This is a re-cap of several sessions:
Guildmaster Mobius tells the party that a group of adventurers belonging to the Delver's Guild has been missing for over a week. The missing group is called the Wagging Beards, an all dwarven outfit. The party demands to be paid a reward, but Mobius isn't having it. He says it is their duty as Delvers; that others would do the same if they were missing.
"C'mon! Does everything have to be about money? What happened to doing the right thing?"
Big Mac puts up a stink and Mobius kicks him out of the meeting. The party grumbles some more and then leaves.
The party goes to the Perilous Pit tavern, which is the only publicly known entrance to the Dungeon below Glome. Rumors claim the Dungeon is the legendary vaults of the Horned Sorceress. The innkeeper Mad Mooney greets the party and gives them some (rather obvious) advice about dungeoneering.
Each of the adventurers pays Mad Mooney 1 gp to be lowered into the pit on winch. They know they will have to pay an additional gold piece for the return trip.
The Hall of Four Arches
At the bottom of the shaft, 200 feet down, is a large circular room littered with mounds and piles of debris, old weapons, and bones (Hint: you haven't searched the debris).
Four stone arches exit the chamber. The northern arch holds nine skulls wearing horned helms; the eastern arch is carved with dragons and monsters; the southern arch is painted white; the western arch is engraved with strange runes.
Zed finds a crumpled up note in the eye socket of the third skull from the right. The note is scrawled in blood and reads: "Sathius hid the treasure chest in the pool beneath the waterfall."
Hob examines the eastern arch. Upon closer inspect, the carvings are not normal dragons. Most are wingless and look more like giant lizards.
The southern arch and western arches detect as magical. The runes on the western arch are clearly arcane in nature, but Zed can't decipher them. Harlack tries to pass through, but he is repulsed and cannot force himself to pass through.
Harlack is agitated and not feeling like himself, though he isn't sure if it has to do with the runes or something else.
They decide to leave the western arch alone and they travel north beneath the arch of skulls. The tunnel, which is covered in crude graffiti written in goblin, goes due north for 250 feet.
The first chamber is a guard room with 8 goblins. Ortan, Hob's retainer, is slain in the battle.
One of the goblins has a silver dagger carved with strange runes (Note: these runes were never deciphered). Zed could not detect a magical aura.
There was a pile of nine dead goblins in a heap in the corner-all recently slain by slashing weapons, one by a blunt force blow. The party believes the dwarven adventurers killed them.
The party heads west and comes to an empty room. The passage to the north smells faintly of smoke. There is a door to the east as well (Note: this eastern door was never explored).
Harlack leads the party north when a block of stone pivots and dumps him into a pit. The party is able to pry open the pit and rescue him; then they jam the pit with iron spikes.
They pass a door halfway down the passage that smells of a cook-fire and smoke. Many goblin voices can be heard within jabbering. They decide not to confront what sounds like a large number of goblins and continue north.
They find a statue of a man bound with chains to a rock. A huge statue of a serpent curls around the prisoner with huge fangs, ready to strike. Real liquid drops from the snake's open mouth onto the statue's head. The party is able to decipher the runes around the base of the statue: "Alleviate my suffering and speak my name. Then the way shall be revealed."
Hob identifies the smelly liquid as contact poison. Zed finds a secret door to the east, but is unable to find the triggering mechanism. The party puts a helmet over the statue's head to collect the poison dripping from the snake. However, they do not know the man's name so they are unable to do anything further.
They venture west and encounter a man cooking rats on a spit. A pet wolf is with him. The man says his name is Ulf. He claims he is from Trondheim, which no one has heard of. He offers them roasted rat and mead. He says he is lost and will aid the party if they help him find the way out. He knows little of the dungeon, except he says there is a room of undead guarding an ancient burial ship and a room filled with slime.
The party accepts his offer and Ulf joins them. They question him about the statue and Ulf says he recognizes the statue as the God Loki. The party returns to the statue and says "Loki." At once, the secret door that Zed found grinds open.
The tunnel past the secret door leads to series of natural caverns. The party is attacked by a Gray Ooze in the caverns. The party decides not to explore the tunnels to the north and follows the passage south. Eventually they come to a set of stairs leading up to a door. Past the door is a guard room with 4 Bugbears. Zed's retainer, Solemn, is killed in the battle.
The last surviving bugbear tries to flee by activating a secret door to the east. However, it is unable to open the door in time and it surrenders instead. The Bugbear pleads for mercy, claiming it is just a mercenary hired to guard a wizard. The Bugbear, who is named Grol, says the goblins also work for the wizard. They ask about the dwarves and the bugbear tells them the goblins have a dwarvish prisoner.
Zed offers to hire Grol the bugbear and it agrees at the rate of 5 gp/week.
In the confusion of the battle, the party realizes that Ulf and Shit-Tooth have disappeared. Both were at the rear during the fight and stayed out of the combat. The party descends the stairs back into the tunnels to look for the torchbearer. There is no trace of either, but they do find fresh blood splattered against one cavern wall.
They give up looking for Shit-Tooth and enter the room of the wizard to the south. Inside is a richly furnished room with a rug, desk, and small bed. Crossed swords hang on the wall. It is lit by an a torch and smells of incense. A man dressed in a red robe sits at the desk. There is a birdcage at the back of the room, holding some type of small creature. The man levels a wand at the party and says, "Tell me who you are and why I shouldn't obliterate you."
The party negotiates. The wizard tells them he is Malachist the Mystical and that he is looking for a magic ring. He believes it is in the possession of a dragon named Fafnir that makes its lair in a cave to the north in the tunnels. He offers to pay 5,000 gp for the ring. The party accepts and leaves.
Next, they trigger the secret door to the goblin's lair. The room holds 14 goblins and their leader. The party tries to negotiate the release of the dwarven prisoner, bluffing saying they work for the wizard. The goblin leader, however, refuses unless they pay 20 gp and is outwardly hostile.
In the end, negotiations fail and combat breaks out. After killing the goblins, they free Gorin Steelhorn, one of the missing dwarven adventurers. He is ashamed of being captured by goblins and losing his axe.
They explore another room and find the corpse of a dwarf lodged in a partially open secret door with a crossbow bolt in his chest. Gorin recognizes him as the Wagging Beards' thief.
They find a room covered with green slime. They try to burn it with oil, but the smoke is poisonous. Eventually, they back off and burn it from a distance by throwing torches and molotov cocktails. They locate a side chamber with 5 Bronze Urns (worth 20 gp each, weigh 30 lbs.) and two large stone tablets with runes. They take the tablets, but decide to leave the urns alone. Harlack says, "I'm guessing one holds something good, and one probably holds something really bad."
The party returns to town to rest for a few days. On the way back to the Sleeping Dog tenements, they see a crowd of bystanders and police outside a burning building. The blazing building is the Jeweler's Guild. They hear that the Guildmaster of the Jeweler's Guild turned into a wererat and killed several people. During the fight, a lamp was knocked over and the place burned down. The party wonders if it has anything to do with the gem they sold to the Jeweler's Guild.
When they return to the Sleeping Dog, their rooms are trashed. Dorna, the caretaker, tells them Tully the rat-hunter came looking for them.
Harlack is sick. He gets very agitated when he sees the moon. The next day he wakes up feverish and ravenous for blood. He then realizes he has contracted lycanthropy. Without telling anyone, he decides to try a risky cure: he ingests Belladonna, which is cures lyncanthropy, but it is also poisonous and can be fatal. Thankfully, Harlack survives!
The next night Big Mac is awakened by pounding on his door. It's Tully, and he's not looking well. "You! You don't know what you've done. I hate rats. Hate 'em! But now I am one! Thanks to you and that cursed gem!" Then he turns into wererat and tries to attack Big Mac. However, Big Mac casts Command and orders Tully to flee. Tully runs away with a terrible shriek.
Zed is able to study the stone tablets some more. He deciphers the runes:
#1 reads: I, Othar the Seer, made a war horn and crafted it with the magic runes of Odin and Victory. It will blow once and summon forth the greatest heroes of Valhalla. He who would sound the horn, must first redden the runes with blood and speak a poem of battle and victory over the horn.
#2 reads:
A spell for summoning the Head of Mimir, wisest of the gods. At a suitable well, burn herbs and incense and make an offering of blood and 5,000 pieces of gold or gems. Then call upon Mimir, wisest of the gods, and state you are willing to pay the price for knowledge. Mimir will demand a personal sacrifice, but in exchange he will grant a drink from his magic well. All who drink of the well of Mimir are blessed with immortal knowledge and wisdom. Be warned - the Head of Mimir does not like to be summoned often. It is unwise for mortals to abuse this spell.
The party returns to the dungeon in a few days. They search the area to the north, past the green slime, and they find a Viking burial ship guarded by 11 skeletons. One skeleton wears robes; it can blink and cast magic missile. After defeating the skeletons, they find the ship is laden with treasure. They also recover a magical sword and a staff (later identified as a Staff +1, Growing, Indestructible).
To the west, the party finds two Viking warriors locked in stasis against two trolls. When the figures are touched, they spring to life and resume their combat. The party helps the warriors defeat the troll. The trolls have a sack with treasure and a rock engraved with a rune of Dispel Magic. The men introduce themselves as Gorm "the Hammer" Olafson and Egil Thorvald. They are confused where they are and ask if they are in Hell. They say the come from the Kingdom of the North, near Avaldsnes on the sea of whales. They sailed for East Anglia to raid for treasure, but they were shipwrecked on a strange coast. Then they were attacked by trolls.
The party explains to the Vikings that they found a ship. Gorm and Egil eagerly follow the party back to the ship. However, they are enraged when they find it is not their ship- it is the burial ship that the undead were guarding. The Vikings accuse the party of trickery and they go their own way.
Past the stasis chamber, the party comes to the Hall of Unstable Time. The hall appears empty, but when Big Mac tries to cross he starts "blinking", winking in and out of reality. Zed uses the rock of Dispel Magic on Big Mac. Hob crosses and grows younger. Zed gets caught in a time loop. Everyone sees flashes of lights and hears the ghostly noise of ticking clocks and bells.
After everyone successfully crosses the Hall of Unstable Time, the party enters a Mead Hall occupied by over a dozen Vikings. They are led by Jarl Volsung. The men sit at long oak tables drinking flagons of mead. A gleaming sword is stuck deep in a central pillar.
The Jarl welcomes the party and tells them they are in Valhalla. They wait for Ragnarok. Harlack drinks the mead and finds it is unnaturally strong, but nothing else happens to him. The warriors have names like Erik the Strong, Vignus One-Eye and Agnar the Red. They explain no one can pull the sword out of the pillar.
Harlack pulls with all his strength and frees the sword. It glows with magical light and its pommel is sculpted in the shape of a dragon. Jarl Volsung says it is the legendary sword Gram ("Wrath"). He is astonished and can't believe Harlack was able to pull it out. He demands that Harlack sell it to him for 1,000 gp. He has a crazed jealous look. The Vikings suddenly stand up, some with hands on their swords.
Somewhat reluctantly, Harlack agrees. The Jarl opens an iron coffer with a key and hands over a pouch with a 1,000 gp. Harlack gives him the blade. Hob peeks in the coffer as it is shut and sees treasure gleaming within.
Big Mac parties with the Vikings for a bit, then the adventurers leave. To the north they find the surviving dwarves of the Wagging Beards. All are wounded. One has his arm chopped off. They've been holed up trying to rest, avoiding the goblins and berserkers. They are relived to hear the goblins are dead.
They tell the party there is a secret door to the west. They didn't open it because their thief was killed by a trap the last time they opened a secret door. The party opens it and finds a secret crypt within. Hob finds a glyph of warding on the stone lid. They will need a dispel magic to remove the glyph.
To the east, they find a Well. They believe it could be the Well of Mimir (described in the stone tablet).
Having rescued the surviving dwarves, the party returns to town to rest. Harlack fights as a gladiator in the Colosseum before 100,000 drunken fans. He defeats a two-dagger wielding halfling with a rattail. However, he uses the magic sword they found in the burial ship and it turns out to be a cursed Sword of Berserking. He goes berserk and the town guards need to subdue him. After he has to pay for a remove curse to rid himself of the sword.
Hob goes to a wizard's bar called the Pointy Hat in search of a new magic teacher. He decides to try the house speciality, a magical drink called Wizard's Brew.* It curses him to talk like a barbarian for 24 hours. He then enters the service of Orm the Enchanter. Orm agrees to teach him in exchange for the occasional service. He asks Hob to find him some Cockatrice feathers. He hears some of the monsters are on the loose in the Musselspoon district.
(* DM's Note: I have a lot more fun Wizard's Brew effects if anyone else ever wants to try it. Most are pretty funny and harmless, a few not so good, and some amazing (100 on a d100 is VERY good)).
Zed researches the dungeon more and learns: The Horned Sorceress was a powerful Chronomancer (time wizard) who lived hundreds of years ago. Some rumors say she was an ally of the Emperor or his even his lover; others that she was his enemy. Along with a few other Chronomancers, she opened gates and riffs in time. These riffs are powered by a reservoir of chaotic energy called the Well of Chaos, that supposedly lies on the deepest level of the dungeon. During her time travels, the Horned Sorceress discovered a race of strange Spider-like creatures that could move backwards or forwards in time. They also had the ability to steal Time itself. With the aid of these creatures, which she called the Collectors, the Horned Sorceress stole "slivers" of time and built the dungeon to store her collection in vaults.
After resting for a few days, they decide to hunt down Tully and the other wererats. They locate the wererats in an abandoned warehouse near the river in Oldtown. After a brutal fight against dozens of giant rats and wererats, they subdue Tully. They take him to a Temple and pay for a Remove Curse. Tully is grateful tells the party they're alright. Hob is still pissed at Tully for taking several bullets when he tried to kill them in wererat form.
Big Mac gets a rumor that a tribe of reptilian creatures guarding a golden idol.
On the way to the Perilous Pit, they encounter a mob of pro-democratic protesters rioting and dragging a tied up merchant. Harlack and Hayabusa confront the mob which is part of the Black Hand who follow the revolutionary leader Helmut Itlestein. Harlack intimidates them and Hayabusa does a flourish of his katanas and uses a Ki shout to scare them. The mob flees and they rescue the merchant who promises to deliver a reward to them. The Imperial Police arrive and thank the party for their service to the Empire. They give Hayabusa a silver token with the Imperial sigil that can be used to identify him as an ally of the police.
The party returns to the Dungeon. At the Hall of Four Arches, they decide not to return the northern area (through the skull arch which I'm calling the "Halls of Valhalla"). Instead, they travel east through the Arch of Dragons (which again look more like giant lizards on closer inspection).
The party enters a series of natural caverns. In the first cave they find a fossilized skeleton of a massive dragon-like creature buried in the sand. It could be worth money, but it weighs hundreds of pounds and they'd need to dig it up. There are tracks in the sand of creatures and animals, including humanoid webbed feet. They follow the tracks of the webbed feet south, but it ends in a cave that has partially collapsed and the way is blocked by rubble. They'd need to dig through the rubble.
They backtrack and go north and enter a cave filled with giant fungi. In one cave, they find the corpse of a man near a clump of purplish fungi. In another cave, some of the fungi are Shriekers and they begin to scream.
A Slithering Tracker is attracted by the noise of the Shriekers and attacks the party. Eventually, the Violet Fungi also shuffle into the cave and attack with tentacles that cause rot. The rotting wounds can only be healed with magic.
Eventually, the party slays the Slithering Tracker, the Violet Fungi, and silence the Shriekers. They examine the corpse. It wears a collared tunic (button down shirt), trouser made from a stiff, unusual, blue fabric (jeans), blue hat with narrow bill with a sigil sowed in white, (New York Yankees baseball cap), and ankle high shoes made of white leather with rubbery soles marked with a swoosh symbol (Nike high-tops).
Big Mac is attacked by Rot Grubs when he touches the corpse and he has to burn his arm to destroy them to stop them burrowing to his heart. They find a leather case on the corpse containing strips of paper with green markings, coins of unusual design and synthetic cards.
Several have pictures of the man that read "Dr. Johnathan Frost, Faculty, Department of Astro-Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology."
No comments:
Post a Comment