As per the third session, again 2 of the 7(!) players were missing, making my life more manageable.
The original crew:
Elrond, a Low Elf knight and historian. I informed the player that low elves are still much better than humans, and he proceeded to roll better stats than anyone else
Smartas, the human Illusionist. Has a fear of cheese. The new player, sarcastic but momentarily out of inspiration, came up with this fetching name. We grabbed random miniatures and hers was much bigger than the others so it was agreed that this was an unfortunate residual illusion that had never left her, and she appeared to be 7 feet tall. Also has the most HP in the party.
Twitch the human thief. Rolled 10 in every stats except 12 in con and 8 in charisma. The perfect "this is a playable character". An ex brigand, a bit dubious about the whole affair.
The new PCs - an arcane heavy group.
Gildorf the dwarven Summoner. The leader of the newcomers. Here to kill goblin. (player used to be Argus). Not the best entities but good hp at least.
Sabriel the Elven Necromancer. A new player, very excited to explode corpses.
Trogdor the human fighter and Min the gnome(?) were still missing following an invisibility misshap.
NPCs:
Dwane, The third rock, Rock and Roll and Skip: a growing rock collection. Trogdor's "beloved" priest stayed with his master.
The party had found
substantial treasure already, and supplies were dwindling. Should they go back? Greed won over. There was no signs of Trogdor or Min the
gnome... Although at time a strange presence could be felt...
(No one remembers
the player playing Min the gnome taking part in this session, however my notes
are written as if he was. I've decided
that clearly the gnome, being stuck invisible, decided to follow the party to perhaps
gain their help, or steal their gold...)
After going down a
long flight of stairs, the party entered a room, which Twich recognized as
another pit trap. It contained a little
bit of treasure - a small gold ring - and bodies - nothing but bones really. Sabriel decided to collect 2 more corpses for
"future usage", although the pile of bone nature of the find made
this difficult. The next door led to a
hot and strange room, with a large pit with some sort of magical fire at the
bottom - clearly there was no fuel visible.
Glitter indicated that there may have been valuables down there, but
wary of getting burned - or traps - the party decided to leave it well alone.
Instead, they
decided to take a breather and eat lunch in this room – it was uncomfortably
warm, but the flames provided illumination, allowing to spare the dwindling
supply of torches. As the party was
discussing what their next move should be, a strange lurching, scraping sound
was heard. Weapons were grabbed, and a
strange being entered the room. A
skeleton... but one covered in a peculiar orange goo. It was clearly hostile, and attempted to
crush Sabriel's head, although it was not particularly good at it. However, the party quickly became alarmed at
the thing's resistance to their blows, which seemed completely ineffective.
… So they pushed it
down the fire pit. Victory! Everyone congratulated themselves on being
so clever, but the cheers turned to gasps of horror as the skeleton started
climbing up out of the fire pit, seemingly unharmed by the flames. Fed up, Twich lassoed the thing and Elrond
wrestled it to the ground. Everyone else
piled in, and with much shouting, tied it up properly.
Realizing that a
nigh invulnerable skeleton on a rope could be useful, they decided to keep it
and named it Bill Cosby.
The next room in the
seemingly endless complex was a square intersection with a domed ceiling. One of the door was made of iron, and despite
his best efforts, Twitch was unable to defeat the lock. With a few picks, crowbars and a few days, he
was confident that the door could be defeated but... Not now.
Going through
another door that opened with a lurch, the party found itself facing a tunnel
of a much different nature - filthy and crudely made, the floor slightly slimy
and with numerous insects squirming around.
The smell was disgusting and... Very peculiar. Strange chittering sounds could be heard in
the distance. The party advanced warily,
down on their last torch. The tunnel
opened in a rough chamber of some sort, filled with sharpened stick, and a
strange creature.
Humanoid, with a
lumpy head, a mouth filled with needle like teeth, eyes set far too apart and
no evidence of a nose or ear. It was
dressed in rags and wielded a broom.
Chittering in a high pitch bizarre language (all that was evident was
alarm), the creature tried to push the explorers away with his broom. Annoyed, Elrond lashed out with his
sword. The blade bit deep into its head,
its flesh the consistency of a slightly undercooked potato and with not bones
or blood visible. It shrieked and
collapse, apparently dead. Was this... A
goblin?
The party searched
the room, finding a lot of silverware - hey it's worth something said Twitch -
the party pressed on deeper. The next
room they found was much larger, and seemed to be a "farm" of some sort,
with sickly plant stuck in the mud, along with stick, fingers... Is that a
coin?!? The party began digging in
earnest. Gildorf noted that the species
of blue mushroom known as "dungeon cucumbers" grew here, and that
they could be used to cure petrification.
He grabbed half a dozen.
After digging in the
muck and finding a few minor treasures (including more silverware and a gem
), Smartas found something – a
crown. The party ooed – it was intricate
looking, made of interwoven gold and platinum snakes with emerald eyes and
seemed *quite* valuable . Gildorf,
wondering if it was magical, decided to put it on his head. Much screaming ensued, but Sabriel snatched
it off before Gildorf went permanently insane.
The crown was then put onto Bill Cosby the jelly skeleton, who seemed
unaffected by whatever magic/curse the crown had.
However, the loud
screaming seemed to have attracted attention.
The skittering noises increased, and the sound of numerous small feet
padding in the muck could be heard coming from deeper in the tunnels. Goblins and lots of them. The party fled.
To reach the
surface, they had to bypass the Basilisk, something they knew they could do
given time and due caution... But there is no time. The last torch has maybe 15 minutes of light
left, and the goblins are giving chase.
The party elected to simply shove Bill Cosby the skeleton as hard as
possible towards the darkened area where the Basilisk was chained and flee in
terror.
The plan worked, and
as they retreated they could hear the large beast munch on the now stony bones
of their persistent foe. As they
reached the sunlight, with minutes to spare on their last torch, they wondered
- could the Basilisk be befriended somehow?
After a day spent
marching at speed, looking over their shoulders constantly and wishing they had
more food, the party reached the village of Borgenhoff. Feeling that the locals would not be able to
supply them correctly (or be able to buy their loot), the party purchased more
food and headed out to the City of Elderstone to spend their well-earned loot.
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