Return to the Dungeons of the Slave Lords - One Shot Adventure Guest Starring Old One

[Rel]

Hello one and all. On Saturday, it was my great pleasure to run a one-shot game for my regular group, plus our special guest, Old One (of Faded Glory fame). We all had a great time (at least that’s what they are telling me to my face) and I promised Old One’s players and other readers that I would write a Story Hour about it so they could see how their fearless leader performed on the “other side of the screen”.

Again, this is a one shot and not an ongoing campaign so I’ll be posting all the installments to it in the next day or two (all you folks who are out there saying, “But that’s what you say about your Faded Glory Story Hour, Rel, and you are always tardy updating that one,” can just shut your pie holes right now).

Just a quick note before I begin our intrepid tale: I’m never shy about adding GM commentary into my SH posts. But in this case I’m going to be especially liberal with them because my thoughts as the group progressed through the adventure as well as some real life events are an integral part of the story of the session, if not the story as it took place in the game world. If you don’t like that sort of thing, I’m sorry. But trust me that much of it is pretty darn funny. From this point onward, I’ll try to offset the GM commentary with italics like this.

On to the adventure…

When Old One told me that he was coming to the area for a visit, I instantly agreed to have him game with us. However, I am not currently running the game in our group and it can sometimes be problematic to slot in a new character for one session in an ongoing campaign. So I immediately thought of doing a one-shot.

I wanted it to be fun but I also wanted it to be unique and memorable (in short, I wanted to try to impress one of my GM Heroes, Old One). I wracked my brain trying to think of something I hadn’t done before. Then I stumbled onto an old idea: I’ll start the party naked! Everybody has done this before, right? Ok, well not precisely “naked” but with very little equipment. From there, I quickly jumped to the concept of doing a 3E rendition of the old AD&D module A4 “In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords” and voila – “Return to the Dungeons of the Slave Lords” was born.

The Party (all 5th level):

A wily Halfling Rogue who’s a dead shot with a thrown rock, Blodgett (Played by The Lone Corndog, AKA the player who ran Rhys and Scar in my Faded Glory campaign).

A surly Dwarven Cleric, and the founding (and still only) member of the Dwarven Temperance League (DTL), Karraway (Played by Raven Howeveryouspellhislastname, AKA the player who ran Krase and Raven in my campaign).

A dangerous (and not just to the enemy) Gnomish Sorcerer, Delgath the Dread (Played by Speaks With Stone who ran the character of the same name in my campaign).

And last, but almost always first, a gravely voiced, burly and mean hunk of Dwarven woman, Elwita the Fighter (Played by our guest of honor, Old One).


The Setup (i.e. Welcome to Rel’s Railroad! All Aboard!)

The party are prisoners of a nasty band of pirates and slavers who they fell prey to on the high seas. They have been held captive for several weeks and forced to work in the diamond mines of the pirates’ island stronghold. One member of the party managed to escape from the sea battle (an NPC Druid) and has been trying to figure out a way to help the party bust out of their prison. But now he has sent a desperate message: The island is a volcano about to blow and the group can’t wait any longer. They must make their escape attempt now!

Fortunately, just that day (What a coincidence!) as they were mining, the group discovered that there must be a hollow on the other side of the place they were digging (thanks to the Dwarves’ stonecunning).

The Druid’s message was delivered to the party by a Boggun named Mulch who snuck in past the guards disguised as, well, a pile of Mulch. Fortunately, the cargo capacity of a Boggun’s belly is such that he was also able to cough up (quite literally) a few other small items of value: A +1 Dagger that also glows (5’R of light), the Cleric’s holy symbol, the Sorcerer’s spell pouch, a divine scroll with 3 low level spells on it and 6 Goodberries. Except for these items, each party member is equipped with nothing more than a canvas tunic tied at the waist with a 5’ length of rope.

Armed with this bounty of newfound equipment, the path to freedom is clear: The group must use the Cleric’s magic (either Loosen Earth and Stone or Stone Shape) to clear a path to the hollow. Then they will follow that cavern, which hopefully leads to the surface, whereupon they will attempt to steal the pirates’ ship, The Water Dragon, or one of its longboats and flee the island.

Here I am with more commentary again already. I’m not terribly fond of linear campaign design. I think that one of the things that is fun about roleplaying is for the characters to have choices and to have to live with the consequences of those choices. However, in a one-shot game, I’m willing to railroad the party a bit more in the interests of moving things along.

The Druid had offered that the party could send a return message by way of Mulch to indicate when and where they would be making their jailbreak and this would allow the Druid to cause a distraction at the appropriate time to aid them. For the moment, they opted to hang on to Mulch for his use in scouting and his glowing personality.

With only the dagger among them to use as a weapon, most of the group set to making slings out of the hems of their tunics and gathering rocks for ammunition. Meanwhile, even though it wasn’t the appropriate time of day, the Cleric selected his spells and prayed to almighty Moradin to help them get the heck out of there. Their situation was desperate. The volcano was going to blow any time now and Elwita was starting to think that the Gnome looked sexy in his tunic. Under these dire circumstances, Moradin cut Karraway a break and granted the spells he asked for pronto.

At this point, I introduced a little metagame device to the group: The Doomsday Clock ™! I took the clock off my mantle and set it down next to the gaming table and said ominously (at least I hope it sounded ominously), “It is now 5:45 PM. When the Doomsday Clock strikes 11:00, the volcano erupts…”

As a great sense of urgency overcame the party, the Cleric finalized his spell selection and Elwita ceased her comments on the possible sexual uses of the Sorcerer’s heightened sense of smell. In short, they got down to business.

Karraway went to work on creating an opening into the next cavern. Using Stone Shape, he withdrew a large plug of stone from the wall and set about shaping it into the rough shape of a battleaxe for use by Elwita (she had Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization for the battleaxe). Elwita used her talent at stoneworking to assist in this endeavor and wound up with a somewhat brittle but serviceable rendition of a battleaxe.

Blodgett meanwhile gazed into the cavern that they were about to make their escape into. What he saw was dark and Blodgett complained loudly about Halflings’ general lack of low light vision. In the interest of shutting him up, Karraway cast a Light spell on a sling stone and gave it to Blodgett. The Halfling again looked to the cavern that was to be their salvation. It was some 20 feet across and extended in both directions. He dangled and dropped the 10 feet to the sandy floor of the cavern and noted that the cavern quickly dead ended in one direction and narrowed but continued in the other direction. The “toot-toot” noise you are hearing is the sound of Rel’s Railroad, where the trains always run on time!

The group entered the cavern with Karraway bringing up the rear. Hoping to confound their jailors as to how they escaped, he used another Stone Shape spell to seal their exit behind them. That done, the group pressed on with the Blodgett in the lead. His keen eyes and utter lack of Darkvision guaranteed that any enemies would see the glowing rock he carried long before he saw them.

The passageway descended and curved around, narrowing all the while until it was a scant 5 feet wide and only 3 feet tall. Blodgett grinned in satisfaction that his short height was serving a purpose other than a basis for crude sexual humor by Elwita. But his smugness was short lived as he could see the cavern opening up again ahead of the bottleneck. He could also see a pile of something up ahead, including what appeared to be bits of broken furniture. He called Elwita forward and hid the Light stone while asking her to employ her innate Darkvision (which he desperately envied) to see what lay ahead.

Elwita could see that the pile was various bits of cast off refuse, probably dropped into this cavern through a shaft in the ceiling from which a very dim and flickering light emanated. Among the pile, he could see several dead bodies in various states of decay.

With the possibility that the Slaver’s trash men could be lurking directly overhead, the group decided to proceed with the utmost caution. They would sneak around the pile and exit the chamber through the passageway opposite them. Then they would send the Halfling back to conduct the onerous duty of searching through the pile of dead bodies and garbage in the hopes of locating something useful, like a bustier for Elwita, gravity being a bitch and all.

Alas, this plan was confounded when (to the surprise of virtually nobody) the dead bodies rose from the garbage heap and moved to attack Blodgett and Elwita who were first to enter the chamber. The undead were comprised of a trio of skeletons and a pair of zombies, all of roughly medium size.

The Rogue stood stark still (due to a surprisingly bad initiative roll) as did the Warrioress (due to an unsurprisingly bad initiative roll). But Delgath the Dread, anxious to live up to his name, reacted quickly and neutralized the threat (to himself) by casting a Web spell into the chamber. The webs engulfed virtually the whole room and were placed so precisely that they enveloped Elwita, who stood a scant 5 feet away, while leaving the Gnome to breath easy.

Thanks to the obscurement provided by the Web, nobody could see the utter embarrassment on Blodgett’s face as he failed his Reflex Save. Nor could they see the horror on his face as he realized that on one of the skeletons had made his save and was preparing to gouge his little Halfling eyes out.

Meanwhile, Karraway, never one to rush in while Delgath was flinging his magic about, dithered around near the back of the pack, generally bemoaning the troubles that had befallen them so soon in their attempt to escape. Elwita held up the Dwarven end by tearing herself free of the webs with her mighty strength. Lacking such mighty strength himself, Blodgett attempted to extract himself by more dexterous means and succeeded. Unfortunately he was still trapped in close quarters with a skeleton and a dagger. Never a good combo there.

The skeleton struck at the Halfling and landed a claw on him, tearing his tunic in the process. Since the piece of ragged and smelly canvas comprised a substantial portion of his worldly possessions at the moment, Blodgett screamed more in anger than in pain.

To add insult to minor injury, Delgath gleefully summoned a small jet of flame to his hand by way of Prestidigitation and called out, “I can set the webs on fire if you want me to, Blodgett! You’ll get out faster that way.”

Elwita christened her new stone battleaxe by sinking it deep in the side of the zombie entangled in the webs in front of her. The creature did not fall, but it did let out a deep gurgling noise. Then again, it might have made that gurgling noise regardless of the blow. Who can say?

Karraway finally decided that being imbued with the holy power of Moradin is great for conversation at the Dwarven Temperance League meetings and all, but the best part about it is actually using it. He scrambled ungracefully through the low opening into the Slaver’s landfill and let loose with a wave of positive energy that swept through the webs turning the skeletons and zombies into so much powder.

A reverent silence filled the chamber over which could be heard Blodgett’s shrill voice, “Don’t set the webs on fire!”

Disappointed, Delgath turned off the jet of flame shooting from his finger and began to contemplate using his Prestidigitation to make Karraway a bit more fragrant to his sensitive nose.

A moment later, a hint of movement caught Blodgett’s attention and he saw a cluster of rags, stick and other detritus rise from the garbage pile in a small whirlwind. The dust devil moved in his direction, seemingly struggling against the webs just as much as he was. “Get me out of here!” he shouted.

The smile returned to Delgath’s face as the jet of flame once again sprang from his hand and he obliged the Halfling’s request by igniting the webs. If there was one thing more pleasant to Delgath than enwebbing his friends and foes, it was freeing them from those bonds via fire. They didn’t call him Delgath the Dread for nothing.

The rest of the party was reduced to following along in the wake of the burned out webs as they inexorably approached Blodgett. Also approaching the Halfling was the swirling pile of debris. He didn’t know what it was (it was a Raggamoffyn from the MM2) and he didn’t want to find out by having to battle it with a dagger either.

A few seconds later, the fire had consumed enough of the webs for the rest of the party to see the mysterious whirlwind of detritus and Delgath let fly at it with a trio of Magic Missiles. They (of course) struck home, but it kept on coming and plowed its way through the webs and make its way adjacent to the Halfling.

With a grimace, Blodgett struck out with the dagger and it struck some sort of solidity within the swirling junk. Apparently the blow was enough to do it in because the bits of debris fell lifelessly into the webs. A moment later, the fire swept over Blodgett and his fallen to bits foe inflicting minor burns and further damaging the Halfling’s prized tunic and 5’ of rope belt.

Delgath gleefully exclaimed, “You’re free!” as the sooty faced Halfling took careful notes of the Gnome’s vital areas. He resolved that one more flaming web was going to earn Delgath a dagger to the nose.

Wanting to escape the area before the fire, smoke and yelling drew the attention of the Slaver’s trash men (or Sanitation Engineers as they prefer to be called), the group conducted a hasty search of the remaining garbage pile for any useful equipment. The pile yielded enough broken furniture to arm everyone with a club, a small shield sundered in two and a breastplate with a big rent torn in the center. With such a bounty of treasure in hand, the group beat a hasty retreat into the passageway beyond.

“Your turn to take the lead, Elwita.” Said Blodgett, wary of foes ahead and the Sorcerer behind.

Next Up: “We put the ‘kill’ in ‘overkill’.”

 

[Rel]

A short distance up the cavern, the party stopped briefly to apply a bit of mending to the small shield and to the Halfling. This left both in less-than-perfect-but-still-able-to-stop-one-good-hit-by-an-orc-condition. Elwita strapped on the breastplate they had recovered and discovered that it was uncomfortable, but still offered some protection (-2 to AC and +2 to Armor Check Penalty). To this she added the slightly charred small shield and thereby became the best armored member of the group if not the most fashionable.

They continued on, noting that the passageway was ascending slightly fueling hopes that it might soon lead to the surface. Gazing ahead up the narrow cavern, Elwita noted a wide spot where sand had been piled against the sides of the cavern. This was all she had time to notice before a high pitched cry rang out in the darkness:

“Give strength to our blows, Kurtulmak!”

Every face in the group blanched as they realized they were up against the most dreaded weapon in Rel’s arsenal – The Kobold Amush

A moment later a hail of javelins descended upon the party from a pair of ledges carved into the cavern walls approximately 15 feet above the cave floor. One struck Elwita and another struck Delgath. A ray of greenish light arced out of the darkness and struck Elwita but she shrugged off the effects of whatever dire magic it contained. It was a Ray of Enfeeblement.

Elwita reacted first and bellowed, “The best way out of an ambush is quickly!” and ran forward as fast as she could go. Why, oh why, didn’t I put a PIT in the middle of the cavern?! Sorry, Old One’s players. Major goof on my part.

Before anybody else could react, a hail of slingstones followed the initial volley of javelins. A couple found their marks but did only minor damage. These were followed by the shrill voice calling out again, “We shall be your DOOM!” accompanied by the spell of the same name.

Feeling a sense of unease settle over them, the rest of the group was a bit more hesitant to charge into unknown territory as a way of escaping the present situation than Elwita was. Delgath was the next to respond and he did what he always did: Cast Web in the hopes that he could soon set someone on fire. The strands of web engulfed the entire width of the cavern and caught every single Kobold in its radius. To Delgath’s minor consternation, no party members were caught this time. But hey, you can’t win them all.

Blodgett longed to wreak some havoc on someone smaller than he was (those types of foes don’t come along often) but he could already see the Sorcerer summoning that finger of flame to his hand the Halfling was not about to try rushing into the Web.

Karraway looked left, looked right and looked left again, caution being his watchword and a plan began to form in his mind. A plan so artfully subtle, that you could pin a tail on it and call it a bull in a china shop.

Elwita began to look for somewhere she could get on the ledge that wasn’t covered in webs. She was dying to use her brittle stone axe on some brittle Kobold skulls and would not be satisfied with waiting for the inevitable fires to die out before braining somebody.

The Kobolds all tried valiantly to escape while their leaders bravely turned themselves invisible in the hopes of escaping justice. But none were strong enough or quite nimble enough to make any progress toward freedom.

Delgath’s hand trembled with a desire to set the webs on fire. But sometimes style has to be sacrificed in the cause of practicality (as in the case of Elwita’s current outfit) and the notion that some of the Kobolds might survive the fire combined with Delgath’s lack of a heavily armored bodyguard caused him to hold back. Blodgett kept a cautious eye on the Gnome to insure that he didn’t try to set anything else on fire just to keep himself busy in the meantime.

Karraway’s plan finally navigated the foggy recesses of his brain and he called on Moradin’s power over stone to weaken the cavern wall above the Kobold ambushers on the left. The stone came loose and formed a landslide that crushed the Kobolds and sent them smashing to the floor and ending the meager threat that they posed with their sling stones (1d3 per round). In perhaps the most futile gesture seen yet, Karraway called out, “Look out Elwita!” as the dust began to settle on the lifeless bodies of the little green lizard men.

Fortunately, Elwita had climbed up onto the other ledge and was ready with her battleaxe to assist any Kobolds who were having difficulty finding their way to the afterlife. She didn’t have to wait much longer as one of the Kobolds on her ledge managed a panicked escape attempt. The stone axe dashed the Kobold’s hopes and brains and if he’d had a companion with him, you can bet he would have been Cleaved as well.

Blodgett stood by in the event that any Kobolds emerged from the webs on his side of the cavern while Delgath came to the joyful realization that it was no longer a matter of whether to set fire to the webs, but when. Karraway decided that his plan was so magnificent that it deserved to be enacted a second time and did his best rendition of “rinse/repeat” on the opposite ledge, taking a bit of care to avoid catching Elwita in the landslide this time. Moments later, the remaining Kobolds were twitching their death twitches in the rubble and the cavern filled with silence once again.

“I wonder if they have anything useful,” wondered Blodgett.

“Well, I’ll burn away the webs and we can find out!” replied Delgath, the size of his smile nearly eclipsing the size of his nose.

From the slightly charred pile of rubble (Are you seeing a pattern here?) the party recovered two sets of small leather armor, a set of small hide armor, a half spear made from a broken short sword, the hilt of said short sword and all the sling stones you could ever want.

Feeling like veritable kings with all of this loot in hand, the group set fort once again on their path to freedom.

Shortly, they came to a very wide spot in the cavern that was littered with bits of bone, hide, dung and rat skulls. “Capitol of the Kobold Kingdom no doubt, “ uttered Blodgett.

A quick survey indicated that in all likelihood the remaining Kobolds had retreated into a series of holes about a foot wide, scattered along one wall of the chamber. The party opted to leave these Kobolds to the doom of the volcano rather than attempt to root them out. The settled with looting the one thing of value apparently left in the Kobold common: A pair of large waterskins containing what Elwita quickly surmised (by taking a big swig) was some sort of “Fungus Mead”, which tasted about as good as it sounded, but considering that she had had no strong drink in weeks of imprisonment was a “benison beyond price”.

Karraway quickly stepped in and cast Purify Food and Drink upon the pair of skins in the hopes that it would remove any poisons, including alcohol. Outraged at the very thought of such a thing, Elwita snatched the skin away from the Cleric and demanded that he cease such nonsense. Karraway pleaded that alcohol would serve to dehydrate them and impair their judgment at this critical time. Elwita brusquely replied that she didn’t feel the least bit dehydrated and that her judgment was terrible anyway, so what was the harm. She then spitefully took another long draw on the skin of fungus mead and found to her pleasure that it was still very much an adult beverage, although apparently the spell had robbed it of that bit of “rat-hide aftertaste” that had given it some of its character.

That bit of ugliness behind them, the group pressed on, although Karraway resigned to report this situation to the DTL when he got back home.

Next Up: Dwarven Burrito of Death!

 

[Rel]

Once again, the passageway began to trend deeper into the earth and the group became a bit despondent about finding a way to the surface. The air around them also became hotter and moments later, they found themselves on a ledge overlooking a chasm running left and right across their path. The chasm floor was some 30 feet below and the heat coming up out of the chasm was stifling. Fortunately, extending from the ledge on their side of the chasm to a similar ledge 50’ away on the opposite side, was a natural stone bridge that seemed sturdy and stable.

“I don’t trust this at all,” they said, almost in unison (It’s like they know me or something.)

Seeing a situation potentially fraught with danger and with the blackness of the unknown looming before them they did what any party of heroes would do:

“Let’s send Mulch to scout.”

The tiny construct took to the air on its leafy wings and flew out over the chasm, riding high on the hot updrafts. It disappeared into the cavern leading from the far ledge. For a moment the cavern was silent, pregnant with anticipation. Then the buzz of wings could be heard again as Mulch returned from his reconnoiter.

Although Mulch lacked the ability to speak, he landed on Delgath’s left shoulder, the predesignated signal for no sign of danger. Shocked, but still wary, the group cautiously began to cross the bridge.

As they reached the apex of the bridge, Elwita put her foot down solidly to assure that the stone was stable. It appeared that it was, but a surprise awaited her as she tried to lift her foot to take another step and found that it was stuck fast to the bridge beneath her feat. Without warning, the top of the bridge curled back on her and slammed into her, rolling her up into a Dwarven Burrito! She cried out, “Aagh! Mimic! Do something!”

The rest of the party was hesitant to move within reach of the thing for fear that they too might become stuck to its adhesive skin. Instead, they stood back and pelted it with rocks and sticks. Apparently, Elwita should have been more specific in her request and said, “Do something effective!” But she was not helpless. She flexed her powerful muscles and despite the advantage the Mimic had in both size and stickiness, she kept it busy trying to pin her while her fellow party members discovered that makeshift weapons do only makeshift damage.

But they eventually resorted to somewhat more effective tactics and a few Magic Missiles and club blows later, the tacky tough had been slain. Elwitta however had suffered mightily at its hands, er, pseudopods and was unconscious.

Karraway quickly went to her aid and brought her back to consciousness through the divine grace of Moradin (“This should teach you the evils of too much strong drink!”). But she was not out of danger yet.

Now that the mimic had been slain, it still clung to the near side of the bridge thanks to its adhesive, but it lolled down into the chasm like 10 feet of ugly, grey tongue and Elwita, her axe and her shield were all stuck to it! With the Halfling holding his feet (as if that was going to do any good if he fell) Karraway leaned out over the precipice and grabbed the warrior by the straps of her breastplate. With a mighty tug (He rolled a 20) and pulled Elwita free from the Mimic. As he did so, a loud ripping noise echoed throughout the chasm. It was the sound of Elwita’s canvas tunic ripping free, leaving her backside bare from the shoulders south.

She had more important concerns at the moment than mere modesty however. She desperately wanted to retrieve her weapon and shield from the corpse of the Mimic. She reached over the edge and grabbed the stone haft of her axe but could not pry it free. In a brief flash of inspiration, she tried using the fungus mead to dilute the adhesive and it worked. She pulled free both axe and shield. As she did so, a loud slurping noise could be heard and the whole party jumped backwards as the dead Mimic slipped free from the bridge and fell 40 feet onto the stones below where it began to sizzle on the volcanic rocks.

At the sight of this, Blodgett exclaimed, “Is anybody else hungry?”

The matter that remained was how to cross the 10 foot gap in the bridge. After a brief discussion including multiple uses of the words “jump, fall, death, and sauté” they decided that simply leaping across was far too risky.

Delgath came to the rescue quickly, illustrating the classic example of the “if all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail” philosophy by casting a Web that bridged the gap. That done, they tossed the suit of hide armor they’d liberated from the Kobolds into the center and proceeded to gather sand and small rocks from the ledge and surrounding areas. They threw all of this debris onto the web to help render it a bit less sticky for those trying to walk across it. Eventually they all made it across without plummeting to their deaths.

Delgath’s first thought after crossing it was to burn it behind them (“You know, so nobody follows us.”) but sadly, his Prestidigitation spell had run out some time ago and he was without means to produce a flame. Sullen and dejected at this missed opportunity, he moved on, consoling himself with the fact that there was nobody in the web to get burned anyway.

Next Up: “He spewed what in my what?”

 

[Rel]

I was trying to keep track of the time on the Doomsday Clock ™ and by this point, I noted that it was about 8:20 PM. Excellent progress so far.

By this point, my wife had also joined us downstairs after putting our daughter to bed and she was periodically bringing the group drinks after having already made us a fantastic pot of chilli. She is a fantastic woman and a casual gamer in her own right and I can’t thank her enough for all the ways she helps me out. Remind me to buy her a nice Christmas present. Maybe some of those Dwarven Stone dice.

Making their way further on, the slope of the passage again began to rise. They began to notice that the air was cooler and more moist with more and more fungus appearing on the walls. By this point, the party was getting quite fatigued. They had already worked a full shift in the diamond mine before they had made their jail break. All the fighting and traveling they’d done in the hours since then had worn them out even more and they would need a break soon. Even as they were discussing this, they saw a pale blue light ahead and suddenly they found themselves overlooking a sight of incomparable beauty: Below them lay a huge cavern covered from floor to ceiling in a virtual forest of fungi. There were toadstools the size of trees, lichens that glowed with an otherworldly light and everything in between. It was an underground Garden of Eden.

“There is no telling what sort of monstrous crap is lurking in there! Let’s go back and rest before we even think about venturing into that pit of hell.”

And so they turned and walked back up the tunnel some distance until they found a bottleneck they felt they could defend if necessary. They unceremoniously dropped to the sandy floor of the passage and made themselves as comfortable as possible.

“Mulch, you’re on guard. If something comes, wake up Elwita, not me, ok?” spoke Delgath the Dread. Mulch nodded and without so much as a “Good night, John-boy. Goodnight Mary-Ellen,” the group fell into a deep and sound sleep.

Some time later, Elwita was wakened by Mulch scratching his little stick hand across her (still bare) buttocks. “*mumble, mumble*…come to mama, my little Gnomish lover. I’ll show you what you can do with that nose of yo…hm, wha?” She rolled over and looked at Mulch who pointed across the cavern. Elwita followed his pointing and saw a 7 foot tall toadstool looming over her. Before she could react, it spewed a cloud of spores over her and the rest of the party. Suddenly, a sense of overwhelming peace and calm came over her.

More spores were spewed and Elwita heard a voice speak directly into her mind. “You are escaped from those who rule the surface?”

She replied without hesitation, “Oh yeah, man.”

“Our leader, Redcap, has need to speak with you. You may come and take shelter among us while you rest.”

Elwita began to rise to her feet, “Sounds groovy, dude.”

In a few moments, she had awakened the rest of the party who all felt rather passive and mellow themselves. Except Delgath.

“What in the nine hells are you doing?!” screamed the Gnome. “This is crazy! We’re trusting a FUNGUS?!? They’re probably going to…well I don’t know what a GIANT FUNGUS will do to us. But it won’t be good!”

Blodgett laid a hand on Delgath’s shoulder, “Relax, dude. Yer’ totally killing my buzz right now. M’kay?”

The Myconid leaned over the Gnome and sprayed another cloud of rapport spores into his face. “We must move quickly. The mountain fills with hot rock and it is not long before the end.” With that the enormous toadstool turned and led the others away leaving the Gnome to sputter and cough from the lungful of spores he had just gotten.

“I OBJECT to this form of communication!”

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A short while later they were led into an even larger cavern than the first they had seen. The party was brought within a circle of Myconids, none of whom was shorter than 10 feet tall. The largest of them (whom they were guessing was “Redcap” due to his, well, Red cap) addressed them by spraying another cloud of spores into their midst.

“This is just DISGUSTING!” said the Gnome.

“Welcome to my domain. I am told that you have escaped from those who rule the surface of the island. I wish to bargain with you.”

Redcap continued, “The fires from beneath the mountain will come again soon and we shall be destroyed. This is regrettable, but it cannot be helped. We have all lived here for as long as we remember and it is our home. We shall die with it. But our tribe need not die with it. We wish for you to help us get a member of our tribe off the island and to the big land across the water. There you will help him find a place in the earth where he can carry on our ways and spawn a new tribe of our people.”

“If you agree to this, I will provide elixirs to aid you in your escape. Do you consent?”

Elwita spoke for the group, “Far out, man.”

Delgath spoke as well, “Oh just friggen great! Whatever! Who’s this fungus we’re taking along? Portobello? ake?”

Redcap took their acceptance graciously. “Quick Spore has been selected to go with you.”

“QUICK SPORE?!?! You have got to be sh…by Garl Glittergold’s shiny nose you must be kidding? Quick Spore?!”

Elwita turned to Delgath, “Dude, you gotta chill, man. Just go with it. Hey, did I ever tell you that you’re kinda cute?”

-----------------------------------------------------------

Quick Spore was introduced to the group and showed them to a place where they could rest and recover for a few more hours before continuing their journey. The party was warned that the path ahead included an area where a lava flow crossed the cavern and to prepare accordingly. They were also told that it shouldn’t take them more than an hour or so to make it out of the caverns if they could make it past the lava flows. With that in mind, they dispatched Mulch to warn Jonthir, the Druid, that they were going to make their final attempt at the boats within the next several hours. Any distraction he could provide would be appreciated.

They healed a few more of their wounds and ate the various fungi pointed out to be non -poisonous by Quick Spore (Delgath: “You know what this tastes like? NOT CHICKEN!”). When they were rested and ready, they went to bid Redcap goodbye. He then provided them with several potions (Bulls Strength (2), Endurance (2), Endure Elements – Fire (2), Cure Light Wounds (3), Cure Moderate Wounds (2) and Cure Serious Wounds (1)). He wished them good luck and told Quick Spore to put his trust in them and do as they told him to. Which goes to show that you don’t have to be wise to become king of the Mushroom People.

I was pleased that the party was able to get the interactive roleplaying experience that I’d hoped for out of the Myconids without derailing things too long. I wanted to keep the pace moving so that the group could finish the adventure on time. With that in mind, I glanced at the Doomsday Clock ™ and was pleased to see that it was 8:20. Wait a second. It was 8:20 last time I checked it!

Bringing this to the attention of the group, The Lone Corndog says, “Yeah, it’s been stopped for over an hour. I was wondering when you would notice.” Bastard.

Checking my watch, I see that it is actually almost 10:00! I tell them to ignore the Doomsday Clock ™. We’ll go by my Doomsday Watch ™! So there! Wait, better yet, I dispatched my wife upstairs to my daughter’s room where she successfully filched The Doomsday Chicken ™! The Doomsday Chicken ™, for those of you who weren’t there is this clock in the shape of a chicken with an electric guitar that I got from some of my wife’s (twisted) relatives, several years ago. When the alarm goes off, it plays this song in the most dreadful monotone imaginable. The song goes like this:

Wowwwww. Yeahhhhhh.
Hey baby wake up
Come and dance with me
Wowwwww. Yeahhhhhh.

If that isn’t a Doomsday Chicken ™, I don’t know what is. We set the alarm for 11:00 and pressed on.

Next Up: Pits and Rats

 

[dshai527]

I'm loving this Rel. It looks like the one shot turned out to be a good time. I'm glad it went over well. Looking forward to seeing how the rest of the adventure went. It always good to have such colorful charcaters for a one shot as well.

 

[Rel]

The passageway again descended and before long it began to get hot. Then it got very hot until the heat became blistering. Everyone in the party began to drink potions and cast spells to ward them against the heat. That done, they moved forward again.

Shortly, they could see the cavern ahead bathed in a reddish light. They emerged onto a ledge overlooking a lake of lava. Across the cavern was another ledge at a similar height to the one they stood on. In between were a series of pillars with gaps of approximately 5 feet between each. In short, a deathtrap if ever there was one.

Furthermore, cavorting in the lava below was a trio of small figures who were playing and chasing a half dozen large rats who were climbing all over the walls of the cavern and the pillars. Each rat was surrounded in a small cloud of smoke and seemed quite at home in the heat and flames.

As the party stood there, the little red men playing in the lava came toward them. The one in the lead showed how much he wanted to play by balling up a handful of molten rock and throwing it at Elwita. It missed. The rats began to scamper and leap along the walls of the cavern and move in the direction of the party.

The party responded. Elwita braced herself to take on any rat that made the leap over to the ledge the party was on. Blodgett moved to the edge of the ledge, gauging his chances of leaping across the tops of the pillars. Karraway, in a moment of pure inspiration, cast Water Walking on everybody in the party. Delgath was momentarily stumped because he faced a situation that couldn’t be dealt with by using a Web. And everything was already on fire! Karraway was in his face demanding that the Gnome grant him a Spider Climb spell and with nothing else to do at the moment, Delgath complied.

Quick Spore puffed a cloud of spores at Karraway and asked, “What should I do?” The Cleric answered, “Stay with me.”

The Magmin closed in and the heat went from powerful to overwhelming. A rat stopped on the pillar closest to the party’s ledge and breathed a jet of fire on Elwita who shrugged off most of the damage thanks to the Endure Elements potion he drank earlier.

Note that I was afraid that this encounter might turn into a bit of a pushover since I knew that the party members would each have at least 5 point of fire resistance and the most any of the foes could do was 1d8 for the Magmin’s burning touch. What I failed to take into account was that Endure Elements protects against the FIRST 5 points of fire damage each round. Between the Fiery Aura of 3 Magmin, the occasional Burning Touch and the fire breath of the Ash Rats, they were going to be taking at least a little damage on almost every round. Then, they leapt into the lava…

Blodgett was the first to decide that he would rather make a break for it rather than fight. He jumped down onto the lava below the ledge and made a dash for the other side, his little Halfling feet burning all the while. Thanks to Karraway’s spell, he could walk 2 inches above the surface of the molten rock but it was still hotter than a 2cp dagger.

Karraway was next to clamber down onto the river of lava with Quick Spore close behind. But the Magmin were closing in fast.

Seeing that his stream of fire attack was doing little good, one of the Ash Rats jumped the gap from the pillar to the ledge and landed next to Elwita. She smacked the rat with her axe and squashed it against the stone. Nearby, Delgath had recovered his composure and cast Spider Climb on himself while contemplating his next move. Jumping down onto the lava just seemed insane, but he didn’t like his odds of leaping across the pillars either.

Across the lake of lava, Blodgett congratulated himself on making it across and tried to climb onto the far ledge. Sadly, his toasted feet failed to gain purchase on the rock wall and he remained stuck standing on the lava.

Karraway wisely cast Sanctuary on himself, forcing his foes to leave him alone or, better yet, distract themselves by attempting to fricassee his mushroom companion. Quick Spore stood faithfully by the Cleric’s side waiting for him to move across the lake of liquid rock before the Magmin got through playing “Red Rover” with them. Fortunately for the toadstool, the Magmin seemed more interested in the Halfling who still couldn’t climb the far cliff (poor player couldn’t roll higher than a 5 on his Climb check).

Elwita sent another Ash Rat soaring through the air where it burst into hot flames during its final flight. Delgath decided to play along with the others and Spider Climbed down to the lava and prepared to dash across to the other side, but not before launching a cluster of Magic Missiles at the closest Magmin. To his surprise and delight, the Magmin was killed where he stood and sank beneath the molten stone.

After several unsuccessful attempts to set Blodgett on fire (and several Cure potions drank by the Halfling), the Magmin lost interest and decided to go after Karraway and his fungal follower. Even without being under attack, Blodgett still failed to climb up to the ledge. But help was on the way.

Dodging attacks by the Magmin, Karraway and Quick Spore ran over to where the Halfling was struggling. Karraway scooped Blodgett up onto his back and climbed up onto the ledge with ease, as did Quick Spore. As they reached the top, the Rogue whispered into the Cleric’s ear, “If you ever tell anybody about this, I’ll kill you.”

Delgath gave the cluster of Magmin and Ash Rats pursuing the Cleric, Rogue and Mushroom a wide berth and easily climbed (with magical assistance) the far cliff face onto the ledge. Meanwhile, Elwita decided that it was time to leave and jumped down onto the lava pool as her companions had done. She made her way across while the rest of the group succeeded in holding off the Magmin and Ash Rats until the Fighter could climb up onto the ledge.

Then they turned and beat feet out of there as fast as they could go. The pursuing Magmin and Ash Rats quickly lost interest and returned to frolicking in the lava.

With a growing sense of urgency, the group hustled toward the exit of the caverns. As they went, they passed through a treacherous cavern where some sea water was coming in and meeting with one of the lava flows. It was full of steam and visibility was reduced to 5 feet. They carefully picked their way through until they found the exit and moments later, they were standing in a small cave overlooking the ocean.

The steam room was my “safety valve encounter”. I knew that I had probably planned too much for this single game and since it was under a time pressure, I felt it would be fair of me to have one encounter planned that I could drop if there wasn’t time for it.

Originally, I had planned for the party to encounter a group of Grimlocks and their Barbarian leader in the Steam Room. Since the Grimlocks can “see” fine in such conditions, they would have been on top of the party before they knew what was happening. It would have given the Fighter and Rogue a bit more chance to shine and I wish we had gotten to play through it. But it was about 10:55 at this point and the party still had to fight the Pirates, so I dropped it.

Next Up: A Pirate band this good, you don’t kill all at once

 

[Lazybones]

Great story, Rel! I look forward to reading the conclusion.

 

[Rel]

The group exited the cave and surmised that they were in an inlet just across a rise from the entrance to the sea cave where the Water Dragon was supposedly moored. Since the Water Walking spell cast by Karraway was still in effect, the decided to run as quickly as they could up over the rise and enter the cave by way of the ocean.

They climbed the rise and descended on the other side, picking their way among the sharp rocks until they were down by the water’s edge. As they prepared to run into the sea cave, they glanced up at the mountaintop just in time to see it crack open and begin to send streams of molten rock running down the island in all directions! There was no time to lose and they ran across the water into the mouth of the cave.

Just inside, they paused. Up ahead, they could see the Water Dragon tied to a stone quay. They could see a group of slaves hastily loading various casks and crates aboard the ship. Also aboard, they recognized a pair of the Pirates from their earlier confrontation: A female warrior who was hell with her long spear and a Halfling Rogue who was as precise a shot with his crossbow as Blodgett was and nearly as nasty. The Fighter was supervising the slaves (and by “supervising”, I mean occasionally cuffing one across the back of the head, just for the fun of it) while the Halfling seemed to be trying to secure a small chest to the deck of the Water Dragon. A few feet below him, the group could see the longboat dinghy bobbing at the stern of the ship.

A quick plan was hatched by the party: Karraway would use the Spider Climb spell that was still in effect to climb up onto the roof until he got close enough to drop a pile of rocks on the Water Dragon. After that, they would try to steal the dinghy and paddle to freedom.

Karraway moved up the wall as stealthily as he could while the rest of the group approached the ship slowly, hoping to remain unnoticed until the Cleric was in place. (This was aided greatly by the fact that I applied a circumstance penalty to the spot rolls for the Pirates on account of the fact that they would never expect an enemy to approach from that direction. Plus, I didn’t roll higher than a 6 on any of the rolls anyway.)

When the group was within about 50 feet of the ship, the she-pirate turned and noticed them. “Avast, Garret! Intruders! It’s the escaped slaves! Kill them!” As she yelled this, she dropped her spear and drew her bow and in a single fluid motion fired an arrow into Elwita.

Blodgett dashed across the wavetops toward the ship and winged a rock at the other Halfling, striking him, but injuring his pride more than anything else. In turn, Garret the Halfling Pirate pulled out his crossbow and loaded it, intent on showing Blodgett the error of his ways. Delgath was thrilled to see a set of foes who were vulnerable to his favorite tactic in the world and let fly with his patented “Web of Doom”. He caught both the Pirates as well as all the slaves within the Web, proving once again that it isn’t just his foes that Dread him.

As if the Pirates didn’t have enough problems what with the island exploding, ill gotten gains to sort and load upon the ship, a work slowdown among the slaves in protest of the gruel lacking enough seasoning, an unaccounted for (until just now) group of escaped slaves, and the Web spell going off in their midst, Karraway got close enough to cast his Loosen Earth and Stone in a narrow line above the Water Dragon, roughly parallel to the ship’s keel. Stone rained down all over both Pirates and most of the slaves killing nearly everyone except the tough female Pirate and setting the Water Dragon on the inexorable path toward sinking. Which just goes to show that a little collateral damage is all in a days work for those Lawful Neutral Clerics of Moradin. He consoled himself about the loss of the slaves by noting that, with the majority of them being captured sailors, they were probably heavy drinkers when they got the chance and therefore enemies of the DTL.

Elwita, with the ever faithful Quick Spore in tow, dashed forward and stepped into the dinghy tied to the now listing Water Dragon. Quick Spore also hopped inside, merrily looking forward to his first ever boat ride. He’d even packed a picnic lunch. Never terribly respectful of the dead, Elwita used her axe as an impromptu gaff and snagged the limp body of the dead Halfling, dragging it into the boat with them.

This pleased Blodgett to no end as he too climbed aboard their intended escape vessel and immediately began to divest Garret of his worldly possessions, especially the crossbow and bolts. Delgath meanwhile maintained careful watch on the two cave exits leading away from the quay, suspecting that there might be other Pirates about to respond to the death screams of their companions. He was not to be disappointed.

A moment later, a female Drow Elf (known to be a foul Cleric of Lloth from their previous encounter with the Pirates) and her burly Half Orc guardian, armed with a bastard sword and a big pile of ugly, burst out of the right hand passageway, screaming as they came, “The lava is coming! We’ve got to get out…?” They didn’t complete the litany of other warnings they had planned because they were rather shocked and dismayed to see that a great big web and a rather tidy little row of rubble was presently sitting atop their prized vessel and planned escape route. But that was nothing compared to the upset they experience when they too were engulfed in a massive Web of their very own. Both failed their saves and were trapped.

The conventional wisdom is that Sorcerers need to be very careful in their spell selection because of how few known spells they have. I guess this all depend on your attitude because as far as Delgath the Dread was concerned, once you had Web and a means to light it on fire, everything else was just gravy. When creating the pregenerated characters, I selected Web and Melf’s Acid Arrow as Delgath’s 2nd level spells. I think that the player would have been just as happy if I had selected Web and More Web.

But the old adage that “you can’t Web everything at once” held true and as Delgath was patting himself on the back, the final pair of Pirates made it onto the scene. Coming through the leftmost tunnel was a human Monk and an Elven Wizard, neither of whom was having much love for the party at the moment. Both seemed to think that this would be a lengthy battle in which their early defensive spells would pay dividends in the long run. The Monk quaffed a potion of Mage Armor while the Wizard cast the spell of the same name.

Without a missile weapon with which to attack these new foes at range, Elwita decided that for the moment, she would have to settle for some minor looting. She climbed up aboard the Water Dragon to liberate the small chest that the Halfling had been lashing to the deck. The female Pirate still aboard the doomed Water Dragon decided that now was the time to make her move. She lunged at the Dwarf with eyes full of violence. But her move was only to fall onto her face as her foot became entangled in the remnants of the Web spell and she lapsed into unconsciousness. The falling rock had reduced her to exactly 0 hit points.

Blodgett now had a finely crafted crossbow in his hands for the first time in weeks and he intended to use it. He leveled it at the Monk and let fly. His bolt sailed through the air with unsurpassed accuracy homing in just left of center of the Monk’s right cornea. But at the last second, the Monk’s hand shot up and deflected the arrow. I gotta admit that I was really pulling for the Halfling here. It was heartbreaking to see that Critical Hit averted by the Monk’s deflect arrows ability. But them’s the breaks. But for those of you playing along at home, hang in there. There just might be a bit of justice later on.

In the meantime, Karraway had been making his way across the ceiling to the cave wall nearest the dinghy and started to descend toward the water. But from his high vantage, he could see the Wizard in the mouth of the left cavern and knew that, given half a chance, he would cause the group a lot of trouble. But, nothing a little Blindness couldn’t solve. Despite the Wizard’s strong will, he flubbed his save and things went dark. But his hearing worked just fine and he could clearly make out the screams of utter terror coming from the Drow and Half Orc.

These very same screams drew the attention of Elwita and Karraway who looked in that direction. Despite the obscurement caused by the Web they were entangled in, both Dwarves could clearly make out a distinct orange glow emanating from that passageway. Both Elwita and Karraway privately decided that the impending arrival of this liquid stone was nothing short than a sign from Moradin. A neon sign, in fact. One that read: “You’d really do well to GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE NOW!”

Which brings us back to Delgath the Dread. Of all the things that he could possibly have done at that moment, he chose the one that was the least surprising thing to ever happen in the history of the entire universe: He cast Web on the Monk and blind Wizard. Dusting his non-dusty hands off in with a sense of utter self-satisfaction, he said to himself, “Well then, I think that’s everyone.”

If it is possible for our beloved reader to imagine such a thing, and yes, we believe that it does strain credibility to so do, in the following moment, Delgath’s self satisfaction reached yet another, higher, plateau, one that he could not have heretofore imagined. For that was the moment when a flood of lava rushed through the rightmost passageway, setting the Web there, along with the Drow and Half Orc, on fire.

Seeing all of this unfold, Elwita tossed the small chest aboard the dinghy, regretting that there was no more time to further loot the sinking ship but realizing fully that they were all going to die in the next few moments if they didn’t heed the sign from Moradin. She followed the chest into the small boat chopped free the bow line and fit the oars into their locks. While doing so, he caught a face full of spores from Quick Spore who uselessly said, “We should leave now.”

Karraway climbed further down the wall and prepared to jump aboard the dinghy as it passed below him. Blodgett loaded the crossbow again and took a parting shot at the Half Orc who had amazingly survived the lava and was trying to stagger toward the water’s edge on his badly burnt feet. The bolt struck home and the Half Orc fell to the floor to be engulfed by the lava flow a moment later. “Take that you big bastard!” roared the Halfling in triumph. Yay for Blodgett!

Delgath, still walking atop the water began backpedaling toward the cave entrance while entreating his companions to “Hurry up!” He saw gobbets of liquid rock begin to fall from above the cave entrance to sizzle and pop in the ocean beneath the mouth of the cave.

Elwita was rowing as fast as she could go but the heavily laden longboat had inertia on its side. And besides, she had never rowed a boat before. Just then, Karraway landed in the boat, causing it to rock and increasing the weight further.

Elwita growled at him, “Get out and push!”

The Cleric complied with this somewhat unorthodox request and hoped that there was a bit more time left on his Water Walking spell. With him pushing, the dinghy began to pick up speed and it looked like they just might make it out alive.

But then there was a sudden drag on the boat. Looking up, those aboard could see the Monk holding on to the bow line and trying to pull the boat back toward the quay. “Let’s all stay and die together!” he bellowed. Somehow he had gotten out of the Web.

Elwita could spare no attention from rowing the boat in an attempt to keep them on course and left it to her companions to deal with the Monk. Blodgett shot the Monk at point blank range and hit, but the shot didn’t incapacitate the human. Karraway left off pushing the boat and walked around atop the water to clout the Monk with his club but the Monk’s agility, Mage Armor (I told you that would pay off.) and the fact that the monk was mostly submerged resulted in the strike missing its target.

Suddenly help came from an unexpected quarter. A shark appeared from nowhere and bit the Monk’s midsection. A buzzing was heard from above and they all looked up to see Mulch, looking rather sooty and singed, flying into the sea cave. The shark must have been Jonthir the Druid in wildshaped form!

The Monk still wasn’t dead however and maintained a death grip on the rope. Worse yet, there were now full fledged streams of lava pouring down from above the cave entrance and the spaces between them was getting narrower. Delgath dodged between them and waited outside the cave entrance.

Elwita bellowed over the melee, “You’ve got to get him off of there!”

Blodgett cocked the crossbow, fitted a bolt and shot the Monk once more at point blank range. This time the bolt struck him square in the chest and the Monk’s eyes and mouth shot open with surprise as he was dragged under by the shark.

Karraway gave the boat a final shove as he jumped aboard and the boat slid between the rapidly closing lava streams, out into the inlet. There, Delgath jumped aboard and they paddled out across the reef and pointed the boat toward the mainland, just visible on the horizon.

As they all panted in exertion, Blodgett said, “Well, let’s see what’s in the chest.” He went to work on the lock and managed to pop it open in a few moments. Inside was a single small bag. And inside the bag... was a king’s ransom in diamonds. Laughing, they paddled their way home.

THE END

 

[Broccli_Head]

That was fantastic, Rel!

Inspires me to dust off my old copy of the module (do I still have it?) and play...

Favorite character has to be Karraway! He seems to have saved the day a few times. And Elwita comes in a close second. One has to always appreciate an axe-wielding dwarf!

 

[Rel]

That was fantastic, Rel!

Inspires me to dust off my old copy of the module (do I still have it?) and play...

Favorite character has to be Karraway! He seems to have saved the day a few times. And Elwita comes in a close second. One has to always appreciate an axe-wielding dwarf!

Thanks very much, Broc. I really appreciate the kind words.

I've actually done a pretty thorough treatment of my version of this adventure. I'd be happy to send you the documents if you like. That goes for anybody else reading this too.

I'm going to add a few more comments about the parts that were most fun and what I'd change if I had it to do over again. But that'll have to wait until tomorrow. Tonight is game night.