From Out of the Darkness?

 

It's been a while. The Idalium campaign fizzled out, a victim of the COVID-19 lockdowns. We tried playing online with Discord and Roll20.net for a few sessions, using scanned versions of my maps and scans of the character sheets, but it felt kind of awkward and clumsy. And truth be told, I was itching to start a D&D 5e campaign of "Curse of Strahd", which turned out to be much better suited to online play, with all of the maps, tokens, etc., provided for you.

But suddenly I felt the desire to reopen this creaky trapdoor. John Arendt (formerly known as Beedo) has been recently posting again on his Dreams in the Lich House blog. (Ironically, he has also moved from B/X to 5e.) And I figured, I have this blog and it doesn't have to be limited to the one campaign, so why not use it? I haven't stopped playing D&D and this blog was never meant to be solely a campaign journal.

As my Curse of Strahd campaign nears the end (the party just hit level 9 and has one last area to explore before they tackle Castle Ravenloft and the vampire Count Strahd himself) my thoughts turn the next campaign. I'll probably offer the group a vote on a selection of the 5e hardcover adventures, but I've also been giving a lot of thought to running a very free-form, sandbox style campaign in the Forgotten Realms. Since we would be using the 5e rules, I'd probably set it in the "current" era of the Realms (1489+ DR) but increasingly, I've been attracted to the idea of leaning most heavily on the original AD&D (1e) Forgotten Realms Campaign Set as a baseline, and using later materials (including 5e material) on a pick-and-choose basis. One of my issues with the Forgotten Realms has always been the immense amount of materials available for it. It's a double-edged sword. On the one hand, this is a major attraction of the Realms, that so much of the world building has been done for you and you can let your players just roam around and it is easy to just wing it using the existing materials. On the other hand, all this material (and the history of "Realms-shaking events") tends to pile up and become a tangible weight on the setting. With so many demigodlike NPCs walking around, is there really room for adventuring? So I like the idea of rolling back all that cruft and leaving it as a "what if" or a "maybe it happened that way, who knows?" Rather than have Elminster be an immortal and nearly omniscient demigod and the Chosen of Mystra, I'd rather have the players meet Elminster the eccentric sage who is more concerned with his project to comprehensively catalog the butterflies of the ruins of Myth Drannor than in saving the multiverse from the latest and greatest apocalypse.

But we'll see! Maybe I'll even find a place on the map of Faerûn to plop down the city of Idalium. We never did explore too much of the world outside the city.

If I end up going ahead with the sandbox campaign idea, I might use this blog to post some world-building ideas as I put together my version of the Realms. In the meantime, I'm planning on posting a couple of the new monsters I created for the Idalium campaign. And maybe (no promises) I might be able to catch up on some of the Idalium campaign journals. Writing full journals is a bit of a time sink, and I might do these (as well as any future journals) in a more abbreviated format. It would be nice to have closure of the campaign for the handful of loyal readers that I did have.

Idalium Game 111: Welcome to My Nightmare

Session date: Monday, May 20, 2019
Game date: Saturday, July 2, 211

PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 72019/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 21203/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 10012/16000
Adrien, Fighter 4, hp 16, xp 10174/16000
Frosty Beans, Fighter 1, hp 5, xp 38/2000

Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 17063/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 4696/6000
Kevon, Fighter 2, hp 8, xp 2018/4000
Boe, Fighter 1, hp 5, xp 131/2000

In our last episode, the Infestation Managers had a skirmish with the Queen of Nightmares and her bugbear litter-bearers. Now, as the party descended into the undercity, they were confronted by a group of ten bugbears in the town square, next to the ruins of the fountain.

"We mean you no harm. We have been waiting for you," hooted the bugbear at the front, as the adventurers reached for their weapons. As they cautiously returned to ease, the bugbear continued. "We have been enslaved by the Queen of Nightmares. We are forced to do her bidding, for she has stolen from us the ability to sleep. Only in her palace can we get relief, and only at her forbearance. We are not strong enough to defeat her ourselves, but you are very powerful. Please help free us, and we will leave this dungeon and not return."

Gulleck reminded them that they were the adventurers who had slain the Goblin King, and no funny business! And so the adventurers took pity on these bugbears, and allowed the bugbears to escort them into the palace of the Queen of Nightmares.

(Oh, it hardly seems sporting when they just walk into the trap!)

On the way, in the Temple of Hedonism, they ran into Shorty "the Mouse" and her party of adventurers. Shorty was shocked to see her friend Gulleck consorting with monsters such as bugbears.

"How can you trust them, Gulleck! They're leading you into a trap!"
"Well, that's as may be, but it does seem the quickest way to the Queen of Nightmares, and we have unfinished business with her."

Shorty wished the adventurers good luck and watched nervously as they descended to the next level of the dungeon, led by the party of bugbears. They were led down to the third level, and then across to the west, where the bugbears unlocked a servant's entrance to the the walled palace. They brought them in through antechamber and then into a large audience hall lined with stone columns, and flanked by a railed balcony, in the center of which was a dark wooden throne. And sitting on the throne was the Queen of Nightmares in her frayed and ragged black robes.

"Excellent work, my servants," she said to the bugbears. Addressing the adventurers, she said, "Allow me to explain your situation. By stepping into my domain, all of you have given over your lives to me. Your lives are forfeit, except in my service. You are free to leave if you wish, but you will find no rest, no succor except in my service. There are bunks prepared for you here, when you are ready to accept your servitude and return to me."

"How about 'No'?" snapped Gulleck as she reached for her throwing axe.

"Cease your resistance!" boomed the Queen, pointing a finger at Gulleck, who felt a wave of magic wash through her, attempting to lock her body rigid, but she made her saving throw easily.

"Defend me, my slaves!" cried the Queen to the bugbears, and all of them attempted to grapple the adventurers into full nelson holds, but failed miserably except on Adrien.

Caryatid cast Magic Missile at the Queen, and a golden arrow shot forth, but the Queen raised a hand and light flashed from a ring she wore. The arrow vanished and then reappeared, shooting back at Caryatid who twisted out of the way and was merely seared by its energy. Then Gulleck threw her hand axe and rolled the Big Green d30 for damage, hitting the Queen for a whopping 24 points. Adrien wriggled out of the bugbear's grasp, while Father Chase took the creative choice of using his sling to fling an ineffectual vial of holy water at the Queen.

The Queen of Nightmare stumbled off her throne, one hand grasping the vicious wound in her side while the other hand reached into a pocket. She drew forth a twisted wand and pointed it at the adventurers. A wave of fearful magic swept over them, but it turned out to work mostly in their favor. Only Kevon, Frosty, and Marcel the monkey were affected by the magical fear, but ALL of the bugbears were. They all fled screaming out of the hall, while the Queen stumbled and limped her way through a door at the back of the balcony behind the throne.

The adventurers had passed stairs in the antechamber that led up to the balcony, and Adrien quickly ran to them to pursue the Queen. Adrien sent Norman the giant ferret charging up the stairs but they turned out to be coated with grease, and he slipped roughly back down. Back in the throne room, Simon used his levitating boots to float up to the balcony, and Caryatid ordered her magical rope to slither up to the balcony and tie itself to the railing. Adrien slipped on the stairs as well, but eventually everyone made it up to the balcony.

Beyond the balcony, stairs led back down into a large courtyard decorated with the heraldry of the Queen of Nightmares. Several slaves, some dwarves and some young children, were cowering the corners away from their work tables that contained partially sewn banners, clothing, etc. Across the courtyard was an open door. As Caryatid and Gulleck approached it, a strange, vaguely humanoid cloud of mist floated out of the door, over their heads, and out of the courtyard back towards the audience hall.

Through the door was the Queen of Nightmare's bedroom. An austere four poster bed was draped in tattered shrouds of funeral black. On a nightstand lay a pair of white leather gloves. In an untidy heap on the ground in front of the bed were what appeared to be the Queen's black robes and other possessions. Two rings and a sheathed dagger lay on the floor near the robes, along with the twisted wand she had been holding. An empty glass vial lay on the floor, a cork stopper next to it.

They gathered up these treasures, and then Caryatid picked up the gloves from the nightstand. Unfortunately, these were coated in poison and her strength vanished from her body and would not return for the next half hour. She used a burlap sack to carefully pick up the gloves the second time.

There was a door on the west wall, and Gulleck opened it, discovered that the doorknob must have been coated with the same poison as the gloves. Luckily for Gulleck, dwarves are very resistent to poison and she (barely) made her saving throw. She decided to smash the door down with her axe instead.

Past the splintered remains of the door was a small room. A door was on the opposite side, but between them and it was an enormous skeletal figure with four arms, each wielding a large curved sword. Frosty stepped towards it and it took a swipe at him that nearly took off his head. Caryatid cast Web, which fouled the creature's arms. While it struggled to free itself from the web, Gulleck and Simon rushed in and dispatched it. The room it was guarding turned out to be the treasure trove of the Queen of Nightmares. Chests of gleaming coins (1,400 electrum pieces in all) sat amidst many pieces of jewelry and artwork, as well a crystal ball wrapped in a black velvet cloth.

The group bundled all of this treasure up, and retreated back to the surface, in fear that the Queen of Nightmares would return and nervous of the strange curse she had placed upon them all.

Idalium Game 110: Portage and Pyromania

Session date: Monday, May 13, 2019
Game date: Saturday, June 25, 211

PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 71978/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 21152/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 9958/16000
Adrien, Fighter 4, hp 16, xp 10123/16000

Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 17037/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 4669/6000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 2250/4000
Miss Vanjie, Thief 1, hp 1, xp 0/1200

About a month had passed in game time (and real time), so Caryatid and Orin used the downtime to create four Sleep scrolls apiece. The party also purchased two more canoes, at 50 gp each, in order to continue their exploration of the caverns across the underground sea.

Struck with a whim to have a thief for a retainer again, Adrien's player rolled up a new employee, whom she dubbed "Miss Vanjie". Sadly, Miss Vanjie came to the party with a single hit point. Well, at least thieves level up quickly!

In the Rusty Lantern, they found Moonpetal's Marauders carousing at the bar. I quickly made three more saving throws for Moonpetal and found to everyone's amusement that even a month later he was still under the effect of Caryatid's Charm Person spell. Moonpetal obsequiously bought her a drink.

They carried the two canoes down into the dungeon, paying a toll of 2 gp each to have them lowered down into the ruined city. It was awkward getting them down the stairs and through doorways, but they managed it, making their way to the Temple of Hedonism and its stairway down to the second level. In the large town square, they encountered a group of five acolytes of the Temple of Hedonism, who were not aggressive but nonetheless guarded and suspicious. They conversed briefly and then continued on their way.

In the vestibule of the temple, Simon sniffed for gold and lo and behold found a sack behind one of the statues containing 700 silver and 10 gold coins. They put on their togas to pass the crystal statue guarding the stairs and descended to the second level.

As was their tradition, the party took their new employee to the Temple of Fate to give her a spin on the wheel of fortune. The noise of the wheel attracted a group of stirges, but Gulleck slammed the door shut and they when they reopened it some time later, the stirges had moved on. Vanjie didn't feel any different after her trip on the wheel and it was unclear what boon or bane had been bestowed upon her.

Down to the third level they proceeded, carrying the canoes awkwardly down the stairs. Gulleck unlocked the heavy stone door, and then they came upon a session-changing random dungeon restocking roll. As the door swung open, they saw a party of 10 bugbears crossing the room, carrying the palanquin of the Queen of Nightmares.

Seizing the opportunity, Caryatid cast Fireball directly on the palanquin. Considering the room was only 20 feet square, this was a rather reckless decision. Everything went up in flame and heat, including the front half of the party. Three of the bugbears died screaming, completely exposed in the room with nothing to take cover behind, and most of the rest seemed badly injured as well. Gulleck and Simon gritted their teeth and withstood the worst of the blast, flames flickering around their shields. Caryatid found shelter behind the edge of the doorway, but Father Chase was caught in the full blast of the explosion, and fell to the ground with a wail and a heavy thump. Adrien and Miss Vanjie dropped to the ground and hid under their canoe.

At the same time, Orin cast a Sleep spell, and three of the bugbears carrying the palanquin staggered to the floor, leaving it tilted at an uncomfortable angle. A frail shout of pain and indignity came from the litter. Then, before the adventurers could gather themselves to charge into the room and attack the survivors, the curtain of the palanquin drew open a few inches and a thin wooden stick emerged, pointing at the doorway. A wave of bone-chilling panic swept over the adventurers. Some of the bugbears who had standing between the palanquin and the party ran out of the room, hooting in panic, but Gulleck, Meat, and Orin were also overwhelmed by the unnatural fear. Their faces filled with irrational panic, and they backed away, stumbling over the canoe that Adrien and Vanjie were huddling beneath, and then ran back up the stairs shrieking in terror.

Before the remaining adventurers could respond, a bony hand extended from the palanquin, finger pointing at the adventurers, and the chilling voice of the Queen of Nightmares spoke: "Do not move!" Simon and Adrien found themselves rooted to the spot, paralyzed by some fearful force that turned their bodies traitor against their own wills.

Three of the surviving bugbears took up the poles of the palanquin from their slumbering or burned companions and hoisting the palanquin back to their shoulders, took off at a jog to the west, along with the other surviving bugbears. Caryatid and Miss Vanjie were the only adventurers left with their faculties, and had little choice but to let them flee into the darkness.

Father Chase lay on the ground in unknown condition (the fireball had reduced him to -3 hit points). I let Caryatid's player roll the usual 1d4-1 to regain hit points at the end of a combat. She rolled a 4, bringing him back to exactly 0, meaning that he was alive and breathing, but unconscious and unresponsive.

While Caryatid attempted to bandage the worst of Father Chase's burns, the voice of "the Judge" echoed out of the southern doorway.

"Oh my! I'm so glad you weren't all killed by that terrible woman!"

Caryatid thanked him for his concern but as there was little an immobile stone column could do for them right now, she wasn't in the mood to talk. Eventually, the paralysis wore off from Simon and Adrien, and around the same time, Gulleck, Meat, and Orin returned from the Temple of Hedonism where they had been hiding in terror.

With all this waiting around, there was time for a few wandering monster rolls, one of which did come up as affirmative, which could have been really bad for the fractured and weakened party, but it turned out to be the addled cleric Bor, who lived on this level. He wore the tattered heraldry of the Great Cathedral of Idalium, but nowadays he seemed to worship other, more esoteric gods. Still, he was a friend to the adventurers, and when he saw that Father Chase was badly wounded and on the brink of death, he bent over him and murmured a prayer.

"Deliver this lowly one from the darkness, O Great Ones! Let him continue to play his role in Your Great Purpose. Grant me, Your humble servant, this blessing..."

Father Chase's eyes flickered open. He was weak and in great pain. Bor sat with him and spoke to him of the "Great Ones" and their magnanimity. Bor reached into a pouch and drew forth a crudely whittled wooden idol of a bizarre humanoid with flippers for arms and legs and a horrid, lamprey-like sucker for a mouth.

"Take this, my son. Meditate upon it and you too may soon come to understand the truth of the Great Ones. They have saved you today for a greater cause."

Caryatid politely shooed Bor away from proselytizing to her retainer in his moment of extreme vulnerability, and after thanking him, the group went on their way. They stashed the two canoes in the abandoned shrine with the other two that they had "rented" from Shorty, and then high-tailed it back upstairs. In the Temple of Hedonism they encountered the same five acolytes they had met in the town square, but for once there was no actual orgy going on, but just an unexpectedly wholesome picnic of bread, cheese. fruit, and wine. The adventurers apologized for interrupting as they crossed the room, scorched, burned, and ragged. They made it back to the Rusty Lantern with no further encounters.

Later that day, Miss Vanjie received a message that a rich patron in town wanted to publish her memoirs and sent her an advance of 1000 gold coins. How lucky! (And in one fell swoop, Miss Vanjie made it almost to level 2.) Meat and Orin both failed morale checks and decided to take a week off from adventuring, and Miss Vanjie left for four weeks (to polish up her memoirs and spend her unexpected windfall).

Idalium Game 109: The Wine-Dark Sea

Session date: Monday, April 15, 2019
Game date: Saturday, May 28, 211

PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 71958/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 21127/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 9932/16000
Adrien, Fighter 4, hp 16, xp 10098/16000

Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 17024/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 4655/6000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 2237/4000
Boe, Fighter 1, hp 5, xp 118/2000

When the adventurers arrived in the Rusty Lantern, they entered to find a fellow adventuring party, "Shorty's Sirens", celebrating with a hearty meal and full flagons of wine. Shorty greeted Gulleck cheerily, and told her they had just come up from a rather successful delve. Gulleck tried to draw out where they had been, and Shorty said they had taken canoes across the underground sea on the third level. She also mentioned that on the far side of the underground sea, her party had found a partially flooded research laboratory of some sort, largely untouched since the day that Ancient  Idalium fell. She told them that there was a door in the first room with a strange mechanical combination lock that they had been unable to figure out, so they had left it for now.

Well, this sounded like an interesting lead, so the party asked Shorty whether she would be willing to loan them her canoes. The two parties were on good terms, and Shorty was willing to rent them for 10 gold darics, plus a "security deposit" of 100 darics to cover replacement costs in case something happened to the canoes. The deal was made and Shorty went with the adventurers down into the basement of the tavern to retrieve the canoes from her party's secure vault.

The guards at the trapdoor seemed irritated to have to deal with the canoes twice in as many hours, and charged an additional toll of 2 gold darics per canoe for the hassle of lowering them down into the dungeon with the winch. Once down below, Chase and Orin hoisted one canoe onto their shoulders, and Adrien and Boe lifted the other one. It was somewhat awkward maneuvering the canoes around the corners of the underground streets and through the narrow tunnel dug by the gnomes, but with a little bit of extra time they made their way through to the Temple of Hedonism.

As soon as they opened the doors to the temple, they were surprised to see yet another adventuring party: Moonpetal's Marauders. In fact, both parties were surprised and goggled at each other foolishly for a few seconds. Then, Moonpetal the elf waved his hands and murmured arcane words, and before the adventurers could react, he had cast a Charm Person spell on Simon!

"Ah, Simon, my dear friend. Just the man I was looking for. We need those canoes! It's absolutely critical, so hurry up and hand them over."

Simon said, "Sure thing, pal!" and ordered Orin to hand over his end of the canoe to Moonpetal's companions. But Caryatid knew what was up and cast her own Charm Person spell at Moonpetal, while Father Chase put down his end of the canoe, and drew forth a "spell of bondage" scroll he had obtained long ago in the "study room" of the Temple of Hedonism. Moonpetal whipped out a wand, but the adventurers won initiative, and Moonpetal's muscles locked up, completely paralyzed, while Caryatid's spell swept over his mind. Simon protested vocally at this treatment of his dearest friend.

Gulleck stepped up to Moonpetal. "Now then, you're going to release Simon from your spell." Moonpetal would have nodded, but could do little more than blink, but he ended the charm and Simon scowled as he realized he had been magically swindled. Gulleck told Moonpetal's companions to carry him away, and then they moved further into the temple.

No sooner had they passed from the vestibule into the main temple, they encountered yet another adventuring party from the Rusty Lantern tavern. This time it was St. Dwindum's Heroes, a group of clerics and their followers raiding the dungeon in order to fund the expansion of the tiny Cult of St. Dwindum. They chatted with the pious Brother Michael and the more worldly and gregarious Brother Randy, warning them about Moonpetal's crew, and then took their leave to proceed below.

They passed through the empty basement den of the Temple of Hedonism, turned the corner and proceeded down to the third level. As they opened the great stone door at the bottom of the stairs, they were surprised by voices.

"Is that you, Master Randy? Did you forget something? We... oh."

The door swung open to reveal eight black-robed cultists, with goathead holy symbols hanging around their necks. The cultists seemed quite embarrassed and greeted the adventurers tersely and then took their own leave to the west, while the party went east. Finally the penny was beginning to drop, and Caryatid was putting two and two together as to why the leader of the cultists had such a familiar voice.

They carried the canoes to the rocky beach at the end of the eastern corridor. The underground sea was dark and silent, and the gentle lapping of water on the rocky shore seemed muffled and distant. The canoes could each seat two people, so Simon and Gulleck took one, while Caryatid and Adrien (along with Norman the horrible giant ferret) boarded the other. The retainers were left to wait on the beach with a couple of torches and a tinderbox.

The canoes were pushed out into the water and they paddled off to the left, following the cavern wall. The sounds of their retainers moving around on the gravel quickly faded, and everything seemed preternaturally quiet. Even the splash of their oars in the water sounded oddly muted, and the canoes did not seem to leave as much of a wake in the water as they expected. They followed the wall to the north and as it curved to the east and eventually they came to the waterfall from which they had rescued Caryatid, about a year ago in game time. They avoided the falling waters and continued following the cavern wall to the east, eventually coming to another rocky beach, somewhat larger than the one they had left from. There was a rowboat on the shore here, and to the north at the back of the cavern a passage led deeper into the caves.

They beached the canoes on the shore and got out to inspect the rowboat. It seemed in decent enough shape, and they noticed that on the bow of the boat a thick rope ran through a metal eyelet. One end was tightly tied to an iron spike that was staked deeply into the rocky ground next to the rowboat and after passing through the eyelet, the rope trailed away into the dark water of the sea. Gulleck pulled on the rope and a portion of it near the boat lifted clear of the lake, water dripping quietly from it.

Not wanting to take the time right now to investigate this further, with their retainers waiting for them back at the other beach, the adventurers instead chose to explore the tunnel to the north. This led them to a natural cavern where two passages led off to the left and the right. They chose to explore the right tunnel, and after about thirty or forty feet, they saw that the ground, walls, and even the roof of the tunnel were becoming overgrown with all sorts of mushrooms and fungi. There were pale white puffballs, grotesque elongated mushrooms, mosslike growths of mold of various colors, and strange filamentous hairs that wafted in the breeze as they passed by nervously. The fungus seemed to get denser as they moved through the tunnel until it covered almost all of the surfaces. They trod upon this living carpet nervously, but so far there seemed to be no ill effects as mushrooms collapsed under their boots.

Turning a corner in the tunnel, they came upon the sight of five enormous ants milling about the cavern. They were easily six feet long each, and their black carapaces reflected the gleam of Simon's glowing sword. The ants didn't seem aggressive, as they chewed at the fungus on the walls and ground, but they were blocking further progress, and the party didn't feel up to risking a fight when they were outnumbered. They retreated back the way they had come, collecting some of the fungus in an empty wineskin for further examination.

They took the canoes back to "Rocco Beach", reuniting with their retainers. (I had been rolling wandering monster checks for both groups, but fortunately for the retainers nothing had shown up while they were waiting.) Simon had the bright idea to just keep the canoes here for next time, so they wouldn't have to lug them back up through the dungeon. Shorty would surely understand! "We'll just pay her a little extra for the extra time we keep them for." There was an abandoned shrine off the hall not far from the beach and the adventurers dragged the canoes in, leaned them up against the walls, and then Caryatid cast Wizard Lock on the door.

They returned to the Rusty Lantern, where they found Shorty waiting for them. She was not amused by the fact that they had returned emptyhanded, and very much did not understand why.

"This was not the deal we had, Gulleck! I expected better treatment than this from you."

Gulleck, who had kind of expected that this wasn't going to go the way Simon described, could only gesture apologetically. Shorty scowled at them all and stomped out into the street.

Idalium Game 108: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Session date: Monday, March 25, 2019
Game date: Saturday, May 7, 211

PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 71930/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 21092/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 9894/16000
Adrien, Fighter 4, hp 16, xp 10063/16000
Frosty Beans, Fighter 1, hp 5, xp 1/2000

Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 17006/32000
Kevon, Fighter 2, hp 8, xp 2000/4000
Moonpetal, Elf 2, hp 12, xp 4676/8000

Our new player came back again the next week (always a vote of confidence), and we had all the regulars. Simon had finally made his save vs spells and shook off the Charm Person that had persisted for months of game time. Down to the third level they went.

On the way, they encountered a pair of fire beetles in the Street of Temples, light glands glowing eerily in the darkness as they approached. The beetles seemed to be minding their own business, but Adrien decided to unleash her mangy giant ferret Norman upon them. She rolled a 1 for Norman's attack, so he missed the beetles completely and slammed into the facade of a temple across the street. The beetles fell upon him in self defense, and he was bit for 5 points. Suddenly things got more serious. Gulleck and Simon scrambled for their rings of animal control, but before they could put them on, Norman was bit for another 9 points, and died gurgling horribly.

Gulleck and Simon seized control of the beetles and they were swiftly killed, but Adrien was distraught at the death of her beloved demon ferret. She cradled his lifeless corpse in her arms and vowed vengeance upon the DM. Then someone had the idea to dip him in the resurrection pool. Hmm... did the pool even work on animals? Its magic was already a bit wonky, as it had a habit of creating magical duplicates of anyone who entered it while still alive. But the decision was made (over Caryatid's objections) to give it a try.

They made it down to the chamber of the pool without incident, and dropped his limp body into the slippery liquid of the pool. Nothing happened for some time, and there was nervous chatter about just leaving his corpse in the pool since nobody wanted to risk getting duplicated by going in after it. But then there was splashing, and Norman's snout broke the surface. He swam to the edge, sputtering and sneezing, and clambered out.

There was something different about him now. He was bulkier, stockier around the shoulders. He had always been mangy and scruffy, but now his patchy fur stood in matted tufts that persisted even after he shook off the liquid of the pool, and his oily skin exuded a faint but constant sickly smell of infection and decay. One eye was continually oozing and crusty.

Nonetheless, Adrien crouched to embrace her pet happily, but Norman was in a foul mood. He snapped viciously at her face, and if not for her finely honed adventurer's instincts, he probably would have torn her throat open. (In other words, his bite did enough damage to kill an everyday human.)

"OK, OK, he's a little grouchy. You would be too if you'd just been bitten to death by giant beetles."

Nobody else in the party seemed enthused about this new "Pet Sematary" version of Norman.

In any event, having taken care of Norman, the party descended to the third level. They briefly stopped in to visit "the Judge". He was horrified by Norman and called him "an abomination", much to Caryatid's satisfaction. They fed him a gemstone and asked him about the north shore of the underground sea. The Judge said that there were natural caverns there, although he had heard reports that a portion of the caves had become overgrown with strange subterranean fungus.

After visiting the Judge, they headed west. They stopped at a nondescript door at the north end of the Queen of Nightmares' palace, and Simon used his mind-reading amulet. He sensed the presence of several bugbear guards. Not feeling up to a big fight just yet, they opted to move on, but Caryatid cast Wizard Lock on the door first, just to annoy the Queen.

They headed north, farther than they had previously mapped, and at the end of a long hallway they found a massive wooden door. It was beautifully carved with motifs of vines and leaves, flowers and tree bark. This must be the door to the gardens they had often heard about!

Frosty attempted to push the door open, but only succeeded in hurting his shoulder. The door was securely locked.

"I take out my skeleton key," said Gulleck's player.

"What skeleton key?" I said.

"My axe."

Gulleck began slamming her axe into the door, over and over again. It was thick and made of solid and sturdy hardwood, and it was slow going. The dull thuds of the axe echoed through the corridor. The beautiful engravings of the door were getting hacked away, and terrible gouges tore through them.

Suddenly, there was shouting on the other side of the door.

"STOP! STOP! What you doing?!!"

Gulleck stopped chopping at the door.

"Well, open up, then!" she yelled back.

"OK, but no funny stuff," said the gruff voice. There was the sound of a key turning in the lock, and then the door was pulled open.

The adventurers squinted as daylight streamed into the corridor. Beyond the door, lush green grass grew up to the threshold. A blue sky shimmered brightly overhead. Across the grassy lawn, they could see a building, apparently made mostly of glass. Standing near the door were a group of four very large men, at least eight feet tall. They looked brutish and stupid, with jutting brows and slack jaws. They wore nothing but crude leather loincloths and jerkins. One carried a cloth sack over its shoulder. They had seen a creature like this a long time ago, in the employ of the Goblin Prince.

The one who had opened the door goggled at the damage Gulleck had inflicted.

"Look what you done! Who's gonna fix that??"

"Well, we had to get in, the door was locked," said Gulleck.

"That's right," said Caryatid, warming to a good session of attempted baffling. "We're the Garden Inspectors. We can't allow anything to interfere with our duty."

"Garden Inspectors?" said the confused creature slowly.

"Yeah!" said Simon, "Let me just find my clipboard..."

"But... but... you need to pay for this damage!"

"Of course we will process any legitimate claim for accidental damages. How much would you assess that at?" said Caryatid soothingly.

"Urrrrrgh... you give us five hundred gold coins."

All of the adventurers laughed quite rudely at that, which made the giant men suspicious and irritated. The conversation went on and on, as everyone tried to befuddle the creatures. They did learn a few things from them. The giant men said they were the caretakers of the garden. When asked who they worked for, they said they didn't work for anyone, but they were the caretakers and they had always been the caretakers, as had their ancestors before them.

Caryatid came up with a surefire plan. "Excuse me, where's the little ladies' room?" She hopped from foot to foot to make her point.

The lead creature (who had said his name was Glurge) pointed to a small copse of trees to the east. The other party members thought he had an odd, crafty look on his face, but they continued their attempt to confuse these dimwitted brutes. Caryatid thanked him brightly and made her way into the woods, taking a moment to look around. This was truly a magical place. There was a high ivy-covered stone wall to the south where they had come in, and at the top of the wall some thirty feet up, she could see the right angle of the ceiling, but somehow the ceiling was also a blue sky pervaded with sunlight. To the north she could see glass greenhouses, and beyond that what looked like a formal flower garden.

Once Caryatid was in the trees she slipped behind a tree and then carefully peered back around, watching the four monstrous men arguing with the rest of her party. The argument seemed to be getting more heated, and it looked like the giants were losing patience with these self-professed "Garden Inspectors". And then Caryatid cast a Sleep spell at the giants.

Unfortunately, her roll was poor and only one of the men fell asleep. He swooned on his feet, said "Urgh" and then dropped to his knees before face planting into the turf. Caryatid made ready to cast another spell, but at that moment she heard a twig snap behind her. She whipped around to see another of the giant brutes reaching towards her and licking his lips.

"Mmmm mmm mmm... you sure look mighty tasty," he murmured, before lunging at her. Caryatid quickly put on her invisibility ring and vanished, but the giant grabbed at the empty space where she had been and managed to find her. He pulled her close to his acrid smelling body, pinned her arms to her sides, and began dragging her invisible form through the trees back the way he had come from.

Now, Caryatid's pet monkey Marcel had been riding on her shoulder invisibly, and in one hand he held the miniature magical spear they had found in the monastery in the mountains so long ago. He stabbed at the giant, and the spear expanded to its full 10' length. He missed, and I ruled that this attack ended the invisibility effect for both of them. Caryatid decided to play dead and went limp in the arms of the monster. Marcel hopped off of her, brandishing the tiny spear at the giant. The man squinted at the monkey, annoyed, and continued to drag Caryatid into a clearing. Caryatid opened her eyes a tiny bit to see a number of large thatched cottages surrounding a large iron cookpot. It was easily large enough to hold a human, and it was steaming from the fire that was crackling away beneath it.

The giant dragged her towards the pot, but before he could do more, Marcel's spear jabbed him. This spear's magic was that its victims were filled with an uncontrollable panic, and the enormous man failed his saving throw, dropped Caryatid roughly on the grass, and fled at full speed past the cottages into the woods to the north. Unfortunately for Marcel and Caryatid, the spear snapped in half at this point.

Caryatid retrieved Marcel and they jogged back to the group by the door. There was a vocal argument going on. The monstrous men were convinced that the adventurers had done something to their sleeping companion. Simon was babbling about how he must have fallen ill and as the "Proper Authorities" they would need to quarantine the garden so that the disease would not spread.

The giant men seemed frustrated and impatient and when they saw Caryatid returning they looked disappointed.

"Just go! You cause enough problems already. Get out!"

And the adventurers took this opportunity to retreat back through the door. Caryatid was the last one through, and as the door was closing behind them she turned and cast Fireball back at the men.

Well, since the door was already closing I made her roll an attack roll to see if she could acccurately target the glowing bead of the fireball through the rapidly narrowing crack. If the roll was too low, the fireball would erupt on the inside of the door, and that would be very bad for all the adventurers. But as it happened, she rolled quite well, and just as the door closed, there was an enormous explosion of light and heat on the other side. The wave of heat buffeted them momentarily before the door slammed shut. They could hear the giant men screaming in shock and pain.

And then they all ran down the hallway, and got the heck out of the dungeon.

Idalium Game 107: Frosty the Fighter

Session date: Monday, March 18, 2019
Game date: Saturday, April 30, 211

PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 71929/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 21091/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 9893/16000
Adrien, Fighter 4, hp 16, xp 8762/16000
Frosty Beans, Fighter 1, hp 5, xp 0/2000

Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 17006/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 4655/6000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 2237/4000
Boe, Fighter 1, hp 5, xp 118/2000

It was a fairly short session this time. We had a brand-new player, who had never played any type of roleplaying game before, so I spent some time laying out the basic idea of the game and of the Idalium setting. Then we spent some time rolling up her character, a fighter named "Frosty Beans" (I really have absolutely no idea). So, by the time we all ready, there wasn't much time left for extensive adventuring.

In the Rusty Lantern tavern, an alchemist was trying to interest people in a small assortment of magical potions. The party members considered the assortment but passed on making any purchases, and then they all descended in the buried city of Idalium.

They made their way down to the second level via their usual route through the Temple of Hedonism. Simon paused in the temple to smell for gold (a very useful power bestowed by the Wheel of Fortune) and found a gilded goblet abandoned under one of the pews. He tucked this away with satisfaction (it would turn out to be the only treasure they recovered this evening).

Down in the Temple of Fate, Adrien demonstrated the use of the Wheel of Fortune and stepped off feeling vaguely lucky. Frosty, however, was not so fortunate, and stepped down from the wheel sneezing uncontrollably and at the most inconvenient times.

Adrien got back on the wheel with her pet ferret Norman this time, and although she made her saving throw, Norman now had colorful smoke trickling from his ears, just like Orin and Kevon.

All of the clatter of the wheel attracted a group of urchins. The dungeon-dwelling children recognized the adventurers and told them that several of them had been kidnapped by the Queen of Nightmares.

"What were their names?" demanded Caryatid, forcing me to come up with four names on the spot.

"Jo, Polly, Ben, and Dorothy." (My urchins are all named after "Doctor Who" companions, just like the hippie berserkers are all named after 1960s rock stars.)

Gulleck declared that the urgency of dealing with the Queen of Nightmares had just increased significantly. The adventurers gave the urchins a few gold pieces and then continued on their way. They made a brief stop in the chambers of "the Judge" on the third level, and talked to him about the Queen of Nightmares, but there wasn't enough time left in the evening to mount an attack on her palace, so at this point they all returned to the surface.

Later that day, Adrien received a letter indicating that she had inherited a riverboat (worth 13,000 silver shekels) from another distant relative she didn't even know she had been related to. Such strange fortune!

Idalium Game 106: Where She Stops Nobody Knows

Session date: Monday, February 11, 2019
Game date: Saturday, March 26, 211

PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 71740/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 20855/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 9645/16000
Adrien, Fighter 4, hp 16, xp 8526/16000

Retainers:
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 4531/6000
Kevon, Fighter 1, hp 5, xp 248/2000
Boe, Fighter 1, hp 5, xp 0/2000

The party members reunited two weeks later, but their retainers Meat and Orin were still unavailable. Simon brought along his backup retainer, Kevon, and Gulleck decided not to bother with a retainer for this delve. Adrien's retainer Jack had died gruesomely in the last session, and so she recruited a new retainer who curiously was the very spitting image of Jack, though a fighter instead of a thief. His name was "Boe, The Face of". (A "Doctor Who" in-joke.)

Simon was still anxious about needing to obtain a live bugbear for his "best friend" down in the dungeon, and so they descended down into the undercity with vague plans to find a bugbear without alerting the entirety of the Queen of Nightmares' guards.

While passing through the Temple of Hedonism on their way down to the second level, they encountered a party of oddly dressed men and women. They worn plate armor of a sort, but very old-fashioned compared to the style that Gulleck and Simon were wearing. They had strange amulets around their necks, and they all wore sinister half-masks with long bird-like beaks. There was an impasse where both groups sized each other up. Adrien piped up to say, "Let's just leave them alone," and the strange figures responded in a language that no one understood. Through displays of open hands and smiles, the adventurers passed by without incident and continued down to the second level.

Adrien wanted to go to the Temple of Fate so her new employee Boe could have a spin on the magical wheel of fortune (this has become the usual hazing ritual for new party members). But in the room with the wheel there was also a tribe of eight fierce baboons, which hooted and shrieked as the adventurers approached them. Simon used his ring of animal control to seize control of what looked like the largest and most senior baboon, and made him leave the room, in hopes that the tribe would follow. Sadly, the tribe merely looked confused and did not follow the baboon into the hall, but continued to shriek and posture.

Caryatid cast a Sleep spell and four of them staggered to the floor and fell unconscious. The other three stopped hooting and took on a submissive stance to Caryatid, bowing their heads and avoiding eye contact. For some reason, Caryatid told Father Chase to hit a baboon with his gnarled and twisted staff. I think she wanted to know what the staff did. Father Chase missed the baboon entirely, and it ran screaming out into the hallway. He brought the staff back around to bear on one of the other baboons, and when it impacted, the baboon's fur faded and grayed, and the flesh on its face grew tight and drawn. Whether it was the blow from the staff or the magical aging, Chase was not sure, but the baboon's eyes rolled back and it slumped to the floor, dead.

The last baboon screamed and attacked Father Chase. Gulleck ran into the room to help, and Simon sent the controlled baboon in as well, but Father Chase needed no help. He struck the baboon with the staff and as before, it withered away and expired. Gulleck drew her axe and put the controlled baboon down like an executioner.

They left the four sleeping baboons lie, and Boe was strapped onto the wheel of fortune, and Adrien spun the wheel. This made an enormous racket, which attracted four stirges in the hallway outside. It also woke the four baboons, who hastily ran out of the room only to meet the stirges. Gulleck closed the door as the angry hoots of the baboons turned into something much more panicked.

Boe stepped down from the wheel feeling much wiser than before (a permanent +1 to his wisdom score!). Adrien then wanted Norman the ferret to go on the wheel, but since the straps were not sized for a giant ferret's limbs, she had to be strapped on to the wheel while Norman rode in the "Baby Bjorn" harness she had commissioned to carry him up and down ladders, etc. The wheel was spun and when it came to rest, Adrien felt the weight of some misfortune descending upon her. She made her saving throw, however, but Norman was not so fortunate, and when he was released from the harness and set on the floor he kept tripping over his own feet and bumping into things.

Kevon took a spin on the wheel and found himself filled with confidence and prowess; he immediately leveled up!

Not wishing to press their luck further, the party left the Temple of Fate and made their way to the stairs down to the third level. They headed west and north, in the general direction of where they had been last time. They came to a large open room, and it was only after they stepped out onto the dusty hardwood floor that they realized they had been here before. Torches magically flared to life, and a ghostly waltz began playing from no apparent source. From ten large wooden cabinets emerged ten life-sized cloth dolls, dressed in elegant ballroom clothes.

"Oh no, not this again," muttered Gulleck, as she was swept up into a dance by one of the dolls. Everybody in the party (except for Norman the ferret and Marcel the monkey) was drawn into the dance. Simon grabbed the knees of the doll that was dancing with him and pulled with all his strength, tripping it and bringing it down into a heap of cloth limbs. Caryatid and Father Chase attempted to dance towards the edge of the ballroom in hopes of escaping the room, but their dolls guided them away from the edge and they were unable to escape. Gulleck managed to knock her partner to the ground as well, and Caryatid and Chase adopted this tactic as well. Simon and Caryatid ran off of the dance floor to the west, while Gulleck tore her doll open with her axe. Father Chase was struggling to pull Boe's doll away from him.

While all this was going on, the music had attracted five of the black-robed cultists (the same ones who had charmed Simon). They stood at the south entrance to the ballroom and the leader, his face mostly covered by a large hood, raised his hands above his head.

"SILENCE!" he boomed, and everything went still. The music stopped playing. The dolls stopped dancing, and, almost sheepishly, they disengaged from Adrien and Boe and returned to their cupboards, closing the doors behind them.

Gulleck turned towards the new arrivals and tried to thank them, but no sound came out of her mouth. The cultists were smiling broadly and waving for the party members to join them. Caryatid and Simon had no desire to enter the ballroom again, however, and left to the west. Gulleck gave the cultists an apologetic look and followed her friends out to the west. They made their way back down several corridors and the gaudy, ornate "Hall of Pleasure" with its large paintings and carpet. Eventually they met up with the cultists at the southern entrance to the ballroom. They thanked the cultists for their assistance, and Simon apologized profusely at his complete lack of success at obtaining a bugbear for his friend Elfstar.

"I certainly hope you do, little fellow," said the leader of the cultists in his deep, plummy voice. "I know Elfstar is putting all her faith in you, her very dearest friend."

"I know," said Simon, "I feel really bad about it."

"Well, keep trying, my boy," said the leader. "Elfstar can't complete her initiative into the mysteries of our order without one... or some other suitable creature."

Unsettled by this talk, the party made their farewells and headed back up to the Rusty Lantern tavern above the dungeon. As they moved through the halls of the upper levels, Caryatid kept wondering where she had heard the cultist leader's voice before, and why he kept his face hidden behind a hood. She was sure his voice was very familiar to her, but from where...?