Session 35: The Boring Beetle Session

Player Characters, Henchmen, Hirelings & Animals

Recon Team Alpha

Level 1 Ranger Neutral Good

Level 1 Cleric Lawful Good

Level 1 Halfling Fighter/Thief

Level 1 Human Magic User

5 Body Guards (MU)

1 Goon and a Pony (FT)

Preface - I took very few notes for this session, so this will be short. The dungeon was completely rolled on the fly. No prep wins again! This session would see a new group of PCs gather for a job offer from the Paradisan Navy. They are looking for adventurers to scout an unexplored island that gave off a huge arcane reading a week or so prior and are offering 2,000 gold if they find something of interest. The Navy will construct a beach head with a palisade over the next week, then send the ships back for more troops and supplies.

5/5/2024 - The Navy lands shore on the island. They choose a beachhead on a light forest hex because of potential lumber for expansion of outpost. There is a large mountain with half of it scorched black by something visible from the beach. The adventurers, dubbed Recon Team Alpha, decide this is where they will explore so they will set out the next day.

5/6/2024 -The party travel through the woods and 1/4 the way across the planes hex before setting up camp. They have no encounters.

5/7/2024 - The party travels across the planes and notice the scorched remains of a mushroom forest to the East. Eventually they come to the base of the scorched mountain. It is blackened and has piles of ash like snow on it. The Ranger is able to find some odd tracks in the ash. They fallow it up the mountain until they come to the outside of some scorched ruins of a dungeon. They light up a torch and descend into the darkness.

At this point the party selects there group role in the dungeon. These are Shot Caller, Quarter Master, Foreman & MAP. This isn't a rule for those wondering its just a way for the party to operate smoothly through the dungeon. Normally I correct the party if they make a mistake on their map, but not this time. This sounds cruel and in a way it is, yet it made the game a lot more fun for everyone so its staying.

The dungeon is scorched black within. It is covered in soot and ashes. They start poking around the dungeon and eventually they run into a shrieker. It is unable to alert any enemies and is killed quickly. The party keeps going until they run into a group of 10 orcs. They fight for about 4 rounds but again the party is on it. They clean up the room claiming 40 electrum from the corpses.

They go deeper and find stairs going to level 2 they take them down but quickly head back to floor 1. There is more to be found there. They now want to go back to the beginning of the dungeon at 5x speed. They are allowed they just have to tell me all the turns to get back. They party discovers that the MAP has made several errors. His map looks nothing like mine but he has the turns correct so they somehow make it to the scorched entrance.

The party finds a large scorched walk in closet. They check another door and it leads to a long hallway. The MU sends his cat familiar to investigate and its spots 3 large shovel headed beetles in a nest. It is rare to roll these on level 1 of the dungeon and the players have never faced these before so they decide to explore more before they come back. They find a scorched room with an ornate well in the center with fresh high Ph level water, very refreshing. They find another room filled with giant rats that they wipe out easily.

Now they are ready to go fight the giant beetles. This combat starts with a kill by the party. Then they hear a beetle start tunneling through a wall. The beetle eventually digs far enough to flank the MU through the wall. It a one shot as its mandibles cut the MU in half by the waist. The halfling attempts to flank the beetle in the tunnel as the body guards for the MU flee in terror. The Halflings goon is ordered to steal the MU's spell book while everyone else is distracted with the battle.

The beetle turns around in its tunnel and is cut off by the halfling. The 2nd beetle is killed by the rest of the party leaving only the tunnel bug. The halfling survives long enough for the party to flank the beetle but is hit for a whopping 16 damage and is decapitated. This causes his goon to flee the dungeon with the spell book. The party does manage to kill the beetle without any more casualties. They have a metric shit ton of loot in their nest.

They decide its time to go and meet up with the cowards that left them to die with the pony. They say they couldn't find the spell book and all look at the goon. He is not willing to hand it over and says," What are ya...cops? Finders keepers, this is my hazard pay!"

The ranger flat out kills the goon which leads to a morality discussion. Is this an offence worth derangerfication? He was bad but was it immoral. I decided it was morally gray and could be justified but it has sent him down a wrong path. Anyway the party leave the dungeon and camp for the night with no encounters.

5/8/2024 - The party encounter some wild horses but leave them alone. They make it back to camp at night fall and report on the dungeon findings and the location of the wild horses. They will both level but the Cleric will have to travel back to Paradiso to do so, where he can also get the gems and jewelry identified and sold. The ship will not leave for another 5 days and is a week of travel.

Treasure & XP:

Split 50/50

5,000 Gold - 5,000 XP

40 Electrum - 80 XP

1,000 Silver - 50 XP

2 Transparent Stones - 10 Gold - 10 XP

2 Malachite - 100 Gold - 100 XP

1 Amethyst - 100 Gold - 100 XP

1 Aquamarine - 500 Gold - 500 XP

1 Tarnished Fire Opal - 800 Gold - 800 XP

Wrought gold Necklace - 1,500 Gold - 1,500 XP

3 Silver Ring With Gems - 6,000 Gold - 6,000 XP

Gold Ring With Gems - 5,000 Gold - 5,000 XP

Gold Bracelet With Gems - 4,000 Gold - 4,000 XP

Ivory Nose Ring - 300 Gold - 300 XP

2 Jade Necklace - 2,200 Gold - 2,200 XP

Gold Crown with Gems - 6,000 Gold - 6,000 XP

10 Orcs - 146 XP

9 Giant Rats - 66 XP

3 Boring Beetles - 690 XP

1 Shrieker

Rankings:

Ranger - S - Got surprise, tracked enemies, performed amorally gray action.

Cleric - E - Healed and cast sanctuary

Halfling Fighter/Thief - D - Was cut in half by boring beetle.

Magic User - D - Was cut in half by a boring beetle.