[Junius 20th to Quintillus 5th – Triggering Tapestries and Triggered Traps!]
[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 2 of the session that happened October 9, 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 Warrior bodyguard (2nd level Fighter) [for Larn]
Ivan – male human hireling bodyguard [for Larn]
Bernagi – male human hireling bodyguard [for Isidoros]
Hardkira – male human hireling bodyguard [for Isidoros]
Spring
Hernesday, Junius 20, 524th year of the Empire
Morning
With all members of the Troop healed and recovered from the near disaster in the Stralbruck dungeon [see Session 24], the adventurers packed their gear and left Smolberg. Their route took them down the Jeetzel River to the confluence with the much larger Wasser River. From there they would slowly move upstream to Wittingen. From the small landing at Wittingen they would travel over land for two and a half days to Stralbruk, a total of two weeks of travel.
Summer
Hernesday, Quintilis 4, 524th year of the Empire
Late Afternoon
Biggz’s Troop arrived at Stralbruck and made their way to The Brass Dog, the only inn in the village. They secured rooms and settled in for the night.
Magusday, Quintilis 5, 524th year of the Empire
9:00 AM
After a quick breakfast in town, the Troop arrived at the ruins an hour’s walk from Stralbruck and made their way down into the dungeon below the ruins. Having remembered a treasure map the group looted, er, “found” in the gnole Greater Treasury, they decided to follow the map and recover the two magic items it claimed were in the dungeon.
The map led them south to the second intersection [just before the Octagon Room], where they turned right. This corridor went to a set of stairs that descended 10 feet into a partially flooded area. The water in the corridor was two feet deep and murky. As the adventurers progressed they came upon an area where the wall on their left was visibly sweating beads of water that trickled down to the flooded floor. They chose to not mess with it and moved on.
The came to a T-intersection, where they needed to turn left according to the map. On the wall in front of them hung a purple tapestry. In the center of the tapestry was a black sun in the center with rays zig-zagging away from it in geometric patterns. The adventurers carefully prodded the bedraggled tapestry to determine if anything was behind it. They found the wall. [The players immediately suspected ghouls or something nasty were hiding behind it due to previous adventure experiences. See my downloads section for Barrowmaze in ACKS, Book 1 for details, specifically the ending.]
After verifying only the wall was behind the tapestry, the adventurers took the left-hand corridor from the intersection. They paused when they realized the walls ahead held four rows of sepulchers on either side of the corridor as far as their torchlight went. They turned around and looked down the other corridor and saw the same. Following the map, they waded through the flooded corridor to the south until they reached the end of the sepulchers. From here they could see another set of stairs ascending from the flooded area. The map indicated the magic items were on the left side of the corridor in the second to last sepulcher, but failed to mention which of the stack of four it was in.
Hoping that the treasure was not in the lowest sepulcher, which was below the water, Porkins started his search with the two middle burial spots. Both were empty, so he used one to climb up to the top niche and there he found a parcel wrapped in oilcloth. He retrieved the parcel and had Tiny open it. Inside was a wand and a shield, as the map promised. Porkins cast Detect Magic to verify they were magical and they were! [They were a wand of fire balls and a +3 shield.] Porkins took the wand but the shield went into the loot bag for later discussion.
Wanting to get out of the water, the adventurers went up the stairs, where they were confronted by another tapestry directly in front of them while the corridor cornered and continued to their left [east]. The adventurers carefully investigated the tapestry. Once convinced there was only wall behind it, they prepared to follow the corridor. Porkins called out a warning that the other party of adventurers might have retreated this way. Tiny led the way and therefore was the one to step on the pressure plate and trigger the actual trap here.
The pressure plate released a blinding gas that filled the corner the adventurers were standing in. Mannin and Biggz took the worst of it and were blinded [for the next four hours]. Rather than continue forward, the group retreated back through the flooded area to the intersection just north of the Octagon Room. There they rested.
10:00 AM
Once they had caught their breath, they discussed their options. Thinking the magical pool of water back one intersection might help with the blindness, the adventurers went north to the first intersection and then left [west] to the circular chamber with the pool of water in the center. Biggz splashed the water in their face to no avail. Biggz then drank some of the water to see if that worked. Other than being refreshing, the water did nothing when drunk.
With no other options and not wanting to explore with a third of the adventurers blind, the Troop returned to the surface to wait out the effects.
2:00 PM
After waiting four hours, vision returned to Mannin and Biggz. The group packed back up and returned to the dungeon. They made their way back to the trapped corridor. Aware there was a trap, Mannin took the time to disarm it, allowing safe(r) passage down the corridor. The walls here looked damaged and there were places where mounting brackets for many more tapestries had been ripped out in the far past. A few tapestries remained and the adventurers stopped at each one to verify it was only a tapestry and that nothing undead was hidden behind them, waiting to kill them all. [I personally found this very amusing.]
This corridor came to an end at a T-intersection. Peeking around the corners, the north passage went about 25 feet and ended with a door on the east wall. Their map suggested that this door led to the Octagon Room and was the door the other party retreated through. The passage south continued further than 30 feet but they could see a portcullis blocking further travel at that point.
Wanting to close a loop on their map, the adventurers went north. Porkins’ Wizard Lock spell was on this door, verifying it was the door to the Octagon Room. Porkins removed the Wizard Lock and the group entered the Octagon Room.
Based on Tiny’s report after being cut off from the group in the last fight, the Troop knew that the other group’s Magic-User had been behind the door on the northwest wall of the Octagon Room. They checked that door and found it locked, with a recent-manufacture lock. Mannin quickly picked the lock and let Tiny go through first.
The room beyond was a storage area with five large barrels and another door on the west wall. Pio used Ologbane to check that door for traps and found none. [Reminder: Ologbane the magical sword has Detect Traps as a power.] Tiny investigated the barrels and discovered the hard way that the top of one of them was poisoned! He fought off the effects [made his save] and then attacked the barrel, believing it to be a mimic. After smashing it to splinters, he noticed several [now damaged] bags in the debris. Biggz extracted the bags from the debris and found two leaked coins, some ancient and some Imperial. One of the bags contained a shield and a couple of scrolls. Porkins checked them for magic and found the shield was magical and the scrolls contained several high level spells [or at least higher-than-Porkins’-level spells].
The other barrels were carefully investigated. One was empty, one contained several days’ worth of iron rations, and the last two contained oil. The adventurers took all the food and split it up amongst them but left the oil for later.
Pio opened the door in the back of the storage area and found a smaller room that was very damp and moldy with a faint acrid smell. Pio used Ologbane to check the floor for traps and found none. He then stepped into the room to check the walls.
Something dropped on him from the ceiling.
Pio could hear his helmet hissing and immediately stepped back out of the room and removed his helmet, throwing it to the floor. A large glob of green slime covered the top of his helmet, rapidly dissolving it! He kicked his helmet into the small room where more slime dropped from the ceiling onto it.
Wanting to rid the room of the green slime, Porkins cast Web three times into the room and then had Larn throw a torch in to light the webs on fire. This caused a great deal of smoke and so the door was closed. The smoke leaked out from around the edges of the door, so the adventurers decided to return to the surface and return later.
Once back at the surface, the group decided to return to town so Porkins could identify the spells on the scrolls and Tiny and Kunigunde could work out how magical the shield was. [Plus, it was getting late in real time.]
3:00
Back in Stralbruck, Porkins identified the first scroll as a Protection from Magic scroll. The second scroll had three spells on it: Suggestion, Wizard Eye, and Stone to Flesh. The shield was determined to be very magical [another +3 shield].
End of Part 2
End of Session
Behind the Green
[At the end of the session Deniska leveled, making her a third level fighter. I’m thinking about leveling Ivan as well to 2nd level as he has followed the adventurers for quite a while now, even though he has not been in combat recently. Hardkira and Bernagi retired to Waldrand, opening a small tavern and joining the village guard. We got kind of hand-wavey about them leaving and the hiring of replacements. I’m inclined to say the hiring didn’t happen and Deniska and Ivan now bodyguard Larn and Isidoros, especially if I level Ivan.]
[At the time I’m posting this, I’ve caught up to the actual game sessions. The next game session is this Saturday, so more material will be available, but not enough for weekly postings between now and the December session. I might go back and fill in the older sessions that I skipped or double post the Monday session notes until I catch up with them. I want to try and keep up writing two blog posts a week, I just haven’t worked out how I want to do it yet. I still need to write up the Lower Catacombs map and the Workshops level before doing the Upper and Lower Temple areas for the current dungeon plus I’m working on Draft D of the Adventures in the Green rules. So much to write and such limited free time…]
Biggz’z Troop, CAC
…
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Session 26, Part 1 [Not Yet Typed Up]
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