My games, due to the issues trying to get college students together, have morphed into a sort of open table affair; I don't have a preset plot, and without knowing what classes and characters will be showing up, so I keep a few options open and choose what to run depending who shows up.
Our
Bruce Wayne, gives his name only as 'The Batman' (Bat-ling Barbarian)
Chance (Weasel-ling Thief)
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| Yoink |
The Session
After a pair of delves into the Tomb of the Serpent Kings, the main party took some time to regroup and resupply. Two of our explorers, Chance and The Batman heard tell of a shrine nearby overlooking the sea cliffs. Nothing exceptional, except that wizards frequently went for no reason they would explain, and rarely came back. Not being wizards or magically sensitive, Chance and The Batman had no inkling that the shrine was built over a locus of magical power, and decided to go for the hell of it.
They journeyed to the sea cliffs, finding a slick, mossy set of stairs crudely carved into the rock, and came upon the tall stone entryway, from which the sound of rushing water emerged. Stepping inside, they found a pair of old women, huddled in blankets and heavy coats. One stood at the stone altar, cutting up a steak. The other sat by the doorway, a paralyzed arm hanging from her side, asking the pair for money 'for Spring.' The Batman tossed in a silver, and they looked about the shrine. The fountain, a human face chiseled from the wall, spat a stream of water into a basin, over which hung a metal sleeve on a counterweight.
They spoke with the old women for a moment, determining that the steak was 'for the malak.' of the caverns beneath, they said only, 'If you know, you know. If you don't, you don't'. Undaunted, the pair lowered the sleeve, causing the basin to overflow and the water to drain down into the caverns below. They examined it for a while, noting the detailed map engraved on it before jumping down into the cavern.
A slick tunnel pocked with large holed stretched out before them, the tentacles of the giant mollusks feeling about. Walking north, they avoided the tentacles, reaching a set of blocky natural stairs covered in giant mussels. The Batman sliced his pants leg on one of them, proving the sharpness of the shells. Along the way up, they also encountered tiny starfish on the floor and walls, asking them mundane personal questions in tiny, high pitched voices. The Batman expressed that he had never seen such a thing, even during his 'experiments' in college.
Reaching the top of the stairs, they came across a sandy island in a large pool, covered in giant oysters. Initially very suspicious, the pair discovered they could open them by tapping them lightly with their polearms, and ended up tapping them to the rhythm of a sea shanty The Batman had once heard.
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| I never noticed the implications of that song as a kid. |
Opening the oyster, they found a gently glowing pearl which, after some attempts to keep the oyster open and avoid a trap, they removed without incident. Of the five remaining oysters, they decided to open three more, and leave two in case they angered some local spirit. They collected three more pearls, as well as three strange arrows, their heads giving off the same pearlescent sheen as the inside of the oysters.
Waiting for the water level to descend further, they came to the door of a room which, according to the engraving, had a pool inside. By the light of their torches, they noticed dancing figures within, though they were too fleeting to see closely. Extinguishing their torches to try to sneak in, they entered, the only light coming from the slight glow of the pool. They felt fabric rustling nearby, even rushing past them, but were undisturbed. Coming to the pool itself, they saw a menagerie of faces, thieves, nobles, brutes and princesses appearing in the pool and fading away. Lighting another torch then, they saw empty clothes dancing around the room, from embroidered tunics to dirty loincloths.
They experimented with the pool, at first thinking the souls of those individuals were trapped within. After trying to communicate with the clothes, which offered only gestures, Chance guided the clothing of the fox-ling thief closer, and got into the pool. His face and clothes immediately changed to those of the fox-ling, while his own face appeared in the pool and his clothes began dancing. The Batman did the same with a set of nobleman's clothes, gaining the appearance of a wealthy human.
They kept the faces for the moment, and slowly climbed down the stairs, avoiding the razor shells. They found the drop leading down into the main cavern, still filled up with water, and a pair of white seals frolicking. The party fed them some of their rations, petted them, and waited for the water level to drop, during which they encountered yet more seals. Once the water level fell sufficiently, they jumped in. They spent the nest hour wading to keep afloat, feeling the seals bump up against them and avoiding the attention of crab spiders.
Once the water drained sufficiently, they swam over to a set of stairs which led into the sanctum. A glowing pentagram in the center of the room, stone tablets scattered about and a side chamber with numerous skeletons. The party assumed the pentagram was a trap, and avoided it. They gathered the tablets, written in an arcane language. Chance was able to sound out the tablets and translate select parts, which triggered the trap glyph inscribed on one. Oil burst from Chance's eyes lighting on fire and spewing across the cave. It was only with a critically successful Constitution roll that he was able to shut his eyes and stop the flow.
Collecting the tablets, they waited for the water to drop again. By now, the water had all but drained out, leaving pools separated by stalactites. Identifying the exit, they also spied a giant crawdad on the other side of the cavern. Calling over to it, it approached them and transformed into a barnacle covered man. This was Ulthis, an irate and somewhat depressed wizard stuck down here, only able to briefly transform into a human. He had been down here for a very, very long time, and when neither of the PCs displayed magical understanding, quickly grew exasperated. His human form degrading, he demanded that the players find the Wives of Spring and get them to send a magically competent person down to fix his curse.
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| Yeah, like that |
The party swiftly agreed, and moved to exit the cavern. When Ulthis saw the tablets in Chance's pack, he charged them in a rage, The pair jumped though the exit, being spat out into a sea cave. There, they found the Wives of Spring, six women in boats. Speaking with them, the Wives recognized the apparent favor that the spirit of Spring had endowed them with, and asked them to join the organization as informants. The Batman and Chance agreed, and The Batman gave their leader his real name, while Chance insisted on being called Todd.
As the session wrapped up, the PCs dried up and headed back up to the shrine, recovering their faces and clothes with the help of the Wives.
Takeaways
This was a fun little side-adventure, and it let me get introduce the Wives of Spring as a faction.
The session went by without a single real combat. The players had no reason to fight Ulthis, and they sated the appetite of the seals with their rations, buying allies. The only other encounter was a single small malak, which I just narrated being eaten by the seals. It wouldn't have been a challenge.
In retrospect, I should have made it deadlier. Or at least put some more obstacles. The players expected several elements, the pentacle, the oysters and the dancers to be traps or cursed. None were, but I can definitely see why they expected it. The paranoia can be a bit frustrating, but it serves them well when there's an actual trap. In the future, I want to take that into account and set traps when the tension is right.
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