5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 12 - Paulo Must Die!

The party once again descend into the belly of the mountain. Their chatter is pulled up short by the discovery of severed orc heads sat in front of each statue in the entrance chamber. These heads show signs of combat, and are a couple of days old based on the smell. The party decide this is the handy work of the dwarves they met in their last foray.

Their own map once again comes in handy as they decide to avoid the central corridors and work their way back to the caves via the norther

n rooms, partially to avoid the orcs. They reach the area with the entrance to the caves without incident and a quick check of the map reveals a door they’ve not tried. Bittersalt in her usual style throws open the door, revealing a crumbling library room which has mostly been cleared out. However a quick a search reveals three interesting items, a handwritten copy of Ancient & Worthy Arts Of War, a set of rules for a precursor to Dragonchess and an arcane scroll of dispel magic. The group remember that the ghosts were playing some sort of chess-like game, and decide to return to them later. The fighters, who could all benefit from reading the manual set it aside for later use.

They approach the caves very cautiously, but find the first chambers empty. Returning to the lair of the giant crab spiders, they attempt to burn them out again by torching the massive of webs that cover the area. Nothing emerges, but the sound of bones and a few coins falling to the floor as the bundles of the dead unravel.

The chamber called by the kobold ‘the moon pool’ lies ahead, and this intriguing and unusual chamber does indeed contain a pool of the purest water the characters have ever seen. The party spot a hole in the roof of the cave, some 50 feet above them, from which sunlight comes in. While the party are interested, their nerves are a little on edge so they decide to return to the cave when they feel the region is safer so they press on, straight into an ambush.

Paulo is the only one in the party spot the kobolds and spiders hiding within the next cave. With a warning shout he hurls a sling stone at a spider that’s sprung out from the deep recesses of  stone but in his panic misses. A swarm of kobolds surround the party, while a couple of giant spiders crawl across the walls to them. This time however the party are ready, armoured in superior protection and better trained they quickly dispatch the kobolds and spiders with fairly minimal injuries. Flandar the warlock wished to try out the dagger he’d taken from the fight with the shadow demon, but finds the blade didn’t appear to do anything special and it almost seemed disappointed in how it was used.

Statues of dwarves fill the next beautiful cave. It’s like a cemetery, except the dwarves are all young and appear unhurt. Brother Spenzar realises that the dwarves are aligned in a grid, and that 30 to 50 dwarves are missing. This room proves to be extremely puzzling for the party, who question Errol about his childhood. Errol of course is foundling, left at an orphanage and knows nothing of his dwarven heritage. There is a distinct feeling of unease, especially since Errol has start casting arcane spells; something no dwarf has ever done before. Bittersalt and the others suspect that these dwarves are somehow connected to the kobolds that infest Dwimmermount.

With no real conclusions, they push on. From up a steep slope the voice of a dwarf came, ‘who goes there?’. The dwarf beyond, who called himself Gundrun is a little unhinged. He talked about his children. He asked Errol if he had a child, and that if he did he didn’t need to worry as Gundrun with the queen’s help could fix them. With growing fear, the party knew that whoever this Gundrun was, he was responsible in someway for the kobolds. They drew their weapons and attacked.

The dwarf was surrounded by kobolds, but with more room to maneuver Errol’s fire magic immediately started to remove foes from the field of battle. Calphis and Paulo stayed at the back while everyone else moved in. Then from the dark corridor beyond a hideous voice called out ’Gundrun! Why are you disturbing my work?! Gundrun you little worm! What are you doing?’ and with that, reality split in front of them and a vast, fat spider with too many glowing eyes crawled out of the tear. Before the party was the Spawn of Arach-Nache and queen to the kobolds of Dwimmermount.

The party immediately throw everything they have at the creature, who bites Errol with it’s poisonous beak-mouth. His dwarven resilience protects him from the worst of the damage though and the returning attacks and spells do 61 points of damage in a single round of combat. 3rd level characters can start to put the pain on big monsters.

The spider reappears and bites Paulo

The queen slips back into the ethereal realm, but not before summoning four giant spiders in her place. The party are in combat in numerous spots in the cavern, with Calphis casting a sleep spell that targets the spiders, Zoilus engaging the dwarven fighter and Bittersalt and Errol switching between the two.

The queen returns and attacks Bittersalt, whose new found parrying skills win the day. Zoilus throws himself on the back of the beast in a frothing rage. Again they party score vicious wounds against the demonic spider, with waves of magic missiles from Calphis’ wand hurting it. Again it phases out of reality. Most of the kobolds are asleep or dead, with Flandar dispatching anything still breathing and Calphis trusting his armour and getting in close, leaving Paulo to hurl sling shots from the back. It’s then that spider thing appears, and sinks it’s horrible fangs into the lad, pumping venom into his small frame. Paulo is dying and trapped behind the enormous bulk for the spider. Immediately everyone swings round and attacks the spawn, and thankfully do enough combined damage to cause it to be sucked back into the abyss. Brother Spenzar leaps to the boys aid, and keeps him from death’s door. It was very, very close.

The Spawn Of Arach-Tache is dragged back to the Abyss

We left it there. We’ve got a new space to play in, which is well away from the 40k’ers who were having a loud interclub (HATE vs Titans vs Overlords) drinking/gaming match. I’m pleased to say HATE came last on points and 1st on booze consumed, as always. Anyway the space is really very cool, if on that particular night a little smelly and can fit four RPG groups. We’re expecting there to be 2-3 regular groups now, so this is very welcome. Everyone in our group are definitely becoming friends, and this leads to a lot of chat before and during the game. While a part of me wants to focus the group on the adventure because there is so much ‘cool shit’ ahead, roleplaying really is a social thing and I’ve really fallen on my feet with my players.

Our new RPG space, the 'cavern bar' at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club

That all said and done, I’m very much looking forward to the next session, and the revelations it may bring.      

5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 11 - Don’t eat the stuffing

The battle for the baby starts

Bittersalt got a 23 for her initiative and went first. Despite her usual uncaring bravado and swagger, her instinct is to save the infant, and rushes forward to snatch the baby away from the goat-man. Surprisingly weak, she easily snatches the baby and tries to tumble away but has overreached and only just gets past the blacked skinned being. This thing spins around and claws at her head. It’s fingers pass through her as if insubstantial, dragging fleeting filaments of sanity out of her mind, doing psychic damage. She then managed to get the baby into the arms of Paulo.

Errol bounds out of the forest, as most of the naked congregation start screaming and running. He smashes his hammer into the goat-man, and quick as a flash a transformation occurs. Standing before them is tall smokey shadow, all horns and gloating teeth, Brother Spenzar pales, and whispers “Shadow demon”.

Brother Spenzar measures Heresy 

The leaders of the congregation draw weapons, the haughty woman bares a pair of shortsword and the cynical man has a scimitar and dagger in his hands before they know it. The burly thug had hidden a mace, while the other guard who had scouted ahead took off a huge longbow. Finally one of the followers, who remained at the edge of the group starts chanting. This cultist fanatic started chanting in a miserable droning tone, and cast a spell of holding on the elf. She however was of strong mind and resisted it.

Zoilus moved in, trying to keep his allies and the child safe by avoiding his infamous rages. A barbarian such is still a deathdealer when calm though. Calphis the warrior mage shot bolt after bolt of magical force into the demon from the wand he’d found in Dwimmermount, while the warlock pounded free standing targets with his eldritch blasts.

A mixture of vicious close combat and magical blasts fills the battlefield. Errol surprises everyone by launching a scorching cone of fire from his hands, worrying Calphis that the demon has somehow possessed him. Flandar summons the freezing void of the stars about him and encases himself in the Armour Of Hadar, to which the cultist has no response and is blasted in the face by the gnome. Brother Spenzar brings the pure light of Typhon upon the demon which reels from its lawful glare. The demon fails to strike again, and even with it’s abyssal essence resisting nonmagical attacks, it is brought down. Errol’s last glimpse of it is of it’s 6 fingered claws desperately clinging to reality as it is sucked back in the abyss.


However the remaining human fighters are clearly veterans and right with relentless accuracy. Even the goats are not safe, as a firebolt goes wide and cooks one off. The battle though is eventually won by the party, and all the cultists are put to the sword. Paulo, scare and hiding in the woods, has kept the infant safe so they return to Adamas and rest before meeting with Saidon in the morning. Bittersalt takes care of baby, asking for some milk in the Inn she is staying in. The racism that elves face rears it’s ugly head as the watch bang on her door demanding the ‘stolen baby’ be handed over. It takes invoking the name of Saidon the High Archivist to fend them off.

The next day the party pay another visit to the archivist. When they explain that the cult was some kind of front for a shadow demon the high priest is visibly shaken and shows far more concern than he previously exhibited. He said he wanted the party back in Dwimmermount and acting as his eyes as soon as possible. Taking them into his secret arming room behind his main chamber he gave them a single scroll of protection against demons and each a potion of healing. He also provided them all with horses to speed their journey back to Muntburg and Dwimmermount. On his own side he said that he’d heard nothing from Typhon’s Fists, the adventuring party he’d sent to Dwimmermount when he’d heard rumours of the fall of the shield around the dungeon.

The party left Adamas immediately, stopping in Muntburg to drop of the baby, who they’d named Olivar, with Paulo’s mother who they felt would be best placed to look after him. The blacksmith had finished the sets of splint mail armour he’d been making for Errol and Bittersalt, who were both impressed with his handy work. Then party left again for the vast stair before the gates of Dwimmermount, with the aim of destroying the spider queen of the kobolds.

We left it there. The combat session was fun, with the players being 3rd level they have more options now and it was a good gauge for me to judge what they can and can’t face. It was by far the most complex we’ve had, and certainly the shape of things to come as the dungeon wakes up and things more foul and magical start to make their plays within its depth.
 

Before initiative rolls

Late battle

The Shadow Demon appears!

5e D&D Dwimmermount session 9 & 10 - Roll For Initiative

Travelling with everything today. 

Due to work, holidays and numerous minor things we’ve played less D&D, and I’ve had less time to write session reports, so I’m combining the last two into a single synopsis rather than do detailed write-ups. It’s going to be missing things, and I hope my players will add comments to rectify this as well as let me know about any mistakes I make. It looks like we’re going to be back on schedule for playing and writing from this evenings session onwards.

The party decided it was time to visit Adamas itself, the nearest city to Dwimmermount and regional power base. The party were a bruised and sick from their disastrous encounter with the horrible crabspiders. They also knew they might find out more information about Dwimmermount by venturing further afield and they wanted to train.

The 4 day trek to Adamas was unevent, with the party staying each night at the barricaded inns that punctuate the road south west. The people of the region are hardy, taciturn and traveling with an elf will always makes folk suspicious, even after hundreds of years since the final defeat of the Eld. 

Adamas is a great walled city, with a vast population of 50,000 souls. It is almost solely human, but some dwarves and even a few elves do reside there. The despot of Adamas, Mahe Cheron, rules with a crushing fist and brooks little dissent, but the people seem generally to be willing to give up certain freedoms in return for safety against the beastmen and aberrations of the wild, or thieves and lawlessness at home.     

Physically the city is impressive, with clean, cobbled streets, sturdy two story houses and regional squares that serve as marketplaces. Guardsmen, dressed in the black and white livery of the despot and well armed patrol regularly in most quarters. 

The party secured lodgings of varying opulence and then went to find the high priest of Typhon. Saidon The Archivist was not what they were expecting at all, a thin rather frail older man whose collection of spoons were his pride and joy. However they caught a glimpse of the steel that made and has kept him a senior member of the church of Typhon. He warned that Dwimmermount was many things, but one of it’s functions was that of a dungeon, and that it was a jail for things from the black beyond. The words of the kobold and it’s talk of it’s queen suggested that indeed demons once again stalked it’s halls. 

Saidon agreed to provide the party with help and indeed cure the haunting soul drain that the wight had put on Bittersalt, but in return he asked a favour. He received reports from his inquisitors that a nature cult had started to take root within the city and that it preached a twisted litany against the stringent laws of the gods as well as beseeching its followers to take off into the forests and wild places of the world. Since the party were outsiders, they might be able to infiltrate the group, witness their heresy and bring justice to them. This the party agreed to do, and were told that the group meets at a marketplace in the roughest part of town.

Everyone in the party had enough experience to go to 3rd level, so they went about finding individuals in the city, and just outside, to train with. Everyone except Calphis decided to keep training in their original class. Calphis spent time with a fighter of renown and gain a fighter level. Errol has done the impossible and become an Eldritch Fighter, although he is tight lipped about how this came about. Several of the party also decided to train for their next level, meaning that they can get to 4th after a long rest rather than returning to civilisation to train for a week. 

The adventurers then went to see what was going on with this cult, who called themselves the Brotherhood Of The Pine. Some of the less confrontation members went to the first meeting, really just to scout out what was going on. A group of hooded people gathered around the oak tree that was at the centre of the square and spoke to cityfolk about how they’d be freer, safer and happier if they followed the path of nature. That the cities stifled humanity and that was from the woods that people had come. They blamed the gods and despotic rulers, who saw it was easier to command when people were cooped up together for the ill health and poverty that plague most people. Afterwards so of the party spoke to the group, who invited them to join them in a more intimate meeting the next evening.

Much of the party went along the next evening, with Brother Spenzar having to restrain himself repeatedly. They were blindfolded and led through a maze of streets to an expensive townhouse where a sumptuous dinner was served by unearthly beautiful twins. After further conversations with the attendees and the cult leaders, these women then danced and increasingly erotic dance.

The person who seemed to be the leader of the group, and who remained heavily hooded the whole time suggest the party might like to join them in a ritual that would show them the power of the nature. This ritual was to take place in the forest to the south of the city on the night of the full moon in 3 days. 

The party then arrange for the remaining members to head towards the forest first, find a place they can watch and tail the group, with the rest of them travel with the cult and their followers. This plan appears to work, as the main party head into the forest with the 10 or so cultists. 

The ritual, called the Dream Of The Moon Goats starts in a similar fashion to the evening event previous, with the same twins appearing and dancing, but this time the music and mood grows wilder. The leaders throw off their hoods, and reveal headpieces that have goat horns on them, while the main leader disrobes completely, and clearly isn’t human for he really does have horns, black skin and cloven hooves. The dancers start to engage in ritual, lusty sex with the leaders and some of the followers, and two goats, one male, one female, are brought out and joined into the orgy. Brother Spenzar is only barely controlling his fury at this point, and as the music and cultists start to reach a crescendo the horned man appears again clutching a newborn baby and a wavy, serrated dagger. 

“Roll for initiative.”