Session 9: The Manlet Bandit

Session report for February 8, 2024. Five players adventured for one day.

Characters

Bastion, human fighter level 3 with 4 men-at-arms
Dominik Mysterio, human thief level 2 with 3 thugs
(men-at-arms)
Mustacha, human ranger level 2
Bard R, human fighter level 2
Bard W, human fighter level 1

Flush with martial prowess and filled out with mercenaries, the team dove straight to level 2 of the local dungeon to improve their chances at a big score. And thanks to Mustacha's map of the area, they were able to cover ground at a very fast rate. So it only took a few minutes to reach a dead-end room that contained the remains of a couch that had been cut to pieces by Dom's predecessor.

Bard R needed to know if the couch was made of naugahyde. This poor, put upon DM affirmed that and so Bard harvested a few pounds of valuable scraps. Trollopulous players are like a dog with a bone.

The players had a hunch there would be a secret door here. In fact, the last time they were here I had determined that there were two secret doors, each on opposite sides of the couch. They discovered both secret doors, picked one, and entered.

A large triangular room with no exits except a secret door on one wall, with monsters (2 piercers) with treasure (jewelry and magic plate mail, protected by explosive runes). The AD&D dungeon generator did all the heavy lifting; all I had to do was make it real for the players. How would you describe it?

Five sarcophaguses were arrayed in a semicircle before them. The one in the center was larger than the others and had more ornate carvings on it.

Dominik stepped up to examine the treasure, but Mustacha spotted a piercer amongst the stalactites on the ceiling! This was miraculous because piercers normally have a 95% chance to surprise, but the ranger reduced it by 1/6 (17%) for 78% chance to surprise.

The party couldn't capitalize because they brought no missile weapons. How embarrassing! But they used a clever combination of polearms and a torch to prod the piercer. Convinced its camouflage was compromised and irritated by the heat and smoke, the piercer skittered into the corner.

Dom and his thugs began their thiefly duties of checking for traps and looting the sarcophaguses. Carvings spoke of ancient lords serving alongside their king. Each lord's corpse had a valuable piece of jewelry. The center sarcophagus held the body of the king, wearing a gold crown and an untarnished suit of plate mail. The breastplate had some unknown writing upon it.

"What does the writing say?" Dom asked.

BOOM! Dom and his hirelings lay dead around the sarcophagus.

Lucky for the rest of them they were outside the blast radius of the explosive runes. The plate mail was untouched by the blast but the crown was reduced to a lump of gold. Also, one of the thugs made his save and survived with a single hit point. Dom's player took him over for the rest of the evening.

The party gathered up their dead and made ready to return to town with a big haul.

This was the end of the third full turn in the dungeon. The dice determined that the party would encounter brigands. How would that work in a room that effectively has no exits? Would they meet in the hall outside? The surprise dice came up with a 1 for the party. That was just what I needed to know to set the stage.

A group of grave robbers sneaked into the room behind the party by the other secret door. Someone beat them to the treasure! They fell upon the hapless party in a frenzy and killed one of Bastion's men-at-arms.

The brigands outnumbered the party 3 to 1 but they had low hit points and lower armor, and so were swiftly wiped out. Only their leader remained, a cocky young man all of 5'5" and wearing leather armor made for an elf. The party took him prisoner.

figures are to scale

Outside the dungeon, the brigand tried to bribe the men-at-arms with precious gems if they let him go. Bastion's men stayed loyal thanks to his brave actions in a previous delve. And when the players heard of the gems, they beat the man until he promised to trade the gems for his life.

He led the party back out into the wilderness far west of the dungeon entrance. (I used the treasure map rules in the Dungeon Master's Guide to determine the location and contents of his stash.) They arrived at an abandoned camp. The brigand produced a small bag of gems he had hidden near the camp and asked for his life.

Dom's thug got greedy and began searching the other belongings in the camp. He succumbed to a poison needle trap on someone's stash. The party did not appreciate the fact that the brigand did not warn them about traps. Bard Warpig slew him on the spot. And that was the end of the Manlet Bandit.

Disgusted by the waste of life, they returned to Fort Fenrir and liquidated their treasure.

THE VANQUISHED
24 brigands
The Manlet Bandit, level 3 fighter

Dominik Mysterio, level 2 thief
4 men-at-arms

THE SPOILS
98 gp in coins
jewelry worth 530 gp
melted lump of gold worth 50 gp
10 citrines worth 50 gp each
9 pearls worth 100 gp each
1 pearl worth 200 gp

20x long swords (150 gp)
20x leather armor (50 gp)

plate mail +1 (Bard R)
long sword +1 (Bard W)
leather armor +1 (sold for 2000 gp)
flail +1 (sold for 2000 gp)

THE SCORE
Each share is 584 gp and gems worth 200 gp. Here is a suggested distribution.
Bastion (level 3 fighter, E): 1752 gp, 1 large pearl, 4 pearls. 2352 xp.
Mustacha (level 2 ranger, E): 1168 gp, 4 pearls. 1568 xp.
Bard R (level 2 fighter, E): 1168 gp, 8 citrines. 1568 xp.
Bard W (level 1 fighter, E): 590 gp, 2 citrines, 1 pearl. 790 xp.

Each character gains an additional 210 xp for monsters slain and magic items recovered.