Session 15: Hidden In Plain Sight

"I should get paid by the secret door!" -Deadleaf, elf assassin

Session report for April 4, 2024. Six players adventured for one day.

Characters

Bastion, human fighter 4
Deadleaf, elf assassin 3
Mustacha, human ranger 3
Karl, human magic-user 1
Lokken, human cleric 1
"Stacks" Lorenzo, human assassin 1

Bastion and Deadleaf came back from long downtime activity and eager to get loot. Because of the long travel time to the ruined keep, the group decided to return to the local megadungeon. Someone called it the Orc Warrens but the name hasn't stuck yet.

They followed their map through familiar territory in the first level. But when they opened the first door, crossbow bolts flew at them. Someone had set a crude trap to kill intruders. Who could it be?

They pressed on. It wasn't long before they found themselves in a large chamber with no exits - and something found them.

As the players discussed how they would search the chamber for treasure or secrets, a troupe of halflings crept in behind them. They got the drop on the party for 3 segments, the maximum possible surprise versus Mustacha's ranger sense. The reaction dice yielded "Hostile - immediate action". Were the players about to be rolled by halfling ninjas?

I reasoned that a group of lawful good creatures might be on an orc treasure hunt and would not be inclined to murder a group of humans. Besides that, "immediate action" was one step better than "Hostile - immediate attack". So, before the party knew what was happening, they were surrounded with swords to their throats (or as close as their diminutive attackers could get).

sometimes leaves his hobbit hole to shank adventurers

Bastion spoke for the party and appealed to the halflings Good nature and dislike of orcs. The halflings weren't impressed but his charisma pulled them out of immediate hostilities. The party offered to yield the room and head back the way they came and the halflings let them go without bloodshed.

The party returned to a different hallway and resumed their exploration without any further encounters. They skipped the elevator room that claimed the lives of six players and found a network of rooms connected by secret doors (in fact, very few normal doors were found this session). The keen-eyed Deadleaf spotted them, one after another, even when the party was actively searching, he would be the one to find the secret door. The players broke brosr tradition and celebrated their elf companion for being just what they needed.

The rooms hidden by secret doors had their own surprises within. "Stacks" Lorenzo and Deadleaf discovered invisible containers full of platinum and silver. Unlike the bottle of booze Karl found a few weeks before, these containers became visible when opened. The players (including the DM) marveled at how many invisible treasures there were.

This was an interesting consequence of using Appendix A to generate the dungeon. When a hallway encounters a space that was already explored, there is a chance that the two areas connect by secret doors or one-way doors. Now that I was filling in the final rooms and corridors of the level, this situation came up repeatedly and resulted in a great many doors for the players to find!

Satisfied with a mostly complete map of level 1, the party headed down a spiral staircase to level 2, where they hoped to get vengeance on some orcs.

Four shriekers waited for them at the bottom of the stairs. They did not survive three surprise segments.

They continued down an unfamiliar corridor. There they found a secret door that led to a plain 20-foot square room, similar to the other elevator rooms they had seen. No thanks.

Soon the dungeon became familiar again. A long hallway led to a former barracks. A secret door revealed the large triangular crypt where Dirty Dom met his end. They had connected the two areas of level 2!

The party doubled back to explore new territory and made a tragic discovery. Less than a hundred feet from a known intersection, they came upon a side passage where the floor was covered in old blood stains. An evil holy symbol lay on the ground. And just around the corner, a door opened to a plain 20-foot square room - the same one with a secret exit in the South wall.

The characters who were murdered by orcs weeks ago were a short walk back to the first level - and the secret door would have let them avoid the encounter entirely! Now everyone knows why it was so hard for me to watch it unfold.

Time was running short, so the party packed up and headed back to Fort Fenrir. They didn't have much treasure to show for their efforts, but their maps are quite improved. And no one died!

THE VANQUISHED
4 shriekers
2 piercers
XP for monsters slain: 190

THE SPOILS
100 platinum
1000 silver
XP for treasure taken: 550

THE SCORE
Bastion (fighter 4, E): 201 xp.
Deadleaf (assassin 3, E): 158 xp.
Mustacha (ranger 3, E): 158 xp.
Karl (magic-user 1, E): 74 xp.
Lokken (cleric 1, E): 74 xp.
Stacks (assassin 1, E): 74 xp.