Session 22: Beetle Mania!

Low-prep vermin-smashing fun!

Session report for Thursday, December 12, 2024. Four players made two dungeon delves over the course of three days.

Characters

Bard, human fighter level 3
Fomo, halfling thief level 2
Jude, half-orc cleric/assassin level 1
"Stacks" human assassin level 1

We are back in Fort Fenrir after a three-month break! Because the status quo is the enemy of a living world, I determined a few things had happened to the area:

• Fenrir has completed a small keep and wall.
• Patrols have pacified a 9-mile radius around the fort (a 7-hex flower), making habitation possible. This includes the path to the Pig Pen megadungeon and the spider lairs the assassins ignored for a full year.
• Outside of the patrolled area: the Severed Head Clan orcs, Ruined (AKA Spooky) Keep, the ancient city, and the [redacted] deep in the heart of the forest.
• The Dripping Fang orcs have disappeared since retreating into the Pig Pen.

This was part of my plan to introduce more treasure to the game. Read the previous session reports and you might notice that Appendix A is stingy (unless you like copper). I decided that an orc lair's worth of treasure - parts of it, at least - would be available to the party if they were brave enough to get after it.

The party wanted back into the megadungeon to find out what happened to the orcs. It's a safe plan to stick to levels 1-3 because they are low level (Mustacha - ranger 3 is retired, and Bastion - fighter 4 was swapped out for Fomo to mitigate alignment conflict). They're also broke and have no mercenaries to fill out their numbers.

Travel to the dungeon is "free" now thanks to regular patrols. Fomo dives in, scouting and mapping like we never took a break, headed to the staircase to level 2.

The party ambushed a few giant rats feasting on gnome corpses. One of the unfortunate gnomes held a magical short sword and high-quality studded leather (if a bit chewed up). Eager for a magical boost, Jude claimed the sword and Fomo donned the disgusting armor.

Down the stairs they found the entrance to level 2 was swarming with fire beetles. They doubled back and found an alternate path down, thanks to the detailed maps they keep.

They ambushed a couple more fire beetles on the way to the infamous Orctagon. But then they threw a curve ball and went down a hallway that hadn't been explored in more than a year! It was time for me to stretch those book control muscles with Appendix A.

The hallway split in two directions. They followed one branch to a doorway and came upon a group of 8 fire beetles! The random monster tables are telling the story for me!

Bard charged in and made the beetles furious. Stacks fired his bow from the doorway and Jude cast curse. All the beetles except one piled on the fighter and his armor held true. The last beetle went for the doorway to harass Jude and Stacks. On the second round of combat it climbed up and eviscerated Stacks! Jude killed the beetle as Fomo took Stacks' place, then they helped Bard finish off the rest.

The coffers were protected by a pit trap which Fomo detected. The party lifted the coffers up and over and were rewarded with many electrum pieces.

We were half way through the session. Stacks' player had a new character ready to go so everyone headed back to town to bank the haul and go again in a couple of days.

Delve 2: Saturday, December 14.

Hilfred Castaigne, human illusionist, joined the team.

The party returned to the new hallway and explored the other branch. Fomo escaped death by a spear trap - saved by his new studded leather +1 and good Constitution! Beyond the spears, a trap door led deeper into the dungeon. They weren't interested in finding out how deep.

They followed the hallway back around to familiar territory: a huge chamber with rows of columns leading to some kind of throne room or chapel. Deep within the chamber they heard the chittering and squeaking of giant rats. They crept forward and shone a bullseye lanter around until they spotted the vermin. There were over thirty of them!

The party never considered retreat. Hilfred locked down half the rats with a phantasmal force spell that took the form of entangling thorns: the rats who failed the save were stuck and would die of piercing thorns and choking vines over the next three rounds. Bard fried a few rats with a flask of burning oil and he took the front line, again using his superior armor and hit points to protect his comrades. Jude used curse to great effect. Fomo slunk around in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

The fight went according to plan. After three rounds, only a few rats remained and scurried off into the darkness. The party was rewarded with a great treasure of electrum.

Other refuse amongst the dead rats implied that the treasure had been stolen from the orcs. What happened to them?

THE VANQUISHED
10 fire beetles
34 giant rats
XP for monsters slain: 478

THE SPOILS
5500 ep
200 pp
2 gems worth 45gp, 60gp
fire beetle glands sold for 345 gp
short sword +1 [Jude]
studded leather +1 [Fomo]
XP for treasure taken: 5100

THE SCORE
Bard, fighter: 1308 XP. Rank E for outstanding bravery.
Fomo, thief: 1308 XP. Rank E for outstanding cowardice and application of thief skills.
Jude, cleric/assassin: 1308 XP. Rank E for spell support and taking the opportunity to assassinate.
Hilfred, illusionist 1: 526 XP. Rank E for solving an encounter with his spell.

THE GRAVEYARD
"Stacks" Lorenzo, human assassin level 1 - eviscerated by a fire beetle in Fenrir Session 22

Session 21: Spooky Keep!

DMs, always write up session notes within 24 hours!

Session report for Thursday, August 22, 2024. Four players adventured for one week.

Characters

Bard, human fighter level 3
Mustacha, human ranger level 3
Brother Flint, human monk level 1
Jude, half-orc cleric/assassin level 1

Mustacha was obsessed with the ruined keep that he found way back in session 1. And the party was getting tired of the local megadungeon, the Pig Pen, besides. They hired a few men at arms and headed west towards the mountain.

The ranger forgot that the path to the ruined keep was to the southwest beyond the Pig Pen so the party spent a day wandering the forests outside Fort Fenrir. Lucky for them they had no encounters and arrived at the ruined keep near the end of the fourth day.

The courtyard ruins - based loosely on Castellan's Keep on the borderlands - showed no signs of activity. The party entered one of the standing towers and located a trap door into the dungeon.

At the first door, Brother Flint found a spraying acid trap. This was lucky: his find and remove traps skill is in the neighborhood of 15%. Rather than trust his ability to disarm the trap, he conceived of a method to push the door open from a distance and avoid the damage. This worked and the party began searching the dungeon below.

The dungeon appeared to be the home of a cult obsessed with death and destruction. The second room had gory hooks and chains covering one wall and a bloody altar in the middle. On a table stood a large candelabra shaped like a goddess of destruction. Each of her six hands held a votive candle.

A group of zombified orcs harassed the party as they rested in the next room. Bard and Mustacha dispatched them before they could inflict any damage.

While searching the following room, the party was ambushed by a group of skeletons - dwarf skeletons! The party was split up around the room but Bard managed to draw the ire of most of them. One hired spear was brought down. The cumulative horror was too much for the other hirelings, who fled in a panic.

Jude employed his ability to control undead to keep four or so skeletons out of the fight. As a champion of Good, Mustacha smashed them as soon as the combat had ended - denying the party free help.

Brother Flint sprinted after the fleeing hirelings. His superior movement speed (15") wasn't enough to save them, though. He found the first one in the exit doorway, half melted from the acid spray. The other one made it halfway down the hallway when a large spider pounced from hiding and killed him with its venom. Flint squashed the large spider with an overbear-foot stomp combo and waited for the rest of the party to catch up.

The party emerged from the dungeon into the tower. Above, they saw massive webs crossing the interior - and the spiders who lived there were creeping out to them.

They fled the tower in terror and returned to town.

THE VANQUISHED
4 or so zombies
a baker's dozen of skeletons
3 men-at-arms
1 large spider

THE SPOILS
lol

THE SCORE
Some small amount of monster kill XP