Run Date: February 7th, 2023
PCs
Rebel: Lv4 Monk
Richard: Lv3 Fighter
Malak: Lv2 Cultist of Laurenia
Shard Hunting
I got to be a jerk about mapping again today, though I was more helpful this week than last. I showed the players how I tend to describe dungeon movement and encouraged them to not worry so much about specifics so much as relatives. After all, if you know that there are 3 exits and the middle exit connects to Y room, then whether it's in the 4 or 5 o'clock position is irrelevant (for now). I admit that I'm not a very good teacher since I've never actually dealt with it myself (rarely play, let alone in any old-school sense).
Anyhow, the players spent a little time weighing their options. I had recently reviewed and re-written a variety of hooks for their perusal, but the time pressure of Blackwall continued to draw a level of anxiety and attention. By the end of this session, the players were ready to just play a different group to de-stress. Before I continue, a note on Loot: For the sake of expediency, I noted discoveries as x rolls on y loot table and had the players roll it up during lulls in the game or afterward. As such, I won't note specifics until post-report.
Finally, the group gathered up (along with a small army of henches) and headed down into Blackwall. This is where I reviewed the map thing and we pressed forward with navigation. The group wanted to avoid heading straight through the town, and by extension the Black Death, by skirting the outer edge of the cavern and working through the streets from another angle. Richard took the lead for attempting to navigate the streets, and noticed a familiar pattern regarding residential and commercial buildings. The path he took, however, lead toward a building crawling with thousands of echoing clacks. The party heard it before getting too close and decided evasion was prudent. They headed into the alleyways, but Richard lost his bearings and the group popped out not far from the building containing the clacking. Thankfully, the "residents" didn't notice their presence and the second "evasion" was successful.
The party headed down this new main road and eventually spotted a large stone structure with bright lights moving around within. Given the design, the group guessed (hoped) it was the bank they were looking for. Last session, Lazarus had explained that one of the Shard locations were kept within an old vault down the road from the mayoral estate. This vault (and bank) were their goal for the session.
To their luck, this appeared to be the location. The frontline peeked through the window to spot a small swarm of black sludge balls flopping around with gouts of flame within; the source of the light. While the party was discussing whether to engage or not, they were spotted and the fight was on.
The first round saw a group tossing a couple vials of Slimekiller Solvent and pelting the things with ranged attacks. They quickly discovered the creatures exploded in a flash of heat when punctured, and planned to avoid engaging in melee where possible. The flaming sludgeballs retaliated with a series of kamikazes, burning up half the group and taking down one of the henchmen. The encounter ended quickly, though the party took the opportunity to patch themselves up and take stock of the situation.
The henchmen that fell was turned over and appeared to still be on the edge of life, but Malak quickly discovered that she suffered a severe burn. The frightening part wasn't the wound, but the fact that the sludge had used the wound as a means of dissolving its way to the hench's heart. The body lurched in instinctive defense before finally going still. Meanwhile, Rebel picked the lock to gain access to the locked vault.
During the rest, another encounter had triggered and was marching its way toward the group, but due to the distance they had a couple rounds to plan. Rebel focused her efforts on trying the vault (the solution to which was given last session and forgotten this session). The others, meanwhile, prepared for whatever was coming toward them.
A few seconds later, Rebel remembered the combination and started unlocking the vault; but the patrol of armed sludge-men had begun rushing into the bank. The lines shifted as attacks flew back and forth, and the PCs burned a few more vials of Slimekiller Solvent evening the odds (2:1 in the enemy's favor). While the party and henches were holding the line at the teller's desk, Rebel was working her way into the vault.
Rebel discovered quickly that things would not be so straightforward. She found two more flaming blobs after descending a small flight of stairs. She made quick work of them before finding herself in a proper underground vault with two long hallways to her left and right.
Upstairs, the party continued to clash with the blob-men. Their hits struck true and one-by-one the creatures were eliminated. Even better, some of the "weapons" the creatures had been wielding were reformed chunks of iron, gold, etc. It wasn't much, but at least they wouldn't be going home empty handed.
With the fight upstairs settled, Richard and his henches took stock of the damage and took a breather while Malak and his partners headed downstairs to join Rebel. Upon arrival, Rebel gave the rundown to Malak and they decided to split up; each following a hallway but staying within earshot. Malak's path lead southward and revealed a wide side-path with a door on one wall and an endless darkness further in. At this point, he heard what sounded like a giant cricket.
Meanwhile, Rebel had discovered a short turn and a door. The door was sealed with black sludge so she decided to push her luck and see if the Shard was within. With a strong push she peeled the door away from the sludgy glue and walked into a fight! Within this room were 4 of Lazarus's people, ghoulish and lost, now puppeted by the sludge. She let out a shout for Malak and Richard, but it would be a couple rounds before they arrived.
Initiative favored Rebel as she charged into the room to attempt to kill the two sword-wielding creatures in front of her. She couldn't quite land the follow-up strike, but dealt a solid hit to one of her targets. The hench accompanying her (who she inherited from Baldur) loosed an arrow and finished it off (I messed up a call on Finisher, but a call is a call). The remaining three immediately surrounded Rebel and attempted to take her out. Fortunately, only one landed a blow. Unfortunately, it happened to be a former faithful of Lazarus and smote her for maximum damage.
Malak rushed to assist and met Richard in the hall. They caught up when the second round got underway. Rebel considered falling back, but realized her position was already dangerous enough. She unleashed Ghost Busta and started wailing on the faithful, successfully driving the creature into the floor (dead). With the reinforcements along, they unleashed a volley of attacks and tried their own flanking maneuver. The party dropped another one before one of the sludge-fighters nearly landed a critical strike on Malak. Rebel, harnessing the light of her Khairnite soul, temporarily blinded the creature. This gave Malak the opportunity to avoid the blow and retaliate.
The group cleaned up the final two creatures before taking another opportunity to catch their breath. Richard had left 4 of his henches upstairs to guard the door (and I explained how Turns worked in dungeon crawling context). Not wishing to push their luck too hard, Rebel was the only one who opted for a short rest. The others spent their time picking and breaking into the wall vaults within this room, finding a smattering of leftover coin and valuables bearing the mark of Lazarus.
Since Rebel was taking a breather, the rest of the party decided to head out the northern door and down another hallway. They discovered that the hall ended in a door with another chamber to their right. This larger chamber contained wall vaults much larger than the previous room, and Richard got greedy. He stepped into the room and found an old, dusty shelf empty of all but a single ledger. He used some time to study the leger.
During this gap, another encounter had popped up for the bank crew. Luckily, it was distant and not overly aggressive. The vault guards hid behind the counters and lowered the torchlight, and to their luck the creatures lumbered down a different road.
Richards browsing of the ledger revealed very little save a few lines of foreign text and a series of symbols. He matched the symbols to one of the vaults in the room and hopped to forcing it open (or having someone pick it, I don't remember). Spoilers: The group was paranoid of traps, as they should be. Alas, they did not trigger this one. Within the vault they discovered a perfectly preserved tapestry depicting a strange scene involving a sky war, as well as a smattering of coins and a chest with a few smaller pouches of pennies.
At this point, Rebel rejoined the group. They checked out the nearby door and broke down the barricade (which was inside for some reason). The room itself was empty save for reliefs depicting the worship and history of Lazarus. Around his symbol on the ceiling was a series of glittering, colored crystals. The party decided not to push their luck.
They then headed back down another hallway and turned right. At this point, they spotted the connecting hallway to the exit and eased their tension a bit. This last bit of hall turned into a beautiful room with marble floors and deep grey stone ceiling. The walls glittered with a rainbow of inset crystals, and at the back of the room stood a statue of Lazarus with pearl crown and crystal blade. It was Malak's turn to be greedy.
Despite warnings from the party to leave well-enough alone, Malak marched into the room and took a look around. Feeling safe and not spotting anything overly dangerous, he stepped up to the statue and removed the crown. However, on the walk back, he triggered the trap (finally). The walls where the party stood began to drop and Rebel stole Vance's Ghosteel hammer to wedge it open. Malak quickly rushed toward the exit and barely made it through as water began flowing into the room.
Session time was ticking away so the group buckled down in an attempt to make some more progress. They hoped to find the Shard before time was up, and headed back down the entry hallway to the "Cricket Room." Within this massive chamber, they discovered hundreds of small personal vaults. Greed wins out again as the party spent 30minutes (game time) picking and breaking their way through them like one of those old game shows. Luckily, there were no encounters (though that massive cricket was trying its best to be a nuisance). Once they were finished raiding their fill, the group headed back to the main hall and turned another corner to spot a door.
This door signaled the "Let's GTFO" as they opened it and discovered a group of 6 more ghoulish sludge puppets. This time, however, half of them were Lazarus faithful. The group won out on initiative and immediately slammed and barred the door before booking it back to the surface. The creatures failed to break through and pursue.
Rebel took the lead on navigating out as I joked about the mapping thing again, zero encounters. The party found their way back to the surface and the loot was rolled up and distributed.
Rewards
10 XP
230gp/ea
115gp/hench
Malak: platinum crown of pearls (600gp)
Rebel: Scroll of Cradle of Formlessness
Afterword
Malak was rolling up most of the rewards while the others navigated and fought. His luck held out and he found the old scroll along with the most expensive pieces. Of course, the small army of henchmen dug into that profit quite a bit.
All-in-all, I still have a lot to learn. Of late I've been using Appendix A to roll up dungeons and using some quick and dirty tosses to figure out what each room should contain. I didn't want to go all-in so I could keep each map flexible enough to drop in whenever I wanted. I hadn't intended to make the vault a "dungeon" complex, but one of the maps felt "right" so I went with it. Given the theme of "Bank Vault," I opened up the opportunity for treasures in nearly all the rooms. The cost? Time and potential encounters.
My players seemed pretty stressed about the session, though I'm not sure if that's my mapping jokes or the actual tension and fear catching up to them. They mentioned playing their brigands as a break next week so we'll see. These juicy XP sessions might change their mind (everyone is close to their next level). I'm quite proud of them, though. They continue to roll with my BS as I stumble around trying to learn myself.
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