Return to the Old School: How to kick ACKS (or die trying).

[Sable Wyvern]

Players' Level 2 Mazen Kurz Map

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 23

Dec 10 2022

Pre-session discussion and random musings

Note: Mild to Moderate spoilers for Finch's Demonspore module ahead.

Quite a bit was done on various background elements between sessions.

We haven’t had much to do with Waramayl’s commune for a while, partly because we haven’t been in Muntburg a lot, and partly because he’s missed a few sessions. We’ve now converted the commune from an ongoing expense to an investment. We’ve assumed he now has some ongoing farming and basic crafts and it’s bringing in enough income to be self-sustaining. As a cautious investment, it has expected returns of 0.5% per month, and is very unlikely to just completely fall apart without warning, but may still throw up interesting events and complications (Aldaval’s mushroom investment indirectly led us to Mazen Kurz, so who knows where the commune will take us).

While Mercantile Investments in ACKS are nominally just what they say on the tin – a process for investing funds in the hope of earning returns – they are not, for the most part, particularly lucrative financial instruments for characters who are busy raking in cash from adventuring. What they are, though, is an excellent method for abstractly and easily tracking the status of active assets, infrastructure and the like – perfect for measuring the health and state of Waramayl’s commune. As an added bonus, investments come with a monthly roll to determine dividends – or, instead of simple dividends, calamities, windfalls and a range of other events which, as mentioned, may end up moving the game in unexpected directions.

We hammered out a few details regarding how many people are living and working the commune. Ultimately, Ag wants to usurp the authority of the local count and take over as part of a popular uprising. That may be easier said than done, but it’s certainly something fun and interesting to be working towards. Based on some of Ag’s other plans, I already suspect he may be in for some surprises too, and it will be interesting to see how they affect his schemes.

Waramayl also hired a troupe of playwrights and storytellers to spread word of his endeavours and entertain the locals. Having done so, he purchased supplies and carted the party loot back to Muntburg personally, where he then threw a great feast in his own honour. [I planned to go over the feast in a bit more detail during the session, but Ag was not present, so it will need to wait.]

Meanwhile, Tr investigated property options in Burgensdorf. He wanted to buy an impressive villa, but settled instead for a large townhouse, as it is away from haughty patricians and close to the part of town where one can find successful artisans and the avant-garde community. He paid most of the costs up front, and had no problems securing a loan for the final 200gp, also hiring some guards and household servants. He has plans to tastefully display various artefacts and pieces of interest, starting with the bronze-bone hat-thing retrieved from Mazen Kurz.

As I had hoped at the beginning of the campaign, the ACKS living expenses system is doing an excellent job of pushing the players naturally towards viewing their characters as successful, wealthy and powerful people that have a place and role in society, even while they continue to raid dungeons for wealth. Rather than murder hobos, they’re more like intrepid explorers blazing trails and returning to civilisation with wealth and prestige. This system is vastly preferable to me to alternatives where wealth is sucked away by training, or must be wasted on high living. The differences between this and various other high living systems are sometimes subtle, but I feel an excellent balance has been struck in ACKS.

Malketh concentrated on conducting research at the Bastion of Knowledge and the Purple Tower. Ro asked some questions about Kant’s affliction, and possible cures. It’s evident dispel magic doesn’t work (because the only thing magical about Kant are his tattoos), but it’s possible he’s suffering from a curse (he isn’t). A ritual of restoration could well reverse the ability score loss, but the group would need to find an 11th level cleric willing and able to conduct the ritual, about 100,000gp in cash and components, and Kant would probably also have to accept a quest.

Malketh was also interested in learning more about Trisanthia who, to this point, was little more than a name to me. It was fairly easy to incorporate her into the existing Dwimmermount Eld history, although the information Malketh was able to find deviated from historical truth.

Trisanthia is a mythical figure from Eldritch prehistory. If the Eld have gods, then she could be considered one. What scraps of Eldritch history remain known claim that the Eld lived in the time of the Great Ancients, and served them, until a group among them, jealous of the Ancients, treated with a devil of vast intellect and power. This devil was called Lifebringer, and originally served the Great Ancients, but saw how the Eld chafed under the unjust rule of the Ancients, and sought to provide this persecuted people with justice. Lifebringer secretly taught the Eld the means to grant themselves eternal life, but the Ancients discovered this and were enraged, for if Eld did not die, they could not be controlled. The Great Ancients called upon the power of a dozen mighty demons, and together they destroyed Lifebringer, but Trisanthia and a handful of other lords and ladies of the Eld led her people in an escape to Areon.

The Great Ancients were unable to wage a successful war across the vast expanse of the aether, but placed mighty weapons in the skies of Areon to prevent the Eld from returning to Telluria. What happened to Trisanthia after that is not known, and she does not appear to have been part of the invasion when the Eld eventually returned and overthrew the Great Ancients.

None of this information seems to be considered a trustworthy account of history by any modern scholar, and is considered a distortion of truth at best, and quite probably nothing more than the wholesales lies or wish-fulfillment of an arrogant an evil race.

Malketh also investigated the runic symbols they’d copied down from the room with numerous small daises, and determined the runes appear to have been intended to moderate the transfer of power.

Other general rumours and snippets of information about Mazen Kurz that he uncovered were:

• It is said that the Eld perfected the breeding of minotaurs in the lower levels, and that the spawn of that project still rule from the lower levels. Others say that the minotaurs do not rule in their own right, but on behalf of some more terrible power that resides even deeper below.
• There are references to numerous Eld mathematicians and engineers who called Mazen Kurz their home. Some conducted research on portals, and it is said one section of the first level contains a series of magical gates that have caused explorers to become lost. However, those gates also provide access to secret laboratories, as well as the lower levels.
• It is also said that a gate or portal connecting Mazen Kurz to Dwimmermount was built by engineers on the first level.

The middle section of level two, that the party has been trying to locate, is the Halls of the Toad King, from Matt Finch’s Demonspore. I recalled that there was a mercenary mage located in the Halls, and it occurred to me that if he was a member of one of the local guilds, Malketh’s queries and socialising would quite possibly bring him into contact with someone who knew of this figure. I looked the fellow up in the module and, lo and behold, the PCs can possibly find a partially written letter in his quarters, addressed back to a friend at “the academy”, and which makes reference to previous letters. That was far too convenient to ignore, so I decided his previous letter had recently been filed away in a guild library, where Malketh was able to come across it. That, of course, required me to write said letter, which I did.

Karamantis' Letter

docs.google.com

The mention of a myconid ambassador was not missed by Tr, who was encouraged by the find.

Finally, Tannek decided that the dearth of heavy warhorses on the market presents a business opportunity, and he began to make enquiries about leasing land where he can begin breeding and raising warhorses, as well as building a villa.


The Actual Session

• De: Tannek the Guardian, Level 5 Lawful Paladin
  • Grook the Outrider, Level 2 Neutral Explorer
  • Balrite the Warder, Level 2 Lawful Paladin
  • Pherrod the Commoner, Level 0 Neutral Cavalryman
  • Uthred the Commoner, Level 0 Lawful Destined Cavalryman
• Da: Kant the Retaliator, Level 5 Neutral Dwarven Fury
• Tr: Aldaval the Magician-Slayer, Level 4 Neutral Nightblade
  • Bortal the Footpad, Level 1 Neutral Thief
• Ro: Malketh the Magician-Hero, Level 4 Neutral Elven Spellsword
• La: Villa the Curate, Level 4 Lawful Cleric

The session began with Da announcing to the group that it is possible that Kant my go out in a blaze of glory at some point. While he has come to terms with the impact of his Dex loss, the event has still led him to thinking about playing a different sort of character, possibly trying something with a bit of magic (which is outside his normal characters). While he doesn’t plan to send Kant to a senseless death, he will be keeping an eye out for opportunities to make the ultimate sacrifice.

* ** **** ** *
​

When the group returns to the hamlet near Mazen Kurz, the local villagers show Villa the shrine to Solinor they have built, and ask him to bless it. Villa conducts a service, and continues to be a party pooper, warning the locals about the coming end times and urging them to live unfun lives fixated on duty and spurning all vice. He also spends some time tut-tutting anyone he sees who seems to be having too much fun.

* ** **** ** *​

Having found some interesting things on the first level of Mazen Kurz last session, the group has decided to continue their explorations there. They return to the lair of the hell hounds, which they haven’t been to since their very first trip into Mazen Kurz. Two dogs remain; once, they were quite scary, but now they are dispatched in short order.

Heading down a passage that appears to lead to a fountain, the group beats a hurried retreat when something lands with a sudden splat beside Villa. Observing from a safe distance, they see slime on the ceiling, and decide to choose another path.

They pass through the room where the encountered bugbears (one bugbear corpse is still there, the other gone), the open a door to find a grey ooze before them. The door is slammed shut, then something slams into it hard, and a section of the wood begins to smoke and bubble as acid seeps into it. Kant grumbles, but the group again decides to head in a different, slime-and-ooze-free direction.

A wide corridor leads to an intersection. Just before the intersection, statues of two thorny, tentacular, demonic figures stand, one to either side of the hall, tentacles reaching out towards each other to form an archway. Aldaval investigates the statues carefully, and finds a thorn that wobbles a little. Experimenting with it, he eventually pushes it down, and a sequence of thunks and thuds are heard from somewhere beyond the intersection, although the group can’t place the direction.

The party moves to the intersection to look around, where they see some more automatons. As the party ponder what to do, the automatons attack, but they are taking down in fairly quick order. After the fight, with an opportunity to look about properly, the group sees tentacle archways to the west and south (plus the north, where they’ve come from). The east, a section of wall has opened.

Behind the secret door, the group is disappointed to find nothing but a small, dusty and completely bare room. However, Aldaval’s acute elven senses result in him noticing another secret, closed door opposite the one they have already found. Villa heads to the tentacle statue mirroring the one that activated and first door, and is able to find a thorn that opens the second door.

This leads to room similar to the first, but with a large iron and leather trunk on the floor. Villa seeks guidance from Solinor, and advises the group that they trunk is not trapped. They are going to just tear it open, as it seems fairly brittle, but Aldaval suggests that Bortal should attempt to pick the lock, which he does successfully. Inside is an absurd amount of copper, but also a handful of gems, several thousand silver, and a short, curved sword with a blade of yellow-orange crystal. When Bortal takes the sword, it gives off a warm, amber light. No one objects to Bortal hanging onto the weapon for now.

The party heads east and, when the stop to listen at a door, a clanking and clattering sound is heard from further to the east. They decide to investigate, and the corridor eventually leads to a very large hall. Although they can’t see a great deal of the room with their torchlight, they spot flickering, brownish light coming from places in the ceiling, and numerous small, clockwork creatures moving about, as well as a few larger ones. As they watch, a mechanical bird swoops past. They decide not to move inside the room and risk a fight.

Heading back down the hallway, they return to the door they had been intended to pass through. They find a bath house, the pools still containing warm water, but with a thick layer of dust. As they investigate the room, some giant beetles emerge from a ventilation shaft, and the party pulls back rather than fight them.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

The next room they explore is both enticing and scary. Five gargoyle-like figures are perched around the room on pillars and ledges, while throne of Kytherian ebony sits on a raised platform in one corner. A number of old, desiccated corpses are arrayed in the vicinity of the throne, along with the glinting of valuables, and one of the bodies is wearing armour that has a pearlescent gleam.

There is much debate. They all want that armour, especially Villa, who sees it as his destiny to be wearing it, but they are extremely wary and afraid of the gargoyles. De is confident that they will need magic weapons to injure them – assuming they are actually gargoyles, and not just statues, but that seems to be a given.

A plan is hatched. Tannek is going to move around the room, placing sacks over the heads of the four gargoyles on statues, and then tie them up. He gets sacks over the two closest ones, without any issue.

The next two are across the side of the room, and Kant heads over with Tannek for support, both of them ready to flee instantly. As they get close to the throne, the gargoyles twitch and straighten, and our two heroes turn and sprint for the door. One gargoyle swoops across the room and reaches Tannek, raking and biting, but no damage is done other than scratches to his armour, and then they are both through the door, with the rest of the party slamming it shut the moment they’re out of the room.

More discussion ensues. Kant insists they aren’t walking away from this without something to show for it. After a while, they open the door and see the gargoyles have returned to their perches. They get the sense the creatures may be moving a little, and not as somnolescent as they were originally, but it’s hard to be sure.

Aldaval decides to try talking, and they respond when he uses Eldritch. The gargoyles do not know who Trisanthia is, but their task is to eat the unclean, and they were set to that purpose by “the Great Rulers.” It appears that anyone who isn’t one of the Great Rulers counts as unclean. Despite this, they insist they will definitely not eat Aldaval if he comes back into the room. Aldaval stays outside, and closes the door again.

Kant is willing to dash across and grab the armour, and it’s decided that Aldaval will summon some berserkers to cover him. As soon as the dwarf and his escort enter the room, the gargoyles leap to attack. Several berserks are dropped, but Kant reaches the throne and the armour. I describe a jewelled necklace that also happens to catch his eye, and he decides to snaffle that up before grabbing the armour. As he grabs the necklace, he also notices a heavy silver ring with some large gems in it on a bony finger, and silver comb with an ivory handle, plus plenty of coins scattered around. I may have displayed a slight evil grin as Da started to consider his options, because he fairly quickly put aside his greed and settled for just the necklace and armour.

As he turned and dashed back for the door, the berserkers all died, but they performed their function as none of the gargoyles chose Kant as a target. Unfortunately, the gems on the necklace turned out to be glass beads, but it was till worth a bit of money. Down on spells, but with a nice haul, the group decides to head back to civilisation.

Tannek did some sparring in the armour, and it was quickly evident that it is lightweight, and he felt more mobile in general. He also discovered that any attempt by Kant to control Tannek’s positioning failed completely – Tannek could not be pushed back or moved to a position he didn’t want to be in.

Both Tannek and Villa wanted the armour but it was eventually decided that, given that Villa usually finds himself on the front line, he needs a bump in protection more than Tannek, who already has a high AC (and more hit points). They are currently working on the assumption its +1 plate, but it’s actually +2.

Some testing was also done on the crystal sword, which appeared very sharp but also fragile. It turned out that it is not fragile at all, and it was decided that Bortal would hold onto it.

* ** **** ** *​

Ro was a late arrival again this week, and turned up in time for a second delve.

There was some talk of seeing what the gray ooze was guarding, which annoyed Da. The group had been avoiding the oozes, and now (with no evidence at all) some people seemed to just assume that a particular ooze was guarding treasure, while completely ignoring the treasure that they actually knew about. I didn’t participate in this discussion, but Da had a pretty good point. Even a pre-placed ooze isn’t necessarily guarding treasure and, as it happens, the one they were referring to was a random encounter, so definitely not guarding anything at all other than a random patch of stone. While I’m on the topic, the green slime was a wandering monster as well. It was pure coincidence that they had two random encounters in quick succession, and both were ooze-type creatures.

Eventually, Da convinced everyone that they should be clearing out the gargoyle treasure. Much planning ensued, including a redistribution of equipment. Villa was asked to give up his newly-acquired armour, having Balrite wear it temporarily so that Villa could move out of the frontline and cast protection from evil.

Personally, I find communist adventuring parties where it’s all “for the good of the group” somewhat annoying, and prefer people to be a little more possessive of their stuff, but I keep my mouth shut, because the reality is that it is in the group’s interest to play this way and, if I’m going to play the role of the tough but fair and impartial referee running a dangerous world, I can’t complain if they want to make decisions that optimise themselves for success and survival. Besides which, I still get to pipe up every now and again as a henchman saying, “Wait, no, this is my item I earned fair and square, why are you telling me I should hand it over?” Speaking of which, I did enjoy Tr pushing (only somewhat blatantly) to make sure Bortal got the crystal sword, and “best for the group” be damned.

Anyway, the group heads back in, stumbles across and quickly eliminates up some foul, emaciated creatures that appear to be covered in wet faeces, and makes it back to the gargoyle door.

There had been considerable debate about how effective protection from evil would be. The group decided that it would not provide them the “cannot be touched” protection, just the AC and save bonus. The same (incorrect) logic led them to assume sleep would work. Just why they settled on the assumption the gargoyles were basically natural creatures, I’m not sure, especially given they had been indistinguishable from stone until they came to life.

In any case, Villa blessed the group, while Balrite, standing in the front-line, wearing Villa’s armour, downed a potion of heroism. I’m always happy to see potions being used, as I’ve found they tend to be put away for a time of great need, and then forgotten about. Malketh cast sharpness, providing the group with a couple extra magic weapons. The door was opened, the group formed up in the doorway, Villa cast protection from evil and the conch of blasting was unleashed at the two gargoyles at the far side of the room, near the throne.

The throne itself was obliterated, scraps of wood flying every which way, while coins and jewellery were also hurled about the place. The conch had been allocated to one of the henchmen, so Malketh was free to drop a sleep spell on one of the gargoyles, but the creature was unaffected.

Three gargoyles swooped in to attack, but two were hacked down and the third was hurled back across the room as Malketh unleashed gust of wind. (When Malketh was granted the ability to use that spell, I think there had been a general sense that it was about as useless a freebie as you could get, and it is somewhat situational, so it was nice to see it immediately useful and effective.)

As the gargoyles attempted another attack, one more was hacked down, and the two remaining were unable to hurt the party, as Villa’s protection from evil held them at bay*. The gargoyles retreated to opposite corners, and the party moved in to finish the clean-up, despatching them both without much further effort.

*For anyone wondering, I’m a little lenient with protection from evil, and rule that it is not broken if someone under its protection attacks, only if the caster does. This shifts it from an almost useless spell to one that is situationally quite powerful, especially at low levels.

Gathering up the scattered treasure, the group found a few items had been damaged, and some they didn’t discover at all because they had been shattered in the conch blast. The ring Kant had spotted was missing a stone, and the two remaining ones were blackened and cracked, as if from a release of power. I’m not sure how much more obvious I could be, but Da seems to be the only one who understands it was a magical item that was destroyed in the blast. The rest seem to have just assumed if it was magical, it wouldn’t have been damaged.

The remaining haul was decent, but not incredible, although they retrieved a scroll that was later determined to be a ward against magic.

Moving on, they found a room with a long trench in the middle, accessed by stairs to either side. As they were cautiously entering the room, they heard the other door to the gargoyle chamber being opened, but couldn’t see that far to determine what was coming. They hurried into the next room, closing the door behind them. Listening, they could hear movement and activity of some kind, but no talking. The PCs formed up defensively facing the door, and sent their henchmen to explore the room.

The henchmen reported the trench to be empty, and a bench along one wall had a number of rusty cogs and springs. Then, the door began to open, and a very large, dark, mottled-green, lizard-like hindquarter could be seen, the rest of the creature hidden behind the door as it opened.

With no hesitation, the decision was made to attack. The party won initiative and was able to hack the young dragon down before it was able to breath on them. The creature was definitely a glass cannon, and things could have turned very nasty fast. As it died, small coils of noxious fumes escaped the creatures nostrils; they’re not convinced it was a dragon, assuming it to have been some kind of minor drake.

In addition to destroying some loot, it was also the horn which attracted the dragon. I noted it’s all open corridors back to its lair. The dice told me it was in its lair, and awake, so I couldn’t imagine it not coming out to investigate.

Moving on with barely a second thought, the party finds the statue of a multi-limbed, multi-faced devil, surrounded by a low stone rail, with thousands of silver scattered inside the rail. As they study the statue, the surface appears to writhe. Tannek makes use of his detect evil ability for the first time (actually, De said to La, “Don’t you have a detect evil ability? Oh, wait, no, that’s me.”) It turned out that the statue itself appeared to be inert, but six separate, evil beings seemed to be clinging to its surface. Weighing up the possible danger, vs the relatively paltry visible treasure, it was decided to stay well outside the rail.

Further along, they found a room with a large pillar, wrapped in areonite sheets that were etched with Eldritch history. Aldaval spend some time studying it. In summary, it indicated:

By the time the Archons’ exploration team reached Areon, the Eld had spread across the Red Planet and bled its reserves of azoth dry. To maintain their society, the Eld nobility sought to expand into the rest of the Four Worlds. To accomplish this end, they had bred, trained, and equipped armies of Red Elves. But with the hated Servitors and their astral navy controlling space, the Eld had no way to get their armies off the Red Planet.​

That information comes directly out of Dwimmermount. For the most part, I want to leave accurate historical details to Dwimmermount itself, but it feels necessary to include some information about the Eld in a dungeon they created. The party has no idea who the Archons are, and I also pointed out that this is likely to be the first time any of them had seen a source that treats Eld and red elf as something other than synonyms.

The group finds stairs that lead up to a balcony overlooking the big automaton room. From their vantage, they can see a large pile of scrap against one wall, and a squat, dwarf-like machine with a face of gears and cogs, that appears to be directing other creatures to repair, assemble and disassemble each other.

Kant tries hailing the dwarf-automaton, and it appears to look up at them. Then, a mechanical bird lands on the balcony railing and inspects the group. Villa reaches out to give it a pat, but the bird lashes out with its beak before flying away. Shortly, some squat machines trundle into position and launch crossbow bolts up towards the group, so they withdraw.

Trying to decide what to do next, it occurs to someone that maybe they should look for the drake’s lair (well, duh). Neither Aldaval nor Grook are able to get a sense as to where it came from, but the group picks the right directions anyway.

Just as they’re approaching a vast hall from which a noxious smell reminiscent of the creature emanates, an automaton in the shape of a giant wolf rushes in from behind the group, where it turns out only low-level henchmen are positioned. Fortunately, the creature fails to land a blow. The henchmen are ordered to withdraw, and none of them decide to be heroes and hold the line. This automaton is a lot tougher than the one’s they’ve fought so far, and very tough to damage. Tannek suffers one heavy blow but, fortunately, they eventually mange to take it down without suffering any more damage.

The dragon’s lair is a vast hall, filled with benches and shelves that covered in scrap and detritus. The group carefully circumnavigates the room, finding a corner that has collapsed in, and a steep tunnel leading up. Most of the group wants to confirm if this leads out, but Aldaval and Bortal are the group’s only skilled climbers, and Aldaval is very concerned about mummy dragon possibly being nearby, and isn’t going anywhere near the shaft. The do find a mahogany chest, the Uthred and Pherrod carry, after some prodding to confirm the moving it doesn’t spring any traps.

Completing their circuit of the room, the party comes across a pair of metal beds, with some dials and buttons on a control panel between them. Based on the diagram on one of the dials, someone jokingly pipes up that it’s a limb transplant gizmo. They’re 100% correct.



Leaving the bulk of the room unexplored (it would take ages to go through the entire room), it’s decided it’s time to depart. On the way, the party comes across some bombardier beetles, who Malketh puts to sleep.

The chest turns out to contain some gems and jewellery; another decent haul, but nothing incredible.

We call it a night. I’m very happy that we seem to be getting a lot more done the last few sessions.

Obituary

• Malgath, Level 1 Elven Spellsword, slain by orcs, session two.
• Hektor, Level 1 Paladin, slain by orcs, session two.
• Balfur, Level 1 Dwarven Vaultguard, suffered orcish spear to the knee and retired, session three.
• Grendel, Level 1 Fighter, slain by orcs, session three.
• Obsidian Gemcutter, Level 1 Dwarven Craftpriest, consumed by green slime, session six.
• Malok (aka Maldek) the Unencumbered, Level 2 Mage, poisoned and carotid severed by giant black widow, session nine.
• Karl, Level 1 Barbarian henchman, poisoned by a giant crab spider, session twelve.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Players' Level 1 Mazen Kurz Map

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 24

Dec 17 2022

Pre-session discussion and random musings

It was a short break, and not much happened between sessions.

The Actual Session

• De: Tannek the Guardian, Level 5 Lawful Paladin
  • Grook the Outrider, Level 2 Neutral Explorer
  • Balrite the Warder, Level 2 Lawful Paladin
  • Pherrod the Man-at-Arms, Level 1 Neutral Fighter
  • Uthred the Man-at-Arms, Level 1 Lawful Destined Fighter
• Da: Kant the Retaliator, Level 5 Neutral Dwarven Fury
• Tr: Aldaval the Magician-Slayer, Level 4 Neutral Nightblade
  • Bortal the Hood, Level 2 Neutral Thief
• Ro: Malketh the Magician-Hero, Level 4 Neutral Elven Spellsword
• Ag: Waramayl the Initiate, Level 3 Lawful Mystic
  • Sircini the Daughter, Level 2 Lawful Priestess
  • Ledrick the Warrior, Level 2 Neutral Fighter
  • Linzinia the Maiden of the Sword, Level 1 Lawful Warmistress
• La: Villa the Curate, Level 4 Lawful Cleric

We finally had a chance to cover some of Waramayl’s antics. He secured sufficient food and staff to feast 500 people, providing hearty country fare and plenty of roasted meats. He took the opportunity to hob-nob with various local figures, including members of the merchants’ guild and mages’ guilds, attempting to build support for his eventual planned takeover of the county.

He also spent time with the Count, and raised the subject of financing the construction of an amphitheatre for Muntburg. I think Ag was then taken off-guard a little, when his mark started talking about the fact that if he follows through on his plans, there will be opportunities for land and title in his future. Ag was so focused on buttering the Count up to take advantage of him, I don’t think it occurred to him that this behaviour might result in creating a trusted ally in a position to reward and support him. I will be interested to see whether he sticks to his original plan, or decides to become a true friend and ally of the Count.

While in town, Waramayl also spoke to Mrs Kiplet, the maid of the house running their villa (not to be confused with their cleric Villa), who informed him that she has been paying a fee of 50gp per month to the Stone Men, a local thieves’ guild known for running protection rackets on merchants. The guild representative has informed her, in the most respectful way possible, that they are aware the PCs are powerful figures, not to be trifled with, but they also have significant quantity of goods and wealth stashed with little security and the villa. The only way Gabrinsisch, the leader of the guild, can ensure no one seizes the opportunity to loot the place is to be able to show that the PCs are paying him for their security.

Initially, there is outrage among most of the players that this is happening but, after they calm down, it’s decided that they don’t necessarily have to hunt down and destroy every last member of the guild. It’s determined that it is not acceptable that they keep paying protection money, but perhaps it would be helpful to have friends in the criminal underworld, and paying them would be ok as long as they’re actually getting something in return. That, however, will have to wait until they return to Muntburg.

The locals also talk of a war between the eld and some Thulian faction, that is rumoured to be occuring in the depths of Dwimmermount.

This all happened in the past, so we jump forward to Waramayl’s return to the group, as they prepare for another excursion into Mazen Kurz. It has been decided that they are going to head back to the giant lizard/dragon and see if they are able to recover the head (there is some thought that there may be a financial reward for recovering it). They then plan to head back to the lizard caves and have another go at clearing them out.

Before they set it, there is further discussion of the distribution of magic items, with specific focus on the nifty pearlescent plate armour they recovered from the gargoyles. La is happy to let someone else have it, as long as Villa isn’t expected to hold a position on the front line. The group nearly arrives at a unanimous decision to let Ledrick have it, but then Da convinces De that Tannek should dice with Ledrick for it.

As Ledrick is being asked to replace Villa on the front, he indicates he is happy to take this spot, and dice for the armour, but in return for holding the front line, if he doesn’t get this armour, he is entitled to the next set of magical armour they find.

Ro then pipes up saying, “on the condition that we still consider you the best suited for the front line role when the next set of armour shows up.”

Now, although I find it a bit annoying, I generally endeavour to quietly grind my teeth while I let the players run their perfect little communist adventuring company, where most PCs don’t want anything for themselves and always make decisions for the greater long term good of the party as a whole. However, I draw the line at henchmen just accepting this state of affairs. They’re not adventuring and putting their lives on the line just so they can constantly pass on rewards on the assumption that one day, somewhere down the line, if they live long enough, they might turn out to be “the most suitable.” Ledrick made it clear that, if he takes on a permanent front line role, and doesn’t get this armour, he expects to get first dibs on the next armour of use to him, and people don’t get to go, “Oh, you’re no longer most suited for the front line, so we’ll forget you’ve been putting your life on the line for us for however long, and instead of giving you what we agreed to, we’ll just move you further back in the fighting order instead.”

All parties eventually agreed, the dice were rolled, and Tannek scores himself the nifty armour.

* ** **** ** *​

Once they set out, the party makes it to the dragon corpse with little issue, despatching a few giant geckos along the way. There are a number of giant bombardier beetles feasting on the dragon, which are also quickly despatched. Unfortunately, there is a nasty axe-wound in the dragon skull, limiting its display value.

Ro asks about the possibility of acquiring magical components, and I let him know that all living things can be harvested for magical components, but it needs to be done soon after death, and the components then need to be stored in metamphorae to retain their potency. This was all covered very early in the campaign, as De had some plans to get into lots of component harvesting with this first character, but no one has given it much thought since.

There is a fairly long and pointless discussion about what to do. It’s determined that the only part of the creature that conclusively proves it was a dragon-like lizard is the head, but the feeling is that because the head is damaged it’s not worth taking. Uthred abandons the wheelbarrow they had brought along for head-cartage, and they go to visit the hobgoblins to see if they can rustle up some allies for an assault on the lizards.

Just short of the hobgoblin lair, the group encounters some skeletons, who are despatched with the conch and some turning. The skeletons entered the hall outside the hobgoblin zone via some trapped doors that the party had chosen to avoid previously, so they took this opportunity to head over and see what lay beyond.

While doing so, some goblins were spotted skulking around spying on them, and in the ensuing conversation the party learned that the hobgoblins, their numbers depleted by the lizard cave assault, were suffering more losses from the grimlocks, and had abandoned Mazen Kurz entirely. The goblins, who had occupied territory between the two factions, had moved into the now empty hobgoblin rooms in order to get further away from the grimlocks.

The goblins provided the party with some information about a room of deadly darkness and a couple of temples (one of which was accessed via a hall of deadly death unless you go around the long way). There was also mention of a tomb beyond one temple, occupied by human or elven dead.

Da was eager to explore beyond the door, given that the group was already there, but there was a general desire from the others to finally take another shot at the lizards. Additionally, there was some misunderstanding about the deadly darkness, with several members of the group taken to understand they would have to pass through it if they explored that way. After some bickering, they peered through the door, saw a wide hallway stretching north, and Da was convinced to accept the will of the group and go fight some lizards.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

It was decided not to attempt an assault up the stairs again, instead take a side passage. On entering the main cave, they heard the sound of stone being worked on, which was the lizards improving their stair defences. The group didn’t investigate, although the sound stopped as the lizards became aware of the party’s presence. The PCs moved down the side passage, and found a chamber with the floor covered in low, sharp protrusions of spiky stone. A passage on the far side led deeper into the caves, and the group was naturally wary of being ambushed while within the spikes, which would need to be navigated slowly and carefully.

The lizards, however, had no plans to try another confrontation on the periphery, and intended to lure the PCs deeper in the hope of eliminating them completely. As the players hesitated and planned and worried, the lizards were organising their defence.

Malketh summoned some berserkers, and group carefully navigated the spikes with berserkers to the fore. There was no ambush, and Malketh sent one berserker charging off down the passage on the other side. His battlecries ceased shortly, and it didn’t seem like the summoned warrior had made it more than forty or fifty feet.

After some short deliberation, Malketh conjured a stinking cloud, and then used his gust of wind to blow it ahead of the group. I believe, if I’d had more time to think about it, I would probably have ruled the gust dissipates the cloud, but I’m glad I didn’t, because it’s an excellent use of the spell combination.

Instead, as the group rushed after the cloud, they were attacked from two sides by some javelin-hurling lizards. Four of the lizards then withdraw before the PCs could engage them, but two more had been incapacitated by the passing cloud, and were despatched.

The group advanced across a large chamber that appeared to be filled with lizardman nests and low cookfires.The lizards hurled another javelin volley and withdrew further but, at the far end of the chamber, the party found that the lizards who had been intending to continue their hit-and-run tactics had been trapped by the stinking cloud, which had ended up blocking the exit. Half-a-dozen lizards all failed their saves as they tried to make their way through, and the party despatched them easily as the stinking cloud dissipated.

I find it amusing that pretty much everyone (myself included) thought that gust of wind was a pretty mediocre bonus spell for Malketh to acquire from Trisanthia’s chair, but Ro has now made excellent use of it in both of the subsequent sessions. If I refereed from a position of “be a fan of the characters/players”, there’s a good chance I would have ignored the random roll that selected this spell, and rerolled or picked something else. I’m glad I didn’t, and provided Ro with an opportunity to make use of what the dice gods provided, leaving us all impressed with his quick thinking.

Note: I’m not saying “be fan of the characters” is necessarily bad. It’s just not what I want from an OSR game, where I strive to be fair but impartial. In a game like this one, I still want the characters to shine, but I want them to do it without my assistance; I do not want my players to ever feel they owe me any thanks or credit for their characters’ achievements. It’s little things like seeing Ro make such good use of his gust of wind ability that reassure me there’s value in this approach.

The party felt they may be pushing too deep, and decided to double back to another exit from the chamber that they had bypassed during the pursuit.

Several more times, lizards hurled javelins and then melted into the darkness. Most missed, or glanced off armour, but some were hitting home and wounds starting to accrue, luck being expended, fate tempted.

Pushing into another large chamber, the group found themselves having javelins hurled from both their left and right.

Kant took the initiative and wheeled the party around to face what he perceived to be the most important threat, on the right flank. In the rear, Waramyal realised that if he stayed in formation, he was going to be pincushioned by javelins, so he called on all his henchmen to join him as he moved to engage the other group of lizards on the left. Uethred, Bortal and Pherrod, as fellow members of the rear lines, went with him, and Ledrick, called up by his master, vacated the front line to join the monk. Having a front liner stripped away as they moved to engage made several other players quite cranky.

However, it turned out the Waramay’s decision was prescient, as the hard hitters and berserkers that had wheeled right were fighting the smaller group of lizards, and the far squishier rearguard suddenly discovered it was outnumbered and outclassed.

The following rounds were quite desperate. Villa was with Waramayl, but seeing the odds stacked against him, was too scared to go on the offensive, turtling on full defence instead (as previously ruled, forgoing any attack to gain a +2 AC bonus). Linzinia went down quite quickly, and it was clear that team Waramayl was doomed unless they got extremely lucky or quickly reinforced.

Sircini managed to cast protection from evil, but she was the next to fall, and the added defence was quickly lost. Villa, while he wasn’t willing to give up his defence to fight, was willing to forgo all defence to try rendering aid. Unfortunately, as the cleric crouched over a fallen comrade to apply first aid, a lizardman took the opportunity to savagely rake him.

Fortunately, things were going better on the other side, where the berserkers absorbed the worst of the enemy line, forming an ablative defense before Kant, Balrite and Tannek were able to whittle down the enemy numbers. Aldaval charged across to the other flank, then Kant and Tannek both turned their backs on the enemy and also charged across to assist, leaving Balrite, Malketh and Grook to handle the rest of the right flank lizards. At the same time, a group of lizards who had been hanging back from the fight on the left flank charged in – these individuals larger than their fellows, including one towering figure who, instead of relying on teeth and claws, wielded an obsidian-bladed spear. Kant made sure that he engaged this towering champion.

Meanwhile, Waramayl had also gone down, while Villa continued bravely trying to render aid to his injured allies. Finally, the lizards on the right flank were all down, allowing Balrite to join the fight, while Malketh made an effort to find someone to try and stabilise.

Kant and the lizard champion ended up locked in single combat, and both the PCs and the other lizards left them to their own private fight. In the chaos of the melee, Aldaval suddenly found himself poorly positioned, and he fell as multiple lizards set upon him at once. Balrite fell shortly thereafter.

When Aldaval went down, Tr declared that Bortal would immediately render aid. “Not fucking likely,” I thought to myself. Aldaval is clearly quite mercenary, not exactly an inspiring leader, training Bortal to have a similar mercenary attitude, everything is going to shit, and Bortal is in a desperate fight for his life. I couldn’t see him turning his back on the enemy in some futile attempt to save Aldaval’s life. I rolled a reaction/loyalty test, and got a reasonably high result. “Hmm”, I thought. I rolled again, and got a similar result. The dice had spoken, and I informed Tr that, to my surprise, Bortal does exactly what he had declared.

Ledrick had been absorbing an impressive number of hits, and was basically the bulwark that had kept the left flank from crumbling until reinforcements arrived, but he eventually fell as well. That, however, was the low point of the fight, and from there the PCs managed to claw their way to victory (of a sort) without any further losses.

Surprisingly enough, as the paladins laid on hands, Villa used his cures and first aid was rendered, it became apparent that no one who had gone down was dead. The outcome was:

• Sircini, Balrite, Ledrick: These three will be fine after receiving magical healing and a night’s rest. Some of them have some additional scarring.
• Waramayl: Has lost a toe, but was otherwise only stunned.
• Linzinia: Is on death’s door, with a deep gash between her ribs that has torn a lung open. Although the group is able to stabilise her, and will be able to render further magical aid in time to ensure she doesn’t succumb to her wounds, she will have permanent damage to her lungs and be regularly out of breath. Continued adventuring seems unlikely, unless she receives restoration of life and limb.
• Aldaval: Will recover quickly, but has lost three fingers on his right hand. He can no longer wield his spear two-handed, nor can he cast spells with the spear in hand.

I have slightly mixed feelings about all that. On the one hand, there were zero deaths out of six characters going down, which feels a little too forgiving. However, there are some factors that ease my concerns.

First, the players rolled consistently well on their mortal injury checks, and things could easily have turned out quite a bit worse. Additionally, the results we got do add a lot of flavour. Aldaval has no plans to take any time out immediately to get healed, and is going to have to deal with the injury for a while at least. He may, in fact, decide not to attempt having it repaired at all, because the side effects of restore life and limb could end up being worse than the injury it repairs. I feel any rule that results in characters living with genuine injury adds character and helps keep the game interesting and grounded. Finally, Linzinia’s injury is, for all practical purposes, not that much different than dying. She has to rest twice as often when dungeoneering, has a reduced overland movement rate and lost a third of her Con. As mentioned, she either needs restoration of life and limb, or she’s likely to be more of a hindrance than a help, and may end up being sent on her way, (or given a non-adventuring role, which could be interesting).

Anyway, returning to the game, the group then surprised me with their daring. Despite being extremely mauled and in no condition to withstand another fight, they decided they were going to press on in the hopes of locating some loot. They were reasonably certain all the lizardmen were dealt with, and didn’t like the idea of leaving empty handed, (and allowing someone else to move in and profit from their blood).

Moving deeper into the cavern where they had just fought, the gathered a number of large lizardman eggs, as well as finding a small, iron lock-box. There was some debate about what to do with it, until Aldaval cut through the timewasting by advising that Bortal would pick the lock, that being his role in the group. As per instructions, Bortal then safely stowed the box, and Aldaval announced they would deal with it once they were no longer half dead in a dungeon.

The party continued to explore some more caves but, eventually, decided they’d pushed their luck far enough, and reluctantly decided it was time to head back to the baron’s estate.

With them, they brought the lockbox, the chieftain’s spear of red oak with a long, thin obsidian blade on which was inscribed in High Thulian, with gold lettering, “With my blood, I bar the way.”

Back at the baron’s fort, the box is opened to reveal a handful of semi-precious gems; not nearly enough to be considered an adequate haul for the effort expended and blood shed.

The plan is to gather everyone that’s capable and head back down as soon as possible, to exploit the situation and hopefully find the rest of the loot (which they assume is there somewhere) before it’s all taken. Also, Waramayl earned the one xp he needed for level four, and finally got a decent hit point roll (I have all dice rerolled on level-up, taking the new result if better, so he doesn't continue to suffer from his previous, poor rolls).

Obituary

• Malgath, Level 1 Elven Spellsword, slain by orcs, session two.
• Hektor, Level 1 Paladin, slain by orcs, session two.
• Balfur, Level 1 Dwarven Vaultguard, suffered orcish spear to the knee and retired, session three.
• Grendel, Level 1 Fighter, slain by orcs, session three.
• Obsidian Gemcutter, Level 1 Dwarven Craftpriest, consumed by green slime, session six.
• Malok (aka Maldek) the Unencumbered, Level 2 Mage, poisoned and carotid severed by giant black widow, session nine.
• Karl, Level 1 Barbarian henchman, poisoned by a giant crab spider, session twelve.
• Gilbryn, Level 1 Mage henchman, leg injury leads to introspection and a decision to give up adventuring, session twenty one.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Players' Level 2 Mazen Kurz Lizard Cave Map

 

[Sable Wyvern]

As an aside, I should probably mention we're on hiatus until mid-Jan, although I will still be here for questions, comments, autographs*, etc ...


*Autographs available until sold out.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 25

Jan 14 2023

Pre-session discussion and random musings

Very little done between sessions, the plan was to head back into Mazen Kurz ASAP to retrieve lizard-loot before someone else takes it.

The Actual Session

• De: Tannek the Guardian, Level 5 Lawful Paladin
  • Grook the Outrider, Level 2 Neutral Explorer
  • Balrite the Warder, Level 2 Lawful Paladin
  • Pherrod the Man-at-Arms, Level 1 Neutral Fighter
  • Uthred the Man-at-Arms, Level 1 Lawful Destined Fighter
• Da: Kant the Retaliator, Level 5 Neutral Dwarven Fury
• Tr: Aldaval the Magician-Slayer, Level 4 Neutral Nightblade
  • Bortal the Hood, Level 2 Neutral Thief
• Ro: Malketh the Magician-Hero, Level 4 Neutral Elven Spellsword
• Ag: Waramayl the Disciple, Level 4 Lawful Mystic
  • Sircini the Daughter, Level 2 Lawful Priestess
  • Ledrick the Warrior, Level 2 Neutral Fighter
  • Linzinia the Maiden of the Sword, Level 1 Lawful Warmistress
• La: Villa the Curate, Level 4 Lawful Cleric

There was a bit of discussion about allocation of magic weapons prior to heading back into the dungeon. In the process, it became clear that Ag’s understanding of henchmen was that they were his characters, and they thought and acted however he saw fit. I dare say he reached that conclusion because, for the most part, I’m pretty hands off and do let the players run their henchmen without interference from me. However, I explained that the henchman are still NPCs whose opinions and behaviours won’t always align with the player’s, and I reserve the right to step in as necessary and speak on behalf of a henchman. Ag seemed content with that once he understood my position.

The party spent two nights resting and using their healing magic to bring most of the group back up to full health after the lizard fight. Bortal and Linzinia, with more serious injuries, were left at the baron’s hall to continue their recovery.

The group explored the various caves that had been occupied by the lizards, finding a couple of stashes of coins in what they took to be the former lairs of various leaders. They encounter a group of giant rhagodessas, that are despatched without breaking a sweat.

As they are clearing the last section, heading down a descending passage, the party hears a loud clashing sound in their minds, followed by a bubbling thrum. These sensations come with the clear understanding that they are an aggressive warning not to seek conflict, followed by a more polite request to back away and allow peaceful passage.

As the group contemplates this, Malketh thinks back, “Who are you and what do you want?” A second, harsher, sensation of crashing symbols warns the group to move aside, and a posse of large, jellyfish creatures come floating up the passage towards them.

The party backs away and allows the jellyfish to pass. One of them is carrying a large, leather sack tangled in its tentacles, from which comes a jingling of coin. Malketh urges the party to attack, or at least follow the creatures, but the general consensus is that everyone else is scared of being mind-blasted and paralysed by tentacles and who-knows-what-else, so they are allowed to go about their business.

Once they have passed, the party continues down the passage, finding what is clearly the lizardman shaman’s former abode. Unfortunately, the place has clearly been searched already, and it’s a reasonable assumption that the jellyfish have departed with the loot. Malketh glowers at his companions.

Having searched all the natural caves where the lizardmen appear to have been residing, and with two large chests of coin to haul, it’s decided to return to town with their loot before coming back to press deeper into the dungeon.

On the second delve, they find a room where the exit is an areonite iris hatch. In one wall is an angled stone protrusion with two handprints in it. Nearby is a very old, desiccated corpse. Inspection of the handprints shows two small holes in the palms. Villa encourages someone to try placing their hands in the prints, but has no interest in trying himself.

Eventually, Malketh casts knock, opening the iris, and the party passes through. They find a large chamber with multiple exits. One exit passes through an archway where “JUDGEMENT” is written in Eldritch.

Despite some initial reluctance, it is decided to explore the judgment exit. This leads to another room with a large raised platform at one end, accessed via some steps. Around the edge of the platform is inscribed, “For your failure, suffer; but, for the worthy lies a path that will allow you to ascend once more.”

There is some discussion about whether this is simply a platform used for demagoguery, or if it is a place people stood to be judged. Malketh is willing to ascend the platform, but wants some auguries cast first. Waramayl offers to use his probability trance, but plans to use it to determine whether he should ascend himself, so Villa also augurs whether Waramayl’s ascent will be for weal or woe. As all the signs point to a positive outcome, Waramayl ascends the platform. Nothing happens.

The group then begins to search the platform for secrets, when the guards at the entrance report approaching undead – a mummified figure with an elaborate hat, two emaciated figures with burning green eyes, and a number of skeletons.

The mummy raised an arm, pointing at the group and, led by Malketh, everyone rushes out of the way as the creature intones in Eldritch that they are trespassing upon the domain of the Eld. Someone calls out for clerical aid, advising that there are undead approaching, while Malketh ducks back around the corner and blows the horn. The skeletons are torn apart and scattered across the room; the mummy’s hat is knocked askew but it otherwise seems largely unaffected.
As the group assembles in a defensive position, the mummy chants, and suddenly the party is enveloped in silence. They have come to rely on protection from evil in situations like this, but suddenly it is not a viable tactic. La asked if Villa could still attempt to turn undead; it seems to me that turning is more about confidence and force of will than anything else, so I ruled that silence would not inhibit it.

With little choice, the two front lines moved forward to engage while the mummy continued to incant. The two wights escorting the mummy were cut down relatively quickly, but the mummy itself called down evil black flames upon the rear ranks, dropping Sircini, Bortle and Villa, and severely injuring Waramayl.

Caught in melee, the mummy at least stopped unleashing magic upon the party, but it was a tough opponent and shrugged off many heavy blows, and took down Waramayl. Eventually, the creature attempted to withdraw, but the group advanced after it and took it down.

In the aftermath, the group assessed the situation in some shock. Sircini had one arm reduced to charcoal, Villa had an eye exploded in the socket and the mummy had nearly torn off one of Waramayl’s arms. All three were on the brink of death, and Tannek could save just one of them. He chose to lay hands on Villa, stabilising the cleric, as both Waramayl and Sircini expired. Bortal, meanwhile, was a charred corpse, and had died instantly in the flamestrike.

There was some discussion about what to do next. The group was not in good shape, but De had a theory that they were in a self-contained area of the dungeon behind the iris door, and the mummy’s treasure might be somewhere nearby. The group agreed it was worth pressing on to see if there was unsecured loot somewhere nearby, and I was mightily impressed with their courage. They weren’t entirely correct, but the basic premise (powerful monster in the dungeon likely has a lair with treasure and, having killed the monster, the lair is vulnerable to being looted) was entirely sound.

It was initially decided that Sircini and Waramayl would be left behind, and their bodies recovered on the way out, to be carried back to Burgensdorf for raising. Ledrick voiced his objections to this course of action, pointing out that any number of random vermin or monsters might end up eating or otherwise desecrating the corpses if they were left there. The others conceded this was an excellent point, and Uthred and Pherod were tasked with carrying the bodies.

Further exploration leads them to a room with a strange, abstract sculpture emerging from a hole in the floor, and from there to another chamber where ancient, desiccated corpses hand from wooden beams in the ceiling.

At this stage, a wandering wight encounters the group. Ro decides the creature is a ghoul, and since elves are immune to ghoul paralysis, is eager to engage it. When he loses two points of Con and a point of Str to its life-draining touch, Ro reminds me again that elves are immune to ghoul paralysis, before dejectedly accepting the loss in the face of my not caring. Fortunately, the creature is cut down before it inflicts any more damage.

The party finds a very large chamber, with faded, chipped paintings along one wall depicting human lords kneeling to Eld conquerors. Beyond this room is a fancy door or areonite, eloborately decorated, and with panels of smokey red vitreum (hardened glass).

By this stage, it is becoming clear that the party does not seem to be in a small, self-contained area. There is talk of searching in another direction, which causes some consternation, as others believe that if they’re going to keep exploring, it makes more sense to go through the interesting door than to randomly head somewhere completely different. Eventually, the group decides to cut their losses and head back to civilisation.

It becomes apparent in the coming days that Kant and Tannek, who were struck by the mummy, have contracted mummy rot, and are unable to benefit from magical healing. The pay priests of Solinor to remove the curse, while Linzina, Waramayl and Sircini are all taken to the temple of Ishanna. Waramayl is returned to life, but voices from beyond the veil of death now murmur incessantly in the back of his mind, causing constant distraction. Sircini is also returned to life, but she has now died once, come close to death another time, and seen a surfeit of pain, death and suffering in both her companions and enemies. She decides to leave Waramayl’s service, and spend some time in the peaceful confines of the temple, serving Ishanna with the support of her sisters, while she considers her place in the world.

Villa does not seek to have his missing eye replaced, but simply acquires a fancy patch. Linzinia has her damaged lungs healed by the priestesses of Ishanna.

While other party members recuperate, Villa, Malketh and Aldavel seek new henchmen. Malketh is able to find a new apprentice, another brilliant prodigy, hopefully more reliable than Gilbryn turned out to be (although Ro is still simping for Gilbryn and hoping to find some way to entice him back to his employ). La is hoping to recruit a 2nd-level fighter henchman, but has no takers, and ends up going the opposite direction and taking on a 0-level mercenary as a henchman.

After he has recovered his strength, Waramayl begins seeking a holy replacement for Sircini, and a promising bladedancer responds to his advertisements, but she chooses not to enter his employ.

We wrapped up the session at that point, with more admin to be done in Burgensdorf between sessions.

* ** ***** ** *​

After the session, I was again contemplating the matter of advancement rates, as I am now noticing that the amount of treasure available following the formal procedures is not really increasing significantly, even as the dangers increase. One factor here is that the group is not getting XP for magic items that are kept, which is something that happened in AD&D, but not B/X.

I’ve decided I’m going to start increasing the amount of treasure I’m placing. The current advancement rate is slow enough that I have plenty of room to increase the rate of XP gain without having the PCs shoot through levels.

On a related note, I have been extremely impressed with the group’s willingness to press on after suffering serious casualties, when they know they have an opportunity to turn their hard work into a worthwhile reward. It has been unfortunate that they haven’t received much payoff on either of those occasions (they basically went everywhere but to the mummy’s lair this session), but the intent is smart and gutsy.

Obituary

• Malgath, Level 1 Elven Spellsword, slain by orcs, session two.
• Hektor, Level 1 Paladin, slain by orcs, session two.
• Balfur, Level 1 Dwarven Vaultguard, suffered orcish spear to the knee and retired, session three.
• Grendel, Level 1 Fighter, slain by orcs, session three.
• Obsidian Gemcutter, Level 1 Dwarven Craftpriest, consumed by green slime, session six.
• Malok (aka Maldek) the Unencumbered, Level 2 Mage, poisoned and carotid severed by giant black widow, session nine.
• Karl, Level 1 Barbarian henchman, poisoned by a giant crab spider, session twelve.
• Gilbryn, Level 1 Mage henchman, leg injury leads to introspection and a decision to give up adventuring, session twenty one.
• Bortal, Level 2 Thief henchman, turned to charcoal by mummy’s flamestrike, session twenty five.
• Sircini, Level 2 Priestess henchman, arm turned to charred stump by mummy’s flamestrike, died of wounds, raised, chose to retire from adventuring and serve in the temple, session twenty five.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Players' Mazen Kurz Level 2 West Map

 

[Sable Wyvern]

It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of Kant, Waramayl, Villa, Cyril, Aldavel and the henchmen Ledrick, Tatiana, Linzinia and Wurzel.

The emotional and practical fallout from this tragic turn of events is still being processed, but a more detailed update will follow at a later date.

 

[Andrew J. Luther]

Nooooo!!!!

Seriously, I’ve really been enjoying this AP, so I hope it’s not the end of the game!

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Nooooo!!!!

Seriously, I’ve really been enjoying this AP, so I hope it’s not the end of the game!

It's definitely not the end. Da is withdrawing (he was already feeling frustrated), but everyone else is dedicated to pressing on, albeit with some mixed emotions.

There's a fair bit of processing going on, and I'm waiting until we've worked through it all before posting a comprehensive update.

 

[Haiku Elvis]

It's definitely not the end. Da is withdrawing (he was already feeling frustrated), but everyone else is dedicated to pressing on, albeit with some mixed emotions.

There's a fair bit of processing going on, and I'm waiting until we've worked through it all before posting a comprehensive update.

That's fair, but I'm glad it looks like it's carrying on. I've also been enjoying the updates.

 

[Bourbonjack]

It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of Kant, Waramayl, Villa, Cyril, Aldavel and the henchmen Ledrick, Tatiana, Linzinia and Wurzel.

The emotional and practical fallout from this tragic turn of events is still being processed, but a more detailed update will follow at a later date.

Tannek survived, so not a TPK, but looks like you came pretty close. Well done!

I’m curious how the new character creation will go.

I seem to remember sone mechanism in ACKS to essentially “bank” XP for future characters? Or am I thinking of another OSR system?

 

[Sable Wyvern]

I seem to remember sone mechanism in ACKS to essentially “bank” XP for future characters? Or am I thinking of another OSR system?

You remember correctly, but the right people weren't making use of it.

 

[Bourbonjack]

You remember correctly, but the right people weren't making use of it.

Uh oh. Restarts at 1st level?

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 26

AKA: Three carrion crawlers can really fuck up your day.

Jan 28 2023

Pre-session discussion and random musings

Not much happened between sessions.

The Actual Session

• De: Tannek the Guardian, Level 5 Lawful Paladin
  • Grook the Outrider, Level 2 Neutral Explorer
  • Balrite the Warder, Level 2 Lawful Paladin
  • Pherrod the Man-at-Arms, Level 1 Neutral Fighter
  • Uthred the Man-at-Arms, Level 1 Lawful Destined Fighter
• Da: Kant the Retaliator, Level 5 Neutral Dwarven Fury
• Tr: Aldaval the Magician-Slayer, Level 4 Neutral Nightblade
• Ag: Waramayl the Disciple, Level 4 Lawful Mystic
  • Ledrick the Warrior, Level 2 Neutral Fighter
  • Linzinia the Maiden of the Sword, Level 1 Lawful Warmistress
• La: Villa the Curate, Level 4 Lawful Cleric
  • Wurzel The Infantryman, Level 0 Soldier
• Jo: Cyril the Curate, Level 4 Lawful Cleric
  • Tatiana the Maiden of the Sword, level 1 Neutral Warmistress

I’m not sure how much of this is actually going to be a blow-by-blow report. I might skip over a lot of the actual in-game events, because that’s not really what’s of interest here.

De was going to be a late arrival, and the group was keen to get down into Mazen Kurz and extract some loot with a reduced number of share-splitting for that sweet, sweet XP. They’d spent around a month in Burgensdorf prior to the return to Mazen Kurz, and it would have been completely remiss of me to not do any restocking. On the other hand, I didn’t really want to have to deal with fighting through or otherwise dealing with a whole new monstrous faction. I didn’t want to do random restocking (out of laziness as much as anything), and considered placing some grizzlies in one of the cleared caves, but late winter seemed like an inappropriate time for bears to be setting up new lairs.

I ended up settling on some carrion crawlers, as it made sense that they may have been attracted by the stench of rotting lizardman. I placed them in a cave I considered near but not quite on the main thoroughfare in and out.

Tr wanted to avoid the main thoroughfare, and felt heading directly towards where I’d placed the crawlers was a more efficient way of getting to exactly where the group planned to go.

The group was surprised. Kant and Ledrick were paralysed in the first round. Villa cast protection from evil, which provided a massively helpful +1 to saves and AC. Round after round, though, the PCs lost initiative. Cyril was the only one that seemed to be landing blows, and every time he hit, the damage was minimal. One by one, the members of the party were paralysed. Tatiana got into the fray and landed a heavy blow on one of the crawlers, creating a sense of renewed hope, but soon she, too, was lying on the ground twitching. I think Ledrick was the last to fall. All three crawlers were still alive.

There was a long moment of shocked silence.

Da advised he was done with the game. He was calm about it, but he had already been frustrated with various aspects of the game, and he’d had enough. He mostly wants fighting, accumulating power, and out-of-game socialising from his RPGs and there had been insufficient accumulating power for him in this one, so his departure at this point wasn’t a huge surprise.

What was a massive surprise to me was when everyone else present started talking about the practical considerations of rolling up new, first level characters. No complaints, no anger, just acceptance of the situation.

I had been thinking that the first order of business would be discussing what happens next, but it seemed as if everyone else was already clear on this. It was clear there were no thoughts of abandoning the game, and not a single complaint about this massive setback.

Ag rolled a barbarian (Red Sonja), Tr a fighter with beserkergang that he planned to have die gloriously in battle as soon as possible in order to progress to a character with better ability scores, La a mage and Jo a dwarven delver. La initially felt a bit ripped off by his starting spell selection, but worked out they were more versatile than he thought. He also began with an owl familiar, which he quite liked.

No one wanted to head back into Mazen Kurz, as it was clearly far too dangerous for their new characters. Nor did they want to potter around going back over areas of Dwimmermount they had already explored. Thus, it was decided the new party would head to Stonehell. Fortunately, this is something that I was able to run without any prep just by picking up the book and getting right into it.

Thus, the party is creeping around the outer works of Stonehell, back to being incredibly fragile. However, the mood is strange. We’re kind of just going through the motions. Everyone is still in shock. Ag comments that he’s struggling with investment. The plans he’s been building over the course of more than a year of real time are all come to nought, and this new character means nothing to him. I feel it necessary to ask if everyone is happy to keep going, and the answer is a definite yes, but no one is actually having fun right now. Still, we press on.

After clearing a keep, the party decides to hole up for the night, rather than heading back to town. Stirges interrupt their rest and attack. Then, later in the night, goblins are heard returning, and group has to deal with them as well. At this point, Tr is more openly frustrated, as his attempts to push forward relentlessly and earn XP fast are being stymied by the dangers of camping out in the wilderness as a first level character.

The group makes it to Stonehell proper, and the game does start to flow a little better. They have an encounter with some kobolds who indicate that they do maintenance on the dungeon, and expect to be treated with respect. Tannek and his holy entourage have joined the group by this point, and the paladin is handing over dozens of gold pieces to the kobolds for information about the dungeon. The new PCs are flat broke, and dazzled by this casual display of wealth.

The group ends up with directions to a kobold trading hub, which passes through a region of tombs. Tr encourages the group to raid the crypts on the way through, and they gather a bit of cash while Tannek and his minions slaughter a bunch of skeletons and zombies for them. Then they see a shuddering bone-and-slime mound, and it’s decided it’s time to flee. That’s unfortunate, as this was an opportunity to haul out quite a bit of treasure.

The group heads back to town, and distributes their meagre haul. The grind back to level two has begun.

* ** **** ** *​

The following day, I was still feeling extremely subdued about the whole thing. I have enjoyed watching the players work through the lower levels, but I’m not convinced I want to watch them go through that again. All the exciting high level stuff that I’ve been looking forward to coming into play is now pushed back significantly.

Tr sent me a fairly extensive message outlining his frustrations. However, he was very restrained and diplomatic about it, and it took a while for me to understand that he was feeling extremely angry with everything that had occurred. Like Ag, he had just lost a year of character development, the death felt arbitrary, and he was not looking forward to grinding through low levels again.

I had already been intending to seek some further discussion on the situation, but it became obvious it was necessary once Tr’s feelings became clearer.

A few things that came out in the discussion that followed;

• I let the group know that I had already reached the conclusion that the advancement rate was too slow, and I had started making adjustments as a result. I had actually entered the session excited about the possibility of some big hauls.
• Several comments from the players mentioned that they regularly felt Mazen Kurz was too dangerous. This tied back to the previous point, and while it wasn’t “too” dangerous (it’s exactly as dangerous as it is), the rewards the party was receiving were not commensurate with the risk.
• I do not believe that I was wrong to place the carrion crawlers, but I did underestimate the danger they posed, and thus I failed to telegraph the danger in any way. While random and arbitrary death is appropriate to the genre, the players should have an opportunity to see a TPK coming. That they didn’t is squarely a failure on my part.
• Having said that, some players have mentioned in passing that the TPK event has certainly clarified the stakes, and does put the value of their successes into a clearer light.

Additionally, Tr mentioned had gone on the mushroom quest because I’d dangled a witch henchman in front of him, he wanted a witch henchman, and he’d expected a couple of sessions of achieving the task to get his reward. The fact that it turned out to be a much huger endeavour was unexpected and probably a little frustrating at times – then all the more so, since all the work amounted to nothing.

This was an opportunity for me to make it clear that I am along for the ride as much as the players. I have no idea what’s going to happen, a lot of shit just builds organically and, “how hard will this be and how long will it take?” was not something I had considered at all when the witch first sent him to Mazen Kurz.

The sequence of events was:

• I decided to bring the Investment rules into the game so people were aware of them. I also wanted to provide some perspective on how much wealth the PCs already had relative to others. Thus, I came up with a mushroom farmer looking for investment, who approached Aldavel.
• The random investment checks resulted in extra fees in the first month, that I presented as tricksy guild fees. Then, when the investment went belly up (due to the whim of the dice), I continued to improvise off that, and described the guild fucking over our poor farmer and taking him for everything.
• I had already decided the lady was a witch, and as she interacted with Aldavel after everything had occurred, I realised that her special mushroom skills could tie in to mushroom stuff elsewhere, and the mushroom quest was born at that time. It hadn't been a thing, until these factors all just came together in a way that made sense.
• None of this was planned by me in advance. I knew there was mushroom stuff in Mazen Kurz, but it was never linked to anything else the party was doing, until one day, suddenly, it was.

Related to this, I clarified the freedom the PCs have, the fact that they never have to bite the hooks I throw out, and made sure everyone is clear that, even when they do bite, they are free to abandon a thread any time they want.

* ** **** ** *​

Another point of discussion was the fact the players had not been making use of the reserve XP rule, which is where gold can be wasted in order to bank XP for future characters (ironically, Da actually had plenty banked). However, the reason for this apparent oversight was that the players were relying on henchmen, which are a better long-term solution, as well as the fact that replacement characters in a high level group will level very fast. Finally, recent events had shown the players that, while not a perfect form of insurance, restore life and limb goes a long way to trivialising death, and is not hard to gain access to.

While I left the decision up to the players, not worrying about reserve XP as a long-term solution was my own advice to them, whenever I was asked for it, so I’m certainly not blaming any players for not banking XP. The simple fact is that none of us seriously considered the possibility of a TPK.

At this stage, I remembered that my initial thoughts when the TPK happened were, “I’m going to have to hand out some XP to the replacements”. I never followed through, because everyone was all stoic about the situation, and if they want to fight their way back up, who am I to prevent that? However, as we dug deeper into people’s feelings on the situation, I realised an XP kicker was going to be necessary. Grinding through again is all well and good, but if I’m not going to enjoy it, Tr isn’t going to enjoy it, and the others are neutral on it at best,, why are we doing it? Additionally, helping the newbies grind would bring Tannek’s and Malketh’s advancement to a screeching halt for the foreseeable future.

Looked at in that light, handing out some additional starting XP is the only reasonable course of action. A year of development and investment was snuffed out in moments, an event that was emotionally shattering for some of the players; some “free” XP doesn’t suddenly mean they’ve got it easy.

I think things started to turn around at the point I made that decision. Certainly, I’ve felt a weight lift in the past couple of days.

Ag asked if it would be possible to bring Sircini out of retirement, instead of playing his replacement. Technically, Sircini wasn’t a henchmen any more, but (unlike Gilbryn) she left on good terms, and I had always been open to the possibility she might return to Waramayl’s service in future, if he made the effort and the dice agreed. As such, I saw no reason to refuse. He considered his options for a bit, and eventually decided to go with Sircini.

I was then very happy to learn that Ag decided Sircini was going to treat Waramay’s (now her) cult not as a means to political power, but instead as nothing more than a true and noble religious organisation that she wants to use to bring peace and aid to all who need it. This is the kind of thing that actually makes horrible events palatable, because what looked like an arbitrary ending instead turns out to be the start of what may be the real story. Maybe Waramayl was just the prologue, and Sircini is who this particular story is really about. And that is (potentially) a fucking awesome twist.

Tr is still processing, I think. Even with the XP bonus, I’m pretty sure he still considers his current PC to be expendable, and not what he really wants to be playing. But we’ll see. He’s certainly continuing to approach the game with as much positivity as he can, and it’s clear he has every intention of finding something new in the game that he can become as invested in as he was with Aldavel.

Oh, and Tr was also frustrated with the social side of the game, feeling as if he’s missing something about how to best deal with the factions encountered in the dungeon. He feels if there have been a lot of missed opportunities, and isn’t sure what the group is doing wrong. Specifically, he felt there were opportunities to treat with the grimlocks and the goblins/ogres, and wasn’t sure what went wrong.

Fortunately, that was easy to explain. Negotiations with the grimlocks broke down because Tannek decided to charge in and kill them. Negotiations with the goblins and ogres broke down because Malketh decided to use the conch of blasting on them. De pointed out that the party has actually had quite a bit of success working with dungeon factions, when they’ve actually made an effort to do so. Maybe they will take this on board in future …

* ** **** ** *​

With the XP kicker, it seems likely the group is going to head back to Dwimmermount. Despite some of them hating Mazen Kurz on some level, they are also interested in returning at some point and learning more about it, and are eager to learn about the portals connecting Dwimmermount and Mazen Kurz. De, the biggest nay sayer of all, is even convinced there is awesome loot waiting for them in Mazen Kurz, and arguing for an eventual return, which surprised me.

* ** **** ** *​

As a closing thought, I recently came across someone commenting that OSR play sometimes includes things that, quite simply, are not fun. Not less fun, not mildly annoying, but actively unfun. However, they felt that those not-fun things provided a contrast that helped make the highs feel even higher.

Saturday night was not fun. It was actively unfun, in a way no gaming session has ever been for me before (I’ve had similar TPKs, but never in games with equivalent levels of investment). But, there might be a light at the end of the tunnel. As mentioned, I think the session has given some players a new appreciation of what it means to survive, and thrive, in this game. It’s pushed Ag’s story in a new and unexpected direction. Hopefully, in two or three years’ time, everyone will look back to this moment, and then think about where they’ve ended up, and feel proud of their efforts, and amazed at everything they overcame to reach the heights of true power.

We shall see.

Obituary

• Malgath, Level 1 Elven Spellsword, slain by orcs, session two.
• Hektor, Level 1 Paladin, slain by orcs, session two.
• Balfur, Level 1 Dwarven Vaultguard, suffered orcish spear to the knee and retired, session three.
• Grendel, Level 1 Fighter, slain by orcs, session three.
• Obsidian Gemcutter, Level 1 Dwarven Craftpriest, consumed by green slime, session six.
• Malok (aka Maldek) the Unencumbered, Level 2 Mage, poisoned and carotid severed by giant black widow, session nine.
• Karl, Level 1 Barbarian henchman, poisoned by a giant crab spider, session twelve.
• Gilbryn, Level 1 Mage henchman, leg injury leads to introspection and a decision to give up adventuring, session twenty one.
• Bortal, Level 2 Thief henchman, turned to charcoal by mummy’s flamestrike, session twenty five.
• Sircini, Level 2 Priestess henchman, arm turned to charred stump by mummy’s flamestrike, died of wounds, raised, chose to retire from adventuring and serve in the temple, session twenty five.
• Waramayl, Level 4 Mystic, eaten by carrion crawlers, session twenty six.
• Aldavel, Level 4 Nightblade, eaten by carrion crawlers, session twenty six.
• Villa, Level 4 Cleric, eaten by carrion crawlers, session twenty six.
• Cyril, Level 4 Cleric, eaten by carrion crawlers, session twenty six.
• Kant, Level 5 Dwarven Fury, eaten by carrion crawlers, session twenty six.
• Ledrick, Level 2 Freighter henchman, eaten by carrion crawlers, session twenty six.
• Linzinia, Level 1 Warmistress henchman, eaten by carrion crawlers, session twenty six.
• Tatiana, Level 1 Warmistress henchman, eaten by carrion crawlers, session twenty six.
• Wurzel, Level 0 henchman, eaten by carrion crawlers, session twenty six.

 

[Bourbonjack]

“Several comments from the players mentioned that they regularly felt Mazen Kurz was too dangerous. This tied back to the previous point, and while it wasn’t “too” dangerous (it’s exactly as dangerous as it is), the rewards the party was receiving were not commensurate with the risk.”

I’m curious as to dny further details on the danger level of Mazen Kurz vs. rewards?

IIRC, Mazen Kurz is completely your creation?

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Yes, Mazen Kurz is mine, although obviously drawing on much of the lore from Dwimmermount.

Edit: The Halls of the Toad King that the party has been looking for are from Demonspore, and not mine. It was basically designed to drop into an existing dungeon.

*

When the group first visited Mazen Kurz, they were 2nd - 3rd level, and were encountering 4HD hellhounds, 3+ HD bugbears, 2+ HD grimlocks. De was immediately thinking the place was too dangerous.

Tr was excited to make an alliance with the hobgoblins to fight the lizardmen, and was then a bit shocked about how hard the fights vs the lizardmen actually turned out to be. In general, Tr expected to spend a few sessions in Mazen Kurz and then return to Muntburg in triumph to claim his witch henchman so, to an extent, he felt stymied in general.

The mummy that flamestruck the group was probably the most powerful foe the group has fought, and caused a fair bit of carnage (as well as being a wake up call that, even with my generous interpretation of the spell, "protection from evil, you can't touch us, nah nah nah!" isn't an automatic "We win" button).

The big fight with the grimlocks was also a bit touch-and-go at points.

I'm good with all those things, I built the dungeon to be challenging; it was certainly never intended to be the kind of place a first level party starts adventuring in. For the most part, I do think the group has handled it well and, as I've mentioned, they've been quite gutsy on a couple of occasions pressing on with heavy damage when they believe there is a good chance for loot to be found.

So, that's the "Mazen Kurz is hard" part. It is hard, by design.

*

As to the treasure, my normal placement process is to use the treasure tables, while also arbitrarily dropping extra treasure wherever I see fit (the extra generally being hidden in some way). This process has been resulting in what the group considered some disappointing hauls (eg, after the grimlock fight and the lizardman fight the group felt they didn't pull enough treasure to justify the danger they'd put themselves in).

I was ok with that, on the grounds that my experience is the game generally works in a feast-or-famine fashion -- you're always looking for that one big haul. However, when I was generating the treasure for the (extremely dangerous) mummy and it's entourage, I ran the numbers and realised it would still take 10+ hauls of the expected size for the higher level characters to gain a level, and that this would be true for almost any "appropriate" haul by-the-book. I'm ok with the progression flattening, but it was now apparent it had become way too flat. That "one big haul" wasn't coming unless I changed the way treasure was being placed. I would like to see the PCs in the 10+ level range within the next couple years, but they'd be lucky to reach 8 if nothing changes.

At least part of the discrepency between my expectations and reality is probably due to understimating the effect of the lack of xp for kept magic items, which can add a decent chunk of additional xp in AD&D.

In any case, it's all easy enough to fix, now that I recognise the problem.

 

[Bourbonjack]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I'm taking notes for a potential ACKS campaign I might run at some point. To "fix" the advancement rate, do you plan to increase all treasure finds, or strategically place some major hauls?

 

[Sable Wyvern]

For the moment it's a matter of increasing the value of all existing treasure around 50%. Adding new, unguarded treasure would have a similar effect on advancement speed, but I feel it's important to increase guarded treasure so that the players get a sense of accomplishment after defeating a powerful foe.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 27

Feb 11 2023

Pre-session discussion and random musings

Tannek and Malketh were able to profit from the sage Aldaval employed in Burgensdorf, who provided them with the following information:

• The Eld carved out The Laboratory below the Path of Mavors in Dwimmermount, where they conducted the experiments and breeding programmes that led to the creation of the beastmen. After perfecting the arts that allowed them to travel instantaneously between realms, they excavated the House of Portals below the Laboratory, where they built portals to other worlds (definitely Areon and Kythirea, maybe others), as well as to places around Telluria.
• Numerous Eld mathematicians and engineers congregated at Mazen Kurz, forming a society of arcanoscientists. North of the main entrance to the fortress, a hidden door in the "primary pump station" allows access to the domain of the arcanoscientists, and the sage believes they erected a portal near their offices and workshops which allowed them to pass freely between Mazen Kurz and Dwimmermount.
• The bronze-bone hat thing appears to match the description of flying constructs that were deployed as sentries or watchdogs in Mazen Kurz. His records indicate that they used lightning as weapon.

As a result of this information, the decision was made that the group definitely wanted to locate the portal between Dwimmermount and Mazen Kurz, although there was some indecision about whether to seek it out in Mazen Kurz, or make their way down through Dwimmermount to the House of Portals.

Malketh also arranged to pay off the small outstanding loan amount on Aldaval’s town house, and then arranged to transfer the deed of title to his name, while sending cash back to Aldaval’s family.

The Actual Session

• De: Tannek the Guardian, Level 5 Lawful Paladin
  • Grook the Outrider, Level 2 Neutral Explorer
  • Balrite the Warder, Level 2 Lawful Paladin
  • Pherrod the Man-at-Arms, Level 1 Neutral Fighter
  • Uthred the Man-at-Arms, Level 1 Lawful Destined Fighter
• Tr: Gregor the Drunken Hero, Level 4 Neutral Fighter
• La: Arravis the Theurgist, Level 3 Lawful Mage
• Jo: Hoik the Undertrekker, Level 4 Lawful Dwarven Delver
• Ro: Malketh the Magician-Hero, Level 4 Neutral Elven Spellsword
  • Dashiel the Arcanist, Level 1 Neutral Mage

De was to be a late arrival again, and the reduced group didn’t feel comfortable trying to work their way into the depths of Dwimmermount with the people they had, so it was decided to head to Burgensdorf to try and shore up the party with some new henchmen, and then head for Mazen Kurz to try their luck seeking out the gate or portal to Dwimmermount.

I also discovered that Ro is terrified of Stonehell. The stories told by the adventurer-aristocrat they met who was setting up a domain in the ruins of Winterburg clearly had an impact on him. I recall that at the time Ro was paranoid the lord was already insane or turned to evil (or both) due to his experiences in Stonehell, and not long afterwards Ro came across the ACKS rules on blighted sinkholes of evil, which just furthered his fears about what lurked in the depths. My intent with that encounter was to play up Stonehell as a horrific mythic underworld, and it seems I did a decent job. He was deeply concerned that the new party had adventured there the previous session.

The group stopped in Muntburg to tidy up some business first, and gather information about the state of Dwimmermount. They learned that apparently hobgoblins and have pushed up to secure parts of level one, while orcs have also returned to the Path of Mavors, now led by a chieftain with ten eyes. Below the laboratory, there is word that supposedly Eld and humans are engaged in a fight for control, while some kind of frog people are also pushing up from the depths.

There is an adventuring group in town calling themselves the Heralds of the Silver Dawn. Malketh seeks out and speaks to the leader, wondering if it might be possible to arrange a joint venture. It becomes clear that they are not fans of Solinor or Ishanna, the gods of Law, but are interested in any lore and information being pulled out of the dungeon. It becomes clear they are not going to be able to work together, and in parting Malketh makes some disparaging remarks about Turms Termax, which makes the Heralds’ leader angry; it seems apparent she seeks the secrets of ascending to godhood.

The party spent three weeks in Burgensdorf recruiting, looking mainly for healers and something to harden up the front line. Ironically, after Aldaval spent so long on the mushroom quest looking in order to gain a witch henchman, Tr’s new character Gregor, was able to recruit a witch, as well as a level-0 slinger, while Hoik brought on a level-0 heavy infantryman. A cleric and a bard both also interviewed, but chose not to sign on.

By this stage, De had arrived, and the strengthened party headed for Mazen Kurz. Exploring north from the main entrance, as per the intel they had collected, they then immediately decided to check a side door. As the explored beyond, they heard a pained groan, and as the emerged into larger chamber were set upon by wights. Malketh was struck, feeling life being sapped away (-1 to hit and saves), but Samuel the witch then cast protection from evil, and the group made relatively short work of the rest.

The room they had entered seemed to be some kind of display hall, with carved images of Eld majesty in the walls, and spaces for numerous uplights to illuminate them (the glow globes long since gone missing). Various pedestals were scattered about, mostly empty, but the group gathered up some valuables.

Among the various wall carvings, the group was interested by a depiction of Dwimmermount, with various astrological markings in the sky above and around it. Unable to decipher a meaning, it nevertheless seemed important, and Malketh insisted they take the time to make a reasonably accurate sketch.

While exploring the room and copying down the wall carvings, the group spotted a lone grimlock, who made it clear it meant the party no harm. It spoke of large creatures to the north, agreed to a truce, and then beat a hasty retreat.

With no further avenues of exploration in this direction, the group resumed moving north, keeping an eye out for large creatures. Beyond another side door, they find the lair of three ogres, and have a mostly pleasant conversation. While so doing, two more ogres (mother and father) approach from the north. Initially, the group gets the sense there’s nothing of interest to them directly north, but then daddy ogre confirms there are pipes in the direction. Still, the group decides they are going to backtrack and see if there is another way around.

However, as they regroup back a short way, Jo starts asking about Hoik’s thiefly skills, and I explain that I treat move silently and hide in shadows as supernatural abilities (when successful, you make literally no sound, or are invisible, as appropriate). Jo is thus convinced he has to give this a try, and wants to go scout ahead in the direction mummy and daddy ogre came from. Malketh suggests that, if he’s going to do this, he’ll make him invisible – which will be the first use of the spell so far. There is faint light coming from that way, so it’s assumed he will be able to see.

All are agreed, and Hoik heads north, finding the two ogres snuggling in their lair, which is illuminated by a couple of candle lantern. It also happens to contain a large machine full of levers, wheels, valves, etc, with pipes running from the ceiling and into the walls. Certainly looks like some kind of pumping control station. There is no exit as such, but the outline of door in the wall. Hoik insists on staying in the room and exploring it carefully, hoping to find some treasure, and eventually his luck runs out as he kicks some kind of metal scrap on the floor and ogres fly to their feet. Seeing no sign of intruders and eliciting no responses as they below and wave clubs around, they stalk off down the corridor yelling threats.

The rest of the party forms up as they hear them coming, and Hoik ignores it all to continue the search. The ogres stop at the boy’s lair to bring some reinforcements, then move down to engage. Malketh blows the conch, which blasts down the corridor, into the pump room, and batters Hoik, who happened to be standing in the blast zone at the time.

The rest of the battle goes fairly smoothly, and the party is able to nab a pile of electrum from the boys lair, which room has a large, empty pool that’s been turned into refuse pit. There is a thick, heavy dust around the edges of the room, which they determine appears to be the remains of plaster that once adorned the walls.

Moving on to the pumping station, everyone initially dismisses it as “too complicated”. Malketh casts detect magic, and gets hints of residual magic, and thus assumes it’s not only to complex, but also has lost whatever magic it has. Gregor pulls on some random levels, but there is no effect.

Eventually, when the group can see no means to operate the door (which is just an outline in the stone), Ro finally decides to actually investigate the pump controls and, lo and behold, it turns out that after studying it for a while, reading the arcane marks and contemplating flows of magic, Malketh believes he can reactive that machine. He does so, which result in a lot of banging and shaking and shuddering before the machine falls into a steady, rhythmic hum. He identifies some levels and buttons that don’t appear linked to the primary operation of the machine, and uses them to cause a series of thunks in the sealed door, which does not open, but now has a clear seam. He then send the pumps to a-pumping. A quick scout run back to the pool shows it is filling. It occurs to someone that they may be about to flood the level if they don’t stop it but, unfortunately, the process can’t be stopped by a simple reversal of steps, so the water continues running.

Malketh is unable to determine how to complete the opening process for the door, so casts knock instead, and the group is able to proceed.

Beyond is a room containing a large oval table, various old and corroded craftsman’s and draftsman’s tools, as well as scraps of books and scrolls on engineering and mathematics. The group has no one left who speaks Eldritch, but there are writings in Dwarven.

There are two doors out of the room, one which is unlocked. Tr tells Hoik to get to work on the lock, but as a Delver he has the sneaky thief skills, not the mechanical ones. Since Malketh has already used knock, the unlocked door is the way forward.

The corridor beyond leads the group to a room that opens onto a vast, seemingly infinite void. The group approaches cautiously, assuming this is possibly the portal to Dwimmermount, but unwilling to touch it or attempt passage. Gregor throws a coin, which bounces back with a metallic ting, instead of entering the void. The party is about to move on and leave the void for later, but Arravis decides he’s going to touch it. It’s cold, hard and flat, metallic feeling, and his palm does not penetrate at all. He feels small, straight, vertical channels, and protrusions like rivets, but there is no visual cue to any of these things, just an impenetrable, infinite void.

Arrvis decides to go to one side of the room and work his way across by touch, and I start combining a description with miming out his actions. The group works out that there is an arched doorway, with a large double door and ring-pulls. They guess that the Eld discovered Vantablack.

With some effort, Arravis lifts a ring pull, and there is a tearing, revealing a infinitely thin, flat piece of areonite floating in the void below where it rested. He pulls, and is able to open one side of the double door. The group is able to see the inside edge of the areonite door as it opens, and beyond is … more void.

Another coin is thrown and, this time, instead of bouncing back, it falls a short distance, bounces and then rolls to a stop, suspended in the void. The group suspects that, instead of a single wall absorbing all light, the entirety of the room beyond has this feature. No one wants to start walking into a place where they cannot see the floor, or walls, or any obstructions. Tr starts asking how dusty the approaches to this area, then realises he has huge piles of perfectly suitable dust not that far back in the pool room.

It's always a great feeling when random dungeon dressing turns into a key element of a plan. It has already been determined that the secret door in the pump has a lever on the inside that should open it, and it stays open for some time once activated, so they’re able to make it back to the pool room and gather up a sack full of plaster dust (as well as confirming the pool is full of filth floating on top, but not overflowing).

The dust is scattered into the void, revealing steps down, then a hall extending to a wall some thirty feet away, where the group finds a door. Listening at the door, Hoik notices a general humming sound in the background, and it’s confirmed that the map shows they're kind of level with the pump room at this point, so that makes sense.

Beyond the door, they see an intersection, with a corridor running in two directions. Interestingly, the door they’ve come through, and another opposite, are iron-bound, instead of the areonite-bound doors throughout most of the dungeon so far, although the corridors still have the sharp, perfect angles they’re used to. The party suspects they’re in Dwimmermount.

They head back, paying attention to any sense of change as they pass through the void-doors, where they note the background humming fades. I have a moment of pride when it occurred to them that Dwimmermount always had hums and clanks and other such background sounds coming from beyond the walls – both that they’d remembered useful knowledge, but also that I’d actually managed to instil in them those kinds of unique sensations about particular places. Having players thinking about and recollecting what places sound like, what the architecture means … that’s really cool and immersive.

Heading further down the corridor that led to the Vantablack rooms, the group finds a library that, on a cursory inspection, appears to be in remarkably good condition. However, before they can begin exploring, an Eld mummy is upon them, striking Malketh a heavy blow. Arravis then casts slipperiness, and the mummies are dispatched with relative ease as they flail comically on the floor (as written, I feel the ACKS version of spell is overpowered; I suspect there are modifiers missing from the description, and I will tweak it a bit before the next session).

As the party waits of the grease to dissipate, Arravis uses some comfrey on Malketh, but it has little effect (actually, it has no effect, as he has mummy rot, although I overlooked this at the time). The group checks the last door down the corridor, and find a room with three statues of Eld arrayed around the entrance. One of the statues appears to speak but, again, the party is stymied by the lack of Eldritch speakers. Since they don’t know what’s being said, they decide not to enter the room and risk triggering something dangerous through ignorance.

They are soon able to check out the library though, and find a considerable pile of books in good condition. Based on those they can read (mostly in Dwarven), it appears they cover the topics of engineering, mathematics, carpentry, stonework and metalwork.

The group is eager to head back to the Baron’s fort to rest and dump their loot, then return for another delve, but I then remember Malketh’s mummy rot, and he’s not willing to head back down until that’s sorted, so it’s off to Burgensdorf for a remove curse, to sell their books, and to do some more recruiting.

The books are taken to the sage Aldaval employed, who is able to point them to the correct buyers. He also points out that, in among the other tomes, is a folio containing instructions for the creation of an iron cobra, so they take a copy of that before selling it. There is also a magical scroll, which they keep.

Anyway, the group still wants to strengthen their spine with some more front line fighters that aren’t either Tannek or one of Tannek’s henchmen. Arravis finds two eager warriors; unfortunately, they’re a freebooter and a warmistress, neither of which is much good at providing front line staying power. Still, they’re both eager and useful, and Arravis takes them both on.

While in town, they also speak to a sage about the drawing they took from Mazen Kurz, and are advised the it appears to show a conjunction – one which happened to have occurred about 18 months ago. De asks if that coincides with the time Dwimmermount opened up and became active, and indeed it does. There are also symbols that appear to indicate transit between Dwimmermount and somewhere else, but the drawing lacks the necessary detail for the sage to say where.

The henchmen interviews take some time, so we aren’t able to get back into the dungeon, and instead wrap it up there.

The loot haul wasn’t huge, but it was decent and the mood is pleasantly positive. Even Tr, who was most upset after last session, and who had been treating his new character as utterly disposable, has realised that average ability scores really don’t matter much after a few levels, and that with some xp under his belt Gregor is capable character that will be fun to play. The group definitely seems to feel progress is being made. Ro also commented that he really likes discovering named background elements (arcanoscientists, pumping stations, House of Portals) and that these help him feel a sense of discovery and get a sense of the places they’re exploring. I’m personally quite happy with the way Mazen Kurz is tying in so nicely with the existing Dwimmermount lore.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Players' Map: Mazen Kurz Level 1 North



Players' Map: Presumed Dwimmermount House of Portals

 

[JG_WENTWORTH]

I'm really enjoying the series! How long are your sessions, normally? Your group seems to get a lot done each session.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

• Official start time: 3pm
• Actual start time: Generally 4pm - 5pm. Recently, we've been doing a good job being underway by 4.
• Finish: Typically around 10pm. We may run later if there is no suitable lull.
• Breaks for eating and general bullshitting scattered throughout.

 

[yukiomo]

Resurrecting this thread to say that I really enjoyed it! I'm impressed that you managed to get (nominally) 5-6 hour sessions on a regular basis. Did things go beyond session 27, or was that where the campaign ended? I'm a big fan of ACKS and Dwimmermount, but I'll confess that descriptions of your homebrew material were fun but something I could latch onto a bit less.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Resurrecting this thread to say that I really enjoyed it! I'm impressed that you managed to get (nominally) 5-6 hour sessions on a regular basis. Did things go beyond session 27, or was that where the campaign ended? I'm a big fan of ACKS and Dwimmermount, but I'll confess that descriptions of your homebrew material were fun but something I could latch onto a bit less.

The campaign continues, and it has been predominantly in Dwimmermount.

Once I allowed myself to get three sessions behind in posting, catching up seems more and more difficult. However, I have tentative plans to try working through the backlog this weekend.

 

[Andrew J. Luther]

The campaign continues, and it has been predominantly in Dwimmermount.

Once I allowed myself to get three sessions behind in posting, catching up seems more and more difficult. However, I have tentative plans to try working through the backlog this weekend.

I’ve really enjoyed reading this as you’ve posted it. It’s got the right balance of everything for me, and your writing style works very well.

It’s hella difficult to find decent actual play write-ups these days. Everyone just wants to stream or YouTube their sessions instead, and I’d rather get a root canal than watch any of those.

But this thread is great.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

So, no work has been done on the backlog. I do want to get this back on track but, at this stage, finding time and motivation is a problem; I'm not sure if it's going to happen or not. This weekend's session was cancelled, so at least the backlog has not increased in size.

 

[Andrew J. Luther]

Maybe just a bullet point summary of the key events in the backlog, like any PC deaths, new PCs, major changes in campaign direction, or similar big stuff.

That would allow you to skip most of the backlog and just jump to the most recent session(s).

I know it can seem like an insurmountable task when you’re trying to catch up with a ton of stuff that happened ages ago.

And you certainly don’t owe us anything. But if the backlog is the main thing preventing you from writing up the current stuff, we can adapt, even if you just jump ahead and say, “here’s where we currently are.”

I’ll keep reading, regardless.

 

[Bourbonjack]

+1 for bullet points/quick summary to catch the readers up to current session

I’ve done campaigns in the past there I kept detailed logs. Real life happens, and it’s usually much easier to jump ahead with a summary of what happened and pick back up with logs going forward.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

I have a lengthy period of leave starting very soon, and not a heap of stuff planned to fill in my time. So, one of my objectives is to get stuck back into this. There has been a lot of cool shit happen, that I really want to share with you all, so I am feeling motivated to get it down. My current plan is to try doing full reports -- I expect they will necessarily be a little more succinct than some past reports, but I want to do more than bullet points (and, honestly, my bullet points would probably turn into meandering paragraphs anyway).

This is something I've been semi-planning to do for a while (even back when I last posted in May, I was thinking about the possibility), but it felt like it would have come across as a bit of an empty promise to mention at the time, so far in advance. Now that the moment is upon me, I'm posting here so that, if nothing else, the potential shame of failing to follow-up should act as additional motivation.

As a teaser, upcoming highlights should include:

• Abandoned by his companions, Malketh must navigate his way out of Dwimmermount without light.
• Aravis transforms into a t-rex.
• The party panics and flees in the face of a terrifying penis-demon.
• Tannek is granted a barony.
• The party pays homage to vile ghasts.
• Troves of mighty items are unearthed.

In fact, even just typing this up has me feeling extra, extra motivated. There will be more, soon.

 

[Andrew J. Luther]

I have a lengthy period of leave starting very soon, and not a heap of stuff planned to fill in my time. So, one of my objectives is to get stuck back into this. There has been a lot of cool shit happen, that I really want to share with you all, so I am feeling motivated to get it down. My current plan is to try doing full reports -- I expect they will necessarily be a little more succinct than some past reports, but I want to do more than bullet points (and, honestly, my bullet points would probably turn into meandering paragraphs anyway).

This is something I've been semi-planning to do for a while (even back when I last posted in May, I was thinking about the possibility), but it felt like it would have come across as a bit of an empty promise to mention at the time, so far in advance. Now that the moment is upon me, I'm posting here so that, if nothing else, the potential shame of failing to follow-up should act as additional motivation.

As a teaser, upcoming highlights should include:

• Abandoned by his companions, Malketh must navigate his way out of Dwimmermount without light.
• Aravis transforms into a t-rex.
• The party panics and flees in the face of a terrifying penis-demon.
• Tannek is granted a barony.
• The party pays homage to vile ghasts.
• Troves of mighty items are unearthed.

In fact, even just typing this up has me feeling extra, extra motivated. There will be more, soon.

This post makes me very happy.

 

[Haiku Elvis]

I have a lengthy period of leave starting very soon, and not a heap of stuff planned to fill in my time. So, one of my objectives is to get stuck back into this. There has been a lot of cool shit happen, that I really want to share with you all, so I am feeling motivated to get it down. My current plan is to try doing full reports -- I expect they will necessarily be a little more succinct than some past reports, but I want to do more than bullet points (and, honestly, my bullet points would probably turn into meandering paragraphs anyway).

This is something I've been semi-planning to do for a while (even back when I last posted in May, I was thinking about the possibility), but it felt like it would have come across as a bit of an empty promise to mention at the time, so far in advance. Now that the moment is upon me, I'm posting here so that, if nothing else, the potential shame of failing to follow-up should act as additional motivation.

As a teaser, upcoming highlights should include:

• Abandoned by his companions, Malketh must navigate his way out of Dwimmermount without light.
• Aravis transforms into a t-rex.
• The party panics and flees in the face of a terrifying penis-demon.
• Tannek is granted a barony.
• The party pays homage to vile ghasts.
• Troves of mighty items are unearthed.

In fact, even just typing this up has me feeling extra, extra motivated. There will be more, soon.

Huh huh huh he said penis-demon.

 

[jgshinton]

I'm interested in this also as I've been checking in every few weeks in case there's an update.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 28

11 March 2023

The Actual Session

• De: Tannek the Guardian, Level 5 Lawful Paladin
  • Grook the Forester, Level 3 Neutral Explorer
  • Balrite the Warder, Level 2 Lawful Paladin
  • Pherrod the Warrior, Level 2 Neutral Fighter
  • Uthred the Warrior, Level 2 Lawful Destined Fighter
• Tr: Gregor the Drunken Hero, Level 4 Neutral Fighter
  • Samuel the Initiate, Level 1 Neutral Sylvan Witch
  • Barlim the Man-at-Arms, Level 1 Neutral Fighter
• Ag: Sircini the Sister, Level 4 Lawful Priestess
• La: Arravis the Theurgist, Level 3 Lawful Mage
  • Mattius the Scrounger, Level 1 Neutral Freebooter-Expeditionary
  • Veruka the Maiden of the Sword, Level 1 Lawful Warmistress
• Ro: Malketh the Magician-Hero, Level 4 Neutral Elven Spellsword
  • Dashiel the Arcanist, Level 1 Neutral Mage

Sircini attempts to recruit a fighter-type while the group is in Burgensdorf, but has no luck.

The group then heads back to Mazen Kurz, planning to explore more of the region behind the pump room. They are unable to unlock the door, but Grook ends up ripping it open. In the workroom beyond the door, they find a low dais in one corner, and are able to active it so that a projection of a well-dressed Eld appears upon it. However, they are unable to interact with it, and they presume they may need to speak Eldritch to make use of it.

In the next room they explore, they spot green slime has eaten through a wooden table, and more is hanging from the ceiling. With careful work, Malketh manages to burn the slime away after lashing a torch to his halberd.


Malketh then moves to investigate a cold furnace, and is attacked by an iron cobra the lashes at him from inside. Unfortunately, the elf is bitten, and succumbs to poison. The others despatch the magical snake, but are unable to save Malketh. Disheartened, they leave the dungeon and return to Burgensdorf to have Malketh raised.


Back in the city, they hear that there is a new lord in Winterburg who warns of dark forces rising in the Ostwood, and who is calling for brave adventurers to cleans the eastern wilderness of evil. The group, especially Malketh, recall meeting this lord when they returned from their foray into the wilderness.

There are also reports of increased raiding by Sorrelblight along the eastern and southeastern borders of the principality.

While Malketh recovers, Siricina takes on a blade dancer henchman. Tannek, who is also seeking a cleric or priestess henchman to assist with healing, has an opportunity to take on a blade dancer but, for some reason, decides to send her on her way (possibly due to her inability to turn undead).

Returning to Mazen Kurz, the group stops by the room where they previously observed diagrams on a wall showing the conjunction of planets, remaining there long enough for Malketh to make a detailed sketch.

The group then completes their exploration of the region beyond the pump station and the east. They find offices and old workshops, but little of interest other than a small statue of an imp.

It is decided to head back through the vantablack portal, to what they suspect is likely to be Dwimmermount. There are scenes of old damage on the corridors beyond the portal – scorching, pockmarks, gouges and shattered stone.

A room of pillars and buttons is found, but no one is game to press any of the buttons. Detect magic is used to reveal six sections of wall around the room are magical, but the nature of the magic remains unknown. Beyond this chamber, they come across human corpses, probably not much more than a week old. They appear to have been involved in a fight, but it’s not clear with who or what. They are carrying slightly unusual weapons and armour, and brass coins with traditional Thulian markings. The group wonders if they have come here from some distant place or time.

In another chamber, they find a wall covered in the faces of Terms Turmax, each face carved from a different material, but none appearing especially valuable. In a nearby chamber, they find a large, floating head of Terms. Arravis boldly decided to tap the head with his staff, feeling a concussive wave run down his staff in response. This is unpleasant, and feels like it could have been worse, but the mage is basically unscathed.

Malketh conducts a search of the room, and finds a secret door, leading to short corridor that allows passage through another concealed door at the other end.

Beyond, the group encounters a group of tall humanlike figures in areonite armour. Tannek greets them in high Thulian, but the two figures in the back commence chanting ominously, and battle is joined. Malketh eats a magic missile, while a sleep spell drops a couple of henchman.

As the group closes, it’s apparent that the group have encountered eld. A couple of demonic creatures join the fight, appearing from nowhere, although I was reminded shortly thereafter that Tannek can see invisible. Sircini casts protection from evil, holding the demonic creatures at bay, and eld are despatched with relative ease.

The group soon find a locked door, but Mattius makes short work of the lock. Gregor steps boldly through, and is promptly enveloped by a phosphorescent, protoplasmic thing that drops from the ceiling. The situation appears dire, and is evident that Gregor is going to be crushed to death in very short order, but Arravis again uses slipperiness to save the day. I recall giving a small chance of failure, (possibly the ooze got a save) because the spell needed to be cast through the ooze onto Gregor, but it worked, and Gregor was ejected, allowing the ooze to be easily hacked to bits.

The room is otherwise empty, but a careful search reveals a loose wall carving that activates a secret door, and beyond they find areonite armour, a sword, gems and coins and a magic ring. It’s decided to leave at this point, and they also take with them areonite armour recovered from the eld.

Returning to Burgensdorf, Malketh takes his sketch to the sage, as well as discussing his theory that the portal in Mazen Kurz has taken them to Dwimmermount. Malketh is also deeply concerned that the eld are back.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Players' Level 1 Mazen Kurz Map (beyond the pump room)


Players' Dwimmermount Hall of Portals Map (access via MK portal)

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Session 29

25 March 2023

The Actual Session

• De: Tannek the Guardian, Level 5 Lawful Paladin
  • Grook the Forester, Level 3 Neutral Explorer
  • Balrite the Defender, Level 3 Lawful Paladin
  • Pherrod the Warrior, Level 2 Neutral Fighter
  • Uthred the Warrior, Level 2 Lawful Destined Fighter
• Tr: Gregor the Drunken Hero, Level 4 Neutral Fighter
  • Samuel the Initiate, Level 1 Neutral Sylvan Witch
  • Barlim the Man-at-Arms, Level 1 Neutral Fighter
• La: Arravis the Magician, Level 4 Lawful Mage
  • Mattius the Scrounger, Level 1 Neutral Freebooter-Expeditionary
  • Veruka the Maiden of the Sword, Level 1 Lawful Warmistress
• Jo: Hoik the Undertrekker, Level 4 Lawful Dwarven Delver
  • Cornan the Man-at-Arms, Level 1 Lawful Fighter
• Ro: Malketh the Magician-Hero, Level 4 Neutral Elven Spellsword
  • Dashiel the Arcanist, Level 1 Neutral Mage

The group remains in Burgensdorf for a while on various administrative tasks, and while they’re there a ring they retrieved last delve is identified as a ring of fire resistance. They are pleased with this, and it’s decided to allocate the item to Arravis.

There is some angsting about the fact that various deaths have left them with no one who speaks Eldritch, which is a bit of an inconvenience when you’re exploring an old eld fortress, and another location that has living eld. They are on verge of hiring a linguist, but Arravis has levelled up and is able to acquire some new languages, so that resolves the problem.

This enables them to return to Mazen Kurz to try and engage with the projection they discovered. Making there way back and activating the device, the holographic eld does indeed engage with them once they are able to speak to it in Eldritch. It explains that it is a repository or information skilled in engineering, mathematics and arcanotech, and it defines arcanotech as the use of arcane energies to enhance natural engineering projects and materials. Tannek is interested to know if it understands the process of smelting and forging areonite, which it confirms that it does. He’s not sure how, but De is clearly interested in finding a way to monetise this information.

Having determined that there is no immediately useful information they can obtain from the projection, they party heads to the room with three eld statues. This time, when they open the door, Arravis is able to confirm that the statue that speaks says, “Depart those of impure blood, you are not welcome here. Those who linger with feed the Nasgar.”

A torch is hurled deeper into the room to see if there is any obvious reason to disregard the warming, the chamber beyond the statues appears mostly bare, and it’s decided to head back to (what is most likely) Dwimmermount.

The group had found a hidden lever in the room with the pillar, buttons and strange magic regions on the walls, which they believed opened a secret door. They returned to activate it, and it did indeed open a secret door, but it was on the adjacent wall, and actually led them back to the hidden room from whence they obtained their big treasure haul last time.

Heading off to explore new territory, the party hears inhuman grunting and growling, possibly ursine, from somewhere ahead. It’s decided to withdraw and explore elsewhere for the moment. They try a locked door, which Mattius is able to unlock. As soon as the door is opened, there is a powerful, stagnant, nausea-inducing stench, and tendrils of green vapour are seen flowing in the direction of the doorway. The door is rapidly closed.

La suggests some hair-brained scheme involving opening the door and then heading elsewhere, in the hope that the gas kills the creatures they heard earlier. It is pointed out that this doorway is in part of a corridor the group must pass through when travelling to and from Mazen Kurz, and filling the area with noxious fumes risks trapping them here. La is adamant the vapours will clear and it will be fine, but the rest of the group is unified in bewildered but absolute opposition.

It is decided instead to investigate the sounds and deal with them with steel and magic. Hoik creeps ahead, and sees half-a-dozen bugbears, who also spot him, and immediately begin growling and yelling. The rest of the group advances rapidly, while Hoik withdraws through them.

Malketh blows his the conch of blasting, while Arravis traps most of the bugbears in a stinking cloud. The bugbears not trapped in the cloud engage the party, but are quickly cut down. Meanwhile, a number of Eld have arrived behind the bugbears. Malketh is struck by a magic missile and looses the spell he was casting, while most of the henchman fall to sleep spells.

The eld and bugbears than withdraw, and the party needs to wait for the stinking cloud to dissipate before pursuing. However, when they do head after their enemies, they find more eld and some fat creatures with spindly limbs milling about, along with the remaining bugbears. It is decided to withdraw rather than pushing their luck.

More exploration leads to an adamantium hatch, that opens onto a room with metal tables and shelves, as a large deposit of honey-looking sludge. Gregor hurls a torch at the honey, which moves in response, and the group maintains their policy of having nothing-the-fuck to do with oozes and slimes if they can help it.

An encounter with some red and black beetles results in Gregor taking some heavy blows, although Malketh’s use of the conch, plus some summoned berserkers is enough to eliminates the creatures. Then, as the group is readying to move on, they’re attacked by bugbears, who take down the rest of the berserkers before being despatched.

A statue of the god Mavors is found, the head having been replaced with that of Terms. It’s interesting that (very, very early on) the group had some plans to do some head switching (they’ve found statue heads lying around in various locations), but have never actually got around to doing it.

They then come across what is suspected to be some kind of teleconferencing chamber – an oval table has a large, faceted crystal in the centre, and in front of each fixed chair a number of buttons are set into the table.

Arravis (perhaps unhappy that his “poison the whole place” plane was shut down), doesn’t bother to discuss the matter first before decided to mash some buttons. This results in a 20 second cacophony of screeching that deafens most of the party. Shortly afterwards, there is some scratching at the door, and the party prepares for combat, but nothing ends up coming through (I don’t recall the specifics, but it was probably some giant beetles attracted by the noise, but unable to get through the door).

Elsewhere, a set of stairs descending down is located. Gregor is eager to descend, down to greater riches, but has no support. They also find a room with a strange tree, from which grow crystalline pears. Gregor picks them all.

Eventually, the group arrives a room with numerous empty picture frames and hooks. One actual painting, showing a globe (of brown, blue and green, with whisps of white) floating in a grey void.

A heavy curtain covers most of one wall, and the tattered lower parts reveal a frame of hepatizon. It appears a huge painting hangs behind the curtain – roughly 35 feet wide and 8 tall. Malketh careful examines the lowest parts of the painting, just a few inches of canvas visible here and there. While doing so, he suddenly experiences a strange shift in perspective and reels backwards with a strong sense of vertigo.

It is generally agreed that the curtain appears to be there for a good reason, but Malketh wants to know more. He comes up with a plan to have others lift parts of the curtain aside so that he can get a look at it. He has a rope tied around his waist, with Gregor holding the other end to prevent himself from being sucked in.

Malketh sees a wide vista, strange and rocky, very still but also incredibly alive. He begins to feel light-headed head. Arravis is also looking upon the picture, but passes his save, whereas Malketh does not. Gregors rope falls to the floor, Malketh no longer within it. Instead, before he releases the curtain to ensure no terrible fate befalls himself, Arravis is sure that he sees Malketh within the painting, dangling from some ribbonlike tentacles that hang from higher up.

Arravis tries touching the painting – it feels reel enough. He tries scraping some of the paint with a fingernail, but nothing seems to flake away. After spending some time discussion options, no one can think of anything meaningful to do, and no one else wants to look at the painting.

The group heads back to the projection in Mazen Kurz, but it knows nothing about the painting.

Gregor, who has been beat up in various fights, decides that the crystal pears he’s carrying are surely appetising and rejuvenating, and decides to eat one. The idiot, drunk fighter is on the money, and the pear is as reinvigorating as an extra-healing potion.

It is decided to return to the Burgensdorf and consult a sage.

* ** **** ** *

Three days later, Malketh finds himself alone in the dark. He feels weak and drained (he has lost three points of Constitution), but the alien and terrifying reality in which he was trapped has also enabled him analyse the world around him in new and insightful ways (Intelligence increased by three).

More importantly for the moment, he’s alone, in the middle of a dungeon, in pitch darkness. Feeling around, he confirms he’s near the painting. He goes through his pack to retrieve a torch, then realises he has no means to light it.

Ro then very, very carefully described the path he took to navigate his way out, doing a remarkable job of recalling the map perfectly. He made to the secret vault room, where he was able to improvise a flint and steel and get the torch lit, and then quickly made his way back to the isolated parts of Mazen Kurz, then a final quick dash to the exit.

We were all suitably impressed. There was one positive wandering monster check on his way out, but it was beetles while he was shut in the vault, so rather than teleporting them in with him, I had them scratching at the door.

I had initially planned to hand-wave the escape to an abstract check, but after the check came up a fail, I immediately realised that was unfair, unfun and arbitrary, so I decided to play it out instead. That probably counts as fudging, which I’m generally strongly against, but I’m good with it in this instance, because deciding to put the outcome all on an abstract check was just flat out the wrong call. I’m glad I didn’t roll a success, because I probably would have accepted that, and we would have missed out on an impressive display.

And, that was an excellent place to call it a night.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

Players' Dwimmermount Hall of Portals Map

Includes Malketh's path out. Sections in red were done with no access to light. For the sections in orange, he had a torch, but still no access to the map. Ro remembered everything, down to how the secret doors were activated, without any prompts from anyone else.