Our Heroes:
- Braeden (Human Ranger) played by Battletech Terry
- The Mighty Xyzzifax (Human-ish Wizard) played by Blaster
- Samson (Halfling Mechanist) played by Shootist Will
- Jaric (Human Cleric) played by Variable David
All are level 2 or 3 at this point. This account is mainly written by The Great and Powerful Xyzzifax.
We were short half of our players this week so the ones who made it decided to try out some downtime and crafting options and to follow up on some rumors ...
Having returned to the peaceful hamlet of Homlett, the party elects to spend 2 weeks conducting some much needed R&R.
Xyzzifax buys a couple of spell scrolls from Burne, who has the audacity to attempt to price gouge him over a scroll of magic missile. This ridiculous and disrespectful offer is refused, and Xyzzifax vows to never forget this insult. Xyzzifax, ever self reliant, then spends 12 days crafting his own scrolls.
The party's wizard, not lacking in ego, is quickly developing a rivalry with Burne - even if Burne does not really see it yet.
Minion Samson spends 12 days crafting some silly hand crossbow contraption. He should just learn fire bolt. It’s better.
This is Samson the Mechanist working on a custom crossbow rig to strap to Lantor's forearm to give him a one-shot missile weapon he can use with his greatsword drawn.
Minion Braedon spends a week researching the Temple of Elemental Evil proper, and learns that there are 5 dungeon levels, consisting of the main temple, and 4 lower levels. He also learns from a drunken dwarf that some of the weapons used in the battle of the temple came from a dwarf settlement named Khundrakar under the stone tooth at the edge of the mountains nearby. The fortress has since fallen, but is rumored to contain “fabulous magic weapons” minion Braedon is given a map in exchange for the cost of 10 drinks.
This is the DM dropping hints about other dungeons they could explore - in this case Forge of Fury.
Minion Jaric spends time in the bar carousing, listening for rumors. He hears from a traveling merchant a tale of another Fighter/Mage duo that built a lair rumored to contain some strong magic items. The merchant sells him a map with the supposed location of this lair for 100gp.
In this case it is B1, In Search of the Unknown, the 5E version of which is another fine Goodman Games product.
Under Xyzzifax’s masterful leadership, the party elects to pursue this rumor of a fortress full of magic items.
For the journey they also purchase transportation: with minions Jaric and Braedon purchasing riding horses, minion Samson purchasing a mastiff large enough for him to ride, and Xyzzifax footing the bill for a carriage to be pulled by the horses. After all, a wizard of his prowess should not suffer the indignity of riding in a donkey cart any longer.
Asking around about the fortress they intend to pursue, the party uncovers some other rumors.
- The first of which is that Rhogann’s (the fighter) room contains battle trophies taken from his slain foes.
- The second is that there is a room with many pools of water.
- The third is that there are rumored to be cursed items inside.
- The fourth is that once inside, no one has returne to tell the tale.
The fortress is 2 days travel away. Along the way, Braedon and Jaric swap stories.
The party follows the map and arrives at what appears to be an overgrown, black slate rock outcropping at the top of a hill. Inside a crack in the rock, lies a short passageway, leading to a door. After an inspection from minion Samson, the door appears to be chipped, clearly having been forced open in the past. The party moves inside and discovers a long passageway with a total of 6 niches in the left and right walls, and multiple passageways branching off left right and center. Minion Samson finds a secret door in one of the niches. Sending Minion Bubo ahead to scout, there is a short flight of ascending stairs, past which the party discovers multiple decomposing bodies. Moving towards the bodies, the party discovers two magic mouth spells, which foretell doom to all who enter. Xyzzifax laughs at this pathetic and toothless spell, vowing to steal every item of value within, after all, tomb raiding is his profession.
Moving forward to the gruesome scene, The bodies appear to be what is left of an adventuring party. From a distance, and from an inspection from minion Bubo, the 5 bodies appear to consist of:
- A human fighter with a broken sword
- A human wizard impaled by a sword
- A Dwarf fighter, facedown, still clutching his weapon,
- A Human warrior/guard with a broken shield, though with no armor and no weapon
- Another Human fighter whose head is bashed in.
Dried blood is everywhere.
Xyzzifax opens his mind, activating his magic sense, but detects no sources of magic nearby. He then casts mage hand to retrieve the sack near the dwarf, but it is empty.
With multiple long hallways branching off in every direction, Xyzzifax sends forth the ever useful minion Bubo, who flies every passageway not blocked by a door, giving the party an idea of their options to begin the great looting operation. After discovering almost a dozen doors, the party surveys their options, and selects a door.
There are a lot of loooong passages in this dungeon and having Bubo the flying recon drone meant I drew out a bunch of it at once. ToV removing the 100' limit for familiar comms is rough.
As the party lines up, the door is checked for traps, and judging it to be clear, the door is opened, revealing for fur-clad, greataxe-wielding barbarians!
A brief, but bloody fight ensues, with minion Braedon displaying his prowess with twin blades, minion Jaric demonstrating the power of his magical staff, and minion Samson and the mighty Xyzzifax displaying their intelligence by not being in melee with barbarians.
The party emerges victorious with some minor injuries, which are quickly healed by a ritual from minion Jaric.
The party presses on, with one passage ending in a spiral, appearing to simple be an unfinished portion of the dungeon. The next passage ends in what seems to be an overgrown garden, populated by some sort of disgusting fungus zombies! A fight ensues, with many of the zombies being incinerated by a flaming sphere from Xyzzifax, cut down by minion Braedon, struck down by minion Jaric, or struck by a well placed crossbow bolt from minion Samson. Two of the fungus zombies shoot some sort of disgusting discharge at minions Jaric and Braedon, with the two sustaining major injuries by the time the fight is concluded, with all of the fungus creatures lying slain. Minion Braedon recalls that this appears to be a strain of Apocalyptic fungus, which takes over the minds of living creatures, transforming them into mindless, shambling drones. The party decides that this garden is not worth exploring further due to the presence of the fungus, and moves on to the last door in the Southwestern section. The door opens, revealing a room that appears to have once been a small meeting hall, with shattered benches, and a raised stone block stage.
Having expending much of their power in the previous combat, the party elects to retreat from the dungeon, with Xyzzifax deploying minion Bubo to scout the way back out of the dungeon. Bubo spies a small pack of kobolds converging on the party’s location. The group lays in wait behind a door as the kobolds approach, monitored by minion Bubo, the party ambushes them, and easily overpowers the group of weak diminutive creatures, and withdraws from the dungeon to set up camp for the night.
Even reduced to a more typical party size the group is blowing through encounters without much trouble. This is also where the real utility of the Mechanist begins to show as he can detect magic, spot traps, and just handle all kinds of mundane challenges far easier than most characters. He can also fight halfway decently.
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