Session 32: The Tomb of The Intercontinental Champion

Player Characters, Henchmen, Hirelings, & Animals:

Imperium OG

Gunther "The Ring General" - Level 3 Human Fighter, Lawful Evil

The Bonz - Level 3 Human Cleric, Chaotic Evil

Little Jacob - Level 5 Human Druid, Neutral

Bush - Level 1 Human Thief, Lawful Evil

Giovani - Level 1 Human Fighter, Lawful Evil (Gunther)

Robbin - Level 1 Human Thief, Lawful Evil (Bonz)

Chet - Level 1 Human Druid, Neutral (Little Jacob)

10 Spearmen, Mule, Large Hawk, 2 Dogs (Little Jacob)

Down Time - Imperium OG has had a lot of DT, almost 3 months worth. They have spent this time improving the mining camp to become an acceptable base of operations. They have food & water, a road to a new dock with a shack on the beach, and a watch tower outside the camp's wooden palisade.

The Bonz has spent this time enchanting plate mail with the help of his patron, Evil Santa. You cannot wear plate in jungle/desert or you will overheat and die. The Bonz's chaotic evil deity makes the armor frozen with ice sickles and a dry ice effect when he walked around in. Now the armor is too cold to wear! Luckily he is able to forge a necklace of frost resistance to counteract the frozen armor, so he can now wear it.

This magical item creation was done all via rules in the DMG page 118 and the magical properties of gems listed on page 26 & 27 of the DMG.

PCs also took some trips into Paradiso to hire more men at arms and find information on potential future jobs. Afterwards Kaiser took a patrol around the camp to secure its borders. It did not go well. Jaguars killed some of his men one day and then they stubbled into a tent village housing savage cannibals to the North of their encampment. The savages killed almost all of Kaisers men and he somehow made it out with his own life. Only good news they received from the patrol is that lots of herd animals have been spotted in adjacent hexes, unfortunately one being to the North.

4/29/24 Kaiser still has one more hex to patrol. He takes out 10 men from the camp with better armor and weapons and leaves for the day. Little does the party realize, he will not be seen again alive.

The Party has decided it is finally time to enter the dungeon that was dug up from the old mining camp. (Session 22)They have new member who goes by the name Bush, who has been brought on by The Bonz from his last minute trip to Paradiso. Gunther interrogates the man vigorously and then finally accepts his membership into Imperium OG.

The party is able to enter the dungeon thanks to Gunther's victory over Tozawa of Alpha Academy. When Gunther approaches the Stone doors adorn with carvings of classic catch wrestling moves, the doors of the Tomb open. The party lights a torch and descend down into a triangular shaped room. A large brass medallion with the WWE logo engraved in it hangs from the ceiling. There is a hallway and 2 doors ahead of the party. Above a message is inscribed into the masterful stone work. It reads, "Here lies the tomb of the greatest Intercontinental Champion. Many have tried to reclaim the belt, and many have failed!"

Gunther decides they will take the right door. They fail to open it, so they change strategy for fear of alerting potential enemies on the other side, so they go for the door to the left of the hallway. They manage to open the nice wooden door. Steam pours out of the room, which happens to be a sauna. Unknown to the party thanks to is surprise ability, a piercer is ready to pounce. It misses its chance and the party slaughter the thing.

They take another door out of the sauna and fallow a hallway to a trapezoidal shaped room. Inside this room is 4 metal tubs of water, a wooden bench and some nice cotton towels hanging from the walls. They check the tubs and notice the water inside them are ice cold. They also see some kind of runes engraved in the bottom of the tubs. The Bonz gets undressed and goes for a dip. It sure is cold, but very refreshing. An ice bath room and sauna, this place is great! The party backtracks back to the room with the medallion and takes the hallway.

After traveling they eventually come into a large room with a wrestling ring in the center. The walls are lined with metal bleachers and have 2 more exits to the North and South. There is an announcer desk next to the stage with 2 empty chairs. and on the other side of the ring from the party are 2 stone sarcophagi.

They party investigates the room around the ring at first noticing names carved into the sarcophagi. One being Ricochet, and the other being Samantha Irvin. Little Jacob casts detect pits on the ring and senses some kind of pit with stains below the ring. Bush looks under the ring finding kendo sticks and steel chairs under the ring as well as a a large stone square structure by the middle of the ring.

Bush thinks they have to wrestle each other again to open the stairs, so he starts talking shit on short tempered Gunther. Eventually he coxes Gunther into a match and Gunther dresses down to his proper ring attire and enters the ropes first. This action triggers the room and lights come on, ghost announcers of Cory Graves and Michal Cole appear in the chairs, 9 orc fanboys fill bleachers and the Imperium OG song comes on over a loud speaker system, as an Imperium graphic flashes up on the curtain. Corey Graves announces Gunther's stats and then the lights go down and the music changes.

One of the Stone sarcophagi open and out comes Ricochet. Just as a side tangent, I hate Ricochet whole wrestling schtick. Sure he can perform well, but he is very annoying and the WWE likes to push him hard on the WWE Universe. Its quite cringe and they should drop him but that's a completely different blog post.

Gunther is allowed to pick the type of match and he chooses no disqualifications, 1 pinfall or submission. The druid casts a snare trap i the corner of the ring (this never amounts to anything but was a good idea), Bush tries to sneak around for a backstab but his move silent is ass at level 1. The Bonz grabs a steel chair from under the ring and tells Gunther here try this. Meanwhile, Ricochet climbs a post to go for a diving corkscrew. Ricochet misses and so does Gunther with his chair pummel. Ricochet goes for a grapple but it doesn't connect however this time the chair does! By using the unearthed arcana rules (UA Unarmed Combat)he is able to K.O. Ricochet for 4 turns which is one more needed for a pinfall. Without the chair, this would of been a much longer match.

Ricochet speaks with the Ring General and tells him that he is now freed from this place. Those that lose the title are left here to guard it until a new #1 contender defeats them. He gives Gunther his magical vest and proceeds to leave the dungeon. This enrages Samantha's ghost knowing he is not bound to the dungeon any longer like herself and she turns into a raging banshee and and disappears screaming into the dungeon. A problem for a later date.

The center of the ring opens up and stairs rise from a pit to the next level of the dungeon. There is still plenty to do on this level so the party decides to clear it out. The party fallows the orc fanboys through a passage to the North under the bleachers. It leads into a merch room and the orcs are wearing some vintage Ricochet, The Miz, and R-Truth shirts. The party makes quick work of the orcs and take one prisoner for the slave yard. The trail ends so the party backtracks to the ring room and heads South.

The party wonders the dungeon and eventually hears combat and cheering coming from down a long hallway. They investigate and find a group of UFC fighters having a go in the ring. A good reaction roll is made and the UFC fighters want to have a match, they offer them some treasure and a key to unlock someone they locked up several months ago. He could still be alive.

The Bonz accepts and he absolutely destroys this man making him look like a complete n00b. They have proven themselves and employ a couple of the UFC fighters. They are unsure which way to go now so Gunther elects to take the long hallway South against the party's wishes.

He is the shot caller so they comply. and eventually the fighters inform the party of some goblins they have beef with that live this way. Bush wants to scout ahead alone. He does and finds the room. there are 12 goblins in here and no one is surprised. The party come in to back up Bush. He needs healing but the druids are too focused on the enemy and 1 misuses a spell.

Bush is shredded apart by the goblins' weapons killing him. The party retreats to hold at the hall to funnel the goblins. It works after a grueling battle. The party tries to reason out what happened and they conclude it is Gunther's fault for not wanting to listen to them. Gunther thinks its Little Jacobs fault for not healing but they both understand there is nothing they can do now, and maybe Bush should not have went in on his own.

They continue exploring till they find a small wrestling training gym with a door leading back into the front entrance. It is late but the party is determined to find this prisoner. The UFC fighters they hired told them to make a left at the Y intersection and it will take them straight to him. The party presses on.

Now we arrive to my favorite part of the entire session. I had thought that since the wrestling match was early nothing would of lived up to it but I was "dead" wrong. The party comes to a large room with an Olympic sized Gunite pool with a diving board at the opposite end. I clearly state the pool is 8 ft deep around, enough that none can stand up in it. I also tell them there is a nice metal sign that says pool closed with an image of a black man with an afro in a suite on it and an empty life guard's chair.

The party smells chlorine in the air so Little Jacob casts Detect Traps on the pool, it is indeed not trapped and is not a trap... by intention. The druid feels safe and takes off his armor and swims, this matters as we will see in a minute.

Everyone is interested in the pool and even Gunther is strangely enticed by its cool water. He declares," I go to the diving board and jump into the pool."

I ask," You are jumping off the diving board into the pool for real?"

He responds confidently," Yes I jump into the pool!"

I say laughing manically," OK, you drown from jumping into the pool while in chainmail!"

On page 55 of the DMG it states swimming in any metal armor is impossible. We had all gone through something like this in the early days of play so they knew this already. Some rules lawyer happened but in the end Gunther, the groups leader and only way into the dungeon, dies an extraordinary death. As the last bit of air leaves his body, a great light comes penetration from deep within him through his eye sockets and mouth. The satanic tune of the Trail Devil's theme song ring out. Its time for him to collect.

Gunther's body shrivels into a burnt husk beneath the pool in a macabre spectacle.

The party very disturbed now needs this mystery person if they want access to the dungeon again. They carry on until they come to a room with a large locked metal door. The UFC fighters say this is the place.

The party take the key and open a door. It leads down a long hallway that comes to a room. Inside the room is a medium sized gym. The floor of the room is littered with open Slim Jim wrappers and empty bottles of Prime Hydration which come from 2 vending machines that never appear to empty A large black man is in here and he is ecstatic to see the party. He introduces himself as R-Truth, then thanks the party. R-Truth tells them he came here searching for his old tag team partner who is somewhere in the dungeon allegedly. He then begins wrapping his walk out music and the party really enjoys the comedy after all of the death.

R-Truth says he doesn't have anything on him to repay the party, but he knows of something hidden on this level of the dungeon he can give them as payment. The party fallow him to the hallway South of the Wrestling room. R-Truth taps on the wall opening a secret door they missed. Inside on a pedestal is spell book with the WWE logo on it. They take the spell book and roll out with R-Truth and call it a night.

Treasure & XP: Split 2 ways

220 Platinum - 1,100 XP

825 Electrum - 412 XP

7,200 Silver - 360 XP

4,100 Copper - 20 XP

40 Vintage Wrestling Tees - 40 Gold - 40 XP

5 Unidentified Gems - ??? XP

Flyer's Vest - ??? XP

WWE Spell Book - ??? XP

12 Goblins - 151 XP

9 Orcs - 133 XP

4 Piercers - 120 XP

Ricochet - 500 XP

Total XP: 2,836 XP

Rankings:

The Bonz - E - played roll didn't goof up, beat shit out of UFC Fighter

Little Jacob - F - Failed to heal Busch partially resulting in his death, misused an entangle spell.

Bush - D - Died by getting ripped to shreds by goblins.

Gunther "The ring General" - D - Died jumping off a diving board in a 8 ft deep pool in full chainmail.