Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Idalium Game 77: I Don't Live Today

Session date: Monday, June 12, 2017
Game date: Saturday, October 11, 209

PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 4, hp 23, xp 14552/17000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 16345/20000   
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 3, hp 11, xp 5149/8000
Adrien, Fighter 3, hp 9, xp 4427/8000

Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 3, hp 17, xp 5193/8000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 2, hp 11, xp 2330/3000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 175/4000
Debbi, Magic-user 1, hp 6, xp 433/2500

Well, after an abortive attempt last session to finish up exploring the previously bee-infested apartment complex, we regrouped a few weeks later to take enough stab at it. The adventurers made their way down to the second level of the dungeon and this time successfully entered the courtyard of the apartment complex. The giant beehive still hung from the ceiling of the courtyard as it had done a month ago, and the ground below it was littered with the dessicated husks of giant bees, some looking quite the worse for the wear.

Ignoring the hive for the moment, the group climbed the stairs to the balcony that surrounded the courtyard and resumed their exploration of the apartments that led off of it. They came to a couple of doors that were suspiciously ajar. Peering into one, within the dimness of the apartment they saw what looked like another giant bee! It came buzzing at them, but Gulleck deftly slipped on his animal control ring and made it repeatedly sting the door. On closer inspection, however, it turned out not to be a giant bee, but some sort of giant fly with striped markings that resembled a bee. Of course, this meant Gulleck was making it pound its abdomen pointlessly into the door, but that was as effective a way of killing it as any.

While this was happening, though, three more of the enormous flies came leaping from an adjacent apartment door. Meat was savagely bit by the filthy mandibles of one fly for 7 points of damage! Gulleck and Simon made effective use of the animal control rings to do their usual trick of letting the animals battle it out amongst themselves. The flies were quickly dispatched, and Brother Chase laid his hands on Meat's wound and murmured words of prayer, and Meat was happily cured of all the damage he had taken.

The adventurers carefully looked into the room the flies had come out of. They could see two bodies on the floor that appeared to be the remains of two unlucky adventurers. One corpse wore plate armor, the other torn and rotten leather armor, and each wore a backpack. One of the packs had split open and the glint of gold coins spilling out could be seen. Gulleck cautiously investigated the gruesome scene, and reached for the backpack. Suddenly, the corpse heaved and shuddered, and from beneath the decomposing flesh erupted four enormous maggots, each about a foot long. Gulleck stepped back in shock, but the maggots hissed and then reared back and sprang into the air towards him! Gulleck was bit in the arm by one of the filthy things, which caused him far more disgust and repulsion than actual damage.

"Aaaagh, this is disgusting! Get it off me! Get it off!"

The maggots were swiftly swatted down and killed by sword and boot, and then just for fun, I guess, Simon used his magical ring to take control of one of them.

"I make it sing and dance." Yes, just like the "Hello Ma Baby" frog, or more apropos in this case, the alien from Spaceballs.

"No..." groaned Gulleck's player. "This is so wrong. I want the stretchy things back!" Apparently, we had outdone ourselves in the disturbing imagery contest.

In the backpack, they found 86 gold pieces, and three gems worth about 1,200 gp together, so this was a nice little jackpot to make up for all the disgusting creatures. Leaving this room, the group explored further along the balcony, and found an apartment room empty apart from a bizarre stone statue. It was about six feet tall, and was a strange winged dog- or perhaps lion-like creature with insane googly eyes. On the wall next to it, there was chalk writing in what looked like a child's handwriting: "Don't touch this twice!"

Caryatid got the idea to leave her own note for some reason, and dug in her pack for chalk and then wrote "Orcs rule, goblins drool!" The adventurers debated whether to touch the statue. Some argued that the note implied that it was safe to touch once, but nobody really wanted to volunteer to be the test subject. "Where's that spare finger?" quipped Simon, making a reference to the skeletal finger that the group once acquired in order to unlock a door that would only open to the touch of the dead. This was actually before Simon's player's time with the campaign, which strikes me as hilarious that the finger bone has become such a recurring in-joke among the players. Finally, Simon's retainer Orin was impressed upon to touch the status. He did so and their was a sudden flash of light and he reported that he felt much stronger and better skilled at combat.

Back in the courtyard, the players debated how to get the hive down. They had heard a rumor (perhaps it was from Professor Zinn the sage) that the honey of giant bees possessed healing powers. They discussed plans to get the hive down for quite some time, and eventually settled on the idea of hacking the hive away from the ceiling. Which meant someone had to get up there first. Simon was the smallest and lightest, so he tied the end of a rope to an axe and threw the axe at the hive. It embedded itself in the wax of the hive, but when Simon swung from the balcony and put his weight on the rope, intending to climb up to the hive, the axe pulled out and Simon tumbled to the stone floor below, bruised and aching.

At this point Caryatid asked, "Hey, don't you have flying boots?" Hands slapped foreheads as the players remembered that Simon was indeed wearing a pair of levitating boots that they had found a few sessions earlier. He concentrated on using the power of the boots, and they lifted him into the air with ease. He floated to the ceiling and pushed himself along it to get to where the hive was attached to the ceiling with wax. Then he hacked away at the wax, and after ten minutes or so he weakened it enough that the entire hive crashed to the floor some 12' below, smashing apart into large chunks of honeycomb. The adventurers quickly busies themselves squeezing the honey from the comb into various empty flasks, and managed to collect a couple of pints before they reached a point of diminishing returns and left off.

Tired and sticky and smelling of dungeon honey (no one is quite sure where these bees found flowers, so it's unclear what dungeon honey would smell like), the adventurers decided to pay a visit to the urchins to check on their welfare and ask about the warning on the statue. They opened the now familiar secret door that led to the secret back passages of the dungeon, and knocked on the door of the urchins' hideout. They were warmly greeted by the entire gang, which was reunited now that Green Caryatid's enchantment had evaporated from the faction of urchins that had sided with her. The urchins did tell them that some of their number claimed to have once seen Caryatid's hulking bodyguard, "Mister Beefcake", walking through the dungeon corridors several weeks ago. The strangest thing was that he was accompanied by a number of walking skeletons that seemed to be following him. The party didn't quite know what to make of this information. The giant patchwork man had seemed quite dead when they last left him (though it was true that his body had disappeared the next time they returned to that place).

The adventurers asked about the mysterious statue in the apartment.

"Oh yeah," said one of the urchins, "Be careful with that. Jamie touched it twice. The first time he felt super strong and lucky, and so he touched it again to see what else would happen."

"What did happen?" asked Caryatid.

"He went blind!"

"Permanently?"

"No, it only lasted a few days. But be careful! Bad stuff can happen. Jamie got greedy."

So, the adventurers took their leave of the urchins, and they probably should have just gone home at this point. But Gulleck was curious.

"The kid touched it twice in a row. So it's probably fine if someone else touches it."

So Gulleck led them back to the apartment courtyard, up the stairs onto the balcony, and into the apartment where the strange lion dog statue lurked in the back of the room. He strode up to it, looked it in the eyes, and reached out a finger.

"Poke!"

"Roll a d6," I said. "Oh. Oh... Give me a save vs spells, please."

Now Gulleck was a level 4 dwarf and has the best saving throws of anyone in the party (which is why he was fairly nonchalant about this). He only needed a 10, but wouldn't you know it, he rolled a 6.

There was a clap of thunder, and Gulleck rocked backwards on his heels and fell flat on his back, stone cold dead.

His friends tried everything. They smeared the honey from the beehive in his mouth. They scrounged up some of the pasty grease leftover from the Holy Lantern from a year ago and stuffed that into his mouth as well. They even dragged his body to the pool of resurrection. They knew it only worked once and there was no point immersing him in it, but they scooped up some of the slippery fluid from the pool and poured it into his mouth, just in case that would help. Nothing had any effect except to cause further indignity to the body of the once noble dwarf.

With heavy hearts, the adventurers carried the body of their friend back to the surface. Even the guards at the top of the trapdoor were somber and subdued as they hauled Gulleck's limp corpse up with the block and tackle.

What a silly way to die!

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Idalium Game 76: Down and Out

Session date: Monday, May 22, 2017
Game date: Saturday, September 20, 209

PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 4, hp 23, xp 14552/17000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 16303/20000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 3, hp 11, xp 5105/8000

Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 3, hp 17, xp 5172/8000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 2, hp 11, xp 2308/3000
Kevon, Fighter 1, hp 5, xp 197/2000

This was a very short session; we must have started very late. No treasure either, and kind of a bust for the adventurers. Ah well, such is the nature of site-based campaigns: sometimes you strike it rich, sometimes you don't!

In the week of downtime between delves, Caryatid took the time to scribe a Magic Missile scroll (I use the scribing rules from Holmes: 100 gp and 1 week per spell level to make a scroll that can only be used by the magic-user that created it). Then the "Infestation Managers" (as they sometimes called themselves) headed down into the dungeon to finish their exploration of the apartment complex in which they had recently managed an infestation of giant bees.

But they were fated (by the dice, of course) never to reach the apartments. As they approached the door to the courtyard, a group of slender humanoids crept from the darkness of the hallway to the north. It was those hideous rubbery white monsters with the stretching arms, five of them! Questing hands came floating down the hall on absurdly long arms, reaching hungrily for the adventurers. Two of the hands made contact with Caryatid, who immediately dropped to her knees, eyes rolled up, shuddering and convulsing as her lifeforce pulsed away down the arms of the creatures.

Brother Chase scrambled in his belt pouch for a vial of holy water, popped the cork off, and attempted to douse the creatures with the sacred water, but in his panic he missed them completely with the splashing water. Meat slashed at one of the arms that held Caryatid by the throat, but was himself grabbed and fell to the floor next to Caryatid, twitching and spasming. Brother Chase was attacked but bravely resisted the suffocating wave of paralysis that threatened to overcome him, but with a second lunge by the hand he too fell victim to the creatures that implacably drained away the life of their prey. Gulleck as well was paralyzed and now it was just Simon and Kevon left to defend themselves and their friends! They fought boldly, slicing through the arms that clutched at their comrades and then taking the fight directly to the creatures. And then, Caryatid's pet monkey Marcel went into a berserk rage, as he did the last time Caryatid was incapacitated. He drew forth the magical miniature spear that grew from 10 inches to 10 feet when used, and lunged again and again at the monsters. He delivered the final killing blow and stood panting in exhausted triumph next to Caryatid's twitching body as the pallid white monsters dissolved into a rubbery white fluid and drained away into the cracks in the stone floor.

Simon and Kevon (and Marcel) had defeated the foul monsters, but they were still in a dilemma. None of the four unconscious adventurers could be awoken, and it seemed dangerous to wait in the hallway until the paralysis wore off. Simon was a mere hobbit, and though Kevon was reasonably strong, he couldn't carry more than one of the adventurers at once. They debated it for a few minutes, and decided to carry Caryatid to the room near the shaft that led back up to the first level. The doors were wizard locked, so in theory she could rest there safely while they returned and carried back the other three one at a time.

Of course, this would still take time, and I would have to make a wandering monster check to see if anything showed up to find the unconscious party members while Simon and Kevon were gone. An ominous hush fell on the table when the die came up as "1" - yes indeed, a random encounter did occur! The adventurers really lucked out here, because I rolled Acolytes, and then on the subtable, I rolled that they were the youthful hedonists with whom the party were friendly. And so, ten hedonists came down the corridor and discovered three bodies, unconscious but shuddering and twitching and clearly alive. The hedonists recognized Gulleck and decided to drag the adventurers back to the Temple of Hedonism and wait for them to awaken. They were in the middle of doing so when Simon and Kevon came face to face with them on their way back. Simon was relieved to see that his comrades had been found by a friendly party, and he and Kevon went back to retrieve Caryatid and Marcel and then they all went to the Temple of Hedonism and waited for the four paralyzed adventurers to wake up. About a half hour later they did, and everyone thanked the hedonists profusely and then they all beat feet back to the Rusty Lantern, having had quite enough excitement already for one evening!

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Idalium Game 75: Smoke If You Got 'Em

Session date: Monday, May 15, 2017
Game date: Saturday, September 13, 209

PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 4, hp 23, xp 14454/17000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 16205/20000   
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 3, hp 11, xp 5002/8000
Adrien, Fighter 3, hp 9, xp 4329/8000

Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 3, hp 17, xp 5123/8000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 2, hp 11, xp 2257/3000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 126/4000
Debbi, Magic-user 1, hp 6, xp 382/2500

Today's big plan was to deal with the giant killer bees in the dungeon apartment complex, and the clever idea was to build a giant smoker to put them to sleep. So in the week of downtime between sessions, the party purchased a wooden wheelbarrow plus a slightly larger metal wheelbarrow. The wooden wheelbarrow was placed inverted on top of the metal wheelbarrow. A hole was cut towards the front and a 16 gallon barrel was fit inside it as a sort of chimney. At the rear of the wheelbarrow another hole was cut to fit the business end of a set of blacksmith's bellows. The wheelbarrow was loaded with wet firewood and off they went. The guards at the Rusty Lantern dubiously lowered the contraption down into the trapdoor and the party carefully maneuvered it down the stairs and through the buried streets of Ancient Idalium, making their way to the Temple of Hedonism and the stairs down to the second level. Again it was awkwardly carried down the steps and rolled through the halls of the second level until they arrived at the door to the apartment complex that was infested with giant bees.

Gulleck knocked at the door, just to make sure they weren't walking into something unexpected, but received no response except the faint drone of the bees in the distance. The party drenched the wet logs in oil and then spent some time getting it to catch fire. While they were working on the smoker, they were interrupted by a wandering patrol of seven goblins who angrily attacked them for the honor of the Goblin Prince. Caryatid quickly spoke the words of Sleep, and all of the goblins fell to the floor snoring. The party gathered up the rusty short swords from the goblins and hurled them up the hall to the north. Then, with the wheelbarrow starting to produce an irritating cloud of smoke, they prepared to open the door to the apartment complex and deal with the bees.

Brother Chase had an unusual amount of difficulty with the door, hurling himself at it over and over but unable to budge the stubborn thing. All the thumping and grunting drew the attention of a group of eight hobgoblins who strode in from the north, looked down at the slumbering bodies of their smaller kin, and then drew their sword, snarling and angry. The hobgoblins kicked the goblins awake, and the small unarmed goblins scurried away to the north in terror. Four of the hobgoblins ran off in the same direction, barking in their strange tongue words that Gulleck understood to mean, "Let's circle round and get 'em from behind!" The other four engaged the adventurers in battle.

Gulleck and Brother Chase were at the front line. The battle raged, as the corridor filled with stinging, choking smoke. Gulleck was slashed repeatedly by a hobgoblin, taking 16 points of damage before he was able to take down the hobgoblin. Meat rolled a 20 and sent an arrow right over Simon's head into the eye of one of the hobgoblins, blinding him and sending him staggering away in a panic. Now the four hobgoblins had been killed, but the group could hear the stomping of boots from behind them to the south. Gulleck wheeled round the wheelbarrow, pointing the spout southwards. Meat and Simon both drew bows (Simon handed his magical glowing sword to Orin) and pointed them into the darkness. The four hobgoblins ran into the light of the sword and skidded to a halt. I decided that the sight of the party ready to unleash arrows and axe, smoke billowing forth from a bizarre contraption, with three hobgoblin corpses behind them, was quite enough to prompt a morale check. The hobgoblins promptly failed this morale check and did an about face, running back into the darkness as fast as they had come.

Brother Chase finally got the door open and they trundled the smoking wheelbarrow down the steps into the large central courtyard, stopping beneath the enormous beehive that hung suspended from the ceiling some twenty feet above. Over a dozen giant bees crawled around on the surface of hive or buzzed through the air. Gulleck and Simon attempted to aim the smoker to fumigate as many bees as possible.

I had to make a decision here about how the smoke would affect the bees (this isn't covered by the B/X rules, in case you were wondering!), and in the end I decided to treat it as a Sleep spell for simplicity's sake. Gulleck's player rolled 2d8 to determine how many hit dice of bees would be affected, and unfortunately rolled somewhat low and only six bees grew docile and still. Another nine came barreling through the air at the party, but Orin was quick with an actual Sleep spell and this time all of them fell asleep on the wing, thudding to the floor.

For a moment all was still, but then a deeper buzzing emanated from the hive. Three extra large giant bees wriggled out of a hole in the hive, followed by a sleek, elongated bee with a glistening bulbous abdomen. A wicked sting gleamed at the end. These bees launched themselves into the air and then the party was ferociously attacked in a blur of buzzing wings and stabbing stings. Caryatid and Simon were stung by the soldier bees but made their saving throws, but alas, Brother Chase failed his save and fell choking to the ground, clutching at his throat and frothing at the mouth. He died with his normally handsome features contorted in a terrible rictus, purple lips flecked with spittle.

Caryatid, enraged at the demise of her faithful henchman, cast Magic Missile at the queen bee and rolled the Big Green d30 for damage. Nineteen points, and the queen was obliterated by the golden arrow that sped from Caryatid's shoulder.

The party dumped out the smoldering wood from the barrel and used it to carry Brother Chase's body to the resurrection pool. Outside the apartment complex, Caryatid cast Wizard Lock on the door so that no one could come and steal any treasure that might be present, in the absence of the bees. While she was doing this, a group of people arrived. With their black plate armor and cloaks, and disturbing goat's head amulets, they were familiar to the adventurers at this point. They were the cultists from the level below, who had offered to pay them for goblins (dead or alive). The two groups conversed, and eventually Caryatid offered them the three hobgoblin bodies and received a key that the cultists said unlocked the door at the bottom of the stairs to the third level.

"Take this key and bring more goblins to our temple, and we will pay you well. In fact, we would be willing to take that handsome one off your heads," said the leader of the cultists, nodding at Brother Chase. "He would be most useful in our rituals."

"Brother Beefcake is not for sale!" blurted Caryatid.

"Ah well," smiled the cultist. "Farewell to you."

The adventurers revived Brother Chase in the pool of resurrection, and he came out as handsome as ever, looking like nothing had happened. They ditched the wheelbarrow in the room adjacent to the shrine where the gnomes had excavated the shaft down to, and climbed the rope ladder up the shaft back to the first level. They returned to the Rusty Lantern, already making plans to finish exploring the apartment complex, now that the bee infestation had been managed.