Run Date: September 29, 2024
PCsLysalia: Lv2 Witch
Francisco: Lv2 Fighter
Lorelei: Lv1 Explorer
Hench
None
Zero Prep: Legend of the Chupatoro
Unsure of what Helena was planning for her week, the party decided to remain near Rotval (the city) and find other work. We talked a while and I mentioned that there wasn’t any real hooks developed for this area of the map. I asked what sort of things the players wanted to get up to and they settled on a simple dungeon crawl and a bit of work. From this, I tried to create a mental work flow forward.
Background on myself: Previous to lockdowns and picking up ACKS, I had run 5e for my FLGS for some 6+ years. The nature of a public table requires a level of flexibility and I had gotten used to having broad-strokes laid out and building from them. I am not skilled nor practiced in creating things whole-cloth, nor considering all the semi-pedantic facets in-play. With that in mind, I had each player throw out details that I then stacked together into a concept/motif/theme. While they were making their preparations, I hunted down a random map from the internet, plopped down the POI on the map, and we got to it.
Before getting into it, the prompts were as follows: 1. Cave in the woods, 2. Rumours of dead livestock, 3. Surrounded by moss-covered standing stones, 4. Miscellaneous (ValTer: Double: Ore- Stone + Vista). I also had the players throw several sets of dice to decide what sorts of creatures may have laired or wandered into the area.
The party heard a rumour that some of the hamlets outside of Rotval (the city) were complaining of dead livestock. The odd thing was that all the creatures had their blood drained! Shortly after setting out toward the hills the creature supposedly came from, the party came across the desiccated corpse of a prized bull. They examined the corpse and found two large puncture marks underneath the neck. This, my friends, is how the Chupacabra came up. Being a bull, it was only right to change the name to a Chupatoro. This became the target of the hunt.
Pushing toward the hills, the party soon hit a wall: the thickness of the woods was nearly impenetrable. As they searched for an easier point of entry, they discovered a broken archway that lead up a narrow pathway. There was concern that it would collapse on them so Lorelei tossed a grappling hook a few times to check its stability. Aside from tearing off a few shards, it stood tall.
A couple hours later, Lorelei spotted some muddy footprints that appeared to come out of a narrow game path and onto their trail. She scouted down the path and found a man washing blood off himself in a spring. She stepped out, bow drawn, and confronted the creature; a hobgoblin! She spoke with it for about a minute, asking about the strange creature they were hunting. The hobgoblin was in no position to argue or fight, but pulled the classic: “Oh, I know of that creature! It looks like that!” Lorelei fired behind her and the hob took off into the woods. She circled back before he broke into the thicker foliage and killed him. Back at the path, an arrow struck one of the trunks. This signaled Francisco and Lysalia to hurry along and find out what happened. After finding a few silvers in the clothes of the hob and talking about what happened, the group continued forward.
After some time, the path widened into a stone bridge that lead to a massive landing of rock upon which immense standing stones were placed. The center held a stack of firewood as if in preparation for a ritual or secret meeting. Lysalia took the lead here and examined the stones for clues, discovering the weathered motifs of animals. She also noted hearing a faint whispering at the edge of her mind. This sound gave the location its name: Whispering Cave.
With a party of only 3, the group set up a spaced out battle line. They were hoping to rely on alpha strikes and kiting to deal with engagements. Soon, they passed into the large entrance and the whispers were replaced by a growing stench. With the light of their torch, the group spotted a narrowing exit within the chamber and started toward the “dungeon entrance,” and their first encounter!
Dropping from the ceiling was a sickening lizardman with terrible spear: a troglodyte. None of the characters understood its commands, but it was not immediately hostile. Lysalia decided to gamble on bribing it with some of the “jerky” the group cut from the prized bull. Mystic Aura (or the Cthonic Witch’s version of it) very much seems like an empathic/magical effect. I ruled that this allowed her to attempt the negotiation at some basic level. As her luck tends to goes, the dice abide. Lysalia handed off the meat while holding back her lunch, and the party descended into the tunnel.
The first chamber had four statues. I had already offered the bear, buck, and eagle as totems so we added a viper/serpent to finish it off. The opposite wall held a door that looked like a pair of bears mauling each other and the party began searching for clues; worried that it would slash or bite them. Lorelei spotted an oddity with the serpent totem, not that its head could be shifted from looking one way to the other. She went for it, sending tremors through the room that opened the doors.
A short tunnel through the mauling bears lead to another bear motif doorway. This one was a portrait of a bear sitting near a lake in a forest. Francisco spotted the claw as a lever, but was hesitant to open it. The party headed back to the first chamber and continued searching for clues. They were soon forced to take a rest, and were shortly after discovered by a small group of orcs.
Descending down the tunnel, the pigmen scouted the area. They didn’t expect there to be others below, and the PCs took advantage of this. Lorelei’s ambushing executed a pair while Fransisco’s charge cut down the last one. They picked over the bodies and discovered the stinking head of their Trog friend before deciding to hit the bear claw door. Turns out, it was just a lever!
The next chamber was identical to the image on the door, complete with small spring in the center. The party was cautious, extremely so, about this fresh-smelling, clean, clear water. They decided to ignore it and push on which meant pushing through the next door in the room: the buck. It took several attempts before the Buck would give way, and once it did the doors opened with ease into a grassy tunnel. The first thing the group noted was that the grass was fresh, soft, and green; as if it was above ground!
The tunnel grass lead the group around and they spent some time mapping the various branches and doors. They were hesitant to open anything without reason at this point. The short: Viper door with nest of eggs, 3 other Viper doors (seemingly identical), a flat stone door, and a door with thorns and brambles. This last one the group had no interest in trying to bash open. I wonder why?
Flush with options, the group marched back down the grassy tunnels toward the Viper Egg door and met with a blockade of hostile Luminous Beetles! The creatures charged at Francisco, who was desperately holding the front line. The players made several remarks about how high the AC of these things were and prepared for a TPK. This was immediately followed by Francisco cleaving three of the creatures and Lorelei following up to kill the other two. Classic. GM Note: The beetles could fight from the walls and ceiling so Francisco had 4 charging at him. Since he killed 3, the 4th had to make a save vs paralysis for the one that fell on it, taking 1 damage and being knocked prone. Fun stuff.
With the beetles out of the way and Francisco having taken a beating, the party had to weigh their risks. I commend them for being brave and greedy! “Just one or two more doors, let’s find something valuable and bounce.” This lead to them pushing through the Viper Egg door and ending up inside a stone burrow of the same; a large viper statue coiled around a nest of eggs.
This chamber was more or less a puzzle. The party searched over the viper and Lorelei pricked herself on the fangs, discovering they dripped poison and burning Fate to avoid a quick death. They also found that the eggs could be lifted a short ways before becoming too heavy to pull out, but easily shiftable. They soon discovered one egg was slightly lighter than the rest, and that the door showed 9 eggs vs the 10 in the room. They fiddled with the puzzle for a while longer before deciding to open the next door.
A hard, successful bash with Lorelei and Francisco woke a large and horrific creature within a circular chamber lighted by holes in the ceiling. They stared each other down for a moment as the creature’s features became apparent: flush red flesh with mangy hide, a horrific stench of rotted meat and curdled blood, and a pair of immense fangs at the end of an ugly, hound-like maw. This was the Chupatoro!
The party threw caution to the wind, hoping to overpower the monstrosity by numbers. Lysalia, if it hasn’t been mentioned, has no combat-relevant spells. Great at mental manipulation, bad at fighting on all fronts. More on that later. Lorelei opened with a bow shot while Francisco rushed in to engage. Once the creature was distracted trying to sup on Francisco’s blood, Lorelei circled to its rear to stab at it with her swords. Lysalia then came around the side and prepared her staff for a desperate charge.
The Chupatoro took several deep cuts before turning to maul Lorelei. It gripped her shoulder with its horrific fangs and began draining her. Her body quickly went limp. Francisco used the distraction to further wound the creature, but to no avail: Lorelei was soon drained and killed. Once finished, the Chupatoro wheeled around and resumed its attack on Francisco. It was now that Lysalia gambled on her charge and landed a fierce strike onto the creature, staggering it enough for Francisco to drive it into the ground for the finish.
With the legendary blood drinker felled, and their new comrade dead, the remaining duo explored the room. They discovered several more doors, the desiccated body of a hobgoblin, and an ancient chest filled with treasure. We tallied up the list while I tossed rolls for the party’s return trip. Worth noting that Francisco feared a trap so turned the chest’s lock toward the floor and half-buried it in refuse before breaking it open. No traps, just treasures.
The pair soon made it out of the dungeon and returned to Rotval, paid to have their items identified and settled in for the week.
Rewards (Totals)
6625 XP
2134 GP
Runed Bullet +1 (6)
Totem Staff (+1)
Chupatoro Shortsword (+1)
Elkhead Warhammer (+1)
Spell scroll (Divine, Diabolos): Sanctuary
Spell Scroll (Divine, Diabolos): Discern Gist
Spell Scroll (Arcane, Arken): Auditory Illusion
Spell Scroll (Arcane, Arken): Wall of Thunder, Chimerical Figment, Bewitch Humanoid, Seal Portal, Chameleon
Potions: Dragon Control, Giant Control, Cure Major Injury, Physical Invulnerability, Clairaudiency
Afterword
All in all, the session went off well. Straight and true zero prep where everyone worked together to form the pieces and create the adventure. This is probably a hit or miss concept depending on your player types, and I know I’ve run for many in the past that would turn their nose up at a “non-curated experience” (they never lasted long anyway). I will say that it is easy to miss even normal details depending on your multi-tasking capabilities. For example, I rolled for what creatures were laired in the dungeon, and yet they probably should have been realistically spread out. There were no guards at the doors, no scouts, et al. This probably made things a bit easier than expected, especially given the Treasure results.
As for the Chupatoro, I just took the Greater Hellhound and changed the flame breath to the Strix Blood Drain and called it a day. The downside is that I overlooked that a lair of such creatures is typically 2d4 and the party faced only 1. Perhaps they were extremely lucky and the others were out hunting, or taken on as pets of the hobgoblins that are definitely in the dungeon somewhere. All in all, it is what it is and there is no use worrying about it.
One final note: I used the dungeon stocking in the Judge’s Journal, a simple chart with Empty, Monster, Trap, Unique. I tend to roll a lot of Uniques when I stock dungeons so I’ve gotten better at free-form craftsmanship. Less “Skeletons activating an elevator” and more “Oh this might be cool.” To wit, I sometimes use the Terrain encounters and scale them to the room itself, or even throw a percentile to check for treasure then use the other stock results (Trap-Treasure with a Unique twist). This may lead to more treasure than expected or recommended by ACKS (4:1 GP:XP), but sometimes you’re lucky and sometimes not so…
That’s all for now. Take care.
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