“Nice stalactites…” Famous last words of Garulf the hireling
Game System | Blood & Treasure Complete
Setting/World | The Lost Lands by Frog God Games
Dramatis Personae
Blitz Dunkelsturm | Mountain Dwarf Cleric of Jamboor 5 [Death domain] | Berndt
Haxxl Rosethorne | Wild Elf Duelist 4 | Berndt
Rektolas | High Elf Fighter 4 | Mats
Nitrolas | High Elf Magic-User 3 | Mats
The Old Sleaze | Human Sorcerer 3 | Martin
Make Me | Human Paladin 3 | Martin
Meatshields & NPCs
Men-At-Arms | Fuldo | Garfield | Garfunkel
Torchbearers | Ranulf | Wee Dingwall
Absent this session
Hoder | Ogre Fighter 4 [Brute variant] | Flan
Fenrir the Vain | Human Barbarian 3 [Thane variant] | Flan
Angelina d’Monica III | Human Assassin 4 [Acrobat variant] | Djuro
Alba Dayanite | Half Elf Psychic/Magic-User 3 | Djuro
Session Eleven – Blood and Bones
WARNING – SPOILERS AHEAD!
The session started in media res, the PCs in the middle of a fighting retreat, dragging the unconscious paladin to safety out of the fountain room.
Blitz the cleric went ahead back into the corridor to study the suspicious markings on the corridor wall and suddenly realised that he was standing in front of a secret door. Salvation! After some fruitless searching he accidentally pushes a hidden loose stone, opening the secret door and triggering a magical trap, exploding blue flame in his face. Luckily, he manages to dive out of the worst blast but not fast enough to save his beard from getting severely singed in the process. [The player rolled a 1 on his Note Stonework roll…].
Simultaneously with the secret door swinging open, the PCs in the fountain room sees movement in the fountain blood sludge, eight bloody skeletons climbing out and heading straight for them. The valiant characters put up a good fight and manages to smash apart three of the abominations but not without some serious damage to some of the party members. Blitz hears the commotion and rushes back to the fountain room where he manages to call down the divine power of Jamboor to drive off the remaining skeletons.
Not wanting to linger near the fountain, they decide to retreat into the narrow corridor behing the secret door. Angelina and Alba stay behind at the dungeon entrance to guard the horses and gold (with Hoder and Fenrir and some hirelings). To fill out the ranks, Blitz manages (with some charm and promises of gold) to persuade two hirelings (Fuldo the Pierced Halfling and Garulf the Town Drunk) to accompany them into the bowels of the dungeon.
Behind the secret door, a dark narrow corridor runs west into the darkness. With the guiding light of Old Sleaze’s light spell, they move into the corridor, single file. After some 25 feet, Nitrolas the Elven Wizard tells them to stop as he has spotted a half-concealed lever on the wall just inside the corridor. Cranking the lever, a grinding noise is heard somewhere but nothing seems to happen. After trying the lever a few times, hearing the noise but seeing no tangible effect of the sound, they move further. After some 40 feet, the corridor curves to the north, revealing a descending stair cut directly from the rock. As they stand there someone shouts that they should try the lever again, to see what happens to the stairs. The result is that a floor trapdoor opens, plunging Nitrolas the Wizard and Haxxl the elf into a hidden pit. Haxxl manages to get a hold on the edge of the pit but Nitrolas falls 30 feet and is smashed unconscious as well as spraining his leg [There was a 1 in 6 chance of a crippling injury and Nitrolas naturally player rolled a 1…]. The other players manages to pull Nitrolas to safety with some climbing and rope work and after receiving some healing he is fit enough to move on, albeit slowly due to his mangled leg.
The stair leads down to a very wet strange natural cavern with a pool of rancid dark water stretching into the darkness to the east. Along the walls are empty iron torch holders. To the north, a rusted iron door signals the exit. Old Sleaze places a light spell on a hand crossbow bolt and shoots it into the darkess beyond the pool. It reveals a shore on the other side. No one wants to go into the water to explore the other side. Finally, Fuldo the halfling is coerced into going there on a makeshift raft. For this he is paid two gold coins up front. The PCs go back to the thrashed clerical office above and use an old table and some more assorted wooden junk to construct the vessel. Finally, Fuldo slowly paddles across the dark pool to the other side, a rope attached to the bow of the raft. He makes it across and anxiously starts exploring the shore. After a minute or so he waves back, shouting “It’s safe, there’s nothing he…” His merry little halfling shouts shifts to screams of terror as two slimy tentacles shoot out of the calm water, ensnaring him and dragging him into the water. And that was the last anyone ever saw of Fuldo the pierced halfling. And the two gold pieces.
Blitz the dwarf panics and rushes the iron door, trying to pry it open, but to no avail as it is locked. In his terror he brings out his warhammers and starts pounding the lock to get out. The rusted door is weak and the lock mechanism fractures under the frantic blows, revealing a narrow (circa 6-foot wide) dark corridor cut from the rock, leading north… There is a strong draft and an intense smell of ammonia.
The party cautiously press on into the dark. The floor and walls are covered in a thick layer of guano, hampering movement due to the risk of slipping and getting a bat shit bath. After some 35 feet the cave roof opens up to a huge sinkhole above. It seems to rise about 200 feet, revealing a faint sliver of outside sky. The shaft is also home to a huge colony of bats hanging asleep on the walls. The draft is now more intense and there is a whistling sound coming from ahead. Some 20 feet up ahead the corridor reaches a T-intersection going east and west. Blitz wants to go west but the rest goes east, following the high-pitched sound and the dwarf grumbingly follows. The sound volume increases with every step and after about 70 feet it is so loud that yelling is the only mode of verbal communication. Here, the corridor reaches a Y-shaped split going northeast and southwest. The draft is so strong that the PCs actually have to struggle to keep the footing.
They decide to go northeast. The corridor is more irregular here, the width fluctuating between 3 and 20 feet at places. As they progress, the sound and draft gets weaker. The sound of dripping water echoes from the cave walls. After about 60 feet the corridor gradually opens up to what seems to be a large cavern, stretching from south to north. There is a stagnant body of water to the east and all surfaces are wet with moisture as water trickles down the walls and into the black pool. The cavern ceiling is irregular and rises up about 40 feet to a jagged surface with a few stalactites. Garulf the hireling moves along the south rock wall towards the dark water, torch and sword drawn while Rektolas and Haxxl move along the eastern rock wall, keeping well away from the water. Suddenly, the eerie silence is broken by Garulf’s screams of pain and horror. He is on the cave floor, upper body pierced by a large stalactite, which actually seems to wriggle and move! A split second later, Rektolas’ sharp elven senses alert him and he barely manages to dodge another falling large stalactite. The stalactite hits the stone with a fleshy thud and lies there, wriggling and showing a large maw, trying to get into position to bite him! Rektolas manages to run the thing through with his long steel, killing it. The PCs run over to Garulf and assault the strange stalactite with cold steel as it is gnawing away huge chunks of Garulf’s limp body, slashing the thing open, spilling its weird innards on the floor, but Garulf is very dead. Thus ended the squalid life and dreams of Garulf the town drunk, in a cold wet cave in the bowels of the earth.
And there we had to stop for the session. Next session is up in a few weeks. Stay tuned for more adventures from the Fistful of d20’s bunch up here in the cold North!
With a Fistful of d20's 