Session 24: Team Tundra Grows

Player Characters, Henchmen, Hirelings, & Animals:

R. J. MacReady - Level 3 Human Ranger, Neutral Good

Regulus Tharn - Level 2 Half-Elf Fighter/Magic User, Chaotic Good

Joe "The Magic Fist" - Level 1 Half-Elf Cleric/Magic User, Neutral Good

Willy Wanker - Level 1 Gnome Fighter, Chaotic Good

"Arse Face" mule, "Michelle Bolton" Light Horse (MacReady)

10 Spearmen (Tharn)

2/28/24 Since it’s been a month, the party is able to earn another healing potion from the church for knocking out a troll so they can harvest its blood. They're going to meet Joe at the church and he is going to be the local cleric who unlocks the troll den. Now the party is pretty famous at this point, so Joe is wanting to join them. They say that he can join as long as he proves his worth with the troll. They unlock the trolls den and see that the troll is prepared this time. He has built a small wall of cover out of the bricks around his cell. Tharn casts sleep which gives the party a chance to crawl down and scatter the trolls fortifications. The Ranger decides to use the opportunity of the troll sleeping to get some surprise damage in before he wakes up. Tharn joins him and they get some damage in on the troll. It's got a decent amount of health and spends a turn getting up before it absolutely Wales onto the Ranger with a left hook, right hook, and a headbutt. Joe runs in to heal and the party manages to slay the troll before anybody dies, they meet up with soul king before heading off to the BP dungeon that night because of Soul Kings Curse. Soul king is able to play a song of warmth equivalent to the level 4 druid change temperature spell. So they're able to travel there in a bubble of 72° while it snows all around them.

3/1/24 They make it to the dungeon and check what magical items are on the altar the Ranger swaps out his pick and they meet up with the ghost lion. Brooke really doesn't feel like spelunking right now so he's just gonna give him some advice and let them be on their way to Level 3.

They all head down the passage and crawl down the rope at the bottom of the broken stairs. They come to the oil river, A Spearman pokes his spear down into the river and finds that it's only about a foot deep. Since it is so shallow they are going to hold their lights above their heads far from the oil and slowly traverse being careful not to fall as that would light the oil and likely wipe the party. The Ranger goes first and shines the light for everyone else to make it across and nobody trips. They leave the Spearmen here not wanting to disobey the gnome’s advice not to bring men at arms (level 0 fighters) to Level 3.

The PCs and Ghost Lion head down into an octagon shaped room. They see the portcullis with all the spear traps that soul king triggered last time they were here. They take a door to the South and find their way into a room with a whole bunch of lockers with loose death and smoke runes in them. They go South into an unstuck door and then find a diagonal door with a doggy door attached. They are a little unsure of what to think about the previous door being unstuck. The ranger pokes his head through a doggy door and see a room with six Gnolls. They have a time fighting these gnolls and once the gnolls are slain the party hears some bumping coming from the wall. They ignore it at first, since they are amazed that the gnoll’s bodies dissolved into dust when they were slain, but the thumping continues.

The party will use the ghost lion to stick its head through the wall to see what's bumping behind it. The lion can't communicate in words but it can communicate that there's something behind there so they search the wall and eventually find a loose stone which opens up into a room that has Willy Wanker, the gnome fighter, and some urns. Willy not knowing that the party is good hearted offers to give all the treasure in the urns to them if they don't hurt him. (which they weren't going to do anyways but he doesn't know that.) The party finds a decent score of gems both from the gnolls and from the urns.

They continue east and then S into a room and find 6 goblins. They slay the goblins and then uncover a trap door. The trapdoor leads down into a huge pit of copper at least 30,000 copper and two potions but the party sees that there are insects all over the treasure. They use fire to scatter the bugs and have Willy retrieve the potions which they save for later.

They continue through the dungeon until they come to a large bending hallway, where they hear a bunch of orcish sounds, banging onto a door, and someone from the other side of that door calling for help. Willy recognizes this voice as his companion Ortho. The party decides to engage to save Ortho before the orcs can get to him. As combat starts the orcs are chopping away at the door and are able to bust it down. The party engages them from behind and they are able to catch up to the orcs slaying them one by one. The Party is not fast enough. The Orcs were able to get in and slay Ortho before he could be saved. Willy retrieves Ortho’s prized possession, a bar of mithril. The bodies are then dissolved, so he can’t bury Ortho's corpse, but they go outside and have a funeral procession without the body. They rest up to change spells, get their heals back etc. and rest in the hotel attached to the lobby for the night.

3/2/24 Team Tundra goes back down into the dungeon and poke around different places trying to explore more of this dungeon. They get to a point where there is a dead end, but it seems to be out of place. The wall is shiny and appears a little wavey, as if its moving. The party individually roles to disbelieve the illusion and just two are able to see through it. The Ranger is one of them. Through this portal he sees a long room with 11 orcs sitting around in two circles on the floor. He takes out an oil flask and attempts to burn the orcs. They get a couple cheap shots on the orcs. The orcs get scared because they believe the illusion is real and can not tell were the attacks are coming from. The Orcs decide to flee! The Ranger goes and chases them which causes the party who to now disbelieve it as he passes through the illusion.

The party loses the orcs sadly. They go back to one of the passageways and come upon a giant spider which has made its web in the corner of a sharp turn in the dungeon. The party gets lucky with surprise and lights the web on fire. Due to the surprise, the party is able to destroy the spider before it can kill them. Beyond this hallway is an elevator which goes down the party doesn't want to go to the next level yet so they turn around to explore more on this level of the dungeon.

They come back to the Octagon room and go East. This time come into a chamber that is 30' by 60' and has red carpet along the middle. They lift up the carpet and discover a recipe for ice Blitz. They don't know how runic recipes work, but they think if they take it to Soul King, he can explain how to do it. They go South into an X shaped chamber and find that two of the paths in this X shaped chamber lead to a hole in a small loop. As they approached this hole, an ankou attacks them from it. It is not much of a challenge. They find some blood runs from the ankou. They go back to the remaining passageway on the X and find an elevator this time it is labeled “to level 6”. The party pisses their pants, and decides to not yet go to floor 6 either.

While performing standard operating procedure on the other door (Session 21), from the red carpet room the Ranger notices that his Canary has passed out they back up from the door realizing that it's probably gas trapped. They go back up to Brooke aka Soul King and he tells them that he is the one who left that trap and he probably should have told you yo ho ho ho, but there's an eternal smoke essentially cast into that next room which loops into his treasure room. They go back around to the Southern most X and the half-elves both find a secret door they tried to open it but fail they hear back from the other side in a booming demonic voice speaking in elvish," Daniel is that you?" They respond and the voice gets very mad realizing that it's not who he thought. It comes to the door opens it.

Now the party sees a giant spider staring them down. Someone in the party asks “...but it's a spider, how could a spider talk?” They roll to disbelieve the illusion they are looking at. Willy and Joe do not disbelieve, but the MacReady and Tharn do. They see that it is actually a large Efreet, projecting the illusion of a huge spider. With his arms crossed scowling at them he grumbles in elvish, the language of his master. He’s under orders not to kill anyone outside of this room unless attacked, but he is also tasked with poisoning anyone who enters. The party was frightened and didn’t enter the room, so he thinks about what to do next. He must follow orders, but he spites his masters for the forced servitude he must endure. He tries to coax the party to come into the room and get treasure, but they don’t bite so he thinks maybe he can use them to get revenge on his master instead. He gives the crew some information about how long he has been here, how his master left 3 weeks ago, and that his master has 2 wishes remaining. “Eventually he must come back, and then you could ambush him!”

The party who still believes the illusion is having panic attacks as the nonbelievers converse with what seems to be a huge spider. The Efreet tries one last time to lure the party in for some treasure, but they decline and choose to head back to town and warn of the efreet’s master. They remove their cursed items, meet up with Soul King who is a bit tipsy from flirting with the gnomish waitresses.

3/3-5/24 Team Tundra heads back to town traveling at night without getting any encounters.

Treasure & XP:

6 Gnolls – 118 XP split 3 ways

6 goblins – 27 XP split 4 wats

12 orcs – 50 XP split 4 ways

1 ankou – 65 XP split 4 ways

1 giant spider – 173 XP split 4 ways

Rankings:

R.J. MacReady – E - fought giant classes with bravery, used animal knowledge to detect a gas trap that could have suffocated the party

Regulus Tharn – E - fought stuff, cast sleep on the troll allowing the party to crumble the fortifications

Joe "The Magic Fist" – E - healed party, blessed the fallen halfling’s funeral, and cast shield before a suspected range fight broke out

Willy Wanker – E - risked the poison insects to gain potions, fought to save his friend