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The Goodman Gang in The Mysterious Tower
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<blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 3734932" data-attributes="member: 16069"><p style="text-align: center">Dungeon Crawl Classics #2</p> <p style="text-align: center">The Lost Vault of Tsathzar Rho</p> <p style="text-align: center">An Adventure for First Level Characters</p><p></p><p>Turn 14: They’re only…</p><p></p><p>“CAAAAAAZZZZZ, PLEASE- I’LL BE GOOD.”</p><p></p><p>Newt turns back, a new noise, they’re charging, hang-on, and reloading- damn there’s lots of them.</p><p></p><p>“CAAAAAAZZZZZ I PROMISE.”</p><p></p><p>Newt turns back, out of the glare, and the black beyond, a wave of javelins come, they all fall well short but still skitter on down the corridor at pace. Newt goes to dodge backwards, realises what’s behind him, and too late- is caught on the ankle by one of them.</p><p></p><p>“CAAA… OH you’re there.”</p><p></p><p>Lord Casimir pulls himself up, as three creatures charge into the light.</p><p></p><p>“Hold them.” Cas states.</p><p>“Feck.” Newt gulps, and leaps into the fight.</p><p></p><p>He sees the enemy at last.</p><p></p><p>“OH. They’re only… Kobolds?”</p><p></p><p>They’re Kobolds, of sorts, burlier, stockier- nastier. Their skin has rough red patches, rubbed raw, their teeth and claws are longer, somehow twisted- more feral looking. They’re wrapped in mail, armour that is- Scalemail, each has a shield and a military looking shortsword- heavy duty all round. There are three of them, and they mean business.</p><p></p><p>DMs interlude just for the record the Kobold Footmen have AC 19, yep you heard me right, the Kobold Artillery (with Crossbows) are AC 15, and the Elite Kobolds, when we get to them, are AC 18. None of them have more than 2 hit points, but you’ve got to hit them to kill them. They don’t dish out a lot of damage but they hang around, unlike your normal Kobolds. </p><p></p><p>Back to the action.</p><p></p><p>Newt ducks, dodges, bends and blocks- not one of the shortswords hit him, he is however miles away from scoring a hit of his own.</p><p></p><p>He plays out the same manoeuvres, only in a different order; with the same results- all combatants remain unscathed.</p><p></p><p>“Cas, please.”</p><p>“A second.”</p><p></p><p>And then Cas is there. Bec’s arm flops up into the corridor, soon followed by the rest of him.</p><p></p><p>The Kobolds fall back slightly as Cas steps in, giving Newt an opportunity, he smashes his mace into the side of one of the creatures, it falls, goes down holding it’s ribs- gasps for a second and then closes its eyes for good.</p><p></p><p>FWANG</p><p></p><p>A crossbow bolt shoots through the gap left by the dying Kobold.</p><p></p><p>Cas looks aghast.</p><p></p><p>“Wha…”</p><p>“Oh yeah, there’s some more of them- a bit farther on, nice huh.”</p><p>“What is this place?”</p><p></p><p>Cas leans back, still keeping the Kobold at bay.</p><p></p><p>“GET UP HERE.”</p><p></p><p>And in that second the Kobold leaps prodigiously and slices, cutting Cas’ throat, a curtain of blood gushes down.</p><p></p><p>He staggers but stays on board, drops his shield and while clutching at his throat, fights on.</p><p></p><p>Bec’s giant hand grasps Newt’s shoulder and pulls him over and out of the way, the effect is immediate, his longspear skewers one of the creatures, dead. The last one runs.</p><p></p><p>“Leg it.”</p><p></p><p>The Kobold screams. Jim arrives.</p><p></p><p>“What’s?”</p><p></p><p>Bec grabs Jim, points ahead at the fleeing form, waves his spear.</p><p></p><p>“Sandwich?”</p><p></p><p>And runs after the Kobold. Jim shrugs, grins.</p><p></p><p>“See yah.”</p><p></p><p>And sprints off.</p><p></p><p>Another crossbow bolt pings against the ceiling and clatters off behind them.</p><p></p><p>Cas channels his healing powers into his ragged throat, the flesh is partially closed, he’s still weak- blood loss.</p><p></p><p>Anya, and then Ala, quickly scramble up, the latter strides over to Cas, her healing hands do their work, the three head off at a sprint to see where Bec and Jim have got to.</p><p></p><p>Newt has, in the meantime, taken a good look at the dead Kobolds, they’re both very odd looking, although he’s never seen a Kobold before- perhaps they all look this way. The two bodies do have something else in common, they’re wearing crude gold pendants on leather thongs, each of them a botched depiction of a three fingered hand. The only word that really registers however is ‘gold’- Newt has them both.</p><p></p><p>Bec stops, he’s entered a huge cavern, lit by a myriad glowing fungi, there’s a river in here somewhere he can hear the water, he spots his pray, sprints off.</p><p></p><p>He soon catches up with the Kobold Footman, who spins round to meet the foe, the two face off, it’s David vs. Goliath, and you know how that one turned out. Bec swings and pokes, the Kobold dances out of the way, manages a snarl, or two- they’re vicious, you’ll have to give them that.</p><p></p><p>Jim sprints on, figuring that Bec can take care of himself.</p><p></p><p>He’s approaching a river, actually more of a stream, although the current’s running at quite a lick. What’s going on, he takes a look around.</p><p></p><p>SNICK</p><p></p><p>Bec meantime gets his Kobold, spearing the creature through its chest.</p><p></p><p>He rushes forward to Jim as the others troop into the cavern.</p><p></p><p>“There.”</p><p></p><p>Jim spots them, points, the remaining two Kobolds are down the bank of the stream, using slick looking stepping stones, sawn-off stalagmites actually, to get across the stream.</p><p></p><p>“Save meeeeeee.”</p><p></p><p>As he watches one of the Kobolds slips, and splashes, into the stream, he soon disappears from sight, the river plunges into a dark cavern.</p><p></p><p>The other makes the far bank, screaming.</p><p></p><p>“Intruders. Intruders. Bloody help me.”</p><p></p><p>The Kobold is just about to make it to freedom when Anya strikes a glorious pose, think gangsta rapper with gun, only substitute the beautifully coiffured Anya- with Magic Missile Wand.</p><p></p><p>“Smidgin”, delivered in breathy-whisper.</p><p></p><p>The missile hits, the Kobold staggers and collapses- dead.</p><p></p><p>Newt meanwhile is adding to his new collection, he grabs another pendent-thingy from the Kobold Bec killed.</p><p></p><p>The group convene momentarily; take a quick look around the huge cavern.</p><p></p><p>“So what’s going on here?” Cas asks.</p><p>Ala shrugs, “What do you think?”</p><p>“I don’t know but you saw that Ogre, and the Kobolds… they’re, twisted… somehow.”</p><p>“I guess that means we should take a look.”</p><p>“I’m game”, Newt adds and then has an attack of conscience, he mentally adds that to his tally so far in life, the total is now at one, “I found some... er, one of these… this.”</p><p>He holds out a pendent for the others to inspect.</p><p>“It’s an odd looking device- I’ve no idea of its meaning, I must say I’m intrigued too.” Anya states.</p><p>Jim nods.</p><p>“Can I have sandwich?”</p><p>“Then it’s decided, we’ll head on for a while, see where it takes us.” Cas states.</p><p>“I’ll keep the pendent then, for safety reasons”, Newt confirms, and grins.</p><p></p><p>Cas leads them down to the river, hops onto the first of the stepping stones, and seconds later is across- easy. Jim follows, it’s all going well, when the ceiling moves.</p><p></p><p>“Jim.”</p><p></p><p>Anya screams, the Rock Centipede is hard to spot, but not now it’s moving, it hangs onto a stalactite above and reaches down to grab for Jim, he dodges aside at the last moment. The creature is a good six feet long, the colour of stone, and yet, on it’s sides, on the individual segments, there seems to be a glowing, at least now the creature is moving, representation of the three-fingered hand.</p><p></p><p>“Intruders. Get the vile interlopers.”</p><p></p><p>Cas looks behind him, up the bank, coming out of a tunnel is another Kobold, a solitary individual, he darts over. The two meet, swords clash, there’s something really odd here- Cas thinks, every story he’s been told was about Kobolds running off to get their friends, only attacking when the odds were heavily stacked in their favour? And armoured…</p><p></p><p>The Kobold holds Cas off, he hates to say it, but- easily.</p><p></p><p>Jim dives the last few feet across the stream and rushes up the slope to help Cas.</p><p></p><p>Ala’s bow sings.</p><p></p><p>CRUNCH</p><p></p><p>The arrow shatters the side of the Rock Centipede’s skull; it unpeels from the stalagmite and splashes into the river only to be carried off. </p><p></p><p>Bec meantime has found a short cut; he wades through the stream avoiding the stepping stones entirely. He’s halfway across when the second Rock Centipede makes its appearance, it snaps its jaws inches from Bec’s face, he calmly steps back and stabs his longspear through the creature, wrenches it down and flings it into the water.</p><p></p><p>The Kobold before Jim and Cas is having troubles, it’s still screaming.</p><p></p><p>“Tell the Master- Intruders.”</p><p></p><p>The Kobold stumbles; Jim stabs the thing through its cold heart.</p><p></p><p>Behind them Ala jumps at the first stepping stone, hits it hard, slips and slides over the edge, she grabs on.</p><p></p><p>Cas looks back. She smiles- she’s ok, begins to pull herself up.</p><p></p><p>“CAS.”</p><p></p><p>Jim shouts, four more Kobolds appear from the same tunnel, two instantly drop to one knee, ready light crossbows to fire, the two others make ready, all are heavily armoured.</p><p></p><p>Cas, Bec and Jim charge towards them. The Kobolds fire.</p><p></p><p>FWUNG</p><p>CRUNCH</p><p></p><p>The first bolt misses, the second crossbow suffers some technical aberration, shatters, sending the bolt back and up, through the firer’s face, one down.</p><p></p><p>The two Kobold Footmen see their opportunity and rush in.</p><p></p><p>Cas meets the first, he’s still charging, he swings- connects and cuts the creature clean in two.</p><p></p><p>Bec settles for impaling his.</p><p></p><p>That leaves one, now heavily outnumbered; he drops his crossbow and flees.</p><p></p><p>Jim, Bec and Cas charge on into the tunnel- Jim’s sunrod lighting the way ahead.</p><p></p><p>Back at the stepping stones, Ala slips again, tumbles, banging her head as she goes down, she grabs on for dear life- screams.</p><p></p><p>“Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas.”</p><p></p><p>But he’s gone.</p><p></p><p>“I’ll help you.”</p><p></p><p>Anya wades into the stream, and in an instant gets stuck herself, the current’s too strong for her, she scrabbles to stay upright.</p><p></p><p>Newt dives down the bank, he’s not really built for this, he weighs much less than half of either of these ladies, and although he hates to admit it, strength is not his thing- and he hates water.</p><p></p><p>Then he stops- there’s something on the other side.</p><p></p><p>“Feck”, he points, shouts over the sound of the river, “there’s another cavern- KOBOLDS.”</p><p></p><p>To emphasise his point a crossbow bolt smashes into the stepping stone that Ala is desperately clinging onto. </p><p></p><p>Turn 15: Two Way Split</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Goonalan, post: 3734932, member: 16069"] [CENTER]Dungeon Crawl Classics #2 The Lost Vault of Tsathzar Rho An Adventure for First Level Characters[/CENTER] Turn 14: They’re only… “CAAAAAAZZZZZ, PLEASE- I’LL BE GOOD.” Newt turns back, a new noise, they’re charging, hang-on, and reloading- damn there’s lots of them. “CAAAAAAZZZZZ I PROMISE.” Newt turns back, out of the glare, and the black beyond, a wave of javelins come, they all fall well short but still skitter on down the corridor at pace. Newt goes to dodge backwards, realises what’s behind him, and too late- is caught on the ankle by one of them. “CAAA… OH you’re there.” Lord Casimir pulls himself up, as three creatures charge into the light. “Hold them.” Cas states. “Feck.” Newt gulps, and leaps into the fight. He sees the enemy at last. “OH. They’re only… Kobolds?” They’re Kobolds, of sorts, burlier, stockier- nastier. Their skin has rough red patches, rubbed raw, their teeth and claws are longer, somehow twisted- more feral looking. They’re wrapped in mail, armour that is- Scalemail, each has a shield and a military looking shortsword- heavy duty all round. There are three of them, and they mean business. DMs interlude just for the record the Kobold Footmen have AC 19, yep you heard me right, the Kobold Artillery (with Crossbows) are AC 15, and the Elite Kobolds, when we get to them, are AC 18. None of them have more than 2 hit points, but you’ve got to hit them to kill them. They don’t dish out a lot of damage but they hang around, unlike your normal Kobolds. Back to the action. Newt ducks, dodges, bends and blocks- not one of the shortswords hit him, he is however miles away from scoring a hit of his own. He plays out the same manoeuvres, only in a different order; with the same results- all combatants remain unscathed. “Cas, please.” “A second.” And then Cas is there. Bec’s arm flops up into the corridor, soon followed by the rest of him. The Kobolds fall back slightly as Cas steps in, giving Newt an opportunity, he smashes his mace into the side of one of the creatures, it falls, goes down holding it’s ribs- gasps for a second and then closes its eyes for good. FWANG A crossbow bolt shoots through the gap left by the dying Kobold. Cas looks aghast. “Wha…” “Oh yeah, there’s some more of them- a bit farther on, nice huh.” “What is this place?” Cas leans back, still keeping the Kobold at bay. “GET UP HERE.” And in that second the Kobold leaps prodigiously and slices, cutting Cas’ throat, a curtain of blood gushes down. He staggers but stays on board, drops his shield and while clutching at his throat, fights on. Bec’s giant hand grasps Newt’s shoulder and pulls him over and out of the way, the effect is immediate, his longspear skewers one of the creatures, dead. The last one runs. “Leg it.” The Kobold screams. Jim arrives. “What’s?” Bec grabs Jim, points ahead at the fleeing form, waves his spear. “Sandwich?” And runs after the Kobold. Jim shrugs, grins. “See yah.” And sprints off. Another crossbow bolt pings against the ceiling and clatters off behind them. Cas channels his healing powers into his ragged throat, the flesh is partially closed, he’s still weak- blood loss. Anya, and then Ala, quickly scramble up, the latter strides over to Cas, her healing hands do their work, the three head off at a sprint to see where Bec and Jim have got to. Newt has, in the meantime, taken a good look at the dead Kobolds, they’re both very odd looking, although he’s never seen a Kobold before- perhaps they all look this way. The two bodies do have something else in common, they’re wearing crude gold pendants on leather thongs, each of them a botched depiction of a three fingered hand. The only word that really registers however is ‘gold’- Newt has them both. Bec stops, he’s entered a huge cavern, lit by a myriad glowing fungi, there’s a river in here somewhere he can hear the water, he spots his pray, sprints off. He soon catches up with the Kobold Footman, who spins round to meet the foe, the two face off, it’s David vs. Goliath, and you know how that one turned out. Bec swings and pokes, the Kobold dances out of the way, manages a snarl, or two- they’re vicious, you’ll have to give them that. Jim sprints on, figuring that Bec can take care of himself. He’s approaching a river, actually more of a stream, although the current’s running at quite a lick. What’s going on, he takes a look around. SNICK Bec meantime gets his Kobold, spearing the creature through its chest. He rushes forward to Jim as the others troop into the cavern. “There.” Jim spots them, points, the remaining two Kobolds are down the bank of the stream, using slick looking stepping stones, sawn-off stalagmites actually, to get across the stream. “Save meeeeeee.” As he watches one of the Kobolds slips, and splashes, into the stream, he soon disappears from sight, the river plunges into a dark cavern. The other makes the far bank, screaming. “Intruders. Intruders. Bloody help me.” The Kobold is just about to make it to freedom when Anya strikes a glorious pose, think gangsta rapper with gun, only substitute the beautifully coiffured Anya- with Magic Missile Wand. “Smidgin”, delivered in breathy-whisper. The missile hits, the Kobold staggers and collapses- dead. Newt meanwhile is adding to his new collection, he grabs another pendent-thingy from the Kobold Bec killed. The group convene momentarily; take a quick look around the huge cavern. “So what’s going on here?” Cas asks. Ala shrugs, “What do you think?” “I don’t know but you saw that Ogre, and the Kobolds… they’re, twisted… somehow.” “I guess that means we should take a look.” “I’m game”, Newt adds and then has an attack of conscience, he mentally adds that to his tally so far in life, the total is now at one, “I found some... er, one of these… this.” He holds out a pendent for the others to inspect. “It’s an odd looking device- I’ve no idea of its meaning, I must say I’m intrigued too.” Anya states. Jim nods. “Can I have sandwich?” “Then it’s decided, we’ll head on for a while, see where it takes us.” Cas states. “I’ll keep the pendent then, for safety reasons”, Newt confirms, and grins. Cas leads them down to the river, hops onto the first of the stepping stones, and seconds later is across- easy. Jim follows, it’s all going well, when the ceiling moves. “Jim.” Anya screams, the Rock Centipede is hard to spot, but not now it’s moving, it hangs onto a stalactite above and reaches down to grab for Jim, he dodges aside at the last moment. The creature is a good six feet long, the colour of stone, and yet, on it’s sides, on the individual segments, there seems to be a glowing, at least now the creature is moving, representation of the three-fingered hand. “Intruders. Get the vile interlopers.” Cas looks behind him, up the bank, coming out of a tunnel is another Kobold, a solitary individual, he darts over. The two meet, swords clash, there’s something really odd here- Cas thinks, every story he’s been told was about Kobolds running off to get their friends, only attacking when the odds were heavily stacked in their favour? And armoured… The Kobold holds Cas off, he hates to say it, but- easily. Jim dives the last few feet across the stream and rushes up the slope to help Cas. Ala’s bow sings. CRUNCH The arrow shatters the side of the Rock Centipede’s skull; it unpeels from the stalagmite and splashes into the river only to be carried off. Bec meantime has found a short cut; he wades through the stream avoiding the stepping stones entirely. He’s halfway across when the second Rock Centipede makes its appearance, it snaps its jaws inches from Bec’s face, he calmly steps back and stabs his longspear through the creature, wrenches it down and flings it into the water. The Kobold before Jim and Cas is having troubles, it’s still screaming. “Tell the Master- Intruders.” The Kobold stumbles; Jim stabs the thing through its cold heart. Behind them Ala jumps at the first stepping stone, hits it hard, slips and slides over the edge, she grabs on. Cas looks back. She smiles- she’s ok, begins to pull herself up. “CAS.” Jim shouts, four more Kobolds appear from the same tunnel, two instantly drop to one knee, ready light crossbows to fire, the two others make ready, all are heavily armoured. Cas, Bec and Jim charge towards them. The Kobolds fire. FWUNG CRUNCH The first bolt misses, the second crossbow suffers some technical aberration, shatters, sending the bolt back and up, through the firer’s face, one down. The two Kobold Footmen see their opportunity and rush in. Cas meets the first, he’s still charging, he swings- connects and cuts the creature clean in two. Bec settles for impaling his. That leaves one, now heavily outnumbered; he drops his crossbow and flees. Jim, Bec and Cas charge on into the tunnel- Jim’s sunrod lighting the way ahead. Back at the stepping stones, Ala slips again, tumbles, banging her head as she goes down, she grabs on for dear life- screams. “Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas.” But he’s gone. “I’ll help you.” Anya wades into the stream, and in an instant gets stuck herself, the current’s too strong for her, she scrabbles to stay upright. Newt dives down the bank, he’s not really built for this, he weighs much less than half of either of these ladies, and although he hates to admit it, strength is not his thing- and he hates water. Then he stops- there’s something on the other side. “Feck”, he points, shouts over the sound of the river, “there’s another cavern- KOBOLDS.” To emphasise his point a crossbow bolt smashes into the stepping stone that Ala is desperately clinging onto. Turn 15: Two Way Split [/QUOTE]
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