Rotvalan Reveries Ep20: Not So Double Header

Run Date: October 13, 2024

PCs
Lysalia: Lv3 Witch
Francisco: Lv4 Fighter

Hench
Bellara: Lv2 Fighter
Julius: Master Blacksmith
Hurriya: Lv1 Explorer
(Leighann: Lv1 Bladedancer)
(Dhaivol: Lv1 Ruinguard)

Not So Double Header

Francisco and Lysalia decided to redouble their efforts and return to the Whispering Cave to delve proper. They ran against several walls during their previous trip and hoped no more obstacles would have popped up. The trip out was overall uneventful and the party arrived at the dungeon ready to hit it. Francisco had sketched a paper map and was ready to navigate (this lead to a later conflict since I was trying to convert the map to something usable in Owlbear).

The party descended into the entry chamber where Francisco opened the way via snake-neck lever. He followed down the bear hall and skipped the miniature well inside the room. What followed was a desire to complete some loops and fill gaps in his map. This lead him through a long series of hallways and back toward the bramble or thorn door. Upon proper examination, he deduced that bashing the door open would incur damage to himself (yes, even through his plates). He proceeded to smash the thorns flat with his magic hammer then kick it down.

The chamber itself was filled with a bramble motif and oddly blooming flowers. While pretty, there was little interest in stalling. Francisco beat down the only other exit in the room and found that it connected to the lair of the Chupatoro. This is where the previously mentioned conflict occurred. It turns out that when I converted the map, various lengths and widths were lost in translation. This included some of the halls and turns. Nonetheless, the group pressed on. That is, after fighting off a small swarm of striges.

Francisco lead the party off the east exit from the Chupatoro’s lair and into a small cave chamber. The empty room had a bit of water trailing down and through it, so he followed it down a tunnel that turned back on itself and lead to a large drop. This crevasse was some 30ft deep and cut through the complex itself. The landing on the other side was some 10ft away, and just at the edge of the light the group spotted a door.

Not wanting to deal with this obstacle, the group retreated back to the Chupatoro lair and headed into the southern chamber. Here they quickly overwhelmed and slew a bunch of HobZomblins before exploring. The chamber itself was natural, not unlike the cave, save for the various mossy gravestones strewn throughout the grassy room. At the opposite end of the room was a door that had a fist-sized hole in it. Francisco encouraged the group to look around for a key, and upon finding nothing that quite suited, broke it down. He learned after this that the hole simply gave access to a wooden latch on the opposite side. Yup. Door wasn’t trapped, just weird.

Moving through another hall the party found themselves in another odd room in which 4 thrones resided, each one facing a different cardinal direction. At the corners of the room were 4 statues; the snake, eagle, bear, and elk. They didn’t do much in this room, deciding to keep their mapping rolling. It is shortly after this that the mapping stopped due to another, final conflict of communication.

Moving out a door and into another hall, the group soon found themselves inside a chamber that was a near-replica of desert buttes and mesas. They spotted an eagle and its nest in the far corner and soon discerned that it was merely a statue. As they headed east out of this room, the party finally completed the loop back to the grassy hall. At this point, speed took priority. Francisco lead the way as the group marched across the dungeon halls and arrived at a door they’d passed on several occasions. He kicked it open and discovered a group of giant ferrets trying to set up a nesting area. The group made quick work of them.

Finally, the party found themselves back at the snake doors of the northern section. There was reasonable caution once these doors were discovered to be locked, barred, or otherwise difficult to bypass. Francisco pulled out old reliable and proceeded to bash. He soon discovered that the snake had was a needle trap of sorts. He caught the head with his hammer and pulverized it before it could inject him with anything. This set the tone for the next few doors of identical make.

There was a skirmish with a group of giant rats behind Door #1, and before opening Door #2 the group hit Door #3. It was at this point I rolled an encounter with an adventuring party. I decided to use the options in the Judge’s Journal and ended up with the Lv1 group; The Grey Brotherhood. I mispronounced Avaris’s name, btw.

Anyhow, negotiations were pretty tense (Law vs Neutral/Chaos in a dungeon). Lysalia took the lead here and helped avoid a fight. However, Castinus was a shrewd man. Since the Brothers were in front of Door #2, Avaris popped in to check it for valuables. The party had skipped this door, focusing on disarming the traps before trying to open anymore doors. There was some shiftiness that played out and the PCs proposed a truce/trade: Map and information for the chest of arms and armor in that room. It was a deal, and they moved back to the surface.

There was a bit of chatter here and the party took their “winnings” and hurried back to town. The previous tensions of the session hit a high point here so we divvied the gold and wrapped up.

Rewards (Totals)

80 XP
16 GP

Afterword

I already mentioned the rough spots in the report. I am not well-versed in communicating room dimensions or managing a delve, and I am likely playing “too close to the chest” when it comes to room sizes etc. There is advice (I believe in the Revised Rulebook) for running things on a grid instead of ToTM, but I also don’t want to inadvertently nerf proficiencies like Mapping.

That’s all for now. Take care.