Session date: Monday, January 28, 2019
Game date: Saturday, March 12, 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:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 17006/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 4531/6000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 2237/4000
Jack, Thief 3, hp 10, xp 2913/4800
Two weeks had passed since our last session, and Simon managed to fail both saving throws, remaining charmed by the cultist on the third level. This was really rather funny, as objectively it is an easy saving throw for a halfling. In the Rusty Lantern, the adventurers met a frail old antiquarian named Elberic who was going from table to table trying to interest adventurers and other regulars in a few magical scrolls he possessed. He had scrolls of Detect Magic, Shield, and Growth of Animals. He was asking 250 gold darics for the first two scrolls, and 750 darics for the Growth of Animals scroll. Adrien begged and pleaded with Caryatid to buy the Growth of Animals scroll so that Father Chase could cast it on her "pet" giant ferret Norman and double his size. Caryatid thought this was a horrifying idea, but somehow went along with the plan. Caryatid offered Elberic the rather offensively low amount of 100 darics for the scroll, turning on all of her charm to lowball him. She aced her reaction check, so what could I do? Elberic blushed furiously and explained that he couldn't possibly let the scroll go for such a low amount as he would be losing money on it, and that he was already heavily discounting the scroll from what it would cost to hire a priest to prepare one, but that he could possibly go down to 500 darics. Caryatid haggled further, and managed to sweet-talk him into taking 300 darics, plus she bought him a nice lunch and a bottle of wine. SOLD! Elberic sat down to his lunch, looking quite overwhelmed and unsure of who had got the better side of the deal.
They went below, and headed down towards deeper levels. When they entered the hall with the living crystal statue that guarded the stairs down to level two, they found the hall crowded with more than a dozen giant rats. Norman strained against his leash, and Adrien let him go. He pounced on the nearest rat, snapping its neck instantly and worrying its head in his jaws ferociously. Adrien drew forth the "disco sword" and sliced another rat in half as multicolored lights streamed across the walls. Norman was attacked by two other rats and bit twice, and had to retreat, tail between his legs. The party quickly killed rats left and right and soon the survivors fled the hall through a hole gnawed in the bottom of one of the doors.
Down to level three they went, and as they entered the first room on the third level, they were surprised by Elfstar and two other black-robed cultists! Elfstar murmured words and a strange feeling came over Gulleck for a moment but then passed. Elfstar smiled sheepishly and waved at Gulleck.
"Now, sugar," said Gulleck primly, "you want to be real careful who you're casting spells on. Someone might take offense."
Simon intervened to make excuses for the behavior of his "best friend". Yes, they were heading out to find a bugbear right now! Come on, everyone let's go!
And as the adventurers marched down the dungeon halls in search of a bugbear, the table broke into song, disturbingly in unison:
"Come on, vámonos! Everybody let's go!
Come let's get to it, I know that we can do it!
Where are the bugbears? *clap clap clap*
Where are the bugbears? *clap clap clap*"
Yep, it's that kind of D&D game.
The funny thing was that even though they had just told the cultists they were off to find a bugbear, that pointed avoided the Queen of Nightmare's palace and went further north, along the wide "Halls of Pleasure" with its faded carpet and large ornate painting depicting the ultra-rich of Ancient Idalium feasting, dancing, watching arena fights, etc.
They rounded a corner at the end of the hall and found themselves in a large, square room, larger than their light could illuminate. They walked carefully round, exploring in the light of Simon's sword. All around the perimeter of the room, a gallery balcony overlooked the room. Steep stairs led up to this gallery at intervals. In the center of the floor, a thirty foot square was marked off with a thick line of red paint. This square was dusted in old sawdust. The walls below the galleries were covered with racks of all sorts of weapons: swords, polearms, maces, nets, spears, bows, etc. At the eastern wall of the room they found, between two racks of weapons, three metallic sashes hanging on pegs. One was made of bronze, one was silver, and one was gold.
Jack's eyes grew wide at the sight of the apparently solid gold sash, and he took it from the wall and placed it over his shoulders. Then he decided to walk across the room.
"So, Jack is crossing the red line and walking across the square?"
"Yeah, why not?"
"Okay..."
There was a sudden rush of wind and a brief flash of light and suddenly inside the square with Jack was a hideous lumpy black blob of indeterminate composition, rippling and bubbling. It seemed to sense Jack and surged forward, engulfing his feet with the edge of its pulpy mass. He screamed in pain as the meaty blob's acidic secretions burned into his legs. The blob was slowly creeping up Jack's legs as he thrashed his arms in panic.
Caryatid made a cold and calculated decision. Jack had never been revived in the resurrection pool, so as long as they could retrieve his body, he could be restored. So she dropped a fireball on the blob. Jack saw what she was doing and with a look of sheer horror on his face attempted to cover himself with his cloak and avoid the worst of the inferno. Caryatid tried to target the spell so that it would hit the blob but not Jack, but this is a difficult thing to do in the heat of combat. I think I spitballed some odds of missing him, or perhaps had her make a dexterity check. Either way, her roll failed. Jack did make his saving throw for half damage, but even so he still died screaming as the flames erupted around him. The air was filled with the unmistakable smell of sausage frying as the black pudding sizzled and sputtered in the flame, large chunks of it melting away from the main mass. The blob was clearly significantly injured, but certainly not destroyed, and it started to creep further over Jack's burned and blistered body.
Caryatid sent a Magic Missile at the pudding, which did nothing except chip a chunk of the blob off and it wriggled away with a life of its own! Gulleck crossed over the threshold of the arena square to engage the pudding in melee, but discovered to her dismay that neither her magical axe nor a mace tossed to her by Father Chase did any damage to it. In fact, like Caryatid's, Gulleck's attacks merely split smaller hunks of the pudding off from the main blob, which oozed around Gulleck's boots and burned at her shins, causing her severe damage.
Adrien uncorked a flask of oil and splashed it over the pudding, with an aim to setting it aflame, but the party consensus quickly turned to simply retrieving Jack's body and abandoning the fight. Caryatid sent her magical animated silk rope into the arena to tie itself around Jack's body. Gulleck disengaged from the blobs and backed out of the arena, and she and Adrien heaved on the rope. Jack's body broke free of the engulfing blob with a horrible hollow sucking sound and they pulled him towards them. Alas, as his body touched the threshold of the square, it met with some invisible resistance and they could not pull him across it. Gulleck stepped back into the square and tried to push from within, but something was preventing Jack's body from leaving the square. Gulleck guessed that it must be the gold sash Jack had donned, and tried to take the sash off, but it would not lift off of Jack's shoulders no matter how hard she pulled at it. Meanwhile the lumpy black pudding was wrapping itself around Gulleck's legs, searing her with its toxic juices, to the point that she nearly passed out from pain. (Gulleck was actually down to only 2 hit points here!)
Accepting defeat, Gulleck rolled the Big Green d30 to win initiative, and abandoned Jack's body, pulling herself free of the blob and backing away. Everyone fled the room, and the pudding went back to slowly digesting Jack's corpse in the darkness.
It was a demoralizing episode, and the retainers did poorly on their morale checks, having witnessed Caryatid fireball one of their co-workers and then abandon his body. Meat left for two weeks, and Orin decided to take a full five weeks off.
Sunday, August 11, 2019
Friday, July 26, 2019
Idalium Game 104: Orin(ge) Marmalade
Session date: Monday, January 14, 2019
Game date: Saturday, February 26, 211
PCs:
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 20808/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 9596/16000
Adrien, Fighter 4, hp 16, xp 8479/16000
Retainers:
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 4506/6000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 2213/4000
Jack, Thief 3, hp 10, xp 2888/4800
Unusually, Gulleck's player had to be absent, so we had a smaller than usual party. Three weeks had passed since the last delve, and as a hobbit of average intellect, Simon got to make a weekly saving throw to see if he snapped out of the Charm Person spell that had enchanted him. Amusingly, he failed all three saves, and thus Simon was quite racked by guilt at having let three weeks go by without finding a bugbear for his best friend in all the world.
On their way down to the third level, the party encountered a group of friendly gnomes (their favorite entry on the level one wandering monsters table), and a rival adventuring party dubbed "Sallies Forth" that was composed of a deranged hobbit and three increasingly corrupted magical clones from the malfunctioning resurrection pool. The Sallies were aggressive and rude, but hostilities were narrowly avoided, and the adventurers proceeded below.
They knew that the Queen of Nightmares kept bugbears as slaves, and they knew her palace was at the west end of the third level, so they made their way in that direction, hoping to find a single bugbear that they could trap or put to sleep. They followed the long, ornate palace wall that ran north and south until they found an ornate and grand door. Simon used his mindreading amulet, and sensed the presence of over half a dozen bugbears on the other side.
Somehow they lost their courage here, and decided that this was too many bugbears to take on inside the Queen of Nightmare's palace, so they retreated south to find an alternate entrance, perhaps hoping to double back and catch the bugbears by surprise. To the south, they found another ornate door, and Simon used his amulet to "listen" there as well.
Everyone was so eagerly awaiting the results of Simon's extrasensory perception that they didn't notice something very large and bizarre creeping up to them from the north: a giant ten-foot cube of some sort of glistening, transparent jelly-like substance. In fact, they only realized it was there when it bumped up against Simon and he yelped as he leaped backwards in shock. Where it had touched his bare flesh he felt numb and tingly.
Father Chase quickly pulled the door open and they all hurled themselves into the room as fast as they could. Unfortunately, Orin was the last in line, and just wasn't nimble enough. The gelatinous cube moved inexorably towards him and engulfed him as he attempted to run to the door. The rest of the party members, inside the room, turned and watched in horror as the enormous cube slid past the door with Orin suspended inside it like a lump of orange peel in some horrible marmalade, his insensate face frozen in a look of perpetual shock.
Caryatid thought fast and pulled out her magical rope of climbing. She ordered it to burrow right into the cube and tie itself around Orin. This was a rather unorthodox use of a rope of climbing, so I had Caryatid make an attack roll to see if the rope could successfully penetrate the cube. She rolled very well, and then Father Chase and Adrien rolled well on strength checks to heave on the rope and pull Orin out. With a grotesque slurping sound, Orin's limp body emerged from the gelatinous cube and slid across the stone floor. They quickly pulled him into the room, and slammed the door shut before the cube could reverse direction and retrieve him.
Orin was covered in bits of transparent jelly and he was not breathing or showing any other signs of life. Father Chase channeled the power of his staff of healing through Orin, and miraculously, Orin's eyes fluttered and he began to draw trembling breaths. Orin had narrowly escaped death, but he could not be awakened. They debated over what to do, and decided to explore the palace a bit, since everyone else was still fine. To the west, a door led to the grand hall that they had explored last month. A passage to the north was decorated with unfamiliar heraldry, and led to a door that was barricaded with a heap of old furniture. Again they ignored this door, and explored another side room off of this hall. Simon used his amulet at a door and detected some sort of primitive animal mind whose thoughts were only of hunger. They passed on this door as well, and opened a different door to find a sort of supply closet filled with old brooms and mops and other maintenance and cleaning equipment. There was a large winch apparatus in the corner, with a chain that disappeared through a hole in the ceiling. There was also a large chest poorly hidden under a pile of rags. Jack tried to pick the lock but couldn't manage it, so Simon waved everyone back, and proceeded to smash in the lid with the pommel of his sword. There was the sound of breaking glass and a green gas hissed out of the box right in Simon's face. He felt woozy for a moment, but made his saving throw and managed to hold his breath and avoid the worst of the fumes. Inside the chest he found 300 silver coins, and these were dutifully packed away in their backpacks.
At this point they decided to head back home (although Simon was getting increasingly antsy about not having found a bugbear for his friend). Father Chase carried Orin's comatose body, and they returned to the entrance of the third level, decided to stop in to visit "the Judge" on the way. It turns out the talking stone column had company, however: five black-robed cultists, including the young lady who had "befriended" Simon three weeks ago!
"Oh, I've been looking all over for you, Simpson!" she said, somewhat tentatively.
"Uh, it's Simon actually. And uh... I'm drawing a complete blank on your name right now, it's the strangest thing..."
"Oh, it's Elfstar," she replied with a knowing smile.
"Elfstar, of course! Stupid me, how could I forget? Don't worry, we're trying really hard to find that bugbear for you."
"Good, good! You know it's very important to our... rituals that we find one."
Meanwhile, Caryatid was casting a Charm Person spell of her very own. Elfstar realized what she was doing just before the enchantment hit her. A momentarily look of confusion passed over her face, but then she smirked.
"Nice try, lady!" And Elfstar and her companions ran out of the room, snickering. The party declined to follow them but turned to the Judge.
"I hope those people weren't disturbing you," said Caryatid.
"Oh, not at all," said the Judge. "They are a bit unsavory, that's true, but they do bring me shiny stones every so often, in return for information about this place."
They offered the Judge a gem from their own funds and asked if he knew where they could find a bugbear off on its own (I guess forgetting that they had asked basically the same thing last session).
"Well," he replied, "there used to be many more bugbears, who were in the service of the Goblin King, but now it seems that only the slaves of the Queen of Nightmares remain."
They fed him another gem and asked what he knew about bugbears and their weaknesses.
"They are very nimble and quiet, and can creep up on the unaware. But they are as mortal as any other flesh creature, and can be killed like an ordinary man. And I know more about that than most."
Spurred by this somewhat cryptic comment, the conversation turned to the Judge's past. He told them how he had been worshipped as a god by the Ancient Idalians, for no one could conceal the truth in his presence. The Idalians would bring those accused of the worst crimes before him and he would judge them, and those guilty he would deliver judgment upon.
The stone column revolved to display a proud face. "Would you like me to demonstrate?"
"Um, sure!" said Caryatid.
The Judge turned to look at the lonely wooden chair in the corner of the room, the chair with the leather ankle, wrist, and head restraints and the curious scorch mark in the back of the chair. A strange glow began to build within his eyes, and a high-pitched crackling whine grew in volume. The hair on the backs of the adventurers' necks stood on end. Then there was a brilliant flash of light, and an enormous spark like a bolt of lightning cracked between the Judge's face and the chair. Their eyes swam with the afterimage, and when it faded the back of the chair was smoldering and smoking. The Judge rotated back to face them with a giddy, sated look on his face.
"Oh, it's been a long, long time since I did that. Just like old times! Tell you what, if you find any ne'er-do-wells in this city, feel free to bring them to me for... judgment. Oh, I would like that!"
"Uh... Okay, we'll definitely keep that in mind!" said Simon nervously. And they all made their polite goodbyes, and returned to the surface.
Simon failed his saving throw for next week, and remained blissfully enchanted by his "best friend" Elfstar.
Game date: Saturday, February 26, 211
PCs:
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 20808/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 9596/16000
Adrien, Fighter 4, hp 16, xp 8479/16000
Retainers:
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 4506/6000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 2213/4000
Jack, Thief 3, hp 10, xp 2888/4800
Unusually, Gulleck's player had to be absent, so we had a smaller than usual party. Three weeks had passed since the last delve, and as a hobbit of average intellect, Simon got to make a weekly saving throw to see if he snapped out of the Charm Person spell that had enchanted him. Amusingly, he failed all three saves, and thus Simon was quite racked by guilt at having let three weeks go by without finding a bugbear for his best friend in all the world.
On their way down to the third level, the party encountered a group of friendly gnomes (their favorite entry on the level one wandering monsters table), and a rival adventuring party dubbed "Sallies Forth" that was composed of a deranged hobbit and three increasingly corrupted magical clones from the malfunctioning resurrection pool. The Sallies were aggressive and rude, but hostilities were narrowly avoided, and the adventurers proceeded below.
They knew that the Queen of Nightmares kept bugbears as slaves, and they knew her palace was at the west end of the third level, so they made their way in that direction, hoping to find a single bugbear that they could trap or put to sleep. They followed the long, ornate palace wall that ran north and south until they found an ornate and grand door. Simon used his mindreading amulet, and sensed the presence of over half a dozen bugbears on the other side.
Somehow they lost their courage here, and decided that this was too many bugbears to take on inside the Queen of Nightmare's palace, so they retreated south to find an alternate entrance, perhaps hoping to double back and catch the bugbears by surprise. To the south, they found another ornate door, and Simon used his amulet to "listen" there as well.
Everyone was so eagerly awaiting the results of Simon's extrasensory perception that they didn't notice something very large and bizarre creeping up to them from the north: a giant ten-foot cube of some sort of glistening, transparent jelly-like substance. In fact, they only realized it was there when it bumped up against Simon and he yelped as he leaped backwards in shock. Where it had touched his bare flesh he felt numb and tingly.
Father Chase quickly pulled the door open and they all hurled themselves into the room as fast as they could. Unfortunately, Orin was the last in line, and just wasn't nimble enough. The gelatinous cube moved inexorably towards him and engulfed him as he attempted to run to the door. The rest of the party members, inside the room, turned and watched in horror as the enormous cube slid past the door with Orin suspended inside it like a lump of orange peel in some horrible marmalade, his insensate face frozen in a look of perpetual shock.
Caryatid thought fast and pulled out her magical rope of climbing. She ordered it to burrow right into the cube and tie itself around Orin. This was a rather unorthodox use of a rope of climbing, so I had Caryatid make an attack roll to see if the rope could successfully penetrate the cube. She rolled very well, and then Father Chase and Adrien rolled well on strength checks to heave on the rope and pull Orin out. With a grotesque slurping sound, Orin's limp body emerged from the gelatinous cube and slid across the stone floor. They quickly pulled him into the room, and slammed the door shut before the cube could reverse direction and retrieve him.
Orin was covered in bits of transparent jelly and he was not breathing or showing any other signs of life. Father Chase channeled the power of his staff of healing through Orin, and miraculously, Orin's eyes fluttered and he began to draw trembling breaths. Orin had narrowly escaped death, but he could not be awakened. They debated over what to do, and decided to explore the palace a bit, since everyone else was still fine. To the west, a door led to the grand hall that they had explored last month. A passage to the north was decorated with unfamiliar heraldry, and led to a door that was barricaded with a heap of old furniture. Again they ignored this door, and explored another side room off of this hall. Simon used his amulet at a door and detected some sort of primitive animal mind whose thoughts were only of hunger. They passed on this door as well, and opened a different door to find a sort of supply closet filled with old brooms and mops and other maintenance and cleaning equipment. There was a large winch apparatus in the corner, with a chain that disappeared through a hole in the ceiling. There was also a large chest poorly hidden under a pile of rags. Jack tried to pick the lock but couldn't manage it, so Simon waved everyone back, and proceeded to smash in the lid with the pommel of his sword. There was the sound of breaking glass and a green gas hissed out of the box right in Simon's face. He felt woozy for a moment, but made his saving throw and managed to hold his breath and avoid the worst of the fumes. Inside the chest he found 300 silver coins, and these were dutifully packed away in their backpacks.
At this point they decided to head back home (although Simon was getting increasingly antsy about not having found a bugbear for his friend). Father Chase carried Orin's comatose body, and they returned to the entrance of the third level, decided to stop in to visit "the Judge" on the way. It turns out the talking stone column had company, however: five black-robed cultists, including the young lady who had "befriended" Simon three weeks ago!
"Oh, I've been looking all over for you, Simpson!" she said, somewhat tentatively.
"Uh, it's Simon actually. And uh... I'm drawing a complete blank on your name right now, it's the strangest thing..."
"Oh, it's Elfstar," she replied with a knowing smile.
"Elfstar, of course! Stupid me, how could I forget? Don't worry, we're trying really hard to find that bugbear for you."
"Good, good! You know it's very important to our... rituals that we find one."
Meanwhile, Caryatid was casting a Charm Person spell of her very own. Elfstar realized what she was doing just before the enchantment hit her. A momentarily look of confusion passed over her face, but then she smirked.
"Nice try, lady!" And Elfstar and her companions ran out of the room, snickering. The party declined to follow them but turned to the Judge.
"I hope those people weren't disturbing you," said Caryatid.
"Oh, not at all," said the Judge. "They are a bit unsavory, that's true, but they do bring me shiny stones every so often, in return for information about this place."
They offered the Judge a gem from their own funds and asked if he knew where they could find a bugbear off on its own (I guess forgetting that they had asked basically the same thing last session).
"Well," he replied, "there used to be many more bugbears, who were in the service of the Goblin King, but now it seems that only the slaves of the Queen of Nightmares remain."
They fed him another gem and asked what he knew about bugbears and their weaknesses.
"They are very nimble and quiet, and can creep up on the unaware. But they are as mortal as any other flesh creature, and can be killed like an ordinary man. And I know more about that than most."
Spurred by this somewhat cryptic comment, the conversation turned to the Judge's past. He told them how he had been worshipped as a god by the Ancient Idalians, for no one could conceal the truth in his presence. The Idalians would bring those accused of the worst crimes before him and he would judge them, and those guilty he would deliver judgment upon.
The stone column revolved to display a proud face. "Would you like me to demonstrate?"
"Um, sure!" said Caryatid.
The Judge turned to look at the lonely wooden chair in the corner of the room, the chair with the leather ankle, wrist, and head restraints and the curious scorch mark in the back of the chair. A strange glow began to build within his eyes, and a high-pitched crackling whine grew in volume. The hair on the backs of the adventurers' necks stood on end. Then there was a brilliant flash of light, and an enormous spark like a bolt of lightning cracked between the Judge's face and the chair. Their eyes swam with the afterimage, and when it faded the back of the chair was smoldering and smoking. The Judge rotated back to face them with a giddy, sated look on his face.
"Oh, it's been a long, long time since I did that. Just like old times! Tell you what, if you find any ne'er-do-wells in this city, feel free to bring them to me for... judgment. Oh, I would like that!"
"Uh... Okay, we'll definitely keep that in mind!" said Simon nervously. And they all made their polite goodbyes, and returned to the surface.
Simon failed his saving throw for next week, and remained blissfully enchanted by his "best friend" Elfstar.
Monday, July 8, 2019
Idalium Game 103: Like a Moth Before a Flame
Session date: Monday, December 17, 2018
Game date: Saturday, January 29, 211
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 71702/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 20761/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 9547/16000
Orehoe Hüfflestüff, Elf 1, hp 3, xp 1177/4000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 16982/32000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 2189/4000
Fritzenbürg, Cleric 1, hp 1, xp 0/1500
Moonpetal, Elf 2, hp 12, xp 4652/8000
Finally, some regained momentum; we managed to meet two weeks in a row for the first time in six months! Adrien's player was unable to attend, but Orehoe's player was able to join us, and rolled up a retainer for herself: a cleric named Fritzenbürg, to offset Father Chase's absence after the last session. Caryatid decided to temporarily replace her retainer by hiring Moonpetal, the naive and dimwitted elf, whom the adventurers had rescued from the party of the cutthroat dwarf Rugger.
Down into the dungeon they went, seeking to explore more of the third level. In the big town square near the entrance from the new city, they encountered four stirges, perched on the rubble of the statues surrounding the dry fountain. Gulleck and Simon attempted to use their rings of animal control, but were disappointed to find that stirges don't qualify as normal animals. Moonpetal, full of unexpected bravery, charged in and dealt a massive blow to a stirge with his sword. Unfortunately, he was then bit by one of the other stirges and grew pale as it sucked away his blood.
Caryatid cut the whole thing short with a Sleep spell, and after stabbing the slumbering stirges they proceeded on their way. In the Temple of Hedonism, they were surprised to find a pair of dwarves engaged in a fight at the far end of the room with several giant bees in the hallway beyond. Remembering how the dwarves had been content to watch their battle with the dancing dolls last week, only to sarcastically applaud them at the end, the party decided to stand and watch. Both dwarves were then promptly stung by bees and with terrible gurgling screams, fell to the ground dead. The bees then buzzed into the room towards the adventurers. Orin cast a Sleep spell, but before he could complete it, one of the two bees stung Moonpetal, who twitched spasmodically before collapsing in a crumpled heap, his face pale in death. Then the last bee fell asleep under the effect of Orin's spell.
The adventurers weren't sure if Moonpetal had ever been revived in the pool of resurrection, but they figured it was worth a shot. Meat hoisted his spindly body over his shoulder, and they proceeded down to the second level, gingerly stepping over the two dead dwarves without a thought of bringing them to the resurrection pool. Cold!
They quickly made their way to the resurrection pool, stripped off Moonpetal's plate armor, and dunked the elf waif into the slippery liquid of the pool. He came up a few moments later, sputtering and gasping, and thoroughly besotted with Caryatid for bringing him back from the doors of death. Once he had a moment to recover his composure and put his armor back on over his sodden undergarments, they moved on, heading down the mossy stairs to the third level.
No sooner had they opened the door at the bottom of the stairs, they were surprised by a group of black-robed men and women. One was murmuring words and tracing patterns in the air as they walked in, and before they could react, she finished her spell, and turned to Simon with a broad grin on her face.
"I'm so glad you're here! We've been looking everywhere for you! I need your help!"
"Uh, sure, what do you need? How can I help?" said Simon, who recognized this lady as one of his dearest friends in all the world (although he couldn't quite remember her name at the moment).
"We really need you to catch us a bugbear! We need one for our... rituals... but we haven't been able to catch one unaware. But you and your friends are so strong, I just know you'll be able to catch us one!"
"Absolutely, friend, I'm on it! I won't let you down!" promised Simon, while the rest of his party rolled their eyes and sighed audibly.
The black-robed cultists reminded Simon to bring the bugbear alive to the Temple of Diana, just down the hall to the west, and then left with knowing smiles. The party then paid a brief visit to "the Judge", feeding him a gemstone and asking him if he had any suggestions about catching a bugbear.
"Hmm... The Queen of Nightmares keeps an entourage of bugbears slaves, but I don't suggest making an enemy of her."
Leaving the Judge behind, the group explored a new area to the west and then south, where they found a largely empty room that was eerily full of tiny white moths fluttering about. There were silken cobwebs draped throughout the room. Another doorway led west to another room, where the moths were even thicker in the air. The doorway was partially shrouded in strange curtains of silk threads. The group cautiously approached this room, to find it choked in silk webs. Scattered among the silk, the party could see a number of silver coins, a polished bit of ornamental stone, and what looked like a scroll case. On the ground were a number of what looked like enormous silk cocoons, pulsating grotesquely. The air was thick with moths here, and as the adventurers looked around, the small white moths suddenly gathered together, coalescing into eight giant moths, each with a four foot wingspan.
The moths surged towards the adventurers, lunging at them with their rasping proboscises. Gulleck and Moonpetal were both bit by the enormous moths. Gulleck swung her axe at the nearest moth, but found to her dismay that the moth's body parted like water around the axe into hundreds of its constituent tiny moths, reforming immediately after the axe passed through.
The party backed away into the main room, and the moths followed. There was a lot of arguing at the table around what to do. Orin read from a Sleep scroll, and managed to put three of the moths to sleep. As they fell to the ground, they lost their shape and dissolved into a mass of tiny moths again. Gulleck tried to swat a moth with the flat of her axe, and while this was very clumsy it did seem to do some damage, dozens of tiny moths dropping dead from the body of the giant moth.
Then Caryatid decided to shortcut everything with a fireball. This was a tricky situation, because she was trying to carefully target the spell to erupt at an exact point where it would hit the moths but not her fellow party members, and also she needed to launch the fireball between several people who were in melee with the moths. I ruled that she would need to roll a d20, and on a 1-6 the outcome would be bad (the fireball would explode premature on Gulleck or Simon's back) and on 7-20 she would hit her intended target. Caryatid's player rolled the Big Green d30 for this, and successfully hit her target. A fiery bead glowed at the tip of her finger, like a glowing ember, and then streaked forward between Gulleck and Simon, impacting on the floor at the far end of the room. The western half of the room went up in roaring flames. Curtains and cobwebs of silk ignited instantly, and three of the five moths were instantly destroyed in the conflagration. The other two moths failed a morale check and fled back into their nest, dispersing into hundreds of small moths as they flew away.
Cautiously, the adventurers crept past smoldering silk and charred moths to peer into the room. All seemed still, with the remaining moths clustered in the southern portion of the room. The coins and scroll case were quickly gathered up, Gulleck went around stomping the pulsating cocoons into a grisly pulp (hundreds of malformed, immature white moths oozed out as the cocoons were crushed), and the party made their return to the surface, with only a few coins to show for their disturbing experience.
The scroll case later turned out to contain not a scroll, but a fragment of a map and a note. The map showed a columned room labeled "throne room hall" and several rooms off of this hall, with an X in one room. The note was from a man who had been enslaved by the Queen of Nightmares, and who had hidden a potion of invisibility in a barrel in a pantry of the Queen's Palace, and sketched out this map in hopes that someone might be able to use it to free him and his fellow slaves...
Game date: Saturday, January 29, 211
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 71702/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 20761/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 9547/16000
Orehoe Hüfflestüff, Elf 1, hp 3, xp 1177/4000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 16982/32000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 2189/4000
Fritzenbürg, Cleric 1, hp 1, xp 0/1500
Moonpetal, Elf 2, hp 12, xp 4652/8000
Finally, some regained momentum; we managed to meet two weeks in a row for the first time in six months! Adrien's player was unable to attend, but Orehoe's player was able to join us, and rolled up a retainer for herself: a cleric named Fritzenbürg, to offset Father Chase's absence after the last session. Caryatid decided to temporarily replace her retainer by hiring Moonpetal, the naive and dimwitted elf, whom the adventurers had rescued from the party of the cutthroat dwarf Rugger.
Down into the dungeon they went, seeking to explore more of the third level. In the big town square near the entrance from the new city, they encountered four stirges, perched on the rubble of the statues surrounding the dry fountain. Gulleck and Simon attempted to use their rings of animal control, but were disappointed to find that stirges don't qualify as normal animals. Moonpetal, full of unexpected bravery, charged in and dealt a massive blow to a stirge with his sword. Unfortunately, he was then bit by one of the other stirges and grew pale as it sucked away his blood.
Caryatid cut the whole thing short with a Sleep spell, and after stabbing the slumbering stirges they proceeded on their way. In the Temple of Hedonism, they were surprised to find a pair of dwarves engaged in a fight at the far end of the room with several giant bees in the hallway beyond. Remembering how the dwarves had been content to watch their battle with the dancing dolls last week, only to sarcastically applaud them at the end, the party decided to stand and watch. Both dwarves were then promptly stung by bees and with terrible gurgling screams, fell to the ground dead. The bees then buzzed into the room towards the adventurers. Orin cast a Sleep spell, but before he could complete it, one of the two bees stung Moonpetal, who twitched spasmodically before collapsing in a crumpled heap, his face pale in death. Then the last bee fell asleep under the effect of Orin's spell.
The adventurers weren't sure if Moonpetal had ever been revived in the pool of resurrection, but they figured it was worth a shot. Meat hoisted his spindly body over his shoulder, and they proceeded down to the second level, gingerly stepping over the two dead dwarves without a thought of bringing them to the resurrection pool. Cold!
They quickly made their way to the resurrection pool, stripped off Moonpetal's plate armor, and dunked the elf waif into the slippery liquid of the pool. He came up a few moments later, sputtering and gasping, and thoroughly besotted with Caryatid for bringing him back from the doors of death. Once he had a moment to recover his composure and put his armor back on over his sodden undergarments, they moved on, heading down the mossy stairs to the third level.
No sooner had they opened the door at the bottom of the stairs, they were surprised by a group of black-robed men and women. One was murmuring words and tracing patterns in the air as they walked in, and before they could react, she finished her spell, and turned to Simon with a broad grin on her face.
"I'm so glad you're here! We've been looking everywhere for you! I need your help!"
"Uh, sure, what do you need? How can I help?" said Simon, who recognized this lady as one of his dearest friends in all the world (although he couldn't quite remember her name at the moment).
"We really need you to catch us a bugbear! We need one for our... rituals... but we haven't been able to catch one unaware. But you and your friends are so strong, I just know you'll be able to catch us one!"
"Absolutely, friend, I'm on it! I won't let you down!" promised Simon, while the rest of his party rolled their eyes and sighed audibly.
The black-robed cultists reminded Simon to bring the bugbear alive to the Temple of Diana, just down the hall to the west, and then left with knowing smiles. The party then paid a brief visit to "the Judge", feeding him a gemstone and asking him if he had any suggestions about catching a bugbear.
"Hmm... The Queen of Nightmares keeps an entourage of bugbears slaves, but I don't suggest making an enemy of her."
Leaving the Judge behind, the group explored a new area to the west and then south, where they found a largely empty room that was eerily full of tiny white moths fluttering about. There were silken cobwebs draped throughout the room. Another doorway led west to another room, where the moths were even thicker in the air. The doorway was partially shrouded in strange curtains of silk threads. The group cautiously approached this room, to find it choked in silk webs. Scattered among the silk, the party could see a number of silver coins, a polished bit of ornamental stone, and what looked like a scroll case. On the ground were a number of what looked like enormous silk cocoons, pulsating grotesquely. The air was thick with moths here, and as the adventurers looked around, the small white moths suddenly gathered together, coalescing into eight giant moths, each with a four foot wingspan.
The moths surged towards the adventurers, lunging at them with their rasping proboscises. Gulleck and Moonpetal were both bit by the enormous moths. Gulleck swung her axe at the nearest moth, but found to her dismay that the moth's body parted like water around the axe into hundreds of its constituent tiny moths, reforming immediately after the axe passed through.
The party backed away into the main room, and the moths followed. There was a lot of arguing at the table around what to do. Orin read from a Sleep scroll, and managed to put three of the moths to sleep. As they fell to the ground, they lost their shape and dissolved into a mass of tiny moths again. Gulleck tried to swat a moth with the flat of her axe, and while this was very clumsy it did seem to do some damage, dozens of tiny moths dropping dead from the body of the giant moth.
Then Caryatid decided to shortcut everything with a fireball. This was a tricky situation, because she was trying to carefully target the spell to erupt at an exact point where it would hit the moths but not her fellow party members, and also she needed to launch the fireball between several people who were in melee with the moths. I ruled that she would need to roll a d20, and on a 1-6 the outcome would be bad (the fireball would explode premature on Gulleck or Simon's back) and on 7-20 she would hit her intended target. Caryatid's player rolled the Big Green d30 for this, and successfully hit her target. A fiery bead glowed at the tip of her finger, like a glowing ember, and then streaked forward between Gulleck and Simon, impacting on the floor at the far end of the room. The western half of the room went up in roaring flames. Curtains and cobwebs of silk ignited instantly, and three of the five moths were instantly destroyed in the conflagration. The other two moths failed a morale check and fled back into their nest, dispersing into hundreds of small moths as they flew away.
Cautiously, the adventurers crept past smoldering silk and charred moths to peer into the room. All seemed still, with the remaining moths clustered in the southern portion of the room. The coins and scroll case were quickly gathered up, Gulleck went around stomping the pulsating cocoons into a grisly pulp (hundreds of malformed, immature white moths oozed out as the cocoons were crushed), and the party made their return to the surface, with only a few coins to show for their disturbing experience.
The scroll case later turned out to contain not a scroll, but a fragment of a map and a note. The map showed a columned room labeled "throne room hall" and several rooms off of this hall, with an X in one room. The note was from a man who had been enslaved by the Queen of Nightmares, and who had hidden a potion of invisibility in a barrel in a pantry of the Queen's Palace, and sketched out this map in hopes that someone might be able to use it to free him and his fellow slaves...
Saturday, June 29, 2019
Idalium Game 102: Let the Bodies Hit the Floor
Session date: Monday, December 10, 2018
Game date: Saturday, January 22, 211
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 71586/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 20616/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 9395/16000
Adrien, Fighter 4, hp 16, xp 8334/16000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 16909/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 4429/6000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 2116/4000
Jack, Thief 3, hp 10, xp 2811/4800
We seemed to have lost momentum. It had been eighteen weeks since our last session. As is our custom, as much time had passed in the campaign world as in real life. But now we (and thus, the adventurers) managed to all be available on the same day, and another delve beneath Idalium was made.
In the Rusty Lantern tavern, the adventurers found that in their prolonged absence, the Brothers Fruthwood (a rival adventuring party composed of three hobbit brothers and a couple of hired hands) had leapfrogged ahead of them on the "scoreboard". Somewhat peeved to have lost their crown, the party descended and made their way through the Temple of Hedonism to the second level, where Adrien insisted they stop in the Temple of Chance and take a spin on the great wheel of fortune.
Adrien spun, and suddenly felt very ill, but instant death was averted by a saving throw. Her retainer Jack also went for a spin, but apart from a vague feeling of good fortune it was unclear what boon or bane had been bestowed upon him.
Down they went to the third level. In the Hall of Elder Gods, they were not greeted by "the Judge" as usual, but instead heard deep snores coming from the hallway leading to his chamber. Deciding not to wake him, they proceeded to explore the level and headed west.
At a door with an engraved insignia of a pentagram surrounding a goat's head, Simon used his mind-reading amulet to sense the presence of several minds in the room beyond. Reaching deeper into one of the minds, his head was filled with thoughts of studying esoteric prayers and rituals. They moved on, further to the west, coming to a long wall that ran north and south into the darkness. The wall was decorated and painted to give the impression of a single long building, like a palace wall. At the intersection was a door, fairly ornate and grand.
They listened and Simon used his amulet, and detected no one on the other side. Gulleck knocked, and received no response, so they entered, and found themselves in an empty antechamber. It had once been quite grand, with marble tiles on the floor and decorative plaster molding at the top of the walls. Now it was dusty and ragged, the tiles chipped and scratched and the plasterwork crumbling.
Two doors led out of this room and the party chose a plainer door to the south. This led to a small room that was a sort of widening of a long hall that led west into the dark. Across from them was a large cabinet. It was found to be locked, so Jack put his thieves' tools to work and successfully picked the lock. Inside they found a few burlap sacks containing several hundred gold and silver coins, as well as a large stock of arrows. They took the coins, and Simon filled his quiver with as many arrows as it would hold.
They went back into the antechamber and tried the other door. This led to a grand hall with several doors leading off it, and a wide passage leading north. This passage was decorated with old, faded banners and flags depicting some unfamiliar heraldry. It led to a door at the north end that was barricaded with numerous pieces of furniture: ornate chairs, cabinets, side tables, wardrobes, etc., all jumbled in a heap blocking the door.
The group decided to ignore this door for now, and explored further to the west, through another door. This turned out to be a plain bedroom, with several old and rickety bunk beds against the walls, most likely a former servants' quarters. But dominating their immediate attention were four statue-like creatures, with demonic faces and bat-like wings - gargoyles!
The adventurers were itching for a fight after so long, and uncharacteristically they charged into the room with weapons drawn, rather than bottlenecking the doorway as usual. Adrien drew the "disco sword" she had claimed from the Goblin King, and the room was filled with scintillating light of every color of the rainbow as she faced down one of the gargoyles.
Caryatid attempted to cast a Sleep spell, but this had no effect on the magical creatures. Before Adrien could land a blow, she was viciously rent by claws and fell to the ground in a bloody heap. Another gargoyle pounced on Gulleck and managed to roll a 20 on two of its three attacks! Gulleck stumbled and fell on her side and the gargoyle leaped on top of her and its stony teeth tore open her forehead. Blood was streaming into her eyes, obscuring her vision.
Father Chase rushed to Adrien's body and let the power of his Staff of Healing flow through her (rolling the Big Green d30 for extra hit points healed). Adrien gasped as she regained consciousness, finding all her wounds healed.
A second gargoyle crouched over Gulleck and tore at her prone body, while she was struggling to wipe the blood from her eyes and clear her vision. Meanwhile the last of the four gargoyles ripped at Simon. Father Chase hurried over to heal Simon, while Gulleck, still struggling with two gargoyles pinning her to the ground, managed to swing her magical axe right into the side of one of them. Gray mud, like wet cement, poured out of the wound, and the gargoyle fell off her.
Father Chase had healed Simon of some of his wounds, but alas, it was not enough to protect him from the onslaught of the gargoyle that was fighting him. With a scream, the hobbit fell beneath a flurry of claws and teeth. His plate armor hit the stone floor with a solid thump. And then Father Chase was facing the vicious claws of a gargoyle! He backed away, trying to defend himself, but he too was brought to his knees and then prone by the fangs and sharp claws of the cruel creature. With a gargling shriek, he fell still.
But the tide was turning. Adrien had slain her gargoyle, and Gulleck, having regained her feet, made quick work of the remaining two with her magical axe and gauntlets of ogre strength. Soon, all was still, and the party looked round to take stock of their comrades.
Simon and Father Chase lay still on the floor. Simon was feebly breathing but unconscious (at zero hit points) but Father Chase seemed worse off. I called for the customary 1d4-1 roll to regain hit points at the end of each battle, representing some portion of hit points that signify fatigue or combat luck. Simon did not roll a 1, and therefore gradually regained consciousness, feeling completely ragged and exhausted.
Caryatid's player chose to roll the Big Green d30 for this, and rolling a 20, Father Chase was found to be in pristine condition: a miracle!! Perhaps he had only been struck a series of glancing blows, or perhaps some divine intervention had averted his death, but either way, he regained consciousness to find he had narrowly escaped serious injury.
One of the gargoyles was found to have gemstones for its eyes: a round piece of carved jet and a deep blue spinel stone. They gouged out these "eyes" from the lifeless head, and pleased with this bit of treasure, the adventurers made their way back out of the dungeon and celebrated their success back in the Rusty Lantern with a round of drinks.
Father Chase, badly demoralized by his close brush with death, decided to take four weeks off from adventuring.
Game date: Saturday, January 22, 211
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 71586/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 20616/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 9395/16000
Adrien, Fighter 4, hp 16, xp 8334/16000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 16909/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 4429/6000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 2116/4000
Jack, Thief 3, hp 10, xp 2811/4800
We seemed to have lost momentum. It had been eighteen weeks since our last session. As is our custom, as much time had passed in the campaign world as in real life. But now we (and thus, the adventurers) managed to all be available on the same day, and another delve beneath Idalium was made.
In the Rusty Lantern tavern, the adventurers found that in their prolonged absence, the Brothers Fruthwood (a rival adventuring party composed of three hobbit brothers and a couple of hired hands) had leapfrogged ahead of them on the "scoreboard". Somewhat peeved to have lost their crown, the party descended and made their way through the Temple of Hedonism to the second level, where Adrien insisted they stop in the Temple of Chance and take a spin on the great wheel of fortune.
Adrien spun, and suddenly felt very ill, but instant death was averted by a saving throw. Her retainer Jack also went for a spin, but apart from a vague feeling of good fortune it was unclear what boon or bane had been bestowed upon him.
Down they went to the third level. In the Hall of Elder Gods, they were not greeted by "the Judge" as usual, but instead heard deep snores coming from the hallway leading to his chamber. Deciding not to wake him, they proceeded to explore the level and headed west.
At a door with an engraved insignia of a pentagram surrounding a goat's head, Simon used his mind-reading amulet to sense the presence of several minds in the room beyond. Reaching deeper into one of the minds, his head was filled with thoughts of studying esoteric prayers and rituals. They moved on, further to the west, coming to a long wall that ran north and south into the darkness. The wall was decorated and painted to give the impression of a single long building, like a palace wall. At the intersection was a door, fairly ornate and grand.
They listened and Simon used his amulet, and detected no one on the other side. Gulleck knocked, and received no response, so they entered, and found themselves in an empty antechamber. It had once been quite grand, with marble tiles on the floor and decorative plaster molding at the top of the walls. Now it was dusty and ragged, the tiles chipped and scratched and the plasterwork crumbling.
Two doors led out of this room and the party chose a plainer door to the south. This led to a small room that was a sort of widening of a long hall that led west into the dark. Across from them was a large cabinet. It was found to be locked, so Jack put his thieves' tools to work and successfully picked the lock. Inside they found a few burlap sacks containing several hundred gold and silver coins, as well as a large stock of arrows. They took the coins, and Simon filled his quiver with as many arrows as it would hold.
They went back into the antechamber and tried the other door. This led to a grand hall with several doors leading off it, and a wide passage leading north. This passage was decorated with old, faded banners and flags depicting some unfamiliar heraldry. It led to a door at the north end that was barricaded with numerous pieces of furniture: ornate chairs, cabinets, side tables, wardrobes, etc., all jumbled in a heap blocking the door.
The group decided to ignore this door for now, and explored further to the west, through another door. This turned out to be a plain bedroom, with several old and rickety bunk beds against the walls, most likely a former servants' quarters. But dominating their immediate attention were four statue-like creatures, with demonic faces and bat-like wings - gargoyles!
The adventurers were itching for a fight after so long, and uncharacteristically they charged into the room with weapons drawn, rather than bottlenecking the doorway as usual. Adrien drew the "disco sword" she had claimed from the Goblin King, and the room was filled with scintillating light of every color of the rainbow as she faced down one of the gargoyles.
Caryatid attempted to cast a Sleep spell, but this had no effect on the magical creatures. Before Adrien could land a blow, she was viciously rent by claws and fell to the ground in a bloody heap. Another gargoyle pounced on Gulleck and managed to roll a 20 on two of its three attacks! Gulleck stumbled and fell on her side and the gargoyle leaped on top of her and its stony teeth tore open her forehead. Blood was streaming into her eyes, obscuring her vision.
Father Chase rushed to Adrien's body and let the power of his Staff of Healing flow through her (rolling the Big Green d30 for extra hit points healed). Adrien gasped as she regained consciousness, finding all her wounds healed.
A second gargoyle crouched over Gulleck and tore at her prone body, while she was struggling to wipe the blood from her eyes and clear her vision. Meanwhile the last of the four gargoyles ripped at Simon. Father Chase hurried over to heal Simon, while Gulleck, still struggling with two gargoyles pinning her to the ground, managed to swing her magical axe right into the side of one of them. Gray mud, like wet cement, poured out of the wound, and the gargoyle fell off her.
Father Chase had healed Simon of some of his wounds, but alas, it was not enough to protect him from the onslaught of the gargoyle that was fighting him. With a scream, the hobbit fell beneath a flurry of claws and teeth. His plate armor hit the stone floor with a solid thump. And then Father Chase was facing the vicious claws of a gargoyle! He backed away, trying to defend himself, but he too was brought to his knees and then prone by the fangs and sharp claws of the cruel creature. With a gargling shriek, he fell still.
But the tide was turning. Adrien had slain her gargoyle, and Gulleck, having regained her feet, made quick work of the remaining two with her magical axe and gauntlets of ogre strength. Soon, all was still, and the party looked round to take stock of their comrades.
Simon and Father Chase lay still on the floor. Simon was feebly breathing but unconscious (at zero hit points) but Father Chase seemed worse off. I called for the customary 1d4-1 roll to regain hit points at the end of each battle, representing some portion of hit points that signify fatigue or combat luck. Simon did not roll a 1, and therefore gradually regained consciousness, feeling completely ragged and exhausted.
Caryatid's player chose to roll the Big Green d30 for this, and rolling a 20, Father Chase was found to be in pristine condition: a miracle!! Perhaps he had only been struck a series of glancing blows, or perhaps some divine intervention had averted his death, but either way, he regained consciousness to find he had narrowly escaped serious injury.
One of the gargoyles was found to have gemstones for its eyes: a round piece of carved jet and a deep blue spinel stone. They gouged out these "eyes" from the lifeless head, and pleased with this bit of treasure, the adventurers made their way back out of the dungeon and celebrated their success back in the Rusty Lantern with a round of drinks.
Father Chase, badly demoralized by his close brush with death, decided to take four weeks off from adventuring.
Monday, June 24, 2019
Idalium Game 101: Or You'll Forever Tap Your Feet
Session date: Monday, August 6, 2018
Game date: Saturday, September 18, 210
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 71454/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 20451/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 9222/16000
Adrien, Fighter 4, hp 16, xp 8169/16000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 16826/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 4342/6000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 2033/4000
Jack, Thief 3, hp 10, xp 2724/4800
It had been a LONG time since our last delve below Idalium, both in real time and in game time. Seventeen weeks had passed, in fact. We took some time to explore the consequences of the adventurers' unexpected three month disappearance from Idalium. Those with "day jobs" had some explaining to do to get their old jobs back. Everyone who lived in an apartment had been evicted and their belongings had been stored or disposed of by various friends and relations. All of the adventurers were now living in the rickety old house they had purchased over a year ago, in The Steps, the rundown and neglected hillside neighborhood to the west of the river that ran through Idalium. Collectively they paid several hundred gold darics to replace the planks and boards with a proper front door and windows. Adrien and Simon bought several hundred darics worth of gems to feed to "The Judge" down on level 3, to learn what they could about recent events in the dungeon.
Eventually, they arrived at the Rusty Lantern and descended to the streets of buried Ancient Idalium. Though it had been a long time indeed, the silent and cool air underneath the city was the same as ever. When they passed through the town square, they discovered the ominous sight of a recently deceased adventurer or bandit, lying on the cobblestones near the shattered fountain. They could not ascertain exactly what had killed him, but as they gingerly examined his body they heard jingling in his backpack, and discovered several hundred silver shekels and a few dozen gold darics. Grimly, they redistributed this wealth to themselves, and continued along the familiar streets deeper into the dungeon.
There were half a dozen hedonists hanging out in the "den" of the Temple of Hedonism. Thankfully, it must not have been a scheduled orgy day, as they were just loafing around drinking wine and playing music. They were surprised to see the adventurers after so many months, and bid them success as the adventurers passed through the temple on their way to the third level.
At the top of the stairs, the adventurers noticed something new: a small "sandwich-board" sign with writing in Common facing down the stairs. The writing said, "BEWARE: This level is protected!" The adventurers exchanged looks, wondering about these new benefactors of the second level that had arrived during their absence. Then they proceeded downstairs and entered the third level.
The "Judge", the living stone column perpetually standing in a room adjacent to the entry hall, was very surprised and pleased to see the adventurers again after so many months. Gulleck fed the Judge a gemstone and asked for general news of the dungeon events in the last few months. The Judge told them that the Queen of Nightmares had increased her entourage of bugbear slaves by a significant number (in the aftermath of the destruction of the Goblin King). But the big news was that a strange party of dwarves had taken up in residence on the second level. They seemed to be searching the dungeon for something specific and occasionally gave the Judge "shiny stones" in return for information. They had marked the second level as their territory and warned the various factions of the third level to mind their manners if they traveled above.
Caryatid gave the Judge a gem and asked about the garden that she remembered hearing about once or twice. She was still hoping to find the rumored beanstalk that was said to lead to the castle of the giant from whence her goose had come, in hopes of finding more of the special oats that would make it lay more golden eggs. Gulleck, on the other hand, felt that this rumor was too silly to possibly be true. The Judge did tell Caryatid that the door to the garden was through this level to the north. So that's where they set out for.
They proceeded along a very long hallway past many side corridors, and eventually came to a wider, more ornate hall that ran west. The floor was covered in a once-grand carpet that was now tattered and worn. The walls were hung with huge, dusty paintings of wealthy Idalians engaged in various activities of the rich and idle. The party decided to bypass this hall for the moment, however, and continued along a smaller hallway to the north.
This hallway soon opened up into a large open room with what once obviously once a very nice polished wooden floor. In the center of the room they could make out all sorts of debris and rubble, where the ceiling had collapsed, and among the rubble were the bones of enormous snakes, as well as the dessicated husks of dead giant spiders. The adventurers recognized this room as being directly below the hole in the floor of the apartment courtyard in which the orcs and later the Goblin Prince's group had resided.
They moved further into the room, but as they stepped onto the wooden floor, torches set in wall sconces suddenly flared to life all around the perimeter of the room. The adventurers could see another doorway leaving the room to the west, and also saw that the perimeter of the room was lined with ten unusual cabinets or wardrobes. Before they had much time to take this in, the air was filled with music from no visible source, playing a stately dance. The ten cabinets suddenly opened, and from each emerged a life-sized cloth doll, stepping wobbily onto the ballroom floor. Five of them wore elegant men's attire, and the other five wore fancy white gowns. Their features were crudely stitched, and their heads and limbs were floppy and limp.
The dolls gained speed as they emerged, and danced their way across the ballroom floor, dodging the rubble in the center as they approached the adventurers. Their arms were outstretched as they attempted to sweep the adventurers up into the dance. Meat, Caryatid, Father Chase, and Orin were all taken up by the embrace of a doll, and found their feet moving of their own volition to the rhythm of the music, dancing in graceful circles with the dolls. Gulleck and Simon attacked the dolls, weapons slicing into stuffed cloth. The doll that Simon hit thrashed around and released Orin. Meat, even in the midst of dancing, managed to draw his sword and carve his doll open entirely and it fell in a heap of cloth and spun flax and stopped moving. Caryatid struggled to get free of the strange magic that forced her to dance with her partner but she was unable to do so.
The one-sided battle went on. The dolls never attacked with any physical force, but kept sweeping the adventurers up into an unwanted dance. The music was loud and I was rolling every round to see if wandering monsters would turn up. Eventually, the last of the ten dolls was hacked down and the music and torchlight faded.
As the adventurers, breathing heavily, took stock of the situation, the silence was broken by a slow, ironic handclap. They turned to see a group of about half a dozen dwarves standing at the edge of the ballroom floor at the same hallway to the south that they had entered from. The lead dwarf was smirking and applauding with slow, deliberate claps. The adventurers sized them up and walked over to speak with them.
"Well, thanks for the help," said Gulleck.
"Ah, you seemed to have everything under control. Besides, we saw no reason for us to get caught up in that spell," said the lead dwarf. He spoke in a strange, unfamiliar accent. [My attempt at a cod Russian/Slavic accent. Yes, as a DM I am not at all averse to a bit of "amateur theatrics".] Their clothes as well were unusual for Idalium, and indicated an origin in a colder climate. The adventurers attempted to ask the dwarves about themselves, but the lead dwarf simply offered to take them to his leader.
"How about you come with me and meet Tobar. Perhaps he will tell you what you ask."
So they followed the dwarves back up to the second level, and were brought to the room directly above the ballroom floor: the courtyard of the apartments that used to house the orcs. Now it appeared to be the redoubt of a party of dwarves, who were busy preparing meals, moving supplies, etc. The adventurers were met by a pair of rather weathered-looking dwarves. Their clothes, like those of the others, were rugged and utilitarian. After being introduced by the dwarf who had escorted them, the senior of the pair spoke.
"Well met, cousin," he said, nodding to Gulleck. "My name is Tobar. This is Yoska, my second-in-command."
Pleasantries were exchanged. Tobar was guarded but pragmatic and seemed to be evaluating the character of the adventurers before revealing too much to them. He told them that his group had come from the north, from their ancestral homeland in the Balinok Mountains, and that they were on an expedition to search for a long lost dwarven artifact that fell into the hands of the Ancient Idalians hundreds of years ago. He was cagey about the exact nature of the artifact, but told the adventurers he would pay for any information they came across that helped them locate it. He also told them that their current obstacle was in dealing with the Queen of Nightmares on the third level. Her bugbear minions had already abducted several of their number, and they would be happy to see her eliminated. In fact, they would be willing to pay a bounty on any bugbears that the party killed, and offered to pay 10 gold darics for each left bugbear ear the adventurers brought back as evidence.
The group was happy to shake on that offer, and though Tobar and Yoska seemed a bit aloof and cool to them, any enemy of the Queen of Nightmares was a friend of theirs. They parted with an exchange of mutual well wishes for future success, and the adventurers returned to the Rusty Lantern tavern, perhaps with only a few coins to show for it, but with a decent appraisal of what was new in the dungeon.
Game date: Saturday, September 18, 210
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 71454/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 20451/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 9222/16000
Adrien, Fighter 4, hp 16, xp 8169/16000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 16826/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 4342/6000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 2033/4000
Jack, Thief 3, hp 10, xp 2724/4800
It had been a LONG time since our last delve below Idalium, both in real time and in game time. Seventeen weeks had passed, in fact. We took some time to explore the consequences of the adventurers' unexpected three month disappearance from Idalium. Those with "day jobs" had some explaining to do to get their old jobs back. Everyone who lived in an apartment had been evicted and their belongings had been stored or disposed of by various friends and relations. All of the adventurers were now living in the rickety old house they had purchased over a year ago, in The Steps, the rundown and neglected hillside neighborhood to the west of the river that ran through Idalium. Collectively they paid several hundred gold darics to replace the planks and boards with a proper front door and windows. Adrien and Simon bought several hundred darics worth of gems to feed to "The Judge" down on level 3, to learn what they could about recent events in the dungeon.
Eventually, they arrived at the Rusty Lantern and descended to the streets of buried Ancient Idalium. Though it had been a long time indeed, the silent and cool air underneath the city was the same as ever. When they passed through the town square, they discovered the ominous sight of a recently deceased adventurer or bandit, lying on the cobblestones near the shattered fountain. They could not ascertain exactly what had killed him, but as they gingerly examined his body they heard jingling in his backpack, and discovered several hundred silver shekels and a few dozen gold darics. Grimly, they redistributed this wealth to themselves, and continued along the familiar streets deeper into the dungeon.
There were half a dozen hedonists hanging out in the "den" of the Temple of Hedonism. Thankfully, it must not have been a scheduled orgy day, as they were just loafing around drinking wine and playing music. They were surprised to see the adventurers after so many months, and bid them success as the adventurers passed through the temple on their way to the third level.
At the top of the stairs, the adventurers noticed something new: a small "sandwich-board" sign with writing in Common facing down the stairs. The writing said, "BEWARE: This level is protected!" The adventurers exchanged looks, wondering about these new benefactors of the second level that had arrived during their absence. Then they proceeded downstairs and entered the third level.
The "Judge", the living stone column perpetually standing in a room adjacent to the entry hall, was very surprised and pleased to see the adventurers again after so many months. Gulleck fed the Judge a gemstone and asked for general news of the dungeon events in the last few months. The Judge told them that the Queen of Nightmares had increased her entourage of bugbear slaves by a significant number (in the aftermath of the destruction of the Goblin King). But the big news was that a strange party of dwarves had taken up in residence on the second level. They seemed to be searching the dungeon for something specific and occasionally gave the Judge "shiny stones" in return for information. They had marked the second level as their territory and warned the various factions of the third level to mind their manners if they traveled above.
Caryatid gave the Judge a gem and asked about the garden that she remembered hearing about once or twice. She was still hoping to find the rumored beanstalk that was said to lead to the castle of the giant from whence her goose had come, in hopes of finding more of the special oats that would make it lay more golden eggs. Gulleck, on the other hand, felt that this rumor was too silly to possibly be true. The Judge did tell Caryatid that the door to the garden was through this level to the north. So that's where they set out for.
They proceeded along a very long hallway past many side corridors, and eventually came to a wider, more ornate hall that ran west. The floor was covered in a once-grand carpet that was now tattered and worn. The walls were hung with huge, dusty paintings of wealthy Idalians engaged in various activities of the rich and idle. The party decided to bypass this hall for the moment, however, and continued along a smaller hallway to the north.
This hallway soon opened up into a large open room with what once obviously once a very nice polished wooden floor. In the center of the room they could make out all sorts of debris and rubble, where the ceiling had collapsed, and among the rubble were the bones of enormous snakes, as well as the dessicated husks of dead giant spiders. The adventurers recognized this room as being directly below the hole in the floor of the apartment courtyard in which the orcs and later the Goblin Prince's group had resided.
They moved further into the room, but as they stepped onto the wooden floor, torches set in wall sconces suddenly flared to life all around the perimeter of the room. The adventurers could see another doorway leaving the room to the west, and also saw that the perimeter of the room was lined with ten unusual cabinets or wardrobes. Before they had much time to take this in, the air was filled with music from no visible source, playing a stately dance. The ten cabinets suddenly opened, and from each emerged a life-sized cloth doll, stepping wobbily onto the ballroom floor. Five of them wore elegant men's attire, and the other five wore fancy white gowns. Their features were crudely stitched, and their heads and limbs were floppy and limp.
The dolls gained speed as they emerged, and danced their way across the ballroom floor, dodging the rubble in the center as they approached the adventurers. Their arms were outstretched as they attempted to sweep the adventurers up into the dance. Meat, Caryatid, Father Chase, and Orin were all taken up by the embrace of a doll, and found their feet moving of their own volition to the rhythm of the music, dancing in graceful circles with the dolls. Gulleck and Simon attacked the dolls, weapons slicing into stuffed cloth. The doll that Simon hit thrashed around and released Orin. Meat, even in the midst of dancing, managed to draw his sword and carve his doll open entirely and it fell in a heap of cloth and spun flax and stopped moving. Caryatid struggled to get free of the strange magic that forced her to dance with her partner but she was unable to do so.
The one-sided battle went on. The dolls never attacked with any physical force, but kept sweeping the adventurers up into an unwanted dance. The music was loud and I was rolling every round to see if wandering monsters would turn up. Eventually, the last of the ten dolls was hacked down and the music and torchlight faded.
As the adventurers, breathing heavily, took stock of the situation, the silence was broken by a slow, ironic handclap. They turned to see a group of about half a dozen dwarves standing at the edge of the ballroom floor at the same hallway to the south that they had entered from. The lead dwarf was smirking and applauding with slow, deliberate claps. The adventurers sized them up and walked over to speak with them.
"Well, thanks for the help," said Gulleck.
"Ah, you seemed to have everything under control. Besides, we saw no reason for us to get caught up in that spell," said the lead dwarf. He spoke in a strange, unfamiliar accent. [My attempt at a cod Russian/Slavic accent. Yes, as a DM I am not at all averse to a bit of "amateur theatrics".] Their clothes as well were unusual for Idalium, and indicated an origin in a colder climate. The adventurers attempted to ask the dwarves about themselves, but the lead dwarf simply offered to take them to his leader.
"How about you come with me and meet Tobar. Perhaps he will tell you what you ask."
So they followed the dwarves back up to the second level, and were brought to the room directly above the ballroom floor: the courtyard of the apartments that used to house the orcs. Now it appeared to be the redoubt of a party of dwarves, who were busy preparing meals, moving supplies, etc. The adventurers were met by a pair of rather weathered-looking dwarves. Their clothes, like those of the others, were rugged and utilitarian. After being introduced by the dwarf who had escorted them, the senior of the pair spoke.
"Well met, cousin," he said, nodding to Gulleck. "My name is Tobar. This is Yoska, my second-in-command."
Pleasantries were exchanged. Tobar was guarded but pragmatic and seemed to be evaluating the character of the adventurers before revealing too much to them. He told them that his group had come from the north, from their ancestral homeland in the Balinok Mountains, and that they were on an expedition to search for a long lost dwarven artifact that fell into the hands of the Ancient Idalians hundreds of years ago. He was cagey about the exact nature of the artifact, but told the adventurers he would pay for any information they came across that helped them locate it. He also told them that their current obstacle was in dealing with the Queen of Nightmares on the third level. Her bugbear minions had already abducted several of their number, and they would be happy to see her eliminated. In fact, they would be willing to pay a bounty on any bugbears that the party killed, and offered to pay 10 gold darics for each left bugbear ear the adventurers brought back as evidence.
The group was happy to shake on that offer, and though Tobar and Yoska seemed a bit aloof and cool to them, any enemy of the Queen of Nightmares was a friend of theirs. They parted with an exchange of mutual well wishes for future success, and the adventurers returned to the Rusty Lantern tavern, perhaps with only a few coins to show for it, but with a decent appraisal of what was new in the dungeon.
Friday, May 17, 2019
Idalium Game 100: An Unexpected Party
Session date: Monday, June 25, 2018
Game date: Dreaming as the days go by
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 71130/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 20046/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 8797/16000
Adrien, Fighter 3, hp 9, xp 7764/8000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 16623/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 4129/6000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 1830/4000
Jack, Thief 3, hp 10, xp 2511/4800
The party watched with some alarm as Humpty Dumpty tumbled from his perch, fell some fifty feet, and shattered at the base of the enormous brick wall. Then they scurried over to him. It was an awful sight; enormous shards of eggshell lied tangled in clothes in a pool of thick egg white and yolk. Curiously, there were a number of smaller egg-shaped objects lying in the puddle of yolk.
"How dare you?" croaked Humpty Dumpty as they approached. "Just you wait until the King's horses and his men arrive and put me back together. Then you'll be sorry, I should think!"
Ignoring his threats, Gulleck and Simon picked the strange eggs out of Humpty's remains.
"I beg your pardon!" he squawked. "Put those back at once! Oh! I am slain!" And he breathed a last, melodramatic breath.
The adventurers had little time to examine the eggs before an enormous hue and cry was raised. A hitherto unseen yet enormous gate opened in the brick wall and dozens of blue-skinned giants stomped forth. They were accompanied by two dozen giant rhinoceroses, and all were regally arrayed in red and white heraldic dress.
The adventurers were swiftly surrounded by the giants, and one stepped forward and bellowed:
"We come on the King's business to put Humpty Dumpty back together!" Then he spotted the small eggs that Simon and Gulleck were hastily trying to stow away, and shouted, "Stop! Put back those potions of the Exalted Eggcellency which you have taken! Get from this place immediately, or we shall slay you all!"
Well, as usual, the adventurers attempted some sort of awkward parlay, which again as usual turned into insults being slung in both directions, and things went south quite quickly. Several party members decided to make themselves scarce: Simon used his levitation boots to float to the top of the wall away from the fray, Caryatid slipped on her ring of invisibility, and Jack scrambled up a tree and hid in the foliage.
The giants ordered an attack, and it was over in mere seconds. The remaining adventurers were gored by the rhinos or slashed from neck to groin by the giants' enormous axes.
Jack peeped through the leaves of the tree that he was hiding in, and saw his fellow party members sprawled on the grass. But then he realized that he saw no blood and their armor seemed undamaged. Simon descended from the sky and likewise saw that his comrades seemed curiously unharmed. Caryatid faded back into visibility as well and saw that the others were merely unconscious, and were breathing steadily.
The rest of the party members were shaken awake. They were groggy at first and could hardly believe they still lived, but indeed they found themselves unharmed. After collecting themselves, they looked around for the giants and rhinos, but instead saw a gnome, who was in the midst of rolling away one of their barrels of gold coins!
"Hey!" yelled Simon, but the gnome turned and murmured strange words and then gestured at him. A blast of dazzling colors shot from his hand, bowling Simon and Jack over, stunned by the magical lights. The gnome, cackling gleefully, rolled the barrel down the grassy field, back towards the river and the rowboat. Gulleck gave chase, but alas, she lost sight of the gnome and had to return empty-handed. But now the great gate was open and unguarded, and so the adventurers passed beyond the wall and into the forest beyond.
They had not walked long along the forest path when they came to a small wooden sign pointing further along the path and bearing the initials "M.H." Following this sign led them to a clearing, in which unfolded a very odd sight.
There was a strange house, built of all sorts of different materials (brick, wood, plaster, stone, etc.) with windows of all shapes and angles. The chimneys were shaped like rabbit ears, and the roof appeared to be thatched with brownish fur. But the oddest sight lay before the house, where a large table was set on the lawn. The white tablecloth was cluttered with teapots, platters, sugar bowls, pitchers, and many sets of teacups and saucers. There were over a dozen chairs of various mismatched types along the sides of the tables, and several strange creatures were seated at the table. There was a human wearing a tall hat and suit, a rabbit-like humanoid, and a large mouse-like creature that seemed half-asleep and drowsy. But most unexpected of all was the unmistakable visage of the Goblin King, leaning back in an ornate armchair with his boot-clad feet up on the table.
The adventurers' eyes widened as they recognized the Goblin King, as did his as they approached the table.
"No room! No room!" bellowed the Mad Hatter and the March Hare as they approached.
"Nonsense, there's plenty of room," beamed the Goblin King. "These are friends of mine. Well, now, fancy meeting you here!"
"I was about the say the same about you," said Gulleck, perplexed.
"Oh, well, you know, I'm just passing through on my way to greater things. No thanks to you," he scowled. "Oh, I'm just kidding, no hard feelings. It was a bit unsporting, though, how you didn't even give me a chance to fight back. It was all rather embarrassing, frankly!"
The two hobgoblins who had been accompanying the party spoke up at this point. "Your Majesty, we've brought you those children you asked us to guard. We were watching them like you said when the palace fell apart."
"Ah well," said the Goblin King. "It's all a bit moot now. You should probably come with me when this is all over."
He smiled again at the party. "Why don't you sit down and join us? We're celebrating, you know." And he gestured at an enormous cake, covered with frosting and candles. On the frosting was written, "Happy 100th!" [A rather serendipitous bit of fourth wall breakage here.]
The Hatter and the Hare seemed a bit put out at the way the adventurers had been invited to their table but grudgingly gestured for them to sit.
"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" asked the Hatter. While the adventurers attempted to puzzle this one out, the Hatter apparently got bored of his own question and decided to insult them instead.
"What a horrible little creature," he sniffed, looking at Norman, Adrien's giant ferret. "I think a new hat would greatly improve its appearance."
And with that he took his own hat off his head, rummaged within it, and pulled out a floppy woolen cap which he tossed onto Norman's head. In the blink of an eye, Norman stood on his hind legs, grew to six feet tall, and his fur faded away and suddenly he looked identical to Father Chase! He still had the mind of a demonic ferret, however, and when he opened his mouth, nothing but hissing and screeching came out.
The Hatter grinned with mirth and tossed another hat from his own hat onto the head of the real Father Chase (who had mysteriously reappeared alive and well at the beginning of the session). "Here, try this on for size!" This hat suddenly blossomed into an enormous sack-like object that completely engulfed Father Chase, who promptly fell over, rolling on the grass struggling to free himself from the bag that entrapped him.
The March Hare laughed hysterically, the Hatter's grin grew wider, and the sleepy Dormouse merely mumbled, "Could you keep it down, pleazzzzzz..."
"How about you, my dear?" said the Mad Hatter to Caryatid, and before she could react, a black hood landed upon her head. It too suddenly grew larger and engulfed her head, cinching tightly at her neck and constricting her breathing. Caryatid scrabbled at her throat, trying to remove the black hood.
"This feels entirely too familiar," remarked Caryatid's player dryly, still sore years later about the time Caryatid went invisible but still managed to get strangled to death by a berserk hippie.
Yet another hat landed on one of the hobgoblins, and he suddenly stood up ramrod straight and started shouting orders. "Bow down before me, little people, for I am the rightful Goblin King now! And stop this silly business with the hats at once!"
Caryatid's retainer, Jack attempted to sweet-talk the Mad Hatter into removing the hood that was quickly strangling his employer.
"I get it, you like a laugh, I like a laugh, we all like a laugh. But she's much funnier if she's still alive. I'm sure you have an even funnier hat in there that would look better on her."
Well, Caryatid's player rolled really well on a reaction check to see how Jack's attempt went over, so the Hatter paused and considered.
"You do have a point," he said, and whipped the hood off of Caryatid, only to slap a jester's cap on her head. She immediately began to caper and dance, the bells on the cap jingling, and many of the people at the table found themselves doubling over with laughter that seemed to erupt uncontrollably from them.
Orin could feel the situation spiralling out of control, and attempted to cast a Sleep spell on the Hatter, but this didn't work at all. Winking at him, the Mad Hatter leaned over and slapped a hat on the head of the Goblin King, who was busy arguing with his subject over who the true Goblin King was. This turned out to be the same kind of hat of delusional authority that the hobgoblin was wearing, so the argument only redoubled in volume.
"I dare say you'll listen to me now!" exclaimed the Goblin King. "You may believe yourself to be the rightful Goblin King following my untimely death, but I am now the Immortal God Emperor of All Goblins! What do you have to say about that, eh? Ehhhhh!?"
"Quiet, please, some of us are trying to sleep..." murmured the Dormouse, who had his head in the teapot. And the March Hare was simply whooping and hollering with hysterical laughter at the rapidly degenerating scene.
In all the confusion, the adventurers slipped away into the woods to the east of the clearing. Jack pulled the jester's cap off of Caryatid's head and she stopped dancing uncontrollably. I honestly think Father Chase was just left behind again, wriggling helplessly on the ground like a giant cloth caterpillar. (Remarkably similar to his sad fate the prior session!)
The noise of the tea party faded behind them as they moved through the woods. They had not gone very far when they heard the whinny of a horse, and they saw before them an enormous figure mounted on an equally enormous horse. Both man and horse were clad in reddish gold armor. A huge helmet shaped like a horse's head covered the man's head, and from it boomed a hollow voice.
"Do you serve Whitfield or Rosewood? Speak quickly or prepare to withstand my onslaught!"
"Uhhhh... Whitwood!" chirped Caryatid. "I mean, Rosefield!"
The red knight stared down at her in puzzlement. "Speak plainly, wench! Whom do you serve!"
"Rosefield! Er, Whitwood!" protested Caryatid.
"I grow tired of your foolish larks," boomed the knight, and he moved to draw his sword.
Caryatid drew forth the jingling jester's cap and put it on her head. She immediately began to dance a jig, with Marcel the flying monkey dancing along in midair beside her. The red knight stared for a moment, and then began to shake with laughter that boomed out from deep within his armor.
Suddenly, another knight on another horse, both clad in silvery-white armor, came crashing out of the trees and an immense club came smashing down upon the red knight, knocking him off his horse and he lay still on the ground. Gulleck removed the jester's cap from Caryatid and she stopped dancing.
"My lords and ladies," boomed the white knight. "Allow me to see you safe to the end of the wood. There you shall find the manor house in the Eighth Square and you shall be crowned kings and queens of the realm." The adventurers accepted this assistance, and the knight escorted them along the forest path until they emerged to see an elegant house on a small hill. There were livery-clad servants bustling around near the grand doors and signs of much activity within.
As the group approached, they were met by two attractive, regally-adorned women, arrayed in robes of red and of white, respectively, and each wore a gold coronet.
"You have achieved a great triumph in reaching the Eighth Square," said one of the queens. "Join us in the Great Feast Hall for a party in your honor."
Entering the hall, the adventurers found an enormous table set with all sorts of foods and seated at the table were creatures of all sorts. The adventurers were bestowed with golden crowns and given the place of highest honor at the feast table.
Well, the crowns, it turns out were "crowns of delusion" causing the wearers to believe completely in the complex illusion of the feast hall. I gave them all a save vs spells (which I'm not even sure is allowed in the original module) and EVERYONE FAILED! So...
The great feast began, wine was poured, song and poems were recited. The roast joint and a large plum pudding were served. Gulleck and Adrien carved the roast joint (which turned out to be a mimic), and Caryatid and Simon cut the plum pudding (which turned out to be a black pudding), and then all hell broke loose. The adventurers were attacked by all of the "guests" at the party, but because of the delusionary crowns they believed the attacked to be merely the loving touches and kisses from the admiring crowd. They never even realized they were under threat and then they were all dead.
TOTAL PARTY KILL.
Well, not really.
The adventurers awoke on the cold stone floor of a bedroom with stone walls and ceilings. There was a heavy layer of dust everywhere, and cobwebs hung in the corners. A rather gaudy four-poster bed was now moth-eaten and dusty. Scattered on various pieces of elegant furniture were what looked like pieces of "memorabilia" from the dungeon below Idalium: a Hotel Lethia room key, a handful of fake gold from the knockers in the mines, a book of naughty drawings from the Temple of Hedonism, etc. They found a small potion vial labeled "Drink Me" and a dried up cake with "Eat Me" spelled out in nuts. On one wall, a floor to ceiling mirror reflected a weirdly different version of this room, with ivy and vines encroaching the walls, and strange twinkly lights like fireflies drifting around. They puzzled at this mirror, but found no way to pass through it (nor did they want to at this point).
They exited the bedroom and walked down a hall to find themselves in the very room in which they had slain the Goblin King. Here as well, everything was dusty and cobwebbed, and the once elegant furniture was now shabby and threadbare. It seemed that the Goblin Palace had been abandoned for years if not decades. How long had they been gone? They suddenly noticed they were all feeling extremely hungry.
They made their way back to the goblins' treasure vault and found it as they had left it, except that the five barrels of coins were back in the vault as if they had never removed them! An eerie magical twinkling still shimmered around the threshold of the door to the vault. I don't know whether they forgot that they knew the password to deactivate the magic, or if Gulleck was just feeling extra confident in her saving throws, but she just walked into the vault, resisting the magical force that threatened to transform her very being. She pushed the barrels back across the threshold and then walked right back out, successfully resisting the magic once more.
It was somewhat slow going, but they eventually found their way back to the entrance, rolling the barrels along in front of them. The palace halls were no longer lit by torches, but were now dark apart from Simon's magical sword light. Everything was cobwebbed and dusty. The arrow-studded and burnt stuffed ostrich was looking a bit worse for the wear, but they left it behind and passed out of the palace. In the guardroom, the heavy guestbook still lay open, and Caryatid took up her pen and wrote, "The Proper Authorities were here. This place is closed and condemned."
They carefully maneuvered the barrels through the caverns and eventually found their way back to the worked stone of the dungeon halls. Then they escorted the four urchin children back to the urchins' secret hideout in the center of the level. The rest of the urchins were overjoyed to see their friends back after months and months, and even more overjoyed when the adventurers offered them one of the barrels of gold.
And then the party made their way back out of the dungeon. Getting the barrels up the stairs was somewhat difficult, but they eventually made it back to the Rusty Lantern. The guards at the trap door were shocked when they heard the adventurers call up from below to have the rope ladder lowered and the barrels hoisted up. It turned out that they had been missing for almost three months and everyone assumed they had all perished in the dungeon. We joked about how the PCs had all been evicted from their apartments and had to retrieve all their stuff from their various friends (mostly we handwave the PCs' "normal lives" and treat the city as a safe home base but it is fun to joke about it).
The treasure haul from the Goblin King was significant, over 8,000 gold pieces worth of coins and various art objects. Adrien went up to level 4 and Caryatid now had enough XP for level 5, and so 3rd level magic spells are now at her disposal.
"What spell are you going to learn?"
Caryatid's player, doing her best Pitbull impression: "FIREBALL."
Game date: Dreaming as the days go by
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 71130/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 20046/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 8797/16000
Adrien, Fighter 3, hp 9, xp 7764/8000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 16623/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 4129/6000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 1830/4000
Jack, Thief 3, hp 10, xp 2511/4800
The party watched with some alarm as Humpty Dumpty tumbled from his perch, fell some fifty feet, and shattered at the base of the enormous brick wall. Then they scurried over to him. It was an awful sight; enormous shards of eggshell lied tangled in clothes in a pool of thick egg white and yolk. Curiously, there were a number of smaller egg-shaped objects lying in the puddle of yolk.
"How dare you?" croaked Humpty Dumpty as they approached. "Just you wait until the King's horses and his men arrive and put me back together. Then you'll be sorry, I should think!"
Ignoring his threats, Gulleck and Simon picked the strange eggs out of Humpty's remains.
"I beg your pardon!" he squawked. "Put those back at once! Oh! I am slain!" And he breathed a last, melodramatic breath.
The adventurers had little time to examine the eggs before an enormous hue and cry was raised. A hitherto unseen yet enormous gate opened in the brick wall and dozens of blue-skinned giants stomped forth. They were accompanied by two dozen giant rhinoceroses, and all were regally arrayed in red and white heraldic dress.
The adventurers were swiftly surrounded by the giants, and one stepped forward and bellowed:
"We come on the King's business to put Humpty Dumpty back together!" Then he spotted the small eggs that Simon and Gulleck were hastily trying to stow away, and shouted, "Stop! Put back those potions of the Exalted Eggcellency which you have taken! Get from this place immediately, or we shall slay you all!"
Well, as usual, the adventurers attempted some sort of awkward parlay, which again as usual turned into insults being slung in both directions, and things went south quite quickly. Several party members decided to make themselves scarce: Simon used his levitation boots to float to the top of the wall away from the fray, Caryatid slipped on her ring of invisibility, and Jack scrambled up a tree and hid in the foliage.
The giants ordered an attack, and it was over in mere seconds. The remaining adventurers were gored by the rhinos or slashed from neck to groin by the giants' enormous axes.
Jack peeped through the leaves of the tree that he was hiding in, and saw his fellow party members sprawled on the grass. But then he realized that he saw no blood and their armor seemed undamaged. Simon descended from the sky and likewise saw that his comrades seemed curiously unharmed. Caryatid faded back into visibility as well and saw that the others were merely unconscious, and were breathing steadily.
The rest of the party members were shaken awake. They were groggy at first and could hardly believe they still lived, but indeed they found themselves unharmed. After collecting themselves, they looked around for the giants and rhinos, but instead saw a gnome, who was in the midst of rolling away one of their barrels of gold coins!
"Hey!" yelled Simon, but the gnome turned and murmured strange words and then gestured at him. A blast of dazzling colors shot from his hand, bowling Simon and Jack over, stunned by the magical lights. The gnome, cackling gleefully, rolled the barrel down the grassy field, back towards the river and the rowboat. Gulleck gave chase, but alas, she lost sight of the gnome and had to return empty-handed. But now the great gate was open and unguarded, and so the adventurers passed beyond the wall and into the forest beyond.
They had not walked long along the forest path when they came to a small wooden sign pointing further along the path and bearing the initials "M.H." Following this sign led them to a clearing, in which unfolded a very odd sight.
There was a strange house, built of all sorts of different materials (brick, wood, plaster, stone, etc.) with windows of all shapes and angles. The chimneys were shaped like rabbit ears, and the roof appeared to be thatched with brownish fur. But the oddest sight lay before the house, where a large table was set on the lawn. The white tablecloth was cluttered with teapots, platters, sugar bowls, pitchers, and many sets of teacups and saucers. There were over a dozen chairs of various mismatched types along the sides of the tables, and several strange creatures were seated at the table. There was a human wearing a tall hat and suit, a rabbit-like humanoid, and a large mouse-like creature that seemed half-asleep and drowsy. But most unexpected of all was the unmistakable visage of the Goblin King, leaning back in an ornate armchair with his boot-clad feet up on the table.
The adventurers' eyes widened as they recognized the Goblin King, as did his as they approached the table.
"No room! No room!" bellowed the Mad Hatter and the March Hare as they approached.
"Nonsense, there's plenty of room," beamed the Goblin King. "These are friends of mine. Well, now, fancy meeting you here!"
"I was about the say the same about you," said Gulleck, perplexed.
"Oh, well, you know, I'm just passing through on my way to greater things. No thanks to you," he scowled. "Oh, I'm just kidding, no hard feelings. It was a bit unsporting, though, how you didn't even give me a chance to fight back. It was all rather embarrassing, frankly!"
The two hobgoblins who had been accompanying the party spoke up at this point. "Your Majesty, we've brought you those children you asked us to guard. We were watching them like you said when the palace fell apart."
"Ah well," said the Goblin King. "It's all a bit moot now. You should probably come with me when this is all over."
He smiled again at the party. "Why don't you sit down and join us? We're celebrating, you know." And he gestured at an enormous cake, covered with frosting and candles. On the frosting was written, "Happy 100th!" [A rather serendipitous bit of fourth wall breakage here.]
The Hatter and the Hare seemed a bit put out at the way the adventurers had been invited to their table but grudgingly gestured for them to sit.
"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" asked the Hatter. While the adventurers attempted to puzzle this one out, the Hatter apparently got bored of his own question and decided to insult them instead.
"What a horrible little creature," he sniffed, looking at Norman, Adrien's giant ferret. "I think a new hat would greatly improve its appearance."
And with that he took his own hat off his head, rummaged within it, and pulled out a floppy woolen cap which he tossed onto Norman's head. In the blink of an eye, Norman stood on his hind legs, grew to six feet tall, and his fur faded away and suddenly he looked identical to Father Chase! He still had the mind of a demonic ferret, however, and when he opened his mouth, nothing but hissing and screeching came out.
The Hatter grinned with mirth and tossed another hat from his own hat onto the head of the real Father Chase (who had mysteriously reappeared alive and well at the beginning of the session). "Here, try this on for size!" This hat suddenly blossomed into an enormous sack-like object that completely engulfed Father Chase, who promptly fell over, rolling on the grass struggling to free himself from the bag that entrapped him.
The March Hare laughed hysterically, the Hatter's grin grew wider, and the sleepy Dormouse merely mumbled, "Could you keep it down, pleazzzzzz..."
"How about you, my dear?" said the Mad Hatter to Caryatid, and before she could react, a black hood landed upon her head. It too suddenly grew larger and engulfed her head, cinching tightly at her neck and constricting her breathing. Caryatid scrabbled at her throat, trying to remove the black hood.
"This feels entirely too familiar," remarked Caryatid's player dryly, still sore years later about the time Caryatid went invisible but still managed to get strangled to death by a berserk hippie.
Yet another hat landed on one of the hobgoblins, and he suddenly stood up ramrod straight and started shouting orders. "Bow down before me, little people, for I am the rightful Goblin King now! And stop this silly business with the hats at once!"
Caryatid's retainer, Jack attempted to sweet-talk the Mad Hatter into removing the hood that was quickly strangling his employer.
"I get it, you like a laugh, I like a laugh, we all like a laugh. But she's much funnier if she's still alive. I'm sure you have an even funnier hat in there that would look better on her."
Well, Caryatid's player rolled really well on a reaction check to see how Jack's attempt went over, so the Hatter paused and considered.
"You do have a point," he said, and whipped the hood off of Caryatid, only to slap a jester's cap on her head. She immediately began to caper and dance, the bells on the cap jingling, and many of the people at the table found themselves doubling over with laughter that seemed to erupt uncontrollably from them.
Orin could feel the situation spiralling out of control, and attempted to cast a Sleep spell on the Hatter, but this didn't work at all. Winking at him, the Mad Hatter leaned over and slapped a hat on the head of the Goblin King, who was busy arguing with his subject over who the true Goblin King was. This turned out to be the same kind of hat of delusional authority that the hobgoblin was wearing, so the argument only redoubled in volume.
"I dare say you'll listen to me now!" exclaimed the Goblin King. "You may believe yourself to be the rightful Goblin King following my untimely death, but I am now the Immortal God Emperor of All Goblins! What do you have to say about that, eh? Ehhhhh!?"
"Quiet, please, some of us are trying to sleep..." murmured the Dormouse, who had his head in the teapot. And the March Hare was simply whooping and hollering with hysterical laughter at the rapidly degenerating scene.
In all the confusion, the adventurers slipped away into the woods to the east of the clearing. Jack pulled the jester's cap off of Caryatid's head and she stopped dancing uncontrollably. I honestly think Father Chase was just left behind again, wriggling helplessly on the ground like a giant cloth caterpillar. (Remarkably similar to his sad fate the prior session!)
The noise of the tea party faded behind them as they moved through the woods. They had not gone very far when they heard the whinny of a horse, and they saw before them an enormous figure mounted on an equally enormous horse. Both man and horse were clad in reddish gold armor. A huge helmet shaped like a horse's head covered the man's head, and from it boomed a hollow voice.
"Do you serve Whitfield or Rosewood? Speak quickly or prepare to withstand my onslaught!"
"Uhhhh... Whitwood!" chirped Caryatid. "I mean, Rosefield!"
The red knight stared down at her in puzzlement. "Speak plainly, wench! Whom do you serve!"
"Rosefield! Er, Whitwood!" protested Caryatid.
"I grow tired of your foolish larks," boomed the knight, and he moved to draw his sword.
Caryatid drew forth the jingling jester's cap and put it on her head. She immediately began to dance a jig, with Marcel the flying monkey dancing along in midair beside her. The red knight stared for a moment, and then began to shake with laughter that boomed out from deep within his armor.
Suddenly, another knight on another horse, both clad in silvery-white armor, came crashing out of the trees and an immense club came smashing down upon the red knight, knocking him off his horse and he lay still on the ground. Gulleck removed the jester's cap from Caryatid and she stopped dancing.
"My lords and ladies," boomed the white knight. "Allow me to see you safe to the end of the wood. There you shall find the manor house in the Eighth Square and you shall be crowned kings and queens of the realm." The adventurers accepted this assistance, and the knight escorted them along the forest path until they emerged to see an elegant house on a small hill. There were livery-clad servants bustling around near the grand doors and signs of much activity within.
As the group approached, they were met by two attractive, regally-adorned women, arrayed in robes of red and of white, respectively, and each wore a gold coronet.
"You have achieved a great triumph in reaching the Eighth Square," said one of the queens. "Join us in the Great Feast Hall for a party in your honor."
Entering the hall, the adventurers found an enormous table set with all sorts of foods and seated at the table were creatures of all sorts. The adventurers were bestowed with golden crowns and given the place of highest honor at the feast table.
Well, the crowns, it turns out were "crowns of delusion" causing the wearers to believe completely in the complex illusion of the feast hall. I gave them all a save vs spells (which I'm not even sure is allowed in the original module) and EVERYONE FAILED! So...
The great feast began, wine was poured, song and poems were recited. The roast joint and a large plum pudding were served. Gulleck and Adrien carved the roast joint (which turned out to be a mimic), and Caryatid and Simon cut the plum pudding (which turned out to be a black pudding), and then all hell broke loose. The adventurers were attacked by all of the "guests" at the party, but because of the delusionary crowns they believed the attacked to be merely the loving touches and kisses from the admiring crowd. They never even realized they were under threat and then they were all dead.
TOTAL PARTY KILL.
Well, not really.
The adventurers awoke on the cold stone floor of a bedroom with stone walls and ceilings. There was a heavy layer of dust everywhere, and cobwebs hung in the corners. A rather gaudy four-poster bed was now moth-eaten and dusty. Scattered on various pieces of elegant furniture were what looked like pieces of "memorabilia" from the dungeon below Idalium: a Hotel Lethia room key, a handful of fake gold from the knockers in the mines, a book of naughty drawings from the Temple of Hedonism, etc. They found a small potion vial labeled "Drink Me" and a dried up cake with "Eat Me" spelled out in nuts. On one wall, a floor to ceiling mirror reflected a weirdly different version of this room, with ivy and vines encroaching the walls, and strange twinkly lights like fireflies drifting around. They puzzled at this mirror, but found no way to pass through it (nor did they want to at this point).
They exited the bedroom and walked down a hall to find themselves in the very room in which they had slain the Goblin King. Here as well, everything was dusty and cobwebbed, and the once elegant furniture was now shabby and threadbare. It seemed that the Goblin Palace had been abandoned for years if not decades. How long had they been gone? They suddenly noticed they were all feeling extremely hungry.
They made their way back to the goblins' treasure vault and found it as they had left it, except that the five barrels of coins were back in the vault as if they had never removed them! An eerie magical twinkling still shimmered around the threshold of the door to the vault. I don't know whether they forgot that they knew the password to deactivate the magic, or if Gulleck was just feeling extra confident in her saving throws, but she just walked into the vault, resisting the magical force that threatened to transform her very being. She pushed the barrels back across the threshold and then walked right back out, successfully resisting the magic once more.
It was somewhat slow going, but they eventually found their way back to the entrance, rolling the barrels along in front of them. The palace halls were no longer lit by torches, but were now dark apart from Simon's magical sword light. Everything was cobwebbed and dusty. The arrow-studded and burnt stuffed ostrich was looking a bit worse for the wear, but they left it behind and passed out of the palace. In the guardroom, the heavy guestbook still lay open, and Caryatid took up her pen and wrote, "The Proper Authorities were here. This place is closed and condemned."
They carefully maneuvered the barrels through the caverns and eventually found their way back to the worked stone of the dungeon halls. Then they escorted the four urchin children back to the urchins' secret hideout in the center of the level. The rest of the urchins were overjoyed to see their friends back after months and months, and even more overjoyed when the adventurers offered them one of the barrels of gold.
And then the party made their way back out of the dungeon. Getting the barrels up the stairs was somewhat difficult, but they eventually made it back to the Rusty Lantern. The guards at the trap door were shocked when they heard the adventurers call up from below to have the rope ladder lowered and the barrels hoisted up. It turned out that they had been missing for almost three months and everyone assumed they had all perished in the dungeon. We joked about how the PCs had all been evicted from their apartments and had to retrieve all their stuff from their various friends (mostly we handwave the PCs' "normal lives" and treat the city as a safe home base but it is fun to joke about it).
The treasure haul from the Goblin King was significant, over 8,000 gold pieces worth of coins and various art objects. Adrien went up to level 4 and Caryatid now had enough XP for level 5, and so 3rd level magic spells are now at her disposal.
"What spell are you going to learn?"
Caryatid's player, doing her best Pitbull impression: "FIREBALL."
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Idalium Game 99: And Shun the Frumious Bandersnatch
Session date: Monday, June 11, 2018
Game date: Dreaming as the days go by
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 71030/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 19946/20000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 16573/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 4129/6000
Gulleck, Caryatid, and their retainers found themselves walking on their own through the woods, Simon and Adrien strangely absent. Perhaps they had remained back with T. Diumm and T. Deeous? The dark trail led east through the forest for about 500 feet before splitting into three separate trails. The strange twin brothers had told them the crow had flown east, so after considering the three paths, the group decided to continue on the one that more or less continued to the east. They passed several more branches of the trail but continued on what seemed to be the main trail until they reached an open clearing a few hundred feet across. The grassy ground was littered with enormous feathers in many colors: black, yellow, green, red, and blue. As the adventurers looked around the clearing in search of the giant crow or its nest, a hideous shrieking and squawking came from the trees on the periphery of the clearing. An enormous and bizarre bird emerged from the woods. It was over 9 feet tall and brightly colored like a macaw (not that any of the PCs would recognize a macaw!).
"AAAAAWK! WANNA SNACKER! JUBJUB!" the bird squawked as it flapped towards the adventurers. Caryatid made to cast a spell at it but it gave her a sideways glance. "AAAAWK! TAKE A KNEE! JUBJUB!" Caryatid found that her legs moved against her will and she was forced to bow to the ground.
The beast descended upon Meat and battered him with claws and beak, but Meat drew his sword and slashed the bird viciously across the breast, knocking it off him. It recovered and flapped back into the air, readying for another strike.
Gulleck drew her axe and ran forward to meet the Jubjub bird as it descended, but as it flew down for another attack on Meat, it rudely shrieked at her, "AAAAAWK! SIT AND SPIN! JUBJUB!" And Gulleck found her charge interrupted as she stumbled to a half and staggered dizzily.
Meat struggled with the bird as it tore at him with its talons. Gulleck soon recovered her composure and charged the bird, embedding her magical axe into its lower back. It shrieked and fell out of the air and was still. Meat stumbled back, nursing his wounds. Caryatid wanted a trophy from this rude and horrible bird, so she walked up to it to pluck a feather from it. Sadly, however, it transpired that the beast was merely feigning death, and as Caryatid approached it lunged at her and bit her savagely in the side. Caryatid fell to the ground with exactly 0 hit points!
Father Chase hit the bird with his staff of withered wood but nothing seemed to happen. Gulleck attempted to jump on the back of the bird and ride it, but rolled a 1 and managed to leap over it and faceplant on the ground. The bird in turn half ran, half flew shrieking into the woods to the west. Father Chase murmured a healing prayer over Caryatid's wounds and she regained consciousness and staggered to her feet.
Collecting themselves, the adventurers attempted to track the wounded Jubjub bird into the woods. It was relatively easy to do so, as being so large it had broken many branches as it tore through the trees. Varicolored feathers lay scattered on the forest floor. Soon they emerged into another clearing, where the wounded bird stood hunched. When it saw the group it raised an unnerving keening that echoed off the trees that surrounded the clearing. The adventurers ran forward to attack the bird, but suddenly there was a flapping of wings and the clearing was momentarily shadowed by something huge that blocked the sun like a cloud. They looked up to see an enormous black crow, much bigger than the Jubjub bird, descending upon them, talons outstretched.
Caryatid had the clever idea to scare away the crow with a Phantasmal Force spell in the form of a red dragon (which she had seen on their expedition into the mountains over a year ago). She began to cast the spell but the crow slammed into her, knocking her down and disrupting the spell. The rest of the party fell upon the enormous beast, hacking at it with swords and axes. Gulleck hit it for 10 hp, and then Caryatid, still sitting on the grass, cast Magic Missile and rolled the Big Green d30 to do 15 points of damage! Gulleck also rolled the d30 on her next attack and hit for 25, finishing the giant crow off.
Then they turned their attention to the limping Jubjub bird, which glared at Gulleck and shrieked, "AAAAAWK! DO A LITTLE DANCE!" But Gulleck resisted the bird's magic control this time, and then Meat ran over and stabbed it over and over again, making absolutely sure it was dead.
While the adventurers were catching their breaths, who should come huffing and puffing into the clearing but the brothers T. Diumm and T. Deeous! They had seen the giant crow flying over their cottage and heard the sounds of battle. They were delighted to see that their feared nemesis had been slain, and rewarded the party with an unusual magical device that they called a "buckler wand". It was a wooden wand with a sharp metal point on one end and a curved handle on the other end. Heavy pleated canvas was attached to a metal and wooden frame, and when a trigger on the handle was pulled, the canvas snapped open to create a unexpectedly rigid shield about two feet in diameter. Caryatid's pet monkey was the recipient of this clever device.
The brothers asked if the adventurers had found their sword and bag yet. Learning that they had not, they suggested that perhaps the crow had taken them to the Jubjub bird and might be in its nest. The party bid the brothers farewell and returned to the clearing where they had first encountered the Jubjub bird. A bit of exploring and its nest was discovered, a tatty heap of sticks and leaves. Inside the nest was the red bag that T. Diumm had described, and it contained a golden ring, a fishing net, and a couple of embroidered silk cushions. They stowed these safely away and then headed southwest along another trail in search of the sword.
This trail wound through the forest and eventually emerged into another clearing several hundred feet across. This clearing was dotted with a number a strange earthen mounds, each a few feet high and shaped something like the shell of a turtle. The adventurers made their way to the closest mound and saw that there was a sort of burrow leading below it. Before they could explore further, a bizarre and terrible creature emerged from behind one of the other mounds. It was vaguely insect-like, with six pairs of legs, and was perhaps eight feet long. Its head, however, was not like that of an insect, but rather simian in appearance. Sharp teeth glinted as it opened its mouth and spoke with a sibilant, hissing voice.
"Whhhhat have we here?? Isss it lunch?"
"No, I don't think so," said Caryatid. "We're looking for a very special sword. Have you seen it?"
There was a suspicious pause.
"Whoooo wants to know? It'ssss mine."
"Oh, we're, ah, sword inspectors, just doing a census of local magical swords. Can we see your sword? To see if it's the very special one we're looking for?"
"No, it'sss mine. It'sss none of your businessss."
"Oh, well, it's probably not the sword we're looking for anyway," said Gulleck. "I'm sure your sword isn't special at all. Probably just some ordinary sword and not interesting at all."
"You inssssolent creatures! I'll show you it'sss special!" And the strange centipede-like beast rummaged within one of the mounds and pulled out a vicious looking longsword.
"You sssee! But it'sss mine. I stole it from the Jubjub bird fair and sssquare!"
"Oh did you?" said Caryatid. "But we killed the Jubjub bird. So logically that makes it ours now, doesn't it?"
The eyes of the creature narrowed. "I think that makessss you lunch," it snarled, and then it pounced on Father Chase, who fell beneath a horrible flurry of claws and fangs. He screamed and gurgled and then was silent. The creature grabbed him with several legs and held him fast while it exuded an awful sort of silk that bound Father Chase's corpse in bands of webs.
"Father Chase has been snatched and banded," I deadpanned. (Gary Gygax's lame joke straight from the module, not mine!)
"What did you just say?" asked Gulleck's player and then everyone groaned as the penny dropped.
Well, they all leaped into battle with the creature. Meat was also "snatched and banded", although unlike Father Chase he survived the ordeal. He struggled but could not free himself from the cocoon of silk. Caryatid tried to cast a Sleep spell but it had no effect on the bandersnatch whatsoever. But then Gulleck dove to the ground to retrieve the magical sword they had tricked the bandersnatch into showing them.
As soon as her hand closed on the hilt she felt a powerful mental presence emanating from the sword and overwhelming her own mind. A voice shouted out from the sword.
"Snicker-snack! Snicker-snack! I'll cut off your heads if you don't take me back!"
Gulleck could barely manage to speak, such was the overwhelming dominance of the sword within her mind, but she managed to make out, "That what we plan to do, but right now can you help us deal with this horrible abomination?"
Gulleck's arm darted forward without her volition, dragging her stumbling towards the bandersnatch, and the sword flashed upwards and then down at the beast.
Gulleck's player rolled a 19, which for a vorpal sword means an instant kill.
"SNICKER-SNACK!" The bandersnatch's head rolled across the meadow.
"Now take me back to my master," commanded the sword.
"We will," said Gulleck, "but first... hey, you got a name?"
"I am Laprov," said the sword.
"Of course you are," said Gulleck's player, realizing the joke.
"My purpose is to help my master smite chaos in all its forms, and you are wasting time. Return me to him now."
"We'll take you back, but we need to free our employee first." She nodded at Meat. "He can help bring you back faster, if we run into any trouble."
"Very well, but be quick about it. I tire of this conversation already."
So Meat was freed from the webbing, and Father Chase was sadly left behind as the group headed back to the north. They passed a little stream and what looked like a small shop on the bank, but the sword tugged Gulleck's arm to the northeast and dragged her towards the cottage of T. Diumm and T. Deeous.
When they arrived at the house, they were surprised to find two hobgoblins arguing with T. Diumm and T. Deeous. Next to the hobgoblins were four scruffy urchins, looking around with alarm and confusion.
"It's not our fault we're here! We were just assigned to watch these annoying children and then everything went crazy. Something must have happened to the King."
"Oh, it's the children!" piped Caryatid. "You can come with us!"
The hobgoblins turned to look at the adventurers.
"Well, you can have the brats, but you need to get us out of here as well. I'm sure this is all your fault."
T. Deeous was delighted to have his magic sword back, and Gulleck was rather glad to get rid of it. They also returned T. Diumm's red bag of things. And then the now larger group headed back to the banks of the stream to investigate the shop. The hobgoblins grumbled as they went, but wanted to tag along in hopes of returning to their own world.
The shop turned out to be full of all sorts of interesting things on shelves, but whenever they tried to focus on a particular item, it always seemed to be on the next shelf over. The shopkeeper, an oddly sheep-like woman, watched them with wry amusement.
"May I help you?"
"Well, do you have any maps?"
The woman reached behind the counter and pulled out a map of an unfamiliar land, labeled "Scotland".
"I actually meant a map of this area we're in right now."
"I'm afraid not, my dear."
They couldn't find anything useful in the shop, so they left and started walking downstream along the brook. Soon they came upon a large rowboat. Everyone piled in and the hobgoblins were persuaded to row ("Look, we'll do the fighting and you do the manual labor, all right?"). They traveled some ways between banks lined with rushes and eventually came to another grassy shore, where they pulled the boat up and disembarked. They were in another grassy field that led east, but very soon they came to an enormous brick wall, at least 50 feet high, and spanning the entire width of the meadow, over 100 yards. Atop the wall, peering down at them, was an enormous egg, but with arms, legs, and a haughty face!
"That's the biggest egg I've ever seen," cried Meat.
"It's very provoking," shouted Humpty Dumpty, "to be called an egg!"
Like everyone else in this land, Humpty Dumpty was gratuitously rude to them. He told them the "way out" was to the east, beyond the wall, but would he let them pass? Absolutely not.
Well, to make a long story short, Caryatid sent Marcel the flying capuchin monkey up to Humpty Dumpty, and Marcel gave him a big shove, causing him to lose his balance and topple forward, falling fifty feet and shattering into a jumbled pile of broken eggshell at the base of the wall. I think everyone felt a little guilty about that.
Game date: Dreaming as the days go by
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 71030/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 19946/20000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 16573/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 4129/6000
Gulleck, Caryatid, and their retainers found themselves walking on their own through the woods, Simon and Adrien strangely absent. Perhaps they had remained back with T. Diumm and T. Deeous? The dark trail led east through the forest for about 500 feet before splitting into three separate trails. The strange twin brothers had told them the crow had flown east, so after considering the three paths, the group decided to continue on the one that more or less continued to the east. They passed several more branches of the trail but continued on what seemed to be the main trail until they reached an open clearing a few hundred feet across. The grassy ground was littered with enormous feathers in many colors: black, yellow, green, red, and blue. As the adventurers looked around the clearing in search of the giant crow or its nest, a hideous shrieking and squawking came from the trees on the periphery of the clearing. An enormous and bizarre bird emerged from the woods. It was over 9 feet tall and brightly colored like a macaw (not that any of the PCs would recognize a macaw!).
"AAAAAWK! WANNA SNACKER! JUBJUB!" the bird squawked as it flapped towards the adventurers. Caryatid made to cast a spell at it but it gave her a sideways glance. "AAAAWK! TAKE A KNEE! JUBJUB!" Caryatid found that her legs moved against her will and she was forced to bow to the ground.
The beast descended upon Meat and battered him with claws and beak, but Meat drew his sword and slashed the bird viciously across the breast, knocking it off him. It recovered and flapped back into the air, readying for another strike.
Gulleck drew her axe and ran forward to meet the Jubjub bird as it descended, but as it flew down for another attack on Meat, it rudely shrieked at her, "AAAAAWK! SIT AND SPIN! JUBJUB!" And Gulleck found her charge interrupted as she stumbled to a half and staggered dizzily.
Meat struggled with the bird as it tore at him with its talons. Gulleck soon recovered her composure and charged the bird, embedding her magical axe into its lower back. It shrieked and fell out of the air and was still. Meat stumbled back, nursing his wounds. Caryatid wanted a trophy from this rude and horrible bird, so she walked up to it to pluck a feather from it. Sadly, however, it transpired that the beast was merely feigning death, and as Caryatid approached it lunged at her and bit her savagely in the side. Caryatid fell to the ground with exactly 0 hit points!
Father Chase hit the bird with his staff of withered wood but nothing seemed to happen. Gulleck attempted to jump on the back of the bird and ride it, but rolled a 1 and managed to leap over it and faceplant on the ground. The bird in turn half ran, half flew shrieking into the woods to the west. Father Chase murmured a healing prayer over Caryatid's wounds and she regained consciousness and staggered to her feet.
Collecting themselves, the adventurers attempted to track the wounded Jubjub bird into the woods. It was relatively easy to do so, as being so large it had broken many branches as it tore through the trees. Varicolored feathers lay scattered on the forest floor. Soon they emerged into another clearing, where the wounded bird stood hunched. When it saw the group it raised an unnerving keening that echoed off the trees that surrounded the clearing. The adventurers ran forward to attack the bird, but suddenly there was a flapping of wings and the clearing was momentarily shadowed by something huge that blocked the sun like a cloud. They looked up to see an enormous black crow, much bigger than the Jubjub bird, descending upon them, talons outstretched.
Caryatid had the clever idea to scare away the crow with a Phantasmal Force spell in the form of a red dragon (which she had seen on their expedition into the mountains over a year ago). She began to cast the spell but the crow slammed into her, knocking her down and disrupting the spell. The rest of the party fell upon the enormous beast, hacking at it with swords and axes. Gulleck hit it for 10 hp, and then Caryatid, still sitting on the grass, cast Magic Missile and rolled the Big Green d30 to do 15 points of damage! Gulleck also rolled the d30 on her next attack and hit for 25, finishing the giant crow off.
Then they turned their attention to the limping Jubjub bird, which glared at Gulleck and shrieked, "AAAAAWK! DO A LITTLE DANCE!" But Gulleck resisted the bird's magic control this time, and then Meat ran over and stabbed it over and over again, making absolutely sure it was dead.
While the adventurers were catching their breaths, who should come huffing and puffing into the clearing but the brothers T. Diumm and T. Deeous! They had seen the giant crow flying over their cottage and heard the sounds of battle. They were delighted to see that their feared nemesis had been slain, and rewarded the party with an unusual magical device that they called a "buckler wand". It was a wooden wand with a sharp metal point on one end and a curved handle on the other end. Heavy pleated canvas was attached to a metal and wooden frame, and when a trigger on the handle was pulled, the canvas snapped open to create a unexpectedly rigid shield about two feet in diameter. Caryatid's pet monkey was the recipient of this clever device.
The brothers asked if the adventurers had found their sword and bag yet. Learning that they had not, they suggested that perhaps the crow had taken them to the Jubjub bird and might be in its nest. The party bid the brothers farewell and returned to the clearing where they had first encountered the Jubjub bird. A bit of exploring and its nest was discovered, a tatty heap of sticks and leaves. Inside the nest was the red bag that T. Diumm had described, and it contained a golden ring, a fishing net, and a couple of embroidered silk cushions. They stowed these safely away and then headed southwest along another trail in search of the sword.
This trail wound through the forest and eventually emerged into another clearing several hundred feet across. This clearing was dotted with a number a strange earthen mounds, each a few feet high and shaped something like the shell of a turtle. The adventurers made their way to the closest mound and saw that there was a sort of burrow leading below it. Before they could explore further, a bizarre and terrible creature emerged from behind one of the other mounds. It was vaguely insect-like, with six pairs of legs, and was perhaps eight feet long. Its head, however, was not like that of an insect, but rather simian in appearance. Sharp teeth glinted as it opened its mouth and spoke with a sibilant, hissing voice.
"Whhhhat have we here?? Isss it lunch?"
"No, I don't think so," said Caryatid. "We're looking for a very special sword. Have you seen it?"
There was a suspicious pause.
"Whoooo wants to know? It'ssss mine."
"Oh, we're, ah, sword inspectors, just doing a census of local magical swords. Can we see your sword? To see if it's the very special one we're looking for?"
"No, it'sss mine. It'sss none of your businessss."
"Oh, well, it's probably not the sword we're looking for anyway," said Gulleck. "I'm sure your sword isn't special at all. Probably just some ordinary sword and not interesting at all."
"You inssssolent creatures! I'll show you it'sss special!" And the strange centipede-like beast rummaged within one of the mounds and pulled out a vicious looking longsword.
"You sssee! But it'sss mine. I stole it from the Jubjub bird fair and sssquare!"
"Oh did you?" said Caryatid. "But we killed the Jubjub bird. So logically that makes it ours now, doesn't it?"
The eyes of the creature narrowed. "I think that makessss you lunch," it snarled, and then it pounced on Father Chase, who fell beneath a horrible flurry of claws and fangs. He screamed and gurgled and then was silent. The creature grabbed him with several legs and held him fast while it exuded an awful sort of silk that bound Father Chase's corpse in bands of webs.
"Father Chase has been snatched and banded," I deadpanned. (Gary Gygax's lame joke straight from the module, not mine!)
"What did you just say?" asked Gulleck's player and then everyone groaned as the penny dropped.
Well, they all leaped into battle with the creature. Meat was also "snatched and banded", although unlike Father Chase he survived the ordeal. He struggled but could not free himself from the cocoon of silk. Caryatid tried to cast a Sleep spell but it had no effect on the bandersnatch whatsoever. But then Gulleck dove to the ground to retrieve the magical sword they had tricked the bandersnatch into showing them.
As soon as her hand closed on the hilt she felt a powerful mental presence emanating from the sword and overwhelming her own mind. A voice shouted out from the sword.
"Snicker-snack! Snicker-snack! I'll cut off your heads if you don't take me back!"
Gulleck could barely manage to speak, such was the overwhelming dominance of the sword within her mind, but she managed to make out, "That what we plan to do, but right now can you help us deal with this horrible abomination?"
Gulleck's arm darted forward without her volition, dragging her stumbling towards the bandersnatch, and the sword flashed upwards and then down at the beast.
Gulleck's player rolled a 19, which for a vorpal sword means an instant kill.
"SNICKER-SNACK!" The bandersnatch's head rolled across the meadow.
"Now take me back to my master," commanded the sword.
"We will," said Gulleck, "but first... hey, you got a name?"
"I am Laprov," said the sword.
"Of course you are," said Gulleck's player, realizing the joke.
"My purpose is to help my master smite chaos in all its forms, and you are wasting time. Return me to him now."
"We'll take you back, but we need to free our employee first." She nodded at Meat. "He can help bring you back faster, if we run into any trouble."
"Very well, but be quick about it. I tire of this conversation already."
So Meat was freed from the webbing, and Father Chase was sadly left behind as the group headed back to the north. They passed a little stream and what looked like a small shop on the bank, but the sword tugged Gulleck's arm to the northeast and dragged her towards the cottage of T. Diumm and T. Deeous.
When they arrived at the house, they were surprised to find two hobgoblins arguing with T. Diumm and T. Deeous. Next to the hobgoblins were four scruffy urchins, looking around with alarm and confusion.
"It's not our fault we're here! We were just assigned to watch these annoying children and then everything went crazy. Something must have happened to the King."
"Oh, it's the children!" piped Caryatid. "You can come with us!"
The hobgoblins turned to look at the adventurers.
"Well, you can have the brats, but you need to get us out of here as well. I'm sure this is all your fault."
T. Deeous was delighted to have his magic sword back, and Gulleck was rather glad to get rid of it. They also returned T. Diumm's red bag of things. And then the now larger group headed back to the banks of the stream to investigate the shop. The hobgoblins grumbled as they went, but wanted to tag along in hopes of returning to their own world.
The shop turned out to be full of all sorts of interesting things on shelves, but whenever they tried to focus on a particular item, it always seemed to be on the next shelf over. The shopkeeper, an oddly sheep-like woman, watched them with wry amusement.
"May I help you?"
"Well, do you have any maps?"
The woman reached behind the counter and pulled out a map of an unfamiliar land, labeled "Scotland".
"I actually meant a map of this area we're in right now."
"I'm afraid not, my dear."
They couldn't find anything useful in the shop, so they left and started walking downstream along the brook. Soon they came upon a large rowboat. Everyone piled in and the hobgoblins were persuaded to row ("Look, we'll do the fighting and you do the manual labor, all right?"). They traveled some ways between banks lined with rushes and eventually came to another grassy shore, where they pulled the boat up and disembarked. They were in another grassy field that led east, but very soon they came to an enormous brick wall, at least 50 feet high, and spanning the entire width of the meadow, over 100 yards. Atop the wall, peering down at them, was an enormous egg, but with arms, legs, and a haughty face!
"That's the biggest egg I've ever seen," cried Meat.
"It's very provoking," shouted Humpty Dumpty, "to be called an egg!"
Like everyone else in this land, Humpty Dumpty was gratuitously rude to them. He told them the "way out" was to the east, beyond the wall, but would he let them pass? Absolutely not.
Well, to make a long story short, Caryatid sent Marcel the flying capuchin monkey up to Humpty Dumpty, and Marcel gave him a big shove, causing him to lose his balance and topple forward, falling fifty feet and shattering into a jumbled pile of broken eggshell at the base of the wall. I think everyone felt a little guilty about that.
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