Session date: Monday, January 16, 2017
Game date: Saturday, May 17, 209
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 4, hp 23, xp 13399/17000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 14917/20000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 3, hp 17, xp 5024/8000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 2, hp 11, xp 1793/3000
It was a short session this evening, without much dungeoneering to speak of. We had only two players, and I think we got started extremely late, so the session was mostly about taking care of some loose ends in town rather than braving the monsters of the undercity. In the two weeks game time since the last adventure, Caryatid successfully researched the Sleep spell (using the Cook Expert rules of 1,000 gp and two weeks of game time per spell level). The crew had their sights set on clearing out the orcs from their lair in the middle of the second level, and another Sleep spell would help that significantly.
And so, this sunny spring morning, Gulleck and Caryatid, along with their loyal retainers, visited the hillside neighborhood of The Steps, its ramshackle and decrepit houses clinging precariously to the erratic slope at the west end of the city. They made their way through the twisting narrow streets to the derelict house in which they had discovered a magical wardrobe cabinet that appeared to be linked to an identical one deep in the dungeon. The house - #6 Gullsbeak Lane - seemed untouched since the last time they had seen it, planks and boards crudely nailed to cover the windows and doors. The adventurers looked furtively around, making sure the street was deserted, before prying the boards off the door of the house and slipping inside.
Inside the house it was much as they had last left it. The sounds of outside seemed muted, and the dust that laid heavy on the floorboards gave a feeling that nothing ever changed here. They proceeded up the narrow staircase, past the second floor landing, up to the third floor and into the room with the wardrobe. It too was as they had left it, sitting incongruously alone in an empty room containing nothing else but dust motes floating idly in the sunbeams streaming through the cracks in the window shutters. The first experiment was to try to move the wardrobe, but alas, it appeared to be fixed to the wall of the room.
Next, the adventurers opened the wardrobe, and pushed through the moth-eaten coats and robes into the dark of the bedroom in the dungeon on the other side. They lit up a lantern, and then attempted to move the wardrobe on this side. This one seemed to be freestanding but was quite heavy and difficult to move. They started to explore the rest of the apartment, but quickly ran into a dozen goblins in the music room mischievously tearing off the strings of a lute and harp and generally causing trouble. Gulleck exchanged awkward greetings with the goblins, and the adventurers retreated to the wardrobe room. Caryatid locked one of the bedroom doors with Wizard Lock, and they returned to the house in the Steps via the wardrobe and left the house, replacing the boards across the door as well as they could.
As they were doing this, they became aware that they were being observed surreptitiously by a shabby man dressed in filthy clothes, poking around in a nearby pile of rubbish with a sharp stick. In his other hand, he held a rope snare - evidently, a ratcatcher. Gulleck and Caryatid approached the man cautiously, and asked if he knew who owned the house. The man seemed to deny any knowledge at first, but then hinted that a gold coin or two might aid his memory. Gulleck sighed with distaste and gave the man a few coins.
"Yeah, I seen a man come round here, months ago. Real posh fella, didn't really fit in this neighborhood, if you know what I mean. Not like you and I do."
The adventurers pushed for a name, and after a few more gold pieces exchanged hands, the ratcatcher offered, "He had a helper with him, with a bunch of papers. He called him... something startin' with a P. Patricky, Patrooza..."
"Patrenzi?" Gulleck asked.
"Yeah, that's the one!"
Vincent Patrenzi was well known to the party. They had met twice at the magical auctions. He was a very wealthy businessman, but seemingly possessed of no good taste, always dressed in gaudy and flashy clothes meant to show off his wealth. Still, he had always been friendly enough to the adventurers, so they made their way back down the hill and across the bridge to the city proper. They stopped at the Runcible Trading House, and inquired with Lord Runcible as to the address of Mr. Patrenzi on the pretense of wishing to arrange a private sale. Lord Runcible gave them directions, and they walked the short distance through the wealthiest streets of Idalium, soon arriving at the gaudy mansion of Vincent Patrenzi. Marble and granite statues decorated the lawn behind a sturdy iron fence. They spoke to the doorman and obtained an audience. They were brought into the house, where Patrenzi was seated at a desk going through some ledgers with his accountant.
Patrenzi greeted Gulleck and Caryatid with warmth, apologizing that he was quite busy and unable to properly entertain them. What could he do for them?
"Well," said Caryatid, laying on the charm, "we were considering using some of our recent earnings to get into the real estate business, and we heard that you would be the perfect person to talk to for advice!"
"Advice?" said Patrenzi, a bit confused. "Buy low, sell high, that's the real trick!"
After dancing around the topic for some time and flattering Patrenzi, they got around to asking about the house in the Steps. Patrenzi didn't seem at all sure, but his accountant informed him that yes, indeed he did own a house there. He had bought it in a larger lot of properties last winter, and hadn't decided what to do to with it yet.
The adventurers asked idly if he might be willing to sell that house to them, to jumpstart their budding real estate career. Patrenzi didn't see why not, and gave his asking price as 50,000 silver shekels. The adventurers protested that this seemed rather high for a house he only just learned he owned and that was vacant and decrepit, barely secured from the elements. Still, Patrenzi was unmoved. "Look, you come to me and ask if I'll sell you this house, that's my offer. You don't like it? Don't buy it. You're the ones asking me to sell it to you. I'm in no hurry."
"Thank you, we'll take it under consideration," said Gulleck, and the party left without taking any bold steps into the exciting world of Idalian real estate investment.
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Monday, October 23, 2017
Idalium Game 65: X Marks the Spot
Session date: Monday, January 2, 2017
Game date: Saturday, May 3, 209
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 4, hp 23, xp 13146/17000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 14664/20000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 2, hp 6, xp 3421/4000
Adrien, Fighter 2, hp 6, xp 2126/4000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 3, hp 17, xp 4897/8000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 2, hp 11, xp 1660/3000
Remus Thynerius, Thief 1, hp 2, xp 882/1250
Now we come to one of my personal favorite sessions of the entire campaign. My players finally took the bait on a set piece I had planned for months, after a nightmare I had one night. As a rule I tend to take things easy with this game and just use monsters from the B/X rulebooks, but I have created a few unique monsters, as I did for this scenario. It's always a bit of a gamble whether your monsters' attacks and statistics will work out the way you expected, but I think this went pretty well.
Having eliminated the shadows and auctioned off the demonic idol they guarded, the party set their sites on the few unexplored areas remaining on the second level of the dungeon. In the northwest quadrant of the level, not far from where the "hippie" berserkers live, they approached a sturdy wooden door, sealed on all four sides with wax-soaked rags, and emblazoned with a bold red X. A brass plate on the door read (in Ancient Idalian) "Hotel Lethia".
Gulleck had come prepared with a hand drill and set to work, laboriously drilling a inch-wide hole in the door at his eye level. This took quite a while and everyone kept a nervous watch for any wandering monsters, but they were undisturbed while Gulleck worked at the door. Eventually, he poked the last bit of wood out on the other side of the door and pressed an eye carefully to the hole, letting his vision adjust to the darkness beyond. In the dim, vague impression of his infravision, he could make out a long corridor lined with doors. He saw no sources of body heat, so the party pulled out the waxen rags that were sealing the door, and then heaved the door open. Clouds of dust billowed out, accompanied by an ancient, musty smell.
In the light of Simon's magical sword, the adventurers could see a once-elegant hall stretching into the dark. Closed doors lined both sides at twenty foot intervals. A dusty carpet with an unnerving geometric design covered the floor. Unsure of what might be under the carpet, the group decided to pull it up from the floor and roll it ahead of them. They proceeded down the hall, rolling the musty carpet as they went. The swordlight revealed more doors on the left and right. Simon stopped and sniffed the air. Due to a lucky roll on the "wheel of fortune" he was able to smell gold, and here he got a faint whiff of the metal.
Before he could identify the source of the smell, one of the doors on the left suddenly opened a crack and the group saw pallid white fingers creep around the edge of the door. The skin was flat and featureless, the color of the belly of a dead fish. The hand stretched out towards them on a long spindly forearm and then continued to stretch farther than any normal arm could reach, until it extended from the door some five feet, groping and questing. The party members were so shocked by the appearance of this ghostly arm that they could not muster any response before the hand closed around the neck of Brother Chase! He twitched and shuddered momentarily but rolled a 20 on his saving throw and casually swatted the hand away from his neck.
Gulleck came to his senses and drew forth his magical axe and brought it slicing down on the bizarre arm. He severed the arm with one hit, and it quickly snapped back into the darkness of the ajar door. The hand and the other side of the arm instantly liquefied, as if losing surface tension when cut, and white liquid splashed onto the stone floor. No sooner could the party catch their collective breath than two more arms emerged from the door. A bit farther up the corridor, another two arms emerged from a slightly ajar door on the other side of the hall.
The adventurers swung at the pallid arms, and the hands quested blindly for them, but no one could make contact. Caryatid in a confused panic drew forth her new "wand of random magic", pointed it into the first doorway, and let loose with its power. No fireball erupted forth this time, though: all she got was a strange sensation of emptiness and void in her mind. Simon was grabbed by one of the questing hands, but made his saving throw and struggled free of the grasping fingers. But then one of the four hands made contact with Adrian, wrapping around her throat. Her eyes suddenly flew back, fluttering and twitching, and her entire body began to shudder and spasm as she sunk to her knees. The pallid fishbelly arm began to pulse, as if drawing the very life from Adrian back into the dark of the room it originated from.
Gulleck leapt forward with his axe and again chopped right through the arm that grasped Adrian. The hand on her neck exploded into liquid, and the stump, as before, retracted into the darkness. Adrian slumped onto the floor, still twitching spasmodically. Meanwhile, two other hands grasped Remus and Meat. Both reacted as Adrian had, falling to their knees, eyes rolled up insensate, twitching and shuddering as the arms began to pump their lifeforce out of their bodies. Simon too was hit by another hand, and fell to the floor. Half the party was now incapacitated!
Gulleck decided he had had enough of these arms, and kicked the door open. Inside was a small hotel room, and standing near the door were two humanoids of the same white pallid flesh as the arms, naked and featureless. They gave the vaguest suggestion of a female form, but their bodily and facial features were rudimentary and vague, as if merely an imitation of a human being. Each one had one limp stump of an arm, and another long arm extended into the hallway. Caryatid attempted her wand of random magic again, and this time she found herself rapidly shrinking until she was merely 10" tall (her pet monkey shrank along with her). "Run!" she squeaked, and made her (rather slow) way out of the hotel hallway. "Great", muttered Gulleck, and concentrated on planting his axe in the chests of these bizarre things.
Meanwhile, Brother Chase used his mace to crush the arm attached to Meat, and the stump snapped back into the doorway it came from. But before anyone could attend to Remus, a dreadful choking gasp arose from his throat, and suddenly he (and all of his belongings) went *pop* like a water balloon filled with white liquid latex rubber. What was once Remus splashed on the stone floor and trickled away through the cracks in the stone. The arm, its owner apparently satiated, retreated into the room it had emerged from. Brother Chase, aghast with this sight, ran across to Simon to free him from the arm that pulsed at his throat.
In the room, Gulleck managed to kill one of the creatures (and it promptly exploded into rubbery goo), and then the other one, forced to retract its sole remaining arm after Brother Chase crushed it, slinked away backwards and hid itself under the bed against the far wall. Gulleck wanted nothing to do with this disturbing thing and quickly scanned the room for treasure. Against the nearest wall, he saw an adventurer's backpack nearly placed, alongside a set of neatly-folded clothes and shoes. This too was disturbing, but he grabbed the backpack, backed out into the hall, and closed the door of the hotel room.
Gulleck and Brother Chase dragged Meat, Simon, and Adrian out of the hotel hall and into the outer hallway as quick as they could. Brother Chase laid his hands upon Adrian with a prayer of healing, and she regained consciousness. They attempted to shove the wax rags back into the door as well as they could, and Caryatid cast Wizard Lock upon it to seal it magically.
The group holed up in a nearby empty room for about an hour until Meat and Simon regained consciousness. Then they high-tailed it back to the Rusty Lantern. The backpack was found to contain 400 gold coins, and a small velvet pouch containing a very valuable jacinth gem worth another 1000 gp! Perhaps a grim trade for the irrevocable loss of Remus, though...
Well, I have to say, nothing has taken my game closer to a TPK than ghouls or things related to ghouls like these creepy things! Getting paralyzed and taken out of combat is really dangerous, and has a snowball effect. You can just see the combat spiralling down the drain. I don't really mind; some things should be scary! That's why there was a big red X on the door! And speaking of...
Deep in the darkness of the dungeon, a sturdy wooden door was sealed with wax-drenched rags and magically locked. But, forgotten by some, an inch-wide hole gaped in the center of the door, and from this hole emerged, tentatively at first and then more aggressively, a pallid white finger and then an impossibly thin hand, wrist, arm...
Game date: Saturday, May 3, 209
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 4, hp 23, xp 13146/17000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 14664/20000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 2, hp 6, xp 3421/4000
Adrien, Fighter 2, hp 6, xp 2126/4000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 3, hp 17, xp 4897/8000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 2, hp 11, xp 1660/3000
Remus Thynerius, Thief 1, hp 2, xp 882/1250
Now we come to one of my personal favorite sessions of the entire campaign. My players finally took the bait on a set piece I had planned for months, after a nightmare I had one night. As a rule I tend to take things easy with this game and just use monsters from the B/X rulebooks, but I have created a few unique monsters, as I did for this scenario. It's always a bit of a gamble whether your monsters' attacks and statistics will work out the way you expected, but I think this went pretty well.
Having eliminated the shadows and auctioned off the demonic idol they guarded, the party set their sites on the few unexplored areas remaining on the second level of the dungeon. In the northwest quadrant of the level, not far from where the "hippie" berserkers live, they approached a sturdy wooden door, sealed on all four sides with wax-soaked rags, and emblazoned with a bold red X. A brass plate on the door read (in Ancient Idalian) "Hotel Lethia".
Gulleck had come prepared with a hand drill and set to work, laboriously drilling a inch-wide hole in the door at his eye level. This took quite a while and everyone kept a nervous watch for any wandering monsters, but they were undisturbed while Gulleck worked at the door. Eventually, he poked the last bit of wood out on the other side of the door and pressed an eye carefully to the hole, letting his vision adjust to the darkness beyond. In the dim, vague impression of his infravision, he could make out a long corridor lined with doors. He saw no sources of body heat, so the party pulled out the waxen rags that were sealing the door, and then heaved the door open. Clouds of dust billowed out, accompanied by an ancient, musty smell.
In the light of Simon's magical sword, the adventurers could see a once-elegant hall stretching into the dark. Closed doors lined both sides at twenty foot intervals. A dusty carpet with an unnerving geometric design covered the floor. Unsure of what might be under the carpet, the group decided to pull it up from the floor and roll it ahead of them. They proceeded down the hall, rolling the musty carpet as they went. The swordlight revealed more doors on the left and right. Simon stopped and sniffed the air. Due to a lucky roll on the "wheel of fortune" he was able to smell gold, and here he got a faint whiff of the metal.
Before he could identify the source of the smell, one of the doors on the left suddenly opened a crack and the group saw pallid white fingers creep around the edge of the door. The skin was flat and featureless, the color of the belly of a dead fish. The hand stretched out towards them on a long spindly forearm and then continued to stretch farther than any normal arm could reach, until it extended from the door some five feet, groping and questing. The party members were so shocked by the appearance of this ghostly arm that they could not muster any response before the hand closed around the neck of Brother Chase! He twitched and shuddered momentarily but rolled a 20 on his saving throw and casually swatted the hand away from his neck.
Gulleck came to his senses and drew forth his magical axe and brought it slicing down on the bizarre arm. He severed the arm with one hit, and it quickly snapped back into the darkness of the ajar door. The hand and the other side of the arm instantly liquefied, as if losing surface tension when cut, and white liquid splashed onto the stone floor. No sooner could the party catch their collective breath than two more arms emerged from the door. A bit farther up the corridor, another two arms emerged from a slightly ajar door on the other side of the hall.
The adventurers swung at the pallid arms, and the hands quested blindly for them, but no one could make contact. Caryatid in a confused panic drew forth her new "wand of random magic", pointed it into the first doorway, and let loose with its power. No fireball erupted forth this time, though: all she got was a strange sensation of emptiness and void in her mind. Simon was grabbed by one of the questing hands, but made his saving throw and struggled free of the grasping fingers. But then one of the four hands made contact with Adrian, wrapping around her throat. Her eyes suddenly flew back, fluttering and twitching, and her entire body began to shudder and spasm as she sunk to her knees. The pallid fishbelly arm began to pulse, as if drawing the very life from Adrian back into the dark of the room it originated from.
Gulleck leapt forward with his axe and again chopped right through the arm that grasped Adrian. The hand on her neck exploded into liquid, and the stump, as before, retracted into the darkness. Adrian slumped onto the floor, still twitching spasmodically. Meanwhile, two other hands grasped Remus and Meat. Both reacted as Adrian had, falling to their knees, eyes rolled up insensate, twitching and shuddering as the arms began to pump their lifeforce out of their bodies. Simon too was hit by another hand, and fell to the floor. Half the party was now incapacitated!
Gulleck decided he had had enough of these arms, and kicked the door open. Inside was a small hotel room, and standing near the door were two humanoids of the same white pallid flesh as the arms, naked and featureless. They gave the vaguest suggestion of a female form, but their bodily and facial features were rudimentary and vague, as if merely an imitation of a human being. Each one had one limp stump of an arm, and another long arm extended into the hallway. Caryatid attempted her wand of random magic again, and this time she found herself rapidly shrinking until she was merely 10" tall (her pet monkey shrank along with her). "Run!" she squeaked, and made her (rather slow) way out of the hotel hallway. "Great", muttered Gulleck, and concentrated on planting his axe in the chests of these bizarre things.
Meanwhile, Brother Chase used his mace to crush the arm attached to Meat, and the stump snapped back into the doorway it came from. But before anyone could attend to Remus, a dreadful choking gasp arose from his throat, and suddenly he (and all of his belongings) went *pop* like a water balloon filled with white liquid latex rubber. What was once Remus splashed on the stone floor and trickled away through the cracks in the stone. The arm, its owner apparently satiated, retreated into the room it had emerged from. Brother Chase, aghast with this sight, ran across to Simon to free him from the arm that pulsed at his throat.
In the room, Gulleck managed to kill one of the creatures (and it promptly exploded into rubbery goo), and then the other one, forced to retract its sole remaining arm after Brother Chase crushed it, slinked away backwards and hid itself under the bed against the far wall. Gulleck wanted nothing to do with this disturbing thing and quickly scanned the room for treasure. Against the nearest wall, he saw an adventurer's backpack nearly placed, alongside a set of neatly-folded clothes and shoes. This too was disturbing, but he grabbed the backpack, backed out into the hall, and closed the door of the hotel room.
Gulleck and Brother Chase dragged Meat, Simon, and Adrian out of the hotel hall and into the outer hallway as quick as they could. Brother Chase laid his hands upon Adrian with a prayer of healing, and she regained consciousness. They attempted to shove the wax rags back into the door as well as they could, and Caryatid cast Wizard Lock upon it to seal it magically.
The group holed up in a nearby empty room for about an hour until Meat and Simon regained consciousness. Then they high-tailed it back to the Rusty Lantern. The backpack was found to contain 400 gold coins, and a small velvet pouch containing a very valuable jacinth gem worth another 1000 gp! Perhaps a grim trade for the irrevocable loss of Remus, though...
Well, I have to say, nothing has taken my game closer to a TPK than ghouls or things related to ghouls like these creepy things! Getting paralyzed and taken out of combat is really dangerous, and has a snowball effect. You can just see the combat spiralling down the drain. I don't really mind; some things should be scary! That's why there was a big red X on the door! And speaking of...
Deep in the darkness of the dungeon, a sturdy wooden door was sealed with wax-drenched rags and magically locked. But, forgotten by some, an inch-wide hole gaped in the center of the door, and from this hole emerged, tentatively at first and then more aggressively, a pallid white finger and then an impossibly thin hand, wrist, arm...
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Idalium Game 64: The Auction at Sea
Session date: Monday, December 5, 2016
Game date: Saturday, March 29, 209 to Saturday, April 5, 209
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 4, hp 23, xp 12689/17000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 14207/20000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 2, hp 6, xp 2941/4000
Adrien, Fighter 1, hp 4, xp 1669/2000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 3, hp 17, xp 4668/8000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 1, hp 6, xp 1420/1500
After pulling off the dungeon heist of the campaign in the last session, it was now time to sell the spoils! As luck would have it, it was right on time for the annual magical auction in Idalium, jointly organized by the Adventurers' Guild and a trading house catering to wealthy collectors, and held each year around the Spring Equinox. After the unfortunate events of last year's auction, this year it was being held on a merchant ship that was anchored some way out of the harbor, for better security. The adventurers made arrangements with the Guild and the Runcible Trading House to have the idol and associated paraphernalia transported to the ship in advance of the auction.
The day of the auction, the party assembled at a specified dock at the river that runs along the west edge of the City of Idalium. There, a small barge ferried them downstream south, past the tanneries, blacksmiths, and other industrial uses that lined the river, past the city walls, and out into the sea proper. As they left the mouth of the river, they could see the large ship waiting, with many other barges and dinghies clustered around it, having ferried many other auction attendees over.
The adventurers boarded the ship and entered the large cabin that was set up for the auction. Musicians played softly in a corner, and light refreshments were laid out. Many familiar faces were present: Lady Mary Jameson, the young and extremely wealthy aristocrat seeking mysterious and occult artifacts; the Baroness Millicent Trenevant, with whom the party were on friendly terms, having once retrieved her stolen goods; the nouveau riche Vincent Patrenzi. And many of their fellow adventurers were here: Rugger's Raiders and Shorty's Sirens, as well as their erstwhile retainer Father Jed and his troupe of reformed bandits. And "Sallies Forth" were here: an adventuring party made up of "Psycho Sally" (formerly of Shorty's Sirens), plus three magical duplicates. And Professor Zinn, the elderly sage, was here, and it transpired he was bidding at the bequest of Caryatid the Green (adventurer Caryatid's magical duplicate, who now lived in the dungeon and was researching all sorts of disturbing things).
To make a long story short, I conducted the auction using a modified system that I borrowed from a Call of Cthulhu scenario that I used during the previous magical auction. A prewritten chart listed which attendees would be inclined to bid on which objects, and rolls of the dice determined whether or not they would continue bidding or drop out. It is a lot of dice rolling and done too often I think it would be tedious for everyone, but as a change of pace restricted to an annual auction, I think it worked well enough, and introduced some randomness into the events of the auction.
In the end, this is how things panned out: Shorty's Sirens won the bidding for a "smoking urn", a brass bottle warm to the touch and continually emitting smoke (said to hold an imprisoned demon) and well as a set of elvish boots and cloak with an intriguing shimmering pattern and silent soles designed to aid in concealment. Jed acquired a protective scroll against magical influence for 25,000 silver shekels. The party bid 11,500 shekels on a set of gold, copper, and tin medallions, but these turned out to be nonmagical trinkets. Gulleck was interested in a suit of wonderfully crafted dwarven plate armor, but so was Rugger, and the party eventually dropped out of the bidding war at 61,500 shekels. Baroness Trenevant acquired some carved ivory divination sticks from the far east and a golden ring engraved with a design of intertwined serpents. Caryatid spent most of the party's money to bid on a "wand of unpredictable magic", an 11" magical wand of rowan wood, whimsically carved and painted in various colors. Vincent Patrenzi won the bidding on a disturbing human skull, with the top cut away and the interior inlaid with silver to form a cup.
As for the party's own entry into the auction, Lady Mary, Baroness Trenevant, and Vincent Patrenzi all bid on this exotic and imposing idol. Bidding started at 125,000 shekels, and the three bid it up until Lady Mary prevailed at 136,500 silver shekels.
The party used their winnings to pay for the wand and medallions that they acquired, and returned to the Rusty Lantern to celebrate their winnings.
A week later, they reunited for a short delve into the dungeon. The first order of business was to deliver to the gnomes their half share of the proceeds. Of course, on the way, Caryatid couldn't help but test out her new "wand of unpredictable magic". As soon as they were in the dungeon, Caryatid drew forth the wand, and pointed it down the buried street into the darkness of an old city plaza. She felt the wand's power twitching, and reaching into it with her mind, she released the chaotic power and let it manifest. A bead of glowing light like a burning ember shot forth from the tip of the wand and streaked through the dark. There was a brief glimpse of the stone fountain in the plaza and the four statues surrounding it, and then there was a loud whooof of fire and a gust of heat that staggered them on their feet. The plaza was briefly brilliantly illuminated by the expanding fireball and then all was dark and quiet again. The party excitedly moved forward into the plaza to see the impact of the wand's magic, and in the light of Simon's sword they found that the fountain now lay in rubble, the four statues knocked away from it, lying in several pieces on the cobblestones of the square.
"Excellent!" everyone cheered, and then moved on to meet the gnomes. The gnomes were overjoyed to see their friends and even more so to see their large bag of gold that they delivered. An impromptu party was held in the gnomes' cozy little hideaway. Little seedcakes were eaten, and gnomish tea and ale were drunk. Little gnomes played little tunes on tiny little lutes and tambourines.
Well-fed and well-rested after the party, the adventurers still had some time so they decided to explore a bit more of the second level. They used their new shaft to descend to the room from which they had stolen the idol. The eerie green flames had vanished from the torch sconces on the walls, and the cold fear that had pervaded the room was gone. The adjacent rooms, that had been shrouded in a perpetual magical darkness, were now normal, and the darkness of the dungeon yielded to the cool light of Simon's magical sword. The adventurers proceeded to an apartment at the north end of the level. In the apartment was a stone statue of a woman, and an inscription on her clothing read "I shall guard my treasure until I am wed." Well, in the recent poring over of character sheets, Gulleck's player realized that Gulleck had been carrying around a "stone ring" that they had acquired many sessions ago in a "honeymoon suite". So, off they went to try it out!
Unfortunately, in the bedroom containing the statue, four hobgoblins were already present, examining the inscription on the statue for themselves. They party bantered with the goblins, and the banter turned a bit aggressive, but the party walked out of the room rather than fighting the goblins, whom they have mostly remained on friendly terms with so far (although recent revelations about the origin of the goblins have made this relationship much more awkward). They went into the adjoining room, which contained a fresco on the wall of a jester that would magically move and speak when approached. When they entered, however, they found several giant centipedes crawling on the painting, and the jester was hysterically yelling and crying in Ancient Idalian (which no one could understand). The party took one look at this, shook their heads, and left the room. Heartless!
In the hallway, they encountered four of the berserker "hippies" who lived not far from this area of the dungeon. Caryatid remembered only too well being strangled to death by their fellows, and the party conversed lightly, to avoid disturbing the hippies' mood. Eventually, they parted ways and the hippies entered the room with the jester. The adventurers listened with barely disguised glee and they heard the hobgoblins mock the hippies with sneering condescension. This enraged the hippies, and the two groups fell into a savage battle in the doorway between the two rooms. Gulleck quickly led the adventurers down the hallway around a corner, where they re-entered the bedroom with the statue. While the hobgoblins and hippie berserkers fought in the next room, Gulleck ran to the statue and popped the stone ring onto its finger. A vertical seam suddenly appeared in the torso of the statue and it opened up like a pair of doors, revealing a shelf containing several pieces of jewelry (two bracelets and a headdress) and a golden ring. He removed the stone ring, causing the statue to close again, hurled it into a dusty corner of the room, and bolted back out before the hobgoblins could take notice.
They made it back to the Rusty Lantern without incident. The bracelets and headdress they sold for 2,000 gold darics, earning enough experience points to raise Brother Chase to the second level (allowing him to cast a clerical spell each day!). The golden ring turned out to be a magical ring of invisibility, much like the one Caryatid owned. Quite a successful session!
Game date: Saturday, March 29, 209 to Saturday, April 5, 209
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 4, hp 23, xp 12689/17000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 14207/20000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 2, hp 6, xp 2941/4000
Adrien, Fighter 1, hp 4, xp 1669/2000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 3, hp 17, xp 4668/8000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 1, hp 6, xp 1420/1500
After pulling off the dungeon heist of the campaign in the last session, it was now time to sell the spoils! As luck would have it, it was right on time for the annual magical auction in Idalium, jointly organized by the Adventurers' Guild and a trading house catering to wealthy collectors, and held each year around the Spring Equinox. After the unfortunate events of last year's auction, this year it was being held on a merchant ship that was anchored some way out of the harbor, for better security. The adventurers made arrangements with the Guild and the Runcible Trading House to have the idol and associated paraphernalia transported to the ship in advance of the auction.
The day of the auction, the party assembled at a specified dock at the river that runs along the west edge of the City of Idalium. There, a small barge ferried them downstream south, past the tanneries, blacksmiths, and other industrial uses that lined the river, past the city walls, and out into the sea proper. As they left the mouth of the river, they could see the large ship waiting, with many other barges and dinghies clustered around it, having ferried many other auction attendees over.
The adventurers boarded the ship and entered the large cabin that was set up for the auction. Musicians played softly in a corner, and light refreshments were laid out. Many familiar faces were present: Lady Mary Jameson, the young and extremely wealthy aristocrat seeking mysterious and occult artifacts; the Baroness Millicent Trenevant, with whom the party were on friendly terms, having once retrieved her stolen goods; the nouveau riche Vincent Patrenzi. And many of their fellow adventurers were here: Rugger's Raiders and Shorty's Sirens, as well as their erstwhile retainer Father Jed and his troupe of reformed bandits. And "Sallies Forth" were here: an adventuring party made up of "Psycho Sally" (formerly of Shorty's Sirens), plus three magical duplicates. And Professor Zinn, the elderly sage, was here, and it transpired he was bidding at the bequest of Caryatid the Green (adventurer Caryatid's magical duplicate, who now lived in the dungeon and was researching all sorts of disturbing things).
To make a long story short, I conducted the auction using a modified system that I borrowed from a Call of Cthulhu scenario that I used during the previous magical auction. A prewritten chart listed which attendees would be inclined to bid on which objects, and rolls of the dice determined whether or not they would continue bidding or drop out. It is a lot of dice rolling and done too often I think it would be tedious for everyone, but as a change of pace restricted to an annual auction, I think it worked well enough, and introduced some randomness into the events of the auction.
In the end, this is how things panned out: Shorty's Sirens won the bidding for a "smoking urn", a brass bottle warm to the touch and continually emitting smoke (said to hold an imprisoned demon) and well as a set of elvish boots and cloak with an intriguing shimmering pattern and silent soles designed to aid in concealment. Jed acquired a protective scroll against magical influence for 25,000 silver shekels. The party bid 11,500 shekels on a set of gold, copper, and tin medallions, but these turned out to be nonmagical trinkets. Gulleck was interested in a suit of wonderfully crafted dwarven plate armor, but so was Rugger, and the party eventually dropped out of the bidding war at 61,500 shekels. Baroness Trenevant acquired some carved ivory divination sticks from the far east and a golden ring engraved with a design of intertwined serpents. Caryatid spent most of the party's money to bid on a "wand of unpredictable magic", an 11" magical wand of rowan wood, whimsically carved and painted in various colors. Vincent Patrenzi won the bidding on a disturbing human skull, with the top cut away and the interior inlaid with silver to form a cup.
As for the party's own entry into the auction, Lady Mary, Baroness Trenevant, and Vincent Patrenzi all bid on this exotic and imposing idol. Bidding started at 125,000 shekels, and the three bid it up until Lady Mary prevailed at 136,500 silver shekels.
The party used their winnings to pay for the wand and medallions that they acquired, and returned to the Rusty Lantern to celebrate their winnings.
A week later, they reunited for a short delve into the dungeon. The first order of business was to deliver to the gnomes their half share of the proceeds. Of course, on the way, Caryatid couldn't help but test out her new "wand of unpredictable magic". As soon as they were in the dungeon, Caryatid drew forth the wand, and pointed it down the buried street into the darkness of an old city plaza. She felt the wand's power twitching, and reaching into it with her mind, she released the chaotic power and let it manifest. A bead of glowing light like a burning ember shot forth from the tip of the wand and streaked through the dark. There was a brief glimpse of the stone fountain in the plaza and the four statues surrounding it, and then there was a loud whooof of fire and a gust of heat that staggered them on their feet. The plaza was briefly brilliantly illuminated by the expanding fireball and then all was dark and quiet again. The party excitedly moved forward into the plaza to see the impact of the wand's magic, and in the light of Simon's sword they found that the fountain now lay in rubble, the four statues knocked away from it, lying in several pieces on the cobblestones of the square.
"Excellent!" everyone cheered, and then moved on to meet the gnomes. The gnomes were overjoyed to see their friends and even more so to see their large bag of gold that they delivered. An impromptu party was held in the gnomes' cozy little hideaway. Little seedcakes were eaten, and gnomish tea and ale were drunk. Little gnomes played little tunes on tiny little lutes and tambourines.
Well-fed and well-rested after the party, the adventurers still had some time so they decided to explore a bit more of the second level. They used their new shaft to descend to the room from which they had stolen the idol. The eerie green flames had vanished from the torch sconces on the walls, and the cold fear that had pervaded the room was gone. The adjacent rooms, that had been shrouded in a perpetual magical darkness, were now normal, and the darkness of the dungeon yielded to the cool light of Simon's magical sword. The adventurers proceeded to an apartment at the north end of the level. In the apartment was a stone statue of a woman, and an inscription on her clothing read "I shall guard my treasure until I am wed." Well, in the recent poring over of character sheets, Gulleck's player realized that Gulleck had been carrying around a "stone ring" that they had acquired many sessions ago in a "honeymoon suite". So, off they went to try it out!
Unfortunately, in the bedroom containing the statue, four hobgoblins were already present, examining the inscription on the statue for themselves. They party bantered with the goblins, and the banter turned a bit aggressive, but the party walked out of the room rather than fighting the goblins, whom they have mostly remained on friendly terms with so far (although recent revelations about the origin of the goblins have made this relationship much more awkward). They went into the adjoining room, which contained a fresco on the wall of a jester that would magically move and speak when approached. When they entered, however, they found several giant centipedes crawling on the painting, and the jester was hysterically yelling and crying in Ancient Idalian (which no one could understand). The party took one look at this, shook their heads, and left the room. Heartless!
In the hallway, they encountered four of the berserker "hippies" who lived not far from this area of the dungeon. Caryatid remembered only too well being strangled to death by their fellows, and the party conversed lightly, to avoid disturbing the hippies' mood. Eventually, they parted ways and the hippies entered the room with the jester. The adventurers listened with barely disguised glee and they heard the hobgoblins mock the hippies with sneering condescension. This enraged the hippies, and the two groups fell into a savage battle in the doorway between the two rooms. Gulleck quickly led the adventurers down the hallway around a corner, where they re-entered the bedroom with the statue. While the hobgoblins and hippie berserkers fought in the next room, Gulleck ran to the statue and popped the stone ring onto its finger. A vertical seam suddenly appeared in the torso of the statue and it opened up like a pair of doors, revealing a shelf containing several pieces of jewelry (two bracelets and a headdress) and a golden ring. He removed the stone ring, causing the statue to close again, hurled it into a dusty corner of the room, and bolted back out before the hobgoblins could take notice.
They made it back to the Rusty Lantern without incident. The bracelets and headdress they sold for 2,000 gold darics, earning enough experience points to raise Brother Chase to the second level (allowing him to cast a clerical spell each day!). The golden ring turned out to be a magical ring of invisibility, much like the one Caryatid owned. Quite a successful session!
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Idalium Game 63: The Heist!
Session date: Monday, October 3, 2016
Game date: Saturday, March 22, 209
PCs:
Tod P. Quasit, Jr., Fighter 3, hp 16, xp 6282/8000
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 4, hp 23, xp 11357/17000
Tyrriel, Elf 2, hp 7, xp 6278/8000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 12996/20000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 1, hp 4, xp 1669/2000
Adrien, Fighter 1, hp 4, xp 458/2000
Retainers:
Father Jibber, Cleric 3, hp 16, xp 3218/6000
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 3, hp 17, xp 4062/8000
Wilhelm, Magic-user 2, hp 4, xp 2624/5000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 1, hp 6, xp 784/1500
Remus Thynerius, Thief 1, hp 2, xp 246/1250
Finally, the big day had arrived! The entire current roster of players were in the same room at the same time, and in the city of Idalium the vernal equinox augured an auspicious delve: the Great Heist of the gilded idol and ceremonial paraphernalia from the shrine of shadows! Tod and Tyrriel arrived at the Rusty Lantern for the first time in a couple of months. Tod was still a woman and Tyrriel was still a man, after sampling from the magical fountains in the Temple of Hedonism; apparently the effects were permanent.
In recent sessions, the adventurers had commissioned a mining party of friendly gnomes to dig a shaft straight down from the first level to where they hoped was the shrine of shadows on the second level (they lined up their hand drawn maps to figure out where to dig). Only today would they find out if they had calculated their target correctly. In the past few sessions, they had procured various supplies for the heist: a custom-designed leather harness and plenty of rope for lifting the idol, a block and tackle and winch for hauling it up the shaft, and a small handcart for moving it through the dungeon.
Buzzing with excitement, the adventurers descended into the undercity. Their first stop was the headquarters of the gnomes, deep in the mines in the northeast section of the first level. Tom Pipkin, the leader of the gnomes, greeted them warmly. The adventurers could see the same avaricious excitement in his eyes as they saw in their fellow party members' eyes, for they had promised the gnomes a 50/50 cut of the revenue from the sale of the idol and paraphernalia. Tom, his right hand man Grimble Grumble, and half a dozen gnomes set out with the adventurers to the dig site.
The dig site was in one of the old temples off the main Avenue of Temples. The inside was constructed to resemble a natural cave, and the ceiling was painted to look like the night sky. Great piles of earth and stone rubble now lay strewn in the corners of the temple, as well as in the street outside. Caryatid had wizard locked the door to the temple, which sealed it to anyone except her. The door in the back of the temple they had spiked shut with iron spikes, which Gulleck now pulled out, in case they had to escape that way in a hurry. Meanwhile, the gnomes and other party members went to work setting up the winch and the block and tackle system, along with rope ladders, etc.
While they were busy setting up their stuff, four scruffy looking guys in leather armor sauntered up to the open door. Bandits, evidently. "Hey, whatcha doin'? That's quite a hole you guys dug! Mind if we watch?" Pretty soon Tyrriel got tired of talking and cast Sleep on them. The bandits were dragged into a robing room behind the temple.
With that out of the way and everything set up, Gulleck and Tod descended into the shaft, climbing the ladders as quietly as possible down some twenty or so feet to the bottom, where they could see the shaped flagstones of the ceiling of the room below them. The gnomes had carefully cleared the dirt and rubble away, but left the ceiling itself undisturbed until the adventurers were ready. Now, they made ready to silently pry the stone from its space. Tod drank a potion of invisibility that they had found some time ago, and Gulleck slipped on Caryatid's ring of invisibility. (Now this kind of thing always leads to debates at the table as to what happens when someone goes invisible while carrying a leather harness attached to a long rope. My ruling is that the carried harness itself goes invisible, but the end of the rope that is not in first-hand contact with the character would still be visible, moving around with no apparent cause.)
Anyway, as soon as Gulleck and Tod shifted the stone, Caryatid quickly cast Phantasmal Force at the gap to "set up a camera loop" with the image of the stone ceiling slab. Then Gulleck and Tod lifted the slab out of the way, and poked their invisible heads through the illusion to see what was going on. The shrine lay still and unsettling as ever, heatless green flames flickering in torch sconces on the walls, casting eerie shadows all around. The hideous idol crouched on the bloodstained altar on the south wall. The adventurers were hoping to have come out exactly above the idol, but unfortunately their shaft terminated in the northeast corner of the room some fifteen feet away from the altar. Oh well, at least they hit the room!
Tod and Gulleck dropped as quietly as possible into the room, carrying the harness (trailing a visible rope behind it) and made their way over to the idol. Gulleck and Tod quickly the the harness over the idol, and it became visible as they did so. The room suddenly felt colder and a panicky fear began to catch in their throats as they saw the shadows begin to coalesce into eight man-sized shapes. They hurriedly continued securing the harness to the idol as the shadows drifted off the walls and swirled angrily through the air at them, cold voices hissing meaningless curses at them.
Gritting their teeth against the fear, Gulleck and Tod tugged on the rope attached to the harness, lifted the idol from the altar, and carried it towards the hole in the ceiling. The shadows swirled around them, snatching at the air angrily. But Tod and Gulleck were still invisible, having not attacked in any way, and I generally give a -4 penalty to attack rolls against invisible opponents, if the attacker even knows generally where to attack! Along with their plate armor (magical, in Tod's case), this was enough that the shadows flailed at the air ineffectively, and Tod and Gulleck were able to get the idol under the shaft without ever being hit by the shadows. The party members above began cranking the winch and the idol began to rise up the shaft. The eight shadows howled in rage and swarmed up the shaft, as dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly. Gulleck and Tod could scarce believe their good luck, and quickly ran back to the altar to collect the chalice, dagger, and sacrificial implements and secure them in a backpack before returning to the shaft and climbing the rope ladder back up to join the battle above.
And a battle it was. The shadows swirled through the air of the temple, barely visible in the flickering lantern light until they swooped down to slash at someone. They attacked indiscriminately, and because they were aerial, no one had shelter from their attacks. (Basically, I just assigned everyone a number, including the eight gnomes, and rolled a d20 for each shadow to determine its target each round.) Brother Jibber kept working the winch to bring the idol up, and Tod and Gulleck were trying to stabilize it from below to make sure it didn't get damaged on the walls of the shaft.
The battle raged on. Meat and Brother Chase found that their weapons passed through the shadows with no effect. Caryatid's voice rang out over and over, reading the magical words from her scrolls of Magic Missile. The glowing golden arrows shot forth and struck true every time with a small burst of golden sparks. Eventually, Tod and Gulleck surfaced and joined the battle with their magical sword and axe. There was an effort at some point to put the idol on the cart and get it out into the street in case the shadows wouldn't pursue too far from their shrine, but the shadows poured forth from the temple into the street and the battle continued there. Quite a few people were struck by shadows, feeling a cold numbness suffuse their bodies, but eventually magic weapons (and especially Caryatid's Magic Missile scrolls) prevailed, and the last of the shadows dissipated into a cold mist.
A great cheer went up. The adventurers and gnomes bid each other farewell with a promise to meet again after the auction to pay the gnomes their share of the revenue. And the adventurers carefully maneuvered the cart through the halls of the undercity and had it carefully hoisted up into the cellar of the Rusty Lantern (one of the few times they've used the cellar hoist for anything other than unconscious or dead bodies!).
A couple notes on the shadows: eight shadows are potentially a serious threat to a party of second level PCs (especially as they are immune to normal weapons). To mitigate this, I had the shadows be attached to the idol and ceremonial items in the shrine. They would not pursue PCs out the shrine if the items were left alone. (I do like including dangerous monsters or situations if the players have the ability to disengage and retreat.) If the ceremonial items like the robe and headdress were taken, the shadows would pursue into the peripheral rooms with the magical darkness, but not into the hallways. And if the idol itself was stolen, the shadows would pursue anywhere and without giving up or losing morale.
Now, in the end, my players left this room with the scary shadows until they were significantly above level 2 on average, and had several magical weapons to fight them with, so this fight wasn't quite as tough as it could have been. But I don't mind! I really enjoyed watching my players plan and execute this "heist", negotiating with the gnomes to do the hard work of digging a shaft (which is now a permanent alternate entrance to the second level for the PCs), and creatively using invisibility to get the idol out of the room while taking minimal damage from the shadows. The shadows didn't end up being a very significant threat, but it was still a highly memorable session!
Game date: Saturday, March 22, 209
PCs:
Tod P. Quasit, Jr., Fighter 3, hp 16, xp 6282/8000
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 4, hp 23, xp 11357/17000
Tyrriel, Elf 2, hp 7, xp 6278/8000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 12996/20000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 1, hp 4, xp 1669/2000
Adrien, Fighter 1, hp 4, xp 458/2000
Retainers:
Father Jibber, Cleric 3, hp 16, xp 3218/6000
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 3, hp 17, xp 4062/8000
Wilhelm, Magic-user 2, hp 4, xp 2624/5000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 1, hp 6, xp 784/1500
Remus Thynerius, Thief 1, hp 2, xp 246/1250
Finally, the big day had arrived! The entire current roster of players were in the same room at the same time, and in the city of Idalium the vernal equinox augured an auspicious delve: the Great Heist of the gilded idol and ceremonial paraphernalia from the shrine of shadows! Tod and Tyrriel arrived at the Rusty Lantern for the first time in a couple of months. Tod was still a woman and Tyrriel was still a man, after sampling from the magical fountains in the Temple of Hedonism; apparently the effects were permanent.
In recent sessions, the adventurers had commissioned a mining party of friendly gnomes to dig a shaft straight down from the first level to where they hoped was the shrine of shadows on the second level (they lined up their hand drawn maps to figure out where to dig). Only today would they find out if they had calculated their target correctly. In the past few sessions, they had procured various supplies for the heist: a custom-designed leather harness and plenty of rope for lifting the idol, a block and tackle and winch for hauling it up the shaft, and a small handcart for moving it through the dungeon.
Buzzing with excitement, the adventurers descended into the undercity. Their first stop was the headquarters of the gnomes, deep in the mines in the northeast section of the first level. Tom Pipkin, the leader of the gnomes, greeted them warmly. The adventurers could see the same avaricious excitement in his eyes as they saw in their fellow party members' eyes, for they had promised the gnomes a 50/50 cut of the revenue from the sale of the idol and paraphernalia. Tom, his right hand man Grimble Grumble, and half a dozen gnomes set out with the adventurers to the dig site.
The dig site was in one of the old temples off the main Avenue of Temples. The inside was constructed to resemble a natural cave, and the ceiling was painted to look like the night sky. Great piles of earth and stone rubble now lay strewn in the corners of the temple, as well as in the street outside. Caryatid had wizard locked the door to the temple, which sealed it to anyone except her. The door in the back of the temple they had spiked shut with iron spikes, which Gulleck now pulled out, in case they had to escape that way in a hurry. Meanwhile, the gnomes and other party members went to work setting up the winch and the block and tackle system, along with rope ladders, etc.
While they were busy setting up their stuff, four scruffy looking guys in leather armor sauntered up to the open door. Bandits, evidently. "Hey, whatcha doin'? That's quite a hole you guys dug! Mind if we watch?" Pretty soon Tyrriel got tired of talking and cast Sleep on them. The bandits were dragged into a robing room behind the temple.
With that out of the way and everything set up, Gulleck and Tod descended into the shaft, climbing the ladders as quietly as possible down some twenty or so feet to the bottom, where they could see the shaped flagstones of the ceiling of the room below them. The gnomes had carefully cleared the dirt and rubble away, but left the ceiling itself undisturbed until the adventurers were ready. Now, they made ready to silently pry the stone from its space. Tod drank a potion of invisibility that they had found some time ago, and Gulleck slipped on Caryatid's ring of invisibility. (Now this kind of thing always leads to debates at the table as to what happens when someone goes invisible while carrying a leather harness attached to a long rope. My ruling is that the carried harness itself goes invisible, but the end of the rope that is not in first-hand contact with the character would still be visible, moving around with no apparent cause.)
Anyway, as soon as Gulleck and Tod shifted the stone, Caryatid quickly cast Phantasmal Force at the gap to "set up a camera loop" with the image of the stone ceiling slab. Then Gulleck and Tod lifted the slab out of the way, and poked their invisible heads through the illusion to see what was going on. The shrine lay still and unsettling as ever, heatless green flames flickering in torch sconces on the walls, casting eerie shadows all around. The hideous idol crouched on the bloodstained altar on the south wall. The adventurers were hoping to have come out exactly above the idol, but unfortunately their shaft terminated in the northeast corner of the room some fifteen feet away from the altar. Oh well, at least they hit the room!
Tod and Gulleck dropped as quietly as possible into the room, carrying the harness (trailing a visible rope behind it) and made their way over to the idol. Gulleck and Tod quickly the the harness over the idol, and it became visible as they did so. The room suddenly felt colder and a panicky fear began to catch in their throats as they saw the shadows begin to coalesce into eight man-sized shapes. They hurriedly continued securing the harness to the idol as the shadows drifted off the walls and swirled angrily through the air at them, cold voices hissing meaningless curses at them.
Gritting their teeth against the fear, Gulleck and Tod tugged on the rope attached to the harness, lifted the idol from the altar, and carried it towards the hole in the ceiling. The shadows swirled around them, snatching at the air angrily. But Tod and Gulleck were still invisible, having not attacked in any way, and I generally give a -4 penalty to attack rolls against invisible opponents, if the attacker even knows generally where to attack! Along with their plate armor (magical, in Tod's case), this was enough that the shadows flailed at the air ineffectively, and Tod and Gulleck were able to get the idol under the shaft without ever being hit by the shadows. The party members above began cranking the winch and the idol began to rise up the shaft. The eight shadows howled in rage and swarmed up the shaft, as dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly. Gulleck and Tod could scarce believe their good luck, and quickly ran back to the altar to collect the chalice, dagger, and sacrificial implements and secure them in a backpack before returning to the shaft and climbing the rope ladder back up to join the battle above.
And a battle it was. The shadows swirled through the air of the temple, barely visible in the flickering lantern light until they swooped down to slash at someone. They attacked indiscriminately, and because they were aerial, no one had shelter from their attacks. (Basically, I just assigned everyone a number, including the eight gnomes, and rolled a d20 for each shadow to determine its target each round.) Brother Jibber kept working the winch to bring the idol up, and Tod and Gulleck were trying to stabilize it from below to make sure it didn't get damaged on the walls of the shaft.
The battle raged on. Meat and Brother Chase found that their weapons passed through the shadows with no effect. Caryatid's voice rang out over and over, reading the magical words from her scrolls of Magic Missile. The glowing golden arrows shot forth and struck true every time with a small burst of golden sparks. Eventually, Tod and Gulleck surfaced and joined the battle with their magical sword and axe. There was an effort at some point to put the idol on the cart and get it out into the street in case the shadows wouldn't pursue too far from their shrine, but the shadows poured forth from the temple into the street and the battle continued there. Quite a few people were struck by shadows, feeling a cold numbness suffuse their bodies, but eventually magic weapons (and especially Caryatid's Magic Missile scrolls) prevailed, and the last of the shadows dissipated into a cold mist.
A great cheer went up. The adventurers and gnomes bid each other farewell with a promise to meet again after the auction to pay the gnomes their share of the revenue. And the adventurers carefully maneuvered the cart through the halls of the undercity and had it carefully hoisted up into the cellar of the Rusty Lantern (one of the few times they've used the cellar hoist for anything other than unconscious or dead bodies!).
A couple notes on the shadows: eight shadows are potentially a serious threat to a party of second level PCs (especially as they are immune to normal weapons). To mitigate this, I had the shadows be attached to the idol and ceremonial items in the shrine. They would not pursue PCs out the shrine if the items were left alone. (I do like including dangerous monsters or situations if the players have the ability to disengage and retreat.) If the ceremonial items like the robe and headdress were taken, the shadows would pursue into the peripheral rooms with the magical darkness, but not into the hallways. And if the idol itself was stolen, the shadows would pursue anywhere and without giving up or losing morale.
Now, in the end, my players left this room with the scary shadows until they were significantly above level 2 on average, and had several magical weapons to fight them with, so this fight wasn't quite as tough as it could have been. But I don't mind! I really enjoyed watching my players plan and execute this "heist", negotiating with the gnomes to do the hard work of digging a shaft (which is now a permanent alternate entrance to the second level for the PCs), and creatively using invisibility to get the idol out of the room while taking minimal damage from the shadows. The shadows didn't end up being a very significant threat, but it was still a highly memorable session!
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