Encounter 1: Holding Cells. 1xp
The session began with you guys on a broken landing on the interior stairway lining a huge pit. A stone door blocked the passage into the side of the pit. A pair of you pushed the heavy door open. There was a 30-40 foot corridor that curved to the left up ahead. Two doors on the left and two doors on the right lined the corridor.
Cell D
A prisoner.
After listening at all the doors, you guys opened this one first. It turned out to be Don Keykong the Warrior, who is a former cooper from Iruk. He was a bodyguard for a merchant that was ambushed by grey-robes. The grey robes thought they had properly drugged him and left him unconscious in the cell, but the clever warrior hid the sleep pellet under his tongue and never swallowed it. He was trying to figure out a way to escape until the party found him.
Cell A
A gray-robed cultist.
A faceless cultist, angry at the intrusion. This guy was easily dispatched. Foddir found a secret door, but the passage was never explored.
Cell B
An uninitiated cultist.
He still had a human form and was studying a long scroll made of taut, gray leather.
How should I describe this accurately?... "Our bloodthirsty invaders slaughtered the cloistered monk as the pillaging of the temple continued" ...OR... "Our stalwart heroes vanquished another evil cultist and gained a scroll while exploring." Which version fits your character better? Maybe a little of both: "The slaughter continued as our stalwart invaders pillaged the scroll from the cloistered cultist." Choose your own adventure.
The scroll contained the spell CONTROL TENTACLE. I made a mistake by showing you guys the spell. Here are the bullet points of the spell Control Tentacle:
Allows you to control a giant tentacle of the Pit Beast.
Does not count as "Spells Known" by a wizard, but must be studied for an hour.
Think of it as a magic item for wizards & elves, rather than a spell or spell scroll.
Can only be cast when being read from scroll.
No potion needed
Spell burn 1 point necessary for casting. This point does NOT get added to Spell Check.
You know that some form of corruption happens during casting. (Yeah I spoiled this)
Cell C
A writhing mass of blood-red tentacles. Easily dispatched.
Encounter 2: Drawbridge 2xp
The gang continued down the corridor which veered to the left and came upon this:
"The stone passage ends on a landing that overlooks a narrow 20-footwide ravine. Below you, the ravine writhes with a sense of motion. You see squirming tentacles rising and falling in the depths amidst a squirming mass of suckers, eyeballs, claws, and other tentacled appendages. Across the ravine is a drawbridge, flush against the opposite cave wall and held tight by stout iron chains. From below you hear a weird ululating sound, much like the one you heard on the stairs before."
Using their trusty rope & grappling hook, the party managed to hook one of the chains on the drawbridge. Then the party combined their effort and dragged the drawbridge down into place. While this was happening, party members were getting slapped around by the giant tentacles. You guys eventually made it across and huddled against the double doors on the other side before proceeding.
Encounter 3: Maze 2xp
"You stand looking into an octagonal room with walls and ceiling covered in a glistening black marble. The floor is also a black marble base but is inlaid with an intricate pattern of white marble. The white marble forms a circling, snaking maze-like pattern of loops and swirls. There are many dead-ends. A single narrow strip starts the maze before you, and only one ribbon of white marble emerges at the other side of the octagon, where it dead-ends into a blank wall."
After studying the maze on the floor for about a half an hour, Kane took.the lead in tiptoe-ing through it flawlessly. A double door appeared on the other side. After completing the maze, clerics felt a strange,empathetic connection with the pit-beast, giving them a deeper (and disturbing) understanding of their enemy. In effect, Clerics get +1 when attempting to 'Turn Unholy' vs cultists.
Encounter 4: Frog of Bobugbubilz 2xp
After solving the maze, the gang was in a corridor made of expertly cut stone. The corridor took a 90° turn about 30 feet ahead. Every 10 feet or so, there was an urn on the right side of the corridor. Eni and Turmus hung back while the rest of the group moved forward, which proved to be a mistake. As the rest of the party move proceeded, walls began to swivel, blocking the passage between the pair and the rest of the party. 3 walls swivelled into place before they stopped moving forward. It was discovered that there were pressure plates under the floor. Unable to disable the trap, the gang started digging. It took a total of 6 hours to create holes big enough to squeeze through all three walls. As the gang continued down the corridor, six more walls swivelled into place. They turned another 90° corner and saw this:
"The corridor widens as the floor descends and the ceiling rises, forming a roughly bell-shaped room in three dimensions. At the bottom of the declivity before you rests an enormous flabby toad-like creature, gurgling loudly. Its huge, beady eyes roll toward you, and its toothy jaws unhinge slightly with a soft sighing noise. Behind it is an enormous wooden door."
Some Q&A ensued with the giant frog communicating telepathically. Here was the important info that it imparted:
Q: what are you guarding?
A: I serve my master Bobugbubilz and his minions in eternally faithful dedication to whatever task can best use my humble abilities. Today, this task is sitting in this room.
Q: Who is Bobugbubilz?
A: The dark lord of water-dwellers and muck-singers, the king of the murky planes, the amphibious lord, the egg-layer, the toad-singer, the mightiest of all, Bobugbubilz.
Q: Can we pass?
A: My lord and master commands me to obey the dictates of the cloaked ones, who direct that no outsiders pass this way.
Realizing that they were at an impasse, the gang decided to resolve things with violence. Dwight lobbed the potion of explosion onto the frog's face. Other people helped. Then Dwight killed it.
Encounter 5: Yellow Robe of Palimdybis 2xC
The large door opened inward to the right. A square shaped room about 25 feet across. There was an alcove with a peg in the wall. This peg confounded the group. Why was is it here? What's its purpose? Who put it here? What was their name? Did this peg-installer lead a happy life? Alas, the peg was silent. So the gang opened the door at the other end of the room.
You open the large door inward and witness this:
"You stand before a long room with a rounded end. All is quiet, but you can feel the prickly vibrations of static electricity on your scalp.
The floor at the room’s far end begins to glow. In what seems like only a second, a flash of light runs through the floor, mimicking the pattern you saw earlier. Now five creatures stand in the room before you: three crimson-robed men with no faces, a blubbery 10-foot tall monster with a giant beaked face and many long tentacles, and a stick-thin figure in a yellow robe.
The yellow-robed figure has a shadowed dark space where his face would be. In a croaking voice he pronounces: “The doom of Palimdybis is upon you!” Then his allies advance as he steps backward and vanishes."
A fight ensues. The red-robes summon a shadowy tentacle. Dwight gets the final shot on everyone, which is the only shot that counts. After Dwight gets done with the heavy lifting, Kane again takes the lead in tiptoe-ing through the maze and vanishes. Everyone else follows. You have been transported to another part of the dungeon.
TO BE CONINUED....
As our stalwart, bloodthirsty, invasive heroes venture into the unknown; let us take stock of the overall situation. Everyone is place under a curse by the Yellow Robe guy, suffering a -1 to Luck. The Clerics are steeped in Disapproval. Hit points have been depleted. You are also are on the verge of exhaustion, especially after tunneling through three walls.
You have the enemy's attention, or at least the attention of some of them. The cult seems to be made up tentacle-facehugger type creature that lives within a human host. The pit-beast seems to be a little bit passive in comparison to the cultists, allowing itself to be controlled by even the cult's enemies.
Will our plucky invaders vanquish these total byters? Perhaps we'll find out in our next session...
See you all May 21st!
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Session: 9xp
Dwight: 63xp
Don: 9xp
Everyone else: 85xp
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