Session 18: Too Many Shriekers!

Player Characters, Henchmen, Hirelings, & Animals:

Cletus Epstein - Level 1 Human Cleric, Neutral Good

Gorlock "The Destroyer" - Level 1 Half-Orc Fighter / Cleric Chaotic Neutral

Jordan Jeebus - Level 1 Human Ranger Neutral Good

Barant - Level 1 Elf Magic User / Thief Chaotic Neutral

2 Foot mace Men (Cletus)

1 Spearman, 1 Clubman, 1 Javelin Women, Guard Dog (Gorlock)

1/13/24 The party meets up in Paradiso outside the Adventurers' Hall. Cletus and Jordan have known each other for awhile. Gorlock, who is a Gender Neutral Cleric for the Church of O.R.C., has brought Barant, a dirty dagger eared elf. Gorlock doesn't like elves, but the diversity of the group needed more minorities, hence why "they" brought the female javelin thrower as well.

The group picks up on a rumor about a Dungeon on the edge of the Jungle from the city's farmland. It will be a full days journey North East to get there. The party purchases any goods they need and head off on their adventure. At Dusk the party sets up camp for the night. Jordan wants to hunt some fresh game for dinner. He tries to track something down and brings along Barant. He is able to track down something, but its a pack of 5 lions. Surprise is rolled and thanks to Jordan's ranger skills, they win 1 segment of surprise. Just what they needed to avoid the encounter and head back to camp. There are no encounters through the night.

1/14/24 The party wakes up bright and early to continue to the dungeon's rumored location. After 3 hours of travel, there is an encounter. The party rolls surprise and wins 1 segment again thanks to the ranger advantage. The party has stumbled upon a small wooden palisade full of goblins. The party wisely chooses to evade the camp, however they mark it down on their regional map for a possible future return. after 4 more hours they arrive unmolested at the dungeons entrance. It is the ruins of a small stone structure on the edge of the jungle's tree line. They establish their marching order and party roles (Shot Caller, Foreman, Quartermaster, MAP), then descends down into the dungeon.

Once at the bottom of the steps, Barant decides to scout ahead alone for the party, and since he is the shot caller, no one says anything against it. The hall way turns East after 30'. This hallway is longer and has a stone door at the end, as well as an archway in the center of the hall on the Southern wall. Barant attempts to move silently to the archway but fails. He peers in the room and spots 2 shriekers ( giant mushrooms covered with mouths) with a coffer resting between them. The shriekers are unable to detect him because Barant is out of their detection range. Barant returns to the party and tells them what he found. They form a plan to have Barant move silently past the shriekers and grab the coffer. He goes into the room, and again fails his move silent attempt, only this time it triggers the shriekers. They begin to cry out. Its combat time. The party elects to charge into the room and attack the fungi. They manage to kill 1 of the creatures but the other still stands screaming. The noise attracts a group of 10 orcs who enter the room from a door on the Southern wall. A grueling fight ensues during which Barant takes the opportunity to grab some treasure from the coffer while no one is looking. he grabs 42 silver and 8 gold pieces

After the battle the party checks the orcs pockets and finds 61 electrum pieces. Then they search the coffer and count out 958 silver, and 242 gold pieces. The party finds a wooden door to the East that the orcs did not enter from. The party chooses to take the door the orcs came through. Barant checks it for traps and doesn't find any. He pushes the door open and it leads to another hallway. Barant scouts ahead again.

Since Barant and Gorlock both have infra vision, Barant travels ahead to scout, then hand signals to Gorlock who can then tell the humans who need light, the coast is clear. Barant spots a circular room with 2 more shriekers and another small coffer between them. This time the party plans an all out charge and hope to get surprise on the thing. They do and again they are able to kill 1 but even with wining initiative they still are unable to kill the second shrieker and stop him from shrieking. This time it attracts 4 giant fire beetles. They enter through an archway on the Eastern wall of the room. A long a grueling combat ensues and again Barant uses this as an opportunity to pull some treasure from the small coffer for himself. This time he rooms extremely well and he manages to pull out a piece of jewelry and 10 gold. he is unable to take the time to examine it, but he is content. Once 3 of the beetles are slain, the lone survivor retreats back through the archway. The party count out the treasure in the small coffer and find 240 gold pieces within. They harvest the fire glands from the dead beetles, and then Jordan tries to track the last giant fire beetle but fails his roll. The party says screw the beetle. They try a stone door on the Eastern wall.

It is not trapped and leads back to a familiar hallway. The party wants to head out of the dungeon and camp 20 minutes outside the dungeon for the night. They leave and have no encounters.

1/15/24 The party heals up during the morning but want their spell slots back for the dungeon. They decide to camp out for the whole day since they still have plenty of rations. They have no encounters during the day and the night.

1/16/24 The party goes back in the next morning. They take the stone door back into the round room. The party chooses to take the door on the northern wall. Barant checks it for traps, but he fails his roll. Gorlock and Barant go to open the door and it is trapped with a sleeping gas trap. Gorlock makes "their" save and Barant fails. Normally Barant would be asleep but he is a elf and they are not effected by such things. Elves don't sleep. The door leads to a small hallway heading West with a portcullis directly across from the door the party opened. They notice the lever to lower it is on their side, but it is wide open. Once again 2 more shriekers and another coffer. The party is starting to see a pattern here. They only kill 1 again before the last shrieker start to shriek. Barant picks up the coffer as the party kills the last shrieker, and then something interesting happens. A group of 4 elves enter the room from the portcullis the party did. At the same time a party with 6 humans, a dwarf, and a female halfling enter from an archway on the Northern wall. Everybody is looking at Barant holding the coffer. The elves notice that Barant is an elf so they call out to him in elvish. They say, "Brother help us gather the riches from this chamber. We can work together to kill that other party. Then we kill the humans you are with." Then 1 of the humans in leather armor yells out in common," Or, you can fight with us and we will split the treasure with you all 50 / 50." The party mostly unaware to what the elves said and due to the diversity of the other party, they decide to help the adventurer party.

Barant responds if elvish," Sorry lads, but democracy wins in this case. It also happens to be my best chance for the best cut of the loot. " The party wins initiative and attacks the elves. They deal a lot of damage but don't land any kills. Then the other party comes in to clean up. 1 of the humans armed with a hammer reached out and grabbed an elf by the face. Then he cast cause wounds to kill the elf, which was identifiable by the clerics in the party. The rest of them attack and make quick work of the elves. Then the man in leather says," Hey I don't know if you should trust that elf chap with you. He was thinking about betraying you with those elven blokes. Jordan has been suspicious of Barant for a while and thinks Barant should prove his loyalty by emptying his pockets proving he has not been robbing from the party. Cletus agrees with Jordan, but Gorlock protests on the account of racial stereotyping. Jordan isn't having any of this nonsense. He draws his blade and puts it to Barant's throat. Barant still declines so Jordan goes for a pummel. he hits and deals enough damage to knock Barant unconscious. They empty his pockets revealing the stolen treasure. Gorlock sees the jewelry and with "their" secondary skill of jeweler, is able to identify it as a silver bracelet set with gems worth 1,000 gold pieces. The party collects the stolen goods from Barant and decide they will have to keep a closer eye on him from now on. They check the coffer to find 1,000 copper and 100 platinum. They split it with the self titled "Goon Squad" and all leave the dungeon giving the goon squad a 10 minute head start. They leave the dungeon, and start heading back to Paradiso with no encounters.

1/17/24 With Paradiso in sight, the party gets an encounter, to their relief it is a merchant and not an enemy. They sell their treasure and make it back to Paradiso with no more encounters.

Treasure & XP: All split 4 ways even.

6 Shriekers - 567 XP

10 Orcs - 142 XP

3 Giant Fire Beetles - 106 XP

4 Elves - 69 XP

500 Copper Pieces - 2 XP

1,000 Silver Pieces - 50 XP

61 Electrum Pieces - 35 XP

500 Gold Pieces - 500 XP

65 Platinum Pieces - 325 XP

Silver Bracelet set with Gems - 1,000 Gold Pieces - 1,000 XP

Rankings:

Cletus Epstein - E - Healed party members

Gorlock "The Destroyer" - E - Healed, got kills, lead "people-at-arms"

Jordan Jeebus - E - Got surprise, tracked creatures

Barant - S - This feels like deja vu, but again this was an E ranking for a thief. He did not cast any spells, so I can not give him an E ranking as a Magic User / Thief.