5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 7 - I hate you but respect you! I shat the sun!

The party map so far

Our intrepid Dwimmerdelvers return once again to the Path Of Mavors after a short rest. Looking at their map, they decided they’d return to the region populated by Orcs, so heading into the southern dungeon area they came across a room filled with strange tube, pipes, odd miniature metal cartwheels painted red and blue, basins and floor grates. Some of the tubes were made from a kind of perfectly clear glass, free of bubbles and blemishes. Since nothing looked removable, and some of the party were wary of witchery they didn’t understand they decided to leave the room. However Flandar, the gnomish warlock, saw a shadow move further down the corridor. Calphis cast a light spell upon a piton and Zoilus hurled it down the corridor to illuminate the area but it revealed nothing. Brother Spenzar used his divine thaumaturgy to shout out a command in Ancient Thulian to show themselves, and indeed this did attract four Orcs from the side corridor. A brief battled ensued, but Zoilus donned his Thulian Warmask and in his most intimidating manner demanded the Orcs cease their attack. This worked, and the Orcs skulked back down the side passage. After a few moments a lone, huge Orc came forth to parley with the party. I’m hoping that other party members will write up a separate account of what took place this session, but the Orc sub-boss approached with ‘I hate you but respect you’, the beastman greeting given to someone they don’t intended to immediately eat. Later the Orc asks if the great burning ball is still in the sky, to which Zoilus replies ‘I shat the sun’, pretty much confusing and amusing everyone at the table. There was a wrestling bout, won eventually by Zoilus using rules made up on the fly - they could use a little work.

"I hate you but respect you!"

Orc Wrestling

After agreeing to sell to the Orcs ten horses, one each for the remaining Orcs on this level and telling the sub-boss not to tell the boss or his lightning bolt shooting wizard the party remove themselves from the area, to explore the remaining central hallway.  

The first chamber they found contained strange floating silvery black bubbles. A small pool of bubbling black liquid resided in the one corning of the room which appeared to be welling up from a fissure in the floor. Bittersalt released an arrow one of the bubbles which exploded with a blastwave, setting off the other bubbles and creating a powerful shock wave that injured the entire party. Cursing this magical liquid, the party ignored the doors within the room and took the opposite door in the main hall.

The room beyond, a workshop of sorts, contained an ancient device of iron, with disks of brass and a front mesh. The party are once again reluctant to investigate this mystery and instead plunge further into the halls. A door is opened revealing gleaming eyes in the dark as a gang of misshapen and misbegotten creatures spill out. These humanoid things are pale, with patchy beards and little in the way of clothes but clutching rude weapons and tools. They hoot and howl in attack, focusing solely on Errol the dwarf. In their frenzy to kill him, their pack tactics fails them and the don’t strike a single wounding blow against him. Zoilus leaps over the pack to better evade their swarming, while arrows, crossbow bolts and spells of sleep, ruinous poison and death spill forth from the rest of the party.

Errol’s cries out “death to Kobolds” and wades in, hewing left and right. Already the party’s ferocity takes its toll on these Kobolds, and many are falling, turning to powder as they do. The parties mettle is established, and with only the dwarf taking wounds the party dispatch all but one of these creatures, who is kept for interrogation. Bittersalt implies a link between Errol’s dwarven heritage and this Kobolds, to which Errols restates that he was adopted, and only has as book of Dwarven history, an heirloom, to rely on. More on this to come I suspect.  

When Kobolds Attack

Kobold Swam

We ended the session here. The encounter with the Orcs was brilliant and everyone left feeling like we’d had another good session. I’m going to tighten up starting times as we’re getting later and later, which is limiting the rate at which we get through things. With so much interesting stuff to come, I don’t want to feel like we’re getting bogged down here. The party will get enough experience in all likelihood to get to 3rd level next session, which will no doubt means a return to civilisation and perhaps a journey to the city of Adamas! Once again I feel very lucky to have such a diverse group of players who seem to all enjoy playing together, and none of whom are motivated by annoying the rest of the party or players. This is a type of player I’ve always struggled with, and have left otherwise perfectly good groups to avoid.