Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Session 12 : 10/17/14

Party: Braggle (H:3),  Xero (T:5),  Taylor (F:1), Polarion (M:3), the Ogre (charmed, down to 2 HD, thanks to level drain), Grinrut (D:1), Curate Burkey (C:5), Durbin (F:1, hireling), Jezebel (the mule)


Summary:
The party, having picked up a new member, Grinrut the dwarf, in the traditional spirit of adventurer fellowship and unquestioned acceptance of total strangers, returned to the dungeon beneath the ruins of Trelleborg.

Upon reaching the third level, home to the Nezumi people (a term loosely applied here), they found two black metal goblin ashigaru and a large hairy goblin-ish type waiting for them. Xero wisely displayed the pass they had been given during their previous visit and the party was allowed to pass.

Immediately inside, a celebration of sorts took place as the Nezumi welcomed the party in a way typically reserved for diplomatic envoys - paper lanterns, music, dancing, drinking.  

After the celebration the party was led by a young samurai Nezumi and an escort of goblins and bugbear to the entrance to white ape country.

For the first time, they found themselves in caverns and caves, rather than paved and finished corridors and rooms. A pale blue glow, produced by an abundant fungus lit the walls, floor and ceiling. 

The Curate gave the fungus a bit of a taste and experienced only minor hallucinations.

Proceeding left (this time determined by a die roll), they entered into a cavern with faint writing on the walls, and a niche, some 15' up the caver wall, which Braggle and Xero explored (and which Grinrut tried to climb to and fell, but was caught by the Curate) and which appeared to be a lair of some sort.

 
They would meet the resident of said lair a moment later, when, in the adjacent cavern, a sudden shriek was followed by a brutal attack from a bipedal feline with midnight blue fur and yellow eyes.

The caterwaul (see Fiend Folio) was vicious and strong, and things looked rather bleak for the party, and bleaker still for Taylor, who knocked on death's door. Fortunately, fate turned the tide in their direction and the hellish beast was slain.

In no condition to continue they retreated to the land of the Nezumi, where they received, and were confined to, accommodations and spent the next two days resting for their return visit to the land of the apes.

On return, they found a well groomed fungal garden, with tools scattered as if dropped in a hurry. A short time later, they found two cave bears feasting on the remains of a large human-ish creature, which explained why the tools were abandoned in haste. The bears weren't interested in the party other than to growl in warning and pull their meal closer to themselves. Since the party wasn't in the mood to go at it with 2 large ursine, they carefully passed by, keeping a safe distance.

In the next cavern, they came upon three white fury riders mounted atop enormous centipedes (around 15' long, 3' wide) shouting and grunting at a small band of cowering Neanderthals. 


http://arta01.deviantart.com/art/Mukade-Water-colour-162936558
A hail of arrows and sling stones gravely wounded one of the riders and the white ape riders turned to face their assailants. As luck would have it, Polarion managed to charm one of them, and added to his odd menagerie. 

Chaos would ensue:

  • The ogre had to be restrained from attacking the Neanderthals
  • Polarion really wanted to feed one of the Neanderthals to his ogre. Curate Burkey was decidedly against this.
  • The ogre feasted on white ape instead.
  • The party rounded up the centipede mounts and took them and the Neanderthals back to the garden
  • Lacking any means of communication, Curate Burkey attempted to sign to the Neanderthals to farm and feed the centipedes, which amazingly they understood and were wiling to do.
  • Ape reinforcements arrived and were cut down - and the difficulty of communicating with Polarion's charmed white ape became quite apparent.
  • The party explored a cavern with a large fungal forest (The Fungal Jungle), wherein they were attacked by giant grey worms. One was killed and the other badly injured, but not before swallowing Jezebel whole (and then spitting her out from some height).
  • Runes were cast (I'm not sure if that was in character or out of character)
  • Desperate for some kind of treasure, the party cut open the worm hoping to find some coins or gems in its guts.
  • Grinrut decided to start a fire and make worm kabobs which drew the attention of the tuatara in the jungle.
  • While the rest of the party went to take down the tuatara for eating, Polarion and Grinrut sat around enjoying kabobs.
  • At some point THREE more party members arrived, making them a small army.
  • The party drove the tuatara right back at Grinrut and Polarion. Fortunately for them, the lizards ran towards the garden and the Neanderthals.
  • Some of the Neanderthals cowered in fear (a recurring theme) while others scattered.
  • Polarion redeemed himself by casting an illusion of a wall of fire to drive the tuatara back toward the party and several of the lizards were cut down.
  • Some eight white ape cavalry attempted to ride down the party, but Polarion noted they could retreat down the 5' wide passage and limit the apes to riding single file. 
  • This eventually led to the ape slaughter, although one was allowed to escape, presumably to report back to their friends that they don't want to mess with the party.


Victorious, the party turned to head back to the Nezumi, leaving behind several Neanderthals and some roped together enormous centipedes.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Session 11: 10/8/14

Party: Brother Burkey (C:5), Durbin (F:1, hireling), Jezebel(the mule), Braggle (H:3), Xero (T:5)

Summary:

With Theonod (NM:0, tanner) left in town to begin selling the party's excess (mostly weapons and armor taken from fallen comrades) out of his tanning workshop, and word being spread about the party's new Adventurer's Guild to bring in some new blood hireling wise, the group set off for Trelleborg.

After sweeping the first and 2nd levels beneath the tower, they used their rope of climbing to descend the elevator shaft to the 3rd level, rather than take the stairs. 

Braggle and Xero climbed down, one after the other. Almost as soon as they reached the bottom (the elevator platform itself) arrows launched out of the darkness. There was some confusion as they didn't know where the shots were coming from and indeed, they assumed it was from an area beyond the portcullis to their front. 

Durbin, not knowing what was going on below, climbed down, only to be pretty badly shot up. 

Although Xero and Braggle found the arrow slits and attempted to use Molotov cocktails to attack whoever was on the other side, things weren't going well for the party. They beat a hasty retreat up after realizing the lever in the middle of the floor was the elevator control. 

Brother Burkey cast some healing spells and the party rethought their approach and took the stairs. 

The first thing of note on the third level, now that they weren't under attack, was that the walls were white washed.

Making their way through the dungeon, heading left as always, they stopped and listened at doors, and then used wooden wedges to, if not fully stop the doors, at least give them a heads up that something had entered or left the room.

At one such door, while the rammed the wooden wedges into the space between frame or floor and door, the door opened suddenly. 


https://www.behance.net/gallery/5853433/Legend-of-the-Five-Rings-artwork
Before them, in safron and white robes, stood a 5' 6" bipedal brown rat with grey whiskers. He was not at all surprised to see humans before him, and after a brief exchange, Daishi escorted the party to meet the shogun of the Nezumi, her Ladyship Toyoshi and her advisers. 


http://calmality.deviantart.com/art/Kimono-Rats-55743101
Toyoshi, more suspicious than the monk, was unconvinced of the party's good intentions, but she was impressed with how they had slaughtered her goblin ashigaru, and agreed to allow the party to prove themselves to be friendly by conducting a raid on their enemies, the white apes. The party, sensing an opportunity to gain a potential ally in the dungeon (especially helpful as they plan to rehab Trelleborg and make it their base), happily agreed, but needed to return to town for some final preparation.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Session 10: 9/26/14

Party:
Polarion the Seer (M:3), Brother Burkey (C:4), Tailor (F:1), Braggle (H:3), Xero(T:4), Ogre(Charmed), Durbin (F:1, Hireling), Jezebel (the mule)

Summary:
Having rested an healed for a few days, the party prepared to re-enter the depths of Trelleborg. 

Prior to doing so, Xero spent a little time and a little coin at the Mournful Phoenix, where he managed to hire, Theonod (Normal Human : 0), the somewhat down on his luck tanner, for his appraisal abilities. Basically, if the party kills something, Xero wants Theonod to tell them if he can make its hide into armor before they go through the trouble of hauling it out of the dungeon.

After a quick check of the tower and first level, the party made their way to the last crypt they explored.

Highlights  (possibly not in order):

Seeing one of the crypts filled with a fungal garden, the party assumed the worst, threw oil into it, ignited it and waited. To perhaps no one's surprise, a dwarf-sized creature completely aflame stumbled out of the room, and was easily brought down from a distance. The burned out room yielded a little treasure.

In another niche, the party encountered a ghostly apparition of a human looking for something. He wore the livery of Hedeby. He seemed to have some quest for them and the party left him for a minute to finish their mapping of the perimeter.

Listening to a door, they heard crunching and munching sounds, so using swat team tactics, Polarion ordered the ogre to open a door and then Brother Burkey hurled his Headlamp of Continual Light into the space beyond. Nothing was there, in fact it was further down the hall. It being a pack of ghouls who upon seeing the party tried to attack them. Brother Burkey turned three of the five. 

The two that remained did quite a number on the party including paralyzing the ogre and Brother Burkey, which allowed the other three to approach. Things looked bleak and hearts pounded as the battle raged and Theonod with Jezebel started the fall back. When the last ghoul was destroyed, the party retreated behind the safety of the door.

They returned to the ghost, found his remains beneath the floor and promised to return his body to town for a proper burial.



Two dwarven mummies proved a bit of a problem, but yielded a nice little treasure, including some potions.

This necessitated a return to town, as the mummy's disease had made magical healing impossible for Tailor, who was more or less unconscious and for the badly wounded ogre.

Brother Burke negotiated with Sister Ingrid for the cure (at a rate double she would charge others, given his 4 charisma)- pretending that the ogre was made to look that way by the very disease for which he needed the cure. Healed, they returned.

The party discovered a second way into and out of the dungeon.

A secret door led to a small passage through which Braggle and Xero crawled to find a room scribbled with an unknown language that told something of a history of the dungeon.References to "the thing below" stood out.



A chatty skull in another room annoyed the players enough to bag it up and leave him in there.

They found a tomb containing two lifelike iron statues, who of course turned out to be animated, but not until the mummy in the sarcophagus stood and attacked the party. Another nail biter of a battle, but the party came out victorious and treasure laden.

They returned to town in need of more disease curing so that the magical healing could be used, and set about converting their treasure to coin with the traveling merchants who stop in Gorgoroth.