Leaner and Meaner [session 14]

Adventurers Present

Bilbo - hobbitish rogue

Mossmullet - dwarfley (now) cleric

Orsek - dwarfley barbarian wizard

Red Shpee - elfin rogue

Wilfred Fizzlebang - gnomic (now) paladin 

As the group returned to the business of clearing out the infested caverns of Quasqueton, they found themselves slightly fewer in numbers than before.  Fortunately, they were also more focused on the tasks at hand and all immediately set off in pursuit of Jonesy the ratling (rat king?).  They tracked him through the bat cave by his footprints, and discovered they suspiciously ended at a wall.  Not surprisingly, a secret door was discovered.  Then more secret doors were revealed, leading to the discovery of the Rat King’s Treasure!  And that two-faced rodent-man, Jonesy.
 
Confronting and chastising the duplicitous ratling, the group ordered him to open one of the three treasure chests in the room.  They chose to mostly ignore the two oddly-lifelike statues which were also visibly present, or to do any further investigation of the room.  Which proved to be a mistake, because suddenly 4 more ratlings appeared, the 2 statues came to life, and all concerned attacked!  Except the slippery Jonesy, of course, who once again beat a hasty retreat in the face of danger.  He is a scavenger, after all, not a predator.
 
The battle went well for the group, with only 1 person being pummeled into unconsciousness (I’m fairly sure that’s better than average) before the beasts were all slain.  Even the discretion-oriented Jonesy met his maker, his escape thwarted this time by Red and Mossmullet.  The statues proved rather hardy, each coming back from unconsciousness/death one time, before being battered into dusty debris.  The bad guys (or at least former owners) of this cavern handily dispatched, the party turned to counting the loot.
 
And what loot it was!  In addition to well over 300 gp in coin and gewgaws, the party got its first magic item!!!  A wonderful, glowing +1 shield was discovered!  Fizzlebang, being the group’s lone character dedicated to fighter-type activities, claimed the wondrous prize.  As large as he is (the fellow’s a gnome), Fizzlebang secured his flanks from all danger as he strapped it to his back.  Huzzah!
 
That’s when the Sleestacks chose to locate the adventuring party again, and offer their thanks for killing off the goblinoid invaders.  Or maybe just to tell the party it was time to get gone?  But a critically successful attempt to influence the lizardlings resulted in them fixing and filling out the party’s map for them.  Huzzah again!
 
The party then went exploring again, newly armed with their superior info.  They navigated themselves to a natural amphitheater baited with a stack of gems!  There were 10 of the bright, shiny objects, and the acquisitive gleaming proved too much to resist.  The 12 stirges which attacked the group, however, did not.  They were resisted successfully, dying loud and bloody deaths and splattering the group with extracted gnome-blood (which is apparently the flavor of candied walnuts?).

The gems were interesting, primarily for the involving and interactive manner in which the players got to roll for each gem’s value.  In an inspired use of his previously-earned Inspiration, Orsek attempted to kick-start the group’s fortunes by substituting a 30-sided die for a 6-sided valuation roll.  While the unfortunate roll didn’t bear much fruit, the thought and planning behind it were appreciated and admired by all…who stood to gain from it.  Seriously!
 
The group took a long rest, and then ventured over to the FORBIDDEN ROOM.  Opening the door to the crescent-shaped FORBIDDEN ROOM, the party found…wait for it…two gold pieces, sitting stacked one upon the other, smack-dab in the middle of the floor.  Not at all suspicious.  But…once again the shininess and the goldiness proved too much for the avaricious adventurers.  The brown ooze which dropped from the ceiling, barely missing Fizzlebang’s head, came as, well, not exactly a surprise.  What did surprise the group, you ask?  Three things:  1) the ooze was immune to pointy damage (shocker), 2) cutting the ooze resulted in two smaller oozes to kill (OK, slightly shocking), and 3) literally shocking the ooze was completely ineffective (shocking!  Or, not shocking?  Un-shocked?).  The putrid pseudopodia scored a brutal acid-bath bashing blow on everyone’s favorite gnome, thus illuminating why the Sleestacks memorialized their disinclination to visit.  Thereafter, Orsek and Mossmullet’s cold spells helped to crystallize and damage the grungy gunk, and blunt fry-pans brought the encounter (and the session) to a close.  In a final moment of soul-searching introspection, Fizzlebang allowed that there might have been good reason for the cavern to be named FORBIDDEN.
 
Next up – the Pool of Water!  Exciting!  Or at least wet!

Party Experience Gained
Combat:  150 each
Exploration:  150 each

Session 14

Adventurers Present

Bilbo - hobbitish rogue

Mossmullet - dwarfley (now) cleric

Orsek - dwarfley barbarian wizard

Red Shpee - elfin rogue

Wilfred Fizzlebang - gnomic (now) paladin 

The adventurers, with their bodies aching and their minds angered, discussed a plan to find the traitor, Jonesy. They found footsteps in the grime, following them down a cave. They hit a wall, but knew that they could keep travelling, for the cost of teleportation was too high for a simple cave ratling. They found a secret door, and they kept forging on. They found two secret doors, and one had statues and chests behind it. Before checking the other one, they decided to loot the chests. Before they could, the statues began to attack and ratlings flooded in to take their revenge, all of them while Jonesy was hiding behind a chest. They defeated the vermin and their large figurines, including Jonesy as he tried to flee.

They decided to use the second secret door, but they found themselves in a room that they recognized. They were discovered by the sleestacks, who were friendly and gave them a map. They discussed where they would go next using the map.

They decided on the Hall of Eggs, where they found several gems and were attacked by stirges, which they defeated. They took a long rest then travelled to the Forbidden Door. They found two gold coins, which they decided to pick up. Suddenly they were attacked by a slimy cube. This monster, too, they bested in combat.

Party Experience Gained
Combat:  150 each
Exploration:  150 each

The Eight Points of Chaos [unlucky session 13]

So.  There were eight heroes who awoke in Quasqeton.  Eight characters trying to pick the best direction to adventure.  Eight voices fighting to be heard.  In short, a cacophony.  Thus started the day, and the chaos rarely clarified.

Still, progress was made.  Leaving the security of the secret door-ledge guardroom, the party happened upon a wandering carrion crawler.  The mob of adventurers made short work of it, and scored a happy windfall of visceral jewelry upon dissecting the disgusting beast.  Then it was back across the pit-trap, and on into uncharted territory.  A large cavern contained a giant spider, which Robinhood slew with a well-placed arrow [editor's note: i think this was actually a well-placed javelin thrown by the party gnome, Wilfred].  A horde of seven screaming skeletons then descended upon the group, and a general melee ensued.  Sadly, the party forgot their previous hard-won knowledge about the futility of trying to stabby-pointy a fleshless construction of bones, so the combat went less-well than it should have.  Eventually, however, the undead had their “un”s bashed into dust, thus returning them to a more properly dead state.

From there, the group followed Mossmullet’s misguided musings that, since the dungeon was only rumored to have two levels, taking the passage which went down (rather than one of the two which remained level) would likely lead to a quicker off-shoot of the caverns.  That advice proved quite wrong, as they found the largest cavern yet (which is reportedly filled with bats).  Exploring brought them to a low-roofed passage inhabited by four rat-folk.  Some pointless discussion devolved into threats and then blows, and the rattlings were quickly subdued.  But not before Robinhood inexplicably attempted to bite one of them while in combat (perhaps he’s rabid?  Should we be concerned?).  The lone surviving critter begged for mercy, promising to show the group the “rat-king’s treasure”.  The heroes decided that the survivor deserved some leniency for ratting out his king, at least until the treasure was in hand.  But the dirty rat led them into a rat-trap instead!  Attacking in groups, seven giant rats beset the adventuring party.  Meanwhile, the ratting ratling slipped out through a rat hole, and made good his escape.  The party defeated the rats, and explored another cavern filled with columns and not much else.   And thus ended the slowest of dungeon crawls to date, notable primarily for endless debate, disarming a shrieking skeleton, attempting nibbling on a murderous ratling, and a general disorganized shamble of an exploration.

But great minds are already working upon a top-down reorganization of the mob of dopey do-gooders, and forming them into a more efficiently effective team.  Hopes remain high that the reign of cacophony, chaos and confusion will come to an end, and be replaced by motion, direction and leadership.  And if not, well, it was still fun, and there really isn’t any great urgency in getting to whatever awaits us at…White Plume Mountain!
   

Area Map

Here, at long last, is the map of the area we are adventuring in.  Sorry I can't draw.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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And, if you really want it, here's an even bigger version (brace yourself, it's close to 5 mb) suitable for printing.

The Treasure Map!

The adventurer's finally recovered Nuno's treasure map, and it has a poem written on the back.  Here they are:

[click to embiggen]

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Seek & Destroy [session 12]

Bilbo, Mossmullet, Orsek, Red Shpee, and Wilfred Fizzlebang set off into the heavy forest in pursuit of the fleeing goblinoids.  They used their many skills and abilities to chase down first one group of goblins & spiders, and then another.   There was also evidence (in the form of deceased corpses) that the woods are alive with goat men, who are attacking the goblins on multiple occasions.

The first group of refugee goblinoids consisted of 4 goblins, a bugbear, and 2 giant spiders.  Bilbo and Orsek launched into destruction mode, slaying all 4 goblins and grievously wounding the bugbear in fairly short order.  A group effort was required to finish off the spiders, while the bugbear continued on the fight for multiple rounds, the last goblinoid standing.  Eventually, Fizzlebang Chilled him right into the grave, ending his life despite the fact he still had so much to live for.  In a rather grizzly but ultimately fortunate turn of events, Orsek took the goblin captain's head as a memento of the encounter.  (This came in useful later, when the group happened upon a couple of the goat people who live in this strange forest.  Presenting the decapitated goblin head, the party was able to charm their way out of any violent encounter with the restless natives.)

The heroes were briefly confused when investigation revealed no continuing path to follow.  But a little back-tracking and successful tracking revealed that another group had split away (with the heavy object the group was dragging).  So the intrepid party of five continued on, avoiding spider web traps and walking into a rear-guard of 2 goblins armed with shortbows.  The battle began, with goblins shooting Bilbo, and then stabbing Fizzlebang to (near) death before being taken down by arrows and chilling spells.

After a quick regroup and healing of Fizzlebang, the group then set off after the final grouping of goblin folk.  They were eventually located, as the group came upon them in a clearing.  However, the long-anticipated final showdown with the big goblin boss did not play out as the group had anticipated; even as the group surged into the clearing to take on their goblin foes, all concerned were confronted with...a green dragon!  Before any member of the group could so much as sneeze, the dragon breathed a cone of poison gas upon their erstwhile prey, immediately killing the lesser goblins and damaging the bugbear bossman to the point of driving him into a killing fury.  The bugbear then charged the dragon, and the group was treated to these two deadly enemies waging war upon each other!

While these mighty monsters made mutual melee, the heroes had the luxury of picking which target to punish first.  They wisely chose to attack the dragon, while letting the bugbear serve as a proxy victim for the dragon’s deadly attentions.  Arrows, spells and even some desperate unarmed grappling by Orsek ensued.  "I will lose (g)no(me) more, I’ve already lost too many!"  Orsek yelled at the dragon, in an inspired fit of (unintentional?) punning.  Gnome Fizzlebang smartly skirted the skirmish, and instead turned his attentions to recovering and safeguarding the bug-boss’s discarded treasure chest.  As Orsek grappled and choked the young wyrmling, many spells and weapons proved ineffective against its draconic defenses.  The bugbear, possibly coming to his senses and smelling certain defeat in the air, took to his heals and surrendered the battlefield to the others present, taking his pet spider with him.  The embattled dragon took to the air, first shaking Orsek off and throwing him for a fall, and then turning his deadly-bad breath against the Ungart cousins.  Thankfully, the dwarven resilience allowed them to survive the deadly oral attentions, and a further round of moderately painful attacks convinced the young dragon to turn and run.  Well, more "fly" than actually "run".  As the beast attempted to flee, and gust of Varga’s windy will proved effective in preventing the flying fiend’s untimely departure.  With a final heroic effort, the party managed to slay the slippery serpent.  Which actually exposed a potentially fatal flaw in the group’s plan: the dragon nearly fell upon Mossmullet (shout out to Orsek for a dashing flying tackle/save!), and did fall upon Fizzlebang.  Crushing him to (again near) death.  The surviving party members pulled Fizzlebang from under the downed dragon, and Sparing the Dying and Cure Wounds brought the wizard back to the world of the living.

Taking only the time for some quick victory discussion, and to scoop up the treasure from the goblins' chest, the intrepid adventurers set out after their fled bugbear foe.  Although tired, injured and dangerously short on ammunition, the heroes caught and killed the hapless bugbear, who’d stumbled into yet another encounter with the indigenous goat-men of the forest.  The goat folk appreciated the groups spirited sacking of their mortal goblinoid enemies, and allowed the party to recover the fabled Treasure Map from the deceased bugbear’s corpse, and to dismember the dragon for trinkets and trophies, before (somewhat pointedly) escorting them out of their woodland retreat.

And so the party returned once more to the tunnels of Quasqueton, where they settled in once more for a long and well-earned rest.  They examined their booty, and discovered good value in the gems and gold from the chest, as well as a glowing ruby with unknown magical properties (which they can hopefully suss out with sufficient examination).

Thus ended the immediate quests which had brought the heroes so far from their comfortable homes and civilized surrounds, and out into the dangerous forests and caverns.  But with Nuno's Map in hand, and a half-explored dungeon still awaiting their explorations, it seems clear that the group’s adventures are far from complete...

   
   

Some Impressive Combat [session 12]

The brave heroes chased the goblins escaping the caves of Quasqueton.  The goblins split up, and naturally the adventurers followed the wrong bunch.  After they defeated those goblins (splitters!), they backtracked and caught up to the head goblin.  At the same time as a horse-sized green dragon did!

Wisely, the adventurers let the two of them wear each other down before joining the fray.  When the Big Bad goblin decided discretion was the better part of valor and beat feet, the dragon turned it's attentions toward our adventurers.

The dragon opened with its deadly poisonous breath.  Luckily it targeted the hardy dwarfs with their poison resistance, and there were no casualties.

The battle continued and Orsek jumped on the dragon, attempting to grab its mouth, alligator-wrestling style.  This was surprisingly effective when the clumsy dragon tried to claw off the pesky dwarf and ended up hitting itself instead.  The dragon took flight, and finally managed to knock Orsek off (he survived the fall).

The rogues got some sneaky ranged attacks in and, feeling they had the upper hand, they didn’t want their 'prey' to escape - the adventurers had to think fast.  Mossmullet called up a Gust of Wind to blow the dragon back down towards our short heroes.  Wilfred Fizzlebang cast a Tenser's Floating Disc and hid under it (he was hurt.  And first level).  Orsek jumped on on the Floating Disc, and was able to just reach the dragon with his great axe to deal the killing blow!  But now they faced a falling draconic corpse...

Orsek dove off of the Disc, knocking Mossmullet out of the way.  Alas, Wilfred was not so lucky.  The dragon fell on the no-longer-floating Disc, crushing the poor gnomish mage into unconsciousness.  A little bit of healing magic can go a long way, so the little guy survived to cast spells another day.

They tracked down the Giant Goblin Leader, slayed him and took back Nuno's treasure map as well as his chest of gold (and one spell scroll - i bet that Grease spell is going to come in super-handy).  They were then escorted back to Quasqueton by some not-quite-friendly goatmen (with a stop at the dragon corpse to pick up some grisly trophies) for some well-earned shuteye.