the inner tomb of Kangsta Wrapper, deep with his pyramid. However, all had not gone entirely in their favour; four of them had bitten off more than they could chew, if I can put it that way.

Many thanks to the Elite Patron player @cirsova who, in the lead up to Brovenloft, provided great tips that I could use: "Kangsta's Pyramid has the dungeon layout of KV5 as though it were completed. It's sphinx-shaped. His recording studio is in the Sphinx's left paw, as are the remaining stock of his CDs and Records."

I used this graphic he provided and dungeonscrawl.com to produce my map

Now, the fact that it was Sphinx shaped immediately made one idea jump to mind, but that would not have been relevant to the Githro situation. It was however relevant to this situation.

Due to a number of reasons we were down to three players for this session, I was tempted to lean into the Amber Light and delay the session for a week; however I really felt I was stretching the thing pretty far as it was to get into the first week of November, and so decided to press on.

Downtime

Two of the Dervish who joined the party in the previous session were so impressed with Giuseppe's proselytizing that they declared they would renounce their LN alignment and become Lawful Good. 

Session Report

The Amber Light faded and the party searched around the "16 Pillar Room" in the middle of the tomb. Though most of the decorations in the room itself had been obliterated in some sort of titanic battle that had preceded their arrival; they were able so see that exits to the east and west lead down short corridors with doors at their extremities, and these did have recognisable carvings featuring wings and feathers on them. They also found that two of the 16 pillars contained niches about the size of a man's head (a cause of concern to some). The interior of these niches held paintings that had escaped the destruction in the rest of the room; one of these depicted a Jackal's head, the other depicted a Baboon's head.

The party decided to explore the ascending stair at the south end of the room, rather than the two descending stairs in the south east and south west. It was a short stair that ended in a door, beyond this was a 20' square room with two unusual sarcophagi; each was split in two, making four pieces; but it was clear they had been constructed this way and not that they had been broken. The only exit was another short flight of stairs to the south which ascended to another door. Beyond this was an almost exact replica of the first room. Much searching and detecting traps and secret doors along with Giuseppe detecting evil accompanied their every step as they continued up another stair.

Finally Giuseppe could report that there was definitely something evil beyond the next door. They braced themselves and pushed it open. The room was similar to the two they had pass through, though it was larger and held more half-sarcophagi; and in one of them was a strange figure. Its surface was a red leather, much the same as the creatures they had fought last session, however this one had the form of a mummy; but a mummy with the head of a Baboon! It was sitting up in the half-sarcophagi and its head turned towards them. Battle was on and the creature proved very hardy, even their magical weapons seemed to less effective than normal, and it packed a powerful punch. Even so it proved no match for Giuseppe and Sever, with Deltacron taking a supporting role.

When they had killed it, the creature dissolved into a fluid, and then even this remnant faded out of existence, leaving behind a strange jug, or jar, about a foot tall and bearing the head of a baboon at the top. The party felt they knew exactly what to do with this, but first they examined the rest of the room; which they found to be quite different to the previous two. The 20' by 30' room had two oval shaped windows on the opposite wall which, amazingly, allowed them to see outside of the pyramid. Giuseppe stared out through one of them, getting the impression that they may have been magicked to enhance normal vision. 

Outside was a vast expanse of desert; the Dry Domains, with hardly a break in the endless formation of dunes stretching to the horizon. However, there, at the horizon, Giuseppe thought he could see something moving; though it was yet too far away to make out the details of the object. He resolved to return and check on its progress after exploring further. Another unusual feature in the centre of the room was a small rectangular outline with a partially clear section on the surface of a stone console; when pressed it popped opened and revealed two small spindles side by side about an inch or so apart. The players felt they had an idea what this was.

They now returned to the main 16 pillar room and informed the Elves and Irish and Dervish what was happening. They placed the jar in the niche and were rewarded with an audible hum as it locked in place. Before continuing on they persuaded the Elves to accompany them as back up, and then proceeded to explore down the front "arms" of the tomb. Each arm lead to many smaller tombs on either side, each of these had been desecrated and the contents were gone; possibly consumed by the Githro drones? However, four jars were present in each tomb; though less ornate, they were much like the one they had already found, and were topped with Baboon, Jackal, Human, and Falcon heads. 

Canopic jars contain organs removed from the body in the process
of mummification: the lungs, liver, intestines, and stomach

At the end of the western arm was a 30' by 50' room with four doors leading back north, through one of these they found a 10' by 30' room with huge metal "blades" that ran the length of the room and appeared to be embedded in the stone floor. Inside was another red mummy, this time with a Jackal's head. They beat it down with the help of the elves, but not before it had nearly killed Deltracon. To no one's surprise this enemy yielded a jar with a Jackal's head.

They repeated the process of exploration down the eastern arm, finding it much they same except for one room in which they scored 500 platinum pieces; then they hit the jackpot: Kangsta Wrapper's empty tomb. The room featured a huge, ornate and empty sarcophagus; the walls were lined with frames holding discs fashioned from platinum, and on the far wall were small rectangular objects filled with weird tape on reels. There were also four pillars, each of which held a familiar empty niche with spaces for canopic jars. This was a conundrum; there were two places you could put Kangsta's canopic jars?

In an adjacent room was another series of 30' long metal blades, much thought went into what they could be for; while through a door with the hieroglyph for 'silence' was a strange room with odd sound dampening acoustics, the purpose of which was a mystery. They grabbed anything that was loose, including the platinum discs and rectangular 'tape' boxes and headed back to the room with the 16 Pillars. 

From there they explored the adjacent rooms: finding in one pillars made up of smaller cylinders and a human canopic jar niche; another held strange vats with liquids associated with digestion; the last held pillars like large tapering cylinders, a falcon canopic jar niche, and the fourth Githro Mummy. With the four jars in their possession, they added them to the niches in the "wing" rooms. 

I don't know what they were expecting to happen; but, when the last jar was secure in its niche, the whole place started vibrating. From where they were standing in the 16 pillar room they saw all of the doors leading up to the "window" room had opened. They decided to see what was going on up there, as well as checking if there was any change in the situation outside. The shaking continued as they moved up. Outside the formerly unidentifiable object on the horizon had grown to a huge creature, similar in some ways to the T-Rex they had fought a few sessions back; but way bigger.

"It's the [REDACTED] Dakersaurus," -- Sever

What to do? They placed the rectangular tape holder thing into the console and closed the lid. In response the half sarcophagi started lighting up with glowing hieroglyphics; and a formerly blank section of wall activated, it was a "communication frame" like those they had seen in other parts of the pyramid. The typically stoic Robopriest could be seen there, with a frantic Weird al-hotep along side him.

Their infodump covered these facts: in consuming Kangsta's canopic jars, the Githro had activated a fail safe that prevented anyone teleporting out of the tomb. To re-enable this (and, incidentally, allow them to return to Machodor), they needed to replace the jars into the slots in the room with his sarcophagus; however, there was now the threat of the Dakersaurus, to handle that threat the canopic jars needed to be in the alternative slots that the PCs had put them in. As for how this would help, it would be easier to show them than tell them.

The PC's sat down in the half sarcophagi, Sever held his sword Were'sbane before him and let it read out the meaning of the writing. Sever, in the middle seat, had the glyphs for Command, Outside+Audio, and many others besides; Giuseppe had Flight+Control, Large+Missiles, & Multi+Missiles; Deltacron had Talons and Close+Combat. What could it all mean?

Suddenly, the world outside seemed to rush at them and they felt a powerful force pushing them into their seats; and then they were dropping downwards. They realised that the whole place was moving forward, out of the pyramid, and onto the sandy desert plains. The Hieracosphinx had come to life! The windows were its eyes, and they now flashed on with purpose.

Mecha-Hieracosphinx GO!

Ahead loomed the bulk of the Dakersaurus; it noticed them and, deciding they were a threat, bellowed a challenge then charged. Giueseppe activated the flight controls and the Sphinx leapt into the air, from the resultant change in the displayed glyphs - rapidly translated by Were'sbane - he saw that they could maintain flight for up to 6 turns.

I had thought from here they might get into a traditional Kaiju fight, but cooler heads prevailed. Sever immediately sized up the situation and declared they had to lead the monster back to its lake to the north west of the Dry Domains. But first, they had to make sure they really had the monster's attention.

To use the capabilities of the Mecha-Sphinx, the appropriate command sequence phrases had to be precisely enunciated,

Sever used Command sequence 1: 

"The [TARGET] doesn't know it but he's a dead man walking.

Making wishes, like he was Macaulay Culkin?

All that magic, but there's nothing you can do

When we erase you like Trump from Home Alone 2"

I cannot convey just how funny this was at the time. The words echoed out of the mouth of the Sphinx, and the mix tape took over from there. 

Giuseppe then used Command sequence 2 twice:

 "The people come from miles around

To hear my rhymes and tremble at my sounds

The only people who are coming to you

Are there for your head, and your [TARGET LOCATION] too."

A series of small missiles, then a volley of giant rockets, smashed into the Dakersaurus, doing ridiculous amounts of damage; but the creature was un-phased and soon its regeneration ability began to repair its wounds.

The Dakersaurus responded by opening its mouth and zapping them with a lightening bolt. Glyphs flashed in front of Giuseppe, indicated damage to the wings and a reduction in overall fuel capacity; but, fortunately, it seemed that it could only use this attack once. 

Unfortunately for Deltacron, since they were avoiding melee there was no reason to use his Command Sequence 3:

"The rat king's assassin fell on my blades

The count's vampire girls failed in their raids

I'm just sad that [TARGET] won't die by my hands

I'm too busy spreading my rhymes all over the lands"

So he did it anyway and the giant metal blades slashed through empty air.

After this the creature appeared to realise that it could hear the fabled Kangsta's mix tape as long as it followed the Mecha-sphinx, so it settled in for what would be a long trip.

Cue Indiana Jones music

After seven days of taking it in turns with the Irish and Elves to crew the Sphinx, they finally reached the Lake. Nothing encountered along the way was interested in messing with them. Seeing its home and knowing deep down that it was way past its bed time, the Dakersaurus sank beneath the surface; perhaps to return next year. Here the Elves also bid their farewells and left, their territory being nearby. 

In another week and low on rations, the party had completed retracing their path. Again they had not encountered anything (this was a bit of a disappointment) and were able to park the Sphinx back in the pyramid, replace the canopic jars, and get ready to return home. Weird al-hotep was very grateful for their efforts and anxious to get them back to Machodor; perhaps he was influenced by the idea of being the only senior cleric remaining to explain these events to Lil Nubi when he returned.

The end of Brovenloft for another year, hope to see you next year!

Treasure and XP

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 46 (Machodor #23)

Monetary Treasure

500pp loose

16 Platinum Discs 

Total: 3300gp

Monsters

4 Githro Kangsta Simulacra 2000 XP

Dakersaurus: Much goodwill and bragging rights in Brovenloft and beyond

Items

Mix Tape of the Kangsta (Unknown)

Treasure Total:   3300 XP

Monsters Total: 2000 XP

XP & GP Assignment N/A 

Giuseppe(Level 6, E )  2189 XP & 1523 GP

Sever (Level 6, E ) 2189 XP & 1513 GP

Deltacron (Level 1, E )  920 XP & 253 GP

Graveyard

Jacques Ocular (Level 1 Magic User), 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

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 47 (Machodor #24); The River Dungeon

     

Machodor

Timekeeping

This session took place on 09/11/2023, and the PCs adventured for 6 days. 

Player Characters Present

Lance Errant (Level 1 Paladin of Minas Mandalf, E)

Marty O'Tool (Level 1 Cleric of Dublin, Brovenloft, E)

Comfort Rod (Level 1 Cleric associate of the Robopriest, E ) 

Slap Dashington (Level 1 Blue skinned Monk from outer space, E ) 

Introduction 

I'm doing this write-up out of order with the remaining two Brovenloft '23 sessions, since they're taking longer than a normal session report would. Anyway, with all the main Player Characters still stuck in Brovenloft, this was a week where the players could choose a new start, or follow up on the "Sand" mission from Machodor session #9, or something else based on various rumours going around. In the end it was a bit of everything; three level 1 characters that had adventured before, and a brand new paladin with godly stats thanks to Method III.

Session Report

Minas Mandalf, Holy City & Capital of Machodor. The perfect place for a new bunch of Lawful Good characters to make a start on their adventuring career. The attendant at the Adventurers Aid Society looked them up and down and suggested a job sponsored by the Merchants' guild; someone, or something (perhaps goblins) has been raiding and robbing their river barges coming up from the Bandit mountains to the south.

The merchant representative offered them the use of a small barge, and three men-at-arms who could double as rowers. 

DMG p54

Referring to DMG p54, and, for some reason, completely missing the option to use a sail (perhaps it had been damaged by goblins); then, checking the map, I judged they could cover the 65 miles or so to the mountains at a glacial 1 mile per hour. It would take about 3 days, most of that time being in "inhabited/patrolled" areas. Fresh and keen for adventure they set off, reaching Gnomesville by the end of the first day without incident. Apart from other water borne traffic there were no encounters until sunset on the third day, when a full pride of 11 lions could be seen on the western shore. The party decided to let them be.

Next morning they continued on and soon reached a river lock. The men-at-arms/bargemen volunteered that the river worked its way right through the mountains via locks such as these; built by unknown parties in the distant past, they were largely automated, although occasionally the merchant guild sponsored craftsmen to maintain them.

Having gained about 50 feet in altitude, they continued on up river, following the path many long years of weathering had carved between the mighty walls of the mountains on either side.

They started noticing openings in the wall to their right; some were well above the stony beach about 10' back from the river, others at water level. They picked one of the latter and beached their craft nearby, then assigned two of the men at arms to guard the vessel.

Marty O'Tool gave a blessing to their endeavours and they went in (see map below).

The corridor, carved out of the stone but long weathered to remove any but its most basic features, went west, branching off to the north west after 10', and continuing on 50' before opening into a 40' square chamber. Within the chamber were two Fire Beetles apparently investigating a large chest that sat against the north wall.

Lance clashed his sword against his shield and attempted to intimidate the Fire Beetles; the reaction roll indicated success, and they scuttled away from the chest and off through the north east exit. The party now eyed the unprotected chest and lamented the fact they had no thieves were with them, until Slap pointed out that Monks have thief skills. He determined there were no traps on the chest, then threw it open to reveal it was filled with a mixture of copper and electrum coins. When he stuck his hands in to begin counting the coins, I had to make an interesting adjudication.

I was thinking that given the situation, it didn't make much sense that an unprotected chest was just waiting here; but, as the Appendix A result showed, it was not unprotected at all. In fact it was a fiendishly clever trap, the coins were poisoned! As a monk, Slap needed 13 to save against the poison; with a result of a 9, was that it for the blue skinned novice? Thinking of monster poison, I was pretty sure it was. However, I wasn't really sure, as Appendix A gives no guidance on what type of poison can be placed on treasure. This case called for a closer look at the DMG's poison rules.

DMG p. 20

Given the context, it was clear to me that goblins had poisoned the coins and left the chest here for just this reason; to kill greedy adventurers. So what kind of poison would they use?

Since even goblins wouldn't rely on adventurers to put coins in their mouths, I ruled out Ingestive. Insinuative types C&D looked way too expensive for goblins to fabricate, so I randomly selected between A & B; getting A. Now the footnote for this poison allows for a +4 on the saving throw, and this was just enough for Slap to succeed when he otherwise would have failed (I ruled that goblins apply such poison as well as a trained assassin, meaning that there was no further saving throw bonus). 

But wait, right next to the saving throw bonus information, the above table lists the chance of tasting/smelling/seeing the poison. So for Type A there is a huge 80% chance that Slap would actually have detected the presence of the poison before grabbing the coins. I rolled for this and he comfortably passed. We immediately had to retcon that Slap never even touched the poisoned coins! 

If I had prepped all this I could have simply chosen the type of poison; but, with Appendix A, until now I'd simply assumed that poison such as this worked as save or death; but there is a lot more to it than that. In typical BrOSR fashion, the players were all invested and interested in finding out the RAW interpretation, even while Slap's life was on the line; everyone patiently waited the few minutes as I worked through all this. DMs, get yourself Elite players if you can.

The party checked the handles of the chest and, finding them to be free of poison, proceeded to carry it back out to the stony river shore and left it near their barge. They gave a quick explanation to the bargemen on watch and then returned inside.

They checked the north west passage and found a small chamber where the two Fire Beetles had taken refuge. Again, the party concluded that it was not worth tangling with such creatures; instead they went south, passed through an enclosed room where there was a lot of broken glass strewn about the place; then into a 40' square chamber. This featured one large passage leading back out to the beach, and three other exits; one west, one south west, & one south east. 

As they reached the archway leading to the western passage, 15 Giant Rats were coming the other way. Again, neither side was surprised and Lance's intimidation had them running back the way they came, which turned out to be a 30' passage that terminated at a staircase going down. Not convinced of the merits of going deeper just yet, they moved to explore the south west exit to the chamber and ran into 13 Goblins. Once more, neither side was surprised and it was also no surprise when the goblins attacked.

The party were well placed to hold the 10' wide archway and placed Brim, the man-at-arms, next to Lance, both with spears set, followed by Slap with a spear of his own, then the two clerics bringing up the rear. Comfort Rod Cursed the enemy in a manner that somehow did not draw the wrath of the Paladin (but may still when he thinks about it later).

pretty dang useful versus Goblins

The charging goblins broke against the spears set against them; though Slap missed, Lance and Brim between them reduced their number by two. Now, as the goblins made their charging attacks, Lance's player pointed out that his Protection from Evil aura should result in a -2 penalty for them. I hadn't considered this to be the case for mere creatures; but, the spell description, even though it mentions specific powerful summoned creatures and the like, also says "any and all attacks launched by evil creatures" so we went with that.

Next round the Curse took effect, so, this combined with the Paladin's aura gave the goblins a -3 penalty. It's important to note that this penalty is in effect a improvement in the party members' AC, and not a reduction in the goblin's rolls to hit (see Mr Wargaming's excellent treatment here). Two more of the enemy went down, to be replaced by those in the next rank; meanwhile Lance spotted some from the rear rank running back down the corridor and away from the party. 

Before this battle I had yet to determine if it was possible to circle around to the south east archway in the chamber by moving down the south west corridor; but a roll or two on Appendix A determined that the two areas actually did join up, and of course the goblins would know this.

Maybe a round or two passed while the fight continued, with only Brim the Man-at-arms taking any damage; but then the goblins won initiative as the four who had circled around to come at the party from behind now charged into the chamber at the two clerics. Perfect tactics! Alas for them, they concentrated on Comfort Rod's Ringmail and Shield, and missed every time. This failure, along with the steady attrition at the front, proved too much and the goblins broke off and fled; the party's front rank eliminated the ones there with their free attacks; but three of the those at the rear managed to get away from the swinging blunt weapons of the clerics.

Not wanting to give chase, nor wanting the goblins to get away, the party went down the south west corridor in order to 'head them off at the pass'.

I managed to keep this thought to myself

I rolled to determine which direction the goblins would flee, and they went the other way to the south; so far unexplored by the party. As it turned out, it was the only reasonable direction for the goblins to flee. Disappointed at losing them, but not wanting to go through the door and continue the chase, the party set about mapping and resting from the fight, looting the bodies etc. They soon after found a triangle shaped room was the only area to the west. Inside was broken packaging that matched the description of some missing wine crates. Upon reflection the broken glass they had previously found must have been that of wine bottles. Drunk goblins!

The party continued their exploration, pretty much now cautiously pursuing the goblins who had gotten away. They cleared another chamber and then a corridor that eventually turned west. Suddenly, from a hole in the ceiling, a flask of oil was emptied on Comfort Rod; followed by a flaming cinder and the sound of goblins' guttural laughter. Fortunately Rod was able to catch the cinder and throw it clear, receiving only minor burns in the process. He then wisely declared the need to wash off the rest of the oil in the river. Everyone agreed they had pushed their luck far enough for one delve, and when they were ready they set off back to Minas Mandalf, arriving without incident a day and a half later.

Addendum

The River Dungeon

This was a really fun session to run, the location was based on a simple idea, but one that was different enough to add a bit of a unique flavour. The north section of the Bandit Mountains is not one the players have spent any significant time in, so it had both a familiar and new feeling to it. For the dungeon, I simply turned to a new page, drew up one full side as the River, and treated it like an an Appendix A corridor; generating side passages and such down its length; but only on one side. At the beginning of the session I had ready the first entrance corridors and the room or chamber they lead to; from there in session it built up to this map (right).

The players might not come back to this location or with these characters; but, already their choice to explore here has made the dungeon more playable for next time. If they don't return, more fun than prep has already occurred here, so nothing is wasted. 

I highly recommend solo playing with DMG Appendix A, as it really helps with applying the randomness on the fly; practice with answering the question "What do these result mean?" is a rare example of worthwhile prep.

Treasure and XP

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 47 (Machodor #24)

Monetary Treasure

1000cp

750ep

100sp

Treasure Total: 385 GP/XP

Items

10 Goblin ears (collected by Brim the Man-at-arms and given to the merchant guild) 10 gp

Monsters

10 Goblins 160 XP

Monsters Total: 160 XP

XP & GP Assignment

Lance Errant (Level 1, E) 109 XP & 79 GP

Marty O'Tool (Level 1, E) 109 XP & 79 GP

Comfort Rod (Level 1, E )  109 XP & 79 GP

Slap Dashington (Level 1, E )  109 XP & 79 GP

Graveyard

Jacques Ocular (Level 1 Magic User), 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

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 45 (Machodor #22); The Rave Maze of Kangsta Wrapper

   

Finally, ripping off Desert of Desolation pays off

Timekeeping

This session took place on 27/10/2023, and the PCs adventured for 1 day.

Player Characters Present

Giuseppe (Level 6 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, E)

Sheamus (Level 5 Rocket Cycle Fighter of Dublin, Brovenloft, E)

Sever (Level 6 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, E)

Verdana  (Level 1 Paladin from Brovenloft, E)

Deltacron (Level 1 Fighter/Thief, E ) 

Godleve, Slippery Peter, and Bumblebore remained in the Amber Light

Introduction 

At the beginning of this year's Brovenloft I decided to break all the BrOSR rules; as well as using the Amber light from Castle Amber, I was going to make use of a module I still have from the 1980: Desert of Desolation. I have fond memories of playing this, but I expected that adapting it would be an exercise in futility, and that's pretty much how it turned out. Although the Pyramid section particularly seemed like an easy conversion to do, it was actually difficult and time consuming. I ended up throwing out so much that it would have been easier just to steal the central conceit of one map (above), which I modified anyway. Even this map I had to go back and pencil in the correct the numbering which in the module (being a collection of modules I3-5) had gotten wrong or left blank.

Session Report

The Amber Light faded and the party, augmented by Giuseppe and new character Verdana, took stock of the situation. Having navigated the and escaped the Maze of Tupacman, they had explored series of worship rooms and found a secret area, which appeared to have already been plundered. The Amber Light had returned them the the Main Worship Hall.

After confirming they had pretty much explored everything else, they went down the last unexplored corridor and found another worship room. The 30' square room was filled with dervish worshippers being lead by a cleric performing a ceremony involving another huge statue of Kangsta Wrapper. In its outstretched arms it held an altar bowl about chest high, or 15 feet off the ground. Within the bowl was a low flame. As they watched, the priest threw an offering into the bowl; the flames leapt up high and completely consumed the offering, then died back an instant later.

There were 12 dervish worshippers in all, including the priest, and the party narrowly decided to parlay. The priest introduced himself as Uminum, in the service of Kangsta Wrapper. There was some mystery solving now; to cut a long story short, these guys had been locked in the pyramid since last Brovenloft, and their numbers had dwindled over that time, along with their faith. Some had even literally disappeared without trace. They party's arrival, and subsequent reveal of the secret doors behind the other Kangsta statues, threw them even more. After a short scuffle with the strongest adherents, most of the dervish, but not the priest himself, agreed to accompany the party through what they now believed to be a teleporter (the bowl of fire).

Although there was some trepidation, at length everyone stepped into the fire; each experienced a feeling of being burned to ashes and then rematerialising elsewhere. Elsewhere took the form of a hexagonal room 30' across. There were four equidistant exits, all unadorned archways; but beyond them it was impossible to see more than a few feet.

The module describes how the exits to this first room are filled with swirling sulphurous orange mists; these mists temporarily disorient those who enter them so they cannot determine how long they were inside, how many steps they took etc. A bit weird really, but this was one thing that I thought could easily be moulded into something more suitable to Kangsta Wrapper. I decided to change it so that, instead of mists, entering the maze would lead to a Rave, the effect of which was pretty much the same level of disorientation. The flashing lights could be seen, and pulsing music could be faintly heard from where the party now stood. 

After choosing a direction at random and passing through the first archway, the lights became blinding, and the music deafening; at some indeterminate time later the party emerged into a small corridor and realised for the first time that this maze would be very difficult to navigate. I stupidly suggested they could still give me compass directions for their movement; but I immediately had to reverse on this and insist on only left-right-straight etc instructions from the PCs. At least that way I would know which direction they were going. Soon they had no little where they were in relation to where they had started, the maze appeared to go on endlessly with every new area much like the rest. Sever had the idea of marking numbers on the floor so that they could recognise when they entered an area they had been to before.

Eventually they arrived at a T-intersection (15 on the map) where there had been a battle of some kind. Dead gnome bodies were strewn about along with those of some humans. It seemed neither side had won since a sled bearing several chests was left behind; there was also a sword, the weapon detected as magic (and then evil), it was thrust through a body right into the floor. The party wisely ignored the cursed blade, but unwisely set off a trap on the chest which sent out a barrage of poisoned needles, one paralysing Shaemus for an unknown duration.

A check of the other chests found 500gp in each; but the trapped chest, which sat on top of the others, held only smelly orc socks. They spent the time waiting for Shaemus to recover in repairing the sleigh and transferring some of their loot to it. The dervish now had the task of dragging the sleigh with them. They continued on and found Room 31 held a giant scythe blade hanging like a pendulum, the obvious trap was carefully skirted by the PCs, and, noticing a narrow ledge at near the domed ceiling, they climbed up and investigated.

In the original module, trap rooms (mostly all the 30' square rooms around the outside of the maze) all had observation platforms where priests from the next level could watch "plundering thieves meet their death". This effectively meant that every one of these rooms was an exit to the maze, and that, along with the next level itself, didn't fit with what I wanted. Instead I leveraged the idea that these rooms held viewing frames similar to those the party had encountered last session in Tupacman's maze. These allowed observation and communication to and from the room, but not movement. 

The frame on the ledge was active and they could see, as though simply looking through a window at them, the Robopriest and another figure. Before this pair were a great number of active frames, presumably showing other parts of the maze; it looked as though they had been trying to monitor them all at the same time. The PCs yelled to get their attention and woke the other figure who had been asleep. He introduced himself as a Priest in the service of Kangsta Wrapper.

Weird al-Hotep.

In a brief info dump, the pair explained that alien creatures from another dimension, known as Githros, had invaded the pyramid and tampered with the teleportation devices. Perhaps in their haste to establish control the creatures had neglected to disable teleportation to and from the Rave Maze. To escape then, they would have to find a room (28) which held a teleportation well, guarded by a sphinx, which was a match for the fire brazier they used to get into the maze. From there they could teleport to the actual tomb of the Kangsta located elsewhere within the pyramid. Doing so and restoring the teleport system was the only way to get out and return home.

The party asked about how they could more easily navigate the maze and eventually they instructed the dervish to link arms as they moved through the Rave areas, with the guys at each end keeping a hand on the walls on either side as they did so. This method was effective in giving them an idea of which directions they had taken while inside. Combined with observing the numbers they had marked on the ground, they made some progress. 

Then they were surprised by a group of 4 elves moving silently. Immediately it was suggested that this was a cross over with my solo play group, and that they should kill them while they could. However, although the names were similar, these were different elves; survivors of a force sent by the King of Elfland to try and eliminate Kangsta Wrapper (in the original module, they were in fact doppelgangers). They had been stuck in here for a year and did not know their enemy was long dead. No one in the party bothered to fill them in on that fact.

familiar looking elves

One other curious item, the Elf leader wore headphones they had acquired and identified as Headphones of the Kangta. Wearing them it was possible to block out the sound while navigating the Rave, allowing the user to determine how long they had been inside.

The elves were keen to help once they got the idea that the party were heading to the true tomb of Kangsta Wrapper. So, with the dervish stretching out in a row to touch each wall, and the Headphones, they were able to navigate back to the elf's hideout and pick up their other two companions. From there they headed north, coming to a four-way intersection (8). The elves had not previously explored further than this area due to hearing the roar of a ferocious beast from beyond.

They went left and found a door with a crude sign affixed to it, on which the words "Knock first" were written. The party decided to do just that and found inside (room 26) a group of Brovenloft Irish tomb robbers (in the module they were normal bandits), lead by one Paddy O'Leary. Immediately impressed by the presence of two Paladins in the party, and no less by the fact they had a plan to escape the maze, these worthies also threw in with the group and now the "party" had swelled to a small army of 5 PCs, 10 Dervish, 6 Elves, and 10 Irish. 

Once they realised that Paddy had with him the Sunglasses of the Kangsta, which permitted him to navigate the maze without the flashing rave lights effecting his ability to discern the directions he was taking, their confidence soared and they zeroed in on room 28; the one with the Heiracosphinx and the well that would allow them to escape the maze.

The sphinx sat on a ledge beyond the well on the opposite side of the room (which, incidentally, glittered with coins): "I have just one question, has my lord returned?"

The players rightfully surmised that this was not a riddle; but a prelude to the creature attacking them. I forget now what they actually answered, but they won initiative and killed the Sphinx so quickly that it was not a memorable fight. The loot was good though, thousands of gold coins and a Topaz. They added this to their collection and lined up their huge party to step into the well. As they did so it felt to them like they had become one with the water, and, travelling quickly through channels within the Pyramid, popped out, dry again, in a large room filled with 16 pillars in a pattern of four rows. 

Now they were in the tomb of the Kangsta proper.

The place had been the scene of a violent and destructive battle. No sooner did they make a move to investigate when they were attacked by six Githros; these were the creatures Weird al-Hotep had warned them of (originally this particular group were minotaurs in room 25, but in this form they had been smart enough to find their way out of the maze). Three of the red leathery attackers were in the form of drones; lizard like, they could run on all fours and now did so to charge up to attack the dervish swordsmen who were bringing up the rear of the party. Of the remainder, one looked like an Elf (in fact resembling one of the elves' former party members they had lost), one a Gnome, and one a Human.

The one thing the creatures had in common were large bulbous eyes that seemed to emit some sort of sub-visible light. This had the effect of a Cloak of Displacement, which caused all of the initial attacks on them to simply miss their targets. The ensuing battle was tense; the layout of the place, with all the pillars and the nearby wall, made if difficult for the party to bring their superior numbers to bear. But a great deal of luck went their way; attacks and damage were spread so evenly around the dervish that none of them fell, and eventually the party's return attacks against the six enemy took their toll. As each one was dispatched, it dissolved into a gooey red paste then faded out of existence; gross. While this was going on, Deltracron decided to explore down the south west exit; I rolled on Appendix A and came up with a spiked pit trap, which he promptly fell into. His dwarven constitution saved him from death, if not embarrassment, and the rest of the party were able to finished the battle and pull him out before the trap closed him in. Then the Amber Light returned once more to keep them safe until next week.

Treasure and XP

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 45 (Machodor #22)

Monetary Treasure

Gold from chests and Hieracosphinx 

7000gp

500gp Topaz

Monsters

Heiracosphynx 1080 XP

3 Githro drones 900xp

3 Githro simulacrum 1200xp

Treasure Total: 7500  XP

Monsters Total: 3180  XP

XP & GP Assignment  

Giuseppe(Level 6, E )  3004 XP & 2368 GP

Sheamus(Level 5, E )  2610 XP & 1974 GP

Sever (Level 6, E )  3004 XP & 2368 GP

Deltacron (Level 1, E )  1031 XP & 395GP

Verdana (Level 1, E )  1031 XP & 395 GP

Graveyard

Jacques Ocular (Level 1 Magic User), 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

Solo Play Session 3: All too easy

      

Elf Team B

Introduction

With the other three elves training, Fingar the Fighter/Magic User wants to go back out, and finds 3 more guys to go with him.

Rolls

S 13 I 13 W 14 D 17 C 15 Ch 13

S 18 I 12 W 16 d 16 C 16 Ch 16

S 13 I 13 W 18 D 12 C 13 Ch 12

Elf

S 13 I 13 W 14 D 18 C 14 Ch 13

S 18 I 12 w 16 d 17 c 15 ch 16

S 13 I 13 w 18 D 13 C 12 Ch 12

Class

Assassin 3 S 13    I 13 W 14 D 18 C 14 Ch 13

Fighter  1 S 18:13 I 12 W 16 D 17 C 15 Ch 16

Assassin 4 S 13    I 13 W 18 D 13 C 12 Ch 12

Age

Assassin 3 Age 122(M) S 13    I 13 W 13 D 18 C 15 Ch 13

Fighter  1 Age 148(M) S 18:13 I 12 w 15 d 17 c 16 ch 16

Assassin 4 Age 117(M) S 13    I 13 w 17 D 13 C 13 Ch 12

HP & Secondary Skill & Money 

Assassin 3 S 13    I 13 W 13 D 18 C 15 Ch 13 HP 5  40gp Teamster

Fighter  1 S 18:13 I 12 W 15 d 17 C 16 Ch 16 HP 12 130gp none

Assassin 4 S 13    I 13 w 17 D 13 C 13 Ch 12 HP 5  90gp none

Timekeeping

This session took place on 28/09/2023, and the Characters adventured for 1 day.

Characters Present

Fingar (Level 1/1 Elf Fighter Magic User)

Neldor (Level 1 Elf Assassin)

Voldar (Level 1 Elf Fighter)

Zeno (Level 1 Elf Assassin)

Downtime 

With three of the four original characters from Team A out training, the remaining member approached the Assassin Guild Master about gathering some more like minded fellows. Three elves answered the call.

Session Report

The party arrived without incident and descended into Appendix A. Like a bigshot, Fingar lead the way around the dungeon for the newbies, heading straight for level 3; but, the place proved to be eerily quiet. I rolled for each chamber and room they had previously explored as they again passed through them, but nothing had taken their place; spooky. For "restocking" here I used the standard room contents table but ignored rolls above 17. Mr Wargaming applies a -3 penalty to the roll, which amounts to much the same thing. 

With the way this level is developing, the dungeon could easily end without any further expansion thanks the rolls on Appendix A exhausting the possibilities. I am using an A4 page of graph paper for each level, without any constraints beyond that; it would be strange to have a dungeon peter out with only a quarter of a page used (tune in to future reports to see if that happens). 

Finally, in chamber B, the party happened upon 7 fire beetles and surprised them for one segment. Even with just one segment to work with, Elf archery again won the day before the enemy knew what was happening. This one was a pay day, the beetles were dragging along with them (somehow?) 2250 ep, and, a strange jug like item. The party decided it would be worth selling back at town (and boy, was it) so, even though they were at full strength; they returned to Elf Town, again without any encounters along the way.

Proving Grounds of the CHAS Overlord Level III

Team B thinks this dungeoning stuff is easy, one encounter becomes two levels! They will be training for two weeks and not be available until October 14th. It is interesting to note XP for Gold and 1 to 1 time at work here, the first is motivation to head back to town after a big (or even a presumably big) score, the second means that the group is immediately out of play while they train.

Treasure and XP

Monetary Treasure

2250ep

Monsters

7 Fire beetles 224XP

Items

Jug (Alchemy Jug, identified in town) sold for 12000gp!

Monsters Total: 224 XP

Treasure Total:   13125 XP

XP & GP Assignment 

Training until 14th October

Fingar (Level 2/2 Elf Fighter Magic User) 3337XP & 3281 GP

Neldor (Level 3 Elf Assassin) 3337 XP & 3281 GP

Voldar (Level 2 Elf Fighter)  3671 XP & 3281 GP

Zeno (Level 3 Elf Assassin) 3337 XP & 3281 GP

Graveyard

Empty so far

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 44 (Machodor #21); The Maze of Tupacman

  

Follow along at home

Timekeeping

This session took place on 13/10/2023, and the PCs adventured for 1 day.

Player Characters Present

Sheamus(Level 5 Rocket Cycle Fighter of Dublin, Brovenloft, E)

Sever (Level 6 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, E)

Bumblebore (Level 3 Magic User, Machodor University Associate, E)

Deltacron (Level 1 Fighter/Thief, E ) 

Godleve, Slippery Peter, and Giuseppe remained in the Amber Light

Downtime 

Within the protective Amber Light in Brovenloft the PCs were able to experiment with the magic items they had found last session and work out that they included magic armour and a longsword of significant power. The hat remained a mystery.

Deltracron, a dwarf from "E-bro-on" warped into the room with them from some other place and decided to join in the search for the Robopriest (Patron Cleric, Level 12).

Session Report

Last session Slippery Pete had found a trap with a chute going doing two levels at the top of a stair not far from the Crypt Thing room. After examining the area it appeared that the Robopriest and his henchmen had gone that way, not having tampered with the Crypt Thing themselves and been teleported away.

After much fiddling around, the trap door was triggered and then wedged open so the PCs could lower themselves down by rope. Once at the bottom a passage lead north then turned east into another corridor. The party felt a tingling sensation as they entered this area, and the dwarf volunteered that he sensed they were now deeper underground than before.

The walls of the corridor were covered in detailed paintings in the same style but unlike others they had seen so far. One large mural featured a line of pelicans and several "Cars" recognisable to Brovenloft veterans as horse-less carriages: a 90's Cadillac, with a strange barrel projecting from a window towards the driver of the second car; a brand new 1996 BMW 750 with a black man in a black outfit at the wheel; the third car held three women apparently in conversation with the BMW driver: one wearing Pink, one Cyan, and one Red.

There was also some writing around this mural. It turns out we had not yet established which languages Were'sbane could speak/read, so one is now allocated to early 90's gangsta via hieroglyphs.

The lyrics translated to: "No one knows my struggle, they only see the trouble." "Even though you’re fed up, you gotta keep your head up." What hidden meaning, if any, did these words have?

They continued past the mural and, after 60', there was a four way intersection. Here they turned right and down another 60' to another four way intersection. The walls along this path depicted spectral ghost-like beings chasing and consuming the souls of humans. Upon further investigation, the figures wore Pink, Red, Black, and Cyan.

They turned right again followed the corridor 50' west, and then 40' south. The lack of rooms or chambers was becoming a cause for concern when Sever, looking to his left, saw, to his shock, that Sheamus was gone; in his place was a tall mummy wearing sunglasses and a lot of bling, the infamous Kangsta Wrapper! The Ranger readied Were'sbane before he heard the mummy asking him, in Sheamus' voice, what was he was doing? 

The Fighter assured the rest of the party that this was just an illusion and patted himself down; he was still the Irish giant that they knew and he still had his equipment. Satisfied by this, the party continued pretty much turning right where ever possible, travelling more turning corridors; before rounding a corner and seeing a strange mummy creature, obviously female, whose bandages held a faded red tinge.

Both sides were surprised for one segment; but, as nobody playing this week had high enough dexterity to negate this, we moved on to the next round. The female mummy turned and fled, apparently at the sight of "Kangsta Wrapper". What on earth? 

The party cautiously continued in the opposite direction, coming to a T-intersection just as the illusion on Sheamus dissipated. Here a similar looking, but pink, mummy faced them from their left, and a Cyan female mummy was down the corridor to their right; where they could see, just behind her, the beginning of a stair going up. Both mummies were clearly going to attack.

The mummies charged, but the party won initiative, so I allowed them to reposition to meet the attack from within the corridor they had just stepped out of; this meant the two mummies attacked from the front of their position rather than from either side. Since this was just a matter of a few feet it seemed fair enough.

The first round saw both sides just warming up; but things got even warmer next round when Bumblebore tasked O'Malfoy with a strafing breath weapon run across the face of the front line. Due to the proximity, but also considering the cover of the walls, I ruled that Sever and Sheamus could save for 1/2 or no damage (rather than full or half); but unfortunately they both failed and burned for 5 hit points. Sheamus, who pointed out that O'Malfoy had already bit him in session #12, added this to his grudge against the magic user's familiar.

Both mummies failed their saves and also took extra damage due to their weakness to fire. Sever and Sheamus then finished off the pink mummy, leaving only one; but, at the same time, the red mummy returned from their rear and ran into a well prepared dwarf who was looking for just such an eventuality. What no one was expecting was a tall mummy in black rounding a corner in front of them.

Tupacman!

No one failed the ensuing fear save, and the mummies closed to attack, missing every single time ( I was devastated). As these mummies required a save vs fear on any hit, this was somewhat unexpected. With their hands full at the front, the party had to rely on Deltacron in the rear holding up the Red Mummy on his own, and if the enemy dice had been even average he would not have survived. Their luck held and the party beat down each remaining enemy until the monsters collapsed, dematerialising as they did so. Soon they were free to continue exploring.

Having noticed a possible stairway, to the east, earlier; they chose to investigate and indeed found a stair going up one level; but, it lead to an apparent dead end. The walls here had fewer pictures and featured a large, empty, frame like construct. Convinced that there must be a secret door here, the party spent about a turn searching; but found nothing. 

However, something found them. Approaching from the bottom of the stair was what appeared to be the very same three female mummies, looking very much...undead; they showed no fear and were going to come up the stairs after them.

Suddenly on the blank frame-like area of the wall, there appeared a moving picture, as though the wall had become glass and revealed a room beyond. Standing there was the Alexus Murphius, the Robopriest.  He thrust his holy symbol, a shield shaped badge, forward dramatically, and declared: "Bitches leave!"*

The undead monsters were turned and they fled away into the maze. The Robopriest then explained, in his flat monotone way, that he had found his way through the maze (I had run this with the Patron in downtime, one spell was enough to solve this problem for him; can you guess which?) and was now in an observation room that was magically projecting his presence to them. 

The top of the stairs did lead to an exit, a teleporter, but it only became active after "Tupacman" had been "killed" for a second time; but they had to hurry, after 5 minutes he will reform and the teleporter will deactivate.

There was a bit of back and forth over the details; but then the connection terminated, and they were on their own again.

Now with a much better handle on the situation, the PCs came up with a plan to find another spot with the Kangsta illusion glyph. As they moved they found large gold ingots had appeared, spaced every 10' or so along the corridors. They picked up those in their path, but did not risk clearing out the whole place and becoming encumbered. Knowing what to look for, they soon found a glyph to the south east and not long later, the red mummy rounded the corner in front of them. Once again Shaemus transformed into an image of the Kangsta and the mummy fled, then they advanced until they found Tupacman. Sheamus declared he was going to go "Biggie smalls" on him; but I didn't get the reference. 

They engaged the monster and soon wiped him out. There was just one hitch, the mummy's final attack hit Sheamus and the fighter, in Kangta form, failed his save vs fear and ran off. Only Deltracron could stop him, doing so by becoming a living speedbump for the giant human to trip over: in the process taking what was probably enough damage to knock him temporarily unconscious; but I forgot to check on that. Anyway they raced back to the stairs before Tupacman could return and found the floor of the room at the top glowing with the light of thaumaturgic circles and the like. 

They stepped through and came out...elsewhere. They were disappointed to find they had not arrived at the location the Robopriest was broadcasting from, instead they were on their own in some sort of indoor temple;  50' by 40', with a row of columns running on either side and there was a 20' tall statue of the Kangsta with its back to the north wall.

A brief search yielded no further information, so they left via a narrow corridor that ran both east and west and came to another, similar, room; but without the rows of columns. There was also a lot of writing on the walls in the now familiar script, some of which read:

"The RatKingCoal found me, like KV5

Come see my crew who were buried alive!

My studio's in the basement downstairs

You know that the Kang's got the sweetest of lairs!"

Deltacron discovered that the statue in this room could be opened via a mechanism hidden in its big toe. Beyond were more corridors and rooms, and the party really motored through them, somehow avoiding any random encounters. They discovered that the whole area was part of a hidden tomb that had, sadly, already been discovered and looted. The only thing of note was an encounter with a Poltergeist which only served to muddy the waters even more. 

The Amber Light closed in and they vowed to get to the bottom of this mystery next session.

* This of course references a famous scene in Robocop. A story goes that Verhoeven did not understand the pejorative nature of the term, and on set routinely referred to the actresses as bitches. For the rest of the session we did so as well, even though I never mentioned this history.

Treasure and XP

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 44 (Machodor #21)

UPDATE: XP now allocated

Monetary Treasure

30 Gold ingots worth 300gp

Monsters

Tupacman *2 1000 XP

Bitches     *3 1200 XP

Treasure Total:   300 XP

Monsters Total: 2200 XP

XP & GP Assignment N/A 

Bumblebore (Level 3, E )  610 XP & 60 GP

Sheamus(Level 5, E )  650 XP & 100 GP

Sever (Level 6, E )  670 XP & 120 GP

Deltacron (Level 1, E ) 570  XP & 20 GP

Graveyard

Jacques Ocular (Level 1 Magic User), a fat green worm burrowed into his head and turned him into a Son Of Kyuss in Brovenloft in Session #43

Comfort Rod (Level 1 Cleric), Killed in a Psionic duel with a Balrog in session #42, or does it just look that way?

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