Session report for September 21, 2023. Five players adventured for one day.
Characters
Deadleaf, elf assassin 1
Five Finger Viscount, halfling thief 1
Mustacha, human ranger 1
Tony D'Angelo, human assassin 1
The players were still eager for a pay day after the previous week's debacle and headed straight to the local dungeon. Deadleaf was interested in learning more about the orcs camping out on level 3, a great excuse to try on an orc disguise he put together in downtime, but Mustacha insisted on further mapping out level 2. I think his reasoning was that a network of rooms was more likely to have hidden treasures and less likely to result in death-by-crossbow. Everyone seemed to agree.
After a short hike the party entered the dungeon and returned to the spiral staircase down. At the bottom of the stairs was a great room. The only evidence of orcs was a few discarded candy wrappers scattered on the floor. Relieved that there were no sentries, the party headed down the hall to the first doorway.
The orcs left more than candy wrappers behind. A crude spear trap swung down and impaled Bastion taking half his hit points.
The players were stunned for a moment but soon paused to make sure there were no more traps between them and the first door. For the rest of the session, they were sure to have the Viscount stop and search each entry and exit from a room. [DM's note: this took a lot of extra time, but the wandering monster dice were lenient. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good!]
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| Why couldn't it have gotten the elf? -Bastion |
The party ventured into the antechamber and into the storage rooms outside the large hall on level 2. One door led to a large staircase down to level 3. Another led to a long hallway. Our intrepid heroes didn't want to dive to lower levels when they were shorthanded, so the party waited in the storage room while Five Finger Viscount scouted the hallways.
One hall stretched on far beyond the halfling's poor infravision (30') but the brave thief was undeterred. A side passage circled back to the large chamber where they had encountered shriekers. The hall continued to a door on the right.
Five Finger couldn't resist the chance to get paid. He opened the door silently and peered inside. A slow scraping sound came from the wall to his left. All he could see were floating bits of rock as if the wall were creeping toward him. He closed the door and heard the scraping sound on the door come and go.
Five Finger was at a loss for what to do so he called the party back by tugging on the string connecting him to the party. [DM's note: This string system has yet to backfire or be destroyed by a wandering monster and that is disconcerting to me.]
They decided they could handle an invisible monster with enough surprise, so they formed up and burst into the room. Mustacha led the charge by throwing a lit torch in the middle and sweeping with his two-handed sword. Bastion and his men-at-arms followed, then the assassins and thief. But they found no target right away.
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| and he looked stylish |
The party reoriented themselves and prepared for battle as it slid towards them. Missile weapons pelted the jelly and it collapsed before it could engulf anyone.
They collected a handful of coins. Five Finger Viscount regarded the hat. Where did it come from? How did it survive the digestive fluids? No matter. He put it on his head. It didn't make him feel any different but the next time he spoke his voice had lowered an octave.
A quick search of the chamber revealed two large chests built into the floor. Five Finger's trap search came up empty and when he opened the first chest spears shot out from the walls and almost killed him! Inside the chest were thousands of electrum pieces.
After a bit of discussion on how to handle the chests, the party found and disabled the remaining spear traps and opened the other chest which was full of silver.
They were ready to get that loot outside and go home. All I wanted to know was how they were going to carry 600 pounds of coins out of there. Tony d'Angelo came prepared with four large sacks and so all the electrum was spread amongst the party. But what to do with 3000 pieces of silver?
Bastion insisted on trying to pry the chest out of the floor. I permitted it with a successful bend bars / lift gates check (18/50 strength success!) and the chest survived without breaking apart (saving throw vs crushing blow success!).
The coins were portable but in a very bulky container. I informed Bastion that the mercs carrying the chest were encumbered. If the party were forced to run from an encounter, they would drop the chest or be caught.
The party made it back to the spiral staircase. They wanted to carry it up, but I hesitated because it was so heavy. I made it clear that Bastion (18/50 strength) and the strongest merc must be the ones to carry it, that it would take a long time, and make a lot of noise.
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| just like moving a piano up a staircase in the dark while monsters prowl the house looking to make a meal out of you - no problem! |
Deadleaf stepped up to scout ahead and make sure the coast was clear upstairs along with the halfling Viscount. Mustacha headed the loot bearers and Tony skulked around the great room serving as the rear guard.
Half an hour of banging a chest up a flight of stairs and no one came calling. The dice were with them again!
On the long walk home, they encountered 11 ogres wandering the forest. Thanks to Mustacha's ability as a ranger the party had 3 segments of surprise and managed to waddle their treasure out of sight.
Before dividing up the treasure, Bastion insisted on informing the captain of the guard of the ogres wandering around. He asked the party to tell him where they spotted them and asked them to help drive them off.
The party was reluctant to take on so many ogres until Lord Fenrir rode forth with 40 light infantry.
"So close to my home? We shall eradicate them!"
Mustacha returned to the forest where they found the ogres and tracked them to a camp site just after dark. The ogres spotted the army and wanted to fight. The battle was on!
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| Forest Ogre by ~GuzBorda on deviantART |
The infantry spread out amongst the trees to flank. The ogres won initiative and charged the infantry before they could complete the maneuver but at great cost: many spears struck true, killing two ogres.
Luck favored the party in the following round. Deadleaf was deadly from the trees with his elven long bow. Tony finished off an ogre with help from his large spider venom. Bastion and Mustacha made devastating attacks and Lord Fenrir whittled the leader's hp down without taking a hit.
Finally, it was down to two ogres. They retreated, then tried to surrender as the infantry cut one down. The last one begged for its life in return for all their treasure.
Lord Fenrir spoke to Bastion and offered the party the ogre's treasure if they would clear the ogre lair. But warned them: if they were in over their head to report back so they'd mount a proper expedition in the morning. They agreed.
The ogre led them through the forests into the hills north of Fort Fenrir.
Along the way the party surprised a group of pilgrims. What kind of pilgrims were they that were out in the wilderness at this time of night? Best not find out and give the ogre an opportunity to cause trouble, reasoned Mustacha.
[DM's note: I've been rolling 1d6 to determine wilderness encounters. That's too often for these conditions: it should be a 1d12. These encounters have been enjoyable so all's well that ends well.]
They found the ogre's lair, full of discarded bones, mangy furs, and gold coins. The ogre had told the truth! But it did not save him from being cut down. The party packed up their winnings and headed back once again.
11 Ogres
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