Session 17: New Party, New Dungeon

Player Characters, Henchmen, Hirelings, & Animals:

Han-Gyumi - Level 1 Human Fighter, Neutral Good

Sir Francis Furt - Level 1 Human Cleric, Neutral Good

Tyranth - Level 1 Half-Elf Ranger / Cleric, Neutral Good

"Big" Albertus - Level 1 Gnome Thief / Illusionist, Chaotic Neutral

10 Spearmen (Han)

1 Spearmen (Furt)

2 Guard Dogs, 1 Light Horse, 1 Large Hawk (Tyranth)

1 Canary (Albertus)

1/6/24 Han, Sir Furt, and Tyranth meet up at The Huntsmen's Hearth in Brightoni. They have decided to give adventuring a try to make it big. The Viceroy of Brightoni, Emilio Vespucci (Patron Player), has been been planning to expand the town. To do this, he has started clearing the jungle 1 mile out from around the walls of the city. During the process, a couple rumors came up about a small cave opening at the bottom of a hill with a set of stone stairs within was found by the laborers. This is where they will search for treasure. At this time they only have 3 spearmen, and the large hawk with them for combat. (The rest were picked up later.) They leave to the rumored location and find a large homeless camp (Nomads) set up in the newly cleared area outside the city. It stinks and is a complete eye sore to anyone travelling. Instead of engage, the party chose to avoid the camp. At midday the party is able to find a small cave. They duck down to enter the cave, and once in light a torch. Sure enough there is a stone archway with flagstone stairs descending down. The stone work is of superior craftsmanship, possible dwarven. They take the stairs down and start traversing some winding hallways. They come to a door and both Han and Tyranth go to open the door. They manage to open it, but the door is trapped. They both make a save verses poison and Tyranth fails. He is blinded by gas sprayed into his eyes, yikes! He is willing to continue but he will have -4 to hit on his short bow, and -2 to strike with his blade. They continue into a rectangular room. 3 more doors are in the room. They check one to the East and its locked. So they take a stuck door on the Northern wall.

They enter the room and surprise is rolled. No one is surprised as they find 2 fire beetles rummaging about by a decent sized coffer. The party engages and after a few rounds of combat, they slay the large insects. They harvest they glowing glands from the creatures, and continue through the dungeon. After combat they search the coffer and find 1,000 Copper, Coral, some pearls, and a gem, a good score.

They take an open portcullis on the Northern wall into a huge rectangular room with a stream running through the middle from East to West. They take an archway off the Northern wall and find a room with moldy boxes. They take a door to the East and enter a square room with a large ruby eyed demonic statue. Using a combo of rope and net, Han is able to climb up the statue. He is able to collect one of the eyes but he can not get the other ruby to budge. They open a door to the East. Peering into another square room, They spot a large hole in the center of the room with glowing light coming from below. Nope, the party does not want the smoke. They backtrack to the coffer room then check a door to the East and it leads to a room with a marble statue of a dwarf reading a scroll. The party does not really engage with the statue. They decide to open a door on the Southern wall. Han opens the door and gets shot by a poison arrow and luckily survives with his poison save.

Its time to head back to town. The party leaves the dungeon unmolested, then head back to Brightoni with no encounters. They get the loot identified and decide to wait a week to return to the dungeon, so Sir Furt and Han can train to level 2. Tyranth buys his 2 guard dogs and gets his blindness cures. Han hires 8 more spearmen once his training is complete. We jump ahead a week, which means I restock the dungeon.

1/13/24 Before heading to the dungeon, the party sees a large black gnome giving them a look. Eventually he approaches and introduces himself as "Big" Albertus. He says he has skills the party could use if they are heading into any dungeons. The party takes him up on his offer and head out to the dungeon. They go into the cave. Its small entrance is perfect for Albertus. They head to the trapped door and ask Albertus if he can disarm it. He thinks he can if someone could give him a lift. Hans puts a cloth over his eyes then lifts Albertus up for him do do his magic. He fails his remove traps and in goes off directly in his face, thus blinding him. He isn't any good blind so they go back to town and Tyranth loans 300 gold to get Albertus blindness cured by a cleric.

1/14/24 The party heads back to the dungeon at the crack of dawn with no encounters. They head back to the trapped door from yesterday. The trap has not been refilled yet so the party is able to make it past the door. Note: We are at this point applying the RAW rule which is 1 attempt for unlock, or find/remove trap per level of Thief. (The key is to play as RAW as possible. When I or one of my players finds a rule we misinterpreted or were not using, we correct it.) They head into a familiar room and roll surprise.

Nobody is surprised. They spot a pack of badgers. This would normally be bad, however due to Albertus racial ability as a gnome, he can speak with burrowing creatures. He talks with the badgers who start badgering Albertus to give them some food, or there could be problems. Albertus tells the party and they give a pile of rations to the badgers. They give the party the OK to pass safely. They go to a locked door in this room they found earlier to have Albertus Check for traps and unlock. He finds no traps but the lock is too complex for him and he fails to pick it open. There is another locked door attached to this room and Albertus checks and picks and succeeds at both. The door opens and they find themselves in the room with the marble dwarven statue. The gnome investigates the statue, particularly the scroll it appears to be reading. It says in dwarven," Ask, and you shall receive the knowledge you seek." This gives Albertus a great Idea.

He begins by asking questions to the statue in dwarven. He finds the statue will respond but only in dwarven, and if asked about the dungeon. They finds out the pit with the glowing light leads into a cavern lit by torches, The location of the stair case down to level 2 of the dungeon, That the dungeon is 3 levels deep, and that the dungeon was constructed by the Marble-Beard Dwarfs in order to lock away a powerful sword. The party is pumped to go down to the next level but first they want that other ruby eye from the demon statue. They head to the Demon statue room and Albertus climbs up Tyranth's net and rolls successfully on a d100 to remove the ruby. He only had a 35% chance. Albertus climbs down but he isn't finished. He searches around the base of the statue and finds a secret door. It opens to a very small closet with a coffer filled with 500 gold pieces. He collects them in his bad and does not inform the party. A small bonus for all his hard work. They head to a locked door that they think will lead to where the stairs are but they are unable to open the locked door. They check their map for a while and realize there might be another way around. They check an archway they never went through in the stream room.

Sure enough, this does lead to a room described by the statue. they fallow its directions to the letter and sure enough find the stairs heading down to the 2nd level of the dungeon. They fallow a winding pathway until they come to a door. Albertus checks for traps and finds a spear trap rigged up to the door. He fails his disarm and is hit with 8 points of damage. Normally he would be dead but thanks to his Constitution bonus he doesn't instantly die at -1 hit points. Sir Furt heals the gnome and they are forced to leave the dungeon with no encounters.

Treasure & XP:

2 Fire Beetles - 112 XP - Split 3 Ways

1,000 Copper Pieces - 5 XP - Split 3 Ways

Bright Pink Coral - 100 Gold Pieces - 100 XP - Split 3 Ways

Fresh Water Pearl - 10 Gold Pieces - 10 XP - Split 3 Ways

Black Pearl - 500 Gold Pieces - 500 XP - Split 3 Ways

Jasper - 50 Gold Pieces - 50 XP - Split 3 Ways

1,000 Silver Pieces - 50 XP - Split 3 Ways

Medium Ruby - 5,000 Gold Pieces - 5,000 XP - Split 3 Ways

Medium Ruby - 5,000 Gold Pieces - 5,000 XP - Split 4 Ways

500 Gold Pieces - 500 XP - "Fat" Albertus

Rankings:

Han-Gyumi - E - Killed things, bravely lead men-at-arms.

Francis Furt - E - Healed his fallen comrades.

Tyranth - E - Did Ranger things, and healed.

"Fat" Albertus - S - Even though he played an E rank for Thief, he did not cast any spells as an illusionist so i can not award him an E.