Idalium Game 71: Tall, Dark, and Ugly

Session date: Monday, April 3, 2017
Game date: Saturday, August 2, 209

PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 4, hp 23, xp 13835/17000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 15549/20000   
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 3, hp 11, xp 4352/8000
Adrien, Fighter 2, hp 6, xp 3710/4000

Retainers:
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 2, hp 11, xp 1931/3000
Debbi, Magic-user 1, hp 6, xp 122/2500

For the first time in a while, I remembered to roll a morale check for retainers between sessions, and it transpired that both Meat and Kevon decided to take a week off (presumably Meat was soaking in herbal burn ointments the whole time after his near-death encounter with a fireball last week). So four PCs and two retainers ventured into the dungeon this time. Gulleck had procured a big chunk of cork, and they went directly to the door with the big red X and plugged the hole that Gulleck has drilled, which had allowed the freaky stretchy creatures to slip into the rest of the dungeon. Perhaps too little too late, though.

While they were doing this, they were approached by seven men and women in the hallway. They were wearing plate armor with black cloaks and carrying war hammers and maces. Around their necks they all wore an amulet of some sort, depicting an evil-looking goat head with long twisted horns. They were the cultists led by Ms. Frost, whom the party had met before. They were cautiously friendly, and the two groups made conversation in the hall. It didn't take long before some of the players dropped hints about wanting to get rid of the goblins, and the black-robed cultists looked eager at that prospect. In fact, they offered a bounty! They would be happy to take the bodies of any dead goblins off the party's hands, and would pay 10 gold pieces each.

"What about live goblins?" asked Caryatid.
"Oh, they are even more useful to us," smiled one of the cultists. "We would be willing to pay you 50 gold coins for a live goblin."
"What about those taller goblins, do you want those?"
"Certainly, and we would pay even more for them."

A bit nervous about these cultists, the party nevertheless made a friendly farewell. The cultists invited them to bring any goblins (dead or alive) to their temple on the third level.

"Seek us out at the Temple of Diana, in the Dark Dungeons below." (You know, I'm still not sure if any of my players get these references, or if I'm just doing it for my own amusement.)

The adventurers now decided to sneak into Green Caryatid's rooms. They were pretty much set at this point on paying her back for the fireball, in a lethal way, and as a first step they wanted to scout around her apartment in advance of a future assault. They decided to use the urchins' secret passages to gain access to the back hallway of Green Caryatid's rooms. They entered the secret passages and made their way to the urchins' common room, knocking on the door and announcing themselves. The urchins were happy to invite them in, and even happier when Gulleck donated 60 gold pieces to the urchins. He asked again if they were staying away from the goblins and especially not eating any of their food. Most nodded seriously, but one, a boy named Steven, defended the goblins. "I ate a peach that they gave me and nothing bad has happened to me! You don't know the Goblin King; I'm sure he would never do anything to hurt us. Why are you trying to turn us against him?"

Gulleck pleaded with the urchins not to listen to Steven and to stay away from the goblins at all costs. And he recruited them to write graffiti on the hallway walls - "All Hail the King of Shadows!" and "Orcs Rule, Goblins Drool" - in a general attempt to sow confusion among the goblins. He had brought a can of black paint from the city above, and gave it to the urchins to paint over the posters of the Goblin Prince that now littered the hallways.

Taking leave of the young dungeon dwellers, the party decided to split up. (I was rubbing my hands together gleefully upon this news.) Caryatid and Simon went through the secret passages to the secret door in the back hallway, while Gulleck, Brother Chase, Adrian, and Debbi went back to the main hallway to knock on Green Caryatid's front door as a distraction. Again, they played "Ding Dong Ditch" and banged on the door and then ran back through the secret passages to join the others.

Simon and Caryatid heard the banging and the sounds of Green Caryatid moving around in the front of the apartment, opening the door and looking out in the hallway. Both Simon and Caryatid used their magically-enhanced noses to sniff for gold, and indeed, they could detect a faint tang of the metal coming from down the hall to the right. It was dark in the hallway, and Simon crept forward, following his nose, while Caryatid waited by the secret door. Simon entered a room and drew his magical sword which shed forth light as he murmured the Elvish word "Shine!". It was Green Caryatid's bedroom, with a large bed without legs floating incongruously in the air. To the right of the bed, a large lumpy shape was concealed underneath a burlap tarp. Simon looked nervously at the shape in the corner, and then noticed a nightstand on the other side of the bed, upon which was a metal bowl containing what looked like several golden eggs!

Simon crept cautiously across the room, watching the lumpy shape the whole time, and made it to the nightstand. The bowl was large enough that he would need both hands to carry it (being only a three-foot tall hobbit, after all). He sheathed his sword (throwing the room back into darkness) and then carefully lifted the bowl off the nightstand. At this point he heard the rustling of a burlap tarp being thrown to the floor, and the sound of a chair scraping across the stone floor as something very large lurched to his feet.

Simon bolted for the doorway, doing his best to remember the layout of the bedroom in the darkness. Caryatid could hear the commotion in the bedroom and quickly tried to get the secret door open, but working in the dark was difficult, and I asked for a wisdom check (d20 at or below her wisdom score) in order to find the torch sconce that needed to be twisted in order to open the door. She failed the roll, and fumbled around blindly in the dark.

Simon ran, pursued by something very large and powerful, and failed a dexterity check in the dark, leading to him stumbling onto the floor at the threshold of the doorway. He wrapped his arm over the top of the bowl to keep the eggs from spilling. Suddenly, a huge, cold hand grabbed him by the arm and lifted him off his feet and into the air, and then threw him against the wall, where he fell to the floor, dazed and in pain.

Just then, the secret door was opened from the other side. Gulleck stood in the doorway holding a lantern, casting light upon the scene. Simon lay crumpled in the doorway of the bedroom, and behind him loomed an enormous man. He was clothed in a long coat made of rough sack-like material. His eyes seemed cold and dead, and Caryatid was sure she could see what looked like stitching around his thick, lumpy neck. Caryatid cast a Magic Missile at the creature, which snarled as it was struck. Simon, still prostrate, sent the bowl of eggs sliding across the floor towards Caryatid (making a successful dexterity check to do so). The monstrous man lunged for the bowl, and Simon grabbed at the man's leg as it passed, tripping him to the floor with a heavy thud. He clambered over the heaving bulk, while Gulleck ran forward and sank his axe into the back of the creature. It was badly wounded, but not defeated. The blood oozed out unnaturally slowly.

Simon grabbed the bowl of eggs and ran out the secret door, while the beast hauled itself to its feet, grabbed Gulleck around the neck and lifted him into the air, squeezing the life out of the dwarf as his feet flailed in the air below him. Caryatid launched another Magic Missile at the creature, but it barely flinched and continued to strangle Gulleck.

Suddenly, Green Caryatid appeared in the hall from the sitting room, looking angry and flustered. "Stop! Don't kill him!" she shouted. "I have better uses for him." She began tracing patterns in the air and speaking an incantation.

The creature opened its meaty hand and Gulleck dropped to the floor. Gasping for air, he got to his feet and made for the secret door. Green Caryatid finished her spell and Gulleck suddenly felt his mind cloud over. Wait, why were they fighting Green Caryatid? Wasn't she the real Caryatid, and wasn't Blue Caryatid the fake copy? But then the confusion passed as quickly as it had come (thanks to a successful saving throw vs spells).

"All hail the King of Shadows!" yelled Gulleck in a giddy panic, as he ran out the secret door along with the rest of the party. They barely stopped running until they were back out of the dungeon.

The golden eggs were sold for 2,000 gold pieces, giving Adrian enough experience points to go up to level 3. The players debated whether Green Caryatid actually had a magical goose that lays golden eggs, or if that was too silly to contemplate. Although, if she did, they definitely needed to go find it! Their cheer at having escaped alive and with a significant treasure was tempered by the knowledge that Green Caryatid now knew about the secret passage that led directly to the hideout of the dungeon urchins...