Gulleck's eleventh journal
This is a profoundly weird place.
Creepy fella is dead, and we have the skull back. Still got that heart, too. Can't get it out of my head. Making it hard to sleep at night. Really got to figure out how to destroy it now that it ain't so useful anymore.
Anyway, now that Creepy fella is dead, we're back to poking through some of the less unpleasant bits of the Undercity. Less unpleasant, but way more weird.
It all started out simple enough. Went on down to the lower level, through the orgy room as usual. Now that I write that down, I suppose I take some of the weird for granted these days.
We decided to look for the goblin market. Figured it might be worth exploring a little. Instead, we ran into a couple of orcs. Damn annoying beasts tried to take all our money to go through the door they were guarding. Didn't feel like starting a war with the whole damn orc population, so we went a different way. Orcs said it was full of treasure. That meant bad news, but we wanted to take a look anyhow.
Might not have been our best decision, thinking about it now. After a moment or two, a whole mess of orcs came pouring out of one of the doors. Killed my retainer, mustached guy, and then got scared off by that real helpful fear wand. Might have gone even worse otherwise. We killed one of em off, then headed for the healing goo, waving to the guard orcs on our way past.
Healing goo. Yep, my idea of weird has sure gotten adjusted since I been down here.
So we were heading to the goo, war drums pounding in the background like they'd been since we ran the orcs off, and all sudden like there's a horn sound, and a bunch of big hairy long armed beasts the like of which I've never seen came galumphing out of the dark, carrying someone in a covered chair, yelling something about the Queen of Nightmares.
We shuffled up against the wall to let em through, but I guess Her Nightmareness wanted a look, cause she had em stop so she could get a look at us. Guess we weren't what she was looking for cause she said we were too weak to take as slaves and moved on. Real weird, but we sure weren't done yet.
Dunked the body in the goo like normal, and out he popped, good as new. Then Magic Lady hopped in. Figured it'd make her healthier like it did me. Worked, too... But then things things got... Well, you know.
We headed back to the guard orcs, but before we got there, along comes another Magic Lady, all dripping like she just got out of the goo and such.
Got a bit of info from the orcs. They were a bit confused by then, and I can't say as I blame em. Then we headed back up for a good stiff drink or five.
Not sure what Magic Lady's gonna do now that there's two of her, but one thing's for sure. This is a profoundly weird place. Actually, two things are for sure. This is a profoundly weird place, and I'm having another drink.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Friday, July 17, 2015
Idalium Game 27: And Now For Something Completely Different
Session date: Monday, July 6, 2015
Game date: Saturday, April 27, 208
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 2, hp 10, xp 3610/4400
Caryatid, Magic-user 2, hp 8, xp 4434/5000
Retainers:
Gaspar, Fighter 1, hp 3, xp 509/2000
Ylil, Thief 2, hp 5, xp 1691/2400
Once again, we had a small group and the Dynamic Duo of Gulleck and Caryatid dared the dungeon alone. Now that they had defeated the sinister necromancer Gregor Snapespindle, they were eager to put the grim catacombs behind them and explore less forbidding portions of the second level of the dungeon. In particular, they were hoping to find the Goblin Market that they had heard occasional mention of in previous sessions. They knew that it was somewhere vaguely to the north of the temple of hedonism. Unfortunately, there were also orcs in that direction and they were keen to avoid a major confrontation.
In the week that had passed since the last session, Gulleck had stored the Beating Heart inside a locked metal box in their vault below the Rusty Lantern. Although he was no longer carrying it with him, it still seemed to exert a baleful influence on him. He had grown pale and somewhat gaunt, and his eyes had begun to bulge disturbingly. His hair was thinning and losing its color. He found himself preoccupied with thoughts of the Heart with growing frequency, and its disruption to his sleep was taking a toll. In game terms, he had lost one point of Constitution between sessions! "Oh great, I'm turning into Gollum," joked his player.
Through the undercity they went, passing through the temple of hedonism and using their temple robes to get past the crystal statue that guarded the stairs down. There was no one in the lower level of the hedonist temple, and they passed quickly through the north door into the halls of the second level. Soon they came to a place where two savage, bestial men stood guard near a dented copper gong. They looked aggressive, and had drawn rusty swords.
"You pay toll to go past us! Give us everything you got!"
"Uh... want some wine?" Gulleck offered. The orcs didn't accept the wine, and still wouldn't let them pass without a toll.
"What's through that door there?" Gulleck asked, indicating a door on the east side of the corridor near the party. The orcs glanced at each other and sniggered. "Unguarded treasure!" sneered one.
Well, that sounded suspicious, but the party decided to go through that door in search of a way around the orcs rather than starting a fight outside what they suspected was the lair of the entire tribe of orcs. The door led to a very empty room, with more doors on the north and south sides of the room. The adventurers moved cautiously into the room, and Gulleck stepped over to listen at the north door.
Suddenly, the south door was flung open, and half a dozen orcs came screaming out of the doorway. Their eyes were bloodshot, and their muscles bulged with battle rage. It was an ambush! Gulleck's retainer Gaspar was immediately run through by an orc's sword and collapsed with a cry. Caryatid was viciously wounded by another of the orcs. Gulleck quickly ran back to the melee and planted his axe in the chest of the orc that had killed his retainer, but the damage had been done. Caryatid drew forth the crooked wand of fear, and with a wave of the wand the orcs were suddenly overcome with terror. "It's a demon!" the orc leader cried, and ran for the door back into the hallway. The orcs practically fell over each other trying to escape. Only one had withstood the powerful magical fear. "Uh, guys?" he said as he looked back and forth between his fleeing comrades and the adventurers. Not liking the odds, he bolted for the door as well, but a well-aimed sling stone from Ylil cracked him in the back of the head, and he too fell to the ground.
"Well," mused Gulleck, "on the bright side, we're very close to that resurrection pool!" So Caryatid and Ylil hoisted up Gaspar's limp body, and they moved into the hall. The two orc guards up the hall gasped when they saw the adventurers emerge. "Oh, shit!" one exclaimed, having just seen his fellows run screaming out of the room. "Yeah," said Gulleck, "you just mind your own business!"
While they had been collecting themselves in the ambush room, an urgent, pounding drumming had started up. Along with the insistent thumps echoing through the halls, they could hear faint yells and shrieks, like war cries. Gulleck remembered with some trepidation that there had been large primitive drums in the hideously defiled temple that was just across the hall from the resurrection pool. And as they started making their way through the halls towards the pool room, it did seem that the ceremonial drumbeats got louder and louder.
But as they approached the hall leading to the resurrection pool, the air was filled with even stranger noises. A hollow, whimpery trumpet sounded, and from out of the darkness came a number of bizarre creatures. They were at least eight feet tall, huge hairy beasts with long lanky limbs. Their eyes were yellow and bulging, and nasty fangs jutted from their massive jaws. They loped down the corridor with an unnatural silence.
"Make way!" cried one of the creatures in an incongruously high-pitched, hooting voice. "Make way for my mistress, the Queen of Nightmares!" The adventurers, badly wounded by the orcs, wanted no trouble from the creatures and flattened themselves up against the corridor walls to allow them to pass. A number of the giants passed them, and then came four more carrying a palanquin draped in black curtains.
"Halt!" came a cold voice from within the litter. "I wish to examine these creatures." The curtains were drawn back, and the stern face of an old woman peered out at them with an unnervingly predatory and appraising air. She wore a plain metal coronet on her brow. The crone looked at Gulleck's gray and sickly visage, and then at the limp and bloodied body of Gaspar between Ylil and Caryatid and her own bloodied garment.
"What poor specimens you make. You are clearly unfit to be my slaves. Perhaps we shall meet again when you are in better fettle, and you shall then be granted that honor. Onward!" she shouted to her bearers and attendants. "To the Goblin Market!" The trumpet blew again, and the lanky beasts resumed their loping march and the procession had soon moved out of sight down the hall.
"You know, this is a profoundly weird place," stated Gulleck. The drums were still echoing from further up the corridor, and when they got to the door that led to the temple they could clearly hear the drums and bestial screams coming from the other side. They crept by that door as quietly as they could and slipped through the low rounded door that led to the circular chamber of the pool.
Closing the door behind them, the savage drumbeat was thankfully muted, and the peace of this strangely warm and humid chamber put their minds at ease. Gaspar was carefully stripped of his armor and equipment, and lowered gently into the pool of slippery liquid. Moments passed, and then, as with the others, Gaspar's arms came thrashing out of the water and he pulled himself to the surface, gasping for air and in shock of what had happened. The vicious wound to his chest was now vanished as if it had never existed.
While Gaspar dressed himself again, Caryatid contemplated the pool. When Gulleck had gone in some months ago to retrieve Twiffle's inert body, he had been filled with a sense of well-being and gained a point of Constitution. Caryatid decided she wanted to give it a go, too. Not wanting to get her robe wet, she stripped completely naked and submerged herself in the water.
It was quiet and peaceful below the surface of the pool, and Caryatid felt her body suffused with a feeling of vitality and well-being such that she had not felt in as long as she could remember. She was healed completely of the wound she had received from the orc, and her Constitution was permanently raised by one as well.
Pulling herself out of the pool, Caryatid dressed herself again and the group headed back out into the hall, hoping to make another attempt at finding the Goblin Market. They crept by the door with its primal drumbeat and returned to the hall with the orcs. They found the orcs rather subdued and timid, and this time they didn't mention any toll. Gulleck asked them about the Goblin Market, and they said it was off to the north and then through the caves. "What's between here and there?" "Old empty apartments."
But while Gulleck was talking to the orcs, Ylil heard a noise coming up the corridor behind him. The adventurers turned around to look, and coming out of the darkness, naked and dripping with the liquid from the pool, was Caryatid!
"Gulleck, why did you guys leave me? When I got out of the pool you were gone, with all of my stuff! And... wait, who's she?"
The other Caryatid could barely restrain her glee. "This is totally awesome! I've got a twin!" And the two orcs were just perplexed. "This is a profoundly weird place," said one to the other.
Both Caryatids were adamant that each was the true, original one, and the newly-arrived one was not pleased that the "imposter" had taken all of her things. Gulleck offered one of the togas from the temple of hedonism to the newly-arrived Caryatid, and they decided to abandon further explorations for the day, and returned to the Rusty Lantern. They sent the first Caryatid up the rope ladder first, and then after the men, the other Caryatid followed. The guards at the top of the trapdoor did a comical double-take, and then one shook his head and said:
"This dungeon is a profoundly weird place!"
Game date: Saturday, April 27, 208
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 2, hp 10, xp 3610/4400
Caryatid, Magic-user 2, hp 8, xp 4434/5000
Retainers:
Gaspar, Fighter 1, hp 3, xp 509/2000
Ylil, Thief 2, hp 5, xp 1691/2400
Once again, we had a small group and the Dynamic Duo of Gulleck and Caryatid dared the dungeon alone. Now that they had defeated the sinister necromancer Gregor Snapespindle, they were eager to put the grim catacombs behind them and explore less forbidding portions of the second level of the dungeon. In particular, they were hoping to find the Goblin Market that they had heard occasional mention of in previous sessions. They knew that it was somewhere vaguely to the north of the temple of hedonism. Unfortunately, there were also orcs in that direction and they were keen to avoid a major confrontation.
In the week that had passed since the last session, Gulleck had stored the Beating Heart inside a locked metal box in their vault below the Rusty Lantern. Although he was no longer carrying it with him, it still seemed to exert a baleful influence on him. He had grown pale and somewhat gaunt, and his eyes had begun to bulge disturbingly. His hair was thinning and losing its color. He found himself preoccupied with thoughts of the Heart with growing frequency, and its disruption to his sleep was taking a toll. In game terms, he had lost one point of Constitution between sessions! "Oh great, I'm turning into Gollum," joked his player.
Through the undercity they went, passing through the temple of hedonism and using their temple robes to get past the crystal statue that guarded the stairs down. There was no one in the lower level of the hedonist temple, and they passed quickly through the north door into the halls of the second level. Soon they came to a place where two savage, bestial men stood guard near a dented copper gong. They looked aggressive, and had drawn rusty swords.
"You pay toll to go past us! Give us everything you got!"
"Uh... want some wine?" Gulleck offered. The orcs didn't accept the wine, and still wouldn't let them pass without a toll.
"What's through that door there?" Gulleck asked, indicating a door on the east side of the corridor near the party. The orcs glanced at each other and sniggered. "Unguarded treasure!" sneered one.
Well, that sounded suspicious, but the party decided to go through that door in search of a way around the orcs rather than starting a fight outside what they suspected was the lair of the entire tribe of orcs. The door led to a very empty room, with more doors on the north and south sides of the room. The adventurers moved cautiously into the room, and Gulleck stepped over to listen at the north door.
Suddenly, the south door was flung open, and half a dozen orcs came screaming out of the doorway. Their eyes were bloodshot, and their muscles bulged with battle rage. It was an ambush! Gulleck's retainer Gaspar was immediately run through by an orc's sword and collapsed with a cry. Caryatid was viciously wounded by another of the orcs. Gulleck quickly ran back to the melee and planted his axe in the chest of the orc that had killed his retainer, but the damage had been done. Caryatid drew forth the crooked wand of fear, and with a wave of the wand the orcs were suddenly overcome with terror. "It's a demon!" the orc leader cried, and ran for the door back into the hallway. The orcs practically fell over each other trying to escape. Only one had withstood the powerful magical fear. "Uh, guys?" he said as he looked back and forth between his fleeing comrades and the adventurers. Not liking the odds, he bolted for the door as well, but a well-aimed sling stone from Ylil cracked him in the back of the head, and he too fell to the ground.
"Well," mused Gulleck, "on the bright side, we're very close to that resurrection pool!" So Caryatid and Ylil hoisted up Gaspar's limp body, and they moved into the hall. The two orc guards up the hall gasped when they saw the adventurers emerge. "Oh, shit!" one exclaimed, having just seen his fellows run screaming out of the room. "Yeah," said Gulleck, "you just mind your own business!"
While they had been collecting themselves in the ambush room, an urgent, pounding drumming had started up. Along with the insistent thumps echoing through the halls, they could hear faint yells and shrieks, like war cries. Gulleck remembered with some trepidation that there had been large primitive drums in the hideously defiled temple that was just across the hall from the resurrection pool. And as they started making their way through the halls towards the pool room, it did seem that the ceremonial drumbeats got louder and louder.
But as they approached the hall leading to the resurrection pool, the air was filled with even stranger noises. A hollow, whimpery trumpet sounded, and from out of the darkness came a number of bizarre creatures. They were at least eight feet tall, huge hairy beasts with long lanky limbs. Their eyes were yellow and bulging, and nasty fangs jutted from their massive jaws. They loped down the corridor with an unnatural silence.
"Make way!" cried one of the creatures in an incongruously high-pitched, hooting voice. "Make way for my mistress, the Queen of Nightmares!" The adventurers, badly wounded by the orcs, wanted no trouble from the creatures and flattened themselves up against the corridor walls to allow them to pass. A number of the giants passed them, and then came four more carrying a palanquin draped in black curtains.
"Halt!" came a cold voice from within the litter. "I wish to examine these creatures." The curtains were drawn back, and the stern face of an old woman peered out at them with an unnervingly predatory and appraising air. She wore a plain metal coronet on her brow. The crone looked at Gulleck's gray and sickly visage, and then at the limp and bloodied body of Gaspar between Ylil and Caryatid and her own bloodied garment.
"What poor specimens you make. You are clearly unfit to be my slaves. Perhaps we shall meet again when you are in better fettle, and you shall then be granted that honor. Onward!" she shouted to her bearers and attendants. "To the Goblin Market!" The trumpet blew again, and the lanky beasts resumed their loping march and the procession had soon moved out of sight down the hall.
"You know, this is a profoundly weird place," stated Gulleck. The drums were still echoing from further up the corridor, and when they got to the door that led to the temple they could clearly hear the drums and bestial screams coming from the other side. They crept by that door as quietly as they could and slipped through the low rounded door that led to the circular chamber of the pool.
Closing the door behind them, the savage drumbeat was thankfully muted, and the peace of this strangely warm and humid chamber put their minds at ease. Gaspar was carefully stripped of his armor and equipment, and lowered gently into the pool of slippery liquid. Moments passed, and then, as with the others, Gaspar's arms came thrashing out of the water and he pulled himself to the surface, gasping for air and in shock of what had happened. The vicious wound to his chest was now vanished as if it had never existed.
While Gaspar dressed himself again, Caryatid contemplated the pool. When Gulleck had gone in some months ago to retrieve Twiffle's inert body, he had been filled with a sense of well-being and gained a point of Constitution. Caryatid decided she wanted to give it a go, too. Not wanting to get her robe wet, she stripped completely naked and submerged herself in the water.
It was quiet and peaceful below the surface of the pool, and Caryatid felt her body suffused with a feeling of vitality and well-being such that she had not felt in as long as she could remember. She was healed completely of the wound she had received from the orc, and her Constitution was permanently raised by one as well.
Pulling herself out of the pool, Caryatid dressed herself again and the group headed back out into the hall, hoping to make another attempt at finding the Goblin Market. They crept by the door with its primal drumbeat and returned to the hall with the orcs. They found the orcs rather subdued and timid, and this time they didn't mention any toll. Gulleck asked them about the Goblin Market, and they said it was off to the north and then through the caves. "What's between here and there?" "Old empty apartments."
But while Gulleck was talking to the orcs, Ylil heard a noise coming up the corridor behind him. The adventurers turned around to look, and coming out of the darkness, naked and dripping with the liquid from the pool, was Caryatid!
"Gulleck, why did you guys leave me? When I got out of the pool you were gone, with all of my stuff! And... wait, who's she?"
The other Caryatid could barely restrain her glee. "This is totally awesome! I've got a twin!" And the two orcs were just perplexed. "This is a profoundly weird place," said one to the other.
Both Caryatids were adamant that each was the true, original one, and the newly-arrived one was not pleased that the "imposter" had taken all of her things. Gulleck offered one of the togas from the temple of hedonism to the newly-arrived Caryatid, and they decided to abandon further explorations for the day, and returned to the Rusty Lantern. They sent the first Caryatid up the rope ladder first, and then after the men, the other Caryatid followed. The guards at the top of the trapdoor did a comical double-take, and then one shook his head and said:
"This dungeon is a profoundly weird place!"
Friday, July 10, 2015
Idalium Game 26: In My Time of Dying
Session date: Monday, June 29, 2015
Game date: Saturday, April 20, 208
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 2, hp 10, xp 3092/4400
Caryatid, Magic-user 2, hp 8, xp 3916/5000
Retainers:
Gaspar, Fighter 1, hp 3, xp 250/2000
Ylil, Thief 2, hp 5, xp 1432/2400
We had a short crew today, and so Tod, Tyrriel, and Vito were all otherwise occupied and Gulleck and Caryatid made plans to enter the catacombs and track down the foul necromancer Gregor Snapespindle once and for all. In the days since the last session Gulleck, Tyrriel, and Tod had rotated the Beating Heart between them, so that no one risked the full effect of whatever dismal influence the Heart might cast on its owner. Gulleck found himself relieved to be back in possession of the Heart. Tod and Tyrriel were well-meaning, but certainly not as reliable and trustworthy as he. He carefully stowed the glistening Heart in a sack at his belt, and he and Caryatid made their way into the dungeon with their retainers.
Taking a now-familiar route to the catacombs, the adventurers attempted to approach Snapespindle's lair from the other direction. Past the unbricked tomb of General Sevintius they went, until they came to an intersection in the catacombs. Gulleck led the way into a wide pillars fall that stretched south into the darkness. The hall was festooned with giant spiderwebs, and in the midst of the hall lay several corpses enshrouded in silk. Coins glittered on the floor near the husks.
"Nope, nope, nope, not this way!" muttered Gulleck, and the group backed away from the hall entrance. They were dismayed to hear a soft thump of something dropping down from the ceiling, and soon an enormous black spider with a red hourglass marking on its abdomen slowly approached the doorway, studying them curiously from its multifaceted eyes.
The group slowly retreated the way they had come, hoping the spider would not pursue them from its lair, but they could hear the soft clicking of its legs on the stone floor as it stalked towards in the darkness. They ducked into the tomb of Sevintius and took shelter behind his sarcophagus. Gaspar nocked a quarrel in his crossbow and covered the entrance.
The clicking grew louder, and then in their lantern light, a leg came into view, followed by the spider's head, peering impassively at them through the doorway. (I had the image in mind of a scene from Alien where Ripley is hiding and the alien comes into view in the doorway. Or perhaps I'm thinking of Jurassic Park and a velociraptor?)
Gaspar let his bolt fly, and the spider lunged forward towards him. Fortunately for the party, the entry to this tomb was barely wide enough for Gulleck to fit through, let alone a six foot long spider, and the spider was hindered trying to squeeze and wriggle its bulbous abdomen into the room. Its mandibles clacked and snapped, and flecks of venom dripped from them, as it strained to get into the tomb. Gaspar and Ylil shot at the thing as it wriggled its way it. Suddenly, it burst through the doorway, sending some loose bricks tumbling into the room, and lunged at Gaspar, but Gulleck ran up to meet its charge and sank his magical axe deep into its head. The spider shuddered and was still.
Collecting themselves, the group returned to the hall to hopefully collect some of the coins they had seen, but when they looked up into the shadows of the ceiling, they saw two more of the enormous black widows stirring in the webs above. They beat a hasty retreat, and were relieved that neither of the spiders followed them out this time.
Remembering the pleasure of leading an army of the undead last time, Gulleck stopped in a crypt hall, where the long dead lay in funeral niches on either side. Not sure if it would work, he withdraw the Heart from his pouch, raised it over his head, and boomed, "Rise up!" Five skeletons silently emerged from their niches and stood before him, empty eyesockets gazing raptly at the now-beating heart. "Lead the way," intoned Gulleck.
Westward they headed, until they came to an ornate tomb door with inscriptions that announced it as the tomb of the imperial family of Ancient Idalium. There had been a door like this on the other side of Snapespindle's lair. Gulleck heaved the door open, and they looked down a long hallway. In the darkness ahead, they saw a humanoid figure duck into a doorway on the left side of the hall, where a light flickered. The adventurers began to move down the hall, with their skeletal troops in front of them, readying themselves for battle.
Dozens of feet ahead of them, Snapespindle stepped into the corridor, with several of his ghouls in front of him. The two groups stared at each other across the sixty feet or so that separated them.
"You have pledged your lives to me," sneered Snapespindle. "You will give me the Beating Heart, now."
"That ain't gonna happen. Get 'im," Gulleck ordered the skeletons.
Snapespindle began making expressive gestures in the air with his free hand, clearly invoking some sort of spell. The ghouls sprinted disturbingly silently towards the skeletons and the party. Caryatid drew forth the wand of fear they had discovered weeks ago, and released its power at Snapespindle. A look of sheer terror came over his face. He abandoned the spell he was casting, and ran off to the north around a corner, screaming, "No! It can't be true!"
The ghouls crashed into the skeletons tearing at them with tooth and claw. Gulleck boldly raised the Heart and commanded, "Bow down!" Four of the five ghouls, and the skeletons, all prostrated themselves before him. The remaining ghoul charged past their prostrate fellows and the skeletons, and tore into Gulleck. A paralyzing fear filled his heart, and he found he could not move a muscle. Fortunately, Gaspar was able to quickly slay the ghoul.
It was an odd sight. Gulleck was standing rigid, stock still, with the Beating Heart still pulsing in his upraised arm. All of the skeletons and ghouls lay prostrate on the ground before him. Gaspar and Ylil gingerly stepped up to the motionless ghouls and quickly slew them. Then they waited for Gulleck to regain control of his body, which he did after about twenty minutes.
"All right then. Uh... stand up!" The skeletons stood obediently. "Now..." said Gulleck, amused by his control over the skeletons, "Macarena!" (I suppose that was said out-of-character.)
Then, with the skeletons again marching in the lead, they set out in pursuit of Snapespindle. They went down the corridor and through the other entrance to the imperial tomb (the one they had come through earlier that week) and down the dark halls of the catacombs, moving cautiously and listening for any sound of the insane necromancer.
They came to a place in the crypt halls where a short hallway on the left led to a empty mausoleum. As they approached, Gregor Snapespindle leapt out in front of them, snarling. He waved a hand and pointed at Gulleck menacingly. Suddenly, Gulleck felt a wild panic surge within his gut, struggling to climb his throat and escape as a terrified scream. Snapespindle seemed to loom and fill the narrow hallway, though he had not stepped forward or changed in size. Then Gulleck blinked and swallowed back the panic, and the momentary spell that had threatened overcome him had past.
"Get him!" Gulleck cried to the skeletons, but Snapespindle raised a medallion from his chest. It looked like a distorted and perverted version of the sun disc that Brother Jibber wore, the rays of the sun melted and withered. "Begone! You cannot stand before the power of death!" intoned the necromancer. The skeletons froze in place, then there was a snapping and crackling sound, as dry bones began to crumble and split. In a moment, the skeletons had crumbled into dust and bone fragments, and Snapespindle stood leering before them.
Before the adventurers could react, Snapespindle again waved an arm. "Let the darkness of death descend upon you all!" he cried, and suddenly everything in the hall went black. Gulleck alone could see with his infravision, but the others were completely blind. However, Gulleck assumed that Snapespindle could not see into the dark either, and this guess seemed to be correct as Snapespindle took a few steps backwards, nervously clutching his warhammer. Realizing that the enchanted darkness could be used to his advantage, Gulleck quietly fished out the sparkly potion he had found in the bank vault many weeks ago. Taking a sip, he found that everything suddenly became murky and muffled as if he had taken a step out of the world entirely. He quietly crept over to Gaspar, Caryatid, and Ylil and gave them each a sip of the invisibility potion as well and whispered instructions.
Ylil crept silently around Snapespindle, attempting to line up a vicious backstab. The others likewise attempted to move quietly towards him, but the sound of the fighters' metal armor drew Snapespindle's attention. "Where are you!?" he yelled. "I know you're here somewhere, I hear you!" Snapespindle began swinging his hammer wildly in the air.
And that's when Caryatid decided to put an end to this, and cast the Magic Missile spell, using the Big Green d30 to "supercharge" the magic missile damage. A brilliantly shining golden arrow shot deep into Snapespindle's heart. He staggered back, gasped, and then fell to the stone floor, dead.
Returning to Snapespindle's lair, they searched his rooms looking for the Brazen Head. They found it in the study where he had brought it to life several weeks ago, along with the fragments of the Book of Shadows that contained the instructions for the ritual. In his ascetic bedchamber, they found hairshirts and scourges, unleavened black bread and sour grape juice. They also found a large wooden chest. The chest contained hundreds of silver and gold coins, a scroll containing a protective incantation against werewolves and other shapechangers, and the silver and copper ankh that Snapespindle had bought at the auction. It also contained an angry cobra that spat poison at Caryatid's eyes, but Gulleck and Gaspar were able to slice it in twain before it did any damage to her.
Pleased with their success, the group gathered their treasure and made their way back out of the catacombs to the Rusty Lantern, leaving Gregor Snapespindle's body to grow cold among the dead he sought to control.
They put the Brazen Head and the Beating Heart carefully away in their storage room in the basement of the Rusty Lantern. Gulleck felt a bit reluctant to leave the Heart here, but perhaps now that Snapespindle was out of the picture, it didn't need a constant guardian. Still, he would need to check on it regularly and make sure no one had broken into their vault to steal it... Such a powerful relic needed to be watched over and protected...
Game date: Saturday, April 20, 208
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 2, hp 10, xp 3092/4400
Caryatid, Magic-user 2, hp 8, xp 3916/5000
Retainers:
Gaspar, Fighter 1, hp 3, xp 250/2000
Ylil, Thief 2, hp 5, xp 1432/2400
We had a short crew today, and so Tod, Tyrriel, and Vito were all otherwise occupied and Gulleck and Caryatid made plans to enter the catacombs and track down the foul necromancer Gregor Snapespindle once and for all. In the days since the last session Gulleck, Tyrriel, and Tod had rotated the Beating Heart between them, so that no one risked the full effect of whatever dismal influence the Heart might cast on its owner. Gulleck found himself relieved to be back in possession of the Heart. Tod and Tyrriel were well-meaning, but certainly not as reliable and trustworthy as he. He carefully stowed the glistening Heart in a sack at his belt, and he and Caryatid made their way into the dungeon with their retainers.
Taking a now-familiar route to the catacombs, the adventurers attempted to approach Snapespindle's lair from the other direction. Past the unbricked tomb of General Sevintius they went, until they came to an intersection in the catacombs. Gulleck led the way into a wide pillars fall that stretched south into the darkness. The hall was festooned with giant spiderwebs, and in the midst of the hall lay several corpses enshrouded in silk. Coins glittered on the floor near the husks.
"Nope, nope, nope, not this way!" muttered Gulleck, and the group backed away from the hall entrance. They were dismayed to hear a soft thump of something dropping down from the ceiling, and soon an enormous black spider with a red hourglass marking on its abdomen slowly approached the doorway, studying them curiously from its multifaceted eyes.
The group slowly retreated the way they had come, hoping the spider would not pursue them from its lair, but they could hear the soft clicking of its legs on the stone floor as it stalked towards in the darkness. They ducked into the tomb of Sevintius and took shelter behind his sarcophagus. Gaspar nocked a quarrel in his crossbow and covered the entrance.
The clicking grew louder, and then in their lantern light, a leg came into view, followed by the spider's head, peering impassively at them through the doorway. (I had the image in mind of a scene from Alien where Ripley is hiding and the alien comes into view in the doorway. Or perhaps I'm thinking of Jurassic Park and a velociraptor?)
Gaspar let his bolt fly, and the spider lunged forward towards him. Fortunately for the party, the entry to this tomb was barely wide enough for Gulleck to fit through, let alone a six foot long spider, and the spider was hindered trying to squeeze and wriggle its bulbous abdomen into the room. Its mandibles clacked and snapped, and flecks of venom dripped from them, as it strained to get into the tomb. Gaspar and Ylil shot at the thing as it wriggled its way it. Suddenly, it burst through the doorway, sending some loose bricks tumbling into the room, and lunged at Gaspar, but Gulleck ran up to meet its charge and sank his magical axe deep into its head. The spider shuddered and was still.
Collecting themselves, the group returned to the hall to hopefully collect some of the coins they had seen, but when they looked up into the shadows of the ceiling, they saw two more of the enormous black widows stirring in the webs above. They beat a hasty retreat, and were relieved that neither of the spiders followed them out this time.
Remembering the pleasure of leading an army of the undead last time, Gulleck stopped in a crypt hall, where the long dead lay in funeral niches on either side. Not sure if it would work, he withdraw the Heart from his pouch, raised it over his head, and boomed, "Rise up!" Five skeletons silently emerged from their niches and stood before him, empty eyesockets gazing raptly at the now-beating heart. "Lead the way," intoned Gulleck.
Westward they headed, until they came to an ornate tomb door with inscriptions that announced it as the tomb of the imperial family of Ancient Idalium. There had been a door like this on the other side of Snapespindle's lair. Gulleck heaved the door open, and they looked down a long hallway. In the darkness ahead, they saw a humanoid figure duck into a doorway on the left side of the hall, where a light flickered. The adventurers began to move down the hall, with their skeletal troops in front of them, readying themselves for battle.
Dozens of feet ahead of them, Snapespindle stepped into the corridor, with several of his ghouls in front of him. The two groups stared at each other across the sixty feet or so that separated them.
"You have pledged your lives to me," sneered Snapespindle. "You will give me the Beating Heart, now."
"That ain't gonna happen. Get 'im," Gulleck ordered the skeletons.
Snapespindle began making expressive gestures in the air with his free hand, clearly invoking some sort of spell. The ghouls sprinted disturbingly silently towards the skeletons and the party. Caryatid drew forth the wand of fear they had discovered weeks ago, and released its power at Snapespindle. A look of sheer terror came over his face. He abandoned the spell he was casting, and ran off to the north around a corner, screaming, "No! It can't be true!"
The ghouls crashed into the skeletons tearing at them with tooth and claw. Gulleck boldly raised the Heart and commanded, "Bow down!" Four of the five ghouls, and the skeletons, all prostrated themselves before him. The remaining ghoul charged past their prostrate fellows and the skeletons, and tore into Gulleck. A paralyzing fear filled his heart, and he found he could not move a muscle. Fortunately, Gaspar was able to quickly slay the ghoul.
It was an odd sight. Gulleck was standing rigid, stock still, with the Beating Heart still pulsing in his upraised arm. All of the skeletons and ghouls lay prostrate on the ground before him. Gaspar and Ylil gingerly stepped up to the motionless ghouls and quickly slew them. Then they waited for Gulleck to regain control of his body, which he did after about twenty minutes.
"All right then. Uh... stand up!" The skeletons stood obediently. "Now..." said Gulleck, amused by his control over the skeletons, "Macarena!" (I suppose that was said out-of-character.)
Then, with the skeletons again marching in the lead, they set out in pursuit of Snapespindle. They went down the corridor and through the other entrance to the imperial tomb (the one they had come through earlier that week) and down the dark halls of the catacombs, moving cautiously and listening for any sound of the insane necromancer.
They came to a place in the crypt halls where a short hallway on the left led to a empty mausoleum. As they approached, Gregor Snapespindle leapt out in front of them, snarling. He waved a hand and pointed at Gulleck menacingly. Suddenly, Gulleck felt a wild panic surge within his gut, struggling to climb his throat and escape as a terrified scream. Snapespindle seemed to loom and fill the narrow hallway, though he had not stepped forward or changed in size. Then Gulleck blinked and swallowed back the panic, and the momentary spell that had threatened overcome him had past.
"Get him!" Gulleck cried to the skeletons, but Snapespindle raised a medallion from his chest. It looked like a distorted and perverted version of the sun disc that Brother Jibber wore, the rays of the sun melted and withered. "Begone! You cannot stand before the power of death!" intoned the necromancer. The skeletons froze in place, then there was a snapping and crackling sound, as dry bones began to crumble and split. In a moment, the skeletons had crumbled into dust and bone fragments, and Snapespindle stood leering before them.
Before the adventurers could react, Snapespindle again waved an arm. "Let the darkness of death descend upon you all!" he cried, and suddenly everything in the hall went black. Gulleck alone could see with his infravision, but the others were completely blind. However, Gulleck assumed that Snapespindle could not see into the dark either, and this guess seemed to be correct as Snapespindle took a few steps backwards, nervously clutching his warhammer. Realizing that the enchanted darkness could be used to his advantage, Gulleck quietly fished out the sparkly potion he had found in the bank vault many weeks ago. Taking a sip, he found that everything suddenly became murky and muffled as if he had taken a step out of the world entirely. He quietly crept over to Gaspar, Caryatid, and Ylil and gave them each a sip of the invisibility potion as well and whispered instructions.
Ylil crept silently around Snapespindle, attempting to line up a vicious backstab. The others likewise attempted to move quietly towards him, but the sound of the fighters' metal armor drew Snapespindle's attention. "Where are you!?" he yelled. "I know you're here somewhere, I hear you!" Snapespindle began swinging his hammer wildly in the air.
And that's when Caryatid decided to put an end to this, and cast the Magic Missile spell, using the Big Green d30 to "supercharge" the magic missile damage. A brilliantly shining golden arrow shot deep into Snapespindle's heart. He staggered back, gasped, and then fell to the stone floor, dead.
Returning to Snapespindle's lair, they searched his rooms looking for the Brazen Head. They found it in the study where he had brought it to life several weeks ago, along with the fragments of the Book of Shadows that contained the instructions for the ritual. In his ascetic bedchamber, they found hairshirts and scourges, unleavened black bread and sour grape juice. They also found a large wooden chest. The chest contained hundreds of silver and gold coins, a scroll containing a protective incantation against werewolves and other shapechangers, and the silver and copper ankh that Snapespindle had bought at the auction. It also contained an angry cobra that spat poison at Caryatid's eyes, but Gulleck and Gaspar were able to slice it in twain before it did any damage to her.
Pleased with their success, the group gathered their treasure and made their way back out of the catacombs to the Rusty Lantern, leaving Gregor Snapespindle's body to grow cold among the dead he sought to control.
They put the Brazen Head and the Beating Heart carefully away in their storage room in the basement of the Rusty Lantern. Gulleck felt a bit reluctant to leave the Heart here, but perhaps now that Snapespindle was out of the picture, it didn't need a constant guardian. Still, he would need to check on it regularly and make sure no one had broken into their vault to steal it... Such a powerful relic needed to be watched over and protected...
Monday, July 6, 2015
Idalium Game 25: The Quick and the Dead
Session date: Monday, June 22, 2015
Game date: Sunday, April 14, 208 to Wednesday, April 17, 208
PCs:
Tod P. Quasit, Jr., Fighter 1, hp 5, xp 1246/2000
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 2, hp 10, xp 2888/4400
Tyrriel, Elf 1, hp 3, xp 2978/4000
Retainers:
Brother Jibber, Cleric 1, hp 5, xp 1290/1500
Gaspar, Fighter 1, hp 3, xp 148/2000
Wilhelm, Magic-user 1, hp 4, xp 1220/2500
Now in possession of the Beating Heart, a dreadful relic with the apparent power to bring the undead under the control of its bearer, the Infestation Managers set their collective eye on the defeat of the sinister necromancer Gregor Snapespindle. How fitting to use his own forces against him. But first, they wished to pay a visit to the reclusive Professor Zinn to make inquiries about the strange object and some of the other items they had discovered.
Tod, Gulleck, and Tyrriel made their way across the city of Idalium, through the decrepit and odorous district of warehouses and factories near the river, across the old stone bridge that spans the river, and through to the disconnected and peculiar neighborhood of The Steps. Here, where the streets and rickety houses cling precariously to the hillside, they made their way to the steepest street in all of Idalium - the Street of Steps - and began the long and tiring climb up the hill. Gulleck grumbled as usual about human idiosyncrasies as they passed below teetering houses that leaned forward across the street so far that the upper stories were connected with plank bridges. Eventually they came to the top of the street, and stood in front of the five story house where Professor Zinn overlooked the city of Idalium from his apartment on the top floor.
Tod pulled the bell rope and the three adventurers were let into the house by Professor Zinn's young apprentice Peter, who led them up the creaky, tilting wooden stairs to Zinn's apartment. Professor Zinn, sitting at his desk with his back to the large open window that looked out over the city, welcomed the trio into his office and asked how they had been fairing.
Tod paid the professor 500 shekels for information on the sword they had recovered from the tomb of Sevintius. Professor Zinn's eyes widened as he listened to their tale, and he pulled a book from one of his shelves, and showed them an illustration of General Sevintius leading an army into battle against a horde of barbarians ("our ancestors, most likely," mused the professor). The fabled Sword of Sevintius was capable of shining with a bright light when the Idalian words "lumo alans" were spoken. The words "lumo detans" would cause the light to fade again. Tod boldly spoke the words "lumo alans!" and was dismayed when nothing happened. "Er... I suspect you have to hold the sword," advised Professor Zinn. Tod blushed a bit, grasped the sword by the hilt, and then spoke the phrase again, and the room was flooded with light, causing everyone to squint.
The group sold Professor Zinn the water-damaged map they had found in the record room of the catacombs for a few hundred shekels, and then paid him another 500 shekel fee for information on the Beating Heart. The professor's face became drawn and grim and he told that it rang a bell with him but he couldn't remember any details. He told them he would research it in his books and asked them to return in three days.
Over the next few days, Tyrriel picked up her lizard-skin cloak from the cordwainer Elsbeth Finley, and then went in search of an apothecary to whom she hoped to sell her carrion crawler tentacles. The apothecary turned out to be an alarmingly intense man with wild, straggly hair, red-rimmed eyes, and smudges of ash on his face and hands. His shop was mostly full of quack remedies, though he did draw a couple of genuine (or so he claimed) magical potions from below the counter. The price was still too dear for the adventurers, and they passed on the opportunity. The apothecary hemmed and hawed at the decaying state of Tyrriel's tentacles, but bought them nonetheless. Tyrriel sweet-talked him into giving her several jars full of preservative for future collection purposes. When they asked the wild apothecary if there was anything else in the dungeon they should keep an eye out for, he let slip that he was very interested in a certain powder carried by the horrible savage orcs. Tod gladly sold him two pouches of the "rage dust" for several hundred shekels each. "Oh great, now we've become drug dealers too."
They rested in the city for two more days, waiting for Professor Zinn to complete his research. Gulleck had been keeping the Beating Heart for safe keeping, and he found he was growing somewhat paranoid and obsessive about. He would find himself thinking about the heart and going to check on it periodically. When the group reunited on Wednesday to speak with the professor again, they noticed that Gulleck looked a bit peaky and twitchy. "You sure you're OK?" "I'm fine!" "Maybe someone else should hang on to that for awhile." "No, I'm good."
Professor Zinn told them that the Beating Heart was the subject of several legends and apocryphal references. Its origins were lost in time. It was said to begin to beat when in the presence of the undead (and therefore could detect them). When presented boldly before the undead, they could be warded off or even controlled. And if the sticky blood that oozed from the stump of the heart's aorta was squeezed onto the lips of a corpse, the heart had the power to give speech to that corpse and allow the bearer to ask questions of it.
Gulleck asked what the legends said about the one who possesses the Heart. Professor Zinn said the legends were somewhat contradictory: some spoke of the Heart granting great power to the one who held it and controlled armies of the dead. Other legends spoke of the Heart corrupting and consuming the one who carried it.
Sobered by this ominous information, the group made plans to confront Snapespindle in his lair in the catacombs. Down below the Rusty Lantern they went, and through the temple of the dead into the catacombs. They headed west, vaguely remembering the direction they had been dragged by Snapespindle's ghouls while paralyzed. As they passed through a crypt hall, two corpses staggered from their niches and lunged towards Gulleck and the Beating Heart that he held in front of him.
"Bow down!" roared Gulleck, raising the Heart. The two zombies immediately prostrated themselves in front of him. "Lead the way," he commanded, and they rose and started heading west.
At a T-intersection, the group took a detour to explore a hall full of iron crypt doors. Most were nondescript, either occupied by long-dead remains, or apparently plundered and raided already. However, one crypt door bore markings that Brother Jibber recognized as being an early version of the sun disc of the Great Church of the All-Pervading Light. They pulled this tomb door open and found themselves in a tomb with further symbols of the Great Church; clearly this was the tomb of a very early adherent to the dominant religion of modern-day Idalium. Brother Jibber noticed a recessed carving of the sun disc symbol, and discovered that his own holy symbol would fit within it. It turned within the recess and with a click, a secret door was unlocked, leading to a hidden chapel. The atmosphere in here felt peaceful and serene, and the the group noticed with some pleasure that the zombies would not follow them into the chapel, even when ordered to do so. A sanctuary! They also discovered a small wooden reliquary that held the holy eyeball of a very early saint. Brother Jibber believed the Church would be very grateful to have this relic in their safe keeping. The group was unsure if the relic was what was granting the feeling of sanctuary and decided to leave it here for now and come back later.
They locked up the secret chapel and headed west again, and the hall ended at an ornate tomb door. Tyrriel read the memorial plaque, which declared that this was once the tomb of the one of the imperial families of Ancient Idalium, though it seemed that Snapespindle had converted it to his own lair.
They entered the imperial tombs, and walked cautiously down a stone corridor. The western corridor turned south, with a door on the north wall at the corner. Inside this tomb, they found a grim and dismal sight. Skeletons lay scattered around the room, but all seemed horribly wrong. Some had hands where their feet should be, another had a skull inside its rib cage, another had its skull replaced with a foot. Across the room, an ancient male corpse lay naked on an examination table. Its chest had been cut open and the dessicated organs had been removed, labeled with tags, and arranged neatly on a nearby table. Another examination table held a female corpse, much more recently deceased, which had been slashed with a knife in many places and drained of blood.
As the adventurers crept towards the corpses to get a closer look, the skeletons on the floor all began to rise, blindly seeking the Beating Heart. "Bow down!" yelled Gulleck, and all of them kneeled and kowtowed before him.
With this army of the dead being herded before them, the adventurers left the tomb in search of Snapespindle. But they didn't have to wait long. "What blasphemy is this?!" cried a voice from the south. Through the skeletal bones of their small army, the adventurers could see Snapespindle standing in the hall with three of his "pet" ghouls. "Have you found the source of power that I seek? You will give it to me now!" barked Snapespindle.
"Kill 'im!" commanded Gulleck, and the skeletons and zombies lunged forward towards the ghouls that stood between them and Snapespindle.
Snapespindle waved an arm in the air and intoned, "May the darkness of death descend upon you all!" Suddenly, everything went black for Tod and the three retainers. Gulleck and Tyrriel could still see dimly with their infravision, but could only make out the dim forms of the skeletons and ghouls battling in the hallway.
Snapespindle must have run, for they heard the sound of a heavy door opening and closing far to the south. The battle raged between the skeletons and zombies on one side and the three ghouls on the other. The ghouls clearly had the upper hand and eventually destroyed the skeletons and both of the zombies before Gulleck used the Heart to force the ghouls obediently to the ground, where the party quickly destroyed them.
Dismayed at letting Snapespindle evade them, but wanting to regroup before pursuing him (and we had already run over our session time!), the group retreated to the Rusty Lantern, retrieving the reliquary from the hidden chapel along the way. The Church was indeed pleased to have recovered this relic, giving them a payment of 1,000 gold darics as a reward for their service.
Although Gulleck felt rather flush with power from commanding a small army of the dead into battle, it was decided that the group should rotate the Beating Heart among them, so that if there were adverse effects from possessing it, they would be spread out and slowed down. Gulleck agreed to this, but perhaps grudgingly. Could the others truly be the proper guardians that such a powerful artifact merited?
Game date: Sunday, April 14, 208 to Wednesday, April 17, 208
PCs:
Tod P. Quasit, Jr., Fighter 1, hp 5, xp 1246/2000
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 2, hp 10, xp 2888/4400
Tyrriel, Elf 1, hp 3, xp 2978/4000
Retainers:
Brother Jibber, Cleric 1, hp 5, xp 1290/1500
Gaspar, Fighter 1, hp 3, xp 148/2000
Wilhelm, Magic-user 1, hp 4, xp 1220/2500
Now in possession of the Beating Heart, a dreadful relic with the apparent power to bring the undead under the control of its bearer, the Infestation Managers set their collective eye on the defeat of the sinister necromancer Gregor Snapespindle. How fitting to use his own forces against him. But first, they wished to pay a visit to the reclusive Professor Zinn to make inquiries about the strange object and some of the other items they had discovered.
Tod, Gulleck, and Tyrriel made their way across the city of Idalium, through the decrepit and odorous district of warehouses and factories near the river, across the old stone bridge that spans the river, and through to the disconnected and peculiar neighborhood of The Steps. Here, where the streets and rickety houses cling precariously to the hillside, they made their way to the steepest street in all of Idalium - the Street of Steps - and began the long and tiring climb up the hill. Gulleck grumbled as usual about human idiosyncrasies as they passed below teetering houses that leaned forward across the street so far that the upper stories were connected with plank bridges. Eventually they came to the top of the street, and stood in front of the five story house where Professor Zinn overlooked the city of Idalium from his apartment on the top floor.
Tod pulled the bell rope and the three adventurers were let into the house by Professor Zinn's young apprentice Peter, who led them up the creaky, tilting wooden stairs to Zinn's apartment. Professor Zinn, sitting at his desk with his back to the large open window that looked out over the city, welcomed the trio into his office and asked how they had been fairing.
Tod paid the professor 500 shekels for information on the sword they had recovered from the tomb of Sevintius. Professor Zinn's eyes widened as he listened to their tale, and he pulled a book from one of his shelves, and showed them an illustration of General Sevintius leading an army into battle against a horde of barbarians ("our ancestors, most likely," mused the professor). The fabled Sword of Sevintius was capable of shining with a bright light when the Idalian words "lumo alans" were spoken. The words "lumo detans" would cause the light to fade again. Tod boldly spoke the words "lumo alans!" and was dismayed when nothing happened. "Er... I suspect you have to hold the sword," advised Professor Zinn. Tod blushed a bit, grasped the sword by the hilt, and then spoke the phrase again, and the room was flooded with light, causing everyone to squint.
The group sold Professor Zinn the water-damaged map they had found in the record room of the catacombs for a few hundred shekels, and then paid him another 500 shekel fee for information on the Beating Heart. The professor's face became drawn and grim and he told that it rang a bell with him but he couldn't remember any details. He told them he would research it in his books and asked them to return in three days.
Over the next few days, Tyrriel picked up her lizard-skin cloak from the cordwainer Elsbeth Finley, and then went in search of an apothecary to whom she hoped to sell her carrion crawler tentacles. The apothecary turned out to be an alarmingly intense man with wild, straggly hair, red-rimmed eyes, and smudges of ash on his face and hands. His shop was mostly full of quack remedies, though he did draw a couple of genuine (or so he claimed) magical potions from below the counter. The price was still too dear for the adventurers, and they passed on the opportunity. The apothecary hemmed and hawed at the decaying state of Tyrriel's tentacles, but bought them nonetheless. Tyrriel sweet-talked him into giving her several jars full of preservative for future collection purposes. When they asked the wild apothecary if there was anything else in the dungeon they should keep an eye out for, he let slip that he was very interested in a certain powder carried by the horrible savage orcs. Tod gladly sold him two pouches of the "rage dust" for several hundred shekels each. "Oh great, now we've become drug dealers too."They rested in the city for two more days, waiting for Professor Zinn to complete his research. Gulleck had been keeping the Beating Heart for safe keeping, and he found he was growing somewhat paranoid and obsessive about. He would find himself thinking about the heart and going to check on it periodically. When the group reunited on Wednesday to speak with the professor again, they noticed that Gulleck looked a bit peaky and twitchy. "You sure you're OK?" "I'm fine!" "Maybe someone else should hang on to that for awhile." "No, I'm good."
Professor Zinn told them that the Beating Heart was the subject of several legends and apocryphal references. Its origins were lost in time. It was said to begin to beat when in the presence of the undead (and therefore could detect them). When presented boldly before the undead, they could be warded off or even controlled. And if the sticky blood that oozed from the stump of the heart's aorta was squeezed onto the lips of a corpse, the heart had the power to give speech to that corpse and allow the bearer to ask questions of it.
Gulleck asked what the legends said about the one who possesses the Heart. Professor Zinn said the legends were somewhat contradictory: some spoke of the Heart granting great power to the one who held it and controlled armies of the dead. Other legends spoke of the Heart corrupting and consuming the one who carried it.
Sobered by this ominous information, the group made plans to confront Snapespindle in his lair in the catacombs. Down below the Rusty Lantern they went, and through the temple of the dead into the catacombs. They headed west, vaguely remembering the direction they had been dragged by Snapespindle's ghouls while paralyzed. As they passed through a crypt hall, two corpses staggered from their niches and lunged towards Gulleck and the Beating Heart that he held in front of him.
"Bow down!" roared Gulleck, raising the Heart. The two zombies immediately prostrated themselves in front of him. "Lead the way," he commanded, and they rose and started heading west.
At a T-intersection, the group took a detour to explore a hall full of iron crypt doors. Most were nondescript, either occupied by long-dead remains, or apparently plundered and raided already. However, one crypt door bore markings that Brother Jibber recognized as being an early version of the sun disc of the Great Church of the All-Pervading Light. They pulled this tomb door open and found themselves in a tomb with further symbols of the Great Church; clearly this was the tomb of a very early adherent to the dominant religion of modern-day Idalium. Brother Jibber noticed a recessed carving of the sun disc symbol, and discovered that his own holy symbol would fit within it. It turned within the recess and with a click, a secret door was unlocked, leading to a hidden chapel. The atmosphere in here felt peaceful and serene, and the the group noticed with some pleasure that the zombies would not follow them into the chapel, even when ordered to do so. A sanctuary! They also discovered a small wooden reliquary that held the holy eyeball of a very early saint. Brother Jibber believed the Church would be very grateful to have this relic in their safe keeping. The group was unsure if the relic was what was granting the feeling of sanctuary and decided to leave it here for now and come back later.
They locked up the secret chapel and headed west again, and the hall ended at an ornate tomb door. Tyrriel read the memorial plaque, which declared that this was once the tomb of the one of the imperial families of Ancient Idalium, though it seemed that Snapespindle had converted it to his own lair.
They entered the imperial tombs, and walked cautiously down a stone corridor. The western corridor turned south, with a door on the north wall at the corner. Inside this tomb, they found a grim and dismal sight. Skeletons lay scattered around the room, but all seemed horribly wrong. Some had hands where their feet should be, another had a skull inside its rib cage, another had its skull replaced with a foot. Across the room, an ancient male corpse lay naked on an examination table. Its chest had been cut open and the dessicated organs had been removed, labeled with tags, and arranged neatly on a nearby table. Another examination table held a female corpse, much more recently deceased, which had been slashed with a knife in many places and drained of blood.
As the adventurers crept towards the corpses to get a closer look, the skeletons on the floor all began to rise, blindly seeking the Beating Heart. "Bow down!" yelled Gulleck, and all of them kneeled and kowtowed before him.
With this army of the dead being herded before them, the adventurers left the tomb in search of Snapespindle. But they didn't have to wait long. "What blasphemy is this?!" cried a voice from the south. Through the skeletal bones of their small army, the adventurers could see Snapespindle standing in the hall with three of his "pet" ghouls. "Have you found the source of power that I seek? You will give it to me now!" barked Snapespindle.
"Kill 'im!" commanded Gulleck, and the skeletons and zombies lunged forward towards the ghouls that stood between them and Snapespindle.
Snapespindle waved an arm in the air and intoned, "May the darkness of death descend upon you all!" Suddenly, everything went black for Tod and the three retainers. Gulleck and Tyrriel could still see dimly with their infravision, but could only make out the dim forms of the skeletons and ghouls battling in the hallway.
Snapespindle must have run, for they heard the sound of a heavy door opening and closing far to the south. The battle raged between the skeletons and zombies on one side and the three ghouls on the other. The ghouls clearly had the upper hand and eventually destroyed the skeletons and both of the zombies before Gulleck used the Heart to force the ghouls obediently to the ground, where the party quickly destroyed them.
Dismayed at letting Snapespindle evade them, but wanting to regroup before pursuing him (and we had already run over our session time!), the group retreated to the Rusty Lantern, retrieving the reliquary from the hidden chapel along the way. The Church was indeed pleased to have recovered this relic, giving them a payment of 1,000 gold darics as a reward for their service.
Although Gulleck felt rather flush with power from commanding a small army of the dead into battle, it was decided that the group should rotate the Beating Heart among them, so that if there were adverse effects from possessing it, they would be spread out and slowed down. Gulleck agreed to this, but perhaps grudgingly. Could the others truly be the proper guardians that such a powerful artifact merited?
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Idalium Game 24: Heart of Darkness
Session date: Monday, June 15, 2015
Game date: Saturday, April 13, 208
PCs:
Tod P. Quasit, Jr., Fighter 2, hp 14, xp 3129/4000
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 2, hp 10, xp 2664/4400
Tyrriel, Elf 1, hp 3, xp 2743/4000
Caryatid, Magic-user 2, hp 8, xp 3692/5000
Vito Aneti, Thief 2, hp 10, xp 1540/2400
Retainers:
Brother Jibber, Cleric 1, hp 5, xp 1167/1500
Gaspar, Fighter 1, hp 3, xp 36/2000
Wilhelm, Magic-user 1, hp 4, xp 1102/2500
Ylil, Thief 2, hp 5, xp 1320/2400
Sprat, Thief 1, hp 3, xp 254/1200
Today we had a full house of players, for the first time in quite a while! Emboldened by their numbers, the Infestation Managers set forth with a mission: To claim the Beating Heart in the Hero's Tomb. But first, they had to find the Hero's Tomb. Happily, they now had three people in the party who could read Ancient Idalian, and so they intended to spend some time researching the records room in the caretaker's quarters.
They traveled through the streets of buried Idalium without encountering anyone, and made their way through the temple of the dead without event. They descended into the catacombs and cautiously made their way to the caretaker's rooms. The living room was still draped in dried webs from the giant dessicated spider corpse that still lay in this room. As the party looked around the room, Gulleck noticed the painting on the wall of the harbor south of the city of Idalium at the shore of the Great Sea, and remembered a reference in the caretaker's letter to "the treasure beyond the sea". Carefully, he lifted the painting down from the wall, and discovered a crudely bricked up cavity in the wall. The mortar was old and crumbly and it took little time to chip it away with a crowbar, and pull the bricks from the wall. Inside the cavity, they found several sacks full of silver and gold coins, and a small velvet pouch containing four very nice gems. Very pleased with their success, the party tucked the coins and gems away and proceeded to the records room.
In the records room, Tyrriel, Wilhelm, and Vito, who were all able to read Ancient Idalian, set to work looking through the card catalog containing the index to the records of the deceased. The rest of the party guarded the closed door. After half an hour or so, Vito discovered a map of the catacomb system. It was water damaged and faded, but they were able to add a few areas to their own map. Tyrriel and Wilhelm, meanwhile, were looking for information on heroes of Idalium. Most references did not seem relevant, but eventually they found a reference to a General Sevintius, who led vast armies into battle to expand the mighty Empire of Idalium. He had been buried with honors in a tomb in the catacombs. They cross-referenced the location to their newly-found map, and quickly headed out to find it.
When they got to the location indicated by the map, they found that there was no tomb door there. Before they could address this puzzle, a half dozen bodies rolled from the crypt niches further down the corridor. The corpses pulled themselves to their feet and started to lurch towards the group. One of the zombies flailed at Tod, wounding him, but he retaliated by slicing its arm off! Then Brother Jibber raised his holy sun disc and spoke a fervent prayer that drove the zombies back, while the others pelted them with sling stones and crossbow bolts until they fell senseless to the ground.
Tyrriel now turned to examine the wall very carefully, and discovered that the entrance had been bricked up and plastered over so skillfully that there was no sign of there ever having been an opening there, unless you knew to look for it. Gulleck and Tod brought out their crowbars and began tearing away the plaster and then pulling bricks out into the hallway. This made a tremendous noise, triggered a wandering monster check for every turn that it took them to bring down the wall. First three giant beetles approached. They were not immediately hostile, so Gulleck kicked across the arm that Tod had chopped off of the zombie. The beetles eagerly began to tear at the decomposed flesh, and Tod and Gulleck returned to their work at the wall. Next, the noise attracted an enormous pack of several dozen ordinary rats). Gulleck and Tod gingerly flipped the rest of a zombie body over in their direction, and were pleased to see that the rats as well were content to feast on the ancient corpse. Several of the party lit torches to brandish at the rats should they approach.
Eventually, the bricks were cleared from the wall, and the party cautiously stepped into the secret tomb. A large stone sarcophagus occupied the center of the room. On the lid was painted the image of a man in repose, a beautiful sword laid atop his body. The walls were painted with scenes of General Sevintius leading an army of Idalians against a horde of barbarians, wielding a sword that glowed with an bright light. Gulleck walked around the sarcophagus, and discovered behind it a three-foot square area on the opposite wall that had obviously been plastered over. He stuck his crossbar through the plaster and found that it penetrated easily into an open space. Proceeding to tear away the plaster and lath, he soon opened up the entrance to a tight crawlspace. Crouching down to peer along the crawlspace he could see that it extended perhaps thirty feet before opening up into a small room that was lit by an eerie red glow. And as he looked, he became aware of a faint thumping coming up the crawlspace, a sound like the beating of a heart.
Gulleck and Tyrriel nervously crawled into the crawlspace, a rope attached to Gulleck in case he needed to be pulled back in a hurry. At the end of the tunnel, they found a small shrine. Strangely carved wooden icons stood on a small altar, upon which they discovered what looked like a large human heart. It glistened in the eerie red glow that pervaded the room, and as they watched it, they saw that it was visibly beating, and the throbbing thumps were loud in the small room.
Gulleck gingerly reached a hand out and prodded the heart. It was squishy like flesh. He carefully picked it up. Suddenly, from back along the crawlspace, there was the sudden scraping of stone upon stone, and then came Brother Jibber's unmistakable shriek of fear.
Back in the tomb, the lid of the sarcophagus was suddenly pushed aside from within, and a withered body sat up in its coffin. It was practically mummified, thin skin stretched tightly over bone. As it emerged from the sarcophagus, the atmosphere in the room suddenly became chill and dim, and the PCs all felt a panicky terror welling up inside of them, as if their very souls were being tugged away from their bodies.
The creature quickly threw its legs over the side of the sarcophagus and stood up. As it did so, a sword in its scabbard clattered onto the stone floor of the tomb. Gaspar backed up and sent an arrow into the thing's chest, but it didn't seem to bother it at all. It seemed to leer at him and then grabbed the arrow and snapped it off. Caryatid quickly spoke the words of the Magic Missile spell and a glowing golden arrow shot deep into the thing's chest. This time it staggered and seemed wounded.
Tod lunged for the sword on the ground, but the horrible creature turned towards with a grimace. It reached forward and seized Tod by the shoulder, digging its cold fingers into his collarbone. Tod's face turned pale as he felt his very essence being sapped by this unholy fiend. It released him with a snarl and he staggered back, slumping against the wall.
Meanwhile, Tyrriel and Gulleck were frantically trying to destroy the heart with axe and sword but couldn't manage to hit it. (I made them roll attacks vs AC 9, since even though it was a stationary target they were rattled and rushed.) Tyrriel swears to this day she saw it twitch away from her sword.
The thing in the tomb room turned towards Ylil, reaching a hand towards him. But Caryatid spoke the words of Magic Missile again, and a second arrow flew unerringly into the creature's chest. The unholy spark in its eyes faded and it crashed to the floor. Solo kill for the magic-user! The cold, oppressive atmosphere immediately lifted as quickly as it had fallen.
The party hurriedly regrouped in the tomb. The heart had stopped beating and Tyrriel put it in a sack tied to her belt. After carefully lifting Sevintius's body back into his sarcophagus and replacing the lid (apparently dead war heroes still command some respect even after they've turned into hideous undead monstrosities), the party set out, making haste to return to the Rusty Lantern.
They were almost out of the catacombs when a handful of skeletons emerged from the niches along the walls of the hall. As they approached the party, Tyrriel could feel the heart begin to throb in the pouch on her belt, and began to grow warm. The sound of its beating filled the hall. "Aaaah, you take it!" Tyrriel yelped, and thrust the bag into Gulleck's hands. Gulleck tried to silence the heart by smashing it against the wall, but it kept beating and the skeletons began to lunge forward. Suddenly, as if driven by an inner wisdom that came from somewhere unfamiliar, Gulleck drew forth the beating heart and held it aloft. The skeletons stopped and seemed to gaze at it in rapture. Then they all prostrated themselves in front of the party, bowed over in a kowtow posture.
"Go back where you came from!" Gulleck boomed, and the skeletons meekly retreated into their crypt niches. "And stay there for a thousand years," Gulleck added hopefully.
Excited by this new power over the undead, but wary of what horrible cost on their souls it might exact, the adventurers quickly continued on their way out. On the way, they encountered the horrible nine foot grublike monstrosity that had paralyzed Gulleck last week. It didn't attack immediately, so at first they were going to just keep walking away. But Tyrriel decided she wanted to acquire its paralyzing tentacles to sell or research or make some kind of use of, so a quick Sleep spell from her rendered the enormous beast motionless. A quick blow of a sword killed it, and Tyrriel sliced off the eight tentacles around its mouth and carefully packed them into some empty flasks she had been carrying around for this kind of thing.
They made it back to the Rusty Lantern safely, elated to have discovered the Beating Heart, but deeply uneasy about possessing it, and looking forward with some dread towards their inevitable confrontation with Gregor Snapespindle, who had charged them with finding the Heart but whom they knew could not be allowed to take possession of it.
Game date: Saturday, April 13, 208
PCs:
Tod P. Quasit, Jr., Fighter 2, hp 14, xp 3129/4000
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 2, hp 10, xp 2664/4400
Tyrriel, Elf 1, hp 3, xp 2743/4000
Caryatid, Magic-user 2, hp 8, xp 3692/5000
Vito Aneti, Thief 2, hp 10, xp 1540/2400
Retainers:
Brother Jibber, Cleric 1, hp 5, xp 1167/1500
Gaspar, Fighter 1, hp 3, xp 36/2000
Wilhelm, Magic-user 1, hp 4, xp 1102/2500
Ylil, Thief 2, hp 5, xp 1320/2400
Sprat, Thief 1, hp 3, xp 254/1200
Today we had a full house of players, for the first time in quite a while! Emboldened by their numbers, the Infestation Managers set forth with a mission: To claim the Beating Heart in the Hero's Tomb. But first, they had to find the Hero's Tomb. Happily, they now had three people in the party who could read Ancient Idalian, and so they intended to spend some time researching the records room in the caretaker's quarters.
They traveled through the streets of buried Idalium without encountering anyone, and made their way through the temple of the dead without event. They descended into the catacombs and cautiously made their way to the caretaker's rooms. The living room was still draped in dried webs from the giant dessicated spider corpse that still lay in this room. As the party looked around the room, Gulleck noticed the painting on the wall of the harbor south of the city of Idalium at the shore of the Great Sea, and remembered a reference in the caretaker's letter to "the treasure beyond the sea". Carefully, he lifted the painting down from the wall, and discovered a crudely bricked up cavity in the wall. The mortar was old and crumbly and it took little time to chip it away with a crowbar, and pull the bricks from the wall. Inside the cavity, they found several sacks full of silver and gold coins, and a small velvet pouch containing four very nice gems. Very pleased with their success, the party tucked the coins and gems away and proceeded to the records room.
In the records room, Tyrriel, Wilhelm, and Vito, who were all able to read Ancient Idalian, set to work looking through the card catalog containing the index to the records of the deceased. The rest of the party guarded the closed door. After half an hour or so, Vito discovered a map of the catacomb system. It was water damaged and faded, but they were able to add a few areas to their own map. Tyrriel and Wilhelm, meanwhile, were looking for information on heroes of Idalium. Most references did not seem relevant, but eventually they found a reference to a General Sevintius, who led vast armies into battle to expand the mighty Empire of Idalium. He had been buried with honors in a tomb in the catacombs. They cross-referenced the location to their newly-found map, and quickly headed out to find it.
When they got to the location indicated by the map, they found that there was no tomb door there. Before they could address this puzzle, a half dozen bodies rolled from the crypt niches further down the corridor. The corpses pulled themselves to their feet and started to lurch towards the group. One of the zombies flailed at Tod, wounding him, but he retaliated by slicing its arm off! Then Brother Jibber raised his holy sun disc and spoke a fervent prayer that drove the zombies back, while the others pelted them with sling stones and crossbow bolts until they fell senseless to the ground.
Tyrriel now turned to examine the wall very carefully, and discovered that the entrance had been bricked up and plastered over so skillfully that there was no sign of there ever having been an opening there, unless you knew to look for it. Gulleck and Tod brought out their crowbars and began tearing away the plaster and then pulling bricks out into the hallway. This made a tremendous noise, triggered a wandering monster check for every turn that it took them to bring down the wall. First three giant beetles approached. They were not immediately hostile, so Gulleck kicked across the arm that Tod had chopped off of the zombie. The beetles eagerly began to tear at the decomposed flesh, and Tod and Gulleck returned to their work at the wall. Next, the noise attracted an enormous pack of several dozen ordinary rats). Gulleck and Tod gingerly flipped the rest of a zombie body over in their direction, and were pleased to see that the rats as well were content to feast on the ancient corpse. Several of the party lit torches to brandish at the rats should they approach.
Eventually, the bricks were cleared from the wall, and the party cautiously stepped into the secret tomb. A large stone sarcophagus occupied the center of the room. On the lid was painted the image of a man in repose, a beautiful sword laid atop his body. The walls were painted with scenes of General Sevintius leading an army of Idalians against a horde of barbarians, wielding a sword that glowed with an bright light. Gulleck walked around the sarcophagus, and discovered behind it a three-foot square area on the opposite wall that had obviously been plastered over. He stuck his crossbar through the plaster and found that it penetrated easily into an open space. Proceeding to tear away the plaster and lath, he soon opened up the entrance to a tight crawlspace. Crouching down to peer along the crawlspace he could see that it extended perhaps thirty feet before opening up into a small room that was lit by an eerie red glow. And as he looked, he became aware of a faint thumping coming up the crawlspace, a sound like the beating of a heart.
Gulleck and Tyrriel nervously crawled into the crawlspace, a rope attached to Gulleck in case he needed to be pulled back in a hurry. At the end of the tunnel, they found a small shrine. Strangely carved wooden icons stood on a small altar, upon which they discovered what looked like a large human heart. It glistened in the eerie red glow that pervaded the room, and as they watched it, they saw that it was visibly beating, and the throbbing thumps were loud in the small room.
Gulleck gingerly reached a hand out and prodded the heart. It was squishy like flesh. He carefully picked it up. Suddenly, from back along the crawlspace, there was the sudden scraping of stone upon stone, and then came Brother Jibber's unmistakable shriek of fear.
Back in the tomb, the lid of the sarcophagus was suddenly pushed aside from within, and a withered body sat up in its coffin. It was practically mummified, thin skin stretched tightly over bone. As it emerged from the sarcophagus, the atmosphere in the room suddenly became chill and dim, and the PCs all felt a panicky terror welling up inside of them, as if their very souls were being tugged away from their bodies.
The creature quickly threw its legs over the side of the sarcophagus and stood up. As it did so, a sword in its scabbard clattered onto the stone floor of the tomb. Gaspar backed up and sent an arrow into the thing's chest, but it didn't seem to bother it at all. It seemed to leer at him and then grabbed the arrow and snapped it off. Caryatid quickly spoke the words of the Magic Missile spell and a glowing golden arrow shot deep into the thing's chest. This time it staggered and seemed wounded.
Tod lunged for the sword on the ground, but the horrible creature turned towards with a grimace. It reached forward and seized Tod by the shoulder, digging its cold fingers into his collarbone. Tod's face turned pale as he felt his very essence being sapped by this unholy fiend. It released him with a snarl and he staggered back, slumping against the wall.
Meanwhile, Tyrriel and Gulleck were frantically trying to destroy the heart with axe and sword but couldn't manage to hit it. (I made them roll attacks vs AC 9, since even though it was a stationary target they were rattled and rushed.) Tyrriel swears to this day she saw it twitch away from her sword.
The thing in the tomb room turned towards Ylil, reaching a hand towards him. But Caryatid spoke the words of Magic Missile again, and a second arrow flew unerringly into the creature's chest. The unholy spark in its eyes faded and it crashed to the floor. Solo kill for the magic-user! The cold, oppressive atmosphere immediately lifted as quickly as it had fallen.
The party hurriedly regrouped in the tomb. The heart had stopped beating and Tyrriel put it in a sack tied to her belt. After carefully lifting Sevintius's body back into his sarcophagus and replacing the lid (apparently dead war heroes still command some respect even after they've turned into hideous undead monstrosities), the party set out, making haste to return to the Rusty Lantern.
They were almost out of the catacombs when a handful of skeletons emerged from the niches along the walls of the hall. As they approached the party, Tyrriel could feel the heart begin to throb in the pouch on her belt, and began to grow warm. The sound of its beating filled the hall. "Aaaah, you take it!" Tyrriel yelped, and thrust the bag into Gulleck's hands. Gulleck tried to silence the heart by smashing it against the wall, but it kept beating and the skeletons began to lunge forward. Suddenly, as if driven by an inner wisdom that came from somewhere unfamiliar, Gulleck drew forth the beating heart and held it aloft. The skeletons stopped and seemed to gaze at it in rapture. Then they all prostrated themselves in front of the party, bowed over in a kowtow posture.
"Go back where you came from!" Gulleck boomed, and the skeletons meekly retreated into their crypt niches. "And stay there for a thousand years," Gulleck added hopefully.
Excited by this new power over the undead, but wary of what horrible cost on their souls it might exact, the adventurers quickly continued on their way out. On the way, they encountered the horrible nine foot grublike monstrosity that had paralyzed Gulleck last week. It didn't attack immediately, so at first they were going to just keep walking away. But Tyrriel decided she wanted to acquire its paralyzing tentacles to sell or research or make some kind of use of, so a quick Sleep spell from her rendered the enormous beast motionless. A quick blow of a sword killed it, and Tyrriel sliced off the eight tentacles around its mouth and carefully packed them into some empty flasks she had been carrying around for this kind of thing.
They made it back to the Rusty Lantern safely, elated to have discovered the Beating Heart, but deeply uneasy about possessing it, and looking forward with some dread towards their inevitable confrontation with Gregor Snapespindle, who had charged them with finding the Heart but whom they knew could not be allowed to take possession of it.
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Idalium Game 23: Comfortably Numb
Session date: Monday, June 1, 2015
Game date: Saturday, April 6, 208
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 2, hp 10, xp 2593/4400
Caryatid, Magic-user 2, hp 8, xp 3621/5000
Retainers:
Gaspar, Fighter 1, hp 3, xp 0/2000
Ylil, Thief 2, hp 5, xp 1284/2400
Another thin crowd on game night, so the Dynamic Duo of Gulleck and Caryatid set out on their own again. Well, not entirely on their own: Gulleck recruited Shorty "The Mouse" again, hoping to make use of her magic undead-slaying sword. Shorty was willing to join the team again, but this time asked for an upfront minimum payment of 1,000 silver shekels (since the last time was a complete bust in the treasure department). Gulleck also hired a new retainer to replace the tragically lost Rutger: a fighter named Gaspar, of rather ordinary strength but unusually nimble.
Back to the catacombs they went, in the grudging service of the horrible necromancer Gregor Snapespindle, whose wrath they did not wish to incur. On the way they met a group of nervous gnomes. The gnomes were high-strung because, as they told the party once they settled down, they had barely escaped with their lives from an enormous slug-like monster. They said its lair was strewn with thousands of coins and also a very shiny battleaxe, but when they went in to collect the treasure, the horrible beast emerged from a hole and nearly devoured them. They gave Gulleck some vague directions to the lair, and the two groups went on their way.
Gulleck and Caryatid wanted to doublecheck the records room they found in the caretaker's quarters. They were hoping to find some sort of reference to "The Hero's Tomb" or the map that the enciphered scroll had referred to. They made their way to the caretaker's quarters, and Gulleck carefully opened the door and looked in. In their absence, the room had been filled with gigantic sticky webs, and a giant glistening black spider across the room turned towards the door and began striding across the floor towards them.
Gulleck attempted to quickly close the door, but the spider was too quick for him. It rammed its head and part of its body into the doorway. Alas, I rolled a natural 20 for the spider's attack roll, and the venomous fangs of the black widow pierced deeply into Gulleck's arm. Gulleck's player chose to roll the big green d30 for his saving throw, but even with those odds (and his exceptional dwarven saving throws) he failed his save vs. poison! He was a dead man walking, but not down yet.
Gulleck plunged Shorty's magical sword into the spider's head before it could bite again, but the damage was already done. Gulleck limped with the rest of the party back out of the catacombs. No one was sure what they could do to save him, but the question was rendered moot, for just as they made their way back up the stairs leading out of the catacombs, Gulleck dropped to his knees, foaming at the mouth, and then collapsed against a wall, blue in the face and breathing no more.
Caryatid and Ylil picked up Gulleck's body between the two of them and the group moved as quickly as they could through the buried streets of Ancient Idalium to the temple of hedonism, where they knew they could pass through to the mystical pool that could revive the dead. They made their way uneventfully to the temple, but when they got to the hallway that led to the staircase down the second level they discovered that the crystal guardian statue had reformed! (It had been shattered by unknown persons the last time they were here.) There was a brief debate over who, if anyone, still had the robes of the temple that would allow them passage, but then Caryatid got tired of dithering and simply blasted the statue with magic missiles, shattering it into tiny fragments.
They made it to the pool without mishap, and they lowered Gulleck into the slippery waters. A few anxious moments passed, and then the dwarf's arms came splashing above the surface, and they pulled him out. He was ruddy of complexion again, and the wound in his arm had completely disappeared. Gulleck felt better than he had in months (since the last time he had taken a dip in this pool, to be precise!).
Now that that was sorted out, the party headed back again to the catacombs. They moved carefully through the halls, but disturbed the rest of a dozen skeletons, which chased the party through the halls until they ran into the caretaker's quarters and slammed the door shut behind them. They found the records room, but without anyone who could read Ancient Idalian, they were unable to made heads or tails of the obscure filing system.
Abandoning this line of inquiry, Gulleck suggested they pursue the treasure the gnomes had told them about. It had been so very long since the party had acquired any significant amount of treasure! It seemed the skeletons had lost interest and wandered off or returned to their rest, so the group set out again, heading west. They passed through more narrow catacomb halls lined with funerary niches, and into smoothly carved stone corridors with occasional elegantly carved mausoleum doors. ("The upscale side of the catacombs, I see!") Eventually, they came to an intersection where a hall to the west produced a terrible foul odor of active rot and decay. Creeping along the hall, they found it to open up into a room filled with rotting corpses, scraps of meat, vegetable matter, and other less identifiable debris. On the floor glittered thousands of copper and silver coins, and a shiny battleaxe glimmered in the lantern light.
But as the group entered the doorway, a freakish creature emerged from a burrow on the opposite side of the room. It resembled an enormous caterpillar or grub or centipede, with dozens of legs, but it was roughly three feet in diameter and at least nine feet long! Its faceted insectile eyes stared blankly at the adventurers, and around its chewing mandibles was a ring of bizarre tentacle-like growths, waving hungrily towards its prey. It moved with remarkable speed, crawling up onto the wall and ceiling and it scurried towards the adventurers.
Gulleck and Gaspar held their ground in the doorway as the horrible beast approached. Shorty managed to nick the thing's carapace with an arrow shot from over Gulleck's head, but it kept coming. It lunged at Gulleck, and multiple tentacles wrapped around the flesh of his arm and face. He felt a cold stinging sensation, and then suddenly his entire body went limp and numb, and yet again he slumped down onto the dirty dungeon floor.
Caryatid drew forth the magical wand they had discovered in the hall of records some weeks ago. She stepped forward past Shorty to point the wand at the crawling horror and released the power within the gnarled stick. The beast reared back in panic, and then, moving faster than ever, it scurried back along the wall and into its burrow, its long bulk wriggling into the wall and vanishing from sight.
Caryatid poured oil around the entrance to its burrow and lit it on fire, in the hopes of further discouraging the creature's return. The adventurers then turned their efforts towards scooping as many coins as possible into their backpacks. There were clearly too many coins to carry out in one trip, but they gathered as many as they could fit. Most of the coins were just copper bits, but they were mingled with the silver and there was no time to try to pick out only the more valuable coins. Gulleck regained control over his body about twenty minutes later, and took up the shiny battleaxe, beautifully made and clearly of dwarven craftsmanship! It was perfectly balanced in Gulleck's hand, and he looked forward for a chance to put it to the test.
Having gathered as many coins as possible, the party quickly fled this stinking room and made their way back out of the catacombs. Just as they got near the stairs out, a group of hideous undead monstrosities heaved their way out of the catacomb niches in front of them, and the air was filled with the sickly sweet stench of the ghouls. The adventurers flinched, ready for combat, but the ghouls seemed to recognize Gulleck and Caryatid, and stepped aside, allowing them to pass, even while snarling and hissing at them.
"What the heck was that?" said Shorty after they had emerged at the top of the stairs leading out of the crypts. "Why didn't they attack us?"
"Uh, I don't know," lied Gulleck.
"Maybe it's that new axe," suggested Caryatid. "Who knows what powers it has?"
"Oh, maybe," said Shorty, a bit doubtful.
Gulleck was in no hurry to reveal to his friend and rival that he was in fact working for an evil necromancer. But Shorty didn't push the issue, and they made it back to the Rusty Lantern without further issue.
Game date: Saturday, April 6, 208
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 2, hp 10, xp 2593/4400
Caryatid, Magic-user 2, hp 8, xp 3621/5000
Retainers:
Gaspar, Fighter 1, hp 3, xp 0/2000
Ylil, Thief 2, hp 5, xp 1284/2400
Another thin crowd on game night, so the Dynamic Duo of Gulleck and Caryatid set out on their own again. Well, not entirely on their own: Gulleck recruited Shorty "The Mouse" again, hoping to make use of her magic undead-slaying sword. Shorty was willing to join the team again, but this time asked for an upfront minimum payment of 1,000 silver shekels (since the last time was a complete bust in the treasure department). Gulleck also hired a new retainer to replace the tragically lost Rutger: a fighter named Gaspar, of rather ordinary strength but unusually nimble.
Back to the catacombs they went, in the grudging service of the horrible necromancer Gregor Snapespindle, whose wrath they did not wish to incur. On the way they met a group of nervous gnomes. The gnomes were high-strung because, as they told the party once they settled down, they had barely escaped with their lives from an enormous slug-like monster. They said its lair was strewn with thousands of coins and also a very shiny battleaxe, but when they went in to collect the treasure, the horrible beast emerged from a hole and nearly devoured them. They gave Gulleck some vague directions to the lair, and the two groups went on their way.
Gulleck and Caryatid wanted to doublecheck the records room they found in the caretaker's quarters. They were hoping to find some sort of reference to "The Hero's Tomb" or the map that the enciphered scroll had referred to. They made their way to the caretaker's quarters, and Gulleck carefully opened the door and looked in. In their absence, the room had been filled with gigantic sticky webs, and a giant glistening black spider across the room turned towards the door and began striding across the floor towards them.
Gulleck attempted to quickly close the door, but the spider was too quick for him. It rammed its head and part of its body into the doorway. Alas, I rolled a natural 20 for the spider's attack roll, and the venomous fangs of the black widow pierced deeply into Gulleck's arm. Gulleck's player chose to roll the big green d30 for his saving throw, but even with those odds (and his exceptional dwarven saving throws) he failed his save vs. poison! He was a dead man walking, but not down yet.
Gulleck plunged Shorty's magical sword into the spider's head before it could bite again, but the damage was already done. Gulleck limped with the rest of the party back out of the catacombs. No one was sure what they could do to save him, but the question was rendered moot, for just as they made their way back up the stairs leading out of the catacombs, Gulleck dropped to his knees, foaming at the mouth, and then collapsed against a wall, blue in the face and breathing no more.
Caryatid and Ylil picked up Gulleck's body between the two of them and the group moved as quickly as they could through the buried streets of Ancient Idalium to the temple of hedonism, where they knew they could pass through to the mystical pool that could revive the dead. They made their way uneventfully to the temple, but when they got to the hallway that led to the staircase down the second level they discovered that the crystal guardian statue had reformed! (It had been shattered by unknown persons the last time they were here.) There was a brief debate over who, if anyone, still had the robes of the temple that would allow them passage, but then Caryatid got tired of dithering and simply blasted the statue with magic missiles, shattering it into tiny fragments.
They made it to the pool without mishap, and they lowered Gulleck into the slippery waters. A few anxious moments passed, and then the dwarf's arms came splashing above the surface, and they pulled him out. He was ruddy of complexion again, and the wound in his arm had completely disappeared. Gulleck felt better than he had in months (since the last time he had taken a dip in this pool, to be precise!).
Now that that was sorted out, the party headed back again to the catacombs. They moved carefully through the halls, but disturbed the rest of a dozen skeletons, which chased the party through the halls until they ran into the caretaker's quarters and slammed the door shut behind them. They found the records room, but without anyone who could read Ancient Idalian, they were unable to made heads or tails of the obscure filing system.
Abandoning this line of inquiry, Gulleck suggested they pursue the treasure the gnomes had told them about. It had been so very long since the party had acquired any significant amount of treasure! It seemed the skeletons had lost interest and wandered off or returned to their rest, so the group set out again, heading west. They passed through more narrow catacomb halls lined with funerary niches, and into smoothly carved stone corridors with occasional elegantly carved mausoleum doors. ("The upscale side of the catacombs, I see!") Eventually, they came to an intersection where a hall to the west produced a terrible foul odor of active rot and decay. Creeping along the hall, they found it to open up into a room filled with rotting corpses, scraps of meat, vegetable matter, and other less identifiable debris. On the floor glittered thousands of copper and silver coins, and a shiny battleaxe glimmered in the lantern light.
But as the group entered the doorway, a freakish creature emerged from a burrow on the opposite side of the room. It resembled an enormous caterpillar or grub or centipede, with dozens of legs, but it was roughly three feet in diameter and at least nine feet long! Its faceted insectile eyes stared blankly at the adventurers, and around its chewing mandibles was a ring of bizarre tentacle-like growths, waving hungrily towards its prey. It moved with remarkable speed, crawling up onto the wall and ceiling and it scurried towards the adventurers.
Gulleck and Gaspar held their ground in the doorway as the horrible beast approached. Shorty managed to nick the thing's carapace with an arrow shot from over Gulleck's head, but it kept coming. It lunged at Gulleck, and multiple tentacles wrapped around the flesh of his arm and face. He felt a cold stinging sensation, and then suddenly his entire body went limp and numb, and yet again he slumped down onto the dirty dungeon floor.
Caryatid drew forth the magical wand they had discovered in the hall of records some weeks ago. She stepped forward past Shorty to point the wand at the crawling horror and released the power within the gnarled stick. The beast reared back in panic, and then, moving faster than ever, it scurried back along the wall and into its burrow, its long bulk wriggling into the wall and vanishing from sight.
Caryatid poured oil around the entrance to its burrow and lit it on fire, in the hopes of further discouraging the creature's return. The adventurers then turned their efforts towards scooping as many coins as possible into their backpacks. There were clearly too many coins to carry out in one trip, but they gathered as many as they could fit. Most of the coins were just copper bits, but they were mingled with the silver and there was no time to try to pick out only the more valuable coins. Gulleck regained control over his body about twenty minutes later, and took up the shiny battleaxe, beautifully made and clearly of dwarven craftsmanship! It was perfectly balanced in Gulleck's hand, and he looked forward for a chance to put it to the test.
Having gathered as many coins as possible, the party quickly fled this stinking room and made their way back out of the catacombs. Just as they got near the stairs out, a group of hideous undead monstrosities heaved their way out of the catacomb niches in front of them, and the air was filled with the sickly sweet stench of the ghouls. The adventurers flinched, ready for combat, but the ghouls seemed to recognize Gulleck and Caryatid, and stepped aside, allowing them to pass, even while snarling and hissing at them.
"What the heck was that?" said Shorty after they had emerged at the top of the stairs leading out of the crypts. "Why didn't they attack us?"
"Uh, I don't know," lied Gulleck.
"Maybe it's that new axe," suggested Caryatid. "Who knows what powers it has?"
"Oh, maybe," said Shorty, a bit doubtful.
Gulleck was in no hurry to reveal to his friend and rival that he was in fact working for an evil necromancer. But Shorty didn't push the issue, and they made it back to the Rusty Lantern without further issue.
Monday, June 8, 2015
House Rule: Firing Into Melee
Basic/Expert D&D doesn't have anything to say about firing into melee. A lot of editions level rather punitive penalties against this (AD&D had you randomly determine your target before rolling to hit!) with the result being that people generally don't even attempt to use missile weapons in a close combat.
I don't care for that for a variety of reasons. First, B/X is lethal enough as is and the PCs could use the extra help of a back line of archers. Second, I'd rather give the players in the back ranks something to do while the front rank fights hand-to-hand. Third, I've never heard of any version of D&D allowing for the melee weapon equivalent of "friendly fire". Why subject archers to a significant risk of hitting their friends when the guys in front can wave their swords around wildly and never worry about hitting the wrong person?
So what I do is apply a -2 penalty to the missile attack roll for every ally between the attacker and their target. This could be modified if the target is significantly bigger or smaller than the allies in the way. My assumption is that if the attacker can't get a clear shot because of allies in the way, they will simply hold their fire. I allow for the possibility of friendly fire only if the attacker rolls a natural 1. If that happens, I randomly determine which ally was targeted instead and then have the attacker roll another attack against the ally's armor class.
This never came up in play until session 21, when Ylil's player rolled a natural 1 for his sling attack. Of the three allies between him and his target, I randomly rolled that Brother Jedidiah was the unfortunate accidental victim. Ylil's player rolled very high on the second attack roll, and the end result was that Brother Jedidiah took a sling stone right in the back of the head at close range and expired on the spot.
It's a tough job, adventuring...
I don't care for that for a variety of reasons. First, B/X is lethal enough as is and the PCs could use the extra help of a back line of archers. Second, I'd rather give the players in the back ranks something to do while the front rank fights hand-to-hand. Third, I've never heard of any version of D&D allowing for the melee weapon equivalent of "friendly fire". Why subject archers to a significant risk of hitting their friends when the guys in front can wave their swords around wildly and never worry about hitting the wrong person?
So what I do is apply a -2 penalty to the missile attack roll for every ally between the attacker and their target. This could be modified if the target is significantly bigger or smaller than the allies in the way. My assumption is that if the attacker can't get a clear shot because of allies in the way, they will simply hold their fire. I allow for the possibility of friendly fire only if the attacker rolls a natural 1. If that happens, I randomly determine which ally was targeted instead and then have the attacker roll another attack against the ally's armor class.
This never came up in play until session 21, when Ylil's player rolled a natural 1 for his sling attack. Of the three allies between him and his target, I randomly rolled that Brother Jedidiah was the unfortunate accidental victim. Ylil's player rolled very high on the second attack roll, and the end result was that Brother Jedidiah took a sling stone right in the back of the head at close range and expired on the spot.
It's a tough job, adventuring...
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