Session 18 - A comrade lost

Paige 10

Everyone else seems tired of making the trek back to the village from our underground rat lair, but on top of the sunset and pleasant company, I'm enjoying the novelty of making the trip upright and intact. Maybe one too many bites to the head have affected my memory, but it seems like I can remember twice as many trips into the dungeon than walks back out again.

Bomani's not doing quite as well. Halessa took one look at his distant expression, quiet mutterings and occasional drool and whispered that it's what I looked like after my rat bite. Luckily Bomani doesn't seem to be roasting to death from the insides like I was, and Quill hasn't yet decided to dance around and purge imaginary rat spirits, but it's chilling to see our leader so reduced and needing help to stay on the narrow track home.

The fight itself was chaotic. Just as we'd finished off the glowing crabs, which taught me that the most absurd-looking creatures are capable of being absolutely terrifying up close, a group of seriously skinny woman (Ed note: Not actually female) corpses with huge claws came out of nowhere and hammered into the back of our group. I was checking the crab corpses for useful kit and by the time I turned around people were already down and bleeding. Thowick, who looks even more like a shopkeeper and less like an adventure having seen him in a fight, was shaking for an hour after his narrow escape. I don't think I can take him back there. This isn't for him.

Quill's magic hands helped Bomani back from the edge but Narvay took a claw to the chest and nobody could save her.  All we could do was hold her hand as she died - I hope Narmak, Tomf and Ramiri have a campfire waiting for her, and that their cooking beats Quill's. Whether or not you're on an island which was abandoned to plague and death centuries ago, iron rations or her latest food crime is a choice nobody should be forced to make.

Judges Perspective

 A couple of sessions have passed since the last update now, and a few things have happened. In session 17, the party spent some time exploring the area of the dungeon once inhabited by bandits, and after kicking in various doors they found where the bandits lived and slept. They've also determined (they believe) the location of a secret room but have not yet managed to find the door. After deciding the bandit area would make a vaguely decent bolt hole, they went off to investigate another corridor and found a plain room with a large crystalline rock in an alcove. Bomani grabbed it and the door shut them in. Opening the door they saw nothing odd. In the spirit of experimentation they did it again. And again. And then Quill stepped outside and they did it again. The door closed, it went dark for Quill and when she opened the door again the room was pitch black. When the party opened the door, Quill was no longer there.

Oh dear. So, they did it again and found Quill in the corridor. It was very confusing. They left the room and were disoriented until they came to the 'Zombie Theater' at which point Yannick realised where they were. Simples. Knowing their location again, and wondering why the hell someone would create such a seemingly pointless magical device, they ventured north down an unexplored corridor.

There, they found a large grublike creature busily consuming the corpse of the priest they had found in the entrance hall previously, with the bodies of his two fellows lying nearby. Combat ensued, in which the only victim of the Carcass Scavenger's paralyzing tentacles was one of the dogs (Aka a Carrion Crawler, and I was gutted that everyone made their saves bar the dog. Gutted! I'll have my revenge! - And I did!). Sadly there was no loot, the corpses having already been stripped. Paige took the 'adventurers' headscarf to return to Rufus in Sunstep.

The session ended just as a positive wandering monster roll came up. Next session then, the one described by Paige above, saw a small group of Fire Beetles wander into the area. Seen from a distance, they entered the Hall of Fungal Death and appeared to be merrily chomping away on the fungus. The party carefully approached, and then kicked off a fight as Paige shot one. It went well for the party at first, and then a beetle scored a telling blow on Yannick (biting 2 fingers off his shield hand) and Grey Wind (a wardog) was also brought low. Both were saved from death by fortunate rolls on the Mortal Wounds table.

Unfortunately, the clamor in the corridor attracted the attention of a trio of Ghouls lurking nearby, who took advantage of the party's distracted state and attacked from behind. Almost before they could react Bomani and Narvay were dropped to the ground, frozen and unconcious (Revenge is mine!!) The ghouls then failed to get any telling blows in for the rest of the battle and were quickly dispatched. I was sad when Quill failed to turn them, that would have been great to see. Treated quickly, it was clear that both the ghouls victims were a) paralyzed and b) bleeding to death (10 min deathcount). Unfortunately, the party had only enough Comfrey to make a single poultice. With a heavy heart Quill saved Bomani from death and Narvay's life was extinguished. Bomani has been left with a nasty head wound.

At that point, they retreated back to the nearby village to rest and lick their wounds.

Session 16 - Back to Sunstep (AGAIN!)

After the excitement of the new visitor to the village - A Priestess of some considerable ability, who looks like this:

 

 

 

 

the party returned to the town to re-equip and sell some of the supplies they found to the Court Wizard of Auriga. They turned a pretty penny from that (1000gp) which has helped them in no small way. By the end of the session some more equipment as well as a cart and a pair of mules had been acquired and the party were headed back to the dungeon via the village.

Paige 9

It's been a few days, or probably weeks, since I've been able to walk straight and think straight at once. Between rat bites, stone floors and rusty dogfolk knives, it hasn't seemed like my armour has really been achieving much - especially when Quill is flouncing around in far less and managing to come out scar-free.

Not that I'm about to ditch the trousers and show it all to the world like she does, but I could do with a quiet couple of weeks where I don't lose a knee, or too much blood, or most of my mind. I do feel better than I did, more capable of standing within a spear's length of a fight without collapsing with some sort of dramatic wound, but I might give it a few days before I test that.

Today was pay day for Halessa and Thowick, so they're currently singing their way through the wine at the only inn in town (surprisingly well, in H's case). I thought it was a week or two early, but when Yannick paid his war band I could hardly go and spend my share of the money on anything else. It might be the right time to pay them anyway. It seems like I've spent a lot of time unconscious or halfway there over the last month, so I'm not the best person to be keeping track of the calendar. 

I'm hoping that we can find some metal armour for H, since her current stuff is about as flimsy as mine. My pouch was full of wonderful clinking noises after I collected from the wizard, but buying or commissioning the armour will clean me back out after we pay for our new roof in our adopted home village. Adventuring is turning out to be expensive but it's better for my sanity, let alone my body, to spend the money on having H stand between me and the problem rather than paying the priests to mend me again.

Once I've found the armourer, it's hopefully time for us to join everyone in the inn to see if there's any wine left for latecomers. The novelty of walking freely has been great all afternoon, but knowing that there's a day's march between us and the village is making me keen to find a stool and drink on it until my feet are numb and it's time to sleep.  Maybe H will sing a lullaby, which has to be nicer than lying awake being serenaded by Yannick's snoring. Again.

Session 15 - The Mark of the Rat

This session report is from the last week in October. We had a dry spell over the Christmas period and have moved to a fortnightly game, with one of the other players running something on the off week. We have played a session of MERP in the interim which was a blast though perhaps a little rule/table intensive for Hangouts.

Anyway, here's the Barbarians take on session 15:

Yannicks Tale

 The Mark of the Rat was on her.

 

That's what the Priestess said, at least... mostly it looked like a fever to me.

 

When the morning came, Quill starter preparations to exercise the spirit from Paige in a ceremony that started when Sol was highest in the sky.  It wasn't much compared to the High Whatsit, but I was assured it would have been very effective if she had actually been possessed.

 

Turns out I was close enough when I figured it wasn't anything that couldn't have been explained by an infection and having her brains rattled in the fall.  Only, the Rat Fever they get over here is a pretty darn big deal... seems like she was going to die of it within the week 'less she got herself some treatment from a priest or a better healer than Quill.

By which I mean one who has more skill with herbs, not just one who doesn't bad mouth your smell while she washes wounds.

 

Narvay found some Go'darn Rod, which wasn't actually golden but seemed to keep the fever a little better.  It didn't see seem like breaking any time soon and we were left playing out ways to get the poor lass back to Sunstep.  Even while we could give her the strength to walk it would still be about four days for her to do it and I wasn't so keen on stripping us both down and throwing her over my shoulder for two days march.  Bah.  Fact is there was a wagon of supplies coming the next day and we'd still be quicker riding back on that than we would messing around with stretchers.

Plus, this way we could get a bundle of the crates back to civilization to divide the spoils and all.  Stack 'em under her, she wont mind.

 

That day I hunt and it got late, but we were dressing the stag we saw a whole flock of bats fly off for the night.  Verdugo didn't think much of it, but I'm thinking here that it means either there's a building what has its roof still, a cave or a second entrance to the palace of Rogger and Zod.

Turns out that's what it was we were kicking around, down there: the palace of Zod the Stargazer and his buddy Rodgar.  'course he can't have been much of stargazer, what with building his place underground.  I can just see his predictions now...

"Hmmm, the ceiling is in ascension again.  That mean it's an austpicious time to drink a bunch of wine from my ever-flowing fountain and boff a popsy in the big bed with Zs on it." - Lucky bugger.

 

Anyway, turns out him and Rogdar had a ossuary down there, sonething the fancy-lookign wizard in the expedition would like to see and would pay us to guide 'im to.  I have no idea what an Ossuary is, and I suspect Bomani is faking when he says he knows, so we're going back to talk to the bod... offering a crate or two of thing-bits for his spells might help, eh?

 

But that's for another day... we knew the roads were in a bit of turmoil, like, when we expected the supply train I took out my warband to meet them at the treeline... one of the likeliest places for an Ambush and all.
We saw nothing, but did start to hear off in the distance the sound of a woman giving someone a piece of their mind something sharp for best part of an hour before the pack-train came into view.  Cart, donkeys and all... backed this time by a sullen-looking sergeant and some conscripts trying to walk the line between being annoyed by the shouting and smirking at their sergeant being on the end of it.

 

The woman on the donkey that was doing the berating was of a fair size and not young, but had an authority about her.  I'd seen the like in temples of the Saints before (the robes gave the Good Mother away) and they all had the power to go behind the voice.  The Voice, I mean... this one deserved the respect of it.

I said we were here to be sure that all got to the village safely and she said about time too, before putting the guards fears to rest.  I had no desire to test them further, so we walked in front and nobody got harrowed by anything before the village came in sight.  She turned up her nose at Quill (which quick got the Solly's back up) and said as that a Saint had tasked her to free the one from the Mark of the Rat: which was Paige.  And so she did that, with no more than a sniff of fanciness.

She said that was a mission over and we should thank the saints, which we did, but also encouraged her to say to help the villagers.  She said that was all very well, but we'd still have to pay for further miracles... and we didn't have the cash to get Paige's bonce looked at so we're still bound for Sunstep.

 

Left the Good Mother with the new village elder, they'd see her well kept. Likewise the troops seemed to be making to stay, which was reassuring for me: gave 'em some advice on approaches and watchposts and suchlike.
 
The cart we loaded and rolled out... all round feeling better about it though and it wasn't just a good nights rest to explain the cheerful feeling of our latest return with spoils.

Session 14 - Wherein Paige gets bit..

Paige 8

Forget the knee it doesn’t hurt anymore.  Or if it does it’s not getting through the fog in my head.  If I turn too quickly everything wobbles.  If I get up too quickly I’m suddenly on the floor again face first.  I have this huge bump that someone is constantly hammering onto the side of my head and I feel like I’m going to throw up the breakfast or lunch or whatever food that Quill made.  My helmet doesn’t fit anymore and I fainted when I tried it on.  I have to think in short bursts so the thoughts don’t slip away.

Sometimes when I look around I’m in the village and sometimes I’m in the woods and there’s always at least two of Yannick and sometimes I forget their names.  I can’t remember what happened and most of the time since I woke up on the floor of the dungeon is a dark foggy mess.  There are squeaks and screams in my head rather than actual real memories and I don’t know if either or both are mine.

I lean on Halessa a lot and Thowick’s looking after me and covering me with blankets and looking worried.  I tried frowning but it almost knocked me out with pain.  Anything headwise is painful enough to make me think twice.  There’s something wrong with my leg the one that had the good knee.  It doesn’t bleed but it itches inside and it’s starting to burn.  Hlessa tries to stop me scratching at it but I go right back at it to try and make it stop.  Quill says it’s healed and looks at me like I’m crazy but it. is. not. right. and I am scratching it right now when Hlessa’s not looking because when I stop it starts hurting again.

Quill says I’m possessed by a rat but you’d think that would shut my mind up and let the rat take over.  Hasn’t happened.  Still here just foggy and scratching at whatever’s in my leg. It’s bleeding now and I’m about to faint again I can see it all getting darker at the edges.  Hlessa’s going to shout.

The Judge

A mostly quiet session, the party spent some time 'investigating' the pit trap they discovered at the end of the previous session managing to open it and Quill spent some exciting minutes dangling above a dark space with liquid at the bottom and some menacing skittering.

They explored the area of the dungeon formerly inhabited by the bandits and discovered a store room containing old and broken mining equipment and some newer trade goods that appear to have been looted by the bandits.

As Paige's account above shows they encountered some Giant Rats, which unfortunately for the party thief managed to bite her and infect her with a disease, the saving throw for which she duly failed. Time's a ticking for Paige. Will she survive?

Paige 7

Everyone’s more or less back to full health now, aside from my knee (aches, still won’t bend properly, not quite shaped right) and Verdugo’s eye (horrifying, haven’t mentioned it though I’m sure he’s caught me staring).  The village folk are fairly friendly now that things have settled down, and we’ve moved into one of the empty houses and have tried to make it a bit more homely by adding things like walls and a roof.  It’s hard to believe that it’s been about six weeks since I first stepped foot on Thyle.   I last saw my home in Thembria full of blood and metal as I grabbed what was nearby and ran for the docks, so my new home on the island’s a real step up.  Or will be, when the roof’s finished.

I’ve felt capable of moving around for the last week or so, and made myself useful with odds and ends – giving the women a break by teaching the children their letters, or how to tell the difference between the tracks of an owlbear and a deer.   Halessa prowled around looking at defences and sight lines in case the bandits (or dogfolk, or man-eating insects) decide to attack again, and Thowick set himself up in a corner of the house to patch up clothes.  There was a steady stream of villagers waiting with worn out socks and shirts, which has kept him busier than I’ve managed.

The best part of the two weeks spent in the village was when Bomani joined us, having travelled from Sunstep with the latest supply caravan.  The villagers were pleased to see the wagon arrive with food and drink and tools.  I was pleased to see my comrade and friend back on his feet and back in the party again.  We didn’t waste much time after that, and headed back to the dungeon to see what was left.

Most importantly, the dogfolk have left.  We haven’t checked downstairs on the rats, but the rooms and corridors which were full of barking stone-throwers beforehand are quiet as a tomb.  It’s beautiful now that we have time to look past the dogfolk filth and take it in – mosaics, tapestries, huge rooms with pillars and statues, and even though it’s all decaying and flaked it’s not hard to imagine it as it was. 

We’ve explored the section which was used by the dogfolk and found some coins and gems, and some huge maggots which I’m glad sprang out on someone other than me.  Fighting dogfolk and bandits is one thing – huge pulsating maggots bursting out of a corpse is something I’d quite happily miss out on, even if they’re full of gold coins (these ones weren’t).  It looks like the dogfolk chieftain set himself up in the main bedroom of whoever ran this place, and kept the loot locked up in a room.  Luckily for us, I found the keys along with Quill’s fancy sword back on our first visit and generally forgot I had them until we found a locked door.

Aside from that, there’ve been lots of empty rooms full of dogfolk junk.  We found what looks like a pit trap at the end of a corridor, and some tracks of dogfolk which presumably fell right through it.  As much as I like Quill and as much as she and her religion fixed me up when I felt on the verge of death after the insect attack, what she wants or needs is a fanatic, not a companion – unsurprisingly Ildis didn’t fancy jumping up and down on the pit trap when Quill suggested it.   I think we’re going to look behind the door of Crushing Rocks next, and hopefully the roof won’t land on Yannick’s head as it did last time.  We’ve got a chest full of copper coins to take back with us when we’re done, but with previous trips having ended in lost eyes and bad knees, having everyone fit and upright is something we probably shouldn’t waste while we have it.

Session 13 - The Kobold and the Brave.

Yannicks Tale

When the days come to tell children of the life of adventure I led, never from my lips will they hear that I nearly lept in Kobold-shit to be devoured by demon-worms.

And so we rested again, frail bodies nursed back to health by Quills healing hands and caustic tone.  We did what we could to pass the time: hunting, praying, citing the land for what defences could be errected in preservation of this poor village that has become our haunt.

Me, I would be in favour of a watchtower to spy the approaches... but such things must wait until we have a roof above our heads.

Still the villagers work as they do and the hunting fills the pots.  Paige joins me as she recovers, her bow striking beyond my spear... and the food was hearty, when not cooked by Quill.

Bomani and Cromwell joins us again, good to see him up and about though I hope that if he's made use of his other recovery he's put it better use than Cromwell.  Still, with Verdugo's last slouching recovery we are read in company to strike again at the foul depths.

And so we do, passing through the barricades to explore the lands of the Kobold, as I am now told they are spelled.  The rooms proved interesting to our sight, but no more full of treasure than when we exited them in haste.  The defended parts we found abandoned, with nothing but traces remaining of the vile beasts.  We searched what seemed like a wing of the building with nothing found to be of note, save for two things of note and the cliffhanger I shall leave you on...

First of note is the "treasure" room, filled with valuable goods such as they were... locked and denied to the scuttling vermin since Paige siezed the keys from their leader upon our first battle.  Some rugs, tapestries and cloth... salt and copper locked tight in a chest.  Books mouldered on a shelf of ages, cloaks rotted on a stand... but the bed was good quality, though the straw matress would need burning many times over.  We took what was easy to carry and left the rest under lock and key.

The other matter was more promising: a wide room of treasure and dripping coin: gems galore and bejewelled chests sitting majesticly in their midst.  Three bodies lie before them, chests rising and falling in deep slumber but we gave them little thought as our eyes widened... Samis was the first forward and I pressed to follow, but Bomani's hand strikes out faster than I and holds me back as the image shifts and blurrs beneath Samis's hands and reveals the biggest pile of shit, vomit and bile that the Saints have ever shown me.  Strewn across the room under the illusion that no longer masks the horrific scent.

We all look rather embarassed at this point and Bomani looks smug for a time.  With no treasure in sight and little incentive to shuffle through a Kobold latrine in search of coppers, so we turned what was left of our waning (and gagging) attention to the three unconscious guards, wearing the uniform akin to those of the conscripts... Ildis confirmed that he had served with one and I went to rouse them to speak of how they had been kept.

some warning twitched in my mind as the body rolled, I think the breath heaved wrong perhaps but truely I know only at a vile worm lept from it... perhaps a foot or more in length with teeth far above its need, spurring forward from its last meal onto the blade of my hastily-drawn dagger.  More and more of the things lept in unseemly manner from the three very dead men and soon we were all gathered around cutting and chopping at the evil mites.

That truely settled our desire to leave that room and never speak of it again.

With the obvious courses taken, we sought to follow the beasts through the route they had fled.  One of the side passages looked promising and had the tracks of beasts in it... we pursued them to an end that saw us baffled, for a great door lay against what we knew to be a wall upon the far side.  The tracks we followed seemed strange: to approach the door yet scrabble around and vanish.  We suspect foul play, yet to discover their destination we must step forward... and that is when I see it.

Amid the flagstones there are many rises and falls, yet one line lies true past many stones in centre of the passaageway... right beneath my feet...