Session 33: Don't Run Into Random Portals

Player Characters, Henchmen, Hirelings, & Animals

Team Tundra

Regulus Tharn – Level 3 Half-Elf Fighter/Magic User, Chaotic Good

R.J. Macready – Level 4 Human Ranger, Neutral Good

Micoley - Level 1 Human Cleric, Lawful Good

Father Stank - Level 1 Human Cleric, Lawful Good

Big Albertus – Level 1 Gnome Illusionist/Thief, Chaotic Neutral

Dan, Ulrich spearmen hirelings

Greenly, Vince - scimitar/flintlock pistol Paradiso Marine hirelings

Charlie, Scud – musket/bayonet Paradiso Marine hirelings

Mule, Dog, Horse – MacReady

Ghost Lion – in dungeon only, MacReady

Downtime - R.J. Macready is able to successfully track the fabled white dragon in the mountains. He doesn’t know exactly where the lair is, but he has deduced which cluster of mountain peaks the dragon has been returning to. The party isn’t quite confident they are strong enough to risk taking the dragon head on yet, so they will look to gather supplies and treasure for now.

As usual, they will start by going to the church to knock out a captive troll in exchange for a healing potion. This is where they meet Micoley who is a cleric of the church. He offers to help them with the troll if they let him join on their adventures. They get to the troll chamber and look down to see the troll has constructed an “igloo” by pulling apart the rocks and bricks from the walls surrounding the pit.

The party is able to hear snoring coming from the igloo. They climb down the ladder and begin planning a course of action. Without telling the players, I set timer. If they don’t make their decisions by the time the timer goes off the troll will wake up and ambush them. With a handful of seconds left, the party decides to rush the troll while it’s sleeping. The party absolutely wrecks the sleeping troll. This time they decide to amputate it’s arms and legs… a bit of cruelty the troll is unlikely to forget.

The church apothecary is able to come down and fill a syringe with fresh troll blood, and gives the party a healing potion in exchange for their help subduing the troll. Since Micoley helped batter the troll unconscious, the party allows the cleric to join them.

The party decide to plunder the BP dungeon. They buy year passes at the yeti oil stand, and lather up for their trip to the dungeon. There haven’t been any men-at-arms for hire in Halifax for some time, but since the Paradisan marines arrived for unknown reasons, the crew is able to hire some quality strongmen to accompany them. They acquire two musketeers with bayonets and two marines with cutlasses and flintlock pistols.

The two day trip to the BP dungeon is uneventful, and the party finds the ghost lion waiting for them in the lobby. They go downstairs and encounter a group of troglodytes. The troglodyte’s special javelins cause several casualties, Killing the marine Vince and injuring Regulus, Macready, the dog, and even the ghost lion. The party’s strength then begins to drain from the troglodyte stench, but are able to avenge Vince and finish them off with some magic missiles and melee attacks. Regulus gives the final blow, pressing his sword into a troglodyte's chest and ripping his thoracic cavity. The party finds 300 platinum, 550 gold, and 16 troglodyte javelins. They also see 3 gems on a trapdoor and use a rope to drag them off the trapdoor, very cleaver.

In the big room with a river of oil flowing into a portal, Micoley heals some of the party’s wounds before seeing the portal and becomes curious. He decides to enter the portal!

He finds himself in a room in an unknown part of a dungeon. There isn’t any apparent way back, so he starts wandering around looking for an exit. He finds himself in a long chamber with stone pillars along the side. He decides to investigate the pillars and runs into 8 giant centipedes. He actually survives longer than I expected him to, but inevitably he gets poisoned by a centipede and dies alone, never to be seen by the party again.... OOF!

They take the fallen Vince out of the dungeon to be cremated, and while outside Big Albertus, an illusionist/thief gnome from Paradiso, shows up with another cleric from the church named Father Stank that happened to know Micoley. Somehow they convince the party they need a thief and cleric, so they join and the party reenters the dungeon.

Micoley never returns, so the rest of the party is like, “fuck that portal!" They explore a different direction and run into a couple fire beetles, which Big Albertus tuna cans with a backstab, and Regulus tanks a hit.

They find a door concealed behind some bricks in the fire beetle room and go through it. Albertus checks the hallway it leads to for traps. He fails to find the pit trap and slides down into a slimy pit with a light coating of oil taking 1 damage. The party throws a rope down and pulls him back up. The ranger stakes a rope to the wall and ties his mule off since it can’t easily traverse the pit trap. The rest of the party shimmies across the side of the pit and enter into a room with 7 gnolls.

The gnolls inflict some damage but nobody dies thanks to the half-elf casting sleep, and the party rolling well for hits. The party finds 686 electrum, 30 gold, and 3 gems that looks suspiciously like the three gems they found earlier among the gnolls.

They come to a familiar sign pointing to the control room, and follow it to see how the control room is doing. They find a gnomish engineer tinkering with the various gauges and handwheel around the control room and ask him some questions about the dungeon. He explains that the portal distributes the oil flow all around Gnoma Scotia, and it’s impossible to know where Micoley would have wound up if he entered it. He also mentions that he could slow down the flow of oil for them if they ever need to cross the river of oil. It’s getting late IRL so the party heads back to Halifax.

On the way home a group of 4 wild dogs with the bones of gnomish children in their mouths, discover the party. Regulus again uses his sleep spell to great effect, sleeping 3 of the 4 dogs. The awake dog is slain by the party and the sleeping dogs are bundled up and taken back to their dwelling to be trained as attack dogs. Dogs are in a legal gray area in Halifax, so the party is quiet about this part of their most recent adventure once they get to town.

Monster XP:

4 Troglodytes – 334 XP

2 Fire Beetles – 35 XP

7 Gnolls – 232 XP

4 Wild Dogs - 58 XP

Treasure & XP

Treasure:

300 Platinum – 1,500 XP

550 Gold – 550 XP

16 Troglodyte Javelins – 160 XP

“Ruby”, “sapphire”, Jade from trap door 110 XP

(will discover ruby and sapphire are fake in town)

686 Electrum - 1372 XP

30 Gold – 30 XP

Ruby, sapphire, Jade - 2,100 XP

3 Wild Dogs

Ranking:

Regulus: E - Cast spells, fought bravely

RJ Macready: E - Tamed dogs, cut up giant class

Albertus: S – Checked for traps but did not cast an illusionist spell

Micoley – D - Died to giant centipede poison

Stank – S - Healed and bashed gnolls with his mace