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!
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