"According to Mighty and Illustrious Xyzzifax"
Our Heroes:
- The Mighty Xyzzifax played by Alex
- Minion Samson played by William
- Minion Jaric played by Dave
- Minion Lantor played by Brandon
- Minion Sir Kentor (Human Paladin) played by Paladin Steve
The party is level 5-6 at this point. The Bard was out for this session. We begin on Day 72 of the campaign.
As the party attempts to return to the second level of the dungeon, they are once again met with reinforcements in the triangle room where they had previously fought against bugbears, ogres, and a giant, and on a separate occasion trolls. This time, the room has been reinforced by 4 ogres, which pose very little threat to Xyzzifax and his minions, and are quickly dispatched.
Continuing their slow march through the Temple, the party proceeds down one of the few remaining hallways on this level they have yet to clear. Discovering a locked door, minion Samson moves forward to pick the lock.
Inside the group sees what appears to be a small jail, inside are an ogre and bugbear in the midst of a meal. Minion Lantor rushes forward, unleashing a whirlwind of death with his magical greatsword, felling the ogre in a single turn. With his much more imposing counterpart slain in seconds, the bugbear throws down his beer mug and surrenders.
The group moves into the room, and Xyzzifax instructs his four minion skeletons to hold the bugbear at spear point.
While interrogating the bugbear, the group learns that the bugbears take orders from Hedrack, an Ettin in the big temple down two levels below. They also learn that there is a powerful Wizard on the level below.
This is a hilarious garbling of what was said but I let it go ... Hedrack is definitely not an ettin ...
Once the information is extracted Xyzzifax tells the bugbear he is free… to die, and the skeletons stab him to death mercilessly. Xyzzifax laments that malice is once again incapacitated due to dubious chili from the paladin, as she would have loved to torture this ugly evil creature.
The jail contains 4 prison cells, 2 of which are unoccupied.
In the first are 4 elves, including a Countess of Celine and her consort.
They were captured on the road, offer to send help once they return home in exchange for help getting out of the dungeon.
The second cell contains 3 male humans, two shell shocked merchants, and one battered but defiant mercenary hired to guard them.
The mercenary is named Khan.
The other two are JD and Two-Bit, merchants from Verbobonc.
Much like the elves, they were also captured on the road, with Khan lamenting that there were too many spellcasters, and that it wasn’t a fair fight.
The party agrees to pull out of the temple, and escort the former prisoners back to Hommlet. They encounter no resistance on their journey.
Upon returning to the town, Xyzzifax disburses some gold to buy some fresh clothes for the former prisoners, and plans to send each group home using the mirror of mental prowess.
Xyzzifax sends the elves through the mirror to the tower of the moon, and the merchants to Verbobonc the next day. He then offers employment to Khan, and leaves him in the Inn with some money to drink, contemplate, and consider his options for a few days. Next he purchases more robes and bows for his skeletons,
Kentor commissions dresses for his betrothed from silk found in the temple.
After inquiring about Azin, the inkeeper informs the group that he flew into town a few days prior, and having missed him, the party elects to return to the temple via the mirror the next day.
As they return to the temple, they are met with several ochre jellies slorping around the great hall. The party easily disposes of the smelly creatures, but elects to return to the tower due to the horrific smell.
DM Notes
Lots of fun here with prisoners. who they are, where they are from, what is the temple doing to capture these people and do we need to go do something about it, and then of course "what do we do with them?" This was a chance for the party to branch out a bit and handle a different kind of situation - no combat, no haggling or deal-making as these people have nothing of value on them, and with no actual alignment in this version of the rules, it was completely up to them as to how to handle it and they easily agreed on the course of action. This recruiting of more capable prisoners would become a thing and add a lot of fun to the game down the road.
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