Our
Chance (Weasel-ling Thief)
Gale Venta (Magpie-ling Wizard)
Shaggeth (Human Archer)
Scoobeth (Hound-ling Light Infantry)
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The Session
The pair of them spent the first part of the session looking over the tablets that Chance recovered from Ulthis in the Mouth of Spring, and took some downtime to remove the trap runes on them. They then learned several of the rituals, with Gale (our rather dull wizard) learning Stonecloak, and Chance learning Voidmark, Goldsong, Icepenny and Blade of Insight. They then brought forward their hirelings - a pair of soldiers with a reputation for success in spite of cowardice, Shaggeth and Scoobeth.
Entering the Tomb and tracing their steps back to the octagonal room, they investigated the remaining chambers. They cleared out the debris from the north, with Scoobeth almost getting his head chopped off by the Skeleton when he peeked his head through. They cleared enough to create a small opening, at which point the Skeleton burst through with a greataxe. Only the hirelings won initiative, and while Shaggeth's aim was terrible, Scoobeth more than earned his keep, standing fast and destroying the skeleton with a critical hit. One player described as Scoobeth's Hound-ling instinct for chewing on bones kicked in, causing him to rip the skeleton's arm off and beat its skull in with it. Scoobeth took the greataxe for himself.
Investigating the southern rooms, they dared to break open one of the clay statues, only to find it contained neither poison nor treasure. They decided not to try their luck further. Then examining the southeast room, they recovered a treasure idol and a scroll with a strange name, באלתופלאת (Baltoplat) written feverishly again and again. Pocketing it, they turned to the eastern gates, painted with the image of snakes falling from the sky. They tread down the stairs carefully, avoiding the ones with scuff marks, and at the bottom, entered a large arena. Outside the reach of their light was a hulking figure, smashing some fleshy creature into paste.
Using Stonecloak and a dagger enchanted with Blade of Insight, Gale snuck behind it and sliced its leg. This activated the ritual, pointing the dagger towards the creature's heart, as well as enraging it. The party hid their light and rolled quite well to hide, slowly sneaking past it and over to the chasm. As a farewell, Gale expended his Magic Die for the day casting Knock, causing the creature to vomit for several rounds while the party made good their escape.
They continued down the ledge, buffeted by cold winds, careful not to slip. They came upon a recessed stone doorway, and immediately recognized the hammer trap from the beginning of the dungeon. This time they couldn't just break it down, instead having Shaggeth and Scoobeth hold the pegs down while Gale and Chance lifted the bar and opened to door. Finding no threat inside, they called Shaggeth and Scoobeth inside, managing to avoid the hammer.
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Continuing along the ledge, they found another entrance, and beyond it a colony of dungeon barnacles. They left getting past them for later, but in his tradition, Gale turned a few dozen of them hot pink.
They crawled through this next section of the dungeon, turning south beyond the ceremonial room, only to find a skeleton encased in orange jelly. Trying to hit it with rocks and flaming arrows, they failed to hurt ti, but could knock it back with forceful enough blows. Seeing how slowly it moved, the party split. Shaggeth and Chance on the western end of the intersection, Gale and Scoobeth on the eastern side with the torch. They led the skeleton jelly back through the ceremonial room while Chance found the pit trap to the south, and figured out how to circumvent it. Leading the Jelly to the chasm, Gale and Scoobeth's rocks almost knocked it back, but it managed to stay up top. Running back inside and reuniting with Chance, who found out the corridor beyond led back to the chasm, they succeeded in trapping the Jelly in the pit, though they knew it would soon get back out.
They continued to delve west, and came across a room with a pair of very lifelike snakeman statues, totally different from those seen before. Though they sensed gold inside the room to the south, they decided that clearing the barricade in front of it was for later. In the northern room they found a shrine and statue which rotated very easily. They first turned it clockwise, letting a hoard of gold coins roll out from the statue's mouth. Gale was overwhelmed, and began pocketing as much as he could in a Scrooge McDuckian fashion.
Knowing full well that turning the statue counter-clockwise was likely a trap, Gale did anyway, releasing a cloud of poisonous smoke. Oops.
Immediately after, Gale continued picking up the coins, some of which rolled onto the western corridor. Then a giant blade swung out from the side and slashed him, pushing him to the ground. Luckily, the rest of the party managed to pull him out before the ancient mechanism collapsed on top of him. The party decided to throw rocks down the corridor to trigger any more blades, collapsing them all at the cost of a truly incredible amount of noise.
Taking a short rest, the party was disturbed by the omens of the dungeon, especially a chain-dragging sound to the west. Then, at the end of the rest, the party was found by a fungus goblin. A stunted, pale creature with an enlarged oval head and tiny red eyes set far too close together. It cried out, and eight more appeared from the shadows, but making no aggressive motions. They whispered among themselves 'the king, the king', and Gale, ever the egotist, accepted. The goblins jumped for joy, pulling at his clothes in supplication and placing a crown of bent forks on his head.
Incidentally, the new moon just ended and the sky is currently occupied by a waning crescent. No reason. Just thought I'd mention it.
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| Look at your king, now back to me, now back to your king, now back to me. Sadly, he isn't me, but if he lives in the warrens long enough he'll smell like me. |
And there the session ended. With the party now deep underground, with only goblins for company. Getting gonzo already.
Takeaways
I'm doing better with light. I'm making sure to ask the players who has the light regularly, and tick off torches as they explore. The Tension Pool continues to be a very effective tool.
I need to use the NPCs for information. I'm interacting with my players and clarifying things pretty frequently, and I figure after the session that some information should have been better delivered by the hirelings. Having a pair of expendable but lovable comic relief characters are a solid opportunity to describe the world from inside.
Splitting the party worked well.
Gale has basically been autofailing his Saves. As part of being a Magpie-ling, he must Save whenever he sees shiny things or else try to grab them. But he's been so committed to the art I've barely had to call for those rolls. He just goes for shiny things no matter what, even when it gets him into serious trouble. He has exactly the right attitude.
Halfway through the session, I was interrupted by a guy I've seen around a bit. We play in a cafeteria at a time when it's mostly empty, and I've seen him sitting nearby frequently. This time he introduced himself, and said that he watches us play here each weekend, and he had to run to run his own game. I had no idea my game had an audience.
During the game, my players had been curious about getting to the bottom or other side of the chasm, and getting past the dungeon barnacles. These are hooks for the dungeon master to add their own content, which I had not yet done. I told the players this, since I don't mind metagaming and don't want them to expend effort just to find nothing because I had failed to put something there. Still, it made me wonder what should be down there. And the answer became clear very quickly.
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| THE VEINS! |
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