A series of hard-to-avoid encounters exhausts the party's most valuable resource: time.
Session report for September 14, 2023. Seven players joined the adventure!
Cast
Bastion, Human Fighter 1
Deadleaf, Elf Assassin 1
Five Finger Viscount, Halfling Thief 1
Mustacha, Human Ranger 1
Tony D'Angelo, Human Assassin 1
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| why doesn't anyone want to clear the spider lair? |
- The spider menace is reduced thanks to patrols, but the lair is still out there somewhere.
- A pack of wolves have found the Lord's livestock.
- Travelers spotted ogres in the hills outside patrolled territory!
- The morning mists linger longer each day. What could it mean?
Need To Eat
The characters were hurting for cash after monthly upkeep of 100gp wiped out most of their savings. They needed a big score and decided the best chance they had was in the dungeon.
Deadleaf had come up with a possible improvement to his scouting method. He presented a spool of string 240 feet long that was marked at particular distances. The party would know how far ahead he was scouting they could communicate by tugging on the string.
He also had a new companion with him: Five Finger Viscount. The halfling thief was a welcome addition to the scouting party because they both had preternatural stealth. And no one would have to fall down a pit trap alone.
They headed straight to the second level to investigate the place where they fought orcs last week and drive up the risk/reward factor. But before they orcs they wanted a closer look at some of the stranger rooms, starting with the antechamber and long hallway they spotted last time.
Do You Think Anyone Heard That?
A large door opened to a great hall 50 feet wide, with two parallel rows of columns running down its length. Deadleaf crept from column to column until the hallway opened into a huge triangular room with a few exits on each side wall.
He spotted two strange figures that looked like fleshy pillars to his infravision. They slowly shuffled in his direction. Deadleaf retreated.
The party regrouped and moved out slowly to meet the creatures. Their torch light revealed giant mushrooms shuffling toward them, each as tall as a man! They pelted the monsters with arrows and flaming oil. One mushroom went down, but the other let out a piercing shriek that echoed throughout the massive chamber until the party could put it down as well.
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| I can hear this image |
Viscount recovered some of his darts from the fungus while the party kept guard. Two large spiders skittered down the column behind the juicy halfling. Five Finger's nimble reflexes saved him from becoming spider food and the party quickly dispatched the spiders.
The party retreated and rested in the waiting room. Rather than continue beyond the great chamber, they doubled back and investigated the circular room down the hall they spotted last delve. It had an eight-pointed star carved in the center and an inscription in an unknown language. The walls were covered in faded threadbare tapestries. Mustacha and Deadleaf consulted the map and reasoned that a secret door was likely to be here.
They spread out and searched the walls but found nothing. Meanwhile Tony D'Angelo was afraid the design in the room had magical properties, so he decided to test it out by throwing a bag full of iron spikes in the middle of the star. It made quite a racket.
Mustacha heard critters approaching and set up an ambush at the entrance to the room. Giant centipedes swarmed in at the party and were promptly turned into pincushions by Deadleaf's arrows and Viscount's darts.
It was time to return to where they had faced the orcs.
Scouts Can't Beat Iron Bars
Deadleaf looked at his map and was sure there would be a secret door to the orcs' domain, in a chamber across the hall. His search turned up nothing, so they went down a long hallway to their original approach.
Down the hall Five Finger spotted a trip wire connected to scrap metal dangling from the ceiling: a clumsy warning device! They didn't attempt to disable it for fear of making noise but bypassed it by stepping with care. Down the hall they found no orc scouts waiting. A staircase invited them down to the next level, and the party took it.
At the bottom of the stairs the scouts followed a long hallway to a huge octagonal room. Three walls had exits closed by iron bars. Near the center, four hideous creatures that looked like feral half-orcs feasted on a corpse.
The scouts' preternatural stealth prevailed for the first time since they entered. With four full segments of surprise, they launched a fusillade of arrows and darts that would have blackened the sky, and the ghouls met their final end.
[DM's note: nine darts a round is absurd. After the game someone suggested I was too lenient by considering the ranged weapons "readied" especially considering that the scouts were handling a string. I agree. In addition, the surprise and ranged attack rules are still under evaluation.]
The party regrouped to loot and search. They recovered a sword and shield from the corpse of an elf and found three small coffers full of copper pieces. They decided to leave the copper in place until they were ready to leave and fanned out to find secret doors or possibly a way to open the iron bars.
Five Finger Viscount discovered a secret door in one of the corners. He also discovered a band of orcs - who had discovered the party.
Enter The Orctagon!
"We have new prisoners! The ghouls didn't kill them? No matter! Get them!"
The orcs came down the halls toward the party. Viscount shut the secret door and Mustacha and Tony barely spiked the door shut just before a unit of orcs could barge in.
Bastion and his mercs formed a shield wall to cover everyone's retreat. Two orcs fired crossbows through the iron bars, killing one of the mercenaries. The orc captain ordered the gate be lifted.
The party funneled down the hall as orcs filled the room. In a heroic act of sacrifice, Bastion hoisted the fallen man-at-arms onto his shoulders before joining the party. An axe smote him as he turned but he kept his footing and raced at the back of the party.
Both groups moved at the same rate, so the chase was on. The party kept separation for a turn and retreated up the spiral staircase. The orcs didn't follow but their howling laughter could be heard from the top of the stairwell.
No Rest
Bastion bound the wounds of his comatose man-at-arms and the party set off for home. But the dungeon wasn't finished with them.
Four giant fire beetles crawled into the dungeon entrance looking for food. The players weren't having any of it and attacked immediately. Bard Fluid wanted a new pet, so he ran up and stunned one with an overbear attack. The others attacked but couldn't penetrate the beetles' thick carapaces. The outnumbered critters soon fell, but not before they nearly killed another man-at-arms.
The party harvested the luminescent glands from the fire beetles. They would turn out to be the only real treasure they got.
On the way home the party encountered a merchant caravan. They talked their way into travelling together back to Fort Fenrir, and even got to sell those fire beetle glands along the way.
The party returned home safely and vowed to get back at those orcs another day!
THE VANQUISHED
2 large spiders: 150 XP
9 giant centipedes: 288 XP
4 fire beetles: 128 XP
4 ghouls: 306 XP [Deadleaf, Viscount]
THE SPOILS
elven long sword and shield [Mustacha]
one unconscious fire beetle [Bard R]
THE SCORE
Bard Warpig (Level 1 Fighter, S): 86 XP & 20 GP, 11 SP
Bastion (Level 1 Fighter, E): 86 XP & 20 GP, 11 SP
Deadleaf (Level 1 Assassin, E): 239 XP & 20 GP, 11 SP
Five Finger Viscount (Level 1 Thief, E): 239 XP & 20 GP, 11 SP
Mustacha (Level 1 Ranger, E): 86 XP & 20 GP, 11 SP
Tony D'Angelo (Level 1 Assassin, E): 86 XP & 20 GP, 11 SP
THE GRAVEYARD
Friar Knuck Buck, Lawful Good Human Cleric 1: charged into an orc's axe in session 2.
Very exciting writeup (I'm Mustacha). The bit about the string needs clarification: the preternaturally silent elf & halfling are dragging a couple of hundred feet of woven fiber along behind them, around corners, and tugging on it to send signals. I still haven't checked the DMG but I believe it says you have to be "ready" to use the weapon. Forget the spiders! There's something a mile down the river encroaching on the fort in the morning mist…we'd better level up soon and deal with it before it starts eating citizens (that's my ranger alignment talking).
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