[Quintillus 6th – Major treasure found and Tiny wrestles water…and wins!]
[This game uses Adventures in the Green, a RPG based on the original rules for the world’s most popular roleplaying game. These rules are under development with Draft C available here. Game sessions happen an average of once a month. This is Part 1 of the session that happened November 13, 2021.]
Biggz’z Troop, CAC (Chartered Adventuring Company):
Biggz Bigguns of the Big’uns Clan – gender neutral goblin Temple Priest (7th level Cleric)
Tiny – male minotaur Champion (7th level Fighter)
Porkins – male human Enchanter (6th level Magic-User)
Pio Vento of Piccolo – male human Veteran (1st level Fighter)
Mannin Darkshield – male dwarf Burglar (4th level Thief)
Kunigunde Gruber – NPC female goblin Cutpurse/Acolyte (5th level Thief/4th level Cleric)
Hirelings:
Larn the Linkboy – male human hireling linkboy
Isidoros of Delphis – male Tolk hireling translator [specifically, German to Mü]
Deniska – female human hireling Swordswoman bodyguard (3rd level Fighter) [for Larn and Isidoros]
Ivan – male human hireling Warrior bodyguard (2nd level Fighter) [for Larn and Isidoros]
Summer
Cromsday, Quintillis 6th, 524th year of the Empire
Morning
Thinking about the other set of adventurers Biggz’ Troop had previously fought, Porkins asked the innkeeper of The Brass Dog over breakfast if any other adventurers had come through Stralbruck in the last month or two. The innkeeper had not seen any other adventurers and Lord Helmar had only hired the group Porkins was a member of, as far as the innkeep knew. This left Porkins still puzzled as to where the other adventurers had come from and what they might be up to.
9:00 AM
Biggz’ Troop arrived at the ruins after an hour long walk. The weather was nice for an early Summer day, warm but not too hot. The cooler temperatures down in the dungeon had the adventurers pulling their sleeves back down.
After some discussion about what they wanted to achieve this trip, the group headed south, past the first and second intersections to the Octagon Room. They decided it was time to investigate the door in the southern wall. Pio had Ologbane check the door for traps and was rewarded with a feeling of safety. Tiny then stepped up and opened the door.
The room beyond was a long triangle with the door at the base of the triangle. There was the faint scent of burnt incense long gone bad in the air. Tiny was confused by the shape of the room and reported the room was “broken” to the other adventurers. Pio used Ologbane to check the room for traps and then Mannin searched the walls for secret doors. Both searched came up empty.
Puzzled by the Triangle Room, the adventurers turned their attention to the secret door in the eastern wall of the Octagon Room. Porkins cast Dispel Magic on the Glyph of Warding protecting the secret door and was rewarded by the glyph flaring brightly and then fading away. [Note: this was a temporary suppression of the glyph, not removal of it.] Tiny opened the secret door. Beyond was another oddly shaped room. The far wall had large mural of the dark sun with the sun reaching from floor to ceiling and the geometric rays filling the rest of the space on the thirty-foot wide surface. In front of this was a low table made of a dark wood. The surface of the table was covered in coffers and jewelry boxes. Amongst the coffers and boxes were two scroll tubes and a potion vial. Adjacent to the table on either side were a total of 11 quarter-casks.
Pio checked the room for traps with Ologbane and found none. He then checked the containers on the low table and all the casks for traps and found them safe as well. Porkins picked a random coffer from the table and opened it. Inside was a gold necklace with a gold medallion. Inset in the medallion was a polished onyx triangle, point down. Opening another box revealed another piece of valuable golden jewelry. The adventurers started opening all the containers on the table one after another, discovering 40 pieces of golden jewelry, all with either an inverted triangle or a black sun image in onyx on them. They also discovered a single arrow, a pair of boots, and a silver ring. The quarter-casks turned out to be full of coins, three completely full of copper and seven completely full of silver with the last one a little under half full of silver, but still weighing 200 pounds.
The Troop took a rest and discussed options. This was a major find and they were all envisioning the things they could do with this much treasure. Unfortunately, one of the things they could not do was carry it all. Even Tiny’s immense strength could barely handle one of the full casks of coins without being slowed down to a crawl. They would need to think of an alternate plan to retrieve all of this.
After the rest, Porkins decided it was worth casting Detect Magic on the items to see what was magical. The arrow, boots, silver ring, potion, and one of the two scrolls radiated magic. Curious about the non-magical scroll, Porkins opened it and discovered it was a map to an Arcanum Templum Crypta ["secret temple vault" in Latin] somewhere far to the south, across the Mediterranean Sea and in the Great Desert. There were many notations on the map in an older version of Latin and Porkins could read most of it.
Porkins sipped the potion to identify it and spat it out – it was oil of etherealness. The taste also remined him that there was a mention to oil of etherealness on the map. He reopened the map and concentrated on the Latin near where the treasure was. There was a line indicating that the oil was needed to gain access to the vault. It also stated an arrow of slaying would be necessary to defeat the vault guardian and a scroll of protection from undead to bypass the minor guardians. Porkins looked over at the magic arrow and magic scroll waiting to be identified, suspecting what they actually were.
Porkins spent some time identifying the magic items properly. The arrow was in fact an arrow of slaying and the scroll one of protection from undead. The boots were boots of Traveling and Leaping and the silver ring a ring of water walking. The boots would ease the long journey and the ring allowed one to walk across the Mediterranean if needed. The map promised the vault held “those items necessary to establish a new Temple and fund it properly.” Suddenly Biggz Troop had a long-term goal - loot the vault and live like kings!
While Porkins spent time identifying the magic items, the rest of the adventurers started distributing the jewelry amongst themselves so they could carry it all, plus the magic items. They exited the secret room and Porkins cast Wizard Lock on the door to keep it secure. They group had to take another rest at this point.
Not ready to head back to Stralbruck yet, the adventurers instead returned to the room they now called Rocks Fall. They opened the western secret door on the north wall to explore the corridor beyond. This corridor soon descended to a lower area that was flooded with two feet of murky water. Once down in the water, the corridor turned west, where there were four rows of sepulchers on either side of the corridor as far as they could see, many of which were empty. The adventurers searched them for treasure and collected a total of 23 small gold amulets with various symbols inlaid upon them in ebony.
At the end of this corridor was a 20’x20’ room, also flooded. Against the far wall four sarcophagi sat in the water. Biggz swapped places with Pio, expecting some form of undead to be lurking in the sarcophagi. From just outside the room Biggz cast Detect Supernatural.
Unexpectedly, the supernatural creature Biggz detected was in the water, not the sarcophagi!
The Troop immediately went into combat mode. Pio fired an arrow from his bow at the water and hit nothing. Biggz started casting Part Water. Tiny advanced into the room to attack, only to discover that the floor of the room was sunken another three feet as he stumbled and fell into the murky water. No one else advanced. Luckily Biggz finished casting Part Water, shifting all the water in front of the group into the left half of the room, exposing a serpent made of water. Porkins cast Magic Missile and hit the serpent twice to minimal damage. [Note: We discovered that Rules as Written, Magic Missile does not automatically hit. The missiles are treated as a +1 arrow fired from a long bow, which at close range adds an additional +2 to the roll.] The serpent writhed its way back into the wall of water filling the south side of the room. Tiny, on his feet again, stepped over to the water and attacked the serpent with his magic axe, hitting it for the smallest amount of damage. The serpent struck out at Tiny, hitting him but failing to pull the minotaur into the wall of water [Tiny made his save].
Porkins started casting Lightning Bolt while Biggz and Kunigunde used their magic slings to attack the serpent, both hitting solid blows. Pio missed again with his bow. Porkins finished casting Lightning Bolt, sending the bolt crashing back and forth through the water containing the serpent multiple times, dissolving it.
The adventurers caught their breath for a moment and then Tiny climbed up onto the raised area containing the sarcophagi. Two of the sarcophagi were in the open and Tiny proceeded to open one of them to see if there was anything inside. Inside was a single conch shell. Tiny called out what he saw to the others.
This is when the water serpent, actually a water weird, struck again.
Completely surprising Tiny, it hit him and dragged the minotaur into the flooded left side of the room where he started to drown.
Porkins, thinking quick, pulled out a scroll with Waterbreathing on it and started to cast it from the scroll [a process that takes a full round for 3rd-level spells cast from a scroll]. Biggz and Kunigunde again attacked the serpent with their slings, both hitting solid hits. Pio finally hit with his bow but did only the smallest damage. No one advanced into the room with the serpent, fearing being pulled into the wall of water. Pio hit it with a second shot from his bow, again for the smallest damage [archers that do not move may fire their bow twice in a round]. Tiny switched to unarmed combat, wrestling with the water weird and winning, pinning the water weird but drowning some more.
Porkins finished casting Waterbreathing and targeted Tiny with the spell, allowing the minotaur to breathe in the water. Biggz and Kunigunde hit the water weird with their slings and Pio shot it twice for the smallest damage both times. The water weird attacked Tiny but failed to land a blow while Tiny retained his pin on it.
Biggz hit it one last time with its sling, dissipating the creature again. This time Biggz paid attention and noticed the serpent reforming with the Detect Supernatural spell. Biggz called out a warning that it was reforming again. Porkins used a wand of paralysis on it but the spell did not take [the water weird made its save]. This reminded Porkins what the creature actually was and how to kill it. He called out to Biggz to cast Purify Food and Water on the water weird. Biggz did so and finally killed the creature.
Tiny staggered out of the wall of water and asked what that snake thing was. Porkins and Biggz attempted to explain it to Tiny, but he never got past the basic concept of “evil water”. He was cheerful because he had wrestled the evil water and won!
The adventurers retrieved a valuable conch shell from each of the sarcophagi and some ceramic jars from the water containing gold coins. Very tired, the group took a rest.
End of Part 1
Behind the Green
[So the “serpent” was a Water Weird. They take only one point of damage from slashing and piercing attacks, but full damage from blunt attacks, like sling bullets. And Purify Food and Water is the only way to kill one permanently. The water covering the floor sloshing to the side of the room and forming a vertical wall of water when Biggz cast Part Water made a great visual and interesting combat. I had not planned for that when I designed the room, but it was awesome!]
[Also, Magic Missile in the original rules did not have an automatic hit feature. That feature did not appear until AD&D (known as 1st edition) was published. I thought about adding that feature to Adventures in the Green, but decided against it for now. We are going to keep playing it as needing a roll to hit for each missile and see how it feels.]
Biggz’z Troop, CAC
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