The Witch's Hut [session 31]

Adventurer's Present
Bilbo, a hobbit
Orsek, a dwarfley barbarian wizard 
Mossmullet, a dwarfley cleric of winter's bite

Travelling through the swamp, we were set upon by a huge, rubbery man-beast.  It was hungry, hungry for our flesh.  We fought it off until Orsek pointed his Finger of Death at it.  The overcast spell killed the fell monster, which then rose up in a mockery of life under Orsek's dark power.

Then, at long last, we came upon the Hut of Baba Yaga.  It stood upon weird twenty-foot tall trees.  We determined that these trees were probably actually the chicken legs of legend.  Wasting no time, our troll thrall lifted us up to the front door, and then grabbed the legs in the hopes that the hut would not wander off while we explored the interior.  And, lo, what an interior!

The main room was totally normal - a table, fireplace, comfy chair, etc.  Nothing to see here, folks.  We took the stairs up to the attic, opened the door, and that's when things got weird.  We kept a map, but I'm not sure how much use it will be - the geography of the place clearly does not follow any physical laws that we are aware of...

In various rooms, we encountered:

• Ratling guards, who we spoke with until relations broke down.  This did not go well for the ratlings.  Only a few escaped with their lives.
• A golden statue of a seemingly young and beautiful Yaga.  When touched, a fire elemental burst forth and attacked us.  We survived, and stole one of the statue's hands as payment for our troubles.
• Dust mites.  These unfriendly little guys make us cough.
• A tool room being guarded by a wind elemental.  Alas, no golden hands as reward for defeating the foul thing.
• Ratling thieves, who were easily duped.

We will continue on, hoping to find the mistress of the house...

Party Experience Gained 
Combat: 966 each
Exploration: 394 each

Swamp Creatures [session 30]

Adventurer's Present
Bilbo, a hobbit
Orsek, a dwarfley barbarian wizard 
Mossmullet, a dwarfley cleric of winter's bite

Setting off from the ruins of Castle Mukos, the party entered the mire of the great swamps of White Plume Mountain. Their immediate goal was to locate and eliminate the evil witch known as the "Yaga". The trio of Bilbo, Mossmullet and Orsek wandered about the damp and mucky reaches North of the mountain in search of the legendary crone, hoping to end the menace and loot her magical treasures.
 
While they did eventually locate the fearsome Yaga, who was posing naturally enough as a harmless old woman traipsing slowly through the swamplands, their ensuing combat produced no clear victor. After a couple of rounds of mutual spell casting, the Yaga chose to make herself invisible and flee the field of battle. Unable to locate or track her, the adventurers decided to continue to scour the swamps for her (chicken-legged?) abode.
 
The most memorable enemies the group found in the day's travels was a dozen serpent-folk. While it might originally have been possible to limit the interaction to discussion and/or trade, neither side was particularly interested in the conversation. The serpents opined about the obvious tastiness of the hobbit, and refused to lead the heroes to the evil Yaga unless the Ungarts agreed to supply Bilbo to the serpents for a meal. Finding the offer unpalatable and the parlay unproductive, Orsek decided to challenge the lead serpent to a one-on-one duel (naturally, to the death). The serpent chieftain immediately accepted, and the combat began. The creature's battle-prowess was considerable, his bite proved poisonous, and his trident quite pointy. Orsek was nearly defeated, but used some powerfully overcast Chromatic Orbs to finally slay the lead serpent.
 
Despite having given their word to lead the party to the swamp witch should they lose, the serpents merely lead the trio around the endless pathways of the mire while plotting upon their evening hobbit-snack. A nighttime attack by the band of serpents proved ineffective, leading only to five of their tribe dying in the attempt. Undeterred by the obvious difficulty of their prey, the remaining six launched a further ambush the next day. It proved even more disastrous for them than their previous attempt; not a one of them survived.
 
The final encounter of the session was an ambush by a swamp slime. It oozed from the waters, slapping Bilbo into unconsciousness (and partially dissolving his precious silvered fry-pan), putting him in danger of being consumed and digested. Orsek stepped in to do battle with the formless foe, and battled until he too was nearly dead. Picking up their fallen comrade, Mosssmullet and Orsek fled the slime, deciding that the dangerous denizen of the swamps was beyond their current abilities. Retiring for the night, the heroes intend to continue their slow circuit of White Plume Mountain, before proceeding inward and downward into the depths of that dungeon.

Party Experience Gained 
Combat: 587 each
Exploration: 10 each
Plus, Orsek gained 69 as a bonus for dueling the Serpent King
 

Clearing Mukos [session 29]

Adventurer's Present
Bilbo, a hobbit
Orsek, a dwarfley barbarian wizard 
SMASH, a dwarfley cleric of root cellars

We awoke in the dank cave and set out to discover our way out of it.  Not wanting to brave the waters again, and not finding any secret passages, we headed up the stairs we did find, only to find they ended at the bottom of the 60 foot deep pit which we had discovered at the end of the catacombs the day before.

We discussed many crazy plans, but finally settled on SMASH, er, smashing a hole in the grate at the top of the pit with his Phantom Shovel and Bilbo climbing the walls and tying on a rope for everyone to climb up.  This plan would have worked just fine, except Bilbo was mauled by giant rats upon reaching the top of the pit.  The rats messed him up pretty good, but he was able to shimmy down the rope to (what he thought was) relative safety a few feet down from the rats.  Alas, one clever rat found it's way down the rope and viciously attacked him, knocking him senseless and all the way down the pit.  A well-timed Grease spell from Orsek caused the rats to tumble from the grate to their ultimate demise.  The spell-casters survived the rat-and-hobbit rain, revived Bilbo, and we continued on our way.  But not before Orsek replaced his animated Flaming Dead Rat companion...

Our trip out of the castle was largely uneventful.  We found the cemetery; the graves were all disturbed -  some from within, some from without - which was disturbing.  We fought some vampire bats in the small mausoleum, and SMASH recovered an ancient shield with powerful protections against undead, which he now carries (his previous magic shield will bestowed upon Mossmullet when that dwarfley priest returns).

Wanting to test out the new shield, SMASH brashly called out for any nearby zombies.  But his calls were only answered by more giant rats, which proved to be surprisingly tough foes.  But we did eventually defeat them and live to delve another day.

Party Experience Gained 
Combat: 170 each
Exploration: 55 each
Plus, we all gained 17 or 34 experience for clearing the Ruins, depending how many sessions the character participated in 

A Found Map

Here is the map of White Plume Mountain that the adventurers found in the ruins of Castle Mukos:

[click to embiggen]

Perhaps it's not as complete as they thought...

The Ruins of Castle Mukos [session 28]

Adventurer's Present
Bilbo, a hobbit
Mossmullet, a dwarfley cleric of winter's bite
Orsek, a dwarfley barbarian wizard

In the steamy shadow of White Plume Mountain, our (reduced) group of heroes began their initial circuit of the environs around that dread dungeon. Setting out from the relative safety of the Dead Gnoll's Eyesocket, they soon located a ruined castle on the eastern slopes of the mountain. They decided to enter the castle through one of the tumble-down walls toward one end of the jagged ruin. Almost immediately, they were set upon by groups of zombies which seemed to inhabit the place. After defeating those, they located a ghast hiding in some of the rubble of one of the half-crumbled tower. He put up a spirited fight, but proved no match for the questing heroes.

Upon closely examining the tower's central support pillar, the group found a secret stairwell leading down into some catacombs. They naturally had to tour this underground wonderland, to see what could be seen. They found a smashed up wizard’s library. All the books were ruined, but they found a hidden MAP OF THE INTERIOR DUNGEON OF WHITE PLUME MOUNTAIN! SCORE!!! They also fought off about a dozen ghouls, some rats, a swarm of bats, and other attractions of the catacombs. That accomplished, they rested up from their busy day before going even farther down the stairs to some deep caverns.

The next day's exploration of the natural caverns brought the team to a large well room, guarded by some sort of self-acting suit of armor. After bashing this bellicose plate armor into dust, they scouted the depths of the well water with Bilbo's shadow. They found some underwater passages leading to additional caverns. What followed was a risky, and ultimately unsuccessful, plan to swim to those alluring depths. After nearly drowning Mossmullet and Bilbo, they conceded defeat and began to return to the surface. Luckily, an alert hobbit spotted an oddity of the walls in the stairwell, and closer inspection revealed a secret door. Inside was a chest of gold, and one of the previously shadow-scouted caverns. A slight reworking of the prior plan resulted in underwater success! The group made it to the larger submerged cavern, where they again fought off a swarm of vampire bats.

That was enough adventuring for another day, so the exhausted group took another nap. When they awaken, they'll have to finish cleaning out the ruined castle and its subterranean menagerie of undead and uglies. Then they can get on with clearing out the environs of White Plume Mountain.

Party Experience Gained 
Combat: 1503 each
Exploration: 253 each

The Ruins of Castle Mukos

Here is what the adventurers see when they finally make it to what's left of Castle Mukos.

Not very exciting, I know...

Notes from Far Away [session 28]

Adventurer's Present
Bilbo, a hobbit
Mossmullet, a dwarfley cleric of winter's bite
Orsek, a dwarfley barbarian wizard

The adventurers choose to explore the surroundings of White Plume Mountain, and so set forth from the Dead Gnoll’s Eye Socket in a clockwise fashion.

As they are walking down the river bank, they are attacked by a mound of vegetation. The monster loses an arm on Mossmullet’s shield, but then Mossmullet is knocked unconscious and almost killed (he was down to his last Death Save).  But he survives with some lucky rolls and some help from Bilbo. They pursue the shambling monster, and Mossmullet kills it with his mace.

The adventurers make it to the ruins of Castle Mukos. They bash down a door in the side of the ex-castle and attract a swarm of 12 large rats. They oil-fire combo the first half of the rats, then 3 more are killed by Mossmullet. Bilbo uses a single ricocheting rock to kill the rest. Orsek animates a dead burning rat. They then go to the courtyard and find a group of twelve zombies, who are killed easily via the miracle of crits and elbow grease. They go into a tower and encounter more zombies. These are also killed.

Exploring the tower, they find a secret door that leads to a nasty ghast. They dispatch the foul undead, and continue their exploration.  They kill bats in an underground library, then go down through another secret door to find a ladder heading down into the darkest depths.  The flaming rat is thrown down the pit to light their way.  Heading down, they find an offshoot passage with many intersections.  These crypts are filled with ghouls, which our doughty adventurers dispatch.  The crypts lead to a strange occult room with a pit in the middle of it.  Before getting to investigate this fully, they are ambushed by more ghouls.  These too are dispatched post haste.  The pit is blocked with a sturdy grate.  Whatever could be down there?

This question and others will wait till later, as our weary adventurers decide this is a good enough place to rest for the evening.  They set the puppet Charly out with strict instructions to wake them if anything should come down the passage and curl up for some Z's.

[We actually continued playing, but our intrepid reporter figured this was a good place to stop taking notes - it got pretty late...]

Party Experience Gained
Combat: 1503 each
Exploration: 253 each