Dwimmermount Session 22 - Frost Giant Ate The Donkey

(It's been awhile since I posted - work meant I had little time to write up sessions, then holidays meant we didn't play, so the session diary is behind)

After defeating the evil mage Varazes and his minotaur bodyguard Bok last session, the party started searching the rest of the area. A hermetically sealed chamber nearby was too tempting for Calphis the mage who used a precious charge from Rod Of Opening to gain access to what lay beyond. The party were disappointed, as all that was behind the door were stasis chambers, two of which were occupied by a man and woman wearing unusual but non-descript clothes. A debate formed around trying to release them, with Bittersalt suggesting it was too dangerous to the inhabitants and Grigor feeling it was too dangerous to the party. Brother Spenzar, was overcome by knowledge-lust, started pressing buttons on the devices and quickly hit the right combination to drain and release the woman.

After a few moments of confusion, the woman named Arethusa, who appeared to be in her late thirties starting speaking in archaic High Thulian. The party were wary, they knew that she might be a Termaxian and so tried to ascertain when she had been frozen, which turned out to be about 300 years ago, around the time Turms Termax was coming into power. She claimed that she maintained the machines within the fortress-dungeon and that she was something called a technomage. Lots of questioning ensued, and eventually her assistant Colluthus was also released.

The pool of life, as she called the room Varazes had been hold up in, wasn’t initially intended to be used to create beastmen, and that in her time the device that did so wasn’t there but she had heard some of the biomancers talk about it. She said she could turn the beastman maker off if she could get something called an environment suit, and that such a suit might still be in one of the panic rooms north of the party, since they were well hidden.

The party decide they needed to rest, but not before retrieving some supplies from their pack donkey, left outside the dungeon. So they return to the surface, quite a horrific trip for the two maintenance mages due to the damage and changes that have happen in the last 300 years. Finally the reach the the surface only to find the donkey has been attacked and the camp destroyed. Huge foot prints in bloody mud suggest the frost giant found and destroyed their belongings.
Reluctant to go back to Muntberg with a still working beastman machine, the party holed up in one of the rooms they’d rested in before and then went and retrieve a pair of environment suits. Also in the panic room were some healing potions and a dirk designed to fend off the hobgoblins, should they ever rebel, which at the time was a concern according to Arethusa.

The machine is switched off, and the party start pushing on through unexplored areas. They reach a chamber that still has a working glowglobe to find it full of thorny bush, which immediately animate and attack the party. They dispose of these blood sucking plants quickly, thanks to several natural 20’s and move to the next room which is filled with cactus that shoot off large spines in their direction. The liberal use of burning oil puts pay to these floral menances. At this point Mags, our friendly barlady at Bethnal Green Working Men’s club called time, so we finished it there.

It was fantastic to get back into the regular game, and I’m almost sorry I have to skip a week due to my Snowboarding holiday that coming up. Can’t wait for the next session, and I have a pile of models that need painting as the party start thinking about going down to the 3rd level, known as The House Of Portals.    

Dwimmermount 5e D&D Session 15 - Reach out and touch faith

After a brief discussion on the merits of using the stairs the Orcs guarded, returning to civilisation and using the stairs where they stood, the party felt there would be more treasure somewhere the Orcs had not been and that they weren’t yet ready to return to Muntberg. So they took the dark stairs down, noting the carved sign saying ‘Reliquary’ above the entrance way. The most immediate change they found was that the walls and floor were fair smoother and uniform than the rock carved passages of The Path Of Mavors. Errol the dwarf remember a legend that spoke of mixing alchemicals together with stone dust to make something called concrete, and suggested that this might be that material.

The chamber at the bottom of the stairs presented four exits, and so they took the nearest one which appeared to be a corridor in parallel to the stairs. It ended in a door that had a faded green wooden panel nailed onto the sturdy oak with brass studs. Since no sound came from beyond, Bittersalt pushed the door open and entered. The chamber beyond was very dark, and apart from a door, and a carved triangle symbol in the centre of the room it was empty. The party filled in to examine things a little more closely. Out of the four corners of the chamber coalesced cloaked beings made from the shadows. Brother Spenzar recognised these fell things as Shadows, creatures from the plane of shadows and very closely related to undead. Thankfully the party weren’t surprised, but still the Shadows were fast and resistant to normal weapons. Worse still their touch not only rotted the flesh but drained the strength and energy of it’s victim, and party felt this chill touch almost immediately. Zoilus’ magical sword did cut through things, as did the combined magics of Brother Spenzar, Calphis and Flandar. Bittersalt’s parrying saved her withering damage, and her blade did still chop away at the Shadow that attacked her. Paulo, in tremendous fear at being surrounded by these creatures of undeath shot through the door and ran off down the corridor. Once Zoilus had defeated his foe, he moved to help the others, which combined with well aimed magical attacks defeated the Shadows, that dissipated back into shadows of the empty chamber. Bittersalt went running after Paulo, following vague dusty tracks, only to come to large chamber where they ran out with no sign of the boy. Calling out to no avail, Bittersalt feared the worst and went to fetch the rest of the party.

Shadows appear

The chamber where the tracks ended was unusual in itself, having several columns and a bizarre statue, but the party were more concerned with Paulo’s safety than exploring and decided to press on. Flandar’s invisible familiar was sent off to the east along wide 20 ft passage. It passed a door and then the corridor turn at angle, at which point the familiar returned.  

Deciding to investigate this first door, the party walked in on a group of five tall goblinmen, all of whom carried themselves in a militaristic, and clearly well trained fashion. They formed a line immediately, with the halberdiers protecting the their bow men but held off attacking. They demanded the party reveal what they were doing here, who in return demand to know if they’ve seen Paulo. The hobgoblins confirm they’ve taken the boy captive, for questioning and that he won’t be hurt if he is cooperative. The party are at boiling point, and tell the hobgoblins to go a get him but the hobgoblin’s refuse and want to know what the party are doing on this level. A standoff develops, but on the insistence the party one hobgoblin leaves by a second door. A few moments later the a larger unit of hobgoblins run into the room, lead by a red robed goblinman. The party were massively outnumbered, but the hawks in the party were itchy to try their mettle against these foes. Fortunately calmer heads prevailed. The robed hobgoblin ask the party what year it was, once again asked them what they were doing here and why they’d come. The party were evasive and talked about exploring, which for the moment seemed enough for the leader. He told them that Paulo was with their captain, and confirmed he was unharmed. He said they surrender him to the party if the party rid the western areas of the Reliquary of the undead menace that had sprang up. Without much choice, they party agreed. They learnt that the black metal coated Eldritch Dead that had so plague them on the first level were tomb guards, and not considered a threat or enemy by the hobgoblins, but all other undead were and to be destroyed on sight. Without any other obvious options the party agree and left, heading back to the chamber that Paulo had be snatched from.

A cohort of hobgoblins

Here they investigated the chamber more thoroughly. Seven columns lined the room, while statue of geometric shapes stood against a far wall. The columns had an Old Thulian letter carved into each one of them, and Bittersalt quickly released they spelt out the Old Thulian for truth. Once she said it aloud, she had a vision of a strange featureless figure, who tells her she is not worthy. On hearing this from her, Calphis also speaks the word ‘truth’. His vision is of a silvery egg and he is told he is worthy. Upon coming around, he releases he can channel the power of gods and use it to detect poisons and disease.

Fearing this strange magic, the rest of the party fell silent and the party left the room, pushing north and west.

The next chamber contained four columns, made from the perfect glass material they’d seen on the 1st level. Each column contain an element - one was filed with rock, another was green and had bubbles floating up from time to time, the third contained a rich red flame while the last appeared empty. On the floor was a mosaic map, that may well have been of the whole world. Something the none in the party, not even Bittersalt, had seen before. The mosaics meant the maps was fairly basic though.

This chamber lead to another closed to door, beyond which was ancient carpenter's workshop, covered in dust and with many rusted tools. Two simple coffins were lent up against a bench, and as the party entered one of the coffins started shifting slightly. A crossbow was fired a near point blank range into the coffin, and out burst a howling wight, screaming wordless curses and clutching a gladius. The party leapt into action, attacking the undead thing. The second coffins rocked furiously and a second wight smashed it’s way out of it’s rotting tomb. The party’s martial abilities showed off here, and apart from a horrible wilting wound on Errol the dwarf the party managed to destroy both wights, taking their heads as proof of their questing. Brother Spenzar’s powers against undead are brutal, when they work.

Another chamber, again with pillars presents itself next. Each pillar appears to made from one of the six fabled magical metals, and represents a fortune in gold. The columns are adamant (dull gray), areonite (reddish copper) azoth (silvery black), moonsilver (silvery white), orichalcum (golden bronze), and starmetal (silvery grey). Bittersalt is impressed by the display of wealth and power it represents. However since the party is reluctant to linger anywhere too long, and don’t have the easy means to take any of the metals they press on through doors and corridors until they reach the next room.

This area contains a number of strange devices made of metals and vitreum glass. Copper dials are attached to this tall devices, and within four hobgoblins, completely unmoving and lifeless. A dull hum resonants with the chamber. The party stare in wonder, and discuss what these machines represent. The don’t however tinker with them.

After deciding to start heading east, the party find what appears to be an alchemist's laboratory, still filled with odd glass bowls, tubes and pipes. Bottles of liquids line the counters, and cabinets hold containers of chalky tablets. Since there are no further undead here, the party return the way the came and north, rather than going even further east, where they suspect the hobgoblins are based.

A room with tall strange devices is discovered. These devices however more numerous, do not contain anyone inside, and is ignored. Yet another empty chamber lies beyond that, before the party find a odd room, with nothing but a huge tapestry in it. The tapestry depicts Terms Turmax, the thrice-blessed, stood nobly but with a fiery, winged version of him behind, as if in ascendance. Bittersalt sees a small fortune, while Brother Spenzar sees heresy and sets about igniting the wall hanging. As smoke starts to fill the room, the party notice that it billows further out into the room from one spot, and once the tapestry has been destroyed search successfully for a secret door. A small circular safe-room lies behind it, filled with nothing but wooden carved heads and a single stone statue head, that of the god Mavors.

We left it here. The group had raced through a good number of locations, and I’ve probably missed out some important details, so if anyone from the group remembers something, comment and I’ll update it.

The gang, and one of the other RPG groups in the background

A very enjoyable session, with a good mix of fighting, talking and wonder. There is plenty more of all three coming up. 

5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 14 - One rules lawyer to rule them all.

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.

The Eldritch Dead

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.             

5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 13 - Bittersalt, trap detector extraordinaire!

Searching the dead dwarf, the party retrieve his magical suit of dwarven sized chainmail and functionally perfect magical warhammer.

A quick scout of the local caves is followed by a short rest to recover after the battle with the spider demon. The party have discovered a number of passages leading away from where they met the mad dwarf, and decide to press further into the caves rather than using a newly  discovered doorway or returning the way they came.

One cave, which is clearly the nest of the spider, contains a dwarven statue that is half twisted and melted. A heavy bronze chest is found to contain approximately a thousand gold coins and clearly represents the wealth the demon had collected. Another cave, which the party had ignored on the way through was crudely boarded up. After pulling down the woodwork, the party discover a statue to the luck goddess Tyche. She has her cupped hands outstretched in front of her, with several gold coins laying in her palms. The party’s response is mixed, with some adding to the coins and Bittersalt snatching from the pile. The latter unluckily coincides with the ceiling collapsing in on top of her, severely wounding her and trapping her. After pulling her out, Brother Spenzar replaces the coins that were taken.

The Moonpool

The party then travel back to the moonpool, where a very skillful throw results in the party have a climbing rope securely affixed and enabling them to climb up to the hole in the cavern's ceiling. Bittersalt works her way up, falls, climbs again and finds that the opening is as expected on the side of the mountain. From this particular vantage point she see that near the very summit of the Dwimmermount is a huge metal doorway, wider than it is tall. Due to the angle of the mountain, and the ledges before it, this doorway, which is possibly 60ft across wouldn’t normally be visible from most approaches to the mountain. There isn’t much space around the hole, spoiling the parties initial plan to camp on the mountain. Much is discussed about what this may mean.

The rest of the party investigate the water itself, and Errol risks a sip after remembering that the moon themselves are said to have arcane properties. A strange transformation occurs, and the gnome feels the strength of his magic grow, at the cost of the well of power that it comes from. Calphis immediately fills every potion and bottle he has with water from moon pool.

The final section of the cave system is explored but ends in dead end, that is for everyone but the dwarf. He continues walking straight towards the walls and then through them. The party realise a powerful illusion is upon the wall here, but that dwarves, or at least Erroll, is unaffected by it. The cave continues going up for awhile and then into a large, sealed cave. Once again, Erroll makes a comment about this being a new entrance to the dungeon, but only he can see the small entranceway that leads to the outside and a narrow path that goes down the side of the mountain. Clearly the dwarves have had a back entrance to the dungeon they’ve not let on about.

The party rest overnight in the cavern chamber hidden by the illusionary walls, although return to the moonpool once the moon is at it’s zenith to observe how it interacts with the pool. A beam of moonlight shines down, causing the entire pool and chamber to glow brightly in silvery light.

In the morning the party double back towards the doorway they discovered, leading they suspect back into the dungeon and indeed it does. They travel through a series of mostly empty rooms, the party are lucky enough to discover a human sized chainmail shirt that seems to be coated with the black and silver magical metal Azoth. They also come across a circular room that is covered in a mosaic depicting a map of the lands around Dwimmermount. It shows the ruined citadel of Winterburg and a ruined city named Lloraec. Many forts and military positions are also shown. Bittersalt opens a door to shot in the stomach by a poisoned dart of some size, however the chamber is marked by the presence of broad stairway down into the gloom.

We ended the session here. Will the party descend immediately, or will the follow up on the few remaining door and passages they’ve left unexplored? One thing I’ve really been reminded of is how useful a map is to the players, and how well they’ve managed to keep theirs updated. It was another really good season, and this write up doesn’t really do justice to the interesting locations and sense of exploration the session had. Also, these session diaries have hit the 10k word count, which is strangely pleasing.  

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 8 - Shot through the neck and you’re to blame, you gave elves a bad name.

The party retreated with their captured kobold, who hissed and spat at the dwarf at every opportunity. It spoke a debased form of low Thulian, swung from almost moronic to horribly insightful. The creature named itself Grimvart and it was a servant of the Queen with eight legs. It berated the party for allowing such a debased thing as Errol amongst them. It spoke of it’s many fellows, of a cursed place with quiet dwarves and a place called the Moonpool. It drew a map of the caves beyond and talked of treasure to the north. It pleaded to be let go, and wrote, in exquisite script a letter of introduction to the Queen, of whom it said was from the black worlds beyond this, an ancient and rare phrase meaning the Abyss. Another figure in the kobolds mythology was mentioned, a king called Guran which is a dwarven name.

Grimvart was taken to the prison they’d found near the entrance and locked up, then the party moved forward into a chamber leading to the caves of the Kobold that contained an oily slick in front of the far door. The party feared a trap, so tried to lure anything out that might live beyond the portal to caves. They were rewarded with success, a thrown flaming brand appears from the darkness and ignites the oil, creating a fireball that does no more than singe their cloths since they’d moved away from the trap. However Errol and Zoilus’ battle blood was up and the leaped through the fire to meet whatever lay beyond, with mix success. The barbarian got through, but the dwarf rolled a 1 and slips, burns and became prone facing a horde of kobolds. The desperate fight in the narrow confines of a rough hewn corridor is brutal. Bittersalt, whose player couldn’t make it this session, rolls a 1 and then rolls a 20, hitting Flandar the warlock with an arrow through the next, almost killing him. However the battle goes the way of the party, and the kobolds are put to the sword.

Entering the cave system properly the party find ancient and impressive stalagmites and stalactites. The stone had been worked, but with a very light hand, and to enhance it’s natural form. A cave to the south contained a triptych carved into the stone. It shows Thulian knights descending upon a city and executing it’s ruler.

Heading towards the cave to the north where Grimvart promised treasure, the party came across huge spiderwebs crisscrossing the floor and ceilings. Fearful of giant spiders, Brother Spenzar cleverly used his thaumaturgy again to vibe the webs in the centre of the warren beyond. After a few minutes a pair of giant wolf spiders emerge looking for their meal. Before the party could act a terrible cry came out from Paulo, the torchbearer. Spiders had encircled the party and were attacking from the front and rear. This turned into a desperate battle, as almost immediately Paulo, Spenzar and Flandar fell unconscious from the poison running through their veins. Calphis quit the battle immediately, and fled the caves while Bittersalt cut a way clear for the rest of the party to escape. She was cruelly bitten and also fell to the spiders venom. At this point the party were in rout, with Zoilus picking up both Paulo and Flandar. When Errol realised that Bittersalt was no longer behind him, he got Spenzar to safety and then bravely returned to pull the elf free from the spiders who were already starting to wrap her in silk. Slaying one and driving the other off ended the battle for the exhausted and injured group.
After a brief discussion the players decided it was time to return to civilisation, train and better equip themselves for whatever lies ahead. However as they journeyed through the great central halls of the dungeon, they were met by a party of four well armoured dwarves. These dwarves claimed they were here to seek the remaining party of dwarves that had come to find the dwarven cemetery. The party explained everything they’d heard from the kobold Grimvart, much to consternation of these dwarves who felt that they’d need to come back in even greater number to safely travel the corridors of Dwimmermount. Agreeing to travel together, the group went to check on the kobold only to find he’d been freed to an unknown fate. Leaving the dungeon the secretly retrieved their buried treasure and headed to Muntburg before then going onto the grand city of Adamas. The party of dwarves spoke of many things to do with Dwimmermount and the history of their people to Errol during the trek.

So next session looks like it’ll be set in Adamas, and I’m very much looking forward to putting in some prep work for that at the weekend. Yet another awesome session, with a really strong mix of roleplaying, exploration and battle. The party have hit 3rd level, which on paper looks like quite a jump in terms of power and resilience. The XP curve also quietens down here, needing far more experience points to get to 4th than the previous levels. I also need to get painting, the growing piles of beastmen, undead and ‘things’ for the levels below aren’t going to self-colour.          

It’s been bit of a struggle getting this session diary together, and a week is a long time for my poor memory, so I must get these done closer to the actual session. 

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.         

5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 6 - Gelatinous Cube!

While it looked like the party might take their first journey to the city of Adamas at the end of last session, the lure of gold keep them at Dwimmermount. They buried their treasure further down the slope amongst some Thulian and then set camp once again near the entrance. During the night Bittersalt was broken from her meditative trance by far off sounds and the distance glow of a fire. Reaching for her sea captain’s telescope she saw at first what she thought was a very pale man walk down the slopes of the mountain past Dwimmermount clutching a burning torch. She then realised the torch was infact a tree, and the man none other than a frost giant! He was a long way away and no exactly heading towards the party, so while this event was alarming it didn’t appear to be an immediate threat.

Once back in the dungeon the group went hunting to see if the giant rat poison Bittersalt laid out had an effect. Although the salt fish was gone, there weren’t any immediate signs of dead rats.

At this point the parties map started to prove it’s worth. They decided to try and join some sections up, and in so doing discovered some slight inaccuracies, but now have a much better overall view of the dungeon surround the entrance. They then backtracked to the corridor which had ended in the locked room with the Wight and all the glorious loot they found last session. Here they went the other way and found another door, which opened into what clearly was a chapel to Mavors. Once again it had defiled, but more importantly the Termaxians had left more Eldritch Dead to guard the chamber, and a fight with the black skeletons ensued. The party felt like they were beginning to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and relatively quickly put down these six undead. Two handed swords, wielded by strong fighters are great at doing a lot of damage.

The party search the frescoed chamber thoroughly, and discovered that the age worn altar had a mechanism that swung a secret door open behind it. With slightly more trepidation than previously displayed, the door was opened and the party discovered a small sack of treasure, including a magical scarab. Also in the secret room was the head of the statue of Mavors that they suspected was from the defiled statue in the entrance room. With great gusto they immediately set off back towards the entrance with Zoilus leading the way.

Horror met them within a few short strides, for in the darkness a huge cube of living gelatinous biomorph acid had been following behind them for sometime. The translucent thing was almost impossible to spot, and the normally hyper aware barbarian was completely taken by surprised (rolled a 1) and engulfed by the Gelatinous Cube mid sentence. At this point there were hoots from the players, who loved coming up against such an iconic D&D monster. The barbarian was badly injured by the acids that smothered him, and would have killed a lesser mortal but he fought his way out and was pulled back behind the rest of the rapidly retreating party. Retreating all save Brother Spenzar, who having seen the danger the party was in the deep concentration of a Bless spell. The Gelatinous cube squeezed forward and grab the priest, who after a brief tug of war was pulled back out of it’s jelly. The party hurled all their available missiles, both magical and mundane into it, and were successful in destroying it’s essential form, turning it into a puddle of inanimate bioacids.  

After healing the barbarian and priest as much as they could they cautiously made their way back to the entrance and set the head of Mavors back in its rightful place. They watched in awe as the cracks disappeared and the statue returned to it’s original glory. Then a glow came about them, and the each felt blessed by the god of war as a reward. This manifested as everyone getting an inspiration point.

We left it there. It was a shorter session than usual, but everyone including me had a great time and I certainly look forward to the next session.

In club news, a new roleplaying group has moved their games night to the club and since it is partially made up of old school friends and a group I played in a long time back it's doubly nice to see. Zoilus' player Ed is also going to running a Dungeon Crawl Classics game in the near future which I'm very excited about. 

5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 2 - Deeper into the Path Of Mavors

After a short rest, during which the fallen recuperated and the others search the bodies of the orcs, the party decided they wanted to avoid further confrontation with the violent and hardy orcs so left to try another door from statuary hall. However the heads of Turms Termax sat upon the statues of five of the gods of the Great Church were too tempting for the vandals in the party and too blasphemous for Brother Spenzar and they set about knocking them down one by one, but not before Spenzar rocked the statue of the woman back and forth enough to topple that too. While a din was made, the strange too-loud crash of the first head was not repeated.  

Opening the door in the north east they found an empty guard room, replete with smashed weapon racks and cobwebs. This chamber had a locked door in the north, and deciding to be a little more cautious the wizard Calphis checked the door for traps. He found something that made him suspicious, possibly a tiny magical rune of fire scratched into the metal of the lock plate. After some talk of smashing the door with the hammer of barbarian Zolius or using the warlock’s Eldritch Strike the party decided it was too dangerous and once again returned to the main hall.

This time they set off through the massive double areonite doors in the east, beyond which lay a well appointed 20 foot wide corridor that disappeared into the deep darkness. Both the north and south walls were punctuated by alcove set doors. Investigating the first door in the north wall they party uncovered a grisly sight, another guard room with the stone bodies of three dead dwarves in a pool of possibly alchemical red liquid. The dwarves had been murdered, and one had swelling indicating some kind of poisonous sting. Searching the bodies the party looted weapons, armour, rope, relatively fresh dwarven trail bread and a strange cylindrical hard leather wine skin, with unusual dwarven design carved into it. The chamber had a further door too, to the east which the party opened and discovered some kind of apparatus.  Metal rods, cogs and poles rested in grooves cut into the floor attached to which were a variety of purpose built weapon-like metal shapes. Along the south wall a metal cabinet with polished wooden rods sticking out of the top suggested some kind of control mechanism. Overall the device reminded some of the party of jousting training constructions.

Rather than risk injury, the party perhaps wisely beat a retreat to the main corridor where they continue further down, seeing a statue in the dark down the hall. Opening the south door they were confronted with an eerie sight, two apparitions, human guards dressed in archaic gear sat at a ghostly table arguing over the rules of the ancient game of zatrikio, of which the party only knew the name. Brother Spenzar dropped an amount of holy water onto the unresponsive apparitions, to no effect and determined that they were magical, not spiritual in nature, yet were not illusions.

With nothing to loot and without any way to interact with these apparitions the party went through the doors to the west to find yet another battle damaged and dusty waiting room which they exited through the southern door. This chamber, which had exits to the east and west was unusual in that the debris had been recently cleared away from the centre of the room where a odd 3ft tall black basalt pillar stood. Strange and unintelligible runes covered the surface of the pillar. Again the party avoided interacting with the thing.

Following the door to the east, the corridor beyond turned south and ended in another chamber. This one had two things of interest to the party, a large if fragile mahogany throne and three beautifully made blue and gold shields hanging from the wall behind it. While the wizard investigated the throne, looking for secret draws and seating himself upon the throne, they others carefully took the ornate but functional shields down from the walls in the assumption that they’d be able to sell them.

The elf Bittersalt, who had been increasingly disappointed by the lack of saleable items so far was particularly happy with this and in a fit of rash excitement threw open the doors to the west only to be hit by crossbow bolts fired by two of the six orcs that were clearly prepared for the party in the chamber beyond. A desperate fight ensued in which the elf immediately fell to the blades of the orcs, shortly followed by the barbarian. Calphis used both his sleep spells, evening the odds and Brother Spenzar used his potion of healing on the barbarian, whose rage was so great and wild and beserk that he struck the cleric with his sword. Fortunately he then charged in amongst the orcs hacking one in two immediately. The dwarf joined him in the melee and the two set about their deadly work with efficiency. Flandar the warlock, seeing the moment was dire stepped into combat himself, leveling his hellish rebuke at an orc who struck him, incinerating the beastman. The party, almost against the odds, won the day and immediately put the sleeping orcs to death.

Finally though they were rewarded with coin, and found the orcs had a sack of 500 old Thulian gold pieces.

This is where we ended the session, with the party out of healing, spells and many of them wounded but with tangible treasure. Brother Spenzar vehemently entreated the others to tithe a portion of all treasures to Typhon, lord of civilisation and justice and much to my astonishment they agreed to. Impressive roleplaying from both him and the other players.

I’m really looking forward to the next session in two weeks. Once again the players proved to be both good humoured and willing to get involved in the world around them. They managed to travel to a number of plot-rooms that may make more sense later. I get a bit of anticlimax blues when getting ready and then starting a new campaign but this session completely dispelled it if I had it at all this time.    

5e D&D Dwimmermount Session 1 - tomb robbers and Orcs

Last night we had our inaugural Dwimmermount 5e D&D session at the Hackney Area Tabletop Enthusiasts club in Bethnal Green. The first couple of hours were spent in character generation, and since I’d already presented the group with some background material and talked through some of the questions that naturally arise it went relatively quickly. Two players took the option of rolling their stats in order, and received an extra +1 to their highest stat of choice, while the others took the rolling and assigning route. I strongly dislike point buys for this kind of D&D, as it sets a strong gamerist, adversarial tone from the outset. The players should neither be in competition with each other so having unequal characters shouldn't matter, nor should they be overly concerned about the game rules.

The two in-order characters are Zoilus, a Hyperborean barbarian of vast strength and magnificent charisma and Flandar, a sturdy gnome Warlock. The other characters created are Brother Spenzar, a capable Typhonite Cleric, Bittersalt the elven fighter noted for her strength and nimbleness, Errol, a rugged dwarven fighter and Calphis the wizard of dubious heritage.

I decided that I would start the game ‘in media res’ with the players already in the Dwimmermount dungeon. My reasoning was that an entire session without any action might not engage with all the players, and it allows them to gently define their characters rather than having to talk about their backstory immediately. This however was slightly forestalled by their interest in the Areonite doors that guard the dungeon, and if it was possible to remove and sell them. A sign of things to come I suspect, and some of the characters nailing their motivations to the wall early.

They then made their way down into the dungeon proper, and although they spotted recent tracks in the centuries old dust, some proceeded cautiously while others enter the first room, a hall of statues, nonchalantly. Including the exit to the dungeon five doors marked exits from the hall, while six statues, five male and one single strikingly handsome female lined the walls. Brother Spenzar immediately recognised the male statues as defiled representations of the Thulian gods Caint, Dorn, Mavors, Tenen and Typhon. The heads of theses had been replaced by that of the stern, and bearded face of the man-become-god Turms Termax, a great magician who had become a god on the day of his execution and then ruled from Dwimmermount with his hordes of beastmen and demons.

While the party further examined the room Brother Spenzar became incensed by the desecration of the statue of Typhon and cast down the head in anger, producing an unnaturally loud crash.

I had wondered if I should force a combat, using wandering monsters, but this event meant that what happened next was by the players own hand.

A crossbow bolt struck the cleric in back, as the door to north was flung open and a party of 5 orcs attacked from the moulding reception room beyond. A huge and chainmail clad orc lead the beastman and orcs are already tough in 5e, so these five managed to put down both Errol the dwarven fighter and Zoilus the barbarian, but took vicious wounds in response. The combined attacks of Bittersalt and the magical attacks from Spenzar, Flandar and Calphis managed to overcome the weakened orcs however. Brother Spenzar stabilised the dying dwarf and barbarian, but he lacked the spells to actually cure them. However 5e provides significant natural healing by resting for an hour so at the end of the session the party was well restored.

In all fairness I think that the party did as well as it did because it has three fighters, all of whom dealt large (10+)  amounts of damage when they struck and they're good at hitting things. However having two character go to zero hit points could be unsustainable, although the ability to regain so many hit points between encounters does start to mean you get into the wilderness encounter situation of early editions. Something I may have to think on, and perhaps limit the ability to heal between long rests.

I very much enjoyed DMing the game. I'm lucky to have a well intentioned, amusing and intelligent group of players who so far seem to pull together as players, if not characters. I'm annoyed I didn't take any pictures at all of the group playing, and will endeavour to take some next time. Edit : Thankfully one of my players did take these snaps.

         

Star Trap Monster Manual

Here is is a link to a PDF of the monsters that reside on the first level of Star Trap Dungeon. They're presented in home brew Dungeons & Dragons style, and borrows from 1st, 3rd and 4th editions. The file is completely unformatted for now.

Star Trap Monster Manual

Star Trap Lvl 1 monster manual

The first half of the first level of Star Trap Dungeon has a whole bunch of OSR style monsters, all now written up with AD&D / Labyrinth Lord style, with brief descriptions and is over five thousand words. I used the 4e format for splitting monster of the same race up into their own entries rather than having notes in the text detailing leaders and special types. It's been a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to working on the second half of the list, although it probably won't be as extensive as some of the creatures, such as the Pig-Faced Orcs live in the further reaches of the dungeon's upmost level.

1. Angry Owlbear
2. Banshaer Hermit
3. Barghest, Juvenile
4. Beetle, Fire
5. Beetle, Boring
6. Brain In A Jar
7. Centipede, Giant  
8. Crawling Claw/Severed Hand
9. Dimension Shambler
10. Farspawn Returned
11. Farspawn Mind Worm
12. Farspawn Teeth Eel 
13. Fungal Guard
14. Fungal Herder
15. Fungal Priest Of Decay
16. Fungus King
17. Gelatinous Cube
18. Ghoul
19. Goblin Archer
20. Goblin Acolyte
21. Goblin Bully
22. Goblin Hexamancer
23. Goblin King
24. Goblin Runts
25. Goblin Skull Cleavers
26. Goblin Stabbers
27. Goblin Strategist
28. Goblin Warrior
29. Green Slime
30. Grey Ooze
31. Horrible Black Tentacles
32. Iron Hound
33. Killer Bees
34. Lesser Demon, Demonic Two-Headed Warthog
35. Lesser Demon, Grarthrax The Meddler
36. Maggot Wraith
37. Ochre Jelly 
38. Pig-faced Orc Killer 
39. Pig-faced Orc Bannerman
40. Pig-faced Orc Sticker
41. Pig-faced Orc Shieldboy
42. Pig-faced Orc Demon Warriors
43. Pig-faced Orc Murderers
44. Pig-faced Orc Heart Eaters 
45. Pig-faced Orc Champion
46. Pig-faced Orc Warlord
47. Pig-faced Orc Teeth Caster 
48. Rat, Giant
49. Rat, Swarm
50. Rot spider
51. Shrieker
52. Skeleton
53. Skeleton Archer
54. Skeleton Legionnaire
55. Skeleton, Ramshackle 
56. Skeleton, Skullspider
57. Snake, Pit Viper
58. Vile Creeper, Barbed
59. Vile Creeper, Suckered
60. Wolf
61. Wraith
62. Zombie
63. Zombie Rotter
64. Zombie, Famine

Day 2, Hidden paths, deep and dangerous

So having defeated the wicked goblin cook and his rabble of staff, the brave adventuring party set about searching the large and chaotic kitchen of the Purple Bruise clan. A floor to celing wardrobe or cabinet yielded the first interesting find, in the form of a bound and gag human male. After some discussion as to what to do, the first instinct was to shut the cabinet again, the party release the prisoner, who is a tall, well muscled man named Druss. Druss is played by our Belgium Javascript Engineer Julien.

Druss remembers nothing about how he came to be found in hidden in a goblin kitchen, but was once a guard captain and the last thing he does recall is being a battle. Druss was rolled randomly using 4d6 for each stat in turn and produced a very physically strong character. The slayer subclass of the fighter fitted nicely and I suspect will decidedly help the party take down foes more quickly.

Helja the dwarf knight decided to search the cabinet some more, and it proved wise to do so as it had a false side. When he pulled away the hinged panel a delicate glass bottle of green gas slipped out from the top, but in an amazing piece of luck he caught the bottle (I rolled a 1). The high elf wizard, Riardon who seems to be rapidly becoming a pyromancer, found a box and layered it with material to transport the bottle, which is a suspected poison gas trap, around for later use.

Behind the panel Helja found a magical warhammer, his favourite weapon and two bags filled with gold coins and silver jewelry. It seems the cook had been hoarding things from his boss. Later Helja tried shouting the rune names found on the hammer and discovered it was a warhammer of thunder which could unleash lightning and thunder when it struck an enemy. He gave his precious old hammer to Druss, who also donned the chainmail vest of the goblin cook. Also stuffed into the area was old parchment map of what must be the surrounding area.

 

CC3 map

Then the party must have been blessed by the god of eagles, for they found not one but two well concealed secret door, going north and south as well as a silver dagger that the thief Lucan like the look of. He recounted a tale about how, when he was working as a fence, a thieves guild were buying silver weapons to fight against lycanthrope rivals. The secret doors were definitely too well concealed to be goblin made. Exploring the door to the south, the elven thief Lucan stealthy made he was along a rarely used narrow corridor that ended in a flight of steps upwards. Here he heard a screeching sound and out of the darkness shown many pairs of small red eyes. Then suddenly huge rats, some the size of dogs flew down and attacked. After putting an arrow into the first, biggest rat, Lucan retreat and a battle with giant and dire rats was joined. The party made a good tactical choice and boxed them in so that they only had to fight one at time. They dispatched the pack quickly, and remarkably none of the party succumbed to the filth fever the rats carried.

Rats in the walls!

After burning the bodies, the party explored further, finding the corridor leading away from the stair led to another secret door that opened into entrance corridor they'd fought in the day before. Then they followed the corridor up the stairs, and surmised that the dead end held a secret door that might lead to the area the goblin mapper had said the boss lived in. Not feeling ready for such a bold fight they decide to check out the northern secret door from the kitchen. It opened onto a short corridor at the end of which the thief could make out was a yet another secret door. The eagle-eyed god, Thurriak, had definitely blessed them, but it's a fickle gift if used without great care. Lucan boldly strode into the corridor and must have stepped on a pressure plate as large block of stone from ceiling fell on top of him, immediately knocking him out and crushing the life out of him. Druss and Riardon rushed forward to try and shift the block off of the body of the elf, but were too late even with Druss cleverly using his heroic effort to re-roll his athletics check. His organs had been pulped and the party had it's first death. I made Adam an award certificate in remembrance of Lucan's ignoble end.      
 

Lucan's death unlocks the second Dungeons & Dragons Essentials book - Heroes Of The Forgotten Kingdom. This means Adam has access to new races - half elves, half orcs, dragonborn and tieflings as well as the the new classes - druid, paladin, ranger and warlock. I'm not allowing drow in this campaign as they are, as intended in the original Greyhawk campaign, unremittingly evil. Another death will unlock further player options.

What the party don't know is that the original members, Thanus, Riardon and Helja have now made it to second level!