Run Date: July 14, 2024
PCsHelena: Lv3 Bladedancer (WasteThatWalks)
Gwendolyn: Lv3 Fighter
Hench
Mercedes: Lv1 Priestess (WTW)
Lothor: Lv1 Vaultguard
Eduardo: Lv1 Mage
Athena: Lv1 Priestess (Clotho)
Hugo: Lv2 Ravager
Flour Power
The PC group was small, but a few Mercs and slew of henches helped round things out. Helena took the lead and tossed out a couple options; including revisiting the Unhidden Temple and poking around a mausoleum. The former was chosen and they set out from the Shrine of the Golden Sun and into the wooded hills.
The entire crew being on horseback helped counteract the significant slowdown the terrain imposed (both hill and wood modifiers stack). While traveling, the party found themselves traipsing through a densely shaded area that pushed away some of the summer heat. They soon found out, however, that it wasn’t leaves, but webs, that had offered it. The party was ambushed by Giant Tarantulas!
The majority of the group was surprised and one of the creatures pounced and killed a cavalryman. Eduardo, being one of the few that wasn’t caught offguard, threw out a Fan of Flames on the left flank. It cleared some of the webbing and revealed another tarantula! The others at the front managed to avoid injuries and defend themselves against this second tarantula as it rushed the forward flank. The party also had to contend with an ambusher from the rear. Once the initial surprise faded the party reacted with brutality; swords, trampling, Hugo’s vicious claws and Gwen’s famous morningstar made short work of the creatures.
A drizzle began as the flames burned and melted the webbing away. Helena sent Hugo to tracking the horse while she looked around the webs for anything of value. She discovered a damaged sack of silver coins and a couple gems. Once Hugo caught scent of the horse that fled, the group marched on.
Horses are fast, and a panicked one probably has enough endurance to fly a ways. I didn’t know the specifics, but tracking slows the group’s pace so I ruled it took about an hour to find their lost friend. It was drinking in a place with sunken muddy puddles. As they called to it and got it back in the ranks, the puddles began to lift and move. Zombies started roiling out of them! Helena called the retreat and the party continued their adventure.
Their night in the woods was uneventful, but the drizzle had become a rain. They set out the next morning, slogging through the wooded hills, and arrived at the Unhidden Temple by mid-morning. The party cleaned up the entry pillars and had Eduardo throw his Fan of Flames to ignite them; I then explained Din’s Fire because I’m the only one that’s played Ocarina of Time.
Prior to session start, Helena went shopping back in Coxhaven. For this delve, she brought that purchase to bear and created the name for this session. The party entered the first room and noted that the strange statue was still there, though their penetration of it had reverted. The party shrugged this off and decided to head down the northwest hall and scout it out. Said hall ended in two adjacent blocks with spiral domed ceiling, each with an eye at its center. The first block had a stone door at its north. They decided to ignore this door for now and continue west a bit before discovering an open chamber with reliefs of immense heads. Worse yet, all the heads appeared to have realistic eyes that watched the group.
Helena sent Hugo to prod for traps and put Athena to work studying the eyes. The Priestess had little to say, noting that the current worshippers of Clotho often remove an eye or three to show their absolute devotion. The most powerful of these are even granted dark secrets and visions. As for the eyes on the walls, they were likely real; protected by a glaze she couldn’t explain. After Hugo discovered nothing, the party about-faced and headed back to the entry chamber.
The next route was back toward familiar territory. East through a door into the spiraling narrowing hall, the small swirling chamber with three doors, and toward the invisible scythe room. The door here was stuck and took Hugo a bit to open. Once it did, the eastern (locked) door swung open and voices came calling.
Nobody understood the barking language from these unknown creatures, but Helena made an attempt at “parlay.” She stepped up with one of her purchases and threw it toward the sound. It was a bag of flour that promptly exploded and revealed a pair of small, lizard-like humanoids. The flour assaulted their senses and destroyed their desire to chat; not that Helena had any intention of doing so.
The following battle was a hail of flour “bombs” filling a short hall and chamber with a dry fog. The PC frontline mowed over the enemy with absolute savagery, taking a few cuts in retaliation and leaving only bloody dough behind. One creature remained after this slaughter. It immediately surrendered.
After the party tied up their new captive, they noted the room: sheer, immaculate walls and ceiling. A stairwell in the south lead downward. The group didn’t expect another descent and decided to explore it. What they found was a wide platform leading to a crevasse with flattened stone pillars. A veritable jump puzzle. The party expended some time here tossing torches and flour to see if there was an illusory path or other trickery, but for once things were as they appeared. Alas, nobody was in the mood for hopping around. The group returned to the sheer room.
After resting a few minutes, the group checked the walls of the chamber for secrets. They discovered that the walls were a simple illusion hiding images of the cloaked “them” with pendulum, along with a carpet of moss. Athena was prodded for more information, but came up with nothing. Seeing as there was nothing here, they headed back to the scythe room and descended into the labyrinth.
Helena had noted the path through the labyrinth and followed it to the wide gallery with a statue of Clotho. The group headed westward to the invisible maze (not to be confused with the visible labyrinth). Helena handed off some flour and tied a rope to Lothor after chumming it up, and sent him to lay out the path to the maze. Through this, the party confirmed that the walls were indeed invisible and it was a maze. However, they did not make it very far in as Lothor stopped just before the Repeating Shadow: it stepped to the wall, banged on it, turned back in surprise, and was severed in two. This, of course, heavily implied a trap of some sort. Lothor threw another sack of flour to find that the path forward lead straight through it.
Lothor regrouped with the party and they rested to get ahead of their cycle. During this, Helena planned out ranks and decided to use her spear to try and prod out any traps on the way. The others would be on flour duty and ensuring efficient movement through the maze. As the group stood up to execute their plan, however, a large wolf came into their torchlight.
A lone wolf, nose covered in white dust, had discovered the party. He was thinner and appeared to be starving. Fresh meat is fresh meat.
Gwen won out on initiative for this fight and rushed the savage beast. Her morningstar has a history of dealing immense amounts of damage in a single blow, and this time was no different… Except the creature was immune. “Oh shit! It’s a werewolf!” This unexpected turn resulted in a quick shift in mindset and searching for an out. The usual strongmen of the party rushed the wolf and tried to wrestle it, but only received bites in return; Lothor took an especially deep wound. Helena called out to the Priestesses to begin preparing Bane Rune and other spells while the frontline continued their struggles with the beast.
Gwen managed to nearly catch the creature, but it wriggled free. Hugo, already being half-beast himself, managed to finally get a hold of it while it was chewing on Gwen. The spell-slinging began and Helena rushed forward to start stabbing with a freshly Runed spear. One of the Priestesses attempted to break the will of the creature with a Command Word: Die! We’ll need to get her a cute green-haired girlfriend some time.
The gang up with the werewolf continued into the following round when the Command KO’d the thing. Lothor and Gwen had prepared for this moment and immediately begin tying the poor bastard up. When it came to, it was at Helena’s mercy- or would be if she had any. She continued to stab it over and over, gambling on whether it would instantly die or not (specifically deciding not to coup de gras). After she was satisfied with her work, Helena put her priestesses to patching the thing up.
They attempted an interrogation and got little out of the beast, even after he shifted back to human form: he was starving, got lost in the dungeon, follow their mess/scent. He noted that there was another path in the labyrinth that ended in a door, but he couldn’t get it open. It smelled more of beast than man, but the creatures held conversation.
The group was over this place at this point and marched out with their new pet (the kobold was run through shortly before the werewolf arrived). While the group was heading back we popped outside to see how the Mercs were doing and resolved a quick combat with a scouting party of orcs. When the delve party made it back to the entry chamber, the werewolf tried to bargain for his life. He noted that he smelled blood and silver. Helena was in no mood and yanked him on.
Mortal wounds were checked for the Mercs that fell; two cataphracts, one wounded and one dead. The dead were buried (per the Waste That Walks) and the party began heading back to the shrine. There was some talk here about making a deal with a nearby hag and offering up the wolf, but they decided to table that for later.
The rain made the return trek a slog, and the group was forced to camp in the woods. They found some rocky outcroppings for shelter and began planning their watches. Just as everyone was lying down to rest, the first watch began screaming in panic. They rushed out to see streaks of lightning illuminate an immense serpent. Screams went out and everyone fled.
Evasion was successful and Helena shouted out commands to her men to press on for Hunter’s Haven. The scout took point and the entourage slogged through rain, darkness, and mud. It was nearing morning when they finally found the Haven and settled in. Helena organized another set of watches and the crew prepared to settle in for the day.
Around noon, the rain had subsided a bit. Half the camp was near-naked trying to dry their clothes without fires and things were settling down. It was at this moment that the men on watch rushed in, “It followed us!” Several horses were sent running out of the entrance to try and sate the creature’s hunger. They listened to the cries and struggles of the beasts until things went quiet. Meanwhile, Helena poured every ounce of military oil the group had (which was quite a bit) and set up Eduardo to Fan of Flames the entry tunnel. A literal firewall.
The serpent poked its head in and tasted the air, the group waited for it to roll over their trap. After a tense moment, it backed out. The group felt the earth move and shake as the creature’s mass moved through the trees and carved a path for itself. The party was on alert for another two hours before they worked up the courage to check outside. A line of lances were set to protect their front and the crew marched out. What they saw were the leftover guts of their sacrifice and deep cuts in the muck and mud. Some older trees had been forced away and toppled as well. No sign of the serpent.
The party quickly geared up and rushed back to the shrine to apprise Ryder of the situation and get a proper rest. Before making it to safety, however, they had to contend with a group of Spitting Cobras that were trying to set up a nest. These highly venomous creatures are no joke, and killed the entire frontline of cavalrymen (3, I think). A lance charge and the usual suspects made quick work of the enemy, and the players were finally happy to make it home.
Rewards (Totals)
430 XP
128 GP
Afterword
A gimmick dungeon is somewhat clunky to run, but it’s good practice. It’s just unfortunate that the group hasn’t discovered any treasure yet. At least the Giant Tarantulas had something to offer, right?
All in all, this was a pretty straightforward session. It still takes me some extra time to roll up and resolve encounters and it breaks the flow. I had actually pre-rolled a bunch of things a long time ago but I keep pushing it aside. Turns out, I like being just as surprised as the players when I roll up a Giant Snake then check the MM and find out that, “No, this isn’t just a Giant Snake. This is Advanced (15HD) Giant Snake.”
Credit where it’s due to Helena for bringing the flour power. A classic, perhaps even old-school, solution to a dungeon filled with mazes, puzzles, or gimmicks. Had our buddy the werewolf not shown up, perhaps they would’ve made it through the maze. I’d say “there’s always next time,” but I believe the party is very adamant about staying the hell away from that place.
That’s all for now. Take care.
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