(Link to prior sessions)

Real date: 12/16 & 12/17/17 In-game date: September 21st, EY632

PCs:

Ambrose (Warrior – Fighter L2)
Asher (Footpad – Thief L2)
Imric (Veteran/Seer Fighter L1/MU L2)
Roger (Outlander – Warden L1)

Hirelings:

Thom (torchbearer)
Rolgrim

In our last session, the man-at-arms Sturdoon and the Barbarian Gruk were gravely wounded. They decided, upon returning to Frostmark, to retire from the adventuring life. Gruk headed north, back to his people and Sturdoon left town for the civilized lands to the east. The rest of the party spent a week recovering. Imric, of course, made a scroll of sleep, Ambrose relaxed with his wife, while Asher and Roger kept their ears open at the Empty Purse.

It wasn’t long before they heard rumors of an abandoned Hobbit village from a traveling pilgrim, who had come from beyond the ruined tower to the southwest. They purchased horses and a wagon and set out the next morning, to clear skies. Within a few hours the party approached the hill and ruined tower, beneath which had already been plundered by Asher and Ambrose. As they drew closer to the tower, in the distance, off to the north, Imric spotted a flying creature approaching. After a minute its form became clear – a red dragon [DM note: Wandering wilderness encounter]! The party dismounted and ran towards the tower ruins, making it down the stairs just in time to avoid the dragon’s fiery breath. Their horses and wagon, however, were not so lucky. As they peered out from below, they could see the dragon flying off, a horse in his claws. The remaining horses and wagon were still ablaze.

Considering themselves lucky, they emerged from the ruins and continued southwest, this time on foot. A few hours later they approached a series of small mounds in a vale, each overgrown but clearly at one time a Hobbit village, from the small, round windows and doors still visible. Most of the windows were blackened with dirt or soot, so they could not see through them. They approached the closest mound and Ambrose opened the lone door. What they saw appeared to have once been a stable, but they did not have time to investigate further as four stirges flew at them from within. Ambrose thrust his spear at one while the rest of the party fired arrows – a few lucky shots and the stirges were dead. The stable floor was mostly covered in quano, so the party moved on.

While walking past a tree in the center of the village, Roger noticed a wooden platform with trapdoor high in the branches. Climbing up and exploring it proved a mistake, as it was home to three fire beetles. Although they gave the party no real trouble, they also had no treasure to speak of. Asher did cut out and stash the beetles’ glowing glands, just in case they were needed.

Next the party turned its attention to one of the larger mounds. They entered an eastern hobbit-door, and saw what appeared to be a mostly empty living area, complete with a fireplace and a dead body on the floor. As they moved to inspect the body, Asher was surprised by a large, tentacled white worm that slithered in with surprising speed from the shadows to the west. The worm’s tentacles bit into Asher’s flesh, and he felt all sensation leaving his body as he fell over, paralyzed. Even as Ambrose and the others attacked the worm, another entered from the north! They had a tough battle on two fronts, but ultimately prevailed [DM note: Lots of lucky save vs. paralysis rolls]. With the worms dead, the party again turned its attention to the body, which appeared to be a long-dead adventurer. Among his belongings they recovered several vials of holy water and a potion of healing, which was put to good use immediately to heal poor Asher of his paralysis. Meanwhile, Roger decided to take a closer look at the fireplace and  discovered a hidden compartment in the hearth floor which contained a strongbox. Inside was a cache of gold and a large, blue gem.

Moving west, the party explored some bedrooms, one of which they were surprised to find contained an undead Hobbit. They made short work of the creature and moved on to the kitchen, spending some time fretting over a bit of harmless green slime oozing from one of the window frames. They exited after looping back to the living room, and headed to another mound off to the north.

This mound was smaller, but infested with Hobbit zombies – five in all. After defeating them, in one of the rooms they discovered a jeweled necklace, Asher pocketed this and having had enough of small zombies for the day, the party headed back to town.

DM notes: I pulled this little site-based adventure out of the Basic Fantasy module ‘The Chaotic Caves’. I modified it on-the-fly as needed.

~

(Link to prior sessions)

Real date: 10/16/17 In-game date: September 15th, EY632

PCs:

Ambrose (Warrior – Fighter L2)
Asher (Footpad – Thief L2)
Imric (Veteran/Seer Fighter L1/MU L2)
Roger (Outlander – Warden L1)

NPCs:

Gruk (Brabarian) – Fighter L1

Hirelings:

Thom (torchbearer)
Sturdoon
Rolgrim

In our last session, the  party defeated an Ogre at the cost of Ambrose’s life, and returned to Frostmark. The party first visited the Temple of Soldra, where Patriarch Sunamel agreed to raise Ambrose for a donation of a mere 1,200GP. They scraped the money together and soon enough, Ambrose was back (DM note: He made his CON survival roll). A rest was in order, and during the next week Imric crafted a sleep scroll while the rest of the party stocked up on supplies and bought some horses. The party headed back to the caves on the morning of the 7th day in a dense fog.

During the overland journey, the party ran into a band of seven Orcs. Roger was able to lead them astray on his horse, then loop back in the fog and attack them from behind. He was soon joined by the others, and together they had no problem dispatching the Orc patrol.

The next morning the party approached the caves from the south again, and this time the entrances were partially blocked by rock piles and men (bandits?) on high alert with crossbows. A frontal attack was (surprisingly) almost successful – the party killed all but one guard, who escaped into one of the caves. Ambrose, Gruk and the meatshields ran into the cave in pursuit, but ran headlong into four men coming to investigate the alarm. They engaged in melee, while outside the cave Thom, Imric and Asher were surprised by four more men, who snuck up on them, firing crossbows. They managed to kill the four men, but Thom was gravely wounded and Asher narrowly avoided death (DM note: Thief’s luck roll).

Back inside, five more men joined the fray! Arrows, hand axes, and oil flew, and eventually all but two of the attackers lived. Those last two fled, and with nearly everyone wounded, the party decided to hole up in a locked room to heal. Roger applied his healing poultices to the worst off, and they continued on into the cave complex.

This time Asher scouted ahead, while the rest of the party waited in a darkened corridor. Asher spied a head peeking from around a corner about 100 feet away from him, to the north. He headed back to tell the others what he saw, just as a group of men was coming out of a nearby door.  Then, from the north, a robed spellcaster rounded the corner! Imric cast sleep on the group of men, catching all of them unaware. A hail of arrows felled the spellcaster before he could get even a single spell off.

Meanwhile, in the rear of the order, Sturdoon suddenly fell face-first to the floor! The party turned its attention his way, only to see an Elf standing over the body, holding a bloody sword. Rolgrim and Gruk turned and attacked the evil Elf, while Asher attempted to sneak in behind the melee. In the resulting battle, Gruk also collapsed, but Rolgrim and Asher were able to finish off the Elf.  Searching the first group of men, Imric discovered a suit of magical chain armor. A search of the room they came out of revealed a map with trade and caravan routes, and a strongbox with gold and silver. There was no sign of the spellcaster’s spellbook. The party tended to Gruk and Sturdoon, gathered up their loot, and returned to town.

DM notes: The zero-HP table gave Sturdoon and Gruk their lives, at the expense of some grave wounds. I ruled they had lost some appendages (a leg for Sturdoon and an arm for Gruk), so we retired them after the party returned to town. But it all seems a bit too fiddly for me, so this will be the last game where we use the zero HP table.  Also, as we all know, the sleep spell is quite effective at taking out large groups of humanoids, and the Holmes scroll creation rules mean the Elf is starting to amass a collection, so I make a mental note to change things up for next time.

~