Recap written by Torgo
Characters:
Terragen as "Bea" [101]
Torgo as "The Archwizard Blileninane" [106]
Krusher as "Fleck" [91]
Arthur as "Lyons" [91]
Void as "Ofydd" [92]
Ethan as "Baker" [91]
At long last, after several ventures into that most foul dungeon marked by death, curses, and poverty, the party decided that safety and security is more important than scrounging over pennies. Therefor, even in the face of tyrannical taxation at the hands of King Winston II (may the gods forever curse his name), they paid the steep tax to become registered as the formal adventuring party Bob’s Berzerkers. Though Bea preferred the moniker of Bea’s Bitches, it was decided to instead honor Bob, the first of the party to give their life in pursuit of gold and glory. Considering the excruciating price of registering an adventuring band, Bea had to provide loans to several of the party members.
With the matter of licensing settled, Blileninane proposed a perfectly reasonable plan, enchant Fleck with invisibility and flight, then send him to butcher the goblin sharpshooter who had been seen wielding some sort of enchanted crossbow bolt. This plan was not adopted, perhaps because the party feared success, or perhaps because they had come to associate direct assaults on the goblins with arrow wounds and bruised egos. Instead, the group proceeded through the eastern entrance, returning to the passages near the spider chamber in search of less entrenched profit.
Across from the chamber once occupied by spiders, the party discovered a shrine to Odin. Within stood an altar with unlit candles, and at the far end of the room hung a chain noose. The chamber was plainly religious in nature, and thus far too dangerous for anybody without some expertise in theology to be screwing around with. Blileninane felt that spellcasting within the room might be impossible or unwise, though he did not test the matter, for there is a fine line between curiosity and volunteering to become an example. Without Bea or Baker’s full clerical judgment settling the issue, the party hesitated to interfere with the shrine. Bea, knowledgeable in matters divine, recalled that Odin had hung himself for seven days and seven nights in pursuit of wisdom, which left the group hesitant to engage with the noose.
Leaving the shrine unmolested, the party proceeded down the hallway beyond the old spider chamber. There, Ofydd proved his worth by noticing a pressure plate set into the path ahead. Testing revealed that the plate would release spikes from the ceiling, so Ofydd disabled the mechanism, and Fleck was sent forward to make certain that the passage would not turn anyone into a piece of dungeon architecture. At the end of the hallway, the party came upon an iron door with neither lock nor visible hinges on their side. Ofydd set to work with a prybar, attempting to force the thing open, but found little success against so much iron. The company debated whether to batter the door down, return to the goblins for yet another all-out humiliation, or find some other target.
It was Bea who suggested returning to the evil sarcophagus in the northern passages, the one she had previously sensed as malefic and left undisturbed. Since the party had now exhausted several safer ideas, this seemed at least plausible. Circling back through the northern entrance, Bea threw holy water onto the sarcophagus and sensed some spirit within by means of her magic. This was enough to confirm that opening it would be as interesting as it would be foolish. Fearing whatever spirit lay inside and knowing the difficulty involved with a proper exorcism, the party decided against prying it open for the moment and instead returned to the eastern staircase to explore the deeper floors.
Needing to scout ahead, Blileninane rendered Ofydd invisible and sent him into peril. This proved fruitful, though not very safe, as Ofydd discovered a chamber of zombies, a chamber containing a strange spinning orb of confusion flanked by obscuring curtains, and another chamber filled with cultists, some armed and others equipped with books or amulets. Beyond them lay what appeared to be a reliquary. Pressing further, Ofydd attempted to investigate another hallway, only to be shocked by a doorknob and knocked out of his invisibility, leaving him exposed and alone in a section of extremely dangerous dungeon. Blileninane noticed the problem and sent forth his wizard eye to check on the thief, only for the cultists to miraculously strike it down almost instantly. Thus was the Archwizard left without sight of Ofydd’s fate, while the cultists were left with a very clear sense that intruders were nearby.
Thankfully, Ofydd proved both slippery and lucky. In the course of extracting himself, he disturbed a group of stone monsters, which woke from their chamber and wandered forth to battle the cultists. With the cultists and stone creatures occupied by each other, Ofydd managed to sneak around the chaos, loop through several new passageways, and eventually return safely to the party much to everybody's chagrin.
The party next passed through the zombie chamber. These undead proved strangely docile, paying little attention to the adventurers and instead continuing to maintain the carvings in the room. Baker believed that the zombies may have retained some degree of awareness or sentience, while Bea suspected they were merely servants obeying ancient commands. Blileninane, for his part, was content to accept any explanation that kept the zombies passive, being entirely unversed in matters of theology or undead lore.
The chamber beyond held the spinning orb Ofydd had seen. It was a strange and disorienting object, and Blileninane’s attempt to decipher its nature succeeded only in frightening and confusing him, even despite his towering intellect. Ofydd scouted beyond the curtains and found branching passages to the north and south. To the north was a staircase leading deeper into the dungeon, along with another path that looped toward a chamber containing two ogres, one of them injured. Fleck and Lyons considered throwing one of the curtains over the orb, but were clever enough to do some experimentation first. Testing the orb with a trap stick resulted in the stick being destroyed and Lyons being thrown back, thankfully unharmed. This convinced the party that the orb was best left untouched, at least until a better solution could be found.
Further north, Ofydd discovered a hidden doorway leading to a raised divine dais inscribed in Low Elvish. The inscription suggested that the dais functioned as a kind of magical transport, akin to a slide for those with a rather twisted sense of fun. A rock thrown onto it vanished, which was promising only in that it didn’t immediately result in bodily harm. Blileninane sent his wizard eye through and found himself in a larger chamber with a similar dais. On the walls were several colored markings, red, green, pink, and white, along with an archway. Beyond the archway lay a chamber with three sarcophagi and a chest, and farther still another passage leading to a room with ghouls standing upright and waiting in an urn and sarcophagus chamber. Beyond that, the wizard eye discovered a long sequence of additional rooms, until eventually a chamber bound troll swatted the eye out of existence, thwarting any further scouting.
Testing the teleportation further, Blileninane sent a second wizard eye through the first dais, then the second dais, then the third, eventually confirming that the platforms formed a closed loop and returned to the original position. Ofydd passed through first, but no one else was able to follow until he moved off the destination platform, revealing that the magic would only function when the receiving dais was clear. One by one, the party passed through, with Blileninane eventually joining them and needing a short rest after the exertion of his magical efforts.
Naturally, attempting to rest in an uncleared region of the dungeon was courting danger. While the party regrouped, six cultists armed with swords came storming down the hallway, catching several of the company by surprise. Ofydd and Fleck formed the frontline, weathering a flurry of blows while the rest of the party scrambled into position. Once the initial shock passed, the cultists proved less dangerous than their bold entrance suggested. The party cut them down without much difficulty, even butchering the one who attempted to flee. Blileninane, with a particularly potent stone missile, left one of his foes crushed into bloody pulp, a result most satisfying.
Victory, tragically, was followed immediately by imbecility. For reasons known only to time, a certain nonforthcoming member of the party tossed one of the cultist corpses through the next teleporter. This managed to jam the teleportation dais entirely, leaving the entire party trapped in some deep and unknown portion of the dungeon. Furious, Blileninane was forced to explain what waited ahead now that immediate extraction was no longer an option, skeletons, ghouls, the troll, and various demon conjuring cultists. With little choice remaining, the party made haste to escape seemingly certain doom.
The first obstacle was the chamber of skeletons. Bea, proving once again that the lesser undead are more an inconvenience than a proper threat to an annointed cleric, turned the undead and destroyed them at once. Ofydd, ever the efficient thief, recovered coins and a dagger from the nearby chest, whereupon he promptly disappeared, reappearing near one of the dungeon entrances and leaving with his treasure. Thus was the party forced to confront the notion that Ofydd’s talents extended far beyond the traditional thief repertoire, and into the fine art of abandoning his friends to the underground.
The remaining members of Bob’s Berzerkers, now considerably less equipped to face traps, pressed onward toward the ghouls. This encounter too was made far less dangerous by the clerical power of Bea, who turned one ghoul away while the other was hacked down. Rather than allow the fleeing ghoul to remain a future problem, the party waited for Bea’s undead turning to expire and lurked until it returned, then smashed it to pieces as well, standing sadly as the party’s tactical high water mark.
The party then debated whether to face the troll or seek another path. Blileninane sent his wizard eye deeper into the dungeon and discovered a chamber where cultists were in the midst of sacrificing a prisoner. Before the party could act, the ritual was complete and the demon which emerged slaughtered the entire chamber. The party initially chose to wait and allow Blileninane time to rest, hoping to enchant fighting fellows of the party for the coming battle. Unfortunately, the demon proved impatient and began crawling down the hallway toward them, cutting short the rest. Blileninane was able to turn Fleck invisible, while Lyons became only mildly translucent, a result which though not ideal soon proved irrelevant.
The demon burst into the resting chamber with fury, spewing fiery breath across the party and seriously wounding several of them. Still no match for the ferocious Fleck, the orcish fighter advanced and struck the creature once across the skull, killing it instantly and reducing it to a pool of blood. It was a most impressive feat, and a valuable reminder of the power that can be achieved when combining the Archwizard’s enchantments with Fleck’s strong right arm.
Blileninane volunteered to scout ahead with the wizard eye once again, but the party chose to charge forward toward the ritual chamber and whatever loot the dead cultists might hold. Most of the cultists had been maimed to death, though one, barely clinging to life, was reaching toward a spot on the wall, suggesting a hidden doorway nearby. Bea and Baker debated the nature of the ritual, only to conclude that it was exactly what it appeared to be, a human sacrifice intended to produce a demon. Searching the bodies yielded several bronze amulets of value, but these too carried terrible danger. Baker suffered injury merely from picking one up, Fleck attempted to take another and was cursed into hideousness. In an act of great generosity, Blileninane offered Fleck the ring of Charisma, in case the enchantment might offset some small portion of his new horror. Lyons offered his hole-riven cloak as a shroud for Fleck’s face, though this proved insufficient after Fleck’s further interaction with the amulets left him hairless and fully blind. Once more the party was only able to obtain treasure at the price of their dignity.
Trying again to determine what the dying cultist was reaching for, Blileninane discovered the hidden doorway. Proceeding through, the party came upon a blocked passageway, which Lyons opened in the traditional manner by shield bashing it aside. Beyond was another chamber where an elf and a human woman were bound before three cultists performing yet another human sacrifice. Catching the cultists completely by surprise, Lyons and Baker fell upon them and slew the trio with ease. The prisoners, understandably horrified by the approach of the hideous Fleck, nevertheless spoke openly with the party of their recent experiences. They claimed to have been captured while sleeping in town, a troubling revelation suggesting that the cult’s reach extends far beyond the dungeon itself. They agreed to follow the party, and warned them to avoid the “library”, speaking of people and horrors within. Weary of delving and short on supplies, the party decided to hunker down and rest, with the players deciding to return to their delve during the next session. The dungeon, as ever, offers only enough wealth to lure the party onward and enough terror to punish them for it.
Author's Notes
This was written using Archwizard Blileninane's in-world notes. No other notes were provided.
GM's Notes
Ofydd really has a way of making sure he gets the short end of the stick at all times. This was a fun session, but we had to take a two week break in between this one and the next session, happening this weekend. The wait is/was excruciating and I cannot wait to jump back in. I think the group is finally starting to understand how I tend to run the game and what works and what doesn't.
I was also trying to figure out how everyone earned seven points (with Void and Torgo getting extra points for stuff) for about ten minutes before I realized players get a free point for attending a session. That was a !FUN! endeavor, trying to check if I did my math wrong.
Character Advancement
+2pts from Loot
+1pts from Roleplay
+2pts from Exploration
+1pts from Freeing Prisoners
+1 Bonus Point to Void for being the first player to leave a session early for in-world reasons
No Characters Died
Total: +7 to +8 (variable for each player)
No comments:
Post a Comment