Sunday, July 21, 2024

Serpents of Chaos - Delve 3 - Ghoulish Fire

This delve was manned by Buddy, Corvus, Enkidu, and James. As well as the henchmen Gelanos, Burke, and Gerald.

During downtime, two of the characters, Buddy and James, met in secret with the Lord-Prince Golthrod. He threw the serpent armbands on the table and asked them to tell him what they knew about the serpent-men. He then commanded them to relay any new information to him for small rewards of gold. He only requested that they keep quiet about this meeting.

Buddy spilled the beans quite early into the delve, much to James' chagrin. Regardless, the party found it useful.

They picked up their tracks and re-entered the hallway with the trapped stairs. James used a ten foot pole to fire off the steps, only getting a whiff of the gray lotus dust released from above. Corvus collected this in his waterskin, as well as tipping his arrows with the poison. In the process, he poisoned himself and started experience the lotus-sweats.

They found a new prisoner in the massive prison cell room (the same room that they released the sabertooth tiger from). Her name was Sora and she, like Tobruk, had a very murky memory of the past few weeks. She was a thief, of the thieves guild (the Jewelers) in Svargorod. She came here with Tobruk and Thrang. Her eyes shined silver. She was out of sorts.

Continuing south to the other two prison cells (including one with the ghoul), the characters didn't take long to find out that Sora was bewitched. She tried closing a door to split the party, then proceeded to shove James into the outstretched arms of the ghoul reaching from its prison bars.

Luckily, James stayed on his feet then dashed Sora's head into the wall. She went down immediately.

They bound her and put her aside, then dealt with the ghoul in this prison cell. Enkidu chopped off the arms, then tossed in some flaming oil. Like fish in a barrel. The flaming oil spread inside the cell and lit another ghoul on fire! There was one hiding in the shadows. The first ghoul died and the second broke off its leg and threw it against the cell bars.

The party proceeded down the bas-relief hallway lined with images of tigers, serpents, aurochs, and elephants. They rounded a corner and came to a door which had a serpent's head. The fangs were protruding and removable. Inside were hidden latches, but the party did not find their secret use. 

An encounter roll (finally! the first one in three sessions) procured 7 kobolds. These kobolds, although armed and ready to fight, rolled in the "undecided" section of the reaction roll. That coupled with the party's decent command of the kobold language, kept them confused long enough for the ranged combatants in the party to kill enough of the "demon-dogs" to send them running for dear life. 

The room beyond was a circular chamber with walls of ancient tortures, diabolical magicians, and massive graves of human sacrifices. In the centre, a spiral staircase led downwards.

A door stood on the other side of the room. They entered, finding a hallway and two ape-men (quaggoths) grumbling hungrily over a couple of thoroughly-gnawed bones. A good reaction roll delivers another encounter that goes well for the adventurers. That, coupled with the bribe of some rations puts James into an escorted tour to the quaggoth guard room. James sees a key on the ground, grabs it, then runs out.

Quaggoth by Russ Nicholson

 

One quaggoth follows him to see where he's going, runs into their whole party. Corvus offers some more food doused in his poison-laced water (thankfully the quaggoths are immune to poison).

The party escapes that hallway, retraces their steps, and opens the ghoul cell with their newly-acquired key. The one-legged ghoul left from before hops out and is promptly chopped down (after sending Enkidu into paralysis). Once everyone wakes up, the adventurers loot the cell, carrying out some gold, a flask of Oil of Etherealness, and a magic-user tablet with burning hands and unseen servant.

They also find an anklet on Sora, not unlike the armbands found on the kobolds from last delve. Except this one has traces of silver along the brass banding. Once removed, Sora's eyes no longer gleam with silver. The party takes it for themselves, curious to inspect it in town.

When they return to town, they deliver Sora to the Jewelers and place their looted goods under watch.

Tuesday, July 9, 2024

Serpents of Chaos - Delve 2 - Buried Treasure

Spoiler Alert: If you are playing in the SoC dungeoncrawl, turn back now. Spoilers be ahead.

In downtime between Delve 1 and 2, there were quite a few things that happened. Partly this is due to the length of time between each delve, which is two weeks.

 Corvus the Ranger started fletching arrows, trapping outside town, and learning Kobold from his captive. Enkidu the Fighter visited Kazgor's Rock, a tavern exclusively for dwarves and hears that there are some shaggy ape-men wandering the lands to the south of town. Buddy the Cleric angered his god, Sylvonia, by hanging around the vile ruffians that frequent the Nomad Guesthouse, and subsequently lost access to protection from evil and detect evil.

The group added one more to their party, Nil the Monk, for the second delve. The hirelings Gelanos, Burke, and Gerald also accompanied the adventurers.

Nils immediately took point once they spotted a kobold sentry keeping watch outside the entrance. He snuck up on the "demon-dog" and attempted to backstab. The roll went poorly, even with the +4, and the kobold ran off into the cavern below.

The party chased after it but couldn't see anything once they got inside. The entrace cavern, cleared last time, was still empty. Going southwest, they retraced their steps into the room that previously held the sabertooth tiger (which they had released). Before ascending the staircase leading up to the door, Enkidu the dwarf saw that some stone steps had been replaced. They tried tapping and throwing stuff on the new steps, but nothing triggered.

I rolled a wandering monster check, and... nothing. The first of many checks during the night which would have resulted in a very bad turn of events. If the monster came up behind the party and forced them up the stairs, there would have been losses. In fact, not a single one of my wandering monster checks came up positive. Fortuitous for the adventurers, for sure, who were able to escape with quite the haul!

Next, the party moved back into the stalagmite cavern and encountered an ambush hiding in the shadows. Only two demon-dogs, which were dispatched quickly with some arrows and spears. These kobolds wore bronze arm bands with two snake heads.


They picked up the armbands and two spears, then ventured southeast into another cavern. This one had a pool in the middle of the large cavern, backed by a huge rock. A few tall, emaciated, white-furred ape-men dropped the lotus flowers they were harvesting and disappeared into a tunnel in the floor. Lying around the pool were four kobolds langouring in a lotus-fever. The group searched the cavern and found a mouldering chest. Nils, the monk, opened it and managed to resist the noxious spores inside. They discovered a few thousand copper and silver coins, as well as a handful of gems. Leaving the treasure in its chest for now, they drowned the four kobolds in the pool and kept exploring.

About this time, Tom the fighter enters the dungeon and joins the adventure.

Heading down a tunnel that continued east, they came to a "T" and went south, arriving at a locked door. Nils listened but heard nothing. Further east down the tunnel, a few kobolds were busy trying to kill off a pair of fire beetles. The party let them duke it out. The kobolds ran away and the adventurers killed the beetles. Where the beetles had been rummaging around was a scree slope climbing southeast. A skeleton arm was jutting up through the scree. Nils, once again taking point, climbed up to the arm. This caused the scree to spill to the northwest (downhill). This forced an extra wandering monster check, to no result.

And a veritable treasure-trove was uncovered. A skeleton wearing an ornate onyx and silver necklace, masterwork banded mail, a scabbard with Altyric runes, and a finger in its mouth. In between its clenched teeth: a ring. Seemingly, this person was trying to remove the ring. Enkidu snaps off the finger easily, the bone being brittle. The party decides to search some more and finds a clerical tablet (scroll) underneath the skeleton.

The group debates a bit, then deides to head back to town with a hefty haul of about 4500 gp. They sold everything except for the banded mail. About 900 xp was awarded to each player.

Alan Langford


Knave/OSR Bestiary

  Brom A while ago I took the AD&D 1e Monster Manual and the D&D Basic monsters and compiled them into a single bestiary. The Knave ...