Session Report for February 6, 2025. Four players adventured for five days.
Characters
Brother Flint, human monk level 1Garth the Obscure, human magic-user level 1
Philip, human paladin level 1
Troy, human ranger level 1
The players were eager to return to the spooky keep in the mountain pass and use a key they had found amongst the treasure last week. They headed out from Fort Fenrir and went the long way again, which made sense this time - Troy new the way and wouldn't get lost.
On the second day of travel the party surprised a pack of wolves - rangers are powerful! I expected them to stay on target and evade, but they attacked. Philip and Troy killed a wolf. Brother Flint had other ideas. He charged in for an overbear and pummeled a wolf into oblivion. After another round of combat, the surviving wolves fled into the hills.
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| illus. Ron Spencer |
What on earth did they want to kill wolves for? Flint declared he was going to keep his alive but groggy wolf and train it. We spent quite a few minutes figuring out how that would work. I read the druid spell animal friendship and did a little web search on the side.
Ultimately, I declared that the wolf was too wild and dangerous to train right now. Brother Flint knocked it unconscious again and tied it to a tree until they could return.
Finally they reached the spooky keep at the mountain pass. The gate and courtyard were empty, but there were still signs that the keep was occupied. What did it mean? (Spoiler: it meant they were out on patrol). The way to the watchtower, where there was a dungeon entrance, was still clear.
As Troy opened the door, a magical rune appeared and discharged enough electricity to kill two normal men. He sat up slowly and gave his team mates the thumbs up. Ranger hit points save the day again!
Undeterred, they ventured into the dungeon.
Brother Flint remembered that the first door was trapped. This was a historic event, you see, because they had hit the trap every single time so far. He failed to disarm the trap so I guess it wasn't all that different this time - but he took no damage with a successful saving throw.
The first room had a locked door they had never tried before. The key fit! The party moved into a large room that was empty except for a corpse lying in front of a tapestry.
The tapestry depicted legendary monsters fighting over a moutain: the monster at the top was a giant reptile with glowing eyes saw blade dorsal plates. The party rolled up the tapestry and set it aside for the return trip.
The corpse was a long dead adventurer. Its gear was mostly useless but for a dagger in a nice scabbard and a quiver of ten quarrels. There was no obvious cause of death. In DM's parlance, those are all known as "clues".
There were no exits to the room, but the guys weren't having it. They searched all around and found a loose stone in the floor near the corpse. When they stepped on it, a secret door in the wall swung open - and an arrow flew in! It plinked off Philip's armor and clattered to the floor. The tip was poisoned.
Beyond the door was a hallway. They followed it to a diamond-shaped room with another exit. A large mirror hung on the opposite wall.
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall," said Garth, "who is the fairest of them all?"
"Why, it's your mother," the mirror replied.
I don't think Gart actually expected it to speak. The players bantered with the mirror and asked pointed questions about the dungeon. This was the most fun part of the session for me. They lost interest when it was apparent that the mirror would only speak lies. They took the mirror off the wall and moved on.
The next room held a statue in one corner, and a chute down to a lower level in another. By the stains on the walls and the floor, it looked as if sacrificial victims were dumped like sacks of trash. The party were disgusted and running out of game time, so they turned back, collected the mirror and the tapestry, and headed home.
I determined that Brother Flint's wolf survived the night and did not escape. He slapped it around until it stopped trying to bite him and walked him back home. Will he tame the wild beast? Time will tell!
Philip took the ferry to Hartford. There, he could find buyers for the tapestry and magic mirror among the nerds at Elay University.
That fateful decision would lead to what are, in my opinion, our best sessions to date...
THE VANQUISHED3 wolves for 255 XP
THE SPOILS
tapestry, sold for 500 gp
magic mirror that only tells lies, sold for 1000gp
a dagger in a nice scabbard, kept by Troy
quiver of 10 quarrels (?)
THE SCORE
Each player got 375 gp and 449 XP
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