The group have been effortlessly dealing with missing attendees by blaming the memory loss on the effects of the spider venom, so Calphis’ player returned and roleplayed it out. I see this autonomy a real strength, and since I think my players now ‘get’ the thematic style of Dwimmermount I’m delighted when the do it.
The first order of the day was to go and revisit the game playing apparitions, since Calphis had spent some time reading the High Thulian book on the Dragonchess precursor game, popular 200 years before. After consulting their own maps, they correctly figured out the route and quickly made their way to the chamber. Calphis tentatively moved the chess pieces to their correct pieces, satisfy whatever ancient rules argument the apparitions had. They gently faded into nothing. With them gone, the whole party sensed a warm and appreciative glow enter their form and felt the blessing of the Asana, goddess of strategy, heroism and science.
Looking at their map they realised the set of double doors at the south end of the main corridor section hadn’t been explored. These doors were made from red areonite metal and were very impressive. Opening the doors they found a sacked barracks, with weapons racks and armour stands, cots and smashed tables littering the large round room. Movement caught Paulo’s eye and out scuttled massive centipedes. Then warm red glows appeared from giant fire beetles that also pushed themselves out from behind the mouldering woodwork. Erroll summoned fire with his burning hands spell and took out a couple of centipedes. The rest of the party rushed in and quickly put pay the giant insects, with very little injury, despite one of the beetle belching biofire. The room was search, and all that was found were air vents that must have enabled these critters to travel into and out of their lair.
The absence of the Orcs that had been so prevalent in the south made the party pause and decide to check the room the beastmen had made their station. They had spotted a door that they’d not looked into, and upon approach noted it was in remarkably good condition with the oak seemingly recently oiled. Without any sign of traps they entered to find an immaculately clean and tidy officers quarters. A solid pine desk with a leather writing cover also held parchment, strange wooden quills and fresh ink. Brother Spenzar used some charcoal to take a rubbing from the parchments and discovered a set of orders in High Thulian, ordering the deployment of Hobgoblins to disrupt the flanks of the rebels. Bittersalt takes the pristine blank found on the bed and the room is given a thorough search but reveals nothing further. It’s only when they leave the room that Calphis realises that his Light spell hadn’t diminished the whole time they’ve been in the room. They attribute the immaculate condition of the room to some sort of timelessness, but why it hasn’t been ransacked by orcs or other inhabitants can’t be explained.
Bittersalt suggest that the party go and collect some Azoth from the bubble room. She’s been carrying some clay pots and thought that if the bubbles were safely burst, Azoth might be collected in them. This plan works well, and the party have a clay pot full of the magical silver-black metal liquid. They investigate the doors off the bubble room, finding a latrine room, a dining room and a kitchen. Paulo spots a secret door in the kitchen, and the party push the wall section that must be on some sort of rollers along to the side. This reveals a blank chamber, except for another door and vicious red demon, with daggers for claws and spikes crowning it’s head and shoulders. It immediately launches itself at them, but the quick thinking wizard launches magic missiles into it, causing it to disappear immediately with none of the dragging back to the abyss sorcery they’d seen in their previous two encounters with demons. Warily they push into the room itself and open the second door, revealing a chamber with a single table in it on which lies hundreds of silver coins, several rock-gems and a strange triangular metal rod. Calphis recognises the ruins as been symbols of transmutation, and suspects this may be a magical rod of some kind.
Once they’re done the party decide to try their luck with the main corridor eastern doors. These are even more unusual. Made from a white material, with an almost pearl-like finish, it didnt sound like metal when struck and had a perfect door seem. On the side of the door was a square of metal with three pieces of the white material, two triangles above and below a circular section. The party tried to force the doors open using their combined strength to no avail. They also tried pushing the circle and triangles, but nothing worked. The triangular rod was pushed against the triangles with no result. Frustrated the party moved on to the next set of double doors in the far north of the dungeon. Behind these they found another barracks much like the room in the south but without the giant insects.
Finally they explored beyond the last door they had on their map. They found the room beyond had more apparitions in it, this time with Thulian soldiers, wearing solid leather armour, standing over human remains. The soldiers seemed to be taking orders to go and reinforce some part of the dungeon. Brother Spenzar decides to sprinkle holy water over the remains and give them the last rites on the bones, successfully releasing the apparitions and giving the party the blessing of Mavors, lord of the first level of the dungeon.
This guardroom also contained another door, which the party took. The chamber beyond was a large L shaped room with ten Eldritch Dead, These azoth encased skeletal warriors immediately formed up ranks as the party attacked. Once again magic was hurled in the party’s opening salvo. Zoilus entered a furious rage, while Flandar activated his dread Armour Of Hadar made powerful by his consumption of the waters of the moon pool. The backlash against the skeleton that attacked him disintegrated it on the spot. Brother Spenzar manages to turn three of them, despite their resistance to clerical powers. But their newfound prowess meant that this time the party dispatched skeletons very quickly.
However the warriors who had advanced into the further reaches of the room became overcome with false memories that flood their heads. A battle between Thulian warriors and hordes of beastmen led by red skinned elves, fighting within the dungeon against chaotics creatures, Guardsmen torturing wizards, a noble bearded man be led towards a headsman, other magicians leading warriors into battle against a ragtag army.
As these memories dim, the party realise that this final room contains another stairwell down, going further into the depths of the mountain.
It was here we left the session. The party had done a huge amount of exploration this session, and have now been everywhere on the first level. So, the question is what next. They have a number of magical items they have yet to identify. They’ve got a set of gems and some treasure to dispose of. And of course two different stairs going down.
The session was great, with lots of opportunity to embellish the text and reveal further history. I had driven down, which gave me the opportunity to take my 3d dungeon floor parts, and leave a box of RPG stuff at the club. This should reduce my load when I’m travelling from work, which is a very good thing. A box of miniatures, dice, a PHB, the dungeon itself, cardstock floor plans and pens weight a far amount, usually more than a 1500 pt Warhammer 40K army and rule books. As usual, I’m left really looking forward to the next session. I had half expected I’d want to take from DMing or 5e at this point, but that’s not materialised at all, and I wish we could play more often. We’ve talked about playing for a day one weekend, and I love the idea. However I’ve got a lot of painting to do now that the 1st level is done. I have to admit to a certain amount of pride in having every single model for a 68 room dungeon level painted, and many of them to a pretty decent standard.
The first order of the day was to go and revisit the game playing apparitions, since Calphis had spent some time reading the High Thulian book on the Dragonchess precursor game, popular 200 years before. After consulting their own maps, they correctly figured out the route and quickly made their way to the chamber. Calphis tentatively moved the chess pieces to their correct pieces, satisfy whatever ancient rules argument the apparitions had. They gently faded into nothing. With them gone, the whole party sensed a warm and appreciative glow enter their form and felt the blessing of the Asana, goddess of strategy, heroism and science.
Looking at their map they realised the set of double doors at the south end of the main corridor section hadn’t been explored. These doors were made from red areonite metal and were very impressive. Opening the doors they found a sacked barracks, with weapons racks and armour stands, cots and smashed tables littering the large round room. Movement caught Paulo’s eye and out scuttled massive centipedes. Then warm red glows appeared from giant fire beetles that also pushed themselves out from behind the mouldering woodwork. Erroll summoned fire with his burning hands spell and took out a couple of centipedes. The rest of the party rushed in and quickly put pay the giant insects, with very little injury, despite one of the beetle belching biofire. The room was search, and all that was found were air vents that must have enabled these critters to travel into and out of their lair.
The absence of the Orcs that had been so prevalent in the south made the party pause and decide to check the room the beastmen had made their station. They had spotted a door that they’d not looked into, and upon approach noted it was in remarkably good condition with the oak seemingly recently oiled. Without any sign of traps they entered to find an immaculately clean and tidy officers quarters. A solid pine desk with a leather writing cover also held parchment, strange wooden quills and fresh ink. Brother Spenzar used some charcoal to take a rubbing from the parchments and discovered a set of orders in High Thulian, ordering the deployment of Hobgoblins to disrupt the flanks of the rebels. Bittersalt takes the pristine blank found on the bed and the room is given a thorough search but reveals nothing further. It’s only when they leave the room that Calphis realises that his Light spell hadn’t diminished the whole time they’ve been in the room. They attribute the immaculate condition of the room to some sort of timelessness, but why it hasn’t been ransacked by orcs or other inhabitants can’t be explained.
Once they’re done the party decide to try their luck with the main corridor eastern doors. These are even more unusual. Made from a white material, with an almost pearl-like finish, it didnt sound like metal when struck and had a perfect door seem. On the side of the door was a square of metal with three pieces of the white material, two triangles above and below a circular section. The party tried to force the doors open using their combined strength to no avail. They also tried pushing the circle and triangles, but nothing worked. The triangular rod was pushed against the triangles with no result. Frustrated the party moved on to the next set of double doors in the far north of the dungeon. Behind these they found another barracks much like the room in the south but without the giant insects.
Finally they explored beyond the last door they had on their map. They found the room beyond had more apparitions in it, this time with Thulian soldiers, wearing solid leather armour, standing over human remains. The soldiers seemed to be taking orders to go and reinforce some part of the dungeon. Brother Spenzar decides to sprinkle holy water over the remains and give them the last rites on the bones, successfully releasing the apparitions and giving the party the blessing of Mavors, lord of the first level of the dungeon.
 |
| The Eldritch Dead |
However the warriors who had advanced into the further reaches of the room became overcome with false memories that flood their heads. A battle between Thulian warriors and hordes of beastmen led by red skinned elves, fighting within the dungeon against chaotics creatures, Guardsmen torturing wizards, a noble bearded man be led towards a headsman, other magicians leading warriors into battle against a ragtag army.
As these memories dim, the party realise that this final room contains another stairwell down, going further into the depths of the mountain.
It was here we left the session. The party had done a huge amount of exploration this session, and have now been everywhere on the first level. So, the question is what next. They have a number of magical items they have yet to identify. They’ve got a set of gems and some treasure to dispose of. And of course two different stairs going down.
The session was great, with lots of opportunity to embellish the text and reveal further history. I had driven down, which gave me the opportunity to take my 3d dungeon floor parts, and leave a box of RPG stuff at the club. This should reduce my load when I’m travelling from work, which is a very good thing. A box of miniatures, dice, a PHB, the dungeon itself, cardstock floor plans and pens weight a far amount, usually more than a 1500 pt Warhammer 40K army and rule books. As usual, I’m left really looking forward to the next session. I had half expected I’d want to take from DMing or 5e at this point, but that’s not materialised at all, and I wish we could play more often. We’ve talked about playing for a day one weekend, and I love the idea. However I’ve got a lot of painting to do now that the 1st level is done. I have to admit to a certain amount of pride in having every single model for a 68 room dungeon level painted, and many of them to a pretty decent standard.
