[Quintillus 6th to 8th – Explore a few places, haul major loot back, probe entrances to the Lower Catacombs]
[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 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
Noon
Having rested after fighting the water weird, Biggz’ Troop backtracked through the flooded corridor, back to the room they now call Rocks Fell. After checking the trap on the eastern secret door was still spent [this was the trap that dropped the entire ceiling onto the adventurers and the reason this room is now known as Rocks Fell], the group decided to explore beyond it. Tiny prepared to open the secret door and the rest, out of an abundance of caution, quickly left the room and waited in the diagonal corridor. Tiny opened the secret door and, after nothing collapsed or exploded, the rest of the adventurers stepped to the door to inspect what lay beyond.
Past the secret door was a twenty by twenty foot room with four sarcophagi, long since broken open and plundered. The artwork on the walls of this room contained more of the dark sun motif.
Somewhat disappointed by this yet confident they had fully explored this part of the dungeon, the adventurers decided to go back and explore more of the flooded area past the Second Intersection [reminder to the readers: it is the second intersection south from the entrance to the dungeon, so they were crossing the entire width of this level]. As they walked from one side of the catacombs to the other, Porkins cast Detect Invisible Objects on himself, concerned about the possibility that the other adventuring party, known to use Invisibility for ambushes, might reappear.
At the Second Intersection they went west, descending to the lower, flooded part of the dungeon. At the first intersection the group went north, having already explored the southern passage. They took the time to search the many sepulchers lining this corridor but only found a smattering of gnawed on bones.
At the end of the corridor was a large, flooded chamber with a number of “islands” comprised of broken furniture and other debris. The light from their torches awoke things sleeping on the “islands” – ghouls! Biggz stepped forward and called upon the power of the Many-King, turning the ghouls to dust. Porkins took the time to search the “islands” the ghouls had been lairing on, finding small numbers of old gold coins hidden on each island [over 1000gc total].
Once Porkins was done plundering the room, Tiny forced opened a door on the east wall, the only exit from the chamber. The corridor beyond was flooded as well and lined with sepulchers. [A rest really should have happened around here, but I didn’t note it.] The adventurers searched the sepulchers and found them mostly empty. The only thing of note they found was a wrought iron scroll case, which was empty.
At the end of the corridor it turned north and dead-ended. The dead end was once heavily decorated with murals, but everything below four feet was dissolved, leaving only bare walls. The ceiling was covered with the image of a baleful dark sun, dark rays extending from it and down the walls towards the floor. It was difficult to tell what effect the rays had as those parts of the mural were missing or heavily damaged from the moisture. In a few places, figures in dark robes surrounded by dark halos could be seen either jubilating or casting ritual spells. A heavily water-logged and moldy tapestry hung at the end of the passage, covering the north wall. It too had a dark sun in the center with dark rays emanating from it in geometric patterns.
The adventurers did not like the look of this area at all, nor the tapestry. From their maps, this corridor seemed to abut the sunken room where the water weird had been. Porkins made an off-hand comment about the Temple of Four Elements, which sparked a memory in Biggz. Biggz remembered that the Black Sun iconography was part of a proscribed religion in the empire, one with a vague elemental aspect.
Seeing no reason to investigate any further, they turned around and left. They made their way back to the Second Intersection and entered the Octagon Room. There they opened the secret door to the treasure chamber. They spent some time redistributing the gear and loot they were carrying so that Tiny could carry one of the casks full of silver coins. They closed the secret door behind them and slowly made their way back to the surface [Tiny was severely encumbered while carrying the cask of coins, even with his enormous strength.]
4:00 PM
After a slow, two-hour walk back to Stralbruck [normally only taking an hour, but Tiny was severely encumbered] the adventurers returned to the town and their rooms at the Brass Dog. There was much visible curiosity from the townsfolk at the obviously heavy cask Tiny carried through the village.
Once safe in their room, the adventurers finally took the time to count the coins in the cask. All told there were 5000 silver coins in the cask! With another six and a half casks of silver coins and three casks of copper coins of the same size back in the treasure chamber, plus 40 pieces of gold jewelry!
Porkins cast Wizard Lock on the door to the room the cask was stored in and the adventurers went downstairs for food and drink. They were rich! Tiny spent the night telling and retelling [through Isidoros, his Tolk interpreter] the story of how he wrestled water and won to any villagers drinking in the Brass Dog that night with Porkins and Biggz backing him up.
Porkins cast his new communication spell, Porkin’s Mystical Missive, and sent a request to Isen in Smolberg, requesting books on the Temple of the Four Elements and the Temple of the Black Sun, having seen signs of both recently. Isen replied that that was ominous and he would see what he could do.
Freysday, Quintillis 7th, 524th year of the Empire
Morning
The adventurers spent an hour in Stralbruck. Pio went to the village’s blacksmith to purchase a replacement helmet for the one he lost to the green slime the previous day. Biggz was summoned by Lord Helmar who had heard the adventurers had returned with a very heavy cask from the ruins and were telling stories of the catacombs beneath the ruins. He queried Biggz about the things they had found and how long until the site was safe for workers again. Biggz played up the monsters and traps the adventurers had faced and elided over the treasure they had found. Biggz told Lord Helmar the are should be safe inside of a week if no new monsters were found.
The meeting with Lord Helmar also reminded Biggz that a Report of Company Action REALLY needed to be filed with the Imperial government in order to legitimize the Troop’s claim on all the treasure. Otherwise, Lord Helmar could claim it as his, having been recovered from his property. Biggz made a mental note for when they met back with Porkins to ask Porkins to write up an official report.
Porkins and Pio were at Gier the Carter to hire two strong horses and a heavy cart. Gier had what they needed and offered to rent them the cart and horses for 15 gold coins plus a 15 gold coin deposit. The adventurers agreed to this and paid without even blinking at the amounts. Gier realized too late that he hadn’t charge enough.
The adventurer returned to the ruins.
10:00 AM
The adventurers spent the next three hours hauling all the treasure in the treasure chamber to the surface. Kunigunde, Porkins, and the various hirelings stayed on the surface to guard the cart as it was slowly filled with loot. During this process, a small pack of five ghouls rambled up to the adventurers in the catacombs, but Biggz immediately turned them to dust.
Once all the treasure was brought to the surface, Biggz, thinking about the conversation with Lord Helmar earlier that morning, suggested the adventures clear out all the spider webs behind the buildings to verify no more phase spiders were there. This took some time as they chose to cut down the webs and not burn them [much to Mannin’s appreciation – phase spider silk sells well if you know the right buyers and he did].
1:00 PM
The adventurers headed back to Stralbruck, Tiny pushing the heavily laden cart to assist the two horses pulling it.
2:00 PM
Back in Stralbruck, the adventurers first attempted to unload the casks of coins into Porkins’ Wizard Locked room, but then the floor started creaking ominously from all the weight. They asked the innkeeper if he had any lockable, private space they could rent, but there was none that was both lockable and private.
The adventurers reloaded the cart and drove it over to the church. There they asked Father Solomon if he had some place they could rent. He rented them one of the currently unused crypts under the church. They paid an entire cask of copper coins for the rental [5000cc or 1000sc or 100gc].
Once the treasure was secured behind a Wizard Lock, Father Solomon informed Biggz that he had received a reply to his inquiries about the amulet taken from the other adventuring party – The Church was sending an inquisitor who was due “any day now.” As a result of this news, Biggz spent the afternoon telling Father Solomon everything the adventurers had discovered underground.
While Biggz was doing that, Porkins spent the afternoon in the extradimensional space at the top of a Rope Trick spell writing up the official Report of Company Action. This took a couple hours as much had happened and the Troop had not sent any reports since its official registration with the Imperial government. When he finished writing up the report he used Porkins’ Mystic Missive to inform Biggz it was ready.
Mannin spent the afternoon locating a person in town to wash out the phase spider silk harvested from the ruins. Luckily, it was still early summer and none of the woolspinners were occupied.
6:00 PM
Biggz returned to the Brass Dog and received the official report from Porkins. Biggz then took the report over to Lord Helmar. While there, Biggz mentioned that a Church inquisitor was on their way from Rome to Stralbruck. This caught Lord Helmar by surprise and he spent the evening reading the report to learn what sort of things the adventurers had found that drew the attention of the Roman Church.
Yggsday, Quintillis 8th, 524th year of the Empire
Morning
The adventurers returned to the ruins to explore further. They returned to the room known as Rocks Fell and went through the secret door on the south wall to the first room full of shattered pottery. They checked the previously located secret on the south wall for traps [using Ologbane] and discovered it had a Glyph of Warding on it. Porkins cast Dispel Magic on the glyph, causing it to flash and then fade out.
Tiny opened the secret door. Beyond was a thirty-foot corridor, the last ten feet of which were bent slightly to the right, ending with the side walls angling in to form a point. Tiny made a quick check of this odd space and located a secret door where the right wall angled in.
After verifying the secret door was safe to open, Tiny opened it. The door opened in the side of a corridor of rough masonry with a dirt floor. Looking to his right, Tiny could see that the corridor was level and ended at a wall, suggesting another secret door. Looking to his left, the corridor started rapidly descending and he could occasionally hear what sounded like faint moans somewhere far away down it.
Intrigued, the adventurers followed the corridor downwards. The dirt floor gave their feet purchase as the corridor descended at a steep angle and spiraled inwards. After descending nearly a hundred feet, the spiral ended at a metal gate, obviously chained and locked. Beyond the gate was a mist filled cavern of unknown size. Occasionally, what sounded like faint moans could be heard from off in the mist.
Porkins and Mannin examined the chains and locks on the gate. They were slightly surprised to see that the chains and locks were mostly on their side of the gate, as though to lock something inside the cavern beyond.
Not liking what they saw, the adventurers turned around and hiked back up the spiral path. Once back at the level part, the followed it to the wall, where they did locate a secret door. This door opened onto the diagonal passage that led to Rocks Fell. The secret door was very concealed from the diagonal passage side. The closed the secret door and retreated back to the first room with broken pottery, closing the other secret doors behind them.
From that room they took the regular door in the east wall to the second room of broken pottery. There they took the left-most secret door on the southern wall, which led to the corridor where Biggz had turned skeletons. At the end of this corridor were stairs descending down to the Lower Catacombs, which the adventurers took. While on the stairs they paused for a needed rest.
End of Part 2
End of Session
Behind the Green
[A pretty straight-forward session this time. The adventurers recovered 52,000 coins from the treasure room. At 10 coins per pound, that was 5200 pounds (2358kg), which is a lot of weight. I’m not 100% certain how much weight a second-floor medieval floor could sustain, but 2.5 (short) tons in a fairly small area seemed reasonably beyond the pale. The amount of treasure also prompted the player characters to file the official report as they realized they had probably hauled back more coin than the entire village of Stralbruck had, including the lord and the local church. Best to have a clear claim to it via paperwork.]
[Completely tangential, I noted short tons above as there are three kinds of tons: short tons (2000lbs), Metric tons (2200lbs), and long tons (2240lbs). The difference goes back to the American Revolution period. British Imperial measurements for weight (mass) built up to the stone, which was 14lbs. Eight stone made up a hundredweight, which was actually 112lbs (8x14=112). twenty hundredweight made a ton, what is now know as a long ton (20x112=2240). American colonial merchants disliked having a unit of measurement that wasn’t what it claimed to be and after the revolution, designated the hundredweight to be 100 pounds and the ton 2000 pounds, what is now known as the short pound. Meanwhile, the metric system designated the metric ton as 1000kg because “tons” were a standard measurement for bulk shipments and 1000kg provided a unit of weight that was close to the older measurement but easy to convert between other metric units of measurement. I learned all this when I used to edit API standards for adoption as ISO international standards for the oil and gas industry. The oil and gas industry used US Customary units because “that’s what we’ve used for 80 years” but ISO required all measurements be done in SI units with customary units in parentheses). So I learns a lot about units of measurements and the differences between US Customary, Metric, and SI systems of measurement (yes, Metric and SI are different systems even though they share units of measurement).]
Biggz’z Troop, CAC
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Session 27, Part 1 [Not Yet Typed Up]
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