The players wandered through the dungeon, while making a map. They entered a room with a glowing crystal, and the door closed behind them. When they left the room, they got teleported to a similar place with the room.
They entered through fancy double doors, and there was a high class library with glowing 2 giant glowing red beetles. They entered combat, and they returned successful. They thoroughly searched the library.
They returned to exploring. They found the trick to the teleport room, and began fixing their maps.
Mossmullet got stuck in a cell and they fought some rats in a tool room.
The found a fuel room with some coal gnomes. They found some gold and a smith room. They brutally smashed 2 skeletons. They began to explore a natural cave, but stumbled around while lowering to explore it, so headed back to level one.
They found a demented caterpillar of doom and killed it. They defeated a zombie and went to rest.
18 January 2015
17 January 2015
Getting Not-Lost [session 8]
The group picked up staring at the bodies of the stirges they'd polished off during the last session. Present and participating were cleric SMASH!, fry-pan wielding Rogue Bilbo, elven rogue Red Sphee the Exterminator, Orsek the wizard-barbarian, and Mossmullet, a dim-witted dwarven fighter who wandered in from even-he-didn't-know-where. The group decided to begin attempting to map out their travels in this goblin and monster-infested maze, in an attempt to stop constantly retracing their own footsteps. Surprisingly, this paid great dividends, and the beginnings of a plan to both A) find the kidnapped dwarf, and B) thereafter locate an exit from the maze, began to take form!
Leaving the bodies of the flying pests behind, the intrepid rescuers blazed a path around a few corners until they were beset by a pair of GROUS - Giant Rats Of Unusual Size. Unfortunately, these animal friends were too besotted with ravenous hunger for any friendships to form (or Animal Husbandry to occur), so the group did the murder-death-kill thing.
The explorers next got to employ their weapons against a giant, corner-hogging formation of magical glowing Quartz. While weapons did prove effective in rendering this stone less-lifetastic than they found it, they were still unable to prevent the misbehaving mineral from teleporting them to the domicile of another, veeeery similar chunk of Quartz. And thus the mapping thing got off to a slightly rocky (Score!) start. But the group persevered, and eventually they located themselves back onto the map.
Wandering a bit further afield, a large library was located and cleared of two dog-sized fire beetles. These beasties provided both some fire-glands to our wizard, and a pungent coating of bug-guts to Mossmullet (a fine compliment to his green "do"). A spirited search of the library turned up 2 healing scrolls (which were entrusted to SMASH), lots of splinters of wooden tables, a book about The Life of Cows, and a huge terrarium containing a colony of fire beetles running behind the library walls.
Moving right along, the dwarves & friends company went and located a lovely portcullis trap, which Mossmullet conveniently triggered and got trapped behind. While attempting to free their bumbling companion, the remaining adventurers opened a nearby door, which contained a great store of mining supplies, 1 really nice mace, some rope, a lever to open the portcullis, and 3 starving GROUS. After an exciting and damaging battle which inspired the group to set aside their fry-pans and resort to actual swords and hammers, victory over the GROUS was achieved by the would-be lunchables. It should be noted that Red Sphee the (ex)Terminator lived up to his name, killing all three of the GROUS by stabbing them through the head! The group then freed the dopiest dwarf, and then helped themselves to the spoils in the storeroom: a rope and a crowbar. But not the really nice mace.
It was not long before the group came upon the smithy-center of this mysterious maze. The coal room provided our height-challenged heroes with the opportunity to tower over some even smaller sentient humanoids - 4 bound coal-gnomes. These little fellows were less than a foot tall, bound and gagged, and left in a barrel (which was presumably going to be shipped to some exotic destination, so the little guys could be used as props for Travelocity). The looming adventurers opted to free them, requiring only that the gnomes lead them to the treasure in the nearby smithy before decisively foreswearing the chance to die-cast the little fellows in molten iron. Because they're the good guys.
It wasn't long before some shrieking skeletons arrived to stab some of the party within a hairs-breadth of unconsciousness/death, which quickly inspired our heroes to set aside the sharps and resort back to the fry-pans again. Some effective SMASHing occurred, and the oddity of "Second Wind" ability allowed Mossmullet to reclaim his spleen and return it to its usual location inside his body. Then they explored the 3' hole in the floor, which turned out to be 30 or 40' deep, and led to a...whole...nother...level. Of caverns. Which was briefly explored (sort of twice, kinda) by SMASH before it was decided to save that level for another session, as the hour grew late.
Deciding to map out juuust a little bit more, the group returned to the land of many 10x10' rooms. However, only 4 or 5 of these small-but-pointless rooms led the heroes to the maze's trash-stash, where they were beset by a creepy carrion crawler centipede. Missile weapons were deployed, including arrows, axes and freeze-rays, but the monster still managed to down SMASH with a paralyzing poisonous tentacle, before group finished it off with melee weapons. That accomplished, SMASH recovered from his injury while an autopsy of the centipede rendered up four 100gp-sized gems, a one-use paralyzing whip-tentacle, and two doses worth of poison from the bug's glands. Meanwhile, the two rogues went looking for trouble around a corner...and found it! A zombie followed them back to the group, but was quickly dispatched when Orsek beheaded the foul brain-eater.
The adventurers then went into one of the nearby 10x10' rooms, wedged the doors shut with pitons, and finally rested for the night. At least one will awaken to a whole...nother...level!
Leaving the bodies of the flying pests behind, the intrepid rescuers blazed a path around a few corners until they were beset by a pair of GROUS - Giant Rats Of Unusual Size. Unfortunately, these animal friends were too besotted with ravenous hunger for any friendships to form (or Animal Husbandry to occur), so the group did the murder-death-kill thing.
The explorers next got to employ their weapons against a giant, corner-hogging formation of magical glowing Quartz. While weapons did prove effective in rendering this stone less-lifetastic than they found it, they were still unable to prevent the misbehaving mineral from teleporting them to the domicile of another, veeeery similar chunk of Quartz. And thus the mapping thing got off to a slightly rocky (Score!) start. But the group persevered, and eventually they located themselves back onto the map.
Wandering a bit further afield, a large library was located and cleared of two dog-sized fire beetles. These beasties provided both some fire-glands to our wizard, and a pungent coating of bug-guts to Mossmullet (a fine compliment to his green "do"). A spirited search of the library turned up 2 healing scrolls (which were entrusted to SMASH), lots of splinters of wooden tables, a book about The Life of Cows, and a huge terrarium containing a colony of fire beetles running behind the library walls.
Moving right along, the dwarves & friends company went and located a lovely portcullis trap, which Mossmullet conveniently triggered and got trapped behind. While attempting to free their bumbling companion, the remaining adventurers opened a nearby door, which contained a great store of mining supplies, 1 really nice mace, some rope, a lever to open the portcullis, and 3 starving GROUS. After an exciting and damaging battle which inspired the group to set aside their fry-pans and resort to actual swords and hammers, victory over the GROUS was achieved by the would-be lunchables. It should be noted that Red Sphee the (ex)Terminator lived up to his name, killing all three of the GROUS by stabbing them through the head! The group then freed the dopiest dwarf, and then helped themselves to the spoils in the storeroom: a rope and a crowbar. But not the really nice mace.
It was not long before the group came upon the smithy-center of this mysterious maze. The coal room provided our height-challenged heroes with the opportunity to tower over some even smaller sentient humanoids - 4 bound coal-gnomes. These little fellows were less than a foot tall, bound and gagged, and left in a barrel (which was presumably going to be shipped to some exotic destination, so the little guys could be used as props for Travelocity). The looming adventurers opted to free them, requiring only that the gnomes lead them to the treasure in the nearby smithy before decisively foreswearing the chance to die-cast the little fellows in molten iron. Because they're the good guys.
It wasn't long before some shrieking skeletons arrived to stab some of the party within a hairs-breadth of unconsciousness/death, which quickly inspired our heroes to set aside the sharps and resort back to the fry-pans again. Some effective SMASHing occurred, and the oddity of "Second Wind" ability allowed Mossmullet to reclaim his spleen and return it to its usual location inside his body. Then they explored the 3' hole in the floor, which turned out to be 30 or 40' deep, and led to a...whole...nother...level. Of caverns. Which was briefly explored (sort of twice, kinda) by SMASH before it was decided to save that level for another session, as the hour grew late.
Deciding to map out juuust a little bit more, the group returned to the land of many 10x10' rooms. However, only 4 or 5 of these small-but-pointless rooms led the heroes to the maze's trash-stash, where they were beset by a creepy carrion crawler centipede. Missile weapons were deployed, including arrows, axes and freeze-rays, but the monster still managed to down SMASH with a paralyzing poisonous tentacle, before group finished it off with melee weapons. That accomplished, SMASH recovered from his injury while an autopsy of the centipede rendered up four 100gp-sized gems, a one-use paralyzing whip-tentacle, and two doses worth of poison from the bug's glands. Meanwhile, the two rogues went looking for trouble around a corner...and found it! A zombie followed them back to the group, but was quickly dispatched when Orsek beheaded the foul brain-eater.
The adventurers then went into one of the nearby 10x10' rooms, wedged the doors shut with pitons, and finally rested for the night. At least one will awaken to a whole...nother...level!
13 December 2014
Session 7
The party FINALLY entered the dread halls of Quasqueton...
They were threatened by some Magic Mouths, but were unimpressed.
They came across the remains of some previous explorers who had not fared well. Corpses were strewn about an intersection of corridors. When examined, some of these attacked! But the zombies were defeated.
They took the left passage, which after a bit, turned left again. After another while, they came to a passage on their left with a secret door. They followed it, coming to a T intersection. They turned right. And promptly exited Quasqueton they way they had come in!
They re-entered the dungeon. And this time they learned their lesson. No, not the one about mapping being a good idea, but at least that three lefts and a right equal a U turn...
Wandering the halls, they encountered:
They were threatened by some Magic Mouths, but were unimpressed.
They came across the remains of some previous explorers who had not fared well. Corpses were strewn about an intersection of corridors. When examined, some of these attacked! But the zombies were defeated.
They took the left passage, which after a bit, turned left again. After another while, they came to a passage on their left with a secret door. They followed it, coming to a T intersection. They turned right. And promptly exited Quasqueton they way they had come in!
They re-entered the dungeon. And this time they learned their lesson. No, not the one about mapping being a good idea, but at least that three lefts and a right equal a U turn...
Wandering the halls, they encountered:
- An abandoned dining room
- An abandoned kitchen
- An abaondend lounge, with a large statue and a giant poisonous spider! Which was defeated.
- Winding passages
- Many small empty rooms
- A small room with an orc guarding a pie. Attempts to trick the orc into giving them the pie were tragically unsuccessful, and combat was joined. The orc was slain and the pie taken.
- More winding passages
- Some wandering zombies. Don't forget to make sure they're really dead...
- Three guest rooms. One of which housed several orcs. The dirty orcs were slain. Alas, the dungeon pie was lost in the scuffle. Another lesson learned: climbing into bed with a bunch of dead orcs can result in a bad case of Dungeon Funk. Unpleasant, but not fatal or even crippling (this time at least).
- Still more winding passages. Still no mapping, though.
- Some horrbile mosquito-bats. But they were easily defeated.
06 December 2014
On the way to Quasqueton... [session 6]
We met Frank and Jones, a two-headed giant. They wanted dwarf for breakfast. They got death.
Then we were ambushed (unsuccessfully) by some bumbling goblins. The smallest goblin was so bumbling that he took out two of his comrades himself. We spared his life and he joined our party. His name was Filip.
Alas, the goat men that we ran into after that seemed to be dread enemies of the goblins. There was some confusion about whether Filip was our friend or our prisoner. Filip ran away and the goat men attacked. Robin chased after Filip, Wolfy chased after Robin, while Bilbo, Red Spy, Orsek and SMASH battled the goat men despite being outnumbered. And that battle did not go well. Wolfy ran back and forth between trying to help Robin and healing fallen adventurers. But, finally, the four were victorious. Beaten and bruised we continued on, our new 'friend' Filip still in our midst...
At least until our next encounter with goat men, right in the shadow of Quasqueton. These goat men immediately attacked Filip, slaying him with expertly thrown hand axes. Should we avenge him? We were hurt, our spell and healing resources sorely depleted. Surely retreat was the prudent option. Red and Bilbo did just that. But Robin and Wolfy were enraged and charged into battle. Orsek and SMASH wouldn't let their allies fight alone. When Bilbo and Red saw their friends in battle, their retreat became a wide flanking maneuver. Tragically, by the time they got around, the goat men had downed all four who had fought, and had even slain Orsek's faithful hound, Ripper. Luckily, the savage goat men had disappeared back into the woods after their savage victory. Bilbo and Red bandaged up their fallen comrades, and we all made camp for the night to heal up.
Tomorrow we enter the dungeon of Quasqueton!
Then we were ambushed (unsuccessfully) by some bumbling goblins. The smallest goblin was so bumbling that he took out two of his comrades himself. We spared his life and he joined our party. His name was Filip.
Alas, the goat men that we ran into after that seemed to be dread enemies of the goblins. There was some confusion about whether Filip was our friend or our prisoner. Filip ran away and the goat men attacked. Robin chased after Filip, Wolfy chased after Robin, while Bilbo, Red Spy, Orsek and SMASH battled the goat men despite being outnumbered. And that battle did not go well. Wolfy ran back and forth between trying to help Robin and healing fallen adventurers. But, finally, the four were victorious. Beaten and bruised we continued on, our new 'friend' Filip still in our midst...
At least until our next encounter with goat men, right in the shadow of Quasqueton. These goat men immediately attacked Filip, slaying him with expertly thrown hand axes. Should we avenge him? We were hurt, our spell and healing resources sorely depleted. Surely retreat was the prudent option. Red and Bilbo did just that. But Robin and Wolfy were enraged and charged into battle. Orsek and SMASH wouldn't let their allies fight alone. When Bilbo and Red saw their friends in battle, their retreat became a wide flanking maneuver. Tragically, by the time they got around, the goat men had downed all four who had fought, and had even slain Orsek's faithful hound, Ripper. Luckily, the savage goat men had disappeared back into the woods after their savage victory. Bilbo and Red bandaged up their fallen comrades, and we all made camp for the night to heal up.
Tomorrow we enter the dungeon of Quasqueton!
07 November 2014
Session 5 notes
Some quick bullet points of what happened:
- Red Spy continued reading the wizard's journal - of note was that the goat men were increasingly hostile, to beware the thing in the pool's kiss, and that Charly was getting hungrier and hungrier.
- They finished exploring the wizard's tower. They found his bedroom (with a few gold pieces in a chest), and a puppet theater. Some odd puppets were gathered by the adventurers, including Charly - who, when fed a gold piece, comes alive. No matter how many times he was asked, Charly seemed to know nothing, but would do one task for the person feeding him.
- They left the tower locked, with the key back under the mat. All told, they took from the tower: a couple of the books from the library, a few jars of pickles, a couple of the puppets (including Charly), the gold, a frying pan and a walking stick.
- After about an hour walk down the river, they found the wizard Franklin. He was dead by the river, his head bashed in and his spellbook ruined. They left without disturbing him further.
- At night, it started to rain, so they took shelter in a cave and were promptly attacked by stalactites hurling themselves off the ceiling at them. The battle was long, but ultimately our heroes were victorious.
- In the morning, they explored the cave. Red Spy was immediately attacked and knocked unconscious by a trash monster. His friends were able to defeat the monster and save him. They continued on, to meet...
- ...Korsso, the last of the Sleestaks. The tiny pale fellow is clearly insane. And will eat anything. But friendly enough - he even introduced them to his pet: a horrifying tentacle-headed serpent. The serpent did not like the adventurers one bit, but did not eat them when Korsso asked it not to. Korsso told them there was a shrine in the next cavern over.
- And sure enough, there was a shrine to Qurgan Quagnar, the deformed god of three-legged toads. Many of the party left gold piece tributes to this fell being. Wolfy also left the wizard's walking stick. Will placating the Curmudgeon God bring them weal or woe?...
- With the caves fully explored, our adventurers continued along the river towards Quasqueton.
11 October 2014
Session 4
After much discussion of how much food to buy, the adventurers set off toward Quasqueton. They chose to follow the river. Despite this being a longer route, they figured it would be harder for them to get lost. Also, the unmarked tower 1/3 of the way there beckoned them...
The day of travel was largely uneventful. SMASH did some fishing to supplement their food supplies at lunchtime. A pair of goat-men were seen across the river. A single spell and a flask of oil were thrown at them. They responded with a spear. No serious damage was done by either party. Jeff took this opportunity to run ahead of the party. When actual words were used between the groups, the goat-men simply asked if the party were in cahoots with the bug-men, and apparently were satisfied with the noncommittal answer Red Spy gave, because they then disappeared back into the woods from whence they came. Jeff had only made it a couple hundred yards up the river, so the party was once more united.
As nightfall approached, they made it to the tower. It had no door. After much searching, they discovered the door in the woods nearby. It was painted green with a dragon-head door knocker. The welcome mat read "Please Go Away." After knocking and calling out, they checked the door. It was locked, but the wily rogue Bilbo thought to look under the mat for a key (he totally wasn't prodded by the DM). It was there! They entered the tower.
A long passage stretched before them. There was a door on the left. They cautiously opened it to find a cloak room, full of cloaks. And boots. And a walking staff. Smash picked up the staff, and then put it back. They left the cloaks and galoshes undisturbed and continued on.
The next door was on the right. It was a work room. Containing a work table and a bunch of tables. Boring! They continued on.
Next they came to a long staircase down. They went down the stairs to find themselves in a sitting room with a fireplace. There were two other doors leaving the room as well as two tapestries hanging on the walls. One tapestry showed a unicorn feast, the other a wizard (named Franklin) standing proudly on a hill. Investigating the room, they were attacked by hungry stirges living in the chimney. Orsek had some blood drawn, but the the little blood-suckers were handily defeated.
One of the doors led to a study. Orsek and SMASH found some interesting books, while Red Spy and Bilbo investigated the desk. Jeff took this opportunity to head upstairs to see what else could be found. In the locked desk (the key was under the carpet), they found a diary which told of a thing in a pool that always tells the truth, and that the goat-men were becoming increasingly unfriendly. The other door led to a store room full of pickles.
Jeff found a kitchen upstairs, but did not enter. He then found the main parlor with more stairs headed down, a ladder heading up, some couches and a large painting of a wizard stating proudly on a hill. He climbed the ladder and enjoyed the view from the roof. Had the DM been a little more on top of it, a beautiful sunset would have been described.
While Jeff enjoyed the view, the rest of the party looked behind the tapestries in the fireplace room. A secret door was found! It lead to a room with a bubbling pool. Only the pool had mouths, and the bubbles were eyes. Yikes! The party realized that by giving the thing pickles, it would answer their questions. Kind of - the answers are hard to make out because all the mouths talk at once, and some seem to be saying gibberish. The adventurers asked it some questions about the rumors of Quasqueton and also some other questions:
*At some point during the questioning, Bilbo went up to the kitchen to get a frying pan and was attacked by rats. At no point during the questioning was Red Spy attacked by goat men.
Jeff went for a late night run, realized he couldn't make it the two day journey to Quasqueton that night, so returned. Everyone then went to sleep in the parlor (the couches are quite comfortable), leaving the elves to keep watch on the un-explored staircase and the remaining rats in the kitchen.
The day of travel was largely uneventful. SMASH did some fishing to supplement their food supplies at lunchtime. A pair of goat-men were seen across the river. A single spell and a flask of oil were thrown at them. They responded with a spear. No serious damage was done by either party. Jeff took this opportunity to run ahead of the party. When actual words were used between the groups, the goat-men simply asked if the party were in cahoots with the bug-men, and apparently were satisfied with the noncommittal answer Red Spy gave, because they then disappeared back into the woods from whence they came. Jeff had only made it a couple hundred yards up the river, so the party was once more united.
As nightfall approached, they made it to the tower. It had no door. After much searching, they discovered the door in the woods nearby. It was painted green with a dragon-head door knocker. The welcome mat read "Please Go Away." After knocking and calling out, they checked the door. It was locked, but the wily rogue Bilbo thought to look under the mat for a key (he totally wasn't prodded by the DM). It was there! They entered the tower.
A long passage stretched before them. There was a door on the left. They cautiously opened it to find a cloak room, full of cloaks. And boots. And a walking staff. Smash picked up the staff, and then put it back. They left the cloaks and galoshes undisturbed and continued on.
The next door was on the right. It was a work room. Containing a work table and a bunch of tables. Boring! They continued on.
Next they came to a long staircase down. They went down the stairs to find themselves in a sitting room with a fireplace. There were two other doors leaving the room as well as two tapestries hanging on the walls. One tapestry showed a unicorn feast, the other a wizard (named Franklin) standing proudly on a hill. Investigating the room, they were attacked by hungry stirges living in the chimney. Orsek had some blood drawn, but the the little blood-suckers were handily defeated.
One of the doors led to a study. Orsek and SMASH found some interesting books, while Red Spy and Bilbo investigated the desk. Jeff took this opportunity to head upstairs to see what else could be found. In the locked desk (the key was under the carpet), they found a diary which told of a thing in a pool that always tells the truth, and that the goat-men were becoming increasingly unfriendly. The other door led to a store room full of pickles.
Jeff found a kitchen upstairs, but did not enter. He then found the main parlor with more stairs headed down, a ladder heading up, some couches and a large painting of a wizard stating proudly on a hill. He climbed the ladder and enjoyed the view from the roof. Had the DM been a little more on top of it, a beautiful sunset would have been described.
While Jeff enjoyed the view, the rest of the party looked behind the tapestries in the fireplace room. A secret door was found! It lead to a room with a bubbling pool. Only the pool had mouths, and the bubbles were eyes. Yikes! The party realized that by giving the thing pickles, it would answer their questions. Kind of - the answers are hard to make out because all the mouths talk at once, and some seem to be saying gibberish. The adventurers asked it some questions about the rumors of Quasqueton and also some other questions:
- Is Nuno Rockhead in Quasqueton? certainly, goat, golden
- Will you attack us? muskrat, not
- Who are the goat men? husbands, crimson, face
- Who is Franklin? wizard, frying pan
- Where is Franklin? river, bludgeon
- Did someone named Bilbo just get attacked by rats?* yes, pickle
- Who are you? ichor, thing, speaks
- Do you know anything about Quasqueton? I, know, toenail
- Did Red Spy just get attacked by goat men?* negative, pickle
- Did Franklin make Quasqueton? [buzzing sound], squid
- What is your name? the, speaks, that, housekeeping
- Does a magical rock within Quasqueton grant a wish to anyone who chips off a piece and puts it in their mouth? are, ink, no!, you
- Is Quasqueton's trophy room filled with battle relics and slain monsters? affirmative, pickle
- Are there are untold treasures hidden in a pool of water in Quasqueton? nope, pools, pretzel, valuable
- Is there a gem as big as a giant's fist in Quasqueton? most, not, vermillion
- Is there a room on the first level of Quasqueton that has many pools of water? certainly, pickle
*At some point during the questioning, Bilbo went up to the kitchen to get a frying pan and was attacked by rats. At no point during the questioning was Red Spy attacked by goat men.
Jeff went for a late night run, realized he couldn't make it the two day journey to Quasqueton that night, so returned. Everyone then went to sleep in the parlor (the couches are quite comfortable), leaving the elves to keep watch on the un-explored staircase and the remaining rats in the kitchen.
05 October 2014
Quasqueton
Some rumors the adventurers have heard about where they are headed.
- A magical rock within Quasqueton grants a wish to anyone who chips off a piece and puts it in their mouth.
- Even the walls of Quasqueton speak to visitors.
- Quasqueton has two levels.
- Quasqueton is still guarded by its original guards.
- Quasqueton's trophy room is filled with battle relics and slain monsters.
- Quasqueton was never finished being built.
- Quasqueton was built by orc slaves, and they are still in there.
- There are untold treasures hidden in a pool of water in Quasqueton.
- There is a gem as big as a giant's fist in Quasqueton.
- There is a room on the first level of Quasqueton that has many pools of water.
- There is a wizard's workshop in Quasqueton.
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