Salkan Soiree Ep24: Picking the Bones

Run Date: January 31, 2024

PCs
Zen Po: Lv2 Crusader
Fenric: Lv3 Thief
Mina: Lv2 Explorer
Maud: Lv1 Shaman

Hench
None

Picking The Bones

The players decided to revisit the Vissus Burial and see if it held anymore secrets. Zen Po pulled out the map he’d started of the site while the others managed last minute shopping.

The trip to the Burial was uneventful, and the party quickly fell into rank to descend. Since they’d mapped the eastern half of the area, they decided to begin their trek south. The room they entered was a strange one with centered pillars bearing iconography of Vissus (six arms, snake body, snake hair, emerald sheen). The group spotted a chamber off to the west and sent Fenric to explore it.

Shadowy Senses is a fun addition to the Thief, and I found myself stumbling over how to really describe it within the narrative. More or less, Fenric picked up an old metallic scent and felt the decline into the center of the room surrounded by a stone monument shaped like a snake’s head. He returned to the party with this information and they entered to confirm.

While the party was exploring this “sacrifice room” and deciding which direction to go from here, they spotted (and were spotted by) some torchbearers. I again rolled an NPC Party (Friendly), and decided to just use the group the PCs met last time. There was a good few minutes of thanks and chatter as the players negotiated a team-up.

With the size of the group nearly doubled, exploration continued. The party returned east through a second archway and found a wider room with a statue of Vissus at its center. The NPC Priestess and Zen Po immediately noted the evil drifting off of it. This sparked a discussion regarding Sinkholes of Evil and Altars. A quick glance sets 100gp per 10ft square, but the map suggested the site should be slightly larger. This resulted in a 10k gp value Altar (far higher than I’d expected).

As luck would have it, several characters had Holy Water thanks to their Templates. Zen Po and NPC Fighter took turns over the next 30 minutes breaking the statue of the death goddess into bits. Zen Po took the honours of removing her head. Afterward, the Priestess and Zen Po made the appropriate blessings and left the evil sizzling away. They were quite happy with this result, but still no treasure.

The group decided to head back into the sacrifice chamber and follow a narrow hall they skipped. Prior to that, they mopped up some ashen creatures that were called by the noise. The fight was done in an instant (between 1 HP on the HD, and some narrative about the destruction of the altar). The narrow hall was short and turned to a door with a cut at the bottom. The group forced their way in and found an old cell rife with chains and a large iron ball.

At this point, the players reviewed their map. It showed no more paths of exploration, but one of them remembered the snake statue bone pit. Curious to see if it was anything interesting, or another evil altar, they rushed straight there.

Fenric took the lead, poking and prodding the ball-pit-with-bones until finally deciding to wade into it and examine the statue itself. He discovered a series of ridges, like a “ladder” leading to the base of the statue and under the belly of the snake. Reaching inside, he discovered a series of loops/levers he could feel, but not see. With the appropriate Emperor’s New Groove joke (I believe it was Maud), Fenric gave some of them a tug. The entire space (20x20) was immediately filled with ashen poison gas. The party hacked and coughed while running out of the chamber. Many of them saved, and those who didn’t were happy to find that it wasn’t an immediately deadly poison (save for half damage vs death).

Fenric, the low constitution thief with pretty much no HP, survived with 1 hit left. He was tenacious and dove right back into the pit after the gas dissipated. This time, he tested and prodded the loops until figuring out which to cut and which to pull. He was successful in this endeavour and discovered a small pocket containing the Burial’s last bit of treasure. They picked out the loot and deciding to call it a day.

The party returned with their new NPC friends and split their loot over drinks. Once things were divvied up, Zen Po approached the NPC party with a more permanent offer to join up. So it was that this poor NPC group became Henchman (Lv2 Fighter, Priestess, Explorer).

[Side Venture: The party had hired an Apothecary to identify and help them gather purple flowers they discovered a while back. 40Lbs of Wolfsbane returned to civilization.]

Rewards (Totals)

580xp
577gp
+2000xp if Lawful
+100xp (Wolfsbane)
Potion of Cure Moderate Injury
+1 Dagger (snakeskin sheath, blade of viper fangs that constantly drop off and replace themselves)(Thank you Alien Horror Table)
Censer of Prophetic Dreams (Vissus)
Scroll of Vitriolic Infusion

Afterword

It seems that rolling treasure’s opportunity cost is favoring Fun over Time. The players have settled on Heroic Treasure as their go-to, and we’re getting more efficient at the process. I need to give them a picture of the primary tables so I can just assign them completely instead of partially. Frankly, I love the discovery and surprise as much as they do; even if it sometimes requires some adjustments (the space could only hold a medium to small weapon so no +1 spears or greatswords here).

At some point I’d like to practice with the various Abstract Rules so the background parties have a bit more history behind them. For now, I’ll stick with “uhhh… There’s a generic party with absolutely no details until it’s necessary.” (Perhaps I should familiarize myself with the NPC party generator as well)