Game Report #5 - Centipedes, Fire Beetles and Rats, Oh My!

Returning for Game 5 last night were L, L2, M, S (via Skype), J, J2, H, G, G2, and C.  D has been a part of the group, but this was his first time in this game, and D2 and S2 were new both to the campaign and the group.

L, L2, D, D2 and S2 all had to generate characters for the game:

Having had a character reach level 1 before dying, L was allowed to roll up a new first level character, rather than five zero levels.  His new character is Snowflake, a Veteran (1st level fighter).

L2 drew up the following characters: a prisoner named Reaper, an outlaw named Billy the Kid, a woodcutter named Paul Bunyan, a guild beggar called Tiny Tim, and an orphan named Gorgoron, who styles himself "the soul slicer."

D created 2 mushroom farmers, Weeder and Weeder Jr., Fred the Cobbler, an astrologer named Stewi66 and a ditch digger named Gravedigger ("He's got dreams, you know!")

D2 has an alchemist named Dave, a hunter called Teriyaki, Pikachu the jester, Sparta the cobbler, and a City Guard named Jerry.

S created a jester named Latula, a scribe named Meulin, a jeweller called Kanaya, a mercenary called Damara, and a smuggler named Kurboz.

After the new characters were created, we reviewed experience levels, and Eridan had reached level 1.  Eridan opted to become a Medium (1st level Magic User).

Three months have passed since the party returned from their last adventure, while everyone healed, and Eridan completed his training as a Mage.  As Aetherus brought Eridan back to the Hall, Ockhena took the opportunity to ask him if there were other towns or villages nearby, or just Kemper Village.  Aetherus explained there had once been a town two day's hike southwest, and another town one day's hike due south.  As the party discussed their options after breakfast in the main hall, Pyotr came in and asked them to try to eliminate the kobold threat, "because the Hall is getting crowded, and we want to build some houses between here and the river, but the kobolds raid at night and destroy the work and kill anyone outside after dark!"

The party agreed this would be wise, and spent the rest of the morning discussing strategy.  Should we block all the entrances then flood them out via the river entrance?  If so how will we get any of the treasure out of a flooded cavern system?  What if we send a separate party into each entrance and trap them all?  Do we know where all their exits are?  We know about three, but we don't know if that's all of them!  They finally agreed to use the tunnel closest to Milburn Hall, and go directly to the caverns below.  Their next discussion centered on tactics:  Do we split up and explore in different directions?  Do we make noise to draw the kobolds, or move as quietly as possible to surprise them?  Should we have one party explore while another guards our way out?  They opted for the latter, and at noon, ate lunch in the Hall, then started off for the kobold's lair.  They'd been into the caverns several times via this route, and made their way in with no trouble, with every third character carrying a lit torch for the long crawl in through the dirt tunnel to the cavern.  For the tunnel crawl, Snowflake led them in, followed by Billy the Kid, Tiny Tim, Gorgoron, Reaper, Paul Bunyan, Eridan, Gamzee, Damara, Meulin, Dave, Teriyaki, Pikachu, Jerry, Kaza Rune, Sammy, Enteri, Brock, Gilder, River, Anja, Ockhena, Fred, Weeder, Weeder Jr., Stewi66, Gravedigger, Rudy, Draco, Salvador, Shern, Justin, Richard, Rose, Pinky, Mordecai, Max, Ven, Ron, Don, Vladof, Bandit, Torque, Tediore and Maliwan.

Inside the first cavern, they split into two groups, Team A, with Teriyaki, Pikachu, Jerry, Kaza Rune, Sammy, Enteri, Brock, Gilder, Fred, Weeder, Weeder Jr., Stewi66, Gravedigger, Rudy, Draco, Salvador, Shern, Justin, Richard, Rose, Pinky, Mordecai, Max, Ven, Ron, and Don headd off to explore, while the rest, Team B, stood guard at the entrance to prevent an ambush.

Team A was exploring a large cavern, and was surprised by a pair of fire beetles.  Teriyaki died before the party cut them down.  In the next cavern, Stewi66 kicked a lump on the floor, and narrowly avoided getting splashed by acid falling from a hole in the ceiling.  They considered kicking the lump again so they could catch some acid, but Salvador the alchemist wisely said, "No way, I'm not letting acid splash on my arm while I try to catch it in a vial!"  They tried to get some from the floor, but it had already spread too thinly to gather in the vial.  They continued on, finding dwarven runes carved in one wall, a completely charred, illegible book in the same cave, and later, a stone statue of a man reading a scroll.  Stewi66, Fred, Weeder, Weeder Jr., and Gravedigger decided to head back to Team B, but as they got there, the Team B asked to be led back to Team A.

Maliwan, bringing up the rear of Team A, heard noises behind him, and turned to see them being stalked by at least three giant rats at the very edge of their torchlight.  The party turned to do battle, as Team B arrived from the side.  Before the rats were dispatched, River and Bandit both fell, and the party decided it was time to leave.  They carried River and Bandit, and dragged what turned out to be 14 giant rats back through the caverns to the entrance.  On their way, they spotted an killed a giant centipede and Dave claimed the corpse and brought it along.  As they crawled out through the dirt tunnels, Maliwan again heard noise behind him, and turned to see three kobolds tracking them and getting closer.  Only three characters were left underground, so they opted to exit quickly and attack the kobolds when they came out... but they never did.  The kobolds saw the bright sunlight flooding the tunnel when the party wasn't in the way, and retreated into the dark.

Back at Milburn Hall, the party skinned the giant rats so Gimli and Kaza-Rune could attempt to create more leather armor from them, and Maliwan decided to gut the rats and check their stomachs for valuables.  He got lucky and found two gems, which they were able to sell for 2000 gold pieces total.  Rest and Recuperation allowed the party to heal and gain their experience, and several more characters have finally reached first level.  Ockhena and Richard each train to become a Medium (1st level magic user), Anja, Gamzee and Pinkie will become Apprentices (1st level Thief), Justin becomes an Acolyte (1st level cleric) and Rose becomes a veteran (1st level fighter).

Game Report #3 - Centipede Poison and Zombies!

Friday night we played our third game.  We had three new folks (N, L2 and J2) show up, so there were ten players (L, J, G, L2, N, M, S, J2, V and H) sitting around the table, along with me (standing mostly, and walking between the table and the island in the kitchen, where I set up my stuff.

N's five characters were:  Gimli the armorer, Blarg the woodcutter, Jimmy the jeweler, Hans Olo, a gambler, and an old male jeweler known only as "Old Bald Lady."

L2 created Apollo the astrologer, Ditchy the ditch digger, Chip, a woodcutter, Knees the caravan guard and a mercenary named Stabby.

J2's rolled up Guilder the weaver, Enteri the locksmith, a ditch digger named Brock, an armorer named Kaza-runê, and an orphan called Sammy, who styles herself the "Dark Reaver of Souls."

As we began play, Grimm spoke to Pyotr and asked him if there was someone who could train him to be a magic user.  Pyotr said he'd speak to the Master of the Hall, and left through the kitchen.  In just a few moments, an old man in long grey robes came into the hall, and introduced himself as Aetherus, "Wizard of Milburn Hall."  He accepted Grimm as apprentice, and led him away for a month of training.  In the meantime, the rest of the group continued removing the brambles in front of the hall, and weaving baskets.  After a month, Aertherus and Grimm returned to the hall; Grimm a newly trained Medium, with the following spells in his book:  read magic, sleep, read languages, and detect magic.  As the party spoke to Grimm and Aetherus, Pyotr closed the kitchen door, used a key and opened the door again, to reveal the hallway leading to Cittá.  As the team of horses pulled the coach into the hall, Aetherus told the party he'd answer any questions they might have.

The only question I recall was how the door to the kitchen kept changing, to which he replied, "Pyotr is using one of the magical keys that lets the door open to other places... places like Cittá."  He went on to explain that he'd grown up just outside of Milburn Hall, when it was a very large community with several villages within a mile of the Hall.  He said that when he as a young man, something had come through, just like they were now doing, and it had forced the villagers to flee the countryside for many miles around, and was why the outer door was locked from the outside.   "The survivors, you see, were afraid to leave any door unlocked, and preferred to destroy doorframes altogether, so no other ways could be found."

Aetherus left them, then, and the original party met the 15 new people during the evening's feast.  The next day they set out for Kemper Village.  When they reached the orc's roadblock, several party members tried to bargain a new price, with Grimm first asking the orc's name (Grack) and then asking how much a lifetime pass would cost (50 gp for him, 100 gp for each of the others.)  Robin strode up to the wall, drew his bow and took aim at the orc, but before he could fire, arrows flew from the trees on both sides of the road, taking him out.  The party backed away, with Justin retrieving Robin's body, and the orcs allowed them to turn back south.

When they came to the bridge, they headed west along the southern bank of the stream.  When they came to the entrance to the kobold tunnels, the party decided to explore while Justin took Robin back to the Hall for rest.

They explored the dirt tunnels, hoping to find their way back to the kobolds caves, and took several wrong paths, finding two places where the tunnel sloped down, but shrunk to less than 15 inches high forcing them to turn back when they saw how difficult it was to find giant rats while slithering on their bellies.  The finally found the caves, where they fought fire beetles and giant centipedes.  Unfortunately, both Hans Olo and Knees were bitten by the centipedes and immediately fell into comas.  They died later without ever waking up.  The party decided to return to Milburn Hall once again to rest and recover.

At Milburn, they ordered equipment from Pyotr, and again spoke to Aetherus learning more of the area.  They decided to set out for Kemper Village once more, to seek treasure in the Mausoleum.  This time, after crossing the bridge and heading north, the travelled under cover of the trees, about a half mile east of the road.  They did surprise a patrol of three orcs, and felled two immediately.  The third threw down his weapon and shield and ran for help... but was hit in the back with a javelin before he could escape.

They spent an uneventful night in the three houses they'd picked before, and in the morning entered the Mausoleum.  This time, as an experiment, they decided not to light the oil lamp on the altar.  The thought the door to the basement might not open, but were surprised to find it did.  Heading downstairs after lighting torches, they took the long route to the room with the sarcophagus and pit, then tried the east exit.  It was blocked by a wooden portcullis, which the woodcutters handily dispatched.  Passing it, they turned left into a long room, and were surprised by a pair of richly dressed people... who of course turned out to be zombies.  Blarg was knocked out before they dispatched the zombies.  "Old Bald Lady" rigged a makeshift sling, and hoisted Blarg up on his back.  They found six gems on the zombies, and a sack of silver coins against the west wall of the room, and then headed back.  Back in the room with the pit, Blarg started waking up, but instead of speaking, he moaned, and attacked "Old Bald Lady," knocking him out.  In a panic, Jimmy and Gimli each attacked... one crushing Blarg's skull, the other "Old Bald Lady's"... because "We can't let them come back as zombies!"

After that, the party left the Mausoleum, and immediately headed back to Milburn Hall, again staying far to the east of the road to avoid the orcs.  The entire trip was uneventful, and at Milburn Hall they were able to sell the gems and split their profits after recovering.

Thus ended the night of play!