In which Old Dolf loses an eye and brave Tansybell defeats a demon in single combat.
Trigg Sunbold, Fighter 2
Gimwort of Greydelve, Dwarf 1
Sassaran, Elf 1
Eldred the Enchanter, Illusionist 1
Tansybell of Merry Meadow, Halfling 1
Old Dolf, Thief 2
THE LOG
 |
| Our route on this delve |
After a week of rest culminating in a grand party at their favorite inn, the Golden Unicorn, the party returns to the Haunted Halls in high spirits (with the exception of Eldred, who is depressed after being rejected). Tansybell marches alongside Trigg in the party’s front ranking, having vowed to “stand at the front of every battle” on this delve.
(I made a quick change to my rules for Vows: rather than gaining a bonus to rolls related to the fulfillment of the vow, I’m going to award her 2 x [level] x 100 XP for accomplishing it: in her case 200 XP).
As a reminder, I’m rolling on this wandering monster chart.
My procedure for the Haunted Halls’ many un-keyed rooms is to drop in a random room from the first level of B1: In Search of the Unknown, with a 50% chance each for a monster and treasure from that module.
TURNS 1–3 – A32: Cellar
The bronze doors at Area 8 are still open, effectively disarming the lightning trap there. The party is able to return to where they last left off on their previous delve without incident.
TURN 4 – A31: Many-Pillared Hall
This is a large and dramatic-looking room on the map, but has nothing in it – the only keyed parts of the entire room are the doors. That seems like an enormous waste of a setpiece area, so I dropped in the Room of Pools from B1:
“...the floor of this room is covered with ceramic tiles arranged in mosaic fashion. The majority of the thousands of tiles are golden brown in color, but patterns of white and black tiles appear in various places to enhance the effect of the very striking designs thus formed.
Arrayed throughout the room are fourteen different pools, each about ten feet in diameter... This mystical arrangement is doubly amazing, since all the contents of the pools are different…”
 |
| A surprising number of those pools don't really do anything |
TURNS 5–7 – A31
The party explores the room, examining the strange pools by lantern-light.
Pool of Healing: Gimwort samples the sweet-smelling liquid and finds it invigorating. The party is reasonably sure they know what this is.
Acid Pool: the dwarf recognizes the smell of strong acid. He suggests using Dolf’s stick to fish the key out from the bottom of the pool, but the old man refuses.
Pool of Sickness: Gimwort detects the faint odor of mushroom porridge. He helps himself to a spoonful and pronounces it “fair but unremarkable”. He will be sick with stomach cramps within the hour.
Green Slime Pool: left alone
Drinking Pool: after careful examination, Tansybell takes a drink. The party refills their waterskins.
Pool of Wine: Old Dolf greedily sucks up a cupful of strong wine, fails his saving throw, and goes back for more. He swiftly becomes roaring drunk. The others leave him to it while they explore the rest of the room.
Dry Pool: huh, weird.
Hot Pool: the party looks at it curiously before moving on.
Aura Pool: Eldred takes a drink and is soon surrounded by a shimmering blue aura. This does not seem to cause any ill effects.
Pool of Sleep: fearing poison, the party avoids this murky green pool and learns nothing of its effects.
Fish Pool: the party spends some time commenting on the fish.
[Dry] Ice Pool: they’re unable to make anything of it.
Treasure Pool: Tansy discovers the illusion when she tries to recover the treasure. Eldred remarks on the skill of the enchanter that must have set it.
Pool of Muting: dismissed.
By this time Dolf is cackling with inebriation and Gimwork has 4 more turns before his stomach cramps set in. They decide to check out the West annex next.
TURN 8 – A31b: Worship Area (corresponds to A28 from In Search of the Unknown). “On the back wall of the room, opposite the door, is a rock carving of a great idol which is actually sculpted from the wall itself. The image (of a horned head with an evil visage) appears about 4' wide and 6' high, and is surrounded by religious symbols and runes.
The floor is smooth black slate. In the center of the room is a circular depression.... This sacrifice pit is open and mostly empty….”
Rolls indicate a treasure and a wandering monster – in this case a Minor Haunting of the 1st-level Illusionist spell Spook.
In front of the altar they find a bowl of chased gold. Dolf picks it up, crowing. Suddenly the statue roars and flames leap up from the sacrificial pit. Dolf screams and bolts, still clutching the bowl and pursued by a legion of imaginary imps. The rest of the party hasn’t seen anything, but they set off in hot pursuit.
TURN 9 – Hallway
Dolf has to make a save vs spells every turn to throw off the Spook spell. His odds of that are not good, even without the penalty for being drunk.
I drew up a little d6 table to determine which direction he’ll flee in: 1-2) back towards the entrance, 3) North, 4) East, 5) South, 6) West.
TURN 10 – Hallway
Dolf flees South. His screams wake a pair of giant vampire bats that are roosting on the ceiling. They descend upon the terrified Dolf.
TURN 11 – Combat
Dolf fails a save against the bat’s venom and passes out. Before the party can catch up the two bats tear into the unconscious thief. Reduced to 0 HP, Dolf has to make a save vs death. The old bastard is seemingly invincible however, and succeeds with a 20.
At first it seems as if Dolf will be killed anyway: Sassaran misses with her first arrow, while Eldred’s Color Spray has no effect on the bats, who use echolocation to find their prey. Trigg lands a crippling blow on the larger bat, but is soon unconscious and bleeding himself. Tansy and Gimwort are able to turn the tide, however, with the dwarf slaying one bat and Tansy stabbing the other as it tries to flee the battle.
In the aftermath of the fight Gimwort is suddenly seized by crippling stomach pains, the result of drinking from the Pool of Sickness an hour ago.
TURN 12 – Hallway
Trigg is revived. Sassaran casts Cure Light Wounds on Dolf: a roll on my Death & Dismemberment table reveals that Dolf has lost an eye to the bats. The associated -2 to ranged attacks is a serious blow to his combat ability, but the scarring has surprisingly little impact on his Charisma score. To a man as ugly as Old Dolf, the terrible wound hardly makes a difference to how he looks. The party decides to retreat.
TURN 13 – A31: Room of Pools
A random encounter roll indicates a Major Haunting, which in this case is the illusionist spell Phantasmal Force. Peering into the room, they find it red-lit by the flames of an enormous fire demon which now stalks the hall.
TURN 14 – Hallway
A whispered discussion ensues: should the party try to flee past the demon, or continue exploring east in the hopes of finding a passage that loops back around to the exit? They know of at least one unexplored cave that exits onto the surface, and it’s possible that there are secret passages they haven’t found yet, but either choice feels extremely risky. The party is split, with Trigg, Tansy, and Dolf voting for facing the fire demon (Dolf is still drunk and might be feeling invincible now that he’s faced fiery imps and swooping vampires). As party leader, Trigg’s vote breaks the tie. Tansy reminds the others of her oath and promises to distract the demon while Trigg leads the others to safety.
TURN 15 – A31: Room of Pools
An illusory monster created by a Phantasmal Force spell can’t inflict real damage, but it can knock a character out if they believe that they’ve been killed. An unconscious Tansybell will probably be killed by wandering monsters before anyone can stage a rescue mission, and the illusion fights as a Fire Elemental.
The illusion wins initiative but just barely misses its attack. Tansy rolls a 20 on her save vs spells and realizes that the “fire demon” produces no heat. She spends several rounds play-acting a desperate battle until the party is out of sight, then pops the illusion with her sword. The roaring demon vanishes like a soap bubble.
 |
| Like this but less cool |
TURN 16–17: Retreat
Tansybell catches up with the party, pretending to have just survived the fight of her life. She narrates her battle all the way home to Eveningstar. I made Wisdom rolls for the entire party to see if they’d be taken in, and everyone passed (including Old Dolf, who is still rolling with a severe penalty for being drunk): the party suspects that Tansy is lying, but they all silently agree to go along with it. She was genuinely willing to die for them after all, and they’re happy that she’s still alive.
THE TALLY
Enemies Slain
2 Giant Vampire Bats: 40 xp
Treasures Found
Gold Bowl: 30 xp
Oaths Fulfilled
Tansybell: “to stand at the front of every battle on our next delve” +200 xp
Total: 12 xp/character
The bonus experience from her oath is just enough to put Tansybell over the edge. Tansy levels up!
She rolls well on her level, gaining 5 HP and a point in both Strength and Constitution (going from 9 to 10 in both scores).
This was one of those sessions where it felt like the dice all conspired to produce the most dramatically satisfying result. The interaction between the random rolls, decisions made on previous delves, and the nascent imagined personalities for my little solo-game PCs was fun to see, all culminating in what felt like two perfect character moments: Dolf beating the odds in a way that still leaves him worse off and more annoying, and Tansy acting out The Hobbit meets the Balrog of Moria.
No comments:
Post a Comment