December 30th Session Report

[Scott]

I ran a session for my sons today. Dungeon crawling in my Castle Greyhawk dungeons.

The Party:
Finn: 7th Level human fighter (Gavin Gregg)
Jolly Torbuck; 4/5 level hairfoot hobbit fighter/thief (Finn’s henchman)
Thordak: 7th level human fighter (Liam Gregg)
Diedric: 6th level human cleric of St. Cuthbert (NPC)

Finn and Thordak have been staying in the Free City of Greyhawk. Both of them have earned passes allowing them access to the city as citizens. Finn, along with his henchman Jolly, rent a villa in the Garden Quarter, while Thordak still rents a room in the Foreign Quarter.

Previously, Thordak had visited the temple of St. Cuthbert trying to recruit a cleric henchman, but his offer was rejected. One of the clerics, Diedric, did offer to adventure with the party as an equal member, and depending on how the expedition went, they may reconsider letting one of their acolytes serve as Thordak’s henchman. Thordak accepted the offer.

Starday, Coldeven 8th, 577 CY
It was a cold, but sunny, morning as the party exited Greyhawk through Lordsgate and headed north along the Cairn Hills Road. About a half mile north of the city they came to where the Old Castle Track split off from the main road, and the party took the track east. After a mile Finn showed Thordak and Diedric the spot where a hidden path branched off from the Track. The path led to the bottom of the ravine around the plateau the castle was built upon. The party took the path and after a half mile further they were walking along the bottom of the ravine. The proceeded to the southeast corner of the plateau to a cave entrance. They entered the cave and followed the only passage until coming to a set of wooden doors. Finn used the knocker and banged on the door. A moment later the door was pushed open, towards the party. Beyond was a lowered portcullis. Through it the part could see a large cavern lit by patches of glowlichen, Standing on the other side of the portcullis was a stern-faced elf. After looking the party over he spoke, “Finn, Jolly, it’s been a while since you’ve visited. And you’ve brought new friends.” The elf turned and spoke in elvish, and a moment later the portcullis was rising. Once the party was in the elves quickly pulled the doors shut and lowered the portcullis again. “Where to today, Finn?”, Veldyr, the elf, asked.
“We’ll try the third level today”, the fighter responded. Veldyr nodded and turned and spoke to another elf, who moved to a winch close to another portcullis and started cranking it. The portcullis began to rise. The party headed towards the opening.
“Good luck”, Veldyr said in a tone more businesslike than friendly.
“Thanks”, Finn responded. Beyond the portcullis was a small landing, and steps cut into the rock, descending into darkness. Jolly lit a torch, the fighters drew their swords, and the party descended into the dungeons.
To be continued…

[Scott]

At the bottom of the steps there was a passage heading west. After about 30’ it T-ed. The north branch ended after only 10’ where the tunnel had collapsed, so the party went south, After 30’ they could see flickering light ahead, coming from an archway on the eastern side of the passage. The passage continued south past the archway. The party advanced. Through the archway there was a 50’ square chamber. No other exits were visible. Several comfortable chairs were arranged in a circle in the center of the room. A woman was relaxing in one of the chairs. She was wearing plate mail, and a pile of adventuring gear, including a mace and hammer were on the floor next to her chair. A plate of food and a goblet were floating through the air towards here. Once close she plucked them out of the air and started eating and drinking.
The party could also see empty bookshelves and desks lining the walls. Against the south wall was a long banquet table with fresh food on copper platers and copper flagons filled with wine. On the wall above the table was a painting of a smiling man wearing purple robes decorated with silver arcane symbols.
The party entered the room, and the woman immediately stood up, “Stop, you are not allowed in here. Leave now, or I will have the spirits that serve me tear you apart.”
“Ahhh, let’s get out of here”, was the party’s response, and they backed out of the room into the passage.
“And don’t come back”, could be heard as the headed south. After 20’ the passage turned west and came to an intersection with multiple passages branching out from it. The walls here were painted with images of wizards succumbing to madness and being transformed into monsters.
The party explored several corridors, finding more passages blocked by cave-ins, and two areas where low, narrow passages had been cleared through the debris. The party took one of the passages and it led them to a room that had partially collapsed, but it looked like somebody had been working to clear the rubble. There was a door to the north, and another narrow tunnel cleared out going south. The door was decorated with a symbol that Diedric was able to identify as water. It was stuck, but they were able to force it open. Beyond was a large room. The walls were decorated with frescoes of horrific cyclopean cities of black stone submerged beneath raging seas.
There were four more doors visible on the east, north, and (two) west walls. Floating in the air 15’ off the ground, and 15’ away from the northeast corner was a skull. Finn advanced to investigate the skull, about 15’ away he ran into a moist, pliant barrier. Once he hit it, he could see it, a giant, 30’ square gelatinous cube. He made his save and backed up, drawing his sword, the rest of the party advanced to assist. The cube attacked with multiple bludgeoning pseudopods, each capable of paralyzing a target. Several rounds of combat later, with Thordak and Jolly paralyzed and being absorbed, after taking all the weapon and fire damage the party could hit it with, the giant cube was dead. Finn used his flametongue and a staff to get to the skull. It had some kind of glassy coating over it. Assuming was evil, he drove anion spike through the skull and left it there.

[Scott]

After the paralysis wore off, the party turned its attention to the doors on the west side of the room. First going to the door closer to the north wall. The door has the same arcane symbol for water on it. Jolly examined the door for traps. He did not find any traps, but he did notice that the door was unusual, sealed tighter than standard doors, no cracks or seams in the wood, or between the door and the wall. Finn asked Thordak to open this door. Finn stood a few feet behind him while Diedric and Jolly flanked the door. Thordak stood off to the side and reached over to turn the door knob. As soon as he started turning it, the door burst open and a flood of water rushed into the room. Thordak made his save and was far enough to the side, and avoided the rush of water. Finn was not so lucky and was hit by the wall of water and the debris it carried, knock him down and battering him for several points of damage. There was a 30 x 40 foot rom beyond that had been completely filled with water. After the water had subsided, the party started going through the debris. In addition to small items of furniture, clothes, etc. there was also a putrid, bloated corpse, wearing purple and green robes appropriate to a magic-user. They searched the body, but didn’t find anything. Nothing valuable was found in any of the other debris that washed out either. Peering into the chamber, there was still several larger pieces of furniture inside. Finn told Jolly to spike the door open before they entered. There was still too much water on the floor, so Jolly tried pounding a spike into the jamb, hoping that would be enough to keep the door from sealing if it tried closing on its own. The commotion in the room attracted the attention of four bugbears that were closely, and they cam in to investigate. The party was not surprised. The bugbears spoke common, and told the party to surrender and come with them. Finn responded that if the bugbears were smart, they would leave. The bugbears were not smart, and they attacked. The party made quick work of them. Then the returned to investigating the new room. They entered the room and searched what was left. There were clothes, waterlogged books, miscellaneous junk. In one drawer of an overturned dresser they found a glass or crystal wand. They decided to stow it for now, and they would cast detect magic later.
Next they moved to the more southern door on the western wall of the larger room. Again the water symbol. No traps found, but the door appeared to be sealed like the last one. The party positioned themselves as best as they could to avoid another deluge of water, and Finn opened the door. It opened, and there was no rush of water. The room beyond appeared to be a disgusting, evil chapel of some kind. The walls were covered in bas relief carvings of eyes peering out from sheets of dripping slime and ooze. There was a black stone alter at one end of the room. Upon the alter, and dripping overt the sides, was what appeared to be a huge blob of solidified gold, as if a large amount of liquid gold were poured on the alter, and then left to cool. Finn went to investigate. There were runes carved into the alter, which he could not read. He tried to pull the gold off, and it was not metal, his hand grabbed a blob of some sort, the whole mass of ‘gold’ came to life and attacked. Launching pseudopods at the party. The party seemed to kill it after a few rounds. There was a hallway leading out of the west side of the chamber, and the party exited in a hurry.

[grodog]

I like the golden blob monster—may have to steal that one!

Allan.

[GRWelsh]

Nice variation on the mimic.