Valiant Swords of Greyhawk - Session 2: Beneath the Tower of Zenopus

 

We begin in Saltmarsh at the Wicker Goat inn as our party prepares to return to the ruined tower. Our heroes (all at level 2 now):

• Paladin Steve: Sir Kentor -  Human Paladin
• Boom-Gun Brandon: Lantor- Human Fighter
• Shootist Will: Mechanist Cedric Theodore -Human Cleric
• Blaster:  Xyzzifax - Human-ish Wizard

They were all present for the last expedition and the dwarf warlock again remains in town getting to know the dwarf-owned mining operation.

There was some rules discussion pregame, mainly about how magic works in 5E and has been tweaked for ToV. I also reminded them about some of the interesting items on the gear list like oil, alchemist's fire, caltrops, antivenin, holy water, and the good old 10'pole.

Then it was time to gather the party and venture forth! Veering off from their prior course the group found themselves kicking in a door to a very large room notable for a group of stone sarcophagi, a collapsed wall on the north side, and a number of giant rats peering back at them!

Taking the lead Sir Kentor takes a number of serious rat bites as does Lantor but they clear out the vermin in short order. This leads to the inevitable opening of the six closed sarcophagi which leads to a number of interesting things:

• The first one has a skeleton holding a fine jeweled dagger.
• The second contains a skeleton holding a very nicely crafted sword
• The third conceals a skeleton with a bejeweled necklace.

Now during these explorations the skeletons are left undisturbed - at first. A few minutes in the wizard decides to very quietly use his Mage Hand to retrieve the dagger which flies up out of his grasp and moves towards the party. This is also when a pair of hungry giant rats emerges from the ruined wall to the north and moves in to attack as well. Another short fight ensues with the wizard staying back and throwing Fire Bolts while Cedric, Lantor, and Sir Kentor charge in. The rats are slain and the dagger is smacked across the room - apparently beating the magic right out of it - and then things settle back down. 

• The fourth burial structure contains a skeleton and a cloud of gas which knocks out the Paladin for ten minutes. The rest of the part uses this time to detect and identify the items so far and determines that the sword is in fact "Verminax", a +1 vermin-slaying blade. The dagger also has not had all of the magic beaten out of it as it is actually a +1 dagger as well.
• Number 5 has another skeleton with more jewelry
• The final un-raided tomb gives them some trouble until something inside it helps to push it open and a skeleton jumps out and starts swinging! The paladin sees his moment and proceeds to land a critical hit with a smite detonating the undead thing in a blast of holy light - one shot, one kill. 

Gathering themselves up and performing some minor healing the party moves out of the opposite side of the room and heads down to kick open another door. This one is empty though there are faint tracks in the dust on the floor and the upper part of the room is shrouded in darkness. As they move in cautiously a giant spider drops on Xyz from above but he dodges the move only to suffer a bite from the vicious arachnid. The rest of the team attacks but the spider scuttles back and runs up a wall, shooting webs as it goes. Our heroes pursue and finally dispatch the beast with no serious damage other than to the wizard's morale. They discover a twin to their dagger embedded in the spider's hide and also identify the tracks in the dust as goblin marks. These seem to run between two of the four doors in the room so the standard protocol is enacted and ...

Kicking in our fourth door of the day we see an even bigger room than the first one containing some cots and clutter and ten very startled goblins - not surprised, as they heard the fight with the spider next door - but definitely startled, particularly the two that were clearly approaching the door quietly hoping the noises would stop before they got there.

The party moves in, the goblins move in, and the wizard unleashes the first Thunderwave of the campaign and blows away 3 of the goblins in one blast. Though they land a few solid blows most of the goblins are dead in seconds and the boss turns to flee but is also slain before he can get far. The last survivor drops his weapons and tries to surrender but is blasted by a firebolt as Xyz says "you are too weak". The room is looted with no particular items of note turning up.

Moving on the next door it turns out to be ... open! Within is a large statue of a wizard with a hand outstretched towards the door. The team quickly figure out that the statue can be rotated and that doing so unlocks the door it points at while locking the other three. Notes are taken and the group moves on having worked out via their ongoing mapping efforts that the corridor beyond may lead back to the "snake room" they discovered the day before. 

As it turns out they are right! They kick in what they now find to be the north door of the round room with the stairs and the big snake - as opposed to the south door they opened earlier. Sir Kentor drinks a potion of growth they found earlier and they charge in to confront the huge serpent. The snake rears up and ... takes a critical hit from the Large Kentor, a ridiculous critical from the fighter and then Lantor Action Surges for yet another mighty blow from his greatsword and slays the thing before it can land a single attack!

Taking a quick look around and upstairs and seeing nothing the adventurers push open the secret door they noticed previously and move down a long corridor that ends in what is likely another secret door. It too is kicked open revealing a wizard's workshop, some statues, a very surprised wizard, and his cutlass-wielding companion. As the violence begins the wizard recovers enough to make Lantor his new friend (a Charm spell) but is blasted by Xyz and slashed by the paladin before he can do anything else as Large Kentor steps around the table and bashes the bodyguard just as his eyes clear up and he says "wait, what"? The paladin is momentarily regretful but he was on the wrong side charmed or not.

After this the party does finish exploring the stair-connected rooms finding a few interesting items including a wand and some scrolls and potions. One of these is a scroll of stone to flesh and there is a fair amount of discussion on whether to use it on one of the statues in the workshop. In the end though they decide to hang onto it for possible future need and head back out of the dungeon to return to Saltmarsh. 

DM Thoughts on Session 2

This was a fun run and they were finally getting into some areas where there was a chance for some interaction beyond swordplay. That's one of the things I like about this dungeon in that even though it is relatively small there are several encounters where one can talk things over with the inhabitants or maybe learn something interesting about another area of the dungeon. Then in session1 they end up hitting a bunch of undead and vermin with zero chance to communicate barring the one cultist encounter

As it turns out they were not terribly interested in conversation. Here we had the goblins and the human wizard and guard as opponents and it was still a "nope" from the crew. Hey, they can tackle this thing however they want to but there were opportunities for more DM fun if they had left even on of those open. Ah well.

Rules-wise we used a lot of "helping another" type mechanics here. In the latest version (ToV PG Page 206 "Working Together")you don't even have to roll - you just give the acting character advantage on the roll. That's a little less dramatic but OK. Luck is working very well, being acquired and being used throughout the session. Combat flows very quickly at these levels and having my condition markers and area effect templates close at hand keeps that speed going. 

That said combat also flows faster when the second level paladin crits on a smite for 43 points of damage - 8d8! Honorable mention goes to the poor snake who got hit by a critical from the paladin, then another from the fighter, then a second attack from the fighter, all of which was enough to kill it before it could act once. Sometimes the dice gods just have it in for you.

As far as the dungeon we didn't make it to some of the other interesting parts but they hit most of it and had a good time. The original has the sword as just a generic +1 longsword so I jazzed that up with a name and a bit of a history and some extra utility in very specific situations. I'll probably add some wererats in at some point to give it a chance to shine. With it and a pair of +1 daggers the group has at least a few magic weapons available if needed. 

I have not been using much in the way of random encounters but that will change as we get more into the main adventure. The temple is an active organized base for an evil organization so it will be a little trickier than the tower. 

We should have a bigger group next time, likely the full 7 players I expect to be at this full-time, so there will likely be a bit more going on as the party makes it way to the Village of Hommlet.