Session date: Monday, March 12, 2018
Game date: Monday, May 3, 210
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 70003/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 18688/20000
Retainers:
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 3471/6000
We had only two players for this session, so they knew they had to be cautious. But Gulleck's retainer Meat was still laying dead in his apartment, so another delve was undertaken to retrieve the mysterious Elixir of Life for him. Gulleck, Caryatid, and Father Chase descended into the ruins of Ancient Idalium. They were missing Simon and his magical glowing sword, so Caryatid had to resort to carrying a lantern, its yellow flickery light a marked change from the pure light of the sword. They swiftly made their way to the second level of the dungeon. On the way they encountered a batch of venomous snakes and later a group of giant beetles, but both were rapidly dealt with using their rings of animal control. They crossed the rope bridge over the underground river (much more cautiously this time than the last) and slowly moved through the natural caverns that make up the eastern half of this level.
They passed by the Goblin Market, and heard voices and activity echoing through the caves. Gulleck investigated, wearing a ring of invisibility, and saw that the entrance to the Market was guarded as usual by a pair of looming bugbears. Since the party were not exactly in the favor of the goblins at the moment, Gulleck retreated to Caryatid and Father Chase and they took an alternate route that did not involve passing through the market hall.
While they were walking through a narrow cave passage, Caryatid's lantern flame suddenly guttered and turned blue and feeble. A cold wind seemed to blow through the cave, chilling them to their bones. And then the Wraith Lord came floating out of the darkness, his tattered and rotting robes seeming to trail off into nothingness. All three of the adventurers found themselves stricken with fear, unable to move from the spot. The Wraith Lord stopped and seemed to stare at them from the blackness beneath his rotting hood, and then finally he moved on into the darkness to the east. Caryatid's lantern slowly regained its cheer, and the horrible fear finally subsided, though the adventurers decided it was as good a time to rest for a few minutes before moving on.
Further into the caves, they were suddenly attacked by a flock of hideous stirges that had been perched on a stone ledge. Five swooped down to peck at Father Chase, but none could penetrate his plate armor, and Caryatid made swift work of the flock with a Sleep spell. Gulleck made the rounds with her axe.
Beyond the ledge was a tight crawl that led to the chamber of the Elixir of Life. Gulleck took off her backpack and crawled through the low space, accompanied by Caryatid's pet monkey Marcel. Caryatid gave Marcel the lantern and chose to wait, invisible, in the dark for their return. On the other side of the crawl, Gulleck was suddenly attacked by another small flock of stirges, but her axe sang through the air and the stirges did not last long.
Brushing herself off, Gulleck approached the eternal flame that burned in a crevice in the southern wall, casting eerie reflections on the shiny walls of the chamber. The stone was formed into a natural bowl below the flame, and a syrupy liquid exuded from the wall behind the flame, slowly collecting in the hollow of the bowl. Gulleck collected as much of the elixir as she could into an empty potion flask, and then she and Marcel returned to Caryatid and the three of them made their way back home.
On the way out of the caves, however, the trio were suddenly surrounded and attacked by eight fierce baboons! Gulleck was bit on the wrist and dropped her battleaxe in shock. Caryatid let the lantern fall to the ground (I rolled to see if it would go out upon impact) and slipped on her invisibility ring to avoid combat. Gulleck drew her backup axe and cut down a baboon with a single blow. The rest of them failed a morale check and fled howling into the dark.
The rest of the trip back to the surface was uneventful. The adventurers hastened back to Meat's apartment, where his body was getting a bit worse for the wear. Awkwardly, Gulleck spooned the elixir into the mouth of the corpse, and then they stood back and waited. Meat's body suddenly twitched and spasmed, and then there was a light and a roar of sound that seemed to crowd out every other sensation. They squinted their eyes and covered their ears and just as it reached a crescendo it was gone, and where Meat had lain was an entirely new person, wearing Meat's garments which were now oversized and ill-fitting.
As usual, we rolled dice to see who Meat became. Meat remained a fighter, but was now female! (Frankly, this is starting to get silly...) She had black hair and pale white skin, and was in her early 20s. Her ability scores were now thoroughly mediocre: S10 I10 W11 D8 C7 Ch5. On the bright side, she gained a couple of levels, becoming a level 5 fighter with 17 hit points (amusingly, the rerolled hit points stayed the same). Gulleck's player has some quite powerful fighters now!
Then I made Gulleck spend 30 gold pieces to get Meat's plate armor adjusted.
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