It’s been a while since my first table tale, but time for another one. For background, see the previous session and my blog posts, starting here.
Reminder: the cast, all first level:
- Gergran, a dwarf Paladin of the church of Ixian
- Isilya, a half-elf Grave domain Cleric of the church of Khoronus, associated with the Chardastes wing of the temple
- Navarre, a high elf transmutation wizard
- Gil, a human swashbuckler
- Atlos, a human divine soul sorcerer with one arm
The Sessions
Moldain, 11th Sviftmont 998 (continued)
Having killed the worms which attacked the marketplace, the characters (the random set of heroes who were in the marketplace when the attack occurred and reacted) followed a mysterious small hooded character down through the cellars under an inn to abandoned chambers underneath the market. They had explored the cavern part way, and Gergran had just dealt with an alchemist’s fire booby-trap above a door.
The room they went into smelled really bad, and a couple of points of light on the opposite side of the room briefly reflected their lights, then disappeared. Investigation showed cracked mortar between the stones, and the smell was particularly bad there. But there wasn’t any way through for human-sized characters, so they continued on, and came to a room with lots of supplies including leather clothing, pails, paraffin, sacks containing sand, gauntlets, and incongruously some chicken carcases still with feathers on. The clothing was all embossed with a DC logo and “Dario’s Mystical Chiromancers”.
This room had two doors off it, both of which had grunting and hooting coming from behind them. They both led to the same room, where there were three ugly 4’ tall humanoids with piggy snouts and sharp claws and teeth – dretches. They attacked, hurting several characters, so the group made a fighting withdrawal so they could pin them in the doorways, and eventually finished them. While they were fighting, there was a pop, and more of the worms appeared in the room behind them, but they were easily finished off as well. A glowing skull hanging in the room disappeared round the corner when attacked.
Now the room was cleared of opponents, they found five dead bodies lying about a pentagram drawn on the floor. The bodies were badly chewed and covered in stone dust, and directly above them were lots of tiny holes with faint daylight coming down. Since Gergran’s underground sense told them they were directly below the marketplace, they concluded this was the chamber the worms had originally come from.
They investigated the bodies, and found some small items of jewellery and coins (which they took). The bodies were all wearing leather jerkins with the DC logo, and one – wearing a full blood-red robe – was lying on a torn, charred, blood-stained parchment with writing in a script Navarre identified as Abyssal, along with a gloss in Common, although this just resembled nonsense syllables. On the back it had a diagram resembling the pentagram on the floor, along with various notes in both the strange script and Common, and a bird’s foot emblem. This emblem was also replicated on a silver disc one of the bodies had been carrying.
While they were investigating, there was a pop, a puff of smoke and a smell of brimstone, and another mass of worms appeared in the centre of the pentagram. These were also easily dispatched, but the group were getting battered, so after an unsuccessful attempt at sweeping away the pentagram – it was stuck fast and not moving – they made an exit and returned to the pub to recover a bit.
In the cellar, while the party bound their wounds, Navarre cast Comprehend Languages to read the parchment. It was clearly a summoning spell, and on the back, along with instructions for drawing the pentagram, it said “be careful to get it right first time – if you get it wrong you will need to chip it off to redraw it”. Gergran headed out for cold chisels, and then they returned to the chamber.
Here they found more dretches and worms had manifested while they were away. A more careful strategy using the doors as pinch points, based on the previous experience, made dealing with them much easier than before, and then the chisels and a hammer broke the pentagram with a flare of flames, a smell of brimstone and a grinding sound.
With no more manifestations in half an hour, they continued investigation into a flooded area. A side passage led to a chamber covered in sand…and a hidden bear trap which Gergran triggered, earning severe gashes and blood loss. Eventually he managed to free himself and they investigated the area. It had a chest tucked round the corner, containing clothes and blankets, a tent roll, a polished skull with an eye design carved into it, and five books: 101 uses for a dead kobold, Basic armour maintenance, Beer and How to Drink It, Irritating Pointy Ears, and Horror in the Monstery – a gory horror story which Gergran decided to take.
There was also a smaller, more ornate chest. It was locked, but Gergran had found keys on the body with the cloak and tried them. They opened the chest, but it had a poison dart trap which hit Gergran – by now he was definitely the worse for wear (1st level, remember – even with max paladin hit points at first level, he was still quite squishy…). The chest contained some treasure and a few random notes.
They decided to come back for the chest and explore further. Wading through the foul water among ghostly water lilies, they noticed a bit of a current, then stumbled over something which turned out to be two skeletons in rusty armour with corroded weapons, plus a surprisingly well-preserved rapier. They went on a bit further, back onto dry land. Investigating that room they were convinced there was a way to open up the wall and progress, so they continued investigating, until a crocodile suddenly burst out of the water and attacked Navarre, leaving him as a bloody heap on the floor. The others attacked back, and it decided it wasn’t worth it and slithered off back into the water. They healed Navarre, and then wondered how to get back safely without getting attacked again, so came up with the idea of a human chain.
Nothing attacked, and they returned backto the cellar of the pub. By now it was late and the kitchen was shut, so they decided to reconvene the next morning.
GM Notes
This underground area was another of Heroic Maps gorgeous artwork-disguised as battlemaps, this time the basement level of Chapel of the Unquiet Dead. This inspired some of the design, and the battered symbol on the floor of the central room stood in very well for the pentagram.
This covers three sessions of play (of roughly 2-3 hours each), and it was interesting to see how much their tactics improved between the first battle and the second after they had become familiar with the area. I definitely wanted to make the point that leaving portals open would allow more incursions, but I wasn’t sure how many creatures to have appear while they were out. In the end I pretty much repeated how many there had been before, and it turned out to be significantly easier.
I did decide that the creatures couldn’t go too far from the portal (i.e. beyond the further door), which meant the party could stay out of range and take pot shots – and they worked this out and took advantage.
Daro’s Mystical Chiromancers are fire jugglers who perform in the streets of Akorros, and these were a group who were doing some demon-summoning on the side with instructions they had somehow been provided (with useful translation). I hope their experience shows how bad an idea summoning demons is… Most of the equipment was just their performing equipment, but the chicken blood was used to draw the portal.
The flaming skull wasn’t doing them any harm, but they assumed it was an enemy and took pot shots at it, so it fled. They haven’t seen it since. The chest, books and notes were reused from a previous adventure to give the world depth. Who knows – maybe one or more of the notes will become relevant…
I conjured up the crocodile because they were determined there was a way through the wall, and wouldn’t take a hint, so it was effectively a wandering monster/complication that they brought upon themselves by taking so long, but it also wasn’t particularly interested, so as soon as it took damage, it fled. It does show how squishy first-level characters are, though – one bite, and the wizard was on death saving throws.
Experience
As I said last time, I don’t follow the rules in the DMG for experience. Instead, I rate each challenge as Easy, Moderate or Hard, and use the XP Thresholds table from the DMG for the corresponding amount of XP to award to each character. These challenges don’t need to involve combat.
I awarded the following experience: for investigating the DC stuff, I gave 100XP. Likewise for the first set of dretches and Plaresh swarm. The second set were only worth 50XP, but they also got 50XP for working out what happened and how to close the portal, and another 50XP for successfully closing the portal and waiting to check. Finally they got 50XP for finding the documents. The crocodile, being a random encounter, earned them nothing but pain.
With all this, they now had 400XP, ready to level up.
Next session, they reconvene after a night’s sleep, visit the guards, and meet their mentors to train and level up. They also get various new leads dangled in front of their noses. Which will they take?