Our Heroes:
- Braeden (Human Ranger)played by Battletech Terry
- Sir Kentor (Human Paladin) played by Paladin Steve
- Sir Lantor (Human Fighter) played by Boom Gun Brandon
- The Mighty Xyzzifax (Human-ish Wizard) played by Blaster
- Samson (Halfling Mechanist) played by Shootist Will
- Jaric (Human Cleric) played by Variable David
- Malice (Human Bard) played by Grognard Mike
Everyone is level 3/4-ish at this point.
Malice, Sir Lantor, and Sir Kentor rejoin the Valiant Swords back at camp, which was very near the entrance to the dungeon, having been provided a map from Jaric. Malice, at least, is impressed by the carriage the party now owns. The Valiant Swords enter the dungeon, letting Bubo scout ahead. On our way to a door we have not yet opened, Sir Kentor sees a section of the wall that is miscolored, and he opens the secret door that he’d discovered. This looks like it was once a storage room – full of building supplies. Xyzzifax suggests we look around, and see if there is a second secret door – but a thorough search doesn’t turn anything up.
After a few snide comments, we continue on our way. In the hallway leading to the door, Samson and Sir Lantor notice a pair of secret doors across the hall from each 1 1other. While Samson is explaining to the party, Sir Lantor opens the door that he’d spotted. It reveals an irregularly shaped room full of barrels and casks. The party enters the room to see what might be in them. Opening a few of them, they appear to be foodstuffs. And, swarms of rats!
Sir Lantor scythes through a group of them with a wide swing of his sword. Xyzzifax flies up to them, and unleashes a thunder wave! Many rats go flying! Samson fires an arrow, and produces a fine rat on a stick. Malice rushes up the rats that were blown around by the Thunderwave, and casts burning hands. Braedon puts an arrow into the rats nearest Sir Lantor, and then Sir Kentor draws Verminax. He rushes to Sir Lantor’s side, and the rat-slaying blade does its bloody work. Then, then remaining rats swarm the knights, and many of them are able to find skin on Sir Lantor, and blood is drawn in many tiny bites.
Sir Lantor swings wildly at the rats around him, and his skill is enough that he’s able to have a great deal of success. Then Xyzzifax lobs a firebolt into the midst of them. Rats die, but Sir Kentor is singed. Samson is able to shoot a rat off of Sir Kentor, and Malice follows up with a firebolt of her own, killing the last of the rats.
We gather ourselves back up, and check the secret door on the other side of the hall. There are wooden cabinets on the walls and work tables. There is a central table made of stone, with smooth black slate. Malice is sure that we should tell Rufus about this place. Xyzzifax is sure this is a wizard’s workshop. He ecitedly activates his arcane sense and flies around the room. On one of the tables there is a bag with something magical – he snatches it with mage hand. He also can sense something magical in a cabinet, and in a jar on a shelf. He asks Samson to examine the jar – there is dead black cat suspended in a clear liquid. There is a large cork in the bottle.
Cat's not dead BTW - it's in suspended animation. Of course you have to open it to find that out.
Xyzzifax hands the bag over to Samson so that he can determine its properties. It is a bag of holding! Xyzzifax opens the cabinet, and there jars and bottles filling it. Then Xyssizfax reaches into the bag of holding, and feels a tug on his hand, and quickly pulls his hand back out. He reaches in again with Mage Hand, and feeling around inside nothing seems to happen. Then, he reaches in again himself, and feels a tug on his arm. He tries to pull it out, and just like that Xyzzifax is pulled into the sack – which then falls to the floor.
It's definitely a bag, and it's definitely magical, but that ain't your usual "holding" ...
Samson opens the bag, and he is about to put his hand in. Sir Kentor stops him, and then with Sir Lantor’s hands wrapped around Sir Kentor’s waist. He pulls and pulls, but isn’t able Xyzzifax out. They switch positions, and Sir Lantor isn’t able to pull him out, either. Once more, they swap position, and finally Sir Kentor is able to pull Xyzzifax out! “Get that thing away from me!” he shrieks, and firebolts the bag. The bag just sizzles away.
Here is an example of making rulings on things as a DM - old school dungeons have cursed items, most modern adventures and versions of the rules do not. The Artificer knows things are magical - and what they are - by touch. As written this would knock cursed items completely out of the game - and where's the fun in that? Instead I'm going with the idea that they are often made to look like a more typical, beneficial item. A lot of old versions even had them detecting as a specific magic item like a basic magical +1 sword or, as in this case, a bag of holding. Instead of a Bag of Devouring.
Xyzzifax spends a few moments recollecting himself. Then, he finally goes back to the cabinet, and looks through it. He finds a potion bottle, and mage hands it over to Samson, who is able to determine it is a potion of invisibility. We look through the rest of cabinets, and find a goodly supply of spell components. Xyzzifax collects a bit of everything. Braedon takes the potion of invisibility. Before we mess with the cat, we search the room to see if there’s anything else. As we’re doing so, we decide to bring the bottled cat back to Burne, to see if he knows what it might be.
We find in the wizard’s workshop yet another secret door! And it is a wizard’s laboratory! Dominating the room is a large skeleton hanging from the ceiling. Around the room are wooden tables, and a stone table as well. There is a smoked glass bottle with a stopper in it on one of them. On one wall are torture devices, and on another is stretched skin with runic writing in it. The center of the room has a long cold fire pit. And, there are a pair of vats in a corner, and a third nearby vat is filled with a murky, muddy looking liquid. There’s a wooden coffin resting upright against a wall, and a pair of kegs as well. Xyzzifax strides to the center of the room and activates his arcane senses once more.
Unsurprisingly the smoked glass bottle is magical. There is something beneath a stack of magical, and the stretched leather skin is enchanted as well. And, on the stone block, something is detecting magic as well. Xyzzifax begins casting the Identify ritual, and points out the wood stack for Sir Kentor to check out. He finds a small, shiny gold ring, which is quickly handed to Samson. He is only able to tell that it is magical, which is a warning sign in and of itself. He sets it down next to smoked glass bottle. Samson goes over to the stone block, and looks for what might be magical over there. He does have to make a step stool from his crystal. Xyzzifax is pretty sure that the bottle is containing a liquid or a gas rather than a being. Malice is over at the stretched skin, and Xyzzifax comes over to her. Its magical writing is bragging about how a great wizard can use all of the four elements.
On the stone block, Samson finds a bone rod. It is a wand of wonder! Xyzzifax snatches it from Samson’s hands, and he knows that he’ll have to attune to it before he can make use of it. We think we’re going to take the ring and the jar back to Burne.
This is a really fun room for the DM.
So, finally, we return to the door that we’d originally planned on opening. Samson moves up to it, and checks to see if it is trapped. Its not, so the door is opened – revealing an L shaped kitchen, with a quartet of zombie cooks. They turn balefully towards us. Braedon gives them an arrow of greeting! Malice puts a firebolt into the same one. Sir Kentor moves up and slashes it with Verminax, slaying it. Sir Lantor charges the next Zombie, and cleaves it in two. Xyzzifax flies to Sir Lantor’s side, and imagines what would happen if he’d have fireball from his wand of wonder. A zombie shuffles up to Sir Lantor, and grapples him, biting at his cheek. Samson takes a few steps forward, and punches with his newly gauntleted fists. Braeden moves up to where he can see the zombie that’s grappling with Sir Lantor – an arrow through the brainpan is enough to turn it to a rotten body that falls to the ground. Malice sprints to the corner, and looses her firebolt, crisping the final zombie.
We search the room, and can see that there are cooking pits filled with ash, and lot of spoiled food. Sir Kentor looks around, hoping to find an old cookbook. There is nothing of use, so we simply go out the other door, and cross the corridor, and open the door there. It’s a dining hall! A number of wooden chairs and tables. On the side of the room, there is a large wooden carving with a pair of beautiful chairs attached to them. It is, unfortunately, covered in a fuzzy green fungus. There is another door, so we continue to press forward.
It is a lounge of sorts, designed for after dinner drinking activity. There are long dry kegs, and earthenware tankards. There is a statue at the center of the room, a full sized nude human woman. Leering at her are a group of goblins. A pair of them fire arrows at the front line – and clearly they’re drunk. They miss - a lot. Samson returns fire with his crossbow, just luckily barely hitting one of them. Malice charges into the room, firebolting the same one, killing it. Braedon sprints to the corner or the room, hitting it cleanly with an arrow. Xyzzifax takes into the air, and firebolts the same one, killing it. Sir Lantor charges across the room, and the goblin almost skitters out of the way, but its luck does not hold. Sir Lantor kills it outright. Sir Kentor charges, throwing his warhammer in mid stride. It slams into the goblins face, and he spits a bloody tooth.
 |
| Man these things have had a lot of looks over the years ... |
The three remaining goblins charge the knights, two at the Paladin and the third at the Fighter. Sir Kentor makes fine work with his shield, and Sir Lantor parries the blow. Still, the goblin hit hard enough that his wrist aches. Samon takes a shot at the broken toothed goblin. Malice steps up behind Sir Kentor, and slays the wounded goblin with her glaive. Xyzzifax misty steps across the room, swinging at the goblin with a magical mace. Sir Lantor swings at the same one, and it skitters out of the way. On the backswing, Sir Lantor finally manages to hit it, opening a deep laceration. Sir Kentor thrusts with Verminax, but the nimble goblin stays out of the way.
The goblins keep their distance, wildly swinging their scimitars. Sir Lantor swings widely in response, but the goblin’s keeping their distance means that it keeps them alive. Samson slides around the statue, hitting the wounded goblin with his crossbow, killing it. Malice slices the last goblin, and then Braedon strides to right behind her, and puts an arrow into the goblin’s heart. A grand total of 26 silver pieces are found among them. Xyzzifax inspects the statue, attempting to deduce if it is a true statue or a petrified woman. He’s not certain. Looking at it, it seems to be anchored to the floor.
They were really fascinated with the statue here. Rules question of the day: Does petrification leave a lingering magical aura?
We make our way out, and trudge to a nearby door, discussing how we might move the statue after all. The door leads to an oddly shaped room that is an austere bedroom. Covering the entire northern wall is a carving of the wizard sending an enemy army fleeing in terror. Otherwise, there is fine bedroom furniture. We search the room, and Samson finds a poison needle on the handle of the nightstand. He pulls out his tools, and disables it easily. Then, he picks the lock on the nightstand’s drawer. There very nice handkerchiefs and a dagger within. Samson lifts the dagger, and confirms that its magical.
There are a pair of doors out of the room, so we take our normal precautions, and Samson opens the door. It is another unusually shaped room, most likely for meditation and study. And, the wizard obviously practiced his magic here, the far wall is bumpy and discolored. We give the room a quick search, then move to the other door off of the bedroom. It is a closet, the clothes have not done well over the age, and moths have chewn on almost everything. A wooden stand has four large books, and another table with a stack papers. Sir Kentor checks the stack of papers, as Malice goes to look at the books. The letters that Kentor finds are written in the common tongue, and fairly mundane – the most recent date on any of them is decades ago, and they mostly cover the construction that had been going on. The first book is a historical work on this area. The second book is an encyclopedia on plants written in elvish. The third book is written in some sort of gibberish, or perhaps a coded language. The final book discusses the weather, written in the common tongue. There are notes written in the margins in an undecipherable script. Malice casts Comprehend Languages, and sees that the third book is a diary of the Wizard Zelagar. It is a diary of one of his past adventures. We may need to take the books elsewhere to sell them. And then, we head out to return to camp, to see what we may be able to learn from them.
Another fun session with the main players back in business. The combat in this one was not terribly threatening, mostly low-level small stuff, but it was still interesting. The best part though was the exploration because none of them are terribly familiar with this adventure and it felt like we were all kids again as they are trying to puzzle out the stuff in the workshop and then the statue. This kind of thing is one of the best parts of playing RPGs.
